Brumbaer has a couple of pages comparing the relative sizes of 10mm figures from different manufacturers. Useful stuff, if you’re looking to fill out your Warmaster armies.
I don’t know of a miniatures wargamer who hasn’t tried to write his own set of rules. And unless your rules are extraordinarly simple, that means thinking about dice probabilities. Here’s an article on die probabilities with d6s, with a special focus on DBA and Warmaster.
The Wargames Journal has an article on Boudica’s revolt against the Romans in AD 61. There’s also a couple of army lists for use with Games Workshop’s excellent Warmaster rules.
In a continuing trend, Games Workshop has released Warmaster as a free rules set. Clearly, they have decided that giving away rules promotes the sales of figures -- their primary focus.
The release of Warmaster is particularly welcome. It is a very flexible set and has been adapted to a large number of different genres and periods. Use the search box on the left hand side of this page to find a few of the variants.
Games Workshop's Warmaster has shown itself to be a remarkably versatile set of rules. There is a Yahoo Group that is dedicated to porting the basic rules over to a wide variety of historical periods. Even better, the group's files section has modifications for periods such as: The American Civil War, Dark Ages, Franco Prussian, Napoleonics, Renaissance and World War II.
John Martin has written a set of free wargames rules for the American Civil War based on Games Workshop's Warmaster. I think that things have come full circle here, because Warmaster obviously took much of its inspiration from the seminal ACW rules set, "Fire and Fury." Not that GW would ever admit that. After all, according to the Evil Empire, miniature wargaming is the "Games Workshop Hobby", which precludes the acknowledgement of any other rules set or miniatures.
Herbert Wong written "March to the Sound of the Guns," a Napoleonic wargame that is a variant of Games Workshop's Warmaster miniatures rules. Warmaster is a generally good set of rules that borrows heavily from Fire and Fury and some other historical sets. Of course, Games Workshop would never admit that. Heck, they don't even admit that there is a miniature wargaming hobby outside of the "Games Workshop Hobby."
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.