Veteran wargamer and simulation and weapons expert 'Bill Farquhar' has written and published a somewhat unusual set of rules, entitled 'Wargames Rules for Armoured Warfare at Company and Battalion Level 1925 to 1950'. These rules, written with Phil Barker's permission, are the 'missing' set of WRG WW2 1925-50 company-battalion level tactical rules. WRG fans may recall that there were WW2 and Modern sets released in the early-mid 1970s, another set of WW2 and Modern rules each released in the late 80s, but only the modern set was released at the end of the 1970s. As one would expect, the modern set showed transitional features between the simpler first edition and the more complicated late 80s set. The jump between the WW2 editions was correspondingly bigger. In any case, all this is explained much better by 'Bill' himself in his introduction.
It feels very much like a WRG-style set. Recommended ground scales are 1mm to 1m for 15mm and 25mm models, 1mm to 2m for 6mm models. All distances are given in metres however, so you can basically use whatever scale seems most appropriate and the game will work fine - I have used at least 3 different ones without issue. It doesn't have the 1":100m scale which many older gamers seem to recall, which meant that infantry moved very very slowly around the battlefield! Each model represents a soldier, weapon or vehicle. A rifle group consists of 3-6 soldiers, so small squads/sections will tend to have one rifle group and an LMG team, whilst a larger squad/sectoin will tend to have an extra rifle group. Each side has a 'bound' each, with two bounds representing a turn of about 5 minutes. It has some recommendations for table sizes and markers and deployment methods and so on.
As is common for WRG rules, it contains extensive points values and some rules on choosing an army. It gives armour values for plenty of AFVs - much more extensive than 1e, a little less so than 2e.
There is still significant attention, as in the other editions, given to command and communications. It supposes that short written orders will be used to determine activity; there are also specific actions that each unit may carry out, although it does not have the 'modes' of 2e. I was a bit sceptical of these but soon got used to them, as all they are basically doing is replacing rules which constrain, say, how a tank might move and fire by presenting a couple of different actions which represent moving and firing in different ways. Movement is fairly straightforward - a bunch of distances and a list of constraints and conditions.
Instead of the fully deterministic spotting of 1e, this variant has a simpler version of the target acquisition rules of the 2e. They are easy enough to implement, but they definitely make the game a little slower - and less predictable - than in 1e.
The firing rules are familiar from 1e. The firers weapon is compared with the range, this gives a score which a die roll must equal or exceed to hit. There is a mercifully short list of factors. Deliberately suppressive fire may be used, although suppression may be an outcome of direct aimed fire too. If a hit is achieved, then a further roll determines the fate of the target. Most types of weapon/ammunition are included. Infantry which is prone, in cover or escaping are really hard to kill with bullets except at close range - HE weapons are much more effective, the bigger the better!
The section on area fire - including from machine guns - and indirect fire is quite extensive although at its heart, pretty straightforward. It, building on the good work in 1e, attempts to give a flavour of the different types of mortar and artillery fire missions possible, the different types of effect produced, and the limitations of each. Actually resolving such attacks is relatively easy once you have worked out this. There are some clear rules for restricting ammunition natures under certain conditions to stop player weirdness, although everything remotely historical should be allowed. Interestingly, buildings are not a very healthy place for infantry to be if under heavy artillery bombardment!
'Morale' is incorporated through the familiar (iconic?!) reaction test format. There are a reasonable number of modifiers but I find myself remembering most of them quite rapidly during play: you get a sense of what die roll indicates what type of reaction quite soon.
There are reasonably comprehensive rules for engineering tasks, as well as rules for air defence and night fighting and so on.
Overall, these rules are a triumph in the sense of they do feel exactly like a late 1970s WRG WW2 set would be like! They seem to work well for all levels I tried it at, from reinforced platoon/very weak company to battlegroup. The extra armour classes seem to remove some of the oddities present in the 1e. The familiar and successful mechanics are all successfully developed. The target acquisition rules are all sensible, although rules which make observation depend on a die throw are always going to be a little slower than those which don't: however, they are an important part of the rules, in that they are effectively a further negative 'to hit' modifier to somewhat tame the effectiveness of weapons at short range. Infantry remains realistically hard to see and hard to destroy, if it is static and/or in cover - infantry wandering about is vulnerable. The absence of the 'modes' of 2e removes a lot of the 'national characteristics' that that set enforced - I don't find I missed them much.
Since I still play WRG 1925-1950 1e as my 'regular' choice of WW2 rules at this level, it is no surprise that I really enjoyed them. But really enjoy them I did! They are also a very important rules family historically, which had a huge influence on wargaming and it is great to see this addition to them. Recommended both in its own right as a very playable set of WW2 rules and as an interesting piece of WW2 game design. The rules are available from Lulu.
| A Normandy 1944 game using these rules, very loosely based on Villers-Bocage |
There are plenty of posts of games using versions of these rules on my blog, e.g. here and here and here and here and here).
Disclaimer: I did a little playtesting and commenting on some drafts of these rules. This is toy soldiers so I would feel free to say what I like regardless, but this review is based on the published version of these rules bought and paid for by my (bad?) self.