My First Solo Wargame – Putting the Rules to the Test
After spending time creating my own solo wargame rules, building terrain and preparing my miniatures, it was finally time to play my first solo miniature wargame.
In just 1.5 hours, I managed to set up the battlefield and play an entire game. It was a very simplified version of a traditional tabletop wargame, but that didn't really matter. I had finally gone from an idea written down on paper to actually playing the game.
Setting Up the Battle
The game starts by determining the two sides. Rather than choosing the armies myself, I rolled dice to randomly determine which side would be controlled by me and which would be controlled by the AI.
I then rolled for the scenario.
The objective was simple: hunt down a specific target and hold the objectives..
One of the AI Warriors was randomly selected as the target. If I managed to kill that model, I would score 5 Victory Points.
I also placed four objectives around the battlefield. Each objective was worth 1 Victory Point to whichever side controlled it at the end of a turn.
With the objectives placed, my recently built terrain scattered across the table, and the teams randomly selected, it was time to see how the game actually played.
The Teams
My army was made up of just four miniatures:
2 Brutes
2 Specialists
The AI, on the other hand, had eight units:
3 Brutes
1 Elite
2 Warriors
1 Archer
1 Ruffian
At the time, I didn't think too much about the difference.
Four models against eight seemed like it might be manageable.
I was wrong.
The Battle Begins
The opening turns felt familiar. Both sides moved towards the objectives, positioning their units and preparing for the inevitable fight.
Then the first attacks started.
I managed to quickly down one of the AI units, which felt like a great start. However, this was where one of my rules immediately started to show its weaknesses.
In my current rules, a model that is Downed isn't immediately removed. It has to suffer another hit before it is actually killed.
This meant that my first successful attack didn't actually remove an enemy from the battlefield.
Instead, they were left vulnerable but still in the fight.
As the battle continued, I started to realise just how important numbers were going to be.
My four models were constantly being forced to split their attention between fighting the AI and trying to control objectives. Meanwhile, the AI had enough units to spread across the battlefield and contest multiple objectives at once.
Then my dice decided to make things even harder.
Some particularly poor rolls from my army meant that attacks I expected to land simply didn't.
The battle quickly started slipping away from me.
The Final Result
By the end of the game, my entire army had been wiped out.
Despite that, I had managed to accomplish part of my objective. I captured a couple of objectives and, most importantly, managed to kill the designated target.
That gave me 8 Victory Points.
Unfortunately, the AI had controlled more objectives and held them for longer, while also eliminating all of my models.
The final score was:
Me: 8 VP
AI: 11 VP
A loss, but honestly, I was enjoyed my time.
What I Learned
The biggest thing I learned wasn't that my army lost.
It was that the game actually worked.
There were objectives to fight over, decisions to make, combat to resolve and a reason to move around the battlefield. It was incredibly simplified compared with the larger wargames that inspired it, but it was still a game.
And that was the goal.
Playing it also highlighted a few things that I hadn't noticed while simply writing the rules.
The Downed mechanic needs some work. It made removing models too difficult and resulted in units surviving longer than intended. I'm going to make a few changes to that rule before the next game.
I also think the teams need a little more structure. Randomising the armies was fun for this first test, but putting four models against eight created a pretty significant imbalance.
For the next game, I'm going to experiment with creating more balanced teams, while still keeping enough randomness and variety to make each game feel different.
A Loss, But a Big Win
Losing 8–11 wasn't exactly the result I was hoping for, but this game was probably one of the most important steps in the entire project.
I finally got to play the game I had been building.
It showed me what worked, what didn't, and what needed changing. More importantly, it gave me a much better understanding of the rules than I could have got from simply reading them.
There is still plenty to improve, but I'm genuinely excited to see where this goes.
The first game is done. Now it's time to make the second one better.
On to the next.
And remember: Always Paint Your Way
