1d6 Bare Bones Wargaming

As a child, I had a father who devoted his time to model railroading. He spent endless days restoring old toy trains, giving them amazing paint jobs and decals, crafting custom figures to go with them, and then selling them at Toy and Train shows for impressive markups. I asked him why he never did much with soldiers, particularly the Civil War, since he loved the history of it and had taken us to several battle fields as children. He decried the very slow and tedious pace of wargaming. He had friends who were into it, and it wasn’t his thing. Chess, yes. Model trains, oh yes. But not wargaming.

With that in mind, when my own children were younger, I decided we needed a simple wargame that we could play to both study and experience a bit of the history of famous battles. My first creation was a very simple (much simpler than what is presented) paper hex map over a topographical plate of Gettysburg. We used colored screws for either infantry or cavalry units. Inspired more recently by my association with the fine gentlefolk of this website, I decided to reopen the book on that simple game and put a little more detail into it. What you’ll find here is a simple set of rules, a brief set of stats, and a map borrowed from the Library of Congress. I’m releasing it under the Creative Commons license for two reasons. First and most important, I wanted to give others a starting point for a simple wargame that would be easy enough for children, quick enough for parties, and basic enough to be leverageable for other battles and genres. Secondly, I don’t have the time or energy to market it and develop it into a product for sale. I just did it because I like spending time with my kids, when they’ll let me.

All you need is something to use as game pieces, even a couple dozen Legos will do, and 1 simple six sided die. Please enjoy!

Updated 8/15/2023: Defeat conditions and a short explanation of Strategic and Tactical modes has been added.