You know how it is – you wait on this my Pound Store Plastic Warriors Blog for a Close Wars post to come along for ages and then, like London buses, two come along at once.
First, Roger Halvorsen on his Model Rails and Wargames blog reset these rules into the 1960s Bush Wars of Africa:
https://modelrailsandwargames.blogspot.com/2022/12/close-wars.html
Next and independently, The Wargaming Pastor on his Death Zap blog (“Anyone can afford wargaming”) setting these simple rules (appendix) into a Sci Fi future. https://deathzap.co.uk/2022/12/16/battle-of-the-rulebooks-part-4-close-wars-by-donald-featherstone/
The Wargaming Pastor makes some “as you game” adjustments as he goes, which are worth reading through. Featherstone’s group melee rules or mechanism appear to cause the biggest issues.
I too sometimes use Featherstone’s simple Melee variation rules for individual combat using d6 dice throws, other times I use Gerard De Gre’s Parry and Lunge duelling rules.
To be fair, as the Wargaming Pastor says, these original core rules are designed for French-Indian Wars ‘troops versus natives’ cluttered forest skirmish, not at first view an obvious match for futuristic fighting in the urban jungles of other planets.
You will find an attractively photographed battle report by the Wargaming Pastor and more reflection on the pros and cons of the Close Wars rules.
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Featherstone and Sci-fi Rules?
I had to do similar modifications when gaming with these Featherstone 1962 War Games rules on a past Wellsian garden Star Wars / Little Wars / Close Wars mash-up improvised game:
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/close-little-space-wars/
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/25/in-a-garden-far-far-away/
The original Close Wars rules can be found in my blog post here:
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/close-little-wars-featherstones-simplest-rules/
Not that Donald Featherstone was averse to fantasy and sci-fi gaming, as he left two unfinished or unpublished scenarios (one fantasy, one sci-fi) for his Skirmish Wargaming book that were edited and added by John Curry when he reprinted this classic book in his History Of Wargames Project. He has also reprinted Featherstone’s original 1962 War Games.
“This new edition, includes an additional fantasy scenario and a science fiction scenario: To Claim our Long-forgotten Gold (Third Age) [fantasy] and Mining Station Sigma 9 (Year 3015, the far future) and guidance on how to play solo skirmish wargames.”
http://www.wargaming.co/recreation/details/dfskirmish.htm
I wonder what the next Close Wars variant will be?
Blog post by Mark Man Of TIN, 17 December 2022
Pound Store Plastic Warriors 
I enjoyed reading what the wargaming
pastor has done with the close wars rules. The rules are universal and it is good to see them being used in the furtherest outpost of time and space. I wonder if a snowball game might be fun to run using them.
I bought the new edition of DF’s skirmish rules. I had played then a lot in my youth, sticking names on the underside of my figure’s bases. It was like having an old friend back, but I missed the thin, hardback nature of the original which lay open flat upon the tabletop.
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A Close Wars snowball game is quite possible.
The DF Skirmish game mechanics esp the Wild West in my branch library copy as a child I found a little too complicated.
It will be interesting to revisit this book. I disliked the original cover but did however like the scenarios, the maps, the photos of the figures … and now the new scenarios and solo suggestions.
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As always thank you for the mention!
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For some reason I couldn’t leave a comment on your blog, so this was a more roundabout way of doing so!
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Strange, I’ll keep an eye on that. Thanks again!
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An interesting find! A friend uses One-Page Rules for his games of 40K, and I’m also hearing good things about Xenos Rampant. I’m planning to try Minceheim soon, from the Brush and Battle blog – while it’s medieval it’s simple enough to take some tinkering!
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All good sources of rules tinkering!
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