Hunting Grounds: Games Three and Four at Recruits

Game Three at Recruits started at 1pm on Saturday afternoon. 

You can review the scenario here, the AAR of Game One here and Game Two here.

The Indians run and the Rangers give chase. . .

A tied Initiative roll brings on The Preacher (see Game Two AAR for the explanation).

The Indians make it into the woods "en masse" with the Rangers in hot pursuit.
 

The Rangers follow into the woods where the lessened visibility and the higher cover modifiers to shooting make it more difficult for both sides to hit their targets.

And the Indians scramble their way to a 2-point win! 

We had a lot of fire combat in the woods this game and a frustrated Ranger player wondered why his activated Fire combat was at a -3 Marksmanship roll because of the Medium Woods modifier and the enemy's Opportunity Fire was a -2, so the Opportunity Fire actually had a better chance to hit. I didn't have a good answer for him during the game but after some thought the rule makes complete sense to me. Here goes. . .

Opportunity Fire is permitted against a unit that moves 1/2 of its normal movement rate or more, at -2 if the firing unit has not activated this turn or -3 if it has, ignoring all cover modifiers. So why doesn't the woods always confer at least the -3 cover modifier? Opportunity Fire always ignores all cover modifiers. The target gets the full cover of the woods when stationary or moving slowly enough to be partially hiding behind the cover, but when moving more quickly is "less covered up" by the cover. So it makes sense to me.

Game Four started at 5pm that same afternoon and turned into another very close game with even more fighting in the woods!

The Rangers win by 2 points! 

I am very impressed with how well This Very Ground handled this straight-up skirmish game.

Another Recruits is in the books. See ya next year!