"Looking for flexible 28mm skirmish rules" Topic

Soon I will be venturing into 28mm skirmishing; initial target to get my feet wet is Stalingrad patrol-actions (just because I really liked the book "War of the Rats.")

I have heard both NUTS! and Force on Force are decent rules for this, with good follow-on support; but my eventual goal is to encompass 1930's-1950's (WWII / AEWWII / Korea / Pulp), and not sure how compatible either of those are crossing over into AE & Pulp.

Being the frugal gamer – I really do not want to buy and sort through a whole laundry-list of retail rules to be able to find something that could accommodate the assorted genre's (and truth be told – maybe it IS asking too much for one rule set to do that.)

But, I would be remiss without using available resources, so… any recommendations from fellow TMPers?

Some ideas in the "buckets of dice" category": TMP link

As co-author I'm biased, but you might look at GASLIGHT and its "To Be Continued…" Supplement. It could certainly handle the Pulp and AEWWII aspect, and I know a number of guys on the GASLIGHT list, including Buck and me, that have used it for very fast and fun WWII scenarios.

If I were allowed to nit-pick, fast, fun & cinematic would fit my aesthetic requirements.

Thanx for the caveat, Chris, but I had seen GASLIGHT mentioned in the TMP Pulp areas before as a good system overall – if it could also result in some fast & fun WWII or even Korean scenarios it may be what I am looking for.

I do not mind shelling out the cash for a system that will work for what I want – just want to be sure before I pay to try and fit square pegs into round holes.

Just how large do you want your Skirmish game to get, some games work best with just half a dozen per side and others need 2 dozen to feel right so that will alter the advice you get.

Robert

NUTS! is good, but Two Hour Wargames have a different ruleset for pulp. Same engine though, and if you buy in PDF they're cheap enough to get both. I own quite a 2WH collection at this point, NUTS! and Legends of Araby (my first two) are still my favorites though.

Don.

Not that it will help you NOW, Mardaddy, but we do have a Pulp game in the works.

and truth be told – maybe it IS asking too much for one rule set to do that.

Actually not too much.

Savage Worlds will do all that. Every skirmish genre and era you will ever want to game can be covered.
Plus as a bonus it is easy to pick up and great fun.

"Savage Worlds will do all that. Every skirmish genre and era you will ever want to game can be covered."

I class SW as an RPG. While most RPGs do have decent skirmish mechanics built in, they often come from a different enough design goal that they require a referee. That can be good or bad, depending on your playstyle goals.

Farstar, Your definition is obviously different than mine.

Based on having used SW for everything from Fantasy skirmish, through Gothic Horror, WW2, WWW2 and Weird Vietnam I can say it is certainly a skirmish game not an RPG. We played it regularly with 2 players and often 5 or 6, but never with a GM.

It is the ruleset that gave me cause to abandon a bunch of other skirmish/small battle sets in lieu of a consistent system for all of them.

Pretty much exactly what Mardaddy requested ideas for.

get NUTS!

Toaster – I would not want to get more than maybe 15 figures per side.

I can go with two different rule sets that use the same mechanics, so NUTS! & Larger than Life is a viable option.

Savage Worlds and GASLIGHT both seem to be getting good recommendations.

Savage World Showdown is the skirmish rules for the Savage Worlds RPG. The new Showdowns rules are suppose to be available on 6 Oct. as a free download. It is a great set of skirmish rules that will let you game in any genre. Another set of rules which work quite well in any area are the "All Purpose Miniature Rules" from Crunchy Frog.

I've played NUTS! and enjoyed it. But I recommend Disposable Heroes even more. We've been playing DH games for 5 years now and we play every other week with them. WWII, WWI, Vietnam, Modern and Spanish Civil War are all covered. Fast to learn and play, deadly and fun! That said, it isn't as "role playee" as NUTS, SW or Gaslight. It has more skirmish tactics feel with good vehicle rules in the mix for variety. Do you have a good game store or game con near to you to test some game systems out? See what you like from those trial games.Cheers, have fun Mardaddy.

You are looking for 'We Can Be Heroes 2', it was designed to play all you want including pulp, and you can play it straight and serious.

tfpgames.com for some sample pages and design notes.

Regards,

G

@peterx, Interesting, I've played DH and wasn't nearly as pleased as I was with NUTS!, thought that Operation Overlord did a better job of what DH was trying to achieve.

Guess it really is all about taste, eh? ;-) Apologies to Mardaddy, that kind of invalidates all of our recommendations.

Don.

No worries, The GM, different strokes and all that.

Combat Zone, easy and fun for skirmish games. Also VERY flexable and simple to mod or add special rules.

Stewbags, have a link to Combat Zone? It's new by me, and I'd love to check it out.

Thanks,
Don.

You might take a look at the Medals of Honors skirmish rules. Ask for a file if desirred since Magweb is down.

I really like the Nuts! rules for straight WWII skirmish gaming. I think they're gritty, realistic, and show respect for the feel of combat based on the point of view of the average dirt-hugging GI who's praying not to die or let his buddies down rather than thinking about how many medals he might be able to fit across his chest. The Nuts! rules are also fun to learn as you progress from fairly simple scenarios to more complex missions. (A bit of a disclaimer here: I've only played the Nuts! rules in scenarios involving U.S. or Brit squads hunting Germans in bocage country, so I don't know how well they capture the feel of the Eastern Front.) I would not consider the Nuts! rules particularly appropriate as "pulp" rules, however, because they are not "heroic" rules. Heroism can happen. But it's the exception rather than the rule. Heroic pulp adventure gaming requires an entirely different, much lighter, attitude and mindset. (Having said that, when I was getting ready to run my Invaders versus Nazi supervillains game, I pretty much cribbed the Nuts! basic weapons stats and converted them to appropriate SuperSystem goal dice totals for WWII comic book gaming. But that's another story.)

Mulligan

Another vote for Savage Worlds. Works fine as a miniatures game or an RPG.

What Hexxenhammer said. And their is a specific set of Pulp rules for SW which also work well for (cinematic) WWII

If you don't want more than 15 figures per side and are willing to wait a month or so Flying Lead should be out, It's Ganesha Games WWI through to SciFi rules set (based on the Song of Blades and Heros mechanics) and should eventually have scenario books for all the periods you want (fingers crossed).

Robert

GASLIGHT and To Be Continued… work for all sorts of gaming, and they would certainly work within your parameters. They are well worth the investment…which isn't all that much anyway.

Synjin

Huh. SW is one of the few RPGs on the market I don't own, wouldn't have even considered it if not for this thread. Have to go snag a copy and see what you all are talking about.

Thanks, learn something new every day.
Don.

I like Nuts for skirmish WWII. It is perfect for 15 figs per side. Plays fast and often shockingly short. My son has a well learned respect for the MG42 and its incredible rate of fire because of Two-hour-wargames. The concept of "outgunned" in Nuts is one of the real gems. An added bonus is that Nuts is a mature game that just published an updated version.

My only complaint about THW, and it is a mild one, is that the very active yahoogroup hosted by the author(s?) is so active it can be difficult to wade through. THW must have about a dozen rulesets using the Chainreaction system core rules that finding Nuts-specific answers by search alone is a bit tough. AllThingsZombie is so popular that I feel like I'm wading through the undead to find answers to my Nuts questions. Ed, the author, is very responsive and I've never lacked for a satisfactory answer, though.

Disposable heroes I've played only twice; it left me not overly impressed, especially given the small sized of the engagements you forsee. It is a squad game that uses individual figures. One of the mechanics is that only half of the figs in a squad fire, which is a clever way to model that real-life phenomenon that not everyone fights so hard all the time. I think that with only 15 figs on a side, you might find it limiting. That said, my friends really like DH a lot, as do many others.

I doubt you can go wrong with buying more than one set. "To read game rules is to enrich your whole being," as Gandhi once said. He didn't really say that, I just wanted to see if anyone was paying attention.

Jim

Face of Modern Battle

thefaceofbattle.com

Here is a link to an unofficial Weird War rules addition for NUTS! I am planning on using this combined with bits of rules from All Things Zombie for my Weird War/Pulp project.

link

Mike

Mike – looks like you and I are into similar tastes there, but you seem to be farther along in your efforts. Love that link!

NUTS! all the way! I've played many systems -- BGWW2, IABSM, DH, etc., and I've come to think that NUTS! is the best system for what I want in a game. Here's a review I wrote on another thread:

TMP link

A 2nd for CombatZone – great for skirmish gaming and with new stuff added by the community at: combatzonechronicles.net