"Combat Patrol(TM): World War II will be Released THIS Week" Topic

The final editing is completed. I will be coordinating with DriveThru Cards to make the rules and cards available Monday or Tuesday this week.

In the meantime enjoy this promotional video: YouTube link

I also made this video that demonstrates how combat resolution is conducted in the game: YouTube link My videography skills are primitive, so the video has some flaws, but you will get the basic idea.

See more information here: link

The cards will be purchasable from DriveThru Cards on premium stock along with the free download of the basic rules. The advanced rules will be separate download. I am working with DriveThru on the final details, but watch for a release notice Monday or Tuesday.

I think the videos are well done. The game-play one represents the mechanics quite well. The focus on some of the cards is a bit blurry, but that doesn't detract from the overall effect. Well done and good luck!

Good for solo play ??

I admit to a very limited knowledge of the rules themselves. Only what I have gleaned from watching part of a convention game and what I have taken from the videos you posted to your blog. However, I do "feel" aspects from some other games like Victory Games/AH's "Ambush" and some of the TFL rules series. I in no way imply stolen or copied! Rather, they are actual aspects of combat that they built mechanics to recreate. I "feel" some of these same aspects but with a much cleaner, faster, more modern mechanism being used. Combining these with other parts of your rules, I see a fast flowing recreation of combat that builds its own Fog of War while also adding a speed and intensity without complicated mechanisms. Being familiar with some of your other projects, I see this as a step further along in realistic playability and ease of play. I hope you get the audience you deserve. Good luck

TM? Really?

Yes, TM, really.

Let's take a trip into Fantasyland for a moment and assume that the rules become popular. Why would I NOT want to provide myself protection from people poaching the Combat Patrol logo? I have already had an experience in which I was surprised by a set of rules hitting the market that used the exact same title as a set of rules I had already written and published. "TM" puts people on notice that the Combat Patrol logo is protected in the same was that Dungeons and Dragons(TM) or Flames of War would provide themselves protection. Frankly I am surprised that Flames of War does not annotate their logo with TM or (R).

A trademark includes both the words and the logo, so the words "combat patrol" are not protected, just "Combat Patrol" written in the style shown on the cards and rules.

Now how about we stop picking nits and get back to a discussion of the rules.

Buck Surdu

Ben and zoneofcontrol:

Thanks very much for the kind and supportive comments.

parrskool:

There is no provision in the rules for an engine to control the behavior of the enemy, but if you had some such technique already, then these rules will be fine for solo play.

Buck

Nicely done video that very clearly demonstrates the card system. I can see how your game system is much faster than other systems that use a multiple die roll mechanic for hit determination and the figure it applies to. I can also see how it would be useful for solo play.
thanks for posting the info…

Who did the cover art?

The cover art is by Keith Rocco for the National Guard Heritage print collection. The National Guard Heritage prints are freely usable of credit is given. It is properly referenced in the book.

Looks interesting. I am a bit of a rules junkie so I will be picking these up. The video is well done and does a good job of explaining the system. From what I have seen in the video, it seems like this would be a good game for solo play which is a big plus for me since I don't get out to game as much as I would like.

Paul

Hey Buck, good video. It clearly explained the system. I'll give the game a try some time. Resolving actions one man at a time is one step more granular that I prefer, but I am interested to see how quickly the card draw system actually works in practice. Good luck with it.
Todd

Todd:

One of the things that often slows down games when you are resolving combat one man at a time is when players try to plan where every figure is going to fire. Controlling rate and distribution of fire during a firefight is difficult. That's why I use a mechanic that randomizes which soldier was hit. In this way, the player decides that he is going to fire into an area, but which exact enemy figures are hit is randomized. This makes it faster than many man-at-a-time games -- approaching the speed of resolving fire a fire team at a time.

Buck

Ditto Tango 2 3:

All the Action Decks are the same. You don't build up custom decks like, for instance, Magic. The only difference between the Action Decks is the color of the back so that players can keep their decks separate. Customization for different units and nationalities occurs on the unit record where the stats of the unit and the leaders are identified.

Each figure has the following attributes: Guts (morale), Accuracy (shooting), Melee (hand-to-hand combat), Endurance ("hit points"), and Reaction (ability to interrupt enemy movement). In the basic -- and most common -- version of the game, all the figures in a team have the same attributes, but the leader's may be different. You can play the game at a higher level of resolution, in which all the figures have different attributes. This need not be homogenous. The Commandos might be individually personalized while the installation guards might all have the same attributes, for instance. This allows you to decide that Airborne or Commandos have a Guts of Elite, most troops have a Guts of Regular, and some untested or poor units have a Guts of Green.

Buck

Captain Crunch:

An advantage of this system for solo play is the random selection of targets. You fire into an area, but which figures are hit is randomized. I would think this would be useful when playing alone rather than trying to choose which figure each firing figure would target.

Buck

Yes, I agree Capt Crunch, it would be useful for solo play.

And Buck, it is not just the randomisation of who gets hit that you have simplified but a whole range of looking up charts/ modifiers for cover, rolling to hit etc. I am genuinely curious to see how fast the card draw actually plays compared to a set of charts (the video was obviously very slow for the purpose of instruction).

I would be quite interested to know how you calculated the ratios of each of the values on the cards and how you decided to combine them. For example, the number of cards with zero, one, two, three etc hits and how you decided to have a card with 3 hits, but no cover modifier, or three hits with a move of 4 or whatever the combinations actually are. That is, each card will have strengths and weaknesses (but will be drawn for a given purpose randomly so you never know) and how you have combined them. Is there a card with all strengths or all weaknesses, or does evey card have 2 strengths, 2 weaknesses and 2 average attributes etc?

But that is the maths geek pondering ph/ pk values etc.

This game has "Skirmish Campaigns" written all over it! Perfect size and detail to play out those scenarios.

Well done on the video and information. Some of the time honored elements I see from your other games that work so well. The double randomization mechanic and the fact that a unit can only do 1 "thing" (move shoot etc) per move. I thought the cards looked a little busy and fiddly at first. Now that they are explained, the cards look pretty clever. Looking forward to picking up a copy.

Unfortunately, I probably won't make Fall-In so won't be able to play the thing live.

Have fun stormin' the town!

John

PS. Rules designers take note! This is the kind of information and detail that you SHOULD be publishing about your games!

Todd:

I actually wrote a series of four articles on the design of Combat Patrol for The War-games Website. The six-month exclusivity is running out, and the articles will begin to appear on Cigar Box Battle too.

It is important to note that the various areas of the cards are independent. That is why you cannot draw one card and get hit, which target, what location, severity, and cover all in one card. That would have required 500 cards. So you flip one card and look at the top for the hit/miss. Then you flip another card for the rest of the information. For hit or miss, I made a table that had the desired probabilities and then deconstructed the chart. There are 50 cards in a deck, so each card represents 2%. If there are five cards will all six "bubbles" filled in, that means in the original table, there was a 10% chance of that occurring.

When you draw a card, you are essentially rolling a die and looking and getting a row in a table. The "column" in the table is determined by the few modifiers at the top portion of the card.

I then divided up a human and determined that the head would be hit 5% of the time, the upper torso 10% of the time, etc. Except for the head, 50% of the hits in a particular location are wounds, and the other 50% are incapacitations. All hits in the head are incapacitation. Then I looked at the body and said, what part of the person would be protected by trees? What part by being in a foxhole? Etc. There is a pretty strong correlation between the cover icons and the wound location.

It takes players a turn or two to get used to the card mechanic. It's unique. I have found -- and of course I have a strong bias -- that after a turn or two, the card mechanic flows MUCH more quickly than charts and dice.

Buck

Who asked this Joker:

Yes, I am a big fan of the Skirmish Campaigns books. I don't plan on writing Combat Patrol(TM) scenario books unless there is some small niche area that has not already been covered. There are lots of good scenarios already available in print or on the Web. Skirmish Campaigns are among the best.

Sorry you won't be at Fall In. I hope to see you at Cold Wars then.

Buck

I hope to see you at Cold Wars then.

That's one of my regularly planned conventions. Hope to see you there!

Thanks Buck,

I look forward to seeing the articles, but the summary you just provided is pretty clear. I understood the cards were used for each purpose independently. My question was how you mixed up the various probabilities across the cards (which you have answered). 50 cards seems to be a good spread and the "end of turn" card adds yet another layer of uncertainty.

Just ordered Card Set B and the full rules. Can't wait to give these a go.

Paul

Thanks very much. The rules just went "live" on DriveThru at 2200 Eastern time. The formal Hobby News announcement will occur some time today, I expect.

Buck

A question was sent to me via a PM. I want to clarify something.

When you go to the product page on DriveThru, you will see a couple of options. The "View Rulebook" link enable you to download the free quick start rules. The $5 USD PDF download option is for the full version of the rules. Brian at DriveThru and I talked about this for a while, and we have added text that tried to make that clear. The PDF option is not a downloadable version of the cards. It is the full rule book. You still need to order the professionally printed cards, which should arrive in about 10 days.

Buck

Hi Buck,
I watched your Youtube video. The rules are intriguing and I am tempted to give them a try. However, I have a fairly large collection of 20mm figures and vehicles. Do the rules work for 20mm? I would like to play larger battles, say up to a battalion of infantry per side. Would the rules lend themselves to larger battles between 1 to 2 players per side? Is it possible to ignore the 'wounded' results? How does it handle platoons of 3 to 5 AFVs?

Buck,

Will echo the comments about the videos. I am a C&C freak. Are better leaders activated more often than poor leaders? I see the (gamer) individualizes troops but did not see anything about leadership.

Thanks

Joe

Buck,

I cannot find the link for the downloadable rules. Can you help me locate it? Thanks.

Gregory

Greg:

I sent you an Email with screen shots over the weekend. I'm not sure of the issues. Go here: drivethrucards.com

Combat patrol Set A is listed as one of the hottest titles on the page. Just click on the picture. That will take you to this page: link

You will then see a link under the picture on the product page that says "View Rulebook." Click that link to get the FREE basic rules to preview before deciding to purchase the cards. That will take you to this page: link

Buck

Joegokart007:

I ran a game with 8 players, reinforced platoons, and three vehicles per side last weekend at Fall In. It scales quite well to larger battles as well as working quite well for one-on-one games.

While I am not sure these are the right rules for a battalion on each side, we have used the Combat Patrol Double Random Activation mechanism for 20 players games in the past. Because everyone with the same number on their command die activates at the same time (mostly), it avoids one person doing stuff while everyone else watches.

The rules work for 25mm, 20mm, and 15mm figures. I use them for 25mm and 20mm myself.

You could ignore the Wound results if you like. Having never done that, I don't know if that would speed up or slow down the game.

Buck

I'm curious about the basic mechanics for reaction/opportunity fire. I see reaction mentioned as an attribute, but not any mention on how this works in the game. let's say I'm dashing a group of guys (a) across an open field left-to-right in front of some enemy infantry behind a wall (b). How does (b) get to fire to interrupt this movement?

Never mind … downloaded the basic rules and read section 1.9. Neat.

But now I do have one more question …

If you have two sets of cards numbered 1-6 in the Activation Deck (red and black), and yet if a number is drawn that both sides have on their dice, you currently suggest just randomly determining which side would activate their guys with that die first. Could you house-rule it so either: a) the red represent the Axis side, and they would go first if it was a red number; or, b) if red represented the Axis side, and it was a red number drawn, they have the choice of activating first or second?

Just wondering out loud the rationale for simply making this choice a random one, Buck?

DaveyJJ:

I like your mechanism for determining who goes first in the event of a tie. While the video was not meant to go into activation in a lot of detail, black cards do have a special meaning in the game. Pinned units can only activate on black cards, not red ones. I'd have to think about whether overlaying the two ideas would give an advantage to one side (red) or (black) during tie situations. Off hand it seems like a good idea.

Buck

First off Buck, congrats for releasing your very own game,,,,

Looks really interesting. I'm going to have to give it a try.

Wish you all the best with its success

War Panda:

Thanks. I hope you enjoy it.

Buck

DaveyJJ:

I neglected to answer one of the questions in your post.

The way "opportunity fire" works in Combat Patrol is called Reaction. Generally better troops have a better reaction number. When enemy soldiers move through your firing arc and line of sight, the play can attempt to react with his team. Each soldier flips a card and compares a number on the card against his Reaction attribute. If the number is less than the Reaction attribute, the figure may react. Reaction need not be shooting. So if a bunch of enemy soldiers come out of nowhere and attempt to assault you, you can use your reaction to seek cover. Similarly, reaction is used for soldier to jump out of the way or throw a grenade or other response when a vehicle attempts to overrun him.

After firing the figure accrues a stun marker, which essentially takes away his next activation, since he has "acted early." If you fail this Reaction test, the figure cannot react. If you fail badly enough, you accrue the stun marker but don't get to react. Since this is done by figure, some may React and others may not, so your reaction could be effective or less so.

Buck

I have been reading the rules. If I am seeing correctly, it looks like you intend for a squad to be operated as two fire teams? I was in the process of finishing up an early war German platoon to match my France '40 platoon, and hope to try it out either tonight or tomorrow.

Bill:

Yes, that's right. A squad should be two or three teams depending on the Army. US doctrine call for squads to be three teams: a rifle team, a BAR team, and a recon team. Likewise Marines seem to have operated in three teams. Most other armies seem to have operated in two teams.

Exception would be early war Russian squads I would think. Will let you know when I get the rules. Looks exciting.

Joe

Ordered mine. I wanted something different to play for Christmas