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This one has been on my mind for a while and I want to get it out there. While I have Neomath, the thing is that I have a lot of others minis outside of my usual games and I have a lot of friends of various skill levels that aren't wargamers..I feel bad that they are being left out when I have these whole collections and they can't really interact with them because the rules are either very complex, bloated, or just straight up change too often.

I want to create a wargame that is easy to set up, most of the rules can be explained in under 10 minutes, but flexible enough to have depth and character expression.

My key design points are;

• Use only D6s. Maybe D20s, but no specialty dice. They are very common and easy to math out.

• Kitchen sink setting. Very easy to advertise if my friends can play there favorite characters.

• Everything should fit an oversized card. No books, no external rules. Keyword abilities should only be for something very common and initiative, like flying.

• An action economy that's simple and short.

The type of game I am looking are something like Heroscape, but that game has three main things I have issue with. One is the terrain, which I love but it requires alot of set up and I don't want my players waiting 10 minutes for a cool set up, and it can be tedious in digital format, not to mention I have to get the terrain. It's also hexogon which is a problem for big figures, vehicles, and third party terrain. Second are the dice, they are not 1-6 d6s, they are specialty die. Third is the action system. You have four markers that you hide among your cards and activate them as you take turns, but it severely punishes large armies, and you can stack them to one guy.

Not bad, but it does limit design space and takes a considerable amount of time.

I have some hurls that I am not sure about and would like to get some input,

• Grid or Gridless: I am not sure if I should do a grid. Grids are easy to understand and make positioning absolute, but it means I have to consider the maps and what can and can't be. If I do grids, it will be squares.

• Roleplaying elements. How much is too much. I would like to add faction keywords and personality types to express the characters and make benefits to teams.

• How the action economy should go. I am thinking having you have a main action and a secondary action. Big things like movement and attacking are main, while small things like debarking, sidestepping, pushing a button is secondary.

If this sounds like a Wargame equivelent to a Smash Bros, it basically is.

For a simple wargame that non-wargamers can grok and that can use minis you already have, try Song of Blades and Heroes.
Use whatever minis you want in the setting of your choosing. Rules are incredibly simple, all measuring is handled with 3 standard sticks and a game takes 25-40 minutes to play.

The game is almost entirely playable off of the 1 page QRF. If you pack too many special rules on each character, it can get a bit confusing, but in general, you can make quite a characterful warband with 2 stats and a couple special rules that are easy to keep track of. There's a free warband builder online that is easy to use.

Also, gaining multiple actions is decided each activation with a push-your-luck activation roll (with a chance of turnover) that makes every miniature activation count.

Our club has been playing it off and on for 15 years and it continues to be a good time.

The only thing it doesn't have is a roleplaying element, but it does have a very nice campaign system (kind of like Mordheim) in the "Song of Deed and Glory" supplement. If you really want a traditional RPG you can move your Song of Blades characters into the "Tales of Blades and Heroes" RPG by the same author with minimal effort.

Seriously, give it a shot. It's like 8 bucks on Wargame vault.

If you click the "Campaigns" tab here: https://www.chicagoskirmishwargames.com/blog/ there are a couple of SBH campaigns you can look at.

There are plenty of options for rules-lite wargaming that aren't tied to a specific line of minis or setting. Let me know if you're looking for a particular setting/scope/genre. Most of the games our club plays are like that.

Lasty, there there are a good number of options for wargaming with non-wargamers via board games. A few to look at.
-Anything based on the "Commands and Colors" system" packs alot of the wargaming experience into a board game. Most of them are listed here: https://www.commandsandcolors.net/, but there's also Memoir 44, and an upcoming "Battle of HOth" that use the same system.
-The many variations of Risk.
-Heroclix.

Thanks! I'll defiantly take a look into it.

Also I love Heroclix, but I wouldn't call that simple. Has a lot of memorization of powers and each life has its own statline.

Risk is more a boardgame than a wargame. More in line with Root which me and my friends are currently playing. Would always be up to play some Risk in the future tho.

 NivNeos wrote:
Thanks! I'll defiantly take a look into it.

Also I love Heroclix, but I wouldn't call that simple. Has a lot of memorization of powers and each life has its own statline.

Risk is more a boardgame than a wargame. More in line with Root which me and my friends are currently playing. Would always be up to play some Risk in the future tho.

You can go play axis and allies. That's wargame light.

And if you don't want to have friends anymore you can break out Diplomacy.

 NivNeos wrote:
Thanks! I'll defiantly take a look into it.

Also, have you checked out "One Page Rules"? They're even a touch simpler than Song of Blades. Though they're know for their 40k subsitute Grimdark future, they also have a fantasy version "Age of Fantasy" and small skirmish versions of both. It's all free, the army builder is probably the best I've ever used and they have so many army lists that almost anything you can think of is already available. We also play quite a bit

Also I love Heroclix, but I wouldn't call that simple. Has a lot of memorization of powers and each life has its own statline.

Risk is more a boardgame than a wargame. More in line with Root which me and my friends are currently playing. Would always be up to play some Risk in the future tho.

Cool. Definitely try Song of Blades. I've taught it to so may people and even non-wargamers pick it up pretty well.

Also, have you checked out "One Page Rules"(OPR)? Their games are even a touch simpler than Song of Blades. Though they're know for their 40k subsitute Grimdark future, they also have a fantasy version "Age of Fantasy" and small skirmish versions of both. It's all free, the army builder is probably the best I've ever used and they have so many army lists that almost anything you can think of is already available. We also play quite a bit of OPR stuff at our club as well.

If your friends can grok Root (I still can't) they'd be very good candidates for the Commands and Colors games I mentioned. Many of those games have minis and all have much of the feel of wargame though they are on a board. Of course they don't make use of the minis you already have...

I have checked out OPR, and they are good but the army building is a bit of work. I'm considering it. I've heard of Command and Color and it looks cute .

I'm going to run them down through my ideas and see where I can go from there.

Once again, thank very much.

 NivNeos wrote:
I have checked out OPR, and they are good but the army building is a bit of work. I'm considering it. I've heard of Command and Color and it looks cute .

I'm going to run them down through my ideas and see where I can go from there.

Once again, thank very much.

You're very welcome.

Have you tried the OPR "Army Forge" online builder. It's really dead simple.

If you want to create custom armies it's a chore, but there really are stats already loaded for just about everything.

Good luck wherever you land. Let me know if you need other suggestions, we've been doing the "minis Agnostic" gaming thing since before that term existed!

I actually think the easiest "wargames" to teach people new to wargaming are Dexterity based games.

I am thinking a game like "Flick'em Up" where you are Cowboys and you move and shoot via click mechanics with 1:1 scale terrain. So intuitive that even kids get it, but the basic ideas of moving, shooting, turn-order, etc. all come into play.

To that end, I made a few that use toys for the basic game. Plastic army men and hot wheels cars respectively. I even made a basic naval game that only uses paper templates, but still uses Flick mechanics.


So to summarize:

- Use toys (Plastic toy soldiers, cars, action figures, etc)
- 1:1 scale terrain i.e. whatever you have around the house works (Soda cans, shoes, piles of books, etc)
- Simple mechanics with no barriers to entry, what people have in their homes (i.e basic d6's, Playing cards, pennies, rubber bands, paper clips)