Category: rules

Wargaming Report: One Page Rules

For the first time in quite a while, a two-hour window of opportunity presented itself.  The boy wasn’t interested in a little light gaming, but his 11 year old sister was.  After a few minutes reviewing Osprey’s trusty Black Ops rules, her eyes started to glaze over, so we...

An Old Man Looks at

For the most part, the things I review or talk about are those that excite me enough to sit down at the keyboard.  That means most of my posts are about things that I like, and that’s a lot of things.  I like liking things. That’s not always the...

Blade Traps

Any trap good enough to scare Indiana Jones is good enough for Castle Meatgrinder.  Obviously, these little gems won’t make an appearance until they are triggered or disabled. I debated with myself over whether markers for traps were even necessary for Castle Meatgrinder.  They are, after all, single events...

D&D As Wargame

Oh, Cirsova, I wish I knew how to quit you. My RPG style has been regressing over the years.  The last time out it was pure 5e glory with the RPG elements in full blown glory, and the wargamey aspects utilized to the hilt.  When I run games the...

Warren is In the House

Castalia House, that is. This week over at the indy publisher’s blog, soon to be the best wargame blog on this or any other net, Wargaming Wednesday With Warren.  Somehow I managed to sweet talk the editors over there into letting me in the pool during adult swim.  Now you...

Caution!

The Amazon stork finally delivered my latest rules baby, and I couldn’t be a prouder papa.   I’ve been on the lookout for a decent set of medieval rules for use with my fantasy figures, and bought these largely on the strength of Black Ops.  Much as I love...

Black Ops: Octopod Escape

 In a Black Ops battle featuring two newly painted forces, a small Octopod task force has been discovered operating deep inside Prang!* territory.  The 12 man group of conscripts including one leader (Ace) and one RPG toting heavy (for a total of 54 points) have regrouped inside a...

The Podcast We’ve Been Waiting For

If you’re one of those poor bastards that grinds through a long commute on a daily basis, then you can’t get enough decent podcasts.  There are a hot steaming pile of them for tabletop RPGs, a few of them are even worth a listen, but very very few for...

Towards a Unified Theory of Wargaming Complexity

Put on your thinking man’s cap, because today we’re talking math. Earlier this week, Delta Vector (you know Delta, he runs the excellent Delta Vector blog) posted the latest installment of his in-depth analysis of wargame design, this one on the perfect number of units.   The entire series is...

One Hour Wargames: Further Thoughts

With multiple games of Neil Thomas’ One Hour Wargames under the belt, it’s time to take a more solid look at the ruleset and see how it stacks up. Spoiler alert: Pretty darn good! What makes for a good tabletop game?  Enough units to have meaningful choices.  Enough variety...