Had a solo playtest game today with these rather nice rules using my 15mm kit (worked fine with the standard 20mm ranges in book). Played the basic/intro scenario with amended terrain which pits a German Panzer Grenadier Platoon supported by a Panther, a PzIVH and a Pak40 against a British Platoon supported by 2 Cromwells, a Firefly and an Achilles. Germans also get a single 81mm Mortar. Quite a nice game to be honest and I quite like the actions and activation system (your basic command level plus 1D6 to generate number of units that can activate). Combat is straight forward enough and I like the chit draw system for morale (each force has a morale level and chits are drawn for various reasons with numbers 1-4 thereon and once level exceeded force beaten but couple of other chits can appear such as Mechanical Failure, Aircraft, Heroic Actions). Lots of dice rolling as one has to spot for every shot (even if previously spotted) but works overall. Suppressive fire nicely implemented and since removal of suppression requires drawing a Morale chit (each allows 1D6 of suppression removal) it can be a bind as it should be to get troops moving again. Some strange stuff to get used to such as there being no hidden units (all subsumed into spotting/cover rules/rolls). Couple of rather vague concepts as well (none to clear on firing at multiple/adjacent targets as such). Tanks and guns fire and act as individuals whilst Infantry act as MG/AT teams or squads of 5-10 figures. The book itself is very impressive (and weighs a ton) with lots of information some decent OOBs and points lists and a very nice inclusion of multiple scenarios, fictional and historical with a terrain generating system for 'pick -up' type games. As title suggests covers Normandy only (no bad thing) with German, British and US forces covered. I would put it as about same complexity as Rapid Fire but set a lower tactical level and with a bit more 'flavour' but without the endless chrome and very odd scaling of Flames Of War (a set I just cant take to).
Might not become my WWII game of choice (bit too generic) but the scenarios are almost worth the cover price (especially if like me one obtained it at 1/2 price) and some minor house rules would sort the minor quibbles I had with system.
Must give IABSM2 a go next...........................
The battlefield Germans on left
A quality book to be sure
The QRS sheet
British armour suffering
The main culprit the Panther
His running mate (soon to brew up)
Picked of by 'Mable' the Firefly
Infantry contest a house
Germans advance
I've got the book and I've been itching to give it a go at some point. Like you said beautiful looking book.
ReplyDeleteI also want to try IABSM, but again not much time and it also doesn't help when I'm the only one with the rules for both sets.
Thanks for the report and nice opinion write up!
Christopher
Nice write up, it's hard to take any rules from GW seariously but a friend (and the author) gave me a copy of their rules some time ago and whilst I have not tried them yet they look far better than I would have imagined and well worth trying.
ReplyDeleteThe game looked really interesting as well.
Ian
These are supposed to be a cracking set of rules. Some great pics too!!!
ReplyDeleteYou can D/L the QRS at the Warhammer Historical site which gives at least some idea of the game.
ReplyDelete