Comparative Miniature Game Thread

This thread is for comparison between miniature games. Warhammer Fantasy vs Sigmarines vs 40k vs infinity vs warmachine vs x-wing vs battletech etc.

Mainly because most threads are related to specific games on Veeky Forums and not discussing them in a comparative manner. This is great for discussion about specific games but not for discussion on which game to play or get into.

My current question: What is the best fantasy style miniature game? Did Age Of Sigmar stay a pile of shit or is it becoming accepted? Alternatives that are better?

Infinity definitely kicks the shit out of any of the other miniatures games in terms of females and cheesecake. For some reason GW makes their females intentionally horrendous looking.

>Alternatives that are better?
Shitton of small companies, from Scibor to Ragging Heroes.
There is also one UK company making cool monsters and beastmens BaneLegions.

>Infinity definitely kicks the shit out of any of the other miniatures games in terms of models posing
fix

The Hac Tao in the picture you linked is the old sculpt for a Hac tao with Multi Rifle. This is the new sculpt.

Warmachine: Simple rules, but every model has tons of unique rules making playing the game competitively require a lot of research and playtime. Cost: Moderate to High
Who wants it: Wants a game that features 20-50 models, decent depth for tactics and strategy and an evolving meta. Willing to spend ~300 dollars to have a few competitive lists.

Infinity: Relatively complex rules, but very unified. Competitive play requires practice and some research. You can look at the entry of a model you've never seen in play before and get a relatively decent estimate of capabilities.
Cost: Low to moderate
Who wants it: Someone who wants to play a game with 10-16 unique models, wants some strategic and tactical depth, and prefers not having to reach each and every models rules in order to feel ready. ~300 dollars will get you enough minis to make a large number of competitive lists and most of your faction.

40k: Simple Rules and each army has something unique in terms of rules. Competitive play is dominated by whatever is the new hotness at the time.
cost: High and potentially astronomical.
Who wants it: Someone who wants simple rules, tons of low detail minis with a few high detail centerpieces, and big tables. Not a large amount of tactical depth. Get ready to spend upwards of 500$ to have any sort of competitive level.

X-Wing: Relatively simple rules, but tons of stuff to research. Complex mind games and rewarding game play.
Cost: Low
Who wants it: Do you like fighters? Do you hate painting? Are you competitive? Are you poor? For every yes you answer this game is for you. 150$ is enough to make plenty of competitive lists if you buy smart. Less than 300$ gets you your entire faction.

Also 40k is going through a rough patch right now. It may survive, but GW has historically been run by dicks.

Warmachine is getting close to leaving its rough patch, but could easily fall back.

X wing is currently booming.

Infinity is stronger now than its every been and I hear a lot of people are getting into it.

>Typical Infinity Models

Yea they look awesome.

>Typical 40k Models

I love both. Fight me faggot.

It baffles me what is going on with gamesworkshop. They have to be one of the worst companies on earth.

This thread will definitely go well.

In Infinity everything is beautiful, even fat dudes.

>Did Age Of Sigmar stay a pile of shit or is it becoming accepted?
Both. It is a pile of shit, but still being accepted.
>Alternatives that are better?
Chess and/or chess variants and other abstract strategy games. Assuming you mean miniature games only with editions and an ever changing roster rather than a one off purchase, I'd have to go with anything that isn't GW. GW has some good games like Blood Bowl, but Fumbbl is free and better than the video games. And the game gets no love from GW. Their smaller games that are great get sidelined hard and that makes it hard to recommend because it's telling you to buy into a dead game basically. Everything gets shoved aside for AoS and 40k. Both of which have great models, but rape your wallet and the games are lacking in substance. It shows that GW considers itself a toy company rather than a gaming one because the rules are just awful.

Most other miniature games don't have the model quality GW has, but they are still pretty good and the games are usually good because they have to be in order to make money with GW sitting on top of most of the market. The main issue with them is that they are far less popular, so you'll have to do some research on what games are played near you by checking out your local game shops. Because when it comes to these smaller games it's pretty haphazard and tricky finding a community.

That's why I recommended the one off purchase types like chess/variants and other abstract strategy games. They're cheaper and come with everything you need, you can make your own pieces if you wanted to/buy nice sets, play a ton of variants, simple to just sit down and play, etc. Miniature games in general are a dying breed.

>My current question: What is the best fantasy style miniature game?

As much as I love Infinity I want every Infinity guy to shut up for a moment. The question is about fantasy, not sci-fi.

Is it pretty much accepted infinity is the best current miniature game when you consider all factors?

excellent post.

Sometimes being the forgotten bastard child has its benefits.

Thread is for general comparison, that was just a question. Only fantasy wargames I know about is Age of Sigmar, WHFB, and kings of war. Seemed like fantasy miniature games aren't that popular/supported tho.

>This thread is for comparison between miniature games. Warhammer Fantasy vs Sigmarines vs 40k vs infinity vs warmachine vs x-wing vs battletech etc.

Above is the threads general topic. Below is the OPs specific question regarding said topic.

>My current question: What is the best fantasy style miniature game? Did Age Of Sigmar stay a pile of shit or is it becoming accepted? Alternatives that are better?

Any good recommendations for skirmish games?

I was big into X-wing, but have grown a bit bored of the scene and am looking for something else. Have heard good things about Infinity, but the aesthetics don't really appeal to me.

The line is pretty blurry sometimes. Like Star Wars is basically fantasy in space.

I mean I like Infinity and all but if you mention it in the same sentence to comparing wargames you tend to get flooded with many people saying the same mantra, as this thread happens to be leaning towards.
I agree with you
Unforturnately, I don't have much to say about Fantasy games. My experience has been limited to Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warmachine/Hordes, and Age of Sigmar, with a small demo game for both LotR and Kings of War. When I play fantasy, it's usually as an RPG.

I won't go as far as to write which one is "best"

I like Warmachine/Hordes for its balance of size in being skirmish-ish and decently popular if annoying competitive scene, as well as having some decently enticing fluff and models.

Dragon rampant.

No, Infinity definitely has its problems.

It depends entirely what you want out of your game.

Yeah, like not having anyone to play with and wasting your money on a dead game.

I could not disagree with you more right now.

40k is doing far better, and in comparison to Warmachine, is doing fantastic. Saving bundles like Star Collecting's, BaC, BoP, and starter forces are doing a good job getting more players into the game. Plus, with things like SW: Armageddon released, them back pedaling on their online retailer policy and more community interaction, GW is doing far better than the last 10 years under kirby. If this is a rough patch, I would hate to see what you considered most of 5th and 7th to be.

Warmachine is dying in all but its core audience, and some its recent behaviors such as the ending of the Press gangers program, shady court handlings with WotC, the terrible Mk. 3 release, the new meta based around theme lists, and the closing of part of their forums all seem to me to be them doubling down on their bad behavior. Couple this with their sudden decision to copy AoS of all things with their card sets, their new harsh attitude towards Online retailers, and their refusal to lower the price point for their mini's (55$ for a pack of metal Winter guard, while I can buy a box of fucking vostroyans for less) all looks bad to me. Don't believe me? Look at the prices for armies on Ebay, and the huge clearance sales at Miniature market, etc.

Your spot on with X-Wing, but that's fucking X-wing man.

I haven't heard much about infinity, but honestly, I don't pay much attention to it otherwise. I personally haven't heard much about it growing, although I assume it's healthy enough at the moment. Of course, my PanO rarely see's action nowadays. So I'll take your word for it.

This guy has it spot on price wise, although I'm willing to bet you can get 40k down to 400$ if you buy used/smart.

Not really. it's problems are small in comparison to the competitors.

If I were specifically looking at Fantasy style wargames I guess the only relevant games with real fan bases are AoS and Warmachine/Hordes.

Yeah Warmachien has Robots, but you can easily play Hordes which is a lot more fantasy styled and then have your fantasy stuff fight steam punk assholes.

Hordes Factions
Trollbloods: Pictured
Skorne: Ugly Dessert people with tons of assassins, heavy armored dudes, elephant dudes, big bugs, and soul magic.
Circle of Ourboros: Druids, wolfmen, beast men, giant wolfs, giant satyrs, giant wolfmen, stone/wood golems.
Legion: Mutated Winter elves that do winter elf things. Also mutated Ogres. Also dragons and mouths with legs
Grymkin: Malifeux the faction

I'd say Malifaux is a really good fantasy game here in the states. It's more "Victorian Horror", but it is a much better game than sigmar for a skirmish sized game. Very story driven and very deep gameplay. Card mechanic is gimmicky at first, but really adds a tactical depth of resource management you don't have in GW games. Plus their plastics are great.

Kings of war is a pretty popular warhammer fantasy replacement if moving blocks around the table and rolling buckets of dice are your thing.

>dead
It sucks it never took off outside of new yemen, it's a great game with gorgeous models outside of the bulk of the hobbit releases.

40k is awful. And it shows that you had to refer to Armageddon. The smaller hobbyist GW games are good, but generally get forgotten not long after they come out to make way for normal 40k.

The default 40k is a joke and 8th is a mess. A smaller spinoff game being good doesn't make standard 40k any better.

Most likely.

If you have enough terrain all painted up and everything Infinity not only looks amazing but plays really well. There's some wonky stuff but overall it's a pretty tight system. In terms of actual gameplay it's on top. Xwing is probably close because that system is always incredibly tight.

WHM used to be up there but they're falling apart.

40k is about selling models the game(s) has been average for a very long time.

Malifaux is really fun. Test of Honour is fun too, but it just came out.

I can only really comment on my own community. Over here nobody is actually excited for anything 40k and we just sort of laughed at Primaris Marines. I would describe all of 5th-current day a "rough patch."

As for WarmaHordes a lot of Mk3's botched release has smoothed out and I think that right now they have a shot to go the right direction, but they also have just as much opportunity to fuck up.

To be fair, both LotR and Blood bowl have been getting a bit of the spotlight. GW has released full plastic teams for Dwarves, Goblins, Humans, Skaven and Orcs, while also letting FW add some cool stuff to them.

LotR has gotten some FW love as well, with the Iron Hill dwarves and Gundabad goblins getting some representation.

Test of honor is a historical game, not a fantasy game.
wave 2 arrived last week, order's on its way

LOTR always struck me as a throwaway cash in. Why would anyone ever buy movie-licensed miniatures? especially when the company behind it as their own line of own-IP miniatures that compete.

Hobbit has following but only in cunting Europe. Also most of the forge world releases have been of the dumbest shit.
Goat cavalry and goat chariots, and the idiot trolls straight out of a videogame.

#1 you're a fan of the ip.
#2 you like the aesthetic of the models.
#3 you like the rules of the game.

I'm lucky and a lot of the terrain at my LGS works decently well for Infinity after applying some scatter to open rooftops and alleyways.

Also some companies make solid 7/10 looking terrain that is pre painted.

Blood Bowl shit came way too late. There are video games for the more casual crowd, and there is fumbbl for the old wargaming type. And fumbbl is free while maintaining the rules and even has some special league stuff that isn't in the normal game. So, it's a flat out improvement. If you want to paint models and are willing to pay that much just to paint some plastic dudes it's fine, but to actually play there are already superior alternatives.

Worth noting that GW brought back the entire LOTR line. You can buy them all off web exclusive.

No you fucking can't.

It's still retarded. They have their own IP directly in contention and are licensing it on short term basis. Every single thing there is a red flag.

But $$$

I get why if you like LOTR etc, but as far as red flags about support etc it's a glaring one. They have their own direct competitor product that doesn't require a license deal. They are incentivized to barely support lotr and push customers to AoS/WHF

Try out Age of Sigmar™ and Warhammer 40k™. With 8th edition out for 40k™ it's better than it has ever been and the most playtested edition ever. There are T'au™, space marines, and space marine space marines to name just a few factions! The lore is also great and is clearly beyond Saturday morning cartoons or a child saying things off the top of his head. There is even 30k™ for those who somehow get tired of those other great games, but still want to give us money to buy toys!

You also get to see the unique names of our races like aelves™ because we care so much for our IP; that's why we license it out to anyone to make shovelware with.

And despite saying we are a toy company, we really care about the game. That's why we make it more and more streamlined, broken, and freeform!

>playing with dolls
you asked for this

>Why would anyone ever buy movie-licensed miniatures?

I like Scions, I just wish they weren't $35 and dropped the shitty plasma gun pose.

To be fair X wing is starting to have some problems. Because of its structure errata is very difficult to implement and the game is showing some cracks due to unexpected popularity and growth.

They dont have a direct competitor to x-wing last I checked and it's a relatively cheap mini game.

Wait, what? its a Legend of the Five Rings IP. Every game I've played of it is set in Rokugan...

Armageddon is actually a pretty shit rulebook. It is very inconsistent, bloated, unbalanced, and poorly explained.

40k is fun for the fluff/narrative aspect. It beats basically everything out there on that. The competitive side can be kinda fun too, especially since the competitive side actually exists (unlike other games.)

There's only so much you can do with lotr.
Didn't stop them from making a bunch of oc troops.

I mean they look OK, but I can't feel like they are a good purchase in terms of mini quality compared to this 35-40$ box.

Also I hear the average point level of GW games is going up forcing you to field more minis. So that 35$ box is what, 10% or less of a list? I can afford to make a 40k army that's competitive, but for the same price I can buy out the entire line of 2 maybe 3 infinity factions.

No. It's just samurai as an excuse to resell the wargames factory rising sun line at a greater profit.

Yeah, you're spot on. Personally I prefer plastic and the individuality you can give to specific minis, but it's a lot harder financially and time-wise to do for a full army.

What I consider the best part about GW minis is that you have multiple pose options and easy conversions.

That's not a thing unique to them.

So basically we've come here to either shit on or defend 40k right? That's basically the vibe i'm getting after looking through this thread. My question is, why? Why do we have to be hostile to one another, why can't we just sit back and accept that people like what they like and leave each other alone?

Because fuck off 40kiddie and stop shilling your horrible game.

Relax everyone is being very civil and people actually did complement warhams if you read all the posts.

Maybe you should be less defensive and triggered.

Look at the picture you just posted... It's CLEARLY Crane vs Scorpion.

People are pointing out legitimate faults in each of the games that have been discussed. Honest discussion like that helps people decide what games to try.

>If anyone here is interested in Infinity

There is an online battle report campaign going on that most of the worldwide community is taking part in. The website shows all the stores and gaming clubs that have active communities and this is a good opportunity to find out if anyone near you plays.

Monopose shit.

>people enjoying things I do not enjoy
>people not enjoying things that I enjoy

...

>Can't use greenstuff.
>Can't convert metal figures.
>Can't into creativity.
That's kinda sad my dude.

>needing all that extra work and materials instead of just getting a good kit that allows customization from the ground up

In a game like War Machine or 40K that could be an issue. After all you have 10+ copies of a model all with the same stats and equipment.

This is Infinity though. 90% of the models you would realistically have duplicates of have multiple poses (pictured Wildcats) while models like the Intruder you would likely only ever field 1 of and if you did field two you would probably buy the 2 alternate load out models with different poses.

I'll be quite honest, I actually don't care for Infinities minis. I've looked through the entire model range, and there wasn't anything that really spoke to me if you know what I mean. They're nice models I suppose, certainly the proportions are nice and some of the poses are pretty good, but they're kind of meh to me personally.

I'm not saying they aren't quality minis if that's the sort of thing you like. They are made with a great deal of skill, I just don't like the aesthetics.

>Paying top dollar for miniatures.
>Call yourself a hobbyist but you're really just making the guys on the box anyway.
>Not enjoying yourself in making/detailing a fine quality miniature instead of a ten minute kitbash.
>Not improving on your hobby skills like sculpting.
Very sad.

They are pretty good desu

Monopose allows for more detailed models with more unique poses at the cost of being... monopose.

For a game where the majority of models will have no duplicates monopose is probably a better choice.

>doing the modeler's work for them
Good goy.

>Can't create or appreciate your own art to the point where you feel the need to troll.
I genuinely feel bad for you.

>it's okay to have to redo a whole model just to get a new pose
You're not worth my pity.

>Doesn't understand the purpose of a monopose model
You're not worth my pity

I don't really care for Infinity's models.
I mean they're well priced and I've heard the rules are nice, but I don't think the models themselves are really my thing - little to weeb-y for my tastes. Not to mention almost all of their designs scream "generic sci-fi" to me for some reason or another. I can't put my finger on why, but every time I look at them they just fail to strike a chord with me creatively. They always seem like something a board room would shit out by committee design if you tasked them with making a sci-fi miniatures game. Maybe that's just me, I dunno.
They're also monopose which is fine I guess considering how many models the game uses? I still prefer variable posing even if you don't get some of the AMAZING DYNAMIC POSES Infinityfags constantly rage about. I'd rather have an army of unique 40k shit-squatters than an army of mass-produced models with no variability in their EPIC POSING. If my cool dude is cool in the exact same way that everyone else's cool dude is cool, he stops being cool to me no matter how cool he is in a vaccum

Speaking of, 40k models vary in quality (ranging from damn good to holy shit WHY) but are almost universally overpriced. At least they feel semi-unique to me. Very iconic designs oddly enough given their simplicity, but it may be because of their simplicity that they're iconic. Can't tell.
The only other game that really comes close to 40k's design philosophy is the Warzone universe. There's something about the tongue-in-cheek nature of the two that I think a lotta wargames tend to eschew nowaday. Hell, even 40k has been trying to distance themselves more and more from their older selves as time has gone by. They went from being a near-parody of ultraserzbiznus wargames into one themselves.
40k (and GW) in general has a major problem of keeping things up to date to too. I mean shit, I get they've been around for the long haul, but that's no excuse for not updating old sculpts. How old are Warbuggies?

Yeah that's a pretty valid complaint. It's a very clean aesthetic for the most part without a ton of stylization. Combined Army is about as outrageous as it gets, but even they feel a bit subdued.

We can probably agree that's something unique about Infinity and a big deciding factor in how much you like the line.

>What is the best fantasy style miniature game
GW's lord of the rings, bar none. That game is rock fucking solid.

If you want people to actually play against, age of sigmar, warmachine, wrath of kings, etc are acceptable, but lacking.

For me I see the similarities between minis as being a type of unified military design that I like. All the different variants of Invincible armor use a lot of the same parts and even Domaru have similar pieces if you look hard enough. That sameness pleases muh aesthetics.

>For me I see the similarities between minis as being a type of unified military design that I like
Huh, I can get that. Doesn't really do much for me but I can understand it at least.
Different strokes for different folks I guess. I usually try to unify my armies via color of fluff means.

Yeah this is definitely a case of
>muh aesthetics

I did not expect such a well-rounded answer out of this thread.

I understand the point you are trying to make (and that you specifically picked Scions because a lot of people bitch about them) but I can honestly say that the scions look better to me than the infinity models.

Yea they look fucking fabulous?

Just...why?

I actually picked Scions because they were the last set of "new models" that I remember. Quit 40k long ago. I almost used Striking Scorpions, but then I remembered those are ancient.

It was a joke that got popular enough for them to make a mini.

Ah, my bad. Figured you were playing off the scions are a bad sculpt meme. To be fair I don't love the chest piece and I swapped them out on mine, but even with the breast plates I think they look pretty good.

CB is one of the few companies that actually makes things the fans ask for.

Some drawfag should remade picrealted with this katana-dude

Does anyone make a high detail and customization 1914-20xx wargame?

So you can build say, a ww2 US Platoon but with lots of options and interchangeable parts like 40k Space Marines.

It's a bit hard to compare 40k and Infinity because for 40k only special characters and certain centerpieces are created the same way most Infinity models are made. Fixed pose with high detail.

Bolt action?

Or just get Perry bro models for whatever game. Their desert rat stuff in particular has a ton of bits.

why is the wildcat staring at the ground, did he lose a contact

>Can't tell he's looking straight.
You might want to get new glasses.

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