Monday 21 June 2021

Golgotha's Wargame Rules - WW II Rules

Herewith, some rules I will be using for WW II - having considered a number of rules sets I am now set on using the following four sets, namely: 


FUBAR Wargame Rules 

FUBAR, had some really good games with both my sons especially the younger one who was seven at the time of writing this - See: https://fubarwargames.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/fubar-core-rules-4th-edition.pdf 

and https://fubarwargames.wordpress.com/downloads/ 

I have reworked the vehicle damage table. Thinking using a D10, with D6 for additional detail, taking into consideration which parts of the vehicle are potentially covered by terrain: 

1 - Track - D6 1-3 Left, 4-6 Right. 

2 - Wheel/s - D6 1-3 Left, 4-6 Right. 

3 - Driver hit - D6 1-3 can be replaced by another crew member, example co driver depending on tank, 4-6 vehicle immobilised. 

4 - Weapon destroyed - D6 1-3 secondary weapon example machine gun, 4-6 main gun. 

5 - Crew stunned - D6 1-3 1 turn no actions, 4-6 2 turns no actions. 

6 - Crew demoralised - green crew will leave tank. Other quality crews the tank will retreat to nearest cover, tanks reverse at half speed. Tanks already in good cover unable to easily move to better cover will stay put, in which case standard pinned rules apply.  

7 - Crew killed - tank still operational d6 for a 5 crew tank 1 driver, 2 gunner, 3 driver 4 co-driver 5-6 commander. For a 4 crew tank 1 driver, 2 gunner, 3 driver 4-6 commander. For a 3 crew tank 1-2 driver, 3-4 gunner, 5-6 commander. 
+1 to activate if commander lost. 

8 - Engine - D6 1-3 engine damaged half all movement, 4-6 vehicle immobilised, if 4-6 roll again on 4-6 tank on fire crew bail out. 

9 - Vehicle destroyed - D6 1-3 crew have a chance to survive roll 1-2 for each crew member to survive, 4-6 crew killed tank on fire. 

10 - Vehicle destroyed - see where turret lands or shrapnel from body. 

Tanks divided into 3 broad categories, namely: 

  • Light 
  • Medium 
  • Heavy 

A heavy versus a Medium will get +1 to the D10 in the above to every successful hit, similarly so will a medium against a light. 

Tanks do not become pinned like infantry but instead can avoid 1 hit by retreating, see however point 6 above. 

I have also used FUBAR for Star Wars see for example: https://fubarwargames.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/fubar-star-wars-1-05.pdf 


Crossfire Wargame Rules 

See for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO81x71xaqk&list=PLzzh7AuEBkEkKTwLQQOK0GLcuaEd2uyah&ab_channel=LindybeigeLindybeigeVerified 

This chap has a rather interesting channel and has also appeared on Little Wars TV see: https://www.youtube.com/c/lindybeige/playlists and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGPWsw8dT3I&ab_channel=LittleWarsTVLittleWarsTV 

Excellent review available here: https://crossfire.wargaming.info/review.htm 

Be warned Crossfire works best with loads of terrain. This means it may work well for Pacific Jungle type games and also Vietnam see: Incoming a mod for Crossfire Vietnam https://balagan.info/wp-content/downloads/Incoming%20-%20Vietnam%20Rules%20for%20Crossfire.pdf 

and https://balagan.info/incoming-vietnam-rules-for-the-crossfire-system-by-barrie-lovell 


Battlegroup Wargame Rules 

For a good quick review of the Battlegroup rules, see: https://ianlclark.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/battlegroup-a-rules-review/ 

This chap also provides a convincing argument as to why one should consider these rules, see: http://rubbsalotsmancave.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-top-ten-reasons-why-i-play.html 

For a balanced review giving various pros and cons see: https://geekken.wordpress.com/2015/03/04/review-battlegroup-ruleset/ 


Rapid Fire Wargame Rules 

Rapid Fire wargames rules are the longest established set of WW II fast play rules for games using models and miniatures. See: https://www.rapid-fire-uk.com/ 

This review is useful and makes some interesting comparisons to other rule sets, see: http://diningtablenapoleon.com/an-outing-with-rapid-fire-rules/

Sunday 14 February 2021

Golgotha's Wild West - American Indian Wars - Pony Wars - 10mm

Herewith, the start of another new project namely 10mm Indian Wars, often referred to in wargaming as Pony Wars. Those conflicts taking place in the Great Plains - most of which would be spanning period roughly 1850 to 1890. The hope is to game in particular the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 and of course the Battle of the Little Bighorn, commonly remembered as Custer's Last Stand. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Wars#Great_Plains and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Little_Bighorn

Manufacturers I will be using will include:

Pendrakenhttps://pendraken.co.uk/19th-century/americas/plains-war/

Irregular Miniatureshttps://irregularminiatures.co.uk/ - as yet I am unsure what these are likely but I do have Irregular Miniatures 10mm English Civil War miniatures and they are fine next to Pendraken.

Lancashire Games -  http://lancashiregames.com/lg/pony-wars.html

 

Rules wise there are a few options see for instance;

The Battle of Little Big Horn, Salute 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkOc7D8aCM8&ab_channel=WargamesIllustrated

The full rules being available here https://shop.collectioncalculator.com/product/the-battle-of-the-little-bighorn/

These rules a from a company which provides insurance for wargame collections, see: https://collectioncalculator.com/

Warhammer Historical Legends of the Old West provides the usual eye candy but useful too for reference and scenario ideas.

Yellow Ribbon RAFM wargame rules, see: http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=483182 and http://www.rafm.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=RAF&Product_Code=RAF00020&Category_Code=RHG



Also Ian Beck's cult classic Pony Wars - have the original rules as a pdf but would like the reproduction see: https://ponywars.uk/


Very useful info here: https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=135351.15

 From Boots & Saddles at the Little Bighorn by James S. Hutchins:

"A" Company--coal black horses

"E" Company--gray horses

"B," "D," "F," "I," and "L" Companies--bays

"H" Company--blood bays

"G" and "K" Companies--sorrels

"C" Company--light sorrels

"M" Company got the left overs, so they were a mix

Trumpeters rode grays; officers usually rode the same color horses as their company

Custer rode a horse called "Vic," a sorrel with four white feet and a blaze on the face.

Captain Miles Keogh rode "Commanche," described as a light bay or buckskin. Keogh commanded Company "I" a bay company.


Wednesday 13 January 2021

Golgotha's English Civil War Rules - Victory Without Quarter by Clarence Harrison and Quindia Studios

Herewith, a suggested set of quick play rules for English Civil War, ECW, which I think are good for people thinking about getting into the period.

I have had a number of good games using these rules and enjoy the possibility of events as well as the card driven initiative system. Indeed, these had been the first ECW rules I had played and my first games were without miniatures simply using cardboard counters. Since then I now play with 10mm ECW miniatures and this works with some simple adjustment to ranges and movement. 

 I think the author Clarence Harrison achieved what he set out to do with these rules. The forward reads as follows:

"Forward Having been through nearly every set of commercial rules for the period I could find, I decided to take a stab at writing my own. It's not that I found anything wrong with the rules available, but they didn't fit exactly what I was looking for. I wanted a card based system with simple mechanics that would allow me to play battles with eight to twelve units per side in an evening. I also wanted to be able to field my units on multi-figure stands and have a way to keep track of battlefield losses without resorting to rosters or figure removal. 

What follows are the results of my efforts. There is nothing revolutionary about these rules - they have been inspired by many contemporary rule sets on the market, as well as traditional authors like Featherstone and Grant. These rules are not designed for competition play and not every situation that could arise is covered. If questions come up use common sense to work them out or, failing that, choose two likely results (usually your interpretation and that of your opponent) and roll a die to decide the outcome. 

These rules have not benefitted from exhaustive play testing, but the games I've run so far have worked well and seem to capture the feel of the period. Feedback would be welcome! Nothing is set in stone at this point. The rules are designed for 28mm figures although they should be easy enough to adapt to 15mm by halving the base sizes and replacing all references to "inches" with "centimeters". The title for the rules was the field word for William Waller's army at the Battle of Cropredy Bridge."

What I particularly liked was the layout and images and that the rules are only 13 pages long as I find many rules sets are far too long with too much fluff. 

These rules are free to download and available here:  

https://gcooksonblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/victory-without-quarter-rules.pdf

and 

http://quindiastudios.blogspot.com/search?q=victory+without+quarter