Tag Archives: Modern

Miniatures Rules, Rules

Tacforce

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Tacforce is a game that was published in1980 under the dual banner of GHQ and GDW though the rules were designed and written by Frank Chadwick lending more weight to the GDW side with regulars like Marc Miller, Loren Wiseman, and Greg Novak along for the ride. The rules have a current incarnation as Tac II. The rules cover then contemporary tactical land combat with 1/285 miniatures.

The 3 book format was still in use. The rules seem reminiscent of the other 3 book tactical combat series of the moment written by Chadwick, Striker for the RPG Traveller.i

As a quick aid, information on vehicles and weapons is carried on a series of cards. Organizational material necessary to approaching the scenarios is included in book3, the scenarios and advanced rules are foundin book 2, and basic rules in book 1.

There is also a banal set of counters, and some charts and organizational sheets.

Scale is 1 to 1 for vehicles and guns. Infantry units represent squads or fireteams. A turn represents a minute of actual time. An inch is 50 meters. A turn consists of a movement phase and fire phase, first for Soviet forces, then for the US. Morale is effected by fire. Close assault also occurs as a portion of the fire phase.

As with so many GDW rules sets, rules appear in the oddest places. The rules for basing for example appear on the very last page of book 3.

Board Games

Red Star White Star

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Tactical Game 3 had an impact that reverberated for years. SPI and Avalon Hill batted the concept around for years. Here is an early entertaining but flawed iteration from the early 70s as the system is applied to then contemporary warfare in western Europe. The game would ultimately be replaced by the ambitious Mech War 77.

As suits a game of this sort where scenarios are ahistorical, the game relies heavily on contemporary military documents and organizational layouts. Scenarios explicitly list on-paper elements as well as idealized conflict situations meant to illustrate doctrine.

The game is a remarkable change from the series games up to this point. Most noticeably, the board is large, with few hills, divided into a number of sections. Infantry and artillery include their vehicular component in a single counter. Ranges for HE weapons can be as large as 72 hexes. Helicopters can move swiftly across the board with relative immunity. TOW offer enormous AP attacks that can guarantee destruction of armored units.

There are also odd rules. TOW units disappear after firing. Units may also triple their fire for single turn then disappear as well. There were a bunch of other complaints addressed in a sheet of errata including the unpardonable sin of missing a counter for a scenario. One complaint was that the Russian forces were modeled on outdated and incorrect data that left the Russians far too weak.

The game of course hints at changes to come. Soon, SPI would introduce their SiMove system while covering a range of WWII theaters. The final iteration of the system would be October War designed by Mark Herman who would go on to rewrite the system as Mech War 2.

Rules

Modern War in Miniature

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This mysterious set of rules was supposedly the inspiration for SPI’s Sniper. I do not know if this is true but spent some time tracking down a copy. Cheap copies are difficult to find but there is a downloadable version here:

Modern War in Miniature

So what do you get? The rules seem vague dependent on judge or judges conversant with the data in the book. Miniatures are placed on a sand table and a judge will perform some action with the figures dependent on player orders and the judge’s interpretation of how the miniatures would act. The judge also performs all necessary die rolls when some element of chance creeps such as whether or not the enemy is spotted or the accuracy of weapons fire.

I have heard the rules described as the first role playing rules but they really are not. Only the vagueness of the rules compels the use of judges though judges can also provide a fog of war by limiting player intelligence of the opposing force. The tables that fill most of the book offer something akin to tables in a standard wargame albeit more exhaustive. But the rules are presented through a series of examples which would seem to lessen their usefulness. But like the designers at SPI, players may find the rules provide a helpful stepping off point for an exploration of modern era combat.

As an example of the information contained in the tables, the Nambu machine gun model M1922 is 6.5 caliber with a weight of 22.5 lbs, manufactured and used by Japanese forces,has a muzzle velocity of 2400, an effective range of 300 yards and a rate of fire of 8 rounds per second.

Rules appear to require no scale in particular though the author uses 1/87 or 1/100 scale figures. Figure scale is 1 to 1.