Battlefront WWII
Night/Low Visibility rules
Night Combat Rules
The original rulebook did not specify how to fight battles at night. Here are some "semi-official"
night combat rules collected from forum discussions by Mark Hayes that describe how to play the game at night.
We welcome your suggestions for improvements.
DAY - GOOD VISIBILITY
No change to rules
DAY - POOR VISIBILITY
Spotting-Down 1 spotting modifier
Maneuver-No +2 enemy proximity modifier for no LOS to spotted or suspected enemy
NIGHT - GOOD VISIBILITY
Discipline Rating
All units are rated one level lower than normal unless they are considered "night combat-trained (a)"
(a) Examples of "night combat-trained" would be
American, British, and Polish airborne units; commandos and rangers; and Elite and Veteran Japanese infantry.
Spotting
- Down 2 spotting modifier
- No Up 1 modifier for higher elevation
Fire Combat Modifier of -1 for all direct fire
Maneuver
- No rapid advance
- No +1 command modifier for troops unless within 1 inch of commander
- No +1 command modifier for vehicles unless within 4 inches and line of sight (LOS) of commander
- No +2 enemy proximity modifier for no LOS to spotted or suspected enemy
- Modifier of -1 on Bog Down table
NIGHT - POOR VISIBILITY
Discipline Rating
All units are rated one level lower than normal unless they are considered "night combat-trained" (a)
Spotting
- Down 3 spotting modifier
- No Up 1 modifier for higher elevation
Fire Combat Modifier of -1 for all direct fire
-
Maneuver
- No rapid advance
- No +1 command modifier for troops unless within 1 inch of commander
- No +1 command modifier for vehicles unless within 2 inches and line of sight (LOS) of commander
- No +2 enemy proximity modifier for no LOS to spotted or suspected enemy
- Modifier of -2 on Bog Down table
Close Combat
- Modifier for "DEF/ATT: vehicle vs. troops in concealment" changed to -3
- Modifier for "DEF: outflanked" changed to -2
FLARES
- Generally, a unit that can fire smoke can fire a flare out to its maximum range.
- A commander (troop stand) may also fire a flare out to 10 inches using a small template.
- Normally, like smoke, a unit may only fire a flare once per game, although many night
scenarios may have reason to allocate more.
- Flares are fired in the Indirect Fire segment. The Call for Fire proceedure is used if using a spotter.
- Each firing section gets 2 templates of the same size as its indirect fire template.
- The firing player places the center of the beaten zone over a target just as in normal indirect fire.
- Any unit with an aiming point within the beaten zone is considered to be in Day - Good Visibility
for purposes of being a TARGET for spotting and fire combat.
In addition there is a modifier of +1 to the spotting table.
- Flares may only be fired at SUSPECTED or SPOTTED units or a prominent terrain feature.
- A flare template remains on the table until the begining of that player's next Indirect Fire segment.
- A unit with an aiming point inside a placed flare template suffers an ADDITIONAL "DOWN 2"
modifier on the spotting table when trying to spot an enemy target. (loss of night vision)