Happy Sunday Backstagers, CoGs and OTTers!

I stand with Shay on the unofficial as the aesthetic wins the fight. Working through my SAGA armies there’s no chance in hell of coming up with the monsters or units that I want to include coming froma single company. 3D printing has also been great from what I’ve found. To be fair to Ben, the kitbashing already had pulled in from all over so it’s already a given to be miniature maker ambivalent. @brennon You sir need an intellectual enema to clear out the conceptual constipation you suffer regarding official products. SAGA Age of Magic might be your best… Read more »

Sounds like Ben’s brain has been thoroughly washed

Use the minis you want and like. Official minis are easy, especially if you want to play in tournaments as you don’t want to get in any fuss. If the game you play has some extra things like profile cards and you get those with the minis then it is also an incentive to use the official minis. The only problem I have is that finding a suitable alternative that I like the look of isn’t easy as I don’t want to be searching for hours. I also won’t get a 3D printer and getting a physical copy is sometimes… Read more »

There’s one thing worse than StarWars D20 … and that’s Call of Ctulluh D20. That wasn’t just missing the point of a setting, it was way worse. The D&D mechanics barely work for D&D itself, but a game that relies on characters barely surviving (at best) and never being heroic … it was soo wrong. So yeah. RPG’s do benefit from bespoke rules. And even if you don’t use one … then ffs pick one that at least matches the thematic concepts. For wargames I’d say the only requirement is for an army to look consistent. In an ideal world… Read more »

I’m fitty-fitty on this: for GW, as much as I would like to buy their stuff, they most often don’t even have the supply to make it happen. Case in point: Howling Banshees. I’ve been waiting for MONTHS to get two boxes for my Eldar project. Literally MONTHS. I’m at the point of just getting someone to 3D print them. As I do a fair amount of commission work, the stuff I paint is not unlike my own experience: much is physical, some is old metal, some is “Finecast” (I LOATHE that GW era!), and the new plastics. And the… Read more »

For Lunar Wars, you can always go to 15 mm and use Ground Zero Games’ Moongrunt series.

@brennon A challenge for you. Pick up and prepare to play a game of something that has no miniatures. Pick an Osprey blue book game like Ronin or Chosen Men or Billion Suns. With no miniatures to turn to you might break the habit.

Terrain without an air brush I’d never do it again. It’s worth it for weathering alone. Love hitting them with sepia ink. Talent in a bottle.

As I’m making my own miniatures, I hope people like using 3rd party stuff 🤣

have no issue using “unofficial” miniatures, it just depends on the game and aesthetic. When i was playing 40k, i only used GW minis, because there was nothing else i found that fitted the aesthetic of 40k that was in my head. But old world and middle earth for example, have no issue using other companies minis. Same for historical, as long as it matches my collection then i will grab anything from anywhere, for example i have warlord bolt action stuff, so wouldnt use Perry’s or Offensive miniatures as they are more realistically proportioned, but more than happy to… Read more »

Such a nuanced topic! I might come back for a fuller view when I have time to type, but for now I will say that I was enjoying Five Parsecs until they brought out official miniatures. That took a lot of the fun out of it, even thought I haven’t bought, and don’t need to buy any of them. Maybe my brain works a bit like Ben’s!

I really must return to that project though, there is a story that is only half told!

Happy Sunday.
So instead of “miniature agnostic” maybe “rules first” or “miniatures first”?
I think that despite the semantics “miniature agnostic” may be here to stay as most people understand what it means when applied to a set of rules, even if it isn’t the most accurate term.
I’m sure Gerry will continue his crusade.

My rule of thumb is – do I like the miniatures, even if they are expensive? If the answer is yes, I will buy them. If the answer is no I will look for third party proxies. A good example would be Horus Heresy. I am a big fan of this period. I use 3D printed proxies for 8mm infantry and certain vehicles. There are not many things I buy from GW – not even the rules! When it comes to Horus Heresy in 28mm, I really like the GW plastics, but I don’t like the Primarchs or certain special… Read more »

Most of my miniature purchases go along the lines of that’s a ‘bargain’ I could use that in X or even better I could use those in multiple rule systems. Sometimes I’ll buy miniatures that I like the look of, thinking that I’ll use them in something at some point but not sure what. I may have a miniature purchasing problem. Now a short rant about unit/upgrade cards with miniatures. Now I’m not ranting about buying the official miniature. What I am ranting about is: the unit card becoming obsolete and you either have to buy the miniature again or… Read more »

@brennon I totally get your position on official miniatures – I am a sucker for not only the official minis and books but EVERYTHING else as well; dice sets, official rulers and token sets, convention only cards, one time only giveaway gonk – you name it, I have to get it all. That is the collector in me and I just have to go with it. After a while I do relax and start to actually use my collections – so Warlord’s Slaine minis in Midgard for example. As a group we love the Rampant games and a friend uses… Read more »

Great show guys. For me bespoke wins over generic. Bespoke is made specifically for what it’s intended to portray and can then capture the feel and essence of what it is trying to represent. Just look at all the different versions of Monopoly out there. They all feel exactly the same and it makes no difference to what the artwork shows, same goes for the board game Risk. Bespoke RPG’s for me feel like playing Monopoly the RPG and make my soul die. When it comes to miniatures games I take it on a case-by-case basis. It’s probably easier with… Read more »

I love going non-official, maybe even not wargaming (if I ever get my Gnome army moving again there is a garden gnome and bird ornament to “convert”). I would say my life would be easier if I would just give in and go official but that’s just boring!

@Brennon you need to get on to the Lardies’ website to cure you of your need for official minis. Sharpe Practice? Ooh you do!

@brennon Your wrong and in much need of help, I think try a project without official miniatures and see what you can do to put things together. As for Star Wars do you not listen to Uncle Gerry when he has mentioned the West End Games (WEG) line that ran for Ten years and had the first star wars wargames decades before FFG. Whilst hardcopy floats around on scalpers bay, fear not its 100% free as the owner of the D6 system released it to the wild for us all to feast on. Sooo fill your boots http://www.d6holocron.com/ and happy… Read more »

i bought the rulebook – its mine – i can do with it whatever i want, If i bought models those are mine, i can use them for whatever i want, you dont like that? go to different table as i dont like you attitude and dont want to play with so stuck up person.