The Wargaming Thread

[Overread]

Aye I've got a few and the larger models really do look rather good whilst some of the smaller are not as ideal. I think its a great material for what its aimed at and for some bigger showy models that don't break the bank its a really neat approach. Get a Bones for a fraction of the cost of what it would otherwise be in metal or resin or plastic.

 

[Overread]

Again on the KS front this one might be neat for any that like space ships - Firestorm Armada. The games already been out a few years and Spartan makes some really fantastic resin models; this is an expansion of two new races and some new units for each of the core factions as well as some terrain and the new printing of 3.0 rules.
Firestorm Galaxy Expansion

 

[A.G. Kimbrough]

There is a Russian Company named Wargaming. They have World Of Tanks (WOT) a WW2 based Tank warfare game. World Of Planes (WOP) an arir war game with plans ranging from WW1 biplanes, at the bottom tiers to Korean Wars area jets at the highest tiers. World Of Warships (WOWS)is a naval action game with warships that include Destroyers, Cruisers, Battleships and Carriers. I am a naval history buff and an author who writes naval action stories, and I am addicted to WOWS. All 3 games are free to play, but you can progress faster if you spend real $..

 

[Cathbad]

I'd love to start a new D&D campaign.

 

[Rodders]

I never got into wargaming, although my next door was much into Warhammer 40k. (I see on his Facebook page that he still plays.

I always meant to pick it up, but didn’t find the time. I did like paint the FASA Star Trek Ships and the Judge Dredd miniatures.

A large part of my Star Wars collecting in the nineties was the West End Games Star Wars rule books and supplements as they contained a lot of great images and information. I still have them.

 

[Overread]

@Rodders - you know there's a whole couple of series of Starwars Wargames now - There's one for fighter ships, one for ground combat and one for big space ships - they've even released a 2 ft super star destroyer only this last month. Plus they are all pre-painted models so they are pretty much totally good to go out of the box

Fighter Ship game

Star Wars: X-Wing Second Edition

www.fantasyflightgames.com

Armada game

Star Wars: Armada

www.fantasyflightgames.com

Ground Combat game

Star Wars: Legion

www.fantasyflightgames.com

Fantasy Flight also makes a bunch of other SW related stuff.
PS I'm aware that some of the companies in the UK like Firestorm Games and Wayland Games have trouble keeping good stock of FF stuff; its not in any danger its just hard for them to keep up with demand from what I've heard.+


PS their store is a bit odd; you have to check under "expansions" to get at the variety of ships on offer

 

[CupofJoe]

Back in the early days of Warhammer Fantasy Battle [mid to late 80s] I used to have three separate armies that I used in rotation or depending on the foe [Orc/Goblin, Dwarf and Wood Elf]. I loved playing the game but it cost a fortune to collect and paint and it was a pain to carry them anywhere for a game.
At the same time I had a friend that always fielded 2 Balrogs as his army. At 1500pt each they made up his entire army. It was very cost effective and easy to transport, but in three years of playing I never saw him win a game. Not even close...
BTW my Wood Elf army retired with a perfect 9 wins and 0 losses record. the Dwarves and Orcs fared less well.

 

[Rodders]

Thanks Overread. I have collected the three Millennium Falcon models for my collection from the FFG X-Wing game. The quality is very good, but I haven't played the game.

 

[Judderman]

I have great memories of playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle in the 90s. Loved the army and world backgrounds too. Certainly cost a lot though, and needed a lot of painting time. Plus played various other GW games.
In the last few years I have been playing blood bowl again. You only need 11 or so figures per team and there is actually a lot of tournaments organized. The World Cup is gigantic for a single system event. The naf have a website for tournaments and rankings etc.

 

[Toby Frost]

I think one of the best things about the resurgence of tabletop gaming is that the entry cost is much lower now (proportionally). For a long time, Games Workshop had a stranglehold on the market and was only interested in selling its two big Warhammer games. Now, while GW is still huge, there are lots of smaller games that are quicker and cheaper to get into. I suspect there's a big market of nostalgic older gamers who just don't have the time and money for the huge games, and realise that just as much fun can be had out of smaller ones.

 

[thaddeus6th]

3D printing might be helping with that (not my area or anything, just a thought).

 

[Overread]

The newer companies popping up I think is a result of several things happening around the same time
1) Internet shopping is pretty normal. Way back 20 odd years ago (or maybe more now) mail ordering was slower and the internet wasn't much used for retail. The highstreet dominated and many regions that meant big named brands for wargames (ergo Warhammer) had a very strong hold on what shelf space there was - along with having their own stores on the highstreet.
Today the internet is very dominant and that means smaller one-man-band or teams of product developers have a greater chance to reach out the public and connect with them. Done right they can produce niche products and fill a smaller subset of the market and still turn a healthy profit.

2) Kickstarter - this REALLY exploded the market because it allowed small time companies to take out big chunks of money to cover their start up costs. This might mean they could buy machines to make models; buy moulds to cast from and even generate sufficent early orders to make orders from overseas manufacturers. Of course many also fail and fall apart, and it is basically gambling with hobby money; but its still started off many a small firm. Either making full games; alternate parts etc...

3) GW was losing their market hold. Especially for the older gamer GW went though an increasingly bad patch where their upper management was isolating themselves more and more from their customers and focusing more on their own profits. The result was stripping of specialist games; a more messy release pattern; heck at that itme they weren't even marketing anything online. When every other company was using social media, twitch, streaming, etc.... GW was having none of it. This sort of all came to a head when they ditched their fantasy game and released Age of Sigmar without any rules and fragmenting many armies and removing several. Basically the market backlashed and GW wound up having a change of CEO.
During that time other companies got their heads up above the water. GW was losing mature gamers, losing a hold and those gamers were taking their money to kickstarter and other companies.
when GW changed CEO and a huge attitude change (they now put out social media marketing every single day) this had a big knock on effect; both GW's sales soured high enough that their share value was the highest on the UK stock market for a while; but also smaller companies suddenly felt a big bite being taken out of their income as many older games flocked back to GW.


3D printing is in an odd spot right now. It's got a hold on some bits of the market but not mass market. Right now I think its problems are
1) It's slower than plastic casting. So for manufacture its not as fast as casting can achieve.

2) It actually creates more clean up than traditional casting methods. You have connecting and support lines and ridges and layer lines and such to clean up. That's fine for making a master to then make a casting mould from (far as I know this is how GW is making their models now); but its not as ideal for your mass market product.

3) I personally can't see where the profit is. Every company I've seen sending out files to 3D print your own models has been REALLY small scale. Basically 1 person making designs and selling them for peanuts. Relying both on it being a side project (not their main income source) and small sale prices to make ends meat. That they are small firms where its basically the designer (who makes the models) doing the work cuts down on overheads. I just can't see bigger companies selling 3D print files so effectively to the consumer. Consumers who buy 3D files buy them "because they are cheaper" partly than regular casts. Plus they have to buy material and cast at home; however that means the price has to be really low and I can't see that supporting larger companies with more overheads and staff etc....

I see it used more in terrain production than for models; whilst in model terms I tend to see it more used more for producing masters rather than actual products; though a few are doing it here and there.

 

[CupofJoe]

I was in a GW store when a [rather obnoxious] child announced to everyone that could hear, that they were going to buy a GW model [a big demon?] and then use their 3D printer and scanner to make copies for all their friends...
You could feel the blood pressure rise in the GW staff...

 

[Overread]

Thankfully a 3D printer that can do justice to the detail on a model is not cheap nor is a 3D scanner that can scan to that level of detail. Plus far as I'm aware to actually get the 3D scan to do it right you've got to take accurate measurements of the model. GW apparently did do all this when they took their current Warlord 40K titan (it costs over £1K) and scaled it down for the return of Adepticus Titanicus.

Lots of micrometer measurements were taken.

I have to say its a beauty on the table too in Adepticus Titanticus - but I'm still waiting for them to do an Imperator.

 

[Vladd67]

Someone I used to war game with used to copy figures, but he did it the old fashion way making moulds and casting metal. He used to by second hand pewter tankards from the market and use them as a source of metal.

 

[Judderman]

I think GW have upped their standards On the model department side. They have had to do with all the little competitors.
I also hear good things on their contrast paints, if expensive. Someone was mentioning they will be bringing Warhamner Fantasy back again already.