Glaive-Guisarme-Glaive

Way back when I was about twelve (so we're talking way  back) I loved me a good hex-and-counter wargame. I had a copy of Advanced Squad Leader which I could never persuade anyone to play with me (so played against myself) and when we got our first PC a few years later I moved on to hex-and-counter video games. Waiting for the computer to take its turn in Battle Isle 2 is responsible for pretty much all the serious literature I've ever read.

I also played some Warhammer Fantasy Battle at the time -- I want to say second edition? -- but I hated painting minis so I stopped.

Anyway, it's now over thirty years later and I've written a little hex-and-counter wargame of my own based on my distant memories and a pdf of the original Chainmail from 1977. I've tested it, and despite knowing little about wargames and less about history Glaive-Guisarme-Glaive does actually play well and offer interesting tactical choices with a stripped-back ruleset, so if you're looking for a lightweight game to kill some time with, here you go!

How It Plays

It's all pretty simple really. The battlefield is made up of several hex-grid geomorphs randomly chosen and stuck together into an A2-size area. Each army is represented by several tokens, each of which is a unit in said army. The effects of shooting and melee combat are determined by the strength of the attacking unit, the armour of the defending unit, and the roll of one or more six-sided dice. There are rules for changing unit formation to get a tactical advantage, a bunch of different terrain effects, fatigue, morale, all the stuff you'd expect.

Fantasy Supplement!

Yes! Because I'm calling back to a certain other short-and-simple wargame from decades ago, I've also written a sixteen-page Fantasy Supplement which abandons even the pretense of historical accuracy and offers assorted ways to customise units further so that they can represent elves, dwarves, dragons, vampires, and all your other fantasy staples -- plus almost anything else you might dream up.