Miniature Game
Intro
Sci-Fi
StarGrunt 2
Scenario
AAR
House rule
Dirtside 2
Freeware
Fantasy
Fantasy Rules!
Freeware
Ares
Car Demolition
Axles and Alloys
Pictures
Download
Links
Intro
I start playing miniature game with Space Hulk and Warhammer 40k by Games Workshop. However, after I've spent some money on 40k, they decide to do a new edition again. I got tired of this and started searching for other and better games.
Here is the list of games I have so far. I've spent lots of time searching and reading review before getting them. All of the game presented here are quite generic and don't require that you purchase specific miniatures, which is a big plus for me. You just play with what you have and that's it. Also, there is no expansion needed. All the rules are in the book. Most of those rule book have minimal amount of fluff in them which is another good point. I hope this information will be useful.
StarGrunt 2
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Stargrunt II is a comprehensive set of generic rules for simulating
science-fiction infantry combat infantry combat in virtually any backbround.
The system covers actions from a few squads up to full company level.
Rules are included for infantry, power armoured troups, AFVs (Armor Fighting
Vehicles), Artillery and aerospace support and much more! The game is
designed for use with 25mm scale miniatures, but will function equally well
with 15mm or other scales" -- from the cover of Stargrunt II. |
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Stargrunt II is made by Ground Zero Games. This is a very good hard SF skirmish game. This is written by someone who has some military knowledge. Some term or acronym might not be easy to catch after the first reading. However, on second reading, it falls into place. The rules go as far as to describe various chain of command level (not something I was familiar with). It adds a lot to the game, giving some advantage when playing armies with command element present on the table. There is a lot of emphasis on making scenario because there is no point system. I really like the idea, since scenario give better games than just lining up X points of troop on the table. |
There is also a morale and motivation system that is quite good. Playing the same scenario with different motivation can made a complete new game. There is also a very good leadership and troop quality system: You can have the same troop type than your opponent but if they have different quality/leadership, it will be very different. Those systems are very easy to use (even better if you have colored dice).
Also, when you have wounded soldiers, you can't just leave them here, or else, you get some penalties. This made for challenging/realistic game instead of playing to the last man.
Since there is no point system, creating scenario can cause some balancing issue on the first few game. However, there is already some scenario on the web, and after some games, it's pretty easy to balance thing by eyes.
Scenario and After action report
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Disable the power generator |
HtmlSlide v1.05:
Is the tool I had made to generate automaticly the many HTML pages of the report. I only need to type my battle report in a text file with some special tags and run the tool to get the many pages linked together. All those pages are based on a special template file so only this file need to be changed if I need to change something like background colors, layout, etc. Just run the .exe in a command prompt to get an help text giving some info. You can
also download the original files and template used to generate the report if you want to get an idea of how it work.
House Rule
Close Combat : When there is one side that has more models than the other in close combat, we play that each model involved in close combat must roll against each opponent. This is to avoid the problem that 1 trooper of good quality can wipe an entire squad of lesser quality with one roll. Example : if a veteran roll 9 (D10) against a squad of regular (D8), the entire squad is toasted regardless of how many soldiers it contains. Most people on the web have a variation of this house rule. This one is simple because there is no modifier involved. In the example above, the veteran will have to roll against each trooper of the other squad so he may eventually fail if there are many opponents.
Command Squad Transfer of Action :
One of the problems with the command squad is that doing 2 transfers of actions is usually a better idea than using the command squad itself (firing, moving). This lead to the "commander in the corner" problem: Your command squad falls behind the rest of the troops as they go forward on the table. This is especially true in game when one side must move across the table (like in my scenario). Some people have house rule to made transfer of action more difficult if your command squad is too far or out of LOS.
However, we have found another way: We have tried to give 3 actions to the command squad with the following limitation : One of those actions MUST be a transfer of action and one of the other action MUST be something else than a transfer of action. This means your command squad can do 2 transfers of action like before, but it can now move, fire or remove suppression as well.
In the last game we played (scenario not here yet), the command squad was able to go in the middle of the table and was able to actually do something by itself. We didn't find it unbalancing since it encourage players to move and use this unit (thus, putting it a bit more at risk than if it was in the far corner of the table).
Lower Tech Command squad:
In order to represent a force with worse communication system or technologies, we sometime gives the command squad a maximum of 1 transfer of action (this rule is used in the scenario). However, depending of the scenario, it may not be that much of an handicap: In "Disable the power generator", the lower tech command squad is the defender, so he don't need to move that much. So, using the command squad to fire is as effective (almost) than doing a transfer of action.
Dirtside 2
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Dirtside II is a comprehensive set of generic rules for simulating science fiction
battles in virtually any background or "Future History". The system covers
combined arms actions from a few platoons up to full battalion combat group
level. Rules are included for infantry, AFVs of all types, artillery, aerospace
support and landings, combat walkers and much more! The game is designed
for use with 1:300/1:285 scale miniatures but will function equally well
with 6mm or other scales. -- from the cover of Dirtside II. |
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DS2 Quick Draw. Utility for drawing Chits in Dirtside 2. This can be useful if you want to speed up the game. Provide that you have access to a PC near the gaming table or a laptop. This app is VERY small and should be able to run with older PC. |
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Some of my DS2 minis. Those are plastic. They were 12 for 2$ in a dollar store. |
Axles and Alloys
Axles and Alloys is a (free) miniatures rule set for playing 'Post Apocalypse' games with hordes of converted Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars. The website contains some information on how to do car conversion and lots of cool pictures. This is those pictures that have me started doing my own conversion that you see here. It's quite easy to do and lots of fun.
The game itself is simple and fast played.
Check the Links if you want to go to the official Axles and Alloys website.
Fantasy Rules 2!
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Chipco's Fantasy Rules! lets you game in the worlds of fantasy and mythology with rules that are easy, flexible, innovative, and fun. Fantasy Rules! may be played with any figures currently in your collection and playing time is around one hour for typical armies. Army lists are included for 58 armies and typically contain 30 - 50 figures. Characters are included in the system, but are not so powerful as to overly influence the outcome of the game.
-- From Chipco's website |
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Fantasy Rules! has an interresting morale clock system. As your army loose, you get less unit to move. Combat is simultaneous, so you don't sit and wait for your opponent to do all the combat. There is LOTS of army list to choose from and they cover more than the usual fantasy game does : You can have Greek, Egyptians, Indian and other in addition to the traditionnal Dwarf, Orc and the like. The game can be played with 15mm or 25mm miniature (some people also use 10mm). |
I really like 15mm because there is a lot of choice for less conventionnal army and when you need a large creature, you just need to use a 25mm mini. This cost a lot less than doing the same thing in 25mm. The different unit type are pretty balanced and there is a rock/paper/cisor aspect to them most of the time. Finally, Single character can help the unit they are in but didn't win battle alone like in some other games.
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FR2 FRStat. Here is a small application I wrote to do simple combat simulation between FR! unit. You get some stats report that could be usefull to evaluate the point value or relative strength of some unit, or to see the chance of unit X fighting unit Y. This application is for PC and should run with Windows. |
Ares
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ARES: Miniatures Wargaming System is a complete skirmish-level fantasy game. But it is also much more. The flexibility of the system allows players to use any wargaming miniatures in their collection.
Over two dozen sample figures are detailed in this book, but the real strength of ARES is its figure creation system, that encourages players to use their imaginations -- which is the way it should be!
Also included is a fully customizable magic system, providing players with the opportunity to design their own spells for their troops.
-- From Majestic Twelve game website |
On their website, you can download a demo version of the ARES rulebook. I just received my copy of the rulebook and never play a game. It look promising.
DOWNLOAD
Here is link too all the stuff I have to download on this pages, in case you miss it
Dirtside 2 ChitDraw an utility to draw chit for DS2. Provide you have access to a computer near the gaming table.
Stargrunt 2 Scenario and AAR Scenario and full after action report with LOTS of pictures.
HtmlSlide Tool I made to generate linked web pages. This was created for the above battle report.
Fantasy Rules 2 FRStats an utility simulate melee and get stats about different troop types.
LINKS
Ground Zero Games : The creators of StarGrunt 2, Dirtside 2 and other games. They also have an extensive range of miniatures (25mm, 15mm, 6mm)
StarGrunt.ca : Contains lots of info, FAQ, scenario, etc.
Allan Godall Stargrunt 2 page Contains a full index of the rulebook.
Brian's Dirtside/StarGrunt II page Lots of Links.
Stargrunt-Fullthrust Yahoo group : This list is for the discussion of Non-GW Sci-Fi wargaming, particularly StarguntII, Full Thrust and Dirtside
Dirtside 2 Yahoo group
Chipco home : The creators of Fantasy Rules! and other games.
Chipco yahoo group : A discussion group dedicated to the various wargames rules produced by Chipco
FR! Annex : Lots of stuff for Fantasy Rules (FAQ, Update, army list viewer, etc).
FR! Tome
Review of FR2!
Axles and Alloys : Free rule for cars destruction race
Chris Johnston's 'Road Rage V8' free ruleset for playing miniatures game with toy cars
Majestic Twelve Games : The creators of ARES and other games. There is a free demo version of ARES on their site.
Majestic Twelve Games Yahoo group : for discussion of their games. Some tools/rules in file section for ARES.
