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    A World Aflame: Interwar Wargame Rules 1918–39
    A World Aflame: Interwar Wargame Rules 1918–39
    A World Aflame: Interwar Wargame Rules 1918–39
    Ebook169 pages1 hour

    A World Aflame: Interwar Wargame Rules 1918–39

    By Paul Eaglestone and Mark Stacey

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    About this ebook

    Often called the ”Pulp Era”, the years between the two World Wars have seen a tremendous surge in interest among wargamers. A World Aflame captures the adventurous nature of the time period to present a fun, fast-paced set of tabletop miniatures rules that can handle the many diverse conflicts of the period, from the Chinese Civil Wars and the “Great Game” in Central Asia, to the Irish War of Independence and the bitter ideological warfare of the Russian and Spanish Civil Wars. The rules also contain options for the “Very British Civil War”. This gaming trend has sprung up in recent years, following a “what-if” scenario that has Edward VIII refusing to abdicate the throne, thrusting the country into civil war in 1938. It is a quirky, fun setting, and one that is surprisingly popular. Written by a life-long wargamer, A World Aflame focuses on the daring and heroism of battles fought in the last great era of adventure.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateAug 20, 2012
    ISBN9781780968803
    A World Aflame: Interwar Wargame Rules 1918–39

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      Book preview

      A World Aflame - Paul Eaglestone

      INTRODUCTION

      The following rules are written specifically with the years between World War I and World War II in mind, although they could very easily fit either conflict as well. The interwar years are a period that has fast become popular for wargamers looking to move away from games dominated by the carnage of trench warfare or by big tanks of World War II.

      The interwar years were a period when many of the military lessons learned by 1918 seemed to be forgotten, almost on purpose, as society turned its back on the carnage and rejected the rational. It was a period that saw the destruction of empires and nations plummet into anarchy. It was a period when the old socio-political order was pushed aside and new ideologies such as Communism or Fascism were adopted.

      All very heavy going and enough to put one off a good game of toy soldiers on a wet Sunday afternoon. Therefore let me explain the ethos behind these rules.

      Originally designed with the imaginary British Civil War of the late 1930s in mind, the rules are written in what is nowadays often called a retro style, and pay homage to rulesets written by such wargaming legends as Charles Grant and Don Featherstone. Why? Well, to me, the style and mechanisms found in the rules written by these gentlemen in the late 1960s and early 1970s seem to suit the interwar period. Possibly this is nostalgia on my part, a symptom of my middle age perhaps, but it just feels right. These rules are intended to offer a challenging and fun game, so the retro style has been augmented with such things as Chance cards to add period flavour (and some tongue in cheek humour) to the game’s character.

      I am not a great lover of generic rules that cover long periods of history, as they are seldom successful in giving the player the right feel for the various conflicts covered. Weapons technology may be very similar for the Russian and Irish civil wars, but the natures of these two conflicts were very different. These rules are written with this in mind. While I have chosen to focus largely on the Spanish Civil War (one of my personal favourites) to best explain the detail of the rules, players can easily tweak the rules. Therefore, many of the sections that follow are guides rather than hard and fast rules. For example, unit organisations can be tinkered with to suit a specific scenario or the players’ own interests and interpretations.

      Mounted battalion command

      Hopefully as one reads through, everything will be very clear and straightforward (I certainly hope so as I am always very critical of rulesets that suddenly explain in the middle of the book something that should have been explained at the start) – if not, you have every right to criticize me… and I know you will!

      I sincerely hope that you enjoy these rules as much as I have enjoyed creating and play testing them.

      Paul Eaglestone

      PRE-GAME CONSIDERATIONS

      This first part of the rules is aimed at the initial set-up before the game can begin. None of this should take long to accomplish and, once done, will save a great deal of time during the actual game. My preference when gaming is to get as much pre-prepared as possible so that the game can flow quickly and not get bogged down in trying to work out some complex, time-wasting issue. As with cooking, preparation is the key to enjoyable and care-free success.

      EQUIPMENT NEEDED

      • Tape measure or measuring device. All measurements in the rules are in Imperial inches, although they can easily be converted into metric by the user.

      • Pen and notepaper. A pretty basic requirement really. I have a great dislike of too much book-keeping during a wargame. Having said that, an element of this is necessary in order to keep track of certain game developments. One area that is important to the rules is the writing of unit commands and, during games, the possible need to write messages.

      • Arrow die. I have used an arrow die in games for many years and I make mine by simply getting a blank dice and painting arrows on the dice. Each face should have an arrow pointing in a random direction (it does not matter in what direction they point as this will be randomised by the roll). My dice are different from most commercial ones in that every side has an arrow. Some commercial dice actually have one or two faces that have a hit mark on them. There is absolutely no reason why these dice cannot be used although they would be fine for artillery fire deviation rolls, for other rolls (such as smoke drift), rerolls might be required until an arrow came up.

      • Dice. Various dice are used – standard 6-sided dice (D6), as well as 10, 12 and 3-sided dice (D10, D12, D3). A D3 is usually a 6-sided die marked with 1, 1, 2, 2, 3 and 3, although one can simply improvise with a D6 (1 and 2 represents 1, 3 and 4 represents 2, and 5 or 6 represent 3). Lastly, the rules use a retro old favourite that has gone out of favour in recent years – the average die. This die gives an average score with sides marked as 2, 3, 3, 4, 4 and 5. I prefer to use these for rolls such as morale where the extremes of 1 or 6 seem too much. Like all the other dice, these are commercially available. You will grow to love them – I promise.

      CNT militia armoured van

      • Model Figures, vehicles, aircraft, etc. This is hopefully stating the obvious but I feel that I should mention it as a major part of this strange hobby in which we all indulge is taken up with the collecting and painting of these little toys. We love them, take great care of them and they are the most important part of the whole wargames hobby for me. I simply cannot get enough toys and I know that whenever I am finally called to meet my maker there will still be boxes of unpainted figures stashed in boxes and draws. Sad but wonderful.

      • Terrain. This is also a passion of mine and, like the figures and vehicles, I tend to get carried away. Terrain is very much an issue of personal taste. I like mine as realistic as my meagre talents can achieve. I also like wargames tables that are busy with lots of suitable terrain pieces on them to affect lines of sight, break up the board and add a

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