Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones

Welcome to Goonhammer Historicals. We’re your guide to the massive, varied and fascinating world of Historical wargaming. Whether you’re an experienced Historicals player with too many armies to count, or you’re just starting with the best part of the miniatures hobby, you’ll find content here to help you get started, build collections and choose rulesets. It’s a massive, wild world of history out there – we’ve selected some core articles to help you dive in below, but you can find all of our Historicals content here, or search for the era you’re interested in above to find kit reviews.

The Historicals Team and Editors are dedicated to making positive, open and inclusive Historicals content. You can read about our approach and commitments to this principle here.

Historical Gaming

These articles the different ways Historicals games approach different aspects of gameplay and contain suggestions, recommendations and ideas for your games.

Historical Portrayals in Wargaming
Scale
Asymmetric Conflict
Force Selection
Deployment
Activation
Movement
Running the Perfect Demo game
The State of Historicals: 2022

Historicals by Period

Alt/Weird History:

Turnip 28
Turnip 28 Interview with designer Max Fitzgerald
Turnip 28 Cults
Dracula’s America
Zone Alfa
The Silver Bayonet

Ancients:

6mm romans and celts clash
Ordered ranks of Romans engage the mass hordes of the Britons – credit Lupe

Getting Started Ancient Rome
Infamy, Infamy! Review
How to Paint Everything: Romans

Medieval:

Victrix Normans and Vikings in action!
On the tabletop, some Norman warriors face off against marauding Vikings. Or perhaps forces loyal to King Chafin the Third of Rethem do battle with Ivinian mercenaries in the employ of the Earl of Tormau! Either way, these dudes look sweet on the table! (credit: Ilor)

Getting Started Medieval
Getting Started Viking Age/Early Medieval
Lion Rampant Review
Never Mind the Billhooks Review
Painting Colour in the Medieval

Feudal Japan:

smaurai skirmish village

Getting Started Feudal Japan
Test of Honour Review
Ronin Review
How to Paint Everything: Samurai

Pirates/Age of Sail:

Blood & Plunder Brigantine rigging
The finished product! The iconic rat-lines add a ton of visual interest to the model. Note that the rearmost mast has shrouds (also modular) but no rat-lines – that’s because it’s “spanker-rigged” with a jib and a boom, raised and lowered from lines on deck. This removes the need for sailors to climb up into the rigging, which in turn removes the need for rat-lines. Turns out, sailing vessels are complicated! (credit: Ilor)

How to Rig Everything – Modular Masts for Blood and Plunder

Napoleonics:

Getting Started Napoleonics
Getting Started with Sharp Practice
Soldiers of Napoleon Review
Lenoon’s Road to Austerlitz – French
Enzo’s Road to Leipzig – Austrians
The Silver Bayonet

American Civil War:

Captured Confederates escorted by a Federal soldier, and Confederate soldiers bringing up ammo boxes. Credit: Mugginns

Getting Started: American Civil War
Pickett’s Charge Review
Creating a Campaign
Mugginn’s Road to Adepticon
Naval Wargaming with Ironclads
Ironclad Rules review
Unique ACW Units

WW1:

WWI French Infantry. Credit: HardyRoach.
WWI French Infantry. Credit: HardyRoach.

French Infantry Review

WW2:

Battlegroup Rules Review
Bag the Hun Review
The Eastern Front
North Africa
What a Tanker Review
Campaign Stalingrad Review
Soviet Women’s Rifle Brigade

Moderns:

Black Powder Red Earth Part 1
Black Powder Red Earth Part 2
Black Powder Red Earth Models Review

Game Guides

Guides to playing your best in the top Historicals games

Sharp Practice:

Rules Review
Getting Started with Sharp Practice
Sharp Practice Era Guide
Movement
Firing

Bolt Action:

Getting Started with Bolt Action
Your next steps with Bolt Action
Army Special Rules Guide

Chain of Command:

Ilor’s North African Campaign

The Flower Wars

The Flower Wars is a Goonhammer project to design a skirmish game set in the Aztec Empire. Currently in development, you can participate in playtesting through signing up for our Patreon and joining the Discord server.

WGA Aztec Warband
An assembled Aztec warband, featuring warriors of a variety of different ranks. (credit: Ilor)

Introducing the Project
Game Design Principles
Combat Mechanics
Researching Mexica History
Wargames Atlantic Aztecs Review and Flower Wars Building Guide

All Posts

Goonhammer Historicals: The Barons’ War: Outremer

Outremer is an expansion, campaign and sourcebook for taking your Barons’ War games literally “over-seas”, into the Levantine Crusader states and their Islamic neighbours....

Goonhammer Historicals: Footsore Barons’ War Outremer Miniatures

So heading over to Outremer sounds interesting, doesn’t it? You’ll need miniatures though if you’re going to fight skirmishes in the complex, shifting and...

Goonhammer Historicals: Gangs of Rome Second Edition Review

When you think of historical wargaming in the time of Rome, you usually think of vast legions clashing on the fields of battle against...

Goonhammer Historicals: Devilry Afoot

This article includes a clearly labeled affiliate link. Given the Silver Bayonet is a Goonhammer Historicals staff favorite and can be best summarized as “What...

Goonhammer Historicals: Rating Every Change in Bolt Action 3rd Edition – Volume III

Alex & Dan return for our final set of hot takes on the brand new 3rd edition of Bolt Action. In our last two...