"anyone still playing battleground ww2?" Topic

i still like easy eights battleground ww2. i remember it was quite popular when it came out.
anyone still playing?

Yes

I play BGWW2 on occasion.

It was why I found tmp in the first place looking for a review of these new rules.
Felt that Arc of Fire was an improved evolution of the system so went with that. Same results and feel in a simpler rule set. Also discovered Battlefront WWII. Liked the old scenario packs and stuff on the web covering the Bulge, the newer stuff was kinda hokey.

We still play every so often.

I do and is my WWII rule set of choice. We also still sell them.

link

Duane

Haven't played that in awhile but it's one of my favorites, especially Pacific. Playing the rules 16 years at Cold Wars hot me into WW2.

i always wished they would have made a tankers challenge 2, with more tank charts.
are there any "fan made" tank charts on the net?

Yes I have made several. I am reworking all the original ones with better graphics. British(37) and Italians(12) are done and almost done with the Russians. Also have made 31 new German charts.

My gaming group still plays Battleground a lot. Working on Modern House rules.

Still play it a lot. I am going to start using it for Weird War II. I have been moving in that direction. Have a couple of armored walkers, and now some German zombies I am working on.

can i get copies, evbates?

Ed – you've been holding out on me I see. Would like copies as well.

Don

Would love to see new charts
Our group really likes them and plays them for WWII

So my above post proves that at 47 I need reading glasses.

I am leaving for vacation in the early morning hours. I'll share with anyone send me a email at ccbates@comcast.net. When I get back.

Yes, indeed! Great set of rules…

Hi Don, I was going to give them to you at the next time we would meet at a convention but I have been unable to attend the last two.

They are the rules that got me playing WW II, so for that they hold a special place in my heart. But a worse written and organized set of rules I could not imagine. They were also slow and ponderous to use-- we never, ever came close to actually finishing a game. I finally accepted I would never play them again and sold off all my three ring binders of the rules and scenario packs last year.

As with Brucka once Arc of Fire came out (and I was a play tester from day one) I never looked back. It streamlined a lot of the worst bits of BG and made for a much better game.

The tank charts, at least from a hit location standpoint, are pretty generic.

I seem to recall seeing a general one for creating custom vehicles, that didn't have a vehicle pictured on it.

No doubt, with a little research, and interpolation, one could come up with the required armor stats for various vehicles, without too much difficulty.

I thought there were some decent on-line vehicle reference charts once upon a time, but last time I did a Google search, and checked the files in the Yahoo Group, I didn't find more than one, or two charts for the vehicles, sadly.

Been a while since I've looked at the Tank Charts product, so not sure which of the more common vehicles need charts created for them.

I seem to recall that the game could use some more German tank hunter charts, but am not sure about those for other vehicles.

but is'nt arc of fire like fow ie a fire team per stand? i like one to one.
i bought the battle group kursk and while others seem to love it, i guess i just did'nt get it…

No doubt, with a little research, and interpolation, one could come up with the required armor stats for various vehicles, without too much difficulty.

The stats for nearly every American, German, & Russian vehicle were provided in the main rules, just not a specific tank chart for each tank. The tank chart usually had special rules that the stat listing did not provide, ie; Bog rules for the T-34. The main rules came with a chart for the Sherman, PzKpfw IV, and the T-34. The location rules are generally, in that a 18 is always main gun a 20 commanders copula, etc. In Crusade for Empire supplement, Italian and British armor stats are provided.

Of course there are the really odd ball or very specific tank charts found in other supplements. But, yes some tank charts were never produced French, Hungarian armor etc not so much.

But a worse written and organized set of rules I could not imagine. They were also slow and ponderous to use-- we never, ever came close to actually finishing a game.

To each there own, but their rules are structured around five themes. Generic rules for spotting etc, Infantry, Armor, artillery, and terrain rules, followed by scenarios to employ. They were also written over 20 years ago.

We use to play Battleground every Tuesday night for years. Yes there were some long evenings but we almost always finished our games. I think the size of game really dedicates how long a game will take, not the rules. People seemed to want to put more lead on the table than the rules could handle, although once you become very familiar with the rules larger games are possible. One of the key rules in the game is morale, pretty tough to keep a squad in the game once they start breaking and are removed from play. That is always a game ender, lol

Yeah baby, our "Go To" WWII rule set.

I still play it. In fact over the last few months it has been used in about half our weekly games. As far as being badly written I totally disagree. I feel people who make that comment usually have tried to play games with far too many troops on the table. Because of its granularity for infantry combat it will not support much more than a platoon of infantry on a side. We however regularly play games to completion in 2 1/2 to 3 hours with up to 4 squads of infantry, support weapons like AT guns and even two platoons of tanks.

I have played Bolt Action, Chain of Command, and Disposable Heroes as well but find all of them lacking when compared to Battleground. Lately we have been playing some Mein Panzer games to test the rules and while I like the rules I still feel for tank on tank rules Battleground is faster and gives results I would expect in real life. We have not gotten down to infantry battles yet as we are playing larger scale battles with micro armor. Last night for example we played a Soviet tank battalion against a German heavy tank Kampfgruppe. It was a hard fought battle with the Soviets finally acheiving their objective after 4 hours and 11 turns of play.

Brad Saunders is working on an updated set of rules and Duane above has streamlined the infantry somewhat in his house rules to make infantry combat move along more briskly. Battleground WWII is my Go To set for WWII as well.

….but is'nt arc of fire like fow ie a fire team per stand? i like one to one…………

No, Arc of Fire is one to one just like Battleground. Squads typically consist of 10-12 minis. You remove individual casualties as they occur. BG is D20 based and has a more detailed infantry weapons chart (i.e there is a difference between a "thompson' and "grease gun" Smg). AoF is D10 based and IMO plays much faster and "cleaner".

In Arc of Fire The better trained units have smaller teams – junior NCO's make a big difference. So a US Ranger squad had about 4 men per team and two to three leaders (one active) whereas a Somali grouping may have 18 or more with only one leader. Less tactically flexible and more brittle. So yes, one to one and more emphasis on training than weapons. Feels very cinematic like Battleground did, but crisper. What was great about battleground and arc of fire was that you could play an imbalanced game and have less than a platoon on the table and the mechanics wouldn't break down as with some more (really good) recent rule sets so either set is still indispensible in my opinion for a game where a platoon and supports on each side is not necessary for balance.
The best part of Battleground, I thought, were the scenarios and being able to use the rules with SkirmishCampaigns books.

BGWWII is a great set of rules and I still use them when gaming WWII. That being said, we had to make significant changes and tweeks to get them to run smoothly. But now they do and the games are great fun.
Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.

I have played Battleground since about 1999 or so. I host 2-4 games each during Fall In, Cold Wars, and Historicon. I use a few home rules but not many. Mostly designed to keep the game flowing, especially with a lot of infantry on the board.

Always looking for ways to keep the pace of the game moving and have had great conversations with Ed Bates and few others on this subject over the years.

Occasionally I get a convert who wants to buy the rules. I send them to the flea market first and then to Syr Hobbs (Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Syr Hobbs in anyway but he does provide good service).

I have tried other skirmish rules but I always come back to Battleground WW2. Just a personal preference.

Don

I played a lot of great games of BGWWII. I remember playing in St. Louis, on their cool bocage table. I was a kid at the time and the authors were always cool about me playing and very encouraging.

In terms of what I like to play now---I think I've moved past them. They are at their best in small, close-in fights. But I dunno. Maybe I should break out a copy and try a game.

I think they were organized and written pretty well. Never had any trouble comprehending the rules or explaining them to other people.

Been playing it a lot at Metropolitan Wargamers in Brooklyn, NY recently in both 20mm and 28mm. I love the nuanace and am considering doing a 'how to play battleground' series on my blog soon.

Recent AARs can be found here: link

Moving boxes around to make room for more boxes I stumbled across my old 3 ring binder with these rules. I had forgotten about these. Doing a read through of the infantry rules to have a go later this weekend.

Totally agree with Rod

Read through the rules and started a small skirmish using these rules today. I like them so far. I am playing solo so I am going slow. No issues so far.

Ok I am in the midst of a Battle of the Bulge skirmish with a depleted US platoon (15 soldiers) with a 30 cal. MG and an AT Gun against a reinforced German Platoon (30 soldiers) with 2 Mark 4's and a halftrack.

I am really liking this ruleset. I'm digging the armor rules with hit location and penetration. Pretty cool.

I am going slow to make sure I get everything down. But I am occasionally still making mistakes. Anyway, the dug in Americans are really giving the Germans a tough time moving up. But once the AT Gun is out of action the game will probably be over quick.