Rules-lite any-minis skirmish games

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E-Rocker

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I like the idea of skirmish-level miniatures games, but I haven't played much. I'm especially interested in games that will let me use the somewhat random selection of minis I already have. Mostly my collection is 28mm stuff from Reaper, but I have others as well.

I got a bit frustrated in my search for a nice, rules-lite game to introduce me to this type of gaming. A lot of the allegedly rules-lite games I found, while they did have short page counts, assumed a level of familiarity with minis-gaming that I don't have. Or maybe they were just poorly written and not explaining themselves well, I dunno. Anyway, I read probably half a dozen where I ended up saying "nah" rather than setting up a game.

But yesterday, I think I finally found one that will work for me. It's called Micro-Mini Basic Rules: An ultra Rules Light Miniatures WarGame by Noah C. Patterson. I have not played it yet, but the rules seem very clear and easy, and I'm looking forward to trying.

I've also played a bit of the Savage Worlds Showdown! minis game which wasn't too hard to learn since I'm pretty familiar with the Savage Worlds RPG and they have a lot of rules in common. It's not rules-lite by my standards though. The basic combat is simple enough that I'd probably call it rules-lite, but once you get into the long lists of Edges (special abilities & powers, for those unfamiliar with Savage Worlds terminology) it pushes it into rules-medium territory, IMHO.

Basically, I want a game where I can invite a friend over, teach them the rules in 10 minutes or less, and then we can each grab a handful of minis and go to town.

So, how about y'all? Anyone enjoy games that let you use any minis? If so, which games do you play, and what do you like or dislike about them?
 
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I like many of the Osprey series of games, such as Lion Rampant. They cover a large set of time periods and settings.
 
I really like the physical appearance of the Osprey books, but haven't gotten into playing them yet. I have Rogue Stars and A Fistful of Kung Fu but still need to actually read them.
 
I like many of the Osprey series of games, such as Lion Rampant. They cover a large set of time periods and settings.
Tell us more. How complicated are they? I see them for sale once in a while but always wonder whether I'd have the patience. Do they come with the miniatures or are the miniatures sold separately? I seem to remember just seeing a "here's a rulebook, supply your own parts" situation but could be conflating them with another company.

(I like their books on different military units.)
 
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I have played Gutshot, which is a Western minis skirmish game and is a lot of fun. This was partly due to the fact that I could never find a Western rpg that I really liked. I would say that the rules are pretty straightforward and that the book is well laid out.
 
Ganesha Games sell Song of Blades and Heroes, which is a nifty little fantasy skirmish game. Stats for everything, and the game is fact and simple. Movement and missile range are measured on fixed-length rulers, so the pace clips along, and although there are lots of special abilities, they're not too onerous. The PDF is cheap and short, just like me...

The basic set has neat but slightly wonky activation rules; the advanced ruleset work better, but feel less straightforward.

Ganesha also makes a fast and fun game called Sellswords and Spellslingers, which is a co-operative but fun murderfest.

There's another same-side game called Rangers of Shadowdeep on DrivethruRPG.

By the same guy as Rangers is a very popular game called Frostgrave (and a different game in the same universe called Ghost Archipelago). Frostgrave is wizards plus henchmen duelling it out in a frozen ruined city. Lots of details in the magic rules, and the henchmen feel a bit... samey... but a good game nonetheless. I'm told GA corrects many of the minor niggles of Frostgrave.

Northstar Military Figures sells Frostgrave and GA, and make some neat plastics that go with the game.

Mantic Games sells skirmish Scifi (Deadzone) and Fantasy (Vanguard) rules, not to mention The Walking Dead.

Downloads of the free intro rules are here: http://www.manticgames.com/free-rules.html

To be honest, 'Ol Games Workshop has some neat small-scale games these days. The basic 40k Kill Team rulebook has most of what you need to start playing (you'd start without the pile of cards anyway), and the rules are quick and easy to learn. A single box of Space Marines will provide 2 initial forces with a mix of weaponry.

There's also a GW Age of Sigmar game called Warcry out this year - skirmishes between Chaos gangs. Obviously no idea how that plays.

GW's Lord of the Rings, sorry, Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game is a really solid game, which handles battles between a handful of heroes, or a mix of heroes and troops up to 60-70 figures really well. There's a supplement called Battle Companies, which handles campaigns between small bands of troops starting at 5-12 models. Easy to learn, but with a lot of depth, the main issue these days is the cost of buy-in.

I like Two-Hour Wargames games, which cover WWII, fantasy, Scifi, post-apoc, Lovecraft, zombies... they're slightly unusual, in that your character gets to choose actions, but your followeers instead often roll on reaction tables. So instead of advancing or shooting as you expect, you may spend your turn digging your troops out of cover once they've been shot at. The base rules Chain Reaction and Melee are free to try if you can find them... Their most recent games are more into campaign play, where fighting is just one part of the game. Their most famous game is All Things Zombie
 
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I've seen people tweak SJG's OGRE/GEV/Battlesuit to run just about anything if that works for you.
 
I'll be another vote for the various Ganesha games. Same guy wrote Rogue Stars for Osprey, but I've heard it's not as rules-lite.

Another system I like is Goalsystem, which, similar to Ganesha, has a basic system applied to a variety of genres... superheroes, scifi, pulp, fantasy, horror. It's a bit more focused on scenarios/plots/campaigns than just head-to-head battles.
 
I've seen people tweak SJG's OGRE/GEV/Battlesuit to run just about anything if that works for you.

Ogre is my second-favorite board game (after the party game Taboo, haha) but I'm not sure how I would apply it to minis of human-ish figures...
 
Yesterday on my lunch break, I rolled up a squad of Wretched and a squad of Robots for Mutants and Death Ray Guns, and got a chance to try the game last night. It was fun, or rather, I see how it will be fun once I have more of the rules committed to memory. According to the rulebook a game typically takes 30-45 minutes, but with it being my first game, and each individual mini having special abilities, and me needing to look up what those special abilities actually do nearly every turn, it took roughly 2 hours, which was a bit long. Also, I kept forgetting which mini was which character & had to tilt the mini up to see what letter I had marked the bottom of the base with.

I don't own much in the way of minis terrain, but conveniently (!), my dining room table was covered in a bunch of junk (books, spice botttles, game boxes, etc.) so I just ruled all that stuff was terrain. Another factor in making the game long, which is entirely my fault, is that I used the table at its full 7-foot-by-3.5-foot size. The table folds down to 3.8 X 3.5 (recommended play area in the rulebook is 3x3), but in order to fold the table down, I would have had to waste precious gaming time putting away some of the junk that was on the table, haha.

The result of the game was, all 7 Wretched got killed and all 5 robots survived. I kind of expected that outcome, as Wretched are pretty weak, but it's also partly because I forgot some significant rules, the biggest one being that any time a high-tech weapon is used, there is supposed to be a roll to see if the weapon malfunctions. The robots would probably have been a little less dominant if they had suffered some malfunctions.

I am eager to try the game again, but I'll probably use a different squad than Wretched.
 
Tell us more. How complicated are they? I see them for sale once in a while but always wonder whether I'd have the patience. Do they come with the miniatures or are the miniatures sold separately? I seem to remember just seeing a "here's a rulebook, supply your own parts" situation but could be conflating them with another company.

(I like their books on different military units.)
It's assumed you'd have your own miniatures. I tend to use cheap ones for toy shops, e.g. a bag of twenty medieval figures. Some of the games like "A Fistful of Kung Fu" would only require six figures on each side. There are official figures for some of the games, but the price is well beyond what I would pay (e.g. ~$90 for a medieval army)

The books are good quality with often very good art, though some use production photos. None would really function as a historical source book for their period though like a GURPS book would say.

As for the complexity of the rules, on average they're very well designed and quite light for a wargame. On average there is 20 pages of rules, though often the "core" is a flow chart and about one or two A4 page of notes. I have a cheat sheet of about that length after I read them.

The lightest game is a Fistful of Kung Fu. I'd say have a look at this review of "Ronin" one of the better ones. If that seems like too much detail I wouldn't bother with them:
 
I also got a chance to try out Micro-Mini Basic Rules this morning. It plays really quickly- I knocked out a whole game in about half an hour. Thing is, it was so simple, I actually found myself wishing for more rules! "More rules, please" is NOT a request one normally hears from E-Rocker!!

Conveniently, the Micro-Mini Advanced Rules are PWYW on Wargame Vault. They add about 5 pages to the 11-page basic rules. I do like the game, but I think I might like it better once I try the Advanced Rules. It also seems like a game that would be really simple to add one's own house rules to.
 
I also got a chance to try out Micro-Mini Basic Rules this morning. It plays really quickly- I knocked out a whole game in about half an hour. Thing is, it was so simple, I actually found myself wishing for more rules! "More rules, please" is NOT a request one normally hears from E-Rocker!!

Conveniently, the Micro-Mini Advanced Rules are PWYW on Wargame Vault. They add about 5 pages to the 11-page basic rules. I do like the game, but I think I might like it better once I try the Advanced Rules. It also seems like a game that would be really simple to add one's own house rules to.
Have you tried "The Portable Wargame"?

It's nice to play with minimal materials or on holidays.
 
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No, I wasn't aware it existed. But now that I am, I will check it out :smile:. Thanks!
 
Another rule I consistently forget while trying Mutants and Death Ray Guns is that characters have to attack the closest enemy, rather than an enemy of the player's choice.
 
If you're interested in X-Wing style fighter combat, Ganesha Games also recently released a space fighter skirmish game called Star Eagles. I've played with that one a bit, and it's pretty quick, easy, and fun.
 
Yesterday on my lunch break, I rolled up a squad of Wretched and a squad of Robots for Mutants and Death Ray Guns, and got a chance to try the game last night.
I'm sold on the name alone. Rules-lite is a huge plus. Thanks for the recommendation.
 
You're welcome, home you enjoy it! The game has two supplements, Project Simian Ultra X and Psi-Paladins & Techno Barbarians. I've read both, but have not yet had a chance to try them. Based on reading alone, I like Project Simian Ultra X better, and some of the character types n Psi-Paladins & Techno Barbarians seem overpowered compared to character types from the base game.
 
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