I move my figure around the corner and your figure can see me.

Our figures start on opposite sides of a building and are out of sight of each other. I can best summarise this with a quote from the rules themselves: You can’t rely on your troops, apart from one or two key figures, doing what you want and you can’t predict what the opposition will do, or when. In a THW game, most figures move, shoot and melee based on reaction tests some of them won’t do anything at all, and as you move each of those that are active in turn, it spins off its own subturn, of variable length, in which its actions and reactions are driven by reaction tests. I haven’t really played many of these, so can’t really comment – I’ve used it in Savage Worlds, but typically there are only half-a-dozen figures per side in RPGs. I noticed in the 1990s and 2000s that some rules sets were starting to use playing cards each unit drew a card, and was then able to move, shoot and melee in the order the cards dictated. This rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s and can still be found in some games today. The problem with this is you spend too much time scribbling orders, and not enough time actually playing. The second most popular is simultaneous movement to strict written orders.

Some games attempted to deal with this by introducing a reaction phase, when side B could react to side A’s moves partway through side A’s turn. The problem with this is that a fast-moving army (Blood Angels, I’m lookin’ at you) can move into charge range unopposed, shoot you to pieces, and then charge home and finish your troops off while they’re standing around like lemons waiting for your turn. Side A moves, shoots, and engages in melee then side B does likewise. The most popular, since the days of HG Wells’ Little Wars, is that of alternating turns. Mainstream wargaming has historically tried several approaches to the problem. One of the problems for a tabletop wargame is how to simulate the chaotic ebb and flow of combat with a clear and understandable turn sequence. I’ll tackle those first, then move into the individual games. Two things make THW rules unique first, their approach to the game turn second, their unparalleled support for same-side or solitaire play. You’ll either hate it, or start collecting the genre-specific rules. So you’ll probably guess my conclusion do yourself a favour and grab the freebies right away. These are my go-to rules for skirmish wargaming, and as you’ve probably noticed, a lot of this blog deals with them and other rules from the THW stable.

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