Battalion and Brigade level Mechanised Warfare Rules

Test game of MechWar in progress - I love the hex basing, works well on big or small hexes

I've been trying for ages to write a decent set of mechanised warfare rules to support 1/300th wargaming. I grew up on WRG's 1950+ plus rules, which got more complicated with each edition, and I was always after something simpler, but which maintained a good level of realism ( I hate bunched tanks!). The last time I had a go a few years ago I was still trying to do something with squad or section sized manoeuvre units, but when I started looking more at WW2 actions and at the old 1980s North German Plain battlegrounds it become obvious that to capture the sort of encounters I'd like I would need something that let you put a Battalion or Brigade on the table, and have the table covering 5-10 miles - particularly if you wanted to model helicopter ops (which I did having served in 24th (Airmobile) Brigade.

So I'm now having another go, building on some of my old ideas but also making some radical changes - some of style, and some of substance. I'll write more as things mature but some of the guiding ideas at the moment are:

• Platoon or company manoeuvre units except specialists support wpns
• Anti-tank fire based on separate to-hit and to-penetrate rolls, and minimal of chance of penetrating if your gun is underpowered
• Small arms fire/damage based on more of the damage/CEF model I use with Steady Lads Steady
• Similar activation, command points and morale mechanisms to SLS
• Easy to use Indirect Fire model, with option for plotted Fires
• Simple suppression/neutralisation model (and really all small arms fire is assumed to be suppression first, damage 2nd)
• Overwatch is always on, no need to specify
• Turns  are 10 minutes
• Ground scale is 1 big hex (10cm) = 500m (maybe 250m) or 1 small hex (4cm) = 250m
• Elements are based on 4cm hexes (just look nice!)
• All element data on unit cards - minimise the tables on the QRS
• Replace the QRS with  a set of A6 cue cards  - easier to find and keep front of mind the bits you are really using (might also try that for SLS)

Sample Card

More later...