[Review] One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas

Nine rule reviews for the price of one! Here we review the excellent "One Hour Wargames" by Neil Thomas.
Available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback: amzn.to/3bGrCTA

[@Maxyshadow]

If for no other reason I'd recommend this book for the 30 scenarios! Randomly using them is such a bonus for your war gaming. I add random terrain as well but that's all up to you. In fact I think you'll never need a to buy another scenario book. And I've owned so many.

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

Amen brother. Recent experience demonstrated that, when used for skirmish level gaming, you really need to add a lot more scatter terrain. All that empty space is death on individually based rule sets.

[@Maxyshadow]

@@TheJoyofWargaming Ha ha oh yes I bet!

[@ShizukuSeiji]

I agree the scenarios in this book are fantastic; like the rules themselves they distil military problems right down to the basics. Our group has played several of them using 20mm scale plastic Napoleonics and every game has been great, and nail-bitingly close. I couldn't play his WWII rules because I don't think his basic system of 15 hit points works with armoured units but we play a lot of Nap games with them and they are great. We are about to embark on a campaign using them and the old Waddingtons "Campaign" board game.

[@williamboyle5531]

Love the rules, the only rules I use for convention games. I like your channel, keep doing what your doing.

[@WARdROBEPlaysWWII]

Thank you, I’m going to add this to a video series I’m working on.

[@NealDurando]

Really nice, rundown.

[@jerrymail]

Thanks for the review ! I was looking for something like this to play my Irregular 1870 and ACW 6mm miniatures. Most of the time, I have no time to read and learn complex rules, to play them and... I'm lacking space too.

[@Rob-nq6br]

Great stuff! Sold me on a copy for sure.

[@charleslatora5750]

thanks. another book I didn't know I needed/wanted.

[@charleslatora5750]

Have a hex n counter game. Mayfair Games. Game company out of business. 1 counter sheet +- okay. 2nd sheet, half kind of usable. Other half misaligned. Alot. Redo some or all counters? Or get some 1/2" bases, 1 figure, paint color reflects what it is. Troop, vehicle... Paint pen write counter #'s atk, def, etc on painted base.

[@Zikekiel]

Hi, Do you know roughly how many strips of Irregular Miniatures 6mm i could fit to a 40mm by 40mm base? Been trying to work it out!

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

That depends on what 6mm figures you're using. Irregular has different strip widths depending on the kind of unit. They offer strips in close, loose and open order where each figure takes up 3.5mm, 5mm, or 7.5mm width respectively. Infantry come six to a strip, and cavalry four to a strip. Infantry strips are about 5mm deep and mounted are about 12mm deep. Full details here: www.irregularminiatures.co.uk/indexes/6mmcontents.htm#6mm%20notes Hope that helps! Oh, and you can always email Iain - he's very responsive to questions like this. Might take a day or two, but his customer service is excellent.

[@Zikekiel]

@@TheJoyofWargaming Thanks, that was really helpful.

[@oghma_EM]

I’ve been looking at those.

[@captainnolan5062]

Can you post your cheat sheet for us?

[@grimguygames449]

Does this system accommodate different scales?

[@michamalinowski8015]

Wait wasn't you complaint about Ravenfeast that is was too simplistic and hold handy with it's own scenarios? :P I like the idea of using a 3x3 foot board and having a fast-playing game with many scenarios to keep things fresh. But I kinda feel there are not interesting decisions to be made. There is no command limitation, alternating activation, morale or rock-paper-scisors mechanics, bo it feels like an attritional warfare game where you move until you can concentrate as much firepower on one stand as there is no reduction of capabilities with casulties, so you need to eliminate the enemy as fast as you can, an you alternate just blasting away and see who dies first. The WW2 variant feels more flavorfoul with indirect fire, tanks and some form of rock-paper-scissors mechanics. The 30 scenarios seem a cool, but thats a lot o playtesting. Wonder how playable they are becuase many times I've seen really broken scenarios where in two turns you just find out how to break a game because the author did not playtest something- like the fact it's almost immposible to reach the objective in a given timeframe. But as an intro to wargaming- yea I can see the merit of something that is fast to play on a kitchen table.

[@iansmith9762]

Good video

[@michaelwhite8031]

Can you do a napoleonic game in this style ?

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

Absolutely! Neil includes subsystems for every era. I've even got a black powder game here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqelgqqbfbdjaM0

[@supertrooper0264]

Where can we find the cheat sheets?

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

I knocked mine together in Word, but I'd have to do it again because that file is long gone.