"Best Things About Through the Mud And the Blood?" Topic

TooFatLardies' Through the Mud and the Blood was recently voted in a TMP poll as the preferred ruleset for WWI gaming (ground warfare).

Why do you prefer this ruleset (if you do)?

Not sure this applies exactly as we use it with the C&C rules from CoC. That came in a Christmas Special. That has all the advantages of CoC – cool, simple, straightforward command friction. Then there are specifics of WW1 combat.

They're the only rules I've come across that make trench warfare genuinely interesting and playable at the tactical rather than strategic level. For me they took a subject generally regarded as unplayable, and binned that bit of conventional wisdom. Great set of rules.

For me it is the combintion of very straightforward and (IMO) reasonable combat/task resolution mechanisms with the card-driven activation sequence to add plausible command friction. I haven't tried out the CoC WW1 variant yet, but I suspect it does what the cards do in adding command friction.

Together, the simple mechanisms and nuanced friction mechanic combine in a way that forces me to think in terms of very limited 'span of control' and from what I've read about the period tactical leaders (and higher level ones) really didn't have the opportunity to excert close control during combat.

When I play Mud and Blood I find myself immersed in the evolving game situation and trying to put together tactics that can still succeed when things go wrong (in the form of a particular Big Man, or asset, not activating at a particular time).

Best WW1 grand skirmish rules ever. Makes you 'feel' going over the top as a real experience. It plays like a "wound up clock" as do most 2FL games with the alarm going off being the reactions to what your trying to achieve. This tension is exacerbated by you never knowing when the alarm is going to go off, just like real life warfare. This gives the right feel to it all.
Now Richard when are those Boer war to Russian Civil war for large battles rules due for release. Mate?

They're heavily researched and give each squad interesting things to do, rather than just being a mass of goons with rifles.

I would go with Weasel here. Richard looked at the organisation of typical infantry platoons, saw that each sub-unit (which did not necessarily equate to a squad) had a specific function, and worked those functions into the rules. He didn't swallow the "senseless slaughter" BS and make everyone simply "a mass of goons with rifles" as Weasel says.

yeah, I used "squad" as a general term, but you're right that it doesn't always equate to that.

Just purchased these rules (pdfs) but have some questions--how do you determine the actual table size? And where do you obtain the cards discussed in the rules?

They look good!

Thanks!

6x5 is the usual size for TFL games, but it's rarely critical. Cards are home made, or a lot of people put sticky labels on poker chips to draw out of a bag.

Thanks! Got the table size covered. Looks there are a number of home made cards out there in internet land, too!

Bozhe tsaria khranee!

Hey Virginia Tory, did you find the TFL cards that can be purchased through Arts Cow? I've used these (for If the Lord Spares Us) and they have been good – although it's problematic if you want to add more to the deck. Here's a pic of a few of them: link

Links to Arts Cow cards for TFLs can be found here: link

Cheers
Alan

Thanks!

It's my go to set for ww1. It seems to be to be the most realistic set for ww1 out there with a real period feel.