Move down to download free Tractics play aids & free Duckbills newsletter which now covers 3 World War II rulesets: Tractics, Fast Rules & Brew Up (the latter is now also available).
Tractics is a ruleset primarily for World War II miniature games. Most people focus on the tanks, so the 1971 authors cleverly coined a name by compacting a tank’s Tracks with Tactics. As this is the fiftieth anniversary of its 1971 release, we marvel at the extraordinary detail and breadth that Mike Reese, Leon Tucker, and Gary Gygax assembled in this ground-breaking wargame long before the days of internet references.
Working on this for a year, CombatRules.com’s goal with this new edition is to provide both the Classic rules and Modifications and Updates. [Update: Tractics’ new edition was released in December 2021.] You will have an opportunity to choose from 2 or 3 ways to handle sub-systems like Morale or Artillery. The core of the game, Tank & Anti-Tank, has changed little in its Mods and Updates. This section is the most detailed part and has given Tractics an unfair reputation for excessive complexity. This opinion is mainly due to its comparison with simplistic rulesets like a six-sided die, 4-6 knocks out a light tank, 5-6 a medium, and 6 a heavy. Instead, the ruleset has a clear and logical explanation of how the process goes: To Hit, Hit Location, and Damage Evaluation. We have added a page that summarizes with illustrated examples. This process lends to the narrative allowing you to “step into the story,” as we say. How and why did that happen?
Ruleset X: Bad luck, he rolled a six. Your Tiger tank is junk.
Which writes the story in a memorable way?
Tractics: The turret ring is jammed, and now how do you deal with that? It’s now a lumbering assault gun.
Practice the process a few times, and it will go faster. Even if it takes more than rolling one die, that wait time lends to excitement and anticipation. When played with hidden setup and movement, this produces memorable games of great richness. A judge is a pathway to making wargames accessible to many new players who would not learn any ruleset, no matter how simple. A growing platoon of local recruits helps to make many games feasible.
While the rulebook may appear to have many pages, that is due to several things:
- The graphic presentation is assembled with spacing and illustrations to make it more of a page-turner than densely packed text-heavy rulesets.
- We present the systems’ tables with an explanation and then assemble them into a “pull-out,” collected pages that serve as a Game Reference Card to use during the game. So this apparent duplication serves as Programmed Instruction.
- No game will use all the many pages of Vehicle Data and specialized rules that. The ruleset is more nearly complete and does not need supplements.
- Finally, several of the game systems have multiple options of how to play the game—this gives you the choice.
However, the supplements you have from other contemporary games can add to Tractics by providing additional detail. If you are like me, you might want to kit-bash different games together to suit you! – Bill Owen, publisher, CombatRules.com
This page is a “signpost” for play aids, variants, and features that gamers can download for free. To keep up with the latest, enter your email address to “follow” this blog.
While you’re at it, please enter your address at combatrules.com. You will find that at the bottom of each webpage. Then we will let you know when the latest Duckbills is released etc.
PS the rulebook has expanded since the featured image at the top of the page was uploaded. There are now 232 pages including the 45 pull-out charts that are the Game References.
Free Play Aids to Download
Below is a blank PDF form, two to a letter-sized page, that you can fill in for both sides of a game. The blanks are fields that one can type into in Acrobat. Each half-page Order form has two columns, but for me, I couldn’t tab into the righthand column; I had to click on it to enter text.
Above is a blank PDF form, so you can add weapon ranges and armor penetration if you find a weapon we did not include.
Above is a blank Vehicle Data form if you want to add a vehicle missing from the game.
Above is a letter-sized list of the Abbreviations and Vehicles in the Vehicle Data pull-outs. It features a larger print size than what was on the pull-outs.
Above is a six-page compilation of the Modern Vehicles included the first edition of Tractics. No changes have been made since that time. Many were based on the best estimates of current technology. Early in planning for the second edition, we decided that the new edition would focus on World War II.
Graham Hunt’s Time & Turn Record
Designed for the 1st edition of Tractics, this could still be useful with the 2021’s 2nd edition. It is Grahams 8th version of the chart from 12/8/22.
Tractics Scenarios
Click here to see Tractics Scenarios!
Move down for a free copy of the latest issue of Tractics’ DUCKBILLS!
DUCKBILLS is a free PDF download, an irregular newsletter. Includes errata, variants, and explanations. You are welcome to submit your own ideas and playtests of variants. Click above to download. The latest issue of Duckbills consolidates Errata, Variants, and Scenarios for all 3 rulesets (Tractics, Fast Rules & Brew Up) and for all Duckbills issues to date!
Issue numbers & dates:
- 2/2/22 premier issue
- 7/6/22
- 7/30/22
- 4/17/23
- 6/14/23
- 9/23/23 Now covering Tractics, Fast Rules, and Brew Up
- 12/28/23 (12/31/23 version 7.02 with slight corrections substituted)
- 2/4/24 Our 2nd anniversary issue! Another will be due out soon.
Click here for a free download at the bottom of another blog page: Tractics Game In Progress sign. That page discusses how to display your pull-out charts and/or place them in various binders.
Wargame Campaign 
When is the new brew-up rules coming out?
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We made some important progress on that and I project it will be 2-3 weeks.
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