"Best and Worst rules you've ever bought?" Topic

The thread about worst figures made me wonder about the same thing for rules, but I thought giving the chance for best and worst might be fun.

Having said that, I think I'd be hard pressed to decide, being a bit of a rules junky. The worst would have to be one of the Newbury rules sets back on the 80s which needed a degree in nuclear science to play. Best, I'm really not sure. What about you?

So many people say that the Old Glory Quality Die series from 10 years ago are unplayable. Sons of the Desert, Cowboy Wars, Buccaneers, Broadswords, and Blunderbuss,etc

I sure like the concept but never had the chance to try them out. And all the anecdotes that come to mind, of the entire lot, not one got a chance. Historicl ones anyway – Chaos in Carpathia gets some play as does Gothic Horror with a lot of work.

Best is The Sword and the Flame , 20th Anniversary ed.

Worst? You beat me to it with Newbury Fast Play Ancients. Ironic name. Never even tried to play it. I ended up selling it to some poor asp at a flea market.

Best – Memoir '44. Technically a board game but as I understand it, Memoir began as a set of miniatures rules. For my homebrew rules set, I ditched the command cards but I ripped off the combat rules. I reviewed the game on my blog link

Worst – Hard to say. If they seemed really bad while I read them I wouldn't even bother playing the game. One of the most disappointing, in my experience, was the Complete Brigadier, which I describe on my blog link

Can see this thread upsetting a few people who get all defensive when things they like get criticised.

Best rules rules I have ever bought is a tough one, I think "Spearhead" with "Volley & Bayonet" 1st edition a very close rival for the position.

Worst is easier, "Cold War Commander" by a very long way.

And the Newbury rules were called "fast" because they were faster to play than the full "Through the Ages" rules. I do wonder if in the eventual change in fashions we will see rules with that sort of intensity again.

Best: SPI's 'Fighting Sail'.

Worst: Osprey's 'Fighting Sail'.

Best warmaster
Worst Pique ancients

Qualify the question. Does worst mean you just didn't like them? Or are you looking for rules that weren't complete, were poorly edited, or just didn't work?

I would say that it means what you want it to mean.

best rules: TSATF and Rapid Fire
worst rules quite a few: "Long Knives" ; "And Continually Wear the Blue" ; "Alzo Zero"

Best – Fistful of Tows. Well written, no candy pics, excellent system, and covers WWII to modern, Holy Grail game…

Worst that I have bought is hard to say, most likely the "Last Battle" boardgame from GDW – holes galore in the rules.

Best: Epic Armageddon. Clean and well written. They handle many different races/forces that play very differently from each other.
Worst: WRG 7th Ed. or Empire III. Both had the same problem. Needlessly convoluted and complex yet providing a poorer simulation than far simpler rules.

Best has varied over time but the one giving the most pleasure at present is "Nuts" which may in fact be keeping Shuggie alive or at least giving him an interest in life.

The worst I'll have to add when I get back to my place, the name has gone from my mind. But it's still on the shelves. Totally unplayable but I like the fluff so I still have it.

x42

If means what you want it to mean, but my original thought was that it would be how the game played not editing or stuff like that.

Best,
Armati, always gave a good game

Worse,
Any set that had more than one page of charts

Newbury "Fast" Napoleonic, <shudder>

I seem to recall a set of modern rules called Challenger that matched Newbury for frustration in terms of complexity/obfuscation to the point of simply being unplayable.

Best? The hobby has been very lucky with TSATF, General Qusrters 1&2, Volley 8 Bayonet and quite a few others.

I had a set of 'Nam rules from Table-Top Games I hated. A set of Fantasy rules called Archworld, I liked the background but found the rules unplayable.

When DBA & DBM first came out I loved them.

Death in the Dark Continent, 19th C Colonial, by Chris Peers I really liked, and converted everyone who played it with me.

Best: Blue Max
Worst: Empire V

LT

Best – I'm going for Blitzkrieg Commander II. Never had a bad experience playing that.

Worst – WAB2

Best- The Sword and The Flame 20th edition

Worst: Soldiers of the Queen.

Based on number of highly enjoyable games and longevity (standing the test of time as #1) it is a toss-up between Empire and Command Decision.

Worst, based on I couldn't even give it the "play three times test," Black Powder.

Can't say I have a worse. There are just some rules that are not my cup of beverage. The ones I have enjoyed however are many and here are just some:

The 20th Anniversary Edition of the The Sword and the Flame
Brother Against Brother and its VSF version
Valor & Steel & Flesh
Fireball Forward
Battlegroup Kursk et.all.,
Warhammer Fantasy Battle up to the 7th edition, after that,…ok 8th counts as horrible in my book.
Tomorrow' War
Star Grunt II
Ambush Alley and Ambush Valley
Warmaster
Check Your Six
Terrible Sharpe Sword
Saurian Safari
Talon and Claw
Warhammer Ancients
Pig Wars
Lion Rampant

There are many more but those are the ones I think I have gamed and used the most especially recently.

Best – Piquet

Worst – Starguard and Giac My which is a Vietnam version of Starguard.

Worst, Challenger, all day to do two moves.

Best, Blackpowder, not so much for the rules but for the "attitude" they encourage.

Best: Warmaster (for the game play)

Worst: Chronopia; not for the game rules (those seemed okay, though not in the end what I was looking for), but for the absolutely dreadful fluff. Horribly imagined, horribly written, and completely unedited. I'm not normally one to kick somebody's creative effort, but yeeesh…
(Of course, my personal second runner up for worst fluff would go to 40K, so YMMV.)

Best: RRTF (the old 1978 version)….
Been playing it for over 30 years and still enjoy it despite it's age.

Also good. TSATF, Close & Destroy, (once you learn how to read the charts)….

Worst: Close and Destroy II, TAC-AIR, (which totally makes no sense)….

And OG's Pirate Rules, "Bucaneer, Broadsword, and Blunderbuss", which was so bad I wrote up a scathing review of it many years ago, and actually got a strong worded response from one of the designers at OG, who "tried to explain to me" it's faults. When I told him that the layout and editing make it impossible to read, he got ugly with me…

I've thought about re-reviewing them on my blog so folks could see it…..

Best: Field of Battle.

Continually Wear the Blue is a scenario supplement for Yellow Ribbon. It is not a rule book.

Thanks,

John

Best (the ones I've enjoyed the most and which are re-played more than most:

AK 47 second edition (not the reloaded version)
Back of Beyond / Contemptible Little Armies
Bag the Hun
Saurian Safari
Aeronef

Worst…I'd have to find them in the bottom of the box in the loft but I'm not keen on BKC for a start. Not bad rules just not my cup of tea!

Best for me: Stargrunt 2.

Worst: Challenger.

Ok. For me best/worst isn't subjective. If rules are complete, consistent, well edited and just "work", I won't say they are bad just because i don't care for their mechanisms or level of detail/ complexity.

That being said, the best include any rules by Sam Mustafa (except a little set of modern rules he wrote many, many years ago). They're always professional productions.

The worst are the club rules people publish because their friends tell them how great the rules are, that they should be published, but clearly don't use outside proofreaders or editors. These rules suffer from holes and lack of clarity. If you're going to sell rules for 35 GBP /$50 you better damn well have dotted your i's and crossed your t's. I won't name names to avoid embarrassment.

So many good ones,
(I'm defining good by the level of enjoyment derived from a game either solo or group)

Crossfire,
Chain of Command,
Battlegroup Series,
5Core Series
Flames of War
Bolt Action

Worse …I can't think off hand at something I read or tried that was a disaster but I'm not a fan of charts

Best, at least in terms of the amount of enjoyment I got from playing and the number of games I played has to be DBM.

Worst, the only set of wargame rules I have ever given away and had returned by the recipient after he had the same feeling as me is DBMM.

My best rules does change as I go through phases, but my most enduring favorite set of rules is DBA, the current version. The wide variety of army types and different ways to play offer a fresh game every time, and the small playing surface and army size make it the perfect game for a minimalist.

Worst rules by far was "Dragoon vs Hussar", which were so poorly written that I never played them. Runner up has to be "Valmy to Waterloo", not because I disagreed with the premise, but because they suffered from a lack of focus: trying to show how the French armies won by having a more reactive command system than their adversaries, while also having the most minute battalion details represented, was too cumbersome.

Best: I Ain't Been Shot, Mum!

Played one game with Rich Jones as ref and I was hooked. Played constantly since then.

Worst: don't like to say. I know how hard it is to write a rule set that everyone likes, or at least doesn't actively dislike, so I'm claiming the 5th on this one!

R

In the last ten-ish years the songs of blades and heroes rules series has been most excellent . Since its arrival more easy n fast skirmish rules have emerged along the same lines. Good stuff as most gamers seem to have less time to play lately.

Agree on Newbury Fast Play being an evil set of rules. Capable of melting a rules lawyers mind in one sitting.
The shock of impact were troublesome at first but after a few plays it did get better. Had nice ideas on morale, formed units and skirmish types.
I would probably give Newbury to someone who has ed me off recently. Have not got a copy now as I think we were instructed to visit the local village parish and burn them on November the 5th.

Best – From the JL Publishing stables:
Check Your Six and Check Your Six Jet Age. Great rules with great campaign and scenario support. Same with Arc of Fire.
Took very complicated topics simplified them to just the right level and still managed to produce fun and engaging games – without descending into milquetoast-dom.
Other rules I have used a lot (so rate as 'best') Impetus and Battlefront WWII.
Age of Discovery for the way it handles pike and supporting halberds etc. And looking forward to getting
Victory without Quarter onto the table.
Have Chain of Command, Battlegroup Normandy and Fireball Forward lined up – seems these will be winners for me also.

Least Favorite – tried once or twice – DBR and Tercio.

Best? – probably Wings of Glory WW1, or Sails of Glory, or X-Wing.

Worst? – Lance, or Black Powder

Best probably Regiment of Foote for ECW.

Worst…Mmmmmmm. BKC.

Best rules are those you don't need to refer to all the time during a game as they are simply formulated and intuitive.

That said, my best are: Nuts (from THW) and Saga

Worst: wouldn't say an entire rulebook is bad, but parts can be very awful, for example the assault phase in FOW made me try to avoid assaults for a long time.

Best: Brink of Battle
Firefight Normandy (for when I play WW2 skirmish)

Worst: Better left unsaid.

Best: Dux Bellorum, Irregular Wars, Song of Arthur and Merlin.

Worst: I remember the Newbury Fast Play rules as being a product of their era. Hilariously, I bought them originally to teach to my 8th graders. Still, I like the name of them. Newbury is a nice town, and Donnington Castle brings back nice memories.

Best: Sword & the Flame; DBA
Worst: List is too long!

I have played a preposterous number of rules. If they are no good I don't buy them (so the analysis is a bit lopsided): the worst I have actually paid money for were probably WRG 6th Ed.

The rules that I have bought that have given me the most pleasure? Armati perhaps … Tim Gow's Megablitz … PBI …

Although I originally borrowed it from the local library I have now bought a (proper original ed in pristine condition) copy of Charge! Really, no set of rules has ever quite given me the same totally uncompromised pleasure that those first wargames gave, played as a youngster with big figures on the carpet …

Phil

Best – Grand Armee
Worst – Fire and Fury / Napoleon's Wars / All d6 systems (tie)

Best: Howard Whitehouse – "Battle Troll." A work of genius.

I've bought some games that looked like they were hand written notes, photocopied and stuck in a binder.
I won't name names though.

For a big budget thing, the 3rd edition of 40K. Easily one of the worst from a design perspective, from the constant overhauls that happened throughout that edition and from completely missing many of its stated design goals.

Best? 40K Rogue Trader or Crossfire, tie between both.

For me the best/most enjoyed are;
Johnny Reb
IABSM
Chain of Command

The worst;
Piquet
DBM

BEST: TSATF and Fire and Fury…they have stood the test of time.

WORSE: Foundry's "Napoleon." Expensive and truly sucked. Probably very few people remember these rules; a real over-hyped flash in the pan.

There are other rules I don't like, but it's based on personal preference -- like DBX. Doesn't mean they were bad rules, but didn't do anything for me. But Napoleon just sucked on it's own merit.

Best:Chain of Command
Worst:none Guess I've been lucky in my rules buying.