Reply To: Do skirmish/warband level games actually reflect history?

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Historically… no not really I dont think, though I’m sure small little fights took place.

They are really a nice way of dipping your toe into a period, but really I’m not sure how realistic an ‘army’ of 12 blokes is, casually bumping into another similar sized force. Of course you could visualise.it as part.of a battle.

They have become popular as people don’t always want to paint ‘big’ armies. When I started wargaming, skirmish games weren’t a ‘thing’ really. Those big army painters are still out there though, just the rules don’t make as much of a splash… they tend to stick around though, while skirmish games sometimes seem to vanish without trace after a while.

An English Civil War ‘skirmish’ would be a few hundred men in reality. I did an ECW skirmish game in 1990 that just used Warhammer and it was great fun with about 60 figures.

I’ve yet to find any skirmish rules that really reflect a historical period, perhaps at that level its irrelevant to a degree. A man with a sling differs little if he is Greek, Cretan or a Roman.