The War on the Ground
By Peter Heath (Anschluss Wargames, 2021) £16.00
D10 and D20, mixed alternate turn sequence
Given the plethora of WWII rules out there, the crux of this review should be how the rules stack up and importantly what, if any, new ‘things’ they bring to the table. The War on the Ground (TWotG) is for company-to battalion-sized action at a 1/1 scale, claiming to reward authentic ‘combined arms’ period tactics. The suggested scales are 1/300, 10–12mm (1/144) on a 4’x3’–4’x6’ table.
The book’s 60 pages of rules look very presentable; the font size is aging eyes friendly, all the tables are well laid out, and the illustrations are mainly stock photos from the late war. There are no gameplay photos nor many other graphics at all – call it either concise or sparse, depending on the reader. The rules are presented in a very ‘you need to know this to play so here it is’ fashion (there is a series of three tutorial videos online which help with the base mechanics).
Figuring out how the interplay of some of the mechanics work (‘Unit Effectiveness’, which is the morale mechanic, for example) can involve digging about online. A few examples would have really helped in a few areas. Even within the confines of the late war European theatre of operations, there are number of annoying omissions – the main one noted is the lack of any Tiger I stats. I’m sure these will be included in future supplements, but I want them now, dammit!
I may be creating the impression that the is basically What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get, with a stand of infantry representing a squad and that squad having a battlefield-realistic number of figures on it (seven to nine). If you go with the given ground scale of 1 cm = 10 m, the suggested frontage of the stand (4 cm) fits in with the doctrine of the time. This means the table and action looks and feels ‘right’. This is in contrast with many battalion-level rules that end up feeling like a platoon-level skirmish.
