science fiction

Gene Autrey and The Phantom Empire

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Gene Autrey’s serial, The Phantom Empire is available for viewing online. It’s a great mix of cowboys and science fiction:

From IMDB:When the ancient continent of Mu sank beneath the ocean, some of its inhabitant survived in caverns beneath the sea. Cowboy singer Gene Autry stumbles upon the civilization, now buried beneath his own Radio Ranch. The Muranians have developed technology and weaponry such as television and ray guns. Their rich supply of radium draws unscrupulous speculators from the surface. The peaceful civilization of the Muranians is corrupted by the greed from above, and it becomes Autry’s task to prevent all-out war, ideally without disrupting his regular radio show.

Fires of Space Rules

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Fires of Space is a space combat game with a WWII naval flavor. From the author’s introduction:

Here is my take on battles between big ships in space. This rules set has a deliberately 20th century naval warfare flavor, but with adaptations for space and far future technology. Included are the rules, tables, designer’s notes, a series of ships from various space navies, scenarios, a probability table for 20 sided dice, counters, and a 50 by 50 hex map. With the map are marked map sections showing showing the map’s center hex and deployment areas for tactical scenarios. Ideally, the game is played with two 50 by 50 hex maps: one for operational movement and the other for tactical engagements. In a pinch, a single map can double as both the operational and tactical map. Finally, I include a copy of the Excel workbook that I used to create the ships in the game.

Fast and Dirty Science Fiction Rules Update

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The Fast and Dirty science fiction rules have been updated to a fourth edition. The author writes:

F.A.D. is a skirmish rules set for science fiction and 20th century wargaming. The rules aim to provide a fun, fast and most importantly, realistic game.

Rather than troops charging blindly into gunfire, your men will be affected by suppression and losses. Officers are leaders and commanders, not supermen, and the emphasis of a battle is on men over materials.

During a battle, you will find troops getting pinned down and locked in bloody firefights, while trying to evacuate your casualties or bring up reinforcements to outflank that railgun position!

The game has its own background setting, but is generic and can be used with your existing miniatures and armies. The rules assume models to be mounted individually, but can work with any scale where this is practical. Typically this means 15mm and above.
The rules, as they stand now, cover infantry, artillery weapons, vehicles as well as peripheral scifi stuff like powered armour, drop troops and lots of other nonsense.
They will work for most 20th century and beyond games, with the emphasis being on modern day and near future warfare

Exoshift Science Fiction Rules

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Exoshift is a set of free wargames rules for mass battle science fiction games.

Combat Squad Warhammer 40 K Skirmish Rules

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Combat Squads is a set of home rules for gaming in the Warhammer 40K Universe. From the rulebook:

Combat Squads is an attempt at creating a set of competitive skirmish rules for Warhammer 40.000; a game set in the grim darkness of the far future.

Within this booklet you’ll find rules for constructing, and playing, with small Combat Squads using the miniatures you already have for your regular Warhammer 40.000 army.

As such, then you’ll need the core rulebook for Warhammer 40.000 (currently, the 5th edition rules) in order to play Combat Squads. Furthermore you’ll need this booklet, of course, and the codex for your chosen army.

The rules presented here in the following are intended to supplement your normal games of Warhammer 40.000 giving you a chance to play the odd one-off special mission during a campaign game. However, they have also been
written in such a fashion that you could play Combat Squads as is; with an inbuilt campaign system as well as a slew of new missions.