Mechanised Warfare Wargaming

Closely linked to, but massively pre-dating the PhD, establishing a coherent set of mechanised wargame rules for all levels (fm Corps to Skirmish) has been a long standing aim of mine. For me “mechanised” means anything from about 1939 to 2050, possibly longer if we don't get Grav Tanks, Lasers and Sentient Warbots!

To support this “project” I've been working through miniatures rules doing playtests of Skirmish and Platoon force rules, I've done Modern Company level and am just about to do WW2 Company level, and will then move on to Battalion (hopefully in 2023), Brigade (2024), Division (2025) and Corps (2026!). Of course there's a lot of overlap between categories.

The PhD has then thrown me back into the world of hex and counter wargames, so I'm now having to add those into the mix as well!

The table below tries to summarise my ongoing findings, thoughts and plans.

Force	Rules
Skirmish	Empress Miniature's Danger Close (recently updated in BOHICA) or Buck Surdu's ACP164
Platoon	Bolt Action but with more realistic ranges and factors and some other rules tweaks, plus modern tech.
Company	Nice bits in Battlegroup:NorthAG and 7 Days to the Rhine but modified Bolt Action and my own set (Contact Wait Out!) seemed better. Testing WW2 during 2022.
Battalion	At the moment my own set (Contact Wait Out!) or possibly Cold War Commander. Full test in 2023.
Brigade	I have an evolving set I'm calling FRAGO, owes something to Bob Cordery's HexBlitz, and possibly to Tim Gow/Martin Rapier's NATO/WW2 Bde Comdr. Full test in 2024. May do a modified urban version for the PhD.
Division	FRAGO should work at this scale, but quite taken with some of the mechanisms in SPI's classic NATO Division Commander. Full test in 2025.
Corps	I've got a set of rules related to FRAGO which I used to play SPI's BAOR with, but not related to the BAOR rules. Need a bit more streamlining but seemed to be heading in the right direction for this scale. May be some elements of NDC to add in to. Full test in 2026!