ONE HOUR SKIRMISH WARGAMES: NEW RESOURCE PAGE

 

One Hour Skirmish Wargames (OHSKW) by John Lambshead

Greetings, dear readers (assuming that there is more than one). In yet another installment of "not being able to leave well enough alone" this post is to announce that I have created a variant of OHSKW--and have posted said variant and  materials on a new resource page (link below):

ONE HOUR SKIRMISH WARGAMES VARIANT & RESOURCES PAGE

(There is also a tab at the top of this blog) 

Materials for download are available on the above referenced resource page. This post will provide a brief overview and an idea of the variant. I invite you to go to the resource page and review the variant pdf there to gain a complete understanding and to download other materials. 

General: This variant is not intended as a stand-alone, but as a supplement to the One Hour Skirmish Wargames (OHSKW) rules by John Lambshead, which the reader will need in order to play.  

Romanian Chasseurs

(Left) Danish Infantry; (Right) Hungarian Infantry

Romanian Dorobanti Infantry

Why? My primary interest with this rules system was post-Napoleonic (mainly continental) skirmish gaming. Specifically, for each of my  “Chocolate Box Wars” era armies, I've painted a handful of spare, singly mounted figures--a smattering of examples are above. I had no specific use in mind when doing these, and didn't do them in numbers for the usual skirmish level games, but figured that they would come in handy. You might say that they were figures in search of a purpose. Well, the small figure count of OHSKW fulfills that purpose: I look forward to putting them on the table now.  As such, this variant (and player ref) is tailored specifically for infantry only, and ending at around 1900 (avoiding the complications of machine guns, artillery, etc, etc). I also realized as I was making this variant that I could take it back beyond the primary target era all the way back to the early modern. However, I kept the variant title "Muskets to Rifles" as a simple point of reference and to indicate the primary focus. So, what have I made available?  First of all, there is a pdf explaining the variant at the top of the resource page (it's not worth a thumbnail here, but definitely worth a peruse if you are familiar with OHSKW and at all interested prior to looking over the player reference). 

Player Reference: As with most home supplements/variants, this one began with the production of a player reference for my own use.  Although it is intended for my variant, you could use it to play standard OHSKW provided you recognized the specific terminology involved in the variant.   The player reference is intended to be one-sided--all the in-game functions are on the front. The reverse has notes, optionals, and an explanation of the terrain. It can be downloaded on the Resource Page. 

Custom Card Deck: Rather than using a standard deck of playing cards, I produced a custom deck. It is  not variant-specific but can be used with standard OHSKW.  Above is a sample:  the actual card and suit is in the upper left. The rank of the suit is in the upper right (more stars = higher rank). The number the card is worth is in the center (for initiative, action points, combat and morale resolution) . Below the number is the casualty-check outcome. The two period soldier portraits are the jokers. You can download a pdf of this deck on the Resource Page. 

As a point of interest, I went Board Games Maker and had several decks of cards made. I'm quite happy with these results and will be looking to making use of this resource more in the future for other new projects and to replace the many home-made cards I use in other my games (that are getting a bit dog eared). 

Squad Roster Card:  Although it has columns specific to my variant, this could be used for standard OHSKW as well (just ignore the special columns that don't apply). Of course, if someone is interested in the variant, these will work perfectly (well, nothing is "perfect"). Available for download on the Resource Page. 

Enjoy! 

Excelsior!