Intuitively it may seem to be a step back, as I remember all those wargamers I knew who had played Spearhead (and there are a lot from pre-2000, as it is an old rule set and was very popular in its time), who had enjoyed it but bemoaned the simplicity of the d6, so guess what - they introduced their own rule modifications (using d10s and some form of variation of morale break rules to allow remnants [as opposed to battalions break and disappear] like DBM to survive, but dwindle away giving token resistance). In fact I know hybrid Spearhead and Command Decision rule-sets were devised for 20-30 player Mega Games, as I have good friends who participated in them during the early 2000's. For one reason or another I too seemed to have discounted it, but in my greying years I see complexity for the sake of it, over simplicity to be generally a bad thing now (increasing dice rolls and playing time for no real gain) and I am tending to go the other way, more focusing on decision making. I remember James Sterrett's quote, "All models are wrong, but some models are useful"). The above struck me as I was watching online some Nimitz games by Jom Owczarski and noticed he also did some Spearhead videos too (see below, the appealing bit being they are "double blind" with an umpire, which seems to be the magic ingredient and the secret sauce of success - let the players play):
I am intrigued to give it another go, in its basic form with an umpire (although sadly without the mechanical assistance of the Table Top Simulator magic). I also think it is best played below a divisional level, certainly with no more than two battalions per player. Watch this space ;)
SH creaks for a whole division, but works fine for a Regiment or Brigade for a quick evening game. I think it is a great rule set, but sadly my regulars don't like written orders, not even drawing a line on a map. You need a few battalions to appreciate the genius of the order system and unit modes.
ReplyDeleteI played Spearhed pre-2000, but I don;t remember much about the unit stats or combat resolution mechanisms. I do remember we had to plan our movements by drawing arrows on a map, and this usually gave rise to a lot of interpretations and discussions ;-)
ReplyDeleteNever played it but have heard a lot of good things about the rules
ReplyDeleteI went back to Spearhead about 10 years ago and agree with Martin: while it struggles with whole divisions, at regiment/brigade level it gives an excellent game. We usually have one player per side plus an umpire, double-blind and with limited intelligence on the opposing force. Other than some slight over-rating of some US kit, I can't see any need to fiddle with the rules. They are good as they are.
ReplyDeleteThe only real fiddling with units I did was to have I fantry just divided I to high firepower and low firepower (like TAC), rather than the Germans magically having +1 on their AI factors. I also used a D10 for combat resolution as it avoided the fiddliness of rolling two dice for suppressive fire.
ReplyDeleteOut here in New zealand a group of us have been playing Spearhead (and Modern Spearhead) for more than 20 years and still play it. We have used it for both historical scenario games and also for competitions. We too tried adding moral rolls and moving to a d10 system, but after several years came back to playing the rules as written. There are some things that people find hard to accept but once you stop micromanaging and actually comamnd the games start to fly. The game system needs at least a brigade to start to work well, and it is possible to run a division on a big table in a day.
ReplyDeleteThe wesite you really need to have a look at is https://ww2spearhead.wordpress.com/ which has a selection of scenarios but also a very good scenario generator for pick up games.
Thanks gents your comments are really appreciated.
ReplyDeleteI am going to go back to the rules "as-is" plus the clarifications in the subsequent scenario booklets
I am looking at Blaze Across the Sands as an excuse to expand my 10mm WWII Middle East - Italian, British and DAK troops ;)
Martin, we tried a D10 system. We found that with a 9-10 to kill it was a bloodbath compared to a D6, and 10 to kill was hangbags at 10 paces.
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