"Krieg ohne Hass - Review and partial AAR" Topic

Gents, 1st a little background, I know Lance the author of these rules from our local wargames club "Wargames Association of Reading". He asked me if I would like a game and I said yes. As I enjoyed the game he asked me if I would write an honest review. Here it is.

I am not going into great detail of the mechanics, but will cover one or two aspects that I enjoyed. We played Operation Crusader November 1941, My German battle group had average infantry, some artillery, and superior tanks with light gun and medium armour. The medium armour is very important……

The British had a similar force but their infantry was better and their tanks were average light gun and light armour. The significance of this was that the British tanks could not kill the German tanks from range, only throw them back a square. This meant the British tanks needed to engage in close combat.
Being totally new to the game my opponent and I deployed reasonably and moved forward. Well I moved forward my opponent hid most of his infantry in a wadi where they were sheltered. This was a mistake, they were his best troops and needed to be used offensively.
We both had a recon unit that could not shoot at range, as we were playing with simple rules and could see all our opponents they did not seem much use so I sent mine off on a flanking march around the enemy.
A couple of comments on rules. The game is played on a 6 inch (I think) squared board, like chess, and very similar to many Peter Pig rules. In each turn there are four phases, in each phase there are a few sub phases that basically come down to shoot, then move then close assault (if I remember correctly). The clever bit is the 4 phases.
In the 1st phase only recon can move though everything in range can shoot and fight
In the 2nd phase recon and tanks can move whilst everything can shoot and fight
In the 3rd phase recon, tanks and motorised infantry can move, though everyone in range can shoot etc.
In the 4th phase everyone can move etc.
I am not sure how radical this sounds? But I believe it is the heart of the game and an excellent elegant mechanism. It gave great subtleties to the advantages armoured vehicles and even motorised infantry have. As direct fire is only one square, the ability to move is vitally important.
Now for my favourite bit of the game, though it was a fluke and the main reason I loved it was for how red in the face my opponent kept going  From the above comments you will see that Recon can move 4 times in a turn, this allows them to run rings around anything.
Close combat – You get bonuses for number of units fighting, and for having more aggressive orders than your opponent. Now because recon are so fast they can get away with having very aggressive orders as there is very little chance of getting caught in defence by another unit. (Infantry for example have to be very careful of having aggressive orders as this puts them at a disadvantage if themselves attacked and as they are so slow, there is a considerable chance of being attacked so before the 4th phase and they getting to move). Anyway getting back to my recon unit, it was able to dash to the rear of the enemy unit, shooting up infantry, artillery and my opponents recon with a string of amazing roles. My opponent even became so annoyed he sent a tank regiment after me and I clobbered that too!! Really was amazing dice. But when the enemy look as though they outnumber you it is easy for the recon to disappear into the distance.
I won the game and amazingly despite having 5 tank regiments, 4 infantry regiments and 2 artillery regiments more than 50% of all losses inflicted on the enemy were by the one recon unit!!
Now I must say my opponent was also new to the game and was not sure what to do and my rolls were great and his terrible, but I did think recon was a little too powerful.
I must restress the simplicity of the 4 phase movement system, I loved it, quick easy and surprisingly thought provoking.
Well no surprise that was my favourite part of the rules. My least favourite part of the game was Lance's nano tanks, yes 3 nano metre tanks. He claims they were 3mm but I reckon 3 nano metres was closer. I think this game would look superb with beautiful GHQ 1/285th models, and I may actually be able to see what each regiment was or even which way it was facing!
So are you looking for a 28mm small scale skirmish game? Well this isn't it, try bolt action or chain of command
Are you looking for a large company level game with a fair few tanks as well as infantry, well this isn't it, try the superb Iron Cross rules from Great Escape Games.
Are you looking for a divisional level game for micro armour? Probably 3mm to 10mm scale is ideal, then yes I think this is a very good set of rules, well worth checking out for I believe only £5.00 GBP
Presentation and readability of the rules. Lance leant me a copy of the rules before the game and I read most of them, I think making a set of rules readable and understandable the 1st time you read them if you have never played the game before is very difficult. Lance does a reasonable job though I think he is not quite there yet, a few of the concepts confused me on my 1st read through. Lance assured me it would all make sense when we played the game and it did. But it was much easier to learn playing with the author than trying to read the rules cold.
BUT Lance is a lovely chap and very active on forums and yahoo groups and the likes. He is more than happy to provide support for anyone not quite sure about any aspect of the rules. This I think is invaluable. Whilst some rules writers do this nowadays there are still some that do not. I hate this. The implication is either that "how could you be so stupid as to not understand my perfectly written rules in the 1st place" or "I have your money I don't care if you don't understand them". In a small hobby such as this I find this totally unacceptable. But to reassure you, Lance is one of the good guys who will make sure you understand the rules and enjoy the game.

So like divisional level games, love those terribly tiny little nano blobs? Then buy the rules you can't go wrong!

Andy Watkins
AKA Cpt Kremmen

Where can one buy a set?

Caliver Books
Magister Militum
(OMM didn't have it listed)
A little over $23 USD with shipping from Caliver

Yikes! So $7 USD for the book, $16 USD shipping. No PDF option?

This review definitely got me interested.

The book's price is L7.50, which is approx. $11.25 USD, so the postage is approx. the same as the book's price.

This might throw me into the realm of 3mm scale WWII.

If you're considering it, let me say that Pico Armour both have fantastic service and the figures are seriously amazing.

Sounds interesting alright, also sounds like recce units need tweaking!

Thanks Capt Kremmen for the enthusiastic review!
I fully appreciate cost of shipping can put some, more distant, wargamers off trying out a new ruleset so I am quite happy to send a PDF copy to anyone that is interested, for a very modest fee.
There is also a Yahoo Group:

link

This has a selection of Divisional orbats for N Africa and the Fall of France along with a free supplement to convert the rules for the Cold War at Brigade level.
For any more information just ask away!
Lance, author of Krieg ohne Hass.

Lance -- how can I get a pdf copy? Thanks.

Hi Schogun,
For anyone that would like a PDF copy for £3.00 GBP, then just contact me at

lance.flint59@gmail.com

Regards, Lance.

Lance --

Sent you an email last Sunday. Did you receive? Check your spam folder maybe?

Thanks

Schogun

Hi Schogun,
Nothing has come through!
Have triple checked my email address and that is fine, did you include the 59 ?
Lance.

Lance -- Just re-sent.

Chuck

The PDF version is proving quite popular, which is good.

I will have a display/demmo/participation table at the Bovington Tank Museum wargames show in early July if anyone is interested ?
Regards, Lance.