"Best Rules for Star Wars 28mm figures?" Topic

Have a plethora of WOTC Star Wars peoples.

Saw a great Tatooine game at RECON, using "Star Wars Miniature Battles" rules by West End or something. Old School.

Is that what I need? Where do I acquire said?

Don't like the WOTC Star Wars Collectable rules with the cards. The Saga RPG combat rules don't do much for me either.

What rules are best? Help me, TMPers. You're my only hope.

SWMB doesn't handle hero characters at all well. Sadly, I own all the SWMB books. Old school is right! I keep thinking about tweaking it.

There is 5150 if you like that sort of thing. Not my cup o' tea though. A SW mod is available.

There are conversions for Savage Worlds. Use Showdown plus the free mods and you have a free game. If you like Savage Worlds?

There is FUBAR. A bit of a slim toolkit but has many devotes. Not sure if SW is statted for it.

If you have Legends of the Old West there is a free mod for that as well.

There is a "Small Wars" free set of rules set in the clone wars but easy for normal SW. Free but can't find a link to it. Darn nice professional pdf as well.

There is a start for you.

Try Shockforce. No Limits could work as well.

Honestly, any sci-fi set would work ok. Heck, 40K could work with a few tweaks. :-)

Help me, TMPers. You're my only hope.

Ain't gonna lie, this made me chuckle.

Fubar has sheets for the Clone Wars and Rebellion. We have used it for several games and the rules work exceptionally well!

Thanks,

John

Depending on whether you want big Star Wars battles (Geonosis) or smaller skirmishes (reataking the palace on Naboo,) you can go a couple of different ways. For the latter, I think Song Of Blades And Heroes would work well (better, really, than Flying Lead,) and for the former I would certainly second No Limits.

I use Fubar for my SWB,and we had a great time. However like Suburban Astronaut said "any sci-fi set would work…"

Hi, I'm curious about No Limits. There are some very cool stats done up for Star wars for them. However, being based on Vor my impression was the game was set up for small to maybe medium sized games at most. I have never heard of a large game.

My last Fubar Star wars game had 120+ figs and 16-20 vehicles on the table and lasted 2.5 hours. I'm always on the lookout for a good Star wars set that can handle large games in 3-4 hours max. Fubar is the closest I have found so far. However, I would be happy to be corrected!

Thanks,

John

If it was me I would use Savage Worlds and one of the netbook conversions. There a couple of good ones out there.

Rezolution is PERFECT for SW, but you'll have to create your own characters.

For what it is worth, I have played quite a few Star Wars games using Stargrunt. I think I may have even posted some rules on TMP somewhere if you want to look for them.

Another one for FUBAR. Works really well no matter what size force you use…

Mick

I know of some people in Australia who've used Defiance: Vital Ground to play Clone Trooper forces. It should work for largish battles with pretty much anything composed of "normal troopers", but it may be a problem to make the Jedi powerfull enough to satisfy.

You could try asking about in on the official D:VG forum:
link

More info on D:VG (tho sadly no Star Wars stuff) here:
heros.netai.net/html/DVG.html

We quite happily use 5150 for our Star Wars skirmish games.

Here's an example we did earlier this year –
link

I haven't heard of the FUBAR game. Who makes it and where can you get the Star War mod for it?
Thanks,
Larry

Here you go:

link

In the Fubar files section.

FUBAR, you can't go wrong.

I poster here on TMP named Rodney is working on a new freebie Star Wars game. He is running it at Kubla Con over memorial day weekend…

Since its the same guy who co-wrote Pirates! and Gunfight!, they should be really well done.

Thanks everyone. I know what I will do on my day off tomorrow. Y'all gave me a plethora of material to peruse and reseacrh.

Kudos!

;)

Thinking of the SOBH option…would Mutants and Death Ray Guns be a better [or different] option?

Yep, Mutants and Death Ray Guns plays very nicely for smaller Star Wars skirmishes, say 6-10 figures per side.

I love WEG SWMB. I think it works well, and has a good level of detail to it. It isn't quite a bucket'o'dice game. You roll a single attack die per fig which represents a burst of shots at a single target.

I also like Savage Worlds Showdown. The only problem that I have with that game is that you need a variety of dice to play it. You will constantly be rolling different dice.

Appreciate it John!
Larry

I'm invisioning a "Rorkes Drift" type game, of Tatooine locals, some Jawas and such defending an outpoist against hordes of Sand People (maybe in units of 20 Tusken Raiders, and defenders in several units of five Tatooine folks with a leader)

(A "Rorke's Drift: It's Jolly Deadly 'Ol Boy" type game, but with Star Wars)

Also a "Space Hulk/Death Star game on a base or large ship, with lots of stormtroopers vs an attacking unit or units.

Another vote for the above comments… FUBAR for mass battles and Ganesha Games' products for small heroic skirmishes.

Smokeyroan – I whipped up a "First Person Shooter" mod for FUBAR awhile back… it should handle a Death Star invasion game pretty well. link

Chris

For small scale stuff we use Flying Lead (I wrote it) as the tweaks to the SOBH engine were to deal with the shooting getting more 'realistic' and hand to hand to give more options – most tweaks are going in the new SOBH AFAIK …

For larger actions we use the FUBAR SW.

Hey Bart, I think you know that I would suggest Warmachine// Shockforce for your smaller battles.

I think it would also handle your Rorkes Drift type game.
The Shockforce rules are able to simulate powerful charcters like Vader and Skywalker while the sandpeople can still be dangrous in large numbers.

Also the rules are free.

If you are intrested, when you move up here to central florida we can have a game here at Sci-Fi City. Testing Warmachine or other various sets of rules.

But I think Shockforce/Warmachine can be easy for the young people to pick up an play.

BTW I also have a copy of 5150 if you are intrested in that game. It might be a little confusing for young players. IMHO

BTW thinking of your Star Wars game, instead of just having locals defending the outpost you could have a squad of Sandtroopers there along with members of the rebel alliance. Perhaps they both have different objective besides defending the outpost……….

Lots of interesting twists can be had with a game like this

Maybe instead of one giant wave of Sandpeople attacking they can attack in lots of waves with each successive wave getting bigger and bigger. During the lull in battle the imperial and alliance members can also battle each other or try to accomplish different side objectives….

I wrote my own based on SWMB information, Wookiepedia, and then Star Wars Miniature battles. Found FUBAR and 5150 and (barrowed some ideas from them as well). My rules were just for Hoth, however. If I was looking for something off the shelf FUBAR would be just the ticket. I do like my sequence of play better.
VR
James Mattes

Smokeyroan,

I wonder if that was my 'Tatooine' game you were speaking of at Recon? I'm always available for comments. (I've also had my 'Death Star Trench' terrain with starfighters there as well.

David
dglennjr@yahoo.com

David it probably was… It was durring the afternoon session on Saturday?

It looked great.

The SWMB rules by WEG are old school for sure. They are very cumbersome by today's standards. You would probably have more fun with any of the more modern rule sets out there, most of which have already been mentioned in this thread.

Fortunately, you are spoiled for choice these days! Unfortunately, due to licensing issues, no set can deal (legally) with the SW universe, so you will have to rely on third party interpretations or do your own legwork.

Fortunately (again), wargaming ain't hard, so find a set of rules you like in general and make them work for the battles you want to fight! Many of us have done just that, and I'm sure you can too.

Cheers!

- Rod

If you're talking about the most recent Recon, it wasn't me.

I've done it in the past at Recon, but not for a couple of years. However, I do use WEG SWMB as well for my Star Wars Miniatures Games.

I'm doing some future Clone Wars games, and am contemplating using FUBAR for the games. Lots of figures & vehicles on a big table, fast paced, and lots of carnage.

-David G.

@Suburban Astronaut:
Do you know where I can find the Old West SW mod? Googling for anything SW-related is futile…

I think the author of the Star Wars enhancement for LOTOW (GW's LOTR Old West rules) lost his hard drive and has yet to re-publish the PDF. His web site on this recreation project has been silent for a couple of years.

Star Wars Miniatures Battles, West End Games.

I was actually planning on playing the same Star Wars scenario using 3 different rule sets and posting about how it went on my blog. Was going to use Star Grunt, SWMB and The Great War (as I don't play 40K and the rules are similar. Actually have played SW with this once and it was okay). Has been on the backburner but this thread makes me want to prioritise it again!

Look at GASLIGHT.

You know, Battles by Gaslight would probably work well. Hadn't thought about that. IIRC, someone maybe the OFM had tinkered with Star Wars for Gaslight a long while ago at the Yahoo group. Battles by Gaslight has an incredible sequence of play and easy to use mechanics. It also readily handles 100's of troops on the tabletop. I ran a game with 4-500 figs in 4 hours at a local show. Buck, the only issue I can think of is how to deal with smaller unit sizes in the rules. Even Jedi could be rated up pretty easily. Now you have me thinking!

Thanks,

John

Stargrunt

I played a SW game using StarGrunt just last weekend. You can read a bit about it here: link

It was enjoyable and I'd use them for SW again. The only thing I'd say is that they are probably not the best for capturing the 'heroic' nature of SW. But if you want a realistic feel then they are great!

Just been reading through this and saw stargrunt come up a few times, went to the GZG webpage and tried to download it to have a look but the file which downloads is corrupted (I tried this on two different computers/internet connections, so something is definitely wrong).

Does anyone know where I could get a copy from (preferably free…), would anyone email it to me? (although i suppose that depends upon the file size…)

I also have a HUGE amount of WOTC Star Wars figures I have all sets complete,anyway my friends and I have came up with our own set of rules because I wanted to do a couple of battles that the WOTC rules could'nt handle.

The first game I wanted to do was The Battle of Grassy Plains from Episode I.

For this Battle I aquired a large number of Gungans(some 300 plus),and around 500 Battle Droids.

In addition to the above figures I also aquired 3 AAT's,2 Gungan Catapults and a very big Fambaa.

I've run 7 games of this at various conventions oer the last few years,and everyone who has played have had a GREAT time.

The other Battle I did was the Geonosis Arena Battle where you have over 50 Jedi against a large number of Battle Droids,Super Battle Droids and other things.

I've run this game 2 or 3 times.

I'm happy to share these rules to anyone who contacts me with their email address.

Thanks
Captain Gideon

Captain! I'd just love to see the pictures if you have any!

Chris I can send you pictures please give me your email address and I can send you the pictures.

Captain Gideon

Email address is chriswalkley at hotmail dot com

Thanks!

I saw the Captain's grassy plains battle at Kublacon last Saturday. I must say… he's got a ton of figures!!! :)

It was good to see you again Mike!

- Rod

Chris I'll be sending you some pics over the next few days.

And Rod it was good to see you at Kublacon this past weekend.

And your game looked very good can you tell me how did your game turn out?

Captain Gideon

bias alert:

Have you tried GASLIGHT?

Buck (biased)