Warpaint is a new rules set written by Stephen Lawrence (an MWANer of many years) and published by The Emperor's Press. These are skirmish rules for the Pony Wars period. I believe they were written to accompany the new Old Glory line of 25mm Old West figures. I just saw these figures at Games Caucus II in Oakland, and boy are they pretty, but that is another article.

There are two versions described in the game: a 1:5 scale game for large cavalry versus Indians fights, and a 1:1 scale game for gunfights. These are very fun rules that are simple to learn. The system is based on a "quality die" which is a different type of die for different types of figures, for example, a green cavalry trooper uses a d8, while Buffalo Bill uses a dl2. The quality die is used for everything. The actual rules only take up 8 pages of the rule book to describe both vasions of the game. The rest of the rule book is devoted to 13 different scenarios ranging from the "Gunfight at OK Corral" to the battle of the Rosebud!

There are nice illustrations on just about every page, but they are not the expensive magazine glossies - thus keeping the price at a reasonable $15. There are a total of 32 pages in a standard magazine style format, including a set of charts on the inside which you are encouraged to copy for handy reference. Other scenarios that come with the game include: The First Patrol (pony soldiers), Last Stand at L'Amour Wells, Bugles in the Mist (Nez Perce fight), Adobe Wells 1864 (Kit Carson), Wagon's Ho! (you guessed it: get 'em in a circle), Pony Express Rider, and The Buffalo Hunt.

Overall, I find the rules to be fun to learn and play quickly. They are also a good value for the money, which seems normal for Old Glory product lines.

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