"Best rules for gaming Falkenburg's Legion by Pournelle?" Topic

Reading these stories (which are now collected together in on volume called The Prince) always make me want to put some troops and terrain on the table. The problem is that I don't have a good rule set for them. I've got Dirtside and Ogre, which both focus on armored combat.

This should be near-future combat mostly between light infantry – the kind of combat on the frontier where a pair of armored cars or a 20mm autocannon are a major game changer. It would have to be something like Squad Leader, I suppose. Especially important would be varying levels of troop quality.

Any ideas?

I would think most any modern rules would work. The only real high tech item is the body armor used. The material seems to be slightly more effective then what is currently available. The body armor gives them an advantage over local forces armed with light weapons only and no body armor.

Most weapons are the same, machineguns, SMG, grenades, etc. The only difference is the use of a higher caliber rifle to penetrate body armor. But it seemed like the caliber was about the same as the old 30 cal or NATO 7.62mm size and penetration. Must rules have different ranges and penetration for WWII rifles and modern assault rifles anyway.

What size game did you want to play? For near future I just use Disposable Heroes. They have body armor and stats for WWII and modern rifles.

Doug

I'd suggest taking a look at Force on Force or Tomorrow's War – TW is SciFi oriented, but it sounds like the straightforward, modern combat rules of FoF would work fine for what you have in mind.

ambushalleygames.net for more info.

Hope you find something that works well for you!

Best,

Shawn.

Second the rec for Tomorrow's War. Stargrunt is also a good option.

Striker (either version) would work too

5150 would be great for skirmish games. How about Alien Squad Leader for larger games?

Stike Legion link or The Crucible link

StarGtunt2

Stargrunt2 or Hammer's Slammers even.

One of my favorite combat SF series.

For rules, I second (or is that third) Tomorrow's War or Stargrunt 2. Both would be equally good at doing Falkenburg's Legion style action. TW might have the edge because of the way it can handle asymmetric battle (fights vs. irregulars).

Rob

Brought the paperbacks years ago, a good read.

Baen Book have got the e-book on sale at $5.00 USD [ link ] in various easy to use formats.

I'd plug for Ganesha's Flying Lead – and his Harder Than Steel coming out soon if you want to skirmish game it.

What a great list of possibilities. I'll look into them. Thanks so much for the help.

Gruntz would be another option for a platoon per side, although some good rules are already listed. I'd go with Strike Legion or Quadrant 13 for a company a side.

For this 'verse, I would recommend Tomorrow's War.