War of the Ring

When I was a budding young nerd, the two events that had the greatest impact on me were reading the Lord of the Rings and learning to play Dungeons & Dragons. Tolkien's rich fantasy world and gaming have always been closely linked in my mind, which makes the torturous history of Lord of the Rings gaming sad. Oh, there have been many Tolkien-based games, but few of them managed to be both good games and faithful to the source material. I would still love to have a crack at doing a great Lord of the Rings RPG, but the rights situation is such that it's unlikely to happen. News is better on the miniatures gaming front.

Games Workshop got the Lord of the Rings miniatures rights during the production of the movie trilogy. They have since published a series of games and sourcebooks and a beautiful line of accompanying miniatures. The Lord of the Rings miniatures game is fun, but at heart it's a skirmish game. You might command a force of a dozen or two warriors, though the game is designed to accommodate the presence of mighty heroes like Aragorn, Theoden, and Faramir. I have enjoyed playing the game over the years, but I have to admit it's not what I really yearned for.

No, what I've wanted since I was a lad was a real Lord of the Rings mass combat game, something that'd simulate the clash of armies seen in the Two Towers and Return of the King. I was therefor delighted when I learned that Games Workshop was publishing War of the Ring, a scaling up of their previous game designed for the big battles. I picked up the rulebook a few weeks ago and I must say it looks great.

First of all, it's gorgeous. War of the Ring is full color throughout and takes advantage of all those years of minis production to show off hundreds of painted models. Second, it's complete. It includes full rules and comprehensive army lists, so no waiting around for the army book for your favored force. Third, the design choices to scale the game up seem solid. The biggest problem moving into mass battle territory is that the minis range has been sold with round bases and you can't really rank those up. War of the Ring gets around that by using movement trays as the organic element of army construction, each holding 8 infantry or 2 cavarly. It thus doesn't matter how your figures are based, as long as your movement trays are the right size.

I haven't played a game yet, so we'll see how the rules hold up in play, but my first impression is quite favorable. The only weird thing I noted is that they held over way Ballistic Skill is expressed from the skirmish game. It's formatted to tell you what you need to roll on a d6 to hit (so 4+, for example). The thing is that missile combat is done differently in War of the Ring and the BS score isn't used as is. You take the BS and use it figure out an Accuracy score and that's the number you use. You would think then that the army list would do this simple calculation for you, and list the Accuracy instead of the BS but it doesn't. Every stat line in the game preserves the format of the skirmish game, presumably for the sake of consistency. I think it would have been smarter to provide Accuracy in War of the Ring, and then give the formula for BS if you wanted to use any of these stats in the skirmish game. Not a big deal but a strange design choice.

A couple of folks at Flying Lab are putting together armies, and Rick is game (as always). In the short run I'm going to use the many elves I have from other games to get playing. In the long run I'll probably scale up Rohan and Easterling skirmish forces into full armies.

Arise, arise, Riders of Theoden!
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
A sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

Rogue Trader Pramas Returns to the Imperium

The past couple of years most of my miniatures gaming has been historical, with a focus on WWII. As a Warhammer 40K player since the Rogue Trader era though, I periodically get pulled back into it. Maybe 7 or 8 months ago Rick and I were invited to come play once a month with a group of guys downtown. Their office, it turns out, was full of 40K players. For many months we were doing one off battles, but with 10-12 players it was only a matter of time before we started a campaign. So now the forces of order and the forces of destruction are fighting it out in a city campaign and it's been pretty fun so far.

What's funny about this group is that it turned into a case study of "it's a small world in the gaming industry." Two of them, Sean and Kyle, were friends of mine from the WotC days and Super Unicorn. Haven't seen much of them in recent years though, so it's been good to hang out. Once we started playing I also discovered that two of the other regulars, Chris and Todd, were two-thirds of the team behind still hilarious RPG HOL (Human Occupied Landfill). When they were running their company, Dirt Merchant, they were at 5 Mossland St in Somerville, MA. When I started the original Ronin Publishing with my brother and friend Neal, we moved into an apartment on 3 Mossland St. And somehow Todd, Chris, and I all ended up in Seattle. To cap all this coincidence off, last night Flying Lab came up and another guy, Glen, asked what my connection was to FLS. When I told him it was my day job, he said, "Really? I wrote the Prima strategy guide for Pirates of the Burning Sea." Wacky.

Speaking of FLS and the grim darkness of the 41st millennium, I also seem to have inadvertently started a 40K league there. Folks were talking about trying the beta of the new Dawn of War 40K computer game from Relic. I said, "We could do that, or we could play some real 40K." Turns out there was a lot of interest in this idea, so I posted the rules for 40K in 40 minutes so can do some games over lunch. Now people are building armies and painting minis. I'm getting comments like, "I spent $100 this weekend because of you." I tell them that I might have shown them the junk, but putting the lead spike into their veins was their own decision. Anyway, looks like we have about a dozen players for that, so that should liven up lunch at the lab.

The Incredible Shrinking Weekend

I swear weekends are shorter and shorter. It's getting to the point where I feel the weekend is almost over by Saturday morning.

This past weekend I was a guest at local Seattle show Conquest Northwest, hosted by the always effusive Mondo Vega. I went the first year of this con and it was nearly its last. Monda has really turned it around though and Conquest is now a vibrant and fun con. A key, I think, was getting a lot of tournaments organized that would draw people to the show. There were Warhammer and 40K grand tournaments, a Flames of War tournament, and even an Advanced Squad Leader tournament. The Warhammer/40K room was hopping, with 30 odd battles going on at once.

Saturday afternoon I played in a Flames of War game put on by Chris Ewick from Tacoma store the Game Matrix. The scenario took place during the Battle of Kursk, the largest tank clash of WWII. Chris puts on a real spectacle, with over 100 tanks on the board. I ended up playing the Germans with a guy named Steve. Our objective was to take a Russian town. After several turns using long range fire to thin out the Russian ranks, I launched a classic blitz to try to seize it. The Russians blew away my Stug platoon but my Panzer IIIs got into town. The continued pounding of the Tigers, Panthers, and Elefants then caused the Red Army to break and flee. Victory was ours. Here's a picture of the blitz. There are more on the Facebook page.



After that I stopped by the Bucephalus Games demo table and chatted for awhile with Dan Tibbles, Anthony Gallela, and James Ernest. Then Chris Ewick appeared and offered to set us up with DBA armeis and ref a game for us. Well, how could we turn that down? So Anthony and I played Western Romans vs. Eastern Romans in a tense game. I thought I had him when I killed his general, but I could not finish them off before my mounting casualties spelled defeat. Next time, Gallela.

Today I felt like crap. Conquest is not a big show, so you'd think I wouldn't have to worry about con crud. By the afternoon though I was feeling really run down, had a headache, and was congested. I wanted to head home but I had a business dinner I could not miss. So I made it through that and then came home to chill out. On the upside the oyster po' boy was excellent.

Open Fire? Thanks, I Think I Will!

Last week Battlefront announced Open Fire, a starter set for their Flames of War miniatures game. It contains an introductory booklet, a mini-rulebook, 3 American tanks, 2 German assault guns, and dice; everything you need to get started. I thought this was a great idea. Flames of War is one of the few historical miniatures game with good penetration into game store stores, and Open Fire may help recruit a lot of new players into a part of the hobby that could really use some new blood. Really, who could complain about that? Historical miniatures fans, that's who! The bitching began immediately. Flames of War, they say, is already dumbed down, so what's the point of dumbing it down further? The (large and intimidating) hardback rulebook already is newbie friendly so what's the point? If your puny mind can't handle a game as simple as Flames of War, you should find a different hobby anyway. Etc,etc.

It is so short-sighted it makes me furious. Hobby gaming, and especially historical miniatures gaming, needs to bring in new players. It's that simple. Here we have a leading company in the field recognizing that and doing something about it, and all the trolls can do is fling crap at them. I guess that's fine if you want all historical miniatures conventions to be held in retirement homes in 20 years, but I'd prefer to keep the gaming hobby vibrant. I'd like to see us old hands passing down to the next generation the lore and the fun of tabletop gaming. OK, so you may not like Flames of War. You may prefer a game that better takes into account the sloped armor of the T-34 when calculating armor penetration. Great, there are plenty of games that do that. But at least try to recognize that when Battlefront recruits new historical minis fans, we all win. It means more people to play with, more attendees at cons, and more consumers to help keep all the game and minis companies in business in the years to come. Well done, Battlefront.

Future War Commander

Rick and I tried out a new minis game called Future War Commander last night. It's the next iteration of the Blitzkrieg Commander/ Cold War Commander rules, so the basics were already familiar to us. This takes the game system into the future though, adding rules for things like giant robots, missile attacks, and teleportation deployment.

What's interesting about Future War Commander is that designer and publisher Pete Jones worked with nearly every manufacturer of small scale scifi minis. This means not only that pictures of many ranges are showcased throughout the book, but also that there are specific army lists for those minis. He also provides lists for Games Workshop's old Epic minis, though the unit names had to be changed for legal reasons (the Eldar are the Eldritch Caste, for example, and the Squats are the MacGregor Clan). The game supports the ranges of over a dozen companies with minis from 6mm to 28mm in size. Future War Commander is basically a godsend to Rick, who has been collecting stuff like Ground Zero Games' 15mm grav tanks for years without using them. One cool addition from my POV is an army list based around Eagles from Space 1999. Apparently Konami did some small scale Eagle models a few years ago and they are pictured in the book. Unfortunately, a quick Google search seemed to indicate they were offered for a limited time in a semi-collectible format, so the odds of me getting enough to use at a reasonable price are slim. (That sound you just heard is Nicole's sigh of relief.)

The downside of basing a rulebook on the existing minis ranges of other companies is that the army lists are often overlong and redundant (though the Ogrethulhu list has just five entries!). Some of these ranges are quite large and stats are provided for every different model of tank or vehicle. This is great if you have a collection already, but can be daunting if you don't. The GZG Dirtside list is two and a half pages, for instance, and telling the difference between the many similar troop types can be pain if you aren't familiar with the minis. I think it'd really help if these lists could be imported into the Army Builder program, but I don't know if that's going to happen.

So last night Rick and I did a small warm up battle to get to know the rules. This let us brush up on the basics and see how FWC differed from Blitzkrieg Commander, which we've played a fair bit of. Rick debuted a new 8' x 5' battle board he had constructed, which was very nice. I was defending a ruined down from grav tank assault. Since I had some fortified positions, he had an army twice the size of mine. I did a fair job of holding him off for a few turns, but when his string of successful command rolls was followed by me totally blowing mine I knew it was over.

Future War Commander played well, preserving the things we like about Blitzkrieg Commander while adding things like useful recon rules and opportunity fire. I found my circa 1993 Epic Eldar army in the mess that is my office and I'm going to try to get that in fighting shape for a future battle. If you dig scifi minis and have been looking for a solid ruleset, you may want to check out FWC.

New in the World of Miniatures

A few years ago a British company called Renegade started a line WWI miniatures (http://www.renegademiniatures.com/ww1.htm). While most Great War ranges went right for the gasmask and trench warfare phase of the war, Renegade actually started with 1914 armies. So they had French troops in their colorful 19th century style uniforms, Germans in Pickelhaube helmets, cavalry units, and so on. They are cool minis and I've eyed them for years now, but I never broke down and bought any because I didn't think I'd have anything to do with them. WWI is not a popular period for miniatures games. There were rules I could have picked up but my odds of convincing anyone to try out a new period and a new set of rules were slim. It's a shame because WWI has more to offer the wargamer than people think. Gamers shy away from it because they think WWI was only about trench warfare. This isn't true, particularly when you get away from Western Europe. There were huge battles of movement in the East, for example, and some really interesting campaigns in Africa.

This week I picked up The Great War, a new set of WWI minis rules by BL Publishing. This game takes the Warhammer 40,000 rules and re-writes them to handle WWI. The core book concentrates on the Western Front but does so at the beginning and end of the war (1914 and 1918), when it was a war of movement. The result is a pleasing skirmish game that may finally draw some attention to this neglected area of miniatures wargaming. The fact that it's based on 40K is a help, because it'll be a lot easier to find people willing to try a variant of a game they already know how to play. As I was reading it, my thoughts immediately leaped to the Russian Civil War too. There are many possibilities here.

Speaking of 40K, I got the 5th edition rules as well but haven't had much of a chance to look them over. I did notice my one tiny contribution to the 40K universe is represented. In one corner of the new galaxy map is a small notation: the Calixis Sector. The history was changed, the location was changed, but I did name it way back when. The book is beautiful; I'll dig into the rules soon.

Also of interest on the miniatures front is a new line from Brigade Games called King Philip's War (http://theminiaturespage.com/news/260727/). This is a little known conflict in my home region of New England that took place in 1675 and 1676. It's angry Native Americans and big-hatted pilgrims fighting in the backwoods. Nice looking minis and again tempting. Folks who are playing the Witch Hunter or Solomon Kane RPGs should take note of the pilgrim models, as they make excellent witch hunters.

Mini Overload

Lately I've been doing a bit of trading over on Bartertown, a website where miniatures gamers sell and swap stuff. Ebay is such a process now, with pictures, sales text, and so on. Bartertown caters to like minded gamers, so I can simply say, "I have a FOW American Rifle Company and I'm looking for British Royal Artillery," and people know what I'm talking about.

Today I was combing through my collection, trying to assemble my 90s era Warhammer Chaos Dwarfs (the ones with the ridiculously enormous helmets). I haven't touched them in like 10 years, so I thought I'd see if I could trade them. I found the infantry without a problem, but after that it didn't go as smoothly. I could not find the Death Rocket or my Bull Centaurs, but I know they must be in my office somewhere.

The trouble is my minis collection long ago got out of hand. At some point, probably four or five moves ago, I labeled most of my boxes with the contents. Over time things have gotten moved around a bit, so the labels aren't always accurate. Also, I've acquired a lot of stuff since then and it's scattered about. So today I opened a box for a tank and found it stuffed with Heroclix instead, discovered the WWII Chindit minis I had totally forgotten about, and unearthed a box of Battletech minis that date back to my college years. It's getting harder and harder to find things, which makes me not want to bother looking sometimes. And if I'm not going to use the minis I've collected for the past 30 years, why do I have them in the first place?

I think what I need to do is a massive reorganization of my minis. Pull everything out and just start sorting. It would be easiest to do on a big floor, but we don't have a good area in the house. Kate suggested her school's gym, which was sweet, but I can only imagine what he principal would say if I asked to use the school's facilities to sort my toy soldiers. July is shaping up to be a crazy month and then I'll be gone for half of August, so realistically this can't happen until September at the earliest. I'm itching to tackle it tomorrow, but I have writing that I need to do instead. Work now, minis later; that always seems to be the way.

Miniatures for Sale: Flames of War

Have you been looking for an excuse to get into Flames of War, the 15mm WWII miniatures game? I have some figures and accessories that I don't need, so I'm offering four starter forces for a reasonable price. You'll need to pick a few things to complement what I've got here, but these should get you going. All figures are by Battlefront, the makers of FOW. I do have one extra core rulebook. If you want to add that in, it'll be $40 (MSRP is normally $50.00).

I'm offering troops for a Late War American Airborne Company for $110, an Late War American Rifle Company for $120, a Mid-War American Rifle Company $120, and a Mid-War Italian Fucilieri Company for $100. For starters I'm offering them to American buyers only to make it easy on me. Add $10 shipping and handling for each company purchased. I'll send these via Priority Mail. Payment is via Paypal. If you are interested, drop me a line at chrispramas [at] aol.com.

American Airborne Company, Late War (Total MSRP $139; Sale Price $110)
1 Parachute Rifle Company boxed set ($65.00)
2 57mm anti-tank guns ($17.00)
1 Parachute Rifle Platoon ($18.00)
1 Parachute Mortar Platoon ($14.00)
D Minus 1 Intelligence Handbook ($25.00)

American Rifle Company, Late War (Total MSRP $150; Sale Price $120)
Rifle Company boxed set ($42.00)
Landing Craft boxed set ($45.00)
1 Machinegun Platoon ($9.00)
2 M10 3 in GMCs ($18.00)
D-Day Campaign Book ($25.00)
1 set of Gale Force 9 American FOW Tokens ($11)

American Rifle Company, Mid-War (Total MSRP $156; Sale Price $120)
2 Rifle Platoons ($36.00)
3 M3A1 Stuart Tanks ($27.00)
2 T19 105mm HMC ($18.00)
2 M5 3 in anti-tank guns ($17.00
2 M3 Half-tracks ($18.00)
Afrika Intelligence Handbook ($40.00)

Italian Fucilieri Company, Mid-War (Total MSRP $130; Sale Price $100)
1 Company HQ ($9.00)
2 Fucilieri Platoons ($36.00)
1 Machinegun Platoon ($9.00)
1 Mortar Platoon ($9.00)
1 M14/41 Tank Platoon boxed set ($45.00)
1 set of Gale Force 9 Italian FOW Tokens ($11.00)
1 set of Gale Force 9 8 Million Bayonets Tokens ($11.00)

Old School Orc Minis

So there's this small minis company in England, Otherworld Miniatures, that has released some new orc minis. Oh sure, there are a million orc minis and I already have plenty, but these are cool because they are done in the pigface style of the original D&D orcs (and also of Ork: The Roleplaying Game). They are also sculpted by Kev Adams, who has been doing cool orcs and goblins for over 20 years now. The problem? With the exchange rate so terrible these days, each mini is between $6 and $8 and that's without shipping. Ouch. I'll have to resist them until the exchange rate improves or I get a big bonus or something.

Piggy orcs are here:
http://www.otherworld.me.uk/oseries.html

Interesting News for Minis Gamers

On Saturday Rick and I went up to American Eagles ("The Game Store That Time Forgot") and while checking out I picked up a copy of Osprey Publishing's summer catalog for next year. Osprey publishes a huge number military history books on a staggering array of topics. Want to know what kind of uniforms a French voltigeur wore during Napoleonic Wars? There's a book for that. Want a concise history of the Wars of Religion? They've got you covered. I love the Osprey books and have nearly a complete shelf of them. As I was paging through the catalog, I wondered not for the first time why Osprey didn't try launching their own miniatures game. Pretty much every historical minis player already collects Osprey books because they are such a great resource, so tapping that market makes a lot of sense. So what do I see when I get to the last couple of pages of the catalog but a listing for just such a game. It's called Field of Glory and it launches next summer. There's not a lot of info available yet, but the write up said the books would be full color and use Osprey's catalog of great art to good effect. There's a skeletal listing on their website (http://www.ospreypublishing.com/list_by_series.php/ser=FOG), but I'll be curious to hear more. Looks like they are starting with some classic periods for wargaming: ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Europe, and the Crusades.

Also of interest this week is the news that the Perry Twins are launching a line of historical plastic minis. Making plastic minis requires a big outlay of cash for the mold making and this is beyond almost all historical minis companies. The Perry Twins are best known for their defining work for Games Workshop, but they also run their own historical minis company on the side that does some great stuff. I have some of their medieval Normans and they are terrific. Anyway, the Perrys have the know-how, contacts, and apparently the money to do this right. They are starting with the American Civil War and doing two sets (one infantry and one cavalry). Each one has been designed to work as either Union or Confederate and you can customize them with different heads to make what you like. Even better it seems the sets wil be less than $30 each. I've long wanted to do some Civil War minis gaming and have a few rule sets like Fire and Fury but I've never taken the plunge and collected an army. This development may change that. You can see some pre-production pictures here: http://theminiaturespage.com/news/45704/. Too many minis, too many games, not enough time.

Minis for Sale or Trade 1 (Catachan IG)

I'm going to be putting up several armies for sale or trade over the next couple of weeks. Cash would be nice via Paypal but I'm also in the market for painted figures. I'm most interested in painted 15mm WWII stuff but you may tempt me with other offers like colonials, DBA armies, ancients, or old Avalon Hill and SPI games. If you are interested drop me a line at chrispramas [at] aol dot com.

First up is a Catachan Imperial Guard infantry force for Warhammer 40K. I've got a painted Praetorian army already, so there's little chance of this one getting use. Please give these wannabe Rambos a good home. You'll probably want a little more grunt infantry and you may need more heavy weapon crewmen if you want to use all of them at once. Here's what I've got, plus a few odds and ends.

34 assembled and partially painted troopers, including 4 sergeants, 2 meltaguns, 1 grenade launcher, 1 missile launcher, 1 heavy bolter, and a vox caster. Many have been kitbashed so their lasguns have banana clips for a more 'Nam look.

29 assembled and primed troopers, including 5 vox casters, 3 sergeants, 2 plasma guns, 2 melta guns, and 1 missile launcher. Some kitbashed as above.

4 assembled autocannons

4 troopers with satchel charges

2 snipers

17 leaders and specialists, including 4 heavy flamers, 2 melta guns, 5 plasma guns, 2 satchel charges, 2 missile launchers, vox caster, and various officers.

6 heavy weapons, including 3 heavy bolters, 2 lascannons, and 1 autocannon.