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World War Two Rules Reviews
Note, each set is accorded a value for money rating. 1 = terrible; 10 is extremely good - must have.
BATTLEGROUP - PANZER GRENADIER
Positive Points
This is a great set of rules for up to battalion level action in a difficult period.. The huge advantage they have is that it is remarkably fast to play and getting 20 moves in a night is entirely possible if you go for it. The accelerator mechanism is that hitting a target and effect on the target is combined in a realistic way into a single action. The hitting is so simple to work out that after just two or three goes you know the applicable factor and so just on the dice roll you know to a very good accuracy whether it is worth even starting the process. This saves so much time!
Effect of hits is on a time coordinated scale so things stay proportional to a good degree although at the very late periods, the impact of the dice can be diluted.
The rules include super-simple aircraft attacks and off table too.
Negative Points
There are serious problems with the points system whereby troops and vehicles' fighting effectiveness is not reasonably reflected in the points system. I strongly suggest someone sits down, scraps the existing system and uses the rules themselves to form a basis of points founded on relative fighting effectiveness. As an example, JU87s are really effective against all tanks but cost less points compared with other types who may have only half the number of bombs. The rule writer obviously liked Germans as they have a lot of advantages that they don't pay for in the points system. Whilst the rule writer might have wanted the Germans to have advantages, why spoil the points system to do it? Any other Nation is really up against it when facing Germans.
The movement system is more than a bit unwieldy and unsatisfactory. It relies on a d6 PIP system to have things moving but, with some armies (like Russians with loads of low quality troops), it means that most of the force neither moves nor fights. Serious consideration needs to be given to simply not using that part of the rules. Thus all troops can move and fight. Example: using a d6 the average throw is 3 or 4 but you may want to move and/or fire 15 items so your are acting at 20% effectiveness on average.
The war in the far east is simply not covered as Japanese are not included. The rule mechanisms of movement would make accurate Japanese company formations extremely difficult to move and get to fire I suspect. However, I think that a bit of fiddling around would fix that too.
Overall Value for Money: 7
Reviewer: TC