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While I've always had a good relationship with my father, we really have no common interests besides good food and military history. Since I've recently moved closer to home, I'm wondering if I can find some middle ground. He's got no interest in anything artistic, but I'm sure he'd enjoy a good strategy game if it gave him a chance to relax.

WWII is one of his favorite time periods. I know a little about FOW being all tank battles and such, but thought I'd open it up and ask if there are any other good miniature strategy games with a WWII flavor.

Thanks!

Memoire 44. Play the game, not the rules. The game is card driven and basically the rules are all on the cards, oh, there is one card listing weapon ranges.

Otherwise WWII historical gaming suffers from same problem as all historical gaming, there are no popular rules. The rules all tend to be long and finicky filled with potential 'gotchas'-meaning a situation where you make a move and the opponent says, ahha, now using the special rule on page x I get to fire xx times at you and you die......Sorry.

Spearhead by Conliffe-but you need gobs of terrain. FOW, fairly popular-makes for a pretty game, Look Ma I ain't been shot-by two fat lardies.

Want the ultradetailed historial 200 pages of rules mother of all WWII games-go with Multiman Publishings' ADVANCED SQUAD LEADER-but god the counters are small and the hexes smaller still. The old Avalon Hill Squad Leader first edition was better in some people's opinions.

AMBUSH BLITZ-similar to memoire 44 but with a bit more technical stuff thrown in.

AXIS AND ALLIES MINIATURES-a sort of tactical memoire 44, not really great on historical simulation but good for beer and pretzels, and there's a naval version as well.....

Iron Ivan: like the rules from Two FAt Lardies.

There is also a set of rules put out in a playset by Italieri, maker of plastic models and figures.

See, get me started and that's just off the top of my head. Go with Memoire 44 to start with. Simple enough that the 11 year old can play it as well.

Don't forget Two Hour Wargames' Nutz! for skirmish scale WW2 (Or just use the CR 2.0 rules for free ;-)).

Crossfire is a popular company level WW2 game that uses a very interesting scale mechanic- you don't use fixed distances like most tabletop wargames.

What scale are you looking for? That will also affect which rule sets are recommended. Commanding a platoon is very different than making division orders!

Axis and Allies the boardgame is fun (albeit tactically limited) but the minigame is a CMG.....

@mikeguth - Alzo Zero is the Italeri game. It actually got really good reviews thanks to a fairly innovative ruleset.
It also has the advantage of being the best supported miniature wargame on the planet in terms of available models as the whole thing is at 1/72 scale!

If you're willing to expand your horizons a bit, you might want to check out the Band of Brothers series of board games from Lock 'N Load publishing. A great tactical (squad level) system that is quick to pick up and has lots of playability. I play this with my dad, along with ASL (the exact opposite) and Panzer Grenadier.

AJC

Arkion wrote:WWII is one of his favorite time periods. I know a little about FOW being all tank battles and such, but thought I'd open it up and ask if there are any other good miniature strategy games with a WWII flavor.

FoW isn't just Tanks - it's just that Tanks are the sex in the game.

mikeguth wrote:Memoire 44.

I second this as a starter. It plays just as well, if not better, than anything else in genre. And it's loads of fun to boot.

Getting even older school, Squad Leader translates over to minis pretty well. I played a mod with a coupla treadheads that proved to me that I do not find vehicles fun and very nearly put me off wargaming for good (lost a whole company of t34s in one round of fire from two tigers parked off-board = :( )

Another idea along this line (old school) is Panzer Miniature Rules. This game goes back to the Panzer series of games released by Yaquinto in the '80s. Note that I haven't played this incarnation of the game, but it would be as close to Squad Leader in miniature, as I've come across.

AJC

I was trying to learn Axis and Allies miniatures yesterday, but the ref kept repossessing his rulebook to inform his play group. (kind of a depressing day when I think about it - everybody's either getting married or lining up to ship out) Had to settle for being devoured by the servants of the Old Ones instead.

The cool thing about that game is that, for prepaints, they actually look half-decent, almost as good as a hurriedly dipped swarm army. If you're like me and have half your weight in grey plastic lying around your mom's attic, there's a certain appeal in outsourcing that part of the hobby to Macau.

Also I think there's a throw-away system that comes with most GEQ products that's supposed to be a pretty rotten simulation but apparently plays okay.

hmm,
Ive been looking for a few weeks now trying really really hard to find a good WW2 Skirmish Scale game. Was thinking around the 28mm range, but it isnt set in stone. Need to look into the Italeri game. Basically me and a few of my friends love the whole Mordheim style games and wanted to find someting set in WW2.

If anyone knows anything else that may fit my description please let me know.

Show your dad this demo on chech your 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWdchYG1ic4


$49.99



CHECK YOUR 6! (CY6!) is an exciting new set of WWII air combat rules from SkirmishCampaigns. CY6! has been in development for two years and the rules are a joint effort between author Scott Fisher (ARC of FIRE, SkirmishCampaigns) and the dauntless Chris Pringle (TAC-WWII), Mark Fastoso (Colonial Campaigns), Buck Surdu (BAPS, Gaslight), CB Stevens, Alvin Gunkel, Jerry Frazee, Tom Poston, Nick Murray and former U.S.A.F. Thunderbird pilot Rob Givens.

This set contains the following:
6 - 1/300th Scale Pre-Painted Aircraft
(3 x British Spitfire Mk I & 3 x German ME-109E)
6 - Sets of CY6! Flight Stands
6 - Aircraft Magnets
2 - 6 sided dice
2 - 11" x 17" hex printed play-mats
1 - Set of British & German Aircraft Decals from I-94 Enterprises

My computer is choking on the edit function once again but I'd like to publicly smack my head for the content of my first post. Reading comprehension, o reading comprehension, where have you gone?

Rapid Fire! is fairly popular in the UK, though not really skirmish scale.
http://www.rapid-fire.uk.com/

Command Decision is back in a 4th edition
http://testofbattle.com/drupal-4.7.4/
and has heritage. Frank Chadwick is a noted designer. Again, not really skirmish scale.

Several sets of free rules here...
http://www.jimwallman.org.uk/wargame/

This one looks like it will meet your requirements...
http://www.brittonpublishers.com/

Here's a simple set for use with Army Men figures.
http://www.juniorgeneral.org/w2plastic/plastic.html

Another bunch of Army Men rules.
http://www.thortrains.net/armymen/

JP, Two Hours Wargames CR 2.0 is free and designed for skirmish- company level actions. Nuts! is the WW2 specific rules. http://www.angelfire.com/az3/twohourwargames/index.html

Battlefield evolution: World at war

By Mongoose publishing

I'd honestly suggest taking a look at a few traditional hex and counter wargames.

There are quite a few low-medium complexity tactical WW2 games out there now.

Of course cardboard counters don't have the nice look of miniatures, but they still provide solid gameplay.

Combat Commander: Europe is what i'd reccomend - it's fairly simple and your actions are card driven.

Definitely a step up from Memoir '44.

If you like Memoir '44 then i'd reccomend getting Commands and Colors: Ancients, which uses the same system, but has a tad more rules. It's widely thought of as being the best of the Commands and Colors games because ancient battles translate so well to the system.

You could get Tide of Iron by Fantasy Flight Games, but read some reviews (or read the rules first). Tide of Iron is a boardgame but it does feature plastic pieces so you do get that mini appeal.

Combat Commander is more elegant IMO than ToI, is more replayable, and a tad more streamlined. It feels more tactical at least, and has a better period flavor so to speak.

Lock 'n Load publishing has several well received tactical board games, including a NATO vs Warsaw Pact game.

A lot of people like Avalanche Press' Panzer Grenadier series. It's at the platoon level (one counter of infantry equal a platoon of men).

Nuts look great. Anyone play it and give me a honest opinion on the game mechanics?

I have it and really like it. I love the reinforcements rules and like how the game often develops asymmetrically. For example, me and another player were playing as Germans (me Heer with an MG 42, him SS Fallshirms with FG 42 and a few panzerfausts) and we were defending a small area. The encounter started with a unit of American riflemen showing up. We easily handled them when a Sherman and Ranger escorts with an LMG arrived! This made it much more difficult as the tank quickly rolled on our position and the LMG kept the infantry back. Suffering heavy casualties, we managed to keep them out... until another Ranger squad arrived on our flank and tore us up. Great fun.

The game also has an optional points system if you want to run a more "balanced" game, but we never use them.

The mechanics are quick and simple. About the only thing that can slow things down is that exchanging fire back and forth can go on for a while if one can't get the other to duck back.

Sound Great. Quick question, I noticed that no rules for Japs were included. Is there anywhere that has some rules online perhaps for it? Id love to play em.

Lagduf wrote:If you like Memoir '44 then i'd reccomend getting Commands and Colors: Ancients,

I'd suggest BattleLore, instead. Much more *fun*.

I've played Nuts! as well. It was pretty fun, and I liked the way it played. It seemed like it could be pretty fast paced once you get used to the rules too. Just be warned, some of the stuff can seem a bit automated, because you have a lot less control over your guys than in a lot of other games.

I played a game called Disposable Heroes on Saturday at Advance the Colors, and it was pretty fun as well. Similar to Nuts!, probably a bit simpler and a little less of an automated feel.

Both are fun though, I would recommend checking both of them out for 28mm WW2 skirmish.

Wings of War...

The core is now 3 WW I airplane rules with cardboard counters but they also have nice little pre-painted planes. It is a quick to learn fun game and you could easily expand it with more sets of rules or keep it simple.

They also have a WWII early like Battle of Britain game if you prefer ME-109s and Spitfires. I haven't seen prepainted planes yet for this game.

If you have the time, Flames of War is really a nice system and it can be done with primarily infantry if you don't want tanks. This is one set of WWII rules I really like because infantry has some serious advantages over tanks in some respects. In a lot of the older sets, infantry was clutzy, artillery rules were obtuse and all anyone wanted to play were platoons of tanks. I really like that you chance to hit is a factor of your opponent's training rather than an scientific chart rendering of the penetration values of your tanks gun at a given range. (Anyone remember tractics???) I also would recommend staying with US/British infantry vs German infantry.
The other nationals will cost real $$ to build. Cheapest I could think of would be Rangers/Commandoes/Paratroopers versus German paratroopers. Your armies will be relatively small. (Just don't think russian front... you will have a bottomless pit of russian soldiers to buy and paint.)

JP: Not in the book, but I believe someone may have put some Pacific stuff up on the webpage or the Yahoo user group.

Thanks. That sounds great.

Rapid Fire is quite good. You can use Airfix,Revell etc. figures for them. About £4.50 for 50 models in 1/72.

Well okay well fairly pricey you might want to try World in flames. It is pretty detailed and not for the casual games admittedly though it is chit based, and does work best with multiple people.