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Miniature wargaming

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Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming designed to incorporate miniatures or figurines into play. The miniatures used represent troops or other objects of war, such as tanks, and are usually set against a diorama constructed to scale.

One of the main reasons people play miniature games, as opposed to computer or board games, is because many find the tactile element of soldiers and scenery on a tabletop to be aesthetically pleasing; additionally, painting miniatures and constructing scenery can be a rewarding challenge. Miniature wargaming may be seen as combining many of the aesthetics of tabletop train modeling with the more cerebral factors of wargame strategy.

A Light Introduction to Wargaming

So what's it all about? What makes grown men revert to teenage boys whenever they see a green table covered with model houses, lychen and loads of metal soldiers? What drives them to stay up late with lots of scrap bits of wood, metal and anything else they can get their hands on, cutting, sticking, painting, filing, varnishing and other similarly torturous methods of creating the perfect imitation of some period of warfare in history? Why is it that the only time they are willing to be seen carrying a toolbox is when it is crammed full of metal figures? Wargaming. What else!

Whether it be on a table in the spare room, in-front of a computer in the lounge or with a collection of tables in a village hall, the recreation of warfare in all its various forms is the goal of wargaming. It seems to be an innate drive in most males to challenge other males to some sort of competition. Wargaming is one way of channelling this and it is such good fun!

Essentially, the wargamer is intelligent, creative, resourceful, able to deal with threatening situations and given to taking chances at every given opportunity... Shame this isn't in real life, but what the hell, life is what you make it! He is intelligent when writing rules, creative when making buildings, resourceful when commanding an understrength army against overwhelming odds, able to cope with attacks from three different angles whilst at the same time suffering an intense artillery barrage coming in from an unseen enemy, whilst mounting a three-pronged assault on a range of hills impassable to the average goat, and he rolls multi-sided dice like there's no tomorrow!

But this is the hobby that we all know and love so well.

I'm new to all this and don't know where to start OK. So you haven't got a clue where to begin? What do you play? What do you need? Where on earth do you start? It's up to you really, but I'll give you a brief run down of what it'll take to begin your new hobby.

1. Decide what type of gaming to play

Do you want the realism of a tabletop game, with scenery, models and figures? Or do you want to play on that new PC you took a mortgage out on recently? Or maybe you want to play boardgames? The choice certainly depends on your circumstances, but again it's really down to personal choice.

PC gamers should go to their nearest computer store and pick up several strategy wargames and a couple of real-time combat sims and blob-out infront of the PC for the next few weeks, then maybe pick up the rule books and learn how to play the games properly! Boardgamers should do similar, but are advised not to sit infront of their PC as their opponent will take advantage of this and move pieces in secret. This is a guaranteed mistake and you are not advised to carry this out. But it's good to encourage your opponent to do so, if you can... So that leaves us with tabletop gaming, which is what the rest of this list will cover.

2. Decide what period to play

Stick to one period for the time being as you'll need loads of figures, buildings, scenery, a table, paints, rules and so on (unless you're rich, have a lot of time on your hands or you're feeling adventurous).

So you can choose historical, science-fiction or fantasy. These are then broken down further - historical can be any period of warfare since, well, that nastly little caveman hit an even nastier little caveman on the head and it escalated into what we know today as a war; science-fiction can be anything in the future and is usually set in space, on another planet or on earth where things have advanced a little bit; and fantasy can be any place in time, but has to involve at least three other species that are unlike any we know on earth today, such as Goblins, Elves and Giant Fleas!

3. Choose your figure scale

Anything from 6mm through to 35mm are the usual scales. The larger the scale, the smaller the battles played, as a rule. Your choice of scale does depend on what figure scale you use - many gamers field one figure as representing anything from 5 to 50 men, and the larger the figure scale, the larger the actual scale you can use or the larger the battle you can play. One figure representing one man is ideal for skirmish games, such as 20mm World War Two. Division or larger scale games use 6mm or 10mm, with one block of figures representing a Company or a Battalion. Any combination can be used though, it just depends on what scale you feel comfortable with. Remember that whatever the scale, the figures will need painting. Larger figures, although easier to handle, require more detail.

4. Find an opponent

The choice of game type, period, scale and so on will be influenced by your friends, or lack of them! You must agree on what to play before you go diving in there and spend your life savings on a sackful of lumpy metal, otherwise you'll (a) be lonely playing by yourself (this allows for more unfair play, as you're likely to cheat when no-ones watching!), (b) you'll have to recruit your mum/girlfriend/wife which is never a good idea because, to your absolute and total humiliation, they'll beat you everytime! Trust me, I've done this before and it hurts... (but it does leave them on an emotional high for two and a half hours afterwards - just enough time for you to encourage them to do the washing-up, if you dare!), or (c) you'll have to place an ad. This is OK if you're also looking for sexy contacts or don't mind meeting potential serial killers with a passion for desperate, lonely wargamers! You have been warned.

5. Rules

Believe it or not, you'll need to play your wargame using a set of rules. Most gamers use rules that are commercially available.

6. Scenery

This gives the 'look' of the table. You'll need loads of trees, as many as you can afford, which'll be three if you're as well off financially as I was when I first started - but it's a start. Remember that every forest started off as an empty field! Hills, buildings, roads, streams/rivers, fences, hedges, walls... Incidentally, scenery often will cost you more than the figures and models that make up your army - but unless you play on featureless desert or snowbound expanses, you'll need lots of it. Again, the larger the scale, the more it'll cost.

7. Miscellaneous Items

These are items you just can't be without - dice (the quantity and types you need will depend on the rules you use - anything from four to twenty sided), a tape measure or ruler, a toolbox or two, every cardboard box you can get your hands on, paint brushes, glue, sandpaper, files... And once you start, you'll keep your eyes open for any item that could possibly be used in a modelling session to create that realistic bit of scenery! I've used shredded wheat for straw roofs, spaghetti for wooden castle walls and posts, I even considered using this strange-looking cabbage as vegetation but remembered how awful rotting cabbage smells after a short amount of time (it would enhance the gaming experience, however, as it would simulate the smell of rotting corpses, but that could arouse suspicions with the neighbours! They might think you met up with that serial killer after all!).

I'm convinced (or not, as the case may be!) So that's about it! Are you convinced? I hope this has been of some help, even if it's to confirm that you should take up hand-gliding or surfing instead! Wargaming - you either love it or hate it (if you hate it, get off the site 'cos it's meant for wargamers!)

Rulesets

  • AK47 Republic (Postwar)
  • Battlefront WWII (WWII)
  • Bayonets and Ideology (SCW)
  • Blitzkrieg Commander (WWII)
  • Command Decision (WWII)
  • Conquerors and Kings (Ancients-Medieval)
  • Contemptible Little Armies (WWI)
  • Crossfire (WWII)
  • DBA (Ancients-Medieval)
  • DBM (Ancients-Medieval)
  • DBR (Rennaisance)
  • DBX (Ancients-Medieval)
  • Dwarf Wars (Fantasy)
  • Eight Hundred Fighting Englishmen (Colonial)
  • Epic Armageddon (Sci-Fi)
  • Ever Victorious Armies (19th Century)
  • Fire and Fury (ACW)
  • Flames of War (WWII)
  • Hey You in the Jail! (Westerns)
  • Hordes of the Things (Fantasy)
  • I Ain't Been Shot Mum (WWII)
  • In the Name of Glory (Napoleonics)
  • In the Heart of Africa (Colonials)
  • John Company (Colonials)
  • Lincoln's War (ACW)
  • Lord of the Rings (Fantasy)
  • The Men of Company B (Vietnam)
  • Mordheim (Fantasy)
  • Panzer Marsch (WWII)
  • Patrols in the Sudan (Colonial)
  • Piquet (19th Century)
  • Poor Bloody Infantry (WWII)
  • Principles of War (17th Cent.-WWI)
  • Rapid Fire (WWII)
  • Regiment of Foote (ECW)
  • Red Actions (RCW)
  • Senso (Samurai)
  • Shako (Napoleonics)
  • Spearhead (WWII)
  • Square Bashing (WWI)
  • The Sword and the Flame (Colonial)
  • Trench Storm (WWI)
  • Trench Wars (WWI)
  • Triumph of the Will (RCW, SCW)
  • Warhammer 40k (Sci-Fi)
  • Warhammer Ancient Battles (Ancients-Medieval)
  • Warhammer English Civil War (ECW)
  • Warhammer Fantasy Battle (Fantasy)
  • Warmaster (Fantasy)
  • Brikwars, a freely available wargame, built using the customizable and adaptable environment of Lego.

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Manufacturers

  • Battlefront 15mm WWII
  • Britannia Miniatures 20mm WWI, WWII, Vietnam
  • Copplestone Castings 28mm Colonials, RCW, CCW, Sci-Fi
  • Old Glory 25mm Ancients, Medieval, Rennaisance, ECW, League of Augsburg, Seven Years War, AWI, Napoleonics, ACW, Colonials, WWI, WWII
  • Peter Pig 15mm Ancients, Rennaissance, ECW, ACW, Colonials, WWI, RCW, SCW, WWII, Moderns, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
  • SHQ 20mm WWII, Vietnam, Gulf War
  • Wargames Foundry 28mm Ancients, Medieval, Rennaissance, ECW, Thirty Years War, League of Augsburg, Seven Years War, Napoleonics, Crimean War, Colonials, WWI, WWII, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
  • Xyston Miniatures 15mm Ancients
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