Terminator Hangout With Alessio Cavatore [On Demand Here!]
January 30, 2015 by brennon
If you didn't know already River Horse, with Alessio Cavatore at the helm, are going to be kicking off a Terminator Genisys Miniatures Game this summer with Warlord Games doing the distribution. We had a Google Hangout chat with the man himself and got some of your questions answered.
As it stands we know it's going to be a skirmish game based around the new movie and the main box will be called War Against The Machines featuring the forces of Skynet and of course the Human Resistance.
Find out exactly what's in the box and what's coming in the future. You can now watch the video above where we talked about the miniatures, showed some of them off, discussed the rules and of course what Alessio would love to do with scenarios and more going forward!
Did you get your questions answered?
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To me the obvious first question would be the scale, although for a skirmish game I’d assume at least 28mm.
Will the system be based in any way on Bolt Action, and it’s activation mechanics, or will it be designed from scratch. If it’s a new rules set can we get a rough idea of how it will work.
With a ‘Summer 2015’ release have they started production already? Are they planning faction sets or a single boxed game, with both sides in? If so how many miniatures per side? Also, the big question really, do they have a rough cost price in mind?
Also:
Congratulations on getting the license. Did you approach them or did they find you? How did it all come about basically?
Will Arnie impersonations be compulsory during the game or will you actually lose victory points every time you utter ” I’ll be back”.
Is the miniature are going to be plastic or metal? Also are they going to have a stat card with their special abilyties writen on it a little bit like Mercs miniature or if we are going to have to prepare our army on some kind of army builder a little bit like Infinity? And my last question is as a Skirmish game how many mini will be need to have a good challange is it going to be more or less than 5 per team ?
ho forgot to ask
What table size will be need to play a game ? Is it going to be more 3×3, or 4×4 or 4×6 or bigger ? And to finish are we going to play with Dice for the combat or cards like in Malifaux ?
Ps: if i think of something else i will ask here for sure
I was wondering if the setting will be future, present or past or can you choose?
Will you be able to play scenario’s like T1 and T2, 1 terminator vs a few humans?
How will time travel be represented in the game?
Will you be able to build your own characters?
In what form will the leader of the machines be in the terminators’ army? The humans have John Conner, so will there be a miniature of the leader of Skynet?
Will there be the full range of terminator model types from all the movies or just Genisys and T1 and T2?
The T1000 can shapeshift, will that ability be in the game? Apart from creating knives and stabbing weapons, will they be able to disappear as the surface of the floor or become molten and enter through barred areas and holes in defenses?
Can you only play the game in the future war, or can you play it in 1980’s Los Angeles too?
Will there be Arnie’s reprogrammed Terminator in the game?
Can you win every battle by capturing a terminator, reprogramming it and sending back to the 1800’s and kill Charles Babbage, the “father” of the computer, and stop all possible creations of a future, homicidal artificial computer intelligence?
Or, if you play as the machines, can you win by sending a terminator to kill Sarah Connor’s great, great, great, great, great parents? 😀
Can you create alternate futures depending on the outcome of the games, such as killing John Connor in a campaign game, or deciding he’s dead before the game and expanding upon the game from there?
Will there be special minis of Kyle Reese, Lance Henriksen’s cop, the police chief, Dr Silberman, and Bill Paxton as a punk? 😛
*great great great etc…grandparents.
Can BoW create a text editor? 😀
This should be a fantastic product with the Terminator licence and Sr Cavatore behind at the helm.
I’m interested in hearing about the game style. Is it purely one off skirmishes or will there be scope for campaigns and roleplay/character progression to any degree?
Also really interested in expansion sets from the main game in terms of vehicles etc.
Will there be a terrain set available or one already made that would suit the game?
Will the game be infantry versus infantry with lots of close fighting?, like the scene in the 1st terminator film where Reese remembers a terminator attack on a bunker. Will it be large vehicles/machines based like scenes in the films where humans are using armed trucks to take on Hunter killers or will it be a mixture of both?
Will you be able to play in past and future?
who will be sculpting/manufacturing the minis?
is it on yet? why there is no link to hangouts?
Looking for it too?…
Sarah Connor?
It was up and running live..same on youtube. I paused it to watch later. And now its gone..!!! I`m shocked as I have been waiting all day for it..? sad day……
No link? Ok, I’ll be back.
Sorry guys this was a live one only.
Their contract with Paramount! (Not FOX) stipulates it can’t be viewable after because of imagery we were able to show live.
They will let us know when we can set it public again 🙂
So they’ll be back ?
The imagery may be off limits, but could you give us an overview of the main points from the hangout? 🙂
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Missed it 🙁
So Fox is now screwing with Terminator fans as well as AvP…………. not impressed Fox, not impressed
Little correction, Fox have nothing to do with this. It’s Paramount Pictures and Skydance studios that are doing Genisys.
To bad only live, missed it.
please write down in post ïts only live”, most google hangout thingie you can watch later, if i had know i logged on earlier.
Unfortunately we only found out a few mins before going on air, we’ll be sure to ask in future though!
Would you be able to put up a transcript or even simple summery of some of the main points? I missed the broadcast but would love to know more about the game.
Thanks
I support that request @warzan
Bugger…. now i need the black market to find a copy..!!!! just to find out what I may spend my money on to push around toy figures..!!! Not knowing it was a live only event really hurts. And may I say only hurts the game…. I know you was in the dark too Warzan…
Thats IP for you… look at the A vs P game ?
Ant it isn’t a good advert to be honest I sort of lost my interest a bit with treating us like that. quite disappointing.
Yup
Not the fault of Alessio and co either
We will have to perhaps get used to this, now the large corporates are starting to get involved.
Very true in the confines of the hobby GW are as bad as it gets when it comes to corporate bullying. They look more like your best mate when compared to some of the big boys out there.
Well that sucks! I’m a little pissed and not at BoW! This makes me very dubious of the game. Why even agree to do the hangout?
There are a lot of games and miniatures out there. They need to remember that.
I missed the show too but I’m sure a post-show report will get done. Not everything in this world can be on-demand. Missing a live hangout isn’t going to stop this from being a good game 🙂
@zeker, this is pretty common with film company owned IP, the images are everything to those guys and the control is uber tight. Similar thing happened with the AVP game. Having Alessio at the helm gives me a lot of confidence. I watched the stream, we learned a fair amount:
-Skirmish/Wargame
-Full set of polyhedral dice (old school)
-16 marines in the starter with 10 walking termies and 5 with the bottom half removed (crawlers)
-28mm with Termies ~32mm to the eye
-Not kickstarter
-‘time travel’ mechanic, basically a token that lets you re-wind a dice roll, this was not explained in great detail but sounds kind of cool.
-paper terrain map included in starter along with 2d terrain pieces
-Starter will cost “your clothes, your boots and your motorcycle”
-Alessio screwed up and did not wear dark shades and a leather jacket for the hangout.
-Starter mini’s will be hard plastic, with mention of resin add-ons for characters
-We saw some images of the terminator walkers and crawlers, not the resistance.
-Others can fill in the rest, cos that’s all I have off the top of my head.
@jackdanielsimow thanks a lot for the summary 🙂 Shame, that I missed the show too. As I’m a huge fan of Terminator 2, I’m skeptical about the quality of the new movie. I’m not so convinced, they have the right cast. But we will all have to wait an see. Same with the game: I’m not so convinced Alessio Cavatore is the best game designer for such a title. But I’ll have to wait.
Hi guys, thanks for your comments (well, most of them!). As Warren said, we are unfortunately bound by legal obligations about what we can and cannot show, and when. It is definitely not our choice, but it’s not something we can change.
Would I not want to show more stuff? Am I not very excited about the stuff we’re making and cannot wait to show it to the world? You bet I am! And I’m chomping at the bit to be allowed to do so… and we are putting as much pressure as we can on the giant corporations we are dealing with to be allowed to show more. Sadly, of course, this is an ‘ant vs boot’ kinda relationship, as Loki would put it… and we are the ant!
To ease the pain of people that have missed the live show, all I can do, until the time we are allowed to make the video public again, is to answer a few questions here…
Thanks for your cooperation… Oh, wait, wrong movie!
😉
Damn, thought I could catch the recording, especially to see if my questions were answered, as I knew I wouldn’t be able to watch it live… So here’s my questions again! 😀
1.In what form will the leader of the machines be in the terminators’ army? The humans have John Connor, so will there be a miniature of the leader of Skynet?
2. Will there be the full range of terminator model types from all the movies or just Genisys and T1 and T2?
3. The T1000 can shapeshift, will that ability be in the game? Apart from creating knives and stabbing weapons, will they be able to disappear as the surface of the floor or become molten and enter through barred areas and holes in defenses?
4. Can you only play the game in the future war, or can you play it in 1980′s Los Angeles too?
5. Will there be Arnie’s reprogrammed Terminator in the game?
6. Can you win every battle by capturing a terminator, reprogramming it and sending back to the 1800′s and kill Charles Babbage, the “father” of the computer, and stop all possible creations of a future, homicidal artificial computer intelligence?
Or, if you play as the machines, can you win by sending a terminator to kill Sarah Connor’s great, great, great, great, great grandparents? 😀
7. Can you create your own alternate timeline in the game?
8. Will there be special minis of Kyle Reese, Lance Henriksen’s cop, the police chief, Dr Silberman, and Bill Paxton as a punk?
9. Will the miniatures be multi-part plastics which will allow for cool conversions (terminator skulls and arms on human bodies)?
10. Will there lots of skulls; both human and terminator to litter the battlefield with? 😀
If a few of those can be answered that Skynet will approve of, that’ll be great!
Hi, here goes:
1.In what form will the leader of the machines be in the terminators’ army? The humans have John Connor, so will there be a miniature of the leader of Skynet?
Unfortunately, the leader of Skynet is Skynet, which is AI software… which does not make a good model!
😉
There are gonna be big bad guys though, but some are secret I’m afraid…
2. Will there be the full range of terminator model types from all the movies or just Genisys and T1 and T2?
Just Genisys actually. That’s what we have the licence for. But most cool stuff is in there.
3. The T1000 can shapeshift, will that ability be in the game? Apart from creating knives and stabbing weapons, will they be able to disappear as the surface of the floor or become molten and enter through barred areas and holes in defenses?
They certainly have some entertaining deployment rules… and are sooo tough to kill…
4. Can you only play the game in the future war, or can you play it in 1980′s Los Angeles too?
Both. But the centre of the action is obviously the war against the machines – as humans without plasma weapons are not very well equipped to deal with terminators…
5. Will there be Arnie’s reprogrammed Terminator in the game?
There will be a ‘good’ Arnie, yes…
6. Can you win every battle by capturing a terminator, reprogramming it and sending back to the 1800′s and kill Charles Babbage, the “father” of the computer, and stop all possible creations of a future, homicidal artificial computer intelligence?
Or, if you play as the machines, can you win by sending a terminator to kill Sarah Connor’s great, great, great, great, great grandparents? 😀
Not exactly that, but you can send agents back in time to try to change the future (i.e. geting a re-roll…) and the other player can send his agents to kill yours (i.e. trying to stop you getting a re-roll)…
7. Can you create your own alternate timeline in the game?
Not literally, but I assume that you could in a campaign… or is it that you create an alternative timeline every time you play a scenario and the result is different from the ‘historical’?
8. Will there be special minis of Kyle Reese, Lance Henriksen’s cop, the police chief, Dr Silberman, and Bill Paxton as a punk?
The corresponding Genisys actors, of course, if the character appears in Genisys…
9. Will the miniatures be multi-part plastics which will allow for cool conversions (terminator skulls and arms on human bodies)?
Core troops are dry-fit hard multipart plastics produced by Renedra and sculpted by Bob Naismith.
Characters and other bits and bops are resin or metal, and sculpted by… 😉
10. Will there lots of skulls; both human and terminator to litter the battlefield with? 😀
Every terminator frame has two terminators and a ‘crawler’ – a terminator that had its legs blown off… crawlers can be used in the game, and spare ones can be turned into rather nice terrain!
Thank you Alessio, that was an awesome array of answers! I’m very grateful you took the time to answer them all. 🙂
It sounds like it will be great fun! There’s so many cool things going on in it, I’m especially glad to hear about the minis being multi-part and plastic (the crawlers sound excellent). I can’t wait to hear more about it. 😀
I wonder if Alessio would like a free Industrial music soundtrack for this?
Angry robot music is kind of…my speciality :
https://tachyoncrisistalon.bandcamp.com/
Wow, thanks Abstractalien! That would be interesting… I will PM you!!!
And thanks to Bazooka for the enthusiasm and positivity!
For people who missed the live broadcast. Chilling wargamers had a conversation with alessio.
and recorded it
http://youtu.be/ons6rqEtxKY
Has tha Polydice, baby
Thanks for getting that up guys, really interesting.
I definitely now be one of the first in line for the pre-order.
I know it is still super early to be speculating about the next Paramount IP game might be that Alessio will be working on, as noted in his intro, but I am not sure if I WANT any of those movies turned into tabletop strategy games. G.I.Joe, Transformers, Teenage Mutant NT, any Dreamworks stuff, Star Trek. Actually, IMHO, Star Trek and/or GI Joe might be pretty cool with plenty of room for gaming interpretations? Most likely everything has to be approved before it makes it to launch, and maybe I am missing or including some major franchise that Paramount has rights to, but what do you guys think? And, to be fair, I just Wiki-looked at what Paramount had their up to date licensing of. I have no idea how accurate any of that info is.
Anyone else think this “OTHER” I.P from Paramount is Star Trek???
Their IP is what I listed in the above comment-and, like you apparently, I am hoping it is Star Trek, done right. And while I am sure the Terminator game will be great, I really wish they would have got going on THAT game instead! I would imagine it would take a long time to iron out that system/universe/armies? And it is a more complete universe, as opposed to the Terminator one. Of course, all of this is speculation, and Paramount has many possible contenders for a tabletop game, so we will have to wait. That said, Terminator sounds like it has some nice theme specific mechanics. Plus, make a GI JOE tabletop game. After the Star Trek.
Star Trek as a war/skirmish game would be a huge hit I think. I can already imagine the armies. I think I’d be more excited by Star Trek though Terminator is cool.
Ok. Now that I’ve seen the video and know a bit more about the game I think this has a lot of potential. Not just for initial release but as a long term system. For me it is really going to come down to the price. It isn’t likely to be cheap given the quality and IP.