"One-hour Skirmish Wargames review?" Topic

These rules (One-hour Skirmish Wargames) by Pen and Sword Books keep popping up in my email but I cannot find a single review for them. Does anyone have any insight into these if they are any good or not? As of now they are only available for preorder but I'm guessing someone had to have given these a try.

link

I lost interest when I saw that they were dice-less…

Mike

Me too. Must have dem dice.

Dice-less? Blaspheme.

You don't 'need' dice if you have chits, cards or whatever. I presume there is some kind of randomizer.
What I gathered from the blurb: pretty much universal; few calculations. Makes me think they'll be bland.

I could be wrong: if the author has managed to produce some simple systems that work across periods then well done. But there are major differences in how groups interact when armed with single-shot muzzle loaders or automatics.

In particular,

Can't wait to pit some mounted knights against a squad of modern Marines with assault rifles.

I caved and pre-ordered this. I am hopeful that there will be some sort of randomizer besides dice.

It uses a deck of cards as a randomizer, hence diceless. Combat is not deterministic. The detail for combat is quite low however. It looks like a good set of rules, and a few interesting scenarios. Unlike OHW however it does not have generic scenarios.

I think I'm going to launch my own game: 30-second Wargames. Set out the figures, then flip a coin.

Advanced rule: substitute rock, paper, scissors for the coin.

Optional advanced rule for Sci Fi: rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock…