I have a large collection of 1/1200 Civil War Ironclads but have never played many games with them becuase I haven’t really found a set of rules I liked. I may give theis free set called Smoke on the Water a try.
Pete Pellegrino has written a set of free miniature wargames rules called Damn The Torpedos. In the game, you customize your ironclad, and then take it out to fight in the Cvil War battle of Mobile Bay.
The Civil War in 30 Minutes is a matrix game designed by Matt Fritz to help his students understand the American Civil War. If you haven’t looked into matrix games, you will find that they are useful in running meaningful campaigns.
The Perfect Captain’s Battle Finder is a set of 64 cards—done in the usual high quality graphics—that you use to generate terrain for your miniature wargames battles. There also are rules for using the cards to create linear campaigns, and maneuver campaigns using the downloadable force counters, order and control markers. There are even revenue and siege rules.
Truly innovative stuff, and something that I’m going to use almost immediately.
The Battle for Henry Hill is a simulation of the First Battle of Bull Run designed by Matt Fritz for his students. The rules include an order of battle and links to paper figures.
Martin David James offers a free set of pdf rules for playing miniatures games set in the American Civil War. In Birth of A Nation, units are brigades, and control of the battle is achieved through a series of morale checks.
The only downside to these rules is that the pdf is “watermarked”—each page is marked with the word “Download” across the page.
Mike Willegal offers A Perfect Sheet of Flame, a set of free wargames rules for gaming the Amerian Civil War. Mike writes that this is the fourth version of his Iron Brigade system:
This forth version has a major revamping of the game mechanics. Gone is the sequential alternate movement system. In place is a order driven simatanious movement system. Orders must be generated by officers and isolated units may only execute their orders after a delay. Gone is the need for the results tables. In place of that, the player must perform some very simple math (adding up the sum a of a number of dice) followed by a simple divide. The result is intended to be a much more exciting, and fast moving game. The old system of tying morale to fire combat remains, though in an altered format. The overall effect of combat should be similar to the previous version, with a bit more luck thrown in. This should average out quite quickly in battle, as I have studied probilities of sum of a number of dice quite carefully in coming up with this system.
Dan Fraser has been busy writing miniatures rules. His Billy Yank rules, he writes is not original, but a compilation of many other rules:
As always I am seeking a set of rules that is both fun and realistic. I have found that combination of several rule sets and optional ideas make the best rules. The big problem is to mesh it all in to a well flowing set of rules. Thus Billy Yank is not an original set of rules rather it is the best of many free sets of rules seamlessly complied into one comprehensive set of rules.
A basic set of war game rules must provide a vehicle for troop movement, a procedure for deciding combat and a method for accounting for the results of combat (casualties and routed units). Laid over all this, the war gamer must be confounded with command and control issues and logistics problems. All this must be done without unduly complicating the rule system and maintaining game playability and realism.
Bryn Monnery’s Heart of Oak, Skin of Iron is a set of free miniatures rules for naval wargames in the period 1852 - 1870.
I own a larg number of 1/1200 scale civil war ironclads, but they have rarely seen the light of day because I have never been satisfied with the available rules. I think I’ll break them out and try this set.
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.