"favorite post-apoc skirmish rules?" Topic

Can anyone recommend a good ruleset for post-apocalyptic skirmishes? I'd like it to include the usual cast of mutants, para-military, raiders, zombies/ghouls etc.

Fallout pen and paper comes up on google, but I'm looking for skirmishing bands rather than a d20 RPG ruleset.
Thanks.

Check out Two Hour Wargames "All Things Zombie" (ATZ) rules. Its got everything your looking for.

Savage Worlds-with a vehicle system that's painless.

Also Two Hour Wargames "After the Horsemen," which is fully compatible with the already mentioned (and excellent) ATZ.

And -- I'm not sure if it's available yet -- Rust Devil Games has put together a great zombie supplement called "Zed or Alive" for the Savage Worlds Showdown skirmish rules.

I'm planning to use Pulp Alley for Fall Out. Others already have.

Necromunda is a pretty tough one to beat. It has the 2nd edition 40K rules as the basis of it.

The game is based around a band, or gang, of about 6-10 models. They have all kinds of mutants, mutant creatures, psychics, crazy gizmos and styles of gangs.

On top of that there is a nifty built-in campaign system.

True, if you are playing with a small group the campaign system breaks down before too long, in that one gang can become very powerful but it is still a lot of fun. Plus then everyone can team up on them.

I have wiled away many a night playing a three way campaign. We would start with two players playing each other and the player sitting out would then fight the winner. Once one gang stayed "in" for three games in a row the other two gangs could gang up on him or her.

Also Infinity has some pretty good rules for fighting modern combat but doesn't allow too much whacky stuff to go on, if you are in for some of that.

The 3rd edition rules will probably allow for more of it.

Combat Zone. It's an easy to learn system, rewards realistic tactics, and is very easily adapted/modified if you want to throw in stuff that isn't included in the rules. The Battle Book is an essential supplement too. I think it's free now?

Across the Dead Earth….sounds ideal for what your after. deadearth.co.uk

A second for Necromunda.

Shockforce

We modified Fistfull of Lead. We played a multiplayer game with each person having 5 figures. It worked great.
I recently bought Warfare in the Age of Madness. That looks like it will work well also.

After the Horsemen uses the Reaction System, not the IGOUGO system. Check out Chain Reaction for free – it has the mechanics found in ATH.

ATH has a complete Campaign system and is designed to be played solo or cooperatively as well as head to head.

CR
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ATH
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Some Bat Reps

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For most any post-apoc, I'd recommend at least giving a look to Nuclear Renaissance (NucRen). We played it at 4 different meetings this year and enjoyed it. It's very flexible, and easy to learn (important for us). We played it with and without vehicles in both sci-fi and post-apoc settings and it worked well for all. 

Our club loves the post-apoc setting and over the past 4 years we've tried the following rulesets for post apoc and zombie apoc games:
-Wastelands 1.2
-Wastelands Meltdown
-Neutron York 3k
-This is Not a Test
-Apocalypticium
-Blasters and Bulkheads
-ATZ
-Wreck Age
-In The Emperor's name
-Nuclear Renaissance

NucRen is our favorite so far ruleset and I think it's the one we're going to stick with for a while. The only points I'd make about the system are:
-Lots of guns is very dangerous. Make sure you and your opponent are not going spam-crazy with powerful weapons
-Lots of terrain is best
-Smaller tables are usually better.

Here's a link to write-ups and observations of the 4 games we played.
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The rules are free here:
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The expansion "Tome of Tridlins" is available as a moderately price PDF.
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The Savage Worlds RPG makes for a really good skirmish wargame.

I'll have something out in early 2015. Campaign rules, running a gang, weird critters. You'll see.

I play quite a few post apoc games. I recommend:

Neutronyork3000
wastelands 3 (free from post apoc wargames forum)
Skank (free)
Nuclear Renaissance 1 or 2
Combat Zone
Necromunda

It may be worth checking out Wreck Age and Across the dead earth too.

I was going to second saltflats but Weasel comes along and spoils all the fun, NOT, can't wait NW I'll be a waiting :)
Cheers

Well, how detailed do you want to be? How realistic?

Off the top of my head, try THW's After The Horsemen for detailed realism or Pulp Alley for a more story-driven cinematic game.

If you're coming from an RPG background, go with Savage Worlds. Or Wreck Age.

Agree with Skippy about Savage Worlds.

Oh and specifically Raiders and Ruins which is free online.

I like Mutants and Death Ray Guns (MDRG) by Ganesha Games

I too am going to chime in for Savage Worlds/ Savage Showdown (the free miniatures rules) the two rules sets are compatible, Savage Worlds add a fair amount of RPG fluff with can help flesh out the games. Plus there are a boatload of free supplements available to help flesh out you Post Apocalypse.

With that I do like me some Necromunda, grab the Ash Wastes book (this has a reasonable treatment of vehicles and mounts) as well when you are downloading rules as well, even if you don't use the rules the campaign system is a very good place to steal ideas from. Plus with Necromunda you can mine early 40k for bits.

IMHO, the Necromunda rules are just too clunky to bother with anymore, especially considering the better choices out there.

Honestly, Zed or Alive sounds like exactly what you're looking for. Based on the Savage World Showdown rules.

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Shockforce has been renamed as: War Engine

Future War Commander

2085 Warlords of the Wasteland Free (to the best of my knowledge)

No Limits (with Road Warriors add-on) Free

For me, Babylon's Burning came closest to Fallout-style gameplay. It gave you a lot of micro-management options (if you wanted them), such as whether you fire three-round burst or single-shot. There seem like a lot of modifiers to shoot, but you really can just eye-ball it, since a final modifier worse than -2 will only ever hit on a 10 (on a d10). Thus if you have a stack of penalties, you could safely just roll the dice and look for 10's. The rules for inflicting damage were also satisfyingly gritty, with figures becoming suppressed and bleeding out.

The command and control rules were also very interesting. To issue new orders to a unit, you would have to convey them from the commander's position (hopefully safely out of harm's way, due to the danger posed by enemy shooting) to the friendly squad by way of messenger or runner. That's right, a model has to actually run the new order across the board. Without new orders, squads will continue to pursue their last order or hold position and be entirely reactionary.

The book included a point system and faction army lists that were very reminiscent of Fallout, with lists for enclave, gangers, mafia, mercs, radioactive ghoul clans, scavengers, cultists and corporate syndicates.

The rules might seem complicated, but they got the book down to less than 100 pages, put all the need-to-know stuff on a double-sided reference sheet, and even made the detail stuff optional (although you are really missing out, in my opinion, if you don't go full-on into the detail).

Unfortunately, the publisher (Hetzerdog) went nuclear. It was replaced by Dieselmonkey, but they have yet to release (or even say much about) the long-awaited expansion (which would bring complete campaign rules, more factions and vehicle-design rules). It's sad, since the campaign rules were supposed to be nearly finished. In any case, the base game is still the best simulation for Fallout Tactics style gameplay.

Edit: Apparently there is a preview of the rulebook available as well.

Would the Judge Dredd rules convert over easily?

It is probably unfair of me to recommend Across the Dead Earth because I wrote it and sell it!
However, I would point out that as a previous poster has said it does sound like it's a good fit for what you are looking for, and the PDF version of the rules is only £5.00 GBP