One
of the projects that I'm currently working is a Battle of Britain WW II
aerial game using 1/300 scale miniatures. The idea is that the players will
be British fighter pilots, while the GM (me) will control the German bombers
and/or fighters. I have sketched out a set of rules that combine the elements
of the WW I card game "Wings of War" and the "clicks"
game "Crimson Skies." My goal is for players to control a flight
of 2-3 planes, rather than one aircraft each. So, the rules must be simple
and fast moving to accomplish that. Right now, I'm working on the components
-- damage tokens, card "panels' to control each aircraft, movement
markers, and so on.
I have about a dozen miniature planes painted up already for this project. I am using Scotia Micro Models which I purchases from I-94 Enterprises. They painted up nicely, and you can see pictures of them on the Gallery page.
This project has yet to see the gaming table.
In 2003 and 2004, I avidly read the World War II books by Stephen Ambrose -- Band of Brothers, D-Day, Citizen Soldiers, et al. Their vivid accounts, along with the DVD set of the HBO Band of Brothers series, got me excited to finally get around to do some WW II gaming. It has always been one of the hobby's most popular periods, but I'd never purchased miniatures for it, and my group never did land WW II warfare on any regular basis. My buddies, Allen and Joel Sams, did run WW II naval battles or mini-campaigns from time to time using General Quarters. And there was the time we played "Dauntless" WW II aerial boardgame extensively. However, we'd never really collected armies of infantry, tanks and artillery.
The biggest question when doing WW II, though, is: What size? Do you want a man-to-man skirmish game, or one that uses squads as the smallest stands, or even companies, platoon, battalions, etc.? I really wasn't sure what I wanted. Years back, a couple other guys from our group, ran Crossfire WW II. They collected 15mm U.S. and German armies -- mostly infantry (as Crossfire is an infantryman's game), but with a smattering of vehicles. I kind of liked that level, but wanted a more combined arms feel with armor, infantry and artillery all represented. Skirmish would be too man-to-man, I felt, for what I wanted right then. And Crossfire pretty much glosses over armor, it is not meant to be a tank-to-tank game. I'm not an armor buff, but I wanted the combined arms of WW II tactics.
So, I priced the figs and was horrified by how much 15mm armor costs. Microarmor was just TOO small, though, for the level of gaming I wanted. Eventually, I settled on 10mm, as I felt the tanks and APCs were more affordable, and the infantry were still cast as individuals, not in lumps. I bought Perrin miniatures as the main component, adding in Minifigs when looking for things Perrin didn't make. The vehicles looked awesome, but the infantry was a tiny bit of a dissapointment. I'd thought 10mm would be like small 15's, but honestly, they are better described as Big 5mm troops. The painting of them is nothing like a 15mm, and has more in common with 5/6mm figs. Still, as I painted the armies, they looked good, and I wasn't unhappy.
So, now what about miniatures rules?
About the time I was pondering that, I'd played the American Civil War boardgame "Battle Cry." I'd been really impressed with the beer and pretzels rules of the game. I thought the same "engine" could be used for a WW II set. So, I grabbed a notepad and over the next week or so jotted down ideas for command and control cards, which are the heart of the Battle Cry "Command and Colours" system. It all seemed to be fitting together nicely, and I was looking forward to playing it.
Little did I know, Battle Cry author Richard Borg was working on his OWN set of WW II adaptions for Battle Cry, and would release them shortly after I did my first couple of playtests. I still like my own better, although I did steal some of his card ideas and movement/combat rules.
We've played WW II with them a handful of times, and they provide a good game with the appropriate flavor, but not the level of detail a true buff may desire. For me, they're fine, though. I've never been fascinated with various armor thicknesses and what calibre gun can penetrate what vehicle, and yada yada. I've found WW II is VERY prone to Germanophiles, much as Napoleonics are prone to Francophiles. So, I tend to keep my distance from anyone who can spout off about Stugs and such. I just smile and play my own little "WW II-flavored" game.