Sunday 27 August 2023

The perfect wargaming rules, WRG third edition? Posted by Vince Cholewa, 24 August 2023

The perfect wargaming rules, WRG third edition? This evening I finished Charles Grant’s 50-year-old classic, The Ancient War Game. He wrote this gem in Appendix III—The ‘Ancient’ Rules of the War Games Research Group. What was your earliest edition? Mine was fifth. Pics please 😊

“Three editions of the Research Group Rules have been published, together with occasional amendments and they have now been extended to include the period 1000 BC to 1000 AD, the latter taking them into the early middle ages, but this does not affect the period with which we are concerned, and at the moment the Rules are as close to being faultless as one could wish, allowing for the fact that everyone has his own private ideas. It might be said that in my own group, of which I have already spoken, they have been tested as well as they have been anywhere, with one game per week for nearly three years. Occasionally a situation will arise where one has to stop and think but a little thought and consultation invariably finds a solution from the printed page and all goes on. Certainly any improvement could be only trifling and the ancient wargamer has much for which to thank the Research Group.” 

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  • John Edmundson
    5th for me too.
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  • John Garvey
    While 5th edition was the first set of WRG ancient rules I played, it wasn’t the first set of ancients, nor WRG. I originally played WW2 (Airfix, etc), first using the old Airfix set, but quickly moving to the WRG 1973 set. Later I got into ancients via LotR, using a set published by MILGAMEX, which had a LotR supplement. These rules were remarkably modern (though I didn’t know at the time), and I only started playing WRG 5th because everyone else was.
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    • John Edmundson
      John Garvey Yes, 1:76 WWII was my introduction to wargaming too, with home made rules, then WRG 1973 like you. Also Airfix Napoleonics with Quarrie, and WWII naval with Fletcher Pratt. Those were the days!!!
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    • Vincent Cholewa
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      +2
      John Garvey my first ever rules were Brigadier Young and Lieutenant-Colonel Lawford's, "Charge! Or how to play war games" using Airfix ACW because I thought they would be much the same as SYW!
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    • Andrew Jarman
      John Garvey I played 5th, 6th & 7th. You could not get me to play them ever again. DBM made sure that these legacy rules belong to history.
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  • Ion A Dowman
    I had copies of the 5th and 6th ed. WRG rule set and found them frankly unplayable. You'd spend hours playing a three or four turns, most of that time your nose buried in the rule book plusing and minusing to determine combat and morale outcomes. 7th ed was a vast improvement upon playability, but, as with the earlier editions, there remained a huge margin for familiarity with the rules, especially as some were never really all that clear. The attempt to keep costs down came at the expense of comprehensibility. A rules lawyer's dream. And a nightmare for anyone who didn't play WRG7 at least once a week.
    I thought very highly in principle of the DBM game system that succeeded WRG7, and for several years it was about the only war game I was playing. But, what with rules tinkering and the sharp practice one seemed too often to encounter with 'ancients' war gamers, I found after two or three years that win, lose, or draw, I wasn't enjoying the games at all. It wasn't just boredom; there was something else. As for DBR, it is my belief they were prematurely published, and never fully developed. It was not helped that DBR in particular was not designed for the type of tournament 'competition' that seems to be such an attraction for a certain type of war gamer. Although I've played in a few, I have never understood the point of 'competitions'.
    I still think the DB# game systems admirable (though still requiring some small tweaks), but just about everyone I know has moved on. So have I.
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    • Ted Snodgrass
      Ion A Dowman What rules have you moved onto or have you moved onto different periods? Our local club had a go at Mortem et Gloriam (MeG) ancients rules. They turned out in practise to be just as complex as DBMM by the time you accounted for all the possible permutations, but slower moving due to our unfamiliarity with them. It may be that if you want a satisfying level of detail in a set of rules there is an irreducible level of complexity and if you don't play often enough to keep on top of them you will struggle.
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    • Ion A Dowman
      I still have my 10-11th century Byzantines, and some historical opponents - actually one army that might be used as Bulgars or Abasgians (Georgians). They occasionally see action using the Portable Wargames game system.
      But really, 'Ancients' or Mediaevals were always for me sideline compared with horse and musket or WW2.
      Encirclement or Breakout
      ARCHDUKEPICCOLO.BLOGSPOT.COM
      Encirclement or Breakout
      Encirclement or Breakout
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  • John Carr
    I have it too. How can you tell what edition it is?

  • Phil Malthus
    4th Edition, just before the addendum working EHC in
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  • Ted Snodgrass
    Vincent Cholewa Have you had a look at the reprints of old wargame rules put out by John Curry? Mighty Ape have a whole lot listed:
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  • John Curry Books at Mighty Ape NZ
    MIGHTYAPE.CO.NZ
    John Curry Books at Mighty Ape NZ
    John Curry Books at Mighty Ape NZ
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  • Michael Stonyer
    4th Edition for Starkey and Stonyer
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  • Andrew Bennetts
    Top contributor
    Not quite “Snap” but I picked this up on TM following a tip from Ben Vartok. I came across a copy in our local library back in the ‘70’s, regularly borrowed it and it was instrumental in developing my interest in the hobby
  • Vincent Cholewa
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    +2
    Andrew Bennetts this was the second war gaming book I read. The first was Charge! Both borrowed from the Brooklyn suburban branch of the Wellington Public Library.


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