Has anyone tried the Terminator game yet? - it's written by Alessio and shipped from Warlord... there were demos at Salute a few weeks back, but I didn't manage to try it among the chaos!
It's up for Pre-order at the moment - artwork looks good, and as an all-in-one boxed set, I'm sorely tempted - but haven't managed to give it a try yet...
I don't recall if anyone actually played the game but there are a few folks who read the rules and posted their thoughts over in the news and rumors thread on the game. Hope that helps!
Some friends of mine, inlcuding judgedoug, got to play it this past weekend and they thought it was a lot of fun. Hearing about the rules and the games they got to play are really tempting me to buy a box set.
My nightmare is to buy this only for AvP to come out days later. Pretty incredible considering I have waited about 20 years for both of these things to come out and then arrive almost on top of each other..
Great to hear that the mechanics work well in any case !
Pacific wrote: Ah, it's actually gone on sale in vendors?
My nightmare is to buy this only for AvP to come out days later. Pretty incredible considering I have waited about 20 years for both of these things to come out and then arrive almost on top of each other..
Great to hear that the mechanics work well in any case !
FLGS thru Warlord trade direct were able to get theirs a week or so ago
The rules are really quite phenomenal. Something I'm expecting the opposite of for AVP. (though I will get AVP for the figures, as I have also been waiting 20+ years)
How on earth are you meant to compare this to KoW?
I think by 'unified mechanic' he means that there is particular way of rolling dice, working out a result, that is carried out throughout the game and makes it easier to pick up as a result.
An example of this might be the 'roll above stat X and you are bust' of Infinity, or the 'score x on x number of dice, never modify the target' which is used in Jake Thornton games.
Pacific wrote: How on earth are you meant to compare this to KoW?
Shhhh! You're going to ruin it.
I think by 'unified mechanic' he means that there is particular way of rolling dice, working out a result, that is carried out throughout the game and makes it easier to pick up as a result.
An example of this might be the 'roll above stat X and you are bust' of Infinity, or the 'score x on x number of dice, never modify the target' which is used in Jake Thornton games.
While I would like to hear more of JudgeDoug's perspective about the rules, there was a smiley on my first statement.
Manchu wrote: I went by our FLGS earlier to get a copy but they were all sold out!
That is both impressive (depending on the numbers they had in stock) and surprising for me personally. Good for them and River Horse though.
Never underestimate the power of a good license ! I suppose the clincher will be whether they have managed to sell these in toy/board game stores, which would knock the sales levels up considerably.
Although I'm really glad that the game sounds like it is well designed, as has been said I have a lot more hope for this than AvP.
Growing up in the 8-16bit era of computer games I have an automatic and deep-rooted distrust of anything that comes out at the same time as a movie (although.. somewhat coincidentally I seem to remember Terminator on the Sega Megadrive being pretty good! )
BobtheInquisitor wrote: How does the game compare to Bolt Action, Starship Troopers or AT-43?
It is interesting that you mention Starship Troopers. SST is, in my opinion, the finest ruleset crafted by mankind, an amazingly finely tuned system that works perfectly for what it is trying to accomplish (dynamic movement, fluid actions, poor tactics leads to unrecoverable disasters, etc).
Terminator Genisys, when I first read the rulebook last week, gave me the same feeling that I got in 2005 when I read the Starship Troopers rulebook. It reads as a very well designed, very well thought out, tight ruleset. There's almost no room for ambiguity in phrasing - in fact, the precision of the elements of the rules makes this one of the most tournament friendly rulesets I've experienced BUT it's very, very simple.
Well, let's get to the nitty gritty. The system uses a unified mechanic in that there's always a target number you must beat when performing a task. This target number is static for every model. However, the model's ability to reach that number is based on a polyhedral die, from d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20. This die can be upgraded or downgraded in lieu of complicated dice modifiers. For instance, Aiming with Skill d6 means you hit on d8 instead. If it was Long Range to begin with, that's a 6+ target number. So your chances increase from 16.7% to 37.5% chance by the dice shifting up to the next in the chain. Downgrading below d4 = reroll if it's a success; upgrading past d20 = reroll if it's a failure.
This is taken from Stargrunt II, a fine and oft-honored ruleset from about 20 years ago. It's a fantastic way to allow for a huge spread of tasks and skills. And when I say it's a unified mechanic, I mean it's entirely unified. Any dice rolling in the game uses this system. You make a few rolls and you have learned half of the rules.
Models have a total of three stats, which sounds small, but even slight variances can cause huge difference in gameplay. These stats are Skill, Armor, and Resolution. Skill and Resolution, since they are a model's stats, are a dice type, Armor is the target number an enemy skill dice will need to roll against. So a Resistance dude has Skill D6, Armor 4+, Resolution D8.
So, what about actions and whatnot? Okay, here's the way it works. New turn. Whoever has Tactical Edge (roll-off or scenario based, etc) can decide who gets the first Impulse. When it's your Impulse, you roll the FATE die. This is a d6 with 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, FATE. If you roll FATE, you get no activations - unless you have a Command model who can use a special No Fate But What We Make (I'll mention that later). So assuming you roll a number, you declare that many models who are not already marked DONE to activate and place an activation marker next to them. Activate them one at a time, and turn the marker over to a DONE side.
When a model is activated, it can normally Walk, or can Run. This is where the included templates come into play - range templates which I originally thought would be useless but are in fact genius (and are precision engineered). There's three templates in the game of varying length. There's Crawl/Close, Walk/Point Blank, and Run/Short Range. They are of a very specific length and specific width. When you move, you put the template down in front of the model and pick up the model and place it on the opposite end of the template. After Walking, a model can shoot, or after Walking or Running a model can close combat. (Advanced movement allows templates to be split, so a Run can be two Walks can be four Crawls, and any mix, because the templates are designed to be intermixed, with the model itself serving as a pivot point. SO if you imagine this... a model then Walk then move model then Walk and move model is precisely exactly the same length as a model doing Run then move model). The templates are also the exact width of the standard base, showing the entire movement corridor that the model takes.
Assuming your model is going to shoot... well...What's the thing that sucks most about most miniatures games? True line of sight. Gone. Terminator uses Volumetric sizing - a great mix between Warmachine and Starship Troopers. A "size" is roughly one meter, so infantry are Size 2. The bases are integral and form the model's volume. So the included templates I reference above are precisely the width of the lane of fire that your model generates as well - so if you target an enemy, and a friendly base is overlapping the template, you can't fire (this is basically from Bolt Action but MUCH more precise). If you are on a Size 2 hill and you are Size 2, you count as Size 4 and can therefore see over intervening Size 3 and lower. Speaking of which, terrain! So, ALL terrain is classified as basically Clear, Impenetrable, and Difficult. All can have Sizes. Clear size 0 is the ground. Clear size 2 could be a hill. Impenetrable size 1 is a barricade. Impenetrable size 0 is a magma pool. Terrain can be in areas, which can be Dense. So a ruined house is Dense Size 2. Can't move through Impenetrable unless it's a smaller Size than you (and no Run). Can't Run through Dense. Can't draw LOS past Dense of your Size but can see out of and into Dense. It's all well laid out, the rulebook provides like a dozen examples, and leaves no room for ambiguity. [note: my ONLY complaint about the Terrain section is that the Rulebook specifically does not address multi-story intact buildings for urban combat, stating those rules will be covered in the future]
Okay so back to shooting. You check the range. Again, each of the range bands has the target number. Point Blank 4+, Short 5+. Anything over Short is Long 6+. Roll your ROF against a single target, so a plasma rifle has ROF 2 at Short and 1 at Long, so assuming target is within Short range you get 2 shots using your skill. If you hit, your target gets a cover save. Cover is always 4+. Now, this part is awesome. Soft cover - obscuring, like vegetation - d4. Hard cover, that can stop bullets, including other models, d6. Fortifications, d8. You get the best of multiple. If another model is providing cover, and the cover save is made, it gets hit instead. BEST RULE EVER: at Long Range, _everyone_ gets Hard cover even if your dude is standing out in the open. The rules specifically state that because of undulations in terrain that is not modeled on the tabletop, Long Range itself provides hard cover. In the military, this is referred to as micro-terrain, stuff that is never modeled in our games but exists in reality.
[Close combat is similar to shooting, but your Close range band is a 3+ to hit. If you are within close combat range of an enemy model, you cannot shoot! Only close combat. So you have to watch your movement.]
Let's say your shot hits. You now roll the power against the models' armor. So, our human resistance guy from above has a plasma rifle, power D8.
Human Skill D6 Armor 4+ Resolution D8 w/ Plasma Rifle ROF 2/1 Range Long Power D8 versus
T-800 Skill D8 Armor 8+ Resolution D20 w/ Plasma Gun ROF 2 Range Long Power D8
If your weapon Power roll get the target Armor, it's dead, gone removed.
If it's NOT - the model that was hit BUT NOT KILLED makes a Resolution Test. This is a 6+ test. If it rolls a 1, it retreats and is gone from the game, 2-5, it is REELING. (like lightly wounded or has taken some damage that knocks it down, on the ground)
What Reeling does is a whole host of crazy stuff. The model gets a DONE marker - or two DONE markers if it had none. (If a model has two or more DONE markers, it is Reeling)
This is important for two huge reasons - at the end of the turn, each model removes only one Done marker, so Reeling models will be "Done" on their next turn.
The second reason is very very important, but let's check something here first...
notice the Endo has, again, Armor 8 and Resolution D20. As you can see, a human's Plasma Rifle has a 1 in 8 chance of getting the Endo's 8 Armor. Meanwhile the Endo will be wading through humans. We'll get to that in a minute. But since most of the time a hit on an Endo will not kill it, your big chance is to get it to be Reeling. Remember, you have a chance of the Endo rolling a 1 on it's Resolution and be "damaged enough to cause critical systems to fail", thereby retreating the Endo. A larger chance exists to reel the the Endo - making it not be able to activate next turn. Reeling stacks! If you hit and the model Reels a second time, it adds another DONE marker. And so on.
Back to the important second reason Reeling is essential:
as I mentioned above, when you are within Close range of an enemy model, you can't shoot, only close combat. WHOA NOW! If you are within close combat range of a Reeling enemy model (and no other enemy models), you can execute them. It's called Hasta La Vista, Baby, and you get to use your ranged weapon (so full ROF) _and_ your Power is d20, automatically.
You see what is happening here? It's SO hard for Resistance guys to kill Terminators but with volume of fire, they can make them Reeling, and then move in and execute them. Just like in the opening sequence of Terminator 2.
And this is Resistance equipped with Plasma Rifles! By default they have Assault Rifles which are Power D6 - ZERO chance of killing an Endo at range - you HAVE to get the Endos reeling before you move in to finish them off while they are Reeling.
However - the one saving grace is that Heavy Weapons, those that are Power D10 and above, degrade a Resolution dice by one step. So an Endoskeleton hit by a missile launcher (power D20), if it survives, it's Resolution test is degraded from D20 to D12. Same with a Grenade Launcher (power D10 against target and all models within Close range)
But yay, you've now killed an Endo! The Endo gets to roll a D6 against 5+ and if it is successful, it's still alive and functional as a Crawler (which is not that good but still so very annoying)
... whew!
Well wait Doug, what about Command you mentioned earlier?
Ok, the Command stat is how the Resistance can operate effectively. For the Machines, with most of them being autonomous, there's really no commanders (though in the army list a small number of endos can be upgraded). However humans can take NCOs and Lts all over the place, most with Command 1 or Command 2. Command does the following:
if you roll a FATE, an unactivated model with Command can activate himself and any unactivated models within Command range (Point Blank) up to his Command stat
OR
if you activate an unactivated Command model with Command it can ativate any unactivated models within Command range up to his Command stat
as you can see, you can utilize Human command to activate 3 or 4 or mode models in a single Impulse and coordinate their attacks to Reel an Endo and then move in to execute it, or to attempt to Reel multiple Endos so they can't act this turn.
additionally!
at the end of the turn, Commanders can remove extra Done markers from models within Command range, up to his Command stat. This is effectively rallying soldiers who were normally, from Reeling, be unable to activate on the following turn.
Well, gee, humans are super squishy and will be dying left and right, but their Commanders can help them, certainly, but still, Machines are tough hombres!
Another rule also helps them: Machines have Mindless.
Endoskeletons never take cover saves.
They are moving slow and purposefully and not dodging around, so they do not ever benefit from cover.
Have you ever played a miniatures game where you don't have to worry about cover? Playing as the Machines is a wholly different experience from playing as Resistance. (going back to the SST analogy, I have not encountered such a disparate playstyle between armies since the Arachnids vs Mobile Infantry in the SST miniatures game) Your models are nigh invulnerable and are slowly marching forward laying down curtains of plasma death. Playing as Resistance, you are running around taking cover and getting out of LOS and trying to activate multiple models to gang up on the Endos and take them down one by one.
It is actually terrifying to play as the Resistance.
Well I'm probably overlong here and I've given a good overview of the basic rules, so I hope you have an understanding. The rulebook doesn't end there, there's rules for
Time displacement agents
Vehicles (tanks, trucks, apcs, tracked/ground HK, etc)
Transports (black hawks, apcs, etc)
VTOLs (helicopters/apaches, aerial HK, etc)
Ambush fire
Aiming fire
Splitting/suppressive fire
Larger games (normal games are 2x3, Large games are 4' or larger, and introduces Extended range 7+ to hit)
Other special rules (multi wound stuff like vehicles, etc)
More weapons
Infiltrators and Terminator-sniffing Dogs
A 1-6 Scenario and 1-6 Setup matrix, providing 36 different game types...and rules where each player has their own mission rolled secretly
Scenarios from the films
a huge section on making terrain and how they made an entire post-apocalyptic terrain table from scratch, step by step
The rulebook is a masterpiece, honestly. Everything is well laid out and tons of examples and clearly worded.
The models are pretty great, too - though kind of weird at first because they are truescale. The Endos can very obviously fit inside people, so look "slight" compared to say Necrons.
Additionally the plastics are _really_ sharp, I took some pics compared to Bolt Action minis and will post them shortly.
OH and the models included in the wargame version are basically 500 point lists (very last page of the rulebook). 500 points is about the max for a 2x3 board, so it is literally a self-contained game. Expanding to 4x6 would go to 1000 or more points, so think of it like Bolt Action in terms of scale. Resistance would be like 30-40 figs plus some trucks and maybe a vehicle in 1000 points.
Anyway gonna go find those comparison pics and then get back to work
Here's some shots showing the Michael Perry sculpted Kyle Reese figure that comes with the game. These are the sizes and proportions of the figures. They are 34mm-ish? Compare to 28mm Bolt Action figures. They are about as true scale as you can get before going full 1/48 scale model kit models.
Also, here's a shot of the Endoskeleton sprue. Notice how small the parts are and how defined the chest bits are compared to the Bolt Action German dude. I chose this German fig to compare against because anyone with any experience with Bolt Action will know how goddamn thin and small those German rifles are.
Thanks for the rules lowdown. I'll have to read that a bit more carefully tonight. I did want to post that it looks like a 100% mission accomplished if the goal is to realistically fit that endoskeleton INSIDE the bolt action trooper. No unrealistic scaling there (for better or worse).
Great write up! I am really looking forward to a HC version of the rules. They are too good for a pamphlet. I seem to remember Mr Cavatore indicating this would work like LotR, with a smaller book generated by each movie and then a master rulebook after the movies finished up. I don't think I have ever wanted a movie series to do well so badly as now, and it really has little to do with the movies themselves, so much as seeing this line expanded.
warboss wrote: Thanks for the rules lowdown. I'll have to read that a bit more carefully tonight. I did want to post that it looks like a 100% mission accomplished if the goal is to realistically fit that endoskeleton INSIDE the bolt action trooper. No unrealistic scaling there (for better or worse).
Woops, my goal was to show that they are scaled NOT as heroic 28mm. The Endos are scaled in proportion with Kyle Reese and the plastic human resistance, which are very truescale. (they are way too tall for normal 28mm minis) As I mentioned, the miniatures are actually pretty close to 1/48 scale models (truescale 36mm)
My pic also only shows the Endo head w/ breastplate/chest... when assembled,the spine is a realistic length. Remember, one of the first sacrifices that heroic 28mm makes is the removal of the "waist" area (ref: Cadians, Space Marines, etc). Simply by adding in the several mm worth of a models' waist back in makes them more truescale. The game basically had to do that or the Endos would have been scaled like GW skeletons and looked very silly and chibi.
For example look at the pic with Kyle and the Endo sprue, you can see the Endo head, chest, and side parts, would fit perfectly inside Kyle, who is truescale.
Thanks for the rules writeup - its definitely different to what I've experienced in the past. Sounds quite intriguing.
Definitely will keep an eye on this going forward.
I was more referring to this pic where you could fit the endo torso and head and even the waist extension bars into the trooper.
I agree that adding a bit to the waist makes heroically scaled guys more truescaled though but the pic at least showed to me why they chose the size/scale they did. I don't fully support it personally but it puts their decision into context so thanks for the pics.
warboss wrote: I was more referring to this pic where you could fit the endo torso and head and even the waist extension bars into the trooper.
I agree that adding a bit to the waist makes heroically scaled guys more truescaled though but the pic at least showed to me why they chose the size/scale they did. I don't fully support it personally but it puts their decision into context so thanks for the pics.
Well remember the German's crotch is right below the actual belt so the length of the endo upper torso is a few mm taller than that German's torso.
I can post better pics tonight versus typical miniatures as my Endos are all assembled now.
Thanks for the write up. It sounds like the kind of game I might be able to get my friends to play. My only reservation is with the Done tokens, as token upkeep is what killed Star Trek Heroclix for us. It felt like we were moving and flipping tokens more than we were moving the starships.
I take it there are a certain number of impulses per turn and all token upkeep is done at the end of the turn?
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Thanks for the write up. It sounds like the kind of game I might be able to get my friends to play. My only reservation is with the Done tokens, as token upkeep is what killed Star Trek Heroclix for us. It felt like we were moving and flipping tokens more than we were moving the starships.
I take it there are a certain number of impulses per turn and all token upkeep is done at the end of the turn?
You continue alternating impulses until every model on a side has activated, then the other side activates all the rest of theirs. It may seem like Machines will activate less and finish first, but the Command options for the Humans means they tend to be activating more models per Impulse.
The only real token interaction is:
Impulse: roll for activations
place "I'm going to activate these models" token on models you're going to activate
Activate models in any order, one at a time, flip token to DONE when it's done
End of turn you remove one DONE marker from every model.
Since REELING adds DONE markers it's possible for models to remain "DONE" or even "REELING" (two or more DONE markers) from turn to turn,
which is a hugely important mechanic.
Being on Ambush is actually two Active markers.
The multipurpose double sides token actually cuts down on token clutter and crap since a single double-sided token takes care of Ambush, Activating, Done, and Reeling.
That's about it. There's a few other tokens for Dogs (if you don't have Dog models) or Command Value (if you can't remember the Command of your leaders for some reason; NCOs are 1, LT are 2, etc) and wound markers for multi-wound stuff, Time Displacement agents (which are re-rolls that cost points), Objective markers, fun stuff like that.
That reminds me! Another one of my favorite things is that as soon as a multi-wound model takes its first wound, it becomes SLOW (no run) and it's Skill is degraded permanently by a step. This is for multi-wound heroes (Kyle Reese, John Connor, 2 wounds each) as well as Vehicles (Abrams has 3 wounds). So the first damaging hit will always make a big powerful model all of a sudden suck a little bit.
Considering that FAST VTOLs when they "Run" can actually be placed anywhere on the board, when you can damage them, they all of a sudden have to loiter a lot more...
Pacific wrote: Many thanks for taking the time to write this up Judgedoug, really appreciated!
You've certainly sold this to me, just got in touch with my local gamestore now to see if they can get in a copy.
I know that any store that has a Warlord trade account can order it.
I just checked Golden (Warpath) Distribution and they only have the board game version Terminator Battle for the Future (which is the cheaper version without Full Rulebook and Kyle Reese) available for preorder
BobtheInquisitor wrote: What's the difference between the two sets? Just the rule book andReese? What is the price difference?
If I'm not likely to expand beyond the core box, which is a better deal? (Plastic HKs would get me to expand, but not much else.)
The Boardgame version is like $80, the Full version is like $110. MSRP of the rulebook (separately available in a few weeks) is $32 and I'd assuming Kyle would probably be like 10 bucks but I am not sure he will be available separately.
I bought a Pegasus Models Aerial HK (advertised as 1/35 scale, but based on T2 reference materials, the model is actually 1/58 scale, which is AWESOME) which is $40 retail but you can get it online cheaper. The model kit is gorgeous and I prefer the T2 look over the T:G style aerial HK.
Honestly with the core box having about 500 points per side, you wouldn't need to expand much more - maybe a 1/48 Abrams or Bradley and some Mars Attacks trucks for the Humans, and an Aerial HK and T-1000 and special weapons Endos (releasing metal later on) for the Machines side.
I got to the part where the guy introduced his mom and decided I would just ask now: at what point does the review begin, and is the review a distinct section from the battle report or whatever makes the video so long?
BobtheInquisitor wrote: I got to the part where the guy introduced his mom and decided I would just ask now: at what point does the review begin, and is the review a distinct section from the battle report or whatever makes the video so long?
thanks.
The second one is well worth watching.
First one was just some dude talking about his wife or something, that was as far as I got.
Don't quit your day job guys, which I'm gonna guess does not involve a lot of concentration!
In the first vid, the unboxing starts at 1:12 ... and the guy introduces his wife, as he explains, because she has never played any miniatures games and part of the review is testing Mr. Cavatore's contention that this game is concise enough that anyone can easily learn it.
Here's another ... one with Mr. Cavatore, even:
Automatically Appended Next Post: Painted up some endos:
I'm pretty excited about this. I only wish someone had considered that what people had wanted to see for years is something like those brief scenes of the future in the Terminator movies.
It's absolutely NUTS that we haven't had a strong Terminator, AvP (scrap that.. separate aliens, predator), Robocop, 'The Thing', Matrix, any other landmark action movie from the 80's/90's, miniature/board game before now.
I guess it is only now that the advances in bringing sculpts to mass production, internet comms, crowdfunding etc. (not to mention a big bit of industry growth) has been reflected in some of these big lisences finally being converted into quality miniature games.
Personally though, I reckon if GW hadn't become publically traded, they would have kept their imaginative edge, and ability to work with other lisences (as they did in the 80's/early 90's) and we probably would have seen a lot of this stuff from them.
Manchu wrote: And one for Bram Stoker's Dracula. They were laughably bad.
...and Army of Darkness.
But seriously it's probably because the licenses were often too expensive. AVP is kinda dead right now, so good time to purchase it. As for Terminator, Alessio has already indicated it was hella expensive and his own personal future is riding on the game, haha.
That was a factor in the downfall of the Babylon 5 games (both AoG and Mongoose, I believe).
You say "It's absolutely NUTS that we haven't had a strong Terminator miniature/board game before now.", but the difference in scale between the licensor and potential licensees is huge. Not many gaming companies can stump up the cash, because the minimum that Fox, Warner Bros or whoever ask for is a huge wodge. It's not just a matter of "the value of the licence"; there's fixed costs for the licensors - paying for the brand managers' time, accountants, legal fees, etc.
I can't provide a link but the buzz that I remember hearing at that time as a player was that they wanted alot of money. Whether that amount was alot compared to the previous licensing fee (unlikely but possible) or alot compared to how absolutely dead as a doornail the property had become in the years since (more likely) is anyone's guess. Asking the same amount for a license when you have no prospects of TV/movies, no mass market toy tie ins, no video games, etc as when you had most or all of the above is "alot". YMMV.
Well got the game on order! Really looking forward to receiving it
AndrewGPaul wrote: That was a factor in the downfall of the Babylon 5 games (both AoG and Mongoose, I believe).
You say "It's absolutely NUTS that we haven't had a strong Terminator miniature/board game before now.", but the difference in scale between the licensor and potential licensees is huge. Not many gaming companies can stump up the cash, because the minimum that Fox, Warner Bros or whoever ask for is a huge wodge. It's not just a matter of "the value of the licence"; there's fixed costs for the licensors - paying for the brand managers' time, accountants, legal fees, etc.
Yes Alessio did joke in a recent interview that he was finished financially if this game didn't have success, because of the cost of the lisence (although I don't know if he was being a bit facetious).
It's interesting though how quickly this has been able to come to the market when compared to Fox's AvP, which has essentially sounded like an exercise in having teeth pulled over the past 18 months. Obviously the company of that guy who owns Oracle, which I believe own the lisence now, must be a lot more relaxed about it.
Pacific wrote: Well got the game on order! Really looking forward to receiving it
AndrewGPaul wrote: That was a factor in the downfall of the Babylon 5 games (both AoG and Mongoose, I believe).
You say "It's absolutely NUTS that we haven't had a strong Terminator miniature/board game before now.", but the difference in scale between the licensor and potential licensees is huge. Not many gaming companies can stump up the cash, because the minimum that Fox, Warner Bros or whoever ask for is a huge wodge. It's not just a matter of "the value of the licence"; there's fixed costs for the licensors - paying for the brand managers' time, accountants, legal fees, etc.
Yes Alessio did joke in a recent interview that he was finished financially if this game didn't have success, because of the cost of the lisence (although I don't know if he was being a bit facetious).
It's interesting though how quickly this has been able to come to the market when compared to Fox's AvP, which has essentially sounded like an exercise in having teeth pulled over the past 18 months. Obviously the company of that guy who owns Oracle, which I believe own the lisence now, must be a lot more relaxed about it.
Or, we just never heard of any issues and the game was not announced until it was all worked out. Prodos, going the KS route, couldn't do that.
I believe Alessio said in the interview that the game was made in just a couple of months (I will have to check the exact wording), rather than the usual much longer period of time.
I suppose without seeing the T&C that both Riverhorse and Prodos worked under with the lisence it's not possible to sure (although mitigated somewhat by the fact I'll be putting together Terminators this weekend, and I've just about fething given up for waiting with AvP - it will come when it comes! )
Happened to walk into my FLGS and they had a copy on the shelf. They also happened to have a store-wide 20% sale running today, so this was a no brainer. I have no idea where I'm going to be able to work this into the painting schedule for 2015
Yeah, just took a look at the painting guide in the rulebook and realized I painted my Deadzone Asterians the exact same way. That took just a night to do the whole faction plus booster so endos will be a piece of cake. Resistance look to have a pretty basic paint scheme as well and probably shouldn't take much more than a week.
I broke down and ordered a copy today from The Warstore.
First model/gaming/hobby purchase other than a couple of books in a while. If I like it I'll sell some of my Prodos AvP crap if/when it ever gets delivered to help pay for any cool new models that come out for it.
I saw the box over the weekend and it is suprisingly small for a starter box of that type (rules, two sides, map, terrain albeit cardstock punch out). Not obviously a review of any sort but rather an interesting (for me) observation.
I won't lie, it's not massive value in terms of content. You're not getting piles of minis like something from Mantic or a Bones KS, that you could do for £70.
The miniatures also aren't the best I have ever seen. I would class them as 'acceptable' or 'good', depending on what you are comparing them to. The important thing is that they have got the terminators dead on (one holding two plasma rifles notwithstanding), and the resistance fighters are detailed enough and look pretty good from the painted samples I have seen.
But, what I will say is that thoughts of 'value' will disappear the moment you have had a few games. It really is awesome fun, I've had a tremendous laugh playing even the basic first few scenarios with friends, when you start sending TDD's (time disruption devices - basically agents back in time), trying to move resistance fighters in to finish off a stunned exoskeleton (or crying out "noooo!" as you fail to save one of your guys from a 'crawler') you will forget the crude playing area and 2D terrain etc. Easy to pick up and not having to do much rulebook skimming at all, my initial thoughts about it are extremely positive!
Yeah, what i've heard about the rules and having skimmed the AvP rule PDF from Prodos, I think I am going to enjoy this as a game a lot more than AvP. That is what got me to jump in on this. I know I could have just snagged the rulebook and used something like EM4/Copplestone terminators, but honestly, the quick play rulebook in addition to the full rulebook and the plastic figures I can paint with my daughter make the boxed set attractive.
The AVP rulebook is kind of a mess IMO. Terminator is a very transparent ruleset. You won't need to do any flipping back and forth to understand the concepts. The concepts themselves are very solid so far as gaming goes. The only complaint I have about the rules is, I don't see being able to use them for other themes* because they are so tuned into Terminator -- and of course that is actually a plus for playing the game itself.
Going by AVP pics, however, Prodos is way beyond River Horse in terms of miniatures.
* That is, it could be done with a fair amount of work. I have been thinking of how the Terminator rules could be used for AvP for example.
From looking at the AvP rules and a lot of looking at the Warzone Res rules, they do have a problem writing a nicely thought out and intuitive rules set.
Though after actually playing Warzone a bit the rules flowed nicely, it was just the damn rulebook!
Having read a few reviews for this I really like the sound of the rules so I'm going to pick this up. I don't think the box set is "great" value but is still the best way to get started.
I too have caved... after seeing the movie last week, I had to...
Managed to put the models together in about 10min flat... it took another 10min or so to become familiar/fluent with the rules... very elegant and 'clean' - the lack of modifiers means that there's next-to-no flicking back-and-forth in the rulebook... very refreshing.
Has anyone else toyed with escalating the game beyond the 'War Against the Machines' set?... I'm sorely tempted to hunt-down some vehicles and reinforcements... hordes of Endos....
volume wrote: I too have caved... after seeing the movie last week, I had to...
Managed to put the models together in about 10min flat... it took another 10min or so to become familiar/fluent with the rules... very elegant and 'clean' - the lack of modifiers means that there's next-to-no flicking back-and-forth in the rulebook... very refreshing.
Has anyone else toyed with escalating the game beyond the 'War Against the Machines' set?... I'm sorely tempted to hunt-down some vehicles and reinforcements... hordes of Endos....
I may have a new favourite game...
Yup, Alessio even mentioned that it would be so long before they got to the vehicles that they specifically included rules for people to use the currently available model kits and toys.
The game is basically 1/48 scale, and there's a plethora of 1/48 helicopters and tanks... bought an Apache for dirt cheap from Amazon (from "Bravo Team")
Mars Attacks trucks are perfect for pickup trucks for the Resistance...
and Pegasus Hobbies makes the Flying Aerial HK and the tracked Ground HK. I bought one of each and they are fantastic kits.
Funny, I've seen build reviews of the Aerial kit a while back and the modeller did not make any mention of the kit not matching up with other 1/32 so I expect that Pegusus had got the supposed scale completely right for that release.
CptJake wrote: Leading Edge had a Terminator game and an Aliens game if I recall correctly.
Leading Edge games were notoriously overcomplicated. The Leading Edge crew were all military men, and wanted the shooting in the game to be realistic.
When a game requires math skills beyond addtion/subtraction to determine target numbers it's a bit too realistic complicated for smooth play.
On the plus side, I have a couple of boxes of Leading Edge's T2 miniatures that may finally get put to use.
I believe that the lead author Barry Nakazono was a physicist, possibly even an honest-to-god rocket scientist. Word back in the day was they shot hundreds of rounds into pig carcasses to assess damage. In actual play, their games were super-detailed military simulations and they flowed just fine. Although saying that, the skill systems were good enough. Played Phoenix Command (moderns), Dragonstar Rising (SF) and Aliens (which was actually a much stripped-down version of the rules). Never tried the really complicated melee one (Sword of Glory??).
Once a character was hit though, they were often in deep trouble.
I can see that for some of their licences the game engine they used would be awful...
I have a set of the Aliens rules. Very "crunchy". I'd like to try them out, but I'm alone in my gaming group. Supposedly, much like the film, it's hard not to die.
First post on this topic, it's the AVP circus that makes me appreciate this game at this time. Very tempted. I'd really like to see some big Skynet kit. I have plenty of scenery bits n bobs that would work. (thanks Mars Attacks / Deadzone)
I'll need to find a way of buying a kilo of 28mm skulls though!
So the game arrived yesterday. I think I've been spoilt by the spoils of Kickstarter as the retail price for the retail box doesn't seem so attractive at face value. That said sometimes with the junk that comes out of kickstarter you're just lucky to receive something. The miniatures appear to do the job and I'd been after some terminators for ages. The rulebook seems good, I'm a fan of the fluff and appreciate the cheat sheets and quick start rules. Granted the scenery is a bit flat, but it makes it a game playable out of quite a portable small box. I hope the game is received well enough so that hunter-killers are produced however I found the miniatures relatively expensive so I'm concerned that they may be more than the existing Pegasus model kits. The scope of the game/rule set is what appeals to me. I'd like to throw some cops and swat teams at a terminator in a T2 setting. I'm sure its possible to make many other scenarios and cross overs with little effort.
There are points, but at least the scenarios in the quick start rules are listed for the scenario. In the big rule book you use the points for the most part.
I'd say a normal police officer would have worse stats than your average rebel. The cops ideally don't shoot at people in real world conditions on a daily or weekly basis whereas the resistance fighters probably do. SWAT though I'd keep the same though.
They look great man! (and so does the US WW2 stuff in the back there!)
I just grabbed a couple blisters of the new Terminator Specialists and Terminator Heavy Weapons metal endos and they are absolutely insanely detailed and gorgeous.
Warlord seem to have a cheaper starter set up on their website (although it is sold out arm) only £50 and from what I can see the only difference is it doesn't have the deluxe matt or ltd eat Kyle Reese model. If this end up being sold by third party store for say £45 I think it will help more people get into the game.
The film not doing so well hasn't helped. I think we need some hk flyers / tanks now to help get interest up.
Tamereth wrote: Warlord seem to have a cheaper starter set up on their website (although it is sold out arm) only £50 and from what I can see the only difference is it doesn't have the deluxe matt or ltd eat Kyle Reese model. If this end up being sold by third party store for say £45 I think it will help more people get into the game.
The film not doing so well hasn't helped. I think we need some hk flyers / tanks now to help get interest up.
It has the same mat as the more expensive version. What it is missing (besides the Kyle Reese model) is the full rulebook, it only comes with the quick start rules.
Quick start rules only, well that kinda kills the set for me. Will make sure anyone I know looking into the game goes for the full version.
Kinda a shame but explains the price difference.
That's an extremely cool idea. You can imagine them on some mega high-tech world where human beings have been overwhelmed by their cybernetic slaves, or something..
judgedoug wrote: Movie didn't bomb, it made a ton of money overseas.
Spidertank is resin.
You're both right. It bombed in the US. It was nothing special almost everywhere in the world in terms of box office receipts. It was a smash hit apparently in China.
They said a couple of days ago that they're shelving the sequels and planned tv show indefinitely. That's why I asked about the longevity of the game. The game makers were probably expecting to be able to ride the coat tails of forthcoming movies.
Mymearan wrote: They said a couple of days ago that they're shelving the sequels and planned tv show indefinitely. That's why I asked about the longevity of the game. The game makers were probably expecting to be able to ride the coat tails of forthcoming movies.
That's a shame, hadn't read about that before but just looked it up now.
You would have thought $440 million on a $150 cost wouldn't be that bad, but obviously these days things have to get $1 billion plus and pay for high class hooker parties in swimming pools full of champagne for them to bother.
Actually didn't think it was that bad a film (speaking as a massive fan of the originals) other than the fact the trailer absolutely fethed the film by giving away the plot twist, and it should have had a 15+ rating with a bit more gore. And, of course now there is a chance this great game system won't get as much of an airing as it should do
This was my concern with the game. It's survival was linked to a movie that was already on thin ice before it even released.
The game looks good and the thought of getting HK's is a wet dream of mine but I was worried about the movie tanking and subsequently taking the game down with it.
I think I read somewhere either on here or somewhere else where they said future expansions and releases would be based on the movie's success. That was a warning bell for me sadly but I wanted to wait and see how things would turn out.
I'm sure they have stuff lined up to release for the next year or two but after that I'm not sure what will happen.
NEW: TERMINATOR GENISYS CHARACTERS
October 16, 2015 - Latest News, Latest Products, Terminator - Tagged: Terminator, terminator-genisys
With the imminent release of ‘Terminator Genisys’ on DVD worldwide, the Terminator Genisys Miniatures Game has been flying out of the Warlord warehouse – and rumours abound – vehicles, new characters, heavy weapons. Who knows what will appear during the rise of the machines. This week, River Horse are delivering their latest releases to the Warlord Warehouse – Designer Alessio Cavatore takes us through the latest pieces for the action-packed, fast-paced Terminator Genisys game:
For the game to "take off" was hoping that the movie would be good enough to keep interest but bad enough to keep the licence affordable. I'm happy with just the starter box for now. But if T2 hunter killers are released, that's a game changer!
Terminator Genisys stuff is currently on deep discount for Miniature Market's Black Friday sale.
Edit: Looks like the rulebook and human soldiers are the best deal @ about half off.
I scored the softcover rulebook for $16, from miniatures Market.
I was going to figure out if buying the Terminators + Rules + Resistance + dice separately at the Black Friday prices was cheaper than the box set, but then I got distracted with lots of other shiny things.
Out of interest does anyone know of any good alternative minis for the humans/resistance?
Absolutely love the terminator minis, which by their nature are quite spartan, but would love something a bit more detailed for the human side (preferably in resin/metal, although would consider a detailed plastic kit)
I managed to watch the movie recently and it was pretty good up until they time-traveled into the future, at which point it got a little muddled. I still think the franchise needs a straight-up war movie, kind of like a zombie movie but with shiny chrome robots instead of squishy dead people.
It's not a bad film, I probably preferred it to T3 and Terminator Salvation. Of course not a patch on T2, but then that film has been elevated to the heavens now by nostalgia and it having been the greatest thing even when I watched it as a teenager.
If you haven't seen the trailer then you might actually enjoy it a lot more, there's a great twist in it but it was utterly ruined by the pre-release trailers that were running up to the cinema release of the film.
I really like the new film. It's my second favorite terminator film, and my third favorite Terminator story. Robocop verses Terminator, by Darhorse Comics, is still my favorite.
I thought the film had a lot of promising ideas and then failed to deliver on any of them. It wasted far too much time setting up plot hooks for a sequel rather than telling a satisfying story on its own. All in all, it wasn't cringingly bad like T3 or a colostomy bursting shartacular failure like TS, but it wasn't actually good in my opinion. Like the Robocop reboot, it had the seeds to become an envelope-pushing story, but it was strangled by committee as a mere shoot.
i must be the only person who actually liked Terminator Salvation...
I want minis of those bikes!!!
Terminator Genisys was fun, but like Pacific said, i hadn't seen the trailer first...
they've done a good job with some of the minis in this game...
the Arnie mini w/shottie looks great, and the Terminators look fun to paint...
i'm not sold on the humans, though...
always good to see Alessio has still got it...
seems like he writes good games...
In case anyone is looking for a cheap buy in for this game, there's fellow on eBay who sells Scratch and Dent games for dirt cheap. I've had nothing but good experiences with him and he has 4 for $25 each. I grabbed one just for the extra Endos.
That's actually a very good price. I thought for the size and number of minis/content, the normal msrp was way too high at $112 and should have been roughly half that.
Nomeny wrote: I managed to watch the movie recently and it was pretty good up until they time-traveled into the future, at which point it got a little muddled. I still think the franchise needs a straight-up war movie, kind of like a zombie movie but with shiny chrome robots instead of squishy dead people.
Well... Terminator Salvation? That was basically all Future War.
Not really. That was what I found so disappointing about it. No plasma guns, no hordes of shiny metal kill-bots. They invented stuff where there was already existing imagery. The only good scene was the one with Conner and the body-builder wearing Arnold's face, and that was ruined by having the Terminator be uncharacteristically gentle with the dude. That was something I liked about Genisys, was where the Terminator really had a go at Reese.
TheWaspinator wrote: I honestly wonder if the two versions are hurting the game. It is almost certainly confusing people.
There are two versions? I was kinda browsing it during Black Friday but had the same thought as Warboss about the boxed set.
Yeah, the cheaper version has a 16-pg rulebook whereas the more expensive one has a 128-pg rulebook and metal Kyle Reese figure. I believe that's the only difference. Same terrain, resistance soldiers and endos otherwise.
If I ended up getting that, a large part of the reason would be for the rules after hearing Judgedoug praise them so much. I'm guessing the 16pg version is both cut down in terms of scope and variety (just the basics of what the figs in the box can do in prebaked scenarios). The figs though do nothing for me so I wouldn't ever pay a $90 tax to get the book.
warboss wrote: If I ended up getting that, a large part of the reason would be for the rules after hearing Judgedoug praise them so much.
I'd recommend just buying the rulebook on its own, it is the most worthwhile item in the product line.
Triple9 wrote: In case anyone is looking for a cheap buy in for this game, there's fellow on eBay who sells Scratch and Dent games for dirt cheap. I've had nothing but good experiences with him and he has 4 for $25 each. I grabbed one just for the extra Endos.
That is a store local to me, the most well-established game shop in Richmond.
16 page rules? That sounds positively anaemic. I'd have thought if there were to be 2 rulebooks it might have been like the difference between the KoW main rulebook and the "gamer's edition".
Azazelx wrote: 16 page rules? That sounds positively anaemic. I'd have thought if there were to be 2 rulebooks it might have been like the difference between the KoW main rulebook and the "gamer's edition".
I just bought the bigger rules book, Black Friday Steal at $10, and I don't think there is much more space needed than 16 pages for the rules. The Forces of Humanity and Machines stat blocks are pretty utilitarian, like KOW, and each army's army list only takes up a page each.
There was a surprisingly comprehensive section on making terrain. I don't have it in front of me, but I want to say 20+ pages on how to make a modern building, a sump, terrain board, etc...
Lots of art, and a half dozen pages of Printable/photocopy ready game markers.
Warlord currently have a deal on the Terminator Genesys game where you can get the War Against the Machines boxed set, plus either extra resistance soldiers OR extra endoskeletons, plus two of the metal miniatures.
Can anyone recommend what would be the best extras to get if getting that deal? I was thinking extra resistance soldiers along with the T-1000 and Infiltrator. Can someone with the rules (and point costs) advise if that seems like a good way to go?
Sorry, like apparently most people posting/reading this thread, I don't actually have the game. My initial interest died out when the pics of the minis and the follow up price surfaced.
Albino Squirrel wrote: Warlord currently have a deal on the Terminator Genesys game where you can get the War Against the Machines boxed set, plus either extra resistance soldiers OR extra endoskeletons, plus two of the metal miniatures.
Can anyone recommend what would be the best extras to get if getting that deal? I was thinking extra resistance soldiers along with the T-1000 and Infiltrator. Can someone with the rules (and point costs) advise if that seems like a good way to go?
Yes, that would be my recommendation. Both the T1000 and Infiltrator are excellent additions to the Machine army - plus it allows Resistance dogs! And the 1000 is 200+ points by himself, could make a fun scenario of like a dozen resistance soldiers versus one T1000.
And yeah, two boxes of Resistance will help out immensely. Outfit half of them with plasma carbines, two with missile launcher, two with grenade launcher, and the rest with assault rifles/shotguns - these will be your chaff guys
TheWaspinator wrote: I honestly wonder if the two versions are hurting the game. It is almost certainly confusing people.
There are two versions? I was kinda browsing it during Black Friday but had the same thought as Warboss about the boxed set.
Yeah, the cheaper version has a 16-pg rulebook whereas the more expensive one has a 128-pg rulebook and metal Kyle Reese figure. I believe that's the only difference. Same terrain, resistance soldiers and endos otherwise.
Battle for the Future is the boardgame and War Against the Machines is the miniatures game.
The only difference between the two games is that the War Against the Machines has the full rulebook and Kyle Reese metal fig.
This means that both versions have the 16 page boardgame rules.
As an aside, the infiltrator and T1000 miniatures are both really awesome as well. I wish Warlord would release a Robert Patrick and T2 arnie (as the Terminator Genisys arnie and John Conner are exceptional), although i guess the lisence doesnt extend to that.
Does anyone have any thought on creating a good post-apocalypse terrain board? Was thinking of getting some ruins etc. to put on a Secret Weapon moulded terrain board or similar (realise I should probably have a look in the 40k section for something like this actually! Although obviously want to stay away from gothic architecture)
Mantic's Mars Attacks terrain should work pretty well, especially the ruins. This may be the only non-GW background that allows for the ROB pile of skulls terrain. Some WGF skeletons and a playground set would make for a nice homage.
Anyway, it looks like I have a copy of the game incoming. I also received an Aerial HK. How easy would it be for me to incorporate the HK into the game? I would love to try a group of resistance fighters against a single HK scenario.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Mantic's Mars Attacks terrain should work pretty well, especially the ruins. This may be the only non-GW background that allows for the ROB pile of skulls terrain. Some WGF skeletons and a playground set would make for a nice homage.
Anyway, it looks like I have a copy of the game incoming. I also received an Aerial HK. How easy would it be for me to incorporate the HK into the game? I would love to try a group of resistance fighters against a single HK scenario.
That's precisely what I got - a bunch of 1/48 dollhouse playground terrain, several sets of the Secret Weapon bricks, and several sets of WGF skeletons
I'm using a Games and Gears modern urban city board though.
And both the Aerial HK and Hk Tank are in the rulebook (along with Black Hawks, Apaches, Humvees, Bradleys, and Abrams tanks)
DO go get the official faq though, there's a range modifier thing that makes aerial HK's accidentally impossible to hit in some cases that is fixed in the FAQ.
Pacific wrote: Thanks for the tip about the ROB board Bob, that might be a good purchase and suit it really well. Will see if I can pick one up second hand.
Ooh and an HK, where are you getting one of those from?
The Aerial HK is a model by Pegasus games. The box says it is 1/32 scale, but the reviews say it's 1/56. It's roughly the size of a GW flyer, so I'm happy with it. Mine was a gift, but I see them on Amazon typically selling for $35.
My advice, if you get one, is to clip off the alignment tabs on the engines before you assemble it because they don't actually align the halves.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Mantic's Mars Attacks terrain should work pretty well, especially the ruins. This may be the only non-GW background that allows for the ROB pile of skulls terrain. Some WGF skeletons and a playground set would make for a nice homage.
Anyway, it looks like I have a copy of the game incoming. I also received an Aerial HK. How easy would it be for me to incorporate the HK into the game? I would love to try a group of resistance fighters against a single HK scenario.
That's precisely what I got - a bunch of 1/48 dollhouse playground terrain, several sets of the Secret Weapon bricks, and several sets of WGF skeletons
I'm using a Games and Gears modern urban city board though.
And both the Aerial HK and Hk Tank are in the rulebook (along with Black Hawks, Apaches, Humvees, Bradleys, and Abrams tanks)
DO go get the official faq though, there's a range modifier thing that makes aerial HK's accidentally impossible to hit in some cases that is fixed in the FAQ.
That terrain sounds awesome. Do you have any pictures?
Thanks for the tip about the FAQ! Still most of a month before my game arrives. Standard shipping.
Pacific wrote: Thanks for the tip about the ROB board Bob, that might be a good purchase and suit it really well. Will see if I can pick one up second hand.
Ooh and an HK, where are you getting one of those from?
The Aerial HK is a model by Pegasus games. The box says it is 1/32 scale, but the reviews say it's 1/56. It's roughly the size of a GW flyer, so I'm happy with it. Mine was a gift, but I see them on Amazon typically selling for $35.
My advice, if you get one, is to clip off the alignment tabs on the engines before you assemble it because they don't actually align the halves.
Brilliant, thanks for that!
See that Pegasus also do a land-based HK, do you know what kind of scale those bad boys are compared to the Warlord minis?
In case there was much doubt, it appears that future sequels might be cancelled as the next planned Genysis movie has been taken off the studio's movie release schedule.
Don't the rights revert to Cameron in a couple years? Maybe then we'll see some more Terminator movement. He was apparently a fan of Genisys, so who knows what will happen.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Don't the rights revert to Cameron in a couple years? Maybe then we'll see some more Terminator movement. He was apparently a fan of Genisys, so who knows what will happen.
Actors in bad movies usually are fans of their work during the paid marketing period as well... and then change their mind months to years later. There are some exceptions (like Sean Connery and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) but I wouldn't put too much stock into the spin of someone with a financial stake in the IP. If he does own it and the rights revert to him (no idea if that is the case), he'll change whatever he feels like up to and including everything.
In terms of the board game though, the "big rulebook" had rules for lots of stuff not included in the board game cut down version so hopefully that will keep fans of the franchise happy for a while.
edit: From watching the latest BOW video, Alessio's big bald head (is everyone around Nottingham required to shave their head in games design??) shows up on their remote screen and he shows surprisingly some previews of additional figures coming up. Maybe they were already in production and River Horse is just trying to make the best of a bad situation but it looks like there will be some additional support (multipe Arnie figures, a damaged john connor t-3000, pickup truck, walker drone, and flying drone) as well as a third "survivor" faction in 2016. Gotta say that this genuinely surprises me and I wish them well despite my thoughts on the initial release. I figured they'd cut their losses after 6 months of pretty much silence in terms of more releases and news in the wake of the relative (but not absolute) failure of the movie compared with expectations.
A great shame as it's a fething brilliant game, really enjoy playing it.
Something like this nose-dives because of a movie failure when some of the other fething dross on the market (that sells because of a company logo on the box) continues to exist. It ain't right!
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Don't the rights revert to Cameron in a couple years? Maybe then we'll see some more Terminator movement. He was apparently a fan of Genisys, so who knows what will happen.
Arguably the only person that can save Terminator is Cameron.. and sad to say it but it needs to lose Arnie and the crappy attempts at comedy, make another smaller, Indy, horrifying film that the original one was.
How are the size of the miniatures compared to the 2nd generation Infinity Ariadna miniatures (such as the Metros and Briscards etc)? I am looking for something which has smaller realistic detail and is scaled well with the existing Ariadna miniatures I have. The change in scale for Infinity has led me to go looking elsewhere for miniatures to fill the gap.
They'll offer it separately too. Just like some of the new plastic Bolt Action vehicles are released in platoon packs, then a few weeks later are released individually.
You knew the machines were about to lose the war when they had to resort to building from breeze blocks!
Wow hadn't seen those resistance models before, how long have they been around?
They look a lot better than the standard plastics, has anyone got them and can attest? Might well get some of these to mix in with the forthcoming Warlord special forces plastic kit to use as resistance.
Were those in the movies at all, or are they just getting creative ?
Even if they looked different, the terminator franchise has had small flyers before. Thankfully these look better than the ones in the T2 Ride at Universal.
Not loving the SpiderDog. I just see what role it fills. It's not a heavy weapons platform and it can't be an infiltrator.
Pacific wrote: Waylands Games have got a 30% off deal for Terminator stuff at the moment, very reasonable if you're UK based. They also have the starter set for £40.
I'm passingly familiar with all the Terminator Comics and movies, with an interest in all the Terminator Models. The Terminator Wiki is pretty crap to navigate, but does a good job of listing most of them. I couldn't find those two models, or the small Drones from the T2 Ride at Universal, on the Wiki, which is why I asked.
Some litle, and unrealistic, portion of my brain is in love with the idea of a Terminator RPG with ALL the terminator models.
Also, I disagree with that articles author about the Terminator/Robocop crossover being terrible. It does ignore the Terminator Mythos that John Conner will defeat the Terminator in the end, but it's written as a Robocop story, so he is of course the hero. It also may just be the kid in me, but armies of "robocops" battling armies of terminators was just what my inner robocop fanboi wanted, even if I had never dreamed of it.
When i heard hunter killer I got all excited. But the new models do nothing for me.
Nice that wayland have the spider tanks, will get one ordered. Also the starter at £40 feels more "sellerable" will try to bagder some friends to get into it again.
Were those in the movies at all, or are they just getting creative ?
Even if they looked different, the terminator franchise has had small flyers before. Thankfully these look better than the ones in the T2 Ride at Universal.
Not loving the SpiderDog. I just see what role it fills. It's not a heavy weapons platform and it can't be an infiltrator.
Late answering, but yes, the small drone appeared in T3. It shot a missile at John as they were making their way through the military base near the end.
Spider Tank is 30% off at Wayland. Probably the best price you'll ever see for it since it's basically a direct order item from River Horse at this point. I already ordered two and got them fairly quickly to the USA.
So finally got around to painting some stuff up (i'll put photos up at some point soon) and I have to say even with a basic table top paintjob the Endo's look amazing.
A few questions, firstly at the start of the year there were some preview shot of a resistance truck, is this going to be released or is the game effectively dead at this point?
Secondly looking at ordering an airfix tank / apc kit to add some big stuff, anyone have any idea if the 1:48 scale infantry would be any good for the resistance, as I hear this is what scale of the game should be. I was looking at something like this;
They just released the two Skynet drones, so there's still some releases happening.
I also bought the Airfix British guys - mainly to convert their rifles to Terminator 1 style resistance plasma carbines. I'll check to see how they scale.
Pacific wrote: There is absolutely no excuse not to buy that now!
Such a shame that it hasn't sold as well as they obviously hoped, to be practically giving the sets away..
Well.. since the movie (outside of china) box office total and the 25mm limited push fit pose truescale minis (outside of a few enthusiasts) were relative disappointments, I can't say I'm surprised. The relatively high pricing with little physical content compared with the kickstarter "deals" en vogue during its debut certainly didn't help either. If it had come out at that price in the first place, it might have garnered a following. I appreciate the info on the deals in the thread though.
It was a pretty big flop in almost every regard. I assume that Warlord will be dropping the franchise (and licence?) in short order like they are with Judge Dread. They just seem to be carrying too many game systems and licences to make any real sense.
The hefty original retail price and lack of quality of the miniatures meant that this was DOA.
I hope not, the game is an absolute blast! It's dice mechanic is unique, games are fast and bloody. It is one of my top skirmish games. I initially thought the minis looked off, but in person, they are awesome.
I picked up a couple of sets because of the Black Friday price, the positive rules buzz on here, and misunderstanding that the boxes did not actually come with neoprene play mats for the 20 quid. (oops!)
So anyway, I now have 30 Termi Endos on foot to paint - all apparently armed identically. Any advice on simple/recommended weapon mods from those who have put time in and played the game?
If you got / get the multipart resistance fighter set are plenty of extra weapons in there you can use for weapon swaps. A mini-gun swap is on my to do list.
In other news riverhorse currently have a sale on, the big spider hunter killers for £28. A bunch of stuff is sold out already but still some good stuff to pick up. And don't panic I understand they will all be re-cast and come back into stock again next year, just not in time for this sale.
I've got whatever the default minis are in the starter sets - as the box blurb puts it:
* 16 Resistance Soldiers (with a selection of weapons from missile launchers to plasma rifles!)
Anything else will have to come from my 40k, etc bits boxes.
Any recommendations? Plasma Rifles? Dual Plasma Rifles? Flamers? Miniguns? (and any suggestions on what to use for things like flamers?)
I'm more keen to paint them up right now than to pore over the rules to optimise the options, and some not-silly/broken variety would be best.
Two factions can work (just ask the Blue & the Gray), but moreover, the limited model options for this game doesn't really do much to help. I think the boxed set would have been helped a lot if one Skynet unit had been a non-terminator; say a mini-flying drone, spider drone or such.
I agree on the starter, at £70 it was far to expensive for a mediocre offering. But at the £27 I paid it was fantastic.
I then picked up some metal endo's with heavy / special weapons, which to be honest have issues, some parts are just too small / thin and bend way too easily.
The resin offering on the other hand are great. The resistance command pack of 6 models is great, and has loads of extra options. including head options to make some of them infiltrators for Skynet.
It's such a same the game didn't do better, as I would have loved hunter killers etc. Luckily there are some options available from other companies for these (if a little of scale). Biggest disappointment is the resistance truck that was previewed at the start of the year, which doesn't look like seeing the light of day now.
