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After years of collecting figures, I finally got around to playing Mordheim last weekend.  It was a home-grown scenario with too many players. For all that I'm responsible.  Fortunately, we had a GW expert with us who kept the game moving as quickly as anyone could.  Scenario problems aside, and despite the fellow's best efforts, the game lacked what I'm looking for, and I fear that Necromunda will do the same.

Here's my situation:  Practically all my gaming time is taken up with playing historical miniatures -- Typically Napoleonics using the Empire rules set or ACW using Stars and Bars.  These are both fairly detailed and nuanced sets of rules that take a lot of effort to master, so I'm not put off by complicated rules.

But, try as I may, I can't help but find the GW approach to rules tedious.  Roll to hit.  Roll to wound. Roll to save.  Roll for this and then that.   Elsewhere I've described the rules as structured so as to do everything possible to prevent a player's meticulously-painted figures from being removed from the table.  I'm not trying to pick a fight -- just to explain where I'm coming from.

Because the vast majority of my gaming time is devoted to other games, the times when I can assemble a group to play Mordheim or Necromunda are rare -- maybe once or twice per year.  Often this is an opportunity to gather together gamers from diverse groups who have split away because of time constraints or game preferences, but who still like to stay in contact with each other.  Therefore, I'd prefer to have a larger (7-8 people) rather than a smaller (3-4 people) group, yet 7-8 people playing the same Mordheim game leaves players with a lot of down time.

Since these games are rare for us, we aren't interested in a campaign, nor much in the backstory, although we do like to make appropriate use of the cool figures, along with great scenery that I've acquired over the years.

So the games I have organized tend to have minimal-value (600gc) warbands, and we don't really care about promoting or improving them -- we just want an exciting (maybe "rollicking" is a better word) skirmish game with lots of Hollywood thrills.

For whatever reason, the GW games, with the possible exception of Space Hulk, never seem to do it for me, or for the majority of the group.  LOTR came closer than Mordheim, but only when we played it with a VERY few figures per person.

So my question is, is there a set of rules out there that a larger group can play, using the Mordheim or Necromunda figures, that once-per-year players need not study too hard in order to appreciate the advantages conferred by certain basic weapons, that feature simultaneous or impulsed movement (eg,opportunity shots or charges), wherein player decisions carry more weight than good dice-rolling, thereby creating a level of tension that exceeds the typical "1,2 or 3 fails; 4,5 or 6 succeeds"?

Most of the skirmish rule sets that come close to meeting those qualifications fail because they come with their own, competing, back stories and weapons sets, which I have neither the time nor inclination to convert to Mordheim-equivalent stats.  I envision that my perfect set would give characters far fewer traits than the 9 that each Mordheim/Necromunda character has, and that necessary modifiers -- whether from weapons, armor or character traits, could be converted into percentages so I could roll once with percentage dice to determine the success of whatever I'm trying (and avoid roll-to-hit-roll-to-wound-etc.)

Perhaps I'm selling these games short, but in my experience the results they produce are neither realistic (recognizing that we're talking fantasy and sci-fi here) nor rewarding of good tactics (except coincidentally), nor particularly thrilling in a Hollywood sense.  To the contrary, most of my games have been slow-moving (even with relatively few characters per person) and the results of most actions are entirely inconclusive.  Again, Space Hulk is different -- you're hit, you die. 

Anybody able to suggest any rules sets that can be adapted to Mordheim/Necromunda (I'm talking game structure, not weapons) to produce a faster-moving, more decisive game that can accommodate a large number of players who just want a quick, exciting pick-up game once or twice per year, and still make use of the GW miniatures?

Thanks.

Simple, have teams. Everybody on one team, moves, shoots, assaults, everything at the same time.... then the next team goes on. Have 2,3,or 4 sides depending on the number of players.... should make things go faster

I would look into the Rezolution from Aberant. The rules allow for a small about of minis 6-15 per side and the rules allow for a more Hollywood feel. The rules can be nicley adaped for play.

how about inquisitor at a 28mm scale- i've heard of alot of people doing that and it would fit your required level of detail i'm guessing

just an idea

The original Adeptus Titanicus. I admit that you'd need to get some Titan miniatures, but it's a skirmish, albiet between giant robots instead of gutter punks.

You would want 5150 by twohourwargames.

You can play individual mini's, groups/squads, armies.

Play with any figures you own! Aliens, bugs, sure.

Control issues are a factor. There is a simple but very effective reaction system in place. Each race has their own chart so that each races acts in accord to their style. It's a great game to get into, and give quite a different feel than necromunda/mord games

http://www.angelfire.com/az3/twohourwargames/5150.htm

If I was looking for a skirmish game, for a group to play once or twice a year, I wouldn't pick  Mordheim or Necromunda.

I personally think these two games are GW's best games.  The thing I like about them is the recordkeeping you have to do for your warband over many battles.  You get to watch your little warband grow up <sniff>.  By playing these games as a one time thing, your losing more then 1/2 of the appeal of the game (in my opinion).  Mordheim is designed for the models not to die fast (they have a lot of skirmishes to fight)

Your right about Mordheim, you need to do a lot of die rolling everytime you attack.  Roll to hit, roll to wound, armor save, there's even a wound chart":  knock down, stun, kill, and many of the weapons and armor have special abilities to further slow the game down.

For a one time skirmish type game, using GW models, I'd suggest Kill Teams for 40k  (its in the 40k rulebook), and for Fantasy, I would check out Warhammer Skirmish- you may be able to download something from the Games-Workshop website or someone here may be able to direct you to a website.  I think I actually remember Fantasy having two types of Skirmish game- one being more like Mordheim, where you have to keep track of wounds, attrition and stuff in a small army, and the other was for one time scenarios.

Bignutter wrote:how about inquisitor at a 28mm scale- i've heard of alot of people doing that and it would fit your required level of detail i'm guessing

just an idea

Inquisitor is far too complex and slow for what the OP seems to want. Before I got used to it, GMing a turn took half an hour.
It sped up when I got used to it and cut out as many rules as I could without killing the feel of the game. WAY too many tables.