In Which Startline Meets Flames of War

Looking back, I can see my Startline project dates back to autumn 2023, more than two and a half years ago. To say I've been 'working' on this project for that long wouldn't really be true - it's more like I've been dabbling in writing a set of WW2 gaming rules during that time, sometimes quite intensively, sometimes hardly at all.

About two years ago I decided to change from an IGO-UGO turn system to a Bolt Action-style alternate-unit activation. It seemed more modern (dare I say, more fashionable) and I had the idea it might represent the cut and thrust of WW2 combat more believably. But now I've changed my mind, and Startline is back to IGO-UGO. 

The reason is simple - the rules play better and more easily with IGO-UGO. I realised that Startline is not Bolt Action - it's company level, not skirmish, and the basic units are platoons, not single vehicles or squads of infantry. And Startline has fairly traditional combat and morale mechanics which don't really fit into an alternate-unit move sequence. The fact was, players (me included) were finding the rules non-intuitive and more complex than necessary. As soon as I went back to IGO-UGO (with a straightforward opportunity-fire rule included) I felt the game become much cleaner.

After some solo playtesting, it was time to get some proper face-to-face games in. So I invited two long-time gaming friends over to make sure everything worked - and this is where Flames of War came in. 

© Battlefront Miniatures. Reproduced with permission.

In March this year Flames of War made their latest list of scenarios (which they call 'Missions') available for free online. I have found these mission ideas very useful in the past, and the latest list has 35 scenarios, each presented in a 2 page format with a deployment map on page 1 and special rules laid out on page 2. The list is a great source of ideas for WW2 games regardless of which rules you use, and many of the set-ups are quite original. All are described assuming a 6' x 4' table and opposing forces of equal points. I went for the 'Bypass' scenario as it seemed to me to fit very well into a 1939 Blitzkrieg setting, which of course is the part of WW2 which my collection represents. The full Missions Pack can be downloaded here.

Naturally the Germans would be the attackers. The forces in use were as follows:

German

Panzer Company (-): company HQ of 1 x Panzer I

Light tank platoon: 2 x Panzer II, 3 x Panzer I

Heavy tank platoon: 2 x Panzer III, 2 x Panzer IV

Infantry Company: company HQ of 1 command base in light truck

3 x platoons, each 6 infantry bases, 1 ATR base

2 platoons each in 3 Protze trucks, 1 platoon on motorcycles

Armoured car section: 1 x Sdkfz 231 6-rad, 1 x Sdkfz 221

6 x off table 8cm mortars, MFO with radio in light truck

2 moves pre-planned fire

Random air attacks on 10+

All units regular training, reliable morale

Points 1685

Polish

Infantry Company: company HQ of 1 command base, 1 ATR base, Lazik jeep

3 platoons each 7 x infantry bases, 1 x ATR base

*1 platoon in 2 x Praga medium trucks

*Tank platoon: 4 x Renault R-35

*Recce section: 2 x TKS (MG)

ATG section: 2 x 37mm Bofors + Lazik tows

*Field Artillery section: 2 x 75mm m.1897 75mm guns + halftrack tows

MMG section: 2 x MMG, 2 x Lazik jeeps

8 x off-table m.1897 75mm guns,  AFO with telephone + Lazik jeep

Random air attacks on 11+

All units regular training, reliable morale

Field defences: both the infantry platoons which start on-table, plus the AFO, comapny HQ and the 37mm Bofors may be dug-in

Points 1680

*Polish designated reserves (30% in points)

Tank platoon

Recce section

Infantry platoon in trucks

Field artillery section

The photo below (taken late in the game) shows how I set out the terrain. The Polish baseline is the long table edge to the top right, the German baseline is bottom right. Rather than have each player place an objective as per the mission description, I set up the terrain to include two obvious objectives (a road junction and bridge) at what I judged to be sensible places. It's just the way I prefer to do things.

And so the game commenced. Readers will have already realised that the Germans have two main options - go for the road junction, hoping to punch through the dug-in Polish defenders, or loop round to the more distant bridge, avoiding the area already occupied by the defenders. Let's see how that worked out.

The Game in Photos

To provide a little fog of war, both sides set up divided by my home-made cardboard screen. The screen's folding nature made it pretty easy to use. 

Paul (Germans) and Steve (Poles) deploy simultaneously,
unaware of what their opponent is doing.

Paul decided to hedge his bets - the motorcycle platoon, armoured cars and the heavy tanks went left for the bridge, whilst the 2 lorried platoons and the light panzers went for the road junction. Centre left you can see that an advancing truck-mounted Polish platoon has been wrecked by artillery fire.

Unfortunately the German armoured cars and motorcycles were not making the dashing advance hoped for. Both units threw a rash of 1s in the early turns of the game, halving their movement.

Despite losing most of an infantry platoon to a devastating artillery strike, the light panzers and the remaining infantry pressed on into the Polish defences and made steady if slow progress.

The Poles were in luck in turn 2, when their tanks arrived from reserve just where
they were needed to defend the village and road junction.

The Germans battled on, destroying many first-line Polish infantry teams
in their slit trenches and driving the remainder back into the nearby woods.

Another piece of Polish luck - their reserve infantry platoon arrives
in just the right place to occupy the bridge objective.

Realising the bridge is now out of reach, the German heavy panzers and motorcycle platoon
turn towards the village, hoping to break through to the road junction objective.

The right flank of the Polish defences is now under severe threat.

A Polish anti-tank rifle team have their trench overrun by an attacking Panzer IV. Ouch!

The Germans deploy a smoke screen to prevent the Polish R-35s from engaging their frontal attack. 
Instead, an indecisive firefight develops along the central road between Polish and German tanks.

Close up of the German armour and motorcycles.

The Polish 75mm guns have arrived, and they set up to cover the approaches to the bridge.

The bridge is now firmly in Polish hands.

Turn 5 ends, and Paul decides to admit defeat. The Polish defence has held,
and neither objective is in reach within the number of moves remaining.

Conclusions and Comparisons

The return to IGO-UGO seems to be the right thing, as long as it is supported by a reasonable opportunity-fire rule. Steve is a longtime supporter and user of the Blitzkrieg Commander rules, which makes him a player well versed in the use of opportunity fire in a wargame. He demonstrated that familiarity during the game, quickly identifying situations where the rule could help him, and showing me that the rule was both necessary and easy to use. 

Unusually (in fact, very unusually) not a single AFV was knocked out during the game. There were plenty of hits, but the KO rolls never materialised. What was interesting was that the Germans managed to lose despite not losing any tanks! I think in this scenario the attacking player has to concentrate on one of the two objectives and go all out for that objective, with the slimmest possible covering force to divert the defender. As so often, I got the feeling that if the Dice Gods had decided differently the game could easily have gone the other way. For an alternative view of this engagement, see Steve's blog post.

Only one or two minor rule tweaks suggested themselves during the game. I felt the game played easily and encouraged period tactics. I was particularly pleased that the close combat rules were quick and bloody, involving a good deal of knockabout fun involving foxholes being overrun by advancing tanks. 

In fact, I am optimistic that the development of Startline is entering it's final phase. If I can manage a bit of solid playtesting over the next few months, I reckon I might have a pretty good set of rules on my hands - or at least, a set of rules that pleases me and that my gaming associates will be happy to join in with. The rules occupy much the same space as Flames of War, but I consider them simpler and more intuitive to play than those rules (well, I suppose I would). 

Sadly, of course, there's not much chance of Startline becoming as popular as FoW! My own opinion is that FoW owes its popularity as much to the ambition and business acumen of the owners of Battlefront Miniatures as it does to its qualities as a rule set. It is relentlessly advertised and renewed. But then, as probably the most popular WW2 miniatures game out there after Bolt Action, FoW is genuinely enjoyed by thousands of wargamers around the world, so I must conclude that the game has qualities that I personally fail to appreciate. 

As the biggest WW2 miniatures game out there (according to Google AI), Bolt Action has the advantage of being a skirmish game that seems to capture the current zeitgeist for an easy-to-access and easy-to-play game with a limited amount of collecting, painting and research needed. It also seems to capture a large number of gamers looking to transfer from the world of sci-fi and fantasy to historical gaming. There's not much hope of me capturing much of that market, but maybe a few FoW gamers might give Startline a try - assuming I ever decide to get it published.

But that's enough daydreaming. I'll happily repeat that the Missions Pack for FoW is a great free resource for which we should be grateful to Battlefront. If you're a WW2 gamer, check it out. 

The current version of Startline (version 8) and a QRS can be downloaded free from Google Drive via the links below. Enjoy.

STARTLINE v.8 PDF

STARTLINE v.8 QRS PDF

Thanks for reading. 'Til next time!

EDIT 17th June: apologies to those trying to use the links above - I forgot to select the 'anyone with the link' button. If you've been denied access, that should now be fixed.

Airfix Nostalgia - The Story Continues

My Airfix nostalgia project started almost exactly 6 years ago. When I created my first post on the subject, I indicated the project was just about complete! And now here we are 6 years later.

Yes, the original idea was "five kits only". Now I have 24 completed, and 4 waiting to be made. The motivation comes and goes, but this looks very much like a project that will be ongoing - until my eyesight goes, or the motor skills in my hands fail. What has not changed about the project is the pleasure I am getting from buying and making these kits. There have been frustrations and the odd loss of temper, but overall this quiet, solitary branch of my hobby activity continues to deliver; supplying moments of peace and tranquility, nostalgia, childhood memories and a sense of achievment.

My favourite 'makes' are the original kits from the 1960s, in their original packaging. The Me-262 and Bf-110 shown below are good examples. It's worth saying that I generally paint these old kits as recommended in the original instructions, ignoring the fact that the paint schemes suggested were often inaccurate. It's all part of the nostalgia.

I try and go for the classic Roy Cross artwork, but sometimes I can't resist a kit from before the Roy Cross era, like the Me-262 above with its very early packaging, probably from the early 60s. I love the old-school instructions, from before the days of wordless instruction sheets designed for international sales. The main issue is the old decals, which are sometimes unusable. But remarkably, in the majority of cases, I have been able to use all or most of the c.60 year old decals, which gives me great pleasure. My friends here have been bottles of Microset and Microsol, which are indispensable companions of the 'classic kit' builder. 

I have not restricted myself just to old Airfix kits. Below you can see a P-47 by Academy, and an Airfix P-51 from their current range. I enjoyed making them, but modern kits for me generally have too much detail (particularly too much cockpit detail), which results in too many fiddly little parts that you often can't even see on the finished model. I have also found that using modern kits sometimes doesn't even solve the decal issue - the decals on the P-47 were frankly crap, and I had to buy a new set from a specialist decal supplier. It appears that Academy decals are well known to be troublesome.

I am mostly sticking to 1/72nd, but my eldest son gifted me a 1/48th kit for Christmas 2024 which gave the 'project' a nice boost. It took me a while, and the expected 'fiddly' parts were there, but I persevered through bouts of swearing and cussing to produce what I think is a very nice model - the floatplane version of the Japanese 'Zero' fighter.

Recently, I have gone back to my original inspiration of classic Airfix 1/72nd. A real little gem was the old Airfix Tiger Moth. I originally bought the current Airfix Tiger Moth kit from a model shop, but this was a sad mistake. The 'fiddly parts' and the super thin wing struts defeated me, and the whole thing ended up in the bin. So I got hold of the gloriously yellow original and it went together like a dream. One of my favourites in the collection, with all-original decals.

My most recent completion has been a Boulton-Paul Defiant, another fond memory from childhood days. Again, a wonderful, straightforward build with parts that fitted nicely. The decals were a bit of an issue, as they started to break up and split as I applied them, but an unexpected bout of patience (of which I generally have a rather short supply) came to my rescue. After some touching-up with acrylic paints, the kit was rescued.

Now then. Not all my kits are of aircraft - there has been some military vehicle nostalgia as well. All of those shown below are from the Vintage Classics range. In this range, you get the old kits as they were, with the Roy Cross artwork and nice new decals. On the downside, the instruction sheets aren't 'classic' - we're back to those modern exploded views full of symbols but no words. Still, this range is a nice compromise between obtaining the old models through online dealers, tired decals and all, and buying models from the current range. In the end, I have found the latter really don't do it for me.

The model of the DUKW represents a double wammy of nostalgia - I remember building the original, and the caption relates to my Dad who drove one up the beach at Anzio, back in January 1944. For the Stug III I weakened and gave it a vaguely genuine paint scheme appropriate to the Eastern Front, rather than the plain dark green featured on the box art. I dare say Roy Cross is turning in his grave.

And finally, my current project, which is a Tamiya 1/35th Panther A. It looks like a modern kit, but dates right back to the 60s when it was brought out as a motorised novelty toy. It's been re-issued many times over the years, with the motorisation bits now deleted. It is much vilified for inaccuracy by present-day modellers, but it's half the price of Tamiya's more recent Panther kits - and guess what, the number of the infamous fiddly parts is about half as well. The moulds are obviously in good nick as all parts are crisply presented and the kit goes together pretty well. I think it will look pretty classy. Good fun.

And that's about it. There's a modern Airfix Vampire kit waiting to be made up, a lovely old 1960s Beaufighter likewise (so old it's bagged rather than boxed), and a Vintage Classics P-61 Black Widow also on the shelf in the 'study'. I'm looking forward to plenty of relaxing modelling for the rest of the year. And I've avoided buying loads of tempting kits and creating the well-known 'pile of shame'!

That's All Folks! 'Til next time.

Cheap Wargames Rules - Their Time Has Come

Well, that's what I hope. I have an article in Wargames Illustrated 460 (April 2026), entitled 'Too Many Rules?'. In it I argue that there aren't really too many rules, as having lots of rules is, and has always been, part of the hobby. We're a creative bunch and the process can't be stopped, even if we wanted to.

I heartily endorse this product.

However, there's no denying that having lots of rules, and having more coming out all the time, can create some issues. I'm sure you will be aware of many of them, and I run through these issues in the article. I also consider how they might be mitigated, and making rules cheaper is, to me, an obvious way to help things along.

The internet provides a wealth of information on available rule sets, including reviews and examples of play, but sometimes there's no substitute for buying a set and trying them out. However, doing a taste test between 3 sets of rules can be problematic if they cost £30 or more a pop. That's maybe a hundred quid gone before you even make your mind up. How much easier it would be if rules cost less than £20 - or even better if you can get them for less than £10. How about £5? Well, in my ongoing quest for new WW2 sets I have recently got hold of 2 very interesting rule books for £5 each. How can that be?

My first success was a few months ago. We had been playing Rapid Fire! Reloaded at the Cirencester club, and I found that the standard printed edition of these rules does indeed retail at £5. Now, I'm not entirely convinced by these rules, as some of the mechanics don't really suit me, but you can have a fun evening game with them. Of course, stuff like OOBs and scenarios aren't included, but get this - all that stuff can be downloaded from the Rapid Fire! website for free, even the info I need for my 1939 Poland games. There is a supplement, Rapid Fire! Reloaded Extra, which gives additional rules for stuff like amphibious landings and parachute attacks, and this little booklet is also just £5. Brilliant.

My other find was more recent, just a few days ago. On one of my trawls through the internet, up came a WW2 rulebook called Iron Cross. Now these date from 2015, and I think I've come across them before, but this time I took a better look and liked what I was hearing in the online reviews. So I checked out the Great Escape Games website and found that the PDF version was currently available at just £5. As you can imagine, within 10 minutes a copy of the rules was on my desktop. Another very interesting and original set, especially the activation mechanism. And also some initial reservations (for example, off-table artillery only features in a preparatory barrage), but this is definitely a set I want to try out. 

Rapid Fire Reloaded is a 15 page softback book, by the way. The Iron Cross rules are just 33 pages. This is what I'm talking about - we need more, much more, like this. Of course, this kind of thing doesn't suit companies like Warlord Games or (I must admit) Partizan Press, the latter of course being the publishers of Shadow of the Eagles. Even private publishers like Barry Hilton's League of Augsburg love the big coffee table books - Beneath the Lilly Banners 4th edition currently retails at £35 (and has 180 pages). I guess it's all about profit margins, or maybe in Barry's case he just likes big, colourful books. But these are not what the hobby needs right now. If we're to have more rules, let's have more cheap and simple rules. 

Another great example here is Valour & Fortitude, which most of you will be familiar with. A totally free, well supported, 15 page set of rules for the horse and musket period. Very popular and a good set of rules.

And now let's turn to those lovely guys at Little Wars TV. They have produced a couple of short, simple and cheap tabletop game rulebooks themselves, Age of Hannibal (ancients) and Live Free or Die (AWI). Both have short page counts, and can be bought in PDF format for about £12 and £10 respectively. Even the printed copy of Live Free or Die is only £15. And LWTV have free rules also available from their site, like Ravenfeast (Dark Age skirmish), or Ruthless (Wild West gunfight). Check out the situation HERE.

But LWTV have something even better comming soon. They are creating an online free rules library which should be live in a month or so. Yes, a whole bunch of existing free rules on a separate site called Wargames Library. Check out their video here. Can't wait to see it - and I may well upload a couple of free games to the library myself.

It's really interesting (and frustrating) to see these two sides of rules availability co-existing in our hobby. The bloated (IMHO), full colour, expensive hardback coffee table book, vs. the free or cheap short and simple rules. The latter don't have be dull, black and white publications. Both the £5 sets I have already mentioned are full colour and feature good graphic design. And simple and short doesn't mean dull rules either - I have looked into or played every simple set I have mentioned in this post, and their gameplay is just as interesting, or sometimes more interesting, than the big books.

Rules that are designed to be short, simple and inexpensive will make choosing between rules that much easier - with a much reduced barrier to entry, you can purchase a few sets and compare and contrast. And you won't fill your bookshelves (or block up your wargames table) with A4, hardcover blockbusters. Let the revolution begin.

'Til next time! 

P.S. - the promised post on my continuing Airfix Nostalgia project will be next.

Startline v.7 Downloads

Some recent playtesting has resulted in changes to the rules and some improved explanation and formatting. The main examples are:

The playing rules have been re-arranged to make the presentation more logical.

The close combat rules are slightly expanded with revised rules and better explanation.

Explanation of the 'wait' activation is improved, and a wait activation can now be carried over into the next turn automatically.

The morale section has been amended to better represent the consequences of a unit having elements out of command.

Smoke can be laid 'across the wind' as well as the previous 'with the wind'.

A contents page has been added.

STARTLINE v.7

STARTLINE v.7 QRS

Enjoy! The next post will be about my continuing Airfix nostalgia kit-building.

'Til then!