A question about reinforcements in map campaign scenarios

Hello.  

We are playing our first map campaign and we have a question about when reinforcement sent from another location should arrive.

The rules state that they  will arrive in the turn equal to three times the distance they have to move.

But what happens if we are going to play the defence line scenario, for example.

In that scenario some of the initial forces of the defender begins to arrive as reserves in turn 5.

So could the ones sent from another location be available in turn 8 (5+3, supposing they are 1 movement far away)?

Or should we have to wait 3 turns after all the initial forces in reserve are in play?

We are thinking in the first solution, but we would like to ask what do you think we should do in this situation.  

Any advice or suggestion?

Regards,
Arturo.

Personally, I would use the second option. We just finished the Barbarossa linked campaign and as the Soviets operate mostly on internal lines it seemed far to easy to send reinforcements to overwhelm any German probe.

I woud make the Reserves start arriving on turn 5, independently of the distance.

Thanks for your answers.

I think issues with reserves are the most difficult ones to manage during a campaign, specially if it's the first one.

We think that, as the campaign rules are written, reserves should have time enought to play an important role during a battle. The difficulty is to fit them with the scenarios already written, and get it to not benefit the attacker or the defender.

We would try several options in different games, and we will see witch ones fits better.



By the way, we have more questions about reinforcements. I hope these ones are easier:

1. Do you allow a counter that has already moved its full movement that turn to act as reinforcement regardless the distance it has to travel to get into battle (1,2 or 3)?

2. Any counter that already fought a battle cannot move so cannot be sent as reinforcements, right?


Arturo

W have played three campaigns so far, the Wacht Am Rhein linked scenarios, the Tobruk campaign and Barbarossa. In the first two this wasn't an issue as there is no free map movement but a sequence of engagements that were quite tightly scripted. These were very enjoyable and historically accurate even though both contained many close "cliff hanger" games. The Barbarossa mini campaign is different and the movement rules as written are the same for both sides, and as Warwick says, designed merely to bring about table top battles which is fine, they certainly do that!

However, as GM I found them open to abuse with armored units seemingly 'teleporting' around the map e.g. the Germans would face off against a dozen T.26's in Ostrog in one game then run into the same ones at Mogilyani or Khoriv in the next game. Thankfully I found the AAR's from Diego's blog and adopted some of his house rules, not the least being a limited pool of armor availability!

As written the campaign rules regarding reinforcement do not accurately reflect the chaotic situation in the summer of 41; poor communications and the rigid command structure absolutely crippled the Soviet defenders (who had no training in defensive tactics anyway - it was always immediate counterattack). If you wanted reinforcements, you would have to send a courier or liaison officer to find the HQ of the neighboring unit: poor communications meant you only had a vague idea where they are to begin with and very often that HQ had moved, been cut off, destroyed in a pointless local counter attack or wiped out by the Luftwaffe. Problem #1

Assume you were lucky, your messenger found the HQ which was at or near where it should be, and still functioning: Problem #2 Find an officer who was competent enough, not blind drunk or had shot himself on step ahead of the NKVD. This officer should have enough authority and the courage to override his own orders (in the Red Army? Dream on) to move his men or a portion of them, out of their assigned sector and come to your aid. Problem #3 is assembling them under the noses of the Luftwaffe and getting them where you need them in a timely manner. I recommend reading Bloody Triangle: The Defeat of Soviet Armor in the Ukraine, June 1941 for good overview of the situation facing the Red Army in this period.

If I was running it again, I would have the Soviet player make a series of dice rolls to reflect this command difficulty, perhaps by requesting reinforcements along the same lines as requesting higher level artillery support in regular games.