10th May 1940

Last week saw the first game in a mini-campaign I've started with Keith (of Armies Army fame).  We're using the excellent Chain of Command rules from Too Fat Lardies to fight out the German invasion of Belgium.  Why?  Well, mainly because we had the figures handy but also because the early war period is a fascinating one...not overpowered with supertanks and with some interesting underrated armies like the French and Belgians.

Keith has done all the legwork in getting the campaign planned out using the TFL 'At the Sharp End' campaign kit and is playing the invading Germans.  My plucky Belgians are hoping to try and last more than the 18 days of the real campaign.  The rules encourage you to name your officers and follow them as the campaign unfolds so my forces are led by Lieutenant Remi, Sergeant Brel and Sergeant Evil named after my favourite Belgians...Georges Remi, Jacques Brel and... erm... Dr Evil from the Austin Powers movies (who knew he was Belgian??!)

The first scenario saw the Belgians responding to reports that Germans had been sighted in Belgian territory near the border with Aachen.  Both forces patrolled out, using the Patrol marker system in CoC which, unsurprisingly, meant we clashed near a small village in the centre of the table

Nether of us had arrived with our full complement of troops.  One of my sections failed to turn up completely and annoyingly I also misplaced my Grenade Launcher section...at least that way they couldn't get shot at!!  The Germans also lost some troops but still looked pretty threatening.  Our sections engaged each other at close range from opposite houses and although the Belgians took some early losses from this and from mortar fire, concentrated Belgian fire broke a German section although another quickly took it's place. 

At this point some of our support choices arrived.  The Germans deployed a PzII which was a bit worrying as I didn't have any anti-armour capability other than LMGs.  I chose to bring on a Forward Observer who managed to call in a barrage on the German mortar with pretty devastating effect.  In CoC once a barrage starts in continues until a player manages to end the round by using Chain of Command points which accumulate (if you're lucky) during the game.  I was able to walk the barrage onto the remaining German sections which piled on more casualties.  One of the Belgian officers was wounded and left behind when his section broke but displayed conspicuous bravery by calling in the mortar strike on his position while lying in a pool of blood!  

The combined effect of the mortar barrage and fire from Belgian sections forced the Germans back off the battlefield  but reports now indicate that there have been further incursions along the border.  At least my casualties were pretty light with only 1 section taking a real pasting so I should have a fairly strong force for round 2.

Chain of Command - Russia '42

This week's 'game I haven't played for ages' entry is Chain of Command.

Andrew and I have an occasional game at his place and it has been a good excuse to dig out rules and figures that haven't seen the light of day for a while.  Digging through the blog it looks like I haven't played CoC for a couple of years (and annoyingly the photos have vanished from the posts...something to do with photo storage I think).

This weeks game pitted the brave Heroes of the Soviet Motherland against the Evil Fascist Vipers (can you guess which side I was on??) in a straightforward encounter game with both sides pretty evenly matched.  The objectives were 2 bridges which were conveniently nearer my side of the table but most of the fighting actually centred round a small cluster of houses in the centre of the table.

I've just spotted that the right hand bridge symbol doesn't make any sense (unless it's a viaduct!),

but I cant be bothered going back and changing it!!!  How did I ever pass A-Level Geography???

In Chain of Command troops initially patrol, using patrol markers which move around the table until contact is made.  These then become a number of 'Jump Off Points' which troops can deploy from, given the right dice roll

After the initial patrol phase I made an immediate error and deployed a section rather quickly...I'd forgotten that deploying troops only leaves them vulnerable to getting caught in the open.  I'd attempted to run from the woods on the left to the village and seize the terrace of (suspiciously Western European looking) houses but failed to reach them.  Up popped a German section which proceeded to hammer me with rifle and MG fire...

The brave Soviet soldiers nearly make it to cover...

A 2nd USSR section watches from a ruined house...

oops...the very depleted survivors barely hang on

The survivors of the Soviet charge did manage to get into the houses and their Leader removed some of the shock but they were almost immediately close assaulted by the German section that had shot at them.  Not surprisingly the Soviet section was wiped out in the assault but did manage to cause enough casualties to throw the attackers back.  This bought enough time for me to deploy and move a MMG and crew into the terrace.  In CoC one of the results of the Command Dice that players roll each turn (which determine who can be activated etc) can be to allow the active player to retain the initiative and have another turn.  This time the Germans were the ones caught in the open as the MMG opened up on a German section caught between the 2 ruined houses opposite...

The MMG in position...

...and the lucky Germans caught in the open

Much to Andrew's relief, my dice rolling skills failed at this point and the Germans took relatively light casualties.  Andrew had learned from the very brutal assault earlier and stayed safely in cover in the ruined buildings and whittled down the MMG crew with rifle and LMG fire, eventually forcing them to retreat.

It wasn't looking great for me at this point...I had been having a little more success with my mighty tank and armoured car assault on the Germans in the SE farmhouse who were threatening the 2nd bridge.  I say 'mighty'... I had a T26 and a BA64...hardly a Kursk-level assault... but it was doing the job.  Andrew's section were trying to drive the tank off with small arms fire but then he managed to get the required roll to deploy his Panzerbuschse Team who, after a few close misses, managed to knock out the MG on the armoured car leaving it completely ineffective and vulnerable. My T26 wasn't having much luck firing on the section holed up in the buildings and I was conscious that there was a Pz38 lurking on the other side of the table although to be fair it had turned up and then refused to do anything thanks to some unlucky dice rolling on Andrew's part.

T26 to the rescue...

The uncooperative Pz38

By this point I had a couple of sections still intact...my Soviet antitank team had been quickly seen off by Andrew and my tank was stationary guarding one of the bridges but not able to achieve much.  On my left flank I had 1 section remaining in a farmhouse but they were coming under increasing fire from the Germans in the village and a halftrack which had also put in an appearance.   The farm only counted as light cover and I forgot that I could have the unit take up a 'Tactical' stance which would have improved their cover.  At this point I decided that the Soviets would make a hasty withdrawal and conceded, but I suspect there was going to be an awkward conversation with the Commissar afterwards. 

The unit in the Farmhouse....I finally get to make use of my laser line pointer!!!

As we got to the end of the game we realised it was now well after 10 and time to call it a night anyway...I guess the sign of a good game is not noticing the time passing by.  It's definitely inspired me to make more use of Chain of Command.   Somewhere in the loft are my early war British and Belgians so some exploring is definitely required, as well as beefing up the options for the Germans and Russians.

Sharp Practice 2 - 1st game

Napoleonics isn't really my period...don't get me wrong, I'll happily play a game at a club night and have played several excellent Black Powder games at Eric the Shed's place but I find the period a bit intimidating if I'm honest.  Too many uniforms, too many obscure battles and constantly changing alliances between obscure states.  I tend to lose track and it seems to be a period that some people with an interest have a lot of knowledge about, and get very intense about...just take a look at the Napoleonics section of TMP!

Incidentally what is going on over there???  There seems to be a complete meltdown by the editor and an increasing number of rabid right wing posts... After the last debacle with bizarre posts by the Editor about British gamers I've decided to take a break (maybe permanently) from the site and look to other more sensible forums like LAF and TWW for my wargaming info.

Anyway, back to Napoleonics. 

Since my knowledge of the period is a bit lacking I find myself drawn to a more Hollywood/fictional version and the Sharp Practice rules by Too Fat Lardies are ideal for this cinematic style of game.  I'd bought the 2nd edition of these last year but not actually managed to play a game with them so I was glad to test them out earlier this week in a game with a friend.

I've played a few games with the earlier edition (although not for some time) so I was interested to see the changes that they'd made.  The bulk of the rules were very familiar...especially around movement, firing and hand to hand (or Fisticuffs).  The card activation system is also similar but they have clearly been influenced by the development of Chain of Command.  Units deploy from a deployment point and in some cases can have a mobile deployment point, similar to CoC Jump Off points. 

Leaders are activated when their card is drawn and each leader then has a number of orders they can issue. This is one of the areas that can be a bit confusing...a leader's order can be to activate a unit which then in turn has 2 activations of it's own (eg move, reload or fire etc).  Leader's orders are much more varied and they can also add to a units firing, rally off shock points etc.  So a leader could, for example, do 3 things...activate a unit, move and do a task...and the unit could then also do 2 things as part of it's activation.  It takes a little getting used to but works really well in practice.

There are also Command Cards which are players can use to do additional things... a bit like Chain of Command points in CoC.   These can be used to add to firing or fisticuffs, or to allow units to do special activities or activate out of sequence.  Remembering what these can do is pretty important and annoying when you complete your move and then realise that you could have used them.

Sharp Practice works best with a scenario based game and in ours my dastardly French had managed to capture a British soldier and the Regimental Colours and were marching him off into captivity.  A British rescue mission commanded by Andrew had been despatched to bring him back and avoid the disgrace of losing the flag (the scenario would have been rescuing a damsel in distress but I couldn't lay my hands on my civilian figures so a flag bearer had to be pressed into to service instead!)

The French forces set off down the road with a column leading the way and the prisoner escorted by the Guard at the rear

Opposing them were a force of Highlanders, supported by a Navy landing party and the Rifles.  The Highlanders took up a position on a hill overlooking the road and waited for the column to arrive

Eventually they realised I wasn't going to march straight into their guns and they had to reluctantly come off the hill and try to intercept my Guards

The Rifles bravely blocked the road and caused the French column to halt, inflicting several shock points.  They suffered badly though when a returning volley from the leading unit in the French column caused casualties and they quickly took cover in a nearby wood

French Skirmishers had worked round on my right an began taking shots at the Navy who quickly joined the Rifles in the wood

The wood had become a difficult spot to get past as it was full of Riflemen and sailors (armed with 'Big Choppers' according to the rules...)

Andrew's Highlanders had advanced to cut off the Guard and the prisoner who were on the other side of a walled field and screened by the French Voltigeurs.  The potential firepower from the British formation was pretty daunting and would have caused a lot of damage but the French column had now broken up and began to fire into the flank of the British line, causing a huge amount of Shock points to one British unit.

The Rifles had suffered an unexpected penalty when they entered the wood: when 3 Command cards are drawn in a row, a Random Event occurs and unfortunately for a crack Rifle unit it was damp powder (presumably from all the soggy undergrowth), reducing their firepower.  To be fair I also suffered an unfortunate event when my Sergeant stepped in something unpleasant, reducing his command ability until he could wash it off!.

Andrew decided to throw caution to the wind and, having spotted that one of my Line Infantry units was unloaded after firing, the Rifles charged out of the wood and engaged them in Fisticuffs.  The Rifles were clearly led by a rather heroic leader (I wonder who!) as they completely routed the French unit after a couple of rounds of combat!

At the end of the evening the game looked like this.  The Guard are at the top of the picture, having made it 2/3 of the way up the table but are still faced by 2 out of 3 Highland units.  The Navy are a bit beaten up and skulking in the wood but still pose a threat.  The Rifles, at the bottom centre, are about to get blasted by the remaining French unit to their left.  So the game finished quite tightly balanced and still with all to play for.  With hindsight Andrew should probably have come off the hill sooner and taken a more aggressive approach as it allowed me to manoeuvre away from the rather scary Scots for most of the game.

I thought the rules were excellent and have a great feel for this kind of game...there are lots of mechanics for scenario-based tasks (eg burning down buildings, looting, wooing damsels) etc which fit well with the Sharpe-style of game, but which we didn't get into in this game.  I know Andrew wasn't very impressed with them but I find Too Fat Lardies rules are pretty Marmite and people either take to them or not.  For me these are definitely rules to use again and would be ideal for my NWF project.

Chain of Command - Capture the Bridge #2

Round #2 of the CoC scenario that I played last week, this time with an opponent who unsportingly didn't let me win!

I had planned to revamp the scenario from last week's game (attacking a German bridgehead over an unnamed Russian river) and shift the period to the Spanish Civil War but before I knew it the week had passed and I didn't really have time to rummage around and sort out the Spanish armies so the game became essentially a straight refight.

This time I took the German defenders while Keith led the Soviets in an attack to capture a bridge.  The layout was broadly the same as last time with a slight rearrangement of woods and buildings, but nothing significant.

The German defenders

 

...and the Soviet attackers

 

 

As usual the early deployed  forces quickly grabbed what cover they could and exchanged fire from buildings but the game did see an early arrival from both sides armour.  The Soviet BA10 quickly sped down the road and engaged the German Pz38 that had turned up.  A couple of rounds of fire ensued which looked to be going to Germans way until a devastating shot from the AC's gun knocked the Panzer out...disaster!!

The doomed Pz38

 

 

...and its nemesis, the BA10

 

 

The deployed infantry units continued to exchange fire with Keith's unit holding the centre taking a lot of 'Shock' points but still managing to hold on, largely due to the arrival of his Senior Commander who presumably did a lot of close range shouting.

On the German right I deployed another section ready to face a couple of German sections that were creeping through the woods very sneakily. 

I was now very worried about the Soviet armour (they also had a T26 which had arrived but was leaving all the fighting to the Armoured Car) and deployed my Panzerbusche team who tried a couple of shots into the ACs flank without success.  Unfortunately this drew lots of MG fire and eventually they were knocked out too, leaving me with little that could damage the German armour.

Keith's units in the wood bravely charged out to take on the Russian section on my left in hand to hand combat.  A brave attempt since success would have opened up this flank and cleared the way to the bridge but the Soviets were hit hard by the supporting MG fire (and some rubbish dice) and broke and ran.

My last attempt to gain some ground was a brave/stupid deployment of my last section in the open in full view of the BA10.  Somehow my luck held... the AC didn't manage to fire and Keith failed 3 times in a row to deploy his remaining section which could have proved devastating if it had arrived (I presume they were somewhere behind the lines with a cache of vodka!).  My section ran into the cover of the woods, seizing one of the German Jump off points in the process and beginning to threaten the German flank.

...Run!...there's an AC coming!!

At this point we called it a night... the Germans had managed to hold off the attackers and the bridge remained in their hands.  The Soviets however were in a stronger position with 2 armoured units on table which were looking pretty invulnerable and one remaining unit off table which might eventually turn up.  The attackers had one section broken and 1 pretty beaten up while I'd lost 1 section, my tank and anti-tank team and both sides morale was even and getting dangerously low.  Overall probably a draw but with the Soviets better poised to win the day.

A fun game with a result suitably different to last weeks game to show up elements of the rules.  I will try something similar with the SCW armies to see if the earlier period makes a difference but my next thought has been to look at the CoC rules that appeared in the Too Fat Lardies last Xmas Special which had a Great War adaption and see what can be done with my Russian Civil War armies which have languished in the loft for too long.

Chain of Command - Capture the Bridge

Last night saw another game of Chain of Command.  In previous games I've been a bit frustrated sometimes as the opposing side have tended to seize buildings and tree lines and dig in, taking advantage of the heavy cover.  This can lead to games becoming a bit stagnant with little fire and movement.  It strikes me that this is probably realistic.. who really want to advance in the open in the face of heavy rifle and LMG fire...but doesn't always make for the most exciting game.

For this week's game I opted for a Seize the Objective scenario in the hope that this might spur at least one side into action.  The scenario pitted a Soviet force counter-attacking against a German platoon who had established a bridgehead across a rive somewhere in Western Russia.

During the patrol phase  the Soviets pushed forward using a farmhouse and wheat fields as cover.  The Germans left one patrol marker on the bridge itself and pushed there others forward towards some woods on the Soviet right and some ruined buildings.  The deployed jump off points ended up looking like this...

The opposing lines

 

 

German defences on the river

Chris, taking the German side, decided that attack was the best form of defence and pushed 2 infantry sections and a Pz38 in from his left flank, attempting to take out some of the Soviet jump off points or at least put them under pressure.  Over on the other side of the table 2 sections were holed up in opposing buildings, trading shots.  Despite the protection of the heavy cover we both took casualties but the German NCO was wounded, knocking him out for a turn (a long time in CoC) and causing a morale loss to the Germans.

Over the next couple of turns he was hit at least once or twice more, causing a morale loss each time. I wasn't sure whether his injuries would repeatedly cause a morale loss but having checked with the experts on the Yahoo group it seems we go it right and it does mount up.  Frankly the German section would have been better off shooting him straight away and getting it over with!

The Pz38 and infantry begin their attack on the left.

The pressure on the Soviet right flank was beginning to mount as I'd repeatedly failed to deploy anything and Chris now had 2 infantry sections and a tank moving rapidly towards my Jump Off markers.

More German infantry in the woods

Chris then decided to push one of his sections out of cover towards the farmhouse and my dice finally came good!  A Soviet section appeared in the wheatfield and opened up on the exposed Germans causing heavy casualties over the next 2 phases.

The exposed Germans come under short range fire

Not surprisingly the Germans eventually broke under the sustained fire, despite Chris managing to get his tank into action (without much success).  The unit was wiped out apart from the NCO and accompanying Senior Leader who fled backwards away from trouble.  The wounded German NCO was hit yet again, leaving the Germans with very few morale points and my Chain of Command dice had now reached the magic level of 6...this allows players to do a number of special actions and crucially allowed me to end the turn (we actually only played 1 turn).  This routed the German Senior and Junior Leaders off the table, finishing off the morale collapse and winning the game.

It felt like a slightly cheesy way to win but the clock was getting on and it would have been time to stop anyway.  It's the first time I've noticed the heavy impact of wounded leaders in CoC...I guess the answer is to keep them out of trouble where you can and avoid sticking them up in the front line where they can get short heroically...over and over and over again!!

I have another CoC game lined up next week and I'm tempted to re-fight this scenario again since it seemed to work (obviously since I won!!), possibly with a Spanish Civil War twist.

Home Guard

After the great painting drought of the last few months  have finally managed to get some paint on the brush and start painting things!

 

In line with my preference for elite cutting edge troops I've been working on some British Home Guard which I plan to use with Chain of Command. 

Too Fat Lardies have released loads of suggested army lists for various forces for CoC including the Home Guard who, as you can imagine have a range of unusual weapons at their disposal including Milk Churn Mines and Bed Sheets to hide behind.  There are also some interesting National Characteristics including "Your not from round here..." and "I went to Bisley you know..." which give assorted bonuses.

 

Perhaps not the most hard-core fighting force but certainly more interesting than many and they should give some interesting "Went the Day Well" type scenarios.  At a push they could also double for BEF as long as no one looks too closely!

The horror....the horror....

I think it's almost compulsory for any Vietnam game to be headed by a quote from Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket, so not wanting to buck the trend I've gone with Mr/Colonel Kurtz depending on your preference for Conrad or Coppola.

This week's game at the club was a Vietnam bash organised by Kevin and with his collection of really excellently painted figures.

We used the Too Fat Lardies rules "Charlie Don't Surf".  I'm a big fan of TFL rules as you'll gather from the posts elsewhere on the blog and CDS are no exception.  Having said that I do struggle more with these rules than some of their others.  As with a few TFL rules I find the layout a bit of a challenge...although it seems to be in a sensible order, when it comes to finding the rule I need at any given point, it disappears into the text somewhere.  Given the additional complexity of Vietnam with rules for armour, air and artillery strikes, asymmetric warfare etc there are a lot of rules to hide in!  I have a feeling that in the heart of CDS is a very good set of rules struggling to break free.

I should post some kind of inspiring Vietnam movie clip here but instead you can be inspired by this...

The scenario pitched a Free World aid station coming under attack from NVA while an under-strength company were on their way to relieve it.  The aid station had the advantage of a Platoon of special forces but were likely to face a heavy assault before the relief force could get there.  There were also some incoming civilians who we wanted to get Intel from.

The US forces to the left of the table, where they spent most of
the game under heavy MG fire from the troops hidden in the
jungle at the top edge.

Andy and I took the US troops and set off across the table.  As with most TFL games we started with our troops hidden on blinds while the NVA had their forces either on blinds or completely hidden.  We also had a PBR slowly making its way up the river which ran along the edge of the table.



The village and aid station...the relief force finally made it up
to the edge of the paddy fields after a long slog across the table

Having adopted the cunning plan of moving quickly (but not quickly enough) across the open gaps between the clumps of jungle, Andy's platoons were hit by a hidden NVA Heavy Weapon section which caused horrendous casualties and kept him pinned down for most of the game.  Luckily my troops were screened by Andy's and I was able to hide most of them in the jungle.  My Company Commander did bravely occasionally pop out of the bush he was hiding in to shout something inspiring to the pinned down troops and remove some points of shock, before taking cover again...I'm sure there was a medal in that selfless act of heroism!

The civilians were also approaching the aid station from the other side of the table and as they came within sight of medics they were revealed to be a cadre of local VC!  The aid station was now in serious trouble as the NVA troops had also closed quickly and the relief force was bogged down thanks to the draw of the cards.

I did manage to successfully call in a mortar strike on the NVA which caused some damage and suppressed the unit meaning it couldn't advance but the NVA and VC then drew the 'Human Wave' card which meant they could ignore the suppression and charge.  Luckily the defenders of the aid station were special forces and somehow managed to repel the assault.

On the next turn my helicopters arrived.  Bizarrely, just as they came on table we had a real helicopter flying over the club building...I'm still not sure if this was a special effect that Kevin had laid on specially!

The Huey flew along the line of assaulting NVA causing heavy casualties in true Hollywood style and making it very unlikely they'd be able to repeat the assault on the village.

Daan, daan da da daan daan (go on... name that tune...)

Unfortunately the VC had sneakily achieved one of their aims by nicking rice supplies from the village while the assault was underway...they had been tasked with obtaining supplies as a precursor to Tet.  The NVA also gained victory points from ambushing (very successfully) our squads...Andy's were pretty decimated and never managed to move after getting hit.  On a plus point we hadn't lost the aid station and had caused some heavy casualties to the NVA.  As one of the opposition said it was a typical Vietnam result...everyone lost!!

A great game with some excellent scenery and figures all kindly supplied by Kevin who did a good job of umpiring and trying to find his way through the rules. He had sensibly produced a summary of the key features for us beforehand which was really helpful.

Like I said earlier, I really do want to like CDS but the rules either need some reorganising or streamlining, or both.  For Vietnam I've also used Force on Force and the Peter Pig Men of Company B rules, both of which are also very good (especially the PP rules) but I'm sure there must be others out there.

Never play against family...

I really should learn my lesson and remember that most games against my son are likely to end in a good kicking....

He's been slowly building some troops for Chain of Command and, following a bit of a family trait has decided to avoid the obvious and head straight for the obscure...in this case Belgium!   We thought he just had about enough to field a platoon and then realised that we'd miscalculated as Belgian sections are quite big: he did however have enough to field them as French instead, so it was off to the Battle of France last night.

The scenario pitched a German platoon, reinforced with a Pz38 and Sdkfz 222 probing French defences.  After the initial patrol phase the 2 forces faced each other across a small village on the left and some woods  and a farm on the right. 



The table [actually the floor]... the French markers are
actually Soviet ones: it was all a bit improvised!

 
 
 
 
 


A brief firefight in the village quickly proved ineffective as the troops on either side could only bring limited firepower to bear... it didn't stop the French MG wounding my NCO in the German section.

On the right a German deployed in an enclosed field and engaged the French who were skulking    

    around the farm. 

The French defend the farm

 

The long-range fire, combined with the odd mortar round gradually swung the German way and the French squad began to take casualties.  My 3rd German section then deployed in the wood adding their fire and forcing the French squad back.

Back in the village my German NCO really hadn't learned his lesson and in a desperate attempt to gain a medal must have leaned out of the window and was hit again by the MG fire, this time succumbing to his wounds and causing a big hit on my morale.

 

In the centre of the table the German Pz38 had arrived and was immediately faced with a French AMC 35.  As seems to happen in every CoC game I've played the armour settled down for a long-range duel and within a couple of turns the AMC 35 scored a direct hit, brewing up the Panzer!  Scratch some more morale points...  The German armoured car turned up but for some reason was reluctant to advance against the crack shot AMC!

 

 

Over on the right the Germans got a bit overconfident and were contemplating charging the wavering remnants of the French section when another one popped up in the woods opposite.  The German fire still managed to break the French section but almost immediately the forward German section was hit hard by rifle and MG fire, reducing it to a handful of survivors and taking out another German officer.



At this point we ended the game... German Morale was hovering just above the point where bad things start to happen and although the French were a bit battered, there was little prospect of the Germans managing to break through.

So yet again I get pasted by my son... I think a rematch must be due.....

Bag the Trucks

This week we played a game of Bag the Hun for the first time in ages.  I haven't really found a better set of air rules which are as quick to grasp and very playable as these.

 

For tonight's game I pitched a flight of Spitfires against some Me109s and a couple of Stukas.  In order to give the Stukas something to do there were several trucks heading across the table which the RAF had been tasked with protecting.  As it was the Stukas strafed the convoys once to little effect but the Luftwaffe were definitely gaining the upper hand over the enemy fighters.

Good fun, especially as I haven't played them for some time.  I've also heard good things about 'Check Your 6" which I think are more detailed involve smaller actions that BtH but any suggestions for good air rules would be gratefully received... not that I'm unhappy with BtH but you can never have too many rules!