WWII Wargaming with Spearhead

Welcome to my WWII Spearhead website! Here you will find resources for the excellent Spearhead rules developed by Arty Conliffe.

To find out what has been added recently be sure to visit the News section. It will include articles on forming units, new ready to play scenarios and the occasional game report as they become available. If you wish to be notified of new content directly I encourage you to follow this website – a link can be found on the right.

The Spearhead rules assume the use of scenarios rather than equal points based games. While there are several excellent commercially available scenario books a selection of free scenarios are available for your personal use.

British armour & motor infantry in 1/300th scale.

In addition this website hosts my Scenario Generation System. I use this system to develop scenarios for a number of my own games. The system is not designed to produce perfectly balanced games, but rather scenario games. These scenarios provide just as many challenges as traditional scenarios all while introducing considerable fog of war. Over the years, it has been successfully used by players around the world.

For those not familiar with Spearhead, the rules are designed for wargaming brigade and divisional level engagements during World War II. I tend to use them for reinforced brigade level actions which allow a game to be completed in an evening.

A British Motor Battalion in 1944.

So, what are the Spearhead rules all about? While each stand represents a platoon, or around four vehicles, the manouevre unit is the battalion. With Spearhead, players are typically placed in command of one or more brigades.

Players must determine a plan and issue orders which will see battalions allocated to various tasks. Indeed, force allocation is a critical part of the pre-game planning phase. Reserves must be considered and, when required, committed to battle. Once your plan is determined battalions must follow their orders. Hopefully each battalion has sufficient resources to complete its task and you have sufficient reserves. For those interested in understanding the rule mechanics further an introduction to the rules is available.

Regarding miniature scales, the rules are designed for use with 1/300th scale models. Indeed, my own armies are all in this scale. However, some players prefer to use larger or smaller models.

I trust you find something here of interest and visit again soon.