"Star Wars Miniature Battles Rule Book: Reviews?" Topic

If you have used it, what is your evaluation of that rule book (and the Companion book) by West End Games?

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Thanks.

CC
PS. Could it be used for other sci-fi universes?

I don't have time to give you a review but I can tell you that I love it. It's lots of fun.

I see no reason why you couldn't use it for a different sci-fi universe.

Or the new Star Wars miniatures.

IT's a really great set of books. I have also converted the system for use with Shadowrun Miniatures.

I agree with the others, CC, it's a *great* set of Star Wars rules. Captures the feel of combat in the Star Wars universe better than any set before or since. The many scenarios in "Imperial Entanglements" are especially cool.

The best news is, they actually go for less online and on Ebay now than they did 5 years ago. Players started dumping the WEG rules when the Wizards game came out, but the WEG rules are *much* better.

I think the rules would work well for any "space opera" type game, including Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, serials, tht kind of thing.

I can also give another thumbs up to these rules. They are a very good set of rules that capture the feel of Star Wars very well. I know some people also converted them for WWII gaming as they work that well.

Check out the SWMB yahoo group for tons of resources, game images, fan created rules additions and units.

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The website you linked to is the website of one of the SWMB group members. Another good WEG SWMB site is

jakestabletop.com

Here's a site with a good overview of the rules.

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These websites are all the sites of different group members.

Oh yeah, if you play there are two essential books. One is base rules which don't cover vehicles, and the other is them companion which covers vehicles and has some rules updates.

The third book is not needed to play. Imperial Entanglements adds about ten scenarios and also adds some more unit types. Although you really don't need those unit templates as the base rules has all the rules you need to create your own units.

So, it is best for skirmishes (30 figures or less) or for larger battles?

CC

Until you get to know the rules you probably don't want to use more than about 30 figures per side. Most games will take around three hours to play out, plus time for set up and tear down. After you learn the modifiers and how the system works really well, you can probably play 50-60 figs per side in the same ammount of time.

I find most of the games I've played have no more than 40 figures per side. Some rare big engagements have more figures. This is mostly due to the fact that the rules are trying to portray the small engagments seen in Episodes IV-VI, not the larger engagements seen in Episodes I-III.

I've heard of people using the fan made Gungan army and having over 60 figs on the table. The rules are definately capable of supporting larger battles, it just takes more time.

So to directly answer your question, yes they are best for Skirmish type battles.

I never played with more than about 25 figures per side (Tuskens, baby!).

I agree with Delthos, once you become comfortable with the rules, you can play larger games. Even at that scale, though, I think the game will still feel more like "large skirmish" rather than "small battle".

It's fun, and just a pared-version of the WEG RPG rules. The two are designed to be cross-compatible. I've played with between thirty and forty figures per side (80 or so in total) and found that it plays quickly enough.

SWMB has quite good rules, I enjoy them a lot. The points system could be seriously abused if one was so inclined. As such I would strongly reccomend it for players who want to have fun scenario based games, but warn against trying to use the troop constuction rules to make the "best" 1000 point army or something like that.