Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Greetings,

I was just curious for those how have played some of the Osprey Wargaming series, which is your favorite book and why? I am excluding the Osprey Hardcovers, and just focusing on the "Blue Book" series.

In general, I really love the Osprey Wargaming series as I always walk away with a new appreciation for a mechanic, genre, or some other food for thought. Plus, they are a very affordable way to get into new genres and games.

I have played Men of Bronze, Broken Legions, and Poseidon's Warriors the most. However, the three games that have influenced me the most are Dux Bellorum, Dragon Rampant, and Ronin. Absolute Emperor also was an interesting read to me as it seemed to mirror many of my preferences as a designer.

So, how about you?

Lion Rampant was a fresh take, and plays battles out quickly and easily. I enjoyed the tight focus of the game - Dragon Rampant was fun, but felt a little broader and more messy. Pikeman's Lament also good.

Zona Alfa hits the mood of the source material perfectly. Dangerous adventures where even the supernatural isn't as scary as other humans.

I maintain that if you read it through, Rogue Stars is much easier to play than its "tables of modifiers" reputation. I like how it handles different damage type better than, say, AE Bounty. Character creation is a blast, and it plays well. Really needs a tighter rewrite and more campaign rules.

Sorry, but I've not played Men of Bronze

 Momotaro wrote:


Sorry, but I've not played Men of Bronze

Ha ha ha. Yeah, I expect it is not going to be everyone's favorite. More likely their least favorite!

No, it's not that at all! Friends and I have a long-standing plan to paint up a force and run a game. It's in with all the other plans though...

Don't play it as much now, but Fighting Sail is a joy to flick through nonetheless.

I think the original Gaslands (which is now a big HC, so kinda disqualified) might be my fave of the "Blue Books." As for why, well... lots of reasons but it's a solid game and you can mod Hot Wheels and make pew-pew-BOOM noises.

I've read a few others, and some I really want to try out, some just went on the shelf. Of the ones I want to try out but haven't had a chance yet, Fighting Sail and En Garde/Ronin are probably at the top, because I want to play with boats (for Fighting Sail) and the combat system in En Garde/Ronin sounded interesting.

Edit:
Duh. A Billion Suns is an Osprey Blue Book. Really dig that game. I initially was expecting more of just a space pew-pew, but the way it wound up being far more about contracts and credit/resource management made it an instant hit with me and my group, and got me to dig out a bunch of old starship models.

I played Dragon Rampart mostly, Gaslands a few times and also played Broken Legions once.

Dragon Rampart is pretty cool, but I think the moral can be a bit frustrating for me, plus the whole reduced model advantage.

I'm not sure how popular it is but I really enjoyed Ronin.

The really small skirmish scale made it easy to collect, and I loved the 'one on one' type combat rules that used strategy in terms of how much you attacked/defended to determine an outcome. Think it really captured the period piece well.

Gaslands is so good. I honestly didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I also have a soft spot for Rogue Stars even though I only managed one game of it.

I sadly haven't had a chance to give Dragon Rampant a try yet.

I've had many a pleasant evening putting a Kurosawa soundtrack on the stereo as background noise to a solid game of Ronin.

I've yet to check out Gaslands but everything about it points towards it being ace.

Gaslands or Devil's Run: Route 666 as the best 'mad max/combat cars' type game then guys ?

 Pacific wrote:
I'm not sure how popular it is but I really enjoyed Ronin.

The really small skirmish scale made it easy to collect, and I loved the 'one on one' type combat rules that used strategy in terms of how much you attacked/defended to determine an outcome. Think it really captured the period piece well.

A few years back I noticed it on the shelf in Waterstones. Flicked through it and decided to return to the hobby after over a decades absence...

I love Ronin a lot as it is simple to play and reminds me of Seven Samurai and 13 Assassins. Osprey even added a mystical, Asian creature twist to the game on the website. I play Ronin and Bushido as each is different but similar.

One of my 'hobby goals' is to get that unarmoured Samurai set and have them as a bunch of Ronin defending some peasant folk from pirates. I think that should be quite achievable with that ruleset! And would be cool making some kind of campaign that follows the film.

Upon searching actually it looks like Footsore miniatures have released a 'seven ronin' set that looks extremely cool!

SamusDrake wrote:

 Pacific wrote:
I'm not sure how popular it is but I really enjoyed Ronin.

The really small skirmish scale made it easy to collect, and I loved the 'one on one' type combat rules that used strategy in terms of how much you attacked/defended to determine an outcome. Think it really captured the period piece well.

A few years back I noticed it on the shelf in Waterstones. Flicked through it and decided to return to the hobby after over a decades absence...

That's really cool.. it's definitely some beautiful art on the cover, and the book is well presented.

Gaslands easily

Thanks!

I shall take a look..

 Easy E wrote:
Greetings,

I was just curious for those how have played some of the Osprey Wargaming series, which is your favorite book and why? I am excluding the Osprey Hardcovers, and just focusing on the "Blue Book" series.

In general, I really love the Osprey Wargaming series as I always walk away with a new appreciation for a mechanic, genre, or some other food for thought. Plus, they are a very affordable way to get into new genres and games.

I have played Men of Bronze, Broken Legions, and Poseidon's Warriors the most. However, the three games that have influenced me the most are Dux Bellorum, Dragon Rampant, and Ronin. Absolute Emperor also was an interesting read to me as it seemed to mirror many of my preferences as a designer.

So, how about you?

I've played Pikeman's Lament, Zona Alfa, Outremer and Ronin. Out of the four, Zona Alfa is easily the best in my opinion. Very solid game engine, easily tweakable and moddable to suit any group's needs, good combination of PvE and PvP so that you're always concentrated on keeping your squad alive (although we found the base AI rules to be a little bit on the easy side - adding more monster variants and buffing their stats is great in simulating real fight for survival). The game is very dynamic, everything is relatively fragile so you have to spend a lot of time thinking your positioning through and executing flanking maneuvers. It has admittedly shaky balancing at times, but it's almost impossible from my experience to find tabletop wargame with the balance being at least somewhere in the "acceptable" field. Overall, solid ruleset, with some support from the author including downloadable scenarios and more weapon profiles. Outremer was decisively in the "fine" department: not bad, but not good enough to warrant becoming my mainstay game. I did not like Ronin and Pikeman's Lament.

Gaslands - by default of not having played anything else they've publish...

Another shout for Gaslands here!

The other titles are generally games that I already have a game to cover that period or genre (ADLG for historical and KoW for fantasy mass battle).
Sadly I don't have time to play several similar games.

Dragon Rampant for me.Such an excellent fantasy port of an excellent set of rules. Fast and fun.

Other honorable mentions..
Of Gods and Mortals was a really cool port of Song of Blades mechanics with added rules for dirties and such. Fast and fun.

I greatly enjoyed playing the free ruleset In The Emperor's Name, and it's a regret of mine that I still haven't played Osprey's "In Her Majesties Name". Even though I bought all 3 books.