These rules have been written by Forum member DanJ, who has kindly allowed us to put them up here for everyone!  

They follow a "top down approach" and are intended to produce an enjoyable game and have been very much a work in progress, although I'm pretty happy with the general mechanics.  Any feedback is always appreciated.

EDIT - Feb 2012:  Here is the latest version!

Rules: http://www.pendraken.co.uk/FileBin/FLANDERS FIELDS V1_2012.pdf

Play Sheets:

http://www.pendraken.co.uk/FileBin/Flanders Fields PLAY SHEET 1914 to Early 1915 V1_2012.pdf

http://www.pendraken.co.uk/FileBin/Flanders Fields PLAY SHEET Mid 1915 to Mid 1917 V1_2012.pdf

http://www.pendraken.co.uk/FileBin/Flanders Fields PLAY SHEET Mid 1917 to 1918 V1_2012.pdf



Earlier versions can still be found below:

Rules:  http://www.pendraken.co.uk/FileBin/FLANDERS FIELDS beta V4.pdf

Play Sheets: http://www.pendraken.co.uk/FileBin/PLAY SHEET 1914 to Early 1915 V4.pdf

http://www.pendraken.co.uk/FileBin/PLAY SHEET Early 1915 to Mid 1917 V4.pdf

http://www.pendraken.co.uk/FileBin/PLAY SHEET Mid 1917 to 1918 V4.pdf



1st Edition

Rules:  http://www.pendraken.co.uk/FileBin/FLANDERS FIELDS beta V1.pdf

Play Sheet 1:  http://www.pendraken.co.uk/FileBin/PLAY SHEET 1914 to Early 1915.pdf

Play Sheet 2:  http://www.pendraken.co.uk/FileBin/PLAY SHEET Early 1915 to Mid 1917.pdf

Play Sheet 3:  http://www.pendraken.co.uk/FileBin/PLAY SHEET Mid 1917 to 1918.pdf

Dan

These look excellent, I hope you get a lot of interest in them.

Not tried them yet, but I have had a good look and am very interested. Tried Great War Spearhead & Bloody Picnic, OK but these seem much more interesting and fun. Once I get some time and get the others on board we will be giving them a a run through

Good work DanJ

Hi Bertie,

Thanks for letting me know, I was starting to think no-one cared

Actually since I posted the V1 they have gone though quite a lot of editing and some changes and are now on Beta V3

The latest iteration keeps about 90% of the V1 set but I've changed the combat from D10 to D6 and simplified and expanded the close combat rules to include assaulting bunkers and fortified positions as well as rules for ground attack aircraft fnecessary for 1918 battles, especially the 100 days campaign.

I've a big game planned for tomorrow which should test the new stuff to destruction, hopefully no big issues will come up and I'll finish pulling it all together by the end of the week and get the new PDFs to Leon by the weekend.

Dan

Hi Dan, how did the play test go? When can we see the revised version?

A question on the rolling barrage, it is 10cm wide and moves forward 20cm per turn. This will leave large areas on the field untouched. Is this the correct interpritation, as you can see I am not the sharpest bayonet in the Company.

Bertie

Dan's just sent me the revise edition, so I'll get it uploaded this week for everyone.

Quoteas you can see I am not the sharpest bayonet in the Company

Don't worry my little Baldrick, I have a cunning Plan....

The question about the Rolling barrage is a very good one and shows how hard it is to make what you write be what you mean, especially when you've been playing and developing a set of rules for months  :

The rolling barrage is indeed 10cm wide and advances 20cm per turn but this is across the WHOLE of the table, edge to edge.  This way it will roll over every part of the table but at any one time only a relatively narrow portin of the table will be covered.

Imaging a curtain of shells slowly moving across nomans land with the infantry and tanks trying to keep.

There are a number of WW1 artillery fire plan maps available in the internet and the Western Front Association does a number of DVDs with almost all the British WW1 maps on them.

Try here for a taster

http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=artillery+map

Dan

Dan

These look very interesting. I like the 'down the table' approach to give depth to the battlefield. I have printed them for a closer look and will feed back my thoughts.

Sean

Sorry Dan, I understand eveything except the fact that if I move the 10cm deep grid forward by 20cm I will jump10cm of the table with the fire plan. I would undertand if the grid was 20cm wide.

Hi,

I've just checked the latest version I sent to Leon and the Rolling Barrage area query is pretty much covered on pages 21 and 22.  

Dan

Ah, sorry,  I see what you mean.

To repressent the rolling barrage we use strips of felt 10cm wide by 30cm long.  These are stretched across the table and flipped over twice at the begining of the attackers turn, rolling for effects on every unit rolled over, even if they are no longer under the barage at the end of the turn.

The strips allow us to "bend" the barrage when needed to conform to terrain.  20 x 30cm strips would work fine and would only need "flipping" once which is probably a better solution.  I think we use 10x30 strips because in one of the early versions of the rules the barrage advanced 10cm at the start of the attackers AND defenders turn, this was abandoned as being too complicated (as were many other sophisticated and interesting rules which ultimately were found to slow play down without giving much in return).

I also think my local market stall sells felt in 30x30cm squares so cutting a square into 3 strips was logical at the time.

I just haven't got round to buying and cutting up more felt strips but I may well change the rules to reflect the recomendation of using 20x30 templates.

Just had a eureka moment, rather than use felt templates you could use coloured ribbons to mark the edges of the barrage 

The wonders of technology!

I've just ammended the rules to make the Rolling barrage template 20cm wide and sent an updated PDF to Leon, hopefully he'll upload it instead of the one I sent yesterday.

Dan

New edition uploaded and available in the original post at the top of the page!

have downloaded them and will try and get the local club to try them out, they currently play square bashing so maybe be able to convert them.?

Just a note - mentioned em on the Deeside Defnders group, as our tame(ish) scotsman likes WWI, so the link is now on "freewargamesrules.co.uk"

IanS

 

Hi,

I recently spent a few days in Ypres and St Quentin without wife, dog or other distractions, just visiting sites and museums. 

While away I took the opportunity to give the rules a good going over and spotted several omissions and anomalies, mainly to do with changing the order and combat systems from a D10s to D6s.

I'm now editing them out, changing the font and layout to improve readabiity and adding a random events section to the apendixes, so the rules as currently available are still a work in progress.

Hopefully I'll be getting some critical feed back from this and other sources which I'll also feed into the rules.

Incidentally I'm grateful for any feedback no matter how critical, I don't mind someone saying the rules are aweful providing they have good reasons for their opinion, if it something I agree with I'll change the rules, if not I can explain why the rules take the form they have.

Dan

Dan, hello. Just joined the forum after downloading your ruleset. A few of use have been trying to find a good set and have playtested yours tonight. Overall we liked the way they played and will be continuing the game next week (so they cant be bad!). A few questions have arisen.
How do you determine what guns and their sizes are available for off table bombardments?
The early set had modifiers for Veterans when firing but these are omitted from V.4, is this correct?
I hope you are still working on them and others could give further feedback.
Keep it up.

Hi Trollslayer,

Glad you like the rules, I'd thought this thread had died so haven't been posting anything here, I have indeed been busy and things have progressed considerably since BetaV4 which is the version you probably have.

The rules have been through BetaV5, V6 and V6i, to arrive at a Production V1 set .

I've tried to simplify as much as possible, especially the command system to make it better reflect the development of tactics and training over the course of the war, 1914 games are quite a bit simpler than late 1918 ones.  They also include rules for things like SOS fire and air attacks.

If you drop me an email I'll send on a copy and if you and your club think they are better I'll ask Leon post the updated set here.

As far as your specific questions are concerned:

QuoteHow do you determine what guns and their sizes are available for off table bombardments?

We work on a simple rule of thumb of 1 field battery per Regiment/Brgade and 1 battery of heavies per side, the the deep supression rolls makes it harder for defending artillery to play an effective part in the battle.  Super heavy artillery can be attached if required but it can be devastating should should be used with circumspection.

QuoteThe early set had modifiers for Veterans when firing but these are omitted from V.4, is this correct?

Yes, after a lot of discussion we decided that this made veterans too powerful, in the new version of the rules verterans add +1 to their order die which means that if they roll a 6 this becomes a 7 which allows them to perform 2 actions, moving and shooting etc.  It feels better.

Dan

Dan

Glad to see its not dead. We think you have the basis of a good playable set of rules there. What happens to command stands when suppressed/killed? This happened due to a rolling barrage.
Your email is hidden on your profile, is it safe to post here??
Ian