Iron and Steel are a set of free wargames rules for Victorian age naval battles.
The author writes:
Iron & Steam is based on a set of Victorian pre-dreadnought rules written by a friend in the late 1980s. They’ve evolved over the years though I’ve not played them recently. The game is meant to use sheets for each ship to record movement orders and accumulated damage. I had a fairly complex set up of mail-merged MS Word documents to generate the record sheets. But, of couse, they no longer function so I’ll have to come up with another system of generating them. That may take a while. Still… the game is playable if you’re willing to keep track of the statistics on a piece of paper. I know, I know… so high tech…. The methods of calculating the factors and a number of pre-calculated ships are included in the rules.
Close Quarters from Capitan Games is designed for playing out boarding actions between Napoleonic ships. From the website:
Master & Commander: Close Quarters is a set of rules designed for playing boarding actions between Napoleonic ships. Now you can play in detail such famous actions as ‘Nelson’s Patent Bridge for Boarding First-Rates’ in the battle of Saint Vincent, follow Captain Decatur in a boarding action against Barbary Corsairs, or board the Royal Navy ships with the San Juan Neponucemo at Trafalgar
Fast, innovative and simple playing system. Designed to play with our ship boards, and CAPITAN MINIATURES 18mm crews,all you need to play is downloable for free.
MAS is designed to be played with similar sized fleets on a typical 6 feet x 4 feet wargame table. Fleet sizes of 5 or 6 choices at Priority Level: Battle are recommended. Alternatively, a point system is recommended.
Players should appreciate that while MAS is meant to be as accurate as practical, it is a game of naval warfare, not a simulation. Hopefully it will reward realistic tactics and punish bad ones. Nevertheless, it contains many abstractions that remove it from reality. Some abstractions are to make the game simple enough to be playable, while others are to ensure play balance. The real world is not balanced, but we like our games to be. A point system is included for players to construct balanced fleets.
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.
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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.