A New Kickstarter from Columbia Games is Coming Soon! Combat Infantry!

Tom Dalgliesh is developing a new WWII tactical combat game with blocks.  In this game you command a German or American infantry battalion, composed of three rifle companies, each with three rifle platoons, each with three rifle squads. Machine guns and mortars of a heavy weapons platoon are also included, plus engineers, tanks, and heavy weapons from battalion level.

The game includes four geomorphic maps that depict typical terrain found in Normandy, France. Map scale is 100 meters per hex.

The rules are just 12 pages long. You will find their depth of play to be realistic, yet playable. This claim arises from two simple game mechanics overlooked in many tactical games.

First, because of our signature hardwood blocks, fog-of-war is an important part of the game. Given a compelling need to “keep your head down”, fog-of-war is essential to simulate WWII tactical combat.

Second, the leadership rules require players to maintain unit integrity – squads belong to specific platoons, and platoons belong to specific companies, each with their own commanders.

Mail call! – Sign up for more briefing on this mission!

21 replies
  1. Shaun
    Shaun says:

    This sounds great!
    Especially with the fog of war and Leadership rules.
    I am looking forward to the KS.
    Will this be able to be played solitaire at all?

    Reply
  2. Marco
    Marco says:

    please consider solitaire rules too
    One thing strikes me though, if a hex is 100m, why has the Panther only a range of 6?
    Also note that “type” should say “Pz V” in roman numbers, not “Pz-5”
    Looking forward to more details on this ConSim 🙂

    Reply
  3. DaveyJJ
    DaveyJJ says:

    Still not sure about the Pz-V’s effective range. The 7.5cm KwK 42 L/70 could kill at over 2,000m, and was probably the most powerful tank gun of the war, perhaps only matched by the L/55 and the British QF-17 on the Firefly. 500m (5 hexes in your game scale) was considered by German tankers (according the memoirs and first-hand accounts I have) to be a “no miss” shot. And while the KwK 42 had more hitting power than the feared 88s, 2,000m was still considered to be a killing shot about 50% of the time with that gun (and the flight time was under 2 seconds at that range), punching through between 100mm and 145mm of armour easily. Tank-on-tank combat and ranges of fire has always been something I worry about at a tactical scale when infantry is also modelled, even after 45 years of gaming.

    Reply
    • columbiagameswp
      columbiagameswp says:

      I do understand and agree with your data. But you may be overlooking “effective range.” I recently spoke with a tank crewman of modern tanks. He told me that visibility from inside a tank is pretty bad and that’s with modern tanks carrying some fancy rangefinders. Seeing and hitting a barn at 2000 meters is probably fine, but seeing a squad of infantry, eating dirt, at that range is impossible. The tank crewman thought that a squad at 400 meters would be very difficult to spot. And what appears to be level ground often has dips, various obstacles, and many other line of sight busters. Stand on any country road and see how far you can really see. And just because something is actually visible does not mean the tank crew actually spotted it. So effective range kind of depends on a lot of factors that do not appear on range and penetration tables. I’m using what amounts to half theoretical range for effective range. So the Panther gets 1000 meters. And even that seems like too much for this game. I’m still tweaking…

      Reply
      • DaveyJJ
        DaveyJJ says:

        Sounds good. Interesting concept and I can’t wait to learn more and see it in action. If you could use my extensive play testing experience and love of this level of game, let me know.

        Reply
  4. Kent Reuber
    Kent Reuber says:

    I wish this game was done at a higher level, e.g. blocks are company or battalion with turns around a couple of hours, so that you could play operations lasting a day or more. There are lots of squad-level games on the market, but relatively few at the grand-tactical level.

    Reply
    • Shaun
      Shaun says:

      With a quick search of BGG, I could find quite a few higher level block games, however I was unable to find a Squad level block game (Not saying they don’t exist, just that I wasn’t able to find one in my search). 🙂
      So I am looking forward to this filling in a niche in my collection but still waiting on more information before committing.
      Solo capability is a big factor (doesn’t have to be totally playable solitaire) , but also the contents of the box and the final price!

      Reply
    • Mike Farley
      Mike Farley says:

      Ditto! We have played several games of Victory and really enjoyed each one! The past performance portents another winner.

      Reply
  5. Andrew Turpin
    Andrew Turpin says:

    I love the idea of the tanks revealing on movement and when firing. Just keeping a single strength infantry static all game to bluff as a tank could be really entertaining.

    Reply
  6. Michael Blom
    Michael Blom says:

    Seems to be a great game. Using blocks for a tactical game can be a big success. Even the new scale with 100 / hex instead of 40 / hex is one step ahead. However, I lack national characteristics. US ability to advancing fire is a good example – more of that. US / UK reluctance to expose themselves to fire would be solved by having to do moral tests when they want to advance against a spotted enemy (not for elites/paras). In Normandy the Germans often fought successful even though they were inferior in numbers.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply to Marco Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.