"Hen and Chicks?" Topic

I was at my local game shop tonight, and was prepping some miniatures for this tournament we have coming up, and someone mentioned the Hen and Chicks rule, and I was just wondering what this all meant. I am still very new and he mentioned that if I dont play with this rule that people get VERY angry but I dont know why?? Can Someone be kind enough to explain, seeing as I am very new, and I dont like ticking people off

The guy at the shop didn't bother to tell you?
Tsk tsk tsk.

Hen and Chicks is a Soviet rule. There's an old version and a new version (new one being in 3rd Edition and the new Eastern Front book). The old version didn't allow Soviet tanks to fire if they moved beyond 6". I'm not sure which one they want to use.

John, it was an observation made in passing(at least im assuming cuz he saw me assembling a T34/85…)

the Tourney is using V.2-not everyone(myself included) has V.3 yet(I never bothered getting V.2 because im still green to this)

ok, would IS-2's count as guards

Ok, I think Easyarmy.com has it saying that IS-2's in Fortress Europe are guards tanks??? so would that automatically make them guards

do you have a copy of Fortress Europe?

saturday at 10 LI, NY

1750…

Festung Europa (to give Fortress Europe its other name) has Guard Heavy Tank companies with IS-2's costing 495/660/825 for 3/4/5 tanks (command tank plus one or two platoons of one or two tanks each), the .50 cal AAMG upgrade uption at +5 per vehicle, and tank riders at +15 per vehicle. They're Fearless Trained and are indeed exempt from Hen & Chicks.

Guard Heavy Tanks (KVs, ISs), Guards Heavy Assault Guns (ISUs), Recce BA-64s etc (in most books) do not apply "Hen & Chicks,"
Pretty much every other armed tank team in the Soviet Arsenal has "Hen & Chicks" whether "Guards" or not. So T-34s, SUs, T-70s, etc will have this rule applied.

V2 "Hen & Chicks" is something along the lines of if any tank in the platoon moved more than 6" then none of the platoon's tanks can shoot.

V3 and a list taken from "Red Bear" used in V2 has an updated version of "Hen & Chicks."
In this one basically states that if one tank moves…then all must move. And then all moving tanks have the reduced ROF and now have a +1 to hit with their main guns. Vehicle MGs hit as normal and the tanks can move up to their full move (usually 12") though and still shoot.

JP, I'm sorry to hear that you don't have a veteran FoW gamer in your area helping to show you the ropes of this game. I fear your first event might be a negative experience for you. I hope you still can find some enjoyment at it and look at it as a training opportunity. I expect you'll be learning "the hard way" for the most part at this event. Jumping right in on tournaments is not something I'm a big fan of, but I know there is likely a strong desire to be a part of the action.

Good luck though, and have fun!

VB

VonBurge got the rule summarized correctly.

We discuss the NEW style Hen & Chicks pretty thoroughly in episode 29 of our podcast: link

Note that not all 'Guards' tanks ignore Hen & Chicks. Unless an entry specifically says that platoon is exempt! Guards Tankovy, for example, still suffers Hen & Chicks, while Guards Heavy Tanks get to ignore it per their unit entry!

Only SPECIFIC Guards units do not suffer from Hens and Chicks.
It HAS to be stated in their little paragraph.

Simply being Guards does NOT exempt them.

OK…Thank you Guys So much!

For the most part only Russian command tanks company and above had radios. Russian Platoon Commanders would key their movement on what the company commander was doing. If he was moving in a certain direction they would move in the same direction. If he was firing in a certain direction, they would look for targets in the direction his gun tube was pointing. To the germans this was like Hens and Chicks.

There was a "Know Your Enemy" PDF that you could download that had all special National rules, heroes, and Weapons stat lines for Mid & Late war.

I'm not sure if it's still posted on the BF web site, but I'm betting somebody around has it.

VB

link

@VB-they still have it!!! :)

I come from an era where one often wrote one's own rules stealing from this set, borowing someone else's idea, etc.

Plagiarize!
Let no man's work, evade your eyes!

I tried that for my massive Trenton game. Afterwards, every player went out of their way to assure me, "No, really John! It was a fun game!"

no problem

We live to serve!

Enjoy Ditto, thanks for digging the link up jpflumignan!

VB