Tanzanica is a set of free wargames rules for Darkest Africa adventures by Brett Abbott. The rules actually are a variant of Games Workshop's Mordheim miniatures rules, which are themselves free at the Games Workshop living rules archive. Mordheim is a neat set of rules for the kind of game where each player controls a small group of characters, with one uber-character and several flunkies.
Privateer Press' Iron Kingdoms: Warmachine is a miniatures game with a highly original blend of steampunk, fantasy and science fiction. You can find a reference sheet for playing the game here.
Miniature Wargaming dot Com achieved another milestone yesterday when more than 1,500 hits were logged in a single day.
Thus, another of my goals was achieved. Other goals: 500 postings (I think I'll get there in September), average 1,000 daily hits (well on the way); get to 50,000 total hits (probably September); score 25,000 hits in a month.
Ultimate goal: become the number one stop for useful information for miniature wargamers.
Here's a list of the Origins Award Winners:
Game of the Year: Indy HeroClix -- WizKids
Hall of Fame Inductees:
Ed Greenwood
Larry Bond
Loren Wiseman
Bob Charrette
Hall of Fame Game Inductees:
Squad Leader
Warhammer 40K
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Rudi Geudens has a page with photos of World War One guns and tanks from the Belgian Royal Museum of the Army and Military History in Brussels. Photos such as these are always useful when painting your wargames miniatures.
I drove down from Ann Arbor to Columbus on Saturday to spend the day at Origins. I had not expected to find much in the way of miniatures wargaming -- particularly historical miniatures -- but was pleasantly surprised. There was a strong presence by the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society and lots of historical games being run.
WizKids, of course, had a huge presence with their collectable, clickable games. Their new offering is a "constructable" pirate game, with little ships that you punch out of thin plastic sheets. I demoed the game and found it to be fun, if simplistic. Movement has nothing to do with real sailing, but the shooting mechanisms are good.
Another major publisher that caught my eye was Wizards of the Coast, with their collectable Star Wars miniatures line. They're not bad. About average size for a miniature. Seemed to be a bit bigger than West End's old Star Wars line, but not as large as the "heroic" size miniatures of Workshop and others.
I snuck a picture of these, too.
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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.
