Fugazi wrote: Anybody else weighing Stargrave Scavengers against Wargames Atlantic The Damned? Or getting both? Or what?
I’m curious if people are seeing an advantage to one or the other (sculpting detail, flexibility/utility of sprue bits, etc)
I see them as almost completely different. One is long coated scavenger's. The other is a battle scared yet-uniform army . Depends what you need. They're both so affordable that price probably wouldn't figure into it for me.
Both seen to have a fairly wide variety of heads, weapons and gear. If you like Aliens, Scavengers had the edge and if you like GW compatibility then it's Damned.
Fugazi wrote: Anybody else weighing Stargrave Scavengers against Wargames Atlantic The Damned? Or getting both? Or what?
I’m curious if people are seeing an advantage to one or the other (sculpting detail, flexibility/utility of sprue bits, etc)
At least in the UK and EU, the Scavengers are going to be significantly cheaper than the Damned, even backing the WGA crowdfunder.
Stargrave minis work out at 90p each at your 3rd party retailer of choice.
The Damned crowdfunder, with 5-box deal, works out at £1.26 each.
Both still pretty cheap but of course the 5-box deal means you're buying 120 miniatures... so paying more than £40 extra for them.
So for me, Scavengers + bits box is the way forward.
I'm thinking a box of Scavengers, WGA males, WGA females, maaaybe 1 command squad. Just to bolster my existing Cultists which are made from the old Wargames Factory Trenchcoat guys and some Anvil industry miniatures. But we all know how it goes: One day you'll wake up and realize your cultist force is large enough to be 120 strong and can be fielded as renegade guard
Just had a thought. Get US M1 helmets from your 3rd party bits vendor of choice and use them on the long-coated scavenger bodies. Paint them like Firefly browncoats.
Captain Malcolm Reynolds: May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.
"Bobby Jackson has made a set of 'Scavenger Captains' to be made in metal to lead the crews.
The release will be in July, look for an splendid Pre-order campaign, it's going be ace."
Anyone know how many different sculptors Northstar has sculpting stuff for Stargrave? I had the impression that Mark Copplestone was digitally sculpting the entire Stargrave line up until now. My mistake?
I'm asking as a fan of the line. When possible I like to know the name of the sculptor of the mini I'm painting, as I like to give credit where it is due.
As for Jackson's Scavenger Captains, I quite like them, and a couple of them would make great psykers.
Northstar's digitally sculpted Stargrave humans look slicker than GW's old metal Rogue Trader minis, but with their 28mm scale and classic sci-fi stylings, I think they'd make excellent and much more affordable substitutes for those out-of-print rarities, or mix well for collectors lucky enough to have both. I myself don't have any old Rogue Trader metal human figures, though, so I can't put that theory to the test.
I have used Badger Games before... And they are good... but It actually works out a little cheaper going through Northstar. Badger Games has a box at $28 +$7 shipping. So $35. Northstar has a box at 16.67 pounds and 10 pounds hipping... so $26.67 pounds (Which is $33.91). Not a huge difference but if you are doing more than one box the savings is more... I did the math when The female Barbarians and female crew 2 dropped and ended up ordering from Northstar.
I've been wanting to try a nickstarter since falling for North Star's metal minis. Their current stretch goals all fall a little short of full-fledged 28mm figures, although they seem to be gradually getting larger by design. (A dice, tiny bots, a broken 28mm robot . . .)
The question for me, particularly since this hasn't been advertised as a Nickstarter, is whether any further stretch goals are planned after the broken bot? Seeing as there are 23 days to go, I'd guess the answer is yes, but confirmation would be appreciated. If this is a kickstarteresque campaign with rolling stretchgoals, I'd like to know that before I commit.
Talking Banana wrote: I've been wanting to try a nickstarter since falling for North Star's metal minis. Their current stretch goals all fall a little short of full-fledged 28mm figures, although they seem to be gradually getting larger by design. (A dice, tiny bots, a broken 28mm robot . . .)
The question for me, particularly since this hasn't been advertised as a Nickstarter, is whether any further stretch goals are planned after the broken bot? Seeing as there are 23 days to go, I'd guess the answer is yes, but confirmation would be appreciated. If this is a kickstarteresque campaign with rolling stretchgoals, I'd like to know that before I commit.
On the North Star fb page for this campaign, they have commented that they need to make goals for future campaigns a little more challenging. They said that all three of the planned goals are now met so free gifts for everyone who buys in at the appropriate level before the deadline.
I probably won't be joining this one, then, as I don't really need more than a single sprue of the scavengers, so the deals aren't very compelling for me, and while the broken robot is nice, the three met stretch goals aren't all that interesting.
I still look forward to the next proper Nickstarter, whenever that is.
Some scuttlebot scuttlebutt: the scuttle-bots freebie is associated with the Robotics Expert II guys, one of whom is holding a scuttlebot perched on his arm, while the other is using a joystick device to remote control them.
Assuming they keep the freebie scuttlebots in scale with the one perched on the Robotics Expert's arm, these guys are going to be truly teeny, which explains the apparent simplicity of their design. They're kind of cute, like little chibi Daleks.
Maybe this was immediately obvious to everyone else. If so, cut me some slack; I'm a talking banana.
A Stargrave supplement of exploration and adventure, full of strange and wonderful alien worlds, species, and technologies.
Just beyond the rim of what was once 'civilized space' lies the vast, colourful expanse of the Erebus Nebula. Its protostars and wandering planets once made it the subject of intense scientific curiosity, with numerous expeditions venturing into its glowing depths. None of these expeditions were heard from again. Until now, that is. New signals originating from within the nebula have been detected. These transmissions convey incredible scientific possibilities – partial chemical formulae, schematics, and mathematical equations – any one of which would be worth a fortune if complete. Blinded by the potential wealth to be won, independent crews flock to the Erebus Nebula, heedless of the perils it may hold…
In this supplement for Stargrave , players chart a course into a mysterious region of space where not all the normal rules of physics apply. Crews will brave a host of new scenarios, facing terrifying dangers and making first contact with strange alien species. If they are fortunate, they will survive these encounters and may even acquire new technology and new recruits. This volume also contains expanded rules for crews' ships, including new upgrades, rules for emergency extractions, and thrilling events that the crews may need to navigate as they travel.
I was momentarily miffed about some of the heads being old sculpts with extra bits added on, but then I thought, this is aimed at campaign skirmish games, you can go full Necromunda '95 and make leveled up versions of the dudes you've already made.
From Northstar about the robot markers (see below) that came free with the last Stargrave promotion: "We might make these available to buy in the future, but it won't be for some time yet.''
Also painted Captains with Robotic Expert skill.
From Northstar Newsletter #311:
Our favourite game publisher Osprey Games have four new titles out in October. We've listed them below and you can pre-order them now. Please note Stargrave: Bold Endeavor. This is a new expansion for Stargrave. We will be making some new metal figures for this supplement, so if you want to hang on for a book/ figure bundle deal next month, then please do so.
More information will follow soon.
modelhunter wrote: When will we get a plastic set for Aliens and/or Robots? That would bring a new level to this fantastic game system.
Are you asking for truly alien-looking aliens? Because right now Northstar is simply going the rubber mask alien route with funny heads in the plastic kits.
As for robots, people have expressed an interest before, but such a kit has not materialized yet. Since Northstar has sculpted Sentrabots, Drones, a mining robot, and Slaverbots in metal, they may not want to undercut those products.
I think there is definitely a market for a couple different multi-part, modular robot kits. A couple of kits to cover different aesthetics… post-apoc scavenged bots, Lost in Space pulp sci-fi, “hard sci-f/nasa-punk”, Star Wars droids, Fallout Institute Synths… the list goes on and on. A modular, single scale set of kits that would allow customized robots rather like the robot building in Fallout 4. It certainly has been brought up before for a number of companies, including North Star and Wargames Atlantic.
modelhunter wrote: When will we get a plastic set for Aliens and/or Robots? That would bring a new level to this fantastic game system.
Not plastic but, if you 3d print, try some of the WGA Death Fields stl offerings as a get you by.
They offer a set of alien heads, an alien unit and, as an addition to their Cannon Fodder plastics, a new stl with space otters, turtles, a snake and a four armed beastie.
I'd like to see true Xenos and Robots that are like a 'Mr Potato Head' style, but a little more extreme with the interchangeable parts (eg Arms, Heads and Torsos).
Next Month will be Stargrave: Bold Endeavour month. Hurrah!
We won't have a new plastic box set (that's coming early next year) but we'll have 4 new character models, characters that feature in Bold Endeavour, and we'll do some bundle deals as well (it'd be rude not to!!)
Next Month will be Stargrave: Bold Endeavour month. Hurrah!
We won't have a new plastic box set (that's coming early next year) but we'll have 4 new character models, characters that feature in Bold Endeavour, and we'll do some bundle deals as well (it'd be rude not to!!)
I question the utility of the metal character models released to date. Daughter Ryza, Chella Rean and her sidekick Drix are human and one can make them from the plastic kits. Now non-humanoid tool-using aliens, that would be a different story.
Has there been any reviews of the new book come out yet other than the one on the official Facebook group by one of the admins? I'm curious about the new terrain rules and powers - which weren't covered in that review (they didn't show any pages from the book at all).
With the game I'm trying to write up captain profiles that line up with existing models, so the more powers the better. And well, having more choices in general is always nice.
Having came to this game from Necromunda (and that from Frostgrave), its finding analogues for that setting that I want to see more of. Not that the creator should be doing that of course. But more rules, or rules that can be rethemed, for fighting in the Underhive would be great. So I'm interested in these weird environment ones. Though honestly, I really should just look at the Frostgrave books as the rules are compatible and there's so many of them that asking for Stargrave to do something Frostgrave's probably already done is silly.
(A more official set of Designer's Notes on how to integrate Frostgrave's rules into Stargrave would be nice though. Like how to include Half Giants from Frostgrave with Stargrave Soldier types - so we can have stuff like Ogryns. Or Stargrave getting its own complex robot creation rules - as Frostgrave's ones are very focussed on specific spells and base upgrades that have no Stargrave analogue).
(Also, hah, my first comment here in 3 years. The Lead Adventure forum seems to not have a proper Stargrave board like it did for Frostgrave unfortunately)
Wyrmalla wrote: Has there been any reviews of the new book come out yet other than the one on the official Facebook group by one of the admins? I'm curious about the new terrain rules and powers - which weren't covered in that review (they didn't show any pages from the book at all).
With the game I'm trying to write up captain profiles that line up with existing models, so the more powers the better. And well, having more choices in general is always nice.
Having came to this game from Necromunda (and that from Frostgrave), its finding analogues for that setting that I want to see more of. Not that the creator should be doing that of course. But more rules, or rules that can be rethemed, for fighting in the Underhive would be great. So I'm interested in these weird environment ones. Though honestly, I really should just look at the Frostgrave books as the rules are compatible and there's so many of them that asking for Stargrave to do something Frostgrave's probably already done is silly.
(A more official set of Designer's Notes on how to integrate Frostgrave's rules into Stargrave would be nice though. Like how to include Half Giants from Frostgrave with Stargrave Soldier types - so we can have stuff like Ogryns. Or Stargrave getting its own complex robot creation rules - as Frostgrave's ones are very focussed on specific spells and base upgrades that have no Stargrave analogue).
(Also, hah, my first comment here in 3 years. The Lead Adventure forum seems to not have a proper Stargrave board like it did for Frostgrave unfortunately)
You make some great points mate.
I would love to see Joe write up something to help with crossover material, ala AD&D’s Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.
Ooh, that new soldier type would be very useful. I'd commented saying that to play "large" soldiers in Stargrave you can port the Frostgrave Half Giant rules. While this new soldier type is presumably more limited on their gear options than using the Frostgrave rules, this may be a way to bring in larger figures for crews.
I assume the model would be on a 30mm or 40mm base? Probably doesn't really matter in terms of playing that model, I'm more wondering regarding proxying large figures. Like how large a figure this profile could represent. I'm dubious that we'll ever get Warbot/ 40-50mm base sized crew members. But I guess once a crew member gets the "large" stat that probably makes how big you choose to model your figure redundant - as they already lose a chunk of their cover (so would have to be hiding around buildings to actually get a worthwhile save, not just barricades or random barrels).
Regardless, I don't really care for the model, but its in the style of the existing range - so clearly they're sticking with that, and people are fine with it. I'd be proxying the profile for a large robot, mech suit or ogryn. By the size of the model, and assumption it has the "large" stat I wouldn't be using my existing taller gangers for this though (they only stand a head taller than my other models).
I had assumed, based on the one review I'd engaged with of the book, that we weren't getting any generic soldiers (instead it'd be all ones engaging with the new ship rules). This gives me hope that I'll actually use this supplement more than for one off games.
My Pre-Order's apparently due on the same day my group's playing a game. So we'll have to see if my crew will be bringing along a power lifter that day, or just a boring flamethrower. :(
(Its the Infestation scenario from The Lost Prospector, so bringing loads of flamers is probably a good idea. ...But I really want to play with a mech suit I'd been planning on using the Half Giant rules for instead - even if it can't fit through doors or use cover)
Bold Endeavor arrived early for me. My review - ah, if you like ships then that's most of the book. There's a few things of interest outside of them, but that's the majority of the content. Useful things though are two of the new Soldier profiles - the ones that aren't based around ships. One's a 20 credit regular soldier who's armed with a carbine and light armour, a rare thing (most soldiers have Heavy Armour, or are specialists). And the Exosuit. Which on paper is quite similar to the original book's Armoured Trooper stat wise, but costs 200 credits (with a discounted 20 credit upkeep fee), and has some traits which would it useful for stonewalling any melee fights its involved in (I'd say making this Soldier a Robot would be an obvious buff too). There's a profile for another type of Soldier who has a radio so can be activated in the Captain/ First Mate phases too even if they're outside of 3'' of them.
As I'm using the Stargrave rules to represent the Necromunda setting, I think my group will have to retheme the spaceships as something else. The simplest thing would be the say they represent vehicle caravans if playing in the Ash Wastes. We're in the Hive though, so instead, with some renaming of things, they could work as a stand in for a gang settlement (which was what we were using the vanilla rules for). ...That may be a step back to Frostgrave though, with that game's player settlements, rather than spaceships.
The new Captain types were underwhelming for me. We get the Paladin who has some extra rules, however there weren't that many new Powers. If you're playing a melee based captain then there's a few which look quite good. Yet the new one for the Time Walker isn't that great (I was expecting a power that'd cancel out opponent's actions, or reverse them), with most of their core skills being from other books instead of new content.
Oh, and something weird I noticed about the loot in this book. The physical loot is mostly related to ships - which is fair enough, just choose to roll on that if you want ship upgrades. The Alien Artefacts though seem to mostly be quite niche, only being usable in tandem with certain powers - which if you don't have then they're useless other than to trade for credits. That these items exist is nice, but them being in a list by themselves rather than mixed into other loot rolls means that if you choose to roll on Bold Endeavor's Alien Artefact list most of the rolls aren't going to produce useful items (as your crew can only have so many Powers). I think I'd rather roll on one of the other book's loot tables with more generic items, as at least then you could find something that someone in your crew could use. Leave this loot table for using the Contacts Power or to roll up for items to buy at a trader (so you have a choice of purchasing an item, instead of wasting a roll). It looks like the credit value of items on that table have been increased compared to the vanilla table to compensate for this.
Got my copy of Bold Endeavour in the mail earlier today, will be fun to go through all the books and see what I can use for narrative solo / cooperative play, been itching to do something, anything sci-fi at this point now.
I just picked them up, and I'm really looking forward to messing around with them. North Star is fast becoming my go to miniatures manufacturer between this and the Frostgrave and Oathmark kits.
Shadow Walker wrote: 2D render of the new Stargrave Exosuit, a 'Specialist Soldier' type from the new game Stargrave: Bold Endeavour.
I could be interested in this guy, but I strongly suspect that the pilot will be inexplicably smaller than all other stargrave humans, allowing the mech to be proportionally smaller too, making it less expensive to produce.
Ideally for me, this would be a metal kit, and the pilot would be the same size as a standard Stargrave plastic soldier / crewmember / scavenger etc.
Those look great, but am I alone in thinking that they don't look very scavenge'ish? No problem there, I actually like them better without tears and such in the clothing. Very well suited for a variety of trenchcoated characters.
Talking Banana wrote: Looks to me like the new Scavengers sets are now the best ones to kitbash with Frostgrave cultists and / or Frostgrave metal darksiders heads.
Yeah, with Frostgrave Cultists heads they could form some nice space cult.
