Rules constrain play. Toy soldiers do not move on their own but once having been moved, something needs to provide limitations. A child provides his own rules and limitations. The rule sets for war games provide far more limited activities. The problem here is in part just how limiting should it be. The more limiting, the more realistic (theoretically) but the more complex, the less fun to play. And, unless you are a military officer or historian simulating an event, play is critical.
Rules started simply enough with hardcover books like the ones by Donald Featherstone or Bruce Quarrie or privately published pamphlets like those put out by Tactical Studies Rules and Wargames Research Group but graduated into something more sophisticated as interest grew. Wargames Research Group gave their rules a facelift while TSR found their calling with Dungeons and Dragons. Role playing threatened to subsume war gaming.
But then along came the personal computer. While the social aspects of RPGs coupled with the easy access for players as umpires (or dungeon masters) were left to struggle with the rule book, guaranteed a continued player base, what about wargaming as a whole?
For the paper games, the ease of creation of a board game as opposed to the inherent complexity of developing a reasonable game using computer software allowed the paper games to continue though the demise of such important companies as SPI, Avalon Hill, and GDW was quite a blow. And miniatures? Frankly, they were never very popular to begin with so have continued on in much the same manner as before with the proviso that the quality and variety of miniatures available has improved. Old molds continue to produce while new molds add new figures. The quality of sculpting continues to improve. Customer standards are higher. This is especially evident in the realm of the small plastic soldiers. Armies undreamed of back in the 60s when only a few sets of Airfix figures were available are now readily obtainable including a massive range of Napoleonic figures from a variety of companies.
No one is ever quite satisfied with the rules in print so there is always room for more. Often privately published, they are just as often labors of love. And just as often they become springboards to even more rules. Listed here are various rules sets that are drifting around my home, old, new, popular, and obscure. When the opportunity arises, I will write more about a set of rules. When time is available I will introduce my own.
Please keep in mind that these are only rules that I own so there is nothing remotely inclusive about the list nor is the inclusion or exclusion of any rules indicative of anything more than limits on my spending and storage.
As with all things miniature, scale is important, both ground scale indicating how much ground an inch or so on the table represents and figure scale showing how many men or machines a single figure represents. For example, a small battle may involve 10,000 men total. At 10 to 1 figure scale, that would require a hefty thousand figures, at a 100 to 1, a mere hundred figures will suffice. Ground scale becomes important as well since those buildings and trees and hills are either going to be a lot smaller than you think or like the figures, representing a mass of buildings and trees or a much more substantial hill.