Wargaming is back in my life!

It’s been a while since I have felt so invigorated by the wargaming bug, I must admit. I do have to thank my lovely wife for the rekindled interest as she decided we need to redecorate part of the house.

This led to my work room getting completely re-arranged and getting 2 Ikea libraries, with additional stands, that are now in the process of getting filled with all my miniatures that I have been collecting for the past 20 years.

Obviously, having the miniatures on display every hour as I am working (I am lucky enough to be working from home) keeps pushing me to turn around and look at them, and we all know what happens when you’re suddenly exposed to your collection for extended periods of time.

With renewed interest, I started to look for options in my quest to re-live my Warhammer Fantasy 6th-7th edition fun. Let me tell you, the offer is diversified, as I found out. What does that have to do with “Project Ziggurat”? Read on and find out.

Requirements

First off, I need to play something on square/rectangular bases and have regiments that I can maneuver around the map. This led me to Warhammer 8th edition, 9th Age and Warhammer Armies project. I then went through Age of Fantasy Regiments and Kings of War. I didn’t neglect original Warmaster or Warmaster Revolutions. And still, something didn’t feel right.

Second, even though having enough space to fit a 6×4 table, I have long decided to downscale my wargaming. I still have my Heroic and Ross 6mm Germans and Americans, and I have purchased a large High Elf Warmaster army for a very good price a few years back. The thing is, if you use cm instead of inches, you can basically play Flames of War or typical Warhammer games on an 80×48 cm table (or 32×20 inches) with using 6mm or 10mm miniatures (Flames of War in 6mm)

Thirdly, I love the stats system and the general combat system from Warhammer 6th edition however I never liked the 30 pages plus of movement rules. Something simple regarding the movement is what I am looking for.

My quick research

Now, to go over what I have researched, here’s my opinion on each system.

Warhammer and all its variants: good rules overall, but way to complicated. Also, they count on individual models’ removal, and I want stand removal (as Warmaster).

Age of Fantasy, Regiments, has a very simple approach to everything and I like the movement rules in their simplicity, but the combat system is way to “easy” for me.

Kings of War would honestly be my pick with some very simple movement rules, but the fact that you don’t remove any casualties and the funky way that combat is described (with the defender basically auto losing the combat if he takes 1 casualty, so he needs morale test) has disappointed me.

Warmaster is enticing, and has the benefit of having a manual already, but the way that a unit can be given multiple orders while others do nothing and the fact that units differ by just a few stat points (which matter a lot, I know, and I appreciate that) again makes this too “grand scale” for me.

So, the conclusion?

I need a custom ruleset to satisfy my thirst, which would probably combine several approaches from the above-mentioned titles to create the perfect mix (for my taste).

Join me next time as I start to unravel this passion project, obviously named “Project Ziggurat”!