Friday, August 26, 2016

WWII and Imaginations? Some thoughts and links

Over on 54mm or Fight! you can see that the sole wargaming I've been doing of late is set in Europe, WWII. While I enjoy playing one-off scenarios, my Helvetica Campaign (you can find the posts by going here and scrolling down to Helvetica) remains among the top wargaming experiences I've had, and so, logically, it seems to me that I should try something similar set in WWII or thereabouts.

But, so few wargaming campaigns discussed in blogs seem to be set in WWII, never mind Imaginations WWII-like campaigns. That doesn't mean I won't do it, but I was hoping for a bit of inspiration. (Far mor involve  20th C. South American or African Imaginations, it seems).

The likely route will be the  continental battle between Hefeweizen ( nee Riesling in the pre-unification days ) and the allies of Sauvignon-Blanc, particularly the Federal Republic of Lager. Or, perhaps, less evocative/alcoholic, Army Feldgrau vs Army Olive Drab.

Obviously thin veneers for the actual participants but what can you do?

My searching eventually lead me to an Imaginations 20th century mini-campaign on one of the better respected blogs, Wargaming Miscellany. The posts begin with this one I believe.  Mr. Cordery also stirs up the idea a bit a few years earlier in this post.

As for campaign rules, I know already that I don't want anything terribly complicated - nothing to do with supply and all that, although reinforcements and casualty replacement should come into play. And, I really enjoy the narrative "campaign diary" stuff, so if it supports that in some way, all the better.


  • Jeff, at Saxe-Bearstein's method worked well for Helvetica, and had the benefit of no map being required, although one developed during play. I keep getting stuck on the battle to the capitals though. This is probably a me thing, and perhaps I just need to change the labels? Perhaps the FRL "capital" is actually more akin to Normandy, while the initial battle takes place in a Battle of the Bulge-type situation?
  • Rather serendipitously, Peter at Grid Based Wargaming - But Not Always, has recently posted a series about this very topic. Looks like it might be more than I want, but I may be able to strip out the bits I don't want.
  • Featherstone, in his Wargaming Campaigns, touches ever so briefly on a WWII campaign, but focuses specifically on recon, and leaves everything else for the reader to develop (presumably from ideas presented in other chapters).
  • Kevin White (one of my all time favorite contributors to Lone Warrior),  sets up a map based WWII mini-campaign in issue 182 of Lone Warrior. I had trouble following some of the setup, and need to re-read this.
  • TMP is always a stop for debates about nothing, and this time is no different :D And here the participants debate why 18th C. imaginations over imaginations in other eras.
  • Platoon Forward might work if I change the scale upwards for a company per side, or I suppose I could just use it at the intended level.
Edit: It turns out I should have paid closer attention to Morschauser and Featherstone (Advanced War Games). Both have systems of map moving that would work for modern games. Indeed, Featherstone  explicitly uses a WWII campaign for his example.

If you have a preferred way of building campaigns, particularly for WWII company-level engagements (maybe battalion), please shoot them my way.


1 comment:

  1. Hi - thanks for the mention. While I still have a few more games to go in my WW2 campaign. Looking back at what has worked and what has not so far. I would have simplified the supply side of the campaign rules by just having one type of attack, rather than a major attack and limited attack. Then gone with implications of a major victory vs. a minor victory, such as a free follow up attack for a major victory. All the best with your campaign. Regards, Peter

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