Stargrave "starter-kit"- help needed!

[traveller]

I have a friend that is very interested in Sci-Fi(books, movies etc) and I thought I would try to lure him into skirmish wargaming. I therefore plan to give him a "starter-kit" for Stargrave. I am not into this myself and only deal with historicals so beside the rulebook, what else should I include in terms of dice, tokens etc? What is the minimum and types of miniatures needed. I would prefer to give him metals. I would be grateful if you could share your wisdom!

[zemjw]

Not much wisdom to share, as despite having all the books, I've never played a game 

"Official" metal minis, however, can be found at https://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?&man=295&page=2, along with the plastic box sets. They are true 28, so plenty of other ranges work with them.

The minis are nice, but be aware that they have no slotta tabs or integral bases - it's bare feet all the way

If you're looking for small scale sf, 5 parsecs is worth a look as well. It's solo or cooperative and has a pretty small model count. There are several threads in this sub-forum on people's games if you want an idea of how it plays.

[traveller]

zemjw,

Many thanks for your comments!
Interesting with the bare feet, but fortunately there seems to be a lot of options for miniatures from different manufacturers to choose from. I am kind of set on Stargrave but I have to check ou the 5 parsecs. A dedicated miniatures solo game sounds like a dream come true. I just wish there was one for historical miniatures games.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Well, for figures there a range of Copplestone Castings, plus the Rogue Stars figures. They have puddle bases.

Crooked Dice have a large range - Colony 87 sub range are definitely suitable.

Heresy and Hasslefree have plenty.

Hasslefree.

The Stargrave metals are nice, as mentioned above, they will need to be pinned. The problem is they are designed to augment the plastics.

[Ultravanillasmurf]

These will be of use:

https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=15612

[zemjw]

Hasslefree.

I would normally agree, but I've been waiting 5 weeks for a simple order, and 2 emails have been ignored. The kickstarter is now a year late, and there is a huge amount of stuff out of stock on the website.

By all means check, but I'd be very wary of ordering from them at the moment

[Darkson71]

If they don't already have some, D20s! An absolute necessity!

Tokens, like those posted above, are 'nice to have' but not a 'must have'. (Full disclosure - I have them!)

Model-wise, pretty much anything sci-fi will work, as the soldier types are deliberately not overly specific, so if your friend has a favourite range and/or type of sci-fi, go with those. Otherwise, depends on your budget and local availably. I personally prefer plastics, especially the official ranges, just for ease of use and amount of options, but if not, anything metal from Northstar, GW, Mantic, Reaper or anywhere will work.
My original crew (while I waited for my plastics) was a range of old GW, Heartbreaker, Void and Heresy.

[traveller]

Thanks all for your comments! So the crew can be basically any models with a sci-fi touch? There are no specialists that require a specific model? I understand the game plays on a 3 x 3 gaming space. Are there any custom gaming mats available on the market?

[Darkson71]

Thanks all for your comments! So the crew can be basically any models with a sci-fi touch? There are no specialists that require a specific model?

Doesn't even really need a sci-fi touch - I've seen a crew posted on Facebook that used wild west figures from Great Escape Games, with a sprinkling of more futuristic weapons thrown in.

Each soldier is one of a fixed type, which have fixed weaponry, but you can use any model to represent those.
For example, a carbine is the basic 'rifle' in the game, but it doesn't matter if you use a GW bolter, a lasrifle or even an old Wild West repeater, as long as you and your opponent are aware.
There is also no race, a Commando is a Commando, regardless of whether the model is a human, an Ork, an Squid...

The game (and all the *Grave games) are designed to be mini-agnostic, so you can use pretty much anything you have or purchase.


As for mats, it really doesn't matter - games can take place on pretty much any terrain you can think of - the galaxy is a big place! So apart from anything set in space (like an X-Wing mat) any mat is suitable - we've played on most of the ones we have kicking around in our club - snow, desert, green and urban.

[traveller]

Darkson71,

Many thanks for the clarifications. Seems I have what I need 

[Muddlingthrough]

The author of Five Parsecs from Home, Ivan Sorensen, is a prolific indie game designer. His company Nordic Weasel has lots of solo wargames, including some historical ones. You can check out the offerings on Wargame Vault. I only just bought Five Parsecs, and haven't played any of the historicals, but I think Five Men at Kursk is well regarded.

https://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/5701/Nordic-Weasel-Games?term=nordic+wea

zemjw,
 A dedicated miniatures solo game sounds like a dream come true. I just wish there was one for historical miniatures games.

[traveller]

Wow! Thanks for the recommendation! Have to check it out 

[Darkson71]

Just be aware that "Five Parsecs" and "Five Leagues" (the fantasy version) are now published by Modiphius, and there were rumours that more of the "Five XXX" range were going to be moving there, so going from his website.

I've not broken open my Five Parsecs yet (a kitten has kind of put a halt to the solo gaming) but a club mate is playing a slow-go campaign of Leagues, and is enjoying it.

[traveller]

Thanks,

I also saw that a Napoleonic ”Five kilometers from Leipzig” is in the works. Sounds awesome!

[boywundyrx]

It's available now as a beta, Ivan updates it periodically, a new version just came out this week.
https://www.wargamevault.com/product/308041/Five-Kilometers-From-Leipzig-beta-version

There's also Chevauchee for medieval (and medieval fantasy) solo campaigns and tabletop games - https://www.wargamevault.com/product/181483/Chevauchee-Medieval-skirmish-campaigns?manufacturers_id=5701