"The 'Rule of Cool'" Topic

Vying with 'Historical Accuracy' is my other, chief rule of wargaming – the 'Rule of Cool'.

For example, in my Hittite army for Hail Caesar, the rules could happily get by with two heavy chariot models per unit. Instead, I've based each unit with four heavy chariots. It doesn't change the rules or the unit's battlefield role one bit but it looks far more impressive and really captures the image of Hittite chariot warfare.

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I think most of us do similar things from time to time:

Giving Napoleonic battalions a band.

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Putting a general on an elaborate scenic base with aides, a trumpeter and a dog.

Adding casualties, ammunition boxes or discarded equipment to unit bases.

Making artillery batteries larger than the rules suggest because a four-gun model battery simply looks better than the rules' one gun.

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Including camp followers, wagons and livestock in a camp that has no effect on the game.

Building an oversized bridge, church, castle or windmill because it becomes the centrepiece of the table even though it has no game significance.

Painting every shield in a Celtic or Hoplite unit differently even though few people notice during the game.

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Hippos in the Nile because….we like hippos

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For me, if it enhances the look and feel of the table without confusing the game, then the Rule of Cool wins every time.

What are your favourite examples of the Rule of Cool?

I always have cows here and there in my WWII Normandy games.

I've included both angry crocodiles and ferocious hippos in some of my Victorian colonial games.

Jim

Ours is a visual hobby so yes.

I'm with Doc McB: yes.

I once had to send two men to move a pig that was blocking our convoy. It completely changed the feeling of Charlie Company for me.

Since then, I've put crocodilians in the water and livestock out to forage -- all on aliens worlds, because science fiction gaming, but most of the worlds worth fighting over are the ones we can live on.

I've also parked vehicles, working and not, on the table for use a cover or even escape (or, I suppose, attack, like the steam roller in that John Wayne movie about the Marines) (US forces did capture and use Japanese steam rollers, but I don't think that any of them were used for anything outside their intended purpose).

"Ours is a visual hobby, so yes."

Have you never attended a wargames tournament where the tables had very sparse terrain?

The 40K tournament shown here is an extreme example:
link

I'm not judging. My idea of wargaming, and perhaps yours, clearly isn't universal.

Adding more bases seems to be counterproductive; if the base size is correct for the size of the battery/chariot then you are making the rules less plausible. Artistry over accuracy is not a thing that makes sence t me. It a game you do not allow bigger than standard tennis rackets in a proper game and that is the equivalent. Artistic bases, personally they are less "cool" to me. A guy walking down a road on a base that looks like a piece of scrubby heathland looks to me, daft not "cool".

I admit bases are something I have never found a good practical solution to. The best solution was a very thin clear base, which for some reason does not reflect light in the same way as a thick section, with figures on very small bases painted dark grey so they are inconspicuous. Near ideal as they closely reflect the surface they are placed on really "cool" they look the part. However they are fiddley to produce and create so I gave it up.

Again the approach about large buildings is interesting. On May small table (6ft by 6ft to 8ft by 6 ft.) does not have room to "waste" on large buildings, where the soundscape to model scale becomes even more pronounced. We did commission some "large" trucks 1/144 scale but of the commercial level; 50 to 130 ton but they look oversize, the discrepancy between ground scale and model scale becoming more significant. So again these suggestions do not to me improve "cool"in my opinion. Scatter scenery if not overdone, say isolated trees or the odd abandoned car can improve the look and add some interest if not overdone and indeed for some shows we have done so. Normal games not so much it just makes game play slower and stuff gets taken off anyway as it's a hindrance to the game. Some detail like external storage seems like a good idea, not one we do as a matter of course as it slows painting down and the effects on the far side of the battlefield make it less obvious so less gain for more hobby time used.

So in summary "cool" is generally to me not an overall improvement to a game over a good basic job of terrain and models. There are options but whether they are an effective use of gaming time is an interesting debate.

ochoin – Is wargaming a visual hobby, certainly for me but only partly. Coloured figures on a couloured background are part of its visual system, but so it is with many boardgames. To me a Wargame is more like a 3D boardgame. Visual effects are welcome but not its primary aim and should never compromise the game element.

"Rule of Cool" isn't a good name as Ushcha shows.

Miniature wargaming has three aspects with three player types perfering one aspect mostly. 1st Aesthetic (that us, what you dall cool), 2nd Rules/Winning, 3rd Immersion/Role playing/Historicity. Every miniature wargame has all of these, because if you would miss one, you would do another hobby. Interest in the Aesthetic side without rules/playing is fot example better served with diorama building.

I am absolutely in the Aesthetic camp, so I agree with Onchoin, what is cool. I would go even further. I would use hills, that look good, even if they are a little bit problematic. I okay DBA with deeper bases, because only two ranks of hoplites look like a Phalanx, and don't care about some rule problems. I would make special rules for models, so that they not only look good, but also have a function (ammunition wagons or Napoleons carriage for example).

Thanks, UshCha. It's always good to read your viewpoint. I think we've simply arrived at different priorities within the same hobby.

For me, the game comes first too but once the rules work I like to push the visual side as far as I reasonably can. If four Hittite chariots on a base make me grin every time they thunder across the table, that's worth the extra effort even if two would function just as well under the rules.

Likewise, I'll happily use an oversized temple or fortress if it creates a memorable battlefield. I know it's a compromise in terms of scale but I'm comfortable making that trade because I enjoy the spectacle. I certainly appreciate your quest for realism.

Neither approach is right or wrong. Yours leans towards efficiency and practicality. Mine leans towards theatre. I'd happily play one of your games. I'm just not sure you'd enjoy the frivolity of mine!

I have played in Leo Cronin's IRA games. I've seen people push buildings apart to the Crossley Tender (truck) could fit down the alley. The building was interfering with the way he wanted to play. The foul miscreant was admonished.

I was running a 1:1 figure scale game where one guy was moving trees that got in his way. I told everyone before the game that all terrain as placed was permanent. He did not appreciate being chastised.

I DO NOT view wargames as a strict educational tactical exercise. It's supposed to be visual. If you don't like it, go and play Risk.

US paras in Normandy stealing a truck on a German airfield that just happened to be parked there. got them to the next objective, but ran out of gas.

ochoin – you are correct its personal preference, how you weight your 3 aspects of the game. Toi me the aesthetic side is least important; but not so for others.

If pushed and I am sometimes, I will game with unpainted figures, but its not my preference. However I do have a pathological hate of paraphernalia of rules on a table. Dice well, if placed unobtrusively, and small in nuber, we have only one each side, OK but, PAPER I WILL NOT TOLERATE, far worse to me than an entire unpainted army!

Similarly If markers are needed on the table (and we do use them) every effort is made to make them as unobtrusive as possible. Suppression markers are small explosion markers either flame coloured or smoke coloured so they "blend in".

Mode markers (they have no equivalent in traditional games I know of) are painted green on one side, and where marked they are a dull grey to be as unobtrusive as they can be. At a glance you barely notice them, as it should be. Lacking the artistry, the greed is not a good match for the basic terrain, and clear does not work as which side is showing is significant so thin clear markers don't work for us. I could flock one side but fear that the "camoflarge" when that side up may be too good, wasting game time searching for them.

Intersting topic, thanks

For me the Rule of Cool are my SYW brigade/wing/army commanders – on separate stands with aide-de-camp, suitable messengers, tufts of grass, wildflowers and, yes, a couple have dogs

Also this is the reason my units markers are on the bottom of the bases, not attached to the top – makes it a little harder to play but a lot prettier

I tend to exercise the Rule of Cool by going downscale--16 6mm hoplites on a standard DBA 40mm wide base, for instance, instead of four 15mm castings. A "Big Battle DBA" game looks like a big battle. Or entire brigades of 2mm Pike & Shot in the ECW variant.

For command stands, it's good-looking, historical and game-functional: the higher the command level of the Big Cheese, the more hangers-on he accumulates. And as Frederick notes, unit ID for SYW regiments is glued to the bottom of the base. Same with 30mm Napoleonics.

Some of my favorites now game for others. My 15mm 1798 Irish, some of whom carried Notre logos on their flags, my 28mm Tricorne teddy bears with rocking horses in lieu of the White Horse of Hanover on theirs and their sorta-Saxon opponents with candy canes rather than barre lions. I miss them, but it's good to know they're out there on someone's gaming table.

The rule of cool generally applies to selecting a faction in games like 40K.

For historicals it might be that German Pea Camo speaks to you more than say Sikh heads. That kind of thing

I own a few chariots for my armies, along with some "battle platforms" (glorified chariots, actually) for my fantasy games. Remember, this is the Wargaming in General Message Board.

My first Chariot was a Goblin Chariot, made by Ral Partha for the AD&D product line under contract with TSR. It was gorgeous, and I genuinely wanted multiples of it, but it was around $40 USD per model, back in the late 1990's. I had some Scotia Grendel resin pieces, which were battle platforms: again, around $20 USD-$30 per figure, in early 2000's Dollars. Too rich for my hobby funds to have more than a single set of each.

A few years ago, I bought an old Mage Knight Chariot which I added some 1/72 Dwarven figures to, as crewmen. It was a blast to customize, but again, MK figures were years OOP, so it was expensive, and it was the only one available for a price I could afford (they're very rare on e-Bay these days…).

For me, I use each chariot as a hero platform, or as an Army Commander figure set -- only one required. It makes for a fun visual addition with some interesting extra combat abilities. In other words, they are just plain fun to field.

Today, I bought a $1.67 USD Pteranodon toy which I plan to add a Lizardman figure to, riding atop it; not sure, yet, if it will be one figure, or a few, whether they will ride bareback on the beast's neck, or if I will build out a platform on its back for them to ride within… It will, again, be a hero/Army Commander figure for the Lizardmen Army. I love doing conversions, especially for hero/Army Commander figures. I get the fun of building/customizing them, painting them, and finally, fielding them in my games. That last part, fielding them in my games, is the most fun of all, and that joy continues every time I field them… Cheers!

I think I am a convert to making a game more than pushing counters round a table, I like things to have 'the look' – which is why I give my Republican Roman Consuls a few Lictors with Fasces!