Data Sphere

I've played several games :

IN :
- Pulp City : I'm lucky to have a tiny group of 4 die hard fans. I play 3-4 games per year.

- SAGA : Getting a lot of tractions. Someone is organizing a second tournament in June. I predict a bright future for this game in our area.

- Deadzone : Just started a by-weekly group of players at a local store. I'm really enjoying this game. Using Infinity models to create my team. Games last one hour. Mission oriented with secret objectives + a campaign system, in one short but surprisingly complete rule book. I wasn't sure about using a 3"x3" square grid for movement at first but it solves so many measuring issued that I'm sold on it (for this game).



OUT :
- Batman : Unbalanced factions. Shelved.

- Frostgrave : Shelved... to basic for ma taste.

- Bolt Action : Huge mistake. Boring «been there done that» GW derivative system. Confirmed that I don't want to touch WWII games ever again.



STAND BY :
- Wrath of Kings : Surprisingly fun. But not enough players in the area. Shelved my starter set Goritsi models.

- Horizon Wars : Awesome game. But not enough players in the area. Shelved

- Songs of Blade and Heroes : One game of the pirate adaptation called Flashing Steel. Need to play this again now that I have a full roster of WM mercenary pirate models.

- Broken Legions : Ancients armies & Mythical creature. We did a 4 game campaign. I played the Parthians.



Not planing to try out new games for the rest of the year. I'll concentrate on:
- Infinity
- SAGA
- Deadzone
- and a few games Pulp City

In:
Infinity, though rarely. Played a game or two since the live action GitS movie.

got suckered back into GW games with Shadow War Armageddon, I went in with the Grey Knights ($35 box of 5 models and a few magnets to swap out gear)
Oh, and some Age of Sigmar, guys bought me a freaking starter box of lizardmen, though I haven't played a game yet.

Out:
Flames of War. With 4th edition, one guy is whining that his Germans lost all their cool special rules, and isn't listening to any other comments about how his Germans are better than before. Perhaps I need to murderate the powergamer while using Germans under 4th edition to get him to shut up. But it looks like Flames is going to be out for the future.

Beware of poisoned gifts !!!

There is a new gaming store 7-minute drive from my home! But the crowd is really into anything GW comes up with... I had a difficult winter resisting the call of the dark side...but in the end I didn't join them.

Fortunately, the owner is an experienced wargamer, he's always trying to get some players into non-GW games. Saga and Deadzone are getting some traction.

Infinity didn't take at all. No one showed for the demos. One reason stated was «metal models». Plastic would attract more players it seems.

Just Infinity and Malifaux. Wanted to get into Guild Ball, but decided I barely have the time and attention to play/paint my main games and not get into random shinies to sell them a year later.

Pierzasty wrote:Just Infinity and Malifaux. Wanted to get into Guild Ball, but decided I barely have the time and attention to play/paint my main games and not get into random shinies to sell them a year later.

That is why I've starter buying games that don't have official miniatures like Frostgrave, Horizon Wars, SoBaH, Broken Legions. I use minis from my collection. D&D minis and Dropzone Commander models for HW. For Deadzone I'm using Infinity models to represent the Enforcers faction. SAGA is historical so when I'm tired of the ruleset I can look at other systems. I even used my SAGA models to represent the Parthians with Broken Legions.

Batman (supers) and Wrath of Kings (vampire/werwolf) I'll keep. Both can be recycled. Only Bolt Action was sold.

Not too bad.

Infinity only, and this is a rare treat, too RL got into my way, and the local meta is in shambles, so I find it difficult to log in a game.

I might be getting into WW 2 historicals - though I've given the Bolt Action a look and somehow didn't liked it. My buddy is into historical boardgames, and curious about minaiture ones, but somehow he can't get over the sci-fi element of Infinity, so I guess we'll settle for Chain of Command... provided he manages to finally buy any models, and I manage to get mine (one pack already lost by mail service :/) - we decided to go 20mm/1:72 scale: models are plentiful, and affordable, if you keep to skirmish-sized games (and, which appeals to me pretty well, can be reused with a different ruleset).

Errhile wrote:Infinity only, and this is a rare treat, too RL got into my way, and the local meta is in shambles, so I find it difficult to log in a game.

I might be getting into WW 2 historicals - though I've given the Bolt Action a look and somehow didn't liked it. My buddy is into historical boardgames, and curious about minaiture ones, but somehow he can't get over the sci-fi element of Infinity, so I guess we'll settle for Chain of Command... provided he manages to finally buy any models, and I manage to get mine (one pack already lost by mail service :/) - we decided to go 20mm/1:72 scale: models are plentiful, and affordable, if you keep to skirmish-sized games (and, which appeals to me pretty well, can be reused with a different ruleset).

Yeah, if I hadn't started in 15mm with Flames of War, I think I would have gone with 20mm historicals.

Check out guildwargamers.com for some absolutely incredible painting of 20mm models. (IIRC, Euro 1-cent coins are ideal for basing 20mm minis, as they're magnetic and dirt cheap) I post every once in a while over there as Lion in the Stars.

If you want to go larger than skirmish scale, I recommend looking at the Battlegroup XYZ books from Plastic Soldier Company. Rules are written by Warwick Kinrade, studio models painted by Piers Brand (and both are active on guildwargamers.com). The Battlegroup rules scale from platoon per side up to battalion per side, though a battalion per side will take a long time to play. The rules are 1:1 models:soldiers, and the basic unit you're pushing around is a squad or single vehicle. Since it's only a small group writing the rules (Warwick and Piers), they're slowly working through theaters that they want to play. This year is North Africa, Battlegroup Tobruk for the book title. So far, they have released BG Blitzkrieg (Poland and France), BG Barbarossa (invasion of Russia), BG Tobruk, BG Kursk, BG Overlord, BG Wacht am Rein, and BG Fall of the Reich. Each book is balanced internally, well, mostly, as each book focuses on a single campaign or segment of the war. You have a bit of resource management, since you activate a semirandom number of squads/vehicles per turn, based on number of officers and size of game. The army lists actually give you reasons to take odd things like wire teams and medic/stretcher units. Also, each unit you take has a Battle Rating, which is basically like company morale. As you lose units, you draw a random BR chit from a cup/bag, when you have reached a draw total equal to your force's BR, you lose the game. There are some blank BRs, some special effects chits, too.

Section9 wrote:Yeah, if I hadn't started in 15mm with Flames of War, I think I would have gone with 20mm historicals.

Check out guildwargamers.com for some absolutely incredible painting of 20mm models. (IIRC, Euro 1-cent coins are ideal for basing 20mm minis, as they're magnetic and dirt cheap) I post every once in a while over there as Lion in the Stars.

If you want to go larger than skirmish scale, I recommend looking at the Battlegroup XYZ books from Plastic Soldier Company. Rules are written by Warwick Kinrade, studio models painted by Piers Brand (and both are active on guildwargamers.com). The Battlegroup rules scale from platoon per side up to battalion per side, though a battalion per side will take a long time to play. The rules are 1:1 models:soldiers, and the basic unit you're pushing around is a squad or single vehicle. Since it's only a small group writing the rules (Warwick and Piers), they're slowly working through theaters that they want to play. This year is North Africa, Battlegroup Tobruk for the book title. So far, they have released BG Blitzkrieg (Poland and France), BG Barbarossa (invasion of Russia), BG Tobruk, BG Kursk, BG Overlord, BG Wacht am Rein, and BG Fall of the Reich. Each book is balanced internally, well, mostly, as each book focuses on a single campaign or segment of the war. You have a bit of resource management, since you activate a semirandom number of squads/vehicles per turn, based on number of officers and size of game. The army lists actually give you reasons to take odd things like wire teams and medic/stretcher units. Also, each unit you take has a Battle Rating, which is basically like company morale. As you lose units, you draw a random BR chit from a cup/bag, when you have reached a draw total equal to your force's BR, you lose the game. There are some blank BRs, some special effects chits, too.

Printed a copy of Chain of Command in January. More interesting system than Bolt Action imho.

I have a couple of friends who played BG Kursk for a while. But now they found more local WWII players and are moving to 10mm scale to play larger battles with Blitzkrieg Commander 3E. And that is how I lost most of my players for Horizon Wars and other non-WWII niche skirmish games...

Chain of Command is what, platoon per side?

I've seen some reviews and read a few tactics things from Too Fat Lardies, I like the idea of Jumping-off Points and the recon phase to control where they are before you start shooting at each other. But I think I'm the only guy in my gaming group with individually-based 15mm minis, everyone else is just multibased for Flames of War.

Section9 wrote:Chain of Command is what, platoon per side?

I've seen some reviews and read a few tactics things from Too Fat Lardies, I like the idea of Jumping-off Points and the recon phase to control where they are before you start shooting at each other. But I think I'm the only guy in my gaming group with individually-based 15mm minis, everyone else is just multibased for Flames of War.

Yes, about 30 men, an officer and NCOs.

Basically, yes - a platoon of troops.
Plus all the support teams you make into your allowed Level of Support - a handful of them at max (varies by scenario, and often whether you're attacker or defender, plus relative quality of your troops vs opposing troops).

I was thinking about going for 15mm, but I finally decided against it: too much leftover stuff (15mm is not popular here outside of FoW, and this one is a bit fading, too. Little point in buying three - four - five vehicle platoon, if I'm ever going to need one or two vehicles of a given type... Same with miniatures - what point is buying a company of troops in 15mm - 120 or so - if i'm going to need just a platoon and some support...?).

Nb. CoC can use group-based models too, it just makes tracking casaulties a bit more awkward (need makres, like dice, to keep tracking how many models off a given stand are gone, instead of just removing them individually).

Errhile wrote:I was thinking about going for 15mm, but I finally decided against it: too much leftover stuff (15mm is not popular here outside of FoW, and this one is a bit fading, too. Little point in buying three - four - five vehicle platoon, if I'm ever going to need one or two vehicles of a given type... Same with miniatures - what point is buying a company of troops in 15mm - 120 or so - if i'm going to need just a platoon and some support...?).

I played with 20mm WWII models. Good choice. The scale seemed more appropriate for ranges of weapons than 28mm for single platoon level battles. My opponent had a full 4x8 table of 20mm factory buildings. Very cool. Too bad I'm not a attracted to WWII enough to spend money and build a force.

That was my reasoning. 28mms look great, but they're kinda expensive at this scale - and while I can (more or less) wave away realism with sci-fi/fantasy games, range vs table size looked a bit iffy in 28mm WW2.

BTW one of the things I like about CoC rules: rifles / machineguns are considered to be never "out of range" in CoC, they may be merely "out of effective range", meaning you can fire, just taking a penalty for long range. Several weapons are not represented at tabletop at all, because their ranges are too long - like, almost everything capable of indirect fire (save for small mortars that were often integral part of a platoon's rooster, and infantry support guns).

Now, I really hold onto my thumbs that the resent package with my models will make it to me this time!

>>IN<<
Bushido
Ninja All Stars (Bushido-Chiba Lite!)
Frostgrave

>>OUT<<
Batman MIniatures Game

>>SHELVED<<
X-Wing
Gundam/Mecha tabletop game I was making and playtesting at the same time.

MARC C wrote:

Errhile wrote:I was thinking about going for 15mm, but I finally decided against it: too much leftover stuff (15mm is not popular here outside of FoW, and this one is a bit fading, too. Little point in buying three - four - five vehicle platoon, if I'm ever going to need one or two vehicles of a given type... Same with miniatures - what point is buying a company of troops in 15mm - 120 or so - if i'm going to need just a platoon and some support...?).

I played with 20mm WWII models. Good choice. The scale seemed more appropriate for ranges of weapons than 28mm for single platoon level battles. My opponent had a full 4x8 table of 20mm factory buildings. Very cool. Too bad I'm not a attracted to WWII enough to spend money and build a force.

Yeah, 20mm is what I'd do if I hadn't had piles of 15mm troops and terrain from Flames of War.

Gotta see what Piers Brand can do with 20mm minis, you'd swear they were 1/35!

For me, mostly Infinity.
Played a few games of 9th age (tournament community driven WHFB) and a few games of KoW (still have a High elf army, and it works with either system. It's only ever going to be the "other game", though.

In addition, played a couple of games of Tomorrow's War and a game of Kryomek with some old mates who introduced me to it back in the day (and also Stargrunt II).

TW uses what 40k army stuff I have left, I have a chunk of nexus forces left from my Kryomek days too.

So the only game I 'play' is Infinity but she is a kind hearted sort and doesn't mind where I get the urge to play as long as play with her.

I'm in a filthy casual affair with the following,

# Frost Grave: Which I have played like 3 times I've played this game died so fast around here.

# Shadow Wars: Strong presence in my state but not at my local store/club yet. Basically I want to paint some Eldar again so this was my gate way. It looks seriously broken and still plays like proto Infinity JUST LIKE NECROMUNDA!

# Bolt Action: Version 2.0 is only slightly less shit and broken that version 1.0 its still shit though. That said I like making and painting tanks and like most people I have a hard on for German Armour even though in reality it was red hot garbage but it sure looks cool.

# Chain of Command: This is a much better rule set than Bolt Action but still not amazing its going to be me random game with mates at my place game though. I love the deployment mini game idea though!

# Malifaux: I own a crew its painted I've never played though just one of those games that has a following here that I haven't really worked on much.

# War Hammer 40,000: I have not owned nor played a game since 6th Ed I left the minute I saw Wraithknights becoming a thing 8th may get me back but only if its not a total wreck of a game.

VisOne wrote:# War Hammer 40,000: I have not owned nor played a game since 6th Ed I left the minute I saw Wraithknights becoming a thing 8th may get me back but only if its not a total wreck of a game.

Don't hold you breath... 8th will have Mortal Wounds (no save - not even invulnerable) just like AOS. Armies (and lists) that can inflict the most mortal wounds will be the new broken thing for 8th... I'm betting Mortal Wounds will mostly show up in profils of new sculpts like the new Primus Space Marines. GW has to sell plasticrack after all.

Wouldn't dream of holding my breath for any game from any developer tabletop or PC none of them can be trusted. GW will never win me back its not possible but they might have soften my stance from not at all to maybe sometimes with select friends.

In my case, I would say:

BattleTech.

But right now, I'm getting myself onto Infinity, but lack of friends (and depression) inhibits my ability to get onto this game (In BT I could use computer to alleviate the problem for a bit).