From the Godfather of wargaming, Jack Scruby, comes the Unbalanced Equality wargame. It first appeared in the November 1965 TableTop Talk magazine. Scruby writes:
An “unbalanced equality” war game is one in which the opposing forces are unequal in numbers and types of troops, but are equal in “combat ability”. In the 25mm Colonial armies we use for example (which is basically Natives versus trained regulars), we spent many hours working up the “equality” of combat values, which had to be based not only on manpower, but on rifle-fire, melee and morale values, and artillery fire power. In the end, we arrived at a British force valued at 2900 points and a Native force (with a sprinkling of native regular infantry as the hard core) valued at 4400 points. Normally this would seem to give the Natives overwhelming strength, but in actuality considering the range of rifle fire and the firepower of the British infantry, it worked out very evenly.
The interesting part of the “unbalanced equality” war game is that each “general” in command must use different tactics for his force. The tactics used by the British commander cannot be used by the Native commander, and vise-versa. And if these tactics become too well known by each commander over a series of war games, one can always trade sides, or split up the forces to a half native-half regular army for each player for a few games.
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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