"Hex based WWII rules" Topic

I'm quite a fan of hex based rules and while games like Tide of Iron or Memoir '44 are fine as time fillers in my opinion they leave a lot to be desired when it comes to 'wargaming'.

Anyway, I decided to have a bash at some rules of my own in an effort to combine all the best bits of miniature and board wargaming. I'll post some more stuff on the blog as I work my way through it for anyone interested -

link

You might like to have a look at the hex rules that I have developed. It might help you … or at least give you some ideas.

My rules can be found link

It seems to me, that a single platoon of 3 squads broken up into half (squads) along with a tank or two against maybe some anti tank guns would be a very interesting game. The idea being that it would largely be an infantry game with added support.

I look forward to your work on a set of hex-based WW II rules. I followed the progress of Great Battles also.

Looks interesting, think one would be able to play at a faster pace. Hope you post more as you develop the game.

I agree that Hexes overcome a lot of the problems- especially micromanagement of placing and line of sight. The thought that puts me off is gridding the base sheet!

Are you just counting hexes for range, or will you make a ruler?

Peter Pig's PBI uses a 8 x 8 square grid. Any move, or range, is allowed a maximum of 1 diagonal. It is more accurate when compared to straight measurement than you may think.

Kallistra make Hexon terrain which may be suitable depending on the size of hex you want. Saves lots of marking out and cutting.

Yes, the Kalistra stuff is lovely. And it stacks away very nicely for storage.

But Im afraid I cant get excited about hexes on a tabletop. You lose the infinite variety that you get on a conventional gaming table.

1815- I've not tried to compare, but it wouldn't surprise me if the infinate variety is an illusion.

Crusader- how big are your hexes- did you state, because I couldn't see.

I've uploaded a template that can be used to create a 4" hex sheet. I simply print a few of these out, stick together and punch holes in the hex 'corners' and use that as a guide to draw a dot on whatever I want to hex up. I used this on the hills and they took far less time than when I drew around a 4" hex template for the main sheet.

link

With the downloads at the bottom of the page if its any use to anyone.

@Bob – link didnt seem to work for me I'm afraid, just me?

@ last H. I'm using 4" hexes for range, the slight difference in 'width' and 'length' measurements on the hex grid isn't enough of a factor with the larger scale (and therefore relatively shorter weapon ranges) that I plan to use.

I certainly dont think hexes are to everyone's taste and – as a commercial set of rules – doing a WWII hex game is certainly not going to make me my fortune! I'll enjoy playing it though :-)

Looking forward to how your project progresses. I cross between board and figure gaming, here is a shot of a small setup that I did with Kallistra terrain as I worked on my own hex rules project (taken from a game with 10mm German / Russian armies).

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Not everyone will like hexes, but from many years of boardgaming, they do not visually distract me. They are SUPERB for people with bad backs – no more leaning into the centre of the table to measure degrees or distances.

Dare I suggest you get the Advanced Squad Leader rules from MMP? It is an awesome game, and would do minis proud. One vehicle or gun = 1 vehicle or gun, infantry-wise you have squads, half-squads, single leaders and heroic types, and gun/support weapon crews.

It's been my obsession for years, but I'm always stopped short by the incredible expense of printing any large number of hex sheets. If I could produce cloth hex sheets (with some basic terrain pre-printed) in large numbers at a decent price, I'd have published a game like this years ago.

Was going to leave a comment on your blog but it seems you don't have comments enabled. Was just going to say that it looks great to me and that hex mats should be fine once players get used to them. If the game play is immersive then the adjustment will happen sooner rather than later (or so you'd hope!).

Good luck with it.

Cheers,
Aaron

@Sundance – I've played ASL for quite some time, though not so much recently. I would say that the hex rules I'm doing are more akin to Panzer Grenadier in the level of detail and scale. Or, for miniature wargamers its 'Command Decision' scale with stands as platoons rather than squads or individual vehicles.

link

testofbattle.com/drupal-4.7.4

@Sam – I looked at getting custom mats printed in the UK in 50 yard rolls 54" wide with repeating hex patterns which was almost viable, anything else was too expensive. UK printers are notoriously expensive so I thought you may have had better luck in the US with custom fabric printing.

I have played on a hex grid for years, our home grown card driven WWII at individual vehicle and infantry squad level (20mm) produces excellent games (IMHO) and the same for our 25mm Napoleonics. I have also converted other systems to use hexes, Warhammer and Look Sarge No Charts I've played with hexes (in fact I think my pictures are still on the LSNC yahoo page). No more arguing about the last 5mm of movement, no worrying about ranges or facings. It works for me every time.

I've almost gotten to the point where if it is not a hex based game, I'm just not very interested in it. One of the first things that I try to do when a new set of rules comes out that I might possibly be interested in is to determine if it can be modified into a hex based game. Hexes just make things so much smoother in the execution of movement, firing ranges, etc. This, IMO, was the beauty of the Commands & Colors games for the ACW, Nap. & Ancients periods. I've got Hotz hex mats with 3" hexes, 4" hexes and 5" hexes to enable me to play whatever I can convert over to hex based games.

" I looked at getting custom mats printed in the UK in 50 yard rolls 54" wide with repeating hex patterns which was almost viable, anything else was too expensive. UK printers are notoriously expensive so I thought you may have had better luck in the US with custom fabric printing."

Yeah, I've looked at it from a number of angles, all without joy. Last year I was sure I had the answer: I found some printers who did printed tablecloths for outdoor picnic tables. (Felt on one side, printed vinyl on the other). But they were only interested in doing tens of thousands. When I told them I needed only 2000 or 3000, then the per-unit cost was once again just too high.

I think that a hex-based game would have great appeal, and could sell well, but only IF the game rules were bundled with a cheap hex mat, so that a player could buy it all at once, and immediately get started playing. But in order to get that down to a reasonable cost… Well, I haven't found the solution yet, anyway.

For laying out a hex pattern on a sheet/board, this clever and simple idea offered a few years back ('09 iirc) is worth a look:
link

I suspect it would be impractical for hex sizes less than 4", but is cheap/easy.

As to visual impact, I've found that just marking the vertices is enough (I just used a colored pencil instead of the sponge-printing method shown in the link), and that the size/intensity of the marks can be a lot less than first imagined in order for players to see them.

This (not so great) photo shows my aircombat boards marked with two sets of hexes (4 and 7.5" – white and black marks, respectively) :

I haven't encountered any in-game difficulties with players figuring out what's what, and the across-the-room look of the table is effectively hex-less.