Wargames Research Group


The Wargames Research Group is a British publisher of rules and reference material for miniature wargaming. Founded in 1969 they were the premier publisher of tabletop rules during the seventies and eighties, publishing rules for periods ranging from ancient times to modern armoured warfare, and reference books which are still considered standard works for amateur researchers and wargamers. They are best known for their seminal ancient and medieval period rules, and also for De Bellis Antiquitatis and Hordes of the Things fantasy rules.

History

WRG was founded by Phil Barker, Bob O'Brien, and Ed Smith in 1969, when they published War Game Rules: 1000 B.C. to 500 A.D..
The rules quickly gained widespread acceptance through the miniature wargaming world, especially in the UK, and quickly became the acknowledged standard for ancient warfare. WRG followed with rules for other periods which gained similar widespread acceptance.
Innovative features of the rules included:
While very much a minority interest, both the 6th Edition and the 7th Edition continue to be played even at a competition level. Both, however, are no longer supported by WRG.
WRG rules have been sufficiently widely adopted that other popular rule sets sometimes choose to adopt the same basing requirements for figures to avoid requiring rebasing of the large number of WRG-based armies. Aspects of the WRG basing system such as the intermediate group of infantry between heavy and skirmisher infantry have, however, come under criticism.
At the beginning of the 1990s WRG introduced De Bellis Antiquitatis which was a radical simplification of ancients wargaming. The concepts of DBA were adapted to allow significantly larger games, which led to De Bellis Multitudinis for Ancients and De Bellis Renationis for Renaissance. The DBx series of rules are still in widespread use, the latest incarnation being De Bellis Magistrorum Militum.
DBA was also adapted to a fantasy setting in Hordes of the Things.

Significance

WRG rules were a significant milestone in the development of modern miniature wargaming, and attempted to use historical research to provide historical realism in wargames. Thus, the WRG referred to the original historical texts as the basis for their reference works, rules sets and army lists, and their historical publications are often found in wargaming, and other bibliographies.
The reference works published by WRG are aimed at the wargamer rather than the academic history student, but are nonetheless accurate enough to be occasionally cited in more scholarly texts.

Products

Rules

Ancients & Medievals

In seven editions, normally referred to by wargamers just by the edition number.

Ancients & Medievals