"Boardgames or Miniature rules which use hexes or squares" Topic

This inquiry is based on a couple recent threads about gaming on hexes or squares. What boardgames or miniature rules sets use hexes or squares? Give a brief description of the game and list the good, the bad, and the ugly. Also say why they fall into these three categories.

Inquiring minds want to know. This inquiring mind is thinking of going back to his boardgame roots for his miniature games.

Memoir '44 and Battle Cry both use hexes off top of my head.

This is absolutely the wrong forum for this request. There are hundreds of games that use hexes or squares.

See:

link

If you were a little more specific . . .

mjc

Vive L'Empereur – Napoleonic (very much based on BattleCry)
BattleLore (Fantasy Medieval – again, by the same author as Memoir and BattleCry)
Look at the NapleonN site – they sponsor TMP – they have an intersting set of rules that are hex based for Napoleonics.
For WW2 – besides Memoir – one of my friends plays Axis and Allies with 20mm figs on a hexed board.
I have not tried this yet, but I imagine that Blitzkrieg commander could be "hexed" out if you worked on it.
For Ancients – Command and Colors Ancients – probably the most detailed of the Memoir style games. This is a game that shows how detailed/realistic these simple game systmes can actually be made.
BC

To start, every game ever made by Avalon Hill, SPI, 3W, The Gamers, etc. etc.

Quidveritas. Sorry if I have offended you. I guess I didnt know there were so many. Every rules set I own seems to use a ruler or mesuring sticks. I should have said what boardgames use squares. I know there are tons of boardgames using hexes. Are there so many rules sets using squares or hexes?

Hi,
I agree there are literally hundreds.

link

SPI, 3W and GDW make quite a few.

Of course, the best site for listing these games is:
grognard.com

Jon

Axis and Allies War at Sea, uses offset squares (really same as hexes)

Rpg's like D&D 3rd, 3.5 and 4th editions all make use of a grid of squares. You can ignore a lot of the rpg rules and just play it as a tactical game. In fact the D&D collectable prepainted plastic miniatures were meant to accomodate this use of the D20 system, and an abbreviated version of the 3rd edition rules was churned out to support the line. ( I think it's being quietly dropped now what 4th edition is out)

Free D20 3.5 SRD (first one is in hypertext form, second is for download)

d20srd.org
link

Free D20 Modern 3.5 SRD

link

These D&D basic+expert clone and AD&D clones could both be used as the basis for a wargame played on squares (since they were a derivative of Gary Gygax's Chainmail medieval combat rules) and they can use squares/ But you;d have to do some adapting and tweaking.

A free D&D basic/expert version clone

link

Free 1st edition AD&D clones

link
basicfantasy.org/main.html

A Gamma World "inspired" game based on the basic/expert D&D rules:

link

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G.U.R.P.S. is another rpg that uses hexes for mapping movement and combat. You could turn it into a wargame rather easily.

A free, 32 page version of Gurps called lite can be downloaded from e23 once you sign up for a SJG account.

sjgames.com/gurps/Lite

The problem with all of the above is that you'd be throwing stuff away and making your own maps to make a good board centered wargame.

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Ogre is a pretty old strategy sci-fi strategy wargame where giant atomic robot tanks attack a command post defended by a formation of armor and infantry. It uses a map made of hexes though the miniatures variant uses ranges on a board. It has a fairly simplistic fire resolution table but it's good clean old school microgaming fun.

I can't find a free teaser/quickstart/demo product, though Ogre mini's (the variant rules I mentioned) is free. (no hexes though). You can at least download some of the old maps and counters.

sjgames.com/ogre/products

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Battletech uses hex maps by default(though a table top flavor exists) and Heavy Gear used to. It can be a fun game if you like giant clunky robots launcing spitballs at each other and getting hot as they do so possibly causing a shutdown or injuring the pilot. If you do go Battetech be careful to start with 3025 era stuff because that's where most of the fun is. The game has a lot of detail as to hit locations requiring the use of playsheets. The ranges are laughable but it can be fun.

Quickstart rules for Classic Battletech are here:

link

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Heavy Gear was another robot and armor game. An older version can be downloaded for free from here.

link

Some people felt that HG was a bit lacking in detail and the proof reading of the boooks got really atrocious. Also they stopped prodcuing new material for a while and tried to keep regurgitating what they had in new editions. Now the game is mainly a new version called HG:Blitz which has no hexes but fixes some balance issues and speeds up play considerably. SJG is working on an upcoming rpg version with DP9.

Blitz has some free quickstart rules (again, no hexes).

link

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That's all fantasy sci-fi stuff though. Sorry.

You might like Tide of Iron from Fantasy Flight games, or some "command card driven" Richard Borg board games. (Memoir '44, Command and Colors, Battlecry, Battle Lore)

You might look into Descent: Journey's in the Dark (a dungeon crawl game similar to TSR's old Dungeon game) or Doom (a combat board game based on the Doom III video game) from Fantasy Flight games as well.

Here is a list of lots of dungeon crawl boards games, (some of which are card games).

DBA/HOTT on a square grid is a very fun game

boardgamegeek.com has 1249 wargames listed.
link

Of these wargames, 807 are hex-and-counter games
link

I'm not offended.

It's just that you are asking for something that might be contained in a three volume set. Just way too much information.

If you asked about my favorite hex based or square grid based game that would be different. There are probably hundreds of not so good games out there and just as many good ones.

mjc

My all time favorite tactical WW II game is Squad Leader by Avalon Hill in 1977. It easily converts to miniatures. Rules for which can be found here:

link

The one aside is that I've found that the miniatures version plays much smoother if you use hexes for your battlefield.

In terms of miniatures rules as opposed to boardgames [although I guess Battlelore/Memoir 44/C&C all fall in somewhere in between]which is what I thought Allen was asking about…

no one seems to have mentioned PBI and a few in the RFCM series by Peter Pig which were the first things that sprang to my mind

peterpig.co.uk

Avalon Hills:

Basic combat in Bismarck uses hexes but the hex free minature rules in the advanced section are better. I still really like this game.

Their Nap naval offering Wooden Ships and Iron men uses hexes and converts very well to using models. I still really like this game.

WW1 games from the same stable (AH) Knights of the Air and Richthofens War are hexed based and convert to minis well but I don't like either and think there are better rules out there.

I generally think boardgames tend to play smoother than minis games and share your interest in using them with minis.

I have heard (as above) that AH Squad Leader converts well to minis and perhaps using kallistra hexes you've got an interesting proposition. Ditto AH Panzer Leader though unit stacking may be an issue.

SPI WW2 planes – Spitfire – waste of time, better rules out there.

Be interested to see what others are recommended especially some of the horse and musket games…

Interestingly one of my favourite rules sets Le Feu Sacre takes some inspiration from board games though I don't know which ones.

Peter Pig offers WW2 (Poor Bloody Infantry), ECW, WWI (Square Bashing, ACW, Pirates, Ancients, and Fantasy all using gridded table tops.

The Free Wargames rules UK site offers SQUARES a Colonial system based on a square gridded game board.

Irregular Miniatures offer Matt Hartleys "Riot".

Hex Command.

Trveller used to use "range bands", think of a board laid out in stripes with miniatures on it.

Ogre/GEV were issued in Deluxe editions with hex maps and miniatures.

Star Fleet Battles has miniatures and large maps available to use instead of counters.

Grand Fleets (WWI naval), Aces at Dawn (WWI aircraft, Spitting Fire (WW2 air war) from MJ12 all use hexes and miniatures.

Roman Seas is a hex and miniatures Roman naval game.

And of course almost any map-and-counter game can be used as a miniatures game by substituting minatures for counters.

I have tried for the most part to list games that are actually designed for miniatures.

C&C Ancients was designed for miniatures, but released with blocks due to production costs.

If you want the ultimate dissertation on how and why a battlefield may be divided into square zones, read what is just possibly the longest set of wargames designer's notes ever published, Phil Sabin's Lost Battles. This is a classical Ancients wargame, based on analysis of actual historical battles and played on a notional 4x5 grid of zones. The game is great fun, and the book is actually quite interesting reading, containing history of each of the battles and discussion of how to construct a model for allowing a wargame to be used to simulate the battle. I think it is now into it's third print run (much to the surprise of the publisher).

I would give a thumbs up for Combat Commander Europe

link

Its a squad based WWII chit/hex game which is card driven for all things, i.e. the orders/actions your troops do/make during the game, the die rolls (which are printed on the cards), morale, etc.

This allows for a quick free flowing game, once you get your head around the rules (which are a dry read but make perfect sense once you play).

The play really does revolve around using your commanders to lead your men into battle and as i have found once they start dying things do get tough. With a commander you can order multiple groups of men near him (how near depends on his rank) for one order (the same order), otherwise you have to order each group of men seperately, which can be a big pain when you are limited on the number of orders you can play in a turn due to your troops quality.

The Europe set only has German, American and Soviet forces, but there are expansions for other forces (listed below, but noted Combat Commander Pacific is a stand alone game).

link

I am happy enough with the basic game for now since that has alot of play time still left in it for me.

A minor gripe is that sometimes you feel like your doing nothing as you may have a bad hand of cards and simply spend a turn discarding whilst your enemy bears down on you, however from a mechanics point of view this is very clever as each time you draw the last card from your deck it advances the game time meaning, particulalry if you are the defender, it can help you win a game.

The die roll mechanics are also interesting as they can generate random events, such as fires or breaking units morale, sniper attacks, weapon malfunctions.

I first bought this game at Vapnartak last year. the comment at the time from others was "I don't believe there is a game in that", particularly with the large amount of chits and maps. Well after mauling the rules for a year i found there is a beginners "fixed" scenario in the back of the play book, which made everything clear after one solo play. I am now engrossed with the game and it has been hammered at the games club this month.

Having thought about the expansions, and the unsatisfactory experience i have had with other boardgames (Memoir 44 being one of them), i have decided to try another system which is also highly rated.

link

Don't get me wrong about Memoir '44 i own nearly everything for it and can understand why people like it as it is quick and a fun play, i however am always left abit dry by it these days and have hence moved on.

C&C Ancients, Memoir '44 (WWII) and Battlelore (Fantasy) all use the Command and Colours system, meaning you have dice with colours on that hit units of that colour, and a coupe of extra symbols that have differnet effects dependant on the unit, e.g. extra hits or morale (all different depending on the actual set of rules). The command comes from a shared deck of orders cards which allow you to activated units in certain areas of the battlefield. Whilst this can lead to some games where you get absolutly slaughtered due to a bad hand of cards (or an opponents good one), you typically end up with a balanced battle that swings back and forth right till the end.

All the games for these rules are based around scenarios which dictate set up/terrain and the number of cards each side starts with.

C&C Ancients is the pick of the bunch from a rules point of view but from a fun point of view Battlelore wins. The major downside to all these though is they are expansion heavy (but you really don't need to bother you still get a good game out of the basics).

My final piece of advice is go and join boardgamesgeek, you will learn alot more about the million other hex games there from far more informed people than myself.

Good luck with it though, its a whole new addiction!

In the SciFi arena GW and Heartbreaker mostly used squares for their board games. Pretty much all of these are oop but you can find them on ebay once and a while.

Space Hulk
Ultra marine
Space Crusade
Tyranid Attack
Heros Quest
Warhammer Quest
Traveler

Mutant Chronical: Siege of the Citadel
Blood Berrets

All good games.

8)

Two sets of hex based miniatures rules here:
link

My minatures rules "High Water Mark" use hexes here:
link

Several sets of miniatures rules using either hexes or squares can be found in back issues of The Nugget available here:
link

Several members of Wargame Developments are actively working on rules using hexes or squares. (See link above)

See also this thread:
TMP link

"What boardgames or miniature rules sets use hexes or squares?"

As someone else has pointed, virtually every game produced by AHGC, SPI, VG etc etc use hexes.

Like Mike, I've written a fair few games using squares, offset squares, variable sized zones, point-point area movement and also hexes.

The main thing I've tried to avoid is having bazillions of little hexes, but instead a smaller number of zones – rather like PBI, Square Bashing or Strategos. Sometimes you do need a fair few zones though.

I would strongly recommend Phil Sabins 'Lost Battles' as mentioned above, a very interesting book.

Blood Bowl uses squares and can be counted as both a board game and a miniatures game. The squares work very nicely for the gridiron combat.

Does anyone remember Frappe by Duke Seifried and its companion Napoleonique by Jim Getz? They both used hexes. Craig Taylor's Ship of the Line, a sailing ship game, used squares. The boardgame version, Wooden Ships Iron Men used hexes.

Curiously the square version is better but in the day they didn't dare produce a game with squares rather than hexes.

Good gaming.

Bob Coggins

My mate Jim Clark has a set for 10mm 1918 using 10cm hexes. We are going to expand it for 1914. Can send a copy if interested

There was a game (Demon- something or other) that used hexes and stands of minis. Sorry, can't remember much else….

Wothington games has recently released HOLD THE LINE, covers AWI battles on large hexes. a little like CC amd MM44 etc – very enjoyable.

Zephyr1 wrote:
"There was a game (Demon- something or other) that used hexes and stands of minis. Sorry, can't remember much else…."

Demonworld. Beautiful minis and a cool Empires game for them that are sadly out of production.

Jay

Silent Death: The Next Millennium. A space fighter dogfight game that uses a hex board and has over one hundred different ship minis from one man light fighters up to escort vessels that occupy two hexes at a time, there's plenty of mayhem to go around in a game of Silent Death!

The good news is that the core rules are no more complex than Monopoly; I've had novices playing in no time. The bad news is is that it is a hex based game with 2D movement. IMHO this is a minor concession, as the game can be as fast or complex as one wants, just tailor the force selections as needed.

Hope this helps!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Cold Steel & Canister is a recently released Napoleonic miniature rules system that uses grids. It is battalion level, does not require re-basing, and any size miniatures work – just make your grids large enough to fit the size figures you want or have. The basic command is a brigade but players can easily control a division or more. It retains the feel of a traditional miniature game while the grid squares eliminate the angles and fudging that plague many miniature games. Games are won by good tactics NOT units being 1 degree outside a charge arc.
deckergames.com

Here are some pictures of a grid based Napoleonic battle. Some of the photos have been enhanced with a backdrop for effect. It shows an Austrain assault on a French strong point. The mat is a Hotz mat with 4 inch grids.
link