The World War II version of Neil Thomas’s One Hour Wargames is slightly more complicated than the Dark Age version (see 448 AD Battle Report). So Chris Harrod and I gave it a go. We played two games in an evening. I’m not a fan, of the WW2 variant and OHW in general. I tried. I really tried. We played four games in total, but I think I’ll give up on OHW now.
Battle 1: Scenario 3: Control the River
In the first battle we played “Scenario 3: Control the River”. We lined up, shot each other across the river, although I started shooting first, and probably because of that, I won. It wasn’t a very interesting game.
Battle 2: Scenario 4: Take the High Ground
In the second battle we played “Scenario 4: Take the High Ground”. The scenario was more interesting than the three previous ones, because I started the battle with an outpost far forward of the rest of my troops.
In this battle I had a Mortar unit, something that was missing from the first battle. The Mortars fired over the top of the hill at the approaching Germans. This added a slight touch of interest to the game.
The deciding factor was that Tanks take half damage when on hills. Presumably this is to simulate Hull Down position. I benefited from this as Chris approached my outpost. But he concentrated on my Tank unit, destroyed it, and drove his two tank units onto the hill, and shot up my Mortar unit. That is when the Tank on a Hill rule went a bit weird. Hull Down makes sense if the enemy is ahead and on the flat. For the second half of this battle I had infantry on the hill with the German tanks, and to either flank to boot, but Chris still received the Hull Down bonus and wiped me out. It seems, in One Hour Wargames, the best troops for mountain warfare are tanks. Sigh.
Thank you for the report. I really appreciate your site/blog. Your battle report hit the nail right on the head. Not a big OHW fan. For me it’s Rapid Fire although I hope with their new release they use either a 1d10 or 2d6 for their charts as this will give more needed modifiers. More importantly they go from 6 gun classes to maybe 10.
Anyways keep up the great work.
Glad you like the site Rocco. I’ve only ever played on Rapid Fire game. It was okay but didn’t grab me enough to try again. Not when I have Crossfire. 😉
I have to agree with your assessment, Steven. The OHW rules, to me, don’t “scratch the itch” that Mr Thomas’ other rules seem to scratch (Wargaming: An Introduction and Napoleonic Wargaming come to mind). The scenarios in the book are probably more useful than the rules themselves in this instance.
So I should try the other Neil Thomas rules?
Two issues for the WWII rules. The anti-tank guns have a mobile capability that are perhaps more akin to assault guns and since the tanks can take 15 hits (like everything else), I really think that a tank unit needs to be represented by more than 1 model, so that visually it looks more like a platoon that is getting degraded by fire.
The rules are clever in what they can do in two pages, but would be much more-so in 4 to 5 pages and could still be classed as light and fast. For my own money, the mechanisms can rightly be thought of as having have been striped far enough back to still actually work, but too far to give me a satisfactory game.
I agree that 4-5 pages would make them better, and perhaps satisfactory.
I don’t understand your point about two models for a tank unit. Please elaborate.
Nice report, albeit on a little boring type of rules. I believe you must stick to CrossFire 😉
Don’t worry Jose, I’m not looking for a Crossfire replacement.
We tried OHW as a variation on DBA. So for ancients and medieval.
The WW2 games were Chris’s idea. I thought, if I were lucky, they might make an okay set for operational level games. But I don’t think so.
The World War II rules from “Wargaming: An Introduction” have some very ingenious concepts in them (I love how HE fire from mortars, guns, and artillery is adjudicated) and give a decent game IMHO. They have a slightly old school feel to them, but they’re slick and they play quickly.
Mr Thomas’ Napoleonic rules score big with me as they deliver roughly the same results without as much fuss as other rules, although he leaves the reader to decide on certain things. The Wargaming: An Introduction have Napoleonic and ACW rules in them (as well as Ancients, and Pike & Shot).
My recommendation is to give that book a read through. You may be able to find it at the library without having to buy it?
And of course they are no replacement for Crossfire 🙂
Hello Mr. Balagan!
Thank you for your report of your games. You show some weak points in the book. But the rules show solution to deal with the problems. The rules for hand-to-hand combat may help, the use of “terrain” , “flank or rear attacks” and retreat, see chapter 12 “Rifle and Sabre Wargaming”.
At page 130 there is a list for “chance cards”; they can definitly change a game.
Another idea could bee to set a “Machine Age Wargame Rules” army against one for the “Second World War Wargames Rules”.