WW2 Operational Level Rules - Part II

The next major thread of tabletop operational rules are those based on KISS Rommel.  The KISS part of the name thankfully isn't an order but stands for Keep It Simple Stupid, and the combat rules are pretty simple.

KISS Rommel first emerged back in issue 175 of Wargames Illustrated as a set of Simple WW2 Western Desert Rules by Norman Mackenzie.  I don't know if back issues are still available but the original rules, and variants for other theatres, can be found here, here and here.

These rules are a similar battalion per unit scale to Megablitz but more streamlined.  However, the most interesting part to me is the battle set-up system.  Each player has a deck of cards representing the divisions under their command.  In a typical game the player may choose one and is then randomly dealt another four.  One of each deck represents a division failing to arrive or being redeployed, so a player will end up with 4-5 divisions of varying type and strength.  A simple campaign system has the first battle be at Tobruk with victory pushing the location one or two points towards a last stand in Tunisia or Cairo.  It would be easy to graft on a handicapping system like reduced supply, or increased enemy air superiority, as you get further from your home base to represent the famous pendulum of war.

The combat rules are very simple with units making 5+ attacks and the defender getting a 4+ to 6+ save depending on type and circumstances.  Ranges are short except for artillery and aircraft.  Hit units are scattered, not destroyed, if near their divisional HQ and each division may return one unit to the fight at the beginning of their turn.  

These simple but relatively elegant ideas seem to 'just work' and spawned a wave of imitations and variations.  An Italian version Alto Comando can be found here.  An English version called High Command is here.  The WW2 Divisional Wargame Rules from Pz8 are also a development with slightly expanded combat rules and can be found here.

In the above links there are variants for Eastern Front, Greece, Blitzkreig era France, the Pacific and the inevitable Normandy/1944-5 ETO.  

WW2 Operational Level Rules - Part I

After our recent 6mm tactical games, I have a hankering for something more operational level.  I'd like the idea of playing more of a battle and less of a skirmish.  That isn't easy in WW2 as the scale is huge, and arguably operations are better run as board games, but I've been checking out what is available on the tabletop.

The granddaddy of this genre seem to Chris Kemp's Not Quite Mechanised, which emerged from the Wargames Development organisation and their Conference of Wargamers; a wonderfully British and geeky institution.  

Chris has a blog of the same name here and seemingly another older one here.  I think the wordpress one is the current one but I found this old free version of the rules here.  It seems for a very long time NQM was ever changing but a printed version is now available and I have the rules on order from Lulu.

From an earlier version of NQM came Tom Gow's Megablitz as an actual published product.  The book is now long out of print, and the Yahoo group swept away with the others, but I managed to snag a used copy in lovely condition and there is Bob Cordery's old website here. 

Bob also gives his recollections of the development of NQM and Megablitz here and here.  Tim's blog has a lot of old posts and Steven Thomas has some clarifications for Megablitz here.  

Steven also has a wider and in depth look at the whole operational level of game rules here. 

Another development of the NQM/Megablitz stable is a free set by David Kershaw called Assault Gun.  They no longer seem to be under development or played much but are still available via the Board Game Geek file section here.  

The exact scale of all these games varies slightly, with multiple options from company to brigade stands in NQM, to battalions or infantry regiments in Megablitz and Assault Gun, but the general level is that you command whole Corps, Divisions and possibly army groups. Movement likewise varies from squares to hexes to freeform in NQM.  Megablitz and assault gun are freeform but here are some thoughts for Megablitz with squares.  Logistics are included to some extent but without a lot of book keeping.  i might want even more detail here but that might be tedious.  I'm interested to try this level out as something different from the wall to wall elites that usually predominate in WW2 tactical rules.  I'm keen to see how the German commanders cope with inadequate horses to move their heavy artillery, or having to keep their panzers supplied across the vast expanses of desert or steppe.  Games are typically based on historical or hypothetical scenarios.

An interesting aside is how most of them seem to have been played with larger scale miniatures than I would  have expected. 15 or 20mm look to be the norm.  I would have thought 6mm was the natural scale for operational battles but then I suppose we are probably back to the whole question of whether this could be done better as a board game.  

See Martin Rapier's 20mm Megablitz games here vs. Fister's micro armour here.  Both look great, so it's probably my perception/prejudice more than anything else.  

Visually, I like these multi-based 6mm units from Peter at GridBasedWargaming.  I think this might be the way to go but the larger bases mean you need a bigger playing area.  We probably have that but it's something to ponder.  

Next time, I'll pull together the links and thoughts on Kiss Rommel and that vein of operational rules. 

The Men Who Would Be Tsars

Here are a few pictures of some testing we did trying The Men Who Would Be Kings colonial rules by Dan Mersey for Russian Civil War / Back of Beyond games.

We played a couple of quick actions for a village somewhere in Estonian or Latvia.  My Reds are fighting against a fellow club mate's newly kitbashed Estonians.

The Estonians make a nice change for the Whites in their mix of German, Russian and British kit.  I think we could use them as Poles or Freikorps as well without too many complaints.

The first game saw the Reds burn a few houses but at a very heavy costs in men.  The bolos came back for revenge though in the second attack and kicked the Nationalists out liberating the ruins. 

I'm not sure really which photos were from which round, so the pics are just for show not a real after action report.

The TMWWBK rules worked pretty well.  The troop stats were pinched from one of the guys from the LAF Back of Beyond Forum.  Thanks Paul. 

The IGOUGO turn sequence plays faster than the more dyanmic card based systems we have used like Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles or Setting the East Ablaze. 

They provided a more predictable and attritional game with lots of shooting to wear down and drive off the opposing units.  This arguably provided less Hollywood and more History but that's debateable.

We have played some very large Colonial games using these rules and I think they would work well for similarly megalomanic games in the Back of Beyond where card based turn activation can grind a bit.

6mm Cold War

We played a Cold War game this week.  The Warsaw Pact, all Russians in this game, advance against a mixed force of NATO defenders (Belgians, Brits and West Germans).  

All of us were old enough to remember when this was ultra modern.  The miniatures are Heroics and Ros 6mm.  I think many are of a similar vintage to us and if I'm right they have held up remarkably well for their age.  Better than me anyway.

For rules we used A Fistful of Tows 3.  These rules are platoon based, so a vehicle model represents 3-4 real vehicles.  This allows a lot more of the the rear echelon kit to make it on to the table. 

We used cm for measurement but this made ranges and movement very small and maybe inches would be better,