Steven, I can see that now if I look really closely.  I guess my red/green colorblindness made the red blend in with the black print all around it.

The KGs in TTW are NOT reserve markers themselves. They simply allow their units to be released and operate "as if Reserves" in a Reaction Phase.(TTW 2.4e, 6th bullet) That means they are _allowed_ to work their magic in or from a Hog with no ill effects besides vacating the Hog. Remember the dieroll limits on activating a KG, and MA limits for being part of the KG. Not to mention there are just four of them.

Here is a photo from our rather recent OstFront 'Forgotten Battles' monumental Baltimore gathering last Sept. The attached photo depicts the sector that was under the command of the Axis Overall CO, Bill Quoss. Bill was facing a very savvy Italian OCS'ster, Paulo. This was my first experience witnessing the significance of involved KGs. Here Bill's situation was quickly becoming untenable; this as the Soviets quickly drove mechanised vehicles along the swampy tracks that interlay throughout the marshes (look to the the top right corner of this photo). The Soviets ended up cutting off significant German units caught in those horrible marshes. Dispite my rushing two panzer divisions plus two full mech. divisions to Bill's aid, these reinforcements did not suffice. What's needed here-according to fabled OCS'ster Curtis Baer-is to sufficiently garrison these fetid swamps with infantry; anything with Leg movement. Here, the Germans must take their infantry divisions and create as many breakdown units as possible. A single step is usually all that is necessary. As long as they have Leg movement, they will work. 

Also note in the above photo that green line of Level 1 hedgehogs in the SW corner. These were intended to protect the critical city of Lviv (not shown in photo). Lviv was currently occupied by Hungarian forces. Here, you can see Mark Mazer's threatening line of Soviets from the 1st Ukrainian Front. These units had been diverted away from the Minsk Offensive to the southwest sector of the front, thus threatening this critical sector. Those 1st Gds Cavalry Corps are ideally placed for quick movement through the swamps. Also note the German Balck HQ unit situated nearby, to help monitor this threatened sector. Please note the additional chess and other odds-n-end markers, for which the use of I cannot now recall (...though several marked advanced railheads).

Since the majority of my German mech. forces were sent north to Minsk to assist Overall Axis CO Bill Quoss with his ongoing dilemma in the Pripet Marshes, the only reserves I was able to conjur up in my Lviv sector were primarily artillery units. In this situation, the Germans possess a remarkable divisional artillery group. To save SP fuel costs, I always maintained this arty division in Move mode; situated along rail lines for quick movement. It certainly helped when Alden and Fav's Soviets began pressing my partner Antenello's Axis line hard near the city of Vinnitsya (Antenello was another OCS'ster who traveled all the way from Italy to participate - a fun gaming partner!). Here, a brutal struggle commenced, with Vinnitsya changing hands several times. Eventually, the Germans prevailed and did mange recapture the battered city. Here, the German arty division was particularly helpful.

Following this, we ended having to take our game down; this after having continuously played for 7 full days -- 5 players per side! 

Thanks for the memory...I tried so hard to forget the trek through the stinkin' bug-infested, hot, foul swamp; nothing like bivouacking downstream from the 250,000 guys upstream. 

In the exploitation phase can a unit move into a mountain hex (no road/trail) then attack into an adjacent hex?  I think yes to both, not sure if the All movement point requirement for the mountain hex has any bearing given the unit with exploitation is 1/2 movement points.

Yes you can.  You can also move into "All" terrain during the Movement Phase whilst in Reserve Mode, or whilst DG.

James, OCS 6.1c allows your units to move one hex into terrain that isn't prohibited, even if it exceeds their MA, as long as they are eligible to move in that Phase.  Units with an Exploit marker are eligible to move into a Mountain hex and then attack an adjacent hex.  This is a key tactic in games like Burma.  But wait, you say, how is it possible these units could move just as far and even advance after combat in the small sliver of time remaining to them in the turn?  Dean Essig was much more interested in representing operational tempo and initiative by his sequence of play and turn structure than by strict slices of time, which is why units don't have to spend "operational points" or MP's to make an attack in the Combat Phase.

Thanks for the reply.  Speaking of Burma regarding Japanese infantry built hedgehogs and the requirement to remove, how about if infantry departs leaving artillery and/or headquarter units.  The hedgehog can remain?  The designer comment seems to indicate the hedgehog effect is very much to account for the active/subborn tactics by the infantry, which leads me to this question.

James, Burma 2.6c says "If the Japanese abandon any Level One Hedgehog, eliminate it. Garrisons cannotj use this rule."  The key word is "abandon," which means "occupied by a Japanese combat unit other than a Garrison."  So, the HQ or artillery can maintain the Hog. 

I always took "Garrisons cannot use this rule." as merely a clarification that garrison units do not count as infantry battalions and so cannot builds these free Hogs.  However, garrison units are still units, so can benefit from hogs build by other units, even if those units move away.  So a Hog occupied only by a garrison would not count as "abandoned", much like an HQ or  artillery unit.  This sentence was not in the original rules and was added as an errata/clarification.

A very long time ago I did a lot of research on the GD Division.

There was one Luftwaffe liason team for air support (hip shots) assigned to the recon bn of each panzer/panzer grenadier division.  There were no other liason teams assigned to infantry divisions that I am aware of. So if you want the German divisional recon units to have more value, make these units the only units that can spot for hip shots.

Burma, I agree with Chris Dodd that creating the "free" hogs is limited by the rule but any IJA combat units can occupy these on map hogs during and after the inf bns move away.

Perry, I like your recon hip shot idea. I have frequently wondered why German recon units in OCS strut around the map with an AR 5 but have no recon function.

Cheers

OCS has always let all combat units (yes, even artillery) spot for Hipshoots. Perry's proposal would take that away by _limiting_ the spotting function to German Recon units. (Adventures of Ubermensch??)

Would it be more appropriate to give the Rcn unit a bonus instead of exclusive rights? E.g. the hipshoot gets a +1 DRM if a Rcn unit is the Spotter. (I confess that i liked the old series option that gave Rcn/ Mcyc units an ability to convert one DL step loss result to Do.)

Last call for preorders for Operational Matters 2 with the OCS Luzon game. We expect to begin shipping Thursday, so this is your last chance to get in on the preorder price.

Great news to hear! looking forward to it

Well, this sux. The MMP website won't acccept my password nor send me a confimation number to my email address. I recall having this same problem last time I tried to pre-order.

Hey, Murph-

I had the same problem, except that the website wouldn't continue all the way through the billing process. (stuck on Step 2, billing info, which it kept trying to repeat) I had to void my order. Putin interfering??

I'll try again later.

I had maybe a similar issue once and I think the problem was there were two or more different login locations, and my computer or google was remembering the old password from the other location, and so I went around in circles always one password behind.

Whenever you create a new one, copy and paste it each time and don't let it autoload from your browser or from google.  Maybe that will work, it did for me.

Nolan, make sure you're checking that box for the terms and conditions at the top of the billing page. Even though it's highlighted in green, I've overlooked that a couple of times, as well as the error message telling me that I need to check the box.