[Warren Beattie]

Ironically I preordered through the Osprey site and was probably one of the last to get it. Didn’t even expect to get it before Christmas.

But now that it is here, time for modelling.

[Warren Beattie]

Alvin Molethrottler wrote:

So Mayhem looked good but it won’t be right for what I want (I know, I’m picky).

I was about to recommend it myself. Out of curiosity, what turned you off? The (usually) single dice roll? The command point allocation and activation?

I’ve bought the Legions of Battle and Lords and Lands rules myself. Both seem pretty solid, although I’d have to reacquaint myself with the finer points.

[Warren Beattie]

Excellent! Looks like great fun, and the use of Tau looks interesting. I’d also like to second Paul’s question: are the paper bugs readily available, or a private project?

[Warren Beattie]

Excellent! Thanks gents. 🙂

[Warren Beattie]

Angel Barracks wrote:

is it because people are more skilled at painting and can make flat surfaces look nicer than they could 20 years ago so don’t need lots of detail to pick out?

I dunno, whenever I see someone saying a mini was ‘nice’ or ‘easy’ to paint, it usually means clean surfaces with not so much stuff covering them.

I’m not so sure that the smoother look is all down to anime influences. Can’t say it’s not, but it doesn’t sit quite right with me. If you want to get meta I’d say it’s because society generally got more optimistic as the seventies and eighties waned, along with the cold war, so the general sci-fi look got a bit less archaic, creaky, and somewhat oppressive. But that could be a load of hooey. (Sci-fi doesn’t seem to have gotten too much more downbeat in aesthetic since the ‘war on terror’ and the 2008 credit crunch. Or has it?) Maybe it’s because Patrick Stewart and his crew were flying about in a sleek, shiny, white spaceship, spreading peace and love. 😛

[Warren Beattie]

Blimey, one of the best 15mms I’ve seen!

[Warren Beattie]

I’m definitely not fond of the kind of overwhelming magic that some editions of Warhammer were and are infamous for. That said, I’m not opposed to Kings of War’s level of magic (zap and heal) but it’s perhaps a little too simplified for my tastes. Same with HoTT. (I know KoW 2.0 has expanded magic a bit, but there are other things putting me off it that haven’t been addressed, at least not in the cheat sheet)

 

Rhoderic: I like the level of balance that Mayhem strikes. Six basic spells that must be bought out of the army’s points allowance, plus extra spells and rules for ‘binding’ in the expansion. Maybe not the sheer high level of customisation you might want, and you do have the ‘same old’ fireballs and teleportations; but some of the spells, especially the binding rules, might be more the kind of subtle magic you’re also looking for. Casting spells is initially like any other action during a player’s turn – you pay for it out of your army’s generated action point (command point: Cp) pool, with each subsequent action by the same unit (i.e. the wizard) in the same turn costing more Cps. There are also a couple of levels of penalties should the spell not be completely successful or if it’s a total failure. Then some of the spells also have additional consequences that might be applied in addition to the standard penalties. Magic can definitely be a foolhardy enterprise in this game!

 

MAYHEM

[Warren Beattie]

Personally, I’d switch it around. 🙂 As far as I can see, Wainriders and the ‘Easterlings’ of the War of the Ring are only two of the eastern races that troubled Gondor during the Third Age. But then I haven’t seen a lot (outside the movies, which I’d prefer to ignore) to show that orcs across Middle Earth are divided into sufficiently different races, except for Saruman’s hybrid Uruk-Hai. (and Sauron’s few examples of the same) But maybe I need to go back and read some more.

I know of a guy who also dislikes the movies, and is apparently in close contact with Christopher Tolkien as well as other big names in fantasy fiction and gaming (pinch of salt, I think) who’s in the process of sculpting a number of different 28mm orc races for Middle Earth. To be honest I think he’d be lucky to sell one…

[Warren Beattie]

Seeing as this is the most recently used part of the topic, I’ll butt in here.

Yep, as you probably know by now, Copplestone 10mms are pretty hefty. These days they’re labelled on his site as ‘big 10s’/12mm, which is at least more honest than labelling a 32mm mini as 28 or even 25mm. 😉 But way back when they appeared and I hoped to round out my handful of Battle of Five Armies minis, I was disappointed to see the CP orcs towered over the plastic GW elves. Some of the range even make Warmaster metals, which are ’10mm to the eyes’, look stumpy. Though they’d be fine enough with eachother or other ‘large 10s’.

I agree with the use of Ostrogoths – I’m tempted to use some Footsore Ostrogoths as 28mm Rohirrim myself – although I’m too fond of Anglo-Saxons to kick them all the way to the kerb.

I’ve heard recently that Dunlendings were supposed to be somewhat viking-like, as aggressive raiders upon the not-Anglo-Saxons. Seems to fit, although I viewed them as a bit more pictish or irish.

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