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Why did you never start or alternately stop playing/collecting Heavy Gear?
Never heard of it... what's Heavy Gear?
Don't like the mech minis genre in general.
Don't like the look of Heavy Gear specifically (art, minis, etc).
Don't like the price of Heavy Gear (books, minis, etc).
Don't like the mechanics of the game/silhouette system.
Don't like edition changes in Heavy Gear every 2-3 years.
Couldn't find any opponents to play against.
Couldn't find any of the products locally to buy.
Other (please elaborate below)
Inadequate support from DP9 (expansions, communication with fans, FAQs, etc).
Power creep and unequal efficacy between factions.
Poor resource management (playtesters, freelancers, website, etc) by DP9.

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Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User




I had only ever built 1 plastic hunter years ago and finally whipped my KS pack out of storage. After assembling the northern force last night I now understand why I had shelved them all those years back. They are rather dreadful in detail and proportions.

Luckily my 2 kickstarter packs are going to my brothers for their starter heavy gear stuff since I have a ridiculous amount of metal North/South/PRDF/Black Talon crap to work through.

edit: Dang found 26 yr old rafm minis and even they got more soul than the new plastics!
[Thumb - 20220218_074149_HDR.jpg]

[Thumb - 20220218_110036_HDR~2.jpg]

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2022/02/18 16:03:23


 
   
Made in es
Inspiring SDF-1 Bridge Officer






Duymon wrote:
edit: Dang found 26 yr old rafm minis and even they got more soul than the new plastics!


That, to be honest, is not hard. The polar plastics are really bad, from proportions to scultps to poses. I've heard the newer ones (regarding gears, so NuCoal and PRDF, because of course) are better, but I'm not sure to what extent (not many pics), and I've seen some stl detail packs in Thingiverse for the polar plastics to fix (after a fashion) some of the most egregious flaws of he models (to the extent that something like detailed hands and extra panels can fix the designs, that is: there's no fixing the proportions or the stilted poses achievable).
   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut






Duymon wrote:
edit: Dang found 26 yr old rafm minis and even they got more soul than the new plastics!

The only complaint I have about the original RAFM gears is the lack of poses, otherwise I think they're great. Certainly, they can be customized into something special.

[Thumb - CAS-3-Mod 1 rebuild pose.jpg]
Conversion 1

[Thumb - CAS-3-Mod 1 running pose.jpg]
Conversion 2

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/02/18 18:06:23


Ashley
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Made in us
Brigadier General






Chicago

Duymon wrote:
I had only ever built 1 plastic hunter years ago and finally whipped my KS pack out of storage. After assembling the northern force last night I now understand why I had shelved them all those years back. They are rather dreadful in detail and proportions.

Luckily my 2 kickstarter packs are going to my brothers for their starter heavy gear stuff since I have a ridiculous amount of metal North/South/PRDF/Black Talon crap to work through.

edit: Dang found 26 yr old rafm minis and even they got more soul than the new plastics!

Just to be clear, the RAFM figs are on the bottom?

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The Battle Barge Buffet Line

 Eilif wrote:

Just to be clear, the RAFM figs are on the bottom?


Yup. Bare shiny metal is rafm, dark plastic is current kickstarter plastic.

It's easy to fetishize the old RAFM minis but they also had their issues. As mentioned above, the rocket pods were pretty bad (literal pin pricks obviously done by hand as evidenced by irregular spacing) and the poses were limited with no in blister options. Something not mentioned is the horrible QA Rafm had at the time. After getting lucky and finding a huge local haul, roughly one fourth of the blisters had major mispacks like missing or mismatched parts. Like no engine or the wrong class engine (so not usable) or bad miscasts like melted butter SMS wheels/treads.

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Made in us
Brigadier General






Chicago

That's quite a failure rate!
How tall are those RAFM figures?

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My Project Log, mostly revolving around custom "Toybashed" terrain.
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Decrepit Dakkanaut





The Battle Barge Buffet Line

 Eilif wrote:
That's quite a failure rate!
How tall are those RAFM figures?


There is always the possibility that I was simply unlucky but I had issues with each squad of like gears that I built plus other blisters that I hadn't opened but just inspected to plan out additional squads. Also, my memory was incorrect... It was actually one in three blisters according to my old blog post.

http://sitzkrieg.blogspot.com/2017/03/malibu-jaguars-with-new-hat.html

As for the size, they're on average slightly smaller than old GW ogres/ogryn. From my old pic here, they look to be about 45mm to 55mm to the top of the head (so more with rocket pods) depending on the class of gear.


This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2022/02/19 12:58:16


We Munch for Macragge! FOR THE EMPRUH! Cheesesticks and Humus!
 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut






SoCal, USA!

 Albertorius wrote:
I've heard the newer ones (regarding gears, so NuCoal and PRDF, because of course) are better


I take it that NuCoal and PRDF are the beloved hotness, how do the metals compare? If one were to buy a few units of either faction as a small opfor vs South / CEF, what would you recommend? NuCoal or PRDF, old metal or new plastic?

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/02/21 09:39:55


   
Made in us
Imperial Guard Landspeeder Pilot




On moon miranda.

So, on the topic of the Polar vs NuCoal/PRDF plastics quality, you can pretty much chalk that up to learning curves. Polars were the most popular, so they got done first, and it just wasn't understood what all was involved in the process of going from metal to plastic. Utopia, Caprice, CEF, NuCoal, and Peace River came out way better than the Polars as a result.

For my $0.02, the metals I think still look better than any of the plastics for Terra Novan factions, and the NuCoal plastic Chasseur heads still don't quite look right, but other than that, about the only way to tell painted plastic Warriors, Cuirassiers, or Crusaders next metal counterparts at any sort of distance is the posing. The CEF plastics are probably in the middle for me, somewhere between the Polars and NuCoal/PRDF. That said, I think the Caprice plastics are actually better looking than the original metal/resin, while the Utopians you can only really tell the difference because the MRP's look more like normal rocket pods instead of the globe-launchers now.

 warboss wrote:
As mentioned above, the rocket pods were pretty bad (literal pin pricks obviously done by hand as evidenced by irregular spacing) and the poses were limited with no in blister options. Something not mentioned is the horrible QA Rafm had at the time. After getting lucky and finding a huge local haul, roughly one fourth of the blisters had major mispacks like missing or mismatched parts. Like no engine or the wrong class engine (so not usable) or bad miscasts like melted butter SMS wheels/treads.
Aye, lots of RAFM stuff missing parts, and of course now it's literally impossible to get replacements. Still looking for an extra Hunter arm

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Decrepit Dakkanaut






SoCal, USA!

OK, thanks. I'll keep that in mind for when I finish everything else on my plate.

   
Made in es
Inspiring SDF-1 Bridge Officer






At this size of the pond the differences are largely academic, honestly, as you can't really get any for non pants on head prices.
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut





The Battle Barge Buffet Line

 Albertorius wrote:
At this size of the pond the differences are largely academic, honestly, as you can't really get any for non pants on head prices.


Even the lightweight plastics boxes? Does shipping kill it more or import duties?

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 warboss wrote:
 Albertorius wrote:
At this size of the pond the differences are largely academic, honestly, as you can't really get any for non pants on head prices.


Even the lightweight plastics boxes? Does shipping kill it more or import duties?


Both, actually. You have outrageous shipping costs to start with, and when it arrives you pay taxes and "handling fees": the first is 21% of the total shipment cost (shipping included) and the other is... variable.

Sometimes, for added fun, you also have to go to the customs office in the recieving airport to actually get it, too!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/02/22 16:27:12


 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut





The Battle Barge Buffet Line

You might as well gate over to TN instead... that sounds easier! :(

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 Vaktathi wrote:
Aye, lots of RAFM stuff missing parts, and of course now it's literally impossible to get replacements. Still looking for an extra Hunter arm


Prolly the only way to get spare Rafm parts now is recasting your own
   
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Inspiring SDF-1 Bridge Officer






 warboss wrote:
You might as well gate over to TN instead... that sounds easier! :(


There was a time when I was willing to do it. That time ended a long while ago.
   
Made in ca
Fireknife Shas'el






A lot of the early RAFM stuff was just fine, the first few years I never had a mispack, missing part or really bad cast (and even then, lead pewter was pretty easy to work with). Their quality control took a HUGE dive at some point though. Most of the 'leftovers' that pop up on eBay and such come from that era.

But I have a lot of happy memories of the RAFM range. I cut my teeth on conversions using plastic bits, airplane putty, milliput and finally kneadatite to make gears that weren't in the range yet.

That was also when Citadel had that awesome Rust Ink of theirs and I used a ton of that stuff on gears.

   
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Fresh-Faced New User




New Eden Huni Infantry preview went up.
[Thumb - New-Eden-Forces-Huni-Rider-Infantry-Preview-1.jpg]

[Thumb - New-Eden-Forces-Huni-Rider-Infantry-Preview-2.jpg]

[Thumb - New-Eden-Forces-Huni-Rider-Infantry-Preview-3.jpg]

   
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Stalwart Veteran Guard Sergeant





North-East England

They look nice.
I still like the Peace River riders on the lizard things.

   
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Arsenic City

 Paint it Pink wrote:
the lack of poses, otherwise I think they're great. Certainly, they can be customized into something special.
Nice.

Tac-era (and Battletech 'mechs of that age) miniatures just after RAFM were definitely not easily modified, the alloy they were cast from being so hard that by the time you got done with your Dremel and a hobby hack et al more often than not the end result frankly sucked worse than having just left all of them with the same pose.
Of course, once any did manage to hit the table there inevitably ensued a cycle of endless repairs as fellow gamers just couldn't resist having to paw the shininess, knocking modified bits off willy-nilly.


 Albertorius wrote:
problem I have with hover everything is that the CEF used them to be able to handle any possible terrain... but it was all built with zero-g alloys and incredibly expensive.
Everyone and their dogs having everything hover, feels like cheapening it.
While I like the concept of WIGE combat vehicles as both direct fire combat support & close air support vehicles roiled into one platform, something akin to the original HT-72 but with a larger (when viewed from above) pentagonal, hexagonal, or octagonal shape would seem to make the most sense if you're trying to capture a ground cushion to float the thing.
Needing multiple, dedicated, vertical lift and horizontal maneuver engines would seem to make more sense as well, not just one set of directional thrusters trying to serve as both.

Conventional guns on the thing though, nah, and brings to mind the grounding rules from the old Centurion box gameset. I had no issues with the particle cannon/laser + varied missile type or rocket armaments of the HT-68 & -72 back in the day; that made a lot of sense.


As for cheapening it, I've never been able to understand the mindset (beyond pure greed, rule of cool sales of course) of why the Pod folks always feel the need to copy + paste so much from one faction onto another (across all of their titles really) yet all the while still try saying their factions are distinct.
Like seriously, duh? - they literally cannot have it both ways, but never hesitate to fail at trying to do both.

However, that being said, honestly there aren't a lot of distinctive "levitating" tank designs in various titles across the years from any publisher, rather an awful lot of retread concepts.

-
-

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2022/02/26 06:22:39


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So... edenite flying gearstriders? And Marvel-esque mini helicarriers? Alright then.

What's edenite gravity again?





(these miss the mark horribly hard for me)

Then again, they have dragon riders now, so... dunno, the more I see from Eden, the less I dig it, and I liked the first designs.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2022/03/04 16:20:33


 
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut





The Battle Barge Buffet Line

 Smilodon_UP wrote:

Tac-era (and Battletech 'mechs of that age) miniatures just after RAFM were definitely not easily modified, the alloy they were cast from being so hard that by the time you got done with your Dremel and a hobby hack et al more often than not the end result frankly sucked worse than having just left all of them with the same pose.


That I wasn't aware of. I was too angry at the time after having my whole collection (books and minis) squatted all at once after only two to three years iirc to pay attention. When I decided to give it another shot at the beginning of the Blitz era, Philip's designs were already being previewed and the tac ones looked inferior IMO so I never gave them a second thought.

As for cheapening it, I've never been able to understand the mindset (beyond pure greed, rule of cool sales of course) of why the Pod folks always feel the need to copy + paste so much from one faction onto another (across all of their titles really) yet all the while still try saying their factions are distinct.
Like seriously, duh? - they literally cannot have it both ways, but never hesitate to fail at trying to do both.

However, that being said, honestly there aren't a lot of distinctive "levitating" tank designs in various titles across the years from any publisher, rather an awful lot of retread concepts.


Levitating... Retread...




Automatically Appended Next Post:
 Albertorius wrote:
So... edenite flying gearstriders? And Marvel-esque mini helicarriers? Alright then.

What's edenite gravity again?

Spoiler:




(these miss the mark horribly hard for me)

Then again, they have dragon riders now, so... dunno, the more I see from Eden, the less I dig it, and I liked the first designs.


Same here. I was a fan of the golem hoverball sled... and it's only gotten worse from me. I'm guessing it was on purpose but the fan wings on that gearstri... I mean gargoyle look like a cape.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/03/04 16:24:55


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So what's the lore behind a lot of New Eden's stuff? Is it the oceanic resistance on Eden that's making all this stuff?

I guess then it'd make sense they have CEF-like hovertanks and Hover APCS if they captured CEF junk and reverse-engineered it. *shrug*

It is kind of blegh that multiple factions now have their own hover tanks (CEF / South / Nucoal / New Eden)

As for the golems I have mixed feelings on them. Will have to see how they look in miniature form and then I'll probably not do the whole wing-cape thing

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/03/13 00:37:19


 
   
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Death-Dealing Devastator





 warboss wrote:
Just curious to see why people on an independent gaming site never bothered to start playing/collecting Heavy Gear or alternately why they stopped if they did start. This is specifically geared towards people who are NOT actively playing the game currently but who may or may not be fans.


 warboss wrote:
Regardless, we finally hit 1,000 votes in the poll after 8 years sometime this week! Yay! I feel like there should be a celebratory cookie or something...


Don't know if it's still of any use, but I can share my perspective. As far as I am aware, nobody here knew anything about Heavy Gear until 2010. A couple of enthusiastic wargamers tried to push Heavy Gear Blitz heavily around that time, but were largely met with indifference. I don't think any stable communities were able to form around that game for a long time. Heavy Gear Arena got a little more traction, but never really took off either. I never tried the game personally, but have heard other people's opinion that figures' quality was awful, and putting them together was painful.

I personally liked some of the miniatures, but it didn't interest me nearly enough to try the game out. I can only guess that trying to promote HGB now will be even more futile, since people usually refuse to give a try to the game nobody's playing.
   
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The Battle Barge Buffet Line

 SgtBANZAI wrote:
Don't know if it's still of any use, but I can share my perspective. As far as I am aware, nobody here knew anything about Heavy Gear until 2010. A couple of enthusiastic wargamers tried to push Heavy Gear Blitz heavily around that time, but were largely met with indifference. I don't think any stable communities were able to form around that game for a long time. Heavy Gear Arena got a little more traction, but never really took off either. I never tried the game personally, but have heard other people's opinion that figures' quality was awful, and putting them together was painful.

I personally liked some of the miniatures, but it didn't interest me nearly enough to try the game out. I can only guess that trying to promote HGB now will be even more futile, since people usually refuse to give a try to the game nobody's playing.


Always good to have a fresh set of eyes/opinion in the thread. While I don't think DP9 took the results of the poll or the opinions expressed here to heart for those first years when it could really have made a difference, I do think that some more recent additions to the team are aware of the issues and are trying to address them in their respective projects. Whether those good intentions and efforts end up making it off of Robert's desk intact is another story though.

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My Moab mount had pretty bad slip on the metal arms so i checked and see if some spare plastic ammon arms would work and luckily they're a perfect fit.

I think if they fixed the small qa issues like mold slip on metals I'd def be buying more minis :0
[Thumb - 20220314_112627_HDR.jpg]

   
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Inspiring SDF-1 Bridge Officer






Yeah, model quality is... inconsistent, at best. Usually their resins tended to be better than the metals, and in all cases mould slip was unfortunately common.
   
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Fresh-Faced New User




DP9 price-increase just hit with just about everything going up 5-10%.

Some of the insanely priced stuff would definitely be the Black Talon and CEF lines, with a pewter CEF Heavy Frame squad hitting ~81 USD O_o

For less than the cost of a pewter Heavy Frame squad you can buy the Plastic CEF Army Set and then some, though I found the Plastic CEF miniatures very underwhelming compared the the beautiful pewter offerings -_-

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/03/18 12:01:47


 
   
Made in es
Inspiring SDF-1 Bridge Officer






Duymon wrote:
DP9 price-increase just hit with just about everything going up 5-10%.

Some of the insanely priced stuff would definitely be the Black Talon and CEF lines, with a pewter CEF Heavy Frame squad hitting ~81 USD O_o

For less than the cost of a pewter Heavy Frame squad you can buy the Plastic CEF Army Set and then some, though I found the Plastic CEF miniatures very underwhelming compared the the beautiful pewter offerings -_-



Ahahahah, oh, wow

There's something to be said for a company with prices that outpace GW's. Not good things, but things.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/03/18 13:38:26


 
   
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Imperial Guard Landspeeder Pilot




On moon miranda.

The resins are actually all cast by Fusion Models if I remember correctly. With regards to the metals, I've had lots of clean sculpts, a fair number of minor issues, and handful of unusable models (replacements were sent), I think it depends on who's doing casting that day

The CEF metals are unusually expensive, above and beyond most of the rest of the lineup, not entirely sure why specifically.

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