One of the items I struggle with more than anything in wargaming is rules bloat. What do I mean by rules bloat? When you go to play a game such as 40k or Bolt Action, you are all excited to play. You start playing, and the opponent starts saying things like, according to supplement 12 on page 98, cross-referenced to supplement 18, I can kill this. Or my army can do such and such. Whatever it may be, when you need 15 books to play a game, the rules are bloated.

Companies like Games Workshop (the worst) and Warlord Games make millions from simple rules bloat. They are often inconsequential things that take minimal development resources; they can use pre-written lore, stock images that didn’t make the cut in other books, and tada, a new $70 supplement every player must buy to stay current with the rules. Add in codex and army books, and you’re suddenly required to take half a dozen books to play a simple game.

From a business perspective, I 100% understand where companies come from, namely, free money. GW profits from people buying their products. It generates more sales if their products are mandatory to keep using their other products. The only downside is that we push out casual/new players. It is something that happened to MTG. The game is too complicated for new people. The tables are too toxic with competitive players. It isn’t fun if you haven’t played for a few months.

It’s one of the reasons I really enjoy historicals. General De Armee has one rulebook, Black Seas has two books, DBMM has one book of rules and one or two armies. Star Wars Legion and A Song of Ice and Fire are brutal because the rules change with the units.

I fear that rules bloat is where all commercial wargames are going. The bloat makes me fear for getting new players into games.