All About Miniatures Episode 9 is another information packed two part episode which begins with mail call and John's comments about his recent experience at the HMGS Midwest convention: Little Wars. We have a science fiction show this time and this month we review Dark Age Genesis from Dark Age Games
Show Links
AK47 Republic
Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Fernando Enterprises
Philgreg Miniatures
Armies of Arcana
Fantasy Rules! 3
Cap Aero 1:1200 Aircraft
Litko Aerosystems
Olde Rivertowne Miniatures
Might & Reason
Thoroughbred Miniatures
Syr Hobbs Wargames
Brother Against Brother
Knuckleduster
Pegasus Hobbies
Bargain Bin Gamer
Dark Age Games
Discount Hobby
Prophet Miniatures
Bronze Age Miniatures
First, is it miniatures wargaming or miniature wargaming or just miniatures? Something else?
We still haven’t thought up a name for our game, system, or miniatures. We are actually more arguing about what it is we are naming. This post is an attempt to clarify what it is we are trying to accomplish. Do we want to allow a theme or miniature type dictate the game or do we want a game system that can be used with anything? I lean towards the latter, but it may be too ambitious at this point. He is being more miniatures driven and is having a hard time understanding what it means to think in terms of a set of rules as opposed to the pieces of plastic themselves. I’m sure we’ll somewhere in the middle.
I don’t guess it matters. My son and I have been working on a rule system for our game we one day wish to formalize. But today he asked me what to name “his game.” After thinking about it, and in truth I had been thinking about it, I still go back to my other thought that a game system ought to not revolve around a particular set of miniatures, but instead around a game rule set. Although it may be the small figures that give miniatures wargaming its name, ultimately, I believe (naively perhaps), it is the game system that gives the game its existence.
This is the point I try to make in my previous post: Think in rule sets instead of simply miniatures. I’m not trying to discount the miniatures. How could I? That wouldn’t make much sense. But if you have a set of miniatures for wargaming, you love the theme, the background of real or fantasy history, but despise the game itself, you have a set of models instead of miniature wargaming miniatures.
It is here all games converge, whether it is a boardgame, RPG, or Miniature Wargame. There is a special convergence, however, with RPG systems, and I think it’s worth noting. Simplistically, in an RPG you have a theme and a gaming system. You might have paperwork to keep up with your characters and you usually have a fairly complex set of variables and modifiers by which to play your game. In a miniatures wargame, and here my lack experience will show itself, the rules don’t tend to be as complex. You don’t typically get down to the minutiae that an RPG does. And while miniatures always, I think, has miniatures, it could be played without them, and an RPG, while not requiring a miniature, can often time use them. There are many RPG miniatures on the market to enhance what could be a purely mental endeavor and there are lots of rule sets begging to be used with a set of miniatures. Without over analyzing I’m sure that both sides are saying, yet, but here… and that is just what I am talking about. They are so similar you can argue that way.
Though he just wants a name, I’m more interested in his understanding why we are naming what we are naming. I won’t be too hard or analytical, don’t worry. I don’t want him to be so lost he looses interest. We’ll keep it fun.
It’s the thought process behind the naming and game design that I hope can be appreciated in this initial stage. This is only the beginning.
Well, since we have a few painted men, we have to decide what to do with them and for me that’s where things get hard to figure out. Miniature wargaming is not like picking a prepackaged boardgame. There are some games in a box to get you started and that might be a good way for you to start. For example, Games Workshop has a Lord of the Rings starter set with the fellowship versus orc and a cave troll (I think.) But what I figured out is that you can buy any set of rules and use any sort of miniature to use those rules.
You could pick Star Wars Miniature Battles, now about 17 years old, and buy small Star Wars figures and be set. The scale wouldn’t be exactly right, but it would work. My point is that you can pick any set of rules and use rocks if you want. The miniatures are nice and neat to look at but they are not necessary, strictly speaking. So if you don’t understand and have a ton of money, what I’d like to suggest is that you look around at an older set of rule and use what you have, whether it is army men, Star Wars figures, or anything else.
What we did was find cheap but recommended rule sets and that is what I want to pass on to you. Start thinking in rule set as a game and not Monopoly or Catan. Miniature Wargames are more like RPGs than board games. Our first two sets we bought were The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game by Games Workshopand and older set by the now defunct West End Games,which you will often see as WEG, called Star Wars Miniatures Battles.
There are also free sources online for free rulesets for miniature wargaming:
http://grognard.com/recom.html#miniatures
I know I haven’t done a great deal of explaining on what to do with these rules, but that will become evident as we move forward. You’ll also find that some rules and systems are better than others. One of the things I hate worst in many of the rules is that they all assume you know what’s going on. They have no way to initiate the new player into the hobby quickly and in an understandable way. If a miniatures wargame book of rules doesn’t have an example of play, I get upset and discouraged quickly.Â
That blurred, glazed eyed look will go away in time because as you progress you will know what’s going on in the miniatures hobby. For that reason, though I mention Star Wars Miniatures Battles above, it doesn’t yet have an example that I could find. But the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle game does. You can pick them both up cheap without having to buy $45 worth of miniatures too. You can buy the book, see what they require to play, and build up as you can.
Another thing I look for is a good forum for that distinct product, if I’m really interested. Also don’t worry if you are going to buy a “dead game.” You probably are. You didn’t expect to play them for eternity did you? And some companies such as Games Workshop are known for engineering their product in such a way that you continuously have to buy new figures to be competitive. Just find something that you are interested in and sooner or later you will find a miniature wargame rule set to use. You might want to see if there is a club in your area too, if you plan on playing lots of other people. You may even want to form your own group or club.
I’m going to be collecting more rules as I go along. One day we’ll start our own set of rules, but not yet…
You can sometimes find older wargame rules cheaply on ebay.
Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game:
I was inspired by the Miniature Gaming podcast and its sister page at Universeofbattle.com to try out the suggestions there to paint my own plastic army men miniatures for wargaming. I’ve just started with the primer portion of painting my plastic army men, trying to follow the instructions. I think this may be interesting because I have no experience with miniature wargame figures and certainly not painting them, and even though miniature waragame purists may find it apalling to call my little green army men “wargaming miniatures,” remember, I have to start somewhere. Give me time. Please.
I also want to say that I do not know the gentleman that created the pages above, but am thankful for them. I hope he will be please with how I have followed his lead. I’ve already made my first mistake, however. We’ll see what happens.
First are the army men themselves. While you can get plastic army men online at Amazon for a few dollars, I found a dollar store, where everything really was a dollar and they just happened to have army men. I bought them immediately…that and a piggy bank which I had been looking for (they’re hard to find!) So I paid one dollar, not counting the hawg bank.
As you can see from this picture my first mistake was to get the wrong color paint. Of all the easy things to do and almost foolproof point to follow, I got flat brown instead of flat black paint for my primer. I guess I’m going color blind because in Wal-Mart it looked like black to me. When I sprayed it on, my son said, “Hey, that looks brown.” Well, that’s because it is. Actually, it is the camouflage Krylon paint with “Fusion” to bond to plastic. What can I say? It was all they had and I wanted to paint. It looked black so I bought it. Here are the plastic army men pictures painted flat-brown (click the images to enlarge):
One thing I discovered was that you have to turn the plastic army man over to get underneath him. I know that sound silly to note, but I didn’t think about it until I saw him. Here’s my hot dog cooker coat hanger contraption to hold the drying miniatures:
I was able to find acrylic paint for flesh, hunter green, but not sandstone and dark brown opaque. I used colors that looked close. I also added a little. I tried to add as much detail as possible. One thing that I did was put inca metallic gold on the ammo belt of the machine gunner. The image is blurry to show the belt, not much depth of field here:
Both Finished with before and after:
Before and after single shot:
More close ups. See how we followed more of the original blog inspiration (thank you). We used Thyme, Oregano, and Tarragon leaves for the terrain the army men were standing or walking on. Tarragon leaves are the long leaves and you can see them up close here as a nice effect:
Another touch was using the spice on this model and not simply gluing the grass (spice) to the base of the little “military model,” but also augmenting the sculpting of the figure. Even though the figures are cheap, I wanted to get all I could out of them. Here in this picture you can see the sculpture simulates walking, motion. To make that seem real, instead of just dumping grass on the army man’s base, I carefully put some of the grass on his foot, as if he were really walking. You’ll also see his canteen is a lighter green and his belt brown. I mixed a little bit of the colors to get the green. I believe the brown was brown oxide, while the boots are licorice. We were also careful to put the flesh acrylic paint across the neck, underneath the helmet.:
Front side of the army man. I admit the eyes look funny, and I stopped and didn’t add chest hair:
For our first attempt at painting miniatures, it looks like we did okay. I’ve been to hobby stores and seen the paint jobs on Warhammer and other figures, and while our painted plastic army men don’t look like the front of a Flames of War box, they do look as good as some “homemade” paint jobs. Sure, we’ve got a long way to go, but it is fun to paint these miniature wargaming figures. I wish I were young enough to dedicate time to it (read I have kids now.) It’s quite relaxing, actually, to concentrate on the painting. The total cost of everything was about eight dollars and some change, but I had a few of the acrylic paints already (licorice and light green), along with the Elmer’s glue and paint brushes. In any case, here’s the miniatures studio:
We haven’t used them in play yet, but we’ll get there. Thanks again for the inspiring post on the blog and his podcast.
More plastic army men:
24pc Plastic Army Men Cold War Toy Playset ~ 54mm 1/35th Soldier Figures, Bunker, Artillery, Missile Trailer, Trucks & More!
It’s difficult to decide, but we’ve went around on army men and some games-workshop Lord of the Rings miniatures I picked up at Christmas. I believe what may do it use the Games-Workshop Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game rules and instead of buying tons of figures, just use army men, Star Wars guys or whatever miniatures we can find just to get through the rules. As a beginner it will be interesting to see just how we find playing.
OddBattles is our life in learning about miniatures wargaming. I am a novice wargamer in general and a novice miniature wargamer in particular. There are several boardgame and wargame website on the Internet already, so I wanted to approach this in a way that would help those who were and are at the same stage as me - beginners - how to, and so on. Essentially, what this blog will be about is an evolution of beginner to intermediate to advanced with a concentration on the miniatures.
If you noticed I said “our” above. This is because I am in this hobby with my sons, and they will be giving their observations in writing or audio or both. Again, I hope this miniature wargaming blog and future podcast will help other newcomers out there who are intimidated and overwhelmed by the hobby.
You’ll also find helpful links from those websites and podcasts that have inspired me. I hope I/we can add just as much as they have to the miniatures wargame hobby.
I finally got some time and was able to write down the realism modification discussed in the podcast. I also added a couple more that were not mentioned in the show.
I've also included a handy quick reference sheet!
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