Another excellent addition to Combat HQ. It's not essential to play, but it certainly adds all the bells and whistles to the rules. If you enjoy playing Combat HQ on your table top you will feel the same way about adding this to your collection.

Combat HQ is an excellent set of simple, very readable rules, which find a nice balance between playability and realism when playing World War Two table top wargames. Jim does a great job in capturing all aspects of combat without getting bogged down in too many tables and too much die rolling. The system is consistent across all the game mechanics which makes it very easy to play once the basics are mastered. For all my larger scale battalion games Combat HQ would be my first choice.

I recently purchased these second edition rules, having previously played the first. Buying on wargames Vault was a breeze. I bought the hardcopy book for Commbat HQ and Total war. They are excellent quality, hard backed and everything is so easy to find. The rules are excellent. Im a bit of a rules junkie and I absolutly love playing Combat HQ. They play quickly and a game can easily be played in an evening over 3 or 4 hours. less if you setup a smaller battle. Still the rules dont take any shortcuts when it comes to creating the feeling of commanding units in a ww2 battle. At the heart of the game is the command dice mechanism. Sides have a number of d6 dice the number of which depends on the size of the force. These are rolled by both sides simultaneously at the start of a move. This roll determines who has initiative and what each side is able to do during their turn. The command dice are used to activate units to move and fire, rally, spot etc... Dice with the same number rolled, form a command chain which are used to carry out the actions. So its not a strict IGUG system. You use your chain to activate units and then the opponent activates one of their chains. Uniquely if during the initial roll you roll more ones than sixes you suffer a command failure where you must pass failed dice to your opponenet for that turn which he can use, which means you can do less and the enemy can achieve much more. Combat is quick and simple. Opposed rolls by the attacker and defender comparing attack and reaction dice (saves) the number roilled depending on the unit plus modifiers. This roll determines number of hits and or suppression and also determines a morale test automatically. So if the attacker rolls a hit and more sixes than the defender, then the defender is suppressed and forced back. Rallying units takes into account if in line of sight and distance from the enemy. Each side also has a number of Staff Orders which are used to call in artillery and airstrikes or add command support when needed at a crucial point in the battle. These get used up or spent so not an infinite supply. Combat HQ supplies comprehensive info in nationalites and units and Combat Total War, an additional book provides further historical data on units, vehicles, air and beach landings. I guess thats enough. As you can see, these are very comprehensive rules but not at all complicated, and its easy to play the game from the qrs. Again, my favourite ruleset for ww2 and i only wish more people knew about them:) Mike

Had my first game today, really enjoyed it except for objectives giving army morale. I love that you loose when morale gets to zero but when the defender can score 2-6 bonus morale before they start potentially taking dispersion casualties and therefore army morale loses, seems a bit unfair. This drops the game down from a 5 to a 3 for me. Not sure if total combat fixes this as I’m now hesitant to buy due to this. I know I can house rule but I feel something this important shouldn’t need to.

This is a great product. It is enjoyable to play, easy to learn and is versatile so that players can create their own scenarios based on their favorite battles from WWII.

Combat HQ was my second step into Jim Bambra's WWII rules set. It expanded Armour Battle's into a system which included infantry and other changes that allowed for inclusion of Combined Arms which expanded the game in an enjoyable and fun manner. The new revised edition includes the changes that have come about as the result of feedback from players and from the authors wanting to improve the system for playability and enjoyment. It is a joy to play and the variations that are possible are only limited to the player’ s ability to create scenario’s.

Armour Battles was my introduction to Jim Bambra's new WWII rules set. I followed it from the beginning and have found the system easy to learn and usable for skirmish or larger size games. The new revised edition makes some changes that improve the game system flow with improvements that enhance the experience.

Combat HQ is the best set of WW2 rules I have played in my many years of historical wargaming. It completely renewed my interest in WW2 wargaming and took my games group by storm. WW2 is now exclusivley Combat HQ. This review won't be summarising the rule mechanisms, but I would like to describe what a great gaming experience this gives. Firstly it has a solid basis in historical reality. For example there are uncomplicated statistics for various troop and vehicle types, and special abilities for each. All of them give you a confidence in the author & his research, and these factors make a real difference on the table. Next is the command dice system which dictates how much you can do, and thereby creates one of the key delights. As the game advances you can't do everything you want, you have to make decisions what you do with these dice. Do you move some units rapidly, do you try and rally some shaken units, do you supplement the shooting skill of a unit, and leave others idle? It is such a clever yet clear system and it creates a great sense of the need to prioritise. The other factor that I love is the way both players are always involved. There is no more sitting back watching your opponent move, roll dice, inflict damage etc. Every time they roll dice, so do you. To call artillery strikes, to fire, to attempt a rally, these actions require both players to roll and match off. So you are always involved. And it is very soon your turn. Within each move are a number of 'pulses' so after your opponent has used some of his command dice to activate units it will be your trun. This goes on until all command dice are used and a new turn begins. These rules give a great narrative too, when you look back at the battle you get a clear picture of how it transpired and what were the key moments. And it is fun too, much laughter especially at the turn of a cruel dice throw, or a gamble that pays off. I play this in 1/300, 10mm , 15mm and 20mm. Eastern Front, Western Desert, Tunisia, Normandy. Whatever models you have got, they can be adapted to these rules. I didn't start out with all these but the enthusiasm the rules have engendered has inspired me to build more armies. In the book there are forces for starter games, scenarios and statistics for those starting out in the period or new to the rules. It is very clearly set out. In short, if you fancy trying WW2 battles rather than skirmishes, and you are new to the period, or like me you have played many other systems, then you must not pass them by.

Total War gives a number of additional rules to Combat HQ which open some very worthwhile options for the gamer. These are listed in the summary of the product so I won't repeat them, but they add depth to your gaming experience with extra complexity and challenge. The beauty is that they are optional, the game still works perfectly without them, but as you get more experienced with the game, these give you the option of giving your games the added realism and complexity that some will want. The true value of the book, and what makes it essential is the Battlegroup Builder section. Apart from the purpose built Battlegroups and numerous ready made scenarios, this volume sets out how to build your army, add various support levels and then calculate your Morale, Command Dice, Staff Orders and other statistics that enable you to build your own Battlegroups. The ones in the book are excellent all are based on the Normandy Campaign of 1944, and provide all the statistics for the three main participants. However armed with the Battlegroup Builder you can now design your own force, which is explained clearly and is a very straightforward process. The statistics for all the major weapons and units for Normandy are provided, so with a little comparative research it will not be difficult to design statistics for earlier or later units, or even different nationalities. I hope and expect further volumes on other armies and weapons will be forthcoming but for now this volume delivers the information to really get going with Combat HQ. You do need the Combat HQ ruleset, Total War is not a stand-alone game. But if you are a player of Combat HQ, then this book is an absolute requirement. If not, then you are missing out on a great set of WW2 rules, so go get them.

Armour Battles is designed by Jim Bambra to be a fully playable introduction to Combat HQ, his comprehensive set of World War II wargames rules. Armour Battles fulfils its brief with great success.

Three scenarios (Americans v. Germans, Lorraine, September 1944) are included to get you going. In these, the player commands a battle group of seven to seventeen platoons of vehicles or guns; each platoon is represented by a single base on the tabletop. You might notice that I didn’t mention infantry—for the good reason that, as the title Armour Battles suggests, there isn’t any! This exclusion of foot sloggers and their accompanying heavy weapons is the main way in which Armour Battles acts as an introduction to Combat HQ: the rules themselves are not simplified but the amount of unit types (and stats) you deal with is.

The game system is highly ingenious and exceptionally well designed. A friend of mine is fond of Mark Twain’s (alleged) comment: “Please forgive my writing a long letter as I didn’t have time to write a short one.” The same principle holds here: Jim Bambra has clearly spent a great deal of time and shrewd effort in designing out complexity and redundancy to produce a sleek game system—clear and simple, yet never remotely simplistic.

The centrepiece of the game is the command and control system. This skilfully combines realistic restraints with enough freedom for unwary players to hang themselves. Both players roll a handful of ordinary dice at the start of each turn. Scores of 5, 4, 3 and 2 are grouped into chains. Each chain is the amount of orders you can issue in your command pulse (player turn): if you roll 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, then you can either issue one order (with a 2 or 3 or 4) or two orders (with the two 5s). What about 6s and 1s ? Scores of 6 represent good luck: you can add them to an existing dice chain or use them to boost combat or rally rolls. All 1s are foul-ups: these are lost to you or, sometimes, end up as extra wild dice for your opponent. This not merely a very ingenious system: it successfully portrays the unpredictability and sheer luck that a battle group commander would have to cope with.

Not only is the game system a gem, it is presented in clear and polished prose that solves virtually all questions that occur in play. The table of contents is key in this: it is comprehensive (pretty much an index) and enabled this tech-sceptic to play entirely from his laptop, with no problems of locating rules when required. Clear examples within the text show how rules work in practice. There are also handy (printable) cards which summarise stats for each vehicle and for the battle group as a whole.

I’m now looking forward to playing Combat HQ, the full game—if this was the hors d’oeuvre, then bring on the main course!