Rules
Ancients
I normally use the excellent ‘To the Strongest’ rules, which use a grid, and allow even large battles to play out in a couple of hours. I also use DBA, DBM and DBMM from the Wargames Research group, or Field of Glory from Osprey, and Sword & Spear. DBA requires only small armies of 40 or so figures, the others are good if you want to fill the table with figures.
In the past, I started with the old Don Featherstone set in Wargames, then used WRG 4th, 5th and 6th. I tried 7th a couple of times but didn't like it. Likewise Armati (which is excellent for Solo games, though, since you have so little control once the game starts). I’ve also used Phil Sabin’s Strategos (latterly Lost Battles) which is true generalship game, though I find it a bit dry and lacking in excitement, and experimented with the rules in Neil Thomas’ book ‘Ancient and Medieval Wargaming’ which is DBA like in its simplicity, though nothing like DBA in mechanics,
I've also written a set myself. It is loosely based on the old WRG 6th edition rules. I got fed up with all the book-keeping and complex charts in these, so I did a bit of maths and produced a set with whole-figure casualty removal using only 6 sided dice which has much the same casualty rates. Then I changed the move sequence to make it semi-simultaneous, and ..... I don't know why I'm telling you all this. If you are interested, have a look. They are fun.
Here's a set of rules for a DBA mini-campaign which I've run a few times
And here's an ancients version of the excellent Battle Cry. With many ideas pinched unashamedly from DBA.
Dark Ages
I have about 150 Vikings, Saxons, Normans and Welsh along with sundry civilians and peasants, plus a Viking boat, to recreate raids and mayhem in the 10th century. These mostly get used these days for Saga games. A great set of skirmish rules. This is a lot of fun - I have my own rule set, which was published a while back in Practical Wargamer, however, it has been improved and speeded up since then. It is suitable for Medieval skirmishes, too.
English Civil War
We've start using For King and Parliament (the ECW version of To the Strongest), which like its parent is fast and decisive and fun. We used to use DBR for these and other Pike & Shot games, but recently have also tried Regiment of Foote (Peter Pig), and Field of Glory:Renaissance. The latter seems pretty good. We used 1644 for a while but found the casualty system too deterministic. We also tried Warhammer ECW but found them a rather messy set - with rather too many rules holes.
18th century
Muskets & Tomahawks or Sharp Practice for French & Indian Wars (the former is quicker). Maurice for larger battles
Napoleonic
I must have tried more rules for this period than any other, and I’m by and large happy with Lasalle for smaller actions and Blucher for big battles. You'll find no less than three sets which I've written here as well.
I started out with Charles Grant's set in the Napoleonic Wargame, moved on to the old WRG set (not the 1685-1845 one, the old one in the red cover), then Quarrie, then Newbury, then the newer WRG 1685-1845 'bang your dead' set (still pretty good I think), tried 'In the Grand Manner' and didn't like it. Napoleon's Battles is OK but I find it hard work and too 'gamey' for my tastes. Volley & Bayonet is excellent for big battles and realistic. Shako is a nice fast set and I use it for Regimental level games. I also have a Fire & Fury variant called L'Ordre Mixte which I wrote and which works well. Grand Armee is very good for amry level games - although a bit slow, and Lasalle is good although it has some anomalies which make it less good than Shako. I’ve also tried Piquet:Field of Battle 3 which is great for solo play; not sure about it for face to face games, though.
Sharp Practice (Too Fat Lardies) is a very fine set indeed for large skirmishes, including amphibious actions. There is also now a Napoeonic extension for Muskets & Tomahawks which works very well; it plays faster than Sharp Practice.
Shako also has an excellent scenario book (Fields of Glory)
So here are some sets I've written.
First a 'conventional' set with regimental units. It has some novel Command & Control rules
Then a DBA style set for fast, big battles
And here's a Napoleonic version of the excellent Battle Cry.
And finally my Fire & Fury adaptation for Brigade level games - these were published in Practical Wargamer a little while back.
American Civil War
No contest here - Fire & Fury is just about my favourite rules set. I started with the old Don Featherstone rules, then used some homebrew ones, tried Johnny Reb and Volley & Bayonet, but Fire & Fury really is the business, I find. I can load the table with figures and still finish a game in an evening, and it bears a pretty close relationship to history as well as being an excellent game.
For regimental games, Longstreet is excellent
We’ve also had a lot of fun with Battle Cry (AH/Hasbro). In fact, I made a big board so that I could use my existing ACW figures and terrain. More recently, we tried Black Powder for an ACW game, and that worked pretty well, and at some point I really must try out ‘They Couldn’t Hit an Elephant’ from the Too Fat Lardies as it looks to have really good period flavour as well as suitably chaotic command rules.
Pirates
The sea, the scurvy, the rusty cutlasses. What a fun period; I have three largish ships as well as a load of boats for this most atmospheric period. We used Legends of the High Seas, as they are simple but give a good game; the ship rules are a bit too simple, though, so we use the rules from ‘Warhammer Ahoy’ for those.
More recently, we’ve tried Blood & Plunder, which gives a good game and also allows land and sea action to be combined. It is a bit fiddly, though, so these days we have been using Donnybrook, which is a great set which gives fun games
Wild West
Much fun here with snake-eyed gunslingers sniping at each other from behind upturned wagons, gangs trying to rob the train, prospectors being trapped by a landslide. We use Dead Man’s Hand for this; a great set of rules with a real cinematic feel. I used to my own set of rules (which you will see bears more than a passing similarity to my Dark Age set), but we’ve also tried a Crossfire variant and Legends of the Old West, which gives a fine game. We have also tried What a Cowboy, which is a good set, but you can’t use many figures
Zulu Wars
Much fun here, too with square jawed sergeants trying to pry open ammunition boxes as the Impi pours over the mealie bags. Not for the faint of heart. I've tried The Sword and the Flame for this period, but I have my own set specifically for this war (another one which has been published in Practical Wargamer).
Death in the Dark Continent is recent set which works pretty well, as does The Men Who Would be Kings (a lower level set). There is also a newer set called Blood & Steel from the same stable as Blood & Plunder which works very well
And here's a Zulu War version of the excellent Battle Cry.
Darkest Africe
A new period, prompted by the excellent Congo rules.
Somewhere in here come my Jungle Warfare rules. These are loosely based on the Ashanti Wars and have players each with a British column competing to loot the native villages and hoping not to be ambushed too many times......A very silly game (but a lot of fun)
World War 1
Some air combat rules of my own
World War 2
I have used Squad Leader (the board game) as my WW2 rules, just saying 1 hex equals 2 inches on the table. This then means that one SL mapboard is one of my 6x2 table sections. Here's a crib sheet for use with SL (I stick the game counters on the bottom of vehicles as a quick reference)
We use the excellent Crossfire for infantry games. This must be one of the best, most fun rule-sets I've seen in years. No game turns, no rulers, deceptively simple. Highly recommended (and get hold of the 'Hit the Dirt' scenario book, too). I'm slowly adapting some of the Squad Leader scenarios for Crossfire (see the scenario page).
Rapid Fire is also a fine rule set - better for combined arms the Crossfire, very simple, and playable. It also has lots of nice scenarios in the rule book and the supplements.
A new addition is ‘Battlefront: WW2’ by Fire and Fury games. We are very impressed with this set (though it is rather expensive). It plays almost as fast as Rapid Fire, but allows a lot more tactical nuance. It works well for combined arms games (unlike Crossfire), and best of all, one can easily use scenarios designed for Squad Leader, Crossfire or Rapid Fire. Data for vehicles and troops is on (very nice) gloss-printed, full colour cards, which saves a lot of looking up during the game; just put the cards you need into one of those A4 file sheets with card-sized pockets. Artillery system is very good, and it has an elegant command and control and morale system combined into a single phase, like Fire & Fury.
We also use I Ain’t Been Shot Mum! and Chain of Command; the latter is great for a platoon a side.
For commando raids and night actions, '02 Hundred Hours' is a fantastic set; really gets the tension of a raid and plays quickly.
I do have a couple of sets of my own, but I've not used them for years and I'm not sure what has happened to the files...
I also have my own set of WW2 Naval rules designed for use with 1:3000 ships and a hex-marked table. Fast & furious.
There's also a set of strategic rules for map movement which goes with these, but they are in an exotic format which is hard work to convert.
For naval games (both WW1 and WW2) I use General Quarters v3. We have also recently tried Nimitz which is a simple set but great for larger battles and also has a fantastic campaign system
More recently, I’ve used Blood Red Skies for air games; pretty much replaced Bag the Hun which I like but is a bit slow playing.
Fantasy
I've tucked this away at the end to avoid mental shocks. I don't actually play much fantasy. When I do play fantasy, I prefer to use a set of rules I'm already familiar with, so I use 'Hordes of the Things' which is a fantasy version of DBA. My New Kingdom Egyptians have a base of priests which acts as a Magician for HOTT.
Here's a variant set of Magic rules for HOTT.
We have tried Chipco's Fantasy Rules, but there were a number of things neither of us liked - the PIP system (fixed and reducing), the use of d10 for combats, and the Magic system.
This is just a quick list of all the rules that I use for various periods, plus some sets of rules that I've written over the years which you can download. I make no claims for originality or brilliance for the latter. Some of them were only played a couple of times as they didn't work too well, some I still use. A few have also been published in Practical Wargamer.
