A word with the author: interview with Simon Hall about his new WW2 ruleset Division of Steel
In the “old days” of the DBM, I met Simon Hall various times when I went to competition around UK and – boy – he is a really good player. It was around the end of the 90s. Two years ago, I began to play WW2 games, so imagine my surprise when I discovered Simon was developing a new ruleset for that period in collaboration with Mark Bevis and Plastic Soldier Company. Actually, two sets of rules, with similar structure and philosophy: Division of Steel, for 6mm-15mm Company level battles, and Man of Steel, for 20-28mm 1:1 skirmish battles.
Simon is a veteran in writing wargaming rules. He is the mind behind and he also covered the Renaissance and the Napoleonic ages. He invented the (CCC), already tested in his previous set of rules, and now he is using it in Division of Steel and Man of Steel. So, who better to ask, than Simon, about his new WW2 rules?
Can you describe the design philosophy of Division of Steel? I bet you created a new set of rules because you want to do something different from the rules we already have.
I have always loved WW2 games but want to feel the fog of war, the phases of action and pauses, and high-quality troops, in reality, doing a lot more than low quality ones. I found the CCC colour system I developed could create these really nicely when adapted to WW2. Personally, I like WW2 as skirmish games and then battles that are bigger than companies. Getting to battlegroup or battalion level games was an objective therefore. We have fought a full battalion level game in a day at PWG here in Cape Town – the defence or Rauray on July 1st when attacked by 9th and 12th SS under Panzer Meyer. It proved a great game.
Having read a lot about WW2 actions and having Mark Bevis (MicroMark) as a lifelong friend we both also felt we could bring something with a great feel of realism in the interactions without making rules very complex (the days of looking through heavy tables being long gone).
(On the left) Simon Hall, Division of Steel and Mortem at Gloriam author, giving prizes at the end of MeG World Championships – in 2021 we will also have MoS and DoS tournaments. We’d love to win those skulls!
You did a “full scale” set of rules and scaled-down set of rules focusing on infantry fights. This seems a good and original idea, why did you choose this path? There is any relevant difference in those two sets of rules?
I have fought some really fun large games where we have a strategic battle going on around an infantry fight at a more skirmish level for control of a village or wood. The two sets Men of Steel (MoS) and Divison of Steel (DoS) are compatible and both use the core CCC colour system.
The way vehicles are handled is the same in both – just in MoS you will have just a few in a game and focus on the infantry encounter with 1:1 figures, whereas in DoS you will have a company of vehicles plus support and the same of infantry. In DoS we still handle vehicles and guns 1:1 but we deal with infantry at the level of 1 base to a squad. The 1:1 for vehicles for both sets allows them to be handled the same way.
Is the set of rules good for competition and tournaments?
The first job always is to produce a fun, realistic and fast-moving set of rules. So this is what we are seeking. Then it is a matter of tightening them for competitions and tournaments. As an avid competition player, I have quite a bit of experience in that tightening process – both for rules and as an umpire. So in short, yes they are set up to be good for comps with 2-3 games a day.
Will you change the stats with “national” traits? Like German being strong in leadership or Russian strong in morale?
The system we have developed creates those characteristics without needing national traits. While we will have a few special characteristics, we tend to follow a philosophy that the core rules should bring those traits out automatically.
We have training and morale levels for troops and in the system: the former dictates how easy they are to activate and the latter staying power. Training is a number form T1-5 and Morale from A-E, from best to worst in each case.
High-quality Germans will tend to be T2 which will give them better leadership (more command discs) and make them easy to activate to do clever things. Early war Russians, by contrast, are T4 and will be poorly led and have to rely on simple actions. In testing you find the Russian often have to rely on mass non-tactical moves that don’t even make the best use of cover – it feels realistic.
But the Russian will all be B class and have large squads so can take a lot of damage before they tend to stop. There you have the traits you mention without any special characteristics, the system does it for you. The way the system allows you to repeat activate troops means that T2s will just do a lot more per man than T4s. This is very realistic.
A standard list for British or Germans what models will have?
For a typical club or competition game, a standard force is likely to be two companies with CHQs plus some extras attached to the BHQ. Then if it is high quality it will tend to shrink to two under-sized companies (a platoon down per company or a squad down per platoon is always allowed; a low-quality force might manage three full companies).
A typical late war force for these might be CT3 British with a company of infantry (4 platoons plus supports), a company of 14 x Shermans with the troops with 1 Firefly and 3 M4A2, a support platoon of 3-4 Churchills Crocodiles, an FOO and 2 batteries of 25pdr (off table so no models needed), a recce platoon, and a platoon of 6pdr from the Infantry support company.
A BT2 German force might be an understrength Panzer Grenadier company in hanomags 251s, an understrength PZ IVH company, a platoon of Stug IIIG, an FOO with 12cm mortars, and a recce platoon of 234s.
Will you try to have all kinds of vehicles used in WW2 for a given nationality, or will you select the most common?
All in due course. All information for vehicles will be on cards designed to fit into a standard military order wallet. You can slot which ones you need to the front and store the rest in there. That becomes your data-wallet for the game. While we will start with the most common vehicles in the starter set, we have the data for everything and will cover everything.
For the British force above you, would only need cards as follows: 2 x Shermans, 1x Crocs, 1x AT infantry, and 1x Small Arms cards, 1x ATG, 1 X Artillery. So all the data is on 7 cards. Here is an example data card for my favourite tank – the Tiger 1E.
Let’s take the Tiger 1 Datasheet above you are using in the beta. Can you tell us how we can read it and what the values mean?
Taking the top left first you have movement distance in both cm and inches so you can choose which you prefer. The distances are for each movement activation. A T2 that is safe may well manage 2 or 3 of those – e.g. if coming up from the rear. A Tiger platoon might cover 15” by road and then 16” cross-country to get into position (3 activations).
Below this is data on armour for front side and rear of hull and turret. These are all already normalised for sloping armour (not that a Tiger had any). If a gun can match or beat those numbers if can do serious damage (there is a chance of a lucky shot that hits a weakpoint, and you could destroy tracks to cause a vehicle to bail).
To the right of that is the weapons. The 88mm has a +1 killing power which is a bonus to a d10 damage dice in the rules. They also have 2 MG and smoke dispensers, so they can fire 2MGs against infantry and they can lay smoke screens along their path of movement. To the right is the weapon data. It shows which colour dice from the CCC system you roll at different ranges as the base dice (the colour then gets better or worse for easy or difficult shots) and there is a penetration table (non-penetrating hits cause suppression, penetrating hits make a mess).
Colours are from best to worst RED – YELLOW – GREEN – WHITE – BLACK. Bottom right is the size category for spotting and hidden deployment. We deploy some troops initially as hidden deployment cards with large, medium, small on them – especially in and attack/defence scenario. These become visible at difference differences. It brings out the need for recce or like in Fury you might get a surprise shot from a Tiger in a wood (better if a jeep with a recce corporal has spotted the Tiger first). Some cards are blanks which creates the fog of war effect where in WW2 a lot of a battle was figuring out what you were up against and where it was.
Below that is a weight (only used for bridges) and a resilience level that is a reduction on opposing damage dice rolls. Tigers were very tough – not just due to their armour but they had a very resilient design compared to, say, and early Panther which was inclined to damage easily. A 17pdr – that penetrates it easily – will be on a -3 on the d10 damage dice, a Tiger back at the Firefly will be on a +1.
Have an early M4 Sherman without wet ammo storage and the Ronson effect gives another + to the Tiger and the 75mm gun needs a lucky strike to do real damage! Bottom right are any special effects e.g. Churchills can climb steep hills that other tanks cannot. Also covered there is any special ammunition for those who want to use them. You will find the equipment that was very tough in reality will be so in DoS. But they will cost a lot of points. You will get 15 Px IVH for 4 x Tiger 1.
A shot showing what a nasty surprise can do. Russian infantry forced to bravely advance non-tactical (what the little red arrows show). This makes them a good target. Alas the HDC in front of them is a platoon of BT2 panzer grenadiers complete with attached MG42s. Yo9u ca read the results straight of the CC dice. RED and YELLOW dice are the best – juicy target. That us 5 hits (skulls are doubles) which suppressed the platoon, destroys a base and causes a double morale test – which caused them to stop advancing.
Will you divide the army lists in years and/or theatres of war? Will you have also the Pacific front?
The forces in WW2 evolved quite rapidly. Rather than create arbitrary early to late periods the lists will be specific to 6-month periods, and players and organisers can choose how far apart they want to play in time and theatre. We tend to mainly play within theatre and within those 6-month periods.
The lists are built off the vast amount of information gathered and published by MicroMark but adapted to DoS. In due course we will also have formation specific lists. The Uk 7Th armoured division changed over a dozen times through the war and we know when and how. So we can do lists for specific time periods with refits and re-equipment points specific to that unit.
Hidden Deployment Cards. The approaching Russians as yet do no know if the SMALL is an infantry platoon or not and the medium could be some Stug IIIGs. These cards are a quick way to create some serious fog of war. If they are real it is very different than if they are blanks.
Can you tell us how a turn of Division of Steel works? Like moral test, movement, shooting phase.
It doesn’t work that way in phases actually. Instead it has initiative and all the movement, shooting and morale happen as activations happen or required in a turn. The player with the initiative plays a coloured disc from a CHQ or BHQ to activate something. If the colour played is 1 better than needed for an action, they can keep the initiative and do another activation. If just enough they hand the initiative over to the other player who then makes activations. The turn finishes when all discs are spent. Units can repeat activate but its more expensive. During an opponent turn, a player can return fire or opportunity fire. So DoS is very interactive and players are finding it fun bluffing, deciding where to delay, when to attack boldly etc. The better armies will tend to be able to keep initiative and do multiple initiatives well – and co-ordinate combined arms therefore.
Let’s take an example narrative to bring it to life. Some BT2 Germans might play a WHITE to do a non-tactical move to bring some Tigers safely up a road, and thereby keep the initiative as its normally BLACK. They then play a YELLOW to get an FOO to call down some artillery on a village full of Brits and again keep the initiative by playing such a good disc. Then they play a GREEN to pepper the same village with a MG 42 platoon and the British play a WHITE to return fire. Finally they play a WHITE to approach the village with an infantry platoon and as this is the minimum colour for that activation the initiative now passes to the British. The German player turns over all discs spent and leaves them next to their units as a reminder of how many activations they have done.
The British play GREEN to call down artillery on the moving Germans and hope it works as it is the minimum card and the Germans take back the initiative. If their artillery and MG fire has suppressed the village enough they might play a YELLOW disc to close assault with the platoon they last moved. As they have done 1 action already (and this is shown on table by them having a face down disc next to them), they have to pay 1 extra colour to do that – which makes a GREEN into a YELLOW. As you have your discs you can plan a turn but you are always reacting to the chaos caused by your opponent!
Testers are finding this toing and froing and interactivity is both fun and challenging as a game, and feels right for WW2 activity and the national characteristics.
The full attack-defence game in action. HDCs of Gremans jeeping the Russian unsure of what they are facing where. Upper right is an artillery barrage that has just overshot.
How does it work with the Plastic Soldier Company? Will they do specific “Army packs” for DoS?
The DoS system is that one base of 3-4 figures is a squad and vehicles and guns are 1-1. So it works nicely with all the commonly available 15mm, 10mm and 6mm figures. I have lots of FoW models and also 10mm Pendraken and 6mm H&R and am using them all. MoS is 1-1 entirely so it works nicely in 20mm or 28mm, so all the models I have used with Rapid Fire and Bolt Action are perfect for this. Plastic Soldier Company will be doing a range of ULTRACAST models and figures to go with both sets of rules.
Can’t wait to play them! When do you plan to release the rules?
The rules are in second phase testing and we are keen for people to work with us on them. If anyone wants to join , then please contact me and I will get them involved. The rules are targeted to be out at Salute 2021 at the latest, but I am hoping we can get them out in 2020. We are thinking to have a single rule book and then all army lists on-line for a modest amount each – probably 1 £ each and you can just buy what interests you. Eventually, there will be some army books as we are doing for Mortem et Gloriam – but focused on campaigns.
Speaking of miniatures, some DoS and MoS models are likely to be out long before the end of 2020. Take a look at the new NrothAg 10mm from PSC and imagine a Tiger in that material Lovely!