"Name a set of war game rules that changed the industry. " Topic

Name a set of war game rules that was so groundbreaking that it singlehandedly changed the miniature wargaming industry (for better or wore).

WRG Ancients 1st edition. A real game changer in 1969.

D&D

Not a wargame, but invented by a medieval wargamer. It created an entire new industry, the rpg. If it wasn't for D&D, many of us would have never been introduced to wargaming.

Neither fan, nor hater, but in the recent era I'd nominate Infinity.

Warhammer : it helped to open wargaming to more initiates.

TACTICA: first full color perfect bound rule book.

The Sword and the Flame

The Sword and the Flame

Johnny Yeb

Several of Osprey's "blue" wargame rules, Lion Rampant, Ronin, The Men Who Would Be Kings, Pikeman's Lament, have certainly energized the historical wargamers in my local club.

I'd be equally interested to know why people think they were/are game changers. For example, I see TSATF mentioned, but I've never played it I'd seen it played. What makes it, and any others mentioned, so good or notable?

Wings of Glory (Wings of War in the original version) – which sprouted Sails of Glory and influenced X-Wing amongst others.

For better or worse TSATF popularized alternating/random activation of units in wargames. Ditto variable move distances in other than charge moves (though I'm pretty sure several other rulesets had used this before I'm not sure they made as big a splash with it as TSATF.) Probably other novelties I'm forgetting right now as well.

I second D and D. Many wargamers of my generation wouldn't be playing without D and D.

Second nomination, Warhammer Fantasy, and Warhammer 40k. For many wargamers, that was their gateway game into the hobby.

Definitely Wings of War WW1 – made a difficult period to get into due to the model making skills needed into a very popular game.

I wonder if TooFatLardies Sharp Practice is worthy of a mention since it made entry into H&M periods much less onerous on the wallet and painting requirements. Prior to that most gamers tended to think big battle.

I might throw out 'Wooden Ships & Iron Men" for introducing plotted movement (as far as I am aware – if it was around before it didn't seem to have an impact until WSIM.) Not a miniatures game, but 'miniatures' wasn't in the thread title (and in any event many mini games have adopted plotting as a rule mechanic.)

DBA

DBA…element basing, smaller armies & game area, shorter games.

WRG Ancients
WRG DBA / WRG HoTT
D&D
Reaper (the game before Warhammer!)
Laserburn
Songs of Blades & Heroes

DBA

DBA/HOTT

Chris Engle's MATRIX GAME (now deeply embedded in professional wargaming)

Command Decision

not a set of rule per se ,, but I think Strategy and Tactics magazine and the game in each issue lifted the tide for wargaming as a whole of which miniatures are a large subset. As far as TSATF is concerned, EVERY skirmish game can trace some bit back to that game.You may never have played it in its pure form, but you have played a component or two that it fostered.

Fletcher Pratt's naval wargme rules.

Quite a few over the years starting with HG Wells

I would say PanzerBlitz

It took an idea, of playing games of war with "units", and broke it down to something not only manageable, but presented it to the general public as if it were not something completely out of the ordinary – making wargames accessible to people in a way they never were before.

Napoleon's Battles. The 2x2 figure mounting swept away the tradional 4x1 single rank. Plus brigade level for large battles.

.

WRG Ancients
DBA
Johnny Reb
TSATF

Flames of War has got to be on that list.

WRG
DBA
TSATF

Starguard!
The first sci-fi wargame rules and still published today.
More importantly, it is still fun to play.

WRG is a company, not a set of rules.

Several folks have mentioned board games. Avalon Hill was the start of the slippery slope for me. I saw a copy of their Gettysburg game in the window of a hobbyshop in 1958. The counters were glued to the board in the layout of the third day of the battle. I bought the game and never looked back. Next were Tony Bath's ancients rules. I still have the flats we played with though miniatures were not my favorites. It was Avalon Hill for a long time. As I mentioned in my previous post it was DBA that really hooked me into miniatures in the same fashion Avalon hill got me into board games.

WRG-Anciens and DBM rules (and the lists) probably changed the 'industry' by covering all the cultures / armies that information could be found for – thus prompting manufacturers to build ranges to cover them.

It also prompted enthusiasts to do more research on the outlier armies and improve our understanding of them.

Squad Leader

Column, line and Square

+1 evilgong

Okay Bill – WRG Ancients rules.

link

Column, Line and Square for "unbalanced equality"--armies which were well-matched but different. See WH40K. Or FOW.

DBA for being top-down and an element removal system. In fairness, Morschauser and Wessencraft had been there before, but DBA made it something every miniature wargamer understood.

And--I say it through clenched teeth--Warhammer together with WH40K. They pioneered the modern multi-volume, separate army books, new edition before the old one is broken in approach which now dominates the industry. I don't think this is changing the industry in a good way, but it's certainly changing the industry.

I think perhaps the "gateway" games might be another poll question? "It lured me into the hobby" is not the same as "it changed wargaming."

1972 version of Chainmail. Its fantasy subset of rules is what led to the role playing games industry's creation. This is what spawned the 1974 game, Dungeons & Dragons game. Cheers!

PigWars
Full Thrust
General Quarters II

Empire…Scotty Bowden…

WRG Ancients – defined 25 years of Ancients gaming
WRG DBA/DBMM/HOTT – Redefined Ancients gaming

D&D – Yep, created the RPG industry.

Strategy & Tactics magazine – With a board game in every issue, we were not restricted to one per year of Avalon Hill etal. This exploded the gaming market.

I'd Add in "Magic, the gathering", this took something the more magically inclined D&D players had been playing around for years with and turned it into the first explosively popular game using cards alone. It created another gaming branch, including all the 'collectable' fads and added the use of purpose designed cards, not just whatever pack you happen to have nearby, as an acceptable part of game and rule design.

I'd Add in "Magic, the gathering", this took something the more magically inclined D&D players had been playing around for years with and turned it into the first explosively popular game using cards alone. It created another gaming branch, including all the 'collectable' fads and added the use of purpose designed cards, not just whatever pack you happen to have nearby, as an acceptable part of game and rule design.

Yes, but the original question is…

Name a set of war game rules that was so groundbreaking that it singlehandedly changed the miniature wargaming industry (for better or wore).

Magic the Gathering had a rather small impact on the miniature wargaming scene – a rather small, long forgotten line of miniatures, not particularly intended for wargaming.

DBA

Starfleet Battles, though not my fave, certainly kicked off the concept of space combat gaming, particularly with a licensed product line from a popular media source.

BattleCry for kicking off the whole Command & Colors system and related lines of games.

Warmaster started the 10mm (and smaller) trend, and led to the Hail Caesar/Black Powder systems. Warmaster also allowed for multiple figures on a base, but used multi-base elements, so neither a one-fig-one base approach (with resulting painstaking movement of multiple figures one at a time), nor a single element system restricts units to static formations, thus allowing for limited formations within the unit itself, without having to move each figure separately.

Warhammer & Warhammer40K

If you allow that wargaming began with lining up toy soldiers & rolling marbles at them (or shooting matchsticks from toy cannons), then substituting dice & throwing in a handful (or bucket-load) of modifiers does not seem such a big change.

If the OP is asking about revolutionary concepts, you need to go to people like George Jeffries of the Variable Length Bound. The late Mr Jeffries never had his rules published, I think, but the key concept was most influential & you see echoes of it in many of the more progressive current rule sets.

The idea is profound and involves the concept that time is fluid and events can be telescoped or drawn out according to their nature.

There are, I think, several intelligent discussions of VLB on TMP, if you care to search…..

DBA
TSATF
Warhammer

As far as getting people into the hobby? has to be Wings of Glory. Although I am not a fan, there are far more XWing players than everything else locally, and that stems from WoG.

And then Warhammer and 40k.