"mass sci-fi battle ruleset needed" Topic

I'm looking for a ruleset that allows large battles utilizing infantry, vehicles, mechs, and aircraft at 10mm "scale".

I've tried battletech: alpha strike and horizon wars so far and have found them disappointing. Horizon wars still uses a fairly small model count. Alpha Strike was pretty good barring the "conga-line" as mechs line up to get rear strikes on each other.

I've looked at the CAV forums but folks are putting up massively overhauled fan-rules which does not speak well of the original rules.

Any great mass sci-fi battle rulesets out there that you can recommend?

Dirtside II (free from Ground Zero Games)

Gruntz or USEME both would work.

5Core Company Commander in Space may fit your bill. Read more here: link

+1 for Dirtside II

link

Inspired by the old Epic/Space Marine, no markers or book keeping, you can use a ton of troops on the table and it includes systems to build your own (and an old-school map-based campaign system too)

What about Future War Commander?

I would recommend Future War Commander or Strike Legion.

FWC would probably allow bigger games that are more abstract, while Strike Legion would allow more detail but would require some book keeping. Both have construction systems for designing your own forces.

Brad

I have heard good things about Dirtside and a bonus since it is free. Future War Commander is another good option as it is a tried and true game engine based on Warmaster then updated for modern conflict with the Blitzkreig Commander and Cold War Commander rules.

Planetfall from Spartan Games is my current sci-fi mass battle game of choice.

Rules are free to download…

FWC is a good set of rules, but may be hard to find. I think they are currently OOP but in the hands of Pendraken?

G.

Iron Cow, or just adopt your favorite set of WWII and/or Modern rules, change the vehicle/weapons names, and use them instead.

There is always Epic from GW…

Epic Armageddon for me. I've played all the others except Iron Cow, and always come back to Epic. Not Igo-Ugo, about a dozen main armies with many sub groups with each playing much differently, well integrated inf-armour-artillery-aircraft-Mech system, very active community of players at Tactical Command, and games that are always fun and tactically challenging. Free rules and army lists don't hurt. Lots of proxies available.

Laserstorm! Trust me it's what you're looking for

Future War Commander

Future War Commander

Not a very deep ruleset but the Panzer8 sci-fi rules are a lot of fun. I pretty much put out every Mechwarrior Dark age mini I had on the table – infantry, mechs, vehicles – in a huge pitched battle that took about two hours or so. Lots of mayhem at a level not too much more complex than OGRE:GEV…

I'd like (for rather obvious reasons…) to say Hammer's Slammers: The Crucible but I'm not sure how many units/AFVs/Infantry squads you need to play with.

We ran a game at Salute 2013 with hundreds of vehicles and the same sort of number of infantry that lasted all day. It's quite a simple basic system (without the free, downloadable expansions) especially the infantry combat and organisation.

John Treadaway

hammers-slammers.com

Strike Legion for a company per side, and SL Planetary Ops for bigger battles (it's comparable to Future War Commander in scope).

As others have mentioned, The Crucible, Epic:A, Strike Legion, FWC …

And yes, as Calico Bill posted – go to Tactical Command. It is really one of the best places for micro scale sci-fi … everything …