"Votoms skirmish rule set options?" Topic

Inspired by the Ironhands AT Votoms project, I've recently picked up some gashapon figures off of Ebay. They're about 1/60 scale, so say 28mm, and I have 10 total, plus some Reaper Bones sci-fi troopers, that I'm looking to game with at a pretty small skirmish scale, say 3-5 Votoms per side, plus small numbers of infantry.

I just wrapped up prepping the first batch per some of the help guides on the Ironhands site and they turned out really nicely, the only modification I made was I sealed the metallic Sharpie detailing with Future before weathering the whole figure.

I'm now looking to see what rules I'd use; my first instinct would be Ganesha Game's Samurai Robots, but that won't handle regular infantry as individuals, it's really for giant robots.

Gruntz is my next go-to, and I've seen the 6mm Votoms statted up as specialist vehicles, so I figure if I did these bigger figures as small mecha it would work, though I might have to break some of the construction rules to fit all the weapons on a Red-Shoulder Scopedog.

I also have the Ironhands rules ( ironhands.com/votoms.htm ) and they might work with some cleaning up, it took a reads to figure out some of the mechanics, so I figure I'd re-write these if I do decide to use them.

I just got the Votoms RPG rules, but they look like they might be too slow and crunchy, though if they're an off-shoot of the Mekton Zeta system, I could see about applying its cinematic rule system, or port the Votoms over to MZ and go from there.

Is there anything else out there that handles large PA well with straying into big-battle mecha territory? I'm not sure if Infinity has a build system, or if Defiance – Vital Ground would work. I guess I'm looking for something to handle small 28mm-scale power-armour/mecha with 3-5 mecha or maybe 10-15 infantry per side.

Sounds like 40K rules could work. The mechas could be Dreadnoughts or Mechanicus Robots while the infantry can be Guard or Marines.

If the mechas need to be tougher they can be Tau XV104 battlesuits or Eldar Wraithknights. The stats can be easily modified as you see fit.

Heavy Gear.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, which permutation of Heavy Gear would be best for cinematic power armor skirmish?

The good news is that several of the editions are available for free (at least at the moment):

link

link

The version that came with SilCore used to be free, but is filled with three different scales (Duelists/classic skirmish, infantry scale, and fleet scale):
link

I'd run Heavy Gear v1. Lets you have dudes outside the armor and inside. Happily runs about 5-8 mecha per player, maybe up to 12 once you get used to the Silhouette rules. better than Battletech, but still pretty high-detail, each mecha is pretty much a character in HG1.

Thanks again everyone. So Heavy Gear v.1 is the third (SilCore) link Jakar posted, correct? At Melee scale though, from my quick interpretation of the rules blurb.

I used a cross of the Votoms RPG (for design and damage) and THW's reaction system (because it is very cinematic) a few years back using a friends 1/48 scale models. Worked a treat!

3rd-4th edition 40K had a robust Vehicle Design Rules system as optional and would serve you well. Maybe just change the IGO-UGO into bolt action style activations?

Heavy gear V1 is the RPG with tactical rules, came out in something like 1994. It may be the same as the one packed with the Silhouette Core rules, I don't have SilCore to compare it against.