This set of rules is intended for skirmishes where 1 figure = 1 figure and you move just one figure (or support weapons team) at a time.

The mechanics are borrowed from numerous 1970s style games with DBx Pips stirred into the mix to give a simple turn sequence.

I am an adherent to the "men against fire" school of thought.

This study (and others) shows that most ww2 soldiers spent most ( maybe all) a firefight doing nothing effective. The presence of an experienced NCO or officer is sufficient to gee soldiers on. Crewed weapons have two or more people and hence are much more likely to be active for various psychological reasons.

The examples indicate how I prefer to approach playing rules. These rules are not intended to be rules lawyer proof, if that's how you want to play then it's your problem.

Groundscale is rather glossed over - try not to think about it.

Buildings are a bit of a problem - groundscale compression means that a figure's stand is probably occupying an area 10 real men could pack themselves into. This would be a bit silly in most real life combat, seeing as how one grenade would ruin your entire squad's day.

Having players agonise over exactly where inside walls are, shoot through floors and whatnot is too detailed for my tastes.

Once a figure is in a building they are in close combat with any enemy or are considered to have cleared it

and may occupy any reasonable part they can reach within 4".

Charge 4" of move for moving upstairs if it's a big building or you feel it necessary.

All buildings are considered to have entrances and windows in them from any angle, players should not worry about poking my figures weapons through specific windows, scraping them on walls etc.

Anyone careless enough to roll a dice onto any of my personal figures is considered to have automatically rolled a 1. If you want to play skittles, supply your own.

Both players roll 3d6 and pick the highest two. This total represents their action points for the turn.

Each turn lasts until both players have expended their action points, then the process is repeated.

The player with the highest action points is the phasing player and completes an action, reducing his action points total.

If the phasing player still has more he does another action, otherwise his opponent carries out an action.

A player can claim an action to be simultaneous with his opponent's previous phase. A phase may have had more than one action in it.

Should a roll be equal, the defending player chooses who goes first.

In an encounter scenario where neither is defender, both players re-roll.

A list of actions follow.

Special effects happen at the end of a turn - things like rolling for a building catching fire, rolling for reinforcements, stun recovery, off-table support or other scenario specific events.

Example:

Player x rolls 3 dice and gets 5, 3 and 4.

His AP total is initially 9

Player y rolls 3 dice and gets 4, 2 and 1 ( my sort of luck).

His AP total is initially 6

Player x has a figure in the open and another right next to a building.

He expends 1 point for a dive-to-cover action and 2 for a move.

His two figures are now in cover and player 2 phases.

Player 2 may fire at either the figures just moved as if they were not in cover as he may claim to shoot as they move.

Entrenched soldiers may have grenades at the ready, which are primed for free.

Aiming may only be carried out by soldiers within command control of an officer/NCO, support weapons or soldiers not under fire and not within close assault range.

Dive to cover requires cover to be within range and appropriate enemy activity noticeable for the figure or an NCO/Officer within command.

Safe moves are carried out by infantry who are not under fire and won't reasonably expect to be so, plus are in command.

The increased cost of a move in open assumes there might be some risk.

The high cost of Close assault is incurred because the soldier knows someone is definitely going to get hurt.

These costs may vary depending on scenario - oddly enough green troops may be easier to persuade to get "stuck in"… they haven't seen just how bad things can get… yet.

Motivate allows a leader to gee soldiers up - they will ignore the first suppression placed on them this turn, if already under fire may aim. A quality roll is necessary.

Unsuppress allows a roll against the leaders quality to remove a suppression.

Form group allows the leader to direct fire or movement of a bunch of soldiers within his command for that turn. N is the number of soldiers who aren't NCO or officers. For the rest of the turn, all may perform an action for just a single cost AP. The lower cost is because it's far easier to lead by example. These groupings are VERY important actions.

Rally persuades someone routing to stop, it requires the soldier to be in command and a quality roll.

Give simple orders allows an officer/NCO to instruct someone to give covering fire, go and clear a nearby house or similar task.

A soldier is considered to be "in command" when:

Within 4" of an NCO or officer,

or

Within 9", in clear line of sight and not under fire

or

Within 6" and in clear LoS

Or

Given specific orders to cover an advance or building by an NCO/officer and carrying out those orders

When a quality roll is called for, roll a d6. High is always good, so the quality of a leader is expressed as a number from 1 to 4 and the roll must be over.

Default is 2, meaning a 3 through 6 succeeds.

If both figures are within 2" of one another, then the roll is +1.

The player shooting rolls a number of dice dependent on the guns firing, the target rolls a number of dice depending on cover and range.

A roll of 5 is required for an effect.

Each success for the defender negates one from the attacker.

Each success (5 or 6) on a figure indicates a Wound roll.

For each Wound roll, the player controlling the figure rolls a d6. On a 1 or a 2 the figure is dead, on a 3 the figure is lightly wounded, on a 4 plus the figure will be suppressed.

A figure suffers -1 on all rolls per light wound ( including wounding ) and may no longer dive to cover, close assault or dance.

Two light wounds indicate the figure is dead, unless in a scenario with stretcher bearers and medics.

Example

Joe is on one side of a street and Sgt Rock is in the building next to him. Sgt Rock motivates Joe (1AP) and tells him to dash across the street. This is about 4" and there's some cover, so this is a move to cover (2AP) Joe's player moves his figure from one side to another.

Unluckily for Joe, Hans and Fritz are operating an MG42 covering the street.

The German player goes next and elects to fire at Joe (2AP), " Har har, ve haf you now!" he declares in an appalling stage-German accent.

The range is just dead on 24", so he rolls a d6 ( 1-3 for 6 dice, 4-6 and it's 7 ) he gets 5 and so will roll 7 dice for effect.

Hang on, Sergeant Rock is within an inch of that geezer when he tells him to leg it… says the German player…. " I claim my 3 dice on Sarge".

He rolls 3d6 for Sarge first and gets 2, 4 and 6. One success…

Sarge's player rolls a d6 ( as it's arguably over 24" ) and gets a 3 and thus 2d6 for 24" range, the mg42 would have to shoot through a window or 4 houses so it's heavy cover for another 2d6.

His player rolls 2,2,3,3 and Sarge is suppressed.

Sarge's player curses and rolls to see if Sarge cops one… on a 4 Sarge is "just" suppressed.

The German player grins and rolls 7 dice against Joe "This has got to hurt". He rolls 3,1,2,5,3,5,6 for 3 effects but his motivation will remove one suppression. The range is 24" but Joe is not actually in cover, neither is he moving over 4" laterally so he gets one dice plus another for being within 2" of cover. The players pause to consider the bunching factor - but the German player says "As I won on the range band roll, I'll let you off" the US player says "Thanks mate, seeing as how most of the movement he's further than an inch from Rock and you shot at him anyhow, I reckon you're not doing me much of a favour.."

He rolls 3d6 and gets 3 and 4.

Three wound rolls… he rolls the dice again, getting 6, 5 and 4 which leaves Joe's trousers in need of cleaning but without any extra holes.

A suppressed figure may fight if close assaulted or dive to cover but otherwise does nothing (effective) until unsuppressed.

At the end of a turn, roll a d6 for each suppressed figure.

Add 1 to their number of suppressions - if they roll less than or equal to this, they rout and immediately move 6" away from the enemy via the safest route. If this is not possible without bringing them closer to enemy or enemy are closer than 6" and closer than any friends, they surrender and are removed from play.

An NCO or officer with friendlies within 4" or between him and enemy rolls against the number of suppressions ( otherwise suppressions plus 1 as above).

Rolling 2 over the route score or a 6 indicates a suppression marker is removed.

On rolling a 6, roll again at (an accumulating) +1. Repeat for each natural 6.

A suppressed NCO/officer may also attempt to un-suppress himself using Action points

Example.

The US player has Joe and Rock suppressed at turn's end.

He rolls a d6 for Rock and gets 3 +1 =4, he needed 1 (suppression) + 2 = 3 to remove the suppression so the marker is taken off.

For Joe, the player rolls a 4. He needed to get over 1+2 = 3 to avoid routing so the figure does not rout. He did not get 3+2 = 5 so both suppressions stay.

If Joe had rolled a 3 on one of his wound dice and copped for a light wound, he would have been at -1 on this roll and Joe would have routed.

Full automatic fire can be sprayed so it affects more than one figure.

Any two figures whose bases are within an inch of each are considered bunched up and the shooter gets a "free" extra half again his dice to divide between them.

The firer declares how many dice against which figure before rolling any dice and then rolls against each in turn for effect.

Figures must be all within 3" of each other, with no other ones not shot at and in-between.

A basic 5 or 6 is required to remove the effect of one of the attackers dice.

The target rolls 1 dice plus.

When bunched or crowded, distribute the effect randomly between those shot at.

A grenade may be thrown at a target or trench within 4" or into a house within 2".

Grenades and explosives are messy things, logically a grenade should go somewhere but this leads to problems with groundscale and players wanting to optimise where a grenade is thrown based on knowledge a figure wouldn't have. As a game mechanic, you try and get an effect on a trench, house or (less ideally) area of open ground. If this is not what you want, make templates and randomise exactly where things land. Grenades have a pretty small radius of effect, especially in the open so make your templates a couple of inches and an inch radius.

The main effect from a grenade is not usually to blast people to bits, rather they temporarily stun people, allowing someone to clear a house without running into the teeth of defensive fire.

Grenades are used mainly to suppress and stun anyone inside a building so it may be close assaulted.

Roll a d6 per figure subjected to grenade attack. On a 6 they are dead, on a 3 to 5 they are suppressed.

Any figure inside a house or trench subjected to a grenade ( or any HE) throws one less attack dice for the rest of that turn.

Each attack is assumed to involve more than one actual grenade - all the grenades a normal infantryman carries. Specialist assault troops may carry more. Either give them two uses each and use markers or..

Place a marker by each of assault troop. When a grenade is used by these, throw a d6. On a 1 the supplies run out and that's his last grenade and all the rest only also.

Weapon crews will not normally carry grenades unless in a static defence situation and then only if specified in the scenario.

Figures shoot at the closest, easiest target to them.

Someone in cover is extremely difficult to see… realistically until and unless someone static in cover shoots then nobody beyond a very short distance would be able to see them.

You may not shoot at a target over 12" away which is in cover unless any of the following:

1. Your figure saw the enemy move into that cover
2. Ordered to shoot by someone saw the enemy move / shoot from there
3. Laying down suppressive fire to support an assault by friends into that cover.
4. A volume of single shot or any full auto fire is visibly being laid down on the cover by friends.

In a refereed attack-defence game it is best to have the defender draw a sketch map and initially map deploy, placing his figures if and when the enemy draw within 12" or he wants to shoot with them.

Obviously, figures should not be allowed to react to things they know nothing about.

Soldiers who are not assault specialists and given a close assault action must first a quality roll or they will not move. Assault troops, NCOs and Officers need not make a success roll.

Once in close combat, pair up attacking and defending figures, where the sides are unequal, roll to see who fights who.

If the defenders are stunned ( by grenades) or suppressed, they don’t get to fight back but still get saves.

Close combat is considered to be simultaneous for both sides.

Pick a grouping of figures and roll close combat attacks for one side. The defender gets his 1d6 save plus 1d6 for hard cover, 2d6 for pill boxes or trenches.

The attacker gets 1d6 save.

Once an attacker has "won" a round of combat then his figures are now inside trenches or buildings ( but not pill boxes) and neither side gets the benefit of cover.

The other player then rolls for his figures, including any figures who have just been killed etc.

It is acceptable for all the figures to die or be wounded - close combat is like that.

You win a close combat by having a figure who is neither wounded nor suppressed, whilst all (live) enemy are suppressed or wounded.

If both sides still have figures who are not suppressed at the end of the process then at the end of the turn the rout and recovery rolls are made and another round of close combat is fought.

Rout and recover rolls are then made again and the process repeated one side wins.

Once a side wins, any enemy figures wounded or suppressed are removed from play.

It can be seen that close assaulting an enemy in good shape and in cover is difficult and you are likely to take casualties even if you out-number them.

Street fighting is largely a matter of brutal attrition.

Example.

Joe and Sgt Rock face an mg42 team. They've closed to within 6" and are just in range to close assault.

The US player has Four AP left and the German 2. If they don't do something dramatic then it seems likely that mg42 will carve them up.

4 AP is not enough to prime a grenade and chuck it… so it's time to go for broke!

The US player groups Joe and Rock for 1 AP and still has 3 left.

He declares a close assault and rolls a quality check for Joe - as he rolls a 4, both men charge across and two pairs of figures are made.

Rock takes on the mg42 loader whilst Joe takes on the guy with the big gun.

The German player rolls 2d6 for the gunner, getting 6 and 4. Sarge gets 1 dice save and rolls a 6.

Sarge has an m1 carbine, which is pretty good in close combat as it's a 30 round clip… He rolls 4d6 and gets 4, 4, 5, 1 for 1 effect.

The German player gets 1d6 +1d6 for cover saves and rolls 1,1.

He then rolls for Wounding, getting a 5. The gunner is now suppressed and can't fight back in future.

The German player then rolls 2d6 for the loader, getting 1 and 2

Joe has a Garand and his player rolls 3d6 for 4, 4, 3.

One German is still active and both US figures are fine. ( I really rolled the above ).

At the end of turn, the fight will continue after the rout/rally is rolled for the gunner.

The German player gets a 4 and so the suppression is removed and the punch up continues.

In subsequent rounds, those yanks are now inside the house and so everyone will be rolling just 1d6 for saves.

Where there are only two players then the meeting engagement is probably the most appropriate style of game to play. Sides should be roughly equal. Don't forget to allow for the effect of weapons. For example, a 12 man US squad is not up to a 10 man late German squad since their mg42 will do a huge amount of damage to anything gets in it's way. Put a lot of terrain down on table and things would be more equal.

Attack-defence games are more interesting as there's more suspense involved with the attacker not knowing where the defender is until he opens up. The attacker should have a numerical advantage as the defender will have a positional one.

Either both players must trust each other or a referee is necessary. If the player who map deploys could be described as being rather over-competitive then the referee is necessary to make sure he plays fair.

I recommend starting with a squad or less a side and get a feel for the rules in a first game.

Once you've played a game or two and got a feel for things, or if you don't mind games going wrong…

Victory conditions add more interest to a game.

A side should need to take and hold a central objective, get at least half a squad including NCO/officer off the other side of the table… carry wounded to their own side without incurring more than n extra casualties, shoot a particular figure ( you could play scenes from The Eagle Has Landed ).

The other player has to stop this.

Once you get a really good feel for things, you can think about including turn limits.

In an encounter game it can take a while before both sides get to grips with one another.

This early manoeuvring is not a bad thing the first time you play a game as you'll be able to see how grouping effects things and there's scope for players to mess up and get the odd figure exposed on his own or left behind.

The second game you play, you probably won't want this to happen.

I suggest you include another action - Advance - which is available just as the first action of the first turn.

All figures are moved up to 6 inches directly forward, including into buildings for a cost of 2 AP.

In some scenarios it may be appropriate to include this action until any fire is received or LoS to an enemy achieved.

Another alternative is to allow figures to be grouped for free prior to the game and stay grouped until any fire or they can draw LoS to an enemy.

This represents setting up the NCO/officer setting up fire teams prior to an advance and giving orders to each. The fire teams should be limited to moving forward in a straight line, through cover to an objective specified at the start of the game or whatever.