Au pas de Charge | 15 May 2019 9:49 p.m. PST |
In any period what are a set of rules you think are fun, easy to pick up and carry some impression that they fit for that War or era? |
Coyotepunc and Hatshepsuut | 15 May 2019 11:33 p.m. PST |
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advocate | 15 May 2019 11:35 p.m. PST |
Chain of Command – WW2 King of the Battlefield – 18th Century For King & Parliament – ECW |
advocate | 15 May 2019 11:37 p.m. PST |
I should note that KotB works best for larger European battles, I don't know how well it might do for AWI |
repaint | 16 May 2019 1:12 a.m. PST |
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Lee494 | 16 May 2019 1:35 a.m. PST |
For WWII shameless plug my Skirmish Action rules. For Ancient and Medieval Rules ADLG. For Napoleonics Age of Eagles and for ACW Fire & Fury. Finally for Naval General Quarters. IMHO two sets of rules I don't feel give a "real feel" are Flames of War and Bolt Action even though they both are very popular and widely played. Cheers! |
Colbourne66 | 16 May 2019 1:50 a.m. PST |
Chain of Command for WW2 and General De Brigade for Napoleonics |
Fitzovich | 16 May 2019 2:07 a.m. PST |
One Hour Skirmish Wargames. The Sword & The Flame. Limeys & Slimeys. |
Dexter Ward | 16 May 2019 2:42 a.m. PST |
To the Strongest Jugula Saga For King & Parliament Muskets & Tomahawks Maurice Lasalle Sharp Practice Blucher Longstreet Dead Man's Hand Death in the Dark Continent Congo Chain of Command I Ain't Been Shot Mum Battlefront:WW2 Rommel General Quarters 3 |
BrockLanders | 16 May 2019 4:14 a.m. PST |
Chain of command is the funnest ruleset my group has ever played. There are still some nuances we're trying to pick up but it was pretty easy to learn |
redbanner4145 | 16 May 2019 4:25 a.m. PST |
Pickett's Charge General d Armee Fireball Forward Napoleon's Battles |
Karellian Knight | 16 May 2019 4:41 a.m. PST |
Sharp Practice Lion Rampant Men who would be kings To the strongest |
Tgerritsen | 16 May 2019 4:48 a.m. PST |
Naval Thunder Lion Rampant |
Joes Shop | 16 May 2019 5:00 a.m. PST |
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GatorDave | 16 May 2019 5:02 a.m. PST |
Napoleonics – Blucher WW II – Rommel, Spearhead ACW – Fire n Fury, Black Powder |
FlyXwire | 16 May 2019 5:03 a.m. PST |
Muskets & Tomahawks Ancient & Medieval Wargaming by Neil Thomas Cruel Seas |
BattlerBritain | 16 May 2019 5:16 a.m. PST |
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Big Red | 16 May 2019 5:17 a.m. PST |
I like the Rampant series all the way from Lion Rampant, Pikeman's Lament, Men Who Would be Kings to Rebels and Patriots for large skirmish or semi-skirmish games. For larger games I like Victory Without Quarter (ECW), Neil Thomas (WSS, Napoleonics), On To Richmond (ACW) |
athun25 | 16 May 2019 5:30 a.m. PST |
SAGA ARMATI AK47 (1st ed.) VSF (Valor, Steele, and Flesh) Donnybrook |
Stosstruppen | 16 May 2019 5:31 a.m. PST |
Other than some nuances I have found these to be pretty easy; Impetus Baroque Age of Honour Age of Reason Napoleons Battles Age of Eagles Fire & Fury Black Powder Lion/Dragon Rampant TSATF TMWWBK Battles in the Age of War (or really any RFCM rules) Chain of Command Spearhead Bolt Action |
USAFpilot | 16 May 2019 5:49 a.m. PST |
By far the easiest game to learn and play in one session are the Commands & Colors series of games. You don't even need any miniatures; all you need is some table space. |
Marc33594 | 16 May 2019 5:54 a.m. PST |
Rapid Fire does it for me. For the reasons outlined in the original post they make great rules for convention games. |
14th NJ Vol | 16 May 2019 6:35 a.m. PST |
Napoleonics – SHAKO 2 ACW- Regimental Fire & Fury and Black Powder 2 with Glory Hallelujah ACW Suppliment WW2 – Fist Full of TOWS 3 and GHQ Microsquad. Modern – Fist Full of TOWS 3 All of these play fast enough to use at conventions. |
miniMo | 16 May 2019 6:38 a.m. PST |
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Pvt Snuffy | 16 May 2019 6:46 a.m. PST |
Easiest and fun land miniatures rules are the Neil Thomas ones. "One-Hour Wargames" "Ancient & Medieval Wargaming" "Wargaming: An Introduction" "19th Century Wargaming" These are "Easy" because you can intro a newbie and have them playing quickly, and by game two they are thinking about game decisions not the rules [with a little help]. Also, the design decisions are explained in the design notes so "easy" to tweak. Finally, OHW is especially "easy" b/c it comes with 30 interesting scenario challenges. The scenarios can all be used for the other games [or any game, really]. They are "Fun" because they have clearly different Unit types to evoke the period. Also, they are fun as in "not for tournament competitiveness" since the rules are not tightly written. Ambiguities are mostly covered by the fact that they play quickly enough that you can switch sides and replay, so any imbalances are covered that way. My other thoughts are my own designs, but I would say that… |
ColCampbell | 16 May 2019 6:58 a.m. PST |
The Sword and the Flame for Victorian colonial battles Rules by Ral for "beer and pretzels" medieval battles Jim |
Old Contemptibles | 16 May 2019 7:13 a.m. PST |
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redmist1122 | 16 May 2019 7:21 a.m. PST |
Mmmm…a very nice list…but you all for "Blood & Plunder". P. |
Jeffers | 16 May 2019 7:31 a.m. PST |
Snuffy +1, but you knew that already…. |
warwell | 16 May 2019 8:14 a.m. PST |
Very pleased with Simplicity in Hexes link |
wrgmr1 | 16 May 2019 9:21 a.m. PST |
Marc33594 – Rapid Fire are great for conventions. I'm putting on a game May 25 at Enfilade using them. |
Aethelflaeda was framed | 16 May 2019 9:24 a.m. PST |
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Phrodon | 16 May 2019 9:42 a.m. PST |
I always liked Chainmail. Fun and simple. Ah, those were the days. |
UshCha | 16 May 2019 9:46 a.m. PST |
I am always wary of this sort of question. The thread on fast play rules can't even decise what a fast play set is. Our rules, Maneuver Group, is quick to pick up as far as understanding the rules, particularly if you don't want engineering, and most folk don't. It does give an excellent reproduction of what its aimed at. However it is by some described as "complicated" as you need to turn the turrets of tanks, just like you did as a kid, Oh and merely incidentally like the real thing. Soa easy to understand the rules yes, BUT it requires thought, does not replace thought by die rolls and it does not have a points system because don't work on real maps, and equal sides battles almost never happened.. Also try playing a points system in a swamp! So you need to be very clear what it is you want, something to just put the models on table, possibly at a higher density than the real world, looks good an requires minimal thought, or a simulation which may limit the number of models on the table and require some basic understanding of real world tactics. Unfortunately you can't have both in the same set. |
jefritrout | 16 May 2019 10:12 a.m. PST |
Corner Kick works if you are interested in a game of Soccer/Football/Footy. |
Au pas de Charge | 16 May 2019 11:13 a.m. PST |
@UshCha The rules dont have to be fast-play. Just getting a sense of rules people think are fun without being poorly written, overly complex, hard to remember and bogged down by either charts or dice. I didnt want to be too specific, not because I cant cast a good question but rather because I dont like to box people's answers in. I want to encourage examples and reasoning to help myself and others. Also, who knows, someone might have suggestions I never considered. |
Rich Bliss | 16 May 2019 11:20 a.m. PST |
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14th NJ Vol | 16 May 2019 12:20 p.m. PST |
Amazing how many different rules are liked by gamers. I guess there will never be one rule set everyone can play & like and not rule lawyer to death. Kinda like cars; Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda, VW, Mazda, BMW, etc etc. We humans in the first / second world are a picky lot. If it's not our way it's the highway. I'm guilty of this too. Imagine if we could agree on one set of WW2 rules. Everyone would know how to play it if they played WW2. |
John Leahy | 16 May 2019 12:34 p.m. PST |
Field of Battle Dragon Rampant Fistful of Lead Galactic Heroes TMWWBK Fubar Gaslight and its variants Chaos Wars Kings of War |
Aethelflaeda was framed | 16 May 2019 1:11 p.m. PST |
Whatever I like and you don't! |
cj1776 | 16 May 2019 1:28 p.m. PST |
Lord of the rings strategy battle game. Probably the easiest set of rules to learn and it's fun to play. |
miniMo | 16 May 2019 2:45 p.m. PST |
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Lion in the Stars | 16 May 2019 2:46 p.m. PST |
Easy to remember rules with minimal exceptions are good. It's my major complaint about Infinity (and y'all should know how much I generally love those rules), there are a LOT of rules and some odd exceptions to exceptions. It's nowhere near as <s>bad</s> complex as SFB (but I don't think anything is that complex, except maybe Harpoon). It's also a bit of a problem with the Ambush Alley rules, you really need to set up a reaction cascade and play through it a couple times before it makes sense. 'Nam (and Fate of a Nation) are pretty good, especially if/when you run all the helicopters. Helps if you are also blasting Ride of the Valkyries at the start of the game, and then into the Top 40 of 1966-1975 for the entire game. Helps set the mood. Lord of the Rings is also really easy to pick up, and plays very well as heroes v mooks. I can even say the same for War of the Ring, the big-battle version. |
Joe Legan | 16 May 2019 5:12 p.m. PST |
Force on force Cruel seas Saga Bag the hun Combat patrol Donnybrook Chain of command |
Henry Martini | 16 May 2019 6:38 p.m. PST |
Most of Chris Peers' output qualifies, the only let down being that the rule sets in his skirmish series ('A Good Day to Die' etc.) too faithfully replicate the design of his modern skirmish game, 'At Close Quarters', on which they're based. The movement system from ACQ works for moderns (and WW2), but is out of place in other periods and unnecessarily complicates games. Thankfully he dropped it for his true skirmish Old West rules, 'The Law of the Gun'. Peers' earlier, single-based figure battle rules are remarkably simple but a lot of fun, and at the same time each set manages to convey a convincing sense of its particular period; especially 'In the Heart of Africa'. His WW1-era game, 'Contemptible Little Armies' is sufficiently loosely constructed to be easily adaptable to a wide range of early 20th century conflicts, such as my obsession, the Mexican Revolution. |
Pvt Snuffy | 16 May 2019 8:46 p.m. PST |
I'd have to add a +1 to Kings of War. It isn't simple to play, but the rules are simple and fun. There's a LOT of thinking involved with the many unit possibilities. I'd disagree with UshCha about some of his rule design statements – he should look up the article "Simplicity in Practice" soasto better differentiate between "simple" and "simplistic". I will also add that I haven't played his rules, which may be excellent. |
UshCha | 17 May 2019 1:50 a.m. PST |
I coiuld only find a John's wargames page covering Simplicity in Practise. To mee the writr up had all the makings of a Simplistic game we to me would make it unplayable. However it may have beed just a poor revirew. What stands out is that Command and control was not even mentioned, does this mean it has none. If that were the case it would be an epic fail for me. No comment on how realistic terrain is coped with, major fail for me. Movement again is barely mentioned so it looks like it has not even got as far as DBM so really down to massively over restricted. So summary summary, very few rules but also very few seroius decisions to make. You can't move to a flank (like Alexander did) as the move rate is too restricted (Featherstone Clone). Easy rules don't neccessarily have to make a midless game with loads of die. |
ZULUPAUL | 17 May 2019 3:56 a.m. PST |
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FusilierDan | 17 May 2019 4:04 a.m. PST |
A Gentleman's War Field of Battle 5 Core Company Commander Flint & Feather. |
Yellow Admiral | 17 May 2019 8:15 a.m. PST |
+1 miniMo: Ogre Good one. My disinterest in scifi and fantasy gaming is nearly total, but every decade or so I rediscover how much fun the Ogre/GEV system is. Steve Jackson really hit it out of the park on his first try. |