"Hex based sci fi rules" Topic

Can anyone please suggest a rules system or writer who has or can be coaxed in to writing a system as the title implies?

I am a fan of Squad Leader, but really dislike the little cardboard counters and have spent many years trying to figure out how to convert. There is a face book page devoted to ASL in miniatures and it has really inspired me.

However, I really want to make some mods, such as getting rid of the crew exposed/buttoned up rules. Why not just assume when away from the enemy the guys look out, and when they get close they close up the hatches? So increase speed away from danger and one less item to track.

This is just one example and if someone else has done this previously I would like to find said person.

Also, GW is re-releasing EPIC in 8mm scale. For many years I have wanted to play Squad Leader using 40K tanks and figures and it looks like that is finally going to be possible.

Again, if someone has already done this I would like to find their work and enjoy it.

And finally, if I was to locate a rules writer to do the above mentioned project, assuming no one already has, how much is the expected payment for someone to write a rules mod based off of another game system?

I have absolutely no idea how much a game writer makes.

I am a little confused. You want a counter system though you do not like squad leader counters?
Are you wanting a board system or miniature rules?
There are several options with the board system. What is the level you want? Each counter represents, one, four, ten or thirty men? The different levels require different mechanics. For example on one or four men individual weapon stats are important. More men then you go with an easier weapon class system

For riffing off an old boardgame, there's always Avalon Hill's Starship Troopers:
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Squares, not hexes, Ashanti High Lightning:
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The ASl in miniatures group uses large, decorative hexes to replace the board and miniatures to replace the counters.

In the process now of getting my hexes sorted and purchased a large number of plastic soldier company 15mm troops. When epic comes along I will be collecting them as well.

The point is that ASL uses a large number of markers and has whole rules sections devoted to concepts and mechanics that could be streamlined such as the buttoned up rules I mentioned.

Squad Leader is company level mostly. Squads of 6-10 men, leaders, and individual vehicles.

Most likely I will write something myself, but just wanted to know if there were rules close enough already.

There are several options on the map board. There is already a company out there which makes hexes to cover a table. I think a box will do a 4 by 6 table. The hexes are about 6 or 8 inches across.
Of course you can use any of the various map boards from Borgs games which are blank and about 3 inches. I use the basic M44 and desert and the battle lore map as well for a lot of playtesting. I am using blocks instead of counters or minis for the fog of war aspect.

Hexes for miniatures

kallistra.co.uk

Stating the obvious ASL is not sci fi. Now that is out of the way are you looking for a system with the same scale, 40 to 50 m ground scale per hex, squad, fire team, weapons team or in limited cases individual trooper per unit?

I tried to get into ASL on returning from a 25 year hiatus and just shook my head. In my case I found Conflict of Heroes. What I like about it is same ground and unit scales as ASL but no books of charts, reams of combat results and seemingly endless phases in a game turn. Combat is unit to unit 2D6, hits are either no effect, unit eliminated or some intermediate combat result which, in some way, affects a unit. Don't look it up pull a damage chi and apply the effects which are all listed on the chit in simple clear ways. Movement and all actions work on a near simultaneous action point system which is neat and clean.

CoH has some issues but certainly a lot less than ASL. It doesn't have the following or history (what 40 years now) or the third party support which ASL basks in.

I am a big fan of an old sci fi set of miniature rules called Striker by GDW. I was going to update it but have instead decided to adapt it into the CoH game system. Recently I have been trying a couple other systems but have returned to CoH as it is closest to what I want to start from.

I game in 6 mm/1:300/1:285 so consider this when reading the following. As for game boards you could just copy the ASL or CoH boards and print them out at larger scales. Images for most are available on line with very little searching. I have printed out 4 of the 5 maps from CoH at 2" size hexes and most of one map at 3". I like the board size at 2" but the map imagery matches available miniatures much better at the 3" size.

As stated in some other recent threads you can easily make your own game mats by going to the local fabric shops and buying material for the background sheet. Bags of different coloured felt can be cut up for various terrain areas, and I have made mats by spraying random blotches of different colours on a dark green sheet. I then used iron on hexes from RAFM to give me a hex grid on the map. In my case I have white 2" hexes on one side (easily seen) and black on the other, still visible but much more subdued.

For terrain you can go from there in may different ways with hills, woods, buildings, different types of ground cover, etc.. For forces, from ancients to sci fi there are many sources for minis in my scale.

Stephen- thank you very much for your reply and advice. I am also returning to ASL after many years and it does seem really tough to grasp all the mechanics. I am playing a computer version- Tigers on the Hunt with the fan made ASL mod. The computer version seems to be a more streamlined and simplified system. Which is why the idea occurred to me to try this as the Squad Leader/ miniatures hybrid project comes in to fruition.

I will check out Conflict of Heroes. I looked in to it but have not purchased and tried it, only read reviews and watched youtube play through. I was going to purchase but there seems to be a second edition coming out or on the horizon and that made me hesitant to buy not knowing if I was buying soon to be obsolete products.

Conflict of Heroes is a game system similar to ASL. There are about 3 games in the system right now with a handful of expansions and at least two more games and one update in the pipe.

I am unfamiliar with the Pacific theatre game Guadalcanal so I cannot address it. Awakening the Bear (AtB) covers the first year of the German invasion of Russia. It is presently in its second edition. Storms of Steel, which covers the Kursk era, has been due for a second edition for a few years now. Presently it is promised for late spring or early summer. Don't hold your breath.

You can download the rules, which also show the counters and the cards, scenario book, and maps from Academy Games web site. You have to register but, until recently, this has not lead to an avalanche of email spam. Presently they are/were conducting a Kickstarter campaign for something I wasn't interested in which resulted in a weekly email. They seem to have stopped.

In any case you can access the rules and decide if they suit your needs without having to buy the entire game. Let me know if this interests you and we can discuss incorporating sci fi elements into the system.

Epic 40,000 wasn't much like Squad Leader. But I hexed those up for 4" hexes:
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Also, could you use Heroes of Black Reach?
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andy