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I am moving and will not have the space for a 40k sized army, i need to find a cheap dice rolling skirmish sized game that i can at most fit in a milk crate.
Any suggestions?

Infinty would be my first recommendation if it didn't require a ton of terrain.

 The Home Nuggeteer wrote:
I am moving and will not have the space for a 40k sized army, i need to find a cheap dice rolling skirmish sized game that i can at most fit in a milk crate.
Any suggestions?

Take a look at Osprey Publishing Wargaming. They have a number of old school rules sets that meet your description. I own Ronin and In Her Majesty's Name, the former being samurai skirmish combat and the latter Victorian Sci-Fi (more Jules Verne & H.G. Wells as opposed to modern Steampunk). While North Star Figures produce the official minis for Ronin, IHMN, and several other of the Osprey skirmish games, you can use whatever figures you like. (In many cases the publisher realized that many potential customers already own the appropriate figures for the more esoteric periods.)

Brigade Games is one of the U.S distributors for Northstar, and the only one I have contact info for. It's a small business (IINM its just the owner working out of his home) so he's often backlogged, but he does come through in the end.

Also, I used to recommend Malifaux, but since I have not played under the 2nd edition, I'm not sure how much the game has changed.

Infinity is a good choice as its popular so it shouldn't be that hard to find opponents and you only need a handful of models, plus all the rules are free. Warmachine and Dropzone Commander would also be a decent alternatives.

Might I suggust looking at Gruntz. It's a 15mm scale game that lets you have that 40k sized army without taking up a huge amount of space. The game can scale quite comfortably from platoon sized to company (+ support) sized.

There's absolutely no limitations on how you want to play your army as the rules don't provide army lists but unit creators which are quite capable of letting you create anything from a mindless beast to a power armour wearing super human or a basic technical to a hover tank. This also means you can use whatever miniatures you want.

Finally building an army is ridiculously cheap you can easily get all the infantry and support weapons you'll ever need for around the cost of a 40k codex and tanks can easily be found at about the cost of a single space marine bike.

Of course it's not a well known game so you'd probably need to provide another army for an opponent. But at those prices building a couple of small armies would definitely cost a lot less than even half of a standard sized 40k army. Just thought I'd offer a way to get big sci fi battles without taking up huge amounts of space or spending a lot of money (looking at DZC there lovely game but so expensive).

I would really like a sci fi skirmish game, about how many models does inifinity need?

 The Home Nuggeteer wrote:
I would really like a sci fi skirmish game, about how many models does inifinity need?

Less than a dozen.

Dropzone Commander isn't that expensive, my 1500 point list cost me £150 or so and as that includes 2 starter sets so I also have a 1000 (ish) point Scourge army effectively free.

If it's a skirmish game your after also check out Mantic's DeadZone. The rules are generally well-liked, the terrain very customizable (and useful for Infinity if you later decide to go that route) and the core box has most of what you'd need in it (more terrain is always nice though). The starters of the other factions aren't outrageous, and two new races will be added in the next few months. The material of the models can be annoying to clean for painting, but the game itself seems like something that might appeal to you.

 Krinsath wrote:
If it's a skirmish game your after also check out Mantic's DeadZone. The rules are generally well-liked, the terrain very customizable (and useful for Infinity if you later decide to go that route) and the core box has most of what you'd need in it (more terrain is always nice though). The starters of the other factions aren't outrageous, and two new races will be added in the next few months. The material of the models can be annoying to clean for painting, but the game itself seems like something that might appeal to you.

There I was, wondering why on earth no-one had mentioned Deadzone, yet.

 Palindrome wrote:

 The Home Nuggeteer wrote:
I would really like a sci fi skirmish game, about how many models does inifinity need?

Less than a dozen.

Dropzone Commander isn't that expensive, my 1500 point list cost me £150 or so and as that includes 2 starter sets so I also have a 1000 (ish) point Scourge army effectively free.

being american and lazy about how many usd(us dollars) is 150 pounds?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also i cant store terrain, it will be a public bourding schoole so terrain will be books, i am hesitant on dropzone even though i have always wanted to play that game as i understand it needs dense urban terrain.

 Chillreaper wrote:

 Krinsath wrote:
If it's a skirmish game your after also check out Mantic's DeadZone. The rules are generally well-liked, the terrain very customizable (and useful for Infinity if you later decide to go that route) and the core box has most of what you'd need in it (more terrain is always nice though). The starters of the other factions aren't outrageous, and two new races will be added in the next few months. The material of the models can be annoying to clean for painting, but the game itself seems like something that might appeal to you.

There I was, wondering why on earth no-one had mentioned Deadzone, yet.

Personally, I didn't because the models are abysmal.

You could try Dark Age. It's post apocalyptic sci if that doesn't require as much terrain. Very fun.

I really dont want as much grimdark, just a bit. It needs to be gritty but not everyone is doomed life sucks gritty

Honestly. If you can wait a month or so, the Infinity Operation Icestorm starter box might be a great choice.

So yeah. My final vote would prob go to infinity or dark age.

But then again, there's always MERCS, which is far More space conscious than both of those...;

 The Home Nuggeteer wrote:

 Palindrome wrote:

 The Home Nuggeteer wrote:
I would really like a sci fi skirmish game, about how many models does inifinity need?

Less than a dozen.

Dropzone Commander isn't that expensive, my 1500 point list cost me £150 or so and as that includes 2 starter sets so I also have a 1000 (ish) point Scourge army effectively free.

being american and lazy about how many usd(us dollars) is 150 pounds?

Unfortunately many more than it used to be. Based on current exchange rates 150GBP is right around 256USD. Still local stock in the States already wouldn't be affected by the relatively recent fall of the dollar. That's a problem you'll find with most UK-based games companies though and not unique to DzC

 The Home Nuggeteer wrote:

Also i cant store terrain, it will be a public bourding schoole so terrain will be books, i am hesitant on dropzone even though i have always wanted to play that game as i understand it needs dense urban terrain.

Deadzone's terrain is modular and comes as 3" squares you assemble as desired. For small structures, the connectors hold them together well enough. As a consequence, unless you glue the connectors in to assemble the buildings permanently, you only have to have space to stack the tiles. I have my insanely large DZ terrain collection in a single mid-size container which volume-wise is probably on order with a milk crate (taller, but narrower). However, that much terrain is enough to cover a 4'x4' area pretty well, which is far in excess of 1) what you'd get and 2) what you need.

A short video showing the sprues in action:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ytM0cNS2TwI

Just tossing that out there since storage is not the bear it would be from other manufacturers. The terrain is also available separately.

One of the nice things about Dropzone (considering your circumstance) is that the terrain that comes in the 2 Player Starter Set and the Cityscape/Ruinscape sets is heavy cardstock - and foldable. If you don't glue it, you can fold it back up after usage.

Infinity is also a good choice, and probably would be easier to find players for, but also begs for pretty dense terrain. I don't think any terrain suppliers have the same kind of fold-up options. However, both games you could use boxes, books, etc for terrain if you needed to.

 Nick Ellingworth wrote:
Might I suggust looking at Gruntz. It's a 15mm scale game that lets you have that 40k sized army without taking up a huge amount of space. The game can scale quite comfortably from platoon sized to company (+ support) sized.

Of course if he liked the ruleset but actually wanted to have people to play with, he could just buy Warmachine

But if storage space is the ultimate priority, I'd go with a naval or space fleet game, as those require only a few models and virtually no terrain.

But that's also its downfall of MERCs as you need to keep those playmats on hand and never get to experience 3D terrain without extra headache.

Infinity is decent to start with, even better that it's getting a new edition.

Dark Age is and interesting recommendation. I can't recommend it myself. However, that's not because I think it's a bad game, I actually think it's a great game with tight and fast playing rules. However, the problem is that its entire world and art design is centered around brown/tan pseudo-bondage imagery across all factions. It gets old quickly. The newer miniatures and designs have started to get away from that slightly, but I'm not sure if that's enough to make up for the rest of the entire line having the issue.

Cost and space are my two priorities, how much is it to get into infinity.

Dropzone commander is the way to go. Their premium starter armies come with a case that holds about x 4 of the starter.

Dust Tactics is a pretty fun game, you can play on a map or on a table and terrain. Models can be had at a reasonable price.

Just a suggestion. I'm a fan of the Weird War II theme.

Get the Dust Tactics boardgame. It even comes in a nice box to put everything in.

Can't get much more wallet and space friendly than 15mm in miniatures. I would say go Gruntz and/or Two Hour Wargames 5150. Great thing about both is you can use whatever minis you want.

Lots of intersting suggestions here.

Recommended:

I'd suggest Infinity. I'm not a player myself, but it definitely fits the bill for a game that doesn't take up much space. The figures are not cheap. At discount, they are still 4-10 bucks each, but you don't need many and that's really not too bad for a well-produced-and-supported game that actually has a player base.

If you want to dabble in fantasy, my favorite game (in any genre) is Song of Blades and Heroes. It's an $8 rulebook, with $8 supplements, that is as cheap or expensive as you want it to be depending on where you buy the 8-15 miniatures to make up your warband. An entire warband will usually fit in a pistol case, so space is very much not an issue.

Gruntz is another excellent choice, though you're going to have to do a bit of work to find or convert opponents. Still, it's a well-regarded, ruleset and it's shocking how affordable 15mm minis and vehicles are, how many different ranges are available and how little space they take up.

Maybe not recommended:

Deadzone is not a bad choice, but my buddy has been building his terrain, and his verdict is that to make it sturdy, and paint it well, you're really going to want to assemble and glue the terrain together and that's going to take up alot more than one milk crate.

Warmachine is also not a bad choice. A very tight ruleset, great minis and a nicely developed background. However, I'd see what the local gamers are like, and whether unpainted armies bother you. I've seen far more unpainted WM figs than painted around here, and I find that depressing. Of course many WM players seem to be just as happy playing on cut out outlines of terrain as actual terrain, so that would help the storage issue...

Battletech!

Starter box is $60, contains 26 minis, easily fits in a milk crate. Able to expand )massively) if you want to. Or you can keep it simple. Fun either way you do it.

Cheap, skirmish and easy to transport and without much terrain.

Malifaux: Starter costs like $30 in the U.S. and each mini is around $10. Same terrain as Mercs.

X-Wing (if you like spaceships): Starter costs like $27 and each mini like $11-$22. The game use a small space mat starting from 3x3 feet and bigger if you want.

Infinity: is a good game, but requires a lot of terrain.

Mercs: starter costs like $30 and requires less terrain than Infinity

Dreadball: teams costs like $25 and MVPs like $7-$20, thre are some issues between seasons as some players have pointed out. The game use a small game board.

Deadzone: If you share the starter with other player is about $40-$50. The problem I dont know what is the minimum terrain to use.

Dropzone Commander: I am investing in this game after 40K and Kings of War. The same as Deadzone, buy the two player starter and share it. You only need to buy a commander and the deck of cards to bring more flavor to the game. The buildings you will have to fold them back to the box.

Battletech Intro box set: I don´t have much info about expanding this game, but is full of mechs, folding mat and a lot of extras.

There are other games without minis: FUBAR, Dirtside 2, Tommorrows War, Future War Commander, Stargrunt, 5150 and a lot more, but they don´t have the popularity as the ones listed on top.

I can't recommend Infinity nearly enough. The game is amazing. It needs a LOT of terrain though. Brilliant game.

Warmachine you need more models but less terrain. I love this game.

Malifaux is just a ton of fun with a lot of character.

I don't think you can go wrong with either of those.

 The Home Nuggeteer wrote:
I am moving and will not have the space for a 40k sized army, i need to find a cheap dice rolling skirmish sized game that i can at most fit in a milk crate.
Any suggestions?

Honestly I would first find out what games are played in the area that you are moving. Too often I've moved to a new game, then found out no one in the area plays so I have a bunch of great miniatures sitting in my display case. For example I love Infinity but I have no players around me who play not to mention none of the game stores really carry it where I live.

Way off the beaten track, but you might want to try something like.....

SuperSystems, Pulp Ciy, or that new Batman game.

Mercs, urban war, infinity, gorkamorka, necromunda, mordheim, cultlass, deadzone and legends of the high seas. To name just a few all worth a look.

Remember he wants a game with not much terrain.