[Rhoderic]

Sad to hear, but understandable and not entirely out of the blue. If it’s not too forward to ask, do you think you’ll still be expanding the range of figures?

[Rhoderic]

Liche Purple nostalgia. The definitive Dark Elf colour.

[Rhoderic]

Funnily, I was immediately hit by WFB 6th ed connotations, because the GW studio Empire army (which featured constantly in White Dwarf) during that edition was also painted as Talabheimers.

Not that that’s of any consequence. And I must say, very nice painting of such small-scale figures.

[Rhoderic]

As it’s a broad subject I have dozens of (disparate) suggestions, but typing lengthy forum posts is a bit tricky for me RN on account of half the electronic devices in my household going on the fritz or entering their terminal stages at the same time (just sheer bad luck). I’ll start posting suggestions in this thread soon but it’ll have to be an uncurated jumble. The TWW spam filter might also not like long lists of hyperlinks.

[Rhoderic]

I just have a vague instinct for how big of a hobby budget I can afford, but it still normally keeps me on an even keel. The guilt I feel whenever I make a significant hobby expenditure serves me well as a mechanism for self-moderation. I also seem to generally have the right instincts for having my hobby budget play nice with my budgeting for other leisure expenditures. Since getting back into video gaming two years ago I’ve made fewer and smaller hobby purchases, to offset the cost of consoles and games for them.

[Rhoderic]

Will you be having to re-think the project now, Mike?

[Rhoderic]

I do find a common problem with 10mm and 12mm to be that many manufacturers and hobbyists don’t really make a distinction between the two, making it hard to know what you’re really getting.

[Rhoderic]

Cacique Caribe wrote:

Hmm. I was hoping for something for 10-15 figures per side. Perhaps as many as 20 alien natives (or mining colonists) vs a ship’s small crew.

The first page of the rulebook states it’s been designed for 4-6 figures per player. Furthermore, while it’s not stated in so many words, it’s strongly implied by the squad creation rules that every figure should be a unique character.

Like Phil said, even in the context of a game made to be played with only ~10 figures on the table, it really is quite detailed and granular – surprisingly so for a rulebook that’s only 64 pages with a fair amount of artwork and photos interspersed throughout. I would mainly recommend it for people who want to recreate the feel of that subgenre of video games known as “tactical RPGs”, like the old X-COM and Jagged Alliance games, on the tabletop.

I get the impression that the ratio of people who have actually played it to people who have purchased it is particularly low with Rogue Stars. The relative complexity of it scared most of us away once we actually sat down to read it. A lot of the pre-release hype for the game was based on mistaken assumptions that Osprey and North Star were having it designed as a sci-fi equivalent of Frostgrave, which they weren’t at all. I’m not saying it’s at the same level of complexity as ASL or anything, but it still definitely goes against the trend of streamlined rules design in miniatures gaming nowadays.

[Rhoderic]

Thuseld wrote:

What is it about Firefly that connects to so many of us Sci Fi gamers? Also, I am looking at ways to combine Firefly and Mass Effect. Like Mass Effect in the core worlds, but Firefly out on the Fringe? I don’t know.

Those feel like two very different settings to me. One of the reasons I’m keeping my Mass Effect-style project separate from my generic (non-retro) space opera project is that in the Mass Effect universe, form-fitting power armour is so ubiquitous that it’s basically the equivalent of ordinary combat fatigues in the real world today. So, I’m trying to make sure that all the figures I get for the Mass Effect-style project (excluding civilians, bug monsters and synthetic life-forms) are wearing appropriately sleek, advanced-looking power armour. A frustrating consequence of this is that I can’t use that one Krogan-looking figure in the official Rogue Stars range. His kit just looks too low-tech for the aesthetic I want. He’ll still do fine for the other project, though.

[Rhoderic]

I pre-ordered it (by way of backing the North Star crowdfunder for the official miniatures) and was meaning to do a sci-fi skirmish project around it, but hadn’t expected it to turn out to be so complex and granular. Now it languishes on my bookshelf. I’m not saying I hate it, though, and I may still get around to trying it out, perhaps as part of a series of games where I play the “same” sci-fi skirmish scenario multiple times with different rulesets. But I don’t see myself using it regularly, it reads too much like homework.

As for settings, I mainly just had in mind a generic / broad-spectrum space opera adventure setting (one that intentionally emulates the style of those slightly low-budget “Hollywood North” sci-fi shows like Killjoys and Dark Matter) with the official miniatures as a starting point. I also have some other sci-fi skirmish projects I might try it out for, although Rogue Stars was never the main focus I had in mind for them. These include two different retro space opera settings (one with a 60s-70s feel, the other with a 70s-80s feel), a Firefly-esque space western setting and a Mass Effect-inspired setting.

[Rhoderic]

Or Old School Revival. Both definitions are in use, and interchangeable.

I presume the OSR part of this project is more about the vintage WFB ruleset and the aesthetic of the terrain, than the choice of 10mm as a fantasy gaming scale.

[Rhoderic]

MartinR wrote:

Truls Engebakken-Fjell wrote:

Yes, I the setting and art style is another great part both the 2nd and 3rd game clearly has amor/technology level of late medieval. Very much 1480s-1500 in style. And nilfguard obviously is just the HRE by another name(though seems to be far more efficient and competent then the HRE ever was.)

I rather thought Nilfgard was Russia, from a Finnish perspective.

Why Finnish? Just wondering, as a Finn, if The Witcher has some Finnish connection I didn’t know about. The books are originally from Poland AFAIK.

As for the games and Netflix series, I bought The Witcher 3 on sale a while ago, but haven’t gotten around to it yet because of Skyrim. I do keep hearing that The Witcher 3 is the more interesting and vibrant of those two games, though. Season 1 of the Netflix series was decent (and I appreciate any fantasy series with a high production budget) but the setting and story didn’t quite click for me. The setting felt a bit inconsistent and the story struck me as a bit too cheap and pandering of a power fantasy for frustrated men.

[Rhoderic]

Can’t afford VR I’m afraid, let alone VR on a PC, but I’m sure I’ll enjoy the heckins out of it anyway. Sounds like it’s got some of the DNA of the old X-Wing / TIE Fighter games, what with the way you divert power between the three systems in your spacecraft.

[Rhoderic]

So what type of aesthetic do the non-halfling figures in the army represent?

This is just me, but if I was going for the old GW-style pot-bellies with big feet and hands sticking out of them as my halflings, I’d also want the other figures in the army to be similarly cartoonish. Cartoonish ruffians, cartoonish treeman, and so on. If, on the other hand, I had already settled on non-cartoonish figures for the non-halflings (such as the Wargames Atlantic Dark Age Irish for the ruffians), I would also want halflings in a similarly realistic(ish) sculpting style.

Again, that’s just my preference. To answer your original question, I think the Wargames Atlantic halflings do look the part, but in the context of a relatively realistic aesthetic.

[Rhoderic]

This subject touches upon one of my favourite things about the hobby: the way different ranges of miniatures portray the same thing in interestingly different ways, especially in the fantastical genres where aesthetic and “art direction” are major factors.

I think the Wargames Atlantic halflings look eminently “halflingy”, but no, they look nothing like the old GW take on halflings, which also look eminently halflingy but in a very different way, to suit a different aesthetic. I have Wargames Atlantic halflings, Copplestone Castings halflings, Bridge Miniatures halflings (formerly made by Black Hat) and Westfalia Miniatures halflings, and I intend to rarely (if ever) mix them because in my mind they’re meant for different fantasy aesthetics. Once I get some Reaper halflings I might possibly mix them with the Copplestone ones if I deem them to be compatible enough, but that’s not a given, so they might end up representing a fifth aesthetic.

Similarly I have, or intend to get, many different aesthetics of orcs, goblins, elves, dwarfs and other fantasy races, even humans. I’d like to match these up into sets representing different “art direction” portrayals of a typical Tolkienesque fantasy setting. I should point out I only get small skirmish warbands of each range.

I’d say you might want to mull over which kind of general aesthetic you’re aiming for with your fantasy setting, and choose your halflings accordingly. What other figures do you mean to mix them with? Cartoonish? Non-cartoonish? In-between? The Wargames Atlantic halflings strike me as being quite far toward the non-cartoonish end of the spectrum. Perhaps the only ones that look even less cartoonish are the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game hobbits.

 

[Rhoderic]

I’ve been looking forward to this one. Sci-fi vehicle combat sims no longer enjoy the popularity they did in the 90s (at least as far as AAA games are concerned), but I fondly remember those old glory days. And of course, the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games that SW Squadrons is a spiritual successor to were a central part of all that. I have high expectations.

[Rhoderic]

@Jon Williams: Nice models! As you seem to be going full steam ahead with your new project, you might perhaps want to start your own thread at this point, so this one doesn’t get too crowded. Typically on a forum like this, every hobbyist gets to have their own threads for showing off their own projects without all having to jostle in one and the same thread – not that conversation isn’t welcome, of course.

[Rhoderic]

Jon Williams wrote:

Hi all just received the figures from magister militum while also lovely figures and well detailed the scale difference in the vehicles well for my liking is to much

Do you mean the scale difference between vehicles and infantry in the same range, or between Magister Militum vehicles and Vanguard vehicles?

As I’ve already been given to understand that the Magister Militum and Vanguard ranges are not very compatible in regard to scale, but I still want to have both ranges, my plan is to do two separate 3mm gothic sci-fi projects. One will be MM Eldar vs Imperial Guard (or possibly Chaos rabble with Imperial Guard tanks) and the other will be Vanguard Space Marines vs Orks, possibly to be expanded with further factions depending on what Vanguard may add in the future. They will share a set of 3mm terrain between them (and for this I might use some carefully selected 6mm buildings from other manufacturers like Brigade Models, because a lot of those are considerably undersized for their nominal scale) but other than that, never shall the twain meet.

I have similar plans for 6mm gothic sci-fi, seeing as the Vanguard and Onslaught ranges are largely incompatible but I still want to have both of them.

[Rhoderic]

I hold with those who favour fire.

[Rhoderic]

Is the question about Burning Sands or miniatures gaming in general?

I suspect that most people who buy Burning Sands aren’t really on board with the notion that it’s exclusively keyed in to “desert fantasy”, so it’s a moot point for them. Just as a lot of people who get into Frostgrave seem to ignore the “frost” part of that game.

As for gaming in general, for me the allure of having many different projects – each of which has some contact surface with at least one other project – is rather the whole point of the hobby. I want to have a “world-building toolbox” of different types of terrain and miniatures from which I can mix & match pieces for different settings. Each set of terrain can be matched with multiple different sets of miniatures, and vice versa. Keeping this figurative toolbox growing (or even just the fantasy of doing that) is what gives me joy in this hobby. It’s the thought of myself sticking to just one project that dismays me. I know this from experience, having tried it several times, for several years at a time, and always having felt drained of enthusiasm at the end.

[Rhoderic]

telzy amber wrote:

OK I don’t understand. 2.5D roofs? I understand 3D and I think I understand 2.5D walls but roofs? Please explain

I’d rather not point fingers and single any manufacturer out by posting photos, but what I’m referring to is when roof tiles are represented as an etched grid pattern on an otherwise flat, featureless sheet. I understand the limitations of laser-cutting (and in fact I’m curious to know how Things From The Basement got around them when manufacturing the roofs in this thread) but for me it’s simply a case of wanting to avoid terrain/scenery with any kind of 2.5D look.

[Rhoderic]

Mainly a casual interest in RPG rules design, especially on the more rules-light end of that spectrum.

[Rhoderic]

I like that the roof tiles look “full 3D”. All too many laser-cut buildings come with conspicuously 2.5D roofing.

[Rhoderic]

Those NSL are aesthetically some of the best-designed figures in the 25mm Stargrunt range. The sculpts have a rather 80s/90s anime/manga vibe about them (at least to my biased eye), which I suspect isn’t by accident.

The way you’ve painted them looks just right.

[Rhoderic]

I like this a lot. Aside from the pleasure of seeing army/warband projects being completed for actual gaming, that ghostly colour palette is exemplary.

[Rhoderic]

Generic debris, like potsherds, broken sticks, nondescript fragments of wood, scraps of parchment/papyrus/paper, shreds of fabric (possibly remnants of old burial wrappings) and suchlike.

Incidental little creepy crawlies, here and there. The kind that would be easy to sculpt one or two of, then make more of using a press mould.

[Rhoderic]

I could be interested. My tastes run toward simplistic TTRPGs though. Something like Barbarians of Lemuria but with a less hobbled combat system, or maybe like a swords-and-sorcery hack of Lasers & Feelings. So, maybe not the kind of game design you have in mind.

[Rhoderic]

Considering how many of the monstrous creatures mentioned in the legendarium are in fact corrupted Maiar that settled into those forms when Arda was young (or offspring thereof, born with similar forms as a matter of course), it seems to me there’s near-infinite scope for coming up with more of them without breaking the established cosmology. After all, Tolkien seems to have intended for there to be many, many more Maiar of varying natures/”personalities” than the ones he actually brought up. You might want to steer clear of coming up with ones that are as powerful as dragons, Balrogs or the Watcher, but I could easily imagine a corrupted Maia (or offspring) that’s like a lesser version of the Watcher – or some other unpleasant-looking aquatic/amphibious form – dwelling somewhere along the Brandywine or its tributaries.

[Rhoderic]

Sane Max wrote:

I am liking the look of the Jim Bowen ones Monolith design sell I thought Jim Bowen was dead. I loved Bullseye me.

Jim Bowen the sculptor is also dead, as it happens.

From what I understand, those Border Reivers he sculpted are very big (as are all the other figures of his that I’m aware of). Fortunately, some other Border Reiver figures out there are also on the big side, so compatible matches might still be found.

[Rhoderic]

Just instinctively, it sounds to me like a fairly run-of-the-mill rules mechanic among rulesets that deal with the fantastical genres. That said, I’m struggling to think of any specific ruleset where I’ve come across it. I’m sure I must have seen it at least a few times over the years.

Are we talking only about infantry skirmish rulesets, or do ones focused on vehicle combat (e.g. mech combat) also count?

[Rhoderic]

I may have been mistaken about the size of the Xyston figures. Not so small after all?

A bit of converting with modelling putty I have nothing against. If anything I relish the chance. It’s part of the whole worldbuilding process.

I notice the Xyston range even includes packs of separate swords. I’ve never tried weapon swaps on 15mm before, but if there are separate weapons being sold, then it must be feasible. I’d like to replace some of those falxes, specifically.

[Rhoderic]

Mike wrote:

Rhoderic wrote:

There’s also a part of me that would feel the need to convert them in some way – any way – to strip them of their historical accuracy, so I’ll know in my mind I’m not just using historical figures in a fantasy world. Silly, I know, but there you a

Non historical paintjob and tattoo/warpaint?

I’d have to convert them a bit more than that. Just an idiosyncrasy of mine.

[Rhoderic]

I have more than once contemplated buying some Xyston figures for my 15mm swords-and-sorcery project, but have always held off because I remain unconvinced about their size compatibility. A lot of the 15mm fantasy figures out there seem to look like absolute units compared your typical 15mm historical figure, of which Xyston seems representative.

There’s also a part of me that would feel the need to convert them in some way – any way – to strip them of their historical accuracy, so I’ll know in my mind I’m not just using historical figures in a fantasy world. Silly, I know, but there you are.

[Rhoderic]

Ooh, now these look interesting. I’m very tempted to order some to flesh out my swords-and-sorcery project. If they’re the right size, I could scrounge up enough poses from the Greeks, Indians and Sumerians combined for a group of bandits, rabble or ship’s crew, plus a few heroes, plus a few civilians. I’d have to do some conversions to make them look less like three distinctly separate cultures from different time periods, but that’s fine.

Does anyone know what size they are? I get that they’re fairly muscular, but what’s their height?

The photos at the top of the front page seem to be Z series figures. Also, the product page for the Indian Maiden Guard has a photo of the actual miniatures, painted.

[Rhoderic]

Angel Barracks wrote:

I was not sure about a name, or even if it needs one. It could simply be known as the tavern. “Rashid, you popping down the tavern later?” “Which one?” “Faroucs” “OK”

I think you probably have the right idea. Perhaps at most, a tavern might be unofficially named after something it’s associated with among the local population, such as a group of people (profession, ethnicity, whatever) who frequent it, or some other place it’s located next to. “Meet me at the Turanians’ tavern. Can’t go to the butcheryard tavern, the dice-players there think I owe them money.”

[Rhoderic]

Excuse the crude format of this list, it’s just for time-saving purposes. These are just some ideas off the top of my head, assuming you’re being iffy about time periods.

https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/shop.php?p=category_products&category=244&page=3

https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/SC46_Burning_Brands_12–product–4205.html

https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/Fences_Barrels_Gabions_and_Bridges–category–246.html (there are other vendors of Renedra, of course)

https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/Scenic_Bits_and_Pieces–category–249.html

https://1stcorps.co.uk/product/slave-weapons/

https://1stcorps.co.uk/product-category/ancients/ancient-carts/

https://1stcorps.co.uk/product-category/dark-ages/dark-age-carts/

https://1stcorps.co.uk/product-category/dark-ages/dark-age-early-medieval-buildings/

https://1stcorps.co.uk/product-category/medieval/peasants-camp-followers/

https://1stcorps.co.uk/product-category/horse-musket/tywecw-carts/

https://www.frontrank.com/product-category/medieval/medieval-equipment/

https://www.frontrank.com/product-category/18th-century/18th-century-equipment/

https://www.ainstycastings.co.uk/product-category/trade-goods/

https://www.manticgames.com/games/terrain-crate/page/2/

There are more options out there of course, but like you I can’t recall all the ones I’ve encountered over the years.

[Rhoderic]

I for one like the horned helmets. They’re a fine old fantasy trope that suits these fantasy miniatures well. Besides, they’re easy to remove for those who don’t like them. With that in mind I’d have welcomed more helmets with horns (and crests and plumes), for greater customisation.

One thing that bothers me is that the chainmail has been sculpted in a realistic, detailed style that breaks from the norm of 28mm sculpting. This would be fine if not for the fact that I have plenty of other figures – including ones from the official Frostgrave range – that have chainmail sculpted in the classic, more abstract style. I’m not a traditionalist in any way, but I’m loath to mix sculpting styles/aesthetics within one and the same project, so I might have to resculpt all the chainmail on these figures.

[Rhoderic]

I order from North Star a lot. I like the stuff they carry and I also get a monthly £5 discount as a Wargames Illustrated subscriber. This parcel took several weeks to reach me, though. Must be Covid-19.

There’s a 12-pack of the new plastic trees from Mantic Games, a selection of Bad Squiddo 28mm figures (at this point I just want to gauge their compatibility for the various projects I have them in mind for: fantasy, feudal Japan and gothic horror) and some 20mm-ish Gaslands figures. I included a few Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars in the Gaslands figure photo for comparison. Also, my grainy photos have failed to capture the nice bark texture on the trees.

 

 

[Rhoderic]

It’s a 50-50 for me. I love making terrain. I love the idea of world-building manifested as actual physical miniature terrain, with myself as the demiurge that constructs it all. However, I’m also pragmatic. Some types of terrain feel infeasible for me to scratchbuild (regardless of how much time I have), and sometimes a manufacturer that I like and trust simply does it better than I could. But when I do buy terrain, I will often re-work it or embellish it somehow, or even (especially in the case of plastic plants) cut it into pieces which I then use as materials to build something different-looking out of. So, there’s a very porous border between “buying” and “making” for me. You might describe me as a terrain-builder who also irreverently scavenges ready-made terrain.

[Rhoderic]

Truls Engebakken-Fjell wrote:

The biggest problems I’ve found with playing with the Kurosawa mode is it can be really hard to spot archers. They just disappear into the vegetation. Also a little problematic is the various visual ques and prompts that tells you when to block and when to dodge, they can be hard to spot in the chaos in B/W.

I’ve heard similar remarks elsewhere, though I’d been hoping it wasn’t that bad. Those old chanbara films were shot with the full understanding that it was all going to be black-and-white, so they used all the tricks of the trade to make things stand out well. In Ghost of Tsushima the black-and-white graphics mode seems to be more of a filter overlaid on the colours as an afterthought. The underlying graphics were of course originally, carefully designed with contrasting hues in mind, rather than contrasting brightness/darkness. FWIW the game really does have a beautiful colour palette in normal mode.

I wonder if they might still be able to tweak Kurosawa mode so the underlying graphics translate into a more contrast-conducive greyscale.

[Author]

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