King George Commands and We Obey

King George Commands and We Obey is a set of free wargames rules for American War of Independence, Napoleonic Peninsular and the American War of 1812. The author writes:

My key requirements are:

      • I spend a large amount of time and money collecting units. I decided I wanted them to stay on the table long enough for people to see, therefore no casualty removal.

      • I hate the “my turn/your turn” approach. With that in mind I use a card based turn system. I first used this in my Dad’s army game. Depending upon the level of game you are playing, a playing card is allocated to each unit or in larger games brigade commanders and above. This also means turns are not all the same as an end of turn card can come up at any time.

      • They have to be easy to learn. The common approach should assist with this and it is then just about the era specifics.

      • As little paperwork as possible. Most units have a small tab on a base. This contains all the information you need so no other paperwork, in most cases. This could of course be kept separately rather than attached but I think in a demo game it also allows visitors to see which units are representing which.

      • Enjoyable. I am not too serious and enjoy a light hearted approach at times to rules. Have a look at my rocket rules. While they may be a little slow to enact, imagine the gasps as rockets snake across the field. You never really know where they will end up!

Eyewitness To History

The Eyewitness To History site has hundreds of first-hand accounts of major events in history. There is a lot here for games creating wargames scenarios. For example, here is an eyewitness account of the Battle Of Antietam, from David Thompson, a member of the 9th NY Volunteers.

G63 Gettysburg 1863 Board Game

G63 Gettysburg 1863 is a hex-and-counter board game of the battle of Gettysburg. The print-and-play game is free for the downloading. I am not sure, however, if it is entirely serious in nature. There are just two counters and the board has just seven hexes. The rules, however, seem to indicate something more serious. Strange.