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Post by jeffgeorge on Dec 29, 2016 12:36:20 GMT -9
I'm starting to get an itch to play a tabletop miniature wargame--you know, the kind with large units, no grid, rulers for movement and range, that sort of thing. But I have no idea where to start.
What miniature battle games are the kids playing these days? For obvious reasons, I'd prefer a game system that is as download-print-assemble-play oriented as possible. It doesn't have to be free, but I prefer to download PDFs and print myself, rather than spend $40 for hardback books. I lean toward fantasy or sci-fi over strict historical, although I could live with ancient/medieval historical if that's what's popular. I'm not too interested in Napoleonic through modern periods, though I realize that WW2 is very big with the tabletop mini crowd.
Any recommendations?
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Post by chiefasaur on Dec 29, 2016 12:54:50 GMT -9
My go-to for funsies is "Song of Blades and Heroes." Though, it is geared more towards small-scale skirmish rules. I just checked DTRPG, the core pdf is on sale for $8, and you can make warbands out of anything you've got lying around, so not a huge risk. I'd highly recommend it.
I have a few friends who speak very highly of Frostgrave, but yet again, I think it's more of a skirmish game.
Sorry I don't know of any good large unit wargames. Skirmish games appeal to my meager time and budget.
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Post by jeffgeorge on Dec 29, 2016 13:18:02 GMT -9
Thanks for the tips, Chief. I'm getting Song now, will look into Frostgrave.
Edit: I see that there's the original version of Song, and an Advanced Song available now. According to Wargamevault, the original hasn't been updated since 2012, while the Advanced version is being actively maintained. I ordered Advanced Song for that reason. Hope I'm not wrong...
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Post by Papercraft Warrior on Dec 29, 2016 13:20:51 GMT -9
Kings of War from Mantic Games has a certain following. You can buy the rulebook, or download a free pdf from here (you can also find a few of skirmish games they have). It should be streamlined and balanced compared to... inspiratory work, mostly one with people swinging warhammers at each other. They sell figures, but you can use any you want. Warhammer Fantasy is one of most popular and hated at the same time, figures (official ones) are one of more expensive ones, and rules are often quirky. But you should be able to find a few stores in the western world where they play it. Hordes of the Things (HotT) is a light fantasy rework of the DBA, it is less detailed than the above two, but the battles should be faster. All three games move soldiers in groups, but the damage is handled differently. In Warhammer each individual swings and dies by himself. In Kings of War the group has a set attack, but you do remember the damage they took, too much of it and they will fail the check and die or flee. In HotT the element (representing from one hero to thousands of warriors) moves alone or with other elements, it has one attack (using only one d6), and you do not remember the damage, it is at full strength, fleeing, or dead. It is a rough comparison, you best bet is to see what games people play in clubs near your home, especially if you plan to use metal miniatures, they are bulky and heavy if you use big armies.
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Post by jeffgeorge on Dec 29, 2016 13:40:43 GMT -9
I'd heard of KoW, but the basic rule book is like $40 (25 British pounds, to be precise), so I'd figured that was too much to pay until I was sure I was into minis and like KoW. But digging around the Mantis website, I found that you can download PDFs of the rules for free...yay! I'll download those and print them out, and see where things go from there. Thanks, Papercraft Warrior!
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Post by whisper31 on Dec 29, 2016 21:40:59 GMT -9
Epicwargaming.com has a totally free, all PnP miniatures wargame called Three Plains. It is a fantasy genre wargame with enough fluff in it to make printing out the rulebook worthwhile. They also have free PnP terrain and templates for you there as well. You don't need to sign up for their board/forum, but Dave Scholes would definitely appreciate it if you did, if nothing more than to give him feedback about the game he created. Here is a direct link to their front page: Epic Wargaming
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Post by tonsha on Dec 30, 2016 1:00:57 GMT -9
I've always been a fan of Te Wapen! by Philip Dutre. It's the same game engine as Memoir 44 so it's very easy to learn and quick to play. The rules (as written) use giant hexes for movement/range, but it would be really, really easy to convert that to inches. I remember we filled both sides of a 6ft x 4ft table with figures and still played the game to its conclusion in about 1.5 hours. Looked mightily impressive! A PDF can be found here: www.nirya.be/snv/ttm/archives/tewapen2004.pdfThere's also a Yahoo Group, but there isn't much activity. Another set of rules I picked up recently were MAYHEM! by Brent Spivey. Haven't played them yet, but they read very well. DaveA
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Post by Parduz on Dec 30, 2016 4:43:18 GMT -9
I can't reccommend enough The Battlefield from Brent Spivey. It has a "MMO videogame" feel (it support >2 player/factions), clever and fast rules, buildable units (while it present the rules for Modern, you can just change everything for Sci-fi settings). It only lack some form of AI, but allows to play "goodguys vs hordes of ..." so it could even work as a full coop with minimal AI customization efforts. One of the best rulesets my friends and I have played.
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Post by jeffgeorge on Dec 30, 2016 9:14:25 GMT -9
Thanks for the recommendations, everyone! I'm checking into them as time allows over the holiday weekend!
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Post by kgstanley81 on Dec 30, 2016 18:54:15 GMT -9
Two hour wargames, has a lot of settings, small up to platoon level (fantasy, rally around the king) (sci-fi, Star army) and you can play them solo, he also has free rules so you can get the feel of the system
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Post by wyloch on Jan 1, 2017 17:28:25 GMT -9
One Page 40k (free) Kings of War (partially free, as discussed above)
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Post by Brickerbrack on Jan 1, 2017 18:21:45 GMT -9
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Post by Papercraft Warrior on Jan 2, 2017 0:23:33 GMT -9
One Page 40k (free) Kings of War (partially free, as discussed above) I would not define the Kings of War as partially free. The pdf is free, and I do not know of any ruleset where they give you a physical rulebook for free.
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Post by Punkrabbitt on Jan 2, 2017 12:13:43 GMT -9
One Page 40k (free) Kings of War (partially free, as discussed above) I would not define the Kings of War as partially free. The pdf is free, and I do not know of any ruleset where they give you a physical rulebook for free. Back in the late '90s/early '00s, some of the smaller companies would include the physical rulebook for free in each of the blister packs. 1999, Confrontation, and a sci-fi kung fu game whose name eludes me all did this. I thought it would be cool for us to do this with Dark Age Games, but the rest of the crew went with a different direction.
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Post by jeffgeorge on Jan 2, 2017 15:26:00 GMT -9
One Page 40k (free) Kings of War (partially free, as discussed above) I would not define the Kings of War as partially free. The pdf is free, and I do not know of any ruleset where they give you a physical rulebook for free. How about we call Kings of War free enough? I'm not opposed to laying out $40 or so for a game that I am confident I will like and play, but I am very hesitant to shell out 40 beans for something I haven't at least seen played in person. The free Kings of War downloads give you plenty of rules to play the game, and plenty of army lists for someone who doesn't have any models made yet. The full rules will certainly offer more complete army lists, more diagrams and examples, and illustrations, but not having them yet, I can't say whether the rules in the free PDF are abridged or basically complete. In any case, I could play the game with them to at least some degree, once I have some units assembled and find a local friend...
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Post by jackcaos on Jan 5, 2017 7:46:35 GMT -9
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Post by jeffgeorge on Jan 5, 2017 17:00:34 GMT -9
I just looked at the page for Wormhole at the WWG site--thanks for the tip! The pics look amazing and fun...is the game any good? I'd spend the $11.25 for it, but I'm gun-shy after reading about all the troubles folks have with shopping on the WWG website, and the apparent lack of interest the company has for supporting customers. Is this a legitimate concern at this point, or is WWG back in business and basically reliable now (Now being early Jan, 2017)?
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Post by Punkrabbitt on Jan 5, 2017 23:22:19 GMT -9
Wormhole is an awesome game. It does require a lot of assembly before playing. If you have any issues downloading it, I can personally help you resolve those issues.
I was one of the playtesters, so I may be biased.
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Post by whisper31 on Jan 6, 2017 5:20:13 GMT -9
Here is another idea for you, jeffgeorge. Go to BoardGameGeek and take a look through their Geeklists of Print and Play games. You might find something there that will suit you and they are all free to download (though you have to be registered with their forums to download and post), print, assemble, and play. That is where I got a whole bunch of tabletop mini wargames in almost all genres.
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Post by whisper31 on Jan 6, 2017 5:54:09 GMT -9
Just came across a free pnp minis wargame that you and the younger ones in the family can have a blast with: Splatball You can find the rules and minis here: SplatBall Rules and FigsThe rules are pretty simple and fairly straightforward and you can build your armies in very little time. The figures that are on the website have no bases, but using OneMonk's bases (or make your own) shouldn't be a problem.
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Post by Vermin King on Jan 6, 2017 7:48:52 GMT -9
Just came across a free pnp minis wargame that you and the younger ones in the family can have a blast with: Splatball You can find the rules and minis here: SplatBall Rules and FigsThe rules are pretty simple and fairly straightforward and you can build your armies in very little time. The figures that are on the website have no bases, but using OneMonk's bases (or make your own) shouldn't be a problem. paperpusher is a member here
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Post by jeffgeorge on Jan 6, 2017 12:24:10 GMT -9
Just came across a free pnp minis wargame that you and the younger ones in the family can have a blast with: Splatball You can find the rules and minis here: SplatBall Rules and FigsThe rules are pretty simple and fairly straightforward and you can build your armies in very little time. The figures that are on the website have no bases, but using OneMonk's bases (or make your own) shouldn't be a problem. I'd seen the Oversoul Games page before, but I hadn't really looked at the games closely. It includes several games in several genres--a couple pretty weird!--most of them with cute miniatures ready to download. I had come across some of the Splateball minis in my searches for Dungeon Plungin' materials, but I didn't realize what they were for. In any case, I've pillaged Oversoul thoroughly now, and will spend some time reading through the rulesets. Thanks for the link!
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Post by whisper31 on Jan 6, 2017 12:58:54 GMT -9
Just came across a free pnp minis wargame that you and the younger ones in the family can have a blast with: Splatball You can find the rules and minis here: SplatBall Rules and FigsThe rules are pretty simple and fairly straightforward and you can build your armies in very little time. The figures that are on the website have no bases, but using OneMonk's bases (or make your own) shouldn't be a problem. I'd seen the Oversoul Games page before, but I hadn't really looked at the games closely. It includes several games in several genres--a couple pretty weird!--most of them with cute miniatures ready to download. I had come across some of the Splateball minis in my searches for Dungeon Plungin' materials, but I didn't realize what they were for. In any case, I've pillaged Oversoul thoroughly now, and will spend some time reading through the rulesets. Thanks for the link! Any time! I'm going to put this one together after I get my Shellendrak Manor and GunCrawl games completed. This one looks to be a lot of fun fo the kiddies!
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Post by Toman on Feb 12, 2017 12:01:23 GMT -9
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Post by Punkrabbitt on Feb 12, 2017 17:20:16 GMT -9
Are we still doing this? I have been playing a lot of Lion Rampant lately. It is a pretty fast and loose medieval skirmish game featuring anywhere from 30 to 60+ models per side. There is a fantasy add-on called Dragon Rampant which is not on DriveThruRpg, and a stand-alone Renaissance variant called The Pikeman's Lament (also not on DriveThruRpg.) In Lion Rampant, the soldiers are pretty generic, and my Irish or Tony's Normans frequently find themselves fighting Mike's coalition of Lizardmen and Orcs, statted up from the normal force lists. No reason your big orcs/uruk-hais cannot be counted as Men-At-Arms, right?
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Post by vwilliams32407 on Feb 13, 2017 8:28:29 GMT -9
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