Wargaming: An Introduction
Neil Thomas sets out to explain what wargaming is and
present to the newcomer enough information to get started playing. He sets out a brief history of wargaming, in
which he makes clear his preference for rules using ‘a simple process but
(obtaining) historically valid outcomes’. He then briefly discusses which
periods of history to play, which figures to obtain and how to paint the
figures, and prepare terrain for them to fight over. All of this is short and to the point.
The author then looks at various wargaming periods:
Ancients (covering 3000BC-1450AD), Pike and Shot (covering the period
1450-1650), Napoleonics, the American Civil War, Colonial and World War
Two. When covering each topic, he very
briefly describes what he considers to be the main features of the period and
the main troop types involved. He then
presents a short, simple set of rules incorporating the features and troop
types he has just defined, and finally gives a number of examples of wargames
armies set in the period, with the number of units of each type in a given
army.
The author rounds off the book with an example game (set
in the Napoleonic period), a set of contact details for various useful
resources (book sellers, figure manufacturers etc.) and an index.
The rules themselves are short and simple. Most infantry and cavalry units consist of
four bases (some infantry units in various periods may consist of six or eight
bases). All periods share a similar
format: a charge sequence, movement, shooting, melee combat and finally morale
checks. There are no command and control
rules and the game follow an IGOUGO format. Movement is reduced in some circumstances, but
light troops are more flexible. There
are various special rules for each unit type to give each of them different
abilities. The combat mechanic consists
of die rolls against a target number (e.g. 4-6 to inflict one hit), with units
getting extra dice depending on the match up (so heavy cavalry fighting light
cavalry might get two dice rather than one for each base in combat) and saving
rolls to negate that hit in certain circumstances, e.g. if they are wearing
armour, or in cover. Every four ‘hits’ translate into the loss of a
base from the affected unit. Morale is
entirely based on casualties: in some circumstances, units roll to see whether
they suffer additional losses each time the unit is reduced in strength. The game is over when either army is reduced
to two units remaining.
The sample army lists are simple and are based on an army
consisting (basically) of eight distinct units.
These are defined according to the troop types he defined earlier and
are also defined by one of three morale classes (Elite, Average and Levy). For example, the Swedish Army for the Thirty
Years War consists of:
3-5 Infantry units (each of 2 bases of Pikemen, 4 bases
of musketeers); 1-3 Artillery units (1 cannon); 2-4 units of Horse (consisting
of 4 bases of cavalry); 0-1 units of Dragoons (mounted infantry). All units are classed as ‘elite’.
Thomas also suggests that battles involving them are
played on green baseboard with 1-3 terrain pieces placed on it, either hills,
woods or rivers.
The Swedes have a special rule to allow for the effect of
their battalion guns, and a special rule suggesting that the Swedish player
experiment with using an army of six rather than eight units, since the Swedes
were often outnumbered.
The rules give a good, fast game – my solo games
typically take between an hour and ninety minutes to complete. They should be understandable by most
newcomers with minimal guidance. The
rules are easily modifiable by changing modifiers or adding special rules in
accordance with differing views on the period.
For instance, the Napoleonic rules forbid squares to move but I think
they should be allowed to advance slowly.
Making the change doesn’t break the rules at all. The army lists are quite basic and
stereotypical and are not particularly balanced in all cases, although the
author explicitly doesn’t see this as a problem. Naturally, they are far from comprehensive
but a little research (or alternatively cribbing the army lists found in the
free version of DBA) should supply any gaps.
There are no rigid basing requirements so the rules should work with
most existing collections and the armies are small, so newcomers should be able
to collect sufficient figures easily enough.
So a Mongol Army for example,
could consist of anything between 12 – 48 heavy cavalry figures and 32 – 56
light cavalry figures; a Spanish Napoleonic Army will consist of 80 line
infantry figures, 16 grenadiers, 12 cavalry, 12 dragoons, an artillery piece
and a general.
So, what are the problems with this book? The photographs do not match the suggested
basing system, they are ‘eye-candy’ culled mainly from the archives of
Miniature Wargames magazine. The rules
are easy to follow, but they do allow for the odd situation when the players
will have to rule for themselves over a difficulty and move on. I have played a reasonable number of games
but not a vast number – I do have a feeling that someone with enough patience could
‘crack’ the game, at least for certain match-ups. By the wide-ranging nature of the rules, lots
of troop types and areas of conflict are ignored, although the style of the
rules allows for easy modification – some players have put on lots of additional
information on the unofficial support group. The writing style is generally
fine, but does contain sentences such as “It should also go without saying that
the desire to abolish slavery gave the USA undoubted moral superiority over the
Confederacy” and “Sadly for these lager louts of the ancient world (i.e. Gauls
and Germans), personal valour did not fare well against Roman discipline…if
being bashed by the Romans becomes too uninviting aprospect, inter-tribal
conflicts (generally over such weighty political issues as who spilt whose
pint, and who was looking at whom in a funny way) can provide interesting
games”, which some readers might find slightly out-of-place or irritating. The preface by former Miniature Wargames
editor Iain Dickie is quite idiosyncratic too.
The rules do not worry about accurate scaling at all, in
terms of both figure/man ratios and time/distance ratios. The author aims instead for a kind of
internal consistency, which he seems to achieve. However, for players of the Napoleonic game,
the mechanics, distances and aesthetic resemble a game where every unit is a
battalion/regiment/battery; whilst the mechanics of the WW2 game suggest a 1:1
model to man ratio. In neither case is
this explicit though: a ‘unit’ could be anything the player likes.
Neil Thomas has also published books specifically aimed
at the Ancient period and the Napoleonic Wars.
The rules are similar to those presented in this book, but more refined
and contain a greater number of army lists.
I have played both, and in both cases slightly prefer the rules in the
period-specific books. There is not that
much difference though, so if you want to try lots of different periods or are
an inveterate tinkerer who thinks the best place for an army list is under a
wonky table leg, then you are probably better off with this one.
I’d recommend this to beginners wanting a set of easy,
well-thought out rules to begin playing with and to more experienced gamers
looking for a consciously simple game.
For an example of the game in action, see here:
Although note that I use my existing single-base units
rather than the scheme suggested in the rules and use counters to mark losses
in hits and bases. It works fine.
