Looking for Rules Which Cover…

[madman]

Ivan

I just posted the following on Brian Handley’s thread “Introduction”. I have a couple of your products dealing with determining imaginations and conducting gaming campaigns and enjoy them greatly so I thought I would ask you the same questions about your games.

I would like to ask a few questions about your rules. Quite a few actually. First my background.

I have been gaming since the early ’70s as a young teen. I started collecting micro armour before I found some rules a couple of years later. The rule set I used back then was Tractics. I also had Angrief Attack and later wrg but the only one I played more than once was Tractics. I am just back into gaming after a 25 year interruption and after a lot of effort have located a few other gamers in my area interested in micro armour. Along with my waistline my interest in different periods and arenas of war has expanded and evolved some. I have been looking into quite a few rules sets including the board games Squad Leader/ASL and Conflict of Heroes using micro armour and enlarged maps. Nothing has caught me yet but there are so many sets out there now it is becoming a bewildering choice.

I would like to find a set of rules where one stand of infantry is a squad, fire team, weapons team or leader. A single vehicle figure is one vehicle or weapon. Crews are handled as separate from their weapons. The effects of leaders is tangible in some way. I would like to be able, with appropriate considerations, to be able to play one set of rules for the period from between the wars up to modern day and possibly into science fiction (if possible). The most important aspects to me are the effects and limitations of command and control on your forces. My ideal force size would be a platoon or two of infantry and a company of armour all with some supporting elements.

If this sounds like your rules let me know and if I can give you my list of more detailed questions, either by posting them here so others can compare how close they should be to their own tastes, or as a private message. Thank you.

Stephen

[Ivan Sorensen]

Cheers Stephen.

For the scale of “squad as base” (similar to squad leaders scale) is FiveCore Company Command

http://www.wargamevault.com/product/141387/FiveCore-Company-Command

It’s aimed at producing the same scale of game as Crossfire or many smaller Squad Leader scenarios, though a full battalion on the board gets rather busy.
The core mechanic includes a pretty efficient “fog” mechanic, where the actions available to you at any given time tends to be limited.
A popular mantra is that you can always do something, but you can almost never do everything you need to do.

Combat is what I call a “one roll system”: A single roll of a few D6 and you know everything you need to know at this scale: Is the enemy discomfited? Are they pulling back? Have they suffered damage they have to deal with? Are they combat ineffective?

We don’t really get into specific weapons systems except how they relate to each other. F.x. it doesn’t matter if your tank is out of action because it got tracked by 30mm cannon fire or brewed up by the ATGM, just that it’s out of action.
Basically, the goal is to step back and look at it as a company commander, not as a mass of squad leaders.

The rules cover WW2 through modern just fine. There is a scifi supplement but it does need some updating and spit-polish to really feel modern.

If that marketing blurb above sounds intriguing, hit me up with any specific questions and I’ll be happy to assist.

If you dig around Jack’s blog at http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2018-05-28T12:44:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=3&by-date=false
you can find approximately 8 million AAR’s using variations of FiveCore, though I think he’s been doing “What a Tanker” lately. His blog is well worth a read or three in any event.

[madman]

Ivan

 

Thank you for the courtesy of your reply.

To limit unit “availability” do you determine which units specific are available, or how many in total you can use? Personally I prefer a system like CoC where you see how functional your leaders are and they are the ones who activate units. There are lots of mechanics for accomplishing that. I have found the omnipotence of past rules does not have the feel I desire now.

So a single D6 roll gives results from no effect (for whatever reason) to target eliminated? Or are you describing the effect after a previous roll which results in a hit? I understand the former would be subject to a number of modifiers but frankly to me that seems very coarse.

Would one of your other rules sets give a feel for playing as a platoon level commander? Perhaps your change point for detail and mine are a little different.

Thank you.

Stephen

[Ivan Sorensen]

Cheers!
So three questions:

First, how do you limit which squads can act?

The default system is very simple: Half your squads can act each turn, the other half will hold position and reaction fire.

If you prefer more “fog of war”, there are two optional systems to do this, but the primary is that you take it in turns to roll 2D6, then pick two squads that have not acted yet:
A 1 lets one squad move and they remain “active” so they can act again this turn.
A 6 lets one squad fire and remain active.
Another other score lets the squad move AND fire but they are now inactive for the rest of the turn.

This is a bit abstract, but it lets us account for all manner of things that happen in books but rarely in games: Sometimes a squad leader sees an opportunity to do something out of the blue, sometimes you just can’t get anyone to leave their trench and the enemy takes the initiative.

Make sense? If not, let me know.

* * * *
One-roll combat:

When you fire, you have a number of Shock and Kill dice (usually white and red but any colors works). All D6’s.

The number of each depends on the type of unit firing and the situation (at times).

Lets say I have a normal rifle squad of regular guys: I’ll get 1 of each die.

I roll both of them and discard any result of a 2-5.
A 1 on the Shock die means the target will seek cover while a 6 means they panic.
A 1 on the kill die means the target now has casualties to contend with, while a 6 removes them from play.

Various situations can add or remove dice and a very similar system is used for vehicles (with a few tweaks).

So when I fire at you, I’ll know if your squad is keeping their heads down, if I sent them packing, if they are handling wounded or if they have been neutralized. What we don’t know is exactly what happened to a particular trooper: That’s not really the company commanders business.

There’s more to it of course, but that’s the system in a nut-shell. I hope that helps.

Yes, we do offer a platoon-level set called No End in Sight.
I’d be happy to discuss that but that must wait until tomorrow, when I can steal a bit of free time 🙂

[madman]

Thank you again. BTW that is the first three questions of two pages. Your description and answers, although not exactly matching my thoughts, are intriguing and show good enough ideas that I have bought the rules. Will be pouring over them tonight. Thank you.

Stephen

who is half way through his two week summer shut down.

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