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Lagartija MikeSpectatorActually, Mike, I clarified the oxygen reference above. It took as long as it did because it gets tiresome dealing with people completely unknown to me who, nevertheless, seem to have an (astonishingly childish) vendetta against a harmless post in favor of figure diversity. The onus should not be on me to have to constantly clarify or cushion every statement in the face of what amounts to entrenched bigotry.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorAs much as I’m enjoying your masterclass in missing the point of a thread, I feel obligated to underline (in the stark red ink usually reserved for stamps on documents relating to the institutionalization of those with profound mental hygiene issues) that the oxygen-deprived reference was toward the giddiness and enthusiasm of someone who goes into figure manufacturing for the love of the thing itself. That your interpretive compass went directly to your (presumable) true north of abusive sarcasm says, as always, more about the reader of the post than the author.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorI could never get into the Warhammer concept orc. One of the few things the Peter Jackson LoTR films did very right (he righteously botched the elves) was the big diversity of orcishness, even within distinct subgroups. And this is coming from someone with little patience for the Professors steroidal fairy tale. The grimy, louche orcs that want to barbecue Pippin and Merry’s legs on the edge of Fangorn are small masterpieces of fantasy design.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorThis is a speculative conversation, no one’s being dragooned into doing anything. The thin skin and petulant reactiveness of hobbyists never ceases to amaze (and entertain) me. Before responding to a post it might be helpful for certain personalities to read the offending post aloud in a variety of tones. This will help to provide alternative interpretations of intent for those who seem determined to see sneering boogeymen lurking behind every sentence.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorHow often can anyone make a real living through figure manufacturing? If it’s a labor of love, take a shot. Is it too much to ask for some inspired (= oxygen deprived) manufacturer to admit he’s bored sh@tless with the rancid olive stank of Legio IX Insipidus?
Lagartija MikeSpectatorMac, you’ll never go wrong mucking around in Chinese history for atmospheric military stuff. The end of the Qing and the (most recent) warlord era is so ripe with odd combinations of gear and kit you could profitably f@ck around with it for years. It’s much more than just the Back of Beyond stuff, though that doesn’t lack for charisma.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorWhy do 15mm in plastic when it costs the same as 28mm? Despite some improvements in sculpting over all scales 15mm still tends to come off deformed (not that 28mm doesn’t have its share of crude sculpts and lead elephantiasis).
Lagartija MikeSpectatorPaul, Grubby Tanks has Simba in 28mm. I don’t care much for the sculpts but at least it’s a beginning.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorKyote, that sounds good. I’d love to do a diorama of old Chinese buildings used as emplacements for massive German-style WWI artillery…
Lagartija MikeSpectatorIt isn’t that figure manufacturing isn’t or shouldn’t be market-driven, it’s the bizarre choices it makes. I can’t begin to imagine how the Flintloquest ranges do as well as they apparently do, are there really thousands of wargamers sitting on the pot salivating over the idea of frogs dressed up as hussars? Even the beaten to death historical ranges (I won’t get into Napoleonics which I see as world to itself) like Romans, Sassanids, standard Dark Ages fare, surely it must’ve reached market saturation by now. Even within the standard periods, very little real variation exists. Look how repetitive, unimaginative (these guys raided from a huge swath of territory and if you want that reflected in their gear be prepared to mod it yourself) the average Viking range is.
Mac, yeah I was looking at that CCW range too, If I can ever find any decent WWI Italians in 28mm I wanted to do a whole thing about an imaginary(and comic-Opera ridiculous) Italian colony in Shantung.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorI’ll look into them, thanks again! It’s hard to get correct shinden-style architecture common to the period, hopefully they can spare me the work. I’m trying to recreate the urban warfare immediately before the Gempei War, the stuff recorded in the Hogen Monogatari. The numbers are small enough that I might entertain the idea of doing it on a 1:1 scale. If I had delusions of mini-grandeur (and I do) I might consider doing the later Onin War, similar urban warfare but on a huge city-wide scale. Big enough, with trenches and hard points, to suggest a medieval World War 1.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorThanks, Paul. It was more of a rhetorical question but I checked them out, nice selection but the fukigaeshi are too narrow and too stretched out. At least it’s one more option to consider. I’m trying to recreate the Burning of the Nijo Palace, urban warfare in during Late Heian.
I’m general, though, I was bitching cause, despite this somehow being the Golden Age of Wargame Figures, pickin’s can be slim if you’re not happy with the Diadochi or Republican Rome or whatever.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorThat’s 6mm? Pretty crisp!
Lagartija MikeSpectatorWe’re kidding ourselves. The experience of war, like any other experience, contains so many variables, contingencies, so much immense detail each atom of which can explode from insignificance to decisive importance in a blink, that any attempt to simulate it automatically fails. What the game can provide, though, is a kind of theater, costumed as war, that provides a number of vicarious satisfactions. It’s toys. Toys are powerful objects, but more of suggestion than mimesis.
Except for Bella Horrida Bella, which models reality perfectly. ROLL UP! ROLL UP!
Lagartija MikeSpectatorWho the hell knows. These are the same regurgitated tropes that have been stinking up the joint since (at least) the early 70s Japanese mecha operas. Pick whatever models you like and assign whatever values you think will work/be fun.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorI believe Basil Vasiliev’s seminal work, Babniks on the Hoof, indicates their regimental banners were roundly condemned by the Metropolitans of Tomsk and Vladimir-Suzdal.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorJonathan, I believe you’re mistaken. 4th infantry regiment was Alkash Babnik.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorAltius, that’s a GREAT f@cking idea! How often do you have the opportunity to wed legitimate morbid medievalisms with easily accessible modern fantasy figures? Sorry son, gotta rip off your idea!
Lagartija MikeSpectatorI like the little men what has the pompoms on their heads. Like angry pheasants trapped in a world they never made.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorDiorama style bases are the only way to go in any period or system. The only way.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorOddly, I was just reading a monograph by Wayne Farris addressing attrition in the forces during the Late Heian in Japan (Sacred Papers). For the sake of argument a small provincial force of about 500 mounted samurai and elite retainers and perhaps 1200 chugen (poor retainers and opportunistic followers) could expect to shrink (under non-optimal conditions) about 0.3%\8% for every half-month outside their home province. This is not inclusive of combat casualties.
For a ruleset that addresses various forms and intensities of attrition see the forthcoming BELLA HORRIDA BELLA.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorThe terrain for my vaguely “Interwar”/Scifi Phosgene & Sol d’Or campaign is my first to include illumination (it’s supposed to take place in perpetual, half-lit darkness). It looks good as a tableau but in terms of practicality playing in the dark is, well, dumb.
Lagartija MikeSpectator@Irishserb, still on time though for convenience sake we’re releasing both the rules and the lists on February 8th. Yes, a lot of work (and love) went into them. The most involved work is the creation of individual units and their relevant command figure (s). Highly personalized, almost like an involved RPG character. When your units eventually get massacred (or stampede/stomp to victory) you’ll feel it. Game play is NOT superfast, expect to complete an average battle in a minimum of 4-8 hours, a very large scale one can eat up a lost weekend. Lists are the most comprehensive and detailed I’ve seen and we’re a true labor of love.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorDont worry about uniformity, if you want obvious signifier pieces like “bishop” etc..reflect it in the paint job. Find a fun, lurid theme like the Albigensian Crusades..or do Peter the Hermit’s squalid pilgrim army against the opulent Turks.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorImpressive rust detail. Even the decals look neat but hand done.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorSome of both, depending on the weapon used.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorBeautiful, again.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorMalc, what are your rules? You don’t sound bitter, before I finalized mine I played WRG 6th & (home modified) 7th and Gush’s Renaissance rules exclusively in preference to most of the stuff out there. The DBA family and Hail Caesar feel completely bland to me (among other criticisms) Maybe it’s a byproduct of the industry mantra that a game needs to be finished in a magical “2-4 hours” to be playable (or marketable).
Lagartija MikeSpectatorAre the RPG aspects completely randomized? I’m not getting the “well meaning” power hungry nihilist.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorI hear a lot about the cost of Warhammer Whatever but I see a metric f@ckton of teens around here playing it with huge forces. How expensive a proposition can it be relative to other 28mm ranges. I love Aventine and Footsore and a hundred or so of their (excellent) Sughdians, Turks, Ghulams and Avars sets me back at least few hundred bucks. How much worse can GW be?
Lagartija MikeSpectatorI purposeful designed my rules to be as inexpensive as possible (granted I wanted to retain a 70s/80s feel so that might not have been that difficult). I originally intended an omnibus edition with rules and army lists combined, but I felt ultimately it was cheaper to break the lists into 8 individual books which could be purchased on an at-need basis.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorThanks, Mike. I’ll check them out.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorThanks, NM that’s good to hear because the grizzled gnome who delivered the verdict this morning seemed pretty certain. Thanks for the offer Otto, I’m strictly 28mm except for Interwar and SCW stuff in 1/72 but I’m just vetting painters right now until I see what happens with my hand. Btw I’m not limited to US services/artists. I’ll happily ship overseas.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorI’ve never used one and I’d like to think ultimately I won’t need to but I’d rather pay than have a few hundred ranks of discolored gobbs.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorCongratulations! Looks great, there’s something retro about the paint that hits the right note.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorPink rocks? It looks like novelty melanoma.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorThe answer is yes and then, loudly and flatulently, no. I managed to finish two units for my Ottoman army ( one of gönüllü and one of kapikülü) to my satisfaction before aggressive malaise set it contemplating a wad of seventy or so jannissaries. My new method is to cycle through armies, one unit each until a few entire ones are complete. I’m going to finish a bunch of jannissary command figures for dispersal through a bunch of future units then start on a few armored Mughal war elephants (converted from Aventine Sassanid elephantry) with religious fanatic escorts, then a Göktürk tarkhan unit from the age of Qara Jurjin, then maybe a Norse Irish or Islemen force for a bit of Europe before returning to my Ottomans. If I don’t get distracted by a projected Steel Fist/Perry conversions Sengoku Japanese thing I was planning on holding off until summer. Unless the Aztec bug bites again…unless…unless…
Lagartija MikeSpectatorI love that. I need something similar for my steppe/badlands terrain, how did you go about it?
Lagartija MikeSpectatorAlvin, Mr. A thanks for the recs I’ll check them out.
Lagartija MikeSpectatorDone!
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