"What type of miniature games are you playing?" Topic

As I get older and seem to have less time I am more drawn toward game systems/rules that are easily understood, fast, fun, give a plausible outcome, and can actively involve all players. In general the following systems seem to capture that for me to one degree or another:

Lion and Dragon Rampant (And have my eye on getting Blood Eagle)

Bolt Action

The Sword and the Flame

Brother Against Brother and the variant Valor and Steel and Flesh

The exception to this may be Force on Force and Tomorrow's War which both have a good bit of chrome but once you have players who understand the reaction system it seems to be a fast, fun game that engages all players.

Now there are other rules I like beyond these but the above seem to be what I am can easily get excited about. Due to it being the main game in town beside 40K I am taking the dive back into playing Flames of War. Of course I am taking the approach that the game does not reflect WW II tactics but is a fun game and I have a plethora of opponents available.

So where do you fall along on this?

Mine are Fireball Forward, Chain of Command, IABSM, Fistful of Tows, Across a Deadly field (purchased yesterday and love it just from reading it), and Blucher.

Plenty of others, being an ASL player complexity is relative…

Fire and Fury, Age of Eagles, Battlefront: WW-II. Generally systems that make sense to me. Always looking at others, but keep coming back to these

Saga, Frostgrave, Sword in the flame, Bolt action, Hail Ceaser, And Black Power.

X-Wing, Wings of War, IABSM, Neal Thomas' Ancient & Medieval rules.

Hail Caesar – fast and fun, easily customizable, historically plausible outcomes, and a blast to play.

Agree with the poster that 'maturity' is leading me towards appreciating the more fun end of the hobby, so easier rules, dynamic systems and not complexity for its own sake.

Kallman wrote "As I get older … I am more drawn toward game systems/rules that are easily understood, fast, fun, give a plausible outcome".

I want the same – Neil Thomas' rules (Simplicty in Practice from Battlegames 23 is the latest find) plus home made rules do it for me.

Bolt Action, for all the reasons you give, plus it gives fits to the TFL crowd. :)

Who are the TFL crowd? I do not get that acronym.

Two Fat Lardies?

Or Teufel fur Landsers?

Command Decision, Volley and Bayonet, Mars needs Steam, 5 Core, DBA

Age of Sigmar

Warhammer 30K 3rd edition

Infinity

Black Powder

Dropzone Commander

Plus other stuff here and there but that is what I do mostly.

DBA, Lion Rampant, SAGA, Maurice, Longstreet, and collecting 28mm figs for FIW-Song of Drums and Shakos or Tomahawks, This Very Ground, or Musket and Tomahawk. I also like Drums and Shakos Large Battles for Napoleonic division-sized battles. It takes some getting used to, but it is so elegant and original, with no complicated tables. Haven't played any WW2 since I moved in 2014, but will probably play Flying Lead and Chain of Command.

I also have gone old-school with building my 15mm horse and musket battalions, making them 12 figures each, instead of the 32-man battalions I painted previously. It is not so daunting a prospect to paint one, and I prefer the look of many more small battalions then a half-dozen gargantuan units.

Who are the TFL crowd? I do not get that acronym.

Two Fat Lardies?

Or Teufel fur Landsers?

Too Fat Lardies
toofatlardies.co.uk

Battles for Empire 2, and WW1 supplement, Armati 2, Shako 2, Rapid Fire and Longstreet.

More and more I am moving away from a lot of the simpler games like Bolt Action. They feel so fluffy and generic that after a game I'm still "hungry."

I'll play anything; simple rules and complex (I still like a good ol' complicated set of rules from time to time)…except Rapid Fire and Napoleon's Battles.

Looking back at the last few months I've played (in reverse chronological order)

7TV
In Her Majesty's Name
Flames of War
Chain of Command
Star Fleet Battles
Black Powder Napoleonics
Black Powder Zulu Wars
Wings of War
Principles of War, 1866 Prussian-Danish war
Bloody Big Battles
Blucher
Tac
…and a couple of home brewed rules sets from members of my club.

StarGrunt II: I guess that's pretty old-school.

Bloody Big Battles mostly, played some Two Hour Wargames a while back, maybe DBA in a bit, waiting for new edition of Basic Impetus.

Chain of Command, IABSM, Charlie Don't surf, and Sharp Practice.

Just finished a campaign with BP ACW. I say 'Campaign', it was one battle, over 2 game days 3 Union Corps v 2 CS. For ACW we like They Couldn't Hit an Elephant, but this is a real thinking game, and not as fast as BP. We needed to knock off a Divisional sized game in an evening. We use CM instead of inches, same measurements, just at 40%. This gives 1mm to the yard approximately.

As such I've played a lot of BP since August- we ended last week at 2pm on day 2- it became obvious that the Rebs weren't able to break enough of the Union before the re-inforcements arrived. Might look at reworking it for F&F, so the next level up.

Otherwise its a lot of TFL, plus 'beer and pretzels' of Lion Rampant and Frostgrave.

Bolt Action 15mm & 28mm, Cry Havoc (with 15mm figures), Wings of War, Blucher, General de Brigade, I gave up on Flames of War three years ago, but enjoyed it during their last big Mid War release.

Actually, I've always been drawn toward game systems/rules that are easily understood, fast, fun, give a plausible outcome, and can actively involve all players!

I'm just glad there are more and better choices these days — I don't have to buy games and then toss out half the rules before they are fun for me to play like I used to ^,^

Current miniatures play list:
Alpha Strike
Bolt Action
DBA
DBA-RRR
X-Wing

The Big Bloody Battles is a fascinating game. I am finding really interesting.

Anything Rampant-we're working on a variant for Conquistadors and Aztecs

Brother Against Brother

Fire and Fury Regimental for War of 1812 and AWI

Ironclads or Sail and Steam Navies for ACW naval. Still love the former, but it's OOP status makes it tough.

Tried En Garde! and liked it.

Revolution & Empire for Napoleonics. I still love the spectacle of 3-4,000 28mm figures on a 15x6 table.

Bloody Big Battles for 15mm FPW. I love this set of rules.

FOW for 15mm Vietnam.

Sword and the flame for Pony Wars.

LOTHS / Sailpower for Pirates.

Piquet for me and my group. Same master rules for multiple eras.

Lately I've played:

Disposable Heroes
Chain of Command
The Sword and The Flame

I play a LOT of Frostgrave and a little VSF Colonials (using whatever rules the other guys are playing.) I am also actively prepping FiveCore and DBA 3.0

All in 28mm.

Currently Bloody Big Battles!, Irregular Wars, Maurice and Galleys & Galleons.

Bolt Action, Crossfure, Blackpowder, Command & Colors Ancients with miniatures. I have starts to play boardgame a bit more like Combat Commander.

Hail Ceasar and a ton of home rules

X-wing

DBA, ADLG, Basic Impetus, Neil Thomas, PBI, NQM … historical games of medium complexity, battle games … plus home grown and playtesting (again historical and mostly battle games) …

I like games that achieve their streamlining through innovation rather than dumbed-down dice bunging simplicity.

Then again, I want a good historical feel – so don't mind there being a bit of work in the game to get to that end

Phil

Empire. 1:60. 28mm. Loads of Napoleonic figs, all nationalities, painted and a regular group to play with, excellent terrain, great food and beer…eventually, we even finish a turn. Then, more beer.

Fun ones. Long ago I abandoned any others. All my games are simple rules complex scenarios. I use my own homebuilt ones. Right now I'm doing all sorts of things I've always wanted to do (making Wagon trains, special diorama pieces for games etc. My taste in games and rules is simple- big, lavish, simple, fun, funny.

When Im not testing, the last games we did was Laserburn and both Stargrunt/Crossfire are never far off.
Messed with "Fistful of Lead" which will no doubt become a regular.

I usually play Field of Battle -- I like the card-driven aspect that makes the rules easy to remember and plays pretty fast. When I'm not using that, I'm usually using some form of Command & Colors on the tabletop. So in other words, fast playing, easy to understand rules that provide plenty of fun and period feel.

I almost exclusively play Maneouver Group as I wrote it. Not sure there is ever a definition of fun that is usefull and universal. I like simple rules that demand lots of thought and decision making with minimal dice throweing and rule reading. This means I get to do a lot of moving my troops and decision making. The scenarios are always representatively complex to represent a challenge. This does not allow for breaking the train of thought to talk about the nice figures or the weather. The emphasis is entirely on the game. This to me is fun, total involvement as a commander a force.

Multi player games in general are not for me. Most such games do not feature folk with enough experience to either command or be commanded in a plausible manner. I dislike the "I just want to throw dice and killstuff" engenderd by most multi-player games. I am 62.

Recent rules played:
Maurice, Saga, To The Strongest, Chain of Command, Dead Man's Hand, Blucher, Victorian Steel, Bag the Hun, Lasalle, Sharp Practice, Lion Rampant

Wings of War (Glory), Bolt Action for many rifle-armed eras, Lion Rampant, Dragon Rampant, Dead Mans Hand, Battletech if that counts?