"Review of Neil Thomas' One-Hour Wargames Rules " Topic

I've reviewed his new book here: link

Hope that helps

Hi

The link takes me to google e blogger site…

Sorry!

Try this… link

Thanks for the review, I've been wondering what time periods were covered….

I have 2 copies of the book already pre-ordered

Thanks, good to see that you could scale the playing area down even further.

Good review. When will the book be released?

Thanks for the review. I think this is an interesting exercise in how simple you can make a game and keep it fun. Clearly you enjoyed the rules so you get +1 for keeping an open mind.

I think many rules sets today are over engineerered. Don Fetherstone commented that Lionel Tarr's rules have more complexity than a beginner might understand. Most "modern" gamers will find them to be a good simple set.

Back to Thomas. Like his other rules, clearly these can readily be modded to suit one's taste. It looks like a great book to pick up. Mine is on order and should be here in a week or two.

Good review. When will the book be released?

The book is out. Amazon won't have it until November sometime. You can get it from On Military Matters in the US. Mine is on back order and will be here soon. If you are in the UK, you can order direct from Pen and Sword.

Thanks for the review.

John

I got my copy from Amazon a few days ago!

Yes, I am working on armies for these rules. Although you seemed to have played a pitched battle scenario Whirlwind, I think that the best aspect of the set are the various other types of scenario. I see these as a large scale skirmish set, in spite of the element basing. They also provide the opportunity to paint up small armies of other periods which I have never previously tackled.

And how long did your test game take to play? My guess is maybe 60 minutes. I await my copy, pre-ordered from Amazon. WWI, you say? Hmm. My little tin lads await…

Thanks for the review. Thomas's "Introduction" book is one of my favorites and I liked the "pick-up" game aspect with lots of replay value due to the ability to vary or customize each army. Sounds like this book is of the same vein.

Yes, it took just shy of an hour. I just played the first scenario in the book, but as Hobhood4 says, there looks to be plenty more to be got out of it from the numerous scenarios.

I think this is an interesting exercise in how simple you can make a game and keep it fun.

Definitely. I don't think I'd use it to play a historical re-fight I was really looking forward to, say *the* refight of Waterloo or Mons Graupus or so on, but it is fine for what it is: an easy to set-up, non-taxing game you can play on a small table. As I get more into it, it will be interesting to discover what I think I *must* tinker with to play.

Mons Graupus might be problematic because of the many different troop types. Big battles like Waterloo, Gettysburg or Solferino could be done by simply letting units be entire divisions. I guess if the rules are that abstract, then put them at a very abstract level.

You could abstract it, no doubt (one of the scenarios is based on Salamanca, another on Quater Bras). I meant more that if I was in the mood for a detailed historical refight, I wouldn't be looking for these rules, I'd be looking for something more detailed. But if I saw a scenario in a magazine that looked vaguely interesting in a period I don't play too often, I might well look to these rules.

Actually very large battles could be played with this set quite quickly as the rules are so abstracted and simple. I don't play such games so I don't know what people who do look for, but I guess Waterloo could be played manageably. I'm looking to mix and match troop types from the different periods – although this does mess up the army composition table, which is a good way of randomizing army composition. You can't plan what you are going to play with in these rules, which is interesting. Of course it could be ignored.

Received my copy yesterday. Your review is a good description of the book and its rules.

I'm not so sure about abstracting by saying that units are divisions – the discrepancy between unit frontage and musketry ranges that exists in the basic game would be exacerbated to a degree that I would find unacceptable, though it could be fixed by some amendments.

But the merit of such simple rules is that one can tinker with them quite easily…

They are incredibly easy to tweak. You also have the ability to play with hit point endurance, combat modifiers, and terrain additions. Some simple CnC rules can spark things up too. Ranges and move rates can be set to taste, and scale. You can also play with tbe random army generation tables as well. My kids are going to just love this game, but there is still some depth here.