Let's talk Small-Team Skirmish Games

Da Bid Dabid wrote: Does Gaslands have rules for any models not in vehicles? What about fighting hand-to-hand between cars ala Fury Road?

Sort of. There’s a Death Race 2000 “running over zombies “ scenario. But nothing about getting out and running around. There’s a lot of shooting at one another, to be sure.

The system borrows a lot from X-Wing (without all the bullshit) and Formula D. Templates are used but easy to construct. Fair warning that there are special d6 dice, as well. The game is well supported and PDFs of all this stuff can be had for free.

Jackwraith wrote: Does anyone play Malifaux? That's more of a gang/skirmish game than a full on army builder, isn't it? I love the setting and background, but tend to avoid anything lifestyle/collectible these days, so have never gotten into it.

Malifaux sucked originally, then rebooted and pissed off everyone who played. The 2.0 rules are good but kind of weenie. It has playing cards.

I should mention Chaos in Carpathoa too. Really fun little gothic horror game (well, skirmish that has werewolves and mummies and whatnot versus orcs and whatnot.)

Also:

Combat Zone, and Warlords of the Wasteland 2085 (iirc), and Skank are all simple and fun. Combat Zone less simple.

Warlords 2 Total Meltdown is fucking rad though. Best campaign rules of any game ever.

I don’t have a lot of experience with miniature game systems but my friends and I have a ton of fun with Knight Models’ Batman Miniature Game as well as their DC Univiverse Miniatures Game. The Batman game is definitely the heavier of the two. The line of sight rules regarding light sources is brilliant but there are a ton of keywords to learn. The DC game is more meat and potatoes big dumb superhero fighting but the grapple and throw rules are amazing, every character feels faithful to the comics, and there’s a lot of room for creative play using your superpowers to interact with objects on the battlefield.

Skank: www.skankgame.com

Meltdown: s1.zetaboards.com/Post_Apoc_Wargames/topic/4759552/1/

Combat Zone: www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Combat_Zone_products.html

Yeah, Frostgrave is looking really good. Didnt play today, but read the book. It has a sort of “meat and potatoes” vibe to it that I really like. It ain’t real fancy. I am really digging the random monster thing. Looking at the list I think D&DAS has all of them.

But of course, being a GW fan the first thing I did was open my wallet. Yes, I know you can use any figures but I spotted a good deal on the soldiers box, a thief, a Barbarian and a couple of wizards so I grabbed ‘em. It was only like $40. They look like fun, easy painting.

Thinking about making some of that fold-up paper terrain for it rather than going in $400 on more plastics.

I'm kind of shocked you don't already have some fantasy gw models to use already.

I have a literal asston of lotr figs that i am thinking will be conscripted for this project. Seriously, thousands of dollars of unopened lotr just sitting around. And that was pre 2007 prices.

I may use the Skaven and Seraphon with it, I think I have the right sort of stuff to do full Warbands with them. Stormcast, I have but they just don’t work for me outside of AOS. Horrors/Flamers and some other TZeentch stuff is perfect for a Summoner.

Terrain wise I’m looking at plenty of Pegasus ruins and a couple of GW pieces, but not really enough from what I’m seeing.

Haven’t gone through the Heroscape/AOTP stuff to see what matches up yet.

I’ve kind of been wanting to paint some very “ordinary” fantasy stuff lately.

I spent a lot of time with Mordheim and Oldmunda in the past. I'm not sure oop skirmish games is the direction someone wants to go with so many current ones on the market. However, I'm sure the pdfs are all online, so there can be some savings there.

Speaking of oop, about 10 years ago I built a table and played Legends of the Old West. That game is a lot of fun. It felt like the LotR system with Mordheim campaign rules bolted on. The downside was that the terrain was all very specific to the wild west (saloons, trains, etc) so the crossover utlilty with other games was very low, for me. Fantastic set of rulebooks though. I wish I had kept them.

I've got A Fistful of KungFu. Looks fantastic. I almost went all in on a bunch of street fighter type minis until I realized what would be involved getting a run down, urban tabletop. I feel like I'd end up in the same situation I did with LotoW. Terrain that's too specific for how infrequently it would be played. This project is on hold.

GW has put out an official book for Battle Companies which is their LotR Skirmish game. Maybe give it a look?
www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Middle-eart...ompanies-2017english

I think Mantic has some sort of skirmish game coming out. Maybe the KS for it is over? I dunno.

Song of Blades and Heroes was just too simple for me. It sounded great it theory, but I need a little more. Maybe it's the non-existent setting? It's like the time I thought running the TWERPS rpg would be fun...

AoS Skirmish is my preferred skirmish title at the moment. However, I recognize it's a bit bland compared to others mentioned. I mean, models don't gain new skills or pile on injuries over time.There's no plucky henchman defying all odds and becoming a hero. The between battle, campaign stuff is sort of dry. Almost non-existent. Basically the winning warband gets more renown to recruit new models and the losing warband gets less reknown. In a way, it's sorta Euro-y in that warbands don't really get hampered, they just don't all advance as quickly. Why do I like this...well, it does a good job of keeping all the players involved in the campaign. Take a losing player. In most skirmish games the gap between them and the others widens over time and it's not uncommon for this to dampen the spirit of that individual. In AoS Skirmish, not only is the gap lesss pronounced, there are underdog rules in play for the warband with fewer points, PLUS it's the winner of the last scenario (6th) which wins the campaign. This isn't like BB or anything where a poor win-loss record keeps you out of the finals. A warband with a poor showing is in it til the end with a puncher's chance. Weak-sauce it may be but I prefer it atm. However, game groups that with laid-back members will find more narrative in the crunchier, though harsher, titles.

All in all, my favorite 'campaign' system is Blood Bowl's, but that's not a skirmish game as we're talking about here. Also, I do think people interested in skirmish games should look at Shadespire. Mainly because you get a kickass boardgame with the models you can use in other skirmish systems.

EDIT: oh, does Space Hulk count?

EDIT EDIT: I forgot to mention my experience with SAGA. I had an Irish warband with this. The dogs were cool. I just couldn't wrap my head around the dice system and the die board. It's not complicated at all, but the experience was just so jarring to me and not what I was used to in skirmish games. Not a bad system, just...different.

Brent Spivey's Battlefield is worth a look if you want modern combat. You can also add zombies if you choose, and there are rules for vehicles. I have had the rule book for a long time, and bought a bunch of 15mm terrain and figures. Some day I'll actually play it...?

Brent Spivey's Havoc: Tactical Miniature Warfare was a favorite of mine for years, found this much more interesting than A Song of Blade and Heroes.

SAGA is also good stuff, as mentioned earlier.

the_jake_1973 wrote: I am definitely buying Gaslands now. Interested in playing Da Bid?

I will play Gaslands with you if you will alternate and play one of my hard to play miniatures games with me. Preferably SAGA in 15mm. Good excuse to play as we really don't live very far apart.

Mr. White wrote:
AoS Skirmish is my preferred skirmish title at the moment. However, I recognize it's a bit bland compared to others mentioned. I mean, models don't gain new skills or pile on injuries over time.There's no plucky henchman defying all odds and becoming a hero. The between battle, campaign stuff is sort of dry. Almost non-existent. Basically the winning warband gets more renown to recruit new models and the losing warband gets less reknown. In a way, it's sorta Euro-y in that warbands don't really get hampered, they just don't all advance as quickly. Why do I like this...well, it does a good job of keeping all the players involved in the campaign. Take a losing player. In most skirmish games the gap between them and the others widens over time and it's not uncommon for this to dampen the spirit of that individual. In AoS Skirmish, not only is the gap lesss pronounced, there are underdog rules in play for the warband with fewer points, PLUS it's the winner of the last scenario (6th) which wins the campaign. This isn't like BB or anything where a poor win-loss record keeps you out of the finals. A warband with a poor showing is in it til the end with a puncher's chance. Weak-sauce it may be but I prefer it atm. However, game groups that with laid-back members will find more narrative in the crunchier, though harsher, titles.

All in all, my favorite 'campaign' system is Blood Bowl's, but that's not a skirmish game as we're talking about here. Also, I do think people interested in skirmish games should look at Shadespire. Mainly because you get a kickass boardgame with the models you can use in other skirmish systems.

EDIT: oh, does Space Hulk count?

EDIT EDIT: I forgot to mention my experience with SAGA. I had an Irish warband with this. The dogs were cool. I just couldn't wrap my head around the dice system and the die board. It's not complicated at all, but the experience was just so jarring to me and not what I was used to in skirmish games. Not a bad system, just...different.

I like it, too, though I really like the fine tuning that can be done in Hinterlands. Supposedly, the guy who wrote Hinterlands is fine-tuning his system in light of what GW did with their official product. My issue was that, since spells and model resilience are really designed for larger-scale battles, we found it all a bit too brutal. We solved this by giving all the models one extra Wound.

Does anyone have experience with Chain Reaction? The rules are to be found for free on line, but we haven't got around to testing them out.

I've played a lot of Chain Reaction in the past (All Things Zombie and the Vietnam game) and it's solid and interesting, but very clunky. It definitely feels small time and unrefined.

GorillaGrody wrote: I like it, too, though I really like the fine tuning that can be done in Hinterlands. Supposedly, the guy who wrote Hinterlands is fine-tuning his system in light of what GW did with their official product. My issue was that, since spells and model resilience are really designed for larger-scale battles, we found it all a bit too brutal. We solved this by giving all the models one extra Wound.

Does anyone have experience with Chain Reaction? The rules are to be found for free on line, but we haven't got around to testing them out.

I believe the guy ('Bottle' I think is his online handle at TGA and DakkaDakka) has pulled Hinterlands. I have a copy of it, but I don't think it's available online anymore.
I know he has been brought in by GW to playtest/demo/showcase so maybe he felt conflict of interest? Last I heard he was working on expanding WHQ.