Glad you liked the article!

So I only play in 28mm and all of them great in it. Also in most case, they scale pretty well (I know that Skimish Sangin has been played in 15mm and works very well)

I may look at adding that information but I know Force on Force plays very well in 15mm and there are details for scaling in the box. The Ambush Alley guys are very good at making their rulesets scale agnostic

I haven’t done much of this stuff as I normally focus down on individual battles or more narrative campaigns. I think that the upcoming ruleset Fighting Season from Too Fat Lardies might have rules for a larger campaign with events in missions affecting the ongoing campaign.

It’s something I’d love to write for myself but it’s a case of finding the time for all the research I’d want to do.

If you do get a chance to use them these are some mods I add to streamline and make them more interactive. They won’t make much sense without the main rules though :-)

The key mechanic is that you can choose to roll 1, 2 or 3 d6 per figure per turn to try and activate them. It depends on their quality level modified by commanders nearby. If they fail 2 dice in a turn then your turn ends and play passes to the opponent. It is actually a fun system and surprisingly interactive and free – flowing: Feels like a real firefight with mini bursts of activity in certain sectors and initiative being all important.

Flying Lead Mods

1. Advanced interruptions

a. If a model fails a quality die roll then the opponent can roll that failing die to try and activate one of his own figures.

i. Activation transfer is like for like – eg trooper to trooper or CO to CO

ii. Opponent’s action is before the ‘active’ player’s actions.

iii. Can only activate the same figure once during an opponent’s turn (i.e. you can’t keep activating the same figure again and again).

2. Range bands

a. No effect in first range band then -1 to hit for each successive range away. Eg 4x range = -3 to hit, 6x range = -5 to hit

3. Cover

a. Soft cover = -1

b. Hard cover = -2

c. Fortified cover = -3

d. Hidden/obscured = -3

i. Can begin game hidden/obscured

ii. Obscured if stationary in dense terrain or moving v.slowly (1 single base per action of movement)

4. Grenades

a. 1 action to prime, 1 action to throw, range up to 3 medium sticks

b. Effect – short stick diameter only

c. -1 to Quality if target out of line of sight (eg over a wall from prone), -1 if throwing over 2 medium sticks distance (cumulative)

d. +2 to combat effect if thrown into enclosed space

e. Quality roll

i. 3 successes – on target – Combat 3 attack

ii. 2 successes – on target – Combat 2 attack

iii. 1 success – misses – short stick moved by defender Combat 1 attack

iv. 0 successes – misses – medium stick moved by defender Combat 1 attack

f. Roll of 1 on first combat damage dice roll = run out of grenades (always roll even if template empty to see if grenades run out)

5. Claymore

a. 3+ Quality Check

i. 3 successes – Goes off – Combat 3 attack – Medium stick diameter

ii. 2 successes – Goes off – Combat 3 attack – Short stick diameter

iii. 1 success – Goes off – Combat 1 attack – Short stick diameter

iv. 0 successes – Misfires – No Effect

b. Soldiers can declare search for Claymore – takes 2 actions and requires 2 or 3 quality check successes – takes one more action to deactivate.

6. Mortars

a. Range 2 – 6 long bands – Treat as grenade for effect

7. Artillery

a. Artillery can be requested by radio – requires two actions to attempt – requires 3 quality successes. Place aiming point and check for accuracy. Anybody in target zone must be prone at end of attack regardless of result.

b. 3+ Quality Check

i. 3 successes – On Target – Combat 4 attack – Large stick diameter

ii. 2 successes – On Target – Combat 3 attack – Large stick diameter

iii. 1 success – Off Target – Combat 2 attack – Medium stick diameter – opponent moves medium distance in any direction

iv. 0 successes – Off Target – Combat 1 attack – Medium stick diameter – opponent moves long distance in any direction

8. Direct HE Firing at Buildings

a. Roll to hit then roll to damage – Base damage is cumulative – eg if shoot at same spot strength reduced by one each turn it is hit.

Thanks. Happy to hear your thoughts on the rules!

Don’t worry, part 2 will include my personal thoughts.

Thanks! I’ll have to take a look at those rules and see what they are like – building a list of new rules to take a look at.

Black Ops; A bit too Hollywood for my tastes. Also suffers, like most Ospreys, in that the author has a very tight word count to fit into 64 pages with a lot of art and so it looks as if a lot of useful content had to be cut.

Danger Close: Too simplistic.

Force on Force: I loved the d6-d12 mechanic. But no points system makes this game a non-starter for me. I have searched in vain for someone who has added their own points system to the game, but with no luck. It’s a real shame.

OSC: Not heard of this ruleset. Looks very promising once part two has been released.

Skirmish Sangin: I love the realism here and it is probably my favourite from those I have read. The lack of proof reading in the rulebook drives me up the wall though (but maybe I am a secret grammar nazi!))

Spectre Operations: I only read the Beta PDF. From what you have written about the final version, this looks very promising and I will definitely check it out as soon as they release a PDF version of the final rules.

Keep up the great work!