Hunter Johnson — Up Front Campaign Rules
I would suggest using the Weather
Rules instead of Rule J: Environmental Conditions; replace Frozen with
Ground Snow, Light with Rain, Heavy with Heavy Rain, and Snow with
Falling Snow. Use Overcast instead of Rule L.
Rules N and O are keyed to the first RNC drawn from a deck. I'd
clarify and enhance this as follows: When the appropriate deck has
been shuffled, flip several RNCs as needed, in this order: Attacker
Barrages, Defender Barrages, Attacker AFV Reinforcements, Defender AFV
Reinforcements. All of these RNCs are then shuffled back into the
deck. This process can interrupt an attack resolution, and takes
place before Endurance Checks, Random Reinforcement Checks, etc.
Vehicle reinforcements are independent of the color of the RNC drawn;
if unavailable because the card number exceeds the available pool or
because the selected AFV is not in use in the selected time period, no
AFV reinforcement is gained.
Rules Q and S affect when certain terrain cards may be played, but
they are unusual in that groups at RR5 have incompatible sets of
terrain available to them. I suggest that these rules simply be
ignored.
The campaign game is an often-overlooked gem of the
Up Front game. The rules are sandwiched between Team Play and DYO in
the back of the basic set rules book. I recommend using the
modifications from "The Long Campaign" in The General 26/5,
also available online as part of the Deer Valley Game Company's
Game Kit Historical Campaign Game Set #1. There are some other
suggestions in "The
Short Campaign" from Relative Range 9.
Note
that the notes on the rosters provided in the rulebook are
incorrect. A / is not entered in the Promotion column for being in
play at game end, only for improving a rating. Too, the Russian
roster omits PC #28 Borisoft, who can be very useful as a substiture
LMG-toting ASL.
For
campaigns set in years where certain men are not historically
available (such as Commissars or Panzerschrecks), the rosters should
be adjusted by replacing those men with riflemen with the same
Morale/Panic values (and ASL-capability instead of Commissar ability,
if applicable). If not using DYO-type scenarios for the campaign,
scenarios requiring unavailable support weapons should be avoided when
defining the campaign, or the player should be allowed to substiture
any man or men up to the unavaible man's point value.
42.2 should also be clarified to allow the
Russian player to substitute Borisoft and an ASL/Commissar for PC #2
and another man armed with an MP (or Rifle if no MP-carriers are
present).
The Deer Valley Game Company's
Game Kits also include some special rules for campaign games.
Some of these are a bit unclear or a bit cumbersome in play. Rule E
is difficult to implement in PBW play and seems to be written only for
German (or British) use — I skip any campaigns that include it.
The
available campaign games:
A
variant for a completely different campaign game, similar in structure
to the campaign games in GMT's Down in Flames series,
is available in Fire & Movement
#133. The variant includes a set of scenarios selected at random
(by RNC) based on the campaign (lots of city actions in a Stalingrad
campaign, for example) with initial OOBs as usual. For the entire
campaign, a selection of options that can be taken once (such as an
additional Sniper, a particular AFV in support, shorter time limit,
initial terrain, etc.). A VP schedule for each scenario, and a VP
goal for victory.