The quickest way for me to tell which figures are Battle Honors and which are Heritage is to see which ones fall off their horses. Battle Honors cast horses separately while Heritage present a single piece. One thing about miniatures rules is that as time went on, the rules provided roles for every kind of figure. Napoleon’s Battles demanded a command unit in every regiment, a command figure for every battalion, 2 command figures for each corps and 3 for an army.
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These first were released sometime in the 70s and include hussars, dragoons, and cuirassiers. Based for Napoleon’s Battles which uses a high proportion of men per figure, the number of figures needed for a respectable army is large. The figures are well proportioned though a bit toy-like. Produced after the merger of Heritage and Custom Cast, they continued to be distributed under the Empire label for several years but are now difficult to find.
Smaller in stature than Old Glory, AB Miniatures, Battle Honors and others, the figures do best by themselves. Mores the pity that they are no longer manufactured.
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Warhammer first edition seems a surprisingly common item. It contains 3 rulebooks as seemed mandated by D&D and has options for both role-playing and wargaming. Compared to what was to come, the look is surprisingly drab.
Next to it is the very colorful 3rd edition which seems to have gotten things together pretty well, with full coverage of the wargaming rules.
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Here is the 6th edition. Games Workshop discovered the benefits of planned obsolescence and rulebooks will soon go out of date so there are always more to come. There is a shift here to a handy paperback format and next to it is a very nice short rulebook which removes a lot of the fluff in the big book. These are usually included in large introductory game packs.
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By now, every type of army has its own special book. That was one of the beauties of Warhammer, the complexity was in the chrome rather than the underlying core ruleset. At this stage, though, even the chrome was limited especially with what appears to be the first book of army lists, Ravening Hordes which was soon followed by a more plush book Warhammer Armies.
Army lists allow a player to determine a suitable makeup for an army providing troop types, statistics and point values. With Warhammer, this usually means some figures will be mandated, others optional with point values determining just how many options are available. Point values also are meant to insure army equity so that 2 players can feel reasonably certain that if the points values are equal, the armies will be. Additionally, increasing total points will usually increase the complexity and length of a game.
Likely an abortive attempt to sell the Warhammer fortress, there is a big book of siege rules that cover both Warhammer and Warhammer 40K. There is no compelling need to use the rules with the fortress. A 2-dimensional layout should do just as well.
One of the most popular rulesets by George Gush, this covers that esoteric period when men armed with pikes and firearms dominated the battlefield. The rules are fun to play and similar to the earlier WRG ancients rules so that much is pretty familiar.
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It seems like a recent acquisition but I bought this over 10 years ago in a remainder bin at a local hobby shop. Since then, the rules generated numerous supplemental books and finally went out of print. They are still discussed on many forums including this one: Warhammer Ancients
WRG with another version of ancients rules. The difference here is that the armies are small, very small. Many rule set scenarios require thousands of figures so it is nice to have one that mandates smaller armies yet maintains some historical flavor, part of a backlash against a then burgeoning complexity that made wargaming less and less accessible. Additionally, the rules are trimmed back substantially making for a quicker, less demanding game. De Bellis Multitudinous adapts the rules for larger size armies and offers four booklets of army lists while Antiquitatis incorporates a single list in the rules.
DBA is likely one of the most popular rules sets. The book is short and contains all the necessary army lists so unlike other sets, DBA is self contained. Each army is composed of 12 units of 2 – 4 figures ensuring a player needs less than 50 figures for an army. With the small number of figures it becomes possible to collect more than one army.
The rules are reasonably simple. Players alternate movement. At the end of a movement phase, both players allocate fire attacks. Units in contact than resolve melee combat.
Movement is governed by a die. The number shown is the number of units that may move. Units that are in contact and parallel or following may be treated as a single unit. One side loses when it loses its general or 4 units (a base camp on the edge of the board counts as 2 units) and has more losses than the opposing army. Since games are bounded by a limited playing surface, battles tend to be brief affairs.
DBM follows the simplicity of DBA but expands on the dicing for movement rules with each army broken into individual commands and diced for separately. The army lists offered are far more varied and elaborate and fill 4 separate booklets. Troop breakdowns seem fairly obscure. For example, Teutonic Orders from 1201 -1522 AD contain Knechte(regular cavalry), Turkopolen(Irregular cavalry), and Livonian horse archers(irregular light horse) among others while the DBA listing specifies only knights and cavalry for mounted troops. DBM does offer an avenue for expanding an existing DBA army into one a bit more epic.
A helpful resource for DBA is The Unofficial Guide to DBA which clarifies some of the more cryptic elements in the tersely written DBA. DBA, DBM, and the army list books are currently available in PDF form on the Internet and provide an easy way to begin playing with a nominal expenditure.
