The theme of Historicon 2004 is “D-Day and the Liberation of Europe.” If you’re not going, you can still be there in spirit by playing this set of Fast Play D-Day free wargames rules. Author Matt Fritz also provides paper soldiers, landing craft and bunkers. It’s everything you need for a quick D-Day game.
World War Two
Not Quite Mechanized rules
Chris Kemp offers Not Quite Mechanized, a free set of operational level WWII rules. With the great emphasis on skirmish rules these days, it’s refreshing to see a set of large scale rules. Here’s what Chris has to say on why he decided to write an operational level set:
The idea for NQM began in the 1980’s when there was a dearth of fast games that allowed large multiplayer games to flow smoothly with a minimum of fuss. My experience of large cloth-model games at RMA Sandhurst with Dr Paddy Griffith and others, created a yearning to be able to re-create the vast sweep of those games, but with a far less intrusive umpire load. The players would be able to handle all the low-level combat themselves, leaving the umpire(s) free to concentrate on the high level decisions. Oh, and just to make it harder, the game had to be able to handle a couple of players wanting to have a knock-about on a Friday evening. Whether or not I succeeded, you can judge for yourself.
World War II Vehicle Camouflage Guide
Mike Cooper has a web page with useful information on World War Two vehicle camouflage. IIt includes text descriptions, as well as a virtual “paint chip” gallery.
Platoon Action WWII Skirmish Rules
Platoon Action is a set of skirmish rules for WWII. The author writes:
Platoon Action is a skirmish-level game of World War II combat. Figure scale is one man to one man; ground scale is not exact, but about 1″ to 5-10 yards. Typically a player might control up to an infantry platoon (three squads of about ten men each; perhaps an HQ section); optionally supported by a few heavy weapons or vehicles. Although there are vehicle rules, it should be noted that these are primarily rules intended for infantry combat.
WWII Plastic Skirmish
Brett Drake offers a set of rules called WWII Plastic Skirmish, which are — obviously — rules for playing WWII games with plastic army men.
What more could you want? Your favorite childhood toys. Dice. Mayhem.