Hell in Microcosm

Welcome to ‘Hell in Microcosm.’ This set of rules has the battalion as the manoeuvre unit. Stiffened and supported by the specialist troops from within the division, the battalions are the cutting edge of your force. Aimed at 6mm and 2mm figures, once you get used to the rules you can contemplate deploying divisions.

When we originally used these rules, we fought battles ranging in time from the first months of the First World War to Vietnam. You can try and smash your enemy’s trench lines with artillery before launching yet another attack, or you can drop your blocking force into place with helicopters (playing the Ride of the Valkyries is purely optional).

You can have beach landings, armoured trains, and cavalry. You can bomb towns to stop the enemy advancing through them, or infiltrate your irregulars through weakly held parts of the front.

But now in this second edition I took the plunge and brought in a science fiction section as well. Whilst you can use with rules without ever turning to the Sci-Fi section; if you want you can now add mecha, giant war machines, droids, and drones to the mix. Indeed I’ve looked at transporting troops and landing them on planets who don’t necessarily want you there. So we have the systems in place to help you invade whole new worlds.

Finally there are even rules for fighting your battles directly on a 1:50,000 or similar map. We found that this gave you terrain far more intricate and interesting than anything you might produce on a wargames table.