Lately, I've been thinking of skirmish gaming, and want to jot down my thoughts.
The Inspiration
My latest gaming digression comes courtesy of this.
Pulp! is an upcoming title from Osprey. I pre-ordered a copy from Amazon.
I love the cover. Two heroes braving a hail of gunfire, presumably from a bunch of goons whose a** they're going to kick. It reminds me of some of my previous skirmish experiments, like the adventures of Kate and Kip.
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| Kip and Kate (left) vs. the Brainiacs |
The Problems with Skirmish
You might notice that I don't play many skirmish games. Oh, I've dabbled, but never really got too deep into it. A few problems have led to this state of affairs.
1. Lack of figures
I just don't have all the figures needed for skirmish games.
I just don't have all the figures needed for skirmish games.
I have a scattering of fantasy and sci-fi figures, which I've used on occasion for skirmishes and RPGs. However, I am short on enemies.
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| A skirmish with Blandalf the wizard, Nocan the crappy barbarian, and Gimlet the dwarf. |
I also keep getting distracted by other eras. In the last couple of years, I had short-lived plans for Byzantine and 1666 skirmish campaigns. Both stalled after I ordered some 10mm figures. Now I want to do some pulp scenarios, but I find the thought of painting figures daunting.
2. Lack of Terrain
While I have some terrain that would work for 10mm skirmishes, I don't have enough variety for all the possible settings I'd like to use. Even if I managed to create the terrain, I just don't have enough storage space.
I tried using dry erase boards but found them lacking.
3. Indecision on Rules
Although I have some suitable candidates (a MicroBattle variant, my D12 RPG rules, Age of Heroes, or even Fistful of Lead), I have yet to settle on a set of rules. I keep investigating other rules sets (like Pulp!) and end up in analysis paralysis.
4. Coming up with Scenarios
It just dawned on me that this is a major factor. It's the reason I haven't been doing many RPG sessions lately. I'm kind of stumped on the next chapter for Tweedle and Dunh, and I found the adventures in Dragon of Icespire Peak to be somewhat lackluster.
Below, I will examine consider some solutions to these problems.
Figures and Terrain
I've been very pleased with my experiments with counters (as seen in this battle) and realize that they can be a solution to my skirmish issue. Counters and 2D terrain are easier for me to create and take less storage.
Right now, I am debating how to position the counters. Should I go with top down or side view?
I am leaning toward the approach I took with my virtual skirmishes (like the Kate and Kip illustration above). Figures are side view but terrain is top down. This is kind of the approach used in old school video games. But the jury is still out.
Rules
I will likely use either MicroBattle or my D12 RPG rules, but I'm perusing through some Ospreys that I previously purchased to glean ideas.
This leads me to a rant.
For a recent last family game night, I toyed with pulling out Mice & Mystics. Eventually, I demurred because it is a bit of a pain to set up and it can drag. However, I thought my wife might enjoy a skirmish game with anthropomorphic animals. Following this train of thought, I purchased Burrows and Badgers. I was aghast when I saw the roster.
Anyway, rant over.
Scenarios
For battles, I have the luxury of the scenarios in One Hour Wargames. If I'm in the mood for a game, I can quickly pick a scenario and throw together a game. I just don't have the same resource for skirmishes. I've dabbled with generators, but they are not generic enough to be a one-stop resource. I've also used scenarios from various commercial rulesets, but these are scattered over a plethora of books.
I should come up with a generic generator.
What Next?
I think my first order of business in creating counters. Stay tuned.
Oh Kevin… I share your pain 😉. I am also very much a wargaming “butterfly” - attracted by shiny new toys and obscure/unusual battles/campaigns/wars, but only until the next “new” project distracts me and I fly off in another direction.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment it’s more 6mm tanks & vehicles and 10mm infantry for various Mike Lambo battles. Rather than paper and counters, I’m going with MDF hexagons with some basic 6mm scale terrain. Luckily the Joy of Six - http://www.joysofsix.co.uk/ - wargames show (for 6mm and smaller scale games) is a fortnight away, so I should be able to pick up some supplies there.
Have you thought about having a few figures professionally painted? For example, sure I expect 28mm Napoleonic miniatures (reasonably large figures, with colourful and often intricate uniforms) would be expensive to have professionally painted - especially if you need a couple of hundred of them. Smaller figures - whether 2/3mm or 6mm or even 10mm scale - cost less and thus the painting cost is considerably cheaper. In addition, it’s not as if you need lots & lots.
I have found that many pro-painters are willing to help and will often accommodate painting a small number of small figures in-between the “big” commissions.
Alternatively, search eBay to see if there any any reasonably well painted figures you can pick up.
Off at a slight tangent, but a few years ago I picked up some reasonably cheap HeroClix style figures which I intend to use in a generic home-brew superhero I intend to convert or repaint them to create your my heroes and various gangs & goons.
Good luck with your efforts.
Cheers,
Geoff
I've considered it but never found a painter with prices I like and does the small scales I want. :(
DeleteHello Kevin
ReplyDeleteI too seem to have fallen into being entranced by skirmish games over the last 3-4 years. I did some ww2 skirmish with 2-5 figures a side but I found WW2 skirmish to be constrained by the numbers of believable scenarios and that WW2 sections really did not vary in composition that much. I am not really into fantasy gaming but do like SF so fallen into the latter. My own rules are too fast for me. It is interesting you mention Fistful of Lead as I recently bought it (well, it and the SF version) and have played a few games and quite enjoyed it - minimal stats, simple mechanisms and fun. I converted it to d6 from d10 (could not help myself!) and got rid of many of the attributes (attributes as in fast loading, bully, ferocious) as I am not good (as I find I am not interested) at tracking more than one attribute per figure. Oh, and modified the activation system a little. I think I will continue with my modded FFoL for a little while and see how it goes.
I agree on a skirmish generator. I really like using 2-5 figures a side and the scenarios in FFoL are for just a bit more than that. I have been thinking on the same thing. 5Parsecs (1st and second edition) has quite a few skirmish scenarios and a not bad generation system. Like your generator but with more options. I have looked at using them, created a list but gone nowhere with it yet. I am also thinking of using the Pulp Alley scenarios as I think they could be reused to suit any skirmish rules.
Good luck!
Hi Shaun. I also toyed with modifying FFoL but never got around to it. Your tweaks sound interesting. I forgot about 5Parsecs; I'll have to give it a look.
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