Back by popular demand! It's the Necromancer and his nemeses, the human crusade for life. Neil Thomas brings us a fun little suite of sweet little rules.
“The army with the red capes will play the blue army, and the purple army will play the blue army”. Jon, for a second I thought you were going to start reciting “The pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle. The flagon with the dragon has the brew that is true!”
@@TheJoyofWargamingI do what I can to spread a little mirth. Probably best not to encourage me, I only get sillier... Great introduction to OHW and solo for me. Helped me find my wargaming way.
I really like all of Neil’s books, especially his Ancient Wargaming book it’s quite good, but the One-Hour book is so quick and fun and the scenarios alone are worth getting the book. I always enjoy watching your One-Hour games.
I very much enjoy the One Hour scenarios. I have the book but have not done the game myself. It’s usually my son and I doing Age of Sigmar or something with Dragon Rampant. But this video does inspire me to make it happen.
Lots of fun, the feel of a 'proper' battle with well - selected scenarios with historical context, AND it'll lake less than 30 minutes, typically. Haven't played for a couple of years. I need to get my finger out!
"And there was much celebrating in the Human camp that night among those who had survived! The Sacred Black Horn "Blattmore", seemed to have a sad note sounding, as the defeated skeletons slunk back into the concealing darkness, for their Commander, The Necromancer, to have another think about chokepoints." - taken from "The Campaigns Of King Hopper... Or Disasters I Have Avoided.
I am a bit behind on your videos and starting to catch back up (looking forward to your Rangers of Shadow Deep campaign). I am especially glad to see another OHW game. I really like it for a simple and fast game that really focus on tactics of maneuver vs the crunchy details. Some times it is nice to a fast flowing game that challenge you instead of getting loss in the game mechanics for combat, morale, etc.
Yep - I am hoping to give the modern ruleset a try, once I get my 2mm modern armies based and painted. Might be a while as my paint queue ain't getting any shorter these days.
I figured a way of playing this game without needing to mark hit points on your units. I made it so that the average number of attacks you need to make to rout a unit is roughly the same, but there is a chance of routing a unit in the first hit if you are lucky. If you want, I can show it.
It might be worth adding a rules to cross the river d6-3 inches where I’d you roll below a zero your unit gets swept sideways with the current just to avoid the conga line
it's funny how being a wargamer makes you look at rivers! I regularly drive to York and my route takes me over the Wharf. I always think, if I were fleeing Towton, I could cross it with a leap and maybe a bit if a splash and a scramble. But I look at the Ouse and think, end up in there, you're a dead man! Thomas's river here feels like the latter, ensuring that crossing the bridge is non negotiable. But such a rule would make for a desperate scramble. I think the scenarios would play out well as part of a campaign. The battles are so quick and easy to set up.
Sometimes random scenario reinforcements and (with 20/20 hindsight) perhaps some poor undead strategy - a bit too aggressive with the first undead horse, not sending an undead knight over the bridge as the first reinforcement - can make for an awfully boring battle. But it's OHW - it's so fast to play, just reset and play it again, or another! Personally, I'm not a fan of these rules, just too simple and predictable for my tastes, but I absolutely love the random army selection and the scenarios are an incredible resource for other rules. By the way, did you cut the Irregular human knights base into seperate figures to get that beautiful charging "vee" formation? They look fantastic! You have to bring out this box more! (And lest you think I shut off my rules pedantic mode, let me just mention that archers actually do +2 damage in shooting, not -2. Think you mixed that up with archers in melee).
What does Neil Thomas have to do with SciFI Skirmish Scenarios written by John Lambshead and prefaced by Rick Priestley? You're confusing it with "One-Hour Skirmish Wargames", which is the one written by Lambshead.
Did I hear you during the setup say that you play the rules regards distances as being halved as you are using 6mm ? This was one of the things I felt the rules didn’t cover (ie adjusting distances to account for figure scale)
That is correct. My bases amount to 4 figures per square inch, and this lets me game on the equivalent of a 4x6 table. A little small by the standards of the grogenards, but it works well for me.
![[Review] One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas](/img/n.gif)
“The army with the red capes will play the blue army, and the purple army will play the blue army”.
Jon, for a second I thought you were going to start reciting “The pellet with the poison is in the vessel with the pestle. The flagon with the dragon has the brew that is true!”
thanks for resurrecting this. Happy New Year, one and all.
@@johnscarr70 I just got the joke! Very well done
@@TheJoyofWargamingI do what I can to spread a little mirth. Probably best not to encourage me, I only get sillier... Great introduction to OHW and solo for me. Helped me find my wargaming way.
I really like all of Neil’s books, especially his Ancient Wargaming book it’s quite good, but the One-Hour book is so quick and fun and the scenarios alone are worth getting the book. I always enjoy watching your One-Hour games.
Surprisingly engaging. We enjoy this system a great deal.
I very much enjoy the One Hour scenarios. I have the book but have not done the game myself. It’s usually my son and I doing Age of Sigmar or something with Dragon Rampant. But this video does inspire me to make it happen.
Lots of fun, the feel of a 'proper' battle with well - selected scenarios with historical context, AND it'll lake less than 30 minutes, typically. Haven't played for a couple of years. I need to get my finger out!
"And there was much celebrating in the Human camp that night among those who had survived! The Sacred Black Horn "Blattmore", seemed to have a sad note sounding, as the defeated skeletons slunk back into the concealing darkness, for their Commander, The Necromancer, to have another think about chokepoints." - taken from "The Campaigns Of King Hopper... Or Disasters I Have Avoided.
The way the terrain and figures are based makes for a very appealing game, 😅 you are making me want to give it another go😊
I am a bit behind on your videos and starting to catch back up (looking forward to your Rangers of Shadow Deep campaign). I am especially glad to see another OHW game. I really like it for a simple and fast game that really focus on tactics of maneuver vs the crunchy details. Some times it is nice to a fast flowing game that challenge you instead of getting loss in the game mechanics for combat, morale, etc.
Yep - I am hoping to give the modern ruleset a try, once I get my 2mm modern armies based and painted. Might be a while as my paint queue ain't getting any shorter these days.
👍👍👍👍 always fun stuff. Thanks.
I figured a way of playing this game without needing to mark hit points on your units. I made it so that the average number of attacks you need to make to rout a unit is roughly the same, but there is a chance of routing a unit in the first hit if you are lucky. If you want, I can show it.
It might be worth adding a rules to cross the river d6-3 inches where I’d you roll below a zero your unit gets swept sideways with the current just to avoid the conga line
it's funny how being a wargamer makes you look at rivers! I regularly drive to York and my route takes me over the Wharf. I always think, if I were fleeing Towton, I could cross it with a leap and maybe a bit if a splash and a scramble. But I look at the Ouse and think, end up in there, you're a dead man!
Thomas's river here feels like the latter, ensuring that crossing the bridge is non negotiable. But such a rule would make for a desperate scramble.
I think the scenarios would play out well as part of a campaign. The battles are so quick and easy to set up.
Did you try to add magic in a "One-hour Wargames" fantasy game ? I have 10mm armies for Warmaster and I want to try them for OHW :)
Sometimes random scenario reinforcements and (with 20/20 hindsight) perhaps some poor undead strategy - a bit too aggressive with the first undead horse, not sending an undead knight over the bridge as the first reinforcement - can make for an awfully boring battle. But it's OHW - it's so fast to play, just reset and play it again, or another! Personally, I'm not a fan of these rules, just too simple and predictable for my tastes, but I absolutely love the random army selection and the scenarios are an incredible resource for other rules.
By the way, did you cut the Irregular human knights base into seperate figures to get that beautiful charging "vee" formation? They look fantastic! You have to bring out this box more!
(And lest you think I shut off my rules pedantic mode, let me just mention that archers actually do +2 damage in shooting, not -2. Think you mixed that up with archers in melee).
What does Neil Thomas have to do with SciFI Skirmish Scenarios written by John Lambshead and prefaced by Rick Priestley?
You're confusing it with "One-Hour Skirmish Wargames", which is the one written by Lambshead.
It's the fact that they're Pen and Sword stablemates, causing confusion, I'd bet.
Do you like 1 hour wargaming better than chainmail or the other way around?
I’m assuming chainmail haha
They are different tools for different jobs. I like them both for what they are. Chainmail, I like that better for campaigns, if that helps.
Did I hear you during the setup say that you play the rules regards distances as being halved as you are using 6mm ?
This was one of the things I felt the rules didn’t cover (ie adjusting distances to account for figure scale)
That is correct. My bases amount to 4 figures per square inch, and this lets me game on the equivalent of a 4x6 table. A little small by the standards of the grogenards, but it works well for me.