Rulesets

The first thing to do is decide what kind of games I’m going to be playing. As the title of the blog suggests, I’m mostly interested in skirmish gaming. Probably my favorite miniatures wargame is Charlie Company which only has maybe 50 figures on a side (and usually much less than that). Platoon and squad sized combat is my deal. In part because fewer figures means less painting and prep and more gaming, but mainly because I’m more interested in war at the level of an individual. Grand strategic games are perfectly fine, but I like my combat to be a little grittier and more personal. I feel it gives me a better sense of being at the sharp end rather than sitting back and ordering men into it.

So here are the rulesets and periods I’m interested in doing:

• Supersystem (2nd Ed.): This slick little set of rules for playing out comic book superhero fights is a lot of fun. You can play for cheap using the HeroClix plastic minis (which is what I did when I was trying it out), but SuperFigs makes a very nice line of Superhero minis that don’t look like licensed characters. It’s ideal for “gaming in a bin” since 10 figures are enough to field two teams with 50 you’d have the crossover event of the decade. It does mean there’s a lot of urban terrain to put together, but a lot of that can be reused for other games.
• Action Stations!: Small boat action in WWII. I got a chance to play this at GenCon last year and it was a total hoot. Small torpedo boats darting in to sink merchant ships before larger destroyers and escorts can blow you out of the water. A fast playing game that’s a lot of fun. Again, you only need a small number of models for each side. A common pool of merchant ships provides the targets and the terrain couldn’t be simpler. It’s very probably the first “bin” I’ll complete.
• 5150: This is the Sci-Fi version of the Chain Reaction System by Two Hour Wargames. I got to try out the Chain Reaction System at Havoc earlier this year (thought I played the All Things Zombie variant). Again, it’s a nice system well suited to small skirmish actions. Aside from using it as a good sci-fi system, I’m planning on adapting it for use as a modern-day African conflict ruleset. Post-colonial warfare in Africa has been an interest of mine for awhile now. The classic AK-47 is fun, but the scale (of warfare) is a bit too large. Since the end of the Cold War, the various conflicts in Africa have become more skirmish oriented with gangs, rebels and warlords all fighting small, savage battles over resources. I think 5150 will be an ideal ruleset to play out these smaller battles with. Terrain may be a bit of a problem here. The urban stuff from Supersystem can easily be reused, but fighting in jungles and forests might require more terrain than can easily fit. I guess we’ll just have to experiment a bit and find out.
• Legions of Steel: Techicnally, I already have a “bin” for this game. It’s a boardgame/miniature game mixture that plays a lot like Space Hulk, but (in my opinion) is far superior to it. The terrain is nothing more than interlocking tiles used to build up the game board and you play it out by moving on the grid. It’s been awhile since I’ve pulled this game out to play, but it’s still one of my favorites.

So those are games that I’ve played and definitely want a bin for. There are a couple of other rulesets that I’m interested in but I really want to try them out at a convention first before I commit a bin to them:

• Hostile Aircraft: I picked up a copy of this on eBay. Goblintooth, the publisher, is no longer a going concern which is too bad because their 1/285th scale models were supposed to be fantastic. I’m considering adapting the game to 1/72nd scale models (which are fairly easy to find from a wide range of manufacturers). Luckily, the terrain for the game is incredibly basic. The planes and their stands will quickly amass quite a bit of space though.
• Crossfire: Crossfire is a WWII skirmish game that show a lot of promise, but the 15mm scale really threw me off. I started to put a project together for this, but got completely discouraged by the size of the figures and eventually bailed on it. I would like to try out the system and either take another stab at it or adapt the rules to something a little bigger.
• Pig Wars: The problem with gaming anything before WWI is that most battles were fought by large formations of men. Smash and grab raids by Vikings put the focus squarely back on the individual warrior. I’ve heard good things about this ruleset and the battle reports have been pretty entertaining. So I’ll have to investigate it. But I’ll still need a pretty large number of figures (mostly hapless villagers) and terrain will be a complete bear. But I’m still interested in having some Dark Ages fun.
• Charlie Company: A fantastic ruleset for Vietnam gaming and one of the better rulesets out there period. I credit Charlie Company with getting me interested in historical gaming and teaching me a lot about the period. I don’t really need to build a bin for this game though since my friend Haywire has pretty much all the figures and terrain you could want. I feel like he’s still short a few helicopters and I really want to do “brown water” combats with Riverine forces. I might contribute a few vehicles.