Skycaptain-esque Robot Invasion - Rules Suggestions?

[Arundel]

This is an admittedly odd question.

A strange mood has come over me this morning: I've found myself pondering how one might go about creating a robot invasion sort of game. For those of you who have seen Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow, that's the sort of thing I'm after; for those who haven't seen the film, what I'm wanting to recreate is an invasion force of giant robots stomping through a city whilst the military, the police and a hero or two try to stop them.

Is there a set of rules that might work for this? A quick search has found:

1.) Mighty Monsters and Samurai Robots from Ganesha Games
2.) Giant Monster Rampage
3.) Monsterpocalypse

However, from what I can tell these games are mainly about the big fellows, whether monsters or robots, duking it out, but that's not quite what I'm looking for. I'm wanting robots vs the human denizens of the city. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd love a set of rules that is simple (the more beer and pretzels the better), not tied to a scale or world and solo friendly if possible.

Thank you for any pointers!

[Elk101]

I use Fistful of Lead Core rules or FfoL Galactic Heroes. They'll cover everything you want, including big robot, robot hordes, civilians, etc.

[has.been]

Really old, but you might pick up a copy on e-bay,
The Creature that ate Sheboygan.

[Jagannath]

Mighty Monsters/Robot Samurai do work well with the army units though, good fun.

You could try rogue planet and build the army units as groups - that models hordes versus small unit count armies well

[Arundel]

Thanks very much for the replies. The more I look at it the more I'm thinking Robot Samurai might be just what I'm looking for.

If someone else has another suggestion for huge robots storming through a city I'd still love to hear it, however!

[v_lazy_dragon]

How about something like GASLIGHT or Astounding Tales?

[palaeomerus]

This is an admittedly odd question.

A strange mood has come over me this morning: I've found myself pondering how one might go about creating a robot invasion sort of game. For those of you who have seen Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow, that's the sort of thing I'm after; for those who haven't seen the film, what I'm wanting to recreate is an invasion force of giant robots stomping through a city whilst the military, the police and a hero or two try to stop them.

Is there a set of rules that might work for this? A quick search has found:

1.) Mighty Monsters and Samurai Robots from Ganesha Games
2.) Giant Monster Rampage
3.) Monsterpocalypse

However, from what I can tell these games are mainly about the big fellows, whether monsters or robots, duking it out, but that's not quite what I'm looking for. I'm wanting robots vs the human denizens of the city. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd love a set of rules that is simple (the more beer and pretzels the better), not tied to a scale or world and solo friendly if possible.

Thank you for any pointers!

Maybe start with a team survival game Zombicide and rethink the stats a bit for robots? Or some kind of a dungeon crawler type sci-fi game like Star Saga, or maybe even Spacehulk but with people instead of terminator marines and robots instead of genestealers?

https://www.zombicide.com/en/

Also consider a skirmish game like Mutants and Death Ray Guns.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/58241/Mutants-and-Death-Ray-Guns

[palaeomerus]

Honestly, now that I think about it, a bunch of little things vs 1 or 2 big things sounds a lot like Ogre but on a lesser scale.

http://www.sjgames.com/ogre/miniatures/

[Chief Lackey Rich]

If someone else has another suggestion for huge robots storming through a city I'd still love to hear it, however!

You mentioned Giant Monster Rampage earlier, so I'll bring up its main competitor from back when both games were still in print - Firefly Games' Monster Island.  Still available as pdfs over on the Paizo store - the first MI book is pretty much all kaiju (which could be mechanical, and therefore giant robots) but everything else adds in new military units (the bulk of which were in Escape From MI IIRC) as well as monsters abilities and alien invaders and whatnot.  Solid system that plays fast and has versatile DIY design rules for critters.  Also pretty much dirt cheap as pdfs, and they shouldn't suffer any from being home printed.

https://paizo.com/store/byCompany/r/roninArts/fireflyGames

Hmmm...on a further look, the NYC battlegrounds pack (which I didn't own, but probably should) says it contains rules for playing 1930s battles.  Probably thinking of King Kong there, but might be handy for Sky Captain as well.

[Arundel]

I really appreciate the added recommendations, chaps, thank you. In some ways Ogre isn't a bad idea, as what I'm thinking about does centre on the idea of one (or a handful, actually) of big, lumbering, rather stupid robots being swarmed by numerous little types, possibly with civilian counters just trying to get out of the way!

Tweaked GASLIGHT could do the job also. That ruleset can pretty much do anything!

Rich, I'd bumped into the name Monster Island in my early searches. I'll go back and take a closer look at it. Thank you!

EDIT: Oh, and should have said Sky Captain (two words) up there. I hate it when I make mistakes like that!   

[n815e]

Giant Monster Rampage has since become Giants.

https://m.facebook.com/giantsactionfiguregame

[robh]

Giant Monster Rampage is/was a multi part system.  Full rules for human military units are in the GMR II "World War" expansion.

https://www.amazon.com/Giant-Monster-Rampage-World-War/dp/1932374094

The system also includes "Atomic Super Humans" which allows you to include superhero or supervillain type characters within the same system.
The rules between all the books are fully compatible.

They are really great, light-hearted games.

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Giant Monster Rampage is/was a multi part system.  Full rules for human military units are in the GMR II "World War" expansion.

https://www.amazon.com/Giant-Monster-Rampage-World-War/dp/1932374094

The system also includes "Atomic Super Humans" which allows you to include superhero or supervillain type characters within the same system.
The rules between all the books are fully compatible.

They are really great, light-hearted games.

Agreed.  I've never been able to decide which I liked better, GMR or Monster Island - they both do the same thing in different ways.  They certainly didn't make it any easier to choose by originally coming out at almost the same time.

[Arundel]

Robh, thank you for the added information, especially regarding GMR II; which sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. The ability to create hero types is an added attraction. I may have to bite the bullet and get these, especially as the price of each is very reasonable.

Many thanks again,

Daryl

[Chief Lackey Rich]

Robh, thank you for the added information, especially regarding GMR II; which sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. The ability to create hero types is an added attraction. I may have to bite the bullet and get these, especially as the price of each is very reasonable.

Many thanks again,

Daryl

FWIW, Monster Island (specifically the Escape From MI book) had rules for some "movie hero" types as well the expected mix of military stuff, although unlike GMR there were no actual superheroes.  GMR also had rules for playing swarm monsters where you have a lot of not-quite-so-giant monsters (eg ants from Them), which I don't think MI ever tackled.