Wargame Rules for Armoured Warfare at Company and Battalion Level 1925 to 1950, Bill Farquhar, a pseudonym used by John Salt.

These have just dropped through the post, via the print on demand service ‘Lulu’. I have only had an opportunity to briefly browse them, but my nostalgia button is already in overdrive!

In the 70’s Wargames Research Group (WRG) were the rules staple of most wargamers, reinforced by their use as ‘standard’ on the convention circuit.

Amongst the wide range of periods covered my WWII rules of choice were the 1925 - 1950 Armour & Infantry set. These covered platoon to battalion level action and between these and my 6mm figure collection (pocket money affordable!), I played the hell out of them and several of the pages still are imprinted in my mind’s eye.

In 1979, WRG brought out their ‘Moderns’ set, covering 1950 - 1985 for the company to battalion level game, with an armour focus. The cover looked exactly like the cover shown here, but in a pale blue instead.

Today, John D Salt has brought us a set of rules that sit between the above two sets, that is, the ‘Moderns’ version, but for the earlier period of 1925 - 1950. Essentially the text has been taken from the Moderns set, with things like helicopter and ATWG rules removed and all the 1950 - 1985 aspect has been replaced with WWII troop and vehicle types.

There is much here that is familiar to me and from that commemorative style cover to browsing the content, I have already found a simple pleasure in just owning it.

It needs to be understood that this is an old school style rule set. There are some things that these days can be a little slicker, like observation rules, but that is not the point, these rules are meant to be fully sympathetic to WRG era of the 70’s and in that regard, they absolutely are. It is a job well done.

One of the first things I do when looking at a new WWII system is to see how the author has handled the German Tiger I tank compared to the Panther tank. It always makes for a fascinating study, as the former went into production in 1942 and the latter half of 1943. The Tiger I was a heavy tank, formidable at the time, with a fearsome reputation, but just a year and a half later, the Panther tank, a medium MBT, had made a generational leap in design and their comparison is says much about the nuance of gun / armour rules.

Plenty of systems have them as close equals, some even give the Tiger an absolute advantage, surely something that could only be attributed to elite crews, but this is what we have here;

[The first thing I look at is the Armour Classes page, which is set out just like my 1975 set, only more comprehensive in terms of vehicle types listed].

The Tiger I armour  is classed as V front and IV sides and for armour it is grouped in the same class as the A22 Infantry Tank, Mk IV Churchill, KV-1, m41, and the up-armoured T-34. The guide tells us that Class V armour covers 90mm - 120mm and Class IV is 65mm - 85mm.

The Panther armour is classed as VI front and III side and for armour it is grouped together with StugPz IV, Jagdpanther, M4A3E2 Jumbo, SU-100, SU-85M and Centurion. The guide tells us that Class VI covers 125mm to 160mm and Class III is 45mm - 60mm.

The notes indicate that protection is a combination of armour plate thickness and slope, the quality of the steel and fasteners used, plus good design presenting no vulnerable spots of shot traps. Clearly that superbly sloped Panther front armour is at play here. I love this sort of stuff!

I won’t know until I have read all of the rules whether size /profile has also been used to shape the final placings … as the little Hetzer looks good in the stats!

For Firepower, the Panther’s 75/70 gun and the Tiger’s 88/56 are close performers …. i.e. you never want to be on the wrong end of either of them, but when it comes down to actual stats with standard ammunition, the Panther’s gun has the edge over the 88/56 at range (for penetration, it rightly is the case that the 88 has better HE performance), but it is by a present, but small margin, that will really only influence the margins of some of our engagements.

As an example of the performance of these sort of guns, the Panther’s 75/70 is automatically penetrating all armour classes of IV and below. At Class V a die roll of ‘6’ is needed at 2750 metres, with -1 to that die roll for every 250 metres below that. So at 2000 metres the die roll would need to be ‘3’ or higher. This formula is used for each higher armour class thereafter, with Class VI starting at 1250 metres and Class VII (Tiger II, Elefant and Super Pershing) at 250 metres.

For game scale the player uses 1mm = 1 metre or 1mm = 2 metres depending upon size of figures used. I will be using 10mm / 12mm figures on a domestic table, so will likely go with the latter.

There are (of course) To Hit charts and on the longer ranges, the Tiger gets the slight advantage.

There is Target Acquisition and this is obviously done in the old school way (as the rules are a lift from the 70’s text) and on first sight the number of modifiers to this is a reminder of some of the heavy lifting that rules of that generation were built around. However fellow blogger John H. Has play tested the rules and in his review, he felt the modifiers quite quickly became familiar.

I have found looking into these rules a real pleasure. The task was to re-create a rule set that would nicely compliment what WRG were doing between 1973 and 1979 and to ‘imagine’ the set that WRG would have brought out, had they taken that next step in their WWII tactical rule development. In that, these are a perfect fit. It is like stepping back in time. I am that teenager again!

It is a comprehensive set and of particular note, it is fully self contained. All the troop types and vehicles you will want are here, so no ‘Codex’ style supplements - you just buy the rules.

In the links below, fellow blogger John H has a combined review with an AAR that gives a deeper overview than this post. That post also contains links to other replays, so you might want to check that out for some wider opinion.

The Lulu page is here to purchase the rules;

https://www.lulu.com/shop/bill-farquhar/wargames-rules-for-armoured-warfare-at-company-and-battalion-level-1925-to-1950/paperback/product-wdkk97.html?q=bill+farquhar&page=1&pageSize=4

A limitation of Lulu is that it doesn’t print single sheets of card, so they can’t bundle play aids when printing and sending the book. My understanding is that The Wargames Website (UK wargame forum) has proposed to host the PDF, but I couldn’t find it. There is an e-mail address in the rulebook, which I used and John Salt kindly e-mailed me the PDF. Of course, they are on the same deep yellow background as the 70’s original, just adding another level of WRG authenticity.

Fellow Blogger John H’s AAR and review is - Here

https://hereticalgaming.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-farquhar-version-review-of-missing.html

This was just a very small knock around, testing terrain, scale and weapon ranges.

The tanks and infantry are both from the Victrix 1/144 range and these infantry show my latest move from 30mm to 40mm bases for rifle sections (weapon bases remain at 30mm).

This has allowed an increase from 4 to 6 figures per base, which looks a bit more section like - though I might need to get more infantry for doing battalion level games.

The bridge and building are from Battlescale and the river section from The Last Valley.

Switching out for 1/72 tanks from Plastic Soldier Company, infantry from AB and a bridge from Italeri, the footprint is obviously larger, but the camera likes it. :-)

The building is an east front resin cottage from Lancer Games.

I am thinking that these infantry bases could could as two bases if playing Rapid Fire Reloaded and just put a marker next to the base to represent one Rapid Fire base being lost. 

The latest (Volume 4) core module for the Old School Tactical series is out, covering the Italian theatre 1943 - 45.

It was released together with its expansion sister module. ‘For The Empire’, at the same time.

The main game box (Volume 4) has a large game board (30” x 41”) labelled Map 9, which has a goodly amount of farmland on it and elevations. It is loosely based around a valley feature with a small stream at the bottom, winding its way right across the board.

The counter sheets bring us British, Italian and German forces and the rules are marked version 5.75, so are really just a tidy up of 5.65.

The playbook offers 14 scenarios with six of those based in Sicily, the rest in Italy. There are a few new items, such as the dug in panther turret and commandos, which can use the new stealth rule, effectively allowing them to move at half rate without attracting opportunity fire.

Moving across to the expansion - For The Empire, brings in Canadian and New Zealand troops, while for the Germans, fallschimjägers are introduced. The mapboard (map 10) is liberally covered with ruined buildings and the board is involved in the Cassino scenarios.

Again, we get 14 scenarios. 5 are Cassino based involving New Zealand troops and the other 9 are Canadian based scenarios, with one taking place in Sicily and the rest in Italy.

As I went the Kickstarter route, I did also get the bonus Anzio scenario booklet. This has 5 more scenarios, all of which use American forces, which need to be sourced from the Volume II module (North West Europe), plus both maps 9 and 10 are used. The first scenario covers the first stages of moving inland and American forces come across Italian coastal forces, backed up German rear echelon troops. This looks to be an excellent starter scenario for anyone trying to re-familiarise themselves with the system as it is small, low unit density and no vehicles.

There is a British tank commander counter in the core module called Lt. Smith. I am advised that this is a nod to me from the designer for some of the support articles that I had written about the system. Thanks Shayne, nice touch.

Taken together, this is a fantastic package and great support for the series, well done Shayne Logan (designer) very clearly a ton of work has gone into this to get this into our hands.

Looking for a bit of street furniture for a city fight scenario with 1/72 figures, I sourced an HO/OO scale die cast model tram and set about 'ruining it!

This has had the English worded advertisements rubbed out so that it can be used in multi -lingual settings, since my first set of pocket armies are being built around the mid war east front.

There is a post over on the blog that explains the various stages of the build. LINK

http://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2022/01/city-fight-tram-modelling-on-budget.html

Developing my ‘N’ gauge rail set for the wargames table, ‘the station’ can become a centre piece for some urban based scenarios.

The building is a resin / plaster pre build from TimeCast, the platform, a two part plastic kit from Kestrel and the rail track is from Kato, which has the advantage of the rail track and rail bed all being part of a single unit.

The small wagon is a Pico plastic kit. I added some modellers ballast into the wagon, mixed with PVA glue and then painted it black, so that it looked like a consignment of coal.

This 1/72 model of the SU 152 from Zvezda has 120 parts, but is also a  ‘no glue needed’, so not quite within the scope of the wargamers fast build sets, but probably easier than a typical modellers kit.

It also comes with I decals. I am impressed enough to have also ordered the JS II from the same series.

One of the Metcalfe cardboard construction sets from their N Gauge range, which works fine with 10mm.

The completed model has a foot print of 100mm x 64mm and the chimney puts it at 95mm high.

I might mount this on a 4 ½ x 4 ½ inch base, just to add either a pavement or some factory type clutter.

I can see me getting a few more building in the range to make a sort of factory district within a town.

This is another ‘start from scratch’ Pocket Armies project, with mid war east front forces in 1/72 (20mm) being the initial point for army building.

There is enough stuff on hand to get some small forces underway, including some rather nice AB Soviets that have just come into the collection.

I am in two (or three!) minds about rules. I like the look and feel of the ‘O’ Group rules, but wonder whether 20mm and my smallish table are not the right mix for them, as they need a battalion plus supports per side.

Another choice is Rapid Fire. I have both the 2nd Edition rules and the latest ‘Reloaded’ version’. I could do with the choice being decided early as these rules have the figures based in pairs.

Finally my Tigers at Minsk rules are presently being converted from a hex format to the open table and these would play in my space at the company level, with units based in fours or five to represent a section.

So some thinking to do when the painting starts - this is planned as an early 2022 project.

Part of the principle of Pocket Armies is to be able to play smaller battles while the collection builds. I have a force generator for a ladder campaign that I had been running in 10mm. I ran it to get a pair of starter forces for the 20mm project and this is what it gave;

Soviets 2 x Rifle units, 1 x SMG unit, 1 x MMG, 1 x T70 light tank unit and 2 x 82mm mortar supports.

Germans 2 x infantry units, a Panzer IVg medium tank unit and an 81mm mortar unit.

This seems a pair of reasonably sized forces to put together for a near future game and to kick off the 1/72 (20mm) project and I can at least start priming figures and building the two tank kits ready for painting. The question of ‘which rules’ remains.

I have bought back into some 12mm (1/144 scale) vehicles to create a base WWII set for my ‘Pinboard Battles’ and it strikes me that this might be a useful scale for the ‘O’ Group rules by David Brown (Reisswitz Press).

I am not wedded to that thought or indeed these rules, as I prefer the visuals of the 1/72, but at least having the kit allows me to explore possibilities. 

The vehicles are from Victrix and I have a pack of six Panthers and six Shermans. The field is a latex product from Timecast and the poplar trees are likewise from them.

The second release in 2024 from the Rapid Fire people.

The Road to Carentan gives us four 101st Airborne scenarios covering the period 6th - 11th June 1944 as follows;

Angoville-au-Plain (D-Day).

Vierville (D-Day +1).

Saint-Comr-du-Mont (D-Day +1).

Purple Heart Lane Breakout (D-Day +4)

The 36 page booklet will be familiar to those that collect the books in the series, good heavy card stock paper, plenty of colour photos with the scenario format having the usual colour schematic map, orders-of-battle and special rules.

New to the presentation of this volume is;

1. Each scenario includes a page of modern photographs of some of the key buildings that will be represented on the table.

2. A photograph of a rather nice wargame table for the scenario is now included with each scenario (I assume that each are the tables that the scenario was play tested on).

3. The usual scale is slightly altered here, with 1 infantry figure on the table representing just 5 men.

4. Very usefully, at the rear of the book, is a list of all the figures and vehicles that players will need if all four scenarios are to be played. This is easy enogh to do oneself, but it is nice to have it as part of the booklet. So for example the most 60mm mortars that the scenarios demand of the Airborne is 2 bases and of Panzerschreck teams, just two bases are needed.

The scenarios use U.S. paratroopers, German Fallschirmjägers and German infantry, though for now, as I don't have paratroopers, I will just use ordinary infantry as proxy.

There has been a bit of a drought over recent months of this line, but as if to re-assure us, Victrix have just announced that the T-34 is not too far away from production.

It will have both the 76mm and 85mm versions and have riders that can be optionally added.

The infantry have already previously been shown so hopefully the two will be available together.

They also mention that the PAK 40 and Sd Kfz 7 are not too far away.

The latest release covers Operation Bagration - 1944. As a package, this is a step up from the previous module ‘Phantom Division’ as we get an extra map, but of real note is an additional 4 part scenario - a `big’ battle.

The extra scenario is played out on one of the big boards from OST Vol 1 (East Front core game) and basically the surviving units from the current game stay on the map and the next scenario introduces reinforcements.

There is an additional twist - with the victory points earned in each scenario, you can buy some bonus reinforcements from a pool. This looks a great way to use one of the big boards to its most potential.

There is a write up over on the blog that looks at the components and the scenarios. LINK.

http://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2023/02/red-blitz-new-ost-module.html

From Anschluss Wargames, these resin vehicles (3D prints I think) are detailed, light and robust enough for games.

This is just a small order to fill some gaps that I have in the collection. I do one of these every now and then just to break up the cost of assembling the armies, so usually each of the four major nations get a little something.

The turreted vehicles come in two parts, the turret and the body, everything else is single cast.

The two smallest pieces here are Universal Carriers for the British / Commonwealth forces.