One Hour Wargames

Like a few others in the wargaming blogosphere I've got a copy of Neil Thomas' "One Hour Wargames". At first glance there's not much here for the established wargamer. That first glance would be wrong. Some delightfully simple yet effective sets of rules covering ancients to WW2 which deliver enjoyable games of an hour or less that are actually very satisfying. As a wargamer of long standing I have inevitably tinkered with them and added a few bells and whistles to some of the sets presented here, but they all play just fine "out of the box". And of course this book makes the perfect introduction to ab initio wargamers. In true Bruce Quarrie or Donald Featherstone style a copy of the book, a few boxes of Airfix soldiers and you are away!

Anyway, I have been mostly trying these out with my 15mm English Civil War collection, all based up in a semi-WRG sense (as I got into 15mm ECW via one of Peter Colbeck's campaign weekends where we were using a DBA variant). A few fun games led to some "enhancements" so I now have some additional troop types in shock cavalry (Lobsters) and artillery, allowances for fortifications and options to withdraw from melee (which is a risky thing to try), minimal changes written in the style and level of complexity of the standard rules so they add (IMHO) to the experience without slowing the game down or making it too complex. Alas no piccies as yet since I can't find my green cloth and so the battles are being fought out over a dramatic sea scape adorned with terrain features (looks a bit like Somerset during the floods!)