As with anything, I sometimes get carried away and rather agonizing on whether I need or not to buy the set of rules, whether I will play it, I just stop wasting my time, buy it and move on. Honestly, I find it less expensive that way. Why? Time has become my scarcest resource. Searching for a new set of rule can take me several days. Cutting this to reading a few reviews, making a shortlist and buying the top 3 rather than hesitating a long time is actually a huge time saving that I can spend reading books, relaxing or actually painting models...
Wargaming is a expensive hobby but less expensive that boating or motorcycling. There's this.
On to the purchases, I will make a review for them in the near future.
Rebels and Patriots
I was initially looking for Musket and Powder skirmish game that I could play with a few figures. Browsing for the rules, it was one candidate. I could play the French Indian wars. The rules were cheap and had good review. What appealed to me
- not too much micro management, base element is a squad
- well written and clear
- interesting activation with a die roll per unit
- low figure count
- could do FIW, AWI, ACW all themes I am interested in but don't really want to invest more than a few plastic boxes from Perry, Victrix or Warlord.
Really, keeping the investment to minimum
Although, reading further some of the comments on the net, it seemed that other set of rules dealing more specifically with the ACW were much loved as well.
Brother against Brother
Although, it looks to cover FIW, the rules were designed with the ACW in mind. As a pdf, I could buy for a fair fee and print them. I already have read them and they look light. Just what I need. They are a bit at the same scale than Rebels & Patriots.
- again, base element is a squad
- well written and clear
- low figure count
At least, I have both of them now for skirmishing and I am happy with the purchase. I hesitated a long time about buying Musket and Tomahawk that looks very good and is designed by the same French team that delivered SAGA, a fun and innovative game. I just could not find French plastic figures for the period so I did not put this as a priority purchase.
I also have Sharp Practice that I bought a few years back. I know the Too fat lardies have a well deserved following but I cannot wrap my head around their concepts and ways of gaming. I'd certainly play their rules if invited to a game, the mechanism are clever but so far they are not talking to me beyond a passing interest.
Since I did not know anything about the ACW like most European games, I have started to watch movies, documentaries and read articles and books. Truth to be said, it is still a bit confused but focusing only on a few battles has really raised my interest to understand the conflict at a larger scale...
Which leads us to purchasing even more rules with a particular focus on Brigade level as a base element.
Altar or Freedom
These rules look exceptional. Simple, extremely well written and clear, it is a pleasure to understand you can play a game after an evening reading. I could buy them as a PDF, print them and read them quickly. Greg Wagman is a name to remember. Many people have asked him to design a set of rules for Napoleonics and it will be probably a blind buy if he ever gets to publish some.
- base element is a brigade
- you have a system to simulate initiative and tempo on the battlefield that is both simple and very interesting
- easy movement and combat resolution
I want easy and interesting. That's the first time I read a set of rules and feel that the author is explaining to me the rules in person at the club and we can start playing right away! It makes you feel... clever.
And also, although it is sometime ignored, I cannot recommend enough the scenario book (there are two. I bought the east battles one). It is literally packed with tons of battles, a pure gem for total neophytes like me. Really, really well done, very clear, makes you want to play right away.
On to Richmond
I had heard good things about On to Richmond but the way people sell it as an "old school" ruleset made me reluctant to include it in my shortlist. I heard there was a slightly modified new edition but it still did not look attractive. But I figured out it was actually available through Wargame vault as past of a magazine for 3 dollars. So again, instead of "not knowing" and being curious for ages, I pressed the buy button and got them. I still don't know what they are like, but at list I can read them if so pleases me...
I contemplated buying Fire & Fury and I read the Quick Reference sheet that looks exactly like the type of game I could enjoy but I thought that Altar of Freedom was already covering my needs in a way I wanted to try right away. I will play Fire & Fury with pleasure but I am determined to invest in one direction, and this is Altar of Freedom.
Talking about all this high level command renewed my interest in grand tactical Napoleonics. Which led me to... Age of Eagles, the Napoleonic sibling of Fire & Fury!
Age of Eagles
So basically, I could still get a taste of Fire & Fury in a different period. Again, they look like
- clean rules, intuitive and fun.
- basic element is brigade
- don't require too many stands
Which leads us to the hybrid....
Volley & Bayonets: road to glory
I wasn't interested initially although it ticked many of the boxes
- Easy and fast
- Grand tactical
- cover ACW and Napoleonics
The main deal break for me were the straight forward IGOUGO formant and ability to control most everything on the battlefield without too many restrictions. With years passing by, I tend to want a bit less control over my troops and make do with what we have. This is quite similar to work life and not that far I suppose from even more chaos on the past battlefield. I don't want to be able to control everything and this tension should be part of my games.
So I did not see the need to purchase these rules but I found them on ebay with their Napoleonic and ACW supplement at a 40% discount... so it was hard to ignore them in face of all the praises they received.
I was also recommended Blucher and Grande Armee from Sam Mustapha. The rules look indeed attractive, simple to learn and play with a lot of elements you cannot really control but in the end I decided against. Sam is a very creative and interesting game designer. I have a couple of his games that are quite innovative. However, I cannot find chemistry with his designs. The persistent feel I have is a mix of good idea and gimmicky mechanism that don't bring all that much to the game. So I am not totally convinced they are the games I want to push at the top of my list.
Et sans resultat, March Attack didn't make it to the top mostly because they seem to require a lot of figures the QRS did not appeal to me or they did not inspire me for a reason or another.
I had the old edition of DBN but learned that a new one was released so it was time for the upgrade with a hard copy as my own older version is a printed one.
DBN
Simple rules, you can play with a dozen elements a side, quick and fun games. There is nothing revolutionary anymore at this stage but they play fast and let you focus on your strategy and what you can do when you do not have full control of your troops. They don't have as much historical flavor as other sets but they largely compensate this with playability and tension. I do not know why they are so confidential, maybe because of the low figure count and the lack of commercial impulse the rule creators have. Nevertheless, a interesting set of rules that has room in my library and gets out more often than other rules. Recommended and pdf price is totally affordable. It may be better to watch a few videos or have someone teach you first.
and then I was playing Lion Rampant and thought that I needed to check what was going in the Ancient/Medieval gaming world. I have Sword and Spear that is quite interesting, again, low base count and interesting command and control mechanisms. I was recommended To the Strongest! but still can get past the playing cards on the table and one unfortunate gameplay video where nothing happened for a good 45 minutes. Wasn't convinced by the activation system and the grid is restrictive. I still feel I want my knights to ride from point A to point B rather than transferring the unit from grid A to grid B. End result is the same, you could also roll a die and see who wins for simplification purposes... yes and no. Maybe I wasn't sold to the game but many people seem to like it so there must be something to explore.
In any case, I heard that a clear DBA like interesting set was out, I could get the pdf from Wargame vault and print it. I give you
Triumph!
Although, there might not be much new to DBA, having a clearer version with some improvements doesn't hurt and at this stage I feel that supporting the hobby is not all that bad either...
Rules are clear, I like DBA to start with and you can paint up new armies very fast. So yes, I could pull the trigger. I also considered Age of Hannibal very seriously, again for the command and control system, but the figure counts seemed a bit high and it has particular focus on the punic war which do not interest me all that much right now. If it had been a bit more general, I may certainly have taken the plunge.
And then, because Lion Rampant is an easy ruleset to introduce new players to miniatures wargaming, having Dragons, orcs and elves in your armies may be appealing to even younger new players...
Dragon Rampant
Good reviews, simple and fast play (we finished a Lion Rampant game in 70 minutes including setup and packing!), this fantasy version was too affordable to pass. So here we are, we have a set of rules that let us re-use the fantasy toys without having to take a PhD in fantasy gaming as Gamesworkshop assumes we should...
My stash of figures is quite important but nevertheless I am acquiring a few Perry and Victrix 28mm figures boxes for ACW and Napoleonic skirmish games. Baccus 6mm figures will be purchased for the brigade level games and I still have have 6mm Napoleonics.
Books about the FIW and ACW were purchased and no mistakes were made. I am interested.
Cocaine and Heroine are a lot more expensive and I don't do either. So all things considered, it is not hugely costly, I guess, I suppose, maybe. Right? And anyway, don't start me on GW's prices. 😀
Until next time, if there is a particular ruleset you would like me to review among the books above, let me know and I will if I can review them in a more formal way.
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