Saturday, April 16, 2011

A to Z: Newts

Carrying on from M: Moon, N brings to mind another project I want to do.
I've had it in my head for several months, and in fact, in general, far longer.

N is for Newts.  An army of Newts actually, and their amphibian, reptilian and other wetland friends.
Khurusan released several 'Salamen' recently, and when I saw them I knew that was the army I wanted to build for 15mm fantasy.

They have archers, javeliners, and light cav.  Lizardmen for heavier infantry, and you can always find 28mm miniatures that work for 'monstrous' sized creatures in a 15mm scale.

For a long time I've been wanting to get back into 15mm fantasy, for large armies.
I'm disillusioned with Warhammer, and paint too much for other people to have the time to devote to the massed ranks that I'd need for that (though I do have a few in number army idea I may make for it, for fun).

Generally then, I'm thinking of sticking to skirmish for 28mm fantasy and larger battles going for 15mm.

But it has created a dilemma: What rules system to use?

I'm an aesthetics-junky so I classify the games by the look of the basing:

1. Hordes of the Things & Fantasy Rules!: Both fun and not-difficult games. basing is on 40mm squares. I prefer element bases like that, but 40mm square looks a bit small, and the square shape while very handy for game rules looks a bit more like a board game playing piece than a unit to me: just something about the square.

2. Fantasy Impetus: Love how the units look. The bigger base sizes, in rectangles, looks more like units to me, and has more room to create interesting scenics.  The Geektactica blog has been a big inspiration.  Problem is Fantasy Impetus doesn't appear to be well supported (though that could be an incorrect impression) and, especially if it isn't, the base sizes would prevent the army from being used in another system, which of course is a problem with HOTT/FR! style bases going to Impetus,though clearly not with each other.

3.  Rebel Minis has a new 15mm fantasy army scale game called Mighty Armies.  I don't know much about this, but the basing style makes me less inclined to go down that path. I'm not a fan of the strip-bases and building units from them, for 15mm as much as I like element bases. At a 15mm scale I'd prefer the look of a loser army formation with diorama type scenic bases, not just packed ranks of troops, which is one of the things pushing me away from Warhammer.

4. Create my own rules. "I'm not such a bad pilot myself..."  Problem there is again with the base sizes: needs to be something that would function with other game systems that others would play, so really it doesn't solve all the problems.

If someone has a suggestion for a rules set, opinion, solution, or just knows of a game system to be considered for 15mm fantasy other than the ones above I'd be happy for the input.

Because Khurusan has turned me into a Newt


.. and I may not get better. 

2 comments:

Ben Lee said...

Even though I've had mixed experiences with THW games, "Rally round the king" has my interest. Not least because it's solo playable but also very much user customisable.

Laughing Ferret said...

I haven't tried any of their rules yet. I'll give that one a look

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