GHQ Microarmor: The Game

Authors: John Fernandes & Leif Edmondson

Publisher: GHQ, 2012

Period: World War 2

Scale: Midsize Battle

LIBRARIAN'S SUMMARY

Originally published by GHQ in 2001 and heavily revised into this 2012 second edition, this beautifully illustrated rule book was designed specifically for 1/285th scale micro armor battles. The design harkens back to old-school, "crunchy" systems like Tractics where simulation is prioritized over speed of play. This gives Microarmor: the Game a distinctly traditional, 1980s vibe. This is a platoon-level tactical game where cohesion—not raw firepower—is the central mechanic. Nearly every action in the game revolves around cohesion checks, representing command control, battlefield stress, suppression, confusion, and the cumulative breakdown of units under fire. The second edition reveals the designers’ broader vision. Leif Edmondson’s foreword explains that Fernandes originally envisioned the system as part of a much larger “Century of Conflict” framework stretching beyond WWII.

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WHAT YOU NEED

GHQ Microarmor: The Game was designed around GHQ’s famous 1/285th scale miniatures range, and the rules openly assume players are using that scale and basing style. Each stand generally represents a platoon-sized grouping: several tanks, infantry squads, artillery sections, or support weapons mounted on 1” square bases. The rules themselves are substantial. This is not a lightweight beer-and-pretzels game. The second edition spans well over a hundred pages.

Players will also need several dice types—including D20s, D8s, and D6—as well as markers for suppression, disorganization, artillery impacts, smoke, mines, and movement states. Terrain matters enormously in this system. Because spotting and line-of-sight rules are central to the system, the game benefits from a detailed tabletop with ridgelines, woods, buildings, roads, and elevation changes. The rules assume true miniatures terrain rather than abstract hexes.

HOW IT PLAYS

INITIATIVE: To start a turn, players roll 1d6 to see which unit activates first
ACTIVATE: One unit attempts to activate and resolve an action
CONTINUE: Initiative player continues activating units until failing
SWITCH: Opposing player gets a chance to activate one unit as above
END TURN: Once all units have attempted to activate, end the turn

Microarmor: The Game operates through a strict sequence of play that gives the battlefield a structured feel. Each turn represents roughly three minutes of real time, while one inch equals about 100 meters. What immediately distinguishes the game is its posture system. Units are assigned firing, movement, or fire/move postures before action unfolds. This creates meaningful planning decisions because aggressive maneuver comes at the cost of combat efficiency.

Combat itself is procedural. Units first pass cohesion checks to fire effectively. If successful, players resolve attacks by comparing firepower against defense values on a combat differential table. However, simply having a powerful tank does not guarantee success. Suppression, disorganization, terrain, posture, range, and line of sight constantly interfere. This emphasis on battlefield degradation is the game’s defining feature. Units become Suppressed and Disorganized long before they are physically destroyed. A formation under pressure slowly loses effectiveness until it collapses altogether. This creates firefights that feel dynamic and believable rather than binary.

Spotting and LOS rules are similarly important. Concealment matters. Firing from woods reveals positions. Ridge crests block observation. Infantry hidden in prepared positions can become extremely difficult to neutralize. The battlefield often becomes a tense contest of information and positioning rather than simple range calculations.

Artillery is particularly robust with detailed mechanics for plotted indirect fire, sheaf patterns, off-board support, smoke, and national artillery doctrines. Unlike many games where artillery feels abstract or secondary, here it is a genuine battlefield-shaping arm.

The overall experience lands somewhere between traditional tactical miniatures gaming and old-school operational simulation design. It rewards deliberate planning, combined arms thinking, and historical tactics. There's no question that over the 15 years since its release, trends in tabletop wargaming have shifted away from the design ethos of Microarmor: The Game. "Streamlining" and "fast-play" are buzzwords that feel very out of place with this old-school approach. But veteran players seeking a deeper experience will surely find it here.

In an effort to appeal to newer players, GHQ does offer a less intimidating entry-point. Called "Microarmor: The Tank Game," this slimmed down 8-page version is called their "beer & pretzels" set. The same DNA from the full game can be found here, especially the focus on cohesion. But The Tank Game removes artillery and infantry entirely, presenting a simplified tank-only approach. It's playable as a standalone experience and offers a welcoming introduction to the fuller, 100+ page system. Both games are available for download here in the Wargame Library, along with a handful of the official scenarios. Many more scenarios can be found for free on the GHQ website.

FINAL Note

Micro Armour: The Game – WWII feels like a system built by deeply experienced historical gamers who wanted to model the realities of armored warfare without sacrificing tabletop practicality. It is detailed, sometimes unapologetically so. More than a decade after this second edition appeared, it still feels like one of the more serious and thoughtfully constructed platoon-level WWII armor games available.