Amazon Miniatures has put a new wargaming name generator on their site. Its in the list of links on the left. You can use this to generate random Arabian, Chinese, Dickensian, Dutch, German, Greek, Irish, Japanese, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Silly German, Spanish, Swedish and Viking names. It can save you time trying to think up authenthic character names for your adventure gaming scenarios. Nothing spices up a miniature wargame like having real names for the main characters. I must confess that in most of my games, any non-player character is generally named "Bob."
Brian Burger has created a couple of neat paper buildings for 15mm scale miniatures wargames. There is a short tower, and a large, half-timbered inn and cottage. These are perfect for DBA / DBM gamers.
Hex Command Gunpowder are a set of free wargames rules for the horse and musket era. They are designed for a 1 stand = 100 men scale. The authors write:
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The American War of Independence was one of my first miniature wargames projects. I still haven't finished. There's always another unit to paint and another battle to create terrain for. At the library of Congress website, there is a section of maps and charts of North America and the West Indies 1750 - 1789 that miniature wargamers will find useful.
My wife is an United States Air Force veteran who served in Gulf War I as an aeromedical staging flight nurse. She still maintains ties with her buddies in the service. One of them sent these to her:
"Aim towards the Enemy." - Instruction printed on US Rocket Launcher
"When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is not our friend." - U.S. Army
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I've got this fantasy that Privateer Press' Iron Kingdoms: Warmachine surplants Games Workshop as the best selling science-fantasy miniatures wargame. They've certainly got something that many of the challengers to the Games Workshop empire didn't: an original idea. This steampunk-science-fantasy world dominated the miniatures gaming at Origins on the day I attended. Here is a page with spell counters for the Warmachine game.
Colonel Marbles at Frothers Unite, UK! has a gallery of Victorian miniature wargaming figures from various manufacturers. It's particularly useful for those who like to do Victorian Science Fiction gaming.
Game Workshop's Space Hulk game is one of the best it's every produced. Every game is fraught with tension, as the marines attempt to maximize their scarce action points in the face of an increasing onslaught of genestealers. With good players, this game is nearly always a near run thing. Unfortunately, like so many of their efforts, the Evil Empire hasn't continued to support it. Expanding The Hulk is a website dedicated to continuing the Space Hulk game. It's got rules for using many of the other races in the Games Workshop universe, including Chaos, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Necrons, and Orcs.
This page has a large number of Napoleonic scenarios for the Volley and Bayonet miniature wargames rules set: Trebbia, Novi, Montebello, Hohenlinden, Austerlitz, Auestadt, Eylau, Teugn-Hausen, Raszyn, Eckmuhl, Gorodetschna, Borodino, Lutzen, Gross Beeren, Dennewitz, Brienne, La Rothiere, and Craonne.
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.
