Skirmish Warband Systems with Campaign Rules

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daniel_ream

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So as not to suck the oxygen out of the Frostgrave thread, I'm posting here. This isn't a minis board, so perhaps some of this will be new and of use to you all. Certainly I see something of a division in minis gaming between people who just want to line up their troops and have a go, and people who want more of a backdrop and campaign continuity. People who mostly play RPGs all seem to end up in the later category, and there's a lot of good stuff out there in the "I am not independently wealthy, GW, what more do you want from me" category.

The great granddaddy is Mordheim and it's not hard to find the books online. You can't buy minis any more, but since you can't play official tourneys any more either that's a moot point.

Frostgrave is Osprey Publishing's foray into minis gaming. Same general concept as Mordheim but the mechanics are very different. In particular, the only real character you develop is your mage and his apprentice. Everyone else is like an Ars Magica grog; they don't gain experience or develop, you just swap them out as you desire. Frostgrave is probably the best supported of Osprey's minis games, with multiple campaign books and supplements if you really want the full narrative experience.

Star-Struck City is Mordheim after the toilets backed up. Based on Kings of War, so if you like Mantic's rules, you'll feel right at home. Like Mordheim and unlike Frostgrave, every model can advance.

I mentioned Salvage Crew: Star Mogul in the other thread. It's got about as much depth as Mordheim but no real factions. The Frontier Space setting means you can use just about any scatter terrain you've got lying around.

It stretches the definition of "skirmish warband system with campaign rules" but Habet, Hoc Habet is a fun little gladiator campaign game. About as complex as GURPS Man-to-Man, it's one of the few gladiator games that can handle arbitrary models (i.e. not historically accurate gladiator classes) and fantasy models. The other one is Red Sand, Black Moon which I can't really recommend because it's more of a board game with its abstracted movement and positioning.

If you want really, really simple fantasy skirmish, Song of Blades and Heroes with the Song of Deeds and Glory campaign book is a good choice. Same kind of warband development as Mordheim, but the statblocks are so simple there's not much detail there. There are books to expand SBH into all manner of other games, from dungeon crawling like Warhammer Quest to wilderness adventuring (beyond a couple bits of scatter terrain, that is) to campaign rules to Arthurian adventure, but the cost of the books adds up quickly and there are cheaper complete rulesets out there.

Last of all, although it doesn't have character advancement like Mordheim, Osprey's Black Ops is a brilliant little design. While it's clearly based on modern spec ops warfare in the Middle East, the system extends easily to any kind of stealthy-shooting infiltration scenario, from Metal Gear Solid to Star Wars. It's a thin volume but it's got a lot of good ideas.
 
You can add Open Combat by Second Thunder to the mix. It's a generic system for pre gunpowder historical gaming as well as fantasy.
 
Wouldn't the great granddaddy be Necromunda? I thought the release was Necromunda-Gorkamorka-Mordheim.
 
Grandfather, Mordheim you say? Donald Featherstone and John Cury's Skirmish Wargaming perhaps? Noobs...
 
You know what Featherstone's Skirmish Wargaming doesn't contain, that was listed right there in the thread title?
 
Wouldn't the great granddaddy be Necromunda? I thought the release was Necromunda-Gorkamorka-Mordheim.

Ah, that appears to be correct. I wasn't into GW in college so the history is murky for me.
 
You know what Featherstone's Skirmish Wargaming doesn't contain, that was listed right there in the thread title?
Hmmm...the public library had it years ago, when I was a kid, I remember making they put moustaches on Vikings using plasticine and nail polish. I'd have sworn there was a discussion of running a series of games if not outright rules.

Even then, there's a game called Heroes that was cited in Inquisitor as an inspiration. I thumbed through a copy at The Sentry Box, maybe thirty years ago and it was certainly a skirmish wargame with campaign rules. But even if you insist on the idea that Games Workshop originated the idea Starfarers did it long before Necromundia.
 
This notion that anybody cares Who Did Campaign Skirmish Wargaming Firstest is a peculiar one.
 
No, just people who are sick of being told how GW created the miniatures gaming hobby from whole cloth.
 
The notion that a toy soldier company could do something to deserve burning, passionate hatred is a peculiar one.
 
Killed my dog.

Well then... you know what to do
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