As my starting point, I took an Italian Wars game I was working on. It used Command Dice to issue orders to Condottieri captains who led Command Groups of 3–6 units. Each Command Group was activated using a Command Dice. Once activated, units could move, fire and melee or they could be rallied.
Each turn, the number of Command Dice was generated using a deck of cards numbered 2–6. If a Spade or Club was turned it was my turn. If a Heart or Diamond was turned, it was my opponent’s turn. A Joker caused a reshuffle of the deck. I added two black kings and two red kings to the deck for off-table artillery: when a king was turned the artillery would fire. The Command Dice were rolled. Any 1s were discarded. Any 6s were usable as Wild Dice (a dice of your choice or used to add combat bonuses). A single Command Dice ordered a Command Group to move once. A pair of the same number (e.g. 4, 4) ordered a Command Group to move twice; with a triple number (4, 4, 4) it could be ordered to move three times.
Morale checks were built into the combat mechanics. If your opponent hit you for six (rolled 6s) and you didn’t roll an equal or greater number of 6s with your Reaction Dice, your unit was disordered and pushed back. Disordered units suffered combat modifiers, and couldn’t be ordered as part of a Command Group. For World War Two, I added Staff Orders; staff officers are responsible for calling artillery and smoke missions, and issuing orders. Staff Orders could be restocked at the cost of two Command Dice per Staff Order.
These were my initial design goals for Combat HQ.
Suitable for:
Goals
Phew! And that was just the start.
I started to look through my World War Two rule sets. Many seemed to scale up vehicle movement from infantry crawling on their stomachs in the Normandy bocage. For the desert setting to work, it needed vehicles whizzing around the table.
I like games that offer plenty of player involvement with little or no downtime. Many years ago, I stopped playing games where one player has time to wander off and make the tea while his opponent moves, shoots, fights, and rallies. Games should be interactive. If I’m playing a video game, I don’t expect to spend half of my time doing nothing. Opposed dice rolls are a great way to keep both players involved, as are short turn sequences. But if the turn sequence is too short, it becomes meaningless. In games where I move one unit and then you move one unit, it’s very difficult to plan ahead. Even with a good draw of dice or cards, I’m still not really planning my moves. Sure, I’m reacting to what I get, but I like to coordinate attacks between units.
I also like rules that are easy to remember and don’t require any table cross-referencing. My ideal is one game mechanic that is applied consistently to every occasion. I don’t want to learn different rules mechanics for infantry combat, armour combat, infantry versus armour, and artillery. I’d rather spend time playing than with my head stuck in a rulebook.
To feel like a World War Two game, weapons need to have realistic ranges. Hand-held anti-tank weapons have to be scaled appropriately – they don’t fire as far as rifles! Opportunity fire has to be part of the game. Units don’t just move across the battlefield without being fired at. I don’t like games where I have to order my troops to use opportunity fire or where I have to put them on overwatch first.
With huge numbers of World War Two games available, you’d think I’d find one to suit. I tried. I looked at lots, but nothing gave me what I was after. It was time to start designing “yet another World War Two game” – one that could handle the whole epic sweep of the war. Rules that felt realistic, were relatively simple, and had lots of command and control decisions.
