14 January 2018

My Unofficial Battlegroup:Cold War Rules

For the first post of 2018 (and my 400th post) I have a short but significant (to me anyway) link to share.  After seeing another Battlegroup Cold War type rules variant posted on The Guild, I asked Piers and Warwick if they were OK with me posting up my variant of the rules for others to use.  Piers basically said "Go for it" so now I'm posting them.

Over the past few years I've shared various iterations of these rules with Warwick and Piers who have provided valuable feedback and direction that, along with the playtests you may have seen on this blog, have lead this variant to where it is now.  So the rules you see below contains work and ideas from Warwick, Piers and myself that could be considered to be a very early draft of what will be Ironfist Publishing's planned Battlegroup:NORTHAG.  It is very much the beginning of the project and should be seen as a Work-In-Progress.

So Warwick and Piers are looking for feedback on the rules and I'd suggest you post feedback and any AARs onto The Guild.  I'm always happy to answer questions here as well.

Here's a link to my Totally Unofficial Battlegroup:Cold War Rules.  You'll note I have them listed on the right hand side as well for easy reference into the future.

Over the next few days and weeks I'll be posting links to all my weapon and vehicles statistics, army lists, quick reference sheets etc.

You'll note the rules have a couple of spots where it's clear I haven't resolved something - and I don't believe certain areas (like Helicopters) is anywhere near final - but as I said above this is a work-in-progress and its time to seek more input.

So any comments, suggestions etc will be gratefully considered.  Obviously I'd love you to try out the rules as much as you can.  Just because they work for my group of mates - they may not work for everyone and I'd like to know that.

I'll be passing on any changes that get made to the rules/lists/stats etc to Piers and Warwick - so this is kind of a chance to help shape things a little on what Battlegroup:NORTHAG might finally turn to look like.

Anyway - enough waffle from me

Thanks - and I hope you enjoy them

Richard


18 comments:

  1. Woke up to this post...can the day possibly get any better? Doubtful! Thank you very much !

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    1. No worries Casey. Thanks for the interest

      Richard

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  2. Thanks for posting these - hopefully, I'll get to trial them at some point.

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    1. All good Steve. Let us know how you go.

      Richard

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  3. Outstanding! We will be playing these soon.

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    1. Thanks mate. Please give us a report on how you games go and let me know if you have any questions

      Richard

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  4. That's extraordinarily generous of you - not only does it bridge the gap until the publication of NORTHAG but hopefully means that your input will shape those rules when they come. Congrats, and thanks!

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    1. Thanks Ian - I'd rather people had something to play - and like you said, if we can influence BG:NORTAG positively with these rules - all the better.

      Richard

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  5. Hey Richard, just wanted to say that I have been waiting to see your mods for several years, many thanks for posting them!

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    1. No worries Ragnar - I’m glad I can now share them.

      Thanks

      Richard

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  6. Looking forward to trying these next week!

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    1. Great Sean - love to hear how game goes.

      Richard

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  7. just wonderful , one rule point you might add is that you can't fire a wire guided ATGM over water .

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    1. Thanks Rolf - Gotta have something to use to play with all your lovely figures!
      I'm sure I had that in one of my rule drafts - not sure when it disappeared. Will be adding that back in.
      Richard

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    2. its always a rule that causes a giggle for new players laying an ambush across a river and the missiles short circuit :-)

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  8. Looking at the small arms table IMHO I think the concept of assault rifle could have some depth . Looking at effective ranges the main assault rifles for this period - would be ; AK47 350 metres, AK74 400 metre , M16a1 460 metres, G3 rifle 500 metre , SLR/FN rifle 800 metres. Whilst your clear view would rarely be longer than I guess 100/200 metres in anyway . It might be worth differentiating between the shorter range ''hope and spray'' weapons in the AK family than the longer range slightly more accurate NATO weapons . We were talking about this at lunchtime with a BG devotee who had played a game last night with your rules . He was still more than chuffed with his British FV Striker that had taken out a T72 .

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  9. Hi Rolf - thanks for the comments and for looking at the rules in detail. I like the idea but the implementation might prove difficult and beyond the BG "KISS" approach. Earlier versions of my variant were way more complicated with oval templates for DPICM strikes and all sorts of other things. I had to pair it back to be more in line with BG. I guess you could have WARPAC Assault Rifle with RoF 2 out to 20" and NATO Assault Rifles use the current rules. How does that sound?

    Glad you mate liked the game. He should write it up and post about it.

    Richard

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    1. I get the KISS concept 100% , and like the Black powder ''rule of 1 '' where a difference of 1 makes all the difference . I think as you say above listing WARPACT AR and NATO AR with those stats would be perfect !

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