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Hi,
I didn't find a place to post this thread but, if I'm violating the rules please close this thread.
I'm looking for a small scale miniature game which will not take more than 2 hours per session.
Also, I'm planning to play it with my GF so I think it will be great to have a campaign system.
I was thinking maybe to grab:
Deadzone, Necromunda or Kings of war Vagabond.

Any other insights are more than welcome!

What kind of experience are you after? The skirmish market, which is what you're basically after, is FULL of game options depending on what you want.

Some examples: note all these are skirmish games so you're only putting a handful of models down for each. Though many will have options to "scaleup" to larger encounters. Note that most also work best with a high level of terrain on the board compared to a wargame and will "break" if they don't have enough.
Pretty much all of them feature campaign systems of various natures. Also a solid fun rules set can easily let you craft your own campaigns if you want without too much trouble.

1) Infinity - a sci-fi game based around a fairly deep set of rules. It's generally seen as a bit more complex, the models are also what I'd consider reasonably high skill since they feature quite tiny parts (indeed compared to a games workshop miniature many of the Infinity infantry are quite a bit thinner in sculpt).
It's very popular and has quite a lot of choice and variation in weapons and equipment for missions.

2) Warcry - by Games Workshop. This one is fantasy set in the chaos infested lands of the Eightpoints. It has some interesting features that make it quite ideal as a pickup game.
The Terrain packs that GW has made for it each contain two boards to play on, terrain and cards. These cards you shuffle and then draw for the start of the game, each card showing you how to setup the terrain for that game (The core set has the default setups, the expansion terrain packs both have features for their own terrain and some that combine with the core set terrain to make even more variation).

You also, in the core set or stand alone card pack, draw cards for objectives and deployment on the table. Then there's a further draw for "twists". Twists might be anything from "all units get +1 movement" or "400 points of wandering monsters on the table". And you might have more than one twist per game.

The idea being that you can buy the kit and use the cards to give you random games that pre-define the setup to get you into the game fast.

There's 6 chaos warbands in their own boxes to buy and use; whilst there's also a host of models from regular AoS armies to use as well (these are detailed on card packs and are also in the rulebook). If you choose a non-chaos warband you might find you have to scour ebay for the odd single model; convert or buy a few packs to get a working army together.

They also just released a monsters and mercenaries expansion which further builds on it. This is probably the quickest game (Malifaux likely comes close to it); since its built around a short turn rate and faster gameplay


3) Badgers and Burrows. http://www.oathswornminiatures.co.uk Redwall in miniatures. And if that means nothing to you then anthropomorphic character bands fighting it out over fantasy realms. The sculpts are really easy to work with and hold a lot of charm. I've not yet dipped my toes into the actual game, but it gets good reviews. There's a lot of variety in species and roles in the skirmish side so you can build some very diverse teams up. Well work a look and a likely simpler introduction than some other skirmish games.

4) Malifaux https://www.wyrd-games.net/malifaux in this game you've got a grimdark fantasy realm. Goblins, the cursed, steam punk, gremlins etc.... A wild and crazy realm of madness. The game also features a card system (standard deck of playing cards, though their own are more themed to the style of the game) which aids you in control and using powers and such for your warriors on the tabletop.

5) You've already mentioned Necromunda which is another great GW offering. There's also a neat amount of model building in it too; the Warcry building is single pose models; Necromunda has a rich diversity of weapons and alternate parts both in the box itself and also from Forgeworld (bands have at least 3 or so weapon packs and 2 or so head packs as well as several mercenaries and beasties to augment the game). Lots of weapons, building a campaign is pretty much its backbone. It's also got some board setups in the box itself but can also free-wheel on fully custom terrain setups as well.




Ps I wrote more on Warcry as I'm more directly familiar with it, but each of the games features its own quirks and styles and is worth a look.

 Overread wrote:
What kind of experience are you after? The skirmish market, which is what you're basically after, is FULL of game options depending on what you want.

Some examples: note all these are skirmish games so you're only putting a handful of models down for each. Though many will have options to "scaleup" to larger encounters. Note that most also work best with a high level of terrain on the board compared to a wargame and will "break" if they don't have enough.
Pretty much all of them feature campaign systems of various natures. Also a solid fun rules set can easily let you craft your own campaigns if you want without too much trouble.

1) Infinity - a sci-fi game based around a fairly deep set of rules. It's generally seen as a bit more complex, the models are also what I'd consider reasonably high skill since they feature quite tiny parts (indeed compared to a games workshop miniature many of the Infinity infantry are quite a bit thinner in sculpt).
It's very popular and has quite a lot of choice and variation in weapons and equipment for missions.

2) Warcry - by Games Workshop. This one is fantasy set in the chaos infested lands of the Eightpoints. It has some interesting features that make it quite ideal as a pickup game.
The Terrain packs that GW has made for it each contain two boards to play on, terrain and cards. These cards you shuffle and then draw for the start of the game, each card showing you how to setup the terrain for that game (The core set has the default setups, the expansion terrain packs both have features for their own terrain and some that combine with the core set terrain to make even more variation).

You also, in the core set or stand alone card pack, draw cards for objectives and deployment on the table. Then there's a further draw for "twists". Twists might be anything from "all units get +1 movement" or "400 points of wandering monsters on the table". And you might have more than one twist per game.

The idea being that you can buy the kit and use the cards to give you random games that pre-define the setup to get you into the game fast.

There's 6 chaos warbands in their own boxes to buy and use; whilst there's also a host of models from regular AoS armies to use as well (these are detailed on card packs and are also in the rulebook). If you choose a non-chaos warband you might find you have to scour ebay for the odd single model; convert or buy a few packs to get a working army together.

They also just released a monsters and mercenaries expansion which further builds on it. This is probably the quickest game (Malifaux likely comes close to it); since its built around a short turn rate and faster gameplay


3) Badgers and Burrows. http://www.oathswornminiatures.co.uk Redwall in miniatures. And if that means nothing to you then anthropomorphic character bands fighting it out over fantasy realms. The sculpts are really easy to work with and hold a lot of charm. I've not yet dipped my toes into the actual game, but it gets good reviews. There's a lot of variety in species and roles in the skirmish side so you can build some very diverse teams up. Well work a look and a likely simpler introduction than some other skirmish games.

4) Malifaux https://www.wyrd-games.net/malifaux in this game you've got a grimdark fantasy realm. Goblins, the cursed, steam punk, gremlins etc.... A wild and crazy realm of madness. The game also features a card system (standard deck of playing cards, though their own are more themed to the style of the game) which aids you in control and using powers and such for your warriors on the tabletop.

5) You've already mentioned Necromunda which is another great GW offering. There's also a neat amount of model building in it too; the Warcry building is single pose models; Necromunda has a rich diversity of weapons and alternate parts both in the box itself and also from Forgeworld (bands have at least 3 or so weapon packs and 2 or so head packs as well as several mercenaries and beasties to augment the game). Lots of weapons, building a campaign is pretty much its backbone. It's also got some board setups in the box itself but can also free-wheel on fully custom terrain setups as well.




Ps I wrote more on Warcry as I'm more directly familiar with it, but each of the games features its own quirks and styles and is worth a look.

Wow! Thanks for the comment!
I don't have any experience in skirmish games except for playing wildlands (also I'm a board gamer for 4 years already). I'm looking for a game with smart and easy role set which we will discuss the game a few days after with campaign and strong narrative.
Infinity and Malifaux are not supposed to be played on a large surface (4x4 or something if I'm not mistaken).
I live in a small apartment and, I don't have much room.
Also, I'm looking for a game which I can buy a base set and, I will be able to play it right out of the box.

If you want a base set and play out of the box then Warcry would probably fit that bill very easily. The core set comes with two warbands and all you'd need to play and is very much made to run out of the box.

Infinity I believe has some boxed sets and tehre are some loads of terrain options out there, but you might have to buy the core box and then add terrain to it. Same for most of the others.

On the GW side of things, Warcry & Underworlds can both be played out of the box, and the boards are designed to fit on card tables - we play Warcry on 2x4 foot boards. Warcry is the more narrative one of the two (and quicker to play, I find).

kushnir wrote:
Hi,
I didn't find a place to post this thread but, if I'm violating the rules please close this thread.
I'm looking for a small scale miniature game which will not take more than 2 hours per session.
Also, I'm planning to play it with my GF so I think it will be great to have a campaign system.
I was thinking maybe to grab:
Deadzone, Necromunda or Kings of war Vagabond.

Any other insights are more than welcome!

What miniatures do you have and what would you like to have? What terrain do you have and what would you enjoy having/scratchbuilding together?

Killteam plays very fast and has expansions that allow it to scale well. Official models are easy to pick up- look for individual squads from 40k starters ets (know no fear/first strike) sets sold separately for quite cheap on ebay. It could be also played with basically any miniatures- monsters as tyranids, soldiers as guard, chaos cult or eldar, - the low model count allows a kind of interpretation that a battle game wouldn't. The rules are neat and tidy, with team customisation options primarily about miniature selection and specialist skills.

Necromunda similarly can accommodate all manner of conversions- but the ruleset is less neat, with massive gaping holes in how campaign play works. Its also much more involved- there's many types of even basic handgun to choose from - from automatic pistols to revolvers to laspistols- and each of these is differentiated somewhat in the rules. You'll tend to need more books to play the game too, with faction rules spread across several books and expansions .


Automatically Appended Next Post:

kushnir wrote:

I don't have any experience in skirmish games except for playing wildlands (also I'm a board gamer for 4 years already). I'm looking for a game with smart and easy role set which we will discuss the game a few days after with campaign and strong narrative.
Infinity and Malifaux are not supposed to be played on a large surface (4x4 or something if I'm not mistaken).
I live in a small apartment and, I don't have much room.
Also, I'm looking for a game which I can buy a base set and, I will be able to play it right out of the box.

Killteam and Warcry both have very small footprints (30x22) and come with the stuff you need to play in the box- models, mats terrain etc (though the new KT box set could use a little padding wioth more terrain IMO)

Assembly is required though- and painting is desirable.

 =Angel= wrote:

kushnir wrote:
Hi,
I didn't find a place to post this thread but, if I'm violating the rules please close this thread.
I'm looking for a small scale miniature game which will not take more than 2 hours per session.
Also, I'm planning to play it with my GF so I think it will be great to have a campaign system.
I was thinking maybe to grab:
Deadzone, Necromunda or Kings of war Vagabond.

Any other insights are more than welcome!

What miniatures do you have and what would you like to have? What terrain do you have and what would you enjoy having/scratchbuilding together?

Killteam plays very fast and has expansions that allow it to scale well. Official models are easy to pick up- look for individual squads from 40k starters ets (know no fear/first strike) sets sold separately for quite cheap on ebay. It could be also played with basically any miniatures- monsters as tyranids, soldiers as guard, chaos cult or eldar, - the low model count allows a kind of interpretation that a battle game wouldn't. The rules are neat and tidy, with team customisation options primarily about miniature selection and specialist skills.

Necromunda similarly can accommodate all manner of conversions- but the ruleset is less neat, with massive gaping holes in how campaign play works. Its also much more involved- there's many types of even basic handgun to choose from - from automatic pistols to revolvers to laspistols- and each of these is differentiated somewhat in the rules. You'll tend to need more books to play the game too, with faction rules spread across several books and expansions .


Automatically Appended Next Post:

kushnir wrote:

I don't have any experience in skirmish games except for playing wildlands (also I'm a board gamer for 4 years already). I'm looking for a game with smart and easy role set which we will discuss the game a few days after with campaign and strong narrative.
Infinity and Malifaux are not supposed to be played on a large surface (4x4 or something if I'm not mistaken).
I live in a small apartment and, I don't have much room.
Also, I'm looking for a game which I can buy a base set and, I will be able to play it right out of the box.

Killteam and Warcry both have very small footprints (30x22) and come with the stuff you need to play in the box- models, mats terrain etc (though the new KT box set could use a little padding wioth more terrain IMO)

Assembly is required though- and painting is desirable.

Regarding your questions:
I have few miniatures of Wildlands and also there is some minis in Thunderstone Quest.
I dont have any terrain.


For WC\KT I feel like the rules are shallow and very luck based.

kushnir wrote:
For WC\KT I feel like the rules are shallow and very luck based.

Have a look at Underworlds then - it's more competitive than narrative, and the deck-building aspect removes some of the reliance on luck.

Could blood bowl be of interest?

The box set should have everything to play a game sans paint

For a non GW option have you looked at fallout wasteland warfare at all. Starter set has everything you need apart from terrain and most of the scenarios are on a 3x3 board. Comes with a settlement mode too which would give you some campaign options.

For something a lot more thematic and adventure based, you could do worse than look at Rangers of Shadow deep. The requirements for this game are small and the miniature requirements are light in that you don't need too many and you're not restricted to a specific manufacturer. The games themselves are like a light roleplay game but you use a 3x3 area with terrain and probably about 10-20 miniatures a game. You follow a series of games in a linked campaign and you level up your warband between games. You can play solo or with multiple players cooperatively.

Another option from the same author is Frostgrave. A great game. Simple rules but quite thematic.

I'd suggest checking YouTube for a few reports on both systems.

Are you looking for purely competitive games or would you be interested in indirectly competitive games or even cooperative games? There are a ton of skirmish games and board games that can provide hours and hours of entertainment without anyone having to be "the loser".

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Are you looking for purely competitive games or would you be interested in indirectly competitive games or even cooperative games? There are a ton of skirmish games and board games that can provide hours and hours of entertainment without anyone having to be "the loser".

I dont mind as long its fun and I can play it on a normal table (not 4x4) with my GF.

What does she prefer?

Great recommendations and questions so far.

My family had experience playing Blood Bowl, Gorkamorka, Mice and Mystics, Dust Tactics (the board game version), and Last Night On..... series.

I purchased a huge variety of skirmish games, let my family look through them, answered questions about them all, and then we decided what to play for next year.

They looked at.....

Frostgrave/Ghost Archipelago
Necromunda
Warcry
Dracula's America
Kill Team
Ronin
Broken Legions
Outremer: Faith and Blood
In Her Majesty's Name
Burrows and Badgers
Last Days
The Walking Dead
Super System 4th Edition
Land of the Free
Strange Aeons

After looking at, discussing, and thinking about all of these games they decided on......

Burrows and Badgers hands down

Just my experience.

You can get starter sets from Oathsworn and the book from Osprey. It is a relatively simple game with a straight forward Necromunda style campaign system. It does use a variety of polyhedron dice and Oathsworn anthropomorphic animal miniatures. It does not have terrain built in, but is played in a 3x3 area.

I enjoy Star Breach.

Small skirmish game, played with only a handful of models- it's a model-agnostic game, so you can use whatever sci-fi models you have. It has a fun campaign system.

Rules are free online, too.

www.starbreach.com

kushnir wrote:
Hi,
I didn't find a place to post this thread but, if I'm violating the rules please close this thread.
I'm looking for a small scale miniature game which will not take more than 2 hours per session.
Also, I'm planning to play it with my GF so I think it will be great to have a campaign system.
I was thinking maybe to grab:
Deadzone, Necromunda or Kings of war Vagabond.

Any other insights are more than welcome!

If you are looking for a home group setting and want games with continuous support, Malifaux, Mantic's Deadzone, Warmachine/Hordes (compatible with Riot Quest and Company of Iron), and Infinity.

Malifaux (Pros)
- Strong narrative RPG style system through expansions
- League games each year
- Low model count

Malifaux (Cons)
- Does not expand into a larger system

Infinity (Pros)
- Narrative RPG style system through expansions
- League games each year
- Low model count
- Unique asymmetric story mode packs released each year with unique models

Infinity (Cons)
- Does not expand into a larger system (has Asteria though)

Mantic's Deadzone, Warmachine/Hordes (Company of Iron)
- League games each year
- Low model count
- Expands into larger cross compatible systems (Warpath, Dreadball, Star Saga, Warmachine/Hordes, Riot Quest)

While GW stuff is good (and suggested if you are playing through FLGS and there is a strong presence in your area) games like Warcry are really just one and done vehicles to sell you into a larger game. Expect a year of releases/support then done. While with Mantic they are rotational updating their cross compatible systems and with Warmachine/Hordes the Oblivion release provides narrative support and scenarios for the core game and their skirmish Company of Iron system. The Malifaux system is great and they have a great fleshed out and deep RPG system for crews and Infinity actually releases the equivalent of story packs each year.

Which board games do you play? Several board games provide miniatures which can quite easily be used in skirmish games my Zombicide Black Plague models find use in Kings of War,Open Combat, Warlords of Erewhon and could be used for many other fantasy genre games. If you own a bunch of sci-fi or historical games looking for a ruleset which uses those models will save you money.

kushnir wrote:
Hi,
I didn't find a place to post this thread but, if I'm violating the rules please close this thread.
I'm looking for a small scale miniature game which will not take more than 2 hours per session.
Also, I'm planning to play it with my GF so I think it will be great to have a campaign system.
I was thinking maybe to grab:
Deadzone, Necromunda or Kings of war Vagabond.

Any other insights are more than welcome!

Necromunda is okay, I like the older version of the game with the awesome multi-level 3d terrain.

I would suggest an option you might consider is Adeptus Titanicus, which is a great and highly underrated!

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
What does she prefer?

She doesn't prefer one over the other.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Easy E wrote:
Great recommendations and questions so far.

My family had experience playing Blood Bowl, Gorkamorka, Mice and Mystics, Dust Tactics (the board game version), and Last Night On..... series.

I purchased a huge variety of skirmish games, let my family look through them, answered questions about them all, and then we decided what to play for next year.

They looked at.....

Frostgrave/Ghost Archipelago
Necromunda
Warcry
Dracula's America
Kill Team
Ronin
Broken Legions
Outremer: Faith and Blood
In Her Majesty's Name
Burrows and Badgers
Last Days
The Walking Dead
Super System 4th Edition
Land of the Free
Strange Aeons

After looking at, discussing, and thinking about all of these games they decided on......

Burrows and Badgers hands down

Just my experience.

You can get starter sets from Oathsworn and the book from Osprey. It is a relatively simple game with a straight forward Necromunda style campaign system. It does use a variety of polyhedron dice and Oathsworn anthropomorphic animal miniatures. It does not have terrain built in, but is played in a 3x3 area.

Why did they pick BnB?
Should I buy 2 war-band or should I make my own list?

Burrows and Badgers is very "Watership Down" style, it's all animals, etc....so it will have a strong attraction to younger kids. Kids are kids and their interests and desires will shift like the sands. It's why I wouldn't heavily recommend getting "invested" in a game with a kid under 10. Board games would be easier, or simpler skirmish games where the miniatures and terrain can be used in other projects later. Some kids will come and go every couple of months expressing random interest, etc. Just depends on the kid.

Does she/do you like Super Heroes? Knight Models made a Marvel game, and still make a Batman AND a DC heroes game. Both play differently, but share some models. The DC system is built on the wreckage of the Marvel game, which was a lot of fun (ended because license w/the Mouse didnt get renewed). Models are pretty sweet, and a standard sized team is between 4-8 models. Rules are free online too for the DC game. Batman requires a book.

It doesn't fit the narrative/campaign requirement you set out, but it does fit in a small space, the rules are far from shallow, and you can easily play several (very satisfying) games in two hours, and the game is Underworlds. I strongly suggesting giving it a go - the new starter Beastgrave is a good place to begin, or you can find the first season's (Shadespire) rules online (just be aware there've been a few changes since then).

The campaign system for Lord of the Rings Battle Companies is pretty fun, unfortunately the way the products are sold* are not very convenient in a pick-up-and-play sense, so it probably doesn't hit the spot for you.

*Need main rulebook, battle companies book, 1-2 armies books depending on the forces you like (though could get round that with the available apps). Then the models for the warbands aren't necessarily sold in convenient groups either.

There are so many free or cheap rule sets out there that I recommend you buy the minis you want, or a big box dungeon crawler board game (these have campaigns and character progression) specifically for the miniatures/theme that you and she like the most. Try the game the miniatures came with, if you have the rules, and if you don't like them try another rule set.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
There are so many free or cheap rule sets out there that I recommend you buy the minis you want, or a big box dungeon crawler board game (these have campaigns and character progression) specifically for the miniatures/theme that you and she like the most. Try the game the miniatures came with, if you have the rules, and if you don't like them try another rule set.

Can you please mention few of these games?

marxlives wrote:

kushnir wrote:
Hi,
I didn't find a place to post this thread but, if I'm violating the rules please close this thread.
I'm looking for a small scale miniature game which will not take more than 2 hours per session.
Also, I'm planning to play it with my GF so I think it will be great to have a campaign system.
I was thinking maybe to grab:
Deadzone, Necromunda or Kings of war Vagabond.

Any other insights are more than welcome!

If you are looking for a home group setting and want games with continuous support, Malifaux, Mantic's Deadzone, Warmachine/Hordes (compatible with Riot Quest and Company of Iron), and Infinity.

Malifaux (Pros)
- Strong narrative RPG style system through expansions
- League games each year
- Low model count

Malifaux (Cons)
- Does not expand into a larger system

Infinity (Pros)
- Narrative RPG style system through expansions
- League games each year
- Low model count
- Unique asymmetric story mode packs released each year with unique models

Infinity (Cons)
- Does not expand into a larger system (has Asteria though)

Mantic's Deadzone, Warmachine/Hordes (Company of Iron)
- League games each year
- Low model count
- Expands into larger cross compatible systems (Warpath, Dreadball, Star Saga, Warmachine/Hordes, Riot Quest)

While GW stuff is good (and suggested if you are playing through FLGS and there is a strong presence in your area) games like Warcry are really just one and done vehicles to sell you into a larger game. Expect a year of releases/support then done. While with Mantic they are rotational updating their cross compatible systems and with Warmachine/Hordes the Oblivion release provides narrative support and scenarios for the core game and their skirmish Company of Iron system. The Malifaux system is great and they have a great fleshed out and deep RPG system for crews and Infinity actually releases the equivalent of story packs each year.

To add on to this;

Zone Raiders

Pros: One $30 rulebook and you have everything (so far). No model range, the game was intentionally designed to be model-agnostic. Simple rules, heavily focused on movement- your minis can run up walls and use ziplines! Simple yet still strategic. Has rules for a campaign.

Cons: Ummm.............. Rules are simpler than, say, Malifaux. The majority of equipment is shared by all factions. Not many cons, IMO.

Gaslands

Pros: Mad Max/Twisted Metal car combat! One rulebook (newly collated with free supplements). Played with Hot Wheels/Matchbox etc. Usually around 3 cars per person. Very cinematic rules.

Cons: Uses a fair amount of tokens, if that is a concern.

Not a full Skirmish game, but I gotta mention Dakka's own

Maelstrom's Edge:

Pros- smaller than 40k/Kings of War etc. games. Complex, deeply tactical ruleset full of FUN! Great minis at affordable prices, compelling background, a well-realized experience of battle in the future. Sprue (soon to be 2) of parts for making your own terrain. Ongoing releases.

Cons: The game isn't simple. It's absolutely worth it in my view. Squad-based skirmish, roughly 30 minis per side, like smaller (or WAY old editions of 40k).

If you settle for a system without a campaign, then you may want to consider monsterpocaypse. The game is played on a paper map with terrain. The starters come with enough terrain an models for one player to begin. It is a great game. It is far easier to learn than infinity or malifaux.

Systems that have campaigns are generally made for leagues with many players. Things like blood bowl and necromunda do not work as well for two players in a 'campaign', although the games do play well with two players.

Games that are more narrative may be worth considering. Blackstone fortress, Warhammer quest, Harry potter, or even Resident evil.

I think something like Harry Potter would be a good bet for the GF.

 spaceelf wrote:
If you settle for a system without a campaign, then you may want to consider monsterpocaypse. The game is played on a paper map with terrain. The starters come with enough terrain an models for one player to begin. It is a great game. It is far easier to learn than infinity or malifaux.

Systems that have campaigns are generally made for leagues with many players. Things like blood bowl and necromunda do not work as well for two players in a 'campaign', although the games do play well with two players.

Games that are more narrative may be worth considering. Blackstone fortress, Warhammer quest, Harry potter, or even Resident evil.

I think something like Harry Potter would be a good bet for the GF.

What is better Blackstone fortress or Warhammer quest?
I can use Warhammer quest for frostgrave

kushnir wrote:

Why did they pick BnB?
Should I buy 2 war-band or should I make my own list?