Thomas Thomas | 15 May 2015 9:47 a.m. PST |
I have been recently persuaded by several friends to put my ‘underground' World War II game Combat Command up for commercial sale by putting the game on WarGame Vault. I have resisted commercializing the game because I wanted it to remain a game for gamers by gamers covering World War II, a period currently dominated by very commercial publications. The purpose of Combat Command is (and will remain) to provide a World War II game able to both cover scenario driven historical battles and one on one match ups between evenly matched forces. Games tend to aim at one or the other of these objectives but I wanted to provide a game to unite both these schools of gamers. Consequently the game uses quite simple mechanics which nevertheless cover the essence of World War II combat with the maneuver element of armored warfare strongly emphasized. We have for years used it to play out a wide variety of historical scenarios in our Atlanta area First Saturday Games. Inspired by these historical matchups I also developed in parallel a system of matching historically derived "Battlegroups" in balanced "pick up" or tournament games. The system uses historical units as its building blocks negating the need for a "force supermarket" points system. In Combat Command you will command a Battlegroup built around a core battalion but with access to typical attachments to create a combined arms force. Each stand represents about a platoon which allows players to use scenarios from many other platoon level games dating back to my starting point: Panzer Blitz. As SPI designer Jim Dunnigan noted years ago this is about the level where combined arms became vital in World War II style combat with armor, infantry, artillery and air all having a role to play. It allows for fighting out famous tank battles such as Arracourt, Ponyri Station and the Christmas Day Attack with reasonable numbers of miniatures in a reasonable period of time. Though playable in any scale, I have put the emphasis on 20mm figures and vehicles reflecting the games original non-commercial origins. This is the least expensive entry level scale where a kid can still buy a box of plastic miniatures for ten bucks and have enough troops to field a whole battalion. Add a box of inexpensive plastic fast build tanks and you've got plenty of stuff to start playing Combat Command. This keeps the start up cost barrier low to our great hobby and helps insure an influx of young players (and lets them learn a little history while they're not looking). I will be happy to work with any commercial figure manufacturer and provide any assistance I can in getting good miniatures into the hands of Combat Command players, but I will never allow a situation where commercial concerns create a barrier to new players (which I feel is a very common but short sighted strategy to game marketing – new players are vital to new sales). I have so far released only the Basic Game for several reasons. First if your like me you can't resist jumping immediately into Advanced rules skipping the author's intentions for programmed learning. I'm trying to avoid this by letting everyone start with the basics and while simple they do contain some new concepts that take a bit of getting used to. The Integrated Sequence of Play creates a good simulation of World War II combat in a straight forward manner but is very different from the You Go/I Go stuff that now dominates the market. It may take you a game or two to get used to before your ready to aid all the extras of the Advanced Game. Secondly it keeps the cost quite low so if the game makes you puke you don't need to invest any more time in rule reading or cost beyond the less the one movie ticket you've had to shell out for the Basic Game. If you like the game and want more don't worry, I will over the next few months publish the Advanced Game rules, more complete listings of vehicles and equipment (the Basic Game covers only the standard stuff), Battlegroup army lists for specific time periods and historical scenarios. Bear in mind that the game is a bit no frills. The emphasis is on clear rules not elaborate staged pictures of miniatures. Illustrations are included to make the rules clear not pad the text. The pictures included are of my lowly miniatures which at least will not scare off anybody into thinking I'm not a good enough painter to join this hobby. If having lots of glossy pictures in a rule book is a big issue for you all I can suggest is getting one of the coffee table rule books and flipping through it while you read (and more importantly play) Combat Command. If you're interested please go out to Wargames Vault and grab a copy. Feedback is very welcome and I'm always available on line to answer questions. Good Gaming, Thomas J. Thomas (TomT) |
normsmith | 15 May 2015 10:27 a.m. PST |
Thanks Tomas – good information. You might want to add a link here. EDIT
LINK – link |
gregoryk | 15 May 2015 11:28 a.m. PST |
Thomas, Can you tell us what the scale of the rules is 1:1, or 1 stand = a platoon? Also posting the sequence of play would be helpful. Cheers, Gregory |
morrigan | 15 May 2015 12:06 p.m. PST |
"In Combat Command you will command a Battlegroup built around a core battalion but with access to typical attachments to create a combined arms force. Each stand represents about a platoon which allows players to use scenarios from many other platoon level games dating back to my starting point: Panzer Blitz." |
ArmymenRGreat | 16 May 2015 7:01 a.m. PST |
@morrigan – Thanks! I suspect most of us didn't read that far ;-) |
Ponder | 18 May 2015 7:13 a.m. PST |
Why is this on the Command Decision board? Ponder on, JAS |
snurl1 | 18 May 2015 10:00 p.m. PST |
Its on the Bolt Action board as well. ??? |
FlyXwire | 19 May 2015 9:41 a.m. PST |
Thomas Thomas, thank you for making your rules available for purchase. I have read through my copy once, but like very much what I see! You say in your Designer's Notes that Combat Command is the result of seven years of thought and design work, but I have a feeling you must have many more years of experience gaming within this hobby (perhaps multiple decades)? Reason I ask, is it takes perspective and confidence to know when you can dispense with minutiae in game design, and realize the end-product can be more dynamic and playable because of the effort. I must complement you on a useable, 2-page QRS too, and look forward to playing what appears to me to be a quite elegant WWII wargaming rule set. |
Centurio Prime | 19 May 2015 10:01 a.m. PST |
TLDR. Is this a new Bolt Action Campaign book? |
FlyXwire | 19 May 2015 6:09 p.m. PST |
Thomas, in the Heavy Weapon v. AFV Damage Table, does the abbreviation "AC" mean "Auto-Cannons"? @Polecat – Combat Command referred to in this thread is a newly released WW2 Battalion-level rule set (not associated with Bolt Action). |
Thomas Thomas | 29 May 2015 8:40 a.m. PST |
Sorry for the cross posting. I put the announcement on all WWII rule sites as I thought many gamers like to play more than on WWII system. I'll try to confine future posts to WWII Rules. Yes AC = Auto Cannon (they are in the soon to be released Advanced Rules). Thanks again to all to all those who played in the NashCon Combat Command games. Flywire: yes I've been playing and designing for a long time. As Mark Twain once remarked: If I'd had more time this letter would have been shorter. Applies also to game design. TomT |
FlyXwire | 13 Jun 2015 2:20 p.m. PST |
TomT, Any estimation of when the Advanced Rules will become available? |
Thomas Thomas | 19 Jun 2015 2:06 p.m. PST |
FlyXwire: I've finished with the advanced rules but am working on a more extended version of the Battlegroup game generator. (And like all designers I have tinkeritest which prevents rapid release of anything.) Expect to release by late June/early July (prior to Historicon). TomT |
FlyXwire | 21 Jun 2015 6:03 a.m. PST |
TomT, that'll be terrific! Looking forward to seeing your ideas for game generation too. |
Thomas Thomas | 10 Jul 2015 4:13 p.m. PST |
Opps. Could not get the Combat Command Advanced rules and game generator done in time – I'm off to Historicon. I'm running a Combat Command game in Atlanta on Saturday PM at Giga-bytes before we all head off. Hoping to run some games of Combat Commmand at Historicon but I'm also in charge of DBA 3.0 so am a bit swamped. New deadline – end of July. Thomas Thomas |
FlyXwire | 11 Jul 2015 8:09 a.m. PST |
Thomas, thanks for the update (I've been checking here and at WV daily). Please take some pics of your Combat Command convention games and post them here (if time permits). |
chrisswim | 30 Jul 2015 9:04 a.m. PST |
In the initial post, the writer indicated that each stand represents about a platoon. |