Brutal simplicity

Bonjour, the above pic is a clue to current lines of thinking. France 1940 in fact.

I have been going round in circles with some ideas about bringing Simplicity in Practice into the 20th century. Unfortunately, I started at the very difficult end (Cold War). Not that I have given up on that subject area. In fact I intend to return to it shortly using a bigger map and more units than in the OHW scenarios I have been using for Simplicity.

Dropping down the complexity levels I have arrived in 1940 France. Interesting tanks (Char B1 bis in fact), great texture and difference between units (French Colonials, Foreign Legion etc) and opposing sides that have individual characteristics which lend themselves to some game type exaggeration.

Starting design parameters:

• Interactive player phases during each game turn with a really simple initiative mechanism
• Actions driven by initiative rating
• Units have one action per turn
• Combat is addressed by one die roll
• Scenarios taken from OHW using six by six hex maps
• Forces limited to six units per side
• Must be capable of being played with counters as well as on a table with models

To ensure this is really brutally simple we will be using crude measures for combat statistics:

• Armour rating based on hull front max: 30mm or less = 0, 31-59 = 1, 60 and over = 2
• Speed rating: 14 hp/mt or less = 1, 15 hp/mt and above = 2
• Combat numbers to be based on maximum penetration at 400m for hard targets

Lots to do but I'm hoping it will give a good game with some historical flavour.