Blitzkrieg Commander Review
Every now and again I get a pleasant surprise. The arrival the other day of a new set of WWII wargaming rules on my desk, from Pete at The Wargames Directory, marked the latest one of these.
I’ve been playing WWII for many years and love it, having amassed a pretty sizeable 20mm and 28mm collection. I play most rules, depending upon the level of game at the time, and have to say that I tend to lean towards the ‘large’ conflict as my choice of game.
Pete’s rules, called BlitzkriegCommander, are a breath of fresh air. I have to say that I was ‘right impressed’ to use the Northern vernacular. I guess this short article is my way of saying well done to Pete for actually putting the time and effort (and printing costs) of creating something that is very, very good.
Putting the rules to one side from a gaming perspective, Pete has actually had something designed that looks good, feels good (as in not falling apart in your hand like many rule books do) and he’s made sure that what you get is complete. You get the core rules, scenario ideas and more army lists than you can shake a stick at.
BlitzkriegCommander is a great piece of work that he can be truly proud of and it should be looked at by other firms selling book materials to our hobby as a classic example of how you can do it right. Before I get too carried away with myself there is the fact that you need to pay £20 for this book (£16 while it is still on offer) but what you get is more than a pamphlet, more than a thrown together set of A4 pages and for that £16 or £20 is not too high a price.
More so he’s gone to the trouble of using the colour pages wisely by using real examples of a game in progress to illustrate how the rule mechanics work. He’s not just thrown lots of shots of ‘lovely’ models into a centre section that looks nice but is of no use. Instead he has created a use for the colour images, something that actually helps you get to grips with the rules.
The rules them self are an adaptation of the Games Warmaster rule set and I have to say that Pete and the play testers, of which Rick Priestley appears to be one of them, have got it right. The rules work well, play well, give a good game and allow you to get lots of toys on the table, blow the hell out of each other and still play a tactical game. Not bad at all.
These are a set of rules that allow you to take a Battalion or more into battle very easily and if you drop to a scale 6, 10/12mm scale you could even deploy a division or two and STILL get around to playing a game. There’s a good chance that internally at Wargames Journal we’ll be moving over to these rules as the de facto way we play BIG games.
Changing subject the author has also created a very nice web site that will act as a support mechanism for gamers interested in getting hold of more information about BlitzkriegCommander and there is a superb Battle Report that should be looked at which is inspiring stuff.
So I’ll stop my praise now, wouldn’t want Pete to get too full of himself, but before I go I’d just like to say once again …well done. You can see the rules at www.blitzkrieg-commander.com and when you get there you can even download a 'Lite' version of the rules to give you an idea of what you will be buying.
Cheers for now
Neil Fawcett