As a new member I am looking at getting into WWII in 10mm with about 100 to 150 figures a side plus AFVs.  I am not overly worried if this is 1:1 or higher up the scale, but I am looking for rules which give a fairly historical but fun game which can be played on a club evening.  Are there any official suggestions or just reccomendations?  Thanks.

Hi

You could try Battlefront WW2 these are fun and there are lots of free senarios on the forum

Martin

BKC

Quote from: Nosher on 11 November 2012, 08:44:37 PM
BKC

I agree !
( I also use Force on Force for skirmish, and I'm giving a try to Flying Lead.)

I aint Been Shot Mum by the TooFatLardies

BKC II

it was basically written with 10mm in mind but can be used with any scale. I usually run it out with 100+ infantry, transports for them all and maybe 12-15 tanks and get a reasonable result in a couple of hours on a club night.

fun? Yeah its fun, its even funner if you can roll dice well, once had the situation where my mate Dave actually said out loud "I dont have to worry about those tanks, theyre miles away." Cue me, rolling double 1, double 1, then a 3, which translated into move-move-move-move-shoot.

Just be aware that its not your ordinary/boring IgoUgo kind of a game, you can get things like described above happening and you can get things like your Elite SS Tiger company sitting on their hands for turn after turn.

Dare I suggest that Flames of War actually meets all the criteria provided a) you don't want to qualify for Camberly Staff College, and b) you don't have a pathological hatred of Battlefront (or any other profit-making organisation).

I'd recommend BKC.

Quote from: Hertsblue on 12 November 2012, 09:05:46 AM
Dare I suggest that Flames of War actually meets all the criteria provided a) you don't want to qualify for Camberly Staff College, and b) you don't have a pathological hatred of Battlefront (or any other profit-making organisation).

No good mate, he's looking 'for rules which give a fairly historical'.  FoW certainly isn't that.

The premiere rules are Blitzkrieg Commander (BkC) as many have said.  Personally i'm not too keen on them, but they're certainly popular and do the job well enough (they work far better as a fantasy/sci-fi set in my opinion).

I'd suggest Spearhead as the best ruleset to go for, but they're difficult to get hold of, hard to read (following the Avalon Hill 1970's layout style), and can be a bit impenetrable for the new player.  However, they're the closest i've come to a playable historically accurate WWII set at tactical scale. 

One of the most interesting things about Spearhead is your forces are mostly locked in to following their pre-battle orders which forces you to plan and follow through on those plans unless you want your commanders fantically running around the battlefield trying to get their formations to do something else.  Models the command friction very well...

However...yeah...BkC to start.  
Can you still get copies of BkC though?

Quote from: Luddite on 12 November 2012, 10:32:33 AM(...)
I'd suggest Spearhead as the best ruleset to go for, but they're difficult to get hold of, hard to read (following the Avalon Hill 1970's layout style), and can be a bit impenetrable for the new player.  However, they're the closest i've come to a playable historically accurate WWII set at tactical scale. 

One of the most interesting things about Spearhead is your forces are mostly locked in to following their pre-battle orders which forces you to plan and follow through on those plans unless you want your commanders fantically running around the battlefield trying to get their formations to do something else.  Models the command friction very well...
(...)

I used to play Spearhead, and liked it a lot..
.. but you should play historical scenarios, or with "fair" opponents. the game is too "german advantageous" ( specially in the OB. That was my main disappointment . BKC is using a costs points system, that may even help while creating a historical scenario.)

BKC II

My two go to's are BKC2 if I want to throw a few battalions on the table, especially if you want lots of tanks and other AFVs- each infantry stand equals a platoon of men, each tank supposedly equals a squad/platoon but for some reason I can never see that in my head and think of them as individual tanks. Either way the game works great.

The other is I Aint Been Shot Mum 3 if you want to play with around a compnay of infantry supported by a platoon of tanks etc. You play this where 1 model equals 1 man, but multi basing works fine if you dont mind tracking kills with a dice.

Beauty of it is with both these systems I can use one lot of multibased models and enjoy two very different rule sets aimed at 2 different levels of details.

Quote from: Luddite on 12 November 2012, 10:32:33 AM
Can you still get copies of BkC though?

Yes, see http://www.blitzkrieg-commander.com/Content/Purchase/default.aspx
I use BKC 2. 
Cheers, Colin

I'll echo Serotonin on this. I use both BKC2 and IABSM3 for 10mm. For an example of playing the same scenario with both sets have a look at:
http://www.pendrakenforum.co.uk/index.php/topic,6013.0.html

There is also Command Decision the original or second edition then you can field Divisions on the table

BKC from me (shock, horror, hold the front page etc etc  )

BKC they work really well , but take the lists with a pince of salt. - ie for Belgians you can field 3 ACG of the 10 belgian posessed but still only 3 of the T13 when they had approx 250.

Greetings

I'm another user of BKC and IABSM.

Quote from: mart678 on 12 November 2012, 06:22:30 PM
There is also Command Decision the original or second edition then you can field Divisions on the table

Have to be a big table and lots of players - I was pushed to command more than a short brigade using CD2 or CD3.  Must get round to using CD-TOB with my 10mm Ostfront.

Another possibility is Battlefront WW2 (no relation to Flames of War) which is at an intermediate level i.e. 1 model = 2-3 vehicles/guns and each stand of infantry is a squad.  Ground scale is 1 inch = 40 yards for 15mm (and I'd use the same for 10mm as the nominal scale is too cramped for me in 15mm).   You can of course use BKC for this level as well if you want with the 1cm = 10m scale.

Regards

Edward

 I have gamed with a lot of rules since the 1970s.  In my humble opinion BKC is an accurate reflection as to how post 1940s fire fight weapons/comms  impact on the killing ground.

Since WW2 one can generally say (Japanese and certain Russian units apart) that when under supressive  fire, troops go to ground and tend to stay there.
Signals fail and battlefield management is messy. 

And yes, I have tweaked CWC for different AFVs as the listing is just a wee bit generic.

I have to say that some gamers love unreal carnage.  If that's your taste then go for some of the wilder rules.

Sunray out

I would say BKC. I teach middle school kids wargaming classes with that rule set and they have tons of fun with it. They build their own battle groups with Pendraken minis and learn to paint them.