"6mm Sci Fi Rules suggestions" Topic

Parrskool's post on sci fi miniatures sparked my interest. What rules do you suggest? I want something simple and easy for others to pick up, yet has a really wide variety of weapons and units.

Laserstorm or Dirtside.

future war commander

Dirtside. Simple mechanics with enough flavor to keep everyone interested.

Ogre is super easy to pick up, but with a medium wide variety of weapons and units. Whatever rules you go with, if you pick up the Ogre Battle Box you'll get a super deal on a big pile of assorted plastic minis.

Many good ones out there today. For us if it does not use Unit Activation and IGOUGO instead. We won't play those rules. Unit Activation is the way to go …

Strike Legion.

Future War Commander is all I can add to the above; If you've played the other versions, that'd be easiset to pick up.

Dirtside.

LaserStorm is played a lot here. Easy to do solo as well due to card activation.

Dirtside II

I'll look into these. Thank you, guys.

Dirtside…. needs counter/chips as i recall ?

Yes, Dirtside II needs counters, but it is a great game (minis from GZG).
Iron Cow 2103 AD is a simpler and nice game too (minis from Brigade Models).

Unit Activation & order counters is what we use …

I have been trying to build up alternatives to counters. Various pieces of terrain, figures, any kind of "stuff" which is interpreted to be the "type" of marker. For some things it is terrain to represent cover, status, etc. such as sections of trenches for fortifications, fox holes for minor cover, lengths of barricades for hasty defense, a pile of twigs for a roadblock and so forth. Depending on your rules and imagination most counters can be eliminated. You can use a small group of prone figures to show the entire unit beside it is to be treated as prone, ideas like that.

Of course I also fall back on dice for multi-level effects (morale level say), but I also look to see where a set of rules may be missing a point. I have a set of rules where a counter is provided when a unit is considered to be optimizing terrain cover while advancing or in position. I assume any unit worth it's salt will do this as a matter of course and instead have made a marker for units which are quick timing it and not taking advantage of cover.

E.g. Infantry on Fire Orders, i.e. not moving should get a cover bonus as they are prone or kneeing, taking advantage of every bit of terrain, slight slope, rocks, etc. Not making themselves a target.

If any unit behind cover/concealment[a physical piece of terrain than blocks LOS partly should get a cover bonus … Of course if it blocks LOS completely then the target cannot be fired at directly.

Units on Fallback should get a cover bonus as they are withdrawing using every piece of cover & concealment/terrain available. Even firing smoke grenades from launchers on vehicles or throwing them whether mounted or dismounted.

Been there done all that in my long past youth. So when I found rules, etc., that reflected that –

Dirtside.

pjm

future war commander works well. encompasses many races as well.

Legion, which rules are you using?

We actually are using a modified version of the Games Workshop Space Marine 1 (the black cover rule book), Adeptus Titanicus, Codex Titanicus from '89-'90. We added Unit Activation[UA] with SM1 almost from the 1st game. We have been wargaming since the '60s. And I had 10 + years of 1 to 1 scale wargames with the US ARMY Infantry, '79-'90. So we basically based everything on SM1/AT1/CT. And went from there.

SM2 and Titan Legions was the worst excuse for wargame rules. We took very little from that ! But it was GW's best Epic seller ?! We called the "Kids game that like a lot of bright shiny things!" !!! LOL !

E40K and E:A had some good things in them too. It took GW many years to see/understand that UA is so much more "realistic", etc., and a much better game system than IGOUGO. They added UA with E:A, their last iteration of Epic. The new AT is just Titans & Knights no ground forces, [so far].I don't need any more very expensive, very BIG Titans or Knights.

IMO start with the SM1 rule book … and modify from there. And always do what works for you, not GW or anyone else !

They wouldn't give us pencils and margins in rulebooks if we didn't need them!
=^,^=

And Oh ! If I have not said it lately … GW !!!!! They are !!!!!

like future war commander. they are veryadaptable to most periods.