This week has been quite busy with a game each evening.
On Monday evening, Luis gave me an introduction to Battlegroup, the ruleset from the Plastic Soldier Company. I had not played the ruleset before but certainly my CoC forces would work without problem for squad level games (1-2 platoons + supports). Over the years I have bought 3-4 of their books for reference without really looking at the rules. The BattleGroup Kursk book actually contains the ruleset so I had a chance to have a look through before the game.
As should be clear from reading this blog, I am a CoC player. I actually sat down the other night and did some counting and calculated that I play 10 TFL games on a fairly active basis. But I also play 3 Studio Tomahawk games, so there is no reason not to try out new games, and I have to say that I have been curious about this game. I suspected that it is pretty popular and when I checked on their FB page ( I hate FB but as a gamer you really have no choice now), I found that they have 5.7k members, while CoC FB has 5.4k members. Pretty similar.
Luis had set up a 4x4' ruined urban table, so slightly off Kursk but quite good for an introduction. I have been trying to figure out how to play urban combat with CoC, and have yet to sort it. Luis's table was very nice and I really could not wait to get my figures on the table. It was decided that I would play the Soviets while Luis would play the Germans.
OB (not entirely accurate)
Soviets
HQ
2 rifle platoons
Recon infantry squad
Sniper
Recon BA-10
T-34 Company
Germans
HQ
1 grenadier platoon
MMG team
Recon infantry squad
Recon Sd.Kfz 222
STUG III
Pz IV
It is an interesting game with a good Activation system. Generated differently than "O" Group but somewhat similar in that you really have to make some difficult choices each turn; as what you can do is limited. There were all the usual activations that one sees in WWII rulesets, I did find it a little unusual that a unit can shoot twice when activated but you have to do an observation test each time you fire so getting shots off is not guaranteed. I am not going to go into the ruleset further aside from saying that it does have a morale function and like CoC once your morale runs out the game is over.
I should say that I had beginner's luck and was able to win the game within 2-3 hours. Luis's dicing though was quite abysmal and as we know it is always good to let a new player win the game! I did take a couple of photos
I really enjoyed the game, and certainly would play it again. It does not have the same challenges as CoC but for a fun historical, relatively easy to pick up WWII ruleset, I can highly recommend it.
Interesting to hear your thoughts. I have the rule book but never played. I’ve never been able to find any AARs that let you get a decent feel for how it plays out. I suspect CoC gives me what I need for WWII gaming at this level, but always to explore different options.
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DeleteHi Mark, I am a fan of your CoC AARs and like to see some BG ones from you in the future. I play them both and in my opinion CoC and BG are the best WWll rules you can play. I think BG is better at playing bigger games as it has a faster gameplay mechanics and CoC is more in depth personalized small skirmish type of games.(BG can be played in small games as well). They both have pros and cons of course but at the end I enjoy them both, that’s why I am working on my own house rules implementing some CoC rules that like into BG rules :)
DeleteHere are some BG AARs that you would be interested in reading and hopefully they will help you to decide to give BG a go..
-http://www.thewargamespot.com/author/powermonger/
-http://warwickkinrade.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2022-04-21T05:01:00-07:00&max-results=7&reverse-paginate=true&m=1
Thanks Mark. It has a fairly active FB group with a couple of hundred more members than CoC. I apologise for not putting the work into the post so you could get a better sense of the game. It is certainly not superior to CoC in my opinion but it was fun. The rules are written in such a way that the likelihood of disputes about movement and LOS are much less likely to arise than with CoC. It activation system is OK and more generalised than CoC, maybe more like "O" Group. I would be curious about your opinion if you gave it a go!
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