Why Band of Brothers is the best tactical WWII Series for Solitaire Play
Why Band of Brothers is the Best Solitaire Tactical World War II Game System Available
With the suppression system in Band of Brothers players are treated to a fantastic recreation of World War II tactical combat that is not available in other games. During combat, players units will become “suppressed”. Infantry squads are normally in one of 3 states, unsuppressed, yellow, or red.
To perform actions, such as move, fire, etc they must roll a die and compare it to their current suppression level. If the roll is equal to or less than their current suppression level the unit can perform the action. If it is greater than the unit’s morale, the unit is ”used” for the turn and may not perform actions.
What does this mean for solitaire game play?
Due to the endless possibilities for movement, fire, etc no solitaire game engine is possible without bogging the game down in an endless number of flow charts and die rolls. You will be playing both sides to the best of your ability.
However, because of the unique suppression system, a player can never be sure that his units will be able to do what you want. That German weapon team that is waiting behind the hedge row may not be able to op fire at the American squad moving down the road, even worse, by failing their morale check – they are done for the turn!
The importance of Command Points for Solitaire Play
Each scenario gives each side a set number of command points (normally between 1 and 3) that allows for rerolls of morale check, melee rolls, and add 1 to a unit’s proficient firepower (firepower used when it does assault fire/op fire). During solitaire game play this can be critical to retrieve a desperately needed reroll on a failed morale check on an op fire opportunity. This reroll doesn’t guarantee success, and once it is spent for the turn, you don’t get it again until the following turn.
Combat Events
An exciting addition to the Band of Brothers system is the addition of Combat Events. This rule is optional in European theater scenarios but required in Old Breed South Pacific. When a “1” is rolled during fire combat it is possible that a Combat Event occurs. Play is paused briefly to see if this happens, again, adding another layer of uncertainty to game play.
Rules Section 66
Jim has added a short rules section on Solo play that fleshes out some of those “what should I do here” situations that will make game play smoother and more enjoyable. Rule 66 is below:
66.0 RECOMMENDATION FOR SOLO PLAY
The Decoy units in the game can cause minor difficulties for solo play. When playing solitaire, first set up all Guns and Vehicles normally and cover them with Concealment counters if allowed. Possible unit counters are represented by a Concealment counter with no unit underneath. Place one Possible unit counter on the board for each Infantry unit and Decoy. The Infantry units and Decoys represented by those Possible unit counters are placed in a cup.
Anytime the defending side wants to use a Possible unit, assume that there is a unit there, find it in the cup, and replace the Possible unit counter with the unit. Anytime a Possible unit receives a Suppression result or would be revealed by another method, draw a counter randomly from the cup. If it is a Decoy counter, then there is no unit there. Remove the Decoy and Possible unit counter. If a real unit is drawn, place that unit in the hex.
Using this method there is the added benefit to the defense of being able to put a unit where you want it mid scenario, but you can end up drawing a Decoy counter where the defense would dearly love to have a unit. There is some incentive when playing defense to activate a unit earlier so that you can ensure that the MG is in a certain spot, for example.
I hope this gives you some insight into the exciting possibilities in the system design for solitaire play. With now over 62 scenarios, plus 12 plus in the battle manual players have hundreds of hours of game play in front of them whether soloing and perfecting their squad level tactics, or going head to head.
Thanks
Grant Wylie