I’ve been looking atthe best way to rebase my various Star Wars and Star Trek miniatures in order to use them with simpler, faster rules like Orion’s Gate. Looks like the two best commercial methods for rebasing starship miniatures is to use either Hawk Wargames’ Dropzone Commander toppers and flight stands, or equivalent products from Litko. I’ve ordered some stands from both companies so we’ll see which work best. Both have 3mm rods so theoretically you could interchange toppers and flight stands between the two vendores.

Here are some links to these products which I’ll file here for future reference:

• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01HQNNQUE
• https://www.amazon.com/Space-Fighter-Large-Ship-Toppers/dp/B00XV17PTY/
• https://www.amazon.com/Acrylic-Flight-Stands-Circle-Clear/dp/B01HQNNQUE/
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DX78S10/
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DX7BH7W/
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I4YRR64/
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HOYKT0A/
• http://www.litko.net/products/Flight-Peg-Toppers-%2820%29.html#.WdTlPmtSyUl
• http://www.litko.net/products.php?product=Squadron-Peg-Toppers%2C-3-Prong%2C-Set-of-5#.WdTnDGtSyUk

Here are several wargame settings and rulesets I’d like to try out, most o f which have 1-8 pages of rules, play in 1 hour, and only require a 3×3’ or 4×4’ battlemat. I’m putting all this in this blog post, but also have a copy as a page which I’ll keep up to date as things evolve.

Roadmap

Based on simplicity of rules and availability of minis and terrain, here’s a possible roadmaps of the order in which we try games.

1. Starships — Can play immediately using Orion’s Gate.
2. Historical / Byzantine — Can play if Robert has painted armies for both sides using One-Hour Wargames rules.
3. WWII — Can play with rebased MechWarrior minis to start, then switch to actual WWII minis once Stan has them painted, using One-Hour Wargames rules.

Settings & Rules

Starships

Supplies: Would use Stan’s growing collection of starship and asteroids terrain. Longer term would need Traveller, Full Thrust, Starfinder, Starmada, Firestorm Armada, or Dropfleet Commander minis. 

I envision small fleet-level actions with 3-5 ships per player (more ships means more game time).

Here are the top one-page rules I’d like to try:

• Orion’s Gate — Orion’s Gate is a great looking one-page game that shows promise and would feel more like Star Trek and Star Wars battles. BoardGameGeek overview.
• A Sky Full of Ships — A Sky Full of Ships is another game I summarized down to one-page with is a bit more hard-science feel with a point-buy ship construction system. The full rules have several space scenarios which we’ll probably use even if we’re playing with Orion’s Gate. BoardGameGeek overview.

If we eventually graduate beyond one-page rules, here are some more complex systems with wide community support:

• Full Thrust — Full Thrust from Ground Zero Games has a cool point-buy system for more robust interstellar wargaming. They have a cool starter set. Even if we don’t use their rules, they have a great line of starships with various factions and races. BoardGameGeek overview.
• Firestorm Armada — Another alternative beyond the one-page rules is Firestorm Armada. BoardGameGeek overview. (note that Firestorm’s company went out of business but Warcradle Studioes acquired the assets and will re-launch in 2018).
• Starmada — A hex based game. See the BoardGameGeek overview.

Historical

Supplies: Would use Robert’s armies for Byzantine era. Stan is working on minis for WWII but need some time to paint them. As a quick-start, Stan might use rebased MechWarrior minis with WWII rules.

Robert has a particular interest in the 1071-1571 historical era which ended with Battle of Lepanto. Stan has particular interest in World War II era gaming.

We could first hit Robert’s era using the One-Hour Wargame ‘Medieval Wargaming — AD 1100-1300’ rules for his Crusader and Byzantine armies.

Wargames in these eras are Regiment level with multiple figures on a base organized into units.

• One-Hour Wargames (1 hour) — Great system full of one-page rules for multiple eras, as a blogged about previously. It has rules for:
  Ancient Wargaming — 500 BC-AD 100
  Dark Age Wargaming — AD 600-1000
  Medieval Wargaming — AD 1100-1300
  Pike and Shot Wargaming — AD 1450–1650
  Horse and Musket Wargaming — AD 1700–1860
  Rifle and Sabre Wargaming — AD 1860–1900
  American Civil War Wargaming — AD 1861–1865
  Machine Age Wargaming — AD 1900–1939
  Second World War Wargaming — AD 1939–1945
• Sword & Spear (2 hours) — 50 pages of rules, has received rave reviews. BoardGameGeek overview.
• L’Art de la Guerre (2 hours) –– A great set of rules for tournaments. BoardGameGeek overview.

Sci Fi

Supplies: Would use rebased MechWarrior minis (for 10mm), 15mm GZG minis. Could use Star Wars minis, 40K minis, or rebased HALO Heroclix minis.

Skirmish-level games.

• FUBAR — Rules here, with reviews here.
• Grimdark Future — Grimdark Future was previously 1 Page 40K, it has several variations. Their scenarios and random event charts could be used in any game.
• Warstuff — Warstuff or Advanced Warstuff.
• Mech Attack! — Game using rebased MechWarrior minis. BoardGameGeek overview.
• Star Wars d20 — Older Star Wars Miniatures rules.

Other possibilities are the microgames from Steve Jackson (possibly with metal minis): G.E.V., O.G.R.E, Creature that Ate Sheboygan.

Fantasy

Supplies: Would use D&D minis and eventually Frostgrave-style warband minis plus various terrain.

• Grimdark Fantasy — Grimdark Fantasy. Their scenarios and random event charts could be used in any game.
• Warstuff or Warstuff evolved — Warstuff is also put out by the Grimdark creator.

Supers

Supplies: Would use rebased Heroclix figures with Heroclix maps and eventually boxes painted as buildings. 

• Power Legion — See details here and blog post here. BoardGameGeek link.

I’m interested in wargames but I’ve found many of the most popular wargames (such as Warhammer and Warmachine, each with 300-400 page rulebooks) and even smaller historical games (such as Sword & Spear, with 50 pages) are daunting for newbies, and raise a challenge for gamers who might go several weeks between game sessions and might forget the rules.

Also, a lot of the rules assume ‘big’ games played on a 4×6’ battlemat with a lot of figures. The bigger games are cool, but setup and take-down take a bit of time, and such games usually have 40 or more figures which take 2-3 hours (or more) to play.

Smaller, Leaner Games

With all that in mind, I’ve been researching a bunch of smaller, simpler wargames which have 1-8 pages of rules, play in 1 hour, and only require a 3×3’ or 4×4’ battlemat.

Ergonomically, this means I can set up a game in a side-room and have the terrain and battlemat setup and ready to go when players arrive. After we play, we just leave that wargame room and move over to the bigger gameroom table. No take-down of wargame space is required. (Caveat: I’ll lose one or both side-rooms next summer when kid(s) are home from college; after next summer I should have a dedicated bedroom though).

Tournaments and Campaigns

Over time, as we find particular sets of rules we like and settings which players are passionate about, we can narrow our focus to those rules and settings and build out larger collections of miniatures. At some point we can have tournaments and campaigns (when games are only 1 hour, we could play ‘best out of 3 games’ in a three hour slot, and even have tournament brackets where you play different people in a 3-4 game session).

Wargames as Narrative Side-missions

Some wargames could eventually serve as side-missions that feed the narrative of a current RPG campaign. Imagine a series of starship wargames that serves as a backstory for a future Traveller RPG campaign, a series of World War II style wargames which detail events in battles of Reich America™, or fantasy skirmish games detailing adventures in another region of Redmark™.

Wargames as Backup Games

Also, as we find areas of passion, we can have wargames as a back-up game whenever we don’t have quorum or the GM’s brain is fried. By finding wargames synergistic with the main roleplaying campaign, if (for example) the Redmark roleplaying game doesn’t get quorum, we just roll over to playing a Redmark miniatures wargame with the 2-4 folks who show up. Wargames are low or no-prep once you have the figures and terrain, with no GM is needed!

Skunkworks Projects

We’ll also have what I’ll call skunkworks games time-to-time which are beta tests of either new wargames or subsets of RPG rules (such as mass battle rules, domain management rules, or beta rules from Rogue Comet).

Scheduling

I imagine we’ll start by having a wargame or skunkworks games at 3pm on Saturday Night Dice game days (prior to the Doors Open at 4:30pm time). More as these events firm up.

In my next post, I’ll review top 1-hour wargames I’m considering.

Maybe I’ll have enough terrain and figs to make this scene someday!

Using the Orion’s Gate rules (version 1.2.0) I’ve constructed some Star Wars stat blocks.

Imperial Fleet

TIE Fighter Squadrons (as Scouts, 1 pts) [Have 6]

Move 10″, Cruise 15″, Ram -, Range 6″
Accuracy 6, Strength 0, Evasion 13, Toughness 7
Components:

• (None)

TIE Fighter Squadrons (as Fighters, 2 pts) [Have 6]

Move 8″, Cruise 12″, Ram 12″, Range 12″
Accuracy 4, Strength 2, Evasion 11, Toughness 9
Components:

• ☐☐ Laser Cannons (Cannon: May be fired at one enemy unit within 18”, has Accuracy 3 and Strength 5.)

Imperial Light Cruiser (Destroyer, 6 pts) [Have 0]

Move 6″, Cruise 9″, Ram 9″, Range 18″
Accuracy 2, Strength 4, Evasion 9, Toughness 11
Components:

• ☐☐ Shield #1 (Shield: The ship gets +1 Toughness.)
• ☐☐ Turbolasers (Giga Cannon: may be fired at one enemy unit within 6”, has accuracy 2 and Strength 8.)
• ☐☐ Laser Cannons (Cannon: May be fired at one enemy unit within 18”, has Accuracy 3 and Strength 5.)

Victory-class Star Destroyer (Battleship, 12 pts) [Have 1]

Move 4″, Cruise 6″, Ram 6″, Range 12″
Range 24″, Accuracy 0, Strength 6, Evasion 7, Toughness 13
Components:

• ☐☐ Shield #1 (Shield: The ship gets +1 Toughness.)
• ☐☐ Tractor Beam (Tractor Beam: Target enemy ship within 18” is moved D6” toward the ship.)
• ☐☐ Shield #2 (Shield: The ship gets +1 Toughness.)
• ☐☐ Turbolasers Cluster (Missile Cluster: The missile cluster may be fired at up to three enemy units within 12”, has Accuracy 3 and Strength 3.)
• ☐☐ Turbolasers (Giga Cannon: may be fired at one enemy unit within 6”, has accuracy 2 and Strength 8.)
• ☐☐ Laser Cannons (Cannon: May be fired at one enemy unit within 18”, has Accuracy 3 and Strength 5.)

Victory-class Star Destroyer [Hanger Variant] (Battleship, 12 pts) [Have 1]

Move 4″, Cruise 6″, Ram 6″, Range 12″
Range 24″, Accuracy 0, Strength 6, Evasion 7, Toughness 13
Components:

• ☐☐ Shield #1 (Shield: The ship gets +1 Toughness.)
• ☐☐ Tractor Beam (Tractor Beam: Target enemy ship within 18” is moved D6” toward the ship.)
• ☐☐ Shield #2 (Shield: The ship gets +1 Toughness.)
• ☐☐ Turbolasers Cluster (Missile Cluster: The missile cluster may be fired at up to three enemy units within 12”, has Accuracy 3 and Strength 3.)
• ☐☐ Hanger Bay (Hangar: The hangar may release a swarm of close range interceptors, which attack all enemy units within 6”, have Accuracy 6 and Strength 0.)
• ☐☐ Laser Cannons (Cannon: May be fired at one enemy unit within 18”, has Accuracy 3 and Strength 5.)

Rebel Fleet

X-wing/Y-Wing Squadrons (Fighters, 2 pts) [Have 4]

Move 8″, Cruise 12″, Ram 12″, Range 12″
Accuracy 4, Strength 2, Evasion 11, Toughness 9
Components:

• ☐☐ Laser Cannons (Cannon: May be fired at one enemy unit within 18”, has Accuracy 3 and Strength 5.)

Rebel Transports (Destroyer, 6 pts) [Have 0]

Move 6″, Cruise 9″, Ram 9″, Range 18″
Accuracy 2, Strength 4, Evasion 9, Toughness 11
Components:

• ☐☐ Shield #1 (Shield: The ship gets +1 Toughness.)
• ☐☐ Boarding Pods (Boarding Pods: The ship has +3” range when trying to board enemy ships.
• ☐☐ Laser Cannons (Cannon: May be fired at one enemy unit within 18”, has Accuracy 3 and Strength 5.)

CR90 Corvette (Destroyer, 6 pts) [Have 1]

Move 6″, Cruise 9″, Ram 9″, Range 18″
Accuracy 2, Strength 4, Evasion 9, Toughness 11
Components:

• ☐☐ Repair Bay (Repair Bay: Remove one point of damage from a friendly ship within 3”. Note that you may only take 1 repair bay per ship.)
• ☐☐ Laser Cannons (Cannon: May be fired at one enemy unit within 18”, has Accuracy 3 and Strength 5.)
• ☐☐ Laser Cannons (Cannon: May be fired at one enemy unit within 18”, has Accuracy 3 and Strength 5.)

Nebulon-B Frigate (Destroyer, 6 pts) [Have 1]

Move 6″, Cruise 9″, Ram 9″, Range 18″
Accuracy 2, Strength 4, Evasion 9, Toughness 11
Components:

• ☐☐ Hyperspace Drive (Warp Drive: The ship may be placed anywhere within 2D6” of its position.)
• ☐☐ Turbolasers (Giga Cannon: may be fired at one enemy unit within 6”, has accuracy 2 and Strength 8.)
• ☐☐ Laser Cannons (Cannon: May be fired at one enemy unit within 18”, has Accuracy 3 and Strength 5.)

Armies

2 Players (1 Rebel, 1 Imperial)

• Imperial Fleet: Victory-class Star Destroyer (Battleship, 12 pts x 1), TIE Fighters (1 pt x 6) = 18 points
• Rebel Fleet: CR90 Corvette (Destroyer, 6 pts x 1), Nebulon-B Frigate (Destroyer, 6 pts x 1), X-wing/Y-Wing Squadrons (Fighters, 2 pts x 3) = 18 points

3 Players (2 Rebel, 1 Imperial (using Destroyer with Hanger))

• Imperial Fleet: Victory-class Star Destroyer (Battleship, 12 pts x 1) = 12 points
• Rebel Fleet: 2 of these 3: CR90 Corvette (Destroyer, 6 pts x 1), Nebulon-B Frigate (Destroyer, 6 pts x 1), X-wing/Y-Wing Squadrons (Fighters, 2 pts x 3) = 12 points

4 Players (3 Rebel, 1 Imperial)

• Imperial Fleet: Victory-class Star Destroyer (Battleship, 12 pts x 1), TIE Fighters (1 pt x 6) = 18 points
• Rebel Fleet: CR90 Corvette (Destroyer, 6 pts x 1), Nebulon-B Frigate (Destroyer, 6 pts x 1), X-wing/Y-Wing Squadrons (Fighters, 2 pts x 3) = 18 points

5 Players (4 Rebel, 1 Imperial)

• Imperial Fleet: Victory-class Star Destroyer (Battleship, 12 pts x 1), TIE Fighters (1 pt x 6), Imperial Light Cruiser (6 pts x 1) = 24 points
• Rebel Fleet: CR90 Corvette (Destroyer, 6 pts x 1), Nebulon-B Frigate (Destroyer, 6 pts x 1), X-wing/Y-Wing Squadrons (Fighters, 2 pts x 3), Rebel Transports (Fighters, Destroyer, 6 pts x 1) = 24 points

6 Players (4 Rebel, 2 Imperial)

• Imperial Fleet: Victory-class Star Destroyer (Battleship, 12 pts x 1), TIE Fighters (1 pt x 6), Imperial Light Cruiser (6 pts x 1) = 24 points
• Rebel Fleet: CR90 Corvette (Destroyer, 6 pts x 1), Nebulon-B Frigate (Destroyer, 6 pts x 1), X-wing/Y-Wing Squadrons (Fighters, 2 pts x 3), Rebel Transports (Fighters, Destroyer, 6 pts x 1) = 24 points

7 Players (4 Rebel, 3 Imperial)

• Imperial Fleet: Victory-class Star Destroyer (Battleship, 12 pts x 1), TIE Fighters (1 pt x 6), Imperial Light Cruiser (6 pts x 1) = 24 points
• Rebel Fleet: CR90 Corvette (Destroyer, 6 pts x 1), Nebulon-B Frigate (Destroyer, 6 pts x 1), X-wing/Y-Wing Squadrons (Fighters, 2 pts x 3), Rebel Transports (Fighters, Destroyer, 6 pts x 1) = 24 points

Back in February 2010, after having researched wargames on several online forums, I ended up purchasing my first set of wargaming rules. It was a book by Neil Thomas called Ancient & Medieval Wargaming.

I breezed through the book and loved it! I was intrigued enough to buy another couple of books that month: Field of Glory and Black Powder.

Both of these latter two books had high production values and looked like great fun, but both required a dauntingly large set of miniatures and expansive gaming spaces. I had neither of each at the time.

Fast-forward to 2017. Now that my kids have moved out, I have more gaming space, more time, and gaming buddies who are willing to try out just about any roleplaying or miniatures games.

I did some more research wargame rules, and bought Sword & Spear. I tried to field a game a few weeks ago, but none of the two other players who were showing up had time to read the rules. They rules are only 50 pages, but even that was more reading than our busy work week allowed.

Afterwards, I thought of the uber-simplicity of the rules in the Neil Thomas book. I researched online and found that he had since published another set of rules called (fittingly) One-hour Wargames: Practical Tabletop Battles for those with limited time and space.

I bought this and devoured it. In this book are several sets of one-page rules, each optimized for a different historical time period. Moreover, the games are optimized for quick, 1-hour games! Also included are 30 different scenarios (things like ‘hold the bridge’ or ‘retreat with minimal casualties’). Instead of focusing on a pitched battle-to-the-death between two meticulously balanced, totally-equal forces, Neil Thomas has focused on quick games that are easy but with lots of tactical nuances in scenarios that were much more like real battles.

The quick, 1-hour gameplay also means you can do campaigns. An evening could easily have 3 games where you try for the ‘best of 3’. Thinking about a future World War II themed campaign we have in mind, we could easily fight out side-skirmishes before (or after) our roleplaying games to complement the main campaign story. Lots of potential fun here!

Anyway, although I’m still anxious to play Sword & Spear wargame rules at some point, I think I’d like to start with Thomas’s simpler one-page rules, and only graduate to Sword & Spear or other more complex rulesets after we’ve had a change to get our feet wet with these simple rules. And it would not surprise me if these simple rules are all we ever decide we need :-).