Who's playing 10mm Fantasy or Warmaster

[nic-e]

Would be great to see some of the concepts when you're ready to share :-)

I'll happily send the PDF if you're interested, once i've gone through and made it a little less...chaotic.

[modiphius]

I'll happily send the PDF if you're interested, once i've gone through and made it a little less...chaotic.

Sure would be great to try it out - no rush, got a few things on here ... ;-)

[MattW]

There’s one question that’s been bugging me (well, two): do you have any IP in mind, and if so, can you tell us?

[modiphius]

There’s one question that’s been bugging me (well, two): do you have any IP in mind, and if so, can you tell us?

Ah! :-) Not really at the moment (though there are a few options and I'd also like to do our own IP which we have a concept for), I'm more interested in finding the right rules and if we can't find them, then create them. That said I had a eureka moment last night so we'll see... I was up late writing up a frenzy of notes :-)

So this question came up - there's not enough big monsters for 10mm out there - what would you like to see?

[MattW]

So this question came up - there's not enough big monsters for 10mm out there - what would you like to see?

Well, that kind of depends on the IP

Obviously the classics: dragons, griffons, wyverns, hydra, giants, cockatrice, basilisk etc. at this scale you can make them look outrageously large, which adds to the cinematic value imo. I know that some prefer smaller creatures, but there’s plenty for them out there already.

As for something different, I’ve always fancied a ‘fantasy asian’ force with a giant tortoise-dragon as a centrepiece. Complete with howdah/wooden fort on top. That’s probably a little more specific than you were hoping for though

[blacksmith]

So this question came up - there's not enough big monsters for 10mm out there - what would you like to see?

Traditionally, people get their monsters from 15mm and upwards scales so in my opinion there is not a real need for those though they would be welcomed. I think traditional fantasy is already covered though new ranges would be welcomed as well.
As I commented before, something totally new like Barsoom would be great; and not only monsters from Mars could be done in 10mm but flying ships and Martian buildings as well (here thinking of Frazetta's amazing paintings). Actually, what it refrains me from playing Mars is the scale, as terrain and buildings in 28mm would be so specific and costly to do, but in 10mm would be easier.
Ruleswise, I haven't found anything yet better than old Warmaster by Mr. Priestly; rules that allow you fast movement for big armies and clean and fast damage resolution without littering the battlefield with tokens. In our latest games we used the new orders system and unit formations from Hail Caesar together with Warmaster rules and then it worked perfectly.

Eureka did a 10mm fantasy Chinese range and another from black Africa. They both are very nice but I don't think they are selling them by droves. I guess a new fantasy range in 10mm would have to be three things to be successful:1) excellent miniatures like those from Copplestone, 2) a great new ruleset and lastly 3) support in the way of new publications and ranges as well as internet assistance with the rules.

[MattW]

Traditionally, people get their monsters from 15mm and upwards scales so in my opinion there is not a real need for those though they would be welcomed. I think traditional fantasy is already covered though new ranges would be welcomed as well.
As I commented before, something totally new like Barsoom would be great; and not only monsters from Mars could be done in 10mm but flying ships and Martian buildings as well (here thinking of Frazetta's amazing paintings). Actually, what it refrains me from playing Mars is the scale, as terrain and buildings in 28mm would be so specific and costly to do, but in 10mm would be easier.
Ruleswise, I haven't found anything yet better than old Warmaster by Mr. Priestly; rules that allow you fast movement for big armies and clean and fast damage resolution without littering the battlefield with tokens. In our latest games we used the new orders system and unit formations from Hail Caesar together with Warmaster rules and then it worked perfectly.

Eureka did a 10mm fantasy Chinese range and another from black Africa. They both are very nice but I don't think they are selling them by droves. I guess a new fantasy range in 10mm would have to be three things to be successful:1) excellent miniatures like those from Copplestone, 2) a great new ruleset and lastly 3) support in the way of new publications and ranges as well as internet assistance with the rules.

Is Barsoom really suitable for mass battles? I don’t know the setting, myself.

I agree with pretty much everything else in your post, though. I like Eureka’s 10mm fantasy Chinese, but they’re missing basic infantry, which is quite an oversight. Then again, wish listing is difficult unless you know what does or doesn’t make sense in a given setting (hint hint).

I think that a strong IP that creates a coherent world is essential to a project like this working. Mythic Battles’ Joan of Arc game didn’t have a big-name IP, but they managed to turn it into a pretty compelling setting. The religious stuff isn’t my cup of tea, but it’s a great example of creating something big out of very little.

[blacksmith]

Big battles have a part in Barsoom; Red men vs. Green men, Black men vs. the Terms, flying fleets battles, etc. Some people have made Hordes of the Things Barsoom themed armies to play with. In the recent film John Carter of Mars we could see a battle of Zodanga army assaulting Helium.
Anyway, Being Barsoom or traditional Fantasy, a successful product would need to be a "boxed product" containing good, tested and widely reviewed ruleset plus armies, in the way GW works but with correct pricing, and then support and support IMHO.

[MattW]

Judging by how modiphius treat their other products, I’m sure that we can be confident that this will be well-supported. 


@modiphius: how long do you reckon this will take from concept to delivery? Are you thinking about Kickstarter?

[robh]

Is Barsoom really suitable for mass battles?

Where the John Carter books have big battles they are massive, several hundred thousand warriors per side. Force structure is based on 10s so: 10 (squad)-100 (utan)-1000 (dar)-10000 (umak), but virtually no details are given about how the weapons were allocated, in formal discrete units? or mixed formations? and all the city armies were the same.
Unfortunately there are no large monsters in the John Carter stories and those creatures that are present do not make up part of an army (although it is hinted that the Green men may use war dogs).

There is nothing that really pushes the books forward as a source for interesting mass battles for a wargame.

There is better scope for mass battles with the wonderful MAR Barker Tekumel stories or the Drenai books from David Gemmel or even (and I never thought I would recommend these for anything) the Shannara series from Terry Brooks.

[MachinaMandala]

I'd personally love 10mm Glorantha. God Wars are the perfect setting for that sort of thing.

[fred]

Traditionally, people get their monsters from 15mm and upwards scales so in my opinion there is not a real need for those though they would be welcomed.

To a degree. Giants seem to work well from 15mm ranges. But the hydras, manticores and some other creatures we have got, while they work with 10mm, are very big. Of course the perception of how big a monster should be is just a perception, but a lot of the 15mm ones are on the big size.

There are quite a few oriental ranges around, but most of them seem somewhat incomplete. And are from a range of different manufacturers.

A good set of fantasy mass battle rules, looks like it would be popular. Preferably a set that is geared towards smaller scales, and fairly small units, allowing lots of units on the table.

This was a multi-player, all day game, but the photo is only 2/3rds of the battle field, using lots of 10mm figures, and our home brew rules.



This is an two player evening game

[Hobgoblin]

I agree on more movement than realistic - there's nothing so boring as seeing a massive army, grind it's way closer then it's basically a dice war to see who crumbles. I want to see units racing for the ruins to stop the sorcerer, a last stand over here, a desperate push across the river before it's too late, a mad flanking sweep and so on.

I think Mayhem is one game that does that really well. It uses an "overdrive" mechanic so that the same unit can be repeatedly activated in the same turn, but at a high cost in command points (it gets progressively more expensive to activate the same unit). So if you want to pull off a flanking manoeuvre with your wolfriders (or whatever), you can go all out and have them race down the flank far faster than the rest of your army. That makes for a really dynamic game.

[modiphius]

Judging by how modiphius treat their other products, I’m sure that we can be confident that this will be well-supported. 


@modiphius: how long do you reckon this will take from concept to delivery? Are you thinking about Kickstarter?

Any good project really takes at least a year but realistically 18months to deliver a product line including a well tested game with community support, etc etc. Now we could be playtesting something sooner of course. Just takes time to get shiny boxes full of cool stuff developed.

[modiphius]

Love the pics Fred - nothing like playing a truly big game - i'm always one for putting *everything* on the table :-0