A little blast from my past here, I played a little game this evening using the skirmish version of the very first version of my Deathzap rules (up in the menu on the right).
The skirmish rules have the following additions –
Points Values (which I rarely used in the main game:
| UNIT | POINTS COST |
| Infantry | 13 |
| Heavy Infantry | 22 |
| Beasts | 15 |
| Big Beasts | 26 |
| Light Vehicles | 26 |
| Vehicles | 36 |
| Monsters | 39 |
| Armoured | +6 |
| If a unit is designated as ‘armoured’ you add 1 to its saving throws. | |
| Elite | +5 |
| A unit designated as ‘elite’ break the rule for combat being resolved simultaneously. Elite units resolve fire or melee attacks simultaneously among themselves first, and fire or melee attacks from elite units against non-elite units are resolved before the non-elite unit fires or attacks back. | |
| Fast | +2 |
| If a unit is designated as ‘fast’ it can move 3” further than listed above. | |
| Tough | Half the units total cost again |
| If a unit is designated as ‘tough’ when a casualty would be caused roll a die, on a 4+ no casualty is caused and on a 1-3 a casualty is caused as normal, do not add 1 to this throw if the unit is armoured. | |
| WEAPON | POINTS COST |
| Basic Rifle/ Repeater | 12 |
| Advanced Rifle/ Repeater | 16 |
| Auto-Heavy Weapon | 36 |
| Heavy Weapon | 24 |
| Radius Weapon | 40 (Skirmish 23pts) |
And the following add on rules:
A skirmish game can be played with few adjustments to the larger battle rules. Your entire force must be equal to or less than 250 points, and your entire force counts as a single unit for the purposes of Morale, however they do not have to be within 1” of each other and suppression has no effect. You cannot take Vehicles or Monsters in your force.
When a figure would normally be slain roll a die, on a 1 or 2 the figure has simply suffered a flesh wound and continues fighting as normal, on a 3-4 the figure is wounded and for the purposes of game play follows all the rules for panicked figures. On a 5-6 the figure is killed and removed from play.
I also used the following scenario generator which has often helped in a pinch:
For advanced games roll for two primary objectives, one from each table, each objective achieved scores victory points and at the end of 6 turns when the game automatically ends the player with the most victory points wins.
| DIE ROLL | OBJECTIVES 1 |
| 1-2 | Assassinate – 3VP for killing your opponents general. |
| 3-4 | Hard Hitters – 3VP for being the first to eliminate half your opponents force, vehicles and monsters count as 5 figures. |
| 5-6 | Extermination – 1VP per 5 enemy casualties, or single vehicle or monster. Or 1VP per enemy casualty in Skirmish. |
| DIE ROLL | OBECTIVES 2 |
| 1-2 | Hold – 1VP per board quarter you have figures in at the end of the game. |
| 3-4 | Push – 3VP for having any of your non-panicked units in your opponent’s deployment zone at the end of the game. |
| 5-6 | MacGuffin – A counter is placed in the centre of the table. If one side can collect it and carry it off of the board then they get 3VP. The MacGuffin is moved with any figure in base to base contact with it. |
I rolled for the scenario and got Assassinate and Hold. So it’s 3 victory points for killing the opposing sides officer and 1 victory point for each board quarter you’ve got figures in at the end of the game.
Turn 6 ended with some Gnossian repositioning for maximum points taking them up to 7vps and House Baronor hiding scoring them 3vps. It was a quick and decisive game to say the least!
While playing this older version of Deathzap I certainly had fun but I did find that yearning for more meat, more granularity to flesh out the world. Unfortunately it’s been harder lately to play bigger games of Deathzap as the set up and play time (plus the reporting on it) takes quite a lot of work. I’m currently looking at a much simpler system that maybe plays out on my 5×5 grid like Gaol28 but gives me that same ‘big game’ feel.
Deathzap 
Good use of pine cones!