Derek C. has very kindly sent me links to blogs about OHSW.
I relist them here:
Grid Based Wargaming - Some One Hour Skirmish Wargaming
Dale's Wargames - part 1
Dale's Wargames - part 2
Dale's Wargames - follow up with author :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amazon reviews:
29 October 2018Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
A wargame without dice! That’s going to put a lot of people off, BUT the system using playing cards to generate a means of controlling movement and fire is brilliantly simple. The games are very fast moving, full of action very very entertaining and enjoyable. I have resisted skirmish games for years on the basis of detailed actions and micro management, but this book prompted a rethink and as the author clearly sets out in his design brief it all makes perfect sense. Well worth a try
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
If like me you like to dabble in 101 different skirmish era's then this is the book for you. I must admit I was a bit disappointed after reading the core mechanics as they seemed just too simplistic and without dice. However I then tried a little game and saw how it all comes together into a full skirmish game, with the slickest system possible. The scenario and era specific rules show the versatility possible and yet everything plays super fast with minimal preparation. Highly recommended!
31 December 2018Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
An excellent book that does exactly what it promises. The authors style is funny and relaxed and the diceless system is really interesting - a contender alternative system for my heroclix minis. The layout is very clear and easy to read with lots of practical technical information. The length is just right - anything more would feel a bit much for one hour games.
26 November 2018Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
These rules are quick to learn and they do give a fast and easy game as intended. However, playing still brings up the occasional "how should I do this?" - easy enough to make up something but annoying omissions as the rules are so brief. Although a lot of periods are covered, there's a lack of depth to the rules which make them feel very similar. Scenarios obviously help to add variety, but only a few are included (none generic) and no mechanisms to create more (plenty of empty pages for this ....) These rules would be excellent for short participation games at shows or for introducing new/young players into the hobby. Unfortunately, they do feel a bit bland after a couple of games, with a quite a heavy random element and little depth - probably not suited to heavy use by experienced gamers
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
Even if this book had nothing but one star reviews I would probably buy it because the topic interests me so much. But, having read it, last night, in about half an hour, I had to wonder who on earth it was aimed at. You could find a better and more detailed set of rules in an article in any wargames magazine in any given year. Anyone who owns enough figures and terrain to stage one of these skirmish games must already own at least a dozen sets of rules that are either more realistic or more fun. The book doesn't cover the pre-musket era. This is sheer laziness. The book is only 95 pages and the writing, such as it is, takes up hardly any room on the page. Quite a few pages are blank. There are only five or six scenarios. The author acknowledges that scenarios are the heart and soul of skirmish games and then completely neglects them. He pays tribute to One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas and tries to explain what made that book so good but he completely misses the point. What made that book so good is that it had at least thirty highly charged scenarios that were playable in any era; and very compact but appropriate rules for every era from ancient to the modern day. That book is the distillation of years of experience and you can tell. This 'sequel', in contrast, reads like it was dashed off in an afternoon by someone who had better things to do. I don't doubt the author's pedigree but the book is simply too casual and too thoughtless. I could explain my reservations about the rules but my review is already longer than the book's introduction, which was going in an interesting direction and then just stopped.
Good Reads
Marvellous set of 'toolbox' rules, which seems to cover most of the periods I am interested in dabbling with.
Everything works though a deck of normal playing cards, and whilst the rules are simple, they are comprehensive enough to cover most things you would need in an average game.
The way the rules are structured and how the cards are used also make it easy to add in any extra bits you might feel are essential .
I really, really like these rules, they might not suit the 'rivet-counters' as there are no extensive tables, wacky dice, or enormous army lists to digest, however they do give a crackingly good game
I also understand there is a stinker of a review of Miniature Wargames by a wargamer who is very dischuffed with me. :)
Probably worth a read before you spend your money. Sometimes, you can learn more about a piece of art from those who hate it than from those who love it.....although the latter is good for writer's egos.
Ah well, one can't be all things to all people.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Good Reads Review
5.00 · Rating details · 2 ratings · 1 review
Many wargamers enjoy the challenge of skirmish games where, instead of the strategy of vast armies portrayed by traditional wargames, the focus is on the tactics of a small unit. However, skirmish rules are often so complex that it can take hours of rolling dice, consulting tables and recording data to recreate what would in reality be a fast and furious firefight lasting just minutes. Now these new rules make it possible to recapture the speed and intensity of these actions where every man, and every second, counts. The basic rules are supported by sections which give special rules and scenarios to capture the flavor of a range of different periods, from Napoleonic to Modern Warfare and beyond with Sci-Fi. From the 95th Rifles scouting for Wellington, Western gunfights and WWI trench raids, through WW2 parachute assaults or Special Forces strikes in Afghanistan, or even Space Marines storming a space station, Squad Firefights elegantly simple system allows you to focus on proper tactical decisions rather than rolling buckets of dice or calculating masses of modifiers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I have noticed that if an author does something new and different you get either 5 stars, from people who like novelty, and one star, from people who equate it with heresy. I like to strip down systems to their core and scrape the barnacles off and then see what you have left.
One little note. This system took rather longer than an afternoon to develop - ten years in fact. It is a counter-intuitive fact that a simple game takes longer to develop than a complex one. Complexity hides what doesn't work but every single blemish stands out in a simple system.
"Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le
loisir de la faire plus courte." Blaise Pascal, 1657
I remember
Fall of the West provoking the same response.
A happy New Year to all - even those who loathe my books.
John Lambshead
