An experienced wargamer’s priorities

After several decades, one develops opinions. Right or wrong, here are my priorities when approaching a new campaign or era. Note: for the featured image, I asked “AI” for an image of Wargamer Priorities and got a giant tank in seconds! Probably works for many of us. *Note that a rescaled a 3×3″ brigade stand…

Counters

I found a nicely-written blogpost about wargame counters (as the half-inch cardboard chits are called) by a guy interested in design. It gives a overall view of they got their start and his view of when they peaked. He mentioned how Charles S. Roberts took the symbols for Tactics II from a post-World War II…

Balkenkreuz & Stars for World War II air & AFVs

To have it in one place, I am posting this and will add nationalities to my current miniature war efforts. German Cross The featured image above and the following text came from this Wikipedia page: “All the styles of the Balkenkreuz used by the Third Reich’s Luftwaffe drawn with the official proportions specified by the…

Immersive and Playable Terrain

I listened to an On Patrol Podcast about Terrain, Not Just an Afterthought, by two gaming soldiers, Fightin’ Kentuckian and Wyndehurst Productions (who I call K&W hereafter). At 75 minutes long, one needs to set aside the time. But it’s worth it; they did a good job. The core themes are the importance of terrain…

Gaming diorama look: natural or garish?

Wargamers put a fair amount of effort into modeling their troops and terrain. Ideally, it looks like a diorama. But then they undercut the “look and feel” by adding giant-scaled markers with flashy colors. I call it Giant And Garish, or GAG! Even if all you do is spray paint everything, you can level up…

Book fewer trips to Lead Mountain

I suggest reading books & researching rulesets to avoid adding to your lead mountain (a giant pile of unpainted troops also known as a pile of shame). This is for wargamers who have more unpainted lead than finished troops. You know who you are. My most successful wargame projects came from where I first knew…

Wargame Campaigns

Henry Hyde is publishing a book, Wargame Campaigns, later this month on Kindle and hardback. Since it is nearly the same name as this blog, I thought it might interest those subscribed. I have no connection to the book. I originally started the blog with the idea of linking games in a larger multi-day setting.…

Dice

Dice are part of many games. There’s a trade-off to consider in games oriented to realism. Like its Wikipedia page for Tractics says, it’s not a perfect information game like Chess. In a PI game, like most older Avalon Hill games one sees everything and knows the Order of Battle and reinforcement schedule. But in…

Scale

Here is a summary of figure scales shown as a ratio, then in figure height, millimeters, and inches. This first chart assumes that a soldier is 72″ (182.88 centimeters; 2.54 cms per inch). Hobbyists talk about eye height and less than a 6′ tall person. To make this chart I used 72″. The amounts are…

Tractics

Move down to download free Tractics play aids & free Duckbills newsletter which now covers 3 World War II rulesets: Tractics, Fast Rules & Brew Up (the latter is now also available). Tractics is a ruleset primarily for World War II miniature games. Most people focus on the tanks, so the 1971 authors cleverly coined…