"Modern Skirmish Rules recommendations please" Topic

Until TFL releases fighting season, I am in need of a good set of skirmish rules for ultra-modern warfare. I am looking for no more than a platoon in size, although a reinforced squad is more like it. I also want it to support armor in case my infantry is being supported by a tank. I am not looking for something that is designed just for current middle eastern conflicts. I intend on doing Skirmish action in first world settings. All my figures and buildings are 28mm so the rules need to work in that scale. Once again I am counting on the good folks of TMP to offer up their suggestions.

Until TFL releases fighting season, I am in need of a good set of skirmish rules for ultra-modern warfare. I am looking for no more than a platoon in size, although a reinforced squad is more like it. I also want it to support armor in case my infantry is being supported by a tank. I am not looking for something that is designed just for current middle eastern conflicts. I intend on doing Skirmish action in first world settings. All my figures and buildings are 28mm so the rules need to work in that scale. Once again I am counting on the good folks of TMP to offer up their suggestions.

Until TFL releases fighting season, I am in need of a good set of skirmish rules for ultra-modern warfare. I am looking for no more than a platoon in size, although a reinforced squad is more like it. I also want it to support armor in case my infantry is being supported by a tank. I am not looking for something that is designed just for current middle eastern conflicts. I intend on doing Skirmish action in first world settings. All my figures and buildings are 28mm so the rules need to work in that scale. Once again I am counting on the good folks of TMP to offer up their suggestions.

Try Force on Force

Victory Decision Future Combat using only the low tech list and maybe a few of the mid tech… depending on how ultramodern you are talking about.

The maneuver element is a fire team, so even if you have a couple of squads you will have enough "units" to move around. ( two squads, a support team like and HMG, an AT team.. that is already 6 units )

It has good rules for observation that allow you to play with vehicles without them dominating the battlefield..

Available in wargamevault..

cheers
Francisco

Force on Force.

There was just a Bolt Action modern rules QRS published about a week or so ago, which looks like it might be good for this.

How detailed do you like your rules?

Force on Force/AmbushAlley

Nordic Weasel Games "No end in sight" or "FiveCore 3rd Edition" are both great sets of rules. Easy to learn, fun to play and lots of tactics involved too.

link

Private Matter:

Nordic Weasel's "No End in Sight", Ambush Alley's, "Force on Force" and the game "Skirmish Sangin" might all be what you're looking for.

Without a clear understanding of the mechanics and flavour which you're looking for in a game it's hard to be specific and tailor a recommendation to your request. The more you describe what you're looking for in a set of rules the better other gamers can answer you. So what are you looking for in a game? Fast play rules? Gritty, detail-rich rules? Narrative rules or cause and effect based rules? A campaign with personalities to follow or a cold and objective depiction of small unit combat mediated by technical charts and die rolls?

Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.

Rod & Striker; good comments so I'll try to address them.

I want the holy grail of rules: detailed,easy to learn, easy to play, and gives a good game in an evening. My favorite set of WW2 rules is Chain of Command by TFL. I'm not a big fan of Bolt Action but I will play it from time to time.

My main objective is finding a set of rules that I can take to my FLGS and run a game for some non-regular gamers. As I am located in Jacksonville NC, home of Camp Lejuene Marine Corps Base, my "target audience" is generally very knowledgeable of modern war fighting techniques and capabilities. I am hoping to find a game that helps these young Marines to think latterly in small unit skirmishes that they may face in the future.

I hope I this helps.

Force on Force

Force on Force

FoF is a good game but can take a little getting used to. The reaction system allows the opposing player to interrupt your move, which can lead to cascading reactions.

The combat system uses different dice with everyone rolling for a 4+. But you roll defense dice and can arrange your dice to cancel as many hits as you can (you do NOT have to match your highest with his – you can concede one hit to block another). Modifiers are additional dice (well supplied , body armor, cover, etc).

If you know them well they would be very easy to teach and run at FLGS.

By the way, uses many of the same mechancis as Ambush Alley, summarized here:

link

Do any of these games include armored vehicles from IFVs to tanks? For instance what if you want to have a LAV-25 or a BTR-80a in you scenario?

Also, who sells the hard copy of Force on Force and has them in stock?

I've played just one game of FoF but we had IFVs and tanks in it (and copters); I think the supplements have some stats but there's a way to rate your own.

I have seen Osprey's "Black Ops" rules used in a very similar setting to the one you describe, at a show.

The folk running it had used Force on Force, liked the scenario books but found the "friction" of the rules a little complex.

Might be worth a try?

Private Matter:

Given the scope and depth of rules you allude to (Holy Grail) I would say FoF is the rule set you might find most useful. You should however know that FoF has a steep initial learning curve which means you'll have to master it before you can help others learn the basics. The rule book is about 200 pages (hard-cover version) and has everything you'll need to integrate armour and other vehicles into your games. The rules are widely available. I got mine at Amazon because the price was lower than anywhere else I looked.

link

The rules are supported by several active communities on this here interweb including another wargaming forum (TWW).

I hope you enjoy the games and report back on how things are going with some batreps and reviews.

Cheers and good gaming.
Rod Robertson.

The Paleozoic era "Tractics" rules would work too, excepting for the "Ultra-modern" vehicles, since they were written back in the late 1970s, near the height of the Cold War.

However, with only one tank for support, you can probably make do, and/or extrapolate any weapons and vehicles not included in the original rules.

Unlike many rules, they do include ones for chemical, bio (possibly? Can't recall 100%), and nuke attacks.

No End In Sight is a must buy, whether you use scenario/gampaign generators, other aspects of the game and not the main rules.

Spectre miniatures would be ideal too

Also worth looking at Arc of fire as that will do what you need

Second Arc of Fire! Stalwart set of rules.

Okay, I've ordered Force on Force and Spectre Operations. I already have Black Ops. We'll see how it goes.

While heresy to mix rule sets my favorite ( and I was a playtester for Chain of Command which is a good system) is Force on Force for morale and armor and Combat Patrol for initiative and combat resolution. Can provide more detail if people are interested.
All the rules that have been mentioned are good.

Joe