simple fast played board game where you battle steampunk submarines against each other. The game involves crew management, planned movement, all sorts of weapons and more.
Frank Chadwick’s Space: 1889 franchise included a great set of miniatures rules called The Soldier’s Companion. Sadly, it died with the rest of the project. You can still get the rules at various place online, though. If you already own a set, you might be interested in the Soldier’s Companion fansite, which has houserules, scenarios and battle reports.
Forgotten Futures is Marcus Rowland’s role playing game of scientific romance. It’s been around for quite a while, having been available on the web for years, before being published by the Heliograph. That company now has discontinued the product, and it again is available on the web. I have a printed copy, and have really enjoyed it. There are plenty of ideas there for miniature wargamers, especially if you like games with a role playing flavor.
The Iron Frontier is a set of rules for conducting battles with massive steam driven landships. The game is played on a grid, and includes rules for field forces and constructing your own landships.
Walt O’Hara, tireless advocate of gaming in a gentler time, offers hsi Le Grande Cirque rules. Walt writes:
The Grand Circuit Races (aka ‘Le Grand Cirque’ by the French and everyone else) is a game of “Conveyance racing” in a weird but whimsical Victorian age loaded with technological possibilities. Players assume the role of racers, competing on behalf of their nation or political faction.
Jim Wright’s Adventures in Jimland is a set of rules for conducting expeditions into the fantastic worlds of Darkest Africa. It’s a massive work, with 35 pages of rules, playcharts, encounter cards and more.
The South London Warlords have a terrific page about their Cloudships of Mars game, which they presented at Salute Zero Five and SELWG 2005. The are quite a few photos of their amazing ships, plus rules for playing the game, which include some nicely done ships’ control panels.
Well worth a visit!
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.