Hi Grant, thanks for all these videos. In this one at around the 1:00 hour mark, you start the Japanese fire phase which includes the letter action M for the first time in the game. You read out the rule book guidance (page 26) about structuring the fire process by taking each colour in turn and checking each position from the west coast up the map to the far side. But you then did NOT follow that process and instead picked a sequence that gave you some benefit on which units would get hit by which colour on the basis that it was somehow your choice? It should have been red/purple/blue, but you started on the leftmost beach hexes with the blue casualties, and then jumped to purple. My comment is really that I wondered if you realised all this and decided it wouldn’t matter, or that you forgot the process should be applied now that the letter actions were in play? I should say that I have agonised with yourself over some of these situations and take great comfort when they are explained authoritatively.
Hi Kenny Yes it may well have been that I didn't practice what I preached here 🙂The rules do indeed say - "Once lettered actions come into effect, the sequence in which you check Japanese positions for fire and actions may have an impact on play. Therefore, check all positions matching the first (leftmost) position color on the card first, then all positions matching the second color, then the third. Within a position color, check all positions hexes in order from west (closest to you) to east." The thing is that in the early game it can sometimes be easier to check some positions out of course. Now as long as it has no effect on other positions carrying out there actions then there is no harm done. However you've stated that - "But you then did NOT follow that process and instead picked a sequence that gave you some benefit on which units would get hit by which colour on the basis that it was somehow your choice?" If you can highlight where there was a benefit one way or another by carrying out the procedure out of order then that is my mistake and should not have been carried out in that order. I don't recall this being the case however, but again if you can elaborate on what benefits were achieved, then I can take a closer look. Cheers Grant
Hi Kenny Just a follow up to my reply. I eventually decided to do what I should have done at first and rewatched the video from the 1 hour mark 😀 And you are indeed quite correct. I can only think that as this was early in my playthroughs of this game that I hadn't grasped thinks fully yet. Strange though as the other games in the series work very similar, and I've done playthroughs of them. This was a bit of a mess and I'm surprised no one else pulled me up on this one. I'm pretty sure that my Take 2 and Take 3 improve on this nonsense 😀 Thanks for bringing it to attention, and apologies for not looking back on this in the proper way 🙂 Cheers Grant
@8:25 I've edited my PDF to strikethrough the equidistant parts of both Assault and Tank Advance. Updating my physical rulebooks will have to wait until I actually play the physical copy again. :) Glad you were able to get to a conclusion. @28:10 The odds of avoiding a hit are better if you go into the hex with 1 intense fire dot and 2 steady fire dots as opposed to the hex with 2 intense fire dots. That's only focused on avoiding hits; there are definitely other considerations that might favor moving into the 2 intense fire dots instead, but I'm hard pressed to find that consideration here. @1:02:00 Correct, that position group is counted as occupied since there is at least one Japanese unit in it.
Hi Grant, thanks for all these videos. In this one at around the 1:00 hour mark, you start the Japanese fire phase which includes the letter action M for the first time in the game. You read out the rule book guidance (page 26) about structuring the fire process by taking each colour in turn and checking each position from the west coast up the map to the far side. But you then did NOT follow that process and instead picked a sequence that gave you some benefit on which units would get hit by which colour on the basis that it was somehow your choice? It should have been red/purple/blue, but you started on the leftmost beach hexes with the blue casualties, and then jumped to purple. My comment is really that I wondered if you realised all this and decided it wouldn’t matter, or that you forgot the process should be applied now that the letter actions were in play? I should say that I have agonised with yourself over some of these situations and take great comfort when they are explained authoritatively.
Hi Kenny
Yes it may well have been that I didn't practice what I preached here 🙂The rules do indeed say -
"Once lettered actions come into effect, the sequence in which you check Japanese positions for fire and actions may have an impact on play. Therefore, check all positions matching the first (leftmost) position color on the card first, then all positions matching the second color, then the third. Within a position color, check all positions hexes in order from west (closest to you) to east."
The thing is that in the early game it can sometimes be easier to check some positions out of course. Now as long as it has no effect on other positions carrying out there actions then there is no harm done. However you've stated that -
"But you then did NOT follow that process and instead picked a sequence that gave you some benefit on which units would get hit by which colour on the basis that it was somehow your choice?"
If you can highlight where there was a benefit one way or another by carrying out the procedure out of order then that is my mistake and should not have been carried out in that order. I don't recall this being the case however, but again if you can elaborate on what benefits were achieved, then I can take a closer look.
Cheers
Grant
Hi Kenny
Just a follow up to my reply. I eventually decided to do what I should have done at first and rewatched the video from the 1 hour mark 😀 And you are indeed quite correct. I can only think that as this was early in my playthroughs of this game that I hadn't grasped thinks fully yet. Strange though as the other games in the series work very similar, and I've done playthroughs of them. This was a bit of a mess and I'm surprised no one else pulled me up on this one. I'm pretty sure that my Take 2 and Take 3 improve on this nonsense 😀
Thanks for bringing it to attention, and apologies for not looking back on this in the proper way 🙂
Cheers
Grant
@8:25 I've edited my PDF to strikethrough the equidistant parts of both Assault and Tank Advance. Updating my physical rulebooks will have to wait until I actually play the physical copy again. :) Glad you were able to get to a conclusion.
@28:10 The odds of avoiding a hit are better if you go into the hex with 1 intense fire dot and 2 steady fire dots as opposed to the hex with 2 intense fire dots. That's only focused on avoiding hits; there are definitely other considerations that might favor moving into the 2 intense fire dots instead, but I'm hard pressed to find that consideration here.
@1:02:00 Correct, that position group is counted as occupied since there is at least one Japanese unit in it.
Ok good stuff. Cheers.