|
 |
In addition to the most recent news from Wargame Vault subscribers to our newsletter also receive the latest in freebies, discounts offers, and featured reviews. You can sign up for our newsletter here!Customer Newsletter for 04/28/2024
The world's largest wargame download store
Greetings Grognards!
I can always tell it's Springtime not by the flora and fauna but by the fact that wargame convention season is in full swing! Salute in London a couple of weeks ago looked well attended and had it's usual fantastic games set up from the pictures I saw. In the States I've been able to attend the SYW convention and Little Wars in the last month and they also were well attended and featured some outstanding games, some of which I was able to partake in and had a great time and got to hang out with some fellow grogs, everything that wargaming is all about.
And what's at the core of all these games? Rule sets of course! This newsletter I've featured rules that cover conflict from ancient times to the far future to show that no matter what genre you're into in you can find it and get it delivered right to you in no time at all. Literally!
Till next time, good gaming to everyone, and watch your flanks!
~ Steve
Fire in the Sky, Vol. 1 Battles Over Germany, 1944
|
|
Fire in the Sky is a set of wargame rules designed to simulate large-scale air combat in WW2. Unlike many sets that have already been written, Fire in the Sky does not attempt to put players in the seat of the individual pilot’s cockpit, flying maneuvers or managing ammunition. Instead, this game aims to let players feel like a squadron or flight commander, commanding dozens of planes at once.
Fire in the Sky eschews nuts and bolts simulation, plotting flight paths, or tracking fuel to produce a game which can capture actions that involve a large number of aircraft, like Adlertag (“Eagle Day”) during the Battle of Britain, the dramatic “Big Week” operations of the US Army Eighth Air Force, or the airstrikes carried out against the Kidō Butai during the Battle of Midway.
Fire in the Sky Volume 1: Big Week is the first book for Fire in the Sky. It contains the game’s core rules, a special Action Chart with the planes used in early 1944 for Operation Argument, the allied offensive known as “Big Week,” and a set of scenarios allowing you to relive the action in the skies above Germany. Additionally, Volume 1: Big Week contains a special campaign generator, Target For Today, which will allow you to create endlessly replayable scenarios involving the 8th Air Force.
|
LaserStorm 2nd edition
|
Welcome to the 2nd edition of LaserStorm. This is a set of wargame rules aimed at huge science fiction battles using small scale miniatures such as 3mm and 6mm scale.
The game scale is that each model represents either a single vehicle or a 4-6 person fireteam of infantry. Units are all distinct in their performance: Vehicles are vulnerable to close assault but feature speed and firepower, super heavy units can take (and dish out) massive punishment and the lumbering behemoth class allows you to get your giant robots out on the battlefield too.
Gameplay is card driven using a small card deck.
Very few markers and tokens are used in play (and many games will feature none at all). Instead you can focus on a cool, amazing looking battlefield as your grav tank platoon engages the enemy walkers.
Combat rules are straight forward, relying on a simple to-hit/saving throw mechanic. Morale is handled in a unique fashion: Instead of units sitting around as sitting ducks when their morale fails, they withdraw from the battle and can later be rallied and brought back as reinforcements.
To help you learn the rules, each chapter also includes a Boot Camp section, explaining the very basics at a glance.
Other mechanics include tactical assets, covering ploys such as forward deployment or camouflage and heroic units.
The game features a scenario generator with 9 objective types possible as well as an introductory scenario to get you started.
What about your troops? You can do it in two different ways: You can use the assembly line where you choose a basic troop type or vehicle hull, then bolt weapons on to it, tally up the points cost and voila, ready to play. You can also use the workshop where you can design units down to the individual stats and get exactly the outcome you would like.
A collection of human and alien prebuilt units are also available, so you can get up and playing right away, if you prefer not to build anything just yet.
When you have played a few battles, you may ready to go bigger. Why not try a campaign game where a massive army is divided up into smaller armies and then move around a grid map, combining a strategic layer with the tactical gameplay.
You prefer playing solo? The new edition covers solo mechanics as well through the use of a tactical card system to help inject some decision making into the foe.
The new edition of LaserStorm features much requested addiitons like air support and is in full colour, lavishly illustrated with gorgeous miniatures and terrain as well as helpful diagrams showcasing key concepts.
|
Tactical Combat
|
Tactical Combat (TC) was developed in 1989 providing a system to game 1:1 scale historical-based scenarios. TC provides realistic vehicle and weapon statistics and effects so gamers may also attempt to duplicate tactical doctrine in their wargames. TC is a departure from dice heavy hit/save mechanics that can seem abstract. This is the BASE GAME RULES used for every era, but includes Vehicle/Weapon Charts and Scenarios for 1939-45 Eastern Front- German, Soviet, Polish, and Finnish forces.
Some differentiating features include: System useful from World War One to current, Ultra Modern time periods. System is scaled for 10mm-18mm miniatures using centimeter measurments, or 20mm-28mm miniatures using inches measurments. Additional supplements feature period specific Vehicle/Weapon charts, rules errata specific to the period, and scenarios. TC uses simultaneous player phases where all gamers are engaged in every phase of the game together, rather than using an alternating player game phases where players have downtime waiting upon activations. TC doesn't employ an overt abstract morale mechanic, but instead employs Medics, Leaders and Wound mechanics in combination to manufacture a morale result. In combination with force composition, the morale system of TC is subtle and condusive to play. TC is designed for combined arms and includes rules for aricraft, helicopters, amphibious craft, drones, Hidden Forces, off-board artillery, terrain damage, cavalry, and bicycles among others. Tactical Combat is fast-paced and gamers can finish scenarios designed for 1-4 hours of play.
|
Song of Battle
|
Wargames involving shield walls do not have to be dull, or merely a contest of die rolling. Early medieval warfare in Britain also involved armies with several different ways of fighting. The role of leaders, each with their own attributes, was crucial. Song of Battle focuses on command and the impact of leadership (called intervention) which can affect movement, morale or combat
The rules include Normans, Anglo-Saxons (Anglo-Danes) Norse (“Vikings” from Denmark, Norway, or the Isles), Scots, Welsh, and Irish. Each have their own special formations and troops types. Although the author uses 3”x2’ bases with 2-6 28mm figures for each “body” (unit), the rules work with 40mm or 60mm bases with any number of figures - losses of men and morale are tracked through step reduction, not figure removal. Attrition was important historically , and so is in this game as well. So too are the particular characteristics of each troop type: milites, huscarles, fyrd (and the better equipped “mounted fyrd”), bondi, gael-ghaeils, spearmen, bowmen, etc. Well-play-tested, Song of Battle is a good simulation, and a playable and enjoyable game that gives tense battles with many decisions for the players to make to affect the outcome - not just two masses smashing together an rolling dice!
Playing time for the largest battles an be expected to be 4-6 hours, with 2-6 players. Play as William, or Harold, or Harald, or earlier as Cnute or Edmund, or many other 11th Century commanders, - with their subordinate leaders each acting to bring victory or stave off disaster.
|
Specials on Wargame Vault
|
|
|
|
Log In 
