"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).