Instant Bandits is a set of free wargames rules for World War II Air Combat from the author of Instant Thunder. Both rules are hosted here At MiniatureWargaming.Com. I hvae some WWII Pacific Theatre planes and am going to try these very soon.
From Jim Wallman comes Blitz, one of the more imaginative miniatures rules sets I have encountered. In it, you command squads of firefighters coping with the dangers of the London Blitz of 1940 - 1941.
Massimo Torriani offers Operation World War II, set of free skirmish wargames rules. It’s a massive work. In the rules introduction, Torriani writes:
OPERATION: World War Two is a wargame for two players set during the Second World War that allows you to simulate skirmish level battles using infantry and tanks. Dice introduce an element of luck that in real-life is the difference between a success and a terrible failure. But luck is not enough to win; every piece of information in the tables is the result of careful study and is as realistic as any game will allow. Remember that some terms will be clarified later so we advise you to tread the whole rulebook at least once before playing.
Game Philosophy
Differently from other wargames, the game-mechanics of Operation: World War Two is based on the use of Order Cards rather than the players’ choices. In real-life, the “perfect soldier” that always obeys all of his orders to the letter does not exist. If you read battle accounts you will discover that even the best trained troops hesitate when facing the enemy and sometimes they refuse to obey orders. For the same reason a good number of shots fired never had a sure target, but mostly they were fired at a “presumed presence” - noise and nervousness had a big impact on the number of shots fired… In an attempt to recreate this aspect of fighting we invented the Order Card system. You will only be able to move, fire or assault if you have the right Order Card.
A Yahoo Group has been set up for the discussion and development of Over There, a set of modern skirmish miniature wargaming rules. The group’s owner writes:
Over There! features a very original, highly realistic, extremely flexible, simple and intuitive rules system that is universal enough to play well in almost any setting, with many additions being currently developed to cover any period from the Second World War through modern and futuristic warfare.
The World At War is the latest in the Command and Colors line of free miniature wargames rules from Rudi Geudens. Geudens writes:
The “World at War” is another rules set in our card driven colour coded hexbased series “COMMAND BY COLOUR”. Although it was one of our first projects, it has taken us nearly two years to finish, since mechanized warfare is quite different from e.g. colonial or ACW. Our main objective was to write a set of rules that would allow a fast, yet as realistic as possible wargame. In order to keep the actual number of rules pages as low as possible, we have opted for a system that could be compared with “Lego”. You may have a huge pile of Lego blocks at hand, yet to build a house you will only use the ones you need. In our system, the “unit cards” stand for the Lego blocks: there is a huge choice of different units for each nation, yet you will only need those you actually have units for in the game. The number of COMMAND CARDS is similar to the other games.
So far, we have finished the D-Day to Berlin units for Germany and the USA. The rest is to follow later. Enjoy!
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.