War games go back a long way, and I'm pretty familiar with the historical and fantasy games that came before the big names around today.
But I feel as though sci fi comes up a little short. Was 40k/Rogue Trader the first big one to hit the scene? What inspired it? And what lesser known games came after it? I'd really like to read more rule sets, because it's something I enjoy, but it's such a niche thing I can't seem to find much. Any old school, hardcore folks wanna educate me?
Pic related, it's deadzone. Which I felt was awkward and didn't like very much.
>Which I felt was awkward and didn't like very much. Try the newest edition (2.0) with someone. It's much better.
Joshua Perry
Of the top of my head, I can think of Infinity, Beyond the Gates of Antares, Warpath and Deadzone, X-wing and Star Trek Attack Wing, Dark Age, and the Firestorm games.
No idea about Gates, since they haven't posted the rules for free like so many other companies, but I've heard its close to 40k.
X-wing and Star Trek Attack Wing are dog-fighting games in space. X-wing is very popular right not.
Dark Age is pretty good for a small skirmish game. Combat is brutal, most things die quickly once its targeted by the enemy. The art style will turn some people off, though, and the old models are pretty clunky, especially compared to the newer ones.
Don't know much about the Firestorm games, but the rules are up for free to try out.
Deadzone is releasing a new edition like, next week. Much better than the older edition. Warpath is two games in beta: Firefight, which is 40k using Mantic's style of rules, and Warpath, which is like Epic. The rules are good, but there's some big problems in each set, and the Firefight author has been silent for over a month now. But the Warpath author is active on the forums.
Christian Gray
40k's setting came from Combat 3000 and Laserburn, which itself inspired Laser Squad which lead to X-COM. Praised be. Its mechanics came from Warhammer, which was mostly pulled out of the blue to sell miniatures. Laserburn's neat, but clunky as all hell. Play Imperial Commander if you're that interested in proto-40k.
Brayden Johnson
Forgot Infiinity. Infinity is small, fast, and needs a lot of terrain. The rules punish models for moving out in the open, since enemy models can react to models as they move.
Matthew Wilson
Also Battletech.
Austin Hall
The scifi 5Core games, 5 Parsecs From Home Clash On The Fringe and No Stars In Sight are pretty cool. Lets you do campaigns of small to medium skirmishes with what you have available and a decent but not overly complex rule set.
There's also Tomorrow's War, which is mostly like Force On Force which I hear good things about but don't know much more than that.
Heavy Gear for a mech/powered armour wargame. Models look dope, game support is sketchy and erratic, but there's a new kick starter in the works.
Renegade Legion is there for you if you want to get old school print out sheets of hovertanks blowing the crap out of each other. Sort of fiddly but the template damage for different armour penetrations of different weapons was a cool idea.
Haven't played Fast And Dirty, which is free scifi wargaming rules, Gruntz and Star Gunts for your respective grunting needs, and This Is Not A Test for post apocalyptic skirmishing.
Colton Scott
"5 Parsecs From Home Clash On The Fringe and No Stars In Sight" sounds like a really expansive game.
Ian Thomas
Three different games, same/similar rules, I missed a comma. Its '5 Parsecs From Home', 'Clash On The Fringe', and 'No Stars In Sight'.
Dylan Walker
Off the top of my head non-GW or Mantic
Heavy Gear Battletech Warzone Infinity MERCS Robotech DropzonetDropfleet Commander Firestorm Armada/Planetfall Beyond the Gates of Antares X-Wing Star Trek Attck Wing Star Wars Armada A Call to Arms Judge Dredd Relic Knights Dark Age
Then there are the companies that just make rules and you use whatever models you want. Stuff like Tomorrows War and Gruntz.
There's tons of options out there if you look beyond just GW. Hit up Tabletop Gaming News and you'll probably be exposed to a good few new games(I know I discovered a few through them).
