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Post by universalmonster on Mar 7, 2018 14:35:26 GMT
Hi all. I was one of those guys that had two drawers full of those plastic D&D pre-painted miniatures but I had really gotten to the point where they were boring me. Also I had moved away from D&D after 4e, towards DCC, and then Tunnels & Trolls (which doesnt need or use minis) and had then gotten interested in solo gaming. So my old plastic collection gathered a ton of dust. Eventually I came full circle- and got interested in solo wargaming (which is actually a thing, I was surprised too). As I got more and more involved, I discovered the joys of 15mm sci-fi, and then later.. old school fantasy 15mm miniatures, and started buying and painting those.. and then photographing my campaigns into little storylines for my own amusement. And for that you need scenery. So long story short- totally getting back into terrain, which I haven't done since D&D3.0 days. Thats how I got here. Wargaming is *usually* gridless, which is a good thing, because a portion of the rules of any given game (my choices for rules now are Dungeon Scum, Laserburn, Dragon Rampant, and Starport Scum) are usually about how to operate without a grid, and deal with all of the nuances of gridlessness. (is this base to base contact? Is this lizardman within reach of this spear-carrier? etc). Aha, so that's one problem (pretty much) solved. Caveat: now I need a ruler and a piece of string. There's a lot less "microtactics"- which are what used to slow things down to a crawl in my 4e games. People would stare at the board and their character sheet and dither between "do I want to take a 5' step and then execute this attack, or do I want to execute this attack for the flank bonus, or .." etc). It basically turned into chess after a while. Gridlless feels much faster. Just move closer.. or further away, or off to the side. But the one thing that seems to have mattered the most in all of this, or had the most profound effect on me, anyhow- is the 15mm scale- about half the size of our usual fantasy miniatures (which are 25mm, but usually 28-32mm for a Reaper). For me, it means you have twice the room to move around - a tight 20x20' room suddenly becomes a 40x40, etc. A 10' wide corridor- lets say a typical Wyloch style tile -- which could fit two characters previously just feels bigger. In reality its not that different because I rebase my minis on 20mm bases, which still only fit 2 abreast- but it looks bigger and to my eyes, better. Painting is also quicker and you don't need to be as detailed for it to look great (a 15mm face on a mini is tiny), and the miniatures themselves are cheaper by far, often under a $1. It feels fresh. Now I just have to finish ebaying off all of this plastic.
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Post by sgtslag on Mar 7, 2018 15:12:53 GMT
Welcome, aboard, Mate! You and I are likely the few wargamers on this site... Glad to have another like-minded member on the forum! I am getting back into Gary Gygax's sizes, for my gaming figures. I learned that Gary rarely used mini's in his D&D game sessions, but I also recognize that D&D was born out of mini's gaming, so size matters. I play 2e AD&D, but I like using the measurements from the 1977 1e AD&D Monster Manual, to get inside of Gary's mind, to see it as he saw it. I have found that fascinating, to say the least. For example, I did the simple math, and I discovered that if a Human figure is 25mm tall, then a 1e Hill Giant figure would be 54mm tall; a Frost Giant figure should be 60mm tall. For these two Giant types, a 54mm Cave Man figure is a perfect Hill Giant; and a 60mm Viking figure, is a perfect Frost Giant figure. I can't prove Gary used these figures in his early Chainmail games, but it seems to fit. I have not located any appropriate figures for Fire, Stone, Cloud, nor Storm Giants, in the proper dimensions, yet. I have no idea how he came up with their sizes. When you place properly scaled figures on the tabletop, you gain some insight into what Gary originally conceived. I find that quite fun. I built a 2.75D, Steading of the Hill Giants model, to play out the G1 module, with mini's. Took it to one convention, thus far. Hoping to take it to others, in the future. Had a blast with it. Working on a full, 3D version, of G2: Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and a full, 3D, model of G3: Halls of the Fire Giants, as well. My original intent was to play them out using BS Skirmish rules, to speed things up, but that did not work out: since the rules were 2e-based, the Giants were buffed up, considerably, and it really changed the dynamics of the module, in a poor way. Went back to playing it by 1e AD&D RPG rules, and it worked out much better, much more satisfyingly. I am painting up a number of 60mm Vikings figures, as Frost Giants. I went the pre-painted route for most of my Fire Giants (Paizo, much more affordable than WotC/Hasbro figures; not properly scaled to the 1e Monster Manual, but at least I have the necessary figures -- I figure that two, out of three Giants, in proper scale, isn't bad, though). Looking forward to seeing your future posts! Cheers!
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Post by universalmonster on Mar 7, 2018 15:21:02 GMT
That Steading is awesome. Ive run that module too-we did a little "in memoriam" gameday the year Gygax passed away- and I even tried to model it (poorly) with some stand up walls. SO MANY GIANTS in that one room, haha.
I do remember one of the PCs doing a polymorph self, fumbling the spell, failing the system shock roll and melting into protoplasmic goo right outside the door. We were just handing out character sheets to anyone who came up to watch.
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Post by erho on Mar 7, 2018 15:31:14 GMT
I've been wargaming Warhammer since the early 90s with Rogue Trader and Epic 40k, its good to see another wargamer! Im working on my second 10mm fantasy army for Warband ( Pendraken Warband) same scale as the old "Warmaster" by Games Workshop. Welcome to the forum!! Post everything you have!
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Post by sgtslag on Mar 7, 2018 15:43:25 GMT
erho , we need more war gamers on this forum... There is so much war gamers can use, and apply, on this site! Glad to hear there are at least three of us, now... Cheers!
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Post by erho on Mar 7, 2018 15:45:33 GMT
You know it!
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Post by skunkape on Mar 7, 2018 19:42:41 GMT
Actually there are at least 4 of us. I don't mention it too often, but I actually started out as a wargamer first. I've even got a mostly painted 40k Necron army, but don't really like the arsehole competitiveness of most of the 40k players in my area. I don't mind the fact that the game is a competition, but when you're unsportsman about it, I'm not interested in playing against you, whether you are winning or loosing!
I mostly play RPGs now, trying to keep them as gridless as I can for the above reason. Course I can still create terrain, so that's the best part.
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Post by universalmonster on Mar 8, 2018 2:36:47 GMT
I was never a Warhammer or 40K guy, but I did love the old citadel miniatures- especially the orks. Something about the way they sculpted heads was always so cartoony and fun. But you are right- there's a certain 'type' of WH40K player that seems to dominate in my areas as well. And the expense is prohibitive. The alternatives though are heartening. Laserburn is the game that predates WH40K, written by Brian Ansell, and has a lot of the details that would one day become WH40K 1st edition. I was so surprised to find it still floating around (I bought a new copy from Alternative-Armies a few months ago) and also to find it fairly simple and funny. There is a definitely a humor and roleplaying angle in the game originally as well. Wyloch had a video I watched today where he mentioned not really being a wargamer until recently, and then getting into the lore from the 40K wiki. He uses the rules over at One Page Rules- onepagerules.com/ I just discovered this today so I haven't fully evaluated them, but they seem very cool. My personal fave is Starport Scum (link to an independent review) which is a very simple D6 system that combines wargaming skirmishes with roleplaying and story. This is just my speed. UseMe is a series of rules produced by the Alternative Armies website that is also very minimal- it kinda favors bigger battles though, and more of a skirmish/storyline/"roleplaying with toys" player- Here's a link. They have multiple title/settings (WW2, zombies, post apocalypse, fantasy..?) . I only own the Sci-Fi rules, but I hear they are similar in concept. www.alternative-armies.com/collections/useme-series-of-tabletop-gaming-titles
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Post by skunkape on Mar 8, 2018 14:44:11 GMT
I did find a company that produces some interesting rules, I currently own their zombie skirmish game rules, it's called Two Hour Wargames. I like their All Things Zombie rules, which allow you to play solo if you wish. Been toying with the idea of running it at a local convention. Though the rules book is about medium size, 70 something pages if I recall correctly, they're pretty easy to learn. I keep starting on making terrain for 1/72 size figures, but keep getting stalled by my need to keep working on terrain for my 28mm games. One of these days though!
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Post by erho on Mar 8, 2018 15:36:34 GMT
Heavens to Mergatroid! what a site! onepagerules.com/
Ive been using Mordheim rules for skirmishes, but so far these look pretty nice and robust considering its well...one page rules!
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Post by universalmonster on Mar 8, 2018 16:39:50 GMT
I used to be very much of the opinion that I was strictly a roleplaying guy, into you know STORY and stuff and used to sneer at wargaming! But wargaming and set-building and designing is storytelling too, and it can be just as immersive- in some ways even more engaging than rpgs because of the visual help. And I'm often shocked that it often has lighter rules and just as much story.
At the end of the day, what I love about crafting is that it engages my mind and hands in different ways and triggers my imagination in ways that continue to surprise me. I was looking at Deafnala's goblin town and just imaging the stories that would happen there.
On Two Hour Wargames- I love them too! I got Two Hour Dungeon Crawl (which has solo campaign rules!) and Future tales which is a pulp sci-fi solo wargame that first got me thinking about running solo stuff to create these little storylines.
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Post by kgstanley81 on Mar 10, 2018 6:39:58 GMT
Another wargamer here, love the 2 Hour Wargames (ATZ) played a few times solo and a few games with my cousin and his friend (no wargames or rpg experience) and they both liked it. Tried 40k, have a small Ork and space marines army (starter sets) like GW fantasy stuff (just wish it wasn't so expensive b/c of how good it is in the game) Really liking the small skirmish games "Song of Blades and Heroes" got my dad to play a few with me, "This is Not a Test" great d10 game (check out a few youtube videos) Most of the 3d terrain I make is for my Wargames, our DnD games tend to be on tiles with maybe a few 3d elements. Have a large mix of 28-32mm figures, small mix of 15mm, and a huge inventory of paper miniatures (started because I wanted to try out different rules but not shell out more money for figures. Now I use them all the time
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Post by sgtslag on Mar 11, 2018 0:16:21 GMT
And here I thought I was the Lone Ranger wargamer on this here forum! Well, what do you think of this, Tonto? Tonto?Dad gum-it! Where did he run off to now? Glad to see that others share my passion for mass battles, as well as RPG's! I love terrain-making, but only if I can use it for more than just my RPG's, as it takes up sooo much room! Nearly everything I make is for all three of my favorite games: 2e AD&D RPG, 2e BattleSystem Skirmish (mini's game, with a thin veneer of RPG over the top), and 2e BattleSystem mass battle rules. Need to get as much mileage out of my terrain pieces, as is humanly possible. Cheers!
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