Wargame Rules: Blood and Guts

Following along the Amazon trend of "go on you always wanted to get this wargaming book at some point, so why not get it now" while shopping on Amzon to make it past the £10 free delivery level, and originally known courtesy of the informative The History of Wargaming Project by John Curry, I decided to get "Blood and Guts". Why? Well yes another set of home grown (over twenty years) wargaming rules making it to the publishable level (hell knows I have so many already, particularly WWII) but this one is coming from a former army officer (US Marines) who had always wargamed. Thus there is a meld between hobby and profession that enthused my interest (see below):

I am still in the process of reading it but I can definitely say am glad I made the purchase because it has already "made me think" long and hard. He wants a playable game, that is not chess or checkers but feels right. His rules are not definitive (he encourages discussion) and pitched at the squad element, platoon organisation and company or sub-company game scale. Lots familiar but with some twists, consider the familiar concepts of: 

• Rate of Fire 
• Platoon Strength

A simple mechanism reduces the former as the latter declines. Interesting enough for me to see others (as in respected rule sets) don't show that relationship. I would say Chain of Command does, but there are lots of dice! (Note: Not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but not in the place of tactics.) I stand to be corrected but Spearhead, Crossfire and Command Decision didn't observe this (albeit not necessarily aimed at the same battle scale) relationship. I am not saying that I agreed with some of his national squad ratings but his mechanism provides interesting effects.

Early days, much more reading to do,