These are refreshing rules. As the title states these rules aren't for epic battles fought with the set military doctrines of the period. They are designed for battles with small armies of diverse character, allowing you to fight battles that employed less than 3000 troops per side. Thus they fill that gap between big battles and skirmish level fights
They are a clear and straightford to read.....very well written. A quick read and I was test playing them within 90 minutes. The mechanics are simple and clean yet extremely innovative and break from the style of rules flooding the market these days with big price tags and more glossy pictures than substance.
These rules are all inclusive. You won't need to throw even more cash purchasing an endless river of supplements of army lists, campaign systems, etc. You get over 40 lists as well as simple but workable campaign system rolled up in this reasonably priced 90+ page book.
While the rules are simple in terms of mechanics (the rules proper are only about 30 pages of the book), don't let that fool you into thinking they will quickly grow old or mundane to play. Every game is different than the last, even when the same two armies and the scenario are used to start of a game.
The initiative system, method of generating what your army composition will be and the random chance cards shape every battle to be something unique and challenging. Troops and leaders that are seemlngly invincible in one game may show up sick and unmotivated for the next. Not knowing the exact nature of what you may have to command game to game not only adds variety but tests your generalship as well.
The game takes me a little longer than the 60 mnutes stated. More like 90-120 but I'm a pokey player. I'd guess that if I pushed it and kept my nose to the grindstone while playing I might be able to cut that down.
Space requirements are small a 3x3' area is all thats needed for a two player game 3x5' for 4 players.
My test plays were done with metal bases and not actually with miniatures. The fact that I rapidly ordered all of the figures needed to generate all troop combinations for four different armies (aproximately 100-120 per army) should tell the story on what I already think of these rules.
If you want a hard bound set of rules that look better on your coffee table than they produce great gameplay, go seek out the usual suspects to meet your needs. If you don't need fancy lead porn pictures but prefer fast, fun and variable play you can't go wrong with Irregular Wars.
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