Miniature Game Systems
A few days back I posted some thoughts I had regarding the recent round of Cease and Desist letters that Games Workshop has issued to a lot of major online communities. Dragon712 posted the following in the comment section: “Any suggestions on any good fantasy/future tabletop wargames with as good or bettera diversity in armies?” I started to write a response to in the comments section, but it was growing a bit too long and I thought I’d take the time today to properly answer the question and share some knowledge that I have about some other game systems. All that I list below fall into a range of “Hands on Experience” to “I’m aware of the game”.
To answer the question directly though: No. In my opinion there isn’t another game out there that has the amount of history or diversity of Games Workshop. With over 25+ years making and developing their worlds (both 40k and Fantasy) there really isn’t a company out there that is GW’s equal in terms of variety. Many companies out there don’t match GW in terms of quality either, but in both cases there are some companies that are catching up.
The main question I have to ask though is “What are you looking for out of a miniature game?”
That is a question that is personal for each individual since miniature gaming encompasses so many aspects of the gaming hobby. Is it the army list building? The spatial relationship of having models on an open table/battlefield? Is it the painting/conversion/modeling aspects? Is it collecting models? Is it reading about and interacting through the game with a different world? Miniature gaming, unlike many other types of gaming, capture much more than just interacting via a set of rules.
PRIVATEER PRESS (PP) - PP is the company that I feel comes closest to the bar that GW has set. Their WARMACHINE/HOARDS world is developing nicely from what I understand. I really have never been a fluff guy, but the stories that I have read in the rulebooks are some top-notch prose from a game company. Their models are consistently stellar and the quality of their output is superb - It helps having Mike McVey leading their miniatures department who was one of the higher-ups on GW’s ‘Eavy Metal team. Now I could throw out a lot of speculation and some rumors that I’ve heard about the company, but I want to keep this to what I know. I haven’t looked at the game for some time now because it went in a direction that I didn’t like. What I was hoping for was a game with giant hulks (the Jacks) slugging it out and few if any troops. As the books came out with what appeared to me to be a focus on troops I moved away from the game. Now I hear rumors that the new rulebook (yes they are going the GW route and revamping the rulebook, but I don’t know to what extent) and the new rulebook will have a more Jack-focused game play. If that is the case I’ll be jumping back onboard because the core rules are sound, the models are amazing and the quality and presentation is at worse on par with GW. The main plus for PP in my opinion is that they have a big enough fan base that finding opponents shouldn’t be a problem and much like GW games you should be able to walk into a store and find an opponent.
CORVUS BELLI - Based out of Spain this is a company that grabbed my attention back in 2006 when they released the 28mm game INFINITY. What grabbed my attention was the quality of the core rulebook and the miniatures themselves. Now, I have never played the game so I cannot comment on how good or bad the rules are, but from what I heard from other people at my local game shop the game was awesome. Back in ‘06 was a strange time for me since I was moving from Chicago down to Kansas City so I never got to play a game up there during the fading weeks of my time and when I moved down to Kansas City it didn’t seem to hit the smaller city with as much gusto. I did read the core rule book from front to back and the back-story behind the world was very good (perhaps not that original but GW’s worlds don’t scream original either) and the quality and presentation had what I felt was a fresh approach. A word of warning though, this game requires some dense scenery. Ranges on weapons are long and it appeared shots were brutal and the impression that I got about this game is it rewarded players for setting up fire corridors and strategic placement of troops.
ASMODEE - HELLDORADO was a game that I was really, really looking forward to. Skirmished based with what looked to be a unique religious twist everything about it just looked awesome. Sadly though Asmodee decided not to translate the rules or more accurately release an official English translation (they did release an English translation of the rules but they didn’t include army lists). And since I don’t speak French I haven’t followed the game lately. It sounds like some fans are working on an unofficial English translation but I don’t know where that stands or how far along they are. But that said if we can spread the word about the game perhaps Asmodee will change their mind and market the game in the US if enough buzz or demand is built up here.
BATTLEFRONT - The makers of FLAMES OF WAR (FoW). Since this isn’t a fantasy or sci-fi setting I won’t dwell on this game too much, but if you like miniature games and like WWII this is THE miniature game. I have a few models myself and though they aren’t the greatest (I’m personally not a fan of resin) they are average and get the job done. The rules are a bit daunting (not in complexity but the pure number of books out there) but they seem to be pretty consistent since they are historical there isn’t a whole lot that they can change without rewriting the history books.
CROCODILE GAMES - Makers of WARGODS OF AEGYPTUS (imagine the A and the E connected to form a letter that I don’t know the name of or how to accurately pronounce - Like Tool’s Aenima Album). For me, this has to be my favorite alternative 28mm game. Though I only managed to play it once (since sadly this game is a hard one to find opponents for) it was a game that had me engaged from start to finish due to a unique activation/orders system. What I really like about this world is once a book is released I get the feeling that for the most part it is “done” as in it won’t be rewritten a few years from now to keep up with new releases. Part of that though is because Crocodile Games is SLOW! They aren’t a company that moves fast with updates only happening about once a month (so on par with this site at times for a little bit of self-deprecation). Models are sometimes hit or miss depending on the sculptor, but again they do have the talents of an ex-GW guy Chris FitzPatrick (who did the Dark Elves for WFB and Dark Eldar for 40k) so he does have creative oversight but sometimes I get the feeling that he had to settle. Out of all the games on this list, this is the one that I really hope has the legs to stand over time. It is tough to say what the overall vision of the company is because their newer releases like a Yheti race as well as the Spartans seem like a different approach was taken compared to Aegyptus.
CATALYST GAMES - The chaps over here have been doing tons of work cleaning and consolidating the classic game BATTLETECH. BT has been out for decades so there has been piles upon piles of books detailing new mechs and new organizations within the BT Universe. The game was also taken to different scales like AeroTech which is a space-ship battle system, then people wanted to tie the two games together. People wanted to take it off the grid-map based system so alternative rules for an open-table battlefield were developed. Over time the game collapsed in under its own weight. Rules conflicted with each other and were scattered over many books. So I was really excited to see Catalyst put together some amazing work and effort to clean this amazing system up. One thing is they have for the most part removed the option of playing on an open battlefield and instead attempt to bring the focus back onto paper-maps. So perhaps not a miniature game in the true sense, but wait until you see my next entry. The thing with BattleTech though is they are every bit as rich as GW in terms of stories and fluff. Variety is endless due to a nice and comprehensive Mech Consturction rules.
YOUR MOVE GAMES - Now this one I might get a little flack for since BATTLEGROUND: FANTASY WARFARE is a “miniature game” without miniatures. The game has all the feel of a rank and file fantasy wargame, but units are made with cards and as units die a dry-erase marker is used to mark the loses. There are a variety of races that the game offers but they are pretty generic and the game doesn’t have the depth of fluff that people come to expect from miniature games. The best selling point though is you and a buddy can go in for $15-30 apiece and walk away with a full army and rules.
Well those listed above are games that I have some level of personal experience with. There are others out there like ALKEMY or GW’s range of Historical rules (which include a rule set for an Old West Cowboys skirmish game. There are also other scales and settings like UNCHARTED SEAS and FIRESTORM ARMADA from Spartan Games which cover fantasy naval and Sci-Fi space ship battles respectively. There are also an abundance of historical games that cover Napoleon to Civil War to Revolutionary War. Or Civil War naval games or Age of Sail naval games. Mongoose Publishing as a WWII rule set for naval battles which I don’t know much about other than they are supposed to be of a high quality. Then there are also rule sets from Ral Partha. So like I mention above, it really is a factor of what you want out of your miniature gaming. Though not apparent at first there are many, many alternatives but they just don’t have the presence that GW has.
‘Til Next Time - Happy Gaming
LvT
