The Commander Series Forum

I have my BKCII rule book, slowly basing my German and Soviet amries.

I want to play late war armoured battles on the Eastern front.

Do I use tokens to represent the enemy? and then reveal the units once I can see them?

How do I determine the enemy mission with out knowing what they have?

Solo wargaming is new to me and One I am going to have to do as there is a lack of gamers where I live. I will play against my brother inlaw but that will be every so often.

Any advice or help would be great.

Cheers
LGW

Refer to the solo section of the forum for ideas. I prefer to fight solo battles myself. The advantage for me is that you can command both sides and so get twice the fun! If you have the right set of rules (and BKCII fits the bill) then you can never be sure of what may happen in a turn, suprises are thrown up every game. Sometimes, if I enjoyed a battle a lot, I have fought it again and it never turns out the same. Only problem rules (for solo play) are hidden minefields and scheduled fire/air strikes, but these can be overcome with a little invention.
Best of luck, may all your dice throws be double ones.

where is the solo section? I thought this was it?

LGW

This is the Solo section. There's not too many threads. Take a read through and see if that gives you any ideas you like or raises more particular questions.

I'd recommend getting the PanzerBlitz game for Eastern Front counters.

yeah I have gone through this section and some of it is hard to under stand.

I got a copy of PanzerBlitz and will have a look at the counters.

How do Scenarios work in solo games? I want to be able to play with out knowing what my enemy is doing yet get them to work towards that goal? how is that done?

LGW

Well, the command roll with possible multiple actions or none does add quite a lot of friction even solo; you can never be too sure what your troops (on either side!) will be doing.

It might be worth making some 'formation cards' & randomly shuffling a few out depending on how big a game you want.

For example, a German Pnzr Grenadier card could be an HQ four infantry with P-Fausts, a HMG, a mortar, an ATG & nine half tracks. A Heer formation might be the same but less the half tracks and with an extra couple of infantry. A tank company might be HQ, six Pnzr IVs or four Panthers, and an AA tank. A Panzerjaeger formation could be HQ & four ATGs, or HQ & three Stugs etc.

Similar for the Russians, and you can balance the points so each card is worth (say) 1000pts or so, then decide what scenario you're playing and deal out an appropriate number of cards to each side. You can then either deploy the models immediately or use markers for the HQ & type, and only deploy the models when they come in line of sight of another marker (say deploy within 20cm's of the HQ, no closer than 5cms to an enemy marker etc), or even just whenever you feel you need to deploy them to occupy ground.

Bit quick & dirty but could work?

I am thinking I may have to get some poker chips and use them to represent the units and then once they are in LoS or initiative they are revealed.

I'll have to have a game and see how the command roll works.

Will also design up some Formation cards, to make it easier for me.

just need to work out what goes on what bases and how many lol

Cheers
LGW

Lord G.

where in NZ are you?
I am in Wellington and always looking for a BKC opponent

mmmm a bit of a drive for me sorry...

I am in Te Aroha ... about 6-8 hours drive to welly...

or a short flight.

but hey we can still compare notes etc...

Cheers
LGW

LordGreyWolf.
I have followed your posts here and on the SoloWarGame group as I am in a similar situation to you except I'm a bit older and am looking at earlier periods on the eastern front.

In terms of PanzerBlitz you may find it useful to look at http://www.imaginative-strategist.layfigures.co... and http://gregpanzerblitz.com/ if you would like some additional scenarios and ideas.

In a few months I should have finished painting medium sized German and Soviet forces. Those forces were originally modelled for FOW before I saw the light and settled on BKCII: unfortunately only after spending several hundred dollars on FOW rulebooks - what a waste. I plan to use BKCII for the miniatures and use a boardgame like PanzerBlitz for campaign movement.

I had planned to use the usual array of solo mechanisms for both battles and campaign movement. However, I have now become interested in the systems 'Fight Your Own Battles' and 'Fight Your Own Wars' but have yet to purchase them as I want to see some more reviews on them first.

I hope the PanzerBlitz links are of use as there seems to be many different scenarios available for all periods of eastern front battles as well as other fronts during WWII.

I have been looking at the "Fight your Own battles" as well and like yourself trying to find some more reviews on the product before I invest more $...

let me know what you find.


LGW

Sorry to necropost but;

I've gone down the route of Memoir '44 for solo games where the battlefield is split into thirds and draw a card that decides which sector orders can be given. The slight change to the rules is that the command units can be used again, gone back to, but the obvious negatives to their rolls as normal. Once all commands have been given out, or failed in the case of the Soviets, the other side plays. Adds a similar feeling of fog of war in a way as I'm unsure of what type of order might be drawn and which units on the flanks can be used that turn. In the future I plan on creating my own cards for both BKC2 and CWC/CWC2.

That´s a good way!

I like Memoir 44 and have nearly supplement.

With integration of the sectors you get some "strategic limitation" and that´s good for solo gaming.

I have also some suggestions about to add some more "chrom" to the game like special leaders or supply restrictions with cards to draw.


Cheers Kalle