"Surprisingly Good: Sword and the Flame!" Topic

You were asked – TMP link

What miniature wargaming ruleset did you not expect much from, yet it was surprisingly good when put to the tabletop?

17% said "Sword and the Flame"
7% said "Black Powder"
5% [TIE] said "Full Thrust" OR "Hordes of the Things" OR "Pig Wars"

It's very good, and I wasn't surprised.

Well I first played with Larry in a play test of the Sword and the Flame rules in 1983. A couple of years later his rules and mine, Indiana's, Colonels and Emirs, 15mm unit mass combat, were both up for GAMA HG Wells award. Of corse his won. We ere close friends until he passed.
So yeah they are better than good. A Classic with a 30+ history and limited rule changes.

Like John above, I definitely wasn't surprised!

Rudy, I think the title of your rules got spell-checked into typo-land. I might be wrong, as you are the author and I was just an owner/player who had never met you at the time (that came decades later at the first Colonial Barracks convention), but I remember it as: "INDUNAS, Colonels and Emirs" -- also to be sure another fine set of colonial rules!

You are right. I hate the auto spell check after a post. Indunas not Indiana's.
Crazy.

TSATF is quite likely the greatest miniature war game rules ever written.

TSATF are some of the best rules I've ever played. I was surprised at how good they were despite the lack of complexity. I met Larry and His daughters at a Historicon in 1985 while playing a game Larry was running set in 1882 with the Egyptians vs the British. I instantly fell in love with the system and bought a set at the con. Shortly thereafter I found and bought Rudy's rules Indunas, Colonels, & Emirs, which I enjoyed as well. I've been buying books and toys from Rudy at various cons ever since.

We just played TSATF on Wednesday, 25mm Sepoy Mutiny. Those rules are still going strong!

TSATF (and variants) is/are great 'toolbox' rule sets
very adaptable to different eras.