A proliferation of skirmish rules!

[Jack Nastyface]

Gentles all,
Was reading through the Osprey catalogue recently, and I notice that at least 7 or 8 of their titles deal with skirmish level (ie: 1 mini = 1 man) gaming.  To wit: Ronin, Lion Rampant, In Her Majesty's Name, Force on Force, Of Gods and Mortals, Tomorrow's War, A Fistful of Kungfu, and On the Seven Seas.  Other gaming companies seem to be doing similar stuff (like Muskets and Tomahawks), and board-games with minis are also leaning this way (Sargeants, Heroes of Normandie, the Wings of.. series, etc).


Quare: is individual ship / vehicle / man-to-man combat a result of a) the impact of FPS gaming b) the time and cost of building a mini army for traditional set-piece wargames, c) an change in preferred game scale, d) something else or e) all of the above?


Just wondering....yours in gaming,


Jack Nastyface

[GJK]

Pure speculation, but I think that with the popularity with "collectable" mini's/card games that you find with the Ameritrash and Eurogamer stuff has made an impact on what "tradtional" publishers are doing.  The Heroclix and WH40K crowds are wildly popular in a lot of places and that mano-e-mano style of gaming is really popular.  I think that Osprey has an exclusive licensing agreement with a mini's manufacturer and my guess is that selling individual 28-40mm figures is much more cost effective for them than putting out a little Napoleonic army that has several 8mm guys stuck on a stand.  Again, just my guess.

By the way, Force on Force is one of those games that I want to enjoy more of...but it's just lacking too much depth wise. It's quick and easy to set up and play but in the end it boils down to a "high die wins" type of thing.  I've tinkered with the rules a bit and houseruled some stuff but haven't had a chance to test it out yet.  My dream mix?  A cross between Phoenix Command and Force on Force....somebody...anybody....make that game for me....PLEASE!

[Jack Nastyface]

Hey GJK,
Yeah...I hear what you are saying about the FoF higher dice mechanic.  I once posted about a game I played where my D6 Afghanis were soundly trashed by some D8 Marines.  I really didn't think that the extra "d2" would make a difference, but it did.  Then again, maybe that is due to bad gaming on my part.  Perhaps, in order to win I should have just stacked every engagement heavily in my favor (ie: if I had a force that was numerically superior by 3:1, the dice difference wouldn't matter.  On the other, than would just turn every fire fight into a mini Rourke's drift (massive numbers versus superior force) which isn't quite what asymm warfare is about.

Anyways...thanks for the comments.

[Cyrano]

A thought based on my visit to Historicon...

The number of games in which LOTS...I'm talkin' tons and tons...of figures are being pushed around the table is declining.

Back in my day (oh, dear Lord, did I just write that), the typical buy-in to play at the local Napoleonics group was 2,000 25mm figs.  And that was the low end.  Maybe it's time, money, the failure of most rulesets to cope well with that many bits, or a combination thereof, but that has certainly become the exception.

When Ganesha games published "A Song of Drums and Shakos", the Largies published "Sharpe Practice", &c.,  I think a lot of folks found you could have some of the grandeur of Napoleonics with only a tiny fraction of the committment.  That, I think, has proven seductive.

That's not to say there aren't cool monster games run by clubs and the like...there certainly are.  I think, though that a different clientele has emerged and Osprey (and others) has chosen to serve them.

Good topic...

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

[bayonetbrant]

Back in my day (oh, dear Lord, did I just write that), the typical buy-in to play at the local Napoleonics group was 2,000 25mm figs.  And that was the low end. 

and we painted them barefoot!  in the snow!  uphill!  both ways!

[Cyrano]

Back in my day (oh, dear Lord, did I just write that), the typical buy-in to play at the local Napoleonics group was 2,000 25mm figs.  And that was the low end. 

and we painted them barefoot!  in the snow!  uphill!  both ways!

You were allowed to use your feet?

Luxury.

[panzerde]

Back in my day (oh, dear Lord, did I just write that), the typical buy-in to play at the local Napoleonics group was 2,000 25mm figs.  And that was the low end. 

and we painted them barefoot!  in the snow!  uphill!  both ways!

You were allowed to use your feet?

Luxury.

Pshaw.

Me dad used to make us mine the lead from out the garden, carve the figures from wax with our teeth, make clay molds by hand and pour each soldier one at a time. We had to use the road as the only flat surface we could play on, dodging trucks from mill the whole time.

Rules? The only rules we had was a copy of Little Wars hand written on some old newsprint we shared to wrap fish.

And you try and tell the young players of today that, and they won't believe you.

[bob48]

^By gum, lad, that's just how it were. ;D