Friday, October 12, 2007
The Sword In Tibet is a variant of Larry Brom’s venerable The Sword and the Flame rules. It focuses on actions in Tibet in the early 20th Century.
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Monday, August 20, 2007
From the Godfather of wargaming, Jack Scruby, comes the Unbalanced Equality wargame. It first appeared in the November 1965 TableTop Talk magazine. Scruby writes:
An “unbalanced equality” war game is one in which the opposing forces are unequal in numbers and types of troops, but are equal in “combat ability”. In the 25mm Colonial armies we use for example (which is basically Natives versus trained regulars), we spent many hours working up the “equality” of combat values, which had to be based not only on manpower, but on rifle-fire, melee and morale values, and artillery fire power. In the end, we arrived at a British force valued at 2900 points and a Native force (with a sprinkling of native regular infantry as the hard core) valued at 4400 points. Normally this would seem to give the Natives overwhelming strength, but in actuality considering the range of rifle fire and the firepower of the British infantry, it worked out very evenly.
The interesting part of the “unbalanced equality” war game is that each “general” in command must use different tactics for his force. The tactics used by the British commander cannot be used by the Native commander, and vise-versa. And if these tactics become too well known by each commander over a series of war games, one can always trade sides, or split up the forces to a half native-half regular army for each player for a few games.
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Wednesday, April 18, 2007
In the Noonday Sun is a set of rules for small unit actions, derived from another set called Slammer. The authors of Noonday write:
In the Noonday Sun is a set of wargame rules for skirmish games using miniatures. I intended from the start that Noonday Sun would be flexible and adaptable to different scenarios. I have intentionally kept it ‘loose’, particularly in areas like troop motivation and Hollywood heroics. Noonday Sun is meant to be fun! We use miniatures on the tabletop to represent men and women who might well be scared or heroic, angry or bored, professional or just hungry, above all they are unpredictable. When you play Noonday Sun, occasionally try to see things through your troops’ eyes. They are more than just disposable weapons delivery systems.
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Wednesday, February 28, 2007
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Sunday, February 18, 2007
For fans of the Gaslight rules, here’s a playsheet that helps to teach the rules, as well as providing the information you need during the game. It would be perfect for running a game during a convention.
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Sunday, January 21, 2007
Here’s a set of African Colonial wargames rules from the Godfather of American Wargaming, Jack Scruby.
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Monday, November 27, 2006
Robert Cordery offers “Simple Colonial Wargaming Rules.” He writes
SCWaRes – pronounced “squares” – began life as a simple set of ‘fast play’ rules for use with teenagers who had never played a traditional figure wargame before. The design parameters were: To have a turn sequence that kept the players involved throughout each turn; To have simple morale systems that dealt with unit and formation morale; To reduce the measuring of movement and weapon ranges to zero; To have simple systems for resolving fire combat and close combat; To include an element of uncertainty into the outcome of each game To produce a game that could be played to a conclusion in about an hour.
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Sunday, November 19, 2006
Even if you don’t like the science fiction game, Warhammer turns out to be a pretty flexible system for playing other periods. Plus, it has the advantage of familiar mechanics and a built-in player base. So given that, its not surprising that it’s been extended to practically every period you can think of. Here’s a variant of Warhmamer 40K for colonial games in darkest Africa.
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Saturday, October 14, 2006
Sahibs and Sepoys is a set of free miniatures rules for the Indian Mutiny of 1857 - 1858. Author Alan Hamilton writes:
These skirmish rules are intended for the small actions which were typical of the Indian Mutiny. Thus individual characteristics are very important. The basic Unit is that commanded by a named character who is usually of Lieutenant, Captain or equivalent rank.
The suggested figure scale for rank and file is about 1:6 to 1:10 with 1:8 a good average. This scale is not used for named characters who are 1:1. This is justified in the attitude of the period. They are, therefore, cast in a heroic mould. The unit strength was calculated inbayonets or sabres the officers, sergeants, drummers and so on being extra to this establishment. Thus a company at its full strength of 100 bayonets would be an Officer, drummer, sergeant or strong man (optional) and 8 to 18 rank and file; cavalry squadrons similarly have an Officer, bugler and 4 to 9 rank and file. The Rank and File can include a proportion of Corporals, Naiks etc.
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Sunday, July 23, 2006
Bob Corderey offers a set of free set of colonial miniatures rules called Redcoats and Natives. They are designed to fight small colonial battles with 15mm figures.
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Poll #3:
Cast your vote and then join the discussion to tell us why.
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.
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