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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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.
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.
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Napoleon’s Battles
At one time, perhaps under the urging of S. Craig Taylor, Avalon Hill flirted openly with miniatures rules. Napoleon’s Battles was meant to allow the massive battles of the Napoleonic era be gamed with a reasonable number of figures. Sadly, even at 1 infantry figure equals 120, the number of figures for even a small historical scenario seems enormous. The format provided follows the standard 3-book format, the first, an introduction to miniatures with information on basing, painting, history, organization, etc., the second, the actual rules basic to advanced and optional, and the third, the actual scenarios including fictitious ones. Supplements amended and revised the rules while adding additional scenarios including the enormous Leipzig scenario in the red module. Module 2 also introduced a tie-in to AH’s Empires in Arms game allowing the game to serve as a campaign and battle generator for miniatures.
Since I first saw them, I wanted one of these little spiral bound books from England. The Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society shown on the book’s cover was a wargaming group started by George Gush who wrote quite a bit on wargames and wargame rules.
The rules specify no scale for time or distance and no figure ratio. However, unit sizes are provided with specific British and Austrian infantry regiment numbers and all other nationalities under a generic category. These are combined in battalions of 30 men and 3 officers. Cavalry regiments consist of 20 men and 2 officers. A gun detachment has a single gun and 5 men.
Play appears to be simultaneous though this is not stated. Sequence proceeds with order writing, retreats, charges, additional movement, firing, and morale tests.
Movement allows a half move and fire or stationary and fire twice. Terrain includes roads, linear obstacles,breastworks, woods, hills, and buildings all of which have varying effects on movement. Breastworks and buildings deduct from musketry rolls, woods can block fire after 3 inches. Line of sight is required for a hit. An artillery template is provided covering canister, ball, and shell.
Morale tests occur as a result of a variety of events and require the roll of a single die which is modified by additional factors. The rules also include the use of saving throws which tend to benefit officers and infantry under cover. Generals are immune to fire but can be captured.
The rules suggest that men can be mounted on bases. Formations offered are column, line, square, or open order. Column has a frontage of 8 men or less, line more than 8 men for movement. Open order 1″ between individual figures, 2″ between movement trays. For melee, line is 2 ranks or less, column more than 2 ranks.
In other words, much that one would expect from dedicated British hobbyists before more formalized rules conventions. There is no date on the rules, they do not appear to have a copyright. The booklet is 32 pages in length.
Warhammer English Civil War
A Warhammer version of the English Civil War. Apparently, the Games Workshop staff had been using the Warhammer rules in an historical context and it is no wonder that based in England, they should offer a set specifically adapted for the English Civil War. Unlike other historical modules, this one is complete unto itself, not an addition to Warhammer Ancients. Just as in Warhammer, figure scale seems vague and there are lots of interesting personalities available for each army. With instructions on painting, scenery, scenario generation, and just about everything one could want in a book like this including full color photos. Just be ready to roll a lot of dice.
1644 Rules For Battles Of The English Civil War
A fairly simple set of rules from Foundry Miniatures for English Civil War battles comparable to Warhammer Historical though without some of the colorful personages that invariably would show up.
De Bellis Renationis
Another hard to find set of rules from WRG revisiting the 16th and 17th century from the perspective of DBM. Likely it helps to have some army lists handy.
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A rather nondescript catalog from Old Glory miniatures circa 2003 likely scooped up at HMGS. The range of miniatures offered is large and the prices seem good. Old Glory and Battle Honors now have new owners with Old Glory now under the name Blue Moon and Anthony Barton of Battle Honors now producing AB Figures.
For a brief time, Games Workshop and Milton Bradley collaborated on a couple of games. Heroquest is the most popular. Similar to early D&D, players take the characters of various archetypal fantasy figures and probe a dungeon encountering traps, monsters, and treasure. Plastic accessories and cardboard counters allowed players to decorate the dungeon according to the outline in a book of dungeon maps. Players and monsters were represented by plastic figures in the best Games Workshop tradition. One player served as dungeon master.
There were several supplements for the game both here and in Europe. The game begs for expansion. It should be relatively easy to design new and even more impressive dungeons. A guide was supposed to have been published in Europe outlining this.
Currently, there is talk of a reprint although old copies of the game can still be readily found. Some of the supplements are far more difficult to locate.