Why Play Osprey Games or Historicals?
My name is Jacob, and I will be taking Bell of Lost Soul readers on a journey into the world of Osprey Games. We will also touch on Historical games too.
What drew me to these Indy and Historical Games is their affordability. Most of these games are miniature agnostic. That means you can use whatever miniatures you want with most of these rule sets.
Once you are no longer bound to a specific company’s miniatures, your costs go right down. With so many options out there, there is no reason to limit yourself to just the biggest gaming companies.
As I continued my journey, I came across Osprey’s Blue Book Series of Wargames. The value of these books is unbelievably good. Generally, $20 can get you an interesting ruleset with great artwork. At $20, I wasn’t too worried as to whether the game was a hit or not. The investment would not break my bank.
The first game I bought from the series was A Fistful of Kung Fu. After that, I bought a large number of Osprey Games with Frostgrave and Bolt Action remaining my favorites.
That’s me, Jacob, playing a game of Bolt Action at my favorite friendly local gaming store. Image taken by Jeremy Cada of Forbes Hobbies.
Many of these games have their own figures, but you can proxy miniatures in many of their games too. Want to get into Frostgrave and already own miniatures for Age of Sigmar or Warhammer Fantasy? Then all you need to get into this gaming system is a book. Not bad at all!!! Owning multiple rule-sets is a great way to breath life into your older miniatures.
Osprey Games
One of the amazing things about Osprey Games is how many rule-sets they publish and the rate at which they keep new products coming. There is so much happening with this company – it is a player to keep an eye on for sure!
Some of the ones I feel that are definitely worth a look include Frostgrave, Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago, Gaslands, Dragon Rampant, Outremer: Faith and Blood. I am also super excited about the future releases of Last Days: Zombie Apocalypse but am yet to see that book.
Above is my current collection of gaming books. You may be able to tell that I have a thing for rule sets. Most of these titles are by Osprey Games, but there are some historical titles by other companies mixed in the collection.
Historical Games
Before getting into Osprey Games, I enjoyed playing Historical Games at Conventions and there was even a period of two years when Flames of War was the only game that I played. My favourite eras to game in include WW2, Pike and Shot (16th to 17th Century), Medieval Times and the Dark Ages. Of course, I am absolutely open to other settings too and seldom turn down a decent Ancients game.
I hope you enjoyed quickly meeting me and learning a little bit about Osprey Games. Join me next time when we start to take a closer look at Bolt Action.
Read more about these great games on my site!
