"A Sergeant's War, WWII rules now available" Topic

I have just released a new WWII rules set called A Sergeant's War, intended for small unit combat (platoon+support) with individually- or group-based models. A few months ago, Nordic Weasel Games opened a thread here to discuss his new game, with "5 things you might like" and "5 things you might not"—I'm going to do something similar, with his permission to shamelessly steal the idea.

A brief overview: A Sergeant's War (ASW) is a WWII game which emphasizes morale, unit quality, and small-unit leaders. Each side usually has 1-2 platoons, plus support. It can be played with any scale of figures, based singly or in multiples, and many games can be played on a small table, like a card- or kitchen table. Measurements and most game effects apply to units rather than individuals (though casualties are removed individually); this greatly speeds play and lets players focus on the placement of weapons, vehicles, and squads, rather than individual riflemen. The game is friendly to solo-play.

Here are 5 features of the game that I think will most appeal to gamers:

Emphasis on leadership—Your squad- and platoon leaders are the heart of your force. They keep your troops moving under fire and up in firing positions while defending. But whenever your leaders do something significant—rally troops, keep your troops moving under fire, etc.—the leader is put in danger, and there's a chance that he becomes a casualty. Leader casualties rapidly degrade your force's ability to fight.

Morale—Unit morale is very important, as your troops try to avoid becoming pinned down or broken. There is also a mechanic for force morale, called "Breaking Points"—as chaos and casualties mount, your troops become less and less willing to take risks, and your leaders become even more important, because only they can keep your force moving forward (or holding its position).

Small table space—ASW plays quite well on small tables. 15mm and 20mm games can be played on 3' and 4' square tables. 6mm games can be played on tables even smaller. 28mm can be played on 4' or 5' tables. Movement rates are generous, however, so you can definitely play on big tables.

Combat Mechanics—The various types of combat—infantry vs. infantry, vehicle vs. vehicle, and infantry close combat—all use the same basic die mechanic, which only has to be learned once. Infantry and vehicle casualties generally take time to accumulate rather than happening all at once, but players might suddenly realize, after 3 or 4 turns of combat, "wow—my troops are shot up!" Infantry assaults ("firefights") are very much back-and-forth, attack/counter-attack events that encourage movement and bold attack.

Fast play—Combined arms games, with each side fielding a platoon or more of infantry with armor and artillery in support, can be played in under 2 hours. Small infantry games can be done in an hour to 90 miniites. Large tank-only games, with a dozen or more vehicles per side, can be played in 45 minutes. The speed of play is largely due to the emphasis on units rather than individuals.

Taken together, I think that ASW provides a quick-playing, fun game that "feels" right and rewards intelligent gameplay.

But everybody says that about their game, though, don't they? So here are some things may not appeal to everyone:

Markers: There are several statuses (stati?) that require the use of markers on the table top—pinned, broken, damaged, and full speed, and also casualty markers if you have multiple figures per base.

Vehicle detail and data: Because the game represents the "tip of the spear" and assumes a battlefield 300-500 meters across, a lot of the differences between vehicles common in other games disappear. Tigers and Panthers are vulnerable to T-34s and everything's in range. Long-range gunnery duels and extensive artillery rules as absent from the game. I have also restricted the data on vehicles to late war stuff (43-45) for the main belligerents; more stats will be available soon.

Abstractions: Hand grenades are folded into short range infantry combat. Leaders can be killed while doing other actions, representing the general amount of small arms fire in the air. Some simultaneity is assumed in the game. Not all players will enjoy the different aspects of the game that I have abstracted to either speed play or try to create a result.

Scenario-driven: ASW is scenario driven. I have provided orders of battle, vehicle statistics, special rules, and a section on designing scenarios, but there are no point values or random-scenario generators (though there might well be in future supplements, either for sale or free here).

Not a skirmish game: ASW is a small unit game, but not a skirmish game. You control the actions of units, not individual soldiers. There is a wealth of excellent man-to-man games out there, but ASW isn't one of them.

I hope this information is useful. I've had a lot of fun designing and playtesting the game and hope that it finds an audience who will enjoy it as well.

A full description of the game's mechanics can be found at my blog, link

The game is for sale at the Wargames Vault as a PDF, link

Thanks for looking!

I'd stop using 'ASW': It may get confused with Anti-Submarine Warfare.

I agree with Billyfish. While I game ground combat, I was a submariner. So if you say ASW to me, that's airplanes and ships hunting me, not anything to do with ground combat.

I do have one suggestion for your marker rules: give suggestions for how to make diorama-type markers.

Markers: There are several statuses (stati?) that require the use of markers on the table top—pinned, broken, damaged, and full speed, and also casualty markers if you have multiple figures per base.

Pinned: maybe a string of dirt-puffs from an MG, maybe a big dirt-puff like a mortar shell?
Broken: Not sure about this one. Maybe casualties and/or a panicked soldier?
Damaged: Assuming that this means a damaged vehicle, gray or black yarn/smoke? (destroyed vehicles would get black smoke with flames)
Full Speed Also assuming that this is referring to vehicles, a dust cloud of specified size?

Or "advanced squad weader".
The rules sound interesting. I like the grenade idea.

Thanks for the comments!

As for ASW---I only use that as short hand when referring to the rules either on my blog (after establishing what they stand for), within the rules themselves, or within a summary such as this one. Perhaps ASgtW?

@Lion, that's a great idea about the markers. I'll need to make up some attractive ones, take a pic, and add it to the rules.

I have dust clouds for movement and appropriate smoke clouds, but am not bothered by other markers on the table, so just use counters---but that's not to a lot of people's taste.

Sounds great -- something I can probably adapt to my online double-blind games.

I've run a few games of this and it's the biz.

The way of handing leaders is pretty clever and I don't think I've seen anything quite like it.

I'm tempted. I like the "unit" concept of moving and fighting, but I think I'm going to need to learn a little more about it before I decide.

@Weasel: Thanks, sir!

@Mandt2: The units rather than individuals is a taste thing of mine---I generally find that moving units works a whole lot faster.

Ask away if you have questions! Did you check out my more detailed description on the blog? If not, here's what I wrote there (kinda long):

"How does the game play?"

Here is a full description of the mechanics used in the game.

Units have Quality and Morale. Quality determines their ability to do certain battlefield tasks; how many targets they can engage simultaneously; and how easily they hit opponents.

Leaders are either at the squad- and platoon level (for most armies), only at the platoon level (for poorer armies), or all the way down to the fire team/asst. squad leader level (for really crack troops). Leaders give you the chance to pass morale checks when you might otherwise fail them, but at a price: every time a leader does something in sight of the enemy, there is a small chance that the leader will become a casualty, representing how easy a target the leader becomes when actually leading.

As for how the game plays out, I will go in order of the turn sequence.

1) Check your breaking point: You count up how many damaged/out of action units are in your force, compared to how many "effective" ones there are; if there are more combat ineffective than effective, your force suffers severe morale penalties. (Breaking Points can vary. Some die-hard forces only count destroyed troops as ineffective. Other, less willing forces count everything from destroyed units, to those that are only pinned down or have only suffered significant casualties.)

2) Rally broken troops: Troops who are running away may stop and regroup, or might even immediately go back into action.

3) Remove Pinned: Pinned down troops can see if they recover from their pinned status.

4) Artillery Fire: Call in artillery (sometimes air-) support.

5) Actions: Going in order, your troops may use Ranged Fire, Movement, Firefights, or a second phase of firing. The order is important because it simulates suppressing fire and movement.

Ranged Fire: Infantry roll a number of dice equal to their firepower, which varies from 1 (for a small squad of infantry) to 6 (a belt fed heavy machine gun). Hits inflict casualties and morale damage. Targets can become pinned (and lose their ability to interrupt your movement with fire) or can break.

Movement: Infantry move 8"; vehicles 12, 16, or 20, depending on their speed. Movement can be interrupted by enemy defensive fire.

Firefights: "Firefights" represent close assaults—short ranged small arms fire, hand grenades, and possibly hand to hand fighting. Infantry can generally inflict more casualties in firefights than they can with ranged fire. Firefights are also decisive—one side or the other will be kicked out of its position.

Second ranged fire: Units that have not fired yet, or vehicles that have only moved up to half, may now fire.

Infantry cannot move and fire, except to launch firefights.

6) Check for victory, dependent on scenario.

Vehicle combat is a simple "Hit, Damage" system---you roll to hit and then the target rolls a "damage test", modified by the difference between their armor and the attacker's AT abilities. Effects vary from destroyed, to damaged, to morale test.

Artillery is called in, might deviate, and then uses similar mechanics to small arms fire to measure its effects against targets in the beaten area.

"How Fiddly is the Game?"

By my own definition, "fiddly" means how often does a player have to stop the game in order to count things or measure things? ASW is not very fiddly at all—fire combat is done with three dice rolls (roll to hit; roll to damage; roll for morale), and rarely with more than a few dice at a time. Measurements are done from unit center to unit center; if your troops are based several to a stand, or if you use movement stands/templates, it goes very quickly. The basic to hit system is the same for all types of combat (ranged fire, tank fire, firefights). There are not many modifiers.

"How long does it take to play?"
Because it's not very fiddly, games play quick. In one playtest, several first-time players fought out a platoon-sized action in urban terrain in under 2 hours. For experienced players, combined arms fights can be done in 90 minutes to 2 hours; tank-only fights can be done in under an hour (or even under half an hour).

"What figures can I use?"
You can use any scale figures. The game was playtested with 15mm and 6mm stuff, but you can certainly play larger; I'd suggest an adjustment to ranges for 25/28mm (increase by 50%) and for 6mm (cut in half).

"What are the basing requirements?"
Because combat is done by unit and not by individuals, basing is highly flexible. You can use your troops individually and move them as a group (all figures staying within ½" to an 1" of another figure); have your figures sit on movement trays or templates so the whole group can be picked up and moved simultaneously; or have multiple figures glued to a single base. Casualties are tracked individually, and leader casualties are also important, so you'll need the ability to mark casualties. (I use nifty plastic skulls from Litko.)

When I played, we used 15mm and that felt about perfect. Usually moving to 6mm will make all distances a bit more "realistic".

Just released the first campaign pack for A Sergeant's War---Row by Row, 6 linked, fictional scenarios set in the Norman bocage. The set is for sale at Wargame Vault, link

They are playable with other rules sets and I have included notes in the booklet on converting them to other games. They are also bundled with the rules, so you could get both at a lower price.