The SciFi Rules Reference Thread

[Westfalia Chris]

Hi all,

following a good remark, I've decided to open a dedicated Rules Reference thread to which forum users may contribute short descriptions of rule systems. I will keep the opening post up to date with content lists of the various sections including links to the detail post.

If you want to contribute, please reply to this thread and put your post in the following format:

Ruleset Name

Category (see below)

Proposed scale (Figure size, # of figures per side, etc.)

Short description, including your impression of pros and cons

You are not obliged to write "novels", but since this is intended as a reference thread, it will be useful for people looking for a certain type of game if you can provide details.

For starters, I have chosen the following categories:

Ground Combat - Individual Skirmish

This covers games where figures act individually, with sets of profiles and lots of detail. An example would be "Infinity", or, essentially, "Battletech".

Ground Combat - Squad/Platoon/Company Skirmish

This covers games where you field one or more squads of troops which act as tactical units, as opposed to individual figures. May also include vehicles. An example would be "Stargrunt II", or "Warhammer 40k".

Ground Combat - Regimental Combat

This includes larger-size games where you field multiple platoons or even companies, with warmachines etc. Examples of this would be "Dirtside" or "Epic".

Aerospace Combat - Dogfights

Games which feature fighter-sized spaceships (or atmospheric craft) clashing. Examples would include the Star Wars "X-Wing" game or "Silent Death" on the fighter level.

Aerospace Combat - Ship-to-ship

Games which focus on larger vessels, such as "Battlefleet Gothic", "Full Thrust" and "Firestorm Armada". Also includes "fleet scale" games like "Babylon 5 Fleet Action" at a very small figure scale that focuses on squadrons rather than detailed units.



Thread Maintenance

To keep this thread tidy and useful, please do not post discussion posts, but focus on games listings. You may, however, post clarification requests (i.e. what goes where) and suggestions to amend the classification system, which I will integrate in this start post under a Q&A heading, then remove the post to keep the thread clear. Non-applicable threads will be deleted.

You may, of course, open discussions on specific games in separate topics - if the discussion is of suitable quality, I will add a link to the respective game's entry so people can refer to it.

Q&A Section

No Q&A entries yet.

[Westfalia Chris]

Content List

GROUND COMBAT - INDIVIDUAL SKIRMISH

AE-Bounty

Infinity

Judge Dredd Miniatures Game

GROUND COMBAT - SQUAD/PLATOON/COMPANY SKIRMISH

F.A.D. - Fast and Dirty

Hammer's Slammers - The Crucible

KR 16

No Limits

Quadrant 16

Victory Decision: Future Combat

GROUND COMBAT - REGIMENTAL ACTION

No entries yet.

AEROSPACE COMBAT - DOGFIGHTS

War Rocket

AEROSPACE COMBAT - SHIP-TO-SHIP

No entries yet.

[jgodwin17]

AE: Bounty

Ground Combat- Individual Skirmish

2-15 Miniatures per player, Made for 28mm but works great for 15mm

Description:

AE: Bounty is a pretty quick playing Sci-Fi Skirmish game that plays out scenarios between Space Pirates, Mercenaries, Bounty Hunters, and other scum and villainy. Just imagine the exploits of the denizens of Jabba's Palace.

The game has pretty simple rules and uses a template system to create your crew. Models have a number of stats, and their experience level determines the amount of actions they get in a turn (Green models get one, Regular get two, Veterans get three, and Elite units get four). Activation is based around each player activating a unit (usually one model, but occasionally two or three), the other player then follows suit and they continue until all units have been activated that turn.

This game is mostly all pros in my book, it has a fair deal of flexibility in unit creation, a ton of alien races, and a plethora of terrific scenarios - include some for fighting aboard a starship.

As far as cons really the only things that come to mind  is the suppression system (it is far too effective) and one of the Alien races is a bit too good.

Also worth mentioning is that there are lots of neat little extras in the book, including some pretty light campaign rules, and fun mission specific rules (like blowing through a starships bulkhead and being sucked into the vacuum of space).
 

[hubbabubba]

Ruleset Name
Infinity

Category
Individual Skirmish

Proposed scale (Figure size, # of figures per side, etc.)
28mm , +/- ten figs per side though more or less are possible

Short description, including your impression of pros and cons

Infinity has been much talked about for its reaction system, their, ‘It’s always your turn’ slogan was plastered all over the place.

The game’s set in a Manga type far future, fans of hard sci fi might want to avoid some of the fluff.

Players control small teams of SpecOp type forces, typically up to ten figs a side, although more is possible.

Each Fig supplies an order to the order pool, these orders can then be spent on any fig in the ‘army’, so you have 10 figs, you get 10 orders plus a lieutenant’s order, you can then proceed to spend 10 orders on a single fig or divide them up amongst your troop as you see fit.

Any model that performs an action in line of sight of an enemy model generates a free reaction order for that enemy model, who can respond by shooting, moving etc, so the game is involving even when it’s not your turn as you have to pay attention and declare you reactions, or you lose them.

You need lots of scenery for the game to be playable, but the hunching over the table to get a models point of view to check line of sight etc is one of things I like best about the system compared to other more abstract systems.

There are 8 different factions to choose from, and then there’s a large choice of units in each faction from the humble line infantryman, through to powered armour, T.A.G.s (thing Appleseed type mobile armoured robot suit type things) and camouflaged skirmishers, so there’s plenty of choice in each list. On top of that there are also sectorial lists within each faction.

Proxying with any models you have to hand is possible, but with the massive variety of troop types available I could see it getting confusing very quickly, keeping track of which fig is what. Corvus Belli make a fine range of minis to accompany the game, but they are hellishly expensive compared to others that are on the market. A definite bonus is that the rules are available for free from their web site: http://www.infinitythegame.com/infinity/es/downloads/

A downside for me is that the rules can quickly become overly complicated, with many different skills and weapons, each of which have their own special rule, many of which compromise or over-ride the standard rules.

As a result of all these special rules, the game has a steep learning curve and the quantity of special rules can be a real turn off. This is especially so because as the game evolves, Corvus Belli continue to introduce more and more new troop types, each with their own special rules and equipment.

Obviously, the company makes money off selling the figs, not from the rules themselves, so they continue to add new figs to the range on a fairly regular basis, introducing new rules periodically to accompany the figs, or in many cases, the rules come first and then the figs follow.

By far the biggest turn off for me is that there appear to be some crucial points of confusion and contradiction in the rules that haven’t been cleared up since first edition. Add to that the poor quality of writing in the rules, even in their native Castellano, and things can get a little frustrating.

My overall impression is that unless one was to play Infinity on a regular basis, with an opponent who was equally well versed in the rules, then there are other much more fluid rule sets out there that can be used for a fun game.

[Agis]

Ruleset Name
Victory Decision - Future Combat


Future Combat is the latest game in the Victory Decision line for 2013. A lot of talk about the game and some polls already happened on the ViDe forum on LAF. Initially it started under project name “Planetfall”, but after Spartan Games announced a game under that name, I decide to rename it in Future Combat.

Proposed scale (Figure size, # of figures per side, etc.)
15-28mm , +/- ten to 30 figs plus some AFVs per side though more or less are possible
PLATOON/COMPANY SKIRMISH is also possible when using 15mm minis and more AFVs


Short description
I added a lot of new stuff to the WW II and Gear Krieg rules. Best thing most of these rules can also be used in any of the other books! For a more in depth look into what is new, feel free to read the Design Notes (excerpt from the book-> http://www.adpublishing.de/html/fuco_design_notes.html).

Victory Decision: Future Combat is a comprehensive game system to using SF Infantry units and Armoured Fighting Vehicles in Victory Decision. These rules cover almost all aspects of Science Fiction wargaming, from Troop Quality and Leadership to Air Strikes, Psi Powers, Bunker Assaults, Combat in Buildings, Vehicle and VTOL combat.

Victory Decision: Future Combat features a unique Leadership-modified alternate unit activation system with an integrated Electronic Warfare aspect. The result is a fun and fast paced war game that involves both players constantly. The rules cover individually based infantry miniatures and also group- or multibased miniatures, aka Infantry Stands. While designed with 20-28 mm miniatures in mind the Victory Decision game system is flexible enough to handle any miniatures from 6 mm to 32 mm. So whatever your existing miniature collection consists of, you can start playing right away.

This rulebook not only provides 8 generic Scenarios but also point based Force lists that can be used to represent many classic SF settings. All necessary Game Markers are also included within this book.


As with our previous books you get a full colour version with many high quality pictures of fully painted models and a mostly B&W printer friendly version.

You can get the 132 pages high quality, full colour ebook via the Wargame Vault:
http://www.wargamevault.com/product/123481/
for $ 12,74.

More infos and pics: http://www.adpublishing.de/html/future_combat_vide.html

[Westfalia Chris]

Originally posted by Hubbabubba.

Ruleset Name Judge Dredd the miniature game

Category Ground Combat- Individual Skirmish

Proposed scale 28mm, 5 - 10 figures per side.

Short description,

Original source by Scurv can be found here.

I am a fan of the dredd universe but the other guy has no idea about dredd.

The game plays fine. Its not the most amazing system but its rock solid. Its also quick (like 3 or 4 games in a night quick) and fun and easy to learn. It has reaction fire and a few other must have rules as well so it has good tactical depth.

We hardly ever have to refer to the rules which I think is a good thing too.

The army sizes are around 5 to 15 figs meaning you can knock up a bunch of gangs even if you paint as slow as me.

We use pretty much any figure. We have some old plastic gangers, the other guy has a gang of muties made out of the chaos cultists GW put out recently, We use old vasa figs for ciudad barranquilla judges too. We dont use any of the overpriced 'official' minis because most of them suck balls.

There is one glaring and broken mechanic which is the mercs rule. Its in there so when one gang gets lots of members the smaller gang can take them on an equal footing. Problem is what happens when one gang is out of money to pay for mercs? The rules tend to suggest you get them anyway. Mongoose Matt ducked that question several times too I might add from me and others. The original version had a call the judges mechanic which I think works much better. Once someone was too big you would dog them into the judges and the judges would trim the gang right back down again by cubing most of them.

We have army builder too which has a JDMG gang generation system on it which makes it more popular too.

I would certainly recommend it over necromunda and if I was in a gaming club I would sort out the broken campaign system and run a club campaign. I think you can get it down to about 3 figs or less if you have judges which makes it too easy to get players. Anyone can knock up an army in a week and it is a good quick game meaning you could play JDMG and a big wargame on the same night.

[Achilles]

Ruleset Name No Limits

Category Ground Combat - Company Level

Proposed scale 28mm, 15-30 figures per side. Vehicles and Walkers.

Short description

Originally developed in the wake of several Sci Fi systems disappearing (Warzone, VOID, VOR, etc.), I first encountered this ruleset online in 2005. It can be downloaded for FREE along with all of the supplements (which include a Post apocalyptic Conversion and Boarding Actions mod for hulks) from the Website.

The rules are D10 based, open design (meaning you can create your own units and army lists as desired). They comfortably support smaller games through company level actions with multiple vehicles and units.



Support has continued to be shown with a great many army lists available for download in addition to the main rules. Armies such as the older VOR factions, Warzone MegaCorporations and even homeless collections such as the SPUGs or Grymm have rulesets made using this system.

Cards are also available for some systems which are a wonderful help.



Generally speaking you can source No Limits if you want to dust off miniatures you love and give them a second life.

*Note; I'm not affiliated with No Limits, just someone who has used the rules.

[YPU]

F.A.D. Fast and dirty
http://www.freewebs.com/weaselfierce/

Ground Combat - Platoon

Proposed scale: 15 to 28mm somewhere between 15 and 40 infantry models per side when using force generation rules, the rules scale to 50 or 60 infantry with light vehicle support without breaking.


I ran into FAD when looking for a game system to use with my 15mm collection. The rules are as free as they come and the current 4th edition is a pdf with a pleasant professional layout. There are a few expansions available as well which includes additional options for more exotic units in addition to solo play rules and a solo campaign system.

 FAD has multiple ways to stat up your army;
a random platoon generator which gives you limited control and customization, good for throwaway games tough getting models in appropriate gear might be harder.
A advanced generator that allows more control and thus might fit your force better but keeps that random nature that will create challenging tactical situations.
And a full point cost system which I find very decently balanced. Unlike many of the rules sets out there this system relies more upon multipliers then additives which to me makes a lot more sense.

Units in fad have a relatively low number of stats which interact enough to create variety of units. Units fall into 4 categories of quality from rabble to elite and 4 categories of resolve. This determines a lot of effects such as unit coherency and target priority. Quality also has great impact on weapon range as more elite units will be able to get more range out of the same weapon as a rabble unit. There are about half a dozen small arms you can equip your squad with and about a dozen squad support weapons. There is a very extensive list of special rules you can give your units which cover a very good range of your general sci-fi gizmos ans well as nearly any models I can think of.

Base gameplay relies upon very little dice rolling with shooting from an entire unit requiring only a single dice roll, hits being resolved individually beyond that. SAW's and other effects all factor into that single roll.

There is a complex mechanic for scenario generation where I think FAD shines. players decide on both their tactical stance and attitude their army has. This influences available off-board artillery defences and fog of war.
Both players individually roll for their mission with their stance and attitude making particular missions more likely to occur.
There then is a mini-game of sorts in the deployment where players manoeuvre contact markers around the board revealing units or dummies as they go. Armies who expended more units on recon will have more resources available then others here.
Scenarios are nicely varied from simple capture and hold objectives in enemies deployment zone to break trough which means you will want to keep your army  tactically versatile.

FAD has vehicle rules which allow for a decent range of variation however it is not the games strong point. The selection of weapon armor and size is decent but t here is only a short list of special rules to pick from and a vehicles movement speed is determined by its mode without modifiers, all wheeled vehicles have the same speed as do all grav vehicles.

There is a newer version available in the Yahoo group which changes some rules and I would recommend players to give it a look over should they be interested in this rule-set. Most notably (to me)
it makes vehicles easier to destroy, rather then chipping away systems.
The overly complex reaction fire rules are HUGELY simplified.
Sniper and blast weapon target acquisition is changed from a straight up 5+ roll to a test depending on unit quality.

[Commandermudpie]

Ruleset Name

War Rocket

Category

Aerospace Combat - Dogfights

Proposed scale (Figure size, # of figures per side, etc.)

Approx. 6mm

Short description, including your impression of pros and cons

Published by Hydra Miniatures and available on-line, War Rocket is a fast action rocket combat game set in a pulp science fiction future.  A unique combat system provides for fast resolution using tokens and a single attack roll.  There is no paper record keeping and the action moves very quickly.

The original rules include four factions; the heroic Galacteers, domineering Imperials, bewitching Valkeeri, and alien Zenithians, with an additional Pirate faction available on a free pdf.  Each faction has a unique history, pulp design, and fighting style.

Games are scenario based with several included in the original rules.  Destroy satellites, mine the asteroids, destroy the space station, or make up your own scenario.  Optional rules are included for special actions like boarding and landing, as well as extensive rocket customizations.  A fun beer and pretzels type of combat game with lots of explosions and fast action which plays in less that two hours.

[angel barracks]

NAME - KR 16
AUTHOR - Me
LEVEL - Squad based, ideally 4 squads per player
SCALE - Aimed at 6mm, but changing cm to inches should make it 28mm friendly.
TIME - Fast play, several games per night once familiar with rules.
COMPLEXITY - Simple, most people know the mechanics within 3 turns. The extras make it more detailed but not more complicated.
LOOK AND FEEL- It is OK, nothing too fancy, not too bland.
INFO - It uses alternate moving where squads are activated based on what you tell them to do. If a squad is under fire telling them to take cover or fall back will most likely result in a successful activation as opposed to telling the same squad to attach chayonets and run across open ground toward the enemy. No book keeping required and the core mechanics are dead easy to learn.
PRICE - They are free, as are the other supplements.
WHERE - http://angelbarracks.co.uk/rules.html






Second Edition Now available

[Vis Bellica]

NAME - Quadrant 13 or Q13 for short
AUTHOR - Me, Robert Avery
LEVEL - Company-size games: say 50-100 figures plus a handful of AFVs per side
SCALE - Aimed at 15mm
INFO - Q13 is a company-sized game covering science fiction warfare aimed primarily at using 6-15mm figures. It uses the same basic mechanics as I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! and/or Charlie Don't Surf, also from the TooFatLardies, but is as different in flavour from them as they are from each other.

Q13 is not based on any particular science-fiction universe. The rules are generic: providing a framework into which you must fit the armies you want to field. This framework will translate the vast variety of concepts possible in an effectively infinite science fiction universe into a common idiom, allowing the game’s systems to operate.

There's also a scenario pack available, Five Planets, containing twelve scenarios set within the Pankova solar system as two adversaries fight over its priceless resources. Can easily be adapted to other company-sized sci-fi rules.

More information, including an interview with the author at:
http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/?p=1196
FORMAT - PDF only, available from http://toofatlardies.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=24
More information at www.vislardica.com

[Bahir]

Hi all,

Just a bit of a No Limits Update:

No Limits Website has changed, the new website is - http://nolimitswargames.wordpress.com/
The No Limits Forum is located at - http://wargameschat.yuku.com/forums/3/No-Limits

[John Treadaway]

Ruleset Name: Hammer's Slammers: The Crucible

Category: Ground Combat - Squad/Platoon/Company Skirmish

Proposed scale: 6mm, 15mm (1/100th) and 28mm rules

Short description

The Crucible is designed to play games in a hard SF setting (mostly but not exclusively) based around the Hammer's Slammers series of novels by David Drake. They use bespoke miniatures in all three scales and these are supplemented by miniatures from many manufacturers.

The Crucible is designed for games that are, typically, of two players with between one and three detachments a side. You can have more players and greater or fewer detachments - we often play four handed games where each player runs one or two detachments. A detachment is between 8 and 30 Tactical Units (TUs). The variation depends on the quality of the troops. There are four quality levels (Elite, Veteran, Trained and Untrained) and they field 8, 10, 15 and 30 TUs per detachment respectively. A TU is one vehicle or one stand (or group if they are individually based) of infantry. A stand/group is generally 4 figures.

The game hinges around the quality level of the troops fielded mobilised by their leadership: Leadership Points (LPs) are the 'currency' of a game during play. Scales The game is playable in 6mm, 15mm and 25/28mm and the rules are useable in all three scales with no adaptations save changing the ranges and movement. Method of play and game length Players bowl for initiative, modified by leadership and usually move and fire an entire single detachment before play moves onto the next detachment. Games with two players generally take between 1 and 2 hours. Games with four players and with one or 2 detachments each, take between 2.5 and 4 hours to play out. For a more detailed explanation on game play, download this PDF http://hammers-slammers.com/pdf/Hammers_Slammers_Introduction.pdf or look at the sample pages http://www.hammers-slammers.com/pdf/Pages_from_crucible.pdf

Price: The hard back, full color, 200 page rulebook is generally around £25. There is currently no electronic version available. However, all supplements and play sheets are free to download from the http://www.hammers-slammers.com website. Lots of pictures their too.

Availability: remaining stocks are held by Ainsty castings and Caliver Books in the UK and Recreational Conflict in the US

[precinctomega]

Horizon Wars

Ground Combat - Squad/Platoon/Company Skirmish, Ground Combat - Regimental Combat and Aerospace Combat - Dogfights

Proposed scale
2mm-10mm, although people do insist on playing it at 15mm+.  Although the community is still evolving a sense of a "preferred" scale of battle, it seems that between ten and twenty elements is popular.

Short description
A generic set of near- to far-future sci-fi battle rules with a stripped-down, abstract aesthetic that makes them highly scale-neutral and very tactical.  The army building system allows you to tailor your existing collection of miniatures to fit the army, or to add new miniatures from any suitable range that catches your eye.  The game comes packaged with both a "set-piece battles" collection of suggested missions and a random mission generator.

The game encourages a "combined arms" approach to army-building that includes mechs, conventional forces and aircraft, and additional rules expanding the choices of element are expected in the future.

There is a setting included in the game, that takes you across an extended event line of hundreds of years and introduces different rules and situations to capture some of the flavour of the different eras as well as suggesting some alternative approaches to playing the game.  But the setting is entirely optional and it would be very easy to pit armies from different settings against one another, to make up your own or to simply ignore setting entirely and just play.

The mechanics are based around d12s and elements take damage that degrades their abilities throughout the game.  Managing and tracking damage on individual elements is slightly time-consuming to the extent that regimental-level battles might need some additional planning to make it really work, but at company+ level and below, the system is intuitive, quick and genuinely thought-provoking, forcing you to make difficult tactical decisions under pressure.

[Henchman21]

Void 1.1

Ground Combat - Squad/Platoon/Company Skirmish

Scale: 28mm

Description:
A fast-moving game, Void 1.1 uses an alternating unit activation sequence as opposed to clumsy "My army goes then your army goes" mechanics.  The game is set in a different galaxy, where the human homeworlds of Viridia, Ironglass and Prime battle for colonies throughout space. VASA, the policing body of Panhumanic space, tries to keep in check the ambitions of the imperialistic homeworlds. However, an alien species - the Koralon - have emerged and begun assimilating human colonies into their empire.  It remains to be seen whether mankind will unite in the face of this existential threat or be destroyed by their petty rivalries.  A new edition will be coming soon, but in the meantime the current edition is available for free from: https://www.seb-games.com/games/void/void-1-1-downloads/

Major pros include the fact that rules and army lists have always been (and will remain) free to download, the range is almost complete with very few holes, the aesthetic is elegant & minimalist which makes them easy to paint, the game designers are easily accessible through the facebook fan group, and after 20 years it's being supported again.  The game itself moves very quickly, and the unit-by-unit activation means that playing tactically is rewarded over powergamer army list building.  There are no force organization rules, allowing for highly specialized armies without extra rules & publications. Cons include the fact that the current edition is 20 years old and feels dated, which also applies to some models (namely Viridian Behemoths, which have the area under their legs completely filled in ), and the game's limited warfare setting means that people who like conventional armored fighting vehicle concepts may be disappointed.