Two Hour Wargames

Everyone has their favourite set of rules that they usually spend most of their time on in one way or another and for me it is, far and away, those offered by Two Hour Wargames or THW. 

Created and developed  by Ed Teixeira, they are constantly expanding their range and cover everything from fantasy, gladiatorial combat, WW2, pulp, zombies and colonials - to name but a few!   For those that haven't tried them, here is a brief resume from their website:

'Welcome to Two Hour Wargames makers of entertaining games playable in two hours or less. All THW games can be played solo or same side (cooperatively) as well as head-to-head. With THW you can play with your friends as well as against them. Customer satisfaction and support is our goal and our 4800 member Yahoo Group is available to answer all questions'

Just a few of the titles on offer, giving an indication of the range available.

There are a number of things that stand out that for me, make THW the system of choice:

Firstly, and not least, the system is intuitive, flexible and lends itself to real-world tactics, rather than 'gamey' mechanics. Players can use any figures they already have and it doesn't rely on specific basing or scale conventions.

THW's ethos is unpretentious, friendly and open to user input at every level, with Ed on hand to answer questions daily via the enthusiastic Yahoo Group.

But, for me it is the unorthodox and ingenious 'chain reaction' system used by all THW games that allows solo, co-op and multi-player games with equal ease that set it apart. Quite unlike any other on the market it offers a challenging and unpredictable game every time you play.

When I returned to the hobby 3 years ago, my playing habits and the time available to me had changed since my last incursion back in the 90's; I now don't have the time or inclination to learn multiple rules sets or paint endless specific figures for each game system and quite often play solo due to work constraints. Therefore, THW is perfect - once you learn the core system, you know 90% of all games within its range - perfect.

The core system 'Chain Reaction 3.0' is available for free download from THW's site and are well worth a look, who knows, you may be pleasantly surprised...

That's it for now,

Monty