Was Mordhiem Actually Good?

 First post of 2024, so let's kick the year off with something that'll get the mob riled up!

Was Mordheim, the beloved Games Workshop skirmish game, actually good, or is it just a case of rose tinted glasses?

The answer is sort of both? Let me preface this by saying that I'm not saying Mordheim is a bad game, or that people shouldn't play it. Hell, I've played Mordheim and had a blast. With the right group of people, and several pages of house rules, the game can be fun. Being critical of something doesn't mean I hate it.

Mordheim does three things really well, so let's talk about those really quick.

1) The sheer depth of customization of your warband. You can go absolutely fucking crazy and make basically any warband fit your play style. That's some quality game design there. I always hate when I find a faction I like in a game and the game then goes "Okay, you can now play them exactly this one way or get fucked every game" and Mordheim does a good job of avoiding this. Yeah it sort of nudges you in some cases, and some warbands are clearly better at certain things than others, but I've never felt like Mordheim was forcing me to choose play style over looks. 

2) The narrative opportunities are off the charts. This is probably Mordheim's biggest selling point to me. I like being able to create little backstories for my dudes, and see their story play out on the table. With the customization options in the warbands you get a lot of chances to really make the warband feel like they're yours, and by naming all your dudes and giving them some little back story you can even make two warbands from the same faction feel wildly different. And this leans into the third thing Mordheim does well...

3) That God damn campaign system. Yeah, the campaign system in Mordheim slaps, and I will never really speak ill of it. In fairness, it's a lot of book keeping after every game, but compounded with the warband creation and narrative aspects it just works. It's deep and fun and adds a whole new layer to the game. Seeing dudes level up and get better, or have a bad day and lose a limb just adds so much character to the game.

But Mordheim does have one tremendous flaw. It's absolutely a product of it's time, and that's not the compliment people seem to think it is. The core rules for the game are kind of shit, and have not aged well.

Mordheim comes from a time when GW was sticking to keeping things to a singular system for the most part. So Mordheim shares most of it's rules with Warhammer Fantasy, and condensing down rules for a mass battle game to a skirmish game often doesn't work. IGOUGO and a phase system in a skirmish game just feels so clunky and unintuitive, and it makes the game feel dated and weird to me now. These two things alone already make the game feel antiquated, even when you consider that other games at the time were already doing shit like alternating activations (the superior activation system). But then it gets worse.

As was the feature of the time with GW products, it's a bloody table emporium. You wanna hit someone with a stick? Check a table of your weapon skill against theirs. Oh you hit them? Now check this other table comparing your strength against their toughness. Wanna shoot someone? Better check that table to see what you need to roll to hit for your ballistic skill. 

And look, tables can work. But you can't go overboard with them. Wargods uses a table to resolve melee attacks. Bushido uses a table to determine how much damage an attack does. Battletech uses tables for hit locations and cluster shots. But somehow the old GW method just feels wrong to me. It's even worse when you consider that just five years later GW would release another skirmish game that plays way smoother.

Yee haw, bitches!

Legends of the Old West dropped in 2004, and uses the same core system as the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. And it just feels like such a better system. I know this is years after Mordheim came out, but it just shows up Mordheim in basically every facet to me.

And again, Mordheim can be fun. I've had fun with it. But I think we all give it a little too much slack and overlook how poor the core mechanics actually are. Anytime I've brought this up to friends the response is always "yeah, but it's Mordheim and no other game offers that sort of experience." But that's simply not true. Legends of the Old West, made by the same god damned company, offers a similar experience with better rules. Maybe it's not as wildly customizable simply due to the constraints of the time it takes place in, but good lord is it a smoother experience. Not to mention other companies offerings like Black Scorpion's Cutlass! and Tombstone (although I admit I'm not really familiar with the latter).

But what if you want a fantasy game? Nothing compares to Mordheim, right? Frostgrave is the big name people go to, but it lacks the full warband customization that Mordheim offers, and that's valid. So I present to you a great alternative:

We Redwall now.

Burrows & Badgers is, by far, one of the best skirmish systems I've ever seen in my life. It does do the whole "you must move before taking an action" thing that always rubs me the wrong way, but it's top notch shit. And as far as a fantasy skirmish game built around a campaign system, it blows Mordheim out of the water. Alternating activations, no tablevaganza to resolve combats, and the tiered dice system works so well in a skirmish game to really help differentiate models from each other.

Warband construction? Even deeper. There's no set weapons or characters for factions, so you can basically go wild and make exactly what you want (within the confines of the rules). And you're encouraged to name all your dudes, and no cannon fodder mooks to be seen (unless you count mice as cannon fodder).

And the campaign system? Also just as good, if not better, than Mordheim's. It does everything Mordheim's campaign system does, and then some. There's bases and resource management in there on top of all the other stuff. It gives you the same experience, plus some more.

So why do we keep defaulting to Mordheim? For many, it was probably their first experience with skirmish gaming. For most of us it was our first experience with this sort of narrative driven miniatures gaming. For some it's that tie to Warhammer, the allure of a familiar setting and the ability to, in some cases, reuse old models with ease. And for some it's simple brand loyalty, or some sort of fear of anything not made by GW.

But can we stop acting like it's fucking flawless? Can we acknowledge that the core rules aren't great, and that it needs to be houseruled to actually function is some cases (seriously, why is armor expensive and shit)? Can we simply stop acting like it's the only cocking option for that type of game?

Mordheim can be fun, and even my jaded ass can be talked into playing with the right people. But people putting it on a pedestal like it can commit no wrong while the main mechanics ooze so much pus is both disingenuous and unhealthy. 

Expand your horizons and you'll find plenty of games that have come out since that surpass Mordheim as both a game and an experience. Do they owe it to Mordheim for what it did? Yes. But they have done it better, and they deserve to be recognized for that.

Anyway, here's to the start of what will hopefully be a great year for you all.

What makes a good starter set? Part 2: All By Myself.

 Welcome to part two of my ramblings about starter boxes. Last time I talked about big boxes designed for two players, or at least to give one player the ability to demo the game all in a single purchase. Today we're going to talk about the solo experience, boxes for single players.

Let's go over the basics again, just in case. A good starter should either give you enough to play a "standard" level game, or get you close enough that a single purchase should get you there easily. And it shouldn't cost you a fucking fortune in most cases. I'm also keeping this to a single set per company.

That being said, let's dive in.

Bot War - Pretty damn good.

I'm going with the Beastlord starter because...well fuck yeah dinobots.

Bot War has some really solid starter sets that tick all the marks. You get a good selection of models, plus the stat cards for those characters. And you get enough models to play the game at the standard level, and then some! This set, in particular, gets you around 120ish points, with a standard game being 80.

Yeah you'll need the dice specific to the game, but otherwise this is a complete single player experience (since the rules are free). 

The one downside is the cost. The one player sets usually run you about $95. I know skirmish games made by smaller companies will generally be more expensive, but I can see how $100 for a single player can be off-putting.

A Song of Ice and Fire - Solid.

I think as far a single player experience goes, A Song of Ice and Fire has some of the best bang for your buck. You get three units, plus a variety of single characters, cards, movement trays, the rules, terrain, a measuring tool and dice. It's honestly a great value for $110.

And this gets you to the normal 40 point game level. And from here it's really easy to expand buying a heroes box, or another unit. And these starters tend to give you what is considered the core units for the faction, so you can easily expand to more specialized stuff with ease.

If you want to play this game, absolutely grab your faction's starter set.

Bushido - Generally solid.

I'm using my boys the Ito Clan again, because fuck you this is my blog and I'll play favorites.

The single player starters for Bushido are, generally speaking, very good deals. These boxes will run you about $45, and get you 70 points worth of models. A standard size game of Bushido is 100, but I feel like the game seems to function really well at 70. 100 is the tournament standard, though, so you would need to grab another model or two (depending on what models you grab) to get you up to that 100 point limit easily. Considering some characters are 20+ points, you can easily do this with one more purchase.

Some factions have alternative themed box sets, and those are usually closer to that 100 points. They're a little bit more expensive since they come with more models, but they're a great full game in a single purchase type deal.

The other thing I really appreciate about Bushido faction starters is that the stat cards have rules references on them. So when you're just learning you have a breakdown of what all the special rules/abilities for each character are without needing to flip through the rulebook or keep the Bushido Companion app open to see what they all do.

Heavy Gear Blitz - Excellent

Yep, more Heavy Gear!

The single player starters for Heavy Gear are such good deals. These boxes will get you between 130-150 points (which if you recall from last week is the standard level of play), sometimes more depending on the loadouts of your gears, and will run you, at retail, between $63 and $74. This particular one is about $69, and if you've seen my unboxing of the contents, you know you get a lot of shit for that money.

Considering the rules are entirely free, and through the glory of Gear Grinder you can make a list and print out stat cards, this basically gets you all you need to start an army.

These boxes are a great way to get started in Heavy Gear, even if I have my gripes about the assembly of some of the newer models. I tend to use these as my go to for doing an army box right.

Wargods - Okay, but not great.

Wargods is one of those game systems that I find myself not talking about as much as I probably should. It's a game with a great premise, solid rules, beautiful models and the folks at Crocodile Games are clearly super passionate about it and very friendly.

That being said I'm sort of torn on the starter sets. Generally they're a good place to start, they get you a Harbinger (your army leader), a hero, a couple of individual characters and a unit of infantry. But they vary pretty wildly. Some come with a melee unit, others with a ranged unit. And the prices vary from $80-90. 

Here's the real problem: I have no idea what a standard sized game is for Wargods. I priced out a couple of the starters, and they came to like 500-600 points I believe. But nowhere in either of the books (Aegyptus or Olympus) can I find what a normal game should be. Judging from the costs of stuff I would assume around 1500 should be sort of perfect, but I also think the game works great with a smaller army. The books and the Croc Tales magazines have example lists anywhere from 1200 points all the way up to like 2500 points. So it's hard to say how good of a value these really are. I mean, You can probably bump the points up by slapping the most expensive equipment on everything, but is that practical? How much do you need to buy to effectively expand one of these? It's so hard to say.

So I'm torn. I want this game to get more attention because it's fucking awesome, but the starters are a bit of a tricky pitch.

Malifaux - Pretty good.

The Malifaux starters have always been a pretty solid deal, and in 3rd edition nothing has really changed on that front.

Technically there are two starter types available: faction and master. The faction starters come with versatile models that any master can use with no trouble, along with a fate deck, tokens and a measuring tool. These retail for $45. The master specific starters are usually around $60 MSRP, and come with a master, their totem, an elite minion and three regular minions.

Both of these are good deals, and if you grab both that's a solid start to any force for $105. And since you can use a regular deck of cards in place of a fate deck, even the master starters are a solid enough choice. I think the master starters, at least the ones I've looked at, get you 30-40 points, with a standard game being 50.

Expanding from either is pretty easy. If you have the faction specific grab yourself a master, if you have a master then grab the faction. If you have both, then you can just buy stuff that'll gel with your master, or even buy another master. So you have lots of options, and buying an expansion box will run you around $30-40 and get you enough options to mix up lists without needing a huge investment.

Warcry - Damn good.

And we'll close this out with some Games Workshop. I'm sticking with Warcry because these warband boxes are a great deal.

These boxes, as far as I can tell, get you a full 1000 point warband, or close enough. That means you can buy one of these, build it and be set to play. You don't need anything to expand, but if you want to mix up some weapon loadouts or just general options you can grab another box of the warband for $60, or grab a single thrall model to ally in and give you some more options (like getting some ranged models in your warband that may not have the option otherwise).

These are such a great self contained single player option for the game, which is why when I see GW make sub-par starters it bothers me so much. They know how to do it right, so fucking it up in other games just boggles my mind. Either way, these are awesome and with a good variety available you can pick just about anything you think looks dope.

And that'll wrap up our look at starter sets. I tried to find some truly bad starters to use as an example here, but then realized that the games I have interest in generally don't seem to have bad starters? Or if they do I tend to blank them from my memory and just focus on the good ones. I suppose I could have talked about 40k starters, but I don't know shit about the points levels of that game anymore so it would have been largely moot. I know the battleforce boxes back in the day were obnoxiously composed sometimes, but I'm in not way an authority to comment on the value of those these days.

And I think that'll be the last post of 2023. Thanks to those of you who have been here, and I'll catch you guys in 2024 with more ranting.

What makes a good starter set? Part 1: One Box to Rule Them All.

I mentioned I wanted to discuss what I think makes a good starter box, and so here we are. Why is this part one, you ask? Well, I was going to one big post, but realized that going over all the examples I could think up would make this roughly as long as War & Peace, so I decided to split it into two.

In this post we'll be talking about what makes a good single box experience. Either for two people to split, or to allow one person to have enough stuff to demo a game in an effective manner. So these are gonna be the big boxes, and we'll take a look at smaller, single player focused boxes at a later time (most likely next week).

Another quick note. I'm trying to limit this to one thing per company. I could probably go through every two player starter set Games Workshop makes all on their own, but I want to keep this focused and some companies just make way too many for me to cover them all.

All that stalling out of the way, what does make a good two player starter set? For starters it should have some sort of rulebook (although as discussed in my post about Legions Imperialis, it doesn't need to be a full sized massive book), required accessories (usually dice, reference cards and the likes) and obviously enough models to demo the game with. Now, depending on the type of game the number of models may vary, but one simple rule that applies to both big and small starters is that it should either get you enough stuff to play a "standard" sized game, or get you to within a single purchase of being able to do so.

So let's get rolling looking at some starter sets.

Battletech: A Game of Armored Combat - Excellent

I made it no secret when discussing Legions Imperialis that I think Battletech makes some damn good starter sets. I also know that there are roughly four of the things, with a fifth on the way. I'm going to talk about the A Game of Armored Combat set, though, as I feel it is both the most complete experience, and is also the one I have hands on experience with (that and the OG Beginner Box).

What makes this set so good? It's a stunning value for the money. You get eight battlemech miniatures, enough for two people to each have a Lance, maps, a rules book, a lore book, a novella, dice, record sheets, quick reference sheet and a shit ton of paper standees to easily expand you force beyond the miniatures to try new Lance compositions (or settle arguments if both of you want to use a mech that appears in the box) and more. It works as both a split experience because both players can walk away with four mechs (enough to play Classic Battletech, or get you started on a company for Alpha Strike), one in each weight class. 

And you get all of that for a retail price of $60. That's an insane value, and it's really easy to expand beyond this box whether you split it with a friend or keep it all to yourself. Grab a couple of Lance packs and you're pretty well set to go. If you want to expand beyond mechs, you'll need the Total Warfare book, but it's basically optional if you just want big stompy robots.

The one place this fails is that it's not a great place to teach someone completely new to the game. The Beginner Box is a better fit for that, with a simplified starter rules that cuts out stuff like heat management and ammo tracking. But, if you know you're gonna be serious about Battletech this is an insane deal.

Warcry: Hunter and Hunter - Good.

I chose to go with this for one simple reason: it's a great example of both the good and bad of GW's philosophy.

This is, by all accounts, a solid starter set. It gets you two full warbands, without repackaging Underworlds models like Crypt of Blood, plus all the stat cards you need. But it does drop the ball slightly in that the only terrain piece it contains in the mawpit. The older Warcry boxes used to come with two full warbands and an ass load of terrain, which is huge because terrain is pretty pivotal to the game. Now if you want the official terrain that the layout cards use, you need to buy a separate terrain box, which is another $100+. What this ultimately means is that to get the same amount of product and experience you got with the older sets you now need two boxes, and it'll cost you more money to do so.

That aside, this is still a solid starter, and the two player starter sets for Warcry, Crypt of Blood not withstanding, have been great deals. This is a little less great than the previous sets due to not only the lack of terrain, but also a lack of the core rules. Granted, the core rules are now free online so that's not a huge deal, but I know some people love their physical books. 

If you like both warbands here then this is a good way to get two warbands in a single purchase, or split it with a friend if you each like one of them. So while it is noticeably light on accessories, it's still a decent place to get started in Warcry. If you can find the older starters for a good price those are a better buy, but this will do you well. 

Star Wars Legion - Eh.

I know it probably seems like I'm slamming Legion a lot lately, and I swear that's not my goal. As I've said many times before, and will continue to say to absolve myself of a shit storm, Legion is a solid game.

The core sets, though, rub me the wrong way. 

You get a lot of stuff: two characters, four infantry squads, two speeder bikes and an AT-RT, you get the measurement and range tools, some dice, a couple terrain pieces and more cards and tokens than you'll know what to do with. Plus the rules (although they're probably out of date) and assembly guides.

It's the little things, though, that it lacks. These boxes are kind of a shit deal if you want to split them with someone. Who gets the single set of measurement tools, the single set of range tools, what upgrade cards, and the pile of dice too small to use? Which of you now needs to shell out more money to get the basic equipment needed to play? 

And what do you do if you don't want one for the armies in here? I know a lot of people say to just split two boxes between two people, double your army and each of you gets a set of tools, but that's bullshit. This isn't a god damn card game where you go around doing trades for shit you don't want in a box. I guess the new battleforce boxes are a good option to get around that, but even then you still need to buy dice and tools to use the stuff in those boxes.

On top of all that, the contents of these boxes don't get you anywhere near a standard sized army. A standard game of Legion, for those who don't know, is 800 points. The Rebels in the OG core set, sans upgrades, comes to 285 points. So well below the standard, and well below the "buy one box to get to standard" rule I mentioned above. On top of that, a standard game of Legion requires you to have three Corps choices, and these boxes only come with two per army. Yeah, you can play the Skirmish alternate rules, but you'll still be a good bit below the 500 point standard for that.

For $120 and such a well known name as Star Wars, I just think you should get more bang for your buck here. Especially since even if you don't split the box you'll still need to buy more than half of an army to get it to snuff, and another thing of dice to have enough to not need to reroll shit.

Heavy Gear Blitz: Battle in the Badlands - Great.

I won't apologize for my unapologetic love of Heavy Gear. It's a fantastic setting, and Blitz is a great game. I loved it before I ever wrote a single word in a rulebook, so my bias isn't professionally based at least.

There are actually two starter sets for this game, the other being War for Terra Nova which features the North and South factions. I'm going with this one because it's newer, has my favorite faction in it and is probably the better deal of the two.

You get 12 Peace River models, twelve NuCoal (boo, Gavin, boo I say!) models and a small version of the 3.1 rulebook. It would have been nice if it also came with dice, but gamers have dice like 16th century European nobility had syphilis, so I think we'll be okay here. For $125 it's a pretty solid deal.

This is also really easy to split between two players, each just takes their faction of choice. But what about the rulebook? Well, the rules are free online anyway, so it's not a big deal. It also works if you want to keep it all for yourself, as you can use all the models together in lists using allied units and the likes.

Where does this sit on the "standard sized or close enough" metric? Pretty damn close. The Peace River models, assuming you just run all stock models like some sort of sociopath, will run you 108 points. A standard game is 150, and variants are gonna tweak that value a fair bit plus you can buy upgrades to fill in some of those points if need be. So it's still possible to get this to a 150 point list with a single purchase, just grab a unit box or one of the big boys like a Red Bull Mk.2 or a Cataphract and you'll get damn close (I've made exactly one list that was right on the 150 point mark).

Solid value.

Bolt Action: Band of Brothers - Okay.

This isn't strictly the worst starter set I've ever seen, but it is a bit shit. This is marketed as a two player starter, and it does get you enough to give the game a whirl. Two small armies, some terrain, pin markers, the rules and all the dice you need.

Where it fails is that "standard level of play" thing I keep banging on about. When I played Bolt Action the normal game was something like 1500 points. I quite liked the 1000 point range, but people love their Tigers. This comes with a paltry amount of models. It's plenty to learn the game, I suppose, but getting these up to 1500 points, unless infantry sextupled in points cost in 2nd edition, is going to take a lot of extra purchases. As a "want to try without huge investment" type deal then it's not too bad at $133 retail, but it is going to take a lot of money to get this up to the norm.

If you want something closer to the norm you could always grab the Battle of Berlin box, if you don't mind dropped nearly $450 on a single box set.

If you played Americans or Germans in first edition and want a quick expansion plus the updated rules then I can see this being a decent investment. As a legit two player starter set it just feels a bit too light for my taste.

Bushido - Good.

Bushido is one of those games I've gushed about here a lot, and with good reason. It's a really solid game with cool ass models and scratches that Legend of the Five Rings itch I yearn for in miniatures gaming.

The two player starter box, though, I struggle with a little. On the surface it's damn good. It's 70 Pounds (or roughly $88.71 USD) for ten models, all the stat and upgrade cards (30 cards total), a token sheet and the rules. 

For a skirmish game that's not bad at all. It gets you two roughly 70 point warbands, so if you split it with someone you can both easily expand to the "standard" of 100 points with one more expensive character each. Or if you want to keep it all to yourself you can probably get it to 100 points with just the models in the box. I think.

And this brings me to my gripe with this box. The models are all Ronin, i.e. mercenaries that can work with a number of factions. The problem is that if you have a particular faction in mind to play, you may find this box kind of wanting. For example, I like the Ito Clan faction the most, and only one of the models in this box can work with them. So for me, this box would be sort of a waste. If you want a quick way to demo the game for under $100 it's solid, and if you play certain factions many of these models are viable (and even more so, obviously, if you play multiple factions).

As it stands, though, it's a good starting point if you don't know anything about the game or haven't settled on a faction yet. But it is a mixed bag if you like certain factions, and downright not worth it if you want to run Ito Clan.

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Earth's Mightiest - Solid.

"Hey wait a second," I hear you say "this and Legion are made by the same people!" Technically yes, now, but the two legion core boxes came out when that was still under the control of Fantasy Flight Games, before Asmodee (who owns a lot of gaming companies) moved it over to Atomic Mass. But Crisis Protocol has always been AMG.

I think this is a good deal, to put it simply. $150 retail gets you 13 models (in a game where most teams are around six), so much terrain, cards, rules, tokens, tools and what have you. This is a spectacular amount of stuff, and a good way to get started in the game.

It does make splitting it hard, though. Much like with Legion, who gets the tools? Who gets the crisis cards? Who gets the terrain? This is a solid set for a single person to buy, and a great way to get started and demoing the game. It's a solid all in one set, but it's not great for splitting.

A brief aside, though, is that the model selection in here is kind of jank. It comes with basically the same characters, albeit new versions, as the old starter set. This was a great opportunity to get in some new characters, or at the very least if you do insist on including the same characters do wildly new versions of them. Give us Iron Spider, Extremis Iron Man and so on. Just feels like a missed opportunity.

Relic Blade: Storms of Kural - 12/10.

Spencer is singing the praises of Relic Blade, what a fucking shocker.

But this is a damn good starter set. $85 for two complete, 100 point, warbands, all the cards in the world, tokens and a mini campaign. The only downside is the normal box doesn't come with the rulebook, but Metal King does sell it in a bundle with the rulebook for $99 (which is basically getting the rule book for 50% off).

This is just such a killer deal. Even if you do the rulebook bundle, $99 for a full out of the box experience without needing to buy extra shit is so good and, as you've seen, almost unheard of these days. Companies always seem to skim a little something off to make you need to buy more to actually play a legal game, but Relic Blade just gives it all to you up front. And the option to buy it without the rulebook is great for folks who want the models and cards that come in this set but already have the rules (people like me).

I suppose splitting this could be tricky, and as is the case with many two player sets it's entirely possible you end up with models you don't want. For me, six of the eight models in this set are things I would see me using in a game, and if I can offload the other two models (Pig and Squid) then I'm in really good shape for my investment. 

Once again Sean Sutter shows he knows what makes a good product, and that he really understands players and the community.

That's it for this dive into starters. Part two will be up soon, and we'll go over single player experiences and what makes a good starter set in that regard. Keep your eyes peeled for that, and have a Merry Christmas if that's your thing.

How to Fix the Legions Imperialis Starter Box

 Obviously the big news around the shire these days is the release of Legions Imperialis, the new epic scaled game set during the Horus Hersey from Games Workshop. It finally went on sale, after a long and unexplained delay, and people have been getting their hands on it and all sorts of pictures and videos are popping up.

There's just one problem, the starter set kinda sucks.

Full disclosure: I don't own the box nor do I plan to for a few reasons.

1) If I do I'd rather 3D print my dudes because I prefer the Mk.3 armor.

2) I don't want to have to assemble fiddly plastic tanks at 8mm scale. That sounds fucking awful.

3) $200 is way too much for what you get in my opinion.

Now, I do think there's a way to make this starter box a good value, but it needs some fixes to make it worth that $200. For that kind of money I expect a couple things out of starter, and most importantly is usefulness of the box set. I plan to do a whole other post discussing the value of starter sets and what makes a good starter, so I won't go too deep into that here. Suffice to say: you should be able to use the contents and play the game rules as written.

You do get a lot of stuff, to be fair.

Now why do I say this box sucks? Because it just skirts being an absolutely excellent set, but it does just a few things that I think can be changed to make it even better.

First thing I want to say is that for the purposes of this discussion we're going to continue to assume the box is $200, for the sake of simplicity. 

I think GW could have taken some cues from Battletech on doing a truly great box set, so be prepared for a lot of comparisons to that.

Drop the rulebook.

"What do you mean drop the rulebook?" I hear you say through the computer screen. I say drop it. You don't need a giant, heavy, $60 book in the set. Take a page from Battletech. In the A Game of Armored Combat box set, you get the rules you need to use the models that come in the box. You basically get the rules you need to use mechs, the stars of that game, and nothing else. If they had included the full Total Warfare book the box either would have had to drop at least half the models, or would be crazy expensive. 

By including a rules pamphlet with the rules needed to use the infantry and tanks in the box you could free up a lot of space/budget for other things. Then when people want to use stuff like Titans and aircraft, they can go buy the full book. Someone just jumping in who may not want to expand won't want to find themself with a 240 page book sitting on their shelf, and by keeping it simple and not having to keep flipping back and forth through a giant book (seriously 240 fucking pages) when trying to learn the game. 

"But what about the lore?!" Again, Battletech. It has a little lore document that lays out the basics to get people interested. A couple pages going over the basics is all you need in a starter set.

Brief aside while we're talking about the rulebook: don't make the book on it's own an online exclusive. That's a right dick move.

Drop the Warhounds.

You get two armies in this box: Space Marines and Solar Auxilia. But the points values are all over the place. From what I can tell, you get less than 500 points of Marines and around 600 of Solar Auxilia. 

And then there's these assholes.

You also get two Warhound Titans, and these things need to go. Yeah giant robots are cool and all, but these two are actually unusable in this box set rules as written. These guys rock in a 330 points a piece. But here's the thing: in LI an allied detachment, such as Titans, can never be more than 30% of your total points values. That means a Warhound Titan, again as per the rules that come in the box, can't be used with an army of less than 1100 points. That is more than double either of the starting forces in the box! 

I get it, Titans are visually appealing and big cool models. They're part of the appeal of playing at this scale, but for god's sake they're a bad choice given the rest of the contents of the box.

So, what happens if you drop the Titans? That brings me to my next solution.

Bump the armies to a minimum of 700 points each.

Dropping the Warhounds and the big rulebook gives you room to bump each army up to a playable size. This can go one of two ways.

Way one is to bring them up to 700 points, and then replace the Warhounds with two Knights. This gets each army a legal 1000 point army as the Knights are only in the 200 point range. This means you can use the models without having to fudge the rules or buy more shit to get up to 1100 points to use the oddly pointed Warhounds. This still gets you a couple of cool robots, but without making the lists illegal.

The other option is drop giant robots altogether and bring each army to 1000 points. This is a solid starting point for the game, allows you a decent variety of units between different infantry types and various vehicles. Could also, with the right models, open up the options of which Formations you can build.

This gives players more models for their investment, instead of having two big models that eat up a lot of cost and can't even be used without further investment. You can put in more usable models while keeping the cost the same. This gets players more actual bang for their buck.

And there you have it, my few simple fixes for the Legions Imperialis starter box. Just a few simple things would make this box a crazy good value for the money you pay, even if I think $200 for a starter box is just this side of absurd. That said, I think it could be better and be a better value to the customer than it currently is. It does some things right, but it just misses the mark of a really great starter set.

We'll take a look at some more starter sets in the near future, and discuss what I think makes a good starter set. Until then, stay sexy.

My Eternal Struggle With Warzone

 Now that's some shit tier wordplay.

I've made it no secret that I have nothing short of a love affair with Mutant Chronicles, and the subsequent tie in miniatures game Warzone.

That art still gets me...

Warzone was my introduction to miniatures wargaming back in the 90's, the first miniatures I ever painted were some Bauhaus Venusian Rangers and I had a decent little collection of models for said faction. I fell absolutely in love, and second edition came out with an amazing new starter set featuring Bauhaus and Imperial (my brother's faction of choice) right around the time we really got invested.

God I miss the glory of old school models.

And then Target Games, the company who made Warzone, imploded, and Warzone died. 

The history of Warzone is long and filled with tears. It came back with Ultimate Warzone in the early 2000's, and promptly died again. Then Fantasy Flight Games made their ill fated attempt with their Mutant Chronicles miniatures game, which promptly died because who the fuck wants to play a game with 54mm pre-painted models that took one too many creative liberties with the designs?

In 2014, a scant 15 years since the original run ended, we got Warzone Resurrection on the scene. It was a fresh take, new rules that evoked the original and updated designs without straying from the classic looks too hard (with some very noticeable exceptions). It was fun, I had two armies and got several of the crew at Blue Table Painting playing it (you may have seen some of the videos I did about it while there) and we even got the US rep for the company to come hang out with us and send us all sorts of free goodies. I loved it. It was a solid game and I had a blast playing it. But, as is the history of Warzone, the game met an inglorious end. Cabinet Entertainment, who own the rights to Mutant Chronicles, apparently had some disagreements with Prodos Games who were producing the game, the license was pulled, and Warzone died yet again in 2016 or so.

And now here we are, creeping up on 2024 and a new Warzone game is on the horizon with Warzone Eternal. And it fills me with dread.

I briefly covered this is my post about how being a journalist has kind of ruined me, but as the game nears completion and gets ever closer to hitting retail I find myself with mixed feelings of joy at Warzone being back and a looming sense of terror at getting excited about it again.

I want to be excited, I really do. I've looked at the game and it looks good, but I've watched Warzone live and die so many times. This is the fourth iteration using the Warzone name (I don't really count the transition from first to second edition because they were fairly similar to each other in terms of mechanics), and having gotten invested and excited twice to watch it unceremoniously taken behind the shed and shotgunned I am, I feel justifiably, just a little hesitant. I've read the rules documents the guys at Res Nova have put out, and it's got Brian Steele on as the rules guy and he knows how to write a good game, but I can't shake the feeling of it all being a trap.

The models look to have all the charm and great style of the older stuff, which as I get on in age I find myself really appreciating the simplicity of the older models and single piece miniatures in particular (trust me, the whole thing about modern model design is a post I plan to write one day). I mean, just look at these things:

Venusian Rangers are pure sex.

Those look super god damn sick, with all the classic design cues run through a filter of not having to be stupid huge to get the needed detail and now being able to have more poses between models.

I want to get hyped, I want to jump with joy that a true Warzone skirmish game is coming, I want to buy in and show my support and demo the ever loving shit out of it. It is 100% my jam.

But I'm scared, and wary and not sure how to approach the IP anymore. How long will this one last? Resurrection was doing well sales wise, had a good sized player base and new models were coming out on the regular before Cabinet yanked the license and left it to rot. And with how many skirmish sci-fi games are out there, will this stand out? Will it have legs to support it and keep it alive beyond the existing Warzone fanbase? Resurrection had a little over a hundred more backers, and made roughly $40,000 more (adjusted for inflation) than Eternal did. Is this a sign people are losing interest? Or is just a sign of the economy and people maybe getting over crowdfunding?

Warzone is my first gaming love, and I absolutely cherish it and adore it and want it to do well. I want to see Eternal succeed and grow, I want to see some of my favorite units make it into the game, I want to see Apostles other than Algeroth get some fucking models for a change. At the same time, though, I can't help but wonder if that's exactly the problem. Are we, the fans, the issue? After watching our beloved IP suffer and be raised from the dead to be struck down time and again, how much more abuse can we take? How much more abuse should the IP take? When do we finally say "maybe it's time to just let it rest?"

I keep thinking I've hit that point. I didn't back the Eternal Kickstarter for several reasons, but that voice saying "maybe it's time to let it go" certainly played a role. And yet, I keep finding myself looking at it, popping in and reading the updates on the campaign, reading the rules, looking at pricing to see how much I'd need to save up to do proper demos in the future for people who, likely, won't give a shit and will just go back to Killteam or Infinity because playing more than one game in the same genre is too scary or something like that. 

I want to let it go, to move on and just enjoy what I've got and the happy memories associated with Warzone. Those warm feelings in my heart for it, knowing that it was how I started and that it will always hold a special place in my heart and mind. But I also want to see it succeed. I want it to be good, get a playerbase and become a hit. And I can't have it both ways.

So I struggle with Warzone. It tears me up a little thinking about it, knowing that I can't figure out what the fuck I want. I guess I'll keep watching it, occasionally re-read the old rulebooks, look at the old catalogs and admire the models that introduced me to this whole crazy ass hobby. Sometimes I'll smile, other times I'll spiral into an almost existential terror at my place in the world of wargaming and maybe one day I'll bite the bullet and finally come to a decision.

Until then, best of luck Res Nova and crew. And I hope you, hypothetical reader, will maybe take a look at a truly wonderful IP because of this. 

More free rules, please

 You know what trend in gaming I absolutely love? Free rules.

It's cropping up more and more these days, as more companies embrace this little thing called the internet. And if you ever want a clear sign that free rules pdfs are the way of the future, look no further than the fact that even Games Workshop has gotten in on it. If you had asked me even a couple years back if GW would ever release the rules for their games, let alone 40k, for free I'd have laughed in your face and called you an idiot.

Looks like I'm the idiot now.

But still, this is a great thing for gaming, which is why I want to talk about it. I feel like my last few editorials have been a little more negative, and I don't want to just be a guy who shits all over the industry all day. I really do love gaming and am passionate about it, but those topics needed to be discussed and it feels like nobody ever wants to discuss them for some reason.

So, let's talk about happy things and how free rules is dope.

I'm not entirely sure who the first company was to offer the rules to their game for free online, and it may even go back to the 90's for all I know. But it always struck me as a little odd that as the internet and things like tablets and smart phones all became more accessible and commonplace that companies were still out here trying to sell physical rulebooks that took up actual space in one's home.

Now, don't get me wrong, I do love me a good rulebook. I have a whole box filled with rulebooks, plus the handful that I use for regular gaming. I get the appeal, I do, and if you only play one or two games then it's probably not so bad. If you're someone like me, however, those books very quickly overwhelm you. I had a ton of rulebooks, plus supplementary books and not enough bookshelf space for them all. I had to start selling some off or giving them to friends who were collectors because they took up too much space in my life. 

Digitally, though? Not a problem at all. I can have dozens of books, possibly even pushing upwards of 100, on a single device. Or toss them all onto Google Drive and have access from my phone, tablet and laptop. Digital rulebooks are the way for me 99% of the time these days.

That doesn't cover the cost, though. I did mention free books being a great thing, and I stand by that. I get that some companies maybe can't quite justify giving away their rules for free. Companies like Metal King Studios probably rely on the revenue of rulebook sales just as much as they rely on the actual sales of the models, which is fair given that it's a one man show. But Relic Blade does have a free quick start rules document (at least I think it still does) that lets you get a taste, and the digital copy of the rulebook is usually dirt cheap. 

And that's the thing for me: if you can't give away the full book at least have some sort of quick start or demo document so people can get a taste. As a former critic being able to hop onto sites and download entire books for free is a godsend. I can check out a game, read the basics and get the gist of a game and decide if I want to then invest. This is what it means to be consumer focused. Hook us with free rules, give us a little taste, and then reel us in with the models. 

Because the models are the real sellers, and where you're making the majority of your money from. A lot of games I stumbled upon by seeing a model, going "that looks fucking sweet" and then finding out more. Now, by offering the rules for free, you can really get people looking. Because a free pdf costs them nothing but a little time to read, and if the person goes "oh, maybe this isn't for me" they can just delete the pdf. For people who love to try new games (i.e. me) and spread the good word of smaller games (again, hi) this is a great selling point. 

For example: I fucking love Heavy Gear Blitz. It's one of my favorite games on the market right now, and I don't just say that because they were my last writing client, but I also know it's not a hugely popular game. I managed to get my hands on enough stuff to run some demos and get some friends to try it out. One of the big selling points I used was that the rules were free, so people could check out the full rules and the armies without spending a dime. Being able to dive deeper into the rules if they wanted to, and also look at not just the models but get an idea of how they actually play and function was a big draw. It's a game changer. People could both buy the faction they liked the look of most and also get an idea of what things did and the roles they filled without needing to buy books that could end up out of date.

Living rulebooks are the way of the future, and I'm so happy to see more games getting into it. Heavy Gear, Carnevale, Dropzone/fleet Commander, Bot War, Bushido, Malifaux, A Song of Ice and Fire (although I believe you need to download their War Council app to get the rules, but that's also free), Warcry, Batman and obviously stuff like One Page Rules.

And here's the thing: you don't need to give away the whole farm. One Page Rules is a great example of this. You can get the core rules totally free for their games, giving you what you need to play (plus their army builder is free and dope) and get a feel for the game. Then, should you wish, you can become a patron of their Patreon for $5 and get the expanded rules with all sorts of optional stuff that just enhances the games (or got the $10 route and get the STLs and such as well if you so choose). But none of that extra stuff is necessary, so you can still enjoy the game without spending a dime on rules.

Another example is Bushido. The basics of the rules, and all the stat cards, are right there for free on their website. The only things missing from the rules document are scenario rules. So to try the game you don't even need to buy anything if you have models on the right sized bases, and if you want to get into the thick of it then you can buy the rulebook and get the scenario stuff along with lore and whatnot. And even that might not be totally needed, as the Bushido Companion app has all the scenario stuff right there (insofar as I can tell). 

This gives people a chance to see your game, read the rules and get a feel for how it might work before the invest. And then you still offer physical books if that's what someone wants. My buddy Gavin loves him a good physical rulebook, and all the games I've mentioned still offer that, as far as I can tell, should you want it. 

I would love to see this trend continue, especially with bigger companies that we know can afford to do so. If you're going to try and sell me a single $200 model then you can damn well offer me the rules to use it free of charge. Like I said: I know some companies probably can't pull this off fully, but a sampler will give people a chance to see your game. People are hesitant to drop $30-60 on a rulebook for a game they may not even end up liking, so offering the basic rules as a freebie with the extras and special stuff locked behind the full rulebook is totally valid for smaller companies like Metal King and Oathsworn (who make the fantastic Burrows & Badgers skirmish game).

So at the risk of sounding like an entitled prick: more free rules, please.

Are licensed games getting out of hand?

 I can't be the only person in this hobby who struggles with licensed games, right?

Okay, let's back up a second. I'm not saying games that are using licensed IPs are bad, although some are. But it's not the fact they're licensed that makes them bad, is what I'm trying to get at here. I think there are several that are pretty solid, actually.

But holy shit are there just a ton of them, or am I imagining things?

Star Wars: X-Wing
Star Wars: Armada
Star Wars: Legion
Star Wars: Shatterpoint
Marvel Crisis Protocol
Judge Dredd
A Song of Ice and Fire
Star Trek Federation Commander
Doctor Who
The Walking Dead
Batman
Harry Potter
DC Universe
Heroclix
Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game

And those are just the ones I can come with off the top of my head that are still in production. That doesn't include shit like the Marvel Universe Miniatures Game, Star Trek Attack Wing (which I'm fairly certain is no longer being produced?), the Star Wars miniatures game from either the early 90's or the one produced by Wizards of the Coast in the early 2000's, Mars Attacks and so on. Nor does that list include upcoming stuff, like the new Star Trek: Into the Unknown. I also didn't include stuff I don't know the status of Like the various Alien miniatures properties because that's just a clusterfuck of absurd proportions.

So it's not just me, yeah? Also, those first five games I listed are all made by the same company. And this is just miniatures games! The list would go on almost until the end of time if I included card games and board games.

I've played my fair share of these: X-Wing, Batman, Crisis Protocol, Middle Earth, I've played Legion and gotten demos of Armada and I had a good collection of Heroclix stuff back in the day along with stuff for the WotC Star Wars game. I'm not intrinsically opposed to licensed games, but it is starting to feel like they're everywhere these days. Maybe it's just because Star Wars is basically a license to print money and Asmodee hopped on that shit real hard. 

And you'd think I'd be into this, right? I love Star Wars, Star Trek, Batman, Marvel and Middle Earth. And I love miniatures gaming. And I've had a good time playing most of these games. So why don't I love them?

The answer is simple: they don't excite me, and I feel too constrained. I feel like I'm being leashed, creatively, and that really sours the mood for me.

What do I mean by this? I mean that these things exist in the world with specific styles and looks, which means when it comes time to start painting models I feel like the decision has been made for me. I know, on a technical level, that I can paint my shit however I please and nobody can really stop me, and that should be enough to push me on in painting. But all it takes is that one dude, and we know the exact mouth-breathing neckbeard I mean, to give me a hard fucking time because I decided to have some fucking fun with my miniatures that I paid for to immediately put me off the whole damned thing. That may sound petty, and it probably is, but I don't want to have to deal with that. 

And often times I find myself just not liking the official colors, or wanting to deal with obnoxious colors. For example: Galactic Republic in Star Wars: Legion. Clones wear white armor. Why? Because George Lucas really wanted to hammer home the lazy ass imagery and make sure nobody missed his brilliant foreshadowing. But white is a massive pain in the ass to paint, even doing it the quick way of just using some white color primer it's still annoying to deal with if you have to touch stuff up.

Marvel Crisis Protocol is the same way. I feel caged. Iron Man is red and gold, no exceptions. And again, I could paint him green, but I don't want to get a lecture from some turbo-nerd about "not respecting the source material" or some nonsense.

Compare this to something like Battletech. That games gives you basically all the freedom you could ever want. I can paint my mercenaries any color I like, and nobody can say a damn thing about it not being "lore accurate." Hell, I can even paint canonical units in various color schemes and just say it's camo for a certain environment and people would go "yeah, that tracks." Even the biggest Battletech nerds won't bat an eye at my Free Worlds League (PURPA BIRB!) being painted in arctic camo while being part of the 3rd Free Worlds Guard. It just doesn't happen.

That's the crux of the problem for me: I like to think of myself as a creative person. I want to create my own stuff (within reason, obviously) and games like Battletech, Heavy Gear, Relic Blade, MERCS, Grimdark Future and so forth give me that freedom. Even heavily character centric games like Bushido don't really try and pen you in. There's the "official" studio paint schemes, but nobody in that community gives a shit if you want your Prefecture of Ryu guys to be wearing green because it's your favorite color.

I just don't feel like you get that in licensed games. At least not if you don't want to be accosted at some point. And while yes it is easy to tell said turbo-nerds to fuck right off, or say things like "if the company wants them to be a certain color they can sell them pre-painted" and go about your day, it just isn't worth the fight for me.

I also feel like the companies making the games are sort of locked into a corner. They can't just create new shit, generally speaking, because it sounds dope. I don't know if every unit in A Song of Ice and Fire appears in the books (I only read the first one, and hated it), but I do know that Disney has a pretty tight yoke on Star Wars and Marvel and thus the poor folks at Atomic Mass Games have to have everything they propose quintuple approval and verified by Disney because it can go into production. And sometimes, like with Middle Earth, they can bring in stuff that was in the books but not the films (hence why that game has so many characters that never appear in any of the movies). But overall, it ends up feeling like all creativity is being dictated somewhere else.

Maybe I'll get over it and just go wild. Legion is a solid game, I've found myself looking at A Song of Ice and Fire (based on books I hated and a 28mm mass battle rank n' flank game with model removal?!) and Middle Earth constantly calls to me because there is some freedom there with the lesser seen stuff like Harad, Far Harad, Corsairs and even something as major as the Dwarves of Khazad Dum since we never see any of them in the movies.

But for me, games that give me that freedom to create and sort of do my own thing will always win out. Letting me spread my wings just a little bit more will endear me to a game far more than name recognition ever well.