Solo Wargames Archives - Steven's Balagan

Snakes and Ladders Campaign for Tilly’s Very Bad Day

8 Aug 20216 Feb 2021 by Steven Thomas

Tilly's Very Bad Day - 30 Years War - Snakes And Ladders Campaign - Banner

Peter of Grid based wargaming has sparked some interest in using the children’s board game Snakes and Ladders as the basis for a wargaming Campaign. The snakes become tribulations and the ladders are campaign successes. So I have made up a board for a Tilly’s Very Bad Day Snakes and Ladders campaign based on Peter’s board for the 18th Century.

There is no skill in playing this campaign system as, like the children’s board game, random dice rolls lead to success. If you are lucky, you will win. For me this makes a Snakes and Ladders Campaign most suited to solo play where the goal is to provide narrative for the game. I’m not really a solo player myself, but I know some Tilly’s Very Bad Day players do play solo and I hope this will appeal to them.

Musing on Solo Crossfire – Inspiration from Lloydian Aspects

17 Aug 202115 Jun 2019 by Steven Thomas

I’m lucky to have some regular opponents (Chris, Jamie, Adam) but some folk are not so privileged. Inspired by a conversation with Brett Simpson I thought I’d write some rules for playing solo Crossfire. I want a game, played solo, that feels a bit like Mac’s Crossfire Missions. As it happens Nikolas Lloyd already has a Scenario for Solo Play and there is tons of good stuff in there. Lloyd wrote a specific scenario but my goal is slightly different, wider. That means I can’t use Lloyd’s scenario directly but I can pull out some lessons from his offering.

Comparison of CR3, FNG and NUTS from THW

13 Mar 201610 Jul 2010 by Steven Thomas

All of the games from Two Hour Wargames are based on the same mechanisms. Since Chain Reaction 3.0 has their core rules, and it is free, I wondered what the other rules sets are giving me. You could argue that this exercise is a waste of time as I’ve already bought the other rules but really I’m thinking “if I wrote my own supplement what would I have to write and what would come from Chain Reaction 3.0?”.

1-to-1 Skirmish Campaign for the Portuguese Colonial War

13 Mar 201629 Jun 2010 by Steven Thomas

Rules for a Portuguese Colonial War campaign game with some kind of 1-to-1 skirmish rules, like Freakin’ New Guy (FNG) by Two Hour Wargames or a variation on Two Page Skirmish Rules (TPSR) or Troops, Weapons and Tactics (TW&T) by the Two Fat Lardies, as the tactical rules.

Alexander the Great’s Solo DBA Campaign

13 Mar 20168 Feb 2010 by Steven Thomas

Paul from the Man Cave wondered if I’d seen Solo Wargamer: Micro-Campaigning Part II. I hadn’t but I did find it quite interesting – it reminds me of the mechanisms that Two Hour Wargames use for their campaigns. My first thought was that this would be perfect for a campaign featuring Alexander’s trek into the East. (Can you tell what I’ve been reading lately?) It uses DBA.