Future War Commander II? Great War Commander?

Started by Zookie, 06 April 2021, 08:51:57 PM

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Zookie

Any plans for Future War Commander II? Will we ever see Great War Commander? I would love to see Great War Commander

It would be rather ambition but I think the Commander series is flexible enough to create an Ancient/Medieval/Fantasy and a Gunpower era (1500-1900) variants as well. I think you could argue that more focused rule sets might be better for each era but I think having a "Commander" ecosystem will be great for pick up games where if someone is familiar with one rule set it will help them jump into other eras.

Also too I like to collect armies from a lot of backgrounds and find it hard to remember rules well enough if I have not played them in a while and generic miniature war game rules I have tired always seem a bit bland.  But I could see the Commander series of 7 books covering it nicely: Fantasy/Steampunk, Sci-Fi/Pulp, Ancient to Medieval, Renaissance to 1900, Great War, WWII, Cold War/Modern.

It would be awfully ambitions but I think it could work.

     

Ithoriel

Warmaster and Warmaster Ancients, which the Commander series evolved from, already cover Fantasy and Ancients but I would love to see a Great War Commander version.
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Raider4

I believe that Black Powder is based on Warmaster, so that's 1700-1900 taken care of, and Martian Empires is also an evolution so early sci-fi/(sort of) steampunk.

fred.

Quote from: Raider4 on 07 April 2021, 08:24:25 AM
I believe that Black Powder is based on Warmaster, so that's 1700-1900 taken care of, and Martian Empires is also an evolution so early sci-fi/(sort of) steampunk.

Hail Caesar and Black Powder while certainly tracing a lineage to WM, have pretty significant changes - not least in the command roll mechanisms. And as such they play very differently.

While BKC has differences to WM it is much closer to many of the WM mechanisms.

So I'd not say that BP is the black powder equivalent of BKC. There is a gap there,  (there have been fan made mods to cover this era).
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Dave Fielder

Bloody Big Battles works on a command and control system that works well for early WW1. There is a scenario book for the 1912-13 Balkan Wars which provide rules for the same weaponry used in early WW1. Another option is Great War Spearhead, although I've not played these rules I do hear go things about them.
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Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

Gerat War Spearhead works well, and is well supported.
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Big Insect

    Quote from: Zookie on 06 April 2021, 08:51:57 PM
    Any plans for Future War Commander II? Will we ever see Great War Commander? I would love to see Great War Commander

    It would be rather ambition but I think the Commander series is flexible enough to create an Ancient/Medieval/Fantasy and a Gunpower era (1500-1900) variants as well. I think you could argue that more focused rule sets might be better for each era but I think having a "Commander" ecosystem will be great for pick up games where if someone is familiar with one rule set it will help them jump into other eras.

    Also too I like to collect armies from a lot of backgrounds and find it hard to remember rules well enough if I have not played them in a while and generic miniature war game rules I have tired always seem a bit bland.  But I could see the Commander series of 7 books covering it nicely: Fantasy/Steampunk, Sci-Fi/Pulp, Ancient to Medieval, Renaissance to 1900, Great War, WWII, Cold War/Modern.

    It would be awfully ambitions but I think it could work.


    I shouldn't talk out of turn - and 'da-boss' can always edit or correct my ramblings but the following is currently being worked on:


    • BKCIV - Korean War supplement - is next on the production line (but we have been slowed a bit by Covid and other things - but it is in hand).

    • CWCII - this is already well advanced - with new army lists and also a new digital on-line army calculator.

    • FWCII - next up on the stocks after that - this will include new army lists and upgraded and new mechanisms/weapons etc.
    • Others to follow are: a Fantasy variant (maybe called Fantasy Commander tbc) and then a Great War Commander (name tbc) - an Ancients & Medieval set would be a logical fall-out from the Fantasy set
    I'd also anticipate that there will be various other supplements - e.g. maybe a 'Modern' warfare supplement that sits post CWCII (which will have a Gulf War 1 end point)

    TBF I'm not too sure how a Horse & Musket set or Renaissance set might work out but we'll see. The 'new' Line Commander mechanism that was launched in the Spanish Civil War supplement makes the movement of massed bases - in a formation - much easier - so that might offer a way forward there.
    There is a draft (very much a draft) Feudal Japanese -Age of War - set of rules that I am tinkering with as well - once Korea and CWCII are out the way I will devote a concentrated burts of effort to finish this off as well.

    Ultimately, the successful sales of the new variants of BKCIV and CWCII and related supplements will drive the timescales of futures rules releases, as will having Pendraken ranges to support these. Also, I work on these very much on a part-time basis currently - as I am still 110% employed in my day-to-day work. However I will retire in May'23, so then my time frees up to contribute more actively to these projects.

    Hope that helps (a bit).

    Thanks
    Mark

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    Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

    One problem with sets post cold war is information - it's all classified. This means that we really don't know how things would have worked. Makes writing rules very difficult.
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    Big Insect

    Quote from: ianrs54 on 07 April 2021, 02:40:27 PM
    One problem with sets post cold war is information - it's all classified. This means that we really don't know how things would have worked. Makes writing rules very difficult.

    That works fine for me Ian - personally I would like to end CWC II at the collapse of the Warsaw Pact. It would most certainly make my life a lot easier.
    'He could have lived a risk-free, moneyed life, but he preferred to whittle away his fortune on warfare.' Xenophon, The Anabasis

    This communication has been written by a dyslexic person. If you have any trouble with the meaning of any of the sentences or words, please do not be afraid to ask for clarification. Remember that dyslexics are often high-level conceptualisers who provide "out of the box" thinking.

    Zookie

    Quote from: Big Insect on 07 April 2021, 01:42:00 PM

      I shouldn't talk out of turn - and 'da-boss' can always edit or correct my ramblings but the following is currently being worked on:


      • BKCIV - Korean War supplement - is next on the production line (but we have been slowed a bit by Covid and other things - but it is in hand).

      • CWCII - this is already well advanced - with new army lists and also a new digital on-line army calculator.

      • FWCII - next up on the stocks after that - this will include new army lists and upgraded and new mechanisms/weapons etc.
      • Others to follow are: a Fantasy variant (maybe called Fantasy Commander tbc) and then a Great War Commander (name tbc) - an Ancients & Medieval set would be a logical fall-out from the Fantasy set
      I'd also anticipate that there will be various other supplements - e.g. maybe a 'Modern' warfare supplement that sits post CWCII (which will have a Gulf War 1 end point)
    All of these sound great to me. One of the things that I think that CWCII really needs to have, but would also be a challenge to model correctly, is the shifting dominance of weapons post WWII, from HEAT rounds, to ATGM, to Sabot rounds as the technology shift's. To me that is the real challenge of a Cold War rule set is reflecting the changes in technology.

    As for FWCII things that I would put on a wish list would be a system that could reflect hard sci-fi and pulp sci-fi. Maybe a system of optional rules like BKCIV to make the game more, or less, based in reality. Second for FWCII I would like so see a way to build, or customize tactical doctrines. I understand that would make balance hard. Maybe again an optional rule set for players who don't mind playing a slightly unbalanced game. [/list]

    Dave Fielder

    If you stop CWC just after Waterloo then it becomes a much simpler system, and the uniforms are still cool. None of the hiding behind trees camo stuff.
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    Big Insect

    Quote from: Dave Fielder on 11 April 2021, 10:57:17 PM
    If you stop CWC just after Waterloo then it becomes a much simpler system, and the uniforms are still cool. None of the hiding behind trees camo stuff.

    I'll certainly bare that in mind Dave ....  :'( :'( :'(
    'He could have lived a risk-free, moneyed life, but he preferred to whittle away his fortune on warfare.' Xenophon, The Anabasis

    This communication has been written by a dyslexic person. If you have any trouble with the meaning of any of the sentences or words, please do not be afraid to ask for clarification. Remember that dyslexics are often high-level conceptualisers who provide "out of the box" thinking.

    Genom

    Quote from: Dave Fielder on 11 April 2021, 10:57:17 PM
    If you stop CWC just after Waterloo then it becomes a much simpler system, and the uniforms are still cool. None of the hiding behind trees camo stuff.

    It's not a decent camo paint scheme unless you've misplaced a unit on the tabletop.

    Dave Fielder

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    toxicpixie

    Quote from: ianrs54 on 07 April 2021, 02:40:27 PM
    One problem with sets post cold war is information - it's all classified. This means that we really don't know how things would have worked. Makes writing rules very difficult.

    Never stopped rules writers in the 70's, 80's and 90's :D
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