Question:
A question has arisen in Narvik concerning AA fire. Unlike other Europa games Narvik uses an odds-based CRT, the same table is used for both AA fire and air-to-air combat. The table has ratios ranging from 1:4 to 6:1. When firing AA only the defender fires. In air-to-air combat both players exchange fire. Both AA and air combat are done using groupings of up to 5 air units. There are no DRMs for anything.
Our question is as follows – if AA fire results in less than a 1:4 odds ratio does the player roll for results on the 1:4 column or is there simply no chance of a result?
AA Example: 2 AA factors fire on a group of attacking planes with 10 air defense factors. This is a 1:5 odds ratio. Does this fire use the 1:4 column or is the fire ineffective (not rolled)?
Answer:
How are Odds columns determined when resolving AA fire in Narvik? There is no way to answer this definitively given the wording of the ambiguous Narvik rules without knowing the design intent. I have no idea what the design intent was here. This is one (of many) items I brought up to Winston Hamilton re the Narvik rules when Storm over Scandinavia was done. Winston said the Narvik rules were perfect and needed no update; he was the boss then so I dropped matter. Your current Narvik game is the FIRST playing of the game where any questions have been asked about the Narvik rules since then that I am aware of. Having said that, I’ll still take a stab at answering your question.
Per Narvik rule 14 (antiaircraft fire) you “Total the strengths firing, and resolve the attack on the air-to-air CRT, using the antiaircraft strengths as air attack strengths”. Then, per Narvik Rule 12E3 (Air-to-Air Combat Resolution): “The intercepting player totals all air attack strengths of his wave and compares that number to the total air defense strengths of the enemy wave. This is converted to an odde ratio corresponding to one on the air-to-air combat results table, rounding down in favor of the defender.” For AA fire this then means you total all the AA strengths of the one side and compare that number to the total air defense strength of the opposing wave to get a ratio, rounding the number down in favor of the defender. Nothing in rules or chart spelling out how odds under 1:4 are handled (or how odds over 6:1 are handled).
Wording in Narvik Rule 12E3 that “this is converted to an odds ratio corresponding to one on the air-to-air combat results table” would seem to imply that every potential antiaircraft fire MUST be resolved on one of those columns (implying then that odds less than 1:4 are resolved at 1:4). However, the immediately following verbiage “rounding down in favor of the defender” would also allow for arguing otherwise.
So either interpretation can be justified, I think. If you can’t decide among yourselves which one to use and want an outside party to choose, I would say AA fire in Narvik that is calculated as being at less than 1:4 odds is resolved using the 1:4 column as I strongly suspect that was the design intent given my vague memory of my one playing of Narvik (with Winston – who effectively was the “designer” for the update of Narvik in SOS) where I’m pretty sure that was the way it went.
Source:
Posted byArthur E. Goodwin on the Yahoo Europa Mailing list on 26.07.2013 18:26.
