Recommendations for a SF squad-level skirmish game?

[Redshank]

As the title says - looking for recommendations for a skirmish game that could handle up to say a couple of squads a side. Vehicles not strictly required.

[gamer Mac]

Have you tried Stargrave?

[ithoriel]

Ones I've played include

5 Parsecs From Home - best campaign system, fast combat. My favourite of these overall

Mars: Code Aurora - good system. My favourite combat system

Enderain - Gives a good game and best system in how it handles NPCs

Stargrave - my least favourite. Not a bad game but the others all have something that makes them stand out by comparison

All IMHO. of course, others may well differ.

[Hobgoblin]

Rogue Planet is probably the best sci-fi game I've played. It's very flexible: you build your own troop types, and they can be expressed as individuals or units (with individual figures acting as 'hit points'). It can handle vehicles too. It's geared to a kind of science-fantasy game (psychic powers, power weapons, etc.), but it can handle 'harder' stuff as well.

The same author's The Battlefield is also excellent (modern, but works for 'hard' sci-fi too). It might be slightly bigger-scale than you're looking for, as each player would normally have several 'squads' (although they'd be five figures, IIRC, rather than 7-14, so the numbers might be right). There's a good review here; the game's heavily influenced by computer games, but is great fun and highly absorbing.

[OSHIROmodels]

Fistful of Lead Bigger Battles would fit the bill.

[tomrommel1]

I would recomend 'Xenos rampant'

[Redshank]

Thanks all for the great recommendations. Several games here I had not heard of.

Apologies for the lack of much initial detail on what I am after - I want to do something in the 2300AD setting, which is on the harder end of SF, although with plasma and laser weapons. One of the main alien factions has some strange psychology that will affect initiative, but I am expecting to have to houserule something for that.

Looking forward to checking out these suggestions.

[mellis1644]

Try this one One-hour Skirmish Wargames: Fast-play Dice-less Rules for Small-unit Actions from Napoleonics to Sci-Fi. https://www.amazon.com/One-Hour-Skirmish-Wargames-Small-Unit-Napoleonics/dp/1526700042

Simple but quite effective and flexible.

[Darkson71]

Xenos Rampant could fit your bill.
Each "unit" has a strength of 5 or 10 wounds, which can be 1 model, 10 models or anything in-between (makes no difference to dice rolled etc).
You can customise units with various rules to simulate different skills, xenos abilities etc, and can use vehicles if you want, but works without them.

[Infojunky]

As the title says - looking for recommendations for a skirmish game that could handle up to say a couple of squads a side. Vehicles not strictly required.

Hum, Rogue Stars, Warhammer40k: Rogue Trader, Savage Worlds/Savage Showdown.

[traveller]

Try this one One-hour Skirmish Wargames: Fast-play Dice-less Rules for Small-unit Actions from Napoleonics to Sci-Fi. https://www.amazon.com/One-Hour-Skirmish-Wargames-Small-Unit-Napoleonics/dp/1526700042

Simple but quite effective and flexible.

I´ll second that and you have a dedicated scenario book as well:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sci-fi-Skirmish-Scenarios-Small-unit-Favourite/dp/1526788489

[Hobgoblin]

 

I´ll second that and you have a dedicated scenario book as well:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sci-fi-Skirmish-Scenarios-Small-unit-Favourite/dp/1526788489

And thirded! It's a great game - very fast and smooth-playing. The Dan Dare-ish scenario in the book is terrific. I was thinking of it more as an 'individual' skirmish game rather than a unit-based one (each figure moves and fights individually, like Mutants & Death Ray Guns or whatever, rather than as units), but it probably fits the bill perfectly.

I'd add two more recommendations:

• FUBAR (which is free and has lots of variants)
  
• Pulp Alley, which is very flexible and versatile, and a great game. Like Rogue Planet, it has mechanisms that allow 'individuals' to be made up of several figures, so you can scale it up and down very easily. It's an 'adventure' game rather than a combat simulation, but it's brilliant.
  

[Daeothar]

I'm pretty partial to Grimdark Future: Firefight by OnePageRules myself.

Model agnostic (though clearly a 40K alternative), free, and simple to learn and play. A small skirmish of about 10 models a side can be played in about an hour or so.

The first time my mate and I used this ruleset, we were able to play two games in one evening. Which is quite remarkable, considering our meandering conversations during games

Highly recommended

[Khusru2]

I´ll second that and you have a dedicated scenario book as well:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sci-fi-Skirmish-Scenarios-Small-unit-Favourite/dp/1526788489

I found the scenario book very generic. I could have saved my money by keeping the Grant Scenarios for wargamers and just transferring it to a Sci-Fi setting.

[NotifyGrout]

The only other recommendation I have not already mentioned would be Shoot People in Space, which is in what I like to call "border patrol" scale- a full sized army is about six squads of three models each, a couple of personalities, and a few light vehicles (bikes/quads/jeeps), with space for a single walking robot.