I have always maintained that one of the most detrimental factors for modern wargame design has been the comparatively cheap rent for houses with large sitting rooms in Nottingham, England, during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
With all that space available to Games Workshops’ designers, it made sense to think big. This thinking would then infest the rest of the industry, and the idea that wargaming had to be done on at least a six-foot by four-foot table became way too common. Granted, this is an oversimplification of things, but it has also always been a theory I have liked, and it’s not like I will get to say it anywhere other than at the start of this particular article, so here we are.
As a younger man, I loved these big-scale games, but these days, I prefer my wargaming to be more respectful of modern real estate costs and my time. If I can find something with a small model count and a restricted play area, then I am all in. The good news is that skirmish wargaming has never been in a better place, and there are plenty of different games and systems to choose from. This list contains some of the very best small-count miniature games on the market today.