[Logain]

Thanks for the thread, I really liked the original setting and background. But I’ve always ignored the novels. You guys have inspired me to pick up the first Gotrek and Felix and try it.

[Logain]

Microworld has close proxies to most of the old world factions. I know he is working on a few more and redoing a few of his first ranges. The sculpts are top notch and the owner is super nice. He posts updates every few months on Tac-Com of what he’s working on.
Wood Elves, Orcs and Goblins, Dwarves, Empire, Brettonians, Lizardmen, chaos, undead, shaven… I think he has previewed high elves and dark elves.

[Logain]

I’m going to toss in my absolute favorite of his rules (one of the early ones) – Company Commander. It is a very elegant game that ticks all of your boxes.  I’ve tried some of his newer games and keep coming back to this one.

[Logain]

Yeah for sure you could do both of those. But I was disappointed with the book. It is more like a bunch of ideas. Pretty simple game, very shallow progression.  The whole economy seems pretty broken. Given I never played it, after reading the book, it might be fun to play one off games occasionally. I liked the idea of running a campaign, but those are the most disappointing part of the rules.    For what you want, I’d get Kontraband too, it has some additional depth that might make it more interesting.
The whole system is very abstract – my two cents.

[Logain]

That’s a wicked good paint job

[Logain]

Try googling “Mordheim Table” and you should see some great examples.

[Logain]

I actually did a very similar project last winter, painted up 32 3mm scale battle mechs that were a mix of 3D prints and a few of Ironwind’s battleforce mechs using citadel contrast paints. They came out pretty nice. I’d totally use them again on more 3mm or 6mm armor.
Mr Average what are your impressions on Battlesuit Alpha?

[Logain]

I thought about that, but I think Josh mentioned in the kickstarter that he tried printing some smaller and that the Vorix proved to be too thin and fragile. Sounded like the Jaarl would print smaller just fine.
Anyways the original line has just about everything you could want. Maybe some civilians and more creatures would be welcome. But really it’s a huge line of minis for a skirmish game.
A few years ago Josh mentioned making a smaller scale line – 10 or 15mm – which would have been awesome.
But thanks for posting you’ve inspired me to dig mine out of storage and maybe add a few more packs. Tusk and Saber looks cool too.

[Logain]

Awesome!  This my favorite range of miniatures, I was bummed that the new ones are so much bigger than the original range. But the variety of the old range is great. I even got my wife and my mother to paint warbands when they first came out. I’m hoping my daughters will be into them in a few years. Beautiful pictures, sounds like you had tons of fun!

 

[Logain]

Mike your peasants look a fair bit more motley than Dan’s above!

I think it would be cool to secretly/randomly assign unit quality to both sides.

[Logain]

Well I don’t know… Perhaps you all are under estimating the resolve of a group of determined individuals defending their hearth and home. I’d say those peasants look pretty well fed and well armed. At least a few are sure to be old enough to have fought in the Great Goblin Wars. Living on the edge of the kingdom they’ve seen more than their share of hardship and misery. Those halberds and flails might be just the thing for splitting an orc skull or three.

[Logain]

The old hex and counter game Goblin offered a strategic view of that.  The Goblin hoarders descend on villages defended by peasant militia, and the local baron has to emerge from his castle try to chase them across the country side them before they raze the villages and escape with all of the loot.

[Logain]

It does sound cool. I’m old school, I guess, but written descriptions of the mechanics, AARs and a preview of the chapter on force building are always preferred to videos for me.

[Logain]

It will be cool to see what you end up with in 10mm. Looking forward to it.

[Logain]

The expansions did two things – change the setting a bit, and add new war bands. I think Empire in Flames added two Merc warbands from different parts of the Empire and the Lustria one adds Tilean mercs.
FYI – the warbands can be wildly unbalanced especially with some of the expansions. It’s also easy to abuse the point system. We basically ditched the starting system at somepoint and created a more theme based one.

[Logain]

Yeah, they are free online in a few places. Empire in Flames is a good supplement that broadened the game into the surrounding country side (instead of just the city). Brohiem recently had most of the official stuff as well as a lot of fan material.

[Logain]

Yeah, frostgrave is really unique and different. It’s mostly the story of one wizard. There’s no real cost to trying it as terrain and minis can interchangeable with Mordheim. If I had four or five dependable people that would commit to at least six games and that were into Mordheim or Necromunda – I’d go with that. It’s a joy to watch your grunts develop personality. Otherwise I’d recommend trying a Frostgrave Campaign.

[Logain]

I’ve only played the original Necromunda, it’s very similiar to Mordheim.  It is a little more clunky, and has less options, but I feel it is more balanced as a result.  It is very range-weapon oriented as well. It’s almost entirely human imperial guard equivalents, unlike Mordheim where each faction has a few wierd units unique to them.

In my opinion, both Nercomunda and Mordheim are at their best when playing with groups of four or more players.

Frostgrave is also a very good game – in many ways more fun.  Games are faster, less competitive, and there are a lot of good scenarios. It plays campaigns well solo, for two, and for large groups.  It is largely setting and miniature agnostic. You will see all kinds of crazy settings and warbands (Including Crom’s Anvil based ones!)  Your characters are all archtypes – and it ignores racial/species differences.  So a character can be an elf thug, an orc thug, a human thug, and two headed bat thug.  It doesn’t matter what species they are, only if they are a theif/thug/infantryman etc.  You will see example of all sorts of different themes.  There are many Warhammer themed warbands out there, and it is common to use the crossbow rules for blackpowder.

Frostgrave requires two wizards per warband, maybe three or four guys without armor and armed with knives or hand weapons, a couple archers or crossbowmen, a couple guys with heavier armor and/or weapons.

I’ve played alot of all three in the past, and have enjoyed all three.  But Frostgrave is the better designed and most fun IMHO.  Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago is a little different theme and has more of open class main character is place of one of the wizards.  Hope that helps.

 

[Logain]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I appreciate it.

[Logain]

Really like the subtle hex grid and planets. Nice work.

[Logain]

Reets Relish is a wool blend that gets a lot of use for wargaming. The texture and colors really nail Northern European/American ground cover. When I was buying some I was really tempted by some other wool blends (Sand and Beach were two).  The blend of material textures and absorption of dye creates some great natural variation that I think looks really good for wargaming.

[Logain]

Cool idea. Pico Armor/O8 have some modern Vampires that I think make some great 15mm dark Jedi types with almost no work. There are a couple that are obviously vampires, but most have hoods etc that make it less obvious.

[Logain]

Maybe Fighting Piranha Graphics? My one stop shop for Sci-fi decals for the last two decades. Check out New Dieron Regulars and 12th Deiron Regulars, under Battletech Innersphere. Probably others lurking in the hundreds of designs.

[Logain]

2nd was the only one we ever play. My older brother got it for me on my fourteenth birthday. I played against all of his friends on a 4×8 piece of plywood painted green. We had some truly “epic” battles, mostly scenarios like Darkest Star.

We never felt the game was off balance, but our forces were constrained by local model availability and cash.  Still love to play second edition.

[Logain]

Looks really nice, but the units having a tan-desert background and the play mat being green-grass is pretty jarring aesthetically, at least to me.

[Logain]

It’s a fantastic game, don’t let the errors, editing and omissions stop you from trying!

 

[Logain]

I’ve steered clear of Battlefront … but seeing how nice those turned out… you may have changed my mind.

[Logain]

They do look fantastic!  All Battlefront?

[Logain]

http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.com/2009/04/gzg-15mm-alien-mercenaries-review.html?m=1

Gave mine away a few years back, but there is a good pic at the link above to help you decide.

[Logain]

He has several packs with different weapons, but the capes and helmets capture the feel in my mind:

https://shop.groundzerogames.co.uk/15mm-stargrunt/infantry/eurasian-solar-union-esu-/sg15-e16.html

Two different packs of these bulky alien Mercs:

https://shop.groundzerogames.co.uk/15mm-stargrunt/infantry/human-characters-and-misc-aliens/sg15-x05.html

[Logain]

Try GZG miniatures: European Solar Union Naval troopers (Starguard), Alien mercs, (Orrilla), Ix or Chitters (Drenoi)

Khurasan Miniatures: Stikks (Drenoi)

Rebel Minis: Manth (Drenoi)

Highlander Studios: Space Bugs (Drenoi)

Good Luck!

[Logain]

My post above isn’t correct. My memory isn’t as good as it used to be, but here is the post I was thinking of, describing SpaceJackers tiles, and showing them in progress. I found it on the way back machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190729032537/http://tinysolitarysoldiers.blogspot.com/2011/07/3d-spaceship-modular-tiles.html

[Logain]

Space jacker made a modular set like Old Ben’s but combining the other ideas on this thread along time ago. They were fantastic looking. He started with glueing 25mm lipped bases in an 8×8 pattern. In some places he used Hirst Art industrial edge in place of bases to make walls. In some bases he just glued card stock to make a floor tile, in others he used window screen (a cheaper alternative to granny grating, and easier to work with) to create grated flooring. The effect was stunning with a black undercoat and dry brushed gray.

[Logain]

I’ve finished all my figures for years with just Vallejo Matt Varnish with totally happy results. I think you could skip the Krylon Fixatif.

Photographing miniatures well is almost a separate hobby! Your first mini looks pretty good!

 

[Logain]

One way to approach it would be do some head swaps. I doubt that you’d notice much shape differences between men and women in period uniforms.

You could also look among figure lines that are U.S. centered and about the same period.  You might find pioneer women from the FIW, AWI, ACW wearing utilitarian clothing that could pass in Europe, and maybe with some weapons.

Pirate lines might be another place to look.

Here is a link to a forum post on civilians/characters for the peninsular war for Sharp Practice that might be useful:

https://toofatlardies.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9743

And Saskatoon Mini Gamer’s blog has a couple groups of armed women from various sources:

https://saskminigamer.blogspot.com/p/28mm-seven-years-war-and-jacobite.html

Not sure if any of those help!  Good luck!

[Logain]

Great armies, great showcase of the rules.

[Logain]

Thanks guys, since two of them are free, I’ll take a look at all three (One Page, Unity, Squad Hammer).

Five Core was so good, that I haven’t tried many newer games Sci-fi skirmish games.

 

[Logain]

Well, I have two packs of those Minirat 10mm, that I’ve made into three Mordhiem war bands. I love them, the sculpts are so detailed and varied at 10mm that even before painting every figure has unique character. I don’t mind cartoony fantasy figures, in fact it has some advantages in that the kids really like them too.
If it were a historical force, I’d prefer more realistic figures. But for 10mm dudes fighting rat men? I’m fine with them.

[Logain]

Interesting topic. I think AB hit on one key point early in the thread. Background Knowledge. For example my brother and I have been reading fantasy and sci fi from an early age, and although the window dressing may change most fantasy war games emerge from a common theme and inspiration. But to my wife who reads very little fiction historical war games are far more approachable. Likewise my brother who spent a decade in the military and reads a lot of military history, in addition to  reading lots of fantasy jumps between real and fantasy settings equally well.

[Logain]

Love this project. I’m SLOWLY working on a 3mm Epic set for 2nd edition as well. It’s hands down my favorite of the 4 rule sets.  I really like the simplicity of the rules. Of all the mini games I’ve played this has been my favorite for over two decades.
If you haven’t solved your Warlord Titan problem, after looking for reasonable priced Beetle Backs on eBay for months I think I’m going to use some the new AT Questoris Knights to make some Warlord Proxies. The style matches the Vanguard stalkers pretty well.

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