Month: May 2019

Book Review: Wargame Terrain and Building: The Napoleonic Wars

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Book Review: Wargame Terrain and Building: The Napoleonic Wars
by Tony Harwood
Published by Pen and Sword Books.

Wargame Terrain and Building: The Napoleonic Wars – Publisher’s website

Wargame Terrain and Building: The Napoleonic Wars on Amazon.

Tony Harwood, author of several well-received volumes on building wargames terrain is back with Wargames Terrain & Buildings: The Napoleonic Wars.

In 160 full color, glossy pages, Harwood offers step by step instructions on building nine structures to grace your Napoleonics wargames table. The instructions are accompanied by explanations of techniques and skills and list of tools and materials.

The projects included in the book are:

  • Russian Windmill
  • Two Storey French Farmhouse
  • La Belle Alliance
  • French Pigeonnier
  • Stone well
  • Russian Granary
  • Die Kleine Backerei (German Bakery)
  • Hungarian Chapel
  • Peninsular Diorama.
  • Step By Step Guides In Harwood’s Wargames Terrain and Building
  • Step By Step Guides In Harwood’s Wargames Terrain and Building

The buildings in the book are targeted at the Napoleonics gamer,but really, given the longevity of architectural styles, they can be used in a wide variety of games. For example, I think that the Hungarian Chapel will look perfect as a piece on my Victorian gothic horror skirmish wargames table.

I’ll also note that the techniques Harwood describes are generally applicable to all sorts of wargames terrain construction. In that respect, I think this book could be useful for anyone engaged in wargames modeling.

A Perfect Sheet of Flame Civil War Rules

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Mike Willegal offers A Perfect Sheet of Flame, a set of free wargames rules for gaming the Amerian Civil War. Mike writes that this is the fourth version of his Iron Brigade system:

This forth version has a major revamping of the game mechanics. Gone is the sequential alternate movement system. In place is a order driven simatanious movement system. Orders must be generated by officers and isolated units may only execute their orders after a delay. Gone is the need for the results tables. In place of that, the player must perform some very simple math (adding up the sum a of a number of dice) followed by a simple divide. The result is intended to be a much more exciting, and fast moving game. The old system of tying morale to fire combat remains, though in an altered format. The overall effect of combat should be similar to the previous version, with a bit more luck thrown in. This should average out quite quickly in battle, as I have studied probilities of sum of a number of dice quite carefully in coming up with this system.

The Tomahawk and the Flame

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The Tomahawk and The Flame is a variant of Larry Brom’s Sword and the Flame rules for the American Indian wars 1866 – 1890.

Sword and Dagger Medieval Skirmish Rules

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“Herkybird” offers a set of medieval skirmish rules based, in part on an older rules set called Retinue.

Forgotten Futures Role Playing Game

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Forgotten Futures is Marcus Rowland’s role playing game of scientific romance. It’s been around for quite a while, having been available on the web for years, before being published by the Heliograph. That company now has discontinued the product, and it again is available on the web. I have a printed copy, and have really enjoyed it. There are plenty of ideas there for miniature wargamers, especially if you like games with a role playing flavor.