Pendraken Miniatures Forum

Quick straw poll as to which of the popular WW2 rulesets people play?

I'm currently into Battlegroup, but still enjoy BKC for shorter/smaller games. I have fond memories of RF and nightmares over FOW. What about you?

Chain of Command for Platoon level games, with BKCII for Battalion and up (or Company if playing at a smaller level). FoW just never did it for me, even as a game.

BKCII here!

Just love the way it plays out, the command rolls make it double exciting as you never know if the plan will work!


I will also play USE ME ww2, but still have to get the models finished!

I Ain't Been Shot Mum for Company-level and Chain of Command for platoon-level (but not in 10mm).

Greetings

Chain of Command (20mm)
IABSM (mainly 15mm but the desert 10mm may well get used for this and I have used 20mm)
BKC II for 10mm
(I've not played anything this year but these are all on the list for the next few months)

Others likely to be played at least once this year are Battlefront WW2 in 15mm and one of the Battlegroup games (probably Kursk) in 15mm or 20mm.

I used to play RF a long time ago and got a cheapish copy of the 2nd edition rules recently out of interest.  Have the rules (1st ed) for FOW but never played them.

Regards

Edward

Flames of War.

*waits for fur to fly*

Oh Lemmey! No! Say it isn't so!

Hi

BKC all the way

It has it`s faults but we always get a laugh playing it.

Especially when my pal Dave blunders two turns in a row with the same command.

A clean dry pair of trousers were needed  ;D.

Jim

BKCII but the òore I play it, the more I find it slow paced.

In fact, it reads far better than it plays.

Quote from: barbarian on 20 January 2014, 06:26:01 PM
BKCII but the òore I play it, the more I find it slow paced.

I'm surprised because we've found it fairly quick to play.

We're playing with forces of roughly a battalion of tanks and a couple of battalions of infantry plus support and finishing easily in an evening. I wonder, are we a) fighting smaller battles b) failing so many commands the game ends faster c) not thinking enough about what we're doing d) playing some (or all!!) of the rules wrongly?

Or do you consider a force that size taking an evening per game to be slow?

We play with one stand representing a platoon.

We've learned the rules by reading and playing as a group of four and I'm always wary of "group think" resulting in a game very different from the one the designer envisaged.

Only House Rule we play that I can think of is that we remove one point of damage per turn for "normal" troops. Conscript types remove none while fanatics and elites remove 2.

BKC II for bigger games

FOW for smaller games

of the 2 BKC II is much better for a bit of solo play

We play the original rules (with hit removal) : That should be it.

Plus : Russians in Mid-eastern front doesn't do much except fire by reaction, as their command is so low.

Plus lines of sight across various types of terrain driv me nuts.

Quote from: barbarian on 20 January 2014, 08:20:48 PM
Plus : Russians in Mid-eastern front doesn't do much except fire by reaction, as their command is so low.

Both of our Russian players played with Orc armies in Warmaster so I guess they're used to it!

Can't say they're too static in our games though - lots of HQs and everyone doing the same thing clearly helps.

Chain of Command for platoon level
IABSM for company level
BKC II for bigger level actions

All in 10mm. I like them all and always have fun! :D

Spearhead in 6mm

To quote one of my semi-regular opponents, " I don't get out of bed for less than a brigade"  ;D

Great for really big games, multi-player, multi-divisions on 6x24 foot table  :) :)

No surprises that it's BKCII for me  :D

BKC seems to be popular  :D

I finally got a copy of BKC2 last week, cost me 2 yorkie bars ,but fancy giving Fistful of Tow's 3 a go at some point

Quote from: mad lemmey on 20 January 2014, 05:37:51 PM
Flames of War.

*waits for fur to fly*

You didn't vote, youd didn't dare did you  :P :P

I didn't even see it was a poll until now. HAve voted.  ;)

Blitzkreig Commander.

Need 2 votes on this - BKC preferred, but play more FOW.

IanS

I also play mainly FOW for company-level games, although we have hacked it about a bit. For 1/300th divisional level games we use my own Panzerschlacht rules.

Hail Casear? P :-\

IABSM

W

IABSM 6mm

IABSM, PBI 15mm

GQIII 1/3000

BTH2 1/600

Not convinced the poll list actually reflects the most popular/common rulesets by a long way and no-one restricted it to land games!  :D

BTH2?

Bag the Hun, possibly a TFL game?

Naval Thunder

Giving Battlegroup Panzergrenadier a go at the moment

Quote from: Fenton on 21 January 2014, 07:59:18 PM
BTH2?

Bag the Hun 2 - TFL WWII air combat

BKC-II ticks all the boxes presently, but as I only had one vote went for my second most played, Rapid Fire 2. Happy to play both as much as possible.

Quote from: NTM on 21 January 2014, 09:36:23 PM
Giving Battlegroup Panzergrenadier a go at the moment

Yeah, tried them a while ago. A well-sorted set (as you would expect from Dave Brown) but slightly "fiddly", I thought.  :-\

Quote from: Zippee on 21 January 2014, 07:57:59 PM
Not convinced the poll list actually reflects the most popular/common rulesets by a long way and no-one restricted it to land games!  :D

Probably true, but I was looking to determine which non-skirmish rules were most popular which kind of rules naval and air out really.

I'm really surprised Battlegroup isn't getting more attention. It really is a good ruleset which is only let down (for me anyway) by not really being a pick up and play game. You have to invest quite a bit of time pre-game to force composition and during the game recording ammo use. That said the army lists are outstanding. No Battalions of big cats, not every German force is Panzergrenadier or SS which is a refreshing change and no silly nationality flavour rules.

Nosher,

I'd love to play the Battlegroup series of rules, but I can't afford them!  That is to say, everytime I think of spending that money on a set of rules I end up sending the money to Leon instead  ;D ;D ;D

V/R,
Jack

Quote from: bigjackmac on 29 January 2014, 06:15:14 PM
Nosher,

I'd love to play the Battlegroup series of rules, but I can't afford them!  That is to say, everytime I think of spending that money on a set of rules I end up sending the money to Leon instead  ;D ;D ;D

V/R,
Jack

Wise choice  ;D ;D

Quote from: bigjackmac on 29 January 2014, 06:15:14 PM
That is to say, everytime I think of spending that money on a set of rules I end up sending the money to Leon instead  ;D ;D ;D

:-bd

Something the guys at the club have dubbed "PanzerSpearKriegBlitzMaster" The illegitimate off spring of at least four comercial sets of rules.

I think they're a bit slow but don't play them enough to really understand them, but they do allow us to play divisional level games in 10mm which look awesome.

Quote from: DanJ on 30 January 2014, 05:05:29 PM
"PanzerSpearKriegBlitzMaster"

No FOW influence????

Seems plausible :-\

Quote from: DanJ on 30 January 2014, 05:05:29 PM
Something the guys at the club have dubbed "PanzerSpearKriegBlitzMaster" The illegitimate off spring of at least four comercial sets of rules.

I think they're a bit slow but don't play them enough to really understand them, but they do allow us to play divisional level games in 10mm which look awesome.

Dan,
Are those the same one Robin used to use all those years ago?  Stettin bridge etc?

Quote from: mad lemmey on 30 January 2014, 07:47:03 PM
Dan,
Are those the same one Robin used to use all those years ago?  Stettin bridge etc?

Until Batman stood on the bridge...

QuoteAre those the same one Robin used to use all those years ago?  Stettin bridge etc?

No, completely different, these have a higher level of abstraction especially at the Command and Control level and are intended for big games in 10mm we've played big chunks of Kirsk.  This puts most of the fighting on average units but allows specialists to have local influence.

QuoteNo FOW influence?

I don't think so, they're slow but not that slow :D

Dan,

Are there any pics of these divisional level 10mm games?  I'm salivating just thinking about it.  For that matter, the rules too!  I'd love to see the mechanism(s) to move a division-level game at a quick clip.  Thanks in advance!

V/R,
Jack

I'll ask arround about the pictures but I'm not sure there are many, the Kursk game was played on two 16x8 table, one for each German division and they weren't very photogenic.

I'm not sure the rules are actually written down in much more than quick play sheet format to govern turn sequence ranges etc.

But I'll see what I can get hold of.

No sweat, I appreciate it Dan.  For what it's worth, neither I nor my stuff is telegenic either, and all my rules exist as a scattering of loose-leaf papers,* so I know what you mean.

*Even when using 'standard' rules such as BKC, Crossfire, Chain of Command, etc..., I always make my own quick reference sheet(s), which all end up getting mixed up in the heat of battle (dice rolling).

V/R,
Jack