Fire and Dice: WW2 Rules for Miniature Wargames

Fire and Dice is a concise, fast-play rule set for miniature wargaming in WW2 which revolves around dice values in lieu of combat tables and charts. This system is designed for collegiate play where winning is a goal, secondary to having fun.

Whilst there are plenty of modifier lists, these rules have no charts or calculation tables. As the name suggests, this is about reducing game mechanisms to a single competitive dice roll.

Modifiers for dice rolls only affect the activating player – the player who attempts to activate a unit during their turn by rolling for observation, morale and for shooting. The responding player makes unmodified dice rolls for concealment, armour value or to duck and cover. In all dice-rolls, the higher the score the better.

Game play revolves around the interaction of units which represent companies or platoons of infantry, infantry support elements, squadrons of armoured fighting vehicles, aircraft and artillery or anti-tank guns in either batteries or operating as individual elements. Whilst higher command and organisation are present, and units can influencing each other, the morale and fighting effectiveness is based on the individual unit itself.

You will need a set of polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10 and d12), an artillery directional dice (scatter dice), a tape measure and a sense of fair play. It does not contain army lists or point costs but rather aims to enable scenarios to reflect researched and historical or historically plausible table-top encounters. You are encouraged to develop your own unit cards and examples are scattered throughout these rules as a guide.

—description from the rulebook