Miniature Wargaming: Free Miniature Wargames Rules, Wargaming Resources, Miniature Wargames Terrain, Painting Advice and More

Saturday, November 25, 2006

About Dispatches From The Front

Site News

Since its inception, the Miniature Wargaming site has been focused on providing links to free wargaming resources: free rules, terrain and painting advice, history sites and the like.

However, over the last couple of years, there have been numerous occasions on which I’ve wanted to bring my readers’ attention to stuff of a more commercial nature: games I’ve played or encountered, wargames related movies I’ve watched, books I’ve read, and so on.

But given the original mission of MiniatureWargaming dot Com, I’ve never felt as though I could do that.

Then, with my site redesign, it occurred to me that I could start a separate blog and use the same template structure. I could distringuish the two sites by altering the mast heads.

So the Miniature Wargaming Dispatches From The Front was born. In this blog, I’ll post on gaming related things that are noc necessarily free, but which have caught my interest, and which may also catch the interest of others.

Entry Permalink and Comments | Email this entry | List All Posts By Category

Page 1 of 1 pages

recent forum posts

featured gallery shot

About the Miniature Wargaming Hobby

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.