1 to 1 WW2 rules recommendations

[whenimaginationfails]

I came into a large number of painted eastern front WW2 GHQ/CinC AFV figures. Normally, I would use 1 to 5 rules such as Fist Full of TOWs, but with so many figures, I thought I should think larger. Any suggestions for 1 to 1 rule sets that cover bigger battles than company vs company?

[redleg]

I don't have experience with a lot of rule sets, but Pete ran a game of Mein Panzer and that had a battalion on each side. I really like the rules, and I can see it going a little bigger with players that know the rules well.

[mluther]

I;ve been using Toofatlardies' I Ain't Been Shot Mum for years. Lots of scenario books out and active FB Ground scale is evry cloe to 1/285 so the tables look close to an actual battle. Check out the AAR thread for some of my games.

[loknar]

The old Tank Charts rules work for that ratio, as does Tractics, and JagdPanzer.

[madman]

Ioknar

I started wargaming, miniatures and micro armour with Tractics back in '73 and although I love it to death IMHO you would be hard pressed to get much of a game in with even a company per side during a long day. Just too much dice rolling and chart checking.

Redleg

I have been interested in MP for years but cannot get a straight answer on it's forum wrt how a combat action (single attack/defense) would work. Also how useful and covered infantry are by the rules. Personally 90+% of all actions were infantry centric so they have to work well, be as effective as armour in a battle and be of similar detail or depth as armour. No one gave me more than "get it and give it a try". Too pricey to me to take that approach.

IABSM I have played a couple times and not a bad feel to the games. Anyone play O group, or is it not 1 to 1 scale? I seem to remember now I type it is a platoon or even company per base.

[mluther]

O Group is not 1 to 1 Each base is a platoon or troop equivalent

[redleg]

I only played MP once, but I thought it was a great system. The battle kept moving at a good pace, but we didn't use any infantry. I'm hoping Pete will jump on here and provide some details on the rules as he is the meister!

[Paul B]

Not to date myself, but I will. My original gaming group used to play a lot of Firefly/Challenger rules. They are rules from the 80's and are chart heavy, more simulation than game if that helps.

I have MP and have read through the rules, and I think they would play well. From only reading, I see them as striking a good balance between simulation and game.

[pmskaar]

Yeah, where is that Pete Skaar guy? Oh wait, that's me. Thanks, Redleg, it looks like I'm in trouble now.

Mein Panzer is a great set of rules that might be what you are looking for whenimaginationfails. I have been playing these rules since 1998 when they first came out and have enjoyed them ever since. Here are some of the particulars.

1. It is a 1 to 1 set of rules where each vehicle in the game represents 1 vehicle and each infantry stand represents either a squad or sometimes a team.

2. All calculations in the game are based around troop quality with each nation having its own ratings for troop quality.

3. Turns are divided into impulses so each impulse, the active side will be activating some of their units, generally one platoon or in some cases two or three at a time depending on how many units the player is controlling. A typical company of 3 platoons will have 3 impulses per turn with the HQ section activating with one of the platoons.

4. Most die rolls involve rolling a single 20 sided die to resolve the roll with low rolls being better, The extreme ends of the die rolls such as 1 or 20 can result in additional good or bad things happening.

5. If playing a larger game I recommend multiple players with each commanding a company or a reinforced company. You can do larger games with fewer players but turns will take longer. This is due to the fact that all players on one side are activating at the same time and not waiting for 1 player to be done before the next player goes.

6. I would put this game in the medium complexity level generally. There are no turret facing rules with tank combat being resolved with - Did I hit it? If yes, after modifiers are applied, did I kill it or have any effect at all?

7. The core game is the tank game and what I recommend for getting new players into the game. There are also additional modules included in the core rules for infantry, artillery, engineering, structures, airpower, and even naval gunfire among other things.

I introduced Redleg to the rules at the Sand Wars Convention in 2024. It was just the two of us playing a game set in North Africa in 1942. If 2 to 3 hours of play we were able to get a decent result for our time. He likes the rules and most of the folks that I have introduced them to have been positive about the rules as well.

At Sand Wars in 2025, I had 4 players plus myself as the host. Of the 4, 2 had never played before, 1 had not played in a long time, and the 4th player had played twice before. After explaining the rules, we played about 3 to 3 1/2 hours and got in 5 turns and determined the game to be a draw with lots of action going on.

For additional information on how the game plays, I did a Mein Panzer Tutorial on the Old Dominion Game Works (ODGW) site under the Core Rules section for Mein Panzer in the Forum. I did the game solo but tried to illustrate the basics of movement and combat with lots of pictures explaining things as the game progressed.

If you go to the Pete's Place section in this Forum, I have my Sand Wars game, "Stemming the Tide", with pictures posted.

Here are a couple from that game.

[madman]

Pete

Sorry for the delay. For some reason this forum goes off line for days at a time. I do not know if it is triggered by my viewer killing ads or if it says I looked and a cookie says I am done. Whatever I have seen your answers and have generated a few more questions if I may.

2. I assume you mean troop quality is either the base number from which all else is generated or it is the final number that must be reached with a combo of die roll +/- DMs. Either way same results.

3. So your 3 impulses when running a company would allow you to activate 3 squads, not 3 platoons? Command squad/platoon would activate with one of the squads as desired I assume?

5. I would like to run a couple companies plus support elements per player (I am very lucky to get 1 opponent). Is this viable and based on your other posts may take say 5 hours for a game?

6. Is there anything about vehicle facing or abstracted to general level of protection?

7. Lots of chrome is always fun but as I think I said getting back into the hobby about a decade ago I have less interest in tank only combat and much more infantry centric to infantry only. So are the infantry rules as compelling as the tank rules?

I think I looked at your example as when I first heard about MP I went all in trying to learn what I wanted to know. Frankly I asked pretty much what I did above and never got a clear answer. MP is a very costly set of rules, especially as you have to buy the rules and then another module for the period/theatre information. I recycled a lot of paper last week from other games/rules which promised a lot but fell short somewhere. This is why I ask such detailed questions. Thank you.

Stephen

[pmskaar]

Hi Madman

Between the Forum going down and my own schedule, it has taken me a while to get back to try to answer your questions.

1. The Troop Quality Rating is the base number from which all other calculations are derived.

Example: German Regular Troop Quality is 12 (as is Veteran) If, with no modifications, you roll a 12 or less, you will be successful. Of course the modifiers will add or subtract from the base number of 12. In this game you want to roll low. A 1 is a particularly good roll and with a 20 sometimes bad things can happen.

2. During your own activation, depending on how many platoons you have in your company, you will activate 1 or 2 platoons at a time. Each vehicle of squad in that platoon will activate at that time together. If your infantry platoon has 3 squads, those will all activate in the same impulse. If your tank platoon has 5 tanks then they will all activate in 1 impulse. You can choose to not activate a platoon or part of a platoon.

In most of my games, both sides have the same number of platoons but in some cases, a player may have more platoons than the other player.

Example: German player has 1 Company of 3 infantry platoons while his American counterpart has 3 infantry platoons, a tank platoon, and maybe a recon platoon. In this case, both sides have 3 activations per turn but the American will activate 2 platoons in the 1st impulse, 2 in the 2nd impulse, and 1 in the 3rd and final impulse. The German will always activate 1 platoon each for the 3 activations. I have used activation and impulse interchangeably here.

3. Game length. With 2 reasonably experienced players, each running a basic company, you can have a decent game in 2 to 3 hours. When Redleg and I played our game at Sandwars 2024, each of us had a reduced Tank Company and we completed the game in less than 3 hours. Redleg had not played before so I had to teach him the rules but he learned the basics very quickly.
At Sandwars 2025, for my "Stemming the Tide" scenario, we had 4 players plus me as host/moderator/referee. That game took a bit under 3 1/2 hours with each player controlling a company with 2 companies per side. We got in 5 turns of play plus the pre-game move for the Germans in that time. At the time we concluded the game, all players seemed pretty satisfied with the results. In this case, the outcome was a draw but a very bloody draw with both sides seeing a lot of action.

If you give each player 2 companies, the game will slow down a bit as each player has twice the workload. As you add more rules the game will slow down a bit as there is more to do and you may have to look things up more often.

4. Vehicle Facing. Yes, vehicle facing is important and vehicles are rated for armor on front/side/rear/top. Also assault guns or tanks with guns in a sponson such as the M3 Lee/Grant need to be facing toward the enemy to shoot. There is an arc that shows the max deflection on the frontal arc. There is no turret facing in the game. This is an abstraction to be sure.

Infantry have a field of fire of 180 degree to the front. They can move in any direction.

5. While the core game is generally tank combat, you can play a decent infantry game using Mein Panzer and the rules are pretty for infantry have their own chapter. I have played games with infantry before though it has been a while. I plan to do another tutorial for Mein Panzer in a couple months using an infantry only or infantry heavy scenario and maybe add some artillery or mortars as well to illustrate how that works.
Infantry use a different table to resolve small arms attacks.

6. Mein Panzer rules cost. I bought my set back in 1998 along with the Data book. I updated the rules to the 2006 edition. The rules could be considered expensive depending on what you are looking for. The WWII rules are $34.95 but not sure what the Data Book costs these days but it is pretty comprehensive.

Compared with Flames of War and the many books that has, it is not unreasonable in my opinion. Of course there are less expensive rules sets out there as well.

I hope I have answered the questions you have asked. If you have any more, I will see what I can do to answer those as well.