The best of rules; the worst of rules.

[petercooman]

Best: blitzkrieg commander II

reason: Still the number 1 game in our group after so many years. Always gives enjoyaable games


worst: chain reaction/swordplay from Two hour wargames

reason: "i have to roll for what now" just rolling rolling rolling all day long. Some swear by it, others like me don't like it!


Honourable mention (and best rules before i started using BKC) : LOTR strategy battle game

reason: in my opinion the best skirmish game ever made! doing hit and run attacks with my rohirrim was akways enjoyable!

[Ithoriel]

Best would be a long list and would include some that others here have voted as worst!

Worst would be an even longer list and include some that others here think are best.

Personally I'm just glad people are finding games to play and enjoy, whatever rules they use!

[FierceKitty]

I suspect the best I've played have been my own SYW rules. The balance of the different armies, all based on a similar idea of how troops were to be used, meant that I could be quite economical and trim; little need for tons of microrules. (modest cough)
The worst may have been the set of WWII rules I began with in the 70s. I don't think there was a single tactical decision to be made at any level, and morale didn't get a look in. But honorable mention must be made for the WRG corpus; wordy, unhistorical, often dam' nearly unintelligibly written, one edition declaring the previous completely wrong without ever acknowledging guilt for previous blunders, and the way they encouraged players to command an army of 50, 000 but think like a sergeant, not a general...bad old days!

[pierre the shy]

As has been suggested I think rules wise one persons trash is another persons treasure - if they work for you then play them, if they don't then move on to something that does work 

For me personally anything by Two Fat Lardies (especially ITLSU) is great. Also wished I had tried General Quarters 1&2 about 20 odd years ago....for me they are by far the most elegant set of C20 naval rules I have ever played and I am now in the middle of a C20 naval "renaissence" having only first played them about 3 years ago. Also Volley and Bayonet for C18/19 games must get a mention....for some reason I really like them...played Cowpens/Guilford Courthouse and some other battles and I have a whale of time every time we play V&B.

I haven't got any one set of rules that I particularly dislike, but there are a couple of sets that I have tried once over the years that I would not be in any hurry to go back to.

   

[Sandinista]

This is real thread necromancy 
Some changes in my views
1.  2010: Warmaster Ancients/Medieval currently get my vote as the best
Now: Pike and Shotte/Black Powder/Hail Caesar
2.  Warmaster: They got me back into gaming after 20 year gap, gaming is fun again
Warlords offerings: for me these have built on the already great Warmaster system and improved dramatically. fun games every time.
3.  2010: WRG 6th edition Ancients
No Change 
4.  They attracted every rules lawyer/cheat and ended up with me selling up and ditching the hobby. Maybe something to do with the mid/late eighties but virtually every gamer i met then was obsessed with winning at all costs and no regard to historical accuracy.

Cheers
Ian

[Chad]

1. Vive L'Empereur by Ned Zuparko. (1980s set)
2. Large scale game and first rules I can remember that introduced some fog of war
3. Volley and Bayonet 2nd edition
4. Only because I found the overall presentation within the rules confusing and in some areas lacking clarity. Spent half the time going backwards and forwards from section to section trying to understand parts of them.

[Genom]

Best games have to be one the ones that I have enjoyed our campaigns of and provide a good game.

Mordhiem: It's a game we just keep coming back to play.
Blitzkrieg commander/Warmaster (Ancients and Fantasy): Love or hate the mechanics, it works for us.
In her Majesties Name/Daisho: This has provided several wonderful story driven campaigns for our group.

Worst games, there are just some games I've never been able to get my head around.

Flames of War: The core mechanics seemed okay, but I really hate rules where everything on the table has it's own special rules, it's just too much to remember.

To be fair a bad game tends to be ones where the power gamers (I won't lump all tournament players in that grouping as some are really nice and don't go out to just win when they're teaching a game). on the flip side good games are enjoyable ones and I think the Falkirk club are very good at this, they are such a diverse bunch of players but universally are there to enjoy themselves and are very accommodating when showcasing their favourite games to others, so I consider myself lucky in that regard as I've played several games of things that I don't particularly like the period of but still enjoyed the game overall.

[Zippee]

Best - Impetus; Baroque; LFS; IABSM; Q13 & GQIII

Worst - The Warmaster series; Regiment of Foot; The Polemos series & Poseidon's Warriors

Lots of other stuff falls into a large middle ground, some narrowly missing the 'best', others narrowly missing the 'worst' category, some just 'meh'.

At the end of the day I'll play just about anything someone brings to the table but I will need copious anaesthetisation for any in the 'worst ' category

[Nosher]

1.  Which are the best rules you've ever played.

a) BKC, CWC, FWC which I currently play
b) Forlorn Hope
c) Wings of War

2.  WHY are they the best?

a) Just because of their simplicity, and the fact that the rules don't take too long to learn - however the subtleties of the command system take quite a while to master to get the best out of your chosen army.  Having army lists in the same book does it for me too - no need for supplement after supplement. Apart from FWC there are no 'super-armies' either!

b) Just because it brings back fond memories of games with good friends. Its not a particularly good set of rules.

c) Fast and Furious and good fun the more players you can get involved!

3.  Which are the worst rules you've ever played.

a) F.O.W

b) DBR,M etc

c) Polemos

4.  WHY are they the worst?

a) Any rule set where the Italian's are an 'uber-armee' is utter nonsense. I have seen grown men 'get-off' on loop-holing their own siblings lack of understanding of the rules and have seen Allied players completely bemoan defeat after defeat at the hands of Tiger Aces who appear all too frequently for my liking.

b) You need a Law Degree to understand the rules

c) I simply cannot get to grips with these rules at all. Played once and immediately ebayed.

Review of my original quote.

Best rules:
I've gone off BKC. CWC and FWC - just cant get anyone to play them. Still have a very large WW2 collection in 6mm but all of my Cold War stuff has been offloaded as has most of my Sci-fi stuff.

Haven't played Forlorn Hope in years. Must dig them out but terrified that my youthful memories will be shattered, plus the good friend who I used to play this with lives in Germany, so again it just wouldn't be the same

Wings of War - still play very occasionally

LATEST Best Rules
Chain of Command and Sharpe Practice 2. Sublime games, lots of fun to play and just the right level of historical accuracy without gameplay become bogged down

Bolt Action - started off hating this, but now I enjoy it simply because it gives a quick game when time is tight

Others - Baroque, renewed my interest in the renaissance. Blucher - good fun to play if a tad time consuming

Worst rules
Hasn't really changed, but I would add the Battlegroup WW2 series. Far too gamey - games ground down to both sides shooting the sh*t out of each other from distance to reach break points rather than trying to achieve the scenario conditions.

[Luddite]

I've been using GW rules for longer than some of you guys have been alive haha

[paulr]

I have played games where the figures were older than my opponent 

And that was a couple of decades ago the figures still get on the table occasionally 

[toxicpixie]

Second time in a couple of weeks that piccy has come up!

I have those dice, they came with the Basic D&D set Well, I have most of them, a couple suffered a permanent loss due to my sister seeing if they float in the toilet!

[Westmarcher]

I enjoy playing FoB2 (Field of Battle), a rule set that also uses different types of dice, one of which is a D4. At first, I had all of the other types of dice (D20, D12, D10, D8 & D6) but didn't have a D4 so used an Average Dice instead, deducting one from the score. Getting fed up deducting one from the score of the Average Dice, I decided one day I needed a real D4 & found these for sale on the Irregular Miniatures website. I thought, "I can't just order D4s. I'll order a few other things. 10mm 18th Century supply carts and so on." I got everything except for the D4. In the accompanying note they said, "Don't have any D4s in stock. Here's D8s instead. Just half the score."      

Back to square one. 

p.s. Happy ending. Eventually, got D4s from Pendraken.

[Luddite]

Games Workshop will shortly be releasing a d16 for use with their revamped Blood Bowl game.

The mind boggles.

[toxicpixie]

Good grief. It'll be a tenner a throw as well!

*boom~tisch*