"Rules of Engagement Review" Topic

My copy of the RoE rulebook from Great Escape Games has finally arrived stateside, and it was well worth the 5-week wait. This is the first hardcover rulebook to date designed specifically with the 25mm-28mm gamer in mind, and it is very impressive. The quality and production value of RoE are top-notch, and it's obvious that the publishers at Great Escape followed the time-tried GW and Battlefront school of layout design.

Organization:

With 240 (double-sided) semi-glossy pages, RoE is organized into three major sections: Game Rules, Scenarios, and the Second World War 1944-45. Each of these three categories is further subdivided into various subsections in a logical, easy-to-follow format. The Game Rules section covers the game mechanics and includes the sequence of play, effects of terrain, and the various phases of RoE (Discipline, Orders, Movement, Shooting and Close Quarters). Other topics include a Weapons subsection describing their effects on the tabletop, including indirect fire weapons, Additional Rules for those of us who want more options and realism in our games, and rules covering the use of vehicles, fortifications and artillery support. The Scenario section details 10 scenarios and their use in RoE.

The Second World War 1944-45 section contains historical background info and notes from D-Day to the fall of Berlin, Orders of Battle (OOB) for the various troop types of Germany, Great Britain/Canada, the United States and the French Resistance (Maquis) as well as an all-color Hobby section providing painting tips, color reference and very nice ‘in-game' type photos like those you see in the Flames of War rulebook. RoE is not a point-based system; it is based around the OOB as defined by each scenario. As such, it is balanced since what you can field depends on the relative Combat Effectiveness (CE) of the opposing forces. For those of you who want to play Russian Red Army, you can download the OOB and other info for free at the Great Escape Games website.

Layout:

Simply put, this book could have easily been published by Games Workshop or Battlefront. From a layout design standpoint, this is the most beautiful WWII rulebook for 25-28mm gamers I've seen. It is in an easy-to-read two-column, short paragraph format, well illustrated with photos and interspersed with examples, wartime photos and quotations set in bordered boxes. Most of the pages have faded watermark-style backgrounds of miniatures or vehicles. The tables and OOB's are clear, concise and similar to what we've seen in GW and Battlefront rulebooks. The Times Roman text is simple, with only boldface and italics setting apart the main text. One of my pet peeves is the use of such fancy text effects like shadows and outlines, or novelty fonts like ‘comic sans serif.' Just don't get me started on Mongoose's new Battlefield Evolution rulebook.

Conclusion:

With RoE, Great Escape Games has set the new standard on rulebooks for 25mm-28mm WWII. Even if you, like me, already own other fine rule systems like Disposable Heroes/Coffin for Seven Brothers, Nuts!, and Tanks Weapons & Tactics, you simply can't pass this one up. This book has the potential to do for 28mm WWII gamers what Flames of War has done for 15mm gamers. Great job by the people at Great Escape Games on a fine product.

Yes, very interesting but what about the rules? How do they play? Is the game any good? If the rules are rubbish a pretty book won't help at all.

"With RoE, Great Escape Games has set the new standard on rulebooks for 25mm-28mm WWII."

Who says you can only play RoE with 25/28mm figures?

Perhaps it's too much to ask, but shouldn't a review of a new rulebook include somewhat more about the actual rules, and less on how pretty it will look on the bookshelf?

(scratches head in puzzlement)

Perhaps it's too much to ask, but shouldn't a review of a new rulebook include somewhat more about the actual rules, and less on how pretty it will look on the bookshelf?

Lol…

Perhaps I should've called this 'RoE First Impressions' instead of a review. I just got it two days ago and could only comment on the book's content itself.

I would have thought two days was enough time to get a feel for what the rules are like.

"I would have thought two days was enough time to get a feel for what the rules are like."

I find a first playtest often changes that impression, so I'd rather hear ruminations about the rules after someone has played them.

Hello all,

I've had my book since it was released at Salute in April and love the game. I'm too lazy to write a review myself, and have actually posted a couple of times on specific elements of the game so for more info on how the game plays have a look at the wargames journal review, link below.

PDF link

Capt Herbal, you were a playtester right? I'd love to hear what that was like. I am also trying to gather more information about the actual mechanics of this game. I found the section of the website about the turn sequence but I didn't find it very illuminating. Could someone post an AAR of this game that sheds more light on how the game mechanics play out?

I know that the GEG guys are down in Evesham later today so i would imagine they'll put something up about that.

Did you read the Wargames Journal review and there is also a battle report on the front page of their site, link below…

PDF link

Have you taken at look at the tutorial on download section of our site?

Game mechanics is a really broad question but I will focus on one point for now.

Discipline and suppression is my favourite mechanism in RoE. As the game is scenario driven, where the opposing forces have certain objectives, the importance of discipline really tells. The key to understanding this rule is to grasp that the number of hits a unit suffers is important, not whether any are killed.

Simply, if a unit takes a number of hits equal to or above the number of guys in the unit, it is suppressed. So, if a unit of 8 takes 8 hits (but none killed), it is suppressed. If a unit of 8 took 7 hits, resulting in one casualty, it is suppressed as it now consists of 7 men. If hits double the number of men in the target unit, that unit is shaken. When it is the owning player's Discipline Phase, he must decide whether to test discipline or fall back. Falling back means you move away from the enemy and are automatically treated as if you pass a discipline test, although that's all the unit can do for that turn. If you opt to take the test and pass, all is good. Fail and you discipline state deteriorates.

This mechanism works beautifully. Defenders can set up forward positions and if they meet stiff opposition can fall back to another line of defence – assuming the player has had some forethought of course. From the offensive point of view, troops can pour fire into the enemy and success can still be achieved while not causing heavy casualties. Discretion can be the better part of valour and troops risk being destroyed or captured if they try to hold on to an untenable position.

I hope that's a start for you. Have a look at the tutorial, play it out with a few figures then have a couple of proper games. You should very soon start to pick up on the subtleties but, following the easy stuff like moving and shooting, make sure you learn how discipline works. Enjoy and thanks for your support!

Stuart

I'm going to try playing a couple of games shortly and hopefully post a more review more relevant to game play. Maybe even a battle report.

I've been looking to get this as well, but can't seem to find a video review anywhere on youtube.