My order from On Military Matters came in the other day which contained my copy of One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas. The book aims to provide a simple and engaging wargame solution for those who are pressed for time, money, space or a combination of the three. Like all of his books, the author’s suggests in this book that wargaming need not be complicated in order to be accurate or fun.
The Book
The book starts out with an introductory chapter which the author puts forward the goals of the book. The next 9 chapters outline a time period in military history and provides a very simple set of wargame rules to in which to game that time period. He sets some arbitrary limitations on the rules in that there will be only 4 unit types and not more than 6 units on each side. The rules are to be played on a 3X3 wargame battlefield.
The game turn is played in the following sequence.
- Move where the player is allowed to move any or all of his units. Units move forward in a straight line but the player may make up to a 45 degree turn at the beginning and/or at the end of the unit’s move.
- Shoot: Any units in range of an eligible target (to the front and 45 degrees to the left or right of the shooter) may shoot.
- Melee: Any units in contact with an enemy may melee. Note that only the attacker fights in the player’s turn.
For shooting or melee, the attacker will roll a die and the result is the number of hits scored. A unit that takes 15 or more hits is eliminated. The result can be modified by armor or terrain. Usually this will reduce the result by half round up. It is unclear if armor and terrain modifiers “stack” but I would think not. Units that are contacted in the flank or rear take double damage.
The periods covered are Ancient, Dark Ages, Medieval, Pike and Shot, Horse and Musket (Napoleonic) , Rifle and Saber (European 19th Century) ACW, Machine Age (1900-1939) and WW2/Modern. Each chapter gives an introduction to the time period and a synopsis of the units of the game. The rules are tweaked to support the period being played. For instance, in the Ancient and Medieval periods, hand to hand combat is the deciding factor. Once you reach the Horse and Musket era, infantry may no longer charge into hand to hand combat. Only mounted can. As the time line progresses, cavalry becomes even weaker and firepower reigns supreme. In the ACW rules, there is no hand to hand combat. It’s all shooting, even for cavalry. This is deliberate to show that there were very few instances of pitched hand to hand fights in these eras.
There are 30 scenarios. This is where the book shines. These scenarios are based around the 3 foot table top but could be used for any game system with little modification. The scenarios outline the opposing forces (3, 4 or 6 units per side) and the objectives. Sometimes it will be a pitched battle. Others will be such engagements as river crossings or seizing a vital objective. Stuff like that. There are also special rules for elite troops. There is a short chapter at the end of the book on solo wargaming. It includes ideas for chance cards.
Impressions
At it’s core, the rules are quite simple. Perhaps a little too simple. 4 unit types is very limiting. You could argue that bodies of troops might perform the same in game terms but but each bod may represent a different amount of troops. For instance, in the Ancient period, a body of Roman heavy infantry might represent 2400 men while Macedonian pike phalangites might represent 3000 or more men and Celtic warbands might represent 4000 men and so forth. There are no rules for elephants or chariots in the classical era.
This game is clearly an introductory game and would be ideal to get a younger child perhaps 6 years old to start gaming. The rules are quite straight forward and leave little for interpretation. You move. You shoot. You melee. What’s not to love?
Some Ideas to Illustrate the flexibility of the system
From the periods from ancient through pike and shot, the Author has defined a variety of troop types that with some minor modifications could provide a little more interest to the game.
The heavy infantry generally rolls a die and adds 2 to the combat die. Cavalry and archers add nothing. Armor cuts the results in half. Crossbows and Longbows add 2 to the shooting die while skirmishers deduct 2.
So, here it is:
Legionares +2 Melee, Armored, 1/2 damage when attacking mounted, 6” Move
Hoplites Armored, No armor from flank attacks, 6” Move
Phalangites +2 Melee, Armored, No armor from flank attacks, 6” move
Warbands +2 Melee, 1/2 damage when attacking mounted, 9” move
Peltasts 1/2 damage when attacking mounted, 1 die Missile with ammo depletion on a 3 or less, 9” move
Skirmishers -2 missile, -2 melee, 9” move
Archers -2 die melee
Light cavalry -2 Missile 12” move
Cavalry 10” move
Catafract Armored, 10” move
Not sure how to do elephants or chariots.
Posted by acarhj 
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