Founder | Phil Barker, Bob O'Brien, and Ed Smith |
---|---|
Founded at | United Kingdom |
Headquarters | United Kingdom |
The Wargames Research Group(WRG) is a British publisher of rules and reference material for miniature wargaming. Founded in 1969 they were the premier publisher of tabletop rules during the seventies and eighties, publishing rules for periods ranging from ancient times to modern armoured warfare, and reference books which are still considered standard works for amateur researchers and wargamers. They are best known for their seminal ancient and medieval period rules, and also for De Bellis Antiquitatis and Hordes of the Things fantasy rules.
WRG was founded by Phil Barker, Bob O'Brien, and Ed Smith in 1969, when they published War Game Rules: 1000 B.C. to 500 A.D.. [1]
The rules quickly gained widespread acceptance through the miniature wargaming world, especially in the UK, and quickly became the acknowledged standard for ancient warfare. [2] WRG followed with rules for other periods which gained similar widespread acceptance.
Innovative features of the rules included:
While very much a minority interest, both the 6th Edition and the 7th Edition continue to be played even at a competition level. [5] Both, however, are no longer supported by WRG.
WRG rules have been sufficiently widely adopted that other popular rule sets sometimes choose to adopt the same basing requirements for figures to avoid requiring rebasing of the large number of WRG-based armies. [6] [7] [8] [9] Aspects of the WRG basing system such as the intermediate group of infantry between heavy and skirmisher infantry have, however, come under criticism. [10] [11]
At the beginning of the 1990s WRG introduced De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) which was a radical simplification of ancient and medieval wargaming. The concepts of DBA were adapted to allow significantly larger games, which led to De Bellis Multitudinis (DBM) for Ancient and medieval and De Bellis Renationis (DBR) for Renaissance. The DBx series of rules are still in widespread use, the latest incarnation being De Bellis Magistrorum Militum (DBMM).
DBA was also adapted to a fantasy setting in Hordes of the Things.
WRG rules were a significant milestone in the development of modern miniature wargaming, [12] and attempted to use historical research to provide historical realism in wargames. [2] Thus, the WRG referred to the original historical texts as the basis for their reference works, rules sets and army lists, [13] and their historical publications are often found in wargaming [14] and other bibliographies. [15] [16] [17]
The reference works published by WRG are aimed at the wargamer rather than the academic history student, but are nonetheless accurate enough to be occasionally cited in more scholarly texts.
In seven editions, normally referred to by wargamers just by the edition number.
A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to study the nature of potential conflicts. Many wargames re-create specific historic battles, and can cover either whole wars, or any campaigns, battles, or lower-level engagements within them. Many simulate land combat, but there are wargames for naval, air combat, and cyber as well as many that combine various domains.
Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming in which military units are represented by miniature physical models on a model battlefield. Miniature wargames are played using model soldiers, vehicles, and artillery on a model battlefield, with the primary appeal being recreational rather than functional. Miniature wargames are played on custom-made battlefields, often with modular terrain, and abstract scaling is used to adapt real-world ranges to the limitations of table space. The use of physical models to represent military units is in contrast to other tabletop wargames that use abstract pieces such as counters or blocks, or computer wargames which use virtual models. The primary benefit of using models is immersion, though in certain wargames the size and shape of the models can have practical consequences on how the match plays out. Models' dimensions and positioning are crucial for measuring distances during gameplay. Issues concerning scale and accuracy compromise realism too much for most serious military applications.
De Bellis Antiquitatis or DBA is a fast play set of rules for the hobby of historical miniature wargaming, particularly ancient and medieval wargaming in the period 3000 BC to 1520 AD. Now in 3rd edition. These rules allow entire armies to be represented by fewer than 50 figures. The rules also include diagrams and over 600 army lists. DBA is produced by the Wargames Research Group and was the first game in the DBx series, which now includes De Bellis Multitudinis (DBM), De Bellis Magistrorum Militum, Hordes of the Things, De Bellis Renationis. and for 1700-1920 Horse Foot and Guns (HFG) An online video game titled DBA OnlineArchived 2006-11-11 at the Wayback Machine was also created.
A Fistful of TOWs, often abbreviated FFT, is a series of modern warfare miniatures wargame rules first published in 2000. The first edition was self-published, subsequent editions were published by Fistful of Games.
Warhammer is a tabletop miniature wargame with a medieval fantasy theme. The game was created by Bryan Ansell, Richard Halliwell, and Rick Priestley, and first published by the Games Workshop company in 1983.
SPQR is a board wargame designed by Richard Berg and Mark Herman, and released in 1992 by GMT Games, as part of the Great Battles of History (GBoH) series of games on ancient warfare. SPQR deals with battles fought by the Roman Republic, and is designed to showcase the strengths and weaknesses of the Roman manipular legion.
Hordes of the Things (HOTT) is a fantasy miniature wargame, published by Wargames Research Group. The game was first published in 1991, with a revised second edition from 2002. A generic fantasy game, it can represent armies from a wide variety of settings. Some gamers even use HOTT to simulate other time periods, since, for example, a "Shooter" can just as easily be a company of musketeers as it can a company of archers.
Warhammer Ancient Battles is a ruleset for miniatures wargames produced by Games Workshop's Warhammer Historical Wargames imprint. It is a rulebook for historical wargames developed from the popular Warhammer Fantasy Battle by Jervis Johnson, Rick Priestley and the Perry brothers. On 24 May 2012, Warhammer Historical closed their website and are now defunct.
Guidon Games produced board games and rulebooks for wargaming with miniatures, and in doing so influenced Tactical Studies Rules, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons. The Guidon Games publishing imprint was the property of Lowrys Hobbies, a mail-order business owned by Don and Julie Lowry. About a dozen titles were released under the imprint from 1971 to 1973.
Tony Bath (1926–2000) was a British wargamer who favored the ancient period. He was the founder of the Society of Ancients.
De Bellis Multitudinis (DBM) is a ruleset for table-top miniatures wargames for the period 3000 BC to 1485 AD. It is the big battle development of De Bellis Antiquitatis. As its name implies, it is aimed primarily at simulating large battles. The rules allow armies to be chosen from published Army Lists using a points system to select roughly equal armies if required.
The Society of Ancients (SoA) is an international, non-profit organization based in the UK that aims to promote interest in Ancient & Medieval history and wargaming, covering the periods from 3000BC to 1500AD.
Phil Barker is one of the major figures in the development of the modern hobby of tabletop wargaming, particularly that of ancient warfare, and is a co-founder of the Wargames Research Group.
A set of rules for World War II and the immediate post-war years, for scales from 1:300 micro armour to 1:72 scale, published by Wargames Research Group (WRG).
Armageddon: Tactical Combat, 3000-500 BC is a board wargame first published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1972 in Strategy & Tactics, then released as a stand-alone game, then reimplemented as Chariot: Tactical Warfare in the "Biblical" Age, 3000-500 BC.
The Siege of Jerusalem, 70 A.D. is a board wargame published by Historical Perspectives in 1976 that simulates the Roman attack on Jerusalem by Cestius Gallus. The game was subsequently bought by Avalon Hill, revised and republished in 1989.
The Battle of Raphia, 217 B.C. is a board wargame published by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) in 1977 that simulates the Battle of Raphia during the Syrian Wars. The game was the first in GDW's "Series 120", which featured shorter and less complex games containing only 120 counters that supposedly could be played in 120 minutes.
Chariot: Tactical Warfare in the Biblical Age, 3000-500 B.C. is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications Inc. (SPI) in 1975 that simulates various historical battles during the Bronze Age. The game originally started as Armageddon: Tactical Combat, 3000-500 BC, published in 1972, but was revised in order to become the first game in SPI's PRESTAGS collection.