Osprey Games - Skirmish & Wargames

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Voros

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I realize Osprey have been around forever and have always released the occasional rpg book and recently have kicked that up a notch with Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades; Jackals; Romance of the Perilous Land and Paleomythic. Which means they probably deserve their own thread in the rpg forum.

But I've been eyeing up some of their other wargame books and wondered if anyone can tell me more about them?

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I think a wargame about the colonial era has some tremendous potential but with the Kipling title suspect this will be more oriented to entertainment than grit although perhaps still some fun.

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So many medieval wargames but where to start? As usual for Osprey though a hell of a cover.
 
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Lion Rampant, and it's fantasy equivalent, Dragon Rampant, is a nice, tightly-designed and streamlined skirmish battle system that can pretty much be customized however one wants - it's sort like Hordes of the Things mixed with Chaos Wars.

"Armies" are built with 10 points, troop qualties are rated by how likely they are to follow a particular order, and it's a random activation system.

There are special abilities you can purchase for your units with your point allowance.
 
Haven't played them, but Lion Rampant has been on my list. I think my human Oathmark miniatures could probably double easily enough, and it'd be a good excuse to get the Perry knights I've been eyeing.

If you like video reviews, Little Wars TV has covered both and rated them favorably:

 
Rogue Stars is a decent little SF skirmish game. It got a lot of stick for being complicated when it was released - it's not. Basically, it's "roll 10+ on d20 with modifiers to succeed". There are, to be fair, lots of modifiers. Activating characters is a little more complicated - you choose how many dice to roll (1-3) and every roll you pass (8+) gives you an action. Fail too many and you risk passing the initiative.

There are no stats - you have a huge range of skill, ability, weapon and tech options to buy. You also buy small groups of abilities as a species type keyword like "plant" or "robot". I would have preferred each of the standard actions (with a modifier table) to be a stat.

I like how different damage types (projectile, energy, laser, fire, electricity) work with armour and species keywords. It's simple and elegant - for example, fire is counted against only the lowest armour on the target's body.

What it is, and this is not an uncommon Osprey wargame problem, is too short. It could use a few more pages of rules rather than cool full-page pictures. Many of the abilities are not well explained - one is only used as a modifier against a single entry on the environmental damage table. The campaign rules are just way to short.

Generally though, a great game for £12 with lots of use and cool ideas in it.
 
I'll agree with TristramEvans TristramEvans and say that Lion Rampant is an astonishingly good, fun game.

Dragon Rampant starts to fray the rules around the edges, as it offers more options, but is still great.

Pikeman's Lament (pike and shotte period) uses the same engine and is also good.

I find Colonial gaming utterly dull and one-dimensional and The Men Who Would Be Kings is no exception. Melee army vs ranged army just doesn't do it for me, although a couple of friends love it. The solo game engine ("Mr Babbage") is good though.
 
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Zona Alfa is also amazing. Based on the STALKER games, it's treasure hunting in a post-apoc (Chernobyl) landscape . There are other teams that may or may not be friendly, horrible mutated wildlife, and alien "anomalies" that can mess you around.

The focus in the rules and campaign are very tight, so ZA really hits the spot in only 64 pages. It's not a modern warfare game, it's a tabletop computer game of looting Chernobyl. The characters are veterans, scientists and gopniks (teenage Russian chavs in Adidas tracksuits). Experienced characters get lots of actions; rookies don't.

You get loot from activating "hotspots", which also contain Zone hostiles. You can do this by moving into range, or throwing a metal bolt into it - just like in the original book, Roadside Picnic.

The character abilities reflect the game too - mechanics, snipers, rough and ready doctors.. Weapons are generic types, equipment loadout is limited. Camo gear helps you hide better.

Characters can be killed instantly, but generally you get eliminated by being "pinned to death". Medpacks reduce pins, so a supply of them generally keeps everyone going. Guess what: you can't carry a good supply of medpacks, so you need your team to stay close together. That's not always possible.

You alsi get to shout "cyka blyat" and "cheeki breeki" when things go wrong - and thats a lot!

The author has started on a non-Osprey supplement for co-operative, solo and narrative games for real anomaly weirdness.
 
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Zona Alfa is also amazing. Based on the STALKER games, it's treasure hunting in a post-apoc (Chernobyl) landscape . There are other teams that may or may not be friendly, horrible mutated wildlife, and alien "anomalies" that can mess you around.

The focus in the rules and campaign are very tight, so ZA really hits the spot in only 64 pages. It's not a modern warfare game, it's a tabletop computer game of looting Chernobyl. The characters are veterans, scientists and gopniks (teenage Russian chavs in Adidas tracksuits). Experienced characters get lots of actions; rookies don't.

You get loot from activating "hotspots", which also contain Zone hostiles. You can do this by moving into range, or throwing a metal bolt into it - just like in the original book, Roadside Picnic.

The character abilities reflect the game too - mechanics, snipers, rough and ready doctors.. Weapons are generic types, equipment loadout is limited. Camo gear helps you hide better.

Characters can be killed instantly, but generally you get eliminated by being "pinned to death". Medpacks reduce pins, so a supply of them generally keeps everyone going. Guess what: you can't carry a good supply of medpacks, so you need your team to stay close together. That's not always possible.

You alsi get to shout "cyka blyat" and "cheeki breeki" when things go wrong - and thats a lot!

The author has started on a non-Osprey supplement for co-operative, solo and narrative games for real anomaly weirdness.

Zona Alfa looks amazing thanks! I'm a big fan of the original novel and the film. Also enjoyed the video game.

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PS. Also looks like almost all of Osprey is available for purchase on my Kindle which makes it an easy impulse buy.

I wish more rpg companies were available there.
 
Haven't played them, but Lion Rampant has been on my list. I think my human Oathmark miniatures could probably double easily enough, and it'd be a good excuse to get the Perry knights I've been eyeing.

If you like video reviews, Little Wars TV has covered both and rated them favorably:



Thanks under_score under_score, added these to my wishlist for future purchase! Trying to exert some self control and not just buy them right now on my Kindle...must...resist...
 
Gaslands is AMAZING. Just super fun.

Has anyone played A Billion Suns? I hate video reviews and can’t find a decent write up
 
Thanks @under_score, added these to my wishlist for future purchase! Trying to exert some self control and not just buy them right now on my Kindle...must...resist...
I just think of the poor Osprey orphans.

"Did Master Voros buy enough Kindle copies Sir?"
"No boys, it'll be another month of gruel for you all"
 
Rogue Stars is a decent little SF skirmish game. It got a lot of stick for being complicated when it was released - it's not.
Rogue Stars fits in a similar slot to the original Rogue Trader 40K game. It's not for 'armies' of figures but is otherwise very open-ended about what sorts of scenarios it can run.
I wish Osprey would toss it a bit more support... but given its initial reception - people expecting it to be scifi Frostgrave and not getting it... and now with scifi Frostgrave actually on the verge of coming out... it's not likely Rogue Stars will be seeing much love there.
 
I have Rogue Stars. I read the entire rulebook, then had to go back and search three times to find out what size table it was intended for. I know there's a game in there somewhere, but I prefer to move on than put in the effort to dig it out. The scenario and environment charts are nice, though - they might be useful in Stargrave.
 
It needed another editing pass, which it clearly didn't get and won't ever get now. No excuses - the author did better with Sellswords and Spellslingers, his own fantasy/solo version of the rules.

Arguably, Frostgrave was full of holes too. Promises about balance and campaign rules were at odds with the original book, but it clearly hit the spot in the market and was able to tidy the rules up over the next half-dozen books. Ghost Archipelago was tighter; Stargrave will also benefit from the experience.

It's sadly the way with game books as much as software - someone needs to buy version 1 to pay for a better (rather too often that means "better") ruleset in version 2... There's a great game screaming to be let out of my copy of Beyond the Gates of Antares, for example.
 
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I have Rogue Stars and A Fistful of Kung Fu. Haven't had a chance to play either, but they're nice little books. My friend has Gaslands and was super-stoked about it, but he's been so busy with work for the past couple of years that he hasn't had time for gaming.
 
The Stargrave "Nickstarter" pre-order is up! (The name is a joke on North Star being run by Nick. This is a preorder with spend goal bonuses, not crowdfunding.)

Main info page: http://nstarmagazine.com/STARGRAVE_1.htm

North Star store page (UK): https://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=295&page=1

Miniaturicum store page (EU): https://www.miniaturicum.de/Stargrave-Nickstarter

Brigade Games store page (USA): https://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/stargrave.html

It's only day four and we've already unlocked 9 bonuses! (Okay, one of those bonuses was a d20, but still...)

I've been looking forward to this release for a year, and I'm excited the release is so close! I am, of course, in for the book and all three boxes deal, even though I have well enough STLs to print my own crews. I just really like the North Star mini's 80's direct-to-VHS scifi vibe, and their plastic boxes are always quality.
 
I impulse-bought A Billion Suns: Interstellar Fleet Battles @ my FLGS yesterday, because I love exploding spaceships and I've been generally happy with the quality of the Osprey products I already have. Haven't had a chance to read it yet.
 
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