HOW TO PLAY

FIVE MEN AT KURSK

We're somewhere in Normandy 1944.
On a patrol, our section of British infantry is
advancing on a few dug in Germans, with a
Stuart light tank in support.
When we enter the picture, our section is in a
reasonably typical position:
Bren gun team hanging back a bit, rifle team up
closer and the Stuart is bringing up the right
flank.
Our rifle team has taken some fire, leaving 2
men Nervous and 1 man Scared but we have no
casualties this far.
The Germans have a few riflemen that we've
caught relatively unprepared. No machine guns
that we have seen yet.

Rallying our troops:

Rallying is based on the Morale of the squad.
Since we have a Morale of 3, we get 3 rallying
attempts per turn.
This allows us to restore the two Nervous troops
to normal fighting condition.
The Scared soldier can be rallied with our last
attempt, requiring a rallying roll. We roll low and
he becomes Nervous instead.
A Nervous soldier may more or fire (but not
both) while a Scared soldier will not accept
orders at all, so we're still a lot better off than we
were before.
Bonus moves:
A squad receives a number of bonus movement
actions, equal to our Mobility, in this case a 1.
Bonus move are 3 (a bit over half a move) and
do not allow any other actions, but they don't
prevent the figure from activating later in the
turn.

Keeping an eye on the enemy!

For the purpose of this example, it doesn't matter

who we use it on.
We elect to take a rifleman that was stranded
short of cover and get him behind a wall, no
doubt encouraged by the Corporal shouting at
him.

To carry out a turn, we need to know 3 factors

for our squad and 1 for the enemy.
No Germans are in sight, so nothing to worry
Using the typical ratings given in the rules, we
know our squad has a Mobility of 1, Morale of 3 about yet.
and Coordination of 3.
Our German opponents have a Fire Discipline of
3 and Coordination of 3 as well.
Since the example only covers our turn, their
Mobility and Morale doesn't matter.
In the core rules, actions can be carried out in
any order, but for this example, we will do each
type of action in turn.

Pete Gill (order #8720507)

Action roll:
The biggest change from FiveCore, we roll a
handful of action dice.
We get 3 dice to start, and as we have a
supporting element to take care of as well, we
add 2 dice to the total.
If our Coordination score was better than the
enemy, we'd get an extra die, but in this case,
both sides have a 3.

Shooting at the target:

To start off, we assign the Quick Shot die to our
Bren gunner.
This allows a shot without any risk of taking
reaction fire, but the activated figure cannot
move.
To fire, we gather up two colours of dice. One
will be Kill dice, the other will be Shock dice.
A light machine gun with an assistant receives 2
Kill and 3 Shock in burst mode.
We roll, checking for 1's and 6's, scoring 1,2 on
the Kill dice and 3,3,6 on the Shock dice.
The target we fired upon goes Down, possibly
wounded, possibly just stunned, while the closest
German to him becomes Scared from the hail of
fire.
Multiple firing results are transferred to other
nearby figures.

Hope the corporal has hot dice!

We roll 5 dice, scoring a 1, 2, 3, 3 and 6.
The 1 is a Scurry action, the 2's and 3's are
regular actions and the 6 is a Quick Shot action.

After resolving that, we give the Scurry die to

our squad leader.
This will allow him to move without taking any
reaction fire but he can't fire.
We move him up a bit, to be able to lead a close
assault in one of the following turns.

Each action die can be assigned to any figure or

crew member we like, provided they are in
command distance of our squad leader.
Support elements still rely on the infantry squad
leader, as they are there to support the squad, but
can be further away than the regular grunts.

Get ready to fire!

Pete Gill (order #8720507)

Vehicle activation:
With 3 regular dice left, we pick the Stuart
driver.
He can't fire any weapons but we can move the
Stuart up into a better position.

Reaction fire is less effective than regular fire.

Depending on the range, it will receive less dice.
We're not at close range for their rifle fire, so
they are limited to Shock dice only, with 2
German shooters taking their chance.

The Germans don't have anything in sight that

can damage his armour, so no reactions take
place.
If we had activated one of the gunners, he could
have fired but not moved.

In a fit of luck, both Germans roll a 4, causing no

effect on my boys.

To do both, we'd need to activate two or more

crew members.

Both of my riflemen will take their shots.

At battle range, a rifle receives 1 Kill and 1
Shock die, however one of the Germans is not in
cover, giving me an additional Shock die against
that target.
The fire against the guy in cover is a 2 (Kill) and
a 1 (Shock).
The fire against the guy in the open is a 5 (Kill)
and a 1 and 2 (Shock).
Both Germans become Nervous and are marked
as such.
The Germans still have one reaction left, and one
of them will return fire on one of my riflemen.
They score a 3 on their Shock die, having no
effect.

Moving out!

Lucky!

Action and reaction:

Then we pick two of the riflemen in the rifle
team. They can both move and fire in the same
action, allowing them to move forward into a
firing position.

With that, our turn comes to a close and we'll

have to hope the Germans don't hit us too hard in
return.

The basic move is 5. We could sprint if we

needed to move further, but then we can't shoot,
so we'll just walk normally.
However, remember that German Fire Discipline
score of 3? That means the Germans have 3
reactions available in their turn, and they will use
1 on each of my men as they move into position.

If they drive on the left side of the road, shoot!

Pete Gill (order #8720507)