Rules for Tannenberg-sized battles?

[James Walton]

I’m looking for a set of rules that could allow battles the size of Tannenberg or the first battle of the Marne to be gamed. I have Great War Spearhead II, but I’m always on the lookout for a new ruleset.

[MartinR]

At that level, things can be pretty abstract. For games above GWSH level, I generally use OP14 (formations are Corps, manouvre elements brigades) but I’d still hesitate to do the whole of Tannenberg. You probably need to go up another level so Armies are formations and the elements divisions, at which point you may as well just use the very good Tannenberg campaign game included with the Command Decision WW1 Eastern Front scenarios book. You can resolve the engagements on the tabletop or by using the campaign combat resolution system. To the Last Gaiter Button has a similar approach to the Franco Prussian War. In both cases you can model the campaign elements as toys on a map, rather than counters, something I find visually satisfying.

OP14 was published the Wargames Developments Journal, sorry, I can’t recall which issue number.

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

[vtsaogames]

OP14 was in issue 226. It would be nice if an updated version of these rules were posted somewhere. I’d pay for an updated PDF that included the rules and the scenarios posted in later issues.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood

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