My first foray into miniature gaming so many years ago was playing micro armor. It started using micro armor to play Panzer Blitz/Panzer Leader and gravitated from there. First into playing the various WWII rules that came and went over the years and then finally, trying my luck at writing my own rules. The latter gave me years of fun with a great group of gamers. Do to life changes, that group (and store) broke up and my micro armor went into cold storage, as I gravitated to other games.
Well, as you know if you have been following this blog, I got into gaming FOW with another group of guys and have been doing that ever since. Covid put a bit of a spanner into that game, so the last few years have been a bit light. Hopefully, that will reverse soon, as things seem to be getting back to normal.
With all the free time I have had, I have spent a little more time painting and organizing various minis and armies. While doing that, I of coarse came across my large WWII collection that had been put away for a decade. I have also been looking at different rules system to try with my collection of minis. One of those was a game that I could play that better represented brigade/division combat in WWII. I have picked up different systems and watched many a video and read many a review. However, I have not been a fan of what I have come across. They are either to mechanics heavy, too board game like or fiddly. With my time I decided I would take a shot at writing a rules system to cover the nitch.
I pulled out my old Donner and Blitzen rules to further use the research work I put into those rules. I also thought through some concepts that I thought would work for the scale, but still give a miniature game look and feel. I have since put the ideas to paper (well at least in note form) and had a chance to try some of the concepts with a buddy of mine.
The game mechanics are build around D6 dice (the D10s in the photos are being used as markers). This keeps the modifiers low and both players engaged with counter rolling. The maneuver element is the battalion, which is the bases of movement and combat. To allow for the variable frontage that these units could cover, the component units are build around the internal companies, with the platoons being used as building blocks to represent size, strength and combat abilities. I decided to go with company bases (two inch square) covering 200 meters of frontage. This still allows for a look and feel of miniature gaming, as the terrain can be representative and not just generic. I am using an order pip system to activate battalions (or groups of battalions), effect combat and to perform combat.
I set up a game with a reinforced Soviet Tank Brigade attacking a German Infantry Regiment with a Stug Abteiling in reserve. The idea was the we should be able to finish the game in a few hours. The table was set and the dice began to roll. We ended up playing for a few hours and got eight turns done. Technically, we did not quite finish the game, but the result was clear. In another turn, the Soviets would have cleared the road, as the defending Germans were on the verge of collapse (they just needed one more kick).
I was happy with most of the mechanics, but the initiative system was too fiddly and dragged things out a bit much for not much a benefit. I have already come up with a replacement to solve this for the next game. I also made a few tweaks to the charts and dumbed down that unit stats for better flow. With that, I am ready for the next game!
- Manteuffel