Take the High Ground: A World War 2 Skirmish Rule set 2026

The basic premise is, one man represents one man, one tank is one tank. This is a Platoon sized game with a supporting tank/armoured car or two.

Where small skirmishes between 2 to 3 infantry sections per side with a little support can fight a game in an evening across deserts, tundra, Bocage or towns and villages and both sides coming away with the feeling that they could have won that if only the morale had held, or the tank hadn’t lost power at a crucial moment.

Infantry rifles, SMG’s, LMG’s, mortars etc. are assumed to be as effective as each other (Mauser and Lee Enfield, MP40 and Thomson) the main difference being the trooper holding the gun and what training they have had.

Infantry wounds are simplified too, if your trooper when wounded is fit enough to move and fight with his comrades he carries on, if not he is assumed to be out of action, seriously wounded or dead. That can be found out by the Medics after the battle is fought.

Vehicles and tanks on the other hand can suffer multiple hits and slowly become less combat effective as the track is thrown, the crew are injured, or guns become damaged. Or they may just blow up becoming an obstacle to movement and vision.

This may seem abstract or over complicated and needing multiple markers on tanks, but after you have brought in that model of the Panzer IV H that you lovingly built and painted you wouldn’t want to see it under a ball of cotton wool after one shot, would you? When it could be limping along at half speed with the bow gunner dead and a T-34 right in the middle of the battlefield waiting to take the next 75mm shell…..

Scenarios, in my way of thinking are better when you know in advance what the scenario is and whether you will be attacking or defending, this saves you turning up with an agreed points value side which is ill suited to the task in hand. So, agree with your opponent beforehand what the scenario is, and which posture your sides will be taking and then work on your army lists.

—description from the designer