The First Rule of Varnishing

18/7/2016

Rats! I chose the hottest day of the year to spray Matt varnish on my British vehicles. Immediately it gave them a white bloom, obscuring much of the weathering that I'd applied so carefully with Forge World powders. What an idiot. Of course, my son Will explained, the biggest risk of this happening is on a hot day. Didn't I know? Well, obviously not. The solution, he suggested, was to apply more varnish by brush. This actually worked. I'll know what to do next time the white bloom appears but it'll save time and my patience if I remember in future not to spray varnish in the heat.

Meanwhile, I am trying different recipes for Oak leaf camouflage on my German MMG team. I'm probably most pleased with the advice on the Flames of War website. Next up is the newly delivered Cromwell.

Post powders, pre spray varnish

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General rules

The Map

The map has the following features:

Named towns (large dot)
Named villages (small dot)
Numbered farms (spotted dot)
Forest hexes. Each patch of forest is lettered for identification purposes.
Main roads (dark brown)
Minor roads (tan)
Rivers (blue)
Railway line (black)
Open hexes. Although ‘open’, these still represent farmland with fields and hedges, streams and ditches.

Hex rows are labelled with letters. Individual hexes are identified by counting away from the left of the row containing the letter (including part hexes). Thus, La Redoute is in hex E7; Saint Michel de Livet is in hex J3.

Assets

Each player has various assets, including fighting men and women, vehicles, technical resources and bases. As the campaign is under way at present I am not listing all of these on the website yet. But examples include

German infantry section with Opel lorry
Osttruppe section
Active Maquis cell
Sleeping Maquis cell
Arms cache
Safe house
Etc.

Issuing orders

Every turn, each player receives a briefing on events in the previous turn, along with one or more tasks for the turn ahead.

A turn is not a fixed period of time but an episode in which something happens. Each turn, the players will receive a briefing on the situation and should then issue orders to their assets to allow them to deal with the current challenge. Play is similar to a Dungeons and Dragons approach: they will not be constrained by mechanical rules although these exist in the umpire’s set. The umpire will try to carry out the players’ instructions and will report the outcome at the end of the turn.

That said, the players are given some guidelines:

Lorries can reach anywhere on the map using the road net. Their passengers can then disembark and move on foot. I will presume that lorry-borne units will return to base at the end of the turn unless a player orders them to stay in another village or town. The gas powered lorries risk breaking down but otherwise are the same as the Opel lorries.
The Steyr heavy car and kübelwagen can reach anywhere on the map, not just on the road net.
Troops on foot may walk up to 4 open hexes, either from their base or from the point where a vehicle has transported them. I will presume they will return to base at the end of the turn unless a player orders them to stay in another hex (troops on foot can bivouac in non-urban hexes).
The tank can travel up to 12 hexes in a turn and will end the turn where it has been sent (ie it won’t return to base at turn’s end). It derives no benefit from roads.
Players may issue contingency orders, for example to lie in ambush or to look out for a signal and then take another action..

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