Mini Series

Solitaire

Joseph Miranda designed the first two mini-game lines. He designed a line for solo play as well as a line for two players. The solo line places the player in charge of commandos or raiders (units represent individuals up to companies) tasked with various missions they must complete to achieve victory. Each game includes 18 mini-cards. Four mission cards describe the scenario objectives and starting resources. To win the campaign game, the player must win all four scenarios with each succeeding scenario getting more difficult. Fourteen event cards act as a timer as well as generate random events. Games range from Rogers’ Rangers (the first American commandos) to Lawrence (watch the movie while playing the game!) to Khe Sahn (defending a Vietnam-era fire base) to Phobos Rising (a SF theme of Martian commandos attempting to capture key installations at the beginning of an Earth-Mars conflict). Movement is generally point-to-point, and battles are resolved with a simple firefight combat system.

2-player

The two-player line has three sub-systems: Ancient Wars, Hand of Destiny (19th century), and Air Wars. Each game includes 18 mini-cards with each player having a deck of nine cards. In Ancient Wars and Hand of Destiny (HoD) the cards indicate the movement allowance of various unit groups as well as reinforcements. In Air Wars, the cards provide an advantage that can be played for one turn or cards can be collected and played to gain a permanent advantage in the game. Ancient Wars and HoD use point-to-point movement, while Air Wars uses a chessboard-like square grid. Air Wars introduces the basics of fighters and bombers with simplified bomb targeting and aerial combat. Some of the Ancient War games include Caesar in Gaul and Hawaii Unification. Hand of Destiny includes Custer’s Final Campaign (the whole year, not just the Battle of Little Bighorn) and Khyber Rifles. Air Wars includes Eagle Day (Battle of Britain) and MiG Alley (Korean War).

Musket & Saber

The third line introduces traditional hex and counter wargaming. The larger group is Musket & Saber Quick Play. It covers small battles and turning points in bigger battles from the 18th and 19th century. The counters represent formations ranging from battalions to brigades and include infantry, cavalry, artillery, and leaders. These formations are rated for how fast they can move, their combat ability, and the morale or elan. Artillery can fire at a distance within its range and cavalry can charge. Units that fail morale checks become disrupted and many units have two strength steps, meaning they can take losses but keep on fighting at reduced strength. Leaders are able to add their movement, combat, and morale values to units in their stack.

Movement is across a hex field and introduces basic concepts of varying cost for entering and crossing terrain (e.g. moving into a clearing costs one movement point while moving into a woods hex may cost two movement points). Combat is largely between adjacent forces (artillery can fire from a distance), and is based on the difference in attacking and defending forces (not the more complex ratio system found in most wargames). Games include entire small battles such as Saratoga (American Revolution) and Salem Church (American Civil War) as well as turning points within larger battles such as Little Round Top (Gettysburg) and Hougoumont (Waterloo).

The M&S Quick Play system rules have received a refresh and the rules are available on the E-rules page of this site and can be used with any game in the series.

Game Systems

Commando

Congo Merc: The Congo, 1964
Border War: Angola Raiders
Merrill’s Marauders: Commandos in Burma, 1943–44

Raider

Rogers’ Rangers: America’s First Commandos
Long Range Desert Group: Special Operations Against Rommel, 1941–42
Lawrence of Arabia: The Arab Revolt 1917–18
Heroes of Telemark: Commando Raids in Norway, 1942–43
Vikings: Scourge of the North

Cold War Blitz

Khe Sanh ‘68: Marines Under Siege
Suez ‘56: Anglo-French Intervention

Sci-Fi

Ceres: Operation Stolen Base
Phobos Rising! Insurgency on Mars

Ancient Wars

Caesar’s Wars: The Conquest of Gaul, 58–52 BC
Belisarius’s War: The Roman Reconquest of Africa, AD 533–534
Hawaii, 1795: Kamehameha’s War of Unification

Hand of Destiny

Khyber Rifles: Britannia in Afghanistan
Custer’s Final Campaign: 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn
Lettow-Vorbeck: East Africa 1914–18
Campaigns of Montrose: A Year of Living Dangerously, 1644–1645
Khartoum: Sudan, 1883–1885

Air Wars

Cactus Air Force: Air War Over the Solomons
Eagle Day: The Battle of Britain
Red Eagles: Air War over the Kuban Peninsula, 1943
MiG Alley: Air War Over Korea, 1951

Musket & Saber QP (Hex-based)

AMERICAN REVOLUTION BATTLES

NAPOLEONIC BATTLES

19TH CENTURY BATTLES

Molino Del Rey: Gateway to Mexico City, 8 Sept 1847
Balaclava: Breaking the Siege, 25 October 1854

AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

Chantilly: Jackson’s Missed Opportunity, 1 Sept 1862
Salem Church: East of Chancellorsville, 3–4 May 1863
Mansfield: Crisis in the Pine Barrens, 8 April 1864
Wilson’s Creek: Opening Round in the West, 10 Aug 1861
Little Round Top: Flank Attack at Gettysburg, 2 July 1863
Hornet’s Nest: Buying Time at Shiloh, 6 April 1862

Folio Games

Minutes to Learn. Quick to Play.Historically Accurate.