03-06-2002, 09:38 PM
I spent years boardgaming (to include the delightful solitaire "Fall of Rome") but eventually I tired of the growing complexity (enormous rulebooks accompanied by too much bookkeeping). A friend introduced me to miniatures & I never looked back. I find miniatures allow more flexibility and, of course, are nice to look at! The negatives include price, uniform research and painting (yech!). Miniature rules, like boardgames, cover a wide spectrum of complexity and detail. WRG's DBA is in my opinion an ideal starting point. Why? The battlefield is 2'x2'. So a great deal of room is not required. Each army is limited to only 12 units...this means you only purchase a small numbers of figures. The rules deal with all armies from the chariot era down to the gunpower era. Play is quick, I can solitaire a battle after work in less than 2 hrs. And, if you choose to use the smaller 6mm figures as a testbed your expenditure will realy be quite limited. Hope this helps...Best of luck! <p></p><i></i>