Well, not quite. As Mark has mentioned, there is one big problem out there - the Leadmountain and the Rules Merrygoround. Ok that's two big problems...amongst our many problems are......and Monty Python fans know where that's going.....so I'll move on rapidly.
Anyway. I am very concious that I am, bluntly, a sucker for buying rulesets. But, in a moment of clarity, I think I may have narrowed down the pack. This is not going to be a terribly pictorial post because, well, pictures of rulebooks are fairly boring.
So, what have we got? In skirmish terms.....
18-19th Century Skirmish; I really like the WRG rules "Fire & Steel". I picked them up on ebay and ran a brief Retreat from Kabul game with pathans sniping a small british patrol. In seconds one brit was down and the sgt wounded, a pair of ghazis charged from a gulley and a nasty melee raged, a brit was wounded as was the Lt but a sharp bit of bayonet work (and a backstab) finished off the ghazis. The action ended with the injured staggering off with the body, covered by the unhurt squaddie, who, armed with two loaded muskets, pinned down the jezailchis. He was the lad who'd done most of the bayonet work too. Well Done That Man.
Skirmish WW2; I like Flying Lead but.....see below re Song of etc.....I think this is going to get played with a mod'd version of....
Cold War 83; a cracking set of rules and Mark and I are both now at home with this fine little product. I am tending to presume that most "grunts" are taken out by one hit and that it's heroic types that have the full Bottle rules applied. Any modern stuff is played with this.
Sci Fi. Mutant & Death Ray Guns or Imperial Commander are my choices but I know Mark isnt a fan of IC. I do need to investigate Tomorrows War in more detail. OK the jury is still out here.
Fantasy; I dont want to play Song of Blades for everything - its a great set as is Song of Pretty Much Anything but......I just dont want to use the same engine too much (see SF above). and i do like a bit of granularity in Fantasy games. So, I think I have a 1 Brain Cell homage to Runequest. Its D10 based, with 1D6 generated traits so a Humakti may not be allowed a shield but may have an extra wound. Its scribbled into my moleskine and if that works, it frees SOBH up for dungeon crawls.
An honourable mention for the Dave Millward booklet "Heroes", its an old beast which I bagged on ebay, but its chock full of Dark Ages mayhem and ideas.
Finally, 15mm company level WW2 looks like some kind of A&A application; it does work and looks fun.
As for bigger games, theres talk of Black Powder, Hail Caesar but right now, I have a bit of skirmish clarity and thats good.
Cheers
Maff
Sounds interesting! I wrote up a set of rules myself, you could become a self-generated rule maker.
ReplyDeleteI picked up a copy of Cold War 1983 myself, but found keeping track of Bottle a bit awkward. I'd say it's handy enough if you're familiar with it - but I ended up going back to Ambush Alley.
ReplyDeleteI recommend AK47 Reloaded for Battalion level action but lose the boring '15 days to war scenario generator' and the terrain placement rules.
ReplyDeleteEr..what's A&A?
Thanks
John, A&A is Axis & Allies, the game with slightly out of scale figures and prepaint tanks. In it an army consists of an MG42, a panzerfaust, an SS officer, a hetzer and a Jagdanther. It is fun but Mark and I decided to use the rules to create a fast and fun WW2 game. So, in a game posted up in the Autumn, the 8th Army had:
ReplyDelete4 bases of aussies
vickers MG
2 pdr portee
vickers light tank (?)
while the DAK had
1 base of Ramcke
2 bases DAK
Sdkfz 222
Motorcycle combo
PZKWIII
The 2pdr was a matchwinner
Cheers
Maff
Agree with you on Fire and Steel. Seemingly I can never get a game played using these rules, but I really like their flow. As for sci-fi, I am an advocate of Tomorrow's War. While it takes a bit to get used to actions and reactions, I think that the simple rules engine allows one to be rather creative with "bolt-on" rules additions.
ReplyDeleteI still want to have a look at Cold War '83, even though I like Amubush Alley/Force on Force. Part of the Rules merry-go-round I suppose!