World of Tanks Wargame Rules

I've spent the weekend designing the core rules, lists and tank stats and am now ready to playtest my ideas over the next few days. I'm really pleased with the rules as they stand. I've layered in some extra detail which I don't think will slow down the game play too much. My objective was to keep the wargame version fast and furious and I think this does it. 

I've many more ideas to introduce a First Person mode where I am the player operating a single vehicle in a team against a randomised opponent. This would incorporate the features such as development paths, upgrades, crew training and gaining experience with my own garage. Again I'm not going to make this too involved and keep it pretty simple for now.

Great fun and I'm really enjoying watching all the stuff on YouTube to give me inspiration.

World of Tanks Miniature Wargaming and Old School WWII Skirmishes

I've been looking at some of the YouTube videos dealing with the World of Tanks on-line game. I've never played it myself but I've watched my son play and I must admit, I love to watch the YouTube videos and all the tank stats being narrated. Personally I'm hooked on tanks and love reading books and watching documentaries on the subject. 

The game got me thinking about whether this could be adapted to a wargame using actual models. Yes I know it's not realistic with teams of vehicles from every nation ranged in un-historical match-ups but it looks a lot of fun and a way to get all your armour onto the table. I think I'll start looking at adapting the WWII Rules and layer some more detail to differentiate the key tank parameters of mobility, protection and firepower. Special rules could deal with upgrades. Scenario generators and map design seem to be central features. Lots to consider, however, I don't want to get too bogged down in detail and keep it relatively light touch.

Second discovery was the scenario in Charles Grant's Battle book the Action at Twin Farms which looks like a great skirmish game to get me back into this type of gaming. Great pictures of Airfix Germans and Russian having at it. Quite inspiring.

Federation Future History Adaptation

I have resurrected the project I started earlier this year to develop a Future War adaptation of these rules to the Blake's Seven BBC TV Series universe of the Federation. The game is pitched at the squad / platoon level of small combat team skirmishes. 

I've a list for a Federation Strike Force which is composed of troopers and Mutoids. These are humans that have undergone a special conditioning to make them absolutely obedient to their handlers and part of the conditioning involves the removal of all memory of their past lives. They function as pilots, technicians, bodyguards and shock troopers. 

I still need to draft some rebel forces and a few of the opponents the Federation faced in expanding its sphere of control during the series programs. I've watched all the First Series and have now started on the second. Personally I was less interested in the program once Blake was lost but still enjoyed the Avon character which I think is brilliant. A great show which should give some interesting scenarios if I trawl through the more convertible programs. Straightforward Federation v Rebel encounters with location specifics such as bases, industrial plants, tunnel networks etc. should provide the bulk and I might try to create some tables to determine random scenario setups which incorporate the series quirks and idiosyncrasies. 

Cold War 1985-90 (and Other Modern Conflicts)

I recently became interested in extending my development of Cold War armies for the Modern Ruleset to incorporate some of the weapons introduced in the last stages of this conflict. I was particularly keen to start to design some rules to simulate the introduction of reactive armour, drone surveillance and cluster munitions. 

I've begun researching these in more detail and will roll forward my earlier army lists for 1970-85 to this later period which will include the M1 Tank and T-80 in the national TOEs. UK, US and Soviet forces should suffice for now. 

On other Modern conflict ideas, I came across an old S&T game write up of the Soviet invasion of Norway in the 1980s which might be an interesting staged campaign involving potential conflicts with Scandinavian forces. The Swedish Army of the 1980s was on my to-do list and the overall setting is appealing involving the intervention of US Marines, British Paras and Dutch forces in the assistance of Leopard equipped Norwegian units.

The Angolan Civil War and maybe the Ogaden War are sub-projects which I'm thinking of looking into in parallel with these other related Cold War topics. 

On the alternative history front I've seen some intriguing posts on a Very British Civil War genre but one set in a more contemporary context. I'm thinking of generating some 1980/90s lists which would have Chieftans and Challenger tanks as the mainstay of the armies with intervention from foreign brigades. 

That's quite a lot to get on with and I've got plenty of research and reading to do. To support this I recently started using the Scribd App on my Nexus 10 which gives me access to loads of Osprey and Military History titles in PDF format for reading as an e-book. This is a rich resource that is a mixed blessing as I keep stumbling over new ideas to develop further!   

Feudal Technocracy Rules Development

I have now managed to get most of this new setting drafted. I decided to use the Modern rules as the basis for the design, and not the Medieval rules, as I didn't want a massed battles feel to this setting. I was aiming for the level of large skirmishes / small pitched battles. The modern rules, with a considered make-over, does the trick in this respect.

To recap, my Feudal Technocracy variant presents a futuristic setting based on the Dr Who episodes Androids of Tara and shows a feudal society modeled on a technology enabled High Middle Ages culture. The setting is within the "Kingdom" where the forces of Count Grendel of Gracht vie with the legitimate Royalist Faction of the Crown Regent Reynart.

The humans are descended from a lost colony whose culture is emerging from the collapse of civilisation following a long and protracted war with the indigenous race for planetary control. The ruling class is a scientific elite possessed of superior intelligence and genetically augmented physiology. This was obtained from the discoveries of the alien precursors. 

I've developed some army lists. These are the troop types:

- Mounted knights. These represent the elite caste and are equipped with power blades, power armour and force shields making them virtually invulnerable to conventional attack.

- Bolter crossbows. These are the mainstay of the armies. Regular troops issued with light armour and trained to operate bolter crossbows which generate an energy bolt missile.

- Power polearms. These are issued to the supporting melee regulars, the men-at-arms, who perform both a shock role and protect the missile troops from enemy cavalry.

- Iron-knights. These are robotic powered automatons used to supplement human units. 

- Feudal cavalry. Armed with mounted Bolters.

- Militia. Levies armed with un-powered weapons. Cannon fodder.

With the use of the Leaders Rules I've developed for most of the other variants this should give a good small action style game. I might even draft in Tom Baker as a personality figure!

More Developments

While on holiday in Amsterdam I've gone through my notebook where I jot down all my ideas for rules developments, projects, games etc. I've managed to pull a few ideas out which I'm hoping to develop over the next few days while I'm still off on annual leave.

1. Fictional Game set in 1850. I was intrigued by a post I saw a few months ago which pitted an Austro-Hungarian force vs a Russian Army in a 1850 setting. Both armies looked great and I thought this would be a nice confrontation to use using the Nineteenth Century Rules, which are the least of my gamed rule sets from the Thomas Collection. I'm keen to expand the lists to British, French, Turkish and Prussian armies and see what a European War c1850 would look like based on the armies at the time. I'm assuming a Crimean style but in a European context.

2. Conquistador Campaign Simulation. I'm a great fan of the SPI game Conquistador and would love to use it in combination with a Miniatures campaign. I'm going to explore how I can set up some campaign scenarios and link this with the map and counters.

3. Angolan War 1975-91. I'd like to convert this to the Thomas Modern Rules and devise lists for the Cuban, UNITA and South African Forces. Looks like an interesting setting with varied terrain and forces. Another Cold War simulation.

4. Feudal Technocracy. I was considering developing a futuristic setting based on the Dr Who episodes Androids of Tara where a Feudal technocratic society was portrayed equipped with bolter crossbows and power blades. Looked great and I thought I could adapt the Medieval Rules just like the 18th Century rules for my Lace Wars conversion.

Other ideas include:

- Roman technological adaptation. Rome with technology vs the barbarians. I've seen a few literary interpretations of this genre and a blog was carrying pictures of games involving powered chariots and winged flyers which looked exciting.

- Renaissance Warhammer Fantasy adaptation to the Thomas P&S Rules. I played a lot of Dark Omen a computer game set in this world back in the 90s and a conversion to miniatures using the Fantasy and P&S Rules would be fun to do.

- Sharpe Practice. I'm still devoted to the Thomas Skirmish rules which I've used extensively and always thoroughly enjoyed. A conversion of the good points in the Sharpe Practice Rules to these Rules to develop a Napoleonic sub-set looks an interesting project. I'm keen to game some skirmish style encounters but in doing so retain a lot of Napoleonic chrome and period specific features.

Conclusion of American War of Independence Game

I completed my AWI game to a satisfactory conclusion with a convincing American victory over the British attackers. The American General Stokes held a solid defensive line which repelled the British under General Hupton. They were trying to secure control of the North Turnpike at Ridley Junction and push further North to meet up with further British forces landed in a recent maritime deployment.

The battle itself was played using the solo rules which again worked very nicely. The game also gave me a great opportunity to try out a series of my special rules I've developed for the period and I've used this experience to make some modifications and improvements which should deliver better results.

Overall, the British forces were of excellent quality but not in enough quantity to make a concentrated assault and with some favorable American die rolls early on, which eliminated two of these crucial units, the British were always faced with an uphill struggle. They did finally retire in good order to the south of Ridley Junction, to await reinforcements from the North.

Great game, my first in ages.   

American War of Independence Game: Battle of Ridley Junction

I'm in the process of playing an encounter battle just now using my solo rules and applying all the special rules I've developed for the period. 

I've already had some interesting results with an ambush of a British line battalion by American Frontiersmen who managed to cause a morale test from their fire using the officer sniping special rule. This combined with the additional morale test for units in column resulting in the loss of two stands!

I'm also looking at completing some of my Fantasy and Sci-Fi adaptations and develop the World War 2 rules for each of the sub-periods and specific theatres of operation.

Status Update: Back to Business as Usual

I haven't posted to my blog for a while, as I've recently returned to work following on from a long term illness which had me rather incapacitated for a few months. I'm rectifying this now and getting back into my wargaming and rules development. 

While off I've also had a think about further projects and things to try out over the rest of the year.

First is to continue with my rules adaptations of the Neil Thomas wargaming rules and contribute to the Yahoo Group. I've still got a lot of completion to perform on some of the Science Fiction and Fantasy adaptations and I'm expanding the historical versions to include more background and scenario information.

I've also been interested in getting into some skirmish wargaming and I'm considering using Bolt Action with my 20mm Airfix collection and Sharpe's Practice with my Napoleonics. Both look like fun games and seem to be feasible as solo games.

I've also tried to acquire some boardgames I used to play back in the 1980s. I've purchased Conquistador and War of the Ring, both by SPI. This added to my collection of favourites such as Squad Leader, Third Reich, War & Peace and StarForce Trilogy, should expand my interests sufficiently so the format of the blog may expand to include posts on these topics.

Finally I'm thinking about establishing a YouTube Vlog to post some recordings of my battles using the Thomas Rules. Just an idea just now and I need to investigate the mechanics etc.

18th Century Imaginations and Lace Punk

I've now completed a Fantasy adaptation of the 18th Century Rules to a Lace Punk and Imagination setting. This Lace Punk variant presents an alternative history based on 18th Century Europe, populated with imaginary nations and possessing scientific and engineering developments in advance of the period. These are grounded on early steam and mechanical technologies which have been improved and miniaturised. These have been combined with efficient power sources and then applied to the period warfare and weaponry. I have rules for steam powered self propelled cannons, War Carriages, metal-men automatons and rocket launcher artillery. The Technology is period orientated and while limited is still a potent application in terms of mid 18th century warfare. It is engineered and constructed using elegant design and strikes a classic appearance.

The inspiration for these imaginary nations, are the works of Grant and Young and the numerous wargaming blogs on the subject. The period chosen as the equivalent is that of c1750, set around the Seven Years War. The region contains several small petty states based on minor Germanic states of the Holy Roman Empire which are caught between the competing Empire (comparable to Austria) and the Electorate (Prussia). This is a sparsely populated frontier area which experiences numerous local wars between these states. The major powers supply mercenaries and military technology to further their interests in the region.

Should have some interesting games with these alternative lineups.

Marine 2002

I diverged a bit from my creation of some more World War II sub-periods and indulged a whim to develop an adaptation of the Future Wars rules to a board game I used to own back in the 1980s called Marine 2002. This was published by Yaquinto and was a tactical level simulation of combat on the moon between the forces of the United States and Soviet Union during the First Lunar War (1998-2002). 

Players take command of platoons of crack troops trained to fight in the hostile lunar environment. Combat takes the form of raids and quick hit-and-run assaults. There are no large battles and scenarios. Weapons are laser beams, neutron guns, charged particle beams etc. The environment itself is potentially lethal due to weightlessness, total vacuum and extremely low temperatures.

I need to playtest the rules but they are almost ready to upload to the Yahoo Group. They were a lot of fun to develop and I'm looking forward to having a game. 

Other Projects: Darkest Africa, Back of Beyond and VSF

All my developments and research on alternative fantasy and science fiction settings have generated some other projects which I'm looking at just now. 

First up is a look at Darkest Africa which presents an alternative African setting based loosely on Central and East Africa of the late 19^th Century. This fantastic adaptation is populated by exotic tribes, mythical races and features lost civilisations. The inclusion of special rules for leaders and personalities provides an individual heroic and adventuring perspective. Forces involve British and German Imperial regulars ranged against Native Tribes, Intelligent Reptile Men, an Anubian Egytian Undead army based on the Mummy Returns, a Lost Legion of Rome and Zanzibari Arabs.

The second setting is inspired by some games I've seen on the Edinburgh Wargamers' Web Page looking at a Back of Beyond Campaigns in Central Asia 1919-25. The Back of Beyond period adaptation allows the recreation of events which played out in Central Asia during the 1920's set against the backdrop of the Russian Civil War. It allows both historical and what if games with a range of troop types, factions and weaponry. There is scope for aircraft, tanks, armoured cars, trucks and gunboats and the inclusion of special rules for leaders and personalities. The various factions represented are:

Red Army (Bolsheviks). Based on the forces on the Turkestan and Eastern Fronts and including Cheka, Siberian Rifles and Red Guard.

White Russians. Supporters of the late Tsar, these anti-Bolshevik troops include elite Officer Corps and Cossack Partisans.

British in India. A possible intervention force and something of a regional super-power.

Turkish Army. Although they didn't intervene in Central Asia outside Georgia they could have intervened under the leadership of Enver Pasha.

Afghans. The Afghan Regular Army, a little outdated, but a useful foil to British interests in the region.

Chinese Warlords. Forces of local Chinese governors supported by Western advisors. They include ferocious sword-wielding "Dare to Die" troops.

Mongolian Tribes. Equestrian armies of tribesmen who either swamp their opponents or, more usually, get mown down.

Last up are ongoing developmentS of my VSF and solar system based science-fiction adaptations. These are still WIP but reaching a point of completion now so I will be posting details soon.

Middle Earth: Third Age Eriador

I've completed my rules adaptation for this specific setting in Tolkien's Third Age dealing with the Northern Kingdom of Arnor and the emergent successor states which waged a number of wars against the Witch-King of Angmar. It is now posted in the Files Section of the Yahoo Group webpage.

I've posted it as a standalone version comparable to my C&S Archaeron adaptation of the AMW Rules. I'm quite pleased with how these turned out and hope to fight some battles over the coming months to see how they play out. I've been able to reflect my thoughts on a Dark Age / Early Medieval cultural overlay onto the various forces and factions. There is a bit of artistic license in my interpretation but I was generally motivated by a desire to keep the fantasy low key, albeit with the infusion of non-human races and some limited magical powers.

Fantasy Rules: Some More Setting Variants

There has recently been some discussion on the AMW Yahoo Group concerning the Fantasy variant I posted some time ago in the Files section. This got me contemplating additional settings that I could develop new army lists for, formulate some special rules and ultimately play a few games.

My current fantasy setting is the Archaeron World based on the C&S First Edition campaign developed by Ed Simbalist. On reflection there were a few other Fantasy settings that I'd actively gamed back in the 1980s. So the candidates so far for development are:

1. The Young Kingdoms of Moorcock's Elric novels. I ran a Stormbringer campaign.

2. Dragon Pass / Praxian armies of the Runequest Glorantha setting. I played in a RQ first edition setting in the early 80s.

3. AD&D massed battles setting. This would allow combats between factions and races in a wilderness / frontier region, various subterranean locations and optional extensions of the skirmish rules to allow some dungeon style games. These would be based on my earliest adventures and RPG settings and bring in some of my favourite characters as leaders and personalities.

4. Regarding a Tolkein setting, I'd used MERP to game a Northern wilderness campaign.  From this interest I was contemplating looking at a specific section of history in the Third Age which focused on the struggle in the North between Arnor and Angmar. This could cover the Civil Wars and the Wars v the Witch King and include some interesting armies. It also has much less in the form of pre-canned third party design and views as to the setting's look and feel than the Lord of the Rings period. My original imagination when I read the books was of a late Dark Age world with a good dose of monsters and subtle magic. If I enjoy this I might be tempted to extend this forward to the War of the Ring or maybe into other conflicts in Middle Earth's History.

More Rules Updates

The labyrinthitis continues giving me ample opportunity to pursue my trawl of the period gaps I have in each ruleset. My ambition is to have completed period variants and supporting special rules and Army Lists for all the periods I could be conceivably interested in gaming at a future date. As my interests are pretty wide ranging this looks like a lot of work but it's proving to be great fun researching and exploring each in more detail.

I've also put the finishing touches to most of my Sci-Fi variants of the Future War Wargaming Rules I'd developed as an evolution of the WWII Rules in the Introduction Book. I'm quite proud of these now and have even inserted some relevant illustrations to give them a better look.

These now cover:

1. Space Marines: Marc Ratner FGU Game - later Space Opera Universe

2. Classic Traveller: Spinward Marches, Fifth Frontier War

3. Star Soldier: based on Star Force Alpha Centauri

4. Terran Trade Authority Universe. Based on the future history presented in Stewart Cowley’s Books.

5. Solar Union Universe. An alternative future history influenced by Space 1999.

I've still have a couple of pet projects remaining for the Sci-Fi genre. I'm investigating a Victorian Steampunk setting which appeals to me - not really happy with any of the current options offered commercially, and also a setting where the expanding Terran colonies are restricted to our own Solar System and slower than light space transportation. This has ideas about how our technologies would adapt to a more restricted frontier - human adaptations, terraforming etc.

That being said, my work has primarily been centred on historical settings and here I've updated for periods as diverse as Dark Age Greek to Spanish-American War to the Soviet-Afghan War. I'll have to provide a list sometime soon! I've still not found anything I can't combine the core rules with to produce a simulation which satisfies my own personal tastes and requirements.

Rules Updates: Modern Period

I'm suffering from an inner ear infection and hence have a lot of free time on my hands. To keep myself occupied I'm trawling through all my various ruleset variants to review for gaps that I need to fill in terms of army lists or special rules.

I've now completed some updates to my Modern Period variant where I've added sections for the Yom Kippur War of 1973 and a contemporary section : 2013 for UK and Russian Federation forces. Still to do a Chinese and US list. I've also tidied up my Cold War sections and crunched them into one time period of 1970 to 1985 adding some lists for West German, French and Warsaw Pact Allies.

It's proving to be a great deal of fun researching all the modern kit and considering the unit design.

New Rules Development for Sci-Fi Rules

I've been doing a bit of work on my adaptation of the Second World War Rules from the Introduction Book. This has entailed a significant stretching of the rules to a very specific style of combat which I came across in my youth regarding the excellent series of SPI Board Games which covered the Star Force: Alpha Centuari universe. This particular adaptation used one of the games in the Trilogy - the Star Soldier Board Game, as the basis.

It involves a fictional future setting dealing with planetary conflicts set in the 25th to 28th Centuries between a handful of races including Humans that use telesthetic shifting to move between star systems and then deploy Strike Forces of Star Soldiers to perform assaults on the orbiting Star Gates and Planetary Defences.

The combat units are squads of Star Soldiers that can move in both ground and airborne modes utilising Active Battle Dress to provide completely self contained environments and the deployment of a variety of direct fire energy and projectile weapons to neutralise enemy units and ground bases. This was a lot of fun to develop and the Future History presented is very intriguing. I've done some minor play-testing and published my draft with outline Army Lists and background in the Modern Rules Folder in the Files section. I hope to play some larger games and develop the scenario design to cover the mission types these future armies would engage in. Seems to work fine and demonstrates to me at least what you can do to a good simple core design to meet any gaming requirement.

Solar Union Universe: Timeline

Here is the timeline I've created for this new alternative Future Wars campaign:

1905: End of Great War with victory to the British American Empire

1907: New Thinking becomes prevalent in government circles and starts to permeate society

1911: Discovery of White Energy

1951: Lunar Station completed

1950s: Colonisation of the Solar system

1956: Discovery of the Warp Field

1965: Creation of the Solar Union as the new world government

1976: First FTL warp to Alpha Centauri

1980s: Exodus into surrounding space to establish colonies

1980s: Encounter Andrayadan, Kyrillian, Grail and Geonee

1983: Colonial Union Defence Force founded

1986: Interstellar Wars commence

1999: Current year

I've also fleshed out some other details about the CUDF which now resembles a militarised Space 1999 complete with Eagles and Hawks. Pure indulgence!

Here also is an extract on the Grail mentioned in the earlier post.

The Grail are a lesser but still potent and frightening enemy. They are inter-dimensional beings that have been warped from what humans’ term chaos space. They use their priests and acolytes to wield their mind powers and assimilate sentient races. They are particularly partial to humans and have made a compact with the other races. They resemble Mind Flayers from AD&D.  

Future Wars Rules: New Setting of the Solar Union

I've recently been working on another setting for playing my Future Wars modifications to the WWII Rules from Introduction. This one introduces a mish-mash of my experience with counter factual history, Space 1999, Star Force Alpha Centauri and some other appealing themes and ideas in general sci-fi which I've melded together into something I'm comfortable with.

Here is a synopsis of the overall idea. I'm working on the army lists and supplementary rules just now with a view to get these posted into the files section in the Group pages in the near future.

Human history follows a different course following the failed American Revolution and the dominance of the British American Empire culminating in the defeat of the German Empire and the establishment of complete world supremacy in the early 20^th century.

Parallel to this were two revolutionary technological developments. The first was the discovery of White Energy which provided a limitless and highly effective power source to catapult human technology. In turn this led to the discovery of the warp field allowing faster than light travel.

In the area of human civilisation there was a fundamental re-focus of intellectual thought. The New Thinking following the Great War preached tolerance and socio-economic relationships where it was in the individual’s best interests to act for the greater societal good. This had a fundamental impact on the ethos and outlook of the emergent Solar Union government which setup the Colonial Union Defence Force as agents of human expansion and colonisation in the remaining century.

The date is now 1999 and the CUDF administers c50 active colonies. So far the alien worlds they have explored have tended to have mainly non-sentient life-forms, however, the few technological races encountered with star faring ability have been almost universally hostile. Curiously they have similar technological developments in respect of energy and warp fields so planetary conflict is between similar technology levels.

The Alien Conspiracy is a current theory being used by the CUDF to explain and react to the perceived threat to human expansion. This is no longer a paranoid reaction, but a proven viewpoint from recent discoveries. It now transpires that the alien powers ranged against the Solar Union are party to a still unexplained but certainly co-ordinated opposition to human expansion.

The alien forces ranged against the CUDF are formidable opponents and present a real danger to ongoing human expansion and potentially human existence in this region of space. The major opposition are the Andrayadan Collective and Kyrllian Combine. The Grail are a lesser but still potent enemies.

The Geonee Technocracy: this humanoid race is the only advanced species encountered so far that has provided a passive response to the Solarians. The Technocracy has enslaved a number of “low” races in it’s development so far and Geonee rule is generally at odds with Union political philosophy. The resulting alliance that has been established is one of convenience. The Geonee hope they back the eventual winner in the conflict and will be able to benefit from the enslavement of the Andrayadan and Kyrllian races.

Napoleonic Battle: France v Spain 1808

I finally managed to find some quality time and play a battle. I chose an Iberian encounter between a French force led by General Moreau against the decrepit General Cortenesca. Both generals were pretty poor and this became evident in the game where I was following my solo amendments to the letter.

The French advanced on a line of Spanish defenders and managed to make reasonable headway despite a surprise attack from a unit of Spanish cavalry. I found the Spanish poor command rating to be a real problem in allowing me to co-ordinate any credible response to the French thrusts and with a few units going awol, of their own accord, the game was up after turn 7. I took a defensive outcome on my Battle plan generator, modified with a downward penalty due to the General, as an exceptional result, entailing a general retreat for the Spanish army. This conceded the field to the French.

A fine game, although it didn't show off many of the French strengths. The unpredictable Spanish were fun!

Campaign Board Game

It's the start of 2013 and I've loads of projects to achieve. I must start playing some more games and publish the battle reports on the AMW Yahoo Group. Over Xmas, I bought a couple of versions of the old Waddington's Campaign game, which I played when I was a child. Beautiful pieces, beautiful board, lovely rules. I've done my usual and have created a host of amendments. I've just played a superb "Austerlitz" re-fight between the French, Austrians and Russians. I think this game is worthy of future investigation so I'm going to play a SYW match with five nations involved.