"Your current favorite Fantasy Skirmish Game." Topic

I've yet to try Fantasy Skirmish gaming yet successful rule sets like Dragon Rampant & Five Leagues have me curious. I wanted to hear what you've played and which sets you prefer.

Feel free to expand on why you did or didn't like a particular set. Cheers.

I love "Dragon Rampant" (once the failed-activation-ends-turn rule is housemodded), but I don't know if I'd consider it "skirmish" gaming. The units act like, well, units and not a bunch of individuals. To me, "skirmish" gaming is more like "Mordheim".

Why I like DR is that it seems just so very intuitive. Shooting or attacking? Roll 12 dice looking for your target number, IOT determine the number of "hits". Divide hits by the target Armor to determine the number of Strength Point losses. Then the target rolls 2d6, subtracts their lost SPs, and if they make their Courage number they stand, otherwise they run (or rout). Clean and simple, a state easier said than done.

GW's Middle earth game is fabulous. Best game they ever made. We adapt it to Old West, and various other historical periods as well.

I'm with Eumelus. Dragon Rampant has worked well for me, but it feels more like "small unit" than what I think of as "skirmish/RPG." I think eventually I'll need to work out something closer to "Astounding Tales" or the "Chaos" system.

Ral Partha's Chaos Wars, expanded edition of the original freebie Rules According to Ral (1986) for skirmish/small battle.
link

Steve Jackson Games' Melee & Wizard (battle components of The Fantasy Trip RPG) — fast fun games, lots of character and creature flexibility, lots of support materials. It's been a great game system since 1977!
link

Thanks for the clarification for Dragon Rampants game size. For the purpose of the Poll I'll say it counts as the largest end of the "Skirmish" spectrum.

Fave skirmish game would be … mine:

link

And two fantasy flavors for it:

link

link

Designed to be adapted, modded, and replayed (lots of scenario legs).

One Page Rules Age of Fantasy Skirmish

link

And they are free!!

Dave

2e BattleSystem Skirmish, only available as a PDF download from DTRPG. It is 2e AD&D RPG distilled to a very fast combat system. It is a fast-play skirmish mini's game with a veneer of FRPG over the top. Miniatures and terrain are required. It is a blast. I should mention it dates back to the early 1990's.

The book also contains an old, but still valid, set of miniatures painting instructions. It is grossly under-appreciated and largely unknown. Cheers!

The Dragon/Xenos Rampant system is probably my most common choice for squad-based large-ish skirmish games. Good for quick-ish games where you also want the "my guys" experience that comes from building your own customized force.

I also regularly come back to the larger scale variants of Song of Blades and Heroes. Of Gods and Mortals has rules for unit-based activation which lets you scale the SoBaH core mechanics up to larger skirmish games, similar to the Rampant sizes. Overall, coarser grained than the Rampant series, but I've found SoBaH-based rules faster on the table and quicker to stat up for a pickup game.

MESBG/LOTR/Legends of… is and great if you actually want to play in their settings. However as a Rampant equivalent, it critically doesn't have anything for making new forces. You get the lists that come with whatever books you have, and your only choices are unit mix and equipment. If you want to do your own new army with new units, you have to write it from scratch or adapt from an existing list, then do all the work of balancing it yourself.

Song of Blades and Heroes is excellent for small skirmishes, particularly if you won't play of often as the basic rules are very simple and (at least to me) intuitive.

Shieldbash, but I'm biased.

I am partial to Warcry. You are within the Age of Sigmar universe but that works well. Outside of that, One Page Rules

Song of Blades and Heroes.

Necropolis28. Heck, most of the various indie "(fill_in_the_blank)28" games are pretty fun.

I haven't played "Guards of Traitor's Toll" yet, and it's more of a cooperative not-quite-skirmish game, but I think it might fit the bill.

For solo and co-op I play Warrior Heros Adventures in Talomir (Two Hour Wargames) and for h2h Middle Earth I use a fan mod for Dux Britanniarum from Two Fat Lardies.

link

Fistful of Lead – Might and Melee.

I have played many fun skirmish games with Hordes of the Thing. 28mm figs on 15mm bases.

The "Rampant" system really scratches an itch for me. I like the simplicity of skirmish games but I also like to look at lots of pretty models. The game looks like mass battles but plays like skirmish.

GASLIGHT
Like Sword and the Flame, the rules are an engine. Treat Magic like Science.

Sword Weirdos, and it's very inexpensive.