"recrewing guns" Topic

We have always allowed imperial infantry to recrew guns so long as there is at least one artillery officer left. Recently we were surprise not to find that in the rules. It maybe that it was an old house rule and over the years we just assumed it was in the rules. Is it there and we don't see it? Does anyone else allow recrewing of guns?

Not sure this is an answer. In a recent Sudan game where we had a naval battle and a connected but discrete land battle the Egyptians captured an Ansar Krupp gun. We allowed the gun to be re-crewed by a British officer and gun crew. They served in the next fight. We had a discussion as to whether or not that was in the spirit of the game and decided to go with it. H

In the 1979 Yaquinto edition of TSATF, page 18, Section B.5. says:

"It takes at least two figures to fire an artillery piece or Gatling gun. At least one of the figures must be a crewman for that type of weapon."

This would seem to imply that one artillery soldier (officer or not) was adequate to fire the gun using any other figures (imperial or not).

I haven't played TSATF in awhile, but I definitely recall that rule of thumb. As long as one crew figure is an actual gunner, the other three may be replaced by infantry.

That is how we played as well.

We always played it that as long as you had one crewman, you could reman the gun with infantry figures.

We as well – having one gunner to sort out the unskilled labour to allow the gun to continue firing

We also had the combined Crew roll for Jam since this was a combined crew with e Army gun, not a Naval gun. just added that little flare to the campaign

What if recrewing the the gun causes the foot unit to drop below 50%. Do you not count the unit at 50% yet until the gun crew or the foot takes a casualty?

Since buying my first copy in 1979, in the untold games of TSATF I've played with various gamers in various cities and states, everyone -- myself included -- has always counted any/all missing figures towards a unit falling below 50% for Morale Check purposes, whether they are missing because they became casualties… or because they were "told off" to become replacement gunners or scouts… or in some particular scenario to become a courier or an escort for an important civilian character figure… or to become a guard and watch over one or more captured prisoners in a particular spot while their parent unit moves elsewhere.

Once a figure is physically separated from the basic unit they started the game as a member of, said unit suffers the potential future negative consequences of their loss, same as if they were WIA or KIA. This is just my own experience, but I do think it's emblematic of how the vast majority of TSATF players have done it over the decades.

That being said, as already mentioned above, feel free to make a change and do it differently if you like -- Larry Brom would have wanted it that way!

Would it make any sense to have a gun that was recrewed with untrained gunners not to be able to fire each turn but every other turn, reflecting the inefficiency of the make-do soldiers?

Cheers!

Gallo

What a great TSATF topic. I like the varied responses. First off, all the answers are right if that's the way you want to play! Larry always said to play them as we want to.

There is a rule that covers the gun crews.

Obviously this infers that figures other than gunners can re-crew an artillery piece as long as there is one gunner left for that type of artillery piece.

Here's how I do it, as long as there is one original gun crewman left unwounded.

If the re-crew is Navy or Marine personnel they still roll 3 die per gunner. Any other imperial personnel only roll 2 die per gunner. I rationalize it as many Navy and Marine personnel were trained as gunners as well to serve aboard ship while most other branches did not undertake this additional training.

If the crew served weapon is an MG that normally rolls 1D6 for jamb each turn and more than half the crew is untrained, they roll the standard 1D6 trying to avoid a 5 or 6 rather than the usual 6 for a jamb. But that's just how I do it.

I also make different rules or judgments, most of them scenario specific for the troops involved in that battle or campaign.

But like Larry said, play them how you want to!

Here a few Gun Crews in action for your viewing pleasure.

Hit my blog to check out just a few gun crews in action.

link

Brother Jeff -- what an AWESOME BLOG POST!!! Thanks for putting the link into this thread! That last pic showing the wrecked Pathan gun & the cool "Bud's Blast Marker" make me want to see the full-blown AAR for that game…