"A World Aflame" Topic

So I finally decided to give A World Aflame a go, just to see what the mechanics were like. I am looking for a set of rules for the Irish War of Independence and already have a number of figures painted plus terrain. I played Triumph and Tragedy with these miniatures and liked it, but want to see what else is out there.

I was hesitant about a few things regarding the rules, namely the use of average dice and keeping track of ammo. But I found after paying the rules is it is these two nuances that make the game unique and probably what I liked most about them after playing. Units are divided into squads from about 8-10 men plus a leader. The leader grade is not set, but is random, which is interesting. I can see dynamic IRA leaders and yet poor quality British officers. Also when you move, you have a set rate for example 6" for infantry, and yet you add one average die role for walking and two for running. This means that not all of your men will move at the exact same movement. I also like the fact that even though you fired as a squad, you didn't have to roll a handful of dice and individual figures could shoot ant different targets.

On the down side there is no quick reference sheet available and found myself flipping through the book for charts, but most are simple enough that after a few times you wouldn't need them. I didn't agree with some of the modifiers, for example both light cover and hard cover gave you a the same -1 to the die roll. In some instances, because of both range and modifiers it was impossible to cause a casualty, but any time a unit is fired upon, it takes a moral check which makes sense to me.

I want to try another of my scenarios again this weekend, as I never want to pass judgment after one game play. But after a one off, I would say they are quick and easy to learn and a good beer and pretzels game, with emphasis on the beer.

Played this a couple of times and found that the morale rules made it impossible to rally low level troops most of the time. We gave up on them at our club and went back to Chris Peers' Corner of Hell for our early 20th century skirmish games.

Just bought these, with the intention of using them for A Very British Civil War game. Useful to have your insights. Also buying " Went the Day Well" for the same sort of games.

Don't overlook the Pulp Alley skirmish rules -- they're vey clean and altho' aimed at "pulp" adventure scenarios and campaigns, the basic game mechanics work perfectly well for historical skirmish gaming, with "leagues" of 5 to 7 figures being your historical "sections". Just ignore all the "chrome" and the "peril" challenges (Fortune cards), if you like -- but the rules easily permit building historical commands where each figure can have independent skills and abilities and weapons factored in and Leader types can have extra. There isn't any Morale mechanic, however, but it would be an easy thing to add a check against a skill whenever a figure took a hit, and penalize figures that fail this check. The Fortune cards might also add an element of uncertainty, and I think these also have things like "Out of Ammo" among the possibilities.

Just another rules idea. I've played Irish war of independence games with Pulp Alley and been very pleased with how smoothly it went.