Fantasy Skirmish Games – Grimmleigh's Lab

Womp. My pancreas says hello, and it’s terribly sorry for kicking my ass for the last little bit. I keep telling it that you all understand, but my pancreas is surprisingly compassionate about you folks missing out on content, so there is that!

In between flare-ups I’ve managed to get some painting in, and I’m actually feeling okay at the moment, so fingers crossed. I had a friend ask me to play a little Age of Sigmar, which I tried and actually almost enjoyed, it was my vampires vs. his awful, smelly, tricksy elves.

There are some really fun and thematic actions baked into the game, but they usually come in the form of a re-roll, and there’s just so freaking many of them. Once again, GW‘s penchant for over-complicating a ruleset gets in the way of what could be a rocking good time. Still, my friend was awesome to play a game with, and that’s what matters in the end.

I even had the urge to paint up a little Warhammer, this demon lord from the Darkwater box has been calling to me for months, and he was a blast to paint!

That got me thinking, though. Mass fantasy battles used to be catnip to me. The Old World rules look to be pretty close to classic Warhammer Fantasy, but honestly that’s way to many rules for me. I want something fun, loud, and easy to table, but still elegant enough to get a little crunch going if I want it.

One Page Rules is cool, it’s just not crunchy enough for me. Close, though. I think Oathmark holds some promise, I just have to get enough minis together to give it a test game. Kings of War and I never really got along.

And there’s the fact that at the end of the day, I’m a hobbyist, not a gamer. That’s going to impact what I enjoy more than anything. Still, I like to build something to a list, just so that I can say there’s a theme or method to the madness, hahaha!

I started printing some Forest Elves from Highlands Miniatures, and if I use Warhammer rules as a template, there’s about 1,700 points worth waiting for a paintbrush. The minis look cool, and I’m not really pushing myself to do more than have fun at the moment, so looking at them isn’t making me want to scream and hide.

What do you all think about mass-battle fantasy games? Any of you find a system that you love? Or are you all tourists in the gaming world like me? It seems like most of the folks reading this are more into hobby building and painting than gaming, but I would love to hear what you enjoy building and (even ocassionally) playing!

For a lot of us middle-aged wardolly junkies, Mordheim was the Alpha and the Omega of wargaming when it hit in 1999. The art design defined what Grimdark meant without losing that whimsical edge that made it great. Playing with a dozen minis meant you could get a warband together in a good weekend of hobbying. It was also built off of (I think) Fourth Edition Warhammer Fantasy Rules, so it was easy enough to learn one if you knew the other.

*Todd, a respectable demon lord, and his personal Valet, Timothy.*

And then, like most great things, it disappeared, unloved and scorned by its creator, like the Creature when Victor decides to cast the wretch out to pursue other endeavors.

I’ve been chasing Mordheim now for over a quarter century. The rules set feels a little antiquated now, and while there are modern contenders to the game, I’m not smitten by any of them in the same way.

*A desperate thug tries to sneak up on an unwary magician*

Necromunda is pretty great in its modern incarnation, but I really don’t want to have to carry around half a library worth of books to get a game in. One Page Rules is fun, but a little too simple for what I want to sink my teeth in to. Frostgrave and Five Leagues from the Borderlands both come much closer to what I’m looking for, but I’m still struggling to find that Goldilocks system that works just right for me.

So, I think I’m just going to have to write it out myself. Something that bridges that gap between crunchiness and simplicity, allows some customization, and, most importantly, is miniature agnostic.

*A group of barbarians in search of a hot bath…*

I’ll be starting with a Witch Hunter warband, using the ideas I have in my head to get the classic warband on the table. I have plenty of figures to build out a good roster, and that’ll help me get more of my Paint What You Got challenge figures finished.

At first, I was a little daunted about base size, since I’ll be using some modern Warhammer minis in this warband, and they have larger bases. Then I realized that I’m not bound to those restraints, as I’m working my own forge now. So, the first step in setting myself free is setting those minis free. Goodbye, lovely decorative but overly large bases, and hello 25mm classics!

I’ll be mashing up some classic GW sprues with some modern classics from the Frostgrave range, which should allow me to have some fun with the warbands.

Next up, I’ll share some of the ideas I have for the mechanics, because why not? They’re not entirely mine, but after 40 years of gaming I have a billion game systems in my head that I am going to openly pillage.

Now we’ll see how long this conviction lasts, I could do almost all of this with the 5x from x system and be just as happy!

Tag: Fantasy Skirmish Games

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