Category Archives: Game Play

Update: TAC II Cards Available For Download

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A follow up to my last post about the TAC II cards I am creating..

I created a batch of cards that are very much like the ones that originally came with TACFORCE.  These cards can be used with TAC II, alone, or even in addition to original TACFORCE cards.

If you use these cards along with existing TACFORCE cards, please be aware of the following notes:
Cards have distances listed in meters so they can be used with any gaming scale. If you use these cards with other TACFORCE cards you will need to convert distances to inches.
Penetration factors and armor factors on my cards are rated on a 1 to 100 scale. If you use these cards with other TACFORCE cards you will simply need to divide these numbers by 10. For example a penetration factor on my cards of 190 is equal to a penetration factor of 19 on a TACFORCE card. (In TACFORCE, 1″ = 50 meters)

The initial batch of cards includes 38 cards for mostly modern US and Russian equipment with a few Australian pieces as well.  I’ll be adding to this collection from time to time.

You can download the cards from this page:  https://tac2game.wordpress.com/

These cards are provided by me to you at no cost and are for personal use only.  The cards and the data on the cards are copyright 1983-2015 Allen Rockwell.  Please respect my copyright and do not sell or repost these cards anywhere.

New TAC II Cards

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I spent quite a bit of time this weekend making some new “TACFORCE” style cards for my TAC II game.  My game can be played using vehicle data sheets and weapon data sheets but I think I’m finding that when playing small scenarios with only a few different types of equipment on the battlefield, these data sheets can become a bit of an information overload … there is a lot of information there that is not needed for the scenario being played.  So, the next game I run at the Orccon convention next month in Los Angeles will be played using “TACFORCE” style vehicle data cards, this way there should only be about 6 cards required for the entire game.  As the scenario is designed right now, there will only be M1A1 Abrams, M2 Bradleys, HMMWVs, T-72s, BMP-1s and GAZ Tigrs.

Question about rules

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I received this question via my YouTube channel today:

I’m a newcomer to the 6mm scale, what would you recommend as a good rules set for microarmor with a 1:1 scale [ one figure represents one of what it represents ( also known as WYSIWYG { what you see is what you get } ) ]. ( it doesn’t matter if it is WW2 or modern, just a good launch pad into the hobby. )

Here is my answer:

Jacob, that’s a question that you can ask a dozen people and get a dozen answers.  My favorite is a set of rules that was published way back in 1981 called TACFORCE.  For some reason it was only published once then simply faded away.  It is a 1 to 1 ruleset and it’s a great mix of ease of play and realism.
The main issue with it is that since it was published in 1981 and at the time it was considered “modern” you are not going to find M-1 Abrams or T-90s in the rules, the vehicle data stops at the M60A3 (although they have something they call the “XM-1”) and the T-72.
Fortunately one lunatic (yes,,, me) has spent the last 30 years updating the vehicle and weapon data for the rules and in the end basically created a whole new game system loosely based on TACFORCE.  Write me privately if you want more info on that.
If you are fine with playing scenarios from the VietNam era through the Cold War, see if you can find a copy of TACFORCE on eBay and pick it up.  I do not think you’ll be disappointed.

Ground Scale vs Actual Miniatures Scale

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People that are new to miniatures gaming often ask why there is a scale for miniatures and different scale for distances (Ground Scale).  It would be great if the miniatures scale and ground scale were the same but in most cases this simply not practical.  The problem with using a ground scale that is the same as the miniatures scale can be seen in the photo below. In this photo you see a set of game boards that belong to the author, the entire setup is made up of 18 individual boards, each one is 20” x 20”.  One of the reasons 20” was chosen for the board size is because at a ground scale of 1” = 50  meters, each board is one square kilometer.  If a true 1/285th scale ground scale was used it would be aprox. 7” = 50 meters.  You might be thinking “what’s the problem with that?, that would be perfectly realistic”.  Yes, a ground scale of 7”= 50 meters would be very realistic, but it creates real problems for the game. 

One problem is vehicle movement;  Image you have an M1 Abrams at the far end of the table, and it’s on road movement is 1100 meters per turn.  1100 meters at a scale of 7” = 50 meters is 154 inches of movement per turn or almost 13 feet.  This means that an M-1 could move from one end of the table to the other end of the table in one game turn. 

The other problem is firing ranges, at a true 1/285th scale ground scale, a 50 caliber machine gun could cover the entire table, and larger guns could cover two or three table lengths.  If you had that sort of space to play a game that would be great, but most people do not have that much space.  So, the compromise is a smaller ground scale.  With a 1 = 50 meters scale, that same M-1 moves about one individual board length per turn instead of the entire table length, and it can fire just over 3 board lengths rather than across multiple tables.

So, this is why we use ground scales that a significantly smaller than the miniatures scale .. it just makes the game more playable.  It’s worth noting that in small skirmish games that involve only infantry and are played at larger scales like 15mm, 20mm, or 28mm quite often they are played at a ground scale that is equal or very close to the miniatures scale.  In armor games, especially modern armor where vehicle speeds are high and gun ranges are very long this is simply not an option.

©Allen Rockwell, GameCraft Miniatures 2014

Thunder Run 2003 – The Final Big Game

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Had a great game tonight with 6 players, 3 per side. In the end, the Iraqis made a hell of an effort and eventually lost but they took out a lot of American armor in the mean time. The Americans ended the game with 2 M1A1 Abrams and 3 M2 Bradleys remaining. I think the Republican Guard would probably consider that a pretty good day against the Americans.

Playtesting TAC II

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Did a little playtesting of TAC II tonight. I had a small area so I doubled all distances. Game lasted just 7 turns and the US won the battle with 4 M2 Bradleys left at the end of the battle. The forces at the beginning wer 10 BMP-2s VS 9 M-2 Bradleys.

Modern Micro Armor Rules from Proving Ground Games

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This is a set of rules for modern micro armor (1/285th scale AKA 6mm) combat that is published by Proving Ground Games.  I intend to do a compete review of these rules once I’ve had a chance to really learn them and use them a few times,,, but I fear that I’m so busy right now that might not happen for a little while.  So I at least wanted share this with you and let you know that I have flipped through the entire book and from what I’ve seen so far I think I really like it. If you are looking for a set of modern micro armor 1 to 1 combat rules I think this is a book certainly worth looking at. You can get more info on these rules at http://www.provinggroundgames.com/fieldsoffirenews . Their website does not seem to have an online shopping component so I think you just have to contact them for pricing and ordering information. If you contact them please tell them that you heard about these rules from Allen at GameCraft Miniatures.

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