/awg/ - Alternative Wargames General

Has anyone here played Wrath of Kings? I am seriously tempted by the models, and would love to hear anyone's thoughts on the game.

I'm thinking about picking up a Hadross starter and a Shael Han starter just to play them against one another. If anyone can speak to the balance between starter sets, that would be great!

How far does paper miniature quality go?

They're as balanced as they'll ever be. The game doesn't use points, but slots per model (each Rank on the model takes a slot, so a Rank 2 troop would count as equal to 2 Rank 1 troops), so each starter has the exact same size as the others.

I haven't been able to find a single batrep of Five Men at Kursk or FiveCore, are there really none out there?

This is all based on somewhat dated, cursory knowledge, so take it with a huge grain of salt.

Shael Han might be slightly challenging for people new to the game (especially if they are new to the hobby as a whole), because as a faction a big part of their kick comes from having certain models within range of other models to apply buffs. You want to keep things in certain ranges of buff auras, and if the player doesn't pick up on where they want to place things, doesn't account for how things will move as the game progresses, or begins to lose their buff pieces, the army will struggle.

In contrast, when Hadross loses models, they tend to gain buffs that empower their remaining forces. It kind of makes for a neat thematic set-up (start strong but get weaker as your army crumbles vs. get stronger as your army gets torn apart), but one is likely going to be more forgiving when learning the game or giving demos.

They sell the WF Orcs, which are a definite acquired taste, but some people think they're rad.

I see what you mean, high quality, not that much soul.

Damn, those minis actually look really nice. I think I'm gonna pick up a box to convert into Darkest Dungeon cove -faction guys.

The puds are the worst. The Grist isn't too different from the original sculpt, more generic chitin sci-fi than the older version. And the same with the Broodhound, but the old sculpt was pretty bad. But the old art for the puds was so much more characterful than the new minis. The old sculpts also kinda sucked, but the art was great, and I wish they had just updated the sculpts, instead of changing them completely.

bump

DeepWars may also have some stuff you like.

Whate are some good /awg/ shops and distributors that that ship to middle Europe? Most of the bigger shops only carry the more mainstream stuff and the smaller companies themselves often only ship within the US or with exorbitant shipping fees

Wayland carries tons of shit, maybe you'll find what you need there.

>Has anyone here played Wrath of Kings? I am seriously tempted by the models, and would love to hear anyone's thoughts on the game.
Kickstarter backer here. It's a cool game with a lot of unique mechanics, the models are good (although the style is somewhat polarizing). Biggest issue is finding opponents... you'll likely have to buy two starters and try to lure a friend in.

The factions game design at starter size are basically:
- Teknes: defensive / reactive
- Hadross: defensive / control
- Nasier: balanced offense
- Goritsi: fast-but-fragile offense
- Shael Han: adaptable control
They all feel reasonably well balanced to me, but you definitely need to pick one that fits your natural playstyle.

DO NOT DO THIS WAYLAND ARE SHIT

Element sell Wrath of Kings, Relic Knights (but that's ass), Warzone, Dark Age, Guildball and Bushido

Shiny Games sell Heavy Gear

Otherwise I'd advise buying direct.

Poor Wayland. They used to only be the second-worst major online nerd store in the UK, then Maelstrom finally fucked off and all their money mysteriously disappeared to fund the owner's minis company (Mierce) while Wayland bought the stock at a massive discount, and the suppliers (and customers) got fucked.

But now it's Wayland who are the fucking worst.

It's funny how many terrible things I've heard about Wayland, yet when I bought from them years ago the service was excellent. Stuff was in stock, cheap and they always threw in one or two blisters as goodies. I wonder what changed, since that was about six or seven years ago.

My experience with Wayland- Make bloody sure what you're ordering is in stock, then you're good. If there's even the wiff of doubt about the stock levels, do not buy from them.

>It's funny how many terrible things I've heard about Wayland, yet when I bought from them years ago the service was excellent. Stuff was in stock,
There's your thing. If they have the thing on the shelf *right now*, you're usually OK, but even that's less reliable than it used to be.

Spotted this earlier and got a bit carried away. Ended up buying a few sprues from basically every historical range.
Didn't even think to add bases though, like a fool.

Did you ever have a space marine or whfb army?
Something similar happened to me when I order some Gates of Antares a while back and some celts to use as conversion fodder for Ferals.
Then I realized that I had more than enough - now obsolete - 25mm bases from GW to do the entire army like that.
And I happen to like the beveled edge and raised base better than the flat warlord bases anyway.

I mean seriously, the things have a moldline and 4 sprue nubs running around the edges and they are only about 2-3mm high. It's like a showcase for the worst engineering in platic injection molding.

Bump - what kind of /awg/ stuff you lovely folks are working on?

I bought 3 armies (Prydian, Baronial and Shia Khan) and all of the rulebooks for Ion Age after seeing it in a few of these threads and I'm just trying to work up the motivation to base and paint them all.

Very little, because of workload.
Playing around with ideas to turn one of two settings of mine into a wargame ruleset and see how it goes.

Spartan's having a 20% off everything sale over the weekend for those that are interested. Use the code '20-OFF' at the checkout.

It's not that much more than trade discount, but if you're looking for stuff from the parts store it's a good shout I reckon.

Is there anywhere I can get javelin throwers dressed in vaguely medieval winter clothes?

Failing that, a good source of javelin throwing arms for Frostgrave soldiers.

Add in a short spear for any raised arm and ta-da.

Fireforge sells plastic javelins. Gripping Beast and probably a dozen others sell metals.

Also, Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors+some GS and ta-da.

Bunch of TAG's fantasy Halflings. When I saw that kickstarter I had to jump on it, the Perry style halflings are great and stupidly hard to find.

Dude, check out the Savage Core miniatures on the warlord page.
You can get two packs of cro magnon people wearing furs and otherwise Frostgrave appropriate clothing with javelins.

They would be perfect for Barbarian warbands, but would also look at home in regular medieval ones I think.

Well its easy to justify, just say they hired some barbarians.

Will have a look there as well.

Thanks guys.

probably far more figures than you need (unless you can find a single sprue) but Gripping Beast Dark Age Warriors have at least two proper javelin arms on a 5-figure sprue, and another two overhand spears that don't look that different from a javelin. Also has slings and a mix of hand weapons. some winter hats, meant to be very generic and adaptable to different eras and settings, though the sculpting isn't fantastic they're pretty cheap

Planning out fleets for my Warcosm campaign pack.

So far I have done 13 ship classes for the Astorans (generic evil blue humanoid empire with sweet capes and evil laughter), focusing on standardised hull layouts that feel like there's a coherent design ethos throughout them all. So each ship generally has:

- Broadsides
- One or two dorsal turrets
- Some kind of prow or keel-mounted weapon (missile tubes, massive beam cannon, launch decks)

Yes, I was an Imperial player in Battlefleet Gothic.

So they have:

- Corvette
- EWAC corvette (paints targets for missiles)
- Torpedo and gun frigates
- Escort carrier
- "Hyperspace submarines" that can perform short-range FTL jumps to attack from enemy blind spots
- A standard cruiser hull with either spinal beam cannons/carrier deck/missile racks
- A battleship and carrier
- The big evil space emperor's flagship covered in turrets and broadsides that's basically one and a half battleships mashed together.

That should be enough ship classes to make 6 or so interesting scenarios, now I just need to make the OPFOR, the boring but plucky human navy. And then it's write the scenarios, come up with characters and fiction to link them together, and buy a hex-gridded space mat and make the chits.

Does anyone know a company that does custom chits or blocks?

>(generic evil blue humanoid empire with sweet capes and evil laughter)

So basically a cross between Thrawn and the badguys from Space Battleship Yamato?

Are you me?
I bought the books, most of the Prydain/Baronial line, most of the Shia Khan line, the Xin line, a bunch of resin terrain and still have to base and paint the entire lot.

Try a few games either with a buddy or solo, might get the juices flowing.

Does anyone know of good historical miniatures to use as Gondorians?

Look up some Carolingian Franks. They're more of Rohirrim, but that's as tolkienesque as you get with historicals.

Mentioned a thread or two ago, but ebob's normans.

Full disclosure, these have had capes and helmet wings added with GS.

Painting up a Ghar battlesuit to test out a new scheme with. It's my first time trying to blend and my first time using Vallejo paints, and I think it's turning out alright, if a bit messy and amateurish.

I'm sorry to any rural posters for the obscene filesize, I was being a dumb phoneposter.

I've been looking at various 28mm Normans but also Saxon miniatures Spanish infantry. Sadly there doesn't seem to be any miniatures with tabards.

I like the shade of red you got going there.
What color is that?

Are you gonna add some kind of pattern on the armor or something like that?
I've seen some armies in the warlord forums with stripes or armor plates in different colors. Kind of evocative of racecar paintjobs a bit.
Works really well on those guys imo.

Nice to see GoA get some love.

Have you tried looking at (early) crusades stuff?

(pic related is Perry)

How is ebob's track record? I've seen threads complain about ebob's lack of communication or how he doesn't fulfill orders.

It's mostly Vallejo Gory Red (VGA), washed down with black ink and then blended/highlight back up by progressively mixing in more Bloody Red.

I was actually just thinking that I should add some more visual interest to the armour with some kinda design, maybe I'll add some white free-handing to match the free-handing Ghar tattoos warlord puts on the official scheme.

I was just about to mention Fireforge Games.
Their Templar or Teutonic Order plastic boxes could work for bodies with Tabards, but you might have to get the helmets from elsewhere.
Mirlition for example
mirliton.it/product_info.php?pName=heads-007&cName=heads-medievalrenaissance

Though who says that they have to look that way? I mean if you got the heraldry on the shields, I don't think tabard or no tabard makes a big difference.

Dunno, never ordered from him myself. I guess this sort of thing is kind of to be expected since it seems to be literally one guy running the operation out of his garage.

I dunno, LotR never really gave off a high/late medieval feel to me, everything always felt a bit more 'Dark Ages'.

Aye, Gondorians in the books use swords, spears, broad shields and longbows while wearing maile and tabards. I'm just unsure if I want to use the Normans or Castilians from Saxon miniatures.
>saxonminiatures.com/product/norman-heavy-infantry/
>saxonminiatures.com/product/castillian-armoured-infantry/

But I'd also like to do a Riverlander army during the Dance of the Dragons in ASoIaF with Perry miniatures, so many ideas yet so little time.

Yes.

Absolutely yes.

And of course the Thrawn analogue will try and defeat Earth by studying its culture.

Just a thought, but if you'd prefer plastics then Conquest games have a range of Normans.

I hope Warlord release a fantasy game someday, Priestley said he had something good to release once it was ready.

I dunno. Knowing warlord it's probably gonna be a few years off.

I'd rather look to Osprey and Northstar miniatures, I heard they are planning on releasing a fantasy wargame that will take advantage of the Frostgrave plastics and the generic orc and dwarf kits they have planned.
That is probably gonna come out a lot sooner, since Priestley is still busy with Gates of Antares atm.
GoA currently doesn't even have all the models out for the existing factions and they are planning on adding a new one already.

The next supplement may already have the new faction, the Vorl. I heard him mention them a few times in a FAQ and the podcast, talking about how he was currently working on their armylist.

What's a good group to ally men of Dale with?
My only good force is the box + captain, and need something else to make them a competent force since their list is anemic.
I was thinking maybe some wood elves, but not having cavalry would put me in a bad position.

Why not some horny rams to defeat your enemies?
>forgeworld.co.uk/en-SE/Iron-Hills-Goat-Riders

#1 that triggers me, because "twirly wirlies"
#2 on a more serious note, why would iron hill dwarves from the time of Lake Town be part of the Dale garrison? If it's just visiting dwarves why would they bring their armed forces?
That's the thing stopping me from just taking elven cav from Rivendell.
I could just take Erebor dwarves but they are even less mobile and more limited than the Dale-folk.

I think you've gotta make the unfortunate choice between a competitive force and a fluffy one. If you really can't sacrifice the fluff, maybe convert some cavalry to have men of dale as riders and represent them with whichever rules would best suit Dale cavalry.

I don't fancy having to work with those fucking cloaks again. Do wood elves have cav? I already got Legolamb to use as their commander and he was most definitely alive back then.

This is the problem with the entire Hobbit game - no options whatsoever. They made up lots of stuff for the original SBG/WotR like the Dwarf Iron Guards (or Bulwarkers or whatever they were called), the Moria Prowlers, etc. In Hobbit...you can't even make a Rivendell Knight army because you can't arm all of them with bows, and there are not much in the way of foot Rivendell knights.

On unrelated news, Norba released some really fucking cheaply priced...wood elves or whatever the fuck they are now, GW released them in plastic from The Hobbit. 12 Euros for 10 models compared to GW's 15GBP for 3 models. Swords, spear and bows are available.

>Those elfs.
Dang, Norba has improved a lot, I tought it was from the LoTR range, and that it's one of the best GW ranges. The price is awesome too, along with Mom they are winning my jaded heart.

I think they'd at least tease the Vorl before they come out with it, chances are the new expansion is just going to have a couple of new units for each faction (the unit profile placeholder are already in the relevant army lists).

The real mystery is what the rogue AI in the new expansion is going to be represented on the tabletop by, but I doubt it'll be a new faction and will probably be more in line with the native creatures added in the Xilos expansion.

What, where?

Or is it US only?

store.warlordgames.com/collections/sprue-sale

Here you go user, enjoy!

> range is literally called 'Battle of the Ring'

God bless the spanish mini makers and their 'similar to, but legally distinct from' philosophy.

Oh nice on bruvvaaaa.

What is MoM and AoW? I've seen them referenced before but I have no clue what they stand for

MoMminiaturas and Avatars of War

Us the scale 25mm, "25mm", 28, "28", Heroic 28, 40k?

I've heard Norba's stuff isn't that greaf in hand.

And speaking of hands the hands on those Elves? They're pretty awful. Just like boxes with some lines on them, and a lot of the models in the range look like the hands are backwards for some reason.

Arnor and Numenor were still devoid of choice. Arnor's only real asset is Malbeth and Numenor is essentially worthless aside from iirc Elendil and Narsil giving him a free heroic combat a turn.

The holy trio of drunk spaniard mini making for fantasy. Mom it's for Momminiaturas, than makes cool designed minis at very good prices (an average heroe 4 euros, an average guy 1 euro in a regiment), Norma is the weakest in quality but the prices are good too, all of them in resin or rarely in metal. Avatars of War is the one than does the better quality stuff, he has some plastics than are cheap and a good range of metals than are expensive. There is Gamezone too, but we don't speak of them because they are shady as fuck.
Also there are a fuckton of spanish games and minis ranges, like holy shit stop I can't follow all of them.

I'm toying with the idea of writing up a platoon level ruleset over the summer and I'm thinking about which one of two settings I'm going to use:

Space Knights on Mars with Dune-Style shields making Melee still an option
Roaring 20s / Depressed 30s Dieselpunk with a healthy dose age of discovery set on a planet consisting mostly of islands (think Tailspin and the likes)

Either way, the game is going to concentrate on short range engagements between 30 to 50 miniatures at max with melee being more of a secondary but still existing option

>Space Knights on Mars with Dune-Style shields making Melee still an option
This is rad.

>a planet consisting mostly of islands (think Tailspin
This, if you don't go full tailspin fandom, is also extremely rad. Especially if there are floating islands too, and planes and shit, so you've got missions involving piracy and raiding, some light paradropping.

Any opinion on "FiveCore Pulp Adventure"?
Its deal of the day on WargameVault today and i'm kinda curious. I don't have any of the FiveCore games yet, but i keep hearing good things about them in here and /hwg/. Should i pick it up or is FiveCore itself or maybe Five men at Kursk a better choice?

>This, if you don't go full tailspin fandom, is also extremely rad.
I meant more the feel and less the specifics. No anthropomorphic animals, but air pirates, between-war style weaponry and tech and somesuch.
I know I'll regret asking, but what about the fandom?

>asking what's wrong about a fanbase of a show about anthropomorphic animals

>tfw you quite like the use of anthropomorphic animals as a style but can't stand furries

Blacksad was so cool

>Redwall fan
I know your pain.

To be fair the use of animals as archetypical characters goes waaaay back.
Fables are some of the oldest stories around.

The guys who want to fantasize about that stuff are just a bunch of weirdos with the distinction of being more vocal about their bullshit than most other people with special interests.

If you get off on being used as toilet that's fine with me as long as you don't broadcast that stuff on all frequencies that are receiving and go out in the street covered in shit.
(This is a maybe not subtle reference to fursuits and social media, if you weren't able to tell)

Most people just saw the show when they were kids, there is no reason to assume the fandom would just be fetishizing the contents of the program.

>there is no reason to assume the fandom would just be fetishizing the contents of the program

I like reading about the exploits of terrible fandoms

>Space Knights on Mars with Dune-Style shields making Melee still an option
This reminds me of Barsoom.
Anyway I just saw that Northstar is gonna do a Victorian Sci-fi spinoff for Death on the Dark continent set on Mars as well.

So the Island setting kind of sounds a bit more original to me now.

just as in only
Maybe I should have chosen my words more carefully there, just meant to say that - like always - it's the smallest part of the whole that garners most negative attention.

batreps where

Batreps for what

>Victorian Sci-fi spinoff for Death on the Dark continent set on Mars as well.
Mixed feeling, it can be great tough, I like Barsoom and john carter.

Both sound good, but I'd be up for the dieselpunk one. I can't really think of any interwar dieselpunk except for Rozalski's 1920s+ stuff, and the islands make for a nice basis for inventing factions.
So do that.

emergency bump

Your Dudes bump, I've finally got to a point where this army is finished. Every model converted in some way, handmade bases, full fluff.

ideaswithoutend.wordpress.com/2017/05/14/heavy-gear-army-backstory-btrt-special-unit-k71/

For one off games where losing your wizard does not matter long term how much of a problem is it to not have an apprentice in Frostgrave?

I am thinking of a religious order themed warband with a Thaumaturge, men at arms and crossbowmen from the Fireforge medieval kit and some pilgrim/fanatic models for thugs. But that leaves no gold for another magic user.

Not really, at least none that I can think off.