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Rules, Scenarios and Gamer Files

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Hex Command Mechanized: Uncomplicated WW2 Combat

As with the rest of the Hex Command Series, these rules were designed to bring the ease of board game play into a miniatures game.  These rules are a great incentive for new players to get involved in the hobby of model building and sculpting 3-D battlefield terrain. Our design intention is to give new players and experienced military gamers, a miniatures game with board game speed so it can be started and finished, with the typical skirmish, in hour hour or less.    

The game concepts here are as close as possible to the other rules in this series so once a player learns how to play one set of rules, the other rules are essentially close enough to pick up very quickly.  It is accurate to say that HCM is not bogged down with complex calculations, angles or measuring and a game's outcome can be decided very quickly.  Each game turn may be extremely valuable; the situation can change very quickly. 

It is also true to say you do not have to know any of the Hex Command Game rules eras in-depth in order to play and win.

Regarding organization, just as with Hex Command NOVA, one stand of infantry is one squad and one vehicle is one; individual actions are not supported in these rules other than the existence of snipers and their result.  

Vehicle classes are Very Light, Light, Medium, Heavy or Very Heavy; all cannons are the same weight class so, when you fire, compare your weight class to the target weight class and there's the result: for instance, if you're firing a Medium gun to a light tank, you're one level higher in strength.  On the damage table, you roll one damage die.  If you fire a light gun to a medium tank, you're one level lower: you'll need a pretty lucky shot to cause damage.  Sure, you can always hit, but DAMAGING is another story.  

(you can click the Full Screen button in the menu of the player below to see the OOB video better)

"..Our design intention is to give new and experienced
players a miniatures game with board game speed so it can
be started and finished in an hour or less."

Got an 88?

Well, the infamous 88 is a heavy gun, PLUS it has advanced targeting and penetration technology, which we generically call a "PaK-40" bonus. Why? 

Because the German 75mm PaK-40 L48 was a significant advancement in anti-tank technology because they developed three key ingredients: penetration due to powder charge and core, targeting because of systems such as targeting scope, and stability because of engineering design.  Any weapon in the war that meet's these criteria get the "PaK-40" bonus.

Does the Russian 85mm?  Nope. However, we do apply the bonus to the closest thing to the 88 the Allies had: the British 17 pounder.  How about the U.S. 90mm? or the Soviet 100mm or... well you get the idea.. there is generally a difference between being Heavy and getting the PaK-40 bonus.   Heavy's cause 2 damage or more, but the PaK-40 bonus means you'll hit the target easier.

The Hex Command series creatively handles combat calculation and employs optional rules so players can bring their understanding of balance and variety as well as unpredictability to the game.

The most attractive feature of the system is the use of a d6 for everything, which you can think of as "Average" die.  See the updated rules for using a d6 instead of the Code'n Color die. 

Activation Concept

In addition, these rules creatively employ the "Activation Sequence" concept, which is simply the numerical order in which a commander can do something with segments of his force. 

This can also be seen as the "timing" for when troops actually got moving, or managed to come to a stop or even start, by changing their orders because of what their commanders can see at the time.

How to Keep Games from Turning out the Same way

Prior to the game start, use the following table:

A German commander watches his force advancing.
The open plains of Eastern Europe were far different from the Western Europe theatre.  The bulky German tanks were far less effective in the West because they couldn't make use of their long range weapons, and the nimble Allied armor just sped past them.  Without quantity and speed to match the Allies, it was only a  matter of time before the Axis were defeated.   You might say the Axis were defeated because they ".. had too much Heavy Cavalry, and then they ran out of 
fodder for the horses."

AAR: Incident at Fenwall

This quick skirmish demonstrates some of the aspects of dealing with a forlorn situation.  In this case, a small American recon unit is caught at the front and captured because they have no place to run to.

We wanted to see how the situation would develop; what options existed for the commanders; to experience a scenario where one player's force was clearly not going to win, and see what COULD be done to slow the enemy advance, if anything.  A few tactics and a rule change was learned.

Routing from Combat: Units are not pushed back in rout until all forces have fired.

a - The Germans advance onto the battlefield from one side of the game table (North); it is assumed the Americans have no where to run south of this view.

In response the Americans advance a squad to (1) to help the squad already there, but the squad is spotted and hit by HE from the Stug III.

b - Left. The second move sees a German Stug III and two squads of infantry move boldly into the field to confront the American squad that was spotted coming from the forest and moving into (1) below; the ensuing combat against the forested American's compels them to surrender after casualties, but at least they did something: in this region 2 German squads are lightly damaged (red markers) while after this photo is taken two German squads are heavily damaged in the ensuing fire fight due to the close proximity.

b - Right, white arrow. A motorcycle-mounted MG-32 positions in a forested region left of the road and firing down it, while another MG-32 in an APC sits on the road also firing down it at the sandbag bunker (3).

b - Right, black arrow. A squad of infantry positions itself blocked by a cornfield while the mortars back at (a) near the creek unlimber and shell the American position.

For their movement in Turn 2 the Americans withdraw (backup) the halftrack from the corner of a field of the town (near 2 below, left pane), compelling the .50 crew in the bunker to evacuate as well after spiking the .50.