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Wargame Rules / WWII
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Displaying Reviews: 1 - 1
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Top Class WWII Skirmish Rules
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Reviewed by Antar Howarth (info@totalmodel.com) July 18, 2004
Chris Peers together with the Honorable Lead Boiler Suit Company (HLBS) have a fine track record of producing some of the most popular wargaming rules around. "Contemptible Little Armies" which is for early 20th century conflict is just one example. A Corner of Hell is the first rules sytem from the Peers/HLBS stable I have read which is designed for WWII combat.
In recent years, rule publishers have opted for one of two different formats. Some prefer a glossy, stylish finish, more akin to traditional printed media. These rule books have hard or semi-hard covers and glossy pagescomplete with a sprinkling of colour photographs. The second method is far simpler (and cheaper) and now appears to be the format of choice for many publishers. It employs a loose leaf style with printed sheets - typically black and white - held together by a plastic ring binder. This method is popular with gamers as it means they can lay the book open, for reference purposes, without the need to secure each opposing page with half a house brick!
A Corner of Hell is consistent with the latter approach. The only small snag is that each of its 42 pages is printed only on one side. This means that even if you lay the book open, you can only examine one page at a time. More about this later.
The actual rules are very well written. Chris Peers has a nice writing style and seems able to convey his meaning without needing to resort to overly elaborate detail and/or explanations. As you might expect, the rules are divided into familiar sections governing movement, shooting and morale, etc. If you were expecting lots of tables and charts, however, you could be disappointed. Apart from a few lists there isn't a real table to be found in the entire book! Instead, Chris relies on his narrative to explain most of the procedures. This instantly makes the rules far more palatable and easier to absorb.
The game system is designed for "skirmish" engagements between opposing platoon-sized forces. Larger battles are possible though this may require some refinement of the rules. It is assumed that most engagements will take place over a distance of a few hundred scale meters. For this reason the rules governing shooting do not involve any range bands - which makes perfect sense. It's also apparent that most of the other shooting mechanics - especially the armour penetration values - favour the attacker. This may be as a result of the author's intention to keep the pace of the game flowing as smoothly as possible, which it certainly achieves. There is nothing worse than replaying a stand-off between two closely matched opponents, turn after turn, because one cannot "nail" the other. In A Corner of Hell, the theme appears to be that if you get a chance to hit your opponent then you probably will - and if you hit him hard enough he won't get back up.
A Corner of Hell has been designed, chiefly, for use with larger figure sizes - up to and including the new breed of 1:48th scale miniatures. However, the designers concede that there is no reason why small 15mm and 6mm figures should not be used. These rules will not tax your tape measure and the few measurements that are required can be easily adapted to suit your ground scale.
With so many different rules systems around these days it's becoming increasingly difficult to come up with anything original. At times, however, Chris Peers does add a welcome pinch of seasoning to some of the more tried and tested conventions. There are - for example - two different modes of firing, controlling both "aimed" and "unaimed" attacks. I also like the design of the movement rules which are governed more by the roll of a dice than the standard fixed distance factor. The formulas for visibility - which often result in a "dicing to spot" roll - are also handled admirably.
I've read quite a lot of rules over the years and I can say, without hesitation, that A Corner of Hell has really grown on me. The text is well put together, convincing and easy to execute. On the down side I think it's a shame the text is printed only on one side of the page. In the heat of a battle gamers often need to refer to the data as they go along - so the fact that you can only read one side of text at any one time is a bit frustrating. The inclusion of a play sheet would be a bonus. Even a small index - to direct you to the required information - would have also helped matters at times.
Even so, a great set of WWII rules which I heartily recommend to fans of the genre. If you're looking for an easily palatable, fast play rule-set, this could be it.
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24
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24
people found this review helpful
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