I played a lot of Avalon Hill’s MBT game when it first came out. Now you can get new maps and scenarios depicting terrain/actions found in the fictional WW3 novel “First Clash” by Kenneth Macksey.The premise of the book revolved around the Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group defending its sector in West Germany in the opening days of WW3 against attacking Soviet tank/motor rifle regiments.
In the Indo 1945 - 1954 website, authors Nowfel Leulliot (Paris, France) and Danny O’Hara (St Austell, UK) write that they:
hope to bring various elements of this fascinating conflict to a wider audience. We are both wargamers as well as amateur military historians, and the intention is to include some overviews of the two military systems (French and Vietnamese) in action, with pieces on particular unit types, operations/battles, important factors controlling the actions of either side, specialist equipment/tactics developed during the war, and scenarios/ideas for wargaming the various aspects of the Indochina War.
While I’ve seen quite a few games at conventions covering the American involvement in the Vietnam war, I’ve yet to see any done during the French phase. It could be a new area for gamers to explore.
If you’re a fan of Ty Beard’s Fistful of Tows rules—one of the first that I found on the internet—you might be interested to find that he has a weblog to support these rules. If you don’t have the free version of Fistfull of Tows rules, you can download them here.
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.
