BMC Miniatures: ZULU WWII - A New Way to Wargame

Zulu WWII Wargame. Been helping playtest these fantastic rules.

Introduction

Zulu WW2 is a miniature wargame designed for you to recreate Battlegroup level battles of the Second World War. Inspired by the dramatic mobile warfare during the period, Best of Breed was designed to replicate these confused and frantic mobile engagements, whether on the frozen Kalmyk steppe outside Stalingrad, the desert wastelands around Sidi Rezegh or on the rolling French plains of Arracourt.

We believe that the core challenges faced by commanders in mobile warfare, in any period of history, is dealing with high levels of uncertainty, yet being required to be decisive and violent in execution. It requires confidence in action despite the lack of information available to you. Hard decisions must be made, with either glory or catastrophe facing each one. Some of the best practitioners of mobile warfare, Patton, Rommel, Roberts, and Rybalko were able to deal with this high-risk tolerance, a unique trait, rare amongst commanders – can you meet the challenge.

Therefore, we have designed WW2 to restrict as much battlefield information as possible available to both you and your opponent. Yet at the same time demand from the player to play with aggression, speed, and cunning. Much like a game of poker, the player must either be forced to put their chips on the table or fold their hand in the face of uncertainty and doubt.

In WW2, you are the commander of a task force built from a selection of many real-life formations that fought battles across Europe during the Second World War. You will assemble your companies for action and lay down plans for engagement on the battlefield. Do you want to leave reserves and discover your opponent’s main course of action, or will you gamble on a high-tempo manoeuvre with the mainstay of your forces to enforce your will over the enemy early on?

What will your opponent do? Has he left his right flank thin with weak infantry forces? Or is it a trap goading you to put your main forces into a kill zone? Maybe he has hidden forces moving at high speed on the left flank, which could be comprised only of recon vehicles, or perhaps it could be their main armoured column? Only by establishing contact with your own forces will you find out. It's these challenges and choices that make WW2 a new way to wargame.

The choice is all yours. We have restricted the amount of ‘luck’ when determining your plan and manoeuvring the troops you want. The game is not going to make you play any other way, besides what you are as a commander and the capabilities of your troops.

Consequently, a key understanding of combined arms and the role each unit plays on the battlefield is key. We have built unit and weapon profiles to combine not only their historical combat traits but their behaviour on the battlefield, in battlefield awareness and Mobility. You may have seized the initiative with aggressive manoeuvre with your main armoured thrust but being forced to leave your foot-slogging infantry behind, your tank crews have run themselves into enemy hidden anti-tank guns, which they couldn’t spot, and you didn’t predict until it’s too late.

You won’t have success because your opponent failed a dice roll to activate a certain key unit, but rather because you chose the right time, with the right troops, to risk it all. Or perhaps your opponent chose their worst time, with a force poor for the job.