Skirmish game with lots of scenario variety

[Boze]

Hey all hope everyone is well.

So i am on the hunt for a fantasy skirmish game (may even entertain sci fi but hopefully fantasy). that has robust and dynamic scenarios. I am avoiding games where it is just go in the middle and kill.

Here is a list of games i am going to try researching and hoping to get some opinions. Maybe even a list of what they feel would offer the most interesting scenarios.

Also preferably something kind of competitive, don't mind rules being crunchy but leaning towards competitiveness and less swingy mechanisms (looking at you frostgrave!)

SAGA
(Advanced) Song of blades and heroes
7th voyage
Warmachine/Hordes
Age of Sigmar
Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish
Kings of War (i think too big scale probably for skirmish)
Dragon Rampant
Frostgrave

open to suggestions! thanks everyone

[TheBlackCrane]

I rate Blood Eagle - rules in the style of In Her Majesty's Name but for the Dark Ages with added mythical creatures etc. Very tweakable too, and lots of possibilities with scenario generation.

The Otherworld rules are also fun, quite a lot in the vein of traditional high fantasy but I like them a lot and they're easy to get on with. Nice little campaign in the back, but definitely I think designed for the player to come up with their own scenarios.

[Patrice]

I'm not sure I understand well the question? You can devise your own dynamic scenarios for any skirmish ruleset you like...

[fred]

It kind of sounds like you are after a campaign system, to generate the scenarios, to give interesting games. I'm not sure that any of the rules you have listed have this. Several of them contain different scenarios.

KoW is definitely a battle game, not a skirmish one.

Saga is a good game, it is different to many others as the battle board, and the dice you roll to place on it, very much determine your special actions each turn. Its generally thought of as a Dark Ages game, rather than a fantasy ones, though a few of the abilities are on the fantastical side. The battle boards can give a lot of interesting combinations so there can be quite a lot of learning of the ways to play the different factions. It certainly comes with a number of scenarios. A force is around 20-40 figures.

SoBH is a good game - but quite simple stat wise so may not have the crunch you are looking for. Its also typically fairly small with 5-10 figures per side.

Dragon Rampant - another small battle set. Personally I find the activation roll and switching of sides on a failure a bit too random. Its around the size of Saga - although if you have more monsters you will have fewer figures (thought the same number of units).

Frostgrave - I like even though it has quite swingy combat results - makes it feel dangerous!

AoS - not played, but has been popular with my group. But it is already suffering from the GW disease of buy the newest toys to get the best rules.

[Plynkes]

Pardon my interruption of the discussion, but I'd like to ask a question if I may. What does "swingy" mean in this context? Two of the above posters have used the word and I haven't come across this expression before.

(Hope this doesn't derail the topic too much, apologies if it does.)

[fred]

Frostgrave uses opposed d20 rolls - with the difference determining the degree of effect. Which means that there is a large range of possible results, and it is quite possible for your powerful character to be killed by rolling low, while the opposing enemy happens to roll high.

Obviously this can happen in any game, but with FG being a single d20 roll to determine a combat it seems to happen a lot.

[Plynkes]

Ah right. Gotcha. Much obliged, Fred.

[Elbows]

Yeah, "swingy" is essentially any system which allows a very large range of possibilities with minimal input from the character/player.  A bit more luck than other systems or mechanics.

If you're looking for fantasy skirmish with a lot of scenarios you may be best off finding a system you like and tweaking it to work with scenarios (even if it means adding stats/characteristics etc.).  While you have a good game system, if it relies on a unit have two stats (fighting/morale, for example) it becomes hard to create rules to make a meaningful scenario out of that.  If you find a system that you like you can probably steal scenarios from a variety of other games and twist them to your system.

While I'm working on assembling Mordheim stuff my buddy and I are already discussing creating co-op adventures using our warbands vs. baddies, etc.

[Aerendar Valandil]

In this list I would go for SAGA. Or, more correct, I advise YOU to go for saga. It has the most control in the game,and its seems you look for that, and the boards give interesting decisions to make. Only caveat, not a whole lot of scenario's, but few. SAGA has an easily googlable fantasy variant.

I am a notorious lover of very fickle (swingy) games, so I gladly go for ASOBH, Frosty and DR.

Admittedly I have not tried a few.

[Boze]

I'm not sure I understand well the question? You can devise your own dynamic scenarios for any skirmish ruleset you like...

I don't really have the creative energy or frankly skills  to make my own scenarios. Rather rely on premade ones and games designed to play asymmetrical scenarios vs symmetrical death matches

[psullie]

7th Voyage/Otherworld are lots of fun and more suited to scenario play rather than competitive play, and the books come with lots of scenarios. 

[spect_spidey]

I think Otherworld Skirmish is a good choice. It can do campaign play, but it is more of a narrative campaign rather than a level up campaign. The most intriguing part of the rules IMHO is the ability of the defender to make use of wandering monsters, traps, and remove treasures from the board. It has random events that can occur during the game as well. It almost makes it feel like an rpg adventuring party against a DM. It and Frostgrave are the only ones I have played from your list. I have read ASoBH, it seems okay. But I really haven't been intrigued enough to try a game. Now if you didn't care to go post apocalyptic, then I would suggest This is Not a Test. It uses a D10 so not as swingy as a D20 game, but not as narrow as a D6 game. It has campaign rules, quite a few scenarios, random events that can occur in each game, several factions, and the scavenging rules for after the game can lead to some great narrative followup games.

[LeadAsbestos]

7th Voyage would be my choice. Great system, and you can create any character or scenario you can imagine. Really a toolbox for your imagination. Otherworld is essentially the same game, but more old school RPG elements.

[Boze]

For 7th voyage does it come with scenarios/scenario generator ? I'd really rather avoid making my own scenarios and instead play premade ones.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

SAGA - I did an army, played it a few times and went straight on to Dux Britanniarum. Actually, check that out. Maybe you like it. Strongest campaign system I know, easily turned into fantasy stuff. Saga is a very clever game, it even is elegant (i really like the way fatigue is handled. to a point at least). However to it's not a wargame, it's a boardgame. Not that these things are mutually exclusive, but Saga is a clever game with a very thin period/historical cape. I can see why some people like it, and I think I'd be much more forgiving towards it if it had been marketed as a Fantasy game to begin with with a wizard on each side casting spells off table. But it just doesn't tick the boxes with me.
(Advanced) Song of blades and heroes - Yeah, that'd be my choice.
7th voyage - have not played it
Warmachine/Hordes - have not played it, do not have any wish to do so
Age of Sigmar - have not played it, read it, don't think it does anything better (especially in terms of proper nice scenarios) than what you'd get out of several other games. It seems kinda like something Mantic would do going for GW's crowds mimicked by GW.
Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish - Have not played it, heard good things.
Kings of War (i think too big scale probably for skirmish) - is a battle game. Not a bad one, but not a good one in terms of what I like in a game. If you like playing Warhammer this is a sound stand-in, but if you want to play a battle there certainly are better systems out there.
Dragon Rampant - Not sure how anybody would consider that suited for "competitive play". But it's good fun. I played quite a few games of Lion Rampant and got the DR rulebook lying around.
Frostgrave




Certainly isn't a "competitive" game the way I'd define it (but my definition of those is "not much fun, overly reliant on points systems and is either chess or only written to sell figures of designs I don't like by some company I don't like" ), but when it comes to breadth of possible scenarios and solid skirmish-y fantasy fun my vote definitely goes to Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes.

If anybody's interested, here's my review:
http://skirmishwargaming.com/review-advanced-song-of-blades-and-heroes/




...and a battle report of a test game to go along:

http://skirmishwargaming.com/advanced-song-of-blades-and-heroes-battle-report/





You also may want to consider Ronin or En Garde by Osprey. Their stuff is of varying quality, but those two (based on the same mechanics) are bloody good at putting skirmish-y stuff on the table.

I wrote a series of articles on Ronin over on Skirmishwargaming.com, including an in-depth review of the rules.

http://skirmishwargaming.com/category/ronin/

Maybe you'll find them interesting.



edit: I just saw you want a scenario generator? Maybe that's not so good for Song of Blades and Heroes then. But there's a ton of those online and of course there are many, many supplements with just that.