The Wargame Library: Free Miniature Wargame Rules, Properly Cataloged

I lose track of good wargame rules constantly. Someone recommends a game in a forum or a video, the author hosts it on an old blog, and by the time I am ready to start the project I remember neither the name nor the link.

The Wargame Library is trying to fix exactly that problem.

It is a free, curated collection built by the crew at Little Wars TV. The full catalog had 24 games when I checked it on July 25, 2026. Some are recent releases. Others are old rules rescued from dead links, early corners of the internet, and, in a few cases, actual history.

There is no account, subscription or checkout page. Open a listing, read the staff notes, and download the files.

This is a catalog, not a file dump

The useful part is not simply that the PDFs are free. Plenty of free rules already exist. The problem is figuring out what they are, what kind of table they need, and whether they are worth an evening with a printer and a pile of unpainted figures.

Each game page starts with the basics: author, publisher, period and scale. The librarians then explain what you need, how a turn works, what gives the game its character, and where its limits are. Most pages finish with related games and links for further reading.

That is enough information to tell the difference between two games that might otherwise be nothing more than cover images and download buttons.

The catalog can be browsed by scale, period or recommendation. The current shelves are:

• Skirmish and Big Battle
• Sword & Shield, Horse & Musket, and World Wars
• Favorites, Beginners, and Classics

The names are broad, but with only 24 games that works in the site’s favor. You can look through the whole collection without turning it into another research project.

A few good places to start

Ravenfeast is probably the easiest recommendation for someone new to historical miniatures. It uses roughly a dozen Dark Age figures per side, standard six-sided dice, and a ruleset designed to be taught quickly. The page includes the main rules, a quick-reference sheet, extra factions, scenarios, rune cards, and links to tutorials.

Fistful of T34s is a very different proposition. It is a four-page adaptation of Fistful of TOWS 3 for battalion-level fighting on the Eastern Front. The library supplies the rules, linked Stalingrad scenarios, paper tanks, and paper buildings. You could try it with a color printer before buying or printing a single miniature.

At the older end of the shelves are H.G. Wells’ 1913 *Little Wars* and the original 1824 Kriegsspiel. The latter is presented in German and is more historical document than weeknight ruleset. The library says so plainly, which is exactly the kind of judgment a useful catalog should provide.

There are some less obvious finds, too. *Dunn-Kempf* was a US Army training game from 1980. *Jane’s Naval War Game* dates to 1898. *Ruthless* is a two-page Western gunfight game from 2021. The selection is small enough to browse and varied enough to send you toward periods you were not planning to collect.

The magazine rack deserves a look

The Magazine Rack is separate from the game catalog. It currently includes selected issues and collections from *The Courier*, *Historical Miniature Gamer*, *MWAN*, *Wargames Illustrated*, and *Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy*.

This may become the most important part of the site over time. Old hobby magazines are full of scenarios, painting references, campaign ideas, and rules that never appeared anywhere else. They are also especially vulnerable to disappearing when personal sites close or old file links break.

How the library handles old material

According to the site’s Info Desk, files are hosted directly so they do not vanish when an outside link dies. The stated policy is to host only public-domain material or files shared with permission from the author or publisher. Rights holders can also request removal.

That matters. Preservation is useful only if the people who made the work are treated properly.

The collection is also reviewed rather than opened as an automatic upload directory. Readers can submit games, corrections, and ideas, or volunteer to help locate and playtest material. That keeps the catalog manageable, although it also means this is not meant to be a complete list of every free wargame on the internet.

What I would like to see next

The current filters are enough for a collection this size. As it grows, I would like to see options for figure scale, table size, solo play, typical model count, and whether a download includes scenarios or printable armies. Those are often the details that decide whether a ruleset becomes a real project or another PDF in a folder.

I would also love to see dated notes when an entry or download is checked. One of the site’s goals is to avoid dead links, and a visible “last verified” date would make that work even more valuable.

Those are requests for the future, not reasons to wait. The library already solves a real hobby problem. It gives old rules a stable home, gives newer free games some context, and makes it possible to choose a game without opening twenty tabs.

Start with the full catalog, then look at the recommendation shelves. Even if you do not download anything today, it is worth a bookmark.

The catalog count and site features in this article were checked on July 25, 2026. Site imagery is used for commentary and remains the property of The Wargame Library and its respective owners.