Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Weird Wars => Topic started by: obsidian3d on October 17, 2012, 09:15:29 PM
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Hi all,
I'm a big comics fan and enjoy strange tales set in any time period. I'm looking for something set in or around WW2 where I could use occult and sci-fi figures mixed in with soldiers and the like. Ideally I'd like something not too heavily themed towards the US troops, but rather stuff on the European front (I'm Canadian so I'd like to be able to field thematic squads against the Axis forces). It'd be nice if there were touched on the Japanese / US theatres as well, but not desperately necessary.
Finally, I'm more of a mind to play skirmish level games than large platoon-based pitched battles. The odd tank or big machine would be fine, but smaller is better. I'd like to actually be able to paint two small forces to play with in a relatively small amount of time. And of course I have plenty of monster and zombie models that I could draw on as well.
The two rule sets that seem to be mentioned most frequently are Secrets of the Third Reich and AE: WWII. Both seem to have pros and cons, but I'm open to suggestions. I've looked roughly at both, but neither are available to buy locally, so that makes it tough to really commit to purchasing either one. Some factors to keep in mind are:
- skirmish size battles
- easy to play, but fun and flexible rules (to include monsters and the 'wierd')
- decently priced
I'm not asking for much am I? lol
Any information or opinions you want to share please do! I value the opinions of the folks here, which is why I'm asking in the first place.
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I would suggest one of the "Song of" variants, Flying Lead or Mutants and Deathray Guns by Ganesha Games. Simple, fast, and unit creation is a breeze.
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Hm, I've never heard of this publisher. Definitely worth taking a look at. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Try mixing "Song of..." rulesets - all you need for that is to know the formula for points costs (I should have it written down somewhere...).
For my Weird War II games, I plan to use Flying Lead (for WW2 soldiers and vehicles) and Fear & Faith (for horror/ocult), with the wounding system from FL (characters get killed when the winner triples loser's score, not doubles) and possibly Fear rules from F&F.
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You can also have a look at Nuts - War without end :
http://www.twohourwargames.com/warwiendwewa.html (http://www.twohourwargames.com/warwiendwewa.html)
It is the weird war supplement to the WW2 skirmish game "Nuts" from Two hour wargames.
You can have super heroes, super science and mechs with soldier from the european front.
The system is simple but original. It focuses on reaction tests and not on rigid turns successions.
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While unfamiliar with the Ganesha Games systems merits, I have to put a vote in for Secrets of the Third Reich. While its optimum force size is about 30 models a side, (depending on unit cost etc) it's just as playable for smaller games, in fact the two initial scenarios in the main rulebook, ('brainwurst' - a squad of about 10 vs. equivalent points of zombies, & 'sniper', a squad hunting a pair of snipers) are just that sort of small skirmish game.
The system is very flexible, with rules for designing your own mechs plus a fairly comprehensive stat list for real-world WWII vehicles, & a good helping of weird in the form of vampires, zombies, werewolves, supersoldiers & assorted secret organisations.
I've had a lot of fun with it, the mechanics are solid & easy to pick up & the rulebook is cheap (£22.50 for both main & supplementary rulebooks in the UK from Wayland Games).
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SoTR does look like a fun system. I have the first wave of Empire of the Dead from Westwind and do think their product is really nice (not that I've actually painted any of it yet...). It's a shame that they don't offer starter rules for SoTR like they have for EotD though.
I bought the revised "Song of Blades and Heroes" yesterday and will have a look at that system before I pick up the horror or ranged combat books. So many rule sets...it really does make it difficult to decide on one to invest in.
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Both Fear & Faith and Flying Lead are stand-alone books, so buying Song of Blades and Heroes isn't necessary - though it will give you a taste of the mechanics and simplicity of all these games.
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I realized that the Flying Lead and Fear & Faith books were standalone books, but the revised fantasy book was just released a few weeks ago so I thought I'd start there. It's a rather ingenious system having only two statistics (plus the point cost) for each figure. I'll have to grab some heroscape figures and give it a try after I get home tonight.
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I have enjoyed AEWWII by Darkson Designs.
And the figures for it are amazing.
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I would recommend the "weird wars" games from the Pinnacle "savage Worlds" series. Very easy to play as small skirmish/semi roleplay right up to 40 or 50 figures per side battles. They use the same mechansms as other Savage Worlds games so you can include magic, psonics, cyberwear, creatures, mechanicals, undead etc, whatever you want, from a huge range of settings/genres.
The base game covers all theatres of WW2 with the standard type "weird" twists as SotR and AE:WW plus some novel ideas of its own. It also has an expansion for Vietnam games.
http://www.peginc.com/games/weird-wars/ (http://www.peginc.com/games/weird-wars/)
Well worth a look.
There are some sample adventures here:
http://www.peginc.com/games/weird-wars/downloadable-content/ (http://www.peginc.com/games/weird-wars/downloadable-content/)
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We play SoTR down at the club and it's a good system but feels a bit half done sometimes and need some work to make it great.
I bought into AEWWII when it first came out but I didn't get along with the rules for that at all.
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I forgot all about the Savage Worlds stuff! I think I might actually have the first Weird Wars book in storage somewhere. I wonder if I could just steal setting material from all of those (SW:WWWII, AEWWII and SoTR) to up with something I like setting-wise. If I don't like the SoBH mechanics, well I'm really comfortable with the Strange Aeons rules, and they wouldn't be too difficult to let me emulate a lot of what I want to do anyway. Also I think Uncle Mike's been working on vehicle rules.
Lots of great suggestions so far folks. Keep them coming!
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I have enjoyed AEWWII by Darkson Designs.
And the figures for it are amazing.
I didn't see any figures on their website, are they done by another company? I'd like to have a look at them.
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blackball games have taken over the system and a few of darkson designs stuff.
http://blackballgames.bigcartel.com/category/ae-wwii
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I would recommend the "weird wars" games from the Pinnacle "savage Worlds" series. Very easy to play as small skirmish/semi roleplay right up to 40 or 50 figures per side battles.
Somehow I always thought these rules were meant for roleplaying, not miniature wargames...
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They have a set of free tabletop rules but I've never tried them even though I've heard good things about them. However, the core RPG book has pretty detailed rules about using miniatures on the table top anyway, so you could get away with it just using the RPG character stats I'd say.
I gave the Song of Blades and Heroes rules a try through two short games last night. I grabbed some Heroscape figures and put together two different lists of characters for each game, trying to pick profiles with a good range of points and special rules. Overall I thought the rules worked surprisingly well, far better than I had expected. The one downside, and this is personal preference more than anything else...is that it seems a little unsatisfying rolling only a single die to resolve figure combat.
However, I would certainly use them with players who want a lighter war-gaming experience, or to be able to mix and match all the special rules to create a custom system.