@Custor Yes, initially the shooting made little sense to me as well, ie, you fire in your opponent's turn and after he has assaulted.
This sequencing made little sense, as I was used to reactive firing against an opponent. I argue that as it is a high level game and the ground scale is so large that the ranges are too far to be very effective.
However, It also means that field artillery isn't brilliant for an attacker and that should be factored into what force you create with your points and if you are attempting to be an attacker or defender in the pre-game build up. But, using the barrage assets properly during the game itself should alleviate that anyway.
@mghFond The major differences is that instead of one foot squares with 12 units in each, the game is now played on 6" squares with a maximum of three units in a square. it allows for increasing mutually supporting units in the assault and no massive gaps appearing if one square collapses due to morale.
The other big difference is it has become a dice pool based game rather than a point driven system, ie, for each attacking battalion at strength you get three dice. You just grab as many dice as the table indicates and a 5/6 is a successful hit. It's a very quick, simple and fluid system and most of the dice totals can be held in your head as you play more.
Another difference which really broke my brain is the use of casualty markers in the game. With the increase in dice rolling the battalions take more punishment and a hit removes half a base, not a full base as previously. The rules are not particularly clear on this and state you should use a casualty figure indicate the half base loss, and also the morale that a square is subjected to. This got confusing, trying to work out which was supposed to be a morale marker or a half base marker. In my case, I made enough half base markers for each of my battalions (you only need one per battalion
), plus casualties as separate markers for the morale. If you're interested here are the half bases I made:
link
Another difference is that Higher Command now have rather more importance than just helping units move out of rough terrain, they can also help with attacking, morale and assets. Which, finally (I hear you breath a sigh of relief) is the other big change
Assets control your artillery and other supporting elements, again in the form of a dice pool, but a really welcome addition to the very basic version of artillery in 1st ed. Also the pre-game build up is a good addition as well, which decides on the attacker/defender.
All in all, 2nd ed is a vast improvement on 1st edition, which I thought was great anyway. I initially had my doubts, but I stuck with it and I am very happy to be initially wrong!