All this talk of backlogs has gotten me pondering . . . IF I didn't buy any more figures, at the rate I am currently assembling/painting, I could clear out my backlog in 2 years. Anyone else want to share the depressing details of their backlog?
I really like the figures and story for Confrontation way back when. I never got to actually play it though :( but those minis were fantastic. At Adepticon I tried out Freeblades. The minis are okay. But the rules seemed way over done. A small demo seemed to go longer than a full Infinity game.
From what i've seen commented by the author, the idea with that one is that they're very general and generic sci-fi "archetypes", the kind of "factions" you'd find on sci-fi stories, not simply straight up 40K bands (which would be just a subset of them), and that you can fit whatever you want into them: The "space cops", the "robot army", the "religious fanatics", the "bug swarm", the "super soldiers", the "space pirates", the "space monks", the "wise ancient aliens", the evil counterparts of most of these, and so on. If you keep it generic enough you can fit literally anything sci-fi on those 20 factions, or at least that's the idea. From what i can gleam, the author did his best to balance those factions against each other so that none are overpowered, and didn't leave options for new ones so as to not break the balance (something we Infinity people can appreciate). Compare and contrast with One Page Rules, which are literally all GW factions past and present (including the ones GW decided to forget), and nothing else. On the other hand, if you want something extremely generic that allows you to use whatever you want and stat anything you please, the One Page Rules person used to maintain Warstuff, a completely generic wargaming ruleset so that you can fight with literally anything, from all your minis to action figures to Lego minifigures to toys and anything in between. That link is from an archive of all they had available before that person decided that it wasn't worth it for a single person to dedicate too much time and effort to maintain and balance a zillion highly diverse sets of rules and focused on the 5 "GW replacement" ones only, might be worth it to spend a while on that archive in case one of these sounds interesting to you, there's more than a dozen various rulesets if i recall correctly.
I've got to say i hate skirmish games that use a d6. One of the reasons I was drawn to Infinity was the d20. It allows for a much wider range of things that can be done. If it's 2d6 (2-12) it might be better. I hate the argument that it's easier to find d6s too. That is not the case anymore.
Oh man, I feel you! I love fantasy, but the state of big fantasy gaming just isn't for me right now. I end up using a lot of minis for D&D. The one game I am stoked on right now for a Fantasy Skirmish vibe is Arena Rex. The miniatures are drop-dead gorgeous, the game is fast and fun, and it gives me a reason to collect and paint something that's not shiny. In fact, it's the opposite of infinity's sleek techno look - flesh and chain mail!
Since you have D&D you might like Frostgrave. You play a Wizard and his underlings. They fight against other wizards in a magical city that was once covered in ice and now thawing out enough to grab treasure. You can use whatever fantasy miniatures you have though you would want the wizard to look like a wizard, ranger a ranger, etc. It uses d20s too. Fairly simple rules and seems like fun. I have the main rule book but have yet to try it out.
There's also Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago that replaces the wizards with more martial style characters if men in dresses aren't your thing, it has a more piratical flavour of Swords & Sorcery.
I'd like to try those, and our local Warcor is into Frostgrave. I did get Rangers of Shadowdeep, which is by the same dude. Yet to get it on the table, though.
Malifaux 3e is now available. Rules and such are free, here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wicc6rs8kg46bt7/AADCGZEbHvyB6F13D92dM-lZa/Malifaux Third Edition?dl=0&subfolder_nav_tracking=1 BTW, Nathan Caroland is the owner of Wyrd games, so not piracy this. The background and stories are in the printed books, similar to Infinity. Warning though: If you download the whole thing it is a little over 3.5GB. Frostgrave is currently being revised, an evolution not revolution according to its creator. http://therenaissancetroll.blogspot.com/2019/06/frostgrave-second-edition.html Has anyone played MERCs or Zone Raiders? The trick is to put everything into a spreadsheet and then pack the minis away, out of sight...uhm, for safe keeping, of course. Yeah, just to keep them safe. A bonus: There is a pleasant feeling when one finally moves a mini from the unpainted column into the painted column.
I can second the Frostgrave recommendation. It is a nice fun game. Miniature agnostic. I like to play it when I want something a little less intense than Infinity. Years ago I found a free game on the net called 'No Quarter' It looked like a good skirmish level Fantasy game, but I never got around to actually getting it on the table. I checked on it recently and the webpage is still there, but all the rule download links where broken.
That sounds like a good plan, although the idea of having a full, detailed inventory of all my backlog to reveal all my sins terrifies me Since rules by the Frostgrave dude have been mentioned, i gotta pimp out this one: Operation Last Train, a quick and simple wargame he made for charity, deserves a look. Found out about it from a video by The Tabletop Engineer, where he made a dropship to use with the game (and that we could also use with Infinity, by the way).
Got it, hard to find players. For the time being, I equated their Size S to Infinity S2, M to S5, and L to TAGs (but their choice of base is 10mm wider than Infinity's). The most interesting think of the game, for me, is the "AI" at some scenarios, leaving that aside is a lot like Borderlands in objective (reach the vault), and other RPG skirmish games (the old Necromunda, for example, or Mordheim or even Frostgrave).
Question: doesn't AR get boring after a while? After all, it's just a game about a few people hitting each other... I own about 300 Infinity models. About 60 of these have been assembled, about a dozen or so have also been painted. Gah. My fantasy backlog isn't nearly that big, but it might, as I got into AoS recently... I also have a small backlog of unpainted terrain pieces from MAS and Antenocitis, as well as a few unassembled buildings. But I'm currently working my way through that side of my wargaming clutter... Going back to games: are there any books, articles etc. on designing rulesets? I've never tried this, as it seems mightily complicated...
Saga: age of magic is the one for you mate. It's warband sized and has magic, monsters and all the usual stuff but it's not overly ridiculous like some settings. You can use whatever minis you have as well which is good if you're already sat on a horde of stuff. Warbands and list building are pretty simple. The tactics and strategies are done via the faction battleboard and clever resource management with the fatigue of units.
A little google-fu will find you lots of articles on game designing, but not all are good. If you have never done such before, I would suggest starting with game modding. Find a game that you like some aspects of, and then start adding rules you like onto it, or change some of the rules to be something different. Most important, find some willing test subjects to play it out. A lot of things that sound good in your head, end up being complete trash when it hits the table. Real world stress testing is essential. It helps if you like math, yes there are some of us out there, that enjoy figuring out a good math problem. Without a fundamental understanding of probabilities, it will be a matter of pure luck if you design anything good. When it comes to mechanics, all the fancy ways of rolling dice, using cards, and whatever else you have, all comes down to the probability of something happening. When it comes to designing a dice mechanic to generate those probabilities, Keep It Simple Stupid. A 75% chance of something happening is always a 75% chance of something happening, no matter how many special dice you roll to get there. Anydice.com is an amazing tool to help you figure out your exact probabilities. It is not very user friendly, but if you can't figure out Anydice.com your probably are not up to full blown game design, stick to modding existing games. Disclaimer: I have modded and built many games, but never actually published anything, so by no means am I an authority. My advice might be complete crap.
I managed to get a few games when there was a community for 3 and 3.5, but nothing to justify the chest of Confrontation models I still own - they are some of the nicest. Sadly the players I knew moved and there went my gaming. I know there was a kickstarter in place recently, I just need to persuade a mate to learn the game along with infinity and be very happy indeed.
A fench company (sans detour) is trying to resurrect confrontation. There is some people gathering their old models and some new. There are a few groups on fb and I'm pretty sure there would be some forums (I am finishing the paint in my griffins because of that). They did a kickstarter, but also had some problems, and did some wrong thins imho, I don't how is gonna end
