Об игре
Rattenkrieg! is a tabletop miniatures wargame designed to recreate tactical combat during the Second World War, from small infantry patrols to combined-arms engagements involving armored vehicles, artillery, engineers, reconnaissance units, and air support. Every soldier, weapon, and vehicle is represented individually, allowing players to recreate a wide variety of historical situations within a single, integrated ruleset.
The game is intended for players who enjoy historical wargaming and who are interested in exploring the tactical problems faced by Second World War commanders through a structured and consistent simulation. Rather than focusing primarily on competitive balance, the rules emphasize the interaction between doctrine, leadership, firepower, terrain, and the many practical limitations that shaped combat on the battlefield.
The development of Rattenkrieg! has followed a straightforward principle: whenever possible, the rules have been built from historical evidence rather than adapting historical data to fit pre-existing game mechanics. Military manuals, technical publications, combat reports, firing tables, and contemporary documentation have been used extensively throughout the design process to establish the characteristics of weapons, vehicles, and military organizations.
Historical sources are not always complete, and different documents sometimes provide conflicting information. When reliable data could not be established directly, values were generated using mathematical and technical models designed to apply the same methodology consistently across the entire system. No tabletop ruleset can reproduce history exactly. The objective instead is to create a coherent framework in which similar problems are approached using the same principles, whether they concern infantry weapons, artillery, armored vehicles, or anti-tank ammunition.
The rules attempt to represent the factors that most influenced tactical combat in reality. Command and control, initiative, morale, suppression, terrain, visibility, logistics, communications, engineering, and the physical characteristics of weapons all contribute to the outcome of an engagement. Success depends not only on the quality of individual units, but also on how effectively they are coordinated, how well commanders exploit opportunities, and how successfully they adapt to changing battlefield conditions.
The differences between armies are intended to emerge naturally from their historical doctrine, organization, equipment, and tactical methods rather than from artificial balancing mechanisms. Historical battles were rarely fought between evenly matched forces, and the rules treat this as a characteristic of warfare rather than as a design problem to be eliminated. Scenarios may therefore present significant disparities in strength, requiring players to achieve their objectives through planning, maneuver, and effective use of the resources available to them.