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Hey guys,

My wife and I still play 8th edition but since our little girl came into our lives 18 months ago we haven't had time to play. Did GW do skirmish rules for classic WHFB or any tips on playing small games but still keeping the flavor?

Yes there are several ways of playing skirmish, several rulesets etc both official and unofficial.

Also separate de facto Warhammer skirmish game called Mordheim which you can play out of your collections just as easily as making specific forces for, though the latter is the intent.


However for quick games stick to 1200pts with a cap on magic. 1200pts is a good small battle for 8th, less for easlier editions.

With 8th units tend to be larger which adds more flavour but doesnt notably add to time to play if you use movement trays. The number of units is what takes up the time, their size less so.

Ban large numbers skirmishers unless skirmish trays are used. Put the forces back on the trays when not in use and keep them on the shelf. Make premade armies ready for you and an opponent so when you play you can have everything ready quickly and put away just as fast.

Soon you will be in your stride have babies strapped to your chest in man carriers, a bit like Quato from Total Recall, and you will be playing 3k armies and looking after you little ones in your stride. I know this not from experience but because wargamer dads are common on Youtube, and some vlog theri games with their infants present. In fact in one video the editing was explained that two gamer dads had got together with their kids and looked after them, and decided what can we do that we can do while being constantly interrupted. The answer was a vast game of Warhammer fantasy with a YouTube blog. Of course there were a lot of stoppages but the game was played out the kids were looked after and this counted not as hobby time but dad time, with the mothers both out having time to themselves.
Its a win-win-win-win, but I am not saying it will be easy.

Daston wrote:
Hey guys,

My wife and I still play 8th edition but since our little girl came into our lives 18 months ago we haven't had time to play. Did GW do skirmish rules for classic WHFB or any tips on playing small games but still keeping the flavor?

Yes they did. Back in 6th edition a they created a specific ruleset for Skirmish with loads of different scenarios. You can find them courtesy of way back machine:-

http://web.archive.org/web/20040910001348/us.games-workshop.com/games/warhammer/skirmish/scenarioslist_sort.asp

Personally I’ve had great games with small points (about 700 points each army). Most don’t seem to like that small of a number for 8th but my play group has had many fun and interesting games using less than 1k points an army.

We have a member on this board doing several 700 point armies for 6th, so you have a kindred spirit of sorts.



I didn't delve far enough into 8th to know exactly what they did with Skirmish, but I'd say it wouldn't be THAT hard to port over the concepts from 6th Ed. Skirmish and adjust from there.

It would hardly involve any changes at all, except for random charges which will be necessary in order to give slower troops a chance.
Steadfast wont come into it, neither will supporting ranks. Yet you will have the benefit of being able to use the newer units.

 Orlanth wrote:
Yes there are several ways of playing skirmish, several rulesets etc both official and unofficial.

Also separate de facto Warhammer skirmish game called Mordheim which you can play out of your collections just as easily as making specific forces for, though the latter is the intent.


However for quick games stick to 1200pts with a cap on magic. 1200pts is a good small battle for 8th, less for easlier editions.

Our 8th ed intro league started at 750 points but could be played at 1.000 too.

The only tweaks were to use 2D3 instead of 2D6 for winds of magic. We banned 6 spells for a while (if you rolled a 6 you got to choose between 1-5), too, and also we allowed a unit banner count as BSB paying the BSB tax (in case you could not afford a proper BSB).

Games wrapped in something like 1h, 1:30 tops which also led to a rematch swapping armies format.

9th age also has something like that with the quick starter simplified rules. Worth taking a look too.

 Just Tony wrote:
We have a member on this board doing several 700 point armies for 6th, so you have a kindred spirit of sorts.

Yeah but I don’t plan on keeping them at 700 points for long. Eventually they will be at least 2k points each army (I currently have Skaven, high elves, and dark elves). But my free time seems to get eaten up playing Warhammer than building Warhammer currently.

Refreshingly realistic.

Gangland wrote:
Personally I’ve had great games with small points (about 700 points each army).

YES!!! This is what I am hoping for too.

 KTG17 wrote:

Gangland wrote:
Personally I’ve had great games with small points (about 700 points each army).

YES!!! This is what I am hoping for too.

It's forwarded as a jump off position.