Paul Hooper offers The Great Game, a set of free, fast play wargames rules for the colonial era. Paul writes:
These rules were born out of my personal desire to play large scale colonial actions in one evening. Many of the existing sets of rules were designed for skirmish or competition games and were thus either too small scale or too complex. The only other types of rules covered just one of the colonial wars, and my wish to see how my colonial British Army faced up and defeated many different enemies forced me into writing my own set of rules.
In battle, many things get forgotten and this is just as true in the miniature version. How many times have you forgotten how many casualties that you inflicted on that enemy unit? So these rules do not count how many figures you have lost, they count how many you have left!
The figure scale is variable, so that a single British Infantry figure represents fifteen men, while a single Zulu represents thirty. Using this method one only need paint two Zulus for every one British figure to outnumber the British four to one.
This set of rules cover the Zulu War, the occupation of Egypt in 1882, the Mahdist wars of 1884 and 1896, the Boxer Rebellion, the Second Boer War 1900, and the 1st Sikh War 1845.
The rules are designed so that a large game with say 300 native figures and 100 Europeans will last about a couple of hours. Therefore many of the differences between early muzzle loading and later breech loading rifles have been simplified. Using these rules it is possible to win with native armies in situations where they did win although losses will be quite horrendous! But the proof is in the playing so may your Gatling never jam and on with the 'Great Game'.
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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