Exotica from Wargames Research Group allowing battles of Renaissance era oared vessels. The rules are simple. There is another treatment of the era in Strategy and Tactics #272. A oddity of the rules and a simple way to spot if they are in use is that they require a peculiar elongated hex base for ship models.
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Warhammer 40,000
This is not the first Warhammer 40K rulebook nor the last but it is handy. I had played the much older Rogue Trader rulebook at some point. I do have some Orks and a handful of Necron skulking about so this seems a likely candidate for play. Then, I also have some Space Squats and some compatible Russian figures.
Teleport back to the 1980s when Games Workshop was refining its vision of Warhammer and that is when Rogue Trader made its appearance. With a heavy emphasis on background detail, the rules seem more like Warhammer with an SF veneer, psionics replace magic, squats replace dwarves, and orks are still orcs. There are extensive rules for such familiar things as robots, tyranids and genestealers but there are also oddities like Slann and Jokaero, bouncers and Psychneuin. An interesting book especially compared to what the whole thing has become.
From the days of Rogue Trader, this pleasant little book was apparently just the first of a million such books providing army lists and scenarios for the futuristic Warhammer world.
Striker II
A replacement for the original Traveller Striker rules, these rules are a kind of SF version of GDW’s Command Decision. I have heard there are many flaws in the rules but have yet to try them. The basing is different than original Striker and it is just difficult to work up the enthusiasm to rebase figures.
Battletech Compendium
Battletech is one of those big games that spawned millions of rule variants, supplements, accessories, miniatures, even novels. This is an old book bringing together various Battletech miniatures rules. For those unfamiliar, the central focus of the rules is giant piloted robots battling each other with all manner of weaponry while trying to avoid shutting down from excess heat.
The original Battletech was designed by FASA as a boardgame and with a series of modular boards, took on aspects of a kind of SF Squad Leader. With Ral Partha picking up a license to manufacture miniatures under the Battletech logo it became possible to replace the cardboard counters found in the game with something more visually appealing. The compendium was designed to do away with the game boards as well not only compiling the rules from several different games under one cover but also providing rules for conversion to a pure miniatures game.
WRG Armor & Infantry Rules 1925-1950
At one time, Wargames Research Group provided all rules for all wars. This particular rule book shows the upgrade to graphics on the cover perhaps as a result of a new printing by Heritage. The rules are fun and that is really what they should be. It is likely best for small unit actions with 1/72 figures and vehicles.
Modern War in Miniature
This mysterious set of rules was supposedly the inspiration for SPI’s Sniper. I do not know if this is true but spent some time tracking down a copy. Cheap copies are difficult to find but there is a downloadable version here:
So what do you get? The rules seem vague dependent on judge or judges conversant with the data in the book. Miniatures are placed on a sand table and a judge will perform some action with the figures dependent on player orders and the judge’s interpretation of how the miniatures would act. The judge also performs all necessary die rolls when some element of chance creeps such as whether or not the enemy is spotted or the accuracy of weapons fire.
I have heard the rules described as the first role playing rules but they really are not. Only the vagueness of the rules compels the use of judges though judges can also provide a fog of war by limiting player intelligence of the opposing force. The tables that fill most of the book offer something akin to tables in a standard wargame albeit more exhaustive. But the rules are presented through a series of examples which would seem to lessen their usefulness. But like the designers at SPI, players may find the rules provide a helpful stepping off point for an exploration of modern era combat.
As an example of the information contained in the tables, the Nambu machine gun model M1922 is 6.5 caliber with a weight of 22.5 lbs, manufactured and used by Japanese forces,has a muzzle velocity of 2400, an effective range of 300 yards and a rate of fire of 8 rounds per second.
Rules appear to require no scale in particular though the author uses 1/87 or 1/100 scale figures. Figure scale is 1 to 1.
Back to Work
Baby time is over and it is back to work. My wife saw a small box of Charles Stadden figures in the bathroom and asked me when I would stop buying figures. I suppose the real answer would be when I lose my memory of what has made my life a pleasure. I think we wait for big pleasures that often elude us and ignore the small ones that seem not to matter. Toy soldiers are not a talent like playing the piano or trading successfully on the stock market or like having a beautiful spouse or a large home or climbing the Matterhorn. My value in the eyes of others does not increase because I have a collection of Charles Stadden figures or Archive miniatures.
But I enjoy seeing them and though they are certainly not the only pleasure in my life, they are one that has never disappointed as my demands on them were so limited to begin with. So, no, I will not be giving up toy soldiers any time soon. I have given things up or lost them through the indifference of others over the years. The soldiers are staying.
More to the point, I fly back to work on Sunday. I wonder if anything I own in that small apartment is still there. If so, I will have much more to add to these pages. But I will be back at work.
Wargames Foundry Catalog
Early catalog pages from Wargames Foundry. A really interesting looking guillotine and perhaps tucked in there, Madam Lafarge. These figures have a bulkiness to them as opposed to the slender Miniature Figurine figures for example but always look good.
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Colonial Skirmish Wargames in Miniature
This little rule book permitted games as close in spirit to playing toy soldiers as I can recall with statistics for firearms and measures for a variety of activities. The colonial era is always fun to play since opposing sides usually have complementary strengths and weaknesses.
Hey! You in the Jail!
The Old West if the Old West had been the scene of huge gun battles between angry settlers, trigger happy cowboys, mounted posses, etc. From Peter Pig which also manufactures figures to go with it though I will confine myself to plastic cowboys. The drawback is that there is no facility for shoot-outs.