I join everyone else in praising these rules--simple, straightforward, and easy to get into to. An excellent gateway game for newcomers, as well as a nice change of pace for veteran gamers. I have noticed an oddity no one else has mentioned: the rules present as a mass fantasy battle game, but the size of a regiment actually makes no difference. Whether a unit contains 3 figures or 103, it is eliminated when its wounds are reduced to 0. Thus, one could field an army containing very, very few miniatures, which is helpful for a beginner who does not own a lot of them. It may not be quite so attractive to someone who is looking for rules to use with large numbers of figures. Nevertheless, this is a very fine piece of work--the author is to be commended.

First, I want to make it clear that I think Chronicles of Blood is a great set of rules, whether played solo or against an opponent. I was very much looking forward to any expansions, and a set of scenarios seemed like a good place to start. What I got for $1 were two very general, undetailed scenarios, that probably took all of 20 minutes to think up, write up, and finalize in a document. Because I like the rules so much I consider the money to be in effect payment for them, and not for the scenarios. In my opinion the scenarios should be made part of the rule set (and charge the dollar for that), or make them a freebie. I certainly am not going to buy the other expansion.

Sorry, folks, but there is no way I can recommend this. At all.

This is really a nifty set of paper figures: well detailed, easy to cut out and assemble, and complete with walkers, heavy weapons, and some terrain. An absolute bargain!

It's a little strange to be reviewing a freebie, but I wanted to advise people that the title is somewhat misleading: it is NOT a guide to naval combat with paper ships; it is the barest bones of an outline for playing an extremely simple game using ships. It is suitable for children from 5 or 6 to about 10, even though the rules say it is suitable for age 12 on up. I was disappointed, as I had hoped it would help me design a naval wargame for kids in the 11-14 age range, but it really isn't.

I regret giving this such a low rating, as the basic idea is not bad at all. The execution, however, is very poor. The rules are marked by repeated misspellings, grammatical mistakes, and sentence fragments. This is not necessarily fatal, although it detracts from the presentation over-all, but in this case it produces a lack of clarity as well. Several rules appear to have been omitted entirely: reference is made to the humans having weapons, but the only information about them is on the "character cards", and that consists only of the range and how many are killed. When are they used? Are they used instead of what must be hand-to-hand combat (it's never really explained)? The pistol is listed as killing "2". Which 2? Must they be close together, or can it be any 2 zombies in range? And why is the range only 5 squares? An automobile on the map is 3 squares long, so a pistol's range is less than 2 car lengths? And with regard to hand-to-hand combat, what happens if a human moves into a square which is adjacent to more than 1 zombie? Do they all die or only 1? If only 1, does the human automatically suffer hits from the other(s) the next zombie turn? Conversely, what happens if a zombie moves next to more than 1 human at the same time? All of these errors could have been avoided with proofreading and testing. As an introduction to their zombie games this ought to have been a freebie; I definitely regret having spent $2 on it.

This is a fine introduction to wargaming. The author explains what he means throughout the text, in terms simple enough for a youngster or newcomer to grasp without difficulty, and the game mechanisms are great.

I would suggest some changes, however, which are not complicated, and do not violate the spirit of the rules: (1) Terrain is basically irrelevant, except as cover. I would suggest adding the rule that going through woods, across a stream, or crossing over obstacles cuts movement in half. (2) Add an Armored Car as one of the Special Vehicles available as an alternative, if for no other reason than bags of army men frequently come with one. It is armed with an MG, and has slightly better armor than a jeep or truck. (3) Add a sample scenario to the rulebook. Experienced gamers will know what to do, but a newcomer might not. Providing a map and a little background story would make things clearer, and would add to the excitement about "getting started" as soon as possible. (4) Change the victory conditions from getting points only for what you have left, to adding points for what you have killed, and subtracting the points for what you have lost. I have run many games for young people, and unless there is a reason for them to go out and attack the enemy, they will hunker down and try to avoid all combat--which is not what we want!