I'm very happy to say that the writer of Victory Decision, Agis Neugebauer, took the time to write some Early War supplements for his ruleset. The most recent additions to his collection of Army Guides/Field Manuals are the Early War German infantry and the Polish Army books.

This book includes Polish Rifle, Motorized, Cavalry and Motorcycle platoons and offers units mounted on horses, trucks, motorcycles - fighting on foot and most important of all, the rulebook supports a lot of vehicles and tanks that often get overlooked but which the Polish army actually had at their disposal. Such as the R35 and 9TP tanks and the older and heavier armoured reconnaissance vehicle wz.29 Ursus.

The book also includes profiles for the AT guns and artillery, howitzers and Bofors AA guns.

Just like with the main rulebook and other supplements you get unit profiles for both single and multibased infantry, so no one gets left out. As usual you get the PDF book in two copies, one full color and one “printer friendly” if you buy it through Wargame Vault.

There isn’t much of historical background except for some descriptions in the unit profiles, and there is also not much “filler material”. The book is completely about new profiles for the Polish army.

Not much more to say, this is a welcome addition for anyone playing Early War Poles and who want to try out a new set of rules with their miniatures, or people already playing Victory Decision who want to try out the Polish army in Early War.

The Battlefield is a quite different take on miniature wargaming, it is inspired by PC/console games and has a completely new and dare I say fresh take on the classic wargaming mentality. Now before you run off in the other direction (possibly screaming “HERESY!!”) let me describe ideas and basic game mechanics included in this set of rules.

First of all, the game is meant to be played by 2-8 people, at the same time. Either in teams supporting each other, multiple teams or free for all. It has the same backbone that you will find in squad based RTS games where I think Company of Heroes and World in Conflict is the most compatible comparison I can make.

The game can be played with either single or multi based miniatures. Almost all soldiers in this game make up “units/squads” that have to maintain unit coherency and who share a common profile of stats (which are reduced as the squad takes casualties).

Results are generated by opposed rolls using D6s where each 4+ equals a “success”, and the number of dice players roll depend on unit profiles, terrain features etc. The player that rolls more successes than his opponent becomes the winner and inflicts the number of damage points equivalent to his success ratio. The defender may reduce the number of successes with each success of his own, possibly avoiding taking damage altogether. There is a bunch of modifiers in the number of dice rolled, but the basic idea of everything 4+ being a success and everything below being a failure creates a very fast paced and slick system upon which the game rests.

The Battlefield also uses Command Action Points (CAP) which is basically something that you use to pay for unit actions. The game turn sequence depends on the number of players, but playing 2 players it uses a straight IGOUGO. Playing in teams you take turns activating one player from each team at a time rather than the whole team together (Red player 1, Blue Player 1, Red player 2, Blue player 2 etc).

There are no “point costs” for units in this game. Instead each player has a set number of units at his disposal which depend on the number of players. 1vs1 games have the players command 4 units each. Destroyed units may be respawned or spawned as a new unit coming in from your own table edge. Vehicles located on the gametable may respawn on respawn points, you roll for these at the start of each turn. The terrain rules cover pretty much everything from woods to buildings and how to attack buildings.

The Battlefield includes numerous vehicle types (both ground and air) , off table artillery strikes and various infantry squad types. These are the basics of the game. The rules also include a rich section covering hiding from and spotting enemy units, mounting/dismounting from vehicles, multiple helicopters (with takeoff and landing abilities), weapon types such as SAM teams, parachuting, repelling from helicopters, silencers, smoke, red dots sights and everything you would come to expect from a modern warfare setting. You also get advanced suppressing fire rules, opportunity fire and at the ready rules.

Finally there is the scenario section. This game is all about scenarios and “game modes”. These include classics such as capture the flag, deathmatch, free for all as well as several variants that are just aim to provide a fun and interactive multiplayer miniature wargaming experience. You get victory points for holding objectives, killing opponents in specific ways, capturing locations etc.

There are even additional rules for adding zombies, insurgents or mercenary squads to your games and they differ from the regular rules to make it a more spiced up experience. These oddball “factions” are controlled by one single player in your games and may add to the multiplayer chaos of such battles.

The author even includes a couple of pages of his notes on the game design explaining game mechanics and how players may add stuff like Fog of War and player communication restrictions to their games.

The Battlefield will not be everyone’s cup of tea, however I think that it really adds something new and very different to the miniature wargaming community. The interesting blend of PC games and miniature wargaming should in fact not be any weirder than the blending of boardgame/miniature wargames that are quite popular. The look and layout of the rulebook is also easy on the eyes with good font on the text and extremely nice real life pictures of modern warfare action and equipment.

Full (and more detailed review including game mechanics) review can be found on my blog: http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.se/2012/07/battlefield-miniature-modern-warfare.html

A set of rules allowing you to play pretty much any historical period imaginable while keeping the feel of each of the 3 periods (ancient/early modern/modern) which play differently in terms of pace and tactics. You can now buy a couple of miniatures from a range that you might be interested with a clear conscience and without feeling that you are either wasting money on models that you will never be able to play with because you have too few miniatures - or feel that you need to buy a new set of rules for each time periods. Samurai, French Indian War, War of the Roses, Napoleonic’s, Modern Warfare etc can all played with this set of rules. Build each soldier to have individual stats, equip him with traits and weapons and throw him into battle in either one off skirmish games or use the campaign mode provided in the rules. Be the leader of an angry mob of peasants in an uprising against the local medieval magnate - or command elite SAS soldiers holding their ground against Afghan militia. Now while most games hold your hand and feed you content and tell you what to do, the Brink of Battle rules are very open ended, meant to be used to create the campaigns and stories that you would like to play. Look at the rules as a toolbox for your imagination. You get a very good foundation of rules that you create your own adventures and skirmish battles with.