Second World War Wargame Rules for 6mm or 1/285 scale

 One of the games I listed to hopefully play in 2021 was 6mm 1/285  (Micro Armour) Second World War.  The question is which rule set.  First I will present some pictures of past games before briefly reviewing various rule sets I have played or considered.

 Operation Charnwood July 8, 1944

Here are some more pictures of Micro Armour games played between 2004 and 2012 set in Normandy in 1944.

 Operation Charnwood July 8, 1944, run in September 2004

Buron July 8, 1944

Attack on a village of Buron in Normandy

Battle for Buron, using Spearhead rules

Typhoon attack  Normandy 1944

German position in a field, Normandy 1944.

Cromwell IV tank by CinC

 

The following pictures are from a game we played in 2012 called "Pushing Forward: Normandy July 1944."

This is a fictional scenario written by Keith McNelly and is set on the Western Front during early July 1944 and uses the "Spearhead" miniatures rules. The scenario was inspired by Robert Neillands' "The Battle of Normandy 1944". 

https://ww2spearhead.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/pushing_forward_1944.pdf 

 German defences, played in 2012

British Shermans cross the stream

British advance

German Pak40 takes a killing hit

 German hill position

 German hill position under attack

 

 

Rules Review

 

There are a variety of rules available for 6mm (1/285 or 1/300) Second World War games where one base equals a platoon listed in no particular order other than #1.

 

Spearhead

 

My go to set of rules.  They are fast play, more abstracted than the other rules listed below but the weapon stats are still very historically accurate and the game plays fast and gives realistic historical resulsts.  One way the rules are streamlined is that to hit and destroy results are done in one dice roll, firing is also done by weapon type.   However many players don't like the restriction of only being able to turn 45 degrees per turn and having to draw orders on maps.  Plus I would like to see rules that influence armour peneatration based on range beyone the basic ones included.  I think the rules are out of print, but you can often find them on eBay or at Noble Knight Games and other book sellers.    There is also a newer Modern Spearhead (Cold War) version.  I really wish  that auther Arty Conliffe would create a second edition using some of the innovations in the Modern Spearhead, althugh some of this has been done unoficially online.  

 

They are supported by an active Facebook group and webpage.

https://spearhead.wargaming.info/

Micro Armour the Game II

 

 These rules have very  historically accurate armour and infantry stats and an inovative activation system based on unit cohesion that is very good.  However I do find you end up with a lot of suppressed and disordered units and the terrain / shooting system is a little clunky  resembling a board game (non-intuitive). 

 

 

 Sold by GHQ the makers of Micro Armour and there is / was  a forum linked to the GHQ webpage.

 https://www.ghqmodels.com/products/micro-armour-the-game-wwii-2nd-ed-softcover

  

Kampfgruppe Commander III

 

Formerly Clash of Armour II, these rules probably have the best activation / command and control system I have seen based on using pips and customized commanders.  They have very historically accurate armour and infantry representation and are well organized.  However the learning curve is a bit steeper than the other rule sets listed. But I must say I really enjoyed them when I played version I with the author some years ago.

 

 

 They are supported by a Facebook group.

 https://www.wargamevault.com/product/219113/Kampfgruppe-Commander-III?affiliate_id=368817

Command Decision IV or The Test of Battle

 

Frank Chadwick's innovative set of rules that work very well for 15mm or 20mm.  It is a battalion level game and I find they are a bit too slow for larger scale 6mm games if you field more than 4 companies.  Nonetheless a good realistic set of rules that I used for a number of years before switching to Spearhead. With Command Decision II (which is the version I first played) Frank Chadwick opened my eyes to a key aspect of scale in W.W.II rules as these were the first rules I had played (other than the board Games Panzer Blitz and Panzer Leader)  that were platoon scale (infantry stands represent platoons of 40-50 soldiers, vehicle models represent platoons of 4-5 vehicles). The old adage that 1:1 representation where 1 figure represents 1 actual soldier or vehicle was not in fact "more realistic" is in fact false, and  hampers properly re-fighting most major W.W.II battles as in 1:1 you are unlikely to have enough space or figure to re-fight the full battle and can only do an arbitrary segment of it.  With 1 base = a platoon is is much more practical to fight the full battle and face the decisions the commanders at the higher level had to deal with.

 

 

Blitzkrieg Commander (BKC) I 

 

I like the command and control system in the Blitzkrieg Commander (BKC) rules which is based on Warmaster's innovative game engine and seems to work well. On the other hand the combat system just does not  capture the flavour of W.W.II for me, it feels more like a battle of attrition where you try to accumulate suppression markers on enemy stands trying to get enough to destroy them before the turn ends and all the suppression or hit markers are removed.  This is based on my experience playing the first edition of BKC from 2005.

 

 

However since then there have been 3 more editions and the rules have been bought by Pendraken Games. There is now a 4the edition, BKC IV (2019) and they have apparently undergone significant updates so it may be worth another look as they have had many good reviews. 

 

A Fistful of TOWs 3  (FFoT 3)

A relatively new set of rules to me but they have in fact been around since at least 2000 (FFoT 2).  They were recommended by a friend, Mark Severin,  as a good set of rules for Second World War, I had at first thought they were just for the Cold War, but in fact they cover 1915 to 2015.  They were also very intimidating at first glance at 458 pages but the rules  are in fact not complicated to play and very streamlined, most of the pages involve vehicle stats and army lists.  Each base represents a platoon, the ground scale is 1" = 100 yards, and the shooting system takes into account range for both hitting and penetration for AFV and seems very realistic.  Morale is an important factor in the rules.  FFoT3 are designed for 6mm but will work for any scale from 3mm to 20mm with an expanded ground scale for larger scale figures.  They are supported by a Facebook page and a Groups page and a trial set is available free along with playing aids at their webpage:

 http://fft3.com/

These have the potential to supplant Spearhead as my go to rules set.

Schwere Kompanie

I have not tried these rules yet so can't say much other than they are available as a PDF that you can print out, they are well organized, and the weapon stats look very realistic and they are well supported by the author. These are tactical rules where one base of infantry represents a squad and vehicles and guns are individually represented.  It might be possible to "bath tub" them to 1 stand = 1 platoon. I have listed them here due to the impressive work they do in presenting unit data cards.

 

 

More details here:

http://ritterkrieg.blogspot.com/2015/07/schwere-kompanie-rulebook.html

All Hell Let Loose (AHLL)

A new set of 6mm scale Second World War rules (2020) that show some promise with an innovative activation system and streamlined combat, although the armour and infantry stats may need some reworking (gun on the Sherman and Panzer IVH are the same as us the firepower of a German and Allied infantry platoon?).  I look forward to trying them.

https://www.allhellletloose.co.uk/

The Facebook page with some good information:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/allhellletloose

Blog:

https://www.allhellletloose.co.uk/?fbclid=IwAR2_sQMbgRgh40F0FWBR3K_YSUsK1WNstehXOKeYm1F3QvTtGSWCBHOgdaw

Flames of War (FoW) 4th Edition

While strictly speaking a 15mm game, it actually in my opinion works better with 6mm as it helps avoid the "parking lot effect" you get with 15mm FoW.  They are also a 1:1 scale set of rules (skirmish), but I have seen them "bath tubed" to effectively represent 1 stand equals a platoon but hardcore players don't like to admit this as for some reason they think 1 to 1 is more "realistic". They are not my favourite set of rules, too many problems: no opportunity fire, too many abstract bolt on rules, too many supplements, too many updated with more books to buy.  So why I have I listed them I can hear you asking?  Primarily because they are the most popular set of W.W.II rules wehre I live and if you I want to get a game in at my local club I end up playing these.  Plus their supplements have some good information on organziation and painting.

WRG Armour and Infantry (1973)

These are 1 to 1 scale tactical rules that I played when I started gaming in 6mm W.W.II and they were very good for their time (main competiro in my area was Angrif) and we eventually created house rules for them to fix some minor problems (like the Tiger I having the same front and side armour rating). Infantry movement was rather slow but as the scale is adjustable from 1mm = 1m to 1" = 50m this can be fixed.  I played these rules for about 10 years, before experimenting with other rules then switching to Command Decision II. One reason I switches was that the long awaited update that was supposed to incorporate the best of the newer post Second Word War WRG Modern rules was disappointing.  This happened in 1988 and the new set of W.W. II rules fixed many of the problems from the first edition (new armour, and AT ratings), but unfortunately in doing so Barker added additional complexity (mode system for movement) that made the rules much less playable / enjoyable.  They could likely be adapted to 1 base = 1 platoon and made more playable by using the 1973 set incorporating some of the 1988 rules and / or house rules. However as there are so many other sets of rules on the market I have yet to take the time to do this fully.

 

Tank Battles in Miniature: North West Europe 1944-45

By then noted author and historial Bruce Quarie and  published in 1976 a few years after he wrote the Airfix W.W.II rules. They are a set of rules  I experiments with while playing the WRG rules, they has some excellent informaiton on vehicles and organziatgions plus the campaign in N.W. Europe  but the rules themselved  tended to be a bit slow to play (differentiated between hull and turret hits).  Ther are a number of other volumes in the set covering the Russian Front, Mediterranean campaing and the Desert Campaing, but sadly not France in 1940.  Like Frank Chadwick, Bruce Quarrie advocated a scale of representation of 1 base = a platoon in order to fully represent major battles.  Not sure if he or Chadwick were fist in advocatign this for W.W.II or if it was Gene McCoy of Wargames Digest but their arguements were correct IMHO and stand up today.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31423/tank-battles-miniature-3-wargamers-guide-north-wes

There are many other rule sets I could include in my list including Rapid Fire and  Firefley but they had no great impact on my gaming.