Saturday 21 May 2011

So what exactly am I playing?

You see wargaming is a brutally expensive hobby. Gone are the days where red shirted assistants (now blue shirts of course) could stand there and happily tell us that our hobby is cheaper and more rewarding than console gaming. Lets get this clear it isn't cheaper than picking up an Xbox 360 or PS3 and a handful of games, and with the advent of online gaming (PSN meltdown aside) games are nowadays offering far better longevity and value for money than ever before and vitally they also now offer a social side to things as well, something that wargaming used to have over its computer counterparts.

So when choosing what to do within your hobby you have to be really careful about what you sink your cash into. You have to pick and choose what games you play, well you do if you're sensible, but I'm not really all that sensible, never have been never will be. Here is a list of what I'm currently playing / collecting for:



  • Warmachine (Retribution of Scyrah)
  • Hordes (Trollbloods)
  • Infinity (Yu Jing, Haqq Islam, Aleph)
  • Malifaux (Seamus, Lady Justice, McMourning, Nicodemus, Colette Du Bois)
  • Anima Tactics (Azure Alliance, Empire of Abel)
  • Hell Dorado (Saracens)
  • Dystopian Wars (British Empire, Prussian, Japanese and Federal States of America)

Now apart from proving that I'm potentially stark raving mad for collecting all that stuff it does show what a great range of games there are out there. That's not even including the fact that me and a few friends are really, really interested in getting started with Firestorm Armada!!! My bank manager is going to knee cap me... well if the missus doesn't get to me first. Oh yeah and there's also potentially Flames of War, good God I need help. Hopefully though I can help my fellow gamers out by telling them what these products are all about and perhaps steer a few of you in the right direction. I'll cover what I think of the games and how it fit's in with my playing habits and what I think the initial costs are to get what you need for an average force. I'll be doing a brief over view of each game over the next few weeka or so starting with the biggy HoMachine and the greatest wargame in the universe ever TM Infinity. Peace out!

4 comments:

  1. Hey,

    I have noticed all the great skirmish around right now. I've been playing Malifaux and Infinity as well. I got back into Warmahordes with Minions. Every now and then we will crack out Confrontation 3.x and when we fell old Epic. I went with Alkemy over Helldorado, game died but the models were amazing.

    I want to read a couple more systems to see if I would enjoy them. Dark Ages and Mercs come to mind, possibly the new Sodapop Miiatures game.

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  2. The thing with skirmish games at the moment is that I think they're riding on the wave of the GW backlash... I think people genuinely thought the GW and their huge games were the only show in town. As people have got more pissed at the antic of the GW though they've started to look at other games and the great thing about skirmish games is they're cheaper to get into AND the models tend to all be individual sculpts, something the GW gamers aren't used to so they're instantly impressed by the mini's!!!

    Also round here we refer to Warmahordes as HoMachine because it sounds funnier. lol. That too is a really fun little game system, and by little I mean rapidly growing and expanding in every meaningful sense. I enjoy it and it has more depth than GW games do but its still not king for me, even though it is a great game.

    Wow epic, my orks, Eldar and Blood Angels must be kicking around at the old folks somewhere. I'm guessing my card buildings with plastic roof's must have turned to mush or dust by now!!! loved Epic and if the GW really wanted to represent mass battles that wasthe system to do it in not 40k!!! Never got into Confrontation and Alkemy although it appealed was hard to track down and at the time I just wouldn't have had the opponents, real shame but they got their timing out by a few years!!!

    I have some Sodapop stuff and I'm looking forward to getting my mitts on Super Dungeon Explore. Mercs looks interesting as does Dark Age, I might grab a few bits and bobs and write a review up. Sorry for the lengthy response but as you can see I love my wargaming!!!

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  3. I completely understand. I like the skirmish level due to ease of entry, right now with a few systems offering the rules for free on their site you can usually get away with a starter force for under $60 or proxy use the systems rules and then decide if it is worth it.

    Pulp City has starter rules
    Infinity has the rules set
    Malifaux has the core rules
    Ron and Bones used to have its rules for download
    Dark Age has starter rules

    I'm sure there are more available.

    GW while not the only game on the block are still the front runner. They always made me mad with its treatment of its specialty games. If they had kept up Epic or given Necromunda I know a few people who would still be buying up what they could. I used to play Skaven but I can't get a game of 8th and I'm not sure I would want it, I might pick up one Skaven miniature in the next year. For 40K I always liked the Thousand Sons so I might pick up some Tomb King/Grey Knight bits through trades for conversions. I also scratch build an Ork vehicle when the mood strikes but I'm probably not going to be playing a current GW system for a little while. Sadly it has been over a year for 40K already and I think WHFB is going on 6 month now.

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  4. I think WFB sums up perfectly where GW are going wrong. I'll explain:

    1) Takes an hour at times inf not more to set a game up with mini's ranked etc. because of how big the games got.
    2) Games can now take nearly 3 hours easily because of the size of the game and given its turn based that's 1 and a half hours of doing nothing!!!
    3) because of the size of the game its prohibitively expensive and can take some time to be able to build up and afford an army.
    4) It is now a chore to paint your armies because of how fecking big they are.

    In short they've taken the joy and fun out of the hobby... so why do it? I also happen to think their games systems are weak also so that's just another reason not to play them.

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