Rules Recomendations

[racm32]

I'm looking to get into gaming some conflicts based off current/recent events in the Middle East and Africa and looking for a good rules set. I'm not a fan of card driven rules if that helps narrow down suggestions.

[Arrigo]

No card driven rules specifically covering your request I afraid happy to say Of course you can adapt IASBM to the situation or use TWAT (both from Too Fat Lardies and with supplement tasking them to Lebanon and Africa) but this is not what you are after.

Based on my experience, reading, and other stuff I would say that you are looking for two broad categories or rules. Single element based ones and squad based ones for larger engagements. In the first category I strongly recommend Force on Force. It is quite flexible and you can use comfortably forces from  from squad to reinforced platoon, use vehicles and support, tailor the rules to specific situations you need (force on force and force on rabble). Some people says they are a bit generic, but they are flexible and I an not really a fan of overly detailed skirmish things, I prefer to be able to use a real reinforced platoon without getting bogged down if necessary. They are supported by good scenario books (The one on Iraq 2003 and the one Fallujah are must have).

Larger actions...  this is the realm of the DIY more or less. It seems that larger actions in company scale are not popular with rule makers... you jump directly to larger actions with a lot of armor... Battlefront WW2 has online order of battle and unit stats for cold war and africa. Otherwise you can use Cold War Commander. CWC is an 'amorphous' rule set with variable scale (you can even play 1 to 1 if you are thus inclined). While it sounds silly it works in practice. It is a self contained books with stats for everything (more ro less) from 1945 to now. Plenty of French goodies too. In 15mm I tend to use it at one stand equal one squad, one vehicle 2 or 2 real ones (BF WW2 scale). I have increased carrier allowance (do not want too much APC for space and economic reasons). Got believable results. It is quite nice on command rules (based on Warmaster with multiple actions but sudden command stoppages based on your command values, effectively portray C4I without too many fusses, actually much better than the system I worked on for the military... but this is another story and I was only one of the consultants  If i was the lead designer...  )  .  The advantage of CWC is that if you want to portray even larger actions you can do it quite easily.

Other alternatives is Crossfire. I like the rules, they are fast to teach and learn and produce good results. I am sticking to WW2 infantry firepower (not a fan of too many fire teams running around if I am the company CO or worse the Battalion 66) and you can find stats for the modern vehicles online. They work, loot at www.mataksihi.com to have an idea of what the rules can do.

Said that, I strongly recommend you to get old of Rock the Casbah (Lebanon) and B'maso (Africa) supplements from Too Fat Lardies. Even if you do not like card based systems you will find those two supplement a gold mine of scenario ideas and organizations. they do not cover today headlines, but give you plenty of background. B'Maso also deal with tracking people in the savannah... trust me you want these two things and they are quite cheap and extremely well done. I will say that B'maso is better than the FoF supplement on African Wars.

That is what I use and what I recommend. All the rules are not scale dependent so it is a bonus. I use all three for different purposes and I am quite happy with the results.

Arrigo

[racm32]

Thank you very much for your well thought out and detailed reply. You have given me an excellent starting point in my quest for the type of rules I'm looking for. I'll make sure to give all the suggestions you made a looking into.

[Arrigo]

By the way, what figure scale are you planning to use? and I had noticed your location... interesting....   

[racm32]

28mm is what I'm planning right now

[Arrigo]

If oyu are interested to do Mali I would suggest 15mm, because the availability of excellent French ranges. I know the 28mm French from Eureka are awesome, but you will find few decently priced vehicles. In 15mm you have very good VABs from QRF and AMX10RC (sadly the non-uparmoured version) and Irish Serb has VBL and ERC-90 that are simply stunning. Infantry is well covered with PP and special weapons by QRF. Bad guys vehicles are also well covered in every form and size.

In 28mm you have plenty of US and British Forces and vehicles but little other Europeans.  I use 28mm for infantry based actions and US/UK centric approaches (but I have also the old D&P italians) and when the Russians are involved but I am not happy with the current selection of other forces. In 15mm I can have more flexibility and do more things. Probably I was not blessed with a full 28mm arab/African city block made by my cousin I would not have invested so heavily in it (now I need to set up a game with it next time I pop at home).

(In 20mm there is also a good selection, but I am not conversant with this scale)