Unofficial Glossary for Armored Knights Case Blue

This is an unofficial glossary for the Armored Knights Case Blue game by Grognard Simulations.

This is a work in progress.  Feel free to point out where I missed a term.

(ADM)                       Air Drop Mission.  Denotes what an aircraft can do.  See the Air Unit Characteristics Charts

(ATM)                        Air Transport Mission.  Denotes what an aircraft can do.  See the Air Unit Characteristics Charts

(B)                             Bomber. Denotes what an aircraft can do.  See the Air Unit Characteristics Charts.  Only usable for Close Air Support and Ground Attack.

(F)                             Fighter. Denotes what an aircraft can do.  See the Air Unit Characteristics Charts.  Only usable for the 11.3 Air Superiority Missions

(NB)                          Night Bomber. Denotes what an aircraft can do.  See the Air Unit Characteristics Charts.  Only usable for Close Air Support and Ground Attack.

(REC)                         Reconnaissance. Denotes what an aircraft can do.  See the Air Unit Characteristics Charts. Only usable for recon missions in the later campaign game.  See the Off-Map Recon Table (For Campaign Games).

2A                              Split attacking stacks into two attacks.  This takes place as a result of a poor roll on the Combat Proficiency Table for an attack involving at least two attacking stacks.

3A                              Split attacking stacks into three attacks.  This takes place as a result of a poor roll on the Combat Proficiency Table for an attack involving at least three attacking stacks.

4A                              Split attacking stacks into four attacks.  This takes place as a result of a poor roll on the Combat Proficiency Table for an attack involving at least four attacking stacks.

AA                             Anti-aircraft.  Units with guns intended to shoot down aircraft.  Can be motorized or mechanized.  German heavy anti-aircraft units have a dual role as antitank guns.

Air Sector                  A half map area used to track aircraft ranges.  Not applicable to Don Bend; intended for later use in Campaigns.

Air Zone                    A multi-game area (i.e. bigger than Don Bend’s 6 maps) that is used in the fighter combat (11.3) during the SoD Interphase to determine the air superiority level.  Don Bend is part of the Stalingrad Air Zone.  Effectively there is a single Air Zone in Don Bend.

AQR                           Armor Quality Rating.  A numeric rating displayed as a yellow number on a green rectangle on applicable armored, heavy weapon, assault gun, anti-tank and heavy anti-aircraft unit counters.  It is a rating of effectiveness in fighting against tanks. 

AQRD                        Armor Quality Rating Difference.  The difference between the top attacker and defender AQR values when at least one side in a combat has an armor or assault gun unit.  See the Armor Quality Ratings (AQRs) chart.

Att                             Attacker.  Used as an abbreviation on several of the charts, such as the Soviet and German Random Combat Events charts.

Balka                         Like a gully, arroyo, or ravine.  A terrain feature.

BLUE                         BLUE refers to infantry type units.  See section 13.1.2

CAS                            Close Air Support.  A type of air mission in conjunction with ground attacks.  See 11.4

CBF                            Counter-Battery Fire.  Pairing a Military Intelligence unit with an artillery unit enables this mode of operation.  See 12.1

½ CF                          Reduce Combat Factors to half for units in an attacking stack.  See the Combat Proficiency Table.

Combat Supply          Combat Supply refers to fully supplying a line formation for high intensity operations for the day.  This requires the expenditure of Supply Points during the SoD Interphase; putting a line formation into Combat Supply can also be done later in the day during the 1200, 1600, or 2000 turns if desired. It is only necessary to spend the Supply Points once to place a line formation into Combat Supply for the day or remainder of the day.  See 13.5, especially 13.5.4.

d10                            A 10-sided die.  Armored Knights Case Blue uses a 10-side die for all dice rolls.

Def                            Defender.  Used as an abbreviation on several of the charts, such as the Soviet and German Random Combat Events charts.

DRM                          Die Roll Modifier.  This is a positive or negative number added to a die roll.  Die Roll Modifiers are applied to die rolls in the game to account for various circumstances.

Exploitation               A form of movement.  See 9.2

Exploitation Codes    These are shown on the CRTs for attacks at relatively high odds ratios and high modified die rolls.  They are -A, -B, and -C.  Each awards the attacker one or more extra hexes of advance after the combat.  The -B and -C codes award the attacker a free Hasty attack at their discretion.  Exploitation Codes are only used for Deliberate attacks.  See 10.7 and the Combat Results key near the Combat Results Tables.

Extender                    Also called Truck Extender.  These are collections of trucks and other vehicles used to extend the range of an Axis Supply Battalion at the Army or Corps level.  They are similar to the Allied Red Ball Express in 1944.  Extenders cost Supply Points to create, provide SP when they are disbanded, have a counter on the map, and can move, be attacked, retreat, be routed, and destroyed.  See 8.1 and 13.5.3

FHH                           Fortified Hedgehog.  Sometimes described as FHH1.  This is an upgraded Hedgehog 2.  It behaves the same as a Hedgehog 2, except that in the event of a two hex retreat the FHH counter is replaced with a Hedgehog 1 counter.  See 14.1 and the Terrain Effects Chart

FHH2                         Fortified Hedgehog 2.  This is an upgraded Fortified Hedgehog.  It reduces step losses by 2.  In the event of a two hex retreat the FHH2 counter is replaced with a Hedgehog 2 counter.  See 14.1 and the Terrain Effects Chart

GA                             Ground Attack.  A type of air mission in which aircraft alone attack a ground target.  See 11.5

HAA                           Heavy anti-aircraft.  These units can engage aircraft and also engage in ground combat.  HAA on the German side are typically 88mm guns and are frequently used in an anti-tank role.  When so used, they may also be used for AA work.  It’s not one or the other, you get both functions in the same turn.

HCR                           Home Country Replacements allow recovering steps of casualties, building up the strength of units.

Heavy Barrage          A sustained, intense bombardment of a target hex, typically by multiple artillery units under the same HQ coordinating their fire into a single attack.  Heavy Barrages require the expenditure of ½ Supply Point per unit involved.  See 10.9.2

HH                             Hedgehog.  A field fortification providing a die roll modifier.  Hedgehogs allow the units in the hex to ignore one hex of retreat but the HH counter is removed when doing so.  See 14.1 and the Terrain Effects Chart

HH2                           Hedgehog 2.  An upgraded hedgehog.  It reduces step losses by one.  It mitigates one hex of retreat without being expended.  In the event a two hex retreat occurs, the hex’s units ignore it but the HH2 counter is removed.  See 14.1 and the Terrain Effects Chart

HQ                             Headquarters.  A type of unit representing the command post, staff, rear echelon, maintenance, medical, and other functions of a formation that are not part of combat units.  See 8.1 for Comm Traces

HW                            Heavy Weapons companies.  These are integral to most infantry battalions and represent mortars and infantry guns. HW may be used in combat in lieu of Artillery and CAS to avoid a penalty DRM.  See the Non-Terrain Combat Modifiers table.

I&L HQ                      Intercept and Locate HQ.  This combines human intelligence gathering with radio direction finding to attempt to first locate an enemy HQ unit and then barrage with artillery, disrupting that HQ and causing negative effects to the units in that HQ’s line formation.  See 12.1.1 for more information.

Iso/IsoX                     Isolated.  Units that are pocketed (surrounded; unable to trace supply) are marked isolated and are subject to penalties and surrender checks.  IsoX refers to all the difference levels of isolation: Iso1, Iso2, Iso3, Iso4 and so on.  See the Degraded Unit States Summary and 8.1.3 Pocketing

LAA                            Light anti-aircraft.  These units can engage aircraft and also engage in ground combat.  Both functions can be performed in the same turn.

Ldr                             Leader.  A leader is a notable commander in the game, represented by a counter.  Each leader counter can apply the number of leader points (LP) shown in parenthesis on the lower left of the leader counter to Combat Proficiency rolls in his chain of command each turn.  See 12.2

Line Formation         This is a military organization, such as a Division, Soviet Armor Corps, Artillery Brigade, and so on.  Line Formations are the lowest level in the chain of command and supply.  Sometimes referred to as simply Formation.

LP                              Leader Point.  Each leader counter can apply the number of leader points (LP) shown in parenthesis on the lower left to Combat Proficiency rolls in his chain of command each turn.  See 12.2

MI                              Military Intelligence.  A function represented by one or more MI counters.  These are not units in that they don’t occupy a hex, have movement points or combat factors.  Rather, these are staff functions.  The counters provide a means of tracking when MI is used in a turn.  Each MI counter may be used once per turn.  See section 12

Morale                      Also called National Morale.  A number that quantifies the tenacity in battle and ‘will to fight’ of the units of various nationalities in Don Bend in 1942.  See 10.5.3 through 10.5.6  and the Routing, Rout Recovery, & National Morale table. 

MP                             Movement Point.  This is the number at the bottom right of each ground unit counter.  It represents the movement capabilities of that unit.  Movement Points are expended when moving a unit; count the movement points for each hex entered by the unit or stack as it moves.  Movement Points constrain how far each unit can move.  Different types of units have different costs in Movement Points for the same type of hex.  For example, Infantry can move through mountain hexes whereas Tracked units such as Armor cannot do so (except along roads in mountainous terrain).

NA                             Not Applicable.  Used on the Terrain Effects Chart to indicate that terrain is impassible or that attacks may not take place in some circumstances.

Ops                            Operations.  Typically used to mean the Operations Phase in the Sequence of Play.

OT                             Other Terrain.  Used on the Terrain Effects Chart to indicate that an effect for a terrain type is based on Other Terrain.  Typically used where there are multiple terrain features in a hex, such as a Hedgehog 1 in a Woods hex; the Woods hex is used to determine movement costs.

r                                 A combat result indicating a one hex retreat.

R                                A combat result indicating a two-hex retreat.

Rail Burden               A tax (loss) applied to Supply Points received by a Top Echelon HQ/SB.  This represents railroad congestion and inefficiency, partisan activity, and other depredations otherwise outside the scope of the game.  See 13.5

RR                             Railroad.

Rt                              A combat result indicating that the stack of units it applies to must take rout checks.

RCE                            Random Combat Event.  See the Combat Proficiency Table.  Maybe something good happens, maybe something bad. 

RED                           RED refers to engineer or artillery type units.  See section 13 and also 13.1.2

Reserve                     A formation is said to be in reserve if it is immediately subordinate to a Top Echelon HQ, such as a German Army or Soviet Front.  Reserve formations do not earn Supply Points for the Top Echelon HQ.  See 8.2 and 13.5

Rout/Routed             A state of degraded capabilities for a unit.  Caused by failing a rout check.  A unit that is routed immediately and involuntarily retreats 4 hexes.  The unit persists in the routed state until they recover.  See 10.53 through 10.5.6, the Routing, Rout Recovery, & National Morale table, the Degraded Unit State Summary table, and the Non-Terrain Combat Modifiers table.

SB                              Supply Battalion.  A separate counter on the board, sometimes off board, for Front/Army/Corps/Division formations, plus some independent brigades.  Artillery brigades do not have Supply Battalions; their HQ unit acts as such.  See 13.5

Shattered                  Soviet units that are reduced to 25% of their total strength are considered shattered.  See 13.2.3 and 13.5.1

SoD                            Start-of-Day Interphase.  This is a special turn conducted between the Midnight and 0400 turns each day for various non-combat, once a day game mechanics.  Examples are supply transportation, Combat Supply determination, Air unit fatigue recovery.  See section 3

SP                              Supply Point.  The unit of supply in the game.  This includes food, fuel, ammunition, spare parts, fortification materials and engineering equipment; everything needed to operate the units in the game.  Supply Points are received by the Top Echelon HQ/SB during the Start-of-Day Interphase and are stored or transferred down the supply chain towards combat formations.  SP are used to put a formation (division or brigade, typically) into Combat Supply.  SP are also used to construct Fortified Hedgehogs and to supply artillery units conducting Heavy Barrages.  [SP might be used to refer to stacking points for units.]  See 13.5, the Combat Supply Summary Table and the Construction Summary table

Suppressed               A state of degraded capabilities for a unit.  Caused by air Ground Attack (11.5) missions or by artillery Heavy Barrages (10.9.2).  See the Degraded Unit State Summary and the Non-Terrain Combat Modifiers tables.

Step                           Unit sizes and casualties are assessed in terms of steps.  See 10.5.1 and 10.5.2 and the Ground Combat Unit Examples in the Visual Aids and Examples of Play

Strategic                   A form of movement.  See 9.3

Stug                           Sturmgeschutz.  A German assault gun.  The Stugs used in Don Bend are based on the Panzer III chassis.

Tactical                     A form of movement.  See 9.1

Tax                            This is a loss of Supply Points when moving them around.  These taxes include Railroad Burden, and then echelon to echelon losses as Supply Points are transferred down the supply chain (effectively, down the chain of command) towards the line formations.  An example of tax is the consumption of fuel and fodder to move supplies from a German army to one of its corps, or from a corps to a division.  Extenders consume additional fuel and fodder and so add to the tax.  See 13.5

TE HQ                        Top Echelon Headquarters.  The top headquarters of the chain of command.  Typically, an Army on the German side or a Front on the Soviet side.  The TE Supply Battalion receives Supply Points during the Start-of-Day Interphase and stores them and/or transports them down the supply network.

TEC                            Terrain Effects Chart

YELLOW                     YELLOW refers to armored type units.  See section 13 and also 13.1.3

ZoC                            Zone of Control.  Most units exert a Zone of Control in the hexes adjacent to their hex.  This increases movement costs for enemy units moving nearby.  Zone of Control is a common concept in many wargames.  Note that in Armored Knights Case Blue, ZoCs are not sticky: enemy units need not stop moving when they enter a ZoC.  Enemy units can continue to move after entering a ZoC if they have enough Movement Points.  See section 7

ZoC-to-ZoC                Movement from one hex to another in the zone of control of an enemy stack.  When both hexes are in the ZoC of the same enemy stack, movement penalties are assessed.  See the Movement Points, Ground Condition, and ZoC Effects on Movement Points chart.

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Guderian Crosses the Meuse Play Aids

PIC-Guam Quick Start Resources