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