PBI in Zaire 1997

[Joe Legan]

My first post here.  I own a lot of Martin's figures but only 1 ruleset; PBI 2025.  I think it is great.  It is a great enough rule set that it can take my meddling to turn it into a solitaire friendly ruleset.  It, coupled with my campaign rules, allow me to tell various stories of my many companies.  I thought I would post some here if they are of interest to this group.  You can see what I am doing with PBI.
https://platoonforward.blogspot.com/2025/09/fr-jacques-swift-water-and-medical.html
Thoughts welcome.

Cheers

Joe

[Paul in NZ]

I enjoyed reading all of that, well done.

[Joe Legan]

Paul, 
     Thank you for the kind words.  I should point out that I use two figures per base rather than three.  Since I am painting both sides it will take a while to get to three figure bases!

[Smiley Miley 66]

Before you go down that long path too far ?
The newer AK47 rules are done for Africa, handle the Higher firing modern weapons better, in the Fire, Hits Archived and Results !
I would take a look at the rules first ? A lot of the force compositions and Terrain features are the same ! So any work done so far would transfer over with no real problems!
The basic rules were developed after the new PBI rules, so have a lot of lessons applied that were learned of the long period of time it took to develop the new PBI ?
Also in AK 47 there is a bit more "fun" in the rules, where as PBI can be a bit more serious?
Gives you a better chance of Ad Hoc forces ? Which I get the impression can happen especially if the forces are in several battles, and you have bits of units left ?
So for a campaign it might give that slightly more better flow ?
Of course this is only an observation and a personal opinion!
The 2-3 figures is mainly a visual thing as well, to make the bases stand out ?
2 figures I'd normally a small weapons team, Bazooka or LMG team compared with a normal 3 man rifle team ?
In AK this is slightly less rigid! As most weapons are available to each bases such ?
A rifle base will carry, Assault Rifles, sub and light MGs and small portable AT tubes a combination of them ?
So I have in my forces Assault rifles, bolt action, SMGs, LMGs and RPG types, and put 3 figures on a base in any combination that looks like its interactions are real, walking, running, firing all together at the same target etc ?
But 3 figures does look better does makes the "Rifle" base look fuller!
I am putting together the Battle/Siege of Jadotville,  after one of play test team members said he would love to do as the Siege of Jadotville is one of his favourite films !
Miles

[Colonel Kilgore]

Lots of good points there, Miles.

Another thing in favour of the new rules is that you probably need fewer bases overall, so can more easily paint those 3-figure bases 

Simon

[martin goddard]

Hello to my friend Joe.  Hello!
Glad you can join us Joe.


martin

[Sean Clark]

Hey Joe!

Great blog. One of the best out there I'd say. They take a lot of work to maintain to that standard, so well done.

[Joe Legan]

Miles,  thank you for the great suggestions.
I agree AK 47 has a lot going for it and all the modern weapons are in there.  The problem is focus.  While the blog focuses on stories the player ( me) is always placed in a leadership problem. The hardest leadership problems are not tactical but with personnel.
In reading about AK 47, I think the unit size is rather large ( platoons or companies) to really have the story effect the battlefield.
I think a company on the board is as large as I can go.
Simon, thank you
Martin, thank you my friend.  I hope I don't shut down conversation with my answers. I enjoy the discussion
Sean,  thank you.  I don't post unless I have something worthwhile.
Cheers!

[Smiley Miley 66]

I agree with what your saying, but maybe you are looking at the older versions ?
Unit sizes now go by the unit ranking ?
Professional or Veteran is 6 bases. Regulars are now 8 bases and Militia or raw are now 10 bases. Then another 6 bases of support weapons up to another 4 extra as add ons. Depending on unit rankings, qualities etc. Hou normally have 3 platoons with a mixture of the above.
So as Simon says these units are slightly smaller than PBI.
The V1 and V2 of these rules can make these units rather large. But V3 is comparable to PBI, as are many other aspects it's of the gamecube now. So playing one or the other, the basic mechanism are now very similar so easy to convert.
But the other side of that unless you read the "cheat sheet"? You can apply the wrong results ?
Where we play the battle days once a month we normally find one or two of us apply other games results to an action taken, especially if we have been playing- playtesting it a lot of late !
But anyway please keep up the good work.
We applaud you.
Miles

[Joe Legan]

Miles,
     Thank you for the support.  I do enjoy the blog and don't post anything I wouldn't want to read which cuts down on the number of posts!!
Appreciate the help but don't think I explained myself well.  When talking about the size of units for AK-47 or PBI I meant the size of the unit represented.  For example, the unit of maneuver in PBI is the infantry platoon made up of a number of bases.  Two to Four platoons plus some attachments make up a company.  Therefore the player is normally place [ nominally] is the position of the company commander. 
     I don't know exactly but in my reading about AK-47 I think the units are larger than that.  For example, I think the "leader" figure is a "general" so I surmise that the unit of maneuver is a battalion.  Is that right?  For the flow of the game it probably doesn't really matter.  For my stories and leadership challenges it does make a difference.  Thanks for your help!
     BTW Jadotville would be a great project.  That is a back burner one for me. I actually have most of the figures. The decisions that the Irish commander faced were fascinating. 

Cheers
       

[JohnWyatt]

Just to clear up any possible misunderstanding, each figure in AK47 represents 6 real-life combatants with a slightly smaller ratio for vehicles. So although the number of bases you see in both games are broadly similar, AK47 does indeed represent a clash of larger forces.

Because of the way the system works, I don't think it would break the game narratively if you decided effectively to play it on a 1-to-1 scale, but there are some differences in gameplay. Some of the detail of PBI is abstracted in order to give more of a "big battle" effect. On the other hand, AK47 adds some cool features (like helicopters) to enhance the gaming experience as well as that little bit of Peter Pig magic to add period "feel".

[Joe Legan]

Thanks John, that is what I deduced from my reading.  It looks like a lot of fun but for my solo projects I think I will stick to PBI.
I already have some of Martin's range 17 professionals on the bench.  They are going to be Jacques recruited mercs.

Joe

PS.  I am eyeing Washington's army.  It appears to be a similar scale to AK 47 but the nature of that war would make a smaller scale hard to work with.  Do you know how many stands make up a unit?

[JohnWyatt]

Hi Joe,

Apologies, I have no personal knowledge of that set. From the look of it the rules are of the older type that uses measuring instead of a grid, and rather more modifiers than the newer sets.

A post into the relevant part of the forum would probably find someone who knows the rules. I think there are some clues in an existing thread titled:

AWI PP box set lists

Best wishes,

John

[Joe Legan]

Right.
Thanks!

Joe