"best sci-fi skirmish rules?" Topic

Gang,

Looking for votes on the best set of generic rules. I own Gangs of Mega-City 1, and I lean towards them for a generic rules set. I also own Resolution and I was thinking of getting Ganesha's new game, I think it's mutants and ray guns or something. The fantasy game Songs of blades and Heroes has an origins nomination. I tried 5150b with the game group and we had a lot of technical probs figuring out the rules. Aside from that, I'm open for suggestions.

'Erb

Just wondering if you asked any questions about 5150 on the Yahoo Group.

link

2500 members means you get an answer to the question within 24 hours. If you have a bunch of experience in traditional wargaming the THW concepts can be a bit hard to grasp at times.
This may be of help

PDF link

I'm not sure where you live but I'll be at Enfilade, Historicon, Bayou Wars, and a few other conventions. Feel free to come by and I'll see if I can help.

Good luck on your search.

Combat Zone from EM-4 (or the Tin Dictator in the USA).
Great rules and LOADS of support.

Thanks,

John

ShockForce / WarEngine
link

Well, other than the ones mentioned … consider

Combat Zone from EM4 Minis:
link

New World Disorder from PI Games:
pigames.net

Streetfight from Foundry (FREE – but their download page has been hosed for several years. Get these rules from Neal at The War Store – still free):
link

Each of these has figures activating and operating individually (my definition of skirmish includes single figure actions).

However, if you thing skirmish really just means "A small number of troops" and squad activation should also be considered, then consider …

Babylon's Burning from Hetzerdog:
link
(the company is now defunct, but you can still order this as a PDF download from RPGNow).

Star Mogul from Alpha Forge Games:
link

(There are plenty of others in this category, like Defiance Vital Ground, Fast & Dirty, or Stargrunt II, but I'm getting lazy about tracking down links : )

I find Star Mogul to be quite fun, since there are reasons to be doing your missions (you are running a scrap metal enterprise in the far future, caught up in wartorn worlds – trying to get in, get the junk, and get out with the prize bits and bobs before that other team gets their mits on it).

It has a nice campaign system, and that for me is the essential make-or-break point that separates good rules from the really good. In skirmish games, I want my team or gang or squad or whatever to have names, have skills, and gain advances.

Anyway, hope that helps.

Steve

Stargrunt II

I find it depends on what level of detail you want out of a game. Fast play or a slower simulator.

Combat Zone is a good game – but it at the near future end of the market with lasers and such being experimental. However nothing stopping you from teaking the rules to allow such weapons. CZ is great for small skirmishes of about 5-10 minis per side.

Killzone is free and is recommended by a few people I know – I have never played it.

Babylons Burning is more modern than Sci-Fi in terms of weapons. It is a pretty good combat simulation game – but it can get a bit clunky with tables. It is a unit based game and is great with one officer and squad per side. After that it can slow down.

Skank game (warlord 2085) is good – its free from here:
skankgame.com/Downloads.html

The game is post apoc based but can deal with Sci-Fi too. I find it quick to play and the fact that it is paperless is a bonus (well for me anyway).

Stargrunt 2 looks good too – but I have never got to play it yet.

Hi, I'll blow my own trumpet and suggest Wildfire. It's a simple skirmish game that has been well-received. The first link is to my shop, the second is to a review of the game.

link

link

The first supplement, Wildfire Overkill, should be out and about in a few weeks.

Cheers,

EvilD

Necromunda. A great system that's also free:

link

I'm currently playing it with Kill Zone figures. :)

I still have to go with 5150, and like Ed said the THW yahoo group is great, and I disagree, you WILL get an answer back in hours, not 24, heck, I doubt it would be 2 hours you would have an answer, best yahoogroup I have ever been a part of…

and once you get your head around the rules, it just clicks, they run differently then the standard "I go, you go" type 40k GWish system.

just giving my 2cents….

If you want great skirmish rules I'd try VOR and hopefully the soon-to-be relaunched VOR 2.0, though I have recently picked up "Wildfire" and am growing quite attached to it already. It has it's own design anything you want rules for creating units and it would be pretty easy to allow them to earn points from battles to gain new skills and such.

If you prefer the RPG like flavour of GOMC1 or Necromunda I'd say they were each great choices.

I have to go with 5150 too. Took a while to get used to the reaction system, but I now find myself assigning rep numbers to all my figures!!!

Has anyone tried "Mutants and Death Ray Guns" yet? The SBH game has a lot of promise and I am dying to try it out.

Erb

Erbprinz,

Mutants and Death Ray Guns (MDRG) is very similar to SBH but with a Gama World feel to it. Instead of a points system to design stuff you want, you roll on a series of tables to build your team of characters. This way you keep the feel of the imperfect world where you have to scavenge for everything.

I've not had a chance to play it but the mechanics are similar. The mutations and abilities are quite a bit different from SBH. The game is well worth it.

John

Small skirmish with a focus on individual figures? Go 5150 or VOR.

Larger scale with focus on squads? Go with Stargrunt2. FAD is supposed to streamline it, but I've never played it.

I'm not a 40K player, but I did enjoy Necromunda.
Star Mogul was fun too.

Starguard! is the grandaddy of all sci-fi skirmish rules, and is still great fun after over 30 years of publication.

Star Grunt II is excellent in its emphasis on troop moral and C-cubed.

WH40K Rogue Trader is pure sci-fantasy camp IMHO, and fun in its own right.

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Star Grunt II is excellent in its emphasis on troop moral and C-cubed.

Star Grunt is one of my favorite games, and it is really very, very good. But skirmish, it is not. The maneuver units are squads, not individuals, with the squad generally acting as a whole. The figures are merely strength counters.

Again, very, very good but not man-to-man skirmish.

I'm hoping someday FMA (Stargrunt Skirmish rules) will be published.

And no I don't want to play the un-playtested version that's sat mouldering on a set of list archives for many moons.

I'll go with Kill Zone mts.net/~gisby/kizo/kiki.htm

or of course eM-4's Combat Zone.

RE: McBane…
'and once you get your head around the rules, it just clicks' – My head already clicks. Will the rules make it worse?

Bug Stomper – Oddly enough, I play Kill Zone with Necromunda miniatures.

Combat Zone works fine for me

Robert

Go retro.
We had a blast with original Laserburn! rules and Space Marine. Space Marine, the version circa 1970s.

Erb,
You want skirmish? Definitely 5150. Give it a chance and play a couple games solo to get the feel of it.

Neither Stargrunt or FAD are really skirmish games. Both are very good (I prefer FAD since its learning curve is much lower). I believe that CZ handles up to about 30-40 figures with no issue. It could readily handle many more if some are zombies. My last convention game had 7 players with 6-8 figs each and about 30 zeds plus two Predators and was done in 3 hours.

Thanks,

John

"Neither Stargrunt or FAD are really skirmish games."

Depends what you mean by skirmish. If you mean 1 figure is 1 man then they are most definitely skirmish. If OTOH you mean less than 20 figs a side you may have a point.