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I'm looking for a fantasy skirmish wargame.

I'm aware of few already such as Mordheim, Frostgrave and Song of Blades and Heroes.

What else is out there? Bonus points for supplying a good explanation of the game and if there is a campaign mode where your progress carries over.

Also, to be clear... Skirmish is usually where models move independently of a squad and the total number of models per force is usually under 20... right?

How about the fan-made ruleset for the Kings of War version of Mordheim? Free to download and shares the mechanics of Kings of War (with some small alterations), which I find to be quite fast and fun. It has it's own setting, but could obviously be used with any setting of your own devising.

Also has full campaign system included, with lots of skills to upgrade your warband's fighters.

This is the link to the thread on the Mantic forums, with the download link in the first post. I think it's a worthy alternative to Mordheim, as Kings of War is to Warhammer.

http://vb.manticforum.com/forum/kings-of-war/general-discussion-aa/1896-the-star-struck-city-mordheim-for-kow

I don't know much about Kings of War but I will certainly check this out. Thanks!

Dragon rampant

Fenrir Kitsune wrote:Dragon rampant

Leviathanos wrote:Also, to be clear... Skirmish is usually where models move independently of a squad and the total number of models per force is usually under 20... right?

Granted, you could take DR's reduced model units to their logical extreme, but... *shrug*

Havoc. Haven't played this but been meaning to. I like the author's unique mechanics in his mass-battle Mayhem.

Open Combat. Not tried this either! But I've heard good things, and a gaming friend is enthusiastic about trying it out.

Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish. Apparently there's a dedicated board on the OW forum, but that's down at the moment. You could try their facebook page, or here.

OWS is based on Crooked Dice's 7TV game. The 'Harryhausen' greeks'n'sinbad version of that is 7th Voyage.

I had actually heard of Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish and read a review, it sounds pretty interesting.

I'll check out these recommendations, folks, thanks!

Probably a bit premature but we're developing a fantasy skirmish game called Lair of the Wurmqueen. No miniatures though, just the rules. You can use any minis you want. The printed rulebook probably won't be ready to go until much later this year though.

Right now it's part of our generic free ruleset that we'll be launching in the next few weeks, but you can check it out now on our new site at SkirmishGames.com

I'll be posting a big update to the current fantasy rules there in the next couple of days.

You could also check out Relicblade. It's up on kickstarter, and if you have models already, the entry point is very cheap

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1000723637/relicblade-adventure-battle-game

Six bucks? It doesn't take much to convince me to back at that price.

 Necros wrote:
Probably a bit premature but we're developing a fantasy skirmish game called Lair of the Wurmqueen. No miniatures though, just the rules. You can use any minis you want. The printed rulebook probably won't be ready to go until much later this year though.
Right now it's part of our generic free ruleset that we'll be launching in the next few weeks, but you can check it out now on our new site at SkirmishGames.com
I'll be posting a big update to the current fantasy rules there in the next couple of days.

Cool, I'll check it out.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Would anyone happen to have a copy of Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish that they would like to sell...? It seems as though it isn't available as a PDF.

You should also check out AntiMatter Games (antimatter-games.com/) and their two excellent games (based on the Song of Blades and Heroes Rules):

DeepWars: antimatter-games.com/games/deepwars/
ShadowSea: antimatter-games.com/games/shadowsea/

(And I feel like we've had this discussion already...somewhat recently too?)

They're about to launch a Kickstarter for "2.5" versions of the rules, I think, and some new models for a new faction too...

In it's strictest form, skirmish simply means that one figure equals one trooper. However, it's come to be a generic term for small engagements often with individual activation of miniatures.

My thoughts on a few that have been mentioned:

Dragon rampant is a very good game, but still operates with squads. You typically need 40+ figures to play as except for monster units you typically have 6 or 12 figures in a unit and 5-7 units per side. Has a moderate campaign system.
I wrote up my first go at it here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/681743.page

Open Combat has a very innovative-but-streamlined combat system. We liked it but felt that it wasn't ready for fantasy combat yet. Honestly, I think that even as a non-magical combat system it still needed a bit of clarifying work so I skipped the kickstarter.
We tried it a few times and blogged our games and thoughts:
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2014/11/battle-report-open-combat-by-second.html
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2015/03/open-combat-battle-for-old-city.html

LoTR.- Worth a try since the 3th edition (very similar to the more recent two editions) rulebook has lots of unit profiles and is widely available for around 6 bucks or so.
I played it once and hope to again sometime.
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2015/05/game-report-lotr-strategy-battle-game.html
No campaign system built in, but the "Battle Companies" fan expansion has a pretty cool system. https://battlecompanies.wordpress.com

Have you tried Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes? I've been playing SBH for 6 years and I think the Advanced version is a very nice improvement.

A few more than I've heard of but not played:

-Darkstorme: From Alternative armies
-Otherworld fantasy skirmish: By Otherworld ministures.
-Brink of Battle: I've read through it. Very detailed, and with tons of options. Not my style of play (I prefer rules-lite), but alot of folks seem to enjoy it's crunchiness. http://www.brinkofbattle.com
-Freeblades
-Warlord: by Reaper. Always wanted to give this a try but never got around to it.
-Fanticide: bought the rules, read them. Nothing special, but does have a very cool setting and bizairre minis.

Lastly, every skirmish gamer owes it to themselves to at least try a "Two Hour Wargames" ruleset. The author has made games in many genres but nearly all operate on a similar "reaction system" that makes for games that often surprise you. http://www.twohourwargames.com
I played the sci-fi version 5150 and didn't find reaction systems to be to my taste, but it's very innovative way of gaming. Most of his games have good campaign systems and nearly all include very well done solo-rules as well. I highly recommend giving the "swordplay" free rules on his site a go to see if a "reaction system" is something you would enjoy. THW has a huge and loyal following among indie gamers and the author is known to support his games very well.

Nobody will mention the elephant game in the room? Age of Sigmar, for all its faults, is a fantasy skirmish game. Buy a single "get started" box and have a force available. The Lizardmen (Seraphon) box even comes with a Carnosaur that costs the same on its own as the full get started box! Some good deals and good models. You can keep forces below 20 models, if you choose.

Failing that, as the models don't completely move independently, try Dark Age or Wrath of Kings from CMoN. I've heard very good things about both.

AoS can be played with individual figures not in squads, though certain bits of rules become inoperative.

However I think the OP must already be aware of AoS and hence by implication rejected it since he already knows about games like Frostgrave and Songs of Blades and Heroes which are far less well known than AoS.

http://shieldbreaker.net/

The rules are more on the minimalistic side for a skirmish game but you also get freedom to define your warband. There is only one list and you create your own units by choosing from the abilities that adjust your basic stats (Move and Combat, that's it) and offer some other features for undead, cheap incompetent units, magic, elite, ranged units, and many other types. The rules are free and there is no specific miniature range (use what you want). The PDF is 18 pages long (with many images) and the rules' simplicity is in contrast to AoS ambiguity.

They don't have a campaign mode but as you build your troops by buying 2 abilities for points you could build your own campaign mode by allowing individual models to buy more abilities after certain number of points (for surviving a game. killing another unit, or other objectives) or even creating more abilities to chose from (the simplicity of the system allows for easy adjustment to your needs).

I actually like Age of Sigmar and am awaiting the completion of a fan made Mordheim.

 Alpharius wrote:
You should also check out AntiMatter Games (antimatter-games.com/) and their two excellent games (based on the Song of Blades and Heroes Rules):
DeepWars: antimatter-games.com/games/deepwars/
ShadowSea: antimatter-games.com/games/shadowsea/
(And I feel like we've had this discussion already...somewhat recently too?)
They're about to launch a Kickstarter for "2.5" versions of the rules, I think, and some new models for a new faction too...

The miniatures look really interesting. I'll check out the Kickstarter when it launches.

 Eilif wrote:
In it's strictest form, skirmish simply means that one figure equals one trooper. However, it's come to be a generic term for small engagements often with individual activation of miniatures.

This sounds about right for me.
I am most interested in keeping the miniature count to 20 or less per side. Less is more, for me. I'd rather build and paint 10 or so unique figures than build and paint 30 identical models just to field a single squad. Plus, I already play Sigmar and 40k. Still, Dragon Rampant sounds kind of interesting.

Open Combat has a very innovative-but-streamlined combat system. We liked it but felt that it wasn't ready for fantasy combat yet. Honestly, I think that even as a non-magical combat system it still needed a bit of clarifying work so I skipped the kickstarter.

This is one that I had heard about but didn't know if there was a campaign system or not. Despite your criticisms, your battle reports make it sound really fun. I like the deployment method of alternating placement combined with no deployment zones aside from a single simple restriction.

Have you tried Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes? I've been playing SBH for 6 years and I think the Advanced version is a very nice improvement.

I have not. Part of the problem is that I need to reel in others... I don't have a cool gaming group like yours where they are willing to try different games regularly, unfortunately. :(

Lastly, every skirmish gamer owes it to themselves to at least try a "Two Hour Wargames" ruleset. The author has made games in many genres but nearly all operate on a similar "reaction system" that makes for games that often surprise you. http://www.twohourwargames.com

I remember reading Chain Reaction a long time ago before I started playing 40k. Time to check it out again.

-Darkstorme: From Alternative armies
-Otherworld fantasy skirmish: By Otherworld ministures.
-Brink of Battle: I've read through it. Very detailed, and with tons of options. Not my style of play (I prefer rules-lite), but alot of folks seem to enjoy it's crunchiness. http://www.brinkofbattle.com
-Freeblades
-Warlord: by Reaper. Always wanted to give this a try but never got around to it.
-Fanticide: bought the rules, read them. Nothing special, but does have a very cool setting and bizairre minis.

I'm really interested in Otherworld Fantasy Skirmish. I just can't justify the PDF price without knowing much about it and not knowing whether or not I can convince folks to even play it.

Sorry to hear about your lack of a gaming group. If you enjoyed SBH (not sure if you played it or not) I can't recommend ASoBH highly enough. Here's the pitch:

SBH is by far my favorite warband skirmish set. Fast, fun and easy to play with an excellent campaign system and tons of flexibility encompasing virtually any fantasy faction, setting or genre.

I've tried Saga, THW (the Sci-fi 5150 version), LoTR, Open combat, Skulldred, Goalsystem Devles, WarEngine (the sci-fi version), Of Gods and Mortals and given a very serious read-through to at least a half dozen others including Mordheim, Fanticide, etc. After 5 years of playing it I still feel that nothing compares to Song of Blades and Heroes and though I've only tried it once, Advanced Song of blades and Heroes seems to be just as good, but more.

I'll give it a whirl. The PDF is pretty cheap.

I'm going to try and push for a 'new miniature game' night at my local shop. Hopefully others will appear from the woodwork and give it some life.