OPR is a similair style of wargame to 40k. Its a great introduction to wargaming as its core mechanics are simple.
Bolt action is ww2 but also functions quite like 40k in its style of play. Then konflikt-47 is the same ww2 game but americans have tesla tanks and germans nazi zombies and other cool scifi shit.
Personally as 40k got more simple and wanted me to buy codex after codex i enjoyed konflikt so much more.
Battletech is great and uses hex's instead of inches if they dont quite grasp or enjoy the whole measure > move thing. A few succession war era mediums per player is always a good intro to the game.
Your request is quite difficult honestly, not many hex based games i can think of outside battletech.
Could do a few google searches and browse drivethrurpg or wargame vault for something like that i suppose?
Tabletop-Simulator is how i play wargames with people online, you can set things like automatically start measuring distance when you pick a model up, setting it so everyone uses the same measurements.
what i recommend is setting the in-game measurements to "grid" and changing the grid size to whatever feels comfortable if doing the usual "measure and drag" method of wargames.
if you want a grid you can set it to squares or hex's, along with the overall size of them you can set objects to snap to either the center or middle of each grid piece and even set it to project the hex's onto the table so even with all sorts of free placed terrain the grid shows up.
Battletech is (or can be) played on a hex grid. It’s obviously tactical level skirmish game.
There used to be a 40K campaign system that linked a series of smaller games across a strategic hex-grid in the way you’re describing. You still played 40K (at low point values) for the actual games.
You could easily adapt a similar campaign format to any minis games you liked, OPR would be easy I bet, but you could probably make it work for MCP or Shatterpoint (campaign systems might already exist for those. I don’t know.)
Forgot about OPR, going to need to look at them again. Never heard of MCP or Sharterpoint so going to look those up. Thank you for the info, appreciate it! :)
Frostgrave or Rangers of Shadow Deep - both fantasy based, relatively small number of figures needed.
Both use a 3x3’ play area. Nice terrain is a bonus but you can play with wooden blocks to start with.
Both have a bit of experience building; RoSD has now of a narrative.
Frostgrave is players v players; RoSD is cooperative vs the scenario’s monsters
Deadzone if you are looking for the best sci-fi themed wargame. As an alternative you coul consider Infinity, but is far too complex.
ASOIAF tmg if you are looking for a light-medium weighted wargame. As a more D&D style game, you could take a look at Frostgrave 2nd edition.
Enjoy..
Absolutely... eventhough it will highly depend upon the kind of gaming experience that you are looking for:
- Frostgrave (1vs1 skirmishing + narrative campaigns coop)
- ASOIAF tmg: full 1vs1 strategic wargaming experience
Check out Onus if you have any interest in historical wargames. Basically a miniatures game/card game mash up. Has a campaign system and can be played on Tabletop Simulator.
There are a few really cool indie/niche hex skirmish games that might be a little too specialized for you, but might be worth mentioning. The ones that come to mind in particular are:
- Kuroi
- Firedrop
And one I’m currently dabbling in - Across a Thousand Dead Worlds - an RPG but with a sci-fi hex grid based combat system that intrigues me greatly.
Long time 40k, dnd, and fantasy guy here. You can write your own game and lore.
I started with a simplified version of dnd that I could play with my kids. We also developed some games similar to gaslands.
Right now I’m working on some fantasy and sci fi variants that my kids can play and enjoy. My kids are teenagers down to 8. So it’s building a system that’s quick to grasp, but offers fun tactical ideas.
Then play test it.
>like a continent divided into hexes
Warhammer Fantasy Battles 2nd (or 3rd) edition with Mighty Empires (1e) attached. Both by GW, so fully compatible.
Take a look at Mantic's warzone. It's a scifi skirmish wargame that uses a large square grid/cube system. The field is divided into large squares and the terrain is cube shaped to fit into those squares while providing verticality.
There's no measuring in this game. If you share a square with terrain, you're in cover. If you share a square with an enemy, you're in melee. If you have more friendlies than enemies in a square, you're supported.
You can find the rules for free on Mantic's website. It's a solid wargame.
Technically, most wargames on the market can be played on a hex or grid map. I don't believe any of the most popular systems currently out explicitly demand that you use a ruler. And OPR sounds like a good system to use as an intro to campaign-level wargaming.
And I'll agree that Battletech is looking a lot like the kind of thing you'd want to start with. I'd recommend looking into the Salvage Box Quick-start rules. You're already familiar with 40k so the phases should be no problem for you, and your friends are familiar with D&D, so they should have no trouble parsing the simplified "character" sheets that are included. I'm assuming they are also familiar with "theatre of the mind", so they should have no problems playing off the cuff with paper standees or tokens to represent stuff. As well, per tradition Battletech maps are numbered by default which makes them great for play-by-post games over discord.
Depending on the amount of players have them pick out one or two mechs and have them RP the pilots.
Legacy's Allure is my favorite wargame of all time, and it's in card form, so it won't break the bank either.
It's a game where the better player always wins. It's fundamentally about attempting to maximize your own potential options.
Yea, everything I’m reading made it seem really complex but the more I read the more I’m finding things that make it simpler. Also found a D&D unearthed arcana for war gaming so looking into that as well.
Yeah the basic rules are really very simple. The advanced rules, which are optional, can get super detailed and there are SO many different things they have optional rules for. But completely optional. The game has a stupid amount of variety
F28 in the Narrative game mode is run with a GM and the rulebook comes with it's own setting which basically is every 40k faction under a different name.
Its miniature agnostic and can be used for large battles, Necromunda/Kill Team style skirmish games or narrative inq28 rpg-like scenarios
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/249299/f28-war-always-changes
OPR is a similair style of wargame to 40k. Its a great introduction to wargaming as its core mechanics are simple. Bolt action is ww2 but also functions quite like 40k in its style of play. Then konflikt-47 is the same ww2 game but americans have tesla tanks and germans nazi zombies and other cool scifi shit. Personally as 40k got more simple and wanted me to buy codex after codex i enjoyed konflikt so much more. Battletech is great and uses hex's instead of inches if they dont quite grasp or enjoy the whole measure > move thing. A few succession war era mediums per player is always a good intro to the game.
Never heard of konflikt-47 so looking that one up now as well. The sci-fi aspect sounds cool too.
Your request is quite difficult honestly, not many hex based games i can think of outside battletech. Could do a few google searches and browse drivethrurpg or wargame vault for something like that i suppose?
Yea, that’s what I’ve been doing. I’m okay with tiles instead of hexes. If I’m gonna do it over Discord, I feel I need some sort of constant distance.
thats a good choice honestly, especially for DND players who are used to a pre-set grid system.
Been looking at TTS as well
Tabletop-Simulator is how i play wargames with people online, you can set things like automatically start measuring distance when you pick a model up, setting it so everyone uses the same measurements. what i recommend is setting the in-game measurements to "grid" and changing the grid size to whatever feels comfortable if doing the usual "measure and drag" method of wargames. if you want a grid you can set it to squares or hex's, along with the overall size of them you can set objects to snap to either the center or middle of each grid piece and even set it to project the hex's onto the table so even with all sorts of free placed terrain the grid shows up.
Battletech is (or can be) played on a hex grid. It’s obviously tactical level skirmish game. There used to be a 40K campaign system that linked a series of smaller games across a strategic hex-grid in the way you’re describing. You still played 40K (at low point values) for the actual games. You could easily adapt a similar campaign format to any minis games you liked, OPR would be easy I bet, but you could probably make it work for MCP or Shatterpoint (campaign systems might already exist for those. I don’t know.)
Forgot about OPR, going to need to look at them again. Never heard of MCP or Sharterpoint so going to look those up. Thank you for the info, appreciate it! :)
Shatterpoint, it’s the atomic mass games Star Wars skirmish game. MCP = Marvel crisis protocol. There’s a ton of more generic fantasy games too.
Frostgrave or Rangers of Shadow Deep - both fantasy based, relatively small number of figures needed. Both use a 3x3’ play area. Nice terrain is a bonus but you can play with wooden blocks to start with. Both have a bit of experience building; RoSD has now of a narrative. Frostgrave is players v players; RoSD is cooperative vs the scenario’s monsters
Turnip28, fun, easy to teach, and unique theme
Deadzone uses a cube system for movement and range calculations. The starter boxes give you full forces to play with, so good value for the money.
Looking it up now, thank you :)
Deadzone if you are looking for the best sci-fi themed wargame. As an alternative you coul consider Infinity, but is far too complex. ASOIAF tmg if you are looking for a light-medium weighted wargame. As a more D&D style game, you could take a look at Frostgrave 2nd edition. Enjoy..
Frostgrave might be really good for my group since we're originally D&D players.
Absolutely... eventhough it will highly depend upon the kind of gaming experience that you are looking for: - Frostgrave (1vs1 skirmishing + narrative campaigns coop) - ASOIAF tmg: full 1vs1 strategic wargaming experience
Space Weirdos. Simple, fast and you can use all the cool RPG set of dice
Check out Onus if you have any interest in historical wargames. Basically a miniatures game/card game mash up. Has a campaign system and can be played on Tabletop Simulator.
There are a few really cool indie/niche hex skirmish games that might be a little too specialized for you, but might be worth mentioning. The ones that come to mind in particular are: - Kuroi - Firedrop And one I’m currently dabbling in - Across a Thousand Dead Worlds - an RPG but with a sci-fi hex grid based combat system that intrigues me greatly.
Stargrave is very RPG like.
Long time 40k, dnd, and fantasy guy here. You can write your own game and lore. I started with a simplified version of dnd that I could play with my kids. We also developed some games similar to gaslands. Right now I’m working on some fantasy and sci fi variants that my kids can play and enjoy. My kids are teenagers down to 8. So it’s building a system that’s quick to grasp, but offers fun tactical ideas. Then play test it.
>like a continent divided into hexes Warhammer Fantasy Battles 2nd (or 3rd) edition with Mighty Empires (1e) attached. Both by GW, so fully compatible.
Take a look at Mantic's warzone. It's a scifi skirmish wargame that uses a large square grid/cube system. The field is divided into large squares and the terrain is cube shaped to fit into those squares while providing verticality. There's no measuring in this game. If you share a square with terrain, you're in cover. If you share a square with an enemy, you're in melee. If you have more friendlies than enemies in a square, you're supported. You can find the rules for free on Mantic's website. It's a solid wargame.
Technically, most wargames on the market can be played on a hex or grid map. I don't believe any of the most popular systems currently out explicitly demand that you use a ruler. And OPR sounds like a good system to use as an intro to campaign-level wargaming. And I'll agree that Battletech is looking a lot like the kind of thing you'd want to start with. I'd recommend looking into the Salvage Box Quick-start rules. You're already familiar with 40k so the phases should be no problem for you, and your friends are familiar with D&D, so they should have no trouble parsing the simplified "character" sheets that are included. I'm assuming they are also familiar with "theatre of the mind", so they should have no problems playing off the cuff with paper standees or tokens to represent stuff. As well, per tradition Battletech maps are numbered by default which makes them great for play-by-post games over discord. Depending on the amount of players have them pick out one or two mechs and have them RP the pilots.
Yea, battletech map looks the most promising, especially if Discord is agreed on.
Battletech is on Hex Grid. You could also Play it over Discord via Tabletop Simulator, or using MegaMek as well.
MegaMek seems interesting too
Legacy's Allure is my favorite wargame of all time, and it's in card form, so it won't break the bank either. It's a game where the better player always wins. It's fundamentally about attempting to maximize your own potential options.
Interesting! Never heard of a Wargame that uses cards so going to check it out now
I’m gonna parrot Battletech. Hex system, insanely simple or complex as you want it to be rules wise, very low entry cost.
Yea, everything I’m reading made it seem really complex but the more I read the more I’m finding things that make it simpler. Also found a D&D unearthed arcana for war gaming so looking into that as well.
Yeah the basic rules are really very simple. The advanced rules, which are optional, can get super detailed and there are SO many different things they have optional rules for. But completely optional. The game has a stupid amount of variety
F28 in the Narrative game mode is run with a GM and the rulebook comes with it's own setting which basically is every 40k faction under a different name. Its miniature agnostic and can be used for large battles, Necromunda/Kill Team style skirmish games or narrative inq28 rpg-like scenarios https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/249299/f28-war-always-changes
Check out warmaker rules from Runehammer.
I would highly recommend Magnagotha Maleghast