Zulu WWII An overview
Zulu Games is a generic gaming platform to replicated mechanised warfare in a tabletop game (typically 6X4). The Zulu gaming engine will support multiple eras of mechanised warfare and due to the unique fog of war and visibility mechanisms, warfare that has been traditionally been very hard to replicate on a tabletop such as guerrilla warfare can be supported.
The planned implementation is: WW2 first release (Autumn 2023 ) …Cold War next…then Vietnam…so an exciting range of games ahead. The current design centre is 10 – 15mm, 1 stand = 1 platoon , so a game is roughly battalion in scale. We wanted players to use existing stocks of 15mm WW2 miniatures. Games can be smaller and much larger depends on how long you want to play for!
We are introducing two ways to play scenario and competitive, with an dramatic narrative play in both. We are hoping that this best replicates the shock violence and surprise of modern mechanised warfare but importantly makes tabletop game exciting, hopefully attracting new players from other genres.
First out is Zulu WW2 is designed for you to recreate battles of the Second World War. Inspired by the dramatic mobile warfare during the period, Zulu WW2 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 Zulu 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 card game of poker, the player must either be forced put their chips on the table or fold their hand in the face of uncertainty and doubt.
In Zulu 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 establishing a contact with your own forces will you find out. Its these challenges and choices that make Zulu 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……play to find out!
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