Chainmailesque Striker

[DrSkull]

Has anyone out there played the "Chainmail" miniatures game for D&D and if so do you think it would be a good way to work up a Striker variant for T20?

I've got Sci-Fi minatures and have been on a terrain building kick lately and was looking for some way to run some one-shot minaitures games this summer.

 

[Luthyr]

Originally posted by DrSkull:
Has anyone out there played the "Chainmail" miniatures game for D&D and if so do you think it would be a good way to work up a Striker variant for T20?

I've got Sci-Fi minatures and have been on a terrain building kick lately and was looking for some way to run some one-shot minaitures games this summer.

I've played Chainmail a couple of times - it's not too bad (though not the best); it basically using an ultra-simplified d20 ruleset and adds in ideas such as command points. I can certainly see a Striker variant being workable.

Check out the Chainmail demo game at the WotC site; it'll give you an overview of how the rules system runs.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Oh. For a moment I thought you meant the TSR Chainmail, the ancestor of D&D.

I feel relieved and old.

But to your question, I doubt it. The mechanics of individuals are largely the same for any era so RPG systems easily cross over genres. Wargames are more about command/control and weapons effects and the mechanics are more dependent on genre.

 

[Nurd_boy]

this will probly start a flame war, but here goes...

the new chainmail is NOT a wargame...I've got the rules,read them, played through them...played many, many others over the years from warhammer 40k(1st ed 'rougue trader') to (yes..) TSR's chainmail, warhammer fantasy, bladestorm, princess ryans space marines, striker, maytac,starfleet battles, fasa startrek combat simulator, battletech, squadleader (i've been at this since '79)...i've played ccg's, dice games etc al at one time or another..

chainmail is wizards response to the ccg craze or the mageknight obsession...it's to get people to collect the figure boxes, that just happen to include stat cards for THAT figure and any Special rules for it also...

disappointiing, but the figures included in the starter box for the price was a good deal.

 

[Reginald]

Okay, so what is wrong with the Chainmail rules? Is it a skirmish rule mechanics or can it be expanded to army- or legion-level combat?

 

[Luthyr]

Originally posted by Reginald:
Okay, so what is wrong with the Chainmail rules? Is it a skirmish rule mechanics or can it be expanded to army- or legion-level combat?

I'd agree with Nurd_boy. It's not really a wargame per se; it's more like a small squad skirmish game (can that be considered a wargame? I guess not in the traditional sense...). It doesn't really scale to army/legion levels. While you have a commander that can use command points to affect other single units in his/her radius of command, it really is small skirmisher units for the most part.

 

[Uncle Bob]

Well, AH's Squad Leader series and SPI's Sniper and Patrol are real wargames, but point taken.

 

[Nurd_boy]

Originally posted by Reginald:
Okay, so what is wrong with the Chainmail rules? Is it a skirmish rule mechanics or can it be expanded to army- or legion-level combat?

the rules have a rushed-out feel to them..incomplete...there are no flyer rules, no seige weps, no swim, no breath wep rules...no upward scalability...it does have a small dnd conversion section i have to try out...its designed around the player being a 'faction' from about a thousand years before the grewhawk wars so the setting really isn't contemparary and not ment for integration in a current campaign without major work i think...

just my thoughts...rules disappoint, but the figs in the box where good for the price.

 

[Reginald]

Thank goodness I did not pick up Chainmail. If it has to be a minis wargame, then let it be a minis wargame, not a set of skirmish rules.

Then again, it was supposed to be an updated version of the original Chainmail. Not having seen that, I can't really comment.

P.S. Is it just me or does anybody else misses Battlesystem?

 

[Nurd_boy]

Originally posted by Reginald:
Thank goodness I did not pick up Chainmail. If it has to be a minis wargame, then let it be a minis wargame, not a set of skirmish rules.

Then again, it was supposed to be an updated version of the original Chainmail. Not having seen that, I can't really comment.

P.S. Is it just me or does anybody else misses Battlesystem?

LOL..I had that set but could never find players, I actually liked it, had a comfortable (for me) feel that wasn't to rule laden (like warhammer) or too vague either...i still have a box of battlesystem mounted figures (unpainted) around here somewhere, still in the original box !!!

 

[GypsyComet]

Originally posted by Luthyr:
It's not really a wargame per se; it's more like a small squad skirmish game (can that be considered a wargame? I guess not in the traditional sense...). It doesn't really scale to army/legion levels. While you have a commander that can use command points to affect other single units in his/her radius of command, it really is small skirmisher units for the most part.

The rules are simple enough, actually, that they can be scale-less. The problem at hand in this forum is that the rules are:

1) tied strongly to fantasy vs. SF, and
2) point-based with no construction system for those points.

Aside from those things, Chainmail can be adapted fairly quickly to any scale up to and including fleet level...