Best rules for 15mm modern?

[ulverston]

Hi Chaps,

Coming back from a bit of a hobby slow period due to work and life in general I have come across the Team Yankee box set. It seems cheap and it may kick start some painting and encourage me to get try out my airbrush but I wondered what are the best rules for 15mm scale moderns?
I have and cherish my AK47 rules and they may come in handy for fun games but I want to find a more "serious" set so that I can model a force too them. Being honest I rarely play games but I do enjoy reading orbats and rules themselves,15mm seems a bit large a scale for moderns but those models are too tempting! At what level do you guys play at in 15mm please?
Any pointers or links to blogs etc would be great.

[has.been]

I too love & cherish MY AK47, but recently bought a copy of '7 days to the Rhine'
These I have read, but not yet played. They do seem to give a fun, not too
strenuous game. I also managed to pick up a second copy (for who ever turns
up & opposes me) quite cheap off e-bay.

[Warren Abox]

For skirmish scale with 10-20 per side, you should look at Osprey's "Black Ops".  It is a pretty standard combat core with a lot of interesting scenario and 'sneak and peek' add ons.  Fun stuff, cheap and breezy.

[ulverston]

Thanks Giys, never heard of the Rhine game so I will have a look at those for sure. I have the Spectre rules and I love them and even use them for Zombie games. I am commiting that cardinal sin of collecting the same periof in two different scales. Its also glad to see that someone else is still playing AK47, I have had some great games with that set.

[SJWi]

Ulverston, the Osprey set are basically an infantry skirmish set. I use Great Escape Games' Seven Days to the River Rhine. Set in the 1980s they feature tanks, infantry and support weapons. Artillery and other features are covered by a card deck. You probably need 10-15 vehicles per side plus say 30-40 infantry. For bigger games I use PSC's "NORTHAG" rules albeit I game this in 6mm. I am now experimenting 3mm Cold War "big battles" using Pendraken's Cold War Commander rules.

[ulverston]

Thanks for the information SJ, I saw the Northtag set on the PSC site-I feel odd enough buying 15mm as they are a second scale for me and I havent painted this scale in many many years so 6mm may be a leap too far though they actually make a lot of sense for moderns.

[SJWi]

Ulverston, having fallen into various traps and ended up gaming in various scales I'd  think through the level you want to play at. Skirmish, company or battalion. Different people want to "simulate" different aspects.

[ulverston]

SJ, your right to consider the level of gaming, I using Spectre Operations for skirmish and was thinking up to company level or Battalion in 15mm, its still probably way too large a scale but the models are a big attraction for me. I have never seen the Team Yankee rules as I havent recieved the box set yet. Are they any good or are they a bit similar to 40K?

[SJWi]

Ulverston, I have never played Team Yankee but the games I have seen seem to have serried ranks of tanks which I don't like.  My rule of thumb is 20 or 28mm for infantry skirmish leaving 15mm for platoon/company games and 6mm or 10mm for battalion/regiment. Of course you can use individually based 15mm figures for skirmish, or play big games with 20mm! Another key determinant is whether you ( or your rules) want/dictate individual or multi-based based figures. 10mm and below are too small IMHO for individual basing albeit I guess some people do it.  If I was starting from scratch today I might actually go 10mm as the models are very well detailed but the weapon ranges actually look right!  Red 3 Miniatures  and Pendraken produce some very nice stuff.  Timecast also produce some excellent models but they are 1/144th whilst I think 10mm = 1/160th. PSC are also releasing 10mm for use with NORTHAG and the soon-to-be-released CENTAG.       

[Emir of Askaristan]

Played a couple of games of Team Yankee and quite liked it. I guess it's how you play as much as the rules themselves. I too have seen pictures of games which feature lines of tanks!

But my mate and I kept the formations loose and irregular and the game friendly and it worked fine enough. I picked my force using the army books but based the number on Soviet era TOE's - 60odd points with around 18 tanks and apc's vs about a third less British (the latter one, but it was close!). Didn't feel like 40k and it scratched my Cold War itch so I'm quite happy. Id happily play it again and have bought some West Germans.

It's not a skirmish game and is a bit more "serious" than AK47 in terms of background, even if you don't go for it, the toys are nice!

[Prichzgz]

7 days to the River Rhine (7DTTRR) is my ruleset of choice for modern wargames in 15mm. Fast, intense, simple and you can use your AK-47 miniatures. Also you don't need as many miniatures as Team Yankee to get the same feeling. However, it is focused in NATO vs WARPACT in the 80´s and other conflicts are not fully represented or need some adjuntements or homebrew army list.

I've also played AK-47, but the combat system was the weakest part of the rules. I prefer 7DTTRR combat system by far.
Also if you look fot the Ak-47 feeling, you can try "Wars of insurgency" http://www.firstcommandwargames.com/wars-of-insurgency.html

[carlos marighela]

Still hard to better Combined Arms, the old Command Decision modern variant if your tastes range to battalion and brigade sized actions.

[Easy E]

I love Force-on-Force. 

http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2017/03/review-tomorrows-warforce-on-force.html

However, it is geared more for Infantry vs Infantry with only a vehicle or two per side.  It is very much a toolbox game.

[Pan Marek]

Regarding Seven Days to the River Rhine and conflicts other than NATO v. WarPac, the rules have an "official " FB page with
lots of files.  One is the "official" stats/rules for Yom Kippur.    Just join the group.

[Pan Marek]

As for "other conflicts" using 7 Days, go to rules "official" Facebook page.  There are numerous files, including rules/stats for Arab-Israeli, as well as Orbats for South Africa, Red China, Modern China, Sweden and others.  Reasonably easy to cobble together the forces you would need, as most nations use either NATO or Russian equipment.
You'll need to join the group.