Tuesday 1 January 2019

Some One-Hour Skirmish Wargaming

Over the last two days I have played a few sci-fi skirmish games using rules from the book "One-Hour Skirmish Wargames" by John Lambshead. The book came as a Christmas present along with a Games Workshop's Orlock gang to add to my current set of Necromunda models.

A trial Necromunda model of the Orlock gang
A Christmas present
An in-depth review of the book and rules can be found on Dale's Wargames. There two parts to Dale's reviews plus a follow-up post with responses from the author. They are well worth the read if you are considering buying the book.

So far with the games I have played I am really enjoying the card driven approach. I find it is much quicker than rolling dice and quite fun. The book has a number of chapters after the core rules for different periods to skirmish in (musket through to pulp sci-fi). These provide ideas for different types weapons which helped me with some add-on rules for a few of the different types of weapons used by my gangs.

The rules worked well adapted to a 6 inch square grid.

A few members of the Goliath prepare for a hit and run-on the Escher gang.
A fire-fight quickly developed between the gangs
Some hand-to-hand fighting proved to be quite decisive
If you like straightforward rules without clutter, almost the bare-bones rules, which allow a wargamer to flesh out with add their own few rule modifications. Then they certainly fit the bill. I am going to be using these rules with a few additions here and there to provide flavour for my skirmish gaming in the Necromunda world.

8 comments:

  1. That's a really nice table for subject atmosphere.

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  2. Thanks. This year I am planning to do some more sci-fi scenery for my wargaming.

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  3. Hey, thanks for the blog plug. I appreciate it.

    I agree that, if you are playing an all-infantry game, a six inch grid would work fine. In this case do you allow for a diagonal move? Have you considered how you would handle Fast troops or cavalry? I was thinking no diagonal move if you have a 6" move, but you could if you have a 9" move. Either that or one square for one Move action and two squares for the second Move action.

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    1. Hi - I was really pleased I received the book as a present after reading your review. To your questions. 1) Yes, I do allow diagonal movement as I treat each square as a zone so models can move into a zone and be placed anywhere within the square. I bit abstract, but it is a personal preference. 2) For fast units in a skirmish I am thinking elusive, and allowing them one move after shooting if their last shooting card is a red suit. I did think about just letting them have one move, but this provides a level of risk that they get caught in the open. The idea is fast models are hard to target and would shoot and scoot making themselves difficult targets. Note, I have not tried this approach out yet, it is just an idea.

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  4. Hi Peter
    I intend to use these rules for Necromunda as well so I was fascinated to see your blog. More power to your elbow. I would never have thought of using the system for grid based games but...why not. The book is supposed to be a tool kit.

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  5. Thanks John, The book has really got me going again with my skirmish wargaming. The card driven mechanism is great fun. The use of a grid speeds up the games, no measuring, so they are fast and furious.

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  6. I bought this book myself just before Christmas, but haven't had a chance to try out the rules yet. How many figures per side were you using?

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    1. I was using 10 figures per side and the rules are well geared to that number, and would most likely cater for a handful more.

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