WW1 Gaming

The first thing you have to do as a war gamer is decide on a rule set for the era you have chosen to play. WW1 is a tough era to find a good skirmish level rule set that is fun, realistic, playable in a few hours and not totally cumbersome. Rule sets come and go and some of the better ones are hard to get or out of print, but for my likes, I went with a newer set by John Speiss called Trench Wars, produced and available through Old Glory Miniatures. It is a skirmish level rule set with 1:1 basing, allowing for many figures and still maintains an ease of play. It is set up for 25mm miniatures, but can be easily adapted to any scale and can also be modified to suit your game styles level of detail. Trench Wars is a solid rule set containing everything you need to know to game WW1 in miniature. If you are an avid WW1 fan though, you will probably check out most of the WW1 miniature war gaming rule sets currently available to see what they might have to add for detail and flavor. As I said, WW1 rule sets come and go but following are links to currently available sets. I will update the list as I find more.

Trench Wars: War gaming the Western Front 1916-1918 - Scale: The rules and scenarios described in this booklet considers 1 infantry figure representing 1 soldier.

Old Glory Miniatures Rules

Price of Glory:  Small unit World War One combat.52 page book, all rules you need including special rules for barbed wire, trenches, gas, tanks, and more. Players familiar with DH/C7B will recognize many features, and enjoy the new material pertinent to WW1. Flexible infantry system allows players to build any force for any theater.

The level of these rules is small unit and it is 1:1 scale. Around a platoon per side for a typical game. You can do small units of trench raiders slugging it out (say 15-20 models a side) all the way up to whole platoons and companies fighting it out (say 30-100 or more). But, the emphasis on these rules is on small unit actions. The basic unit used in the game are 5-10 man units. The unit fights and activate together, though the individual weapons and men are important.

Price of Glory Rules

Principles of War

"I wish I was in France!"

Wargame Rules for the first world war in East Africa:

Free rules site: Miniature War Gaming: Rules, Resources, Wargames

 Over the Top, Command Decision GDW, and others… under construction….

Once you have settled on a rule set, odds are you have also settled on the game scale and miniature scale. I prefer skirmish games and also 25mm figures. Thankfully, there is a wide range currently available for gaming in 25mm. I currently own figures from all of the listed ranges, but they are in varying degrees of tabletop readiness. You will find a wide variety of poses and troop types available through these companies. Although their scaling is not exact, they are all playable together on the tabletop.

Brigade Games WW1 Western/Italian

Now this range is one of my favorites, it covers almost all fronts for WWI and it is always growing. The figures are scaled at heroic 25mm or 28mm and VERY well done. Lon also has a wide variety of vehicles for use in your WW1 games and also carries Renegade figures. This line is quite a bit more comprehensive than most and is only outdone by Old Glory for poses and troop type. Brigade’s line consists of German, British, French, US (marines only) for the Western Front, Australian, Arabs, Turks for Gallipoli and in the Great War in Africa he has German Schutztruppe, German Askari, German sailors, Kings African Rifles, British infantry in Wolseley, Sikh infantry, Belgian, Askari and Nigerian Brigade in Kilmarnock.

Old Glory WW1 No Man's Land

Old Glory’s line of WWI miniatures, called "No Mans Land", is incredibly huge. Not only do they have figures for almost every front of WW1, but they have the most variety of poses and “special” types of figures for each nationality. They are definitely worth checking out for your special needs figures. They are also currently the lowest price range on the market today. Their WW1 miniature range includes German, British, French, American, and Russian miniatures. They too have a range of vehicles they sell to compliment the figures.

Renegade Miniatures

I have found Renegade's WW1 range to be quite well cast, but a little modest in its variety. They have both Early War (1914-1915) containing Germans, Austrians, French and British and Late War (1916-1918) only Germans and British. The poses are limited, but they are very nicely done.

Great War Miniatures

These WW1 figures are beautiful, well researched and VERY limited. Currently available is a small selection of late war Germans and British. I see this line as more of a pet project by the sculptors, but, it is definitely a line worth picking up for special troops and characters.

Copplestone Castings

I felt it appropriate to point out here also that Copplestone Castings has a limited range of figures also for WW1 miniature gaming. They are nicely done and I predominantly use them for pulp gaming but they do have a line appropriate for Gallipoli and the Middle East including German Schutztruppe Askaris, British riflemen, Indian army Sikhs and Muslims and also some pilot that can be used for any nationality.

Wargames Foundry

I saved this line for last, true to scale, this is the only line of WW1 miniatures that is true 25mm. They are smaller than the other 28mm lines, but can easily be blended in to any unit or stand alone. Do not over look this line as they have some very nice pieces. In bulk, they have the “tin” soldier appearance since poses are limited, but stand alone and used sparingly, they are very nice figures. The range is limited to an in depth line of Germans and British figures throughout the Great War.