[OT]Recommendations for Vietnam-era, or Modern mini warfare games

[mac1504]

I've been looking to get into a skirmish level vietnam-era or modern day miniatures wargame. I was hoping some of the bright peoples of this board would have some recommendations.

I would like something not too terribly complicated- but not overly simplistic either.

I've seen Charlie Company played at GenCon before- but never had a chance to explore the game- anyone have any thoughts on that one?

I love small unit tactics (spent some time in the army) and love miniatures- so I thought it could be another hobby I could pick up.

Thanks for any thoughts.

-mac1504

 

[bwgwl]

skirmish-level vietname isn't really my area of interest in miniatures wargaming (i'm more of a microarmor-scale guy myself), but here's a place to at least get started...

http://theminiaturespage.com/rules/mod/vietnam.html

and here's some generic modern game systems

http://theminiaturespage.com/rules/mod/land.html

like i said, i don't really play this era/scale too much, so i can't offer any specific reviews. but at least a handful of the rules sets listed on those pages are available free on the internet, so you might be able to find something you can use.

good luck!

 

[mac1504]

Thanks for the recommnedations. They had a small review on Charlie Company- but I didn't like the fact that the reviewer said there wasn't much difference in throwing a grenade than firing an M-16!

But I liked the fact that Charlie Company has some role-playing elements in it. Maybe I need to pick it up and house rule it

Hopefully there are some people on the boards today that have some other recommendations!

-mac1504

 

[Henrix]

I'd like to recommend StarGrunt from Ground Zero Games.

It's not a vietnam, or even modern, era skirmish, but a near future skirmish. But it's very, very good, and very generic. I know many have used it for vietnam/modern/WWII.
Check out the reviews at The Miniatures Page.

In fact I recall one guy who used all the Charlie Company stuff but ported it to StarGrunt rules.
(I have seen at least one page dedicated to SG in modern settings, but I do not have the links, and it was a while ago.)

One of the main sources of inspiration for StarGrunt was (and is) the Hammer's Slammers novels by David Drake, who, according to what he says, just writes about his Vietnam experience as SF.

 

[bwgwl]

StarGrunt is cool!

though like i said, i prefer microarmor, so Dirtside II from GZG is my favorite wargame ruleset.

i've seen WWII/modern conversions of DSII also.

while we're at it, might as well mention Full Thrust from GZG, which IMO is probably the best starship fleet action wargame out there.

 

[Henrix]

Both Dirtside and Full Thrust are good, as well.

I haven't seen anyone use Thrust in vietnam/modern, though.
I have seen that it has been used for age of sails, WWI air combat, pod racing, WWII fleet actions, SpellJammer, Space 1889, and about any SF setting imaginable!