Plastic Soldier Company’s game Battlegroup have produced a fantastic rule set – an epic blend of historic accuracy, depth and play-ability (£15 – Rule book on PSC). It’s not too crunchy nor dry, which can be quite easily be an issue with historic wargaming, yet it’s got enough layers to keep you on your feet and your brain engaged. That doesn’t mean it there aren’t Battlegroup house rules available though…
House rule brain dump! This post is a few of my musings on custom house rules for the WW2 Battlegroup game. These haven’t necessarily been played or even tested – I just wanted to get a few concepts from my brain onto the page. In fact, these aren’t even house rules – some are just working concepts to try and implement in the future.
Disclaimer #1 – I am in no sense of the word a historian or scholar of WW2 events. I am only a creative wargamer who is moving more and more into WW2 table-top games (currently, Battlegroup) – which is causing a parallel increase in my interest in all things WW2 related.
Why draft house rules for Battlegroup?
Lets start by clarifying that I’m not saying Battlegroup rules NEED changing. Every game of Battlegroup I’ve played I have 100% enjoyed, the authors have done a fantastic job!
I’ll stress that again; I love the published Battlegroup rules.
However as soon as I play a game, my brain just immediately starts adding and tweaking stuff I enjoy – not sure why. That’s the joy of playing non-competitively, you can modify it as it’s now you’re game! As you’re reading this I’m guessing you’re also interested in what others have done to tweak/enhance the original rule set.
Drafting up these house rules also gives me a list of WW2 topics or tactics to look into if I ever get bored. This is by no means a completed list – I’m sure things will get added. If I can test these rules out I’ll post some thoughts and feedback too.
Disclaimer #2 – these house-rules should be taken with a pinch of salt and a spades worth of common sense. The authors and play-testers of the Battlegroup rules have played hundreds (probably thousands) of WW2 war games – likely not limited to the Battlegroup either. There is likely a very good reason the following rules and concepts are not in the official rulebook – but the joy of these games is that I can tweak my games – everyone does. All of these suggested house-rules add complexity to the game.
Onto my working-list of Battlegroup House Rules…
House Rule: Mortar Smoke Screens
As far as I’m aware all countries used infantry mortars over the course of the war, ranging in size from the small Soviet ‘spade’ 37mm up to some big monsters like the Japanese ‘Type 96’ 150mm.
The house rule:
Allow mortars to deploy a single temporary screen of smoke, that scatters like artillery. The smoke makes observing units significantly harder.
The commander marks a spot on the table and then uses the Indirect Artillery Fire – Deviation rules for marking the location of the smoke cloud. A cloud of smoke centred on this point produces a -2 penalty to observation checks for any unit seeing through / into / out of the cloud.
Very Light and Light mortars produce smoke clouds that are 3″ in radius.
Medium and Heavy mortars produce a smoke clouds of 5″ in radius.
At the end of Rally phases, on a 2+ the cloud remains. On a 1 the clouds are removed from the table
Benefits of the rule:
- New tactic for using and protecting infantry (and to lesser extend, tanks) charging through the open
Drawbacks of the rule:
- Battlegroup already have observing rules – does this add a level of complexity that isn’t needed?
- Do order hungry mortars + spotters make this too costly to field?
While digging into some research for this article, this page on American M2 4.2-Inch Chemical Mortar proved to be quite interesting. Two videos on YouTube show units firing, their coordination and the sounds of these weapons: British reservists on Salisbury Plain & US Marines firing 81mm mortars.
House Rule: Tall Building Bonus
In all wars, having a commanding view of the battlefield is key for a variety of reasons. In WW2 films; a sniper scans the streets from a church spire and an HMG team covers the rural fields from rooftop or dormer window.
The house rule:
Infantry starting their turn in a building of 2 or more floors (or equivalent) gain a bonus to spotting and bonus to weapon range.
All infantry weapons of 30″+ get a 5″ bonus to their range. As distances for units on different levels are measured diagonally in Battlegroup (Actually… are they? Page ref?).
Also its impact on observations:
- Infantry in the Open Firing become automatic
- Infantry in the Open become 2+
- All other observations are unaffected
Benefits of the rule:
- Gives tall buildings a certain level of importance
Drawbacks of the rule:
- Snipers already have rules in place to reflect their negation of cover and bonus to observation – further rules risk them being OP
House Rule: Unobserved Units
As god-like commanders of the battlefield, we have a total and perfect view of the battlefield. It affects our strategy from deployment down to execution. We can see that enemy AT gun on ambush fire, even if all our units cannot. We can see that several units of infantrymen are just the other side of that hated Normandy bocage.
You could attempt to keep the position of all units in your Battlegroup game unknown to the other player, until they are first observed / fire, but I feel that would add an unnecessary weight and level of admin to the game.
The house rule:
For missions that allow the condition, units starting the game with reaction orders (ambush fire and reserve move in Battlegroup) and in cover are not placed on the table to begin with, but are ‘hidden’.
Their positions are noted down, sketched on a map or photographed before subsequently being removed. For each ‘hidden’ unit, at the start of the game a roll of a 5+ on a D6 means the enemy has been observing them from a far and that unit’s hidden status is lost. You could go half-way-house and mark the unit on the table with a poker-chip; so the enemy knows something is there but no idea if its a forward-observer, a full rifle squad, or a SU76M.
As soon as a hidden unit is given any order other than another reaction order, or indeed activates it’s reaction order, it appears on the table and it’s hidden status is lost for the rest of the game.
Optional / additional add-on rules:
- Moving within 12″ of a vehicle or 6″ from infantry, automatically reveals the hidden unit.
- An infantry scout / sniper scout unit always starts the game hidden.
Benefits of the rule:
- Allows ambush units to be placed without the enemy commander immediately deploying to counteract their effectiveness,
- Requires commanders to assess ambush spots and bottlenecks for fear that unknown units may lurk their,
Drawbacks of the rule:
- Requires more cooperation and trust between players regarding hidden deployment,
House Rule: Hidden Minefields
As far as I can tell, it doesn’t actually say in the Battlegroup rules anything about actually placing the minefield on the table. This probably works quite well for most wargames and how they are IRL; as a force is quite likely to not know an area is mined until they accidentally send forces into it.
The house rule:
No minefield markers are placed on the table before the game. Each player who buys a minefield, secretly notes down its location using a distance and direction from a specific point on the table. For example, ‘centred on the cross-roads’, or ’10” South of a given tree’.
It is down to the owner of the minefield to monitor units moving into the minefield, at which point the centre of the minefield is revealed and the 1st minefield dice roll can begin.
Benefits of the rule:
- Allows for minefields to have a surprise element that the attacker has to think about mid-game.
Drawbacks of the rule:
- Requires honesty and monitoring during the game,
House Rule: Dummy Minefields
Similar to my previous house rule about the commanders god-like view of units, minefields impart a parallel situation.
For each minefield you buy, you can buy an additional dummy minefield (At a cost of 50% of the standard minefield). A dummy minefield is placed just like a standard minefield, and rolls to see if they explode are conducted as units move through them. The difference being if you rolled for the mines to explode (3+, usually?), the minefield is simply removed. That way on a roll of a 1-2, you don’t know if the unit got lucky, or if the field was empty in the first place)
Benefits of the rule:
- Make commanders paranoid by the terrain, but also make some routes too costly to circumvent. (Risk / Reward)
Drawbacks of the rule:
- Minefield spam! Maybe limit dummy minefields to a max of 1-2 per army.
House Rule: Minefield Shapes
Minefields in Battlegroup are defined as a point in the centre of a circle; I assume for simplicity sake. A central point that triggers a minefield-check if anything moves within 5″ of it. So essentially, its a 10″ circle, with an area of about 78 square inches. A central point of a circle makes sense from a wargaming sense, its easy to check if a unit is within a distance without needing to put down a 10″ circular template or terrain piece. This allows for minefields to flow over roads, into forests and even on bridges… all while not needing a giant circular base to be plonked down.
What if you want a nice marked, well defined minefield thought? With signs and barbed wire. Maybe, for the same points, the commander could choose to take 2x rectangular bases, each say 4×5″, or 3×6″. Ideal for just mining roads, a farmers gate, or even a wide expanse where enemy units can’t be funnelled. I would maybe drop the explosion chance to maybe a 4+, to reflect the thinner spreading of mines (even though, mathematically they’re not).
Benefits of the rule:
- More flexibility, where a circular zone offers little defensive sense,
Drawbacks of the rule:
- Additional complexity,
- It may lead to bogging down movement by easily locking-down choke-points for a cheap price.
House Rule: Observing Observed Units
One thing I really like about Battlegroup is the observation rule set. No matter how much terrain we throw down on the table, the real battlefield is always going to be more cluttered, more uneven and more chaotic. I think the observation aspect of the game really helps add to the game while also being a simple mechanic.
The only ‘issue’ I have with this aspect of the Battlegroup rule-book is observing the same unit twice during the Open Fire! order. I get doing a 2nd check – the battlefield is full of distractions, explosions, dust clouds, shouting sergeants and soldiers ducking behind cover to reload etc. I get that.
My issue is that once you spotted an enemy, IMHO, it should be easier to spot them again (within a very short period of time, a turn).
The house rule:
If you issue an Open Fire! order and observe a unit successfully, the 2nd observation check is granted a free re-roll. That way it still isn’t guaranteed, but does reflect soldiers continuing to track and focus on their initial target.
Alternatively; instead of a re-roll, grant the 2nd test at a +1
Benefits of the rule:
- Commanders receive a bonus for declaring both parts of the Open Fire! order against a single target
Drawbacks of the rule:
- Might be quite powerful / unbalancing, a re-roll bonus on a D6 is a significant boost
House Rule: Retreat & Regroup
For any given infantry unit that is already pinned, you may issue them a retreat & regroup order.
Retreat movement rule; The unit must then perform a double-move, towards their starting table edge. They must attempt to get as close to their table edge as possible, ending in Soft cover (or better). They may not at any point in the movement get closer to an enemy unit. If these conditions can’t be met, the unit cannot retreat and the order is lost.
After the unit has performed the fall back rule they must succeed a cover save, followed by an experience test. Success of both means the unit has regrouped, galvanised their courage and re-joined the fight; remove their pin. Failure of either test resolves in the unit staying pinned. (Optional; an experience roll of a 1 could indicate the unit has routed altogether – remove from the table)
Benefits of the rule:
- Units can trade ground taken with the possibility of getting pinned units back in the game
Drawbacks of the rule:
- Undermines the BR chit system
- Subsequent double-move order means the unit can simply retake their previous location, if it is not contested
House Rule: Unplanned retreat
As a commander in Battlegroup, we have complete control of our units. They obey orders 100% of the time (when possible). Well, what if panicked, scared and pinned units weren’t guaranteed to obey commands to their full potential – or at all.
Any unit that starts their 2nd consecutive turn pinned must make an experience test. (Basically, if they were just pinned in the enemies previous turn, this test is automatically passed). Success of this test has no meaning; failure means they must retreat, as dictated above. Note this rule is for all pinned units, while the retreat & regroup order can only be issued to infantry.
So that’s a few of my house rules for Battlegroup; feel free to use any and feedback how they worked. I’m sure you may have house rules of your own to share too.
Looking for all the Special Rules?
I’ve just (June 2024) put together a rather large glossary or guide on where all the written special rules are for our beloved Battlegroup game. If you struggle to find certain rules, or just interesting in seeing a list of 600+ rules, check out my Battlegroup Special Rules glossary guide post.
I like these suggestions for house rules, and I think we will definitely give them a try at some point.
One omission from BG which I consider serious is the lack of a tank overrun rule. – especially on the Eastern Front, tanks could and did overrun infantry, literally grinding them under their tracks (hey, warfare was brutal on the Eastern Front!!).
Most other WW2 rules allow for some form of this. I suggest that unpinned infantry would automatically evade an overrun, but a pinned unit should have to stand and take casualties. I let the armoured vehicle cause 1D3 casualties to any unit it makes base contact with.
On a related note, while I accept that infantry should not be able to engage enclosed armoured vehicles unless they have paid for antitank grenades, satchel charges etc, I do think that ordinary infantry could and would engage half-tracks and other open-topped AFVs with ordinary grenades etc, if they strayed close enough – I use the Anti-Tank Grenade table, with a penetration value of 2 for hand grenades.
These rules would not only reflect reality, but force you to deploy your own infantry to protect your armour – under the existing rules, armour gets a free ride against enemy infantry if they don’t have anti-tank weapons.
Some good points there. While we are on the subject of rule modifications/additions etc., i personally feel that the range bands of anti-tank weapons needs to be at least doubled and widened out. Had a desert game and the short range bands made “buying” an 88 or two pointless. Also mortars were for infantry control and so you would not have mortar OPs in a tank! Armour might have an armoured OP for its attached SP artillery, such as Sextons and Wespe’s (which should be off board), but not mortars.
German infantry sections should not have to use two orders for the MG Group (or groups, if Panzergrenadiers) and the rifle group as the German section revolved and worked around its MG34s and 42s. To have correct sectional “fire and movement” it would seem appropriate to carry out this under one order? MGs covering the advance of the rest of the section while it moved forward and then vice versa next turn for the MGs to rejoin the section while being supported by fire from the rest. No sense in the MGs not being able to rejoin their section? Why only Bren teams?
German SPW SdKfz 251/250 halftracks should not be just considered as “transport” for the section. German SPWs had 12 crew, section of 10 with NCO , driver and vehicle commander. The latter two stayed with the vehicle when the section dismounted and the vehicle commander would give fire support from the forward MG. The section would dismount with two MGs, one of which was the rear “AA MG”. Thus each SPW was equipped with three MG34/42s. Also German tactics and doctrine stated that the SPWs would be used aggressively and supportive to the section and would allow the section to fire from the vehicle when moving. The US used their M3s in a similar way but it was only the British who considered their halftracks as transport only. None of this is reflected in the rules??