Wargaming

Hello everyone!

Do any of you wargame with historical miniatures?

I'm looking at building some Samurai armies and am looking into some rules.

Would be interested in knowing if any of you wargame and what rules you use.

Cheers!
Larry

Look into DBA. It's a nice simple rule set that covers many different armies
and periods.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Larry,

Have you looked into Tsuwamono No Michi? It's a miniature based game that
I'm currently looking into.

http://www.wargameshop.co.uk/gallery/samurai.htm


Cheers!

On 2/22/10 11:57 AM, "Correus" <correus@...> wrote:

> Hello everyone!
>
> Do any of you wargame with historical miniatures?
>
> I'm looking at building some Samurai armies and am looking into some rules.
>
> Would be interested in knowing if any of you wargame and what rules you use.
>
> Cheers!
> Larry
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> ---
> Samurai Archives: http://www.samurai-archives.com
> Samurai Archives store: http://www.cafeshops.com/samuraiarchives
> ---
>
> Join the 2007 Samurai Fiction Contest:
> http://www.samurai-archives.com/writcon2.htmlYahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

A great place to find information on wargames is www.boardgamegeek.com.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thanks Brian, I'll take a look at them.

--- In samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com, Brian Lampe wrote:
>
>
> Larry,
>
> Have you looked into Tsuwamono No Michi? It's a miniature based game that
> I'm currently looking into.
>
> http://www.wargameshop.co.uk/gallery/samurai.htm
>
>
> Cheers!
>
>
>
> On 2/22/10 11:57 AM, "Correus" wrote:
>
> > Hello everyone!
> >
> > Do any of you wargame with historical miniatures?
> >
> > I'm looking at building some Samurai armies and am looking into some rules.
> >
> > Would be interested in knowing if any of you wargame and what rules you use.
> >
> > Cheers!
> > Larry
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > ---
> > Samurai Archives: http://www.samurai-archives.com
> > Samurai Archives store: http://www.cafeshops.com/samuraiarchives
> > ---
> >
> > Join the 2007 Samurai Fiction Contest:
> > http://www.samurai-archives.com/writcon2.htmlYahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
>

Larry this may be a bit late but it is one hobby I absolutely love!

I play games of all kinds and love wargames and games about history.

DBA is a good set of rules and you can depict some of the Japanese
battles with that. You can search for DeBellis Antiquatis DBA--there is a huge following of those rules.

We sometimes play Shogun by Milton Bradley which is a five player
game, loosely based on the Sengoku Jidai or warring states period
in Japan.

Drop me an Email if you want more info on rules etc.

I co-founded a games group here in Japan called JIGG: Japan`s
International Gamers Guild.

Kev

--- In samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com, "Correus" wrote:
>
> Hello everyone!
>
> Do any of you wargame with historical miniatures?
>
> I'm looking at building some Samurai armies and am looking into some rules.
>
> Would be interested in knowing if any of you wargame and what rules you use.
>
> Cheers!
> Larry
>

--- In samuraihistory@yahoogroups.com, "Correus" wrote:

>
> Hello everyone!
>
> Do any of you wargame with historical miniatures?
>
> I'm looking at building some Samurai armies and am looking into some rules.
>
> Would be interested in knowing if any of you wargame and what rules you use.
>
> Cheers!
> Larry
>

Greetings professor Folken.
Shall we play a game?

Larry, rules choice depends on which era you wish to wargame and may depend on what your available opponents will play. First mention should go to Killer Katanas, a thoughtfully crafted set of rules specific to the popular 1550-1650 period of internal conflict in Japan (though an expansion booklet covers the interesting Imjin War in Korea). It may be difficult to find opponents who play the rules, but it is in any case worth buying as a background resource.

Japanese armies have been popular under rules sets with a broad historical span due to both historical interest and success on the table. DBA was mentioned - it has 12 stands of troops per side (requiring roughly 40 miniatures), is quick and can be fun. Many people prefer larger battles (which might be a hundred, or two hundred or more, miniatures). I played Samurai under DBA's large-scale successor DBM years ago (though not under its recent successor DBMM), and more recently under the widely-used Field of Glory rules (acronym FOG) that is my current preference for general period ancient/medieval rules (a forthcoming version of FOG covering 1500 will be my choice for that overall period). All these general rules contemplate both historical and ahistorical matches between armies (what if Hideyoshi had fought the Spanish or Dutch?), which can be an advantage, but are focused on the tactical interactions between the opponents in a large battle and lack the nuances and characterization seen in period-specific rules (dueling, for example, or the interplay of special formations).

These sets and many others share or support a fairly standard scheme of base sizes and numbers of miniatures per base, which allows playing different rules sets with the same miniatures. Base sizes vary with the scale of the miniatures, 15mm and 25/28mm being the most common, with base widths of 40mm and 60mm respectively. Taking this into account will allow flexibility in playing different rules sets.

Warhammer Ancient Battles (acronym WAB) is a fairly widespread rules set that is played with 28mm miniatures and has army lists with army-specific chrome and special units (such as Ninjas). It puts attention on individual unit special attributes and abilities rather than focusing on tactical interactions of troop types. It has individual miniature bases which are often moved on WAB trays, but suitably sized and matched magnetic/steel bases can be used to play other rules sets with the same miniatures.

There are other sets of rules out there, including homebrew rules or adaptations of existing rules sets. I'd suggest seeing what people are playing in your vicinity.

I hope this is helpful!

Mike