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Wait wait, I also started gaming in the dark ages of the 70’s but still think that the entry level should be as easy as possible.
I think we’re all agreeing on that. It’s perhaps more a case of John and grizzlymc saying the practical entry level is lower than I think it is. Maybe I’m just so spoilt I can’t even be arsed to properly gauge the entry level
John, I think what you said about perspective is key. I got into miniatures wargaming as a teenager around 1999. In fact, it was a video game (Warhammer: Dark Omen) that made me discover the hobby (and ironically, largely give up video games in the process – the pixel count in pewter miniatures was amazing!
).Maybe – probably – I’m spoilt. Certainly I must be by the standards of anyone who entered the hobby in the early 70s. But I also suspect I’m fairly representative of my generation of hobbyist, good or bad. No doubt there are still young people who get into military history first and miniatures wargaming second, or who take up wargaming first but immediately land in historicals (especially with Flames of War around) but there are probably many more who begin to glance at historical wargaming and military history only once they feel prepared to broaden their horizons beyond their Orks, Cygnar, PanOceanians or whatever. For me this was around 2004 when I took up medieval Andalusia as a wargaming interest. It was rough going at first and it took me some time to find my bearings and become attuned to the mindset of a historical wargamer. Despite having the Ospreys on the subject and the El Cid supplement for Warhammer Ancients, my first few batches of Andalusians turned out looking like cartoon hippies (I was still painting them like a fantasy wargamer – that was the only way I knew how to paint), which in turn made me lose some of my enthusiasm and rebound back to the familiar comfort of fantasy and sci-fi for a while longer.
Anyway, I often feel that historical rulesets and miniatures ranges aren’t really being marketed to me as a fairly typical member of my generation of hobbyist. The fact that I’m probably spoilt is beside the point. The guys are Warlord Games are starting to catch on with their box sets and easily digestible introductory articles on the historical subject matters they’re selling. But whenever a new Napoleonic or ACW ruleset hits the market, it seems to be promoting itself as providing a more accurate, expert, fine-tuned wargaming experience to the well-read hardcore gamer, never as being beginner-friendly or teaching the basics of the subject matter as it goes.
If I had to identify what it is I personally wish for (not demand, just wish for) in very concrete terms, I suppose it’s for more of the research to come pre-packaged with the wargaming product in an easily digestible way – for instance for historical rulesets to have a more instructional, educational spirit. More “beginner outreach” articles written by seasoned members of the community for the benefit of novices, to the effect of “1066 for dummies” and “wot’s a Blücher?” would also be saintly.
That’s only my perspective, of course.
2) How much you need to research.
Thanks for not forgetting about this one! It’s really the thing that keeps me in the shallow end of the pool where historical wargaming is concerned. If I can’t just pick up some Napoleonic figures on a whim and start painting them, but rather have to read one or several books on the subject matter first, then I’m just not going to start collecting and gaming Napoleonics. Of course it’s a rather fundamental, inescapable problem. I can’t paint and game what I don’t know about, and I can’t make myself know things without effort. Still, it does often amaze me how far removed hardcore historicals gamers at large seem to be from any serious considerations of beginner-friendliness. It often seems to me that to be a gamer of the big, “deep-researched” wars/periods like Nappies or the ACW, one needs to have started out as a military historian (whether layman or professional) and only later have decided to dip one’s toe in the miniature wargaming hobby. Those of us coming at it from the other end (being drawn first to miniature gaming – often through the gateway of fantasy/sci-fi which is supremely accessible and welcoming – then beginning to glance sideways at military history) are met by some very intimidating hurdles. I keep wondering if maybe there’s some creative way of lowering the threshold in respect to prerequisite research/knowledge/understanding of the subject matter. This could be partly by narrowing the scope of what the subject matter is (eg. “the 1809 campaign” as opposed to “the Napoleonic Wars”) and partly by identifying and isolating any and all truly essential information for the subject matter in question. Just as there increasingly are box sets of figures that give newcomers everything they need to get started building their forces, so there ought to be more beginner-level “packets” of information (perhaps even in those box sets) that present conflicts, campaigns and theaters in a self-contained manner, including information on how one might be wise to paint one’s figures and expand one’s forces. Warlord Games do something vaguely along these lines with the introductory-level military history articles on their website. It’s what I hope the future of historical wargaming will look like.
On a different note, and somewhat conversely to my above rant, on the subject of terrain I do sometimes feel that the mass-produced stuff marketed for new customers can be a wet blanket on the hobby. I don’t like it when everyone ends up having the same terrain – to me, it kills the whole world-building aspect of the hobby. I can’t stand to look at the state of 40K these days: GW is (with some success) brainwashing its customer base to believe 40K must be played on GW-produced 40K terrain. Every photo in the more recent publications has the same plastic techno-gothic ruins in the background. Those ruins also keep showing up in more and more photos of 40K being played by “real people” (meaning, not people from GW surreptitiously hardselling the “GW lifestyle”). I know Mel the Terrain Tutor has complained about this in the past
Admittedly, the pool of mass-produced starter terrain has been growing lately (thanks to more companies wading into the market, like Mantic with their Deadzone and Mars Attacks urban terrain sets, and Dust Tactics with their Warzone Tenement buildings), which alleviates the whole “sameyness” problem somewhat.
I think the manufacturers make a point of announcing their new releases everywhere they can. The fanbase at large seems to have chosen Facebook as the primary place to respond to said announcements. That’s the strength of FB: It’s an easy place for manufacturers to upload pics and just say “Look what we made!”, and for fans to just reply “Like!”. When no deeper discussion is needed, FB excels. I suspect it kills some of the proper back-and-forth, though.
IMO, what we need is for the 15mm sci-fi community to become less fixed on simply orbiting the manufacturers and showering them with likes (which is good for Facebook), and more orientated toward actually talking about their own projects and games (which is good for forums). We need more discussion to the effect of “I want to game spaceship boarding actions in 15mm, any suggestions?”, and “Check out this 15mm sci-fi jungle guerrilla base I just built”, and “Clash on the Fringe AAR, Crusties vs Sahadeen”, and so forth. I myself am remiss in this respect. I have three 15mm sci-fi projects and they’re all going at a crawl for the time being.
Admittedly there’s quite a lot of creative endeavours by 15mm sci-fi gamers/hobbyists being shown off in the blogosphere, and I’ve noticed some discussion going in the comments sections of some of the blogs. Generally, the medium of blogging seems to be particularly popular with the 15mm sci-fi crowd.
The upshot is that forums seem to simply be losing out
The real question is how he travels the Badlands without armed escort…
“You messin’ with Ishtar, you messin’ with the Junkers!”
Very cool seeing this character come gradually more alive.
On an entirely different note, are you planning to model any more native vegetation for Kometenmelodie? IIRC, the KR-16 fluff makes out the region on which the story is centered as having a temperate and rainy climate like that of the British Isles. I’d love to see more trees and bushes and reeds and whatnot. I assume that much of what we’re seeing of the ground is in fact grassy/shrubby vegetation in the typically drab colours of the planet, as opposed to bare earth?
Out of curiosity, which company did you turn to for weapons? I could always throw some more onto the lead pile
Gripping Beast sell wire spears with hammered, pre-shaped spearheads. You’ll also find cast whole spears from some manufacturers, although mine are mainly old Gripping Beast ones that seem to have been discontinued. I’m sure I have some cast spears from several other manufacturers in the lead pile as well – I can’t recall which manufacturers, but they exist. The shafts tend to be a bit thicker than wire spearshafts, though.
One product I can definitely NOT recommend is the wire spears with separate cast spearheads from Old Glory. Drilling the spearheads and using the strongest glue you can find will not do much to ameliorate their tendency to snap off. The “bases” of the spearheads also look comically oversized.
I’m not the best person to advise others on where to buy terrain (I’m on a budget and prefer scratchbuilding), but I suppose the first question nowadays is: Are you looking for laser-cut MDF or cast resin buildings? For resin, there’s Gripping Beast again (it’s hard not to keep bringing them up when discussing 28mm dark ages
). Monolith Designs made some nice-looking resin dark ages terrain, but seem to be no longer trading.They do look delightfully Oldhammer! Thanks for sharing!
I wish I’d been around in the miniature wargaming scene back in the days when these sculpts were new. By the time I got into Warhammer, the first iteration of multipart plastic Chaos Warriors (not the ones that are available now, and not the old single-pose plastics, but the ones in between those two) had just been released.
Well, I won’t let that stop me feeling nostalgic when I see figures like these!
Don’t go in there!! Why do characters in horror movies always act like they’ve never seen a horror movie?!
Seriously though, very cool stuff, thanks for posting!
Rhoderic, is there a story behind your avatar? Is it a character from sci fi I’m unfamiliar with or is he a mini of yours? He’s incredibly impressive while at the same time seeming very approachable and friendly. cool. Its reached the point that if I ever met you in real life I’d expect you to be 7 foot and look exactly like that chap
Back when Rattrap Productions (makers of .45 Adventure, Broadsword Adventure, Gloire and Fantastic Worlds) were still in full gear a few years ago I was a fairly active poster in their forum. We were a small core group of fans who played “play by forum” narrative scenarios wherein participants would submit their characters as photos of miniatures they had painted themselves, along with background stories. Many of us would paint new figures expressly for that purpose. The blue chap is Baron Altair, my antihero (or ambivalent villain) in two scenarios for Fantastic Worlds. He’s an ascetic alien-nobleman-gone-rogue on a single-minded quest to construct a functioning black hole generator for reasons which I still refuse to make clear (largely because I never got that far with his background). He also had a henchman, a primitive Lizardman named Tep-Tep. Come to think of it, the original (terrible) photo is still up in my LAF user gallery. The figure is just a bodge-job conversion of one of the Bronze Age Miniatures generics. There was talk of having an official Baron Altair sculpted (not by me) for Rattrap Productions, and I was supposed to participate in a joint creative effort by the Rattrap community to write a new supplement for Fantastic Worlds, but to my shame I absconded (from the miniature gaming community as a whole, for a while) as I went into one of my non-hobby phases.
I’m not terribly attached to this avatar, to be honest. I’m sure I’ll change it at some point. I do generally prefer using my own painted miniatures as avatars in miniature gaming forums, though.
I’m not seven foot tall, nor hairless, nor blue, nor do I scowl menacingly very much
This thread keeps showing up on the front page and every time I see the title I keep thinking it must be a sci-fi thread about some sneaky alien race named the Yall. Yup, those Yall sure are quiet. Now who makes them in 15mm?
I really need to possess one.
I suspect Satan would tell you the feeling is mutual
The fluff is growing on me. I must admit that initially I found Kometenmelodie a tad too dreary and miserable-looking a planet when you first debuted it some years back, but I see the charm of it now. To me it’s a bit like Carpathia from Outcasts, a bit like Caprice from Heavy Gear, and a bit like something entirely its own. I also find it inspiring to see other people use the existing fluff as a canvas, like Earther did. It inspires me to do the same.
Those riots, by the way, are to be known afterwards as the “milk and sugar riots”
