Stalingrad city fighting WW2 rules

Started by Zbigniew, 20 October 2019, 09:45:40 AM

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Zbigniew

20 October 2019, 09:45:40 AM Last Edit: 20 October 2019, 09:49:00 AM by Zbigniew
Hi,

I play mainly Blitzkrieg Commander ruleset but I am looking for a good ruleset for urban combat in Stalingrad.

I would like it to be 1:1 for vehicles. In case of infatry I'd like it to include snipers. Basic infantry unit best to be teams or squads. I plan to use 10mm miniatures.

Any recommendations?

Zbigniew

petercooman

Maybe chain of command? Have read those and they look good.

I use bolt action myself, but that is more of a "gaming group choice". I like it and gives a decent game, but nowhere near historically accurate.

Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

Chain of Command and Battlegroup. Two I wouldn't recommend are Rapid Fire and Bolt Action.

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steve_holmes_11

Chain of command if you want a platoon level "skirmish" with individual figures counted.
I've yet to see a truly urban battle using CoC, most feature fields with the occasional building.


Crossfire - back in print now - allows you to field a reinforced company (or two).
You'll be pushing squad sized elements around plus commanders for your companies and platoons and any forward observers you require.
I think the basing system would work well with 10mm.

Provides a really good infantry fight, and copes with upban envirionments well.
In fact the big scenario in the rules is a brawl over several blocks in Stalingrad.

The Crossfire armour rules come in for a bit of criticism, but I don't think their weaknesses would be a problem in an urban fight.

Zbigniew

Thank you all for recommendations. I will check them all and see which will suit my project best.

cheers,
Zbigniew

Steve J

CoC and Battlegroup didn't really grab me as games: both left a bit too much to chance IMHO. Bolt Action 2 looks a bit more 'fun' to me, but I've yet to play a game, so can't really compare. It does look easier to tweak compared to the other two though.

steve_holmes_11

Quote from: Zbigniew on 20 October 2019, 02:09:20 PM
Thank you all for recommendations. I will check them all and see which will suit my project best.

cheers,
Zbigniew

Cool, I'm happy to answer any questions about Crossfire.

Something to consider is whether your chosen rules will adapt well to urban combat (Fish and Chips* as the Brits say).
If, for example, the rules offer huge bonuses to troops in cover, then you're likely to end up with a static game where both sides blaze away from buildings across a square.
Where issues like smoke, mortar support and suppression are treated well, then you may find a fascinating game of infiltration and shock combat.

You can find reviews of all the suggested systems online.
Today we have a set of rules for almost every player's taste.


* Fighting in someone's house, causing havoc in people's streets.

Shedman


Ithoriel

Chain of Command is my go to WW2 small action set.

We've played a couple of urban combat games using 15mm figures on 28mm Necromunda/ Infinity/ etc terrain and it worked pretty well for us. The somewhat random nature of what you can do each turn and the ability of troops to pop up in unexpected places seemed to us to nicely model the rather chaotic nature of urban warfare.

It has snipers, squads of infantry and individual vehicles so meets your basic criteria.

Bolt Action may be fine as a game but it doesn't have much WW2 flavour, to me, I felt I might as well have been using my Space Marines as using my Russians.
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petercooman

The thing i dislike the most about bolt action is the ability to eliminate a whole mmg unit with a sniper. Our group always starts the low grumble when that happens  ;D

For the rest we are fine with it. We do look at it as a 'gamey' game. We don't expect more than a fun game with lots of banter.

fred.

20 October 2019, 06:16:51 PM #10 Last Edit: 20 October 2019, 06:18:44 PM by fred.
Quote from: Ithoriel on 20 October 2019, 05:39:46 PM
.Bolt Action may be fine as a game but it doesn't have much WW2 flavour, to me, I felt I might as well have been using my Space Marines as using my Russians.

One of our gaming group made a very similar comment after a recent Bolt action game.

I do like Chain of Command for infantry actions - we never really progressed to the tank vs tank rules. We played with 10mm figures, tend to use 2 figures to a base, rather than individually based figures, just to make things a little less fiddly.
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Steve J

Some excellent games made about both CoC & Bolt Action 2. I think with any of these games, uber lists can spoil things, so a bit of common sense should give a good game with both sets of rules. Scenarios make a huge difference, with some working better than others. I've never played a very urban game, as all the CoC games I've seen have been played on very rural tables with a few buildings.

MartinKnight1333

I find doing my own rules for a specific battle works far better than a purchased set as I get more realism for that specific action.

Steve J

I've just remembered that Wargames Illustrated has a piece on their Prime platform thingy about a Stalingrad game using CoC.

Norm

Quote from: petercooman on 20 October 2019, 06:10:38 PM
The thing i dislike the most about bolt action is the ability to eliminate a whole mmg unit with a sniper. Our group always starts the low grumble when that happens  ;D

I suppose when a tight knit team of three lose one to a sniper, the impact is huge and other two are less likely to want to put their heads up.