Al Hewitt and Ric Willey offer Jousting, a set of free wargames rules for medieval tournaments.
rules
Anticamente Hex Based Ancients
Anticamente is a set of free hex based rules for ancients offered by TB Line Hobby Wargames. It’s a very nicely presented set. The authors write:
The Rules will let you replay the epic battles that took place from Ancient times right up to the early Renaissance period with an “area-based” approach. The use of hexagons will allow you to use three dimensional scenery in complete synergy with the rules without one aspect penalising the other. Anticamente does not pretend to simulate battles; the unknowns are many and modern deductions are often based on hypotheses which, in turn, derive from a few confused and, at worst, contrasting sources. Instead, after some play tests and objective deductions, Anticamente attempts to suggest the reasons why some situation occurred.
Muskets and Marshals Napoleonic Rules
Muskets and Marshals is a set of free wargmes rules for the Napoleonic era. The author writes:
Following the Battle of the Crossroads I have had a final tweak of my house rules Muskets & Marshals. I say ‘final’ tweak even though experience has shown me that there is actually no such thing because tinkering with rules is as much a symptom of my borderline OCD as the desire to keep re-basing my model soldiers is.
That said I am pretty happy with the rule set as they stand and I certainly had a lot of fun playing the game using them. The firing system involves throwing a lot of dice and I’ve found over the years that this always tends to make a wargame more fun than the slide rule/logarithm approach.
The rules are an amalgamation of various rule systems and ideas nicked or created over the last 40 odd years. The movement rates and ranges are straight out of the London Wargames Section Napoleonic Rules (1968). The melee system is spookily like the one from the board game Risk. Many of the other ideas were developed for a set of ACW rules my brother and myself knocked up in the 1980s. The emphasis is on fun and speed of play.
The General Purpose Wargame
David Medlock offers The General Purpose Wargame, a set of semi-skirmish level wargames rules for simulating battles from the Stone Age to the Victorian.
Gut Check Solo 15mm Science Fiction Rules v1.7
Gut Check is a set of free wargames rules for 15mm science fiction battles. What makes it unique, I think, is that it’s designed from the start for solo play. The author lists its features:
Designed from the ground up for solo play
Fast playing and zero bookkeeping
Uses normal 6 sided dice (Usually rolled no more than 2 at a time)
Uses activation rolls modified by battlefield conditions for turn sequence
Seamless Over watch and suppression effects built into system
Use any miniatures
Played on a Hex grid for convenience, but could be played with little fuss on a standard table