One-Hour Wargames: Practical Tabletop Battles for those with Limited Time and Space

Chapter 1

The Practical Wargame

A practical wargame is one that everyone can play. One would have thought that this was true of all games by definition: for if somebody can play a particular wargame, it is necessarily practicable. Feasibility is not however synonymous with accessibility, for many wargames invariably fail to account for constraints of time or space. This can be seen with reference to the wargaming ideal: a table measuring 8’ x 5’, and featuring hundreds of beautifully painted 28mm metal wargames figures. Such games look magnificent, and are a tribute to what can be achieved after years of effort spent amassing and painting a huge collection of wargaming material. They cannot however be described as practical for everybody: massive financial expense is required (at the time of writing, a single 28mm unpainted metal infantry figurine costs just over £1); painting hundreds of figures takes a vast amount of time; and logistics can make such games impossible. For an 8’ x 5’ table needs a huge amount of space – this is not a problem if the gamer has a dedicated wargames room at his or her disposal, but most players who live in average sized houses would be forced to have temporary recourse to the living room floor. This can create a whole myriad of difficulties: the game cannot be left set up overnight, for it would get in everybody else’s way; other family members may well be watching television, a serious barrier to concentration; and pets can wreak havoc as they either walk over the battlefield, or play with the figures in their own somewhat idiosyncratic way!

It should be apparent that although large wargames represent the ideal to which all hobbyists should aspire, many lack the time, space or budget to make such enticing projects realizable. Yet many articles in wargames magazines assume that such enterprises are not only achievable, but commonplace – some recent pieces have for instance provided for what their writers maintain are small wargames, involving about 200 figures per side fighting over a 6’ x 4’ table. These do not strike me as being especially diminutive. A practical wargame on the contrary requires a genuinely small tabletop (3’ x 3’); appropriately sized armies (no more than 100 figures per side); and games that can be completed in about an hour, allowing for contests in the evening after school or work.

This book is devoted to practical wargaming. It offers appropriate sets of rules, and thirty different types of battle scenarios for small tables and small armies. The rules are simple, thereby encouraging ease of understanding and rapid play. I have included nine sets covering all the major periods. Readers should always bear in mind that simple rules are not necessarily unrealistic, which all too common misconception has resulted in some monstrously turgid and hideously complex rulebooks being produced in the name of realism. Simplicity is at least guaranteed to produce enjoyment; and I have provided introductory chapters to each of my rulesets, explaining my design parameters. This allows readers to appreciate why the rules were designed as they were, and more importantly form a critique of their efficacy. The latter activity will hopefully lead to all readers deciding to write their own rules: for designing your own wargame is a more rewarding activity than any other; you instantly become a true military historian, having researched particular conflicts and simulated them through the medium of a wargame – playing your very own military simulation will always be much more enjoyable than using someone else’s rules, no matter how eminent their author may be.

The battle scenarios included after the rulesets allow for a variety of encounters, all of which can be fought using any of the rules included. They are intended to show that there are many more types of wargame than the basic competitive encounter, when two armies face each other over an essentially open battlefield, with no context provided and with the sole aim of eliminating as many enemy units as possible. Such battles can be most enjoyable, but are rather basic; more variety eventually becomes essential, and certainly provides for a more challenging (and hence rewarding) wargame.

Having a book which includes advice on producing a practical wargame is only the first step, however. The next problem lies in gathering armies and constructing a wargames battlefield. Experienced wargamers will already have both these things, and are probably advised to skip the rest of this chapter and proceed to the next. Beginners will however by definition lack both figures and a battlefield: the rest of this chapter suggests ways of acquiring both.

The first thing to do is choose a period from the nine I have provided rules for. All nine are fascinating; the reader should start collecting armies from the epoch which fires his or her imagination the most. Having done so, the next step is to acquire wargames armies. This step is greatly facilitated by visiting any large newsagent and buying copies of the latest wargaming magazines. These are always good sources of postal or website addresses of figure manufacturers, quite apart from the insights provided in the range of articles published. There is however a problem in the sheer variety of model soldiers available. The most common sizes are 28mm and 15mm, but you can also find manufacturers of 54mm, 42mm, 20mm, 10mm, 6mm and even 2mm miniatures. All these figures have their merits and their advocates; but it is fair to say that an opponent is most likely to be found if sticking to 28mm or 15mm miniatures. If further advice is required, it can always be found at a wargames show or a local club (details of both can often be found in the wargame magazines), where experienced wargamers are always ready, willing and able to help beginners into the hobby.

An alternative solution is to visit a local toy or model shop and look for the 1:72 scale plastic figures made by Airfix and other manufacturers. These have many advantages over their metal rivals. Firstly, they are extremely cheap: a box of 50 figures can be bought for about £5. They are moreover exceptionally light in terms of weight; an entire army can easily be taken to a friend’s house or flat for a wargame. Thirdly, plastic figures are designed to a constant scale of 1:72 (that is to say, increasing the size of the miniature by a factor of 72 would result in a figure as tall and as big as an average human being). This is in contrast to metal figures, whose nominal 28mm size is just that: they can be anything from 27–33mm – something to consider very carefully if ordering miniatures from two different manufacturers. Plastic figures, being designed to a constant scale, are absolutely interchangeable, so that an army could consist of miniatures from a variety of companies, and still look right. Finally, 1:72 scale figures mix very well with model railway accessories, allowing the wargamer access to terrain features of exceptional quality, given that toy train enthusiasts insist upon the highest standards of aesthetic beauty in their scenery.

Having acquired some wargame figures, the next step is to paint them. This can be a very daunting prospect: the sight of beautifully painted figures in wargaming magazines can engender serious concerns that one’s own efforts will always be pitifully and embarrassingly inadequate – and that it is better never to pick up a paintbrush, and give up the hobby in despair. This would be an unfortunate reaction; for alternatives to exquisite painting do exist, and are viable.

The first and almost sacrilegious option is not to use any figures at all. One can instead use pieces of card to represent the different armies. The card can simply be painted red or blue to depict the contestants, and have unit symbols marked on them. This is undoubtedly a drastic step, and would scarcely be described as aesthetically pleasing – but it does allow anyone to play a wargame very quickly, and with minimum expense.

The next alternative is almost as shocking, and this is to leave the figures unpainted. This is only possible with 1:72 plastic figures, which often feature different colours for different armies. It is, for example, common to see Second World War British infantry rendered in a khaki-coloured plastic, with their German rivals featured in an appropriate shade of grey. Similarly, American Civil War figures see Union troops often depicted in the correct shade of dark blue, and Confederates accurately rendered in grey – and if cavalry horses have chestnut coloured plastic, the results can look most effective, and an aesthetically reasonable wargame can take place.

A third option is to quite literally call in the professionals, since wargame magazines always feature advertisements from figure painters willing to paint other people’s figures. The result will usually look exquisite, for the painters in question have enough of a track record to make a reasonable income from their work. These services can however be rather expensive, which can present a significant barrier to anyone on anything other than a high budget.

All the above options notwithstanding, the vast majority of wargamers will ultimately feel some degree of compulsion to paint their figures. When taking up the challenge, it is vital to consider that you only have yourself to please – you can derive just as much pleasure from a basic paint job as one involving technically sophisticated work. When producing armies for the first time, simplicity is the key, as Bruce Quarrie pointed out in his classic book, Napoleonic Wargaming:

‘But do, please do, make some effort to paint them. Even if your hand isn’t as steady as you would like, it isn’t too much to ask of anybody a black shako (hat), red or blue jacket, and grey or white trousers, with perhaps a touch of pink for face and hands, and black shoes and musket – is it? If painted in batches of a dozen or so at a time, doing all the hats first, then all the jackets, and so on, it does not take long, and the result in terms of tabletop appearance well justifies the slight effort.’

Quarrie, Bruce, Napoleonic Wargaming (Patrick Stephens, 1974) (p.6).

Simple paintwork such as this can be achieved quite easily. The first step is to prepare the figures. This is a simple process with metal figures, for all that is needed is to trim off any unwanted bits of surplus raw material, and attach the figures on a piece of card with a temporary adhesive such as blu-tack. They are now ready for painting. There is a slightly different approach with plastic figures, depending on the material of which they are made. When dealing with the now widely available ‘hard’ plastic polystyrene figures, these have first to be assembled using an appropriate glue, then mounted on bases for painting in the same way as metal figures. The approach with ‘soft’ plastic polythene figures of the Airfix type is rather different. These have a parting agent attached to them during the manufacturing process, designed to prevent the plastic from sticking to its mould. Unfortunately, its presence also prevents paint from sticking to the figure! Polythene figures must accordingly be scrubbed thoroughly in a bowl of water with washing up liquid, before painting. This will remove enough of the parting agent to allow paint to adhere to the miniatures. Following this, all sprue attachments