Battle Cry WWII

Very, very First Draft !

 

I) Introduction

 

First of all, I beg your pardon for my English as it isn’t my native language which is French.

 

This is an attempt to adapt the excellent « Battle Cry » System from Avalon Hill© to the World War Two period.

The three principals ideas which drive this project are:

 

·        KEEP IT SIMPLE: As this is the main thing that pleased me in Battle Cry. I’ve spent five years in the Wargame hobby (as a player only) and searched a lot for a rule simple, fun and complete. I’ve played a lot of different rules and was regularly disappointed by the hours and hours of time spent to learn the rules, to translate it to my clubmates and to search in numerous tables the results of a simple fire.
Battle Cry was explained/translated to my friends in 5 minutes and we played 5 scenarios in four hours when, with others rules, we hardly finish one game.
Nonetheless, the diversity of armament and types of units in WW2 leads to an amount of complexity in this add-on but the goal is to keep it the lightest possible.

·        KEEP THE FEELING OF THE PERIOD: I’ve read a lot on the American Civil War and particularly on the battles and the two things that surprised me were the lethality of the weapons and the lack of command during this war.
These two things are very well and simply represented in Battle Cry.

·        KEEP THE MATERIAL OF THE GAME: As I’m not a game producer, I don’t want to have to make new dices, new cards etc.!  And I want that all players could play this game with the material of Battle Cry, to encourage them to buy the game !
They should only have to buy the figures (1/300th could be nice).

 

What I would like now is that every readers of this document could suggest me ideas to make it better but keeping in mind the three “commandments” above. Especially if you can find some smart mechanisms which can simplify these additional  rules.

My E-mail is: [email protected].

Please send me your comments as here are only ideas which are not yet been playtested.

 

Everything in BCWW2 remains the same as in Battle Cry except what follows.

 

II) Units

 

As in Battle Cry, there’s only four types of unit in BCWW2:

 

·        “Cavalry”: Indeed vehicles as AFV, Trucks, etc. Each unit has three figures

·        Artillery : Guns, AT guns etc. Each unit has two figures.

·        Infantry: Rifles, HMG, Mortars, Engineers, Forward Observers. Rifles and Engineers have four figures, HMG and mortars, two and FO, one.

·        Officers: One figure.

 

In BCWW2, each unit has (or not !) an AT and an HE capability.

AT fire is performed on armoured target (AFV, Halftracks etc) and HE fire is performed on other targets.

 

II-1) Cavalry

 

Each vehicle has three characteristics:

 

·        Its armour: Light, Medium or Heavy.

·        It’s speed: Slow, Regular or Fast.

·        It’s armament: Light, Medium or Heavy.

 

Armour:

 

Light

Medium

Heavy

+ 1 Combat die for AT fire against this target.

Normal number of Combat dies.

-1 Combat die for AT fire against this target.

 

Speed:

 

Slow

Regular

Fast

1 hex move.

2 hexes move.

Three hexes move.

 

Armament:

 

Light

Medium

Heavy

-1 die for AT/HE fire.

Normal number.

+1 die to AT/HE fire and +1 hex to range.

    

Combat dices and range:

 

AT Fire

4, 3, 2, 1.

HE Fire

3 (4 if MG equipped), 3, 2, 1.

 

Some samples (1):

 

Vehicle

Armour

Armament

Speed

Panther

Heavy

Heavy+MG

Fast

Tiger I

Heavy

Heavy+MG

Slow

Panzer IV H

Medium

Heavy+MG

Regular

M4 Sherman

Medium

Medium+MG

Regular

M8 Armoured Car

Light

Light+MG

Fast

M4 Firefly

Medium

Heavy+MG

Regular

 

Unarmed or HMG only equipped (halftracks by example) vehicles have no AT capabilities and then use the HMG characteristics that could be found on the Infantry section.

 

II-2) Artillery

 

By simplification, every artillery unit on-board can only perform direct fire.

Only off-board artillery and mortars can perform indirect fire.

 

Artillery can be Light, Medium or Heavy.

 

II-2-1) On-Board (i.e. direct fire) Artillery

 

Light

Medium

Heavy

-1 die for AT/HE fire.

Normal number.

+1 die to AT/HE fire and +1 hex to range.

    

Only Light and Medium Artillery can move one hex and the Battle Cry rule apply (move or fire).

 

Combat dices and range:

 

AT Fire

4, 3, 2, 1. (-1 die if not AT gun)

HE Fire

5, 4, 3, 2, 1. (-2 dices if AT gun)

 

II-2-2) Off-Board (i.e. indirect fire) Artillery

 

Off-board artillery can only be requested by a Forward Observer or by an Officer. See the relevant section.

. 

 

Combat dices:

 

 

Light

Medium

Heavy

AT/HE Fire

3

4

5

 

Some samples (1):

 

Gun (On-Board)

Type

Gun (Off-Board)

Type

German 88 AT/AA

Heavy

German 150mm

Heavy

 German Pak 35/36

Light

German 105 mm

Light

German Pak 38

Medium

German 75mm

Medium

US 37mm

Light

US 75mm

Light

US 57mm

Medium

US 105mm

Medium

US 76mm

Heavy

US 155mm

Heavy

 

 

 

 

II-3) Infantry

 

Infantry units are:

·        Rifles, SMG and other small arms units: Four figures.

·        HMG units: Two figures.

·        Mortars units: Two figures.

·        Engineers units: Four figures.

·        Forward observers units: One figures.

 

Every infantry unit can move one hex, except Forward observer who can move three hexes.

Mortar units are ruled like artillery (move or fire).

An infantry unit can be transported by a trucks or halftracks unit put it must spend its Combat action to load/unload on the transport. If the truck or halftrack unit is destroyed, the transported units are also destroyed.

 

II-3-1) Small Arms , HMG and Engineers Units

 

Combat dices and range:

 

AT Fire

4 (5 if infantry with AT Weapon like bazooka or Engineers).

HE Fire

4 (5 if Engineers), 3, 2, 1.

5, 4, 2, 1 if HMG.

 

An engineer unit can spend its activation (move + combat) to perform an engineer task:

·        Lay or remove mines in one hex. See the “some other thoughts…” section,

·        Make ½  bridge on a river hex, so two consecutives activations to make an entire bridge (negates then the river effect).

·        Construct one fieldworks item.

 

II-3-2) Mortars Units

 

A mortar unit can perform an indirect fire in one hex, in LOS of one of the infantry units.

Mortars can be Light (< 80 mm), Medium (80mm <=  and < 100mm) or Heavy (>= 100mm).

 

Combat dices and range:

 

 

Light mortars

Medium mortars

Heavy mortars

AT Fire

0 die

1 die

2 dices

HE Fire

3 dices

4 dices

5 dices

 

II-3-3) Forward Observers Units

 

A Forward Observer has no fire capability but can be attached to a unit with the same rules as for officers (cannot be killed with the unit) but without the bonus to combat ! if the FO unit is alone on an hex, it can be killed like an infantry unit.

It can request an Off-table artillery fire for its Combat action.

To succeed an FO must obtain a “Flag” or “Crossed Sabres”  symbol on one Combat Die.

The targeted hexagon must be on sight for officers. If the FO doesn’t actually see the targeted hex then his request succeed only on a “Crossed Sabres” symbol

 

II-4) Officers

 

Officers are ruled like in the Battle Cry game except that it can request off-board artillery as its combat action. An Officer must have the targeted hex in LOS. The request succeed if he obtains a “Crossed Sabres” on one Combat Die .

 

 

III) Some other thoughts…

 

III-1) Mines

 

An hex can be mined before the battle occurs (the player notes on a paper the hex coordinates) or by Engineers.

In the first case, the player can only mine an hex which is in its 3 hexes deep side.

A mined hex has a strength of 3 Combat dices against every target which enters in the hex.

 

 

III-2) Points System and Proportions

 

In order to avoid the “SS-Panzer-Division-At-Full-Strength” phenomena well known by every WWII player in the world, I suggest to follow the historical proportions that can be found on books or to follow the proportions given in the original Battle Cry: Ten infantry units, two or three cavalry units and two or three artillery units.

A point system could also balance the game.

 

The cost of a unit could be:

((number of AT + HE dices) X by each hex of range +/-1 for armour) X by hexes of movement X number of figures.

Example:

For a Panther unit: AT is 5,4,3,2,1 (Heavy Gun) HE is also 5,4,3,2,1 (Heavy Gun + HMG)

It’s an heavy armoured vehicle so: +1

It ‘s a fast vehicle: 3 hexes of movement.

Each unit has three tanks

Then the cost of the Panther unit could be:

((5+5)X1 + (4+4)X2 + (3+3)X3 + (2+2)X4 + (1+1)X5 +1)                      X 3       X 3 = 639

Hex 1            Hex 2        Hex 3        Hex 4        Hex 5     Heavy armour    Fast      # of figures

 

The cost of a Rifle unit:

((4+4)X1 + 3 X 2 + 2 X 3+ 1X4 ) X 1 X 4 = 96

 

III-3) Aviation

 

To be completed. Can be managed as Off-Board Artillery.

 

 

 

(1): The classification of Light, Medium or Heavy is very difficult and subjective so if you don’t find it appropriate for these examples , well… Change it as you wish !!!