My Unofficial Battlegroup: Cold War - Revised Soviet Lists and West German AFV Data Cards

It's been a while between drinks and I still haven't quite sorted out the AAR that I was supposed to put up a couple of weeks back... Anyhoo...

Part of the reason for not putting up the AAR is that I've been going through all the Soviet lists revising/re-editing them for the 57th time.  Right now I feel they are getting pretty close to what I would call finalised and so I wanted to put them up today.  So here they are

Soviet Tank Division Battlegroup - Central Europe

Soviet Motorised Rifle Division Battlegroup - Central Europe

Soviet Desant Battlegroup - coming soon

Soviet Naval Infantry Battlegroup

Soviet 45th Motorised Rifle Division Battlegroup - Northern Front

I've also received some new Data Cards from Greg (Chairborne) - this time for the West Germans.  Once again Greg has done a brilliant job and I'm super impressed.  I used his cards in my last game and they were very helpful.

 West German AFV Data Cards

So let me know what you think about these new lists and cards.  I'll answer any question I can hear or on the Battlegroup Forum.

Thanks

Richard

New Playtest Part 1

Hi there

It's been a while since I posted as life has seriously gotten in the way. I'm also about to hit that point when my Photobucket account officially ends and I've been looking at alternatives - so today I thought I'd try 4 pictures of the table(s) set up for my last playtest game - which I'll explain more about tomorrow.

So this is a bit of a test.

Table 1 - NATO end

Table 1 - Soviet end

Table 2 - NATO end

Table 2 - Soviet end

Well my test seems to have worked... Fingers crossed!

Thanks

Richard

My Unofficial Battlegroup: Cold War - Some new rules and BAOR AFV Data Cards

Morning everyone

Over the past few weeks I have been looking at the feedback I have been getting from players on their Battlegroup: Cold War games.  Everyone seems to be really enjoying their games - which I'm very chuffed with - but there seem to be a couple of points that some questions have been raised about.  These points reinforce some of my own concerns that have come up in our games.

1.  Soviet Orders
Many people feel like the Soviets have far too many orders - especially when you are playing larger games and take a company of Tanks and/or Motorised Infantry.  Each company gives you 4 officers, so before you roll any dice for orders you can automatically have 8+ free orders.  If you are then adding 3D6, and using Stal! Stal! Stal! you can get a whole lot done.  All the orders mean that Soviet units don't have to really act like Soviet units - which doesn't quite give the right feel to the game.

2. NATO Shooting
Quite a few people - generally NATO players - have commented on how crappy their shooting has been - especially when trying to take out Soviet tanks at long range.  In an age of stabilised guns and all sorts of fire control wizardly this does not sit well.  Some have called for all NATO units to always be +1 to hit.  I've long felt that this is a swing too much in the other direction, especially when you are using top of the line NATO tanks, which often have +1 to observe, +1 to hit and ignore a number of other die modifiers.

Anyway - I've been thinking about this for a long time and think I may have come up with some rules to better reflect both, give the game a bit more flavour and hopefully strengthen the game-balance and feel.

So please have a look at these new orders rules and new special rules and let me know what you think.

New Orders Rules and Special Rules

Without going and editing all the lists (at this stage) I suggest the following.  Soviet Officers only count for orders if they come from the Forward HQ section of the list or are Company Commanders elsewhere in the list.

NATO units with the Proficient Crew special rule are any unit rate Regular or better.

Finally I have just received the next set of AFV Cards from Greg (Chairborne) and again he has done a really lovely job and I appreciate him letting me post them up here.

BAOR AFV Cards

 I'll be printing these off and using them soon.  More will follow soon, I'm sure.

So thanks everyone and I look forward to your thoughts on the new rules.

Richard

My Unofficial Battlegroup: Cold War - Final Dutch 1(NL) Corps List and Dutch AFV Data

Morning all

Just letting you know I have "completed" the Dutch 1(NL) Corps Army List and the Dutch AFV Data Table for your viewing pleasure.  And here they are:

Dutch Armoured Brigade Battlegroup

Dutch AFV Data

As always I'm interested in any feedback, errors etc.  I'm also sure there are better pictures out there, but these are what I could find.  Some are people personal pics posted up on the net, and I mean absolutely no disrespect (quite the opposite in fact) by using them.

So - please ignore the Draft list now and use this one instead - and go buy some Dutch stuff and get a  game in!

Richard

My Unofficial Battlegroup: Cold War - Draft Dutch 1(NL) Corps List

Just a quick update today with an army list so new I'm putting it out there in a very vanilla format with no pics or glossary.

So here is the draft list:

Dutch Army List

There are a number of Dutch wargamers (some ex-veterans of the Dutch Army) who have been waiting for this list, so I'm releasing it in this format so they can go over it with a fine-toothed comb and pick up on all my errors!

In the meantime I can work on the Dutch AFV Data Table, pick some photos and finish off the glossary - so we can have a final product asap.

Thanks and let me know what you think

Richard

My Unofficial Battlegroup: Cold War - Soviet AFV Data Cards and Four Covers

Well here's a very nice change in pace for my blog.  Nothing you see here today was done by me!  I've been very pleased with people especially in the UK and United States giving the Battlegroup Cold War playtest rules a bit of a go, and generally I've had very positive and useful feedback.

Greg (also known as Chairborne on the old Guild) has very kindly spent some time making some Soviet AFV Data Cards for the game.  He has also allowed me to share them here:

Soviet AFV Data Cards

I'm really impressed by these and it's my understanding he'll be working on some BAOR cards next.

I was then contacted by Jason (owner of the Twilight 2000 Miniature Wargaming Blog - amongst many other things) who has decided to print off the various lists etc and make up books out of them.  He also decided to create covers for the books and like Greg has allowed me to share them here:

Cover for NATO Armies

Cover for NATO Weapons

WarPac Army Lists Cover

WarPac Weapons Cover

So thanks to them both and to all that have tried the game or provided me with feedback.  It's all considered.

I'll be adding these to the sidebar and the the Battlegroup Forum later today.  Hopefully the draft Dutch list will be up for comment later this week.

Thanks

Richard

My Unofficial Battlegroup: Cold War - VDV AFV Data

Just a very quick update today as I it was pointed out to me that I had not uploaded the VDV's AFV Data.  I went back and had a look at what I had done a while back and realised I had not gotten around to finishing it - so not it is finished (as a first draft) and ready to be shared.

Here is the link:

Soviet VDV AFV Data

I'll also be updating the VDV list to version 2 later today.

Thanks

Richard