Miniature Wargaming

[mechana2015]

Does anyone here play any miniatures based wargames, things like Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine, Hordes, Infinity or Malafaux?

I play 40K and Warmachine and I enjoy both, though a lot of it is for the painting building and customizing of the models. I'm also looking into Infinity, but it really hasn't hit stateside yet.

[Psycho Molos]

I'm sure Battletech counts....

[Seto_Sora]

I played Mechwarrior Miniatures (not battletech unfortunately, I was loosing interest in tabletops when I finally bought a starter set). As to Mechwarrior though (Dark Age and Age of Destruction) I still have my extensive collection from my rare Republic Atlas to my prized Steiner forces to my Solaris Seven game mats, figures, and game cards. Ah! Those were the good days when me and my bros sat down to a good, mechanized battle. XD Oh man and do I remember Al's Timber Wolf! What a beast! Never won a game against that thing until they finally introduced Artillery.

SDG

[mechana2015]

Battletech counts, as does Mechwarrior, though I havn't played either or seen many of the models. I know the feeling of fighting an unbeatable beast in these sorts of games since one of my armies was a tad bit underpowered until recently.

[Yamamaya]

Bumping this.

I've recently got into Lord of the Rings miniature wargaming. Their miniatures are all made by Games Workshop, the same company that makes all the Warhammer miniatures.

In fact I just got done painting some Easterlings.

[mechana2015]

I actually dropped Games Workshop recently and switched to Warmachine and Infinity only. I have enough GW product to play if I want, but their recent decisions as a company made me decide to stop buying things from them.

[Yamamaya]

I actually dropped Games Workshop recently and switched to Warmachine and Infinity only. I have enough GW product to play if I want, but their recent decisions as a company made me decide to stop buying things from them.

Are you referring to their massive price gouging that they're doing lately?

I always just buy their stuff from ebay. I don't feel like paying their ludicrous prices.

[mechana2015]

They increased the average price of the two armies I play by about 150% since I last started, they assaulted online distributors several ways recently including an act that like... effectively tripled prices in Australia, they released a new product with NO reasonable alternative that is massively inferior and more expensive.

They also stopped previewing stuff recently until the day it's released, so nobody has any idea what's coming out next and can't save money if something they want is coming out (or wait to buy something if it's being replaced soon).

I was going to start a 3rd army (dark eldar) but I'm just kind of over their shenanigans at this point. If I do get anything else I get it off a consignment case at a local gaming store or possibly e-Bay.

That and Infinity armies are something like... 10 models, and my Warmachine Mercs are like...15-20 models. Loads cheaper than the loads of tanks I need for my Space marines.

[Yamamaya]

They increased the average price of the two armies I play by about 150% since I last started, they assaulted online distributors several ways recently including an act that like... effectively tripled prices in Australia, they released a new product with NO reasonable alternative that is massively inferior and more expensive.

They also stopped previewing stuff recently until the day it's released, so nobody has any idea what's coming out next and can't save money if something they want is coming out (or wait to buy something if it's being replaced soon).

I was going to start a 3rd army (dark eldar) but I'm just kind of over their shenanigans at this point. If I do get anything else I get it off a consignment case at a local gaming store or possibly e-Bay.

That and Infinity armies are something like... 10 models, and my Warmachine Mercs are like...15-20 models. Loads cheaper than the loads of tanks I need for my Space marines.

This is one of the reasons why if I get into Warhammer or 40K I will only get miniatures on ebay or at a hobby shop. That's one of the reasons I'm only into the Lord of the Rings Strategy Game atm. They tend to be the least expensive of miniatures, and the gameplay tends to favor smaller armies. I also hated that you had to purchase all those tanks and drop zones to make a Marine army.

Warmachine looks really neat. I should try that out sometime. The prices don't look that unreasonable either.

[mechana2015]

So, to resurrect this, I tested out an interesting program last night called Vassal. Vassal itself is a game engine designed to allow board games to be played online, then has a plugin for just about every game imaginable, but you'll need the rule books still to play the game effectively, especially tabletop stuff. The program isn't super documented, and getting a game started takes some guesswork, but once you get the oddities involved with making the server work right figured out it works very well.

We decided to test it out for Warmachine, Mercenaries VS Protectorate of Menoth, and after a few goof ups we got our game going, and it worked out splendidly. It took a while because neither me nor my opponent are all that well versed in the rules and hadn't played in a while, but it was relaxed and fun (and he surrendered!). The program works live over a server that Vassal runs, and also live through Peer to Peer connections or it can be used for play by post by e-mailing a log-file back and forth. It was cool to get to play despite distance, and it seems like a good place to test out other armies than ones you own if you can get the stats for the models, or to play test new army lists.

I've also been painting my Mercs army in Warmachine (in real life), so maybe I'll have pics of that soon.

[Death Whispers]

I started doing Warhammer, but my local game shop gaming night was on the same night as my Watchtower study night, so I decided to give up on Warhammer for something spiritually uplifting!