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I'd recommend Rogue Planet and use your existing miniatures.

http://www.wargamevault.com/product/139359/Rogue-Planet?manufacturers_id=3556

If you are looking for a free Kill team like game, might I suggest In The Emperor's Name:

http://iten-game.org/

 Talizvar wrote:
It just hurts to spend $11 when it was thrown in as an option in the big rule book in prior editions.

Previous edition 40k rulebooks often go for very cheap on eBay and on used book sites like Abebooks. Even better I bet there are 40k people in your area that have them sitting on a shelf and would let them go for $10 or less.

Why do fan-based rules like these seem to excite more than stuff we see recently out of GW?
It is like night and day.

GW's games are tools to sell models. People making games out of a love for the hobby have gameplay as their top priority. It's easy to outperform even professional game designers when you have "good game" as your priority and they have "push model sales" as theirs.

To be fair, ITEN is written by a professional game designer. The authors did two books for Osprey Publishing's wargame line for a Victorian steam punk version of ITEN called In Her Majesty's Name. Incidentally:

https://inhermajestysname.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/creating-your-own-company-in-ihmn.pdf

I get them not wanting to spend time working on a game that can never truly be "theirs" compared to time spent working on supplements for In Her Majesty's Name.

 Eilif wrote:

Still, I do like the rules and I want others to like them too, so whenever I see ITEN mentioned, I try to point folks toward the complete ruleset that will give them the most fun with the least amount of DIY and confusion, that being 2.0.

I had no idea ITEN 3 was different people. I guess I didn't really look that closely.

2.0 works. Good call on that. If I recommend the game in the future, I'll use the link to 2.0

I use 54mm colonials, Franco-Prussian War and Union ACW figures/toy soldiers plus repainted plastic dinosaurs and scratchbuilt bits and bobs. Most of my stuff is a hollow earth type scenario where the Great Powers are sending expeditions down below.

The core system works though. Whether it's ITEN 2.0 or Osprey's printed steampunk stuff. It's a good place to start for "small 40k"

Using FFG's 40k RPG rules as a base might also work well.

However, I'm thinking both Inquisitor and FFG's games will have a bit more detail and be just as overwhelming and not quite what the OP is looking for. If someone else wants less models, but more detail, it may be an avenue worth pursuing.

AegisGrimm wrote:Maybe I'll have to use the HoR rules as an adaptation for use with earlier edition rules/codexes, because I really like their leader/core/special framework approach towards force composition, which would work with every edition I can think of(even 2nd), with just some points value increases and most of the friggin' plethora of USR rules being dropped.

I think you should be able to adapt it to the old versions just fine.

It's wierd. I hate the USR explosion of normal 40K, but in a game where a force only has a handful of models, the depth is quite nice. But man, I hate the idea of spending $40 just to I can reference what that Tactical Marine's "Born on a Tuesday under the sign of Cernunnos" ability does when i just want to shoot that Ork cowering in the ruins.

*Whining mode-off*

You could always just go forum hunting. I'm sure somewhere someone has outlined what they think of the rules and given enough information to figure out what it does.

Here's a general tactics thread on Blood Angels that I'm sure has a surprising amount of information as people talk back and forth about what's better and how things work. There's probably something similar somewhere for most of the new codexes that have come out.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/626355.page

None of the documents seem to explain either USRs or army specific special rules. For example, if I look at a Grey Hunter in the Space Wolves document, it has

And They Shall Know No Fear
Acute Senses
Counter-attack

But no where do I find a description of them, so I assume they're in the codex.

Fubar and the One Page rules are also free. As well as that Warengine game and a million others. When a friend of mine and I were first getting sick of 40k we did a series of games with free rules from the net. Same forces, same terrain, different rules, swapping sides and replaying the battle so we got to play both sides (Chaos Marines vs Guard). It was great fun.

MLaw wrote:I had been trying 5150 but man.. that book is just too hard to get through. No diagrams, no illustrations to break it up.. just solid rules and tables.

It's a good game, but the rules aren't the best way to explain how to play it. I'd recommend checking out the free Chain Reaction rules. There are diagrams in there and once you get the basics from there, reading through 5150 will make a ton more sense.

Another one that's free .. Void 1.1 http://www.scotiagrendel.com/Products/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=59
When it was still on the shelf I played a bit.. it's actually a good bit of fun. Scotia Grendel has a free download of the rules

Void 1.1 is a solid game. The only reason it didn't really take hold locally was Rackham's Confrontation metal miniatures were the current new hotness at the time and Void 1.1 as a game got overlooked.

EDIT: I don't know if Scotia Grendel is hosting the points calculator, but you can get it here:

http://bofthebb.com/void.php

Anyone interested in a giant 40k vs Warmachine argument can have their needs met by this rather long thread about the matter:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/608128.page

Warmachine isn't just not suitable for the original poster because it's not sci-fi, it's also more rules intensive and more likely be more overwhelming than 40k. I agree with Eilif that Infinity is probably also not a good fit for the same reasons.

EDIT: Wrong link

 MWHistorian wrote:

Wait...huh? Last time I checked, Infinity was sci-fi and I don't think the rules are more intensive that 40k at all. In fact, they're much easier to understand and flow much better on the table. (No constant checking on rules that should be clear.)

I agree on that account, but I'm talking more about the number of game decisions and use of mechanics per model over time. It's a far more precise game where mistakes or misunderstandings of interactions can be punished severely. Malifaux is also like that. If someone were to say they felt overwhelmed by 40k, I'd probably not recommend Warmachine, Infinity, or Malifaux. There's just more meat to digest with those games compared to the relatively shallow rules of 40k.