Monday, November 17, 2014

One-Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas – A Bullet-Point Review

Neil Thomas' book One-Hour Wargames hits the mark for its intended purpose and audience: "Practical Tabletop Battles for those with Limited Time and Space." The rules are for games with four to six units per side, fought on a three-foot-by-three-foot square battlefield.  With the demands of my job and very limited hobby time, this book has inspired me to jump back into miniature wargaming after a rather long two-year hiatus.



The book's main features include:

  • practical and simple painting and terrain tips
  • simple rules for nine different periods (ancient, dark ages, medieval, pike & shot, horse & musket, rifle & sabre, machine age, WWII)
  • thirty non-period-specific scenarios
  • simple campaign suggestions
  • simple solo wargaming suggestions

What I like about these rules:

  • they demand only a minimal investment of time
  • they favor a small size of the playing surface
  • they allow for flexible figure basing (standard base size, put however minis look right on it)
  • the rules for each period have common base mechanisms
  • special rules give each period a unique flavor

I recommend book to you if you are:

  • a newcomer to wargaming
  • an experienced gamer without the time to paint large numbers of figures
  • an experienced gamer without the time or space for physically large games
  • an experienced gamer who just likes simple rules


2 comments:

  1. Chris, I am adding your blog to myblog list due to the 1HW review and project. However, I'm putting it into my ECW blog, http://ecw40mmproject.blogspot.com/

    as that is closer to your project's time frame than my medieval blog, "Spear to the strife". But I will add your review to those already in MY review at SttS, here:
    http://darkages40and25.blogspot.com/2014/11/neil-thomas-one-hour-wargames-review.html
    Hope that makes sense!

    I have read the horse and musket rules in 1HW and they seem very good to me, will follow your project with interest!

    Cheers, alex

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    Replies
    1. Hi Alex,

      Glad you stopped by. I read your 1HW batrep with interest, and I look forward to checking out your ECW blog too.

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