I've been really enjoying the latest series of posts over on Just Jack's BlackHawkHet blog, which detail a mini-campaign that he's running based around a semi-fictional Cuban liberation conflict, very much in an 'imagin-nations' style but firmly grounded by a plausible back story. I've particularly enjoyed the post action reports, which give a really good flavour of the rules:
The campaign uses a set of fast play rules for platoon level games called Company Command. These looked really interesting, so I downloaded a copy from Wargames Vault to take a closer look. After a quick flick through it soon became apparent that this was a very straightforward set of rules but with some innovative and interesting twists.
They are designed for small forces of a few squads a side plus support weapons and specialists, with vehicle and AFV's being used only in small numbers, if at all. That's not to detract from the scope of the rules which cover pretty much everything you'd expect from a 'modern' set, including off table fire support, helicopters and irregular forces, for example.
The rules have been written very much for AK47 style games in hot, dusty far away places but would be equally useable for any Cold War conflict, with plenty of scope for 'What if's?' The miminalist approach to unit sizes and the small size of the playing area, also makes it very manageable in terms of effort and cost. This is a big factor for me, with my limited time for painting and gaming.
I'm thinking of having a try out using my AK47 figures but also considering other things I could do with the rules, from 10mm Pendraken Royal Marines in Norway to the steamy jungles of Indochina, where my 10mm French and Viet Minh could find a new home. Then there's also the Indonesian Confrontation, Borneo and Vietnam in 15mm, which have all occupied some of my thinking time in the not so distant past.
Very cool!
Oh, Holy Cow, you've gone too far Sir!
ReplyDeleteI'm flattered and blushing, thanks for the mention. I'm a huge fan the 5Core Company Command rules, having used them (so far) for Brits vs Germans in Italy, 1943, Germans vs Poles and French, 1939/1940, NATO vs WarPac, circa 1985, and now Cuba Libre.
I find the rules very, very flexible, able to move between just a handful of elements per side on a 2' x 2', up to about 20 elements per side on a 4' x 4' board. No reason to think they wouldn't work on other sizes, I just haven't tried them yet ;)
I'm really looking forward to seeing how you get on with them; if there are any questions, please let me know, and the author is a great guy, very responsive, hangs out on TMP and TWW, as well.
V/R,
Jack
Hi Jack,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the inspiration!
The rules are exactly what I've been looking for so I'm very pleased.
I'll keep posting on my ideas and, hopefully, even some try out games using my AK47 15mm stuff.
In the longer term I'm looking to follow your example and use them with 10mm figures.
In the meantime, keep on posting the combat reports for Cuba Libre!
Cheers
Jim
Jim,
ReplyDeleteI am very much looking forward to your efforts with Company Command, and 10mm is pretty alright, I highly recommend it ;)
I got four more games in this weekend, get them posted ASAP.
V/R,
Jack
Glad you are liking it and don't hesitate to ask questions if you are wondering about anything!
ReplyDelete