Blitzkrieg Commander IV has landed

A pleasant arrival in the post today was this little gem:

I will avoid reiterating the story behind the withdrawal of BKCIII which can be found on the Pendraken Forum link on the right. Leon at Pendraken did a sterling job of getting it rewritten and as a purchaser of BKCIII this was sent to me as its replacement.

Therefore, my WW2 projects will progress from BKCII to IV. I have had sight of the Beta version and I liked what I saw. Any fan of BKC will almost certainly be pleased with this and brings up to date the production values present in most rulesets these days. A QRS is provided on the Forum together with other optional extras. This will continue to expand over the coming months.

My plans for a WW2 game will be moved forward to give these a try out soon.  

Napoleonic Campaign - Post Battle Rules

In response to queries about how I calculate casualty recovery post battle, I have attached details here. I have also included how units are re-rated depending on how they perform, gain new recruits, capture or lose a flag etc. There is also the issue of Generals KIA. Again I include how they are replaced.

With regard to the naming of replacement commanders, I retained their original names for a variety of reasons but this was before any of this being made public. It will be my intention that for any future losses new names will be allocated.

General de Brigade rule amendments for 6mm

I have previously commented about the command and control mechanism I use for my 6mm Napoleonic and ACW games to replace those contained within General de Brigade and Guns at Gettysburg rules. I include here some of my thoughts on using 6mm figures and other rule amendment I have made.

For me, the pleasure of using 6mm figures is that it enables me to field large forces on a standard wargames table (for me that is maximum 7'6" x 4'6" but most are played on less than that). This means fielding several Corps but still having the battalion as the base unit. A frequent comment is heard that when playing such a large level game, you, as the army commander, will not be interested in what individual battalions are doing. Therefore the base unit tends to be the Brigade with abstract mechanisms to represent combat. I can fully understand the reasons for those comments and this is not meant as any criticism, but I am interested in what is happening at battalion level simply because it is part of the fun of wargaming. It can provide for intense drama with an almost cinematic feel to a game.

General de Brigade Command and Control

In response to queries about how I have adapted Sam Mustafa's command and control system from his Grande Armee rules I provide some basic detail here. I am loathe to publish the full reworking for fear of breaching copywright laws and also out of respect for Sam's hard work.

Turns are broken down into 4 phases for command and control purposes with each phase being one complete GdeB turn. (I work on the basis that 4 GdeB turns or phases = 1 hour). At the start of the 4 phases the CinC rolls 2D6 and to this he adds 1 for each brigade C/O, 2 for each divisional C/O and 3 for each Corps C/O. If an Exceptional CinC then add 1/3 and if poor deduct 1/3. The result is the number of pips (I use counters) he is allocated for that 4 phase turn. Each of his subordinate commanders (not brigade C/O's) rolls in a similar fashion to ascertain the max number of pips each is able to hold for that turn.

The CinC then allocates pips to his immediate next in line commander. e.g. Army CinC to Corps, Corps to Div and so on. He deducts one pip for each 20cm band distance away to his sub C/O. e.g. if a Corps C/O is 50cm away then 2 pips are deducted from the CinC's pot. The Corps C/O undergoes the same process to allocate pips to his Div C/O. Any pips still held by the CinC or the Corps C/O can only be used for morale rerolls until the end of the 4 phase turn when the above process is repeated. Any surplus pips cannot be held over until the next turn.

Div C/O is different in that he can allocate up to 2 pips to his Brigade C/O's each phase depending on how far away they are from him in 12 cm bands. So up to 12cms 2 pips, 12 - 24cm 1 pip, 24 - 36cm 1 pip at the cost of an additional pip, over 36 cm no pips.

The Brigade C/O then rolls 2D6 plus one dice for each pip he has been allocated and consults a chart to establish if he will act as ordered. An exceptional Brigade C/O can add or subract 2 to the die result and a poor C/O will subtract one. Any 2 dice can be use from those rolled.

Results will be retire, hold, active, attack depending on whether in charge reach or not.

Any detached units get their own 2 die roll but cannot be allocated any pips and they suffer a penalty from being out of command range.

I hope that this has provided a flavour of the Command and Control system I use which is not quite the same as Sam's. For further ideas I urge you to buy Sam's excellent rules which even if not used in their entirety, provide lots of good ideas to be used in your games. His command and control system provides for that added 'friction' in a game without getting bogged down and makes you think how you are going to allocate your limited pips. His free fast play version can be downloaded from here http://www.deepfriedhappymice.com/html/gw_ga_fastplay.html