Bower is a free print and play game about Australian Bowerbirds collecting items to increase the visual appeal of their nests.
Collecting and decorating is a thing with the species, as you can see from the nest below:
The Miniature Wargaming Editor
Vaporoare RPG
Vaporoare is a role playing game, but as is the case with such, it’s full of ideas for skirmish type miniatures games. The author writes:
Vaporoare is a role-playing game of weird science and mad magi in Victorian-era Europe. It imagines a world where Jules Verne wrote technical manuals for ether machines instead of fiction; Mary Shelley penned the autobiography of Dr. Frankenstein, and H. P. Lovecraft didn’t know what he was getting into. It is the world described by Edgar Allan Poe, Lord Dunsany and J. R. R. Tolkien. Europe is alive with races of fiction: elves dwarves and gnomes. These people have lived together since the beginning of time, and now they face their greatest challenge: the Industrial Revolution. Magick is dying, and technology is on the rampage.
GASLIGHT House Rules
GASLIGHT is probably the most played set of Victorian Science Fiction miniatures rules available today. The Rivets and Steam site has a page of houserules for the set.
Book Review: Wargame Terrain and Building: The Napoleonic Wars
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
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.