Just in time for the movie Troy! R.W. Lee has written Wrath of the Gods, a set of free wargames rules for Greek and Roman mythology fantasy skirmish. The rules are simple (a good thing), with combat involving rolling a d6, adding a couple of factors and then comparing scores with your opponent. Any rules set that has harpies, gorgons and gods is a good thing.
Tony Thomas has created the Wargames Terrain Generator, a program that's free for the downloading. He tells about it in an email: "What it does is allow you to create and customize a random terrain for your wargame of choice. Wargame terrain generator can also create an actual image of the table top using terrain images for battle reports and so forth (a basic terrain set is provided with the download). Wargame terrain generator is still currently in beta, so while all the functionality is working there is very little idiot proofing."
The German East Africa Yahoo Group was formed to "obtain and share information related to miniature wargaming about German East Africa, particularly the Abushiri (Wahehe) Rebellion of 1888, the Maji Maji Rebellion of 1905, and Lettow-Vorbeck's masterful operations during World War One."
Here's a nice piece of wargames terrain that makes me think, for some reason, of "The Great Escape." From Steve Winter comes these instructions for making a corrugated metal hut.
Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
