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.
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.
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.
Quote from: Raider4 on 07 April 2021, 07:24:25 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).
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.
Gerat War Spearhead works well, and is well supported.
Quote from: Zookie on 06 April 2021, 07:51:57 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
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.
Quote from: ianrs54 on 07 April 2021, 01:40:27 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.
Quote from: Big Insect on 07 April 2021, 12:42:00 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]
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.
Quote from: Dave Fielder on 11 April 2021, 09:57:17 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 .... :'( :'( :'(
Quote from: Dave Fielder on 11 April 2021, 09:57:17 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.
And that is why scarlet is best ;)
Quote from: ianrs54 on 07 April 2021, 01:40:27 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
Quote from: toxicpixie on 25 April 2021, 06:02:16 PM
Never stopped rules writers in the 70's, 80's and 90's :D
Well Mr Rae-Taylor did have as source...... ;) Things I picked up whilst assisting are in Leopard, often by accident.
Quote from: ianrs54 on 26 April 2021, 05:38:49 AM
Well Mr Rae-Taylor did have as source...... ;) Things I picked up whilst assisting are in Leopard, often by accident.
Was Leopard the rules where it was possible to roll up a refugee column as a terrain feature?
Well we did have sources. Squadies will talk.
Could have done with a few more leaking accurately from all sides, for most :D
Quote from: flamingpig0 on 26 April 2021, 11:31:01 PM
Was Leopard the rules where it was possible to roll up a refugee column as a terrain feature?
No - you got me on that one...Leo was written by the late Steve Williams and corrected by me, got a copy around here somewhere.