Poor Miniatures Rule Sets

For some time, the issue of poor miniatures rules sets has been bothering me. Maybe it's just me (and if so, tough!) but it seems that the average miniatures rule set is a much poorer product than the average tabletop boardgame (i.e. wargame).

The root of the problem is that it appears that most rule sets have not been developed anywhere near as rigorously as comparable board wargames, which is why I have personally experienced such frustration. To cite one example, I'll use "The Sword and the Flame"(aka TSAF). TSAF rules are relatively sloppy and suffer from the basic design flaw that it the designer couldn't decide on what scale he was trying to do: 1 to 1 skirmish? Platoon scale? Company scale?

As a result, the rules combine elements of all of these and the resulting mix plays a bit odd, especially with the "buckets of dice" necessary to resolve combat and drawing playing cards to determine casualties. With the average unit consisting of 20 figures, this takes a long time and add little in return. Averaging or some other device would have been far more effective.

Another are with problems is the way fighting in built-up areas is treated- the player is actually fighting in individual structures but the units are platoon (as the designer states). The scaling just doesn't make logical sense. Personally, I play it by considering a town to be a built up area and ignoring firing angles and the like for the unit's figures.

I suppose this rule set is great if you just want to throw dice and bash about but otherwise you're pretty much restricted and you get some screwy results. At that point, I tend to lose interest because for the most part, using historical tactics don't work. If you use TSAF as a criterion, it's amazing that the Europeans made it out of Europe, let alone build vast empires!

Anyway, that's my take and yes, I do lean towards simulation (as good as it gets, given the constraints). I also realize that TSAF wasn't meant to reflect anything close to reality but there comes a point where it's just a cartoon. Why waste the time and effort?

I like the challenge of a good strategic or tactical game but I intensely dislike illogical rules slapped together under the guise of "fast play" and "simple" because people are not willing to make the intellectual investment in anything more detailed (that's not to say I'm an advocate of something overly complicated like Empire or similar).

I think one of the best successful example of good miniatures rules is "Fire & Fury"- it gives enough detail and gives a good feel for the back-and-forth of the American Civil War.
Anyway, that's my opinion.