Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Future Wars => Topic started by: midismirnoff on 03 March 2016, 07:19:49 PM
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Hi scifiers,
after the great success of the large Warband-sized games (namely Saga / Lion Rampant), is there something receiving the same large consensus in the sci-fi world? Thanks in advance.
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I'd be more than willing to get involved in a LAF project for a version of Lion Rampant for sci-fi. That'd be a fun project.
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Likewise but what would such a game be called Alien Rampant sounds a tad naughty lol
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Lasers Rampant.
lol
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I'd prefer a translation of Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish (Outerworld Scifi Skirmish? lol), personally. I don't think Lion / Dragon Rampant really suits sci-fi, since it's pretty regiment based.
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Osprey Wargames is coming out with a sci-fi skirmish game at the end of the year. Rules written by Andrea Sfiligoi.
https://ospreypublishing.com/blog/Wargames_The_Big_Reveal/
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the large Warband-sized games
I live in a scifi bubble so I don't really know what that is.
The only scifi games that seem to be receiving an undisputed consensus are Games Workshop Wh40k-related ones so something from that sphere might apply... In The Emperor's Name maybe?
Infinity from Corvus Belli seems to have gained a significant following over the years so that might apply but while it definitely has what I might imagine is a warband slant it's hardly a game for large forces.
Not sure how popular Mantic's Deadzone is or if their up-and-coming large skirmish version of Warpath, Firefight, might apply.
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I don't know of such a rules set, but let my think what I can gather from the back of my mind to at least give you some direction from where you could start to have a look by yourself, if you wish to. Restriction is that I haven't played one of them so can't give you more detail concerning whether they suit the large warband thing or not.
There's a classic called Stargrunt II by Ground Zero Games that has gained a following. Nowadays freely available as a download. Generic.
I've heard some praise about Urban War, but I don't know weather it's still available.
More recently Gruntz appeared (aimed at 15mm) and was received well by quite some people. Generic.
FUBAR is a two pages set of generic rules for near future and sci-fi combat a lot of supplements have been written for by fans. Free download (look for Gawd 'elp us Games).
No Limits is also generic and freely downloadable.
Warlord Games have published Beyond the Gates of Antares recently that seems to be quite original (at least it received a quite good review in Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy 82).
edit:
Forgot to mention Victory Decision: Future Combat. Generic.
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I just got the beta of the Firefight rules by Mantic and they would certainly fit that description. They fall somewhere between Deadzone (similar rules mechanics) and older editions of 40k.
Tomorrow's War, the near future version of Force on Force, might be worth looking at too.
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I don't see anything receiving a large consensus in terms of people agreeing that it is the latest hotness.
In fact, there is just so much out there and much of it is good, that we are spoiled for choice.
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There are plenty of Small (squad or so) Warband sized sci-fi games like In The Emperor's Name, Necromunda, Rogue Stars (coming soon from Andrea Sigliofi), etc.
However, for Platoon warband size like Rampant, I've not seen anything that has gotten traction. I would recommend going to the yahoo group for "WarEngine". The Warengine 2.1 rules are still a very solid, generic, and easy to play set of rules that are aimed at games about the size of Rampant. The only drawback is that it really isn't made to handle anything bigger than small walkers and light vehicles, but that's not really a drawback at the platoon level.
In the near-future, I am looking forward to the Warpath "Firefight" rules that are platoon level and will be coming out this year. I've really enjoyed Mantic's Kings of War and Warpath 1.0, which are both easy to play, pulpy and flexible enough to pass as generic. I've got similarly high hopes for Warpath which will have separate rulesets for both a "mass" (company) size games and the smaller platoon level "Firefight" .
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I started writing a sci-fi-rampant-clone.
Club's still assembling figures to give it a go.
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Another vote for Warpath Firefight, I've just finished reading the "test" rules and they look pretty solid. Haven't got a game in yet, though.
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Stargrunt, Gruntz, and original Rogue Trader still work for me on the platoon-ish sized forces.
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There are some good sci-fi skirmish games out there. Clash On The Fringe, In The Emperors Name, Five Parsecs From Home, Blasters & Bulkheads, and Rogue Planet are some of the ones that I like.
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Blasters & Bulkheads from Four Color Figures works well for me.
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There does seem to be a significant hole for a scifi warband/platoon sized game. Especially one that lets you tailor your own forces ala Lion/Dragon Rampant. Theres Agis's rulebook (forgitten the name off hand), but that lacks the truely alien and space opera, then theres tomorrow's war which lack the fore mentioned even more and is bogged down by some, in my eyes, clunky mechanics. Apart from really old school like Rogue Trader, Stargrunt, etc I dont see all that much around tbh.
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"Star mogul" sounds like the game you are after
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The Blasters and Bulkheads suggestion is a good one. I haven't played it in a few years, but I recall it having a nice balance between heroic individual characters and faceless groups of mooks.
"Star mogul" sounds like the game you are after
Star Mogul is all individuals though, right?
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Ganesha Game's Swatters is a nice set of rules. It's set up for squads of human troops against various sorts of xenomorphish aliens, but there's quite a bit of flexibility built in. It uses individually based miniatures on CDs (or similar movement trays).
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I'm still unsure as to what a "warband driven" game should be like. I'm not even sure on the size. Is warband the same in regards to headcount as a platoon (vague enough as that itself is)? Is it bigger? Smaller? :?
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I'm still unsure as to what a "warband driven" game should be like. I'm not even sure on the size. Is warband the same in regards to headcount as a platoon (vague enough as that itself is)? Is it bigger? Smaller? :?
I think we're talking roughly 15-40 minis, dependant on their troop quality/armour. So from a small PA platoon to a large militia platoon. Upper limit would probably be a around the standard size of a 2nd edition 40k game (think it was 1500pts back then), where Space marines would often field 2 10 man tactical squads, a 5 man heavy weapon squad and a 5 man assault/scout/Terminiator squad plus a few characters.
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I have been tinkering with such a thing for a few months:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=84431.msg1037832#msg1037832 (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=84431.msg1037832#msg1037832)
Basically a Chain of Command - Lion Rampant - WH40K mashup. PM me if you want a butchers at the rules I have put together.
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I have been tinkering with such a thing for a few months:
http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=84431.msg1037832#msg1037832 (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=84431.msg1037832#msg1037832)
Basically a Chain of Command - Lion Rampant - WH40K mashup. PM me if you want a butchers at the rules I have put together.
Looks pretty decent. I'd missed that thread before. I think it's not a bad place to start - take the best bits of different systems and mix them together.
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I think we're talking roughly 15-40 minis, dependant on their troop quality/armour
In that case Infinity and Deadzone I mentioned earlier would be at the very lowest end of the spectrum. Our group would hesitate to go over 10 models per side for the former in fact but I think it's not unusual to have up to 20 per side in experienced gamer circles.
Mantic's Firefight version of Warpath sounds to be just about right but I've not bothered to see if it offers a loose organization that would fit my impression of what a warband would be like (as opposed to organized military platoon or similar). And of course it's not yet available except as a free beta.
The same (organizational issue, that is, not the availability) goes for my usual hobby horse, Majestic 12's Defiance too tho the force size should be a good fit. I might prefer to have a bit more than 40 per side for that but it is a flexible game in regards to that. Going down to 15 or less per side is stretching the envelope a little however but should work well enough if you load up with elite quality troops, heroes and commanders.
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At those numbers, you need Clash on the Fringe. Build whatever you want and with a points system.
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this could be what you looking for
http://afrightfulbestiary.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/titan-rampant.html
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Another vote for Nordic Weasel Games' Clash on the Fringe. It handles platoon size forces nicely, and IMHO has a very elegant treatment of suppression, morale and leadership, while still allowing for heroic sci-fi characters to make a difference. Also comes with a unit calculator so you can build forces to suit your mini collection.
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Warband suggest to me upto 10-12 figures. I guess I've been influenced by Frostgrave in that respect. For me, what would be ideal would be a game that uses a D20 combat engine (ala Frostgrave) with the perils and challenges from Pulp Alley. One gaming friend said it sounds like a tabletop version of a CCG!
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In that case, we would be back to Infinity and Deadzone again -- with an added side order of AE:Bounty o_o
The first one being probably most close to "consensus", that is having the largest player base. Not necessarily among the peeps on this forum but overall.
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I was thinking of doing a scifi warband game using 3d6 (bell-shaped curve etc). It'd use 40k factions as it's jump off point (so you could really easily use the models that you already likely have) but be flexible in it.
The first starting point would be players as a warband of the Holy Galactic Empire (which is not an empire, not really galactic and barely holy), as some low level feudal count. Mass mobilisation of war resources is forbidden, so you can only take a warband of your trusted retainers and maybe a few cannonfodder serfs. The lord himself would be a genetically modified supersoldier in heavy armour and the retainers would be close in power (total of about 2-3 retainers). The serfs would be chaff to be chewed up or to slow down enemies.
Full class system and character development for lord and retainers, but the serfs would be baseline units that don't really get upgraded.
From there, expansion to include Junkers (who scavenged ruins for technology, perfect for orks or similar), Swarmers (evolving insects that can completely change what their strategy is game to game), Exiled Lords (basically Lords with some options removed and others added, for CSM etc) and whatever else. Gameplay would be completely asymmetric, as swarmers constantly reinforced with more and more chaff whilst junkers are focused on "THINGS THAT GO BOOM BIG" and RANDOM TABLES.
Goals and advancement would be asymmetric. As an example, the HGE faction would usually be scavenging for loot or trying to destroy infrastructure whilst Swarmers would just focus on killing anything they could and collecting the genetic material. HGE can advance based on their succeeding and Swarmers the same. So they'd be at conflict but both players could come out of a victory thinking they'd won.
I still think it's a clever idea, just a problem to get to it between doing CompSci at uni, searching for a placement year job and juggling personal stuff.
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I started writing up some "Lasers Rampant" rules...I'll post up when I have a playable version. Keeping it simple (ie. categories shared by all races).
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I started writing up some "Lasers Rampant" rules...I'll post up when I have a playable version. Keeping it simple (ie. categories shared by all races).
Sounds good. If you want anyone to collaborate with I'll happily volunteer. :)
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Yeah I'll post it up and then let people play/critique/add/mangle to their heart's delight! lol
I took the values from Dragon Rampant and broke them down into a mathematical formula to generate appropriate points values. I'm keeping it simple like the original games with a dozen types of units, with one minor change being the addition of support and ordnance weapons (easy to use).