Andy Callan is getting a lot of positive reviews for the free set of War of the Roses rules bundled with Wargames Illustrated this month, punningly titled Never Mind the Billhooks. I bought my copy today and I think they look great, apart from the figure count which is a bit steep for me, unless I use 15mm figures. Anyway, Mr Callan has written quite a few sets of innovative rules over the years, one of which is his Noddy simple rules for American Civil War riverine wargaming, which you can find here:
These are just what I am looking for, so I will give them a tweak for 1/2400th scale and try them out on my river terrain with my own gunboats and ironclads. I really like the simplicity of the system but also the way in which there is a lot packed into a what is essentially a couple of sides of A4. A couple of quotes sum up what I like about Andy's approach:
''What was needed though, was a set of rules that would reflect the slap bang wallop of the real thing''.
''It's easy to see where Noddy comes into it - measurements are in inches, only one type of dice is used, ships and guns are classified into a minimal number of categories and chance plays a major role in the proceedings...''.
I think they would be particularly good for games at the club, where I can act as an umpire with one or two players a side. All I need to do is type them up, make some minor edits for scale, add some illustrations and create some ship profiles, then it's Full Steam Ahead!
Those are great rules we have been playing them for years and having tons of fun
ReplyDeleteNot knowing that they were available online I typed the whole set into my blog a while back (credit to Andy, of course). I also made ship data cards that were a little more graphically advanced follow this link if you would like to take a look https://antonswargame.blogspot.com/2020/02/acw-naval-action-rules-and-templates.html
Hi Anton,
DeleteThose templates are really good. I'm looking forward to trying the rules out but will convert them to cm rather than inches for 1/2400th scale.
Hello there Jim,
ReplyDeleteMr Callan’s rules are always very well thought out and play superbly. I had a few games with these ‘back in the day’ and they are great fun to use. Recently he has written a number of rules supporting both the paper soldiers books by Peter Dennis and others as well as for the WoFun range of figures. He also wrote a very nifty set of WSS rules using Jenga blocks!
All the best,
DC
Hi David,
DeleteI remember playing a couple of games with his DAIS rules years ago, straight out of the magazine article and with cut out paper figures from Standard Games. Funny how things go round in circles?
I actually played in a competition that used these rules back in the 1980s. I won a prize for getting a ship sunk by a spar torpedo. For 20 years it was my only wargames trophy :-D
ReplyDeleteBlimey! You've convinced me to give them a go!
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