The 3 Best (& Worst) Osprey Historical Games

Miles and Greg sit down to discuss their favorite...and least favorite...Osprey Games. With over 30 titles (and counting) since 2012, Osprey publishes a wide range of easy, quick historical and fantasy wargames. Today we focus exclusively on the HISTORICAL titles in the lineup. There are some outstanding games we play regularly in our club, including a couple lesser known titles we think you should check out. But around here, you know we don't shy away from constructive criticism, either. And there may be a few titles in the Osprey Games lineup you can afford to skip.

So here we go! Let's talk the good, the bad, and the ugly of Osprey Games and their historical wargames! We polled our Patreon supporters to find out their favorites, and you'll see the results in today's video. But what about your favorite games from the so-called "blue book" series? Have you played our top recommendations? Do you think we missed any hidden gems? Let us know in the comments!

If you'd like to hear Greg's 2020 interview with Phil Smith, the head of Osprey Games, it's Episode 1 of our LWFM podcast! This episode is one of our publicly available ones, and you can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Soundcloud, etc. Direct link to the podcast interview here:

We again want to thank the sponsor of our Thermopolyae episode, Diratia Productions. They 3D sculpt awesomely affordable historical miniatures in multiple scales and eras of history. For a limited time they're offering 10% off their STL files at MyMiniFactory with the promo code "LittleWarsTV". Naturally, they have ancient Greek and Persian miniatures for you next Greco-Persian wargame:

[ericfarrington]

Thanks for the shout-out guys. I am glad you think the Men of Bronze rules improved a lot with Wars of the Republic. I took the feedback from my readers to heart.

[keithflint]

As the author of Honours of War, I thought your critique of Osprey's editorial policy was justified. I had an excellent experience with Phil Smith, and felt very fortunate to get published, but I am the kind of guy who is very particular about things like getting my grammar and punctuation right, and producing readable explanations of the rules. HoW was also extensively playtested as a hobby project before publication became a possibility, which helped immensely.

There is a more general point here - editorial support in the wargames and military history world is often non-existent - unless you happen to be a well-known professional. It's common to find book reviews asking why editors didn't pick up on obvious spelling errors, mistakes and poor organisation. The answer is, that these editiors don't exist. Authors are very much on their own in this world.

As for 'Beer and Pretzels', I guess that sums up the majority of the books, but I think Osprey should get some credit for producing what these days are called 'big battle' rules that fit into a small book, rather than a A4 hardback with innumerable supplements. I would like to see more of these.

You are quite right about support as well. With such a well-known series of books, Osprey should really have a website providing some support. Personally, I was glad to set up a site for HoW (honoursofwar.com), which was a very positive experience for me. The game has been out there for a while and some changes and updates are available on the site. Plus a ton of great scenarios provided by participants.

Finally, I like to see a channel willing to criticise as well as be fan boys. There's too much sycophantic blowing of sunshine out there! Thanks for this content. 😍

[bishopk]

Good choices for both the good and bad. Thanks for calling out Mark Latham and "Chosen Men". I remember going to his blog and looking to see if there was an errata (which it badly needed) and seeing him tell all the fans of the game to basically take a hike. Made a note to never to buy anything with his name attached.

[nONLY_DRock]

Osprey is doing it right. Make a ruleset that's model neutral, and make 'em cheap! And if one ends up being a runaway success like say... Gaslands or Frostgrave/Stargrave you expand on that with hardcovers, expansions, and product lines. Other publishers could definitely learn from Osprey. My only criticism is the rules could use more polish and game balancing at times.

Gaslands is great! I also love that you can use Hot Wheels or Matchbox toys. Makes it really accessible.

I also heard A World Aflame (Interwar Period skirmish game) can be a little janky too.

[steveholmes]

I really don't want to criticise Osprey excessively.
For many years they where a bulwark of the hobby with their relatively low cost uniform and history guides.
My shelf of Napoleonic and ACW uniforms (one third of the plates Zouaves and one third musicians) WAS the best resource I could access at the time.

These days the Internet provides far more material than a 60 page uniform guide.
And the reader avoids getting purchasing several books with 90% common text (The Napoleonic French Cavalry series), or disappearing down the rabbit hole of excess specialisation (Parodied as "Underwear of the Wehrmacht May-June 1941, volumes 1-6").

The venture into rules was a welcome development.
Relatively short and affordable rules covering a range of subjects.
But quality control was uneven, producing some classics and some real stinkers.

But hats off to Osprey for going there, and providing us with some great material.

[captainnolan]

You are spot on regarding Absolute Emperor. I was also really looking forward to Absolute Emperor, but alas, when the rules arrived, they were poorly written and ambiguous in many places. I contacted the author with my many questions and he asked me 'where I was during the development of the game when the input would have been useful.' I had not heard about the game until it was being released by Osprey, so his comment did not sit well. We went back and forth with more rules questions and I got some clarifications. When the author started a Facebook group I joined, and attempted to get even more questions answered (it seemed like the more answers I got, the more new questions would arise - as if I was a developer, rather than a player). At some point he banned me from the group. After further discussion with him, he unbanned me from the group, but by that time my enthusiasm for the game was gone, and I have not looked at the rules since. Unfortunately, Absolute Emperor is a poorly drafted rules set, with an author who blamed his readers for asking clarification questions; he apparently has poor judgment and a temper to boot. No thanks.

[Michael-wsrc]

Nice review. I agree Men Who Would be Kings is a really good rule set.

[Ed-Irvin]

this is the video I didnt know I needed...I side-eye Osprey titles every now and again, but hadn't had any context so just stick with what I already play. Thank you.

[montroyalbynight]

Great review concept. Really appreciated you guys pointed out some bad titles and why you thought so. It feels like people lose their mind whenever anyone has concrete criticism for any game, no matter how badly concieved, derivative or lazily put together it may be.

[davefranklin]

Rebels and Patriots are without question my favorite Osprey "blue book" rules. I feel it's a little unfair to refer to them as "Daniel Mersey rules" without mentioning the other author Michael Leck. Like several other Osprey authors, Daniel Mersey seems to have washed his hands of supporting his rules, but on the Dux Rampant forum, a person with the screen name Dalauppror, who I believe is Michael Leck, still supports R&P very well.

[oscarvi]

Great report, lads. I love Lion Rampant and the Men Who Would be King and like you, I couldn't make head nor tail of Men of Bronze. Absolute Emperor was extremely disappointing.

[AA-pdxf]

This is nicely done, and I believe quite fair. I own several of the "good" and have checked into some others, and this appears to be a very fair summary of the Osprey business model with rules.

[simondrury]

Absolute Emperor has been one of my favorites, been popular down the club as we actually get games finished. The Osprey quick refrence sheet was very poor though, found a better one online.Though since playing have added bits to give it more Napoleonic flavour. Own 12 blue books, have stayed away from some as was told they were just a variation on another book. Really liked Ronin and Wars of the Republic.

[manjr]

Thank you for calling out Osprey's sloppy quality control. The typos are bad enough, but some books have come out functionally broken, with sections of rules missing or just wrong.

I'm no Osprey hater (all you have to do is look at my bookshelf), but I think they sell enough books now to employ an editor.

[johndesch]

Excellent report. Agree Men Who Would Be Kings is great. Also agree that Poseidon needs something. But it’s a fun con game and you get some command and control issues just by having multiple players and their personalities. The hardest part of the game is keeping track of ships, but I tell players this is what admirals do. 😊

[earlgrayman]

I'm new to wargaming so I've been enjoying reading and playing through the Osprey blue books even if they're not all winners. I particularly enjoyed Black Ops.

[colinspeirs]

Thank you Miles and Greg. I have some of the Osprey sets, and you can tell that there is not a lot of editing or back and forth from the company and the author, so you are reliant on the author, e.g. Daniel Mersey, working hard and producing a good ruleset

[FelixstoweFoamForge]

Glad Ronin made it in there. I love it. Plus, I've never bought into the idea that BIG Samurai battles really used formal-single-arms-units, certainly before about 1570 ish, so this just works for me. Oh, and nice to see "Car Wars" get a mention, trip down memory lane time!

[ostrowulf]

I would love to see you guys try Blood & Plunder

Also, I have been tempted to pick up En Garde and use mu B&P minis for it. By your words, sounds like that would work well.

[totalburnout]

I can heartly agree with "Lion Rampant" and the other Mersey games and I completely overlooked "Ronin" and "En Garde!". I'll probably take a look.
Bute with "Absolute Emperor" I must disagree. It has its layout problems and I already use some house rules to adjust some problems, but it has its advantages. Like many Osprey blue books, it's a good introduction to playing with fewer miniatures and without the usual "how to base" problems. In my opinion, not a crown, but a solid key to this periode.