"Best 6mm WWII Rules" Topic

Gentlemen,
Looking for suggestions for WWII rules for 6mm. Say Regimental or higher level.

You might consider Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII (http://www.bucksurdu.com/Buck_Surdu/Look,_Sarge,_No_Charts.html). I am one of the authors and am biased, but I think it provides a nice flow, and some of the mechanics for activation and spotting are very innovative. It is designed for each player to command a battalion. I use 10mm figures, but on of the other authors use 1:285.

Buck

I don't know if this will fit your "regimental and higher level" bill, but we use "Blitzkrieg Commander II" rules where every stand of vehicle is a platoon-sized unit.

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Jim

I really like Fistful of TOWs 3 for this. Units are platoons or half companies but it plays equally well at 1:1.

Despite the name it covers the entire period of armored warfare, from 1917 to the present. The book contains all the data needed, so no need to buy army lists etc. One book does it all.

Here is a summary of the second edition – third is a minor tweak, cleaning up some of the mechanisms:

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I also play a heavily modified Flames of War which will work if you have multiple players per side:

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Agree with ColCampbell in that our group after years of trying everything under the sun settled on BKC2. The newest version, BKC4 (BKC3 was a printing/development disaster and has been scrapped) should be out soon, so you may want to wait for that. Here's a BKC battle report that will at least show you how the game looks in 6mm:
wfhgs.com/friday091018.html

Test of Battle/Command Decision. I've not played ToB (the current version of CD), but I still think that the original CD was a good set of rules. Players can run battalions, which might be a little smaller than what you are looking for.

ToB is in print, Command Decision can be found on eBay and other sites from time to time.

Which do you think is easier to learn FFT or BKC? Say for a regiment, what is the average number of vehicle or infantry stands that are needed. I'm looking at primarily doing the Pacific.

An officier commands formations one level below him, but should know the location of units two levels below.
If you want to command an RCT or Bde, you should command Battalions and have Company size units on the table.

Five Corps Brigade Commander link is cold war but if you can gin up the stats for the hardware it can be used.
Command Decision link
Spearhead link for the command mechanic.

At a certain point of upper command levels you start to border on board games.

I myself like the old Spearhead rules – but I have heard a lot of good things about BKC

Spearhead.

highly recommend Spearhead for that level of play

For about half a year, I've also been looking to play the Pacific War at higher command levels. To command regiments (or larger) units really need to to be platoons or companies. I am so far unhappy with all of the published choices. Sorry I don't have any killer suggestions.

Nearly all WWII rules are written for the European cockpit, where AFVs and vehicles are common. The two most common dynamics of Pacific War combat were massive beach assaults and see-saw fights in heavy terrain.

The best infantry games I know of, that really do justice to infantry-only or infantry-mainly combat, are Chain of Command, Fireball Forward, and maybe I Ain't Been Shot Mum, but those are all far too low-level to manage whole regiments, or even battalions, and too "skirmishy" for micro-scale miniatures.

Spearhead is about the right command level, but a very poor choice because it has no Pacific War OOBs, no command structure between regiment and platoon, strict written orders system, inflexible maneuver system, a "who moves, dies" dynamic… Spearhead would actually do quite well to play massive, high-attrition landings on Pacific islands where one side is dug in and doesn't move and the other side just dies and dies and dies while trying to consolidate a foothold, but it has all the wrong mechanics for close jungle fighting with rampant C3 blackouts.

Blitzkrieg Commander might work just fine, after creating the right OOBs and rules to handle Pacific-specific C3 and equipment. The initiative system creates a one-player-at-time dynamic which I disliked because I prefer multiplayer games, but with only a couple players it's probably a really good way to represent the C3 difficulties of infantry in heavy terrain in an interesting way.

Kampfgruppe Commander II also has some promise, but I rejected it because, again, it's an initiative-based one-player-at-a-time system, and the company decision cycle is a bit meaty so I think the game would be a slow slog with formations above battalion size. The design does emphasize infantry actions, so if you can create your own OOBs it might be a satisfactory solution for smaller actions of about a battalion per player.

If you like the Piquet approach to gaming, you can probably make Field Of Battle WWII work. It has a lot of mechanics that should work well to create the C3 and morale problems of the theater, and the force-level morale clock is a nice way to keep Pacific infantry actions on suitably short reins. My FOB gaming group rejected these rules because they felt "too generic", but I actually consider that a boon for Pacific War gaming. I personally am not a big fan of the FOB system, so I rejected these; you may feel differently.

I rejected Command Decision because it's a bit too low a command level, it's very-detail oriented and a bit slow to play, and I also doubt I'd find anybody to play with. These rules have a reputation among WWII gamers.

I agree with Walking Sailor that FiveCore Brigade Commander looks promising. It's not specific for WWII, but it looks like it should be relatively easy to adapt, and it's already at the right command level and has a lot of the right mechanics for infantry-heavy Pacific War fighting. I haven't tried it or even analyzed it very carefully yet, so I'm unaware of gotchas.

You should give a good look at Extra Crispy's FOW modifications. I'm a scathing critic of FOW, but it may actually be an excellent game for the Pacific War. The "sliding scale" ranges will not even be noticed in heavy terrain typical of jungles and mountains in the Pacific theater. The game has fast mechanics, so the small unit sizes won't get in the way in larger battles. The game has a lot of support and experienced players already, so it should be easy to ramp up quickly. There's no reason it has to be played in 15mm.

- Ix

If you're willing to use a gridded table, a couple more options open up:

Rommel, by Sam Mustafa. Already the right scale, just needs OOBs and scenarios.

Panzer Grenadier, the board game by Avalanche Press. This is an old and very well-sorted system that plays at the right pace. Units (er, counters) represent platoons (or arty batteries), but they tend to operate in company-sized groups under commanders, and the game scales up reasonably well. Units don't just disappear into red mist, they tend to falter and stall, and infantry units can suffer step losses. Attacks have to be organized and then pushed and rallied and re-mounted and pushed some more – it takes time and effort to get an attack to work, just like real life. There are already published scenarios for the Solomons and New Guinea, and all the major unit types are covered. It's a good game, but it is a board game, and it plays like one.

- Ix

For 6mm WW2, I am an old fart and still play Fire! Goon! Feurt!

Firing to penetrate if you can the armor rating of the target. Movement class ratings for fast play.

I second extra cripy's recommendation. A fistful of tows 3 is excellent.

Have you tried Fire & Fury Battlefront ? I use these rule with 6mm but use the 15mm scale. They have a separate set of cards for the Pacific theatre of operations. They have a couple of scenarios on their web page of British vs Japanese and Australian vs Japanese.
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For these levels of game

Field of Battle WW2
Kampfgruppe Commander
Spearhead
Look Sarge No Charts WW2
Blitzkrieg Commander
Battlefront

All fit the bill to greater on lesser degree depending on what you find most important ie units stats, command & control etc

At Regimental and higher Panzer Korps also deserves a look. Each stand is a company and the smallest maneuver element is a battalion. I personally think Panzer Korps plays best with smaller scales like 3mm, 6mm and 10/12mm.

Rapid Fire using 6mm scale while maintaining all the firing distances and movement is great. Also recommend FFT 3