Armour Battles

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Gaming Gear

Play Aids

Armour Battles Basics

2mm and 6mm Models

Unit Statistics

The Game Turn

Movement

Terrain

Line of Sight

Unit Morale

Command Orders

Staff Orders

Orders Summary

Direct Fire

Direct Fire Combat Results

Opportunity Fire

Indirect Fire

Minor Obstacles

Hidden Units

Special Rules

US Units In Armour Battles

German Units In Armour Battles

Mission Briefings Explained

Battle 1 - Meeting Engagement

Battle 2 - Attack/Defend

Battle 3 - Counter-Attack

What Next?

Armour Battles Expansion

Rules Summary

Credits

About the Author

Armour Battles

Introductory World War Two Wargame Rules

Jim Bambra

First published in 2015 by Wargames Design.

© 2015 Jim Bambra. All rights reserved.

Jim Bambra has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this book.

Distributed by Smashwords

Smashwords Edition, Liscense Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favourite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

INTRODUCTION

Armour Battles is an introductory set of World War Two wargame rules. Based on the larger Combat HQ rules, Armour Battles is a fully playable game.

Armour Battles features three armoured battles set in Lorraine, France in 1944 as Patton’s 3rd Army advances towards the Rhine. The first battle is a small meeting engagement between US and German tanks. The next battle has the Americans attacking the Germans. This is followed by the Americans attempting to break through the German positions as the Germans counter-attack with a Tiger I platoon.

Game Facts

Game Length: 2-3 hours.

Unit Scale: The Platoon is the basic unit in the game and is represented by a model vehicle.

Ground Scale: 1" equals 50 yards.

Figure Scale: Plays equally well with 2mm, 6mm, 10mm, 15mm and 20mm figures. 28mm figures are possible, but a large table is required.

Bases: No bases are required for vehicles. If you have based vehicle models, just make all measurements to the vehicle chassis and ignore the bases.

Armour Battles Design Goals

Armour Battles grew out of my desire to play a fast-moving World War Two miniatures game that not only required players to make decisions as army commanders, but also contained sufficient detail to capture the intricacies and complexities of World War Two armoured combat in a tense but fun game.

My goal was to create a game that didn't follow a predictable I Go, You Go structure without having to rely on random cards or dice rolls to activate units. Alternate Command Pulses and the threat of a Command Failure make each turn different. During your turn you may not have enough Command Dice to do everything you want, and your opponent may also be using your own dice against you!

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GAMING GEAR

To play Armour Battles you need an opponent and some model vehicles. For the first battle nine US tanks and seven German tanks are required. This increases to 12 US vehicles and 10 German vehicles for the second battle. For the third battle 15 US vehicles and 13 German vehicles.

Although model vehicles are always best, you can try out the game with home made cardboard counters. Grab a few pictures from the Internet and mount them on thin card roughly 40mm wide and 60mm long (or as needed).

ESSENTIALS

Tape Measures: A tape measure for each player marked in inches and/or centimetres to measure movement and weapon ranges.

Model Terrain: You need a few hills, woods and hedges to play Armour Battles. These can be model terrain or be cut from coloured card or paper.

Standard Dice: Six-sided dice numbered from 1–6 are used for firing, checking reactions to fire, and rallying. Eight to twelve dice per player should cover most situations, but it never hurts to have more.

Dice are referred to as D. When the rules state that you need to roll a single dice or multiple dice it is shown in this format: xD. One dice is shown as 1D, two dice as 2D, three dice as 3D, four dice as 4D, and so on.

Command Dice: Command Dice are standard six-sided dice used to determine how many orders a player can issue in a Command Turn.

You don’t need any