Thursday 5 April 2018

Use of D3 dice continues

Since buying some D3 dice a couple of months ago. I have revisited my French Indian War and Napoleonic rules (both being a variant or heavily influenced by One Hour Wargames rules) and modified the assessing casualties dice roles from D6-2, D6 and D2+2 to D3-1, D3 and D3+1. While at the same time reducing the number of hits a unit can accumulate before elimination to 7. This is so I can track hits on a single D6 dice for a unit.


This does mean units are eliminated quicker and I try to compensate for this by having more units on the tabletop, rather than the normal 6 units.



Anyway, this week I decided to have a go with One Hour Wargames WW2 rules using the D3 approach. Along the way I could not help myself and added a few extra rules. These include:

  • Variable movement
  • Artillery/Mortar indirect fire can cause up to the maximum hits a unit can sustain, but cannot eliminate the unit. That needs to be done by direct fire from another unit.
  • Artillery/Mortar fire occurs before units move. Another mechanism to slightly reduce the effectiveness of artillery/mortars by not having units rush ahead to spot for artillery.
  • Tanks and AT guns have a range of 24 inches not 12 inches, but all ranges are reduced when shooting at tanks (armour).
  • Treat mechanised infantry and armoured cars as armour, but ranges are not reduced by half when shot at.
  • Have unit sight target units. Armour seen at 24 inches when in open and 18 inches when in cover. Infantry seen at 18 inches when in open and 12 inches when in cover.
  • Allow armour into woods and towns, but no cover saves.
Having played a few enjoyable games I am quite sold on the use of D3 dice. I am now in the process of writing up the WW2  rules and will post them next week all being well.



8 comments:

  1. Nice looking table layout. Are you using a grid with your WWII rules? If so, the grid is so subtle I can’t find it!

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    1. No grid on the tabletop cover yet. I created the cover with the intention of putting a hex grid on it at some point.

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  2. Interesting stuff Peter. I have a couple of d3s but haven't used them yet. Your OHW variation might be the beginning..

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    1. So far I have found they work quite well. For cover I subtract 1 rather than halve hits.

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  3. Some inspired stuff there Peter. Subtle yet thought-provoking. Will be great to see the new rules.
    I like the sighting and armour-ranges variants already, and the d3 fixes the variability issue with OHW.

    I've always been looking at the speed of OHW as a great way to host campaigns over a series of short games (I've been watching your and Jonathan's FIW games with interest). The WWII version makes me think of something during the Battle of the Bulge, with a Kampfgruppe's armoured thrust into the US lines - a series of short games at each village, based on what defences the allies can field.

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    1. Thanks. You have a nice idea for a WW2 campaign there. As you say, OHW rules do lend themselves to campaigns, particularly small games which you may hesitant to bother playing with other rules are quite fun on a 3x3 tabletop.
      The FIW campaign with Jonathan doing the operational moves has been a real joy to participate in.

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  4. Peter- I do like your new terrain cloth- looks terrific and your hedges look very good as well. Cheers. KEV.

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    1. Thanks. The hedges are just large scourers cut up and given a light spray of a sand colour.

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