Tabletop Miniature Wargames

Lord Mordrek

I can't help but notice the surprising lack of love for tabletop war games around here. Be it the many varieties of Warhammer, Warmachine and Hordes, or even humble upstarts like Malifaux and Flames of War. I know we've got at least a few of you out there, but we hardly ever talk about our hobby on this forum.

So sound off if your'e a table top war gamer! List which games you play, and what armies you run.

I play Warhammer 40,000.

I run Imperial Guard, Daemonhunters, and Space Marines.

Now it's your turn people, let me know that I'm not alone!

TheWhaleShark

I play Warhammer 40,000.

Hi, my name is Peter, and I am also addicted to playing with dolls.

Blood Angels and Tyranids specifically.

I never really did get into Warmachine. The 'jacks looked cool, but overall I think the game is somewhat weaker than 40k.

I've played all of the various clix games, and the D&D; miniatures game as well. All in all, I loves me some miniatures wargaming, but I just haven't had the time to get back into it. It's always on my list of geekeries to revisit, though.

WindUpBird

I enjoy the Warhammers. I've got a ton of orks to paint right now, as well as some Spess Mehrines. I enjoy the universe more than the whole hobby of it; I wrote a pretty huge chunk of fluff for /tg/'s Metal Marines a while back (the origin of their Primarch, the founding, etc).

The orks are Evil Sunz, if I ever paint the Marines, they will be Angry as fuck (but operate under a Blood Angels ruleset).

I'm also interested in Infinity, WARMACHINE (the only game so extreme it is officially spelled with allcaps--per the rulebook), and Flames of War, but groups for those are hard to come by on my campus.

/read tons of the Lexicanum
/Got suckered into spending too much money by asshole GW employees in grade school and left the hobby for a while
/Got a 4th Ed rulebook stolen around the same time
/Owns an entire toolbox of paint and modeling tools

Matt

I would be very into tabletop war gaming in a perfect world with unlimited time and money, but it has just never worked out. I have been slowly collecting a Warhammer Fantasy army since (no joke) the 8th grade. I'm 26 now. I have a full army, and it's 2/3 painted. Some days I contemplate taking the stuff out and finishing up but way more often than not I wind up doing something else. I do enjoy the painting and am not horrible at it, but the problem is that there are so many elements to the hobby, and I'm already into so many things. My interest levels across all of these geeky hobbies change like the wind, and it never settles on wargaming long enough to make any significant progress. It's something you really need to block off time in advance for.

GreatTeacherMacRoss

I remember back in the day I played Warhammer and 40k. They just got too rich for my blood. Beyond that, constant rule-warping bullshit made it impossible to play without some nerd whining at me about how the rules had changed in the latest White Dwarf that just happened to make his army far superior, or tweaked one rule that made his general a fear-producing juggernaut of doom.

In the end, constant rule changes that almost always ended up handicapping my armies and the sheer cost of the hobby killed it for me. I stick to Dawn of War now. ^_^

Lord Mordrek

It all depends on your gaming group I'm afraid, we usually just stick to the codices unless there's a really glaring rules issue. I always have the occasional bad pick-up game, but you can get those anywhere. The few bad experiences I've had are always outweighed when my guardsmen fix bayonets and charge for the Emperor.

Matt

I agree with both of the above posts. The rules set changes and the churn they cause in army composition can wreak havoc on a player's mind and budget, but that can all be solved by having a consisten play group who all agree on what rules/models to use. They are still really fun games, but this just makes the barrier to entry even higher. I'm a bit jealous of those who have been able to get max enjoyment out of these games, because I definitely haven't. Is there anything out there on the skirmish-level that is a good game to jump into? Way back in the day we used to play Necromunda, a Warhammer 40k variant where everyone would just show up and use 7 models. It also came with a lot of punch-out terrain, so it'd be really easy to get a good game going.

Wyatt

Necromunda, a Warhammer 40k variant where everyone would just show up and use 7 models. It also came with a lot of punch-out terrain, so it'd be really easy to get a good game going.

I love this game. It's a hell of a lot easier and cheaper then 40K. I enjoy the small squad tactics over full army tactics.

I love the Inquisitor models put out by GW, but I've never played the game. I didn't like the rule set. Same thing with the tabletop Warhammer RPG and Chaosium's Call of Cuthulu. Rolling d% was never my thing.

Andrew

I love this game. It's a hell of a lot easier and cheaper then 40K. I enjoy the small squad tactics over full army tactics.

I've never played, but color me interested now.

GreatTeacherMacRoss

Necromunda was amazing in that they gave you great terrain to start with, and the number of models was minimal. The down side is that the rules were horrendously broken, or rather heavily geared towards tournament play. This also meant that if you had any kind of persistence in the game, one person would be far overpowered compared to someone who had been playing their army less. Unless you and a single friend and only wanted to play basic starting armies each time, one of you would eventually be grossly overpowered. There were no mechanics for adding experience, injuries, scars, etc. to starting thugs.
Also, the addition of the bounty hunters and the guys who had crazy power armor to the game ruined a lot of balance.

Andrew

Are there any other small scale mini-games/mini based RPGs out there?

Wyatt

Also, the addition of the bounty hunters and the guys who had crazy power armor to the game ruined a lot of balance.

And that's why I played the Sypyer Hunters, riches kids in power armor coming to kill peasants. I could also make a full squad with 4 guys instead of shelling out cash for 10. They had their drawback: no new recruits, no Turf bonuses, and if someone died you where double fucked.

I remember one of fight scenarios being a Chaos Space Marine in in the sewers and the first gang to kill him gets a bounty. This was akin to rouges trying to kill a great dragon with daggers.

@Andrew: I know Warmachine has a table top RPG out. It's very steampunk with slightly modified D&D; 3rd ed rules. I liked it but never played. I don't know how small scale the mini's game is though.

GreatTeacherMacRoss

Also, the addition of the bounty hunters and the guys who had crazy power armor to the game ruined a lot of balance.

And that's why I played the Sypyer Hunters, riches kids in power armor coming to kill peasants.

Fuck you. My Goliath gangs were raped from those unbalanced shitcocks every goddamned time. They should have never been put in the game. Even in tournament play, which gave everyone else a slightly higher fighting chance, they were neigh impossible to take down.

Lord Mordrek

If your'e looking for something cheap in the vein of War Hammer, play kill teams. You form a list of up to 200 points, and simply control all of the models individually, rather than as a squad. It's perfect for fast-paced, cheap, and portable 40k. The rules are readily available online, and the average squad only costs about 30 dollars.

I play with ten inquisitorial stormtroopers and a Daemonhost.

Andrew

Kill teams got phased out with 5th Ed.

Lord Mordrek

They just re-wrote it, it's in the 5th ed. Battle Missions book. They took out a lot of the crap that just made it feel like little 40k, and now it's like a completely different game.

WindUpBird

Killteam sounds fun.

Matt

Killteam sounds fun.

Agreed.

As for Necromunda imbalance, I suppose I didn't play it enough, or was too young and naive at 12 years old to see obviously exploitable rules imbalances. My one funny memory of that game though was when i tried painting the models. Up until them, every model I've ever touched was just guys in full armor (mostly War Zone, but some Warhammer Fantasy). When I got my gang, they were all guys in street clothes with lots of exposed skin, so I tried to use a flesh wash. The end result was all of my guys looking like they were deep fried.

Andrew

I would love to play some Killteam in the future, maybe Pax East if people want to meet up there and get their tabletop wargaming on?

Lord Mordrek

I'm hoping to go to PAX prime this year. Anybody here on the west coast?

Rochelle

I'm hoping to go to PAX prime this year. Anybody here on the west coast?

Yes. There are many. However, I really don't notice that much miniature action going on at PAX, but I could just not be looking hard enough. With all the space that table top currently has and probably will be getting, I'm sure there will be some of that action going on.