/awg/ Alternative Wargames General

I'm sure they'll do something with it, they just haven't said what yet.

There's a seller on eBay with copies of Magic the Gathering - Arena of the Planeswalkers for £7.99. Shipped. I ordered two yesterday and they literally just arrived.

Why am I posting this here?

Because for that £7.99 you get six cardboard board sections marked up in hexes, showing sandy terrain with a bit of water. You get a tiny number of actual heroscape terrain hexes (2 3-hex pieces, 2 individual hexes). You get five pre-painted planeswalkers, to use as wizards and shit. And you get 30 pretty decent unpainted figures, ten groups of three, all different sculpts and all pretty interesting and useful for skirmish gaming. Some are done in translucent blue or red, so they make good elemental and summon types as well. Or ICE in cyberpunk games, I've seen that done. They're 28mm ish, but a lot of them are monstrous types where being 35mm or 25mm works fine anyway. I particularly like the grabby hands blue water things, they'd make a good water monster that grabs you and drowns you.

Oh and a d20, a bunch of custom d6s, some little red cubes, and other junk.

But they're a damn good purchase.

imgur.com/a/qQB0k shows the minis, ebay.co.uk/itm/Hasbro-Gaming-Magic-The-Gathering-Arena-Of-The-Planeswalkers-Board-Game-/371850261220 is the seller.

If you can find them cheap (but they're not as cheap),

imgur.com/a/T5AKJ has the minis from the Zendikar expansion (a couple painted by the user)

imgur.com/a/YwSRY has the minis from the standalone Innistrad expansion, which has more map boards - and unlike the original game's, they're double-sided and have dark goffik terrain on the back or something.

Both other sets have less stuff in them than the original though.

And while I'm at it, the standard hex size used by the boards is like 40-45mm depending on what you measure, due to the interlocking bits.

>what are your /awg/ goals for next year?

Finish my cold war anime mecha project. I need my US mechs, a unit of Humvees, to paint half my infantry and two Abrams, and the whole Soviet army (an infantry company, some Hinds and BMPs, T-55s and 72s and maybe some Shilkas.)

>2018 is fast approaching, what are your /awg/ goals for next year?
Start and completely fill a 2018 solo wargaming notebook.

>2018 is fast approaching, what are your /awg/ goals for next year?
Get an army of Secrets of the Third Reich UK paras from a friend, paint them up to have a playable force (and noone to play with), finish my Rivendell army (need a bunch of spearmen, Gil-galad, knights to be painted, and Arwen, the twins, Erestor to be acquired - maybe paint Glorfindel as well while we're at it). Possibly paint up an evil SBG force, but not sure which. I'm looking at Uruk scouts at the moment, plus some crossbowmen as a friend casted me around 30 of them.

>2018 is fast approaching, what are your /awg/ goals for next year?

Defeat the apathy of my friends and actually get them playing wargames again.

I want to get into This Is Not A Test.
Anyone got ideas about good miniatures for Raiders, Tribals or Peacekeepers?

IIRC some of the plastic historical native americans on the market make decent war boys, possibly with a little conversion. Kroot always own if you don't mind going non-human. The old Future Wars range has a lot of cool stuff, and for more modern sculpts, Pig Iron Productions are great. Lead Adventure sells some nice kit, but it's pretty STALKERish in a way you might not like, and Hasslefree do a bunch of stuff. I think Warlord repackaged the old Wargames Factory survivors for their zombie game, but they're a bit too survivory. Ramshackle, of course, they're more known for their rad vehicles but they do a lot of other stuff.

It depends on what aesthetic you're looking for for your raiders, tribals, and peacekeepers. I mean, you could take a historicals/western/weird west range for raiders or peacekeepers, your tribals could be converted cavemen (savage core?) or cultists, it really helps to have a theme.

Hm. Now I'm picturing corporate raiders in smart (but patched) suits, with briefcase in one hand and pistol in the other, giant scrap-axe slung across their back.

Regarding Peacekeepers, Victoria Miniatures do bits that will let you literally make NCR Rangers

Look up Mordheim. It’s an old out of print GW game similar to Frostgrave but with more robust rules.

Metal minis have a nice weight to them but are harder to modify/customize. Also more expensive.

Look at the Wild West Exodus line from Warcradle.

Just so you all are aware, ebay're doing a site-wide one-per-customer 20% off deal. if you use paypal. so it's not that universal, I guess, but if there's a big boxed thing you've been looking at, PNY2018 is the code for you. Apparently it ends in a couple of hours and tops out at £375, but that's console-tier, even big boardgames like Gloomhaven aren't that pricey. Might get a big GW box or something I wouldn't normally touch, or something Mantic.

Aren't those figures 35mm though? I think that 28mm humans would be a better fit.

Can we take a second to appreciate that despite this being a generally 'ok' to 'solid' paintjob on sharkster here, that OSL on the gun is fucking spot on and makes me a little aroused?

That's the sort of OSL that's piss-easy to do - a couple of dots of light with nice flat surfaces nearby. Being able to do that doesn't require you to be able to paint the more complex parts of the figure to a ridiculous standard.

Small bits of OSL do make otherwise less-detailed paintjobs pop, it's one of those little tricks. And hell, at tabletop distances, that OSL will stand out far more. A good paint job.

Anyway I just bought a piper cub for my 28mm aerospaceport. Bet some fucker's posted the plans online and they're still being built on frontier worlds a few hundred years from now, parking up next to dropshuttles and starfighters. Not sure how to paint it, though.

I read a book a while back about space mercs working on a primitive world, where due to strict legal tech limits they smuggled in the parts to build and run a small airforce of biplanes to support one side or other in the local civil war. Mostly did scouting and the occasional hand-dropped bombing run, early WW1 style. Don't recall the title.

Also got a good deal on a modern airfix 1:48 quad bikes kit from their Afghanistan stuff, I think. Two quads with trailers and accompanying British soldiers, £6. Doubt I'll use the blokes, but it's a fair price for the hardware, should look good just as terrain.

>alternative war games

Do you all know of any good war games that don't use models at all but are centered around cards or pen/paper?

Yes, but those are called boardgames or RPGs.

Look for hex and chit stuff in /hwg/.

What would be some fun fantasy skirmish wargames in the vein of Mordheim?

Alright, thanks.

Chevauchee, Pulp Alley (works great for non-Pulp genres), Just Use Moldvay D&D, various Two Hour Wargames options, various Ganesha Games options.

Frostgrave is OK.

If you want something like Mordheim you could just play Mordheim.

Many thanks to Galands-user. Can't wait to get started painting the cars

This seems like a good usable base, yes. It sounds easily changeable, fairly non-complicated, and could support a lot of different things, including per-army differing of requirements

" i.e. at a certain point level, you must take 3 levels out of all the Commanders in the army with a maximum of 9 levels" phrasing confused me, but I got it with your example.

>2018 is fast approaching, what are your /awg/ goals for next year?

This is not a test for sure and while its not a war games per se, the walking dead all out war. Gotta get those minis completed and get a few games in

15mm saga

What about it?

Could Sunless Sea work as a miniatures game setting (rather than something like an RPG) and second, what rules work be good for something like that.

It's an evocative setting but maybe it doesn't work as a miniatures game with the boats and all.

Maybe adapt the THW pirate game, refluff tech wildly and throw in magic from the fantasy games to cover other aspects? You'd perhaps be focusing on shore actions rather than boats doing fights.

I never played the game, but Shadow Sea and Deep Wars are both underwater games that could handle stuff like what I imagine when I look at the pic you posted.
For a more general 'do boats work in miniatures games' you could just look at games that really do that.
Freebooter's fate has boats, Blood and Pluder and On the Seven Seas do ships even.
I think the Warhammer historical game (Legends of the Seas? not sure I remember the name) also did ships iirc.

Any underwater type setting, like uboat fights would probably be mechanically similar to aerial combat or space combat games.

Regarding boats, Sails of Glory is my favorite incarnation. Very simple mechanisms, yet drenched in flavour.

He might be the guy from /wipg/ that is building that and forgot to add the picture.

There's a shitton of boat games and I'm sure there are some with sea monsters. In doubt, Man'O'War, I guess.

Are there any good proxies for Man o' war, though?

Five Below, a discount chain in the states is selling the main set and Innistrad expansion for $5 each.

Its just quick wording, I still have a bit to finish before even getting to army building rules.

I came up with 10 generic command actions to use with the system so far. Also a quick boost to charging, as an aside.

Thanks guys. One other question, Suggestions for miniatures for various sea creatures, troglodytes, cave monsters, etc etc? I can think of a couple sources of 19th century sailors but am not familiar with the creature side of things

>What would be some fun fantasy skirmish wargames in the vein of Mordheim?
Chaos in Carpathia follows the warband/ skirmish format of Mordheim. You can pick from Treasure Hunters, Vampires, Monster Hunters, and Werewolves. They also have a pulp equivalent called Chaos in Cairo.

Is there a based chinaman for Mierce Miniatures recasts?

They're nice but just too ridiculously expensive

Suggestions for miniatures for various sea creatures, troglodytes, cave monsters, etc etc?
Deep Wars&Shadow Sea again. Definitely worth a look for something like that. Fenris Games also has a bunch of chtullu related minis.
Reaper also has a bunch of undersea creatures, among them some rather swanky deep ones and fishmen.

>I can think of a couple sources of 19th century sailors but am not familiar with the creature side of things

Sadly not that I know of. The models are gorgeous. Once you hold them in your hands you're like "Hold shit, these are some of if not the best gaming minis around." I consider it worth it but ugh the price is high.

The new metals they released are more reasonable at least.

Zachui and CCON have done a couple of the models, though I am not sure if they still produce them. I explicitly remember one of the demons showing up on AliExpress, but I can't vouch for the quality.

nani

Setting dependent creatures is why I honestly keep tabs on various games. Malifaux have some amusing plastic swamp creatures that can double as amphibious sea threats. WoK have octopi and kraken, their R&B also has sea creature packs. If you're having trouble thinking up some lines, just checkout the CMON site to browse various lines and purchase elsewhere.

Any good mechs for 10mm?

How big? I mean, 10mm is about 1/144, so if you want big 6" models you can get a lot of cheap and rad HG gunpla.

A personal favourite is the Hi-Mock, which is basically in-setting a knock-off. Also there are a ton of weapon and accessory packs available from Bandai and third parties for all kinds of gunpla stuff.

They do a lot of Kickstarter with reduced price for the entire range.
They are not a giant company like a Gw, keep that in mind.

johnbearross.blogspot.co.nz/2015/03/double-duty-part-two-gundams-that-dont.html

These might help.

Heavy Gear

...

So arr there any games coming out in 2018 you guys are excited for?

I'm looking forward to seeing the 2nd edition of Counterblast and the next iteration of Carnevale.

Of course I'm also excited to see what happrns with MERCS.

No not really. Lots of new stuff for existing games, but no entire new games.
Though i might play KMs harry potter game for a laugh if something stupid like hagrid and beasts or pure muggles is available.

I'm interested to see what they do. I don't know how much longevity it'll have, though.

Models do looks nice, though. Maybe I'll get a Ginny model if she ever gets a release. Gotta have the waifu.

Another few things I'm excited for next year are seeing the new edition of Firestorm Armada and Wild West Exodus.

After hearing what GW went through doing their galadriel model and shit like that i really don't know why KM would knowingly sign up for creating a model range where 95% of stuff is going to be based on real world actors who they need to get the OK from on every damn mini because of likenesses and shit. I'm sure warner bros or whoever aren't too bad to work with, but having to work with so many different people (especially when most of them are english speakers and KM is mostly spaniards) seems like a terrible idea.

>
2018 is fast approaching, what are your /awg/ goals for next year?

I;m writing a game. I want to kickstart it as a nice simple, oldschool style wargame. A cardboard box, three booklets and some sheets of paper fold up figures to get you going right away.

I just sold some 15mm sculpts that should go up for sale in january/feb, And I'd like to do more of that.

Other than that? Paint my leadpile.

I want to get BMG and DCUMG going at my local gaming club.

>So arr there any games coming out in 2018 you guys are excited for?
Oathmark, I guess. though I'm mostly curious about what they are gonna do with it. Not necessarily because I'm itching to get into another wargame.
I'm gonna base my preorder of Goblins if they ever get here on 25mm rounds and build them as skimish warband for now.

>After hearing what GW went through doing their galadriel model
Oh? I never heard that story.

whatever's next from ivan sorensen, and ed teixeira has some stuff in the pipeline from other authors - I think the guy who did warrior heroes - armies & adventurers has a follow-up on the way, and that always was the best two hour wargames fantasy game, despite (or because of) being a giant glorious mess.

Not sure if I expect that much out of kobolds & cobblestones, but it might be neat. oathmark is going to be a game too, right?

maybe SJ games'll do a kickstarter for melee/wizard/TFT, although I don't know if that'd be a 2018 thing. I still love those games.

I don't really know what else to expect. I don't tend to follow the big stuff, or even the mid-tier stuff that has rules tightly tied to a minis line, and I have a hard time finding out what's coming up. I don't care about a lot of it, is the trouble, and the stuff I do care about is unpredictable.

end of 2017's been pretty sweet, though - five parsecs 2, ganesha has a new thing out that looks cool, and holy fuck there's a new supplement for mythic GME, mythic variations 2. after how many years? That was incredibly unexpected.

so, LaBamba wants me to show this off

it's my converted heavy for USCR, MERCS
all metal
all day

>Oathmark

Same. Don’t have the time or interest to do a whole army but I like the figures and could see doing a skirmish set with them as a side project. I’m interested to see what else they come up with, I don’t really care for their frostgrave humans, too chunky I guess but the goblins are well-proportioned and dwarves are pretty good too.

Confrontation Classic, Kings of War Vanguard and The Other Side are going to be my candidates. I don't have high expectations for Oathmark, but I will use the dwarves in Kings of War.

Anyone knows how the League of Assassins plays in the Batman Miniature game? Are they actually good?

I plan to build a Dwarf army for KoW using the Oathmark models. Gonna go forba real low tech feel with no guns. Kit-bash with Frostgrave models to have more swords and get crossbows and shit.

They aren't brawlers. They're fast and good at snagging objectives, but their henchmen are basically all strength 5+ so they don't hit super hard. However they're also harder to hit because most have stuff like acrobat and martial artist.

I'm excited to see it in person, but also terrified of it raping my shit.

While you will grow to love Katanas, high def and their stealth.
But you are not really the owls, no acrobat, low willpower and low attack hurt you.
But for that you have the very much improved seeker, lotus as an outlinier to the above and the coolest leaders.

Going away from what they are not I will describe the league as a scapel.
You will have to pick your target carefully, and be sure of what each of your unit will do, unlike bane or Joker you can't really decide on the fly and your ninjas really need an opening to kill people.
On the other hand you really will feel ninja like if you manage to hide on the edge of the enemies sight, striking from the shadows to kill a easy target (they can't block your miserable 3 attack if they misplaced their AC).
Also give Seeker more arrows.

Game is overall quite balanced but worth mentioning is that the league is the hardest to play faction not taking into account teams so they are and will feel slightly weak (not even close to GW, Warmachine or even a Freebooters weak faction).

A pretty solid description of them. Well said.

>or even a Freebooters weak faction
Like Freebooter's Fate? Does that have some real balance issues?

Used to have or atleast from what i gathered from talking as the forums are not really active

Also I just want to mention freebooters fate once every thread for the offchance someone ask after it, so a little white lir is okay.

Freebooter's fate go read about it

I want to play it. Rules seem solid and the models are great. Just nobody around me plays and it's yet another gane trying to get in the states is a bitch to do.

My /awg/ goal is to become a Henchman for Wyrd's Malifaux.

>Have Lucius
>Have Lynch
>Have translucent green Pandora
>Have The Dreamer
>Have Colette
>Have Nightmare Hamelin
>Have a massive bundle of add ons- Austringers, Guild Rifles, Changelings, Stitched together etc

Now to get them painted.

I have a metric shit ton of Malifaux laying around because I love painting their shit, but no one to play with.

Promote and grow the warzone community into a self sustaining scene in my city and enjoy the fruits of my labour where I can just sit back and play without the frustration of cat herding that is building a gaming scene.

And also paint a lot of models.

I want to get some models painted for ME: Terminus and generally promote other Wanderer stuff - hopefully Fire and Fang will get a bit more traction and make me some more money.

>I want to get some models painted for ME: Terminus
What are you gonna use?

They're honestly one of the worst factions.

The ninjas are okay, but are horribly overpriced and their low willpower makes them very difficult to use.
The Agents are at least cheaper, but again are hampered by very low willpower and damage output.
Their selection of characters is very limited, and although Ra's is very deadly, they're all very, very expensive for what they do.

I would personally suggest basically any other faction, except for maybe Teen Titans as a better place to start.
League can be a bit of fun if you want to challenge yourself, but they're really not very good.

What about Freeze, and the Owls?

I'm not particularly familiar with Owls.

Freeze isn't bad. A bit tricky to use, but he's a lot of fun, and can pull off some powerful combos.
He's personally very strong, he's got access to some great henchmen (or at least some great guns being carried by average henchmen) and a very wide array of supporting characters.

Also his henchmen have much better sculpts than any of the league models.

Yeah, his henchmen are what make me interested in him.
Big fan of faceless tundra-themed soldiers.

There was literally a wargame that instead of selling minis just sold cards to place on a table with the regiments printed on.

Cannot remember the name, but it existed.

Battleground Fantasy Warfare, and its historical spin-off.

Pretty sure it's not the only one, but it's the one that comes to mind.

Infinity, most likely. I have a giant list of appropriate looking models in my Google Drive somewhere.

Probably going to do some as Alliance, and some pirates for antagonists.

good question: why did malifaux join /awg/?

security?

It kinda morphed into it. Sometimes it morphs out again if there's enough interest and then grows back in once it wanes. Similarly to LotR, there's currently a thread going but sooner or later it'll end up here again.

From what I can tell, interest in it waxes and wanes a lot. When there's a lot of interest, it starts getting its own threads. When there's low interest, it hangs out in /awg/ until enough Malifaux players are around to start another general.

Can anyone reccomend some bandit miniatures? I'm looking for something more along the lines of guys with knives, clubs, a few teeth etc
When I googled bandit miniature I got lots of reseults of guys in ornate leather armor with elaborate crossbows and stuff. Im looking for low level minions for skirmish games not the King of the Thieves

Frostgrave soldiers could probably do the job.

It shouldn't be too hard to build a scene - it's a simple-ish game engine, and the info is all on the cards, so 25ss games are easy to run and get into.
Then in most cases a crewbox can be run straight off the bat, with simple but relatively inexpensive progression in one or two small boxes, or another crewbox.

My local exploded with it in the last three or four months due to people chasing new players.

It's not a good list-building game (because it is so scenery and opponent-dependant), and there's a bunch of resources (forums, podcasts, etc.) out there for picking units to pieces, makes the Generals slow unless there's beef to chew.