wargaming advice

[joethelawyer]

hi guys. i am dm'ing my group into new territory. we are going to be doing a series of wargaming sessions. the last time i did that was about 20 yrs ago with the old battlesystem rules. i looked at the miniatures handbook and found it similar to the battlesystem rules, or at least familiar enough that i can figure it out quickly. i will likely start out with a few smaller battles then move on up to the big ones, the war to take back the shield lands from iuz ultimately.

anyhow, does anyone use any system they consider to be better than the miniatures handbook?

any and all advice on how to run the tabletop battles is greatly appreciated. as far as materials available to me though, i am poretty much limited to homemade cardboard pieces.

lastly, please give me all of your tricks, spells uses, strategies and tactics that anyone has used while playing. i am a blank slate here, though i do have a fair smattering of knowledge of military history in the real world to be able to relate to.

thanks in advance everyone...

joe

 

[QuaziquestGM]

Get a laser pointer for line of sight

Mark 8 ft of white string at 1 inch intervals so you won't have to count squares.

see if you can find a light weight salad bowl nearly the diameter of a 40 ft burst....

 

[joethelawyer]

that's great practical advice. thank you.

if anyone has any ideas on how to effectively use spellcasters/spels and creatively use magic in general during the battles, or can point out some good sourcebooks on the matter, please let me know that too.


thanks,

joe

 

[The Red Priest]

Most miniature war games use inches instead of squares. This way, all you'd need would be rulers and/or measuring tape. There's a lot more freedom of movement when using a distance-based, rather than squares-based system. The original Chainmail rules are easy to learn and use the distance system and is available in pdf from Paizo for $4. There's also a d20 version of Chainmail available from them for $4 as well. Being as it's updated for d20, I'm guessing that it might use squares instead of inches. Dunno about the d20 Chainmail, but the basing for the the original is very easy and designed for individual figures. So, theoretically, you could use real minis, chess pieces, coins, dice or cardboard figures for the combatants.

Some other good options are Hordes of Things, DBA and Field of Glory. The later two would require you working out your own magic system (but, how cool is that?); Hordes already incorporates magic. Hordes and DBA are easy peasy to learn and you can play an entire army battle in just about an hour. Field of Glory is a little more complex, but also plays fairly quickly and it has the added benefit of kicking all kinds of ass.

There are also a ton of free miniatures rules available for download. All very googleable!

 

[TerraDave]

Minitures Handbook presumes a 1=1 scale. D20 versions of mini rules for a more traditional scale, say 1=10, are strangely absent in the otherwise "glutted" D20/3e landscape.

Hence, I don't have much that is usefull. There are alternatives for mass battles, like malhavoc's Cry Havoc, but they have tend to be a little (or more then a little) quirky. (ie in Cry Havoc the scalling is just wacked).