"Skirmish Gaming Concept gone amiss?" Topic

Just a general question of what constitues Skirmish wargaming for miniatures. Just rambling a bit but thought about this after reading various "skrimish" write ups. It seems that either its a Brief Encounter and then breaks off type of Skirmish or that the forces involved are at the squad level or less. If nothing else the word "skirmish" seems to be the hot buzz word that everyone is trying to work into their rule sets, yet I have seen game photos with hundreds of figures battling to a conclusion labeled a "skrimish game".

So I ponder and throw out to gather thoughts from other miniature gamers if the term Skirmish Battle is over done? or working as a skirmish in your minds eye?

Lastly, if hundreds of figures can engage in a Skirmish game set, what constitutes a full blown battle setting in comparison?

I have avoided mentioning any rule sets, well unless they have the word skrimish in them, as I seek to work out a good name for a set of fantasy rules I have been assembling and want them to not misrepresent what they would actually be.

Thougts?

I've seen different people define it different ways. Some people say that if you have a single figure per base, that is skirmish. I don't agree. But that's why you see what you see.

There are a lot of small unit rules that like to pass themselves off as 'skirmish rules'.

Like Caesar says, the term is defined by different people differently -- some times its hard to say why. Other times, its pretty obvious why.

mjc

"skirmish game" seems to be used to mean individually based figures, operating pretty much independantly of each other. With a nominal 1:1 figure:man ratio

I tend to view a "skirmish" as a small engagement. Up to perhaps a company or so on each side.

I can think of games with group basing and a 1:1 figure to man ratio. Patrols in the Sudan comes to mind. Small unit or skirmish?

DBA has the same number of figures per base, and about 1/3 as many figures to a side as PITS, but DBA is considered a battle set, not a skirmish.

I think the difference between skirmish and full battle rule sets is solely in the scale of conflict they are meant to depict. I have had enjoyable games of DBA played as a skirmish, we simply declare a 1:1 figure to man ratio. I have also seen Warhammer used for huge battles (each figure represents 10-20 men) and for small skirmishes (each figure represents one man).

If I plop 30-40 figures per side on the table top is it a skirmish game or full battle? It depends what game I am playing.

To further complicate, there are games such as Ambush Alley that have no explicit groundscale and use figures only to deliniate the approximate area occupied by a unit. I would contend that AA is a small unit skirmish game, but a given figure does not exactly correspond to a given man.

I think skirmish games should have each individual figure having it's own skills anf faults.

Small unit games are often not skirmish games

Skirmish games, for me, are pretty much at the RPG level of combat… with similar degree of detail and story. As soon as the forces become anonymous troops it ceases to be 'skirmish' in my mind.

@Dave Crowell – I'd agree with your assessment. "Small unit skirmish game" is a good description of AA.

I think 1:1 figure numbers (although can be representative like in AA), a small number of units and probably some characterisation present, and a 1:1 ground scale (in modern stuff this makes it on table ranges and you don't want a big bomb going off on table!) is what makes it skirmish in my mind.

SO games like from THW, Ganesha Games and AA make it in but other 1:1 figure/individual basing games like IABSM or even FOW don't etc.

But we can probably debate it all day!

What about the upcoming AA-Scifi game that nobody knows about yet Shawn?

:)