To hell with 300+ page rulebooks. I just want to play a game and be done in an hour.
My first recommendation is BattleTech Alpha Strike. It simplifies the game down quite a bit. I've been playing it with my 5 year old son. He gets antsy towards the end of the game and keeps trying to invent rules or weapons for his own robots to make them OP because he's 5, but he can get it and play it.
The bad news is the 300+ page rulebook. Mostly it's for all the other gear and edge-case scenarios aka hover tank in a volcanic lava field using smart guided artillery rockets. We just play mechs from 3025 AD, so our game is easy.
Interestingly, I found a copycat BattleTech game that fits on 8 pages called MechaForce Tactical Combat Game. It's BattleTech. But, again it's only 8 pages.
https://www.wargamevault.com/m/product/107836 (https://www.wargamevault.com/m/product/107836)
Another game is Starmageddon by Matt Wolf. Hex maps and space ships. It's free, fits on 3 pages, let's you design your own ships as well. We played it using Star Trek Attack Fleet minis on a hex star field map borrowed from BattleTech Battlespace game I own and don't play.
https://freewargamesrules.fandom.com/wiki/Starmageddon (https://freewargamesrules.fandom.com/wiki/Starmageddon)
I don't know what's more fun. The game, or the site I found it on that's jam packed full of more free games to try. Freewargamerules.fandom.com is great.
Are you looking for miniature game or boardgames?
For miniature games of the mech variety, the guy at the Guerilla Miniatures YouTube channel made a miniature agnostic Mech game called Gamma Wolves. You can get the rulebook for about $20. He's got several videos detailing the rules.
For boardgames, they just announced a Mech version of the Undaunted game coming out next year. Undaunted is a pretty decent WW2 board game. Simple and fun but not that realistic (just in terms of number of combatants). The game is about 4-5 characters per side which isn't great for WW2 but should be perfect for mech-vs-mech.
Bot War. 80's cartoon flavor, played on a 3'x3' board and intended to be played in under an hour. Digital rule book is free to download. As for the company, the FB Group clearly states "This group is not a place for activism, politics, or religion at all. Posts of this nature will be immediately reviewed by admin and deleted if necessary. Traders Galaxy maintains an apolitical and areligious stance on all issues."
https://tradersgalaxy.com.au/product/bot-war-2-turbo-edition-pdf/
There is also it's hex based areal combat counterpart, that use the same miniatures; Broken Skies.
https://tradersgalaxy.com.au/product-category/resources/broken-skies-resources/
Quote from: hedgehobbit on October 07, 2023, 11:19:16 AM
Are you looking for miniature game or boardgames?
Miniatures games mostly, but cheap. I have a 3D printer and some skill at 3D modeling, so I can make my own minis.
Mech games and warship games are my favorites.
Steve Jackson's OGRE scatches both itches. Ogres are essentially landships engaging convetional armies in nuclear battles. They've got some great plastic sets, but sadly, with current prices on shipping, one of the sides may never get produced in plastic.
Quote from: David Johansen on October 22, 2023, 08:46:44 PM
Steve Jackson's OGRE scatches both itches. Ogres are essentially landships engaging convetional armies in nuclear battles. They've got some great plastic sets, but sadly, with current prices on shipping, one of the sides may never get produced in plastic.
I was about to recommend the entire Metagaming Series. Chitin I is a cool simulation between 2 ant-like colonies,with a 20 page rule book. Each page is 4x7 inches. I was going to offer the series as an alternative to Ogre, since I no longer endorse SJW Games. But Ogre's rules are now freely available online on the SJW Games web site if you look hard enough, as are the images for a counter set you can P&P. Rules are notoriously simple but very playable. I suggest trying it if you don't pay for it. But You can find Metagaming games for $10 on ebay if you're patient. Some good ones,like Ice War or Invasion of the Air Eaters, never get that cheap anymore,but snag them at a good price. I'm actually in the process of reconstructing counter sheets,maps and rule books for Metagaming games in my collection. (I have most)
Other good titles are most of spi's "Capsule game" series, especially "The Creature that Ate Sheboygan" Kaiju game, Task Force Games' series, especially Intruder, an ALIENS movie clone, and the Starfire series (and other games) from Operational Studies Groups. TSR has 8 such games, and I recommend "they've Invaded Plesantville", kind of a Invasion of the Body Snatchers scenario.
Duck Duck Go Dwarfstar games. they made a series o f 8 such games in the early 80s. Six are available as free P&P games on their web site.
Microgames aren't larger than 6x9 inches and are often smaller, 4x7. They have 24 page or shorter rule books most pf the time, but usually lots of play value. It's my favorite type of wargame and I have a large collection of them.
Anyone play anything from Dark City Games?
https://www.darkcitygames.com/samplegames.php (https://www.darkcitygames.com/samplegames.php)
They have some free P&P ones. I haven't had time to look into them in detail. They're also setup to be one-player games.
Quote from: Tod13 on October 27, 2023, 09:26:02 AM
Anyone play anything from Dark City Games?
https://www.darkcitygames.com/samplegames.php (https://www.darkcitygames.com/samplegames.php)
They have some free P&P ones. I haven't had time to look into them in detail. They're also setup to be one-player games.
I have some of their TFT clone adventures,which I use with my TFT modules, a SJW game, so i no longer patronize,and i think is about done its course ,but I have enough material to last a lifetime. The rules to the combat module, Melee, are FREE on the SJW site. For magic and anything else, Dark City Games' rules are a reasonable substitute.
Quote from: Cathode Ray on October 27, 2023, 09:38:52 AM
Quote from: Tod13 on October 27, 2023, 09:26:02 AM
Anyone play anything from Dark City Games?
https://www.darkcitygames.com/samplegames.php (https://www.darkcitygames.com/samplegames.php)
They have some free P&P ones. I haven't had time to look into them in detail. They're also setup to be one-player games.
I have some of their TFT clone adventures,which I use with my TFT modules, a SJW game, so i no longer patronize,and i think is about done its course ,but I have enough material to last a lifetime. The rules to the combat module, Melee, are FREE on the SJW site. For magic and anything else, Dark City Games' rules are a reasonable substitute.
Thanks! Do the games run pretty quickly? How much memorization of the rules is needed? (I have a horrible, horrible memory, so I tend to gravitate towards simple, rules lite games.)
Quote from: Tod13 on October 27, 2023, 09:45:04 AM
Quote from: Cathode Ray on October 27, 2023, 09:38:52 AM
Quote from: Tod13 on October 27, 2023, 09:26:02 AM
Anyone play anything from Dark City Games?
https://www.darkcitygames.com/samplegames.php (https://www.darkcitygames.com/samplegames.php)
They have some free P&P ones. I haven't had time to look into them in detail. They're also setup to be one-player games.
I have some of their TFT clone adventures,which I use with my TFT modules, a SJW game, so i no longer patronize,and i think is about done its course ,but I have enough material to last a lifetime. The rules to the combat module, Melee, are FREE on the SJW site. For magic and anything else, Dark City Games' rules are a reasonable substitute.
Thanks! Do the games run pretty quickly? How much memorization of the rules is needed? (I have a horrible, horrible memory, so I tend to gravitate towards simple, rules lite games.)
The good thing about Melee, other than the P&P edition being free, is that it was originally a Metagaming Microgame, one of th eones I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread. It's one of the first RPGs, but it's also a tactical combat game. It takes about 10 minutes to create a character, five minutes after some experience doing so, and the rules are very easy to learn. Movement is a breeze. Facing determines who you can attack. Roll 3 dice under your DX stat to hit an enemy; roll for damage. Shields block a certain number of hits. hand-to-hand combat is a bit more complicated, but use Melee to play some arena battles, get comfortable with it really quickly, and then buy some DARK CITY GAMES modules, and use Melee rules, adding in DCG's magic rules. (You can also optionally substitute DCG's melee rules for SJG's, but they're very similar.)
Steve Jackson designed Melee in 1977 specifically as a rules-light alternative to D&D's convoluted mess.
You really don't have to memorize much. I'm also casually developing a TFT type system for my own use, using 2d12 as a base.
If you're in to Warhammer style competitive games, with a simpler and better balanced system you could try One Page Rules. The base game is free, with the Advanced versions being available for cheap.
There's a lot of good skirmish games available on Wargame Vault these days. With Space Weirdos/Sword Weirdos, Planet 28, Space Station Zero, and most of the stuff from Wiley games and Nordic Weasel being particular favorites.
Here is a guy who wrote a bunch of games, including some funny ones. The one about fighting aliens using only the state of New Jersey stands out.
http://www.cke1st.com/m_games1.htm (http://www.cke1st.com/m_games1.htm)
Described here.
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/09/close-little-wars-featherstones-simplest-rules/
The Pub Battles series from Command Post games is an interesting middle ground between a miniatures game and a board game. Units are represented by Kriegsspiel style wooden blocks but is has miniatures style movement on a map. They are simple and don't take a lot of time to play. The rules are a bit on the imprecise and work best for casual games rather than highly competitive ones. The canvas maps you can get are really nice but they are also pricey. With the canvas map, several of their games cost in the $140-150 range.
I recommend the Command & Colors series. Memoir 44 is my favorite of the lot.
One of my favorites for miniature skirmishing with small warbands is Song of Blades and Heroes. You can get the pdf for eight dollars, use any figures you want, you'll only need about a dozen. A battle plays to completion in an hour or less. The rules are well written and you can see tons of videos of people playing it on youtube. Published by Ganesha Games: https://www.ganeshagames.net/index.php?cPath=1&osCsid=delc6ava1h9eq55vhk08q6rk1j
They have quite a few games for different genres that use some version of those basic mechanics.
Check out The Doomed, from Osprey.
Play rules can be explained in five minutes. No measuring. One stat. Simple, easy, fun.
40K-ish-but-not-quite setting, fight weird monstrosities from the book or that you cobble together from stuff you have already. Five to eight figures per player, the monster is run with behavior rules (I'm not calling it AI).
Quote from: weirdguy564 on November 02, 2023, 09:46:08 PM
Here is a guy who wrote a bunch of games, including some funny ones. The one about fighting aliens using only the state of New Jersey stands out.
http://www.cke1st.com/m_games1.htm (http://www.cke1st.com/m_games1.htm)
Ha, thanks for the link! Having lived in NJ for a time, I find this hilarious!
Quote from: Baron on December 05, 2023, 01:49:29 AM
Quote from: weirdguy564 on November 02, 2023, 09:46:08 PM
Here is a guy who wrote a bunch of games, including some funny ones. The one about fighting aliens using only the state of New Jersey stands out.
http://www.cke1st.com/m_games1.htm (http://www.cke1st.com/m_games1.htm)
Ha, thanks for the link! Having lived in NJ for a time, I find this hilarious!
Beware the sneaky sneaks, the Hopat Cong, or our fearless leader, Bruce Springsteen.
I'll say this. I'll never play Warhammer or Warhammer 40K on the tabletop. Too expensive, and too many rules.
But.
One Page Rules fixes all that. I can even figure out the rules in 10 minutes. That counts a lot for me.
https://www.onepagerules.com/ (https://www.onepagerules.com/)
I also think 3D printing is the way to go. I am biased as I can make my own 3D models, and own a resin printer now. I just need the free time to make stuff now.
I just stumbled across this yesterday. Bill Owen, the co-founder of Judges Guild who cashed out in 1978, has a site now with some inexpensive wargames. So far he has Tractics and its simpler predecessor Fast Rules, but I understand he plans to offer more. Site here: https://www.combatrules.com/
Mechs and warships?
From the same guy who did Gamma Wolves (which is really Salvage Crew: Star Mogul with very expensive minis), Steel Rift is even simpler than Alpha Strike, plays in 45 minutes on a 4 x 4 table. All mechanics, no lore (but tons of support for making up your own lore and supporting it with mechanics, which more games need to do).
The Other Alpha Strike, CAV: Strike Operations is currently in the process of rebranding to CAV: Armored Might and it's a bit of a mess right now but the original CAV:SO rules are freely available (and free).
You didn't specify era but Osprey has some good historical quick-play naval games: Poseidon's Warriors (Greek trireme) and Fighting Sail (Age of Sail).
The advantage of all of these is they're quick to learn, quick to play, and minis agnostic, even if they have their own line.
Quote from: rkhigdon on October 30, 2023, 10:32:23 AM
If you're in to Warhammer style competitive games, with a simpler and better balanced system you could try One Page Rules. The base game is free, with the Advanced versions being available for cheap.
There's a lot of good skirmish games available on Wargame Vault these days. With Space Weirdos/Sword Weirdos, Planet 28, Space Station Zero, and most of the stuff from Wiley games and Nordic Weasel being particular favorites.
Sorry, RKhigdon.
I go and make a post about One Page Rules and didn't even notice you had already done so. My bad.
Planet 28 is really fantastic. It reminds me of a slimmer, but easier Rogue Trader. If you like kitbashing you can really get your freak on with some of the crazy crap you can come up with for figures and scenarios.
Here is another group of simple war game rules. The one I like the most is the Portable Pre-Dreadnought warship rules.
I often think BattleTech spaceships are closest to pre-Dreadnoughts in their use and armament. Lots of guns, but few turrets.
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~warden/portable_wargame/downloads.html (http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~warden/portable_wargame/downloads.html)
The other war games I know very little about. I've had the pre-Dreadnought game for a while now, but just found the homepage with the rest of them a few days ago. I haven't had a chance to read them all.
task force games 'StarFire' and 'StarFire2', are easy fun games to play.
these are cheap pdfs on drivethrurpg
Star Fleet Battles Cadet Version(free to download and play) is fairly easy. But beware the SFB wormhole, as the system is quite deep.
'Grand Fleets' on dtrpg is a great pre-dreadnaught naval game
finally Walter Moore games has 'Modern Armor' and 'Armored Fist', which is like a modern minis version of MBT and Squad Leader.
Late as always on this topic... but as an old wargamer who has been pulling out all the stops for trying to get ANYONE to still play any old wargame
that isn't Kingmaker with middling success. But middling success is still something.
Any of the old Classics, Tactics, Tactics II, the Russian Campaign, Waterloo, Gettysburg are still fairly easy and cheap to find. Almost ANY old SPI game
works very well for an introduction into the hobby. Strategy and Tactics still has a game per issue, though the quality of their games vary wildly, older
issues tend to be more solid, in a general sense. I can still find the Against the Odds Gazette has a game built around the theme of that particular
issue and I have, so far, enjoyed pretty much all of them. The Folio Game series is pretty good for that as well, though i'd rather play the old SPI
Folio games so many of them are based on. Though that's nostalgia for the ancient 4-color map and simple NATO counters speaking.
+1 for One Page Rules. Fun game, simple, free. Advanced version is cheap and adds quite a bit to the game, and it has a very active online community, and because it's so simple and uses a setting that a lot of people basically already have models for, it's pretty easy to get buy in locally.
Something that I've been looking to get to the table, the youtuber Tabletop Minions helped with a game Tanks or some other generic name in a Zine caller Snarl where each player has just one sherman tank model. That would be good for getting new players, since it's easy to bring an extra sherman and then point them to where they can buy one for like 20 cheetos. Also supports a frankly absurd number of players.
Found another weird little game I thought I would share.
C.O.R.E. Mech Warfare.
https://thenthlevel.com/our-games/c-o-r-e-mech-warfare/ (https://thenthlevel.com/our-games/c-o-r-e-mech-warfare/)
The demo rules are free. In fact the only real difference between the full rules and demo rules is what page the PDF ends at. The demo rules cut off the parts for mech building and stats for infantry, tanks, and helicopter gunships. The actual combat rules are identical, otherwise.
The suggested playing piece? 1/144 scale plastic model robots from Japan. Mobile Suit Gundams. Or Gunpla as they're known. Or anything else you want, but it is implied that this game was meant to be a ground based Gundam tabletop wargame. I find it a bit odd as the game's art is nothing like Gundam. I think their art is AI-generated generic mechs that would look more like BattleTech mechs.
It isn't a large game. The rulebook is only 48 pages long, which includes custom mech design rules.
The game is fairly simple. The easiest way to describe it is BattleTech mixed with Warhammer. Instead of generating heat that is tallied up at the end of a turn, this game uses power generated at the start of a turn and uses it up. Shooting is a dice pool using a bunch of 1D6's. Each dice that rolls at or above a target number from 3-7 (rolling a six, and picking it up and re-rolling another six is a "7") is a hit and does 1 damage.
Quote from: weirdguy564 on January 25, 2024, 05:42:38 PM
Sorry, RKhigdon.
I go and make a post about One Page Rules and didn't even notice you had already done so. My bad.
No problem at all. We're all here for the same reason.
So, I just bought two decks of this card game that is NOT a card game.
Battleground Fantasy Warfare.
https://rattrapgames.com/collections/battleground-fantasy-warfare (https://rattrapgames.com/collections/battleground-fantasy-warfare)
(https://rattrapgames.com/cdn/shop/products/RAT-BG-MH001_2_1024x1024@2x.jpg?v=1669934102)
(https://rattrapgames.com/cdn/shop/products/RAT-BG-UD001_740x.jpg?v=1672696470)
It is a deck of cards, but they're actually the miniatures for the wargame. You place them onto the table, and the image on the card is of a block of soldiers, or a line of cavalry, and their stats. They move across the tabletop as rank & file soldiers should, ready to charge the enemy soldiers and get into their vulnerable rear.
I like it because I don't have to paint an entire display case full of 28mm toys (I'm not much interested in that hobby), but I can have a battle game. And then, when I am done, it packs away into a box of playing cards.
Completely forgot about Battleground! Excellent game, and it gives that big battle feel without committing to hordes of models.
Back when my son and his friends where younger, I just house ruled Battletech into a fast-kill version. Armor and internals were combined, weapons did dice damage, heat was replaced with cool down for the big guns. It played quickly and each kid could drive several mechs so a loss was not a sit out of the game moment. At that time, a ran the opposing force of vehicles and mechs so it was a co-op game for them.
Similar to Battleground was a game called Star Trek: Red Alert. Instead of cards, it used giant cardboard discs. Luckily, it sold badly and one of the guys who worked at Last Unicorn Game forum sold off a ton of complete sets when they lost the license.
(https://www.star-ranger.com/images/RAdiskK.gif)
One of the cool parts is that you'd buy upgrades that were disks hidden on your ship card and you'd only reveal them when you needed to. So your ship could have special torpedoes or Boarding Parties to surprise your opponents with. Sadly, it was only Next Generation so I'll stick with Star Fleet Battles (which is not simple at all).
So, I have a set of rules for naval combat games (free stuff you find on the internet) called Starmageddon. I think I mentioned it above, but I'll repost it here.
Starmageddon rules on an Angelfire page (they're still around?!?) (https://www.angelfire.com/games2/warpspawn/Star.html)
Here are the ships I am making 3D models of, and have already 3D printed to be ships for the game. I own a Mars Elegoo 3D resin printer. A battleship and a cruiser. I still have to make some destroyers.