"How Many Rule Sets Do We Need?" Topic

I'm working on the inventory of my rule book collection. To keep up I have a spreadsheet so I know which ones I own and which I don't. The sheet includes the period the rules cover. Here is a summary of how many there are for each period (that I know of so far). You can see the spreadsheet here:

link

• 1904 Herero War 1
  
• 19th Century 53
  
• 20th Century 8
  
• Aerial – Modern 1
  
• Aerial – Vietnam 1
  
• Aerial – WW1 2
  
• Aerial – WW2 3
  
• Air 1
  
• Air – 20th Century 1
  
• Air – Modern 5
  
• Air – WW1 16
  
• Air – WW2 9
  
• American Civil War 144
  
• American Revolution 24
  
• Ancients 109
  
• Ancients (Arthurian) 1
  
• Colonials 66
  
• Colonials (Sikh Wars) 1
  
• Crimean War 7
  
• Crusades 5
  
• English Civil War 24
  
• Fantasy 89
  
• Franco-Prussian War 9
  
• Gladiators 14
  
• Horror 5
  
• Horror / Napoleonics 1
  
• Horse & Musket 181
  
• Inter-War (1919-1939) 1
  
• Interwar (RCW) 1
  
• Ken Bunger 1
  
• Medieval 2
  
• Mexican-American War 4
  
• Misc 19
  
• Misc (3000bc – 1865) 1
  
• Misc. 24
  
• Misc. – Jousting 1
  
• Misc. / Rioting 1
  
• Misc. Chariot Racing 1
  
• Misc. Hunting 2
  
• Modern 121
  
• Napoleonics 285
  
• Naval 2
  
• Naval – 1880-1945 1
  
• Naval – ACW 4
  
• Naval – Age of Sail 33
  
• Naval – Ancients 10
  
• Naval – Fantasy 2
  
• Naval – Ironclads 7
  
• Naval – Medieval 1
  
• Naval – Modern 4
  
• Naval – Pre-Dreadnought 7
  
• Naval – Renaissance 6
  
• Naval – WW1 14
  
• Naval – WW2 30
  
• Old West 53
  
• Pirates 20
  
• Pre-Gunpowder 110
  
• Pulp 17
  
• Renaissance 76
  
• Russian Civil War 5
  
• Russo Japanese War 1
  
• Samurai 13
  
• Science Fiction 216
  
• Seven Years War 17
  
• Skirmish 1
  
• Spanish American War 1898 1
  
• Spanish Civil War 14
  
• Sports 3
  
• Vietnam 64
  
• World War I 36
  
• World War II 277

The first question is WHY?

How many have you read?

Of those you have read how many were rejected before a play test?

How many rejected after a play test? Did that make it easier to reject rules before a play test.

How many do you actually play regularly.

What is this an interrogation? Mark does this as a service to the hobby, so players can make an informed decision before plunking down money on a ruleset.

Where is his sinister angle here? No good deed goes unpunished, geez!

Just one. As long as it is perfect.

Shucks. I knew the answer to that one once. I think it was about 40-50. You take the number of periods times the number of levels and then discard the null sets like corps level western gunfight. After that, it's more a matter of taste. ("Yes, these rules produce historical results, but I don't like the mechanisms used.") There's really no limit to that.

The other thing there's no limit to is fine subdivisions of a period. I hold to the belief that your game is 1:1 skirmish Napoleonics, you really don't need a different set of rules for Fredrician or ACW skirmish, but tweaks, and the same is true for games in which you command an entire Napoleonic Army. People who insist that you need one set of rules for Leuthen, a completely different set for Valmy and a third set for Austerlitz obviously need a lot more rules.

Speaking of which. Ken Bunger gets to be a period? What do I have to do to be a period? And what would it be called?Warfare in the Age of Piepenbrink? Robertian Warfare?

I love that list! They is no One Ring to rule them all in this Hobby!

MORE!

you just moved, right? why would you cart around so many unused books???

We only need one but none of us have found it yet.

Whitphoto, how much wargaming gear and associated reference stuff did you transport the last time you moved? Generally not a good subject to bring up in miniature warfare circles.

Isn't the correct answer always, all of them?

@UshCha:

I only own 1064 of the rules on that list. I have read (or scanned) almost every single one. Collecting rule sets is a hobby in its own right.

As for how many I play regularly….back in Illinois I played Lion/Dragon Rampant pretty often. Black Powder. Flames of War. Fistful of TOWs. That's probably it. Having moved to New Jersey…..none.

@Whitphoto:

I don't. The moving company does :-P

Do published variants of rules count? I have Fistful of Lead and I think four of the modified sets. Five versions of The Portable Wargame. Plus other single sets.

It's a gray area, I admit. Basically, if it's published as a standalone I count it. So if you publish "Bolt Action for Vietnam" then it counts. But if you publish "Vietnam Army Lists for Vietnam" then maybe not. But I'm not dogmatic either way.

Thanks for the list, Extra Crispy. I only own a small number of rules sets for miniatures all related to WWII or Modern but it is nice to see what is out there.

From the numbers, it appears that Napoleonics have the most rules sets out there followed pretty closely by WWII.

Yup. But it get s messy too as a lot of Horse & Musket cover Napoleonics (I separate them if they cover a much wider set of periods like Black Powder or Volley & Bayonet)

How many rules et do we need? One more than we currently have. Repeat.

Extra Crispy – if its a collection that seems as "normal" as anything we war gamers do. However it would be great if you could set out an assessment scheme as to the pro's and cons of all 1064 of them ;-).

I was stunned a bit, Napoleonic's only 285 and WW2 277 I expected far more for Nappy than WW2.

How many gamers are there?