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Just wondering if I'm alone in my love for 15mm Science Fiction here on DakkaDakka? If not, what do you play, what forces do you have and for how long have you played?

Oh, and yes - pictures and obligatory link is applied below

My very own little blog about 15mm Science Fiction

Blog not found

Whoops :$ Corrected the link...

Ive always liked the look of 15mm scifi models and wanted to to play a game of it, but i did check out your blog pretty sweet stuff did you make Fireteam Andromeda because if you did i must say very nice work and i think im going to start playing it because the rules seem very nice.

Yes I'm the author of Fireteam Andromeda and it's going to be released late October / early November

I hope you like the early demo version!

Very nice stuff, when pay day comes ill be getting a army for it

There is plenty of love around here, but sadly it is not often on the club tables as these tend to be dominated by WH40k, Warmachine and if 15mm gets any look in it is Flames of War.

I have collected GZG stuff for years and am a great supporter of their excellent Stargrunt rules.

Nice job with those retained knights and muster figs. It's hard to find good painted pictures of them. The Old Crow vehicles look nice with them, something I wouldn't have expected.

What is Fireteam Andromeda?

As for 15mm Sci-Fi, I dabbled briefly, but my club and my own collection are all 28mm, so I quickly went back to 28mm. In the end I'm glad I did, as I prefer the detail and convertability of 28mm, and the way I buy figs (used, cons, auctions,etc), they aren't much more than 15mm.

Still, for those looking to play larger engagments with figures that have alot more detail than 6mm, 15mm is a great choice, and there are a ton of small companies putting out really good products.

If you are into 15mm sci-fi, you'll find a ton of fans here:
www.theminiaturespage.com

I found myself drawn to 15mm sci-fi by FUBAR and Gruntz, and now that Clockwork Goblin is making a plethora of Weird WW2 stuff, I may dive in and try out Secrets of the Third Reich in 15mm. I enjoy it, if only because I can get larger games in without so much hassle. That the models are far easier to store certainly helps. Cheaper, too, especially the terrain. The only trouble I find is that since a lot of the 15mm manufacturers are "men in sheds" (with some notable exceptions), it means buying stuff can be a bugger at times. Still, Khurasan, Rebel, 15mm.co.uk, Critical Mass Games and Ground Zero Games are all good times.

Still, I'll echo Eilif on saying those Retained Knights look great. I may have to get some for 15mm Horus Heresy.

One more note for anyone considering the Retained knights. I bought them and samples from a few other lines. Even though they are well over a decade old, the detail on them is some of the best I've seen on 15mm figs. They are from the HOF sci-fi range sold by 15mm.co.uk. They have a few other lines of figures which range from good, to just ok, but the HOF figs are really nice.

Eilif wrote:
They have a few other lines of figures which range from good, to just ok, but the HOF figs are really nice.

I'm currently spraying a batch of their cultists up. Either the moulds are so old that they're worn down, or the original sculpts barely had any detail. Not too bad for Chaos Cultists as I can just say they're mutated, but they're not exactly great models. If you were ever to get them, I'd suggest sculpting new hoods. Maybe tidy up the guns too.

I really like 15mm Sci-Fi though I've only been involved in it for about 18 months.

I play Gruntz 15mm and Tomorrow's War (in 15mm scale).

I liked Gruntz so much that I wrote an army maker/card builder for it - http://www.gruntomatic.com

I've got company size forces of Ground Zero Games UNSC troops as well as their Crusties. Plus plenty of APCs and Tanks for them.
Also got about 45 Khurasan Space Demons for those Aliens style scenarios

This may or may not be of interest to you guys but we have just launched our first Kickstarter campaign today to expand our set of ZAS mercenaries into a full blown army in it's own right. The Kickstarter can be found at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2144071917/critical-mass-games-zas-15mm-mercs if you're interested. We've only been live a few hours but already 50% funded, we have some 'early bird' pledges but they are going quickly.

Thanks for your time
Dale
CMG

I collect and build alot of Heavy Gear which isn't technically 15mm but it's close at 12mm (and looks good with terrain for that scale).

I always liked the looks and prices of Rebel Minis' stuff, and I have thought sometimes about using the original Rogue Trader rules, and just converting the inches to centimeters.

 AegisGrimm wrote:
I always liked the looks and prices of Rebel Minis' stuff, and I have thought sometimes about using the original Rogue Trader rules, and just converting the inches to centimeters.

I just picked up some of these and they are sweet, especially the Mekera 5 tank. Now to get my painting on.

I keep looking at 15mm Sci-fi and the range of minis you can get are great. It's tough at the moment though as there is so much stuff available and so many other games I'd like to try. I downloaded the Gruntz, Stargrunt, Dirtside II and the Fubar rules and am tempted to get even more, maybe even some Fantasy minis to play Warhammer 4th Ed with, though I'm also tempted to get some of the Warmaster minis too

It's a pity it isn't more popular as I feel the minis have great potential for both skirmish and mass battle games.

In general I think the models you can get look great and I'd love to start, I need more mechs and tanks in my life - just got a little bit too much going on at the moment

The great thing about 15mm (or any scale/game without multibasing) is that you can paint up figures based on what you like and then find the perfect ruleset.

Even with multibasing, you can often modify a ruleset a bit to make it suitable for the miniatures you have. My club plays 28mm and 10mm, but we use the same sets of miniatures to play several different games in each scale. Different games for each scale though.

15mm/1-100th scale has always been, without a doubt, my favorite tabletop scale. If only I had time to paint and convert more.

Ah, well, back to sculpting.

Best,
JBR

Personally, as far as 15mm sci-fi goes, it's all about Alien Squad Leader. Too bad nobody plays it around here. I've got two armies finished (including my personal favorite- weird war II space Nazis) and I've got three more in a holding pattern until I can both find an opponent or two and justify spending the money on something other than Dust Warfare.

I want to get into Flying Lead, and I have 15mm near-future US Army troops as well as terrorists painted up, but Ganesha Games just hasn't been showing that game any love. I'd kill for them to release full-on sci-fi rules for the system, as I've got a few Terminator-esque robot skeletons floating around my games closet too.

I used to play Laserburn and have heaps of 15mm figures.

I haven't played any for years but I keep thinking I ought to reactivate it.

Etna's Vassal wrote:Personally, as far as 15mm sci-fi goes, it's all about Alien Squad Leader. Too bad nobody plays it around here. I've got two armies finished (including my personal favorite- weird war II space Nazis) and I've got three more in a holding pattern until I can both find an opponent or two and justify spending the money on something other than Dust Warfare.

I want to get into Flying Lead, and I have 15mm near-future US Army troops as well as terrorists painted up, but Ganesha Games just hasn't been showing that game any love. I'd kill for them to release full-on sci-fi rules for the system, as I've got a few Terminator-esque robot skeletons floating around my games closet too.

Cool ruleset, but it's multibasing requirements kind of limit the use of the troops. Of course you could do magnetic bases with cutouts, but that might be a hassle.
That said, a 15mm force for Alien Squad Leader can be less than 50 bucks. Not much at all for a dedicated force.

I've played Flying Lead a couple of times and it's workable, but the gun rules seemed to slow down the wonderfully fast SBH-derived mechanics. We ended up enjoying In The Emperor's Name or Blasters and Bulkheads better.

Kilkrazy wrote:I used to play Laserburn and have heaps of 15mm figures.

Now that's old school. The genuine precursor to Rogue Trader!

15mm seems far better suited to the groundscale of more modern and futuristic combat than 25+mm. And it is much more affordable. I always wonder why it hasn't caught on more in that niche. It's the standard for WW2 games AFAIK.

 jmurph wrote:
15mm seems far better suited to the groundscale of more modern and futuristic combat than 25+mm. And it is much more affordable. I always wonder why it hasn't caught on more in that niche. It's the standard for WW2 games AFAIK.

I don't know that it hasn't caught on, it's just doesn't have as much visibility as 28mm. GZG and other companies have been doing 15mm for well over a decade. Even as amazing as many new 15mm sculpts are, there is somethign about the showpiece quality and visibility of a 28mm that is very attractive even if the scale is more expensive and greatly limits the scale of engagements that can be "realistically" fought.

It is fairly popular for WW2, but ww2 has always been an era that's been able to support a multitude of scales 1.258 (6mm aprox) micro armor, 15mm (Flames of War and many others before that), and 28mm (25mm in many cases) games have all been very popular for a long time. Even more obscure scales like 3mm and the various scales of naval combat have their adherents.

I think people like the ability to do big, flashy 'hero' minis for 28mm. Mecha games break this rule a bit, but 15mm tends to be more about the 'army' looking cool versus a handful of hero types leading a small force.

Heavy Gear Blitz is 'near 15mm' (1/144, 12mm-ish) and the mecha are multi-part, often similar in size and complexity to the more complex 28mm characters. (Most Gears are formed from 1 or 2 piece legs, possible a separate gas tank, a torso, 2 arms, a head, and a backpack, plus weapons and other bits. 5-8 pieces with a reasonable range of modeling for the more talented modelers to play around with.)

Tanks and vehicles tend to be more predominant in smaller scales. Making 'hero' tanks is possible... WWII games have a lot of historical basis for this as there's plenty of images of tanks being modified by their crews with either limited 'special equipment' (added armor plate or sandbags, stowage, radio gear) or custom paint jobs, but small-scale tanks still don't have the huge canvases 28mm vehicles have.

Me? i like 25-28mm minis for RPGs and skirmish games, but I prefer 15mm or smaller for wargames nowadays as it allows more interesting battles in my opinion.

I may have to check out Fireteam Andromeda.

I have always wanted to get into 15mm scale gaming, but I know nothing of what rules are the best/most accessible. I want a system that I can play as a secondary one to my 28mm scale games like 40K and AT-43, so it can't be "too" crunchy, but I want one with individually-based infantry (like 40K) as opposed to multiples on one larger base, but that also has enough customizable stats that I can create my own world and forces.

I was wondering about Gruntz, or even using the original Rogue Trader at half-scale (though it's vehicle rules are far too complicated and clunky), but It sounds like Fireteam Andromeda would have the best "simple but fun" rules that I could get my wife to play the easiest- as she would be my most readily available gaming partner aside from a buddy, but I am always shy about showing complicated rules to her, as she's not a rules-monkey.

Phoenikuz, one question: does F:A use points-based forces like 40K (or Gruntz)? I prefer to use points-based forces for relative balance, rather than scenario-based.

AgeisGrimm,
I don't know about the points, but one of the best things about 15mm is you don't have to choose. Paint up the force you like and then try them all. Gruntz, Fubar, Fireteam Andromeda, etc, etc. and when you want a little more crunch then pick up Tomorrow's War or try StargruntII.

By the way, Fubar and Stargrunt are free and the others are all very reasonably priced.

I've found this to be most helpful:

http://dropshiphorizon.blogspot.co.uk/

I'm looking forward to completing my hobby clearout in order to fund my first 15mm minis. I've already picked up Gruntz, Fubar and Stargrunt but will probably get Tomorrow's War and some others if/when I can.

Of course I'll tinker with my own ruleset and try and get my hands on some inexpensive terrain - I'm having real trouble finding 110gsm cardstock for some reason

Anywho I think Gruntz looks like the best option for now...

Recently started working on my 15mms. I prefer a ruleset with individual basing, and I'm enamored with Gruntz right now. As a back up, I'll either go Tomorrow's War or 5150 or somesuch. My wife said she didn't realize I had that many miniatures around here.

AgeisGrimm,
I don't know about the points, but one of the best things about 15mm is you don't have to choose. Paint up the force you like and then try them all. Gruntz, Fubar, Fireteam Andromeda, etc, etc. and when you want a little more crunch then pick up Tomorrow's War or try StargruntII.

By the way, Fubar and Stargrunt are free and the others are all very reasonably priced.

Thanks for the turn-on to Stargrunt II, I easily found the link to the free DL on boardgamegeek. I'll have to give it a look and see if it's something I would want to try, though it looks quite complicated in that "80's" sort of way.

I don't mind some crunchiness in my games (I prefer about the level of pre-6th ed 40K for complication, or somewhat less), but the wife really doesn't like rules, at all. And I would be painting up two armies and trying to get her to play against me, so something like Fireteam, with basically three basic stats for a trooper, is more down her alley.

I have heard of 5150, what is it like? I know I prefer games with individual-based infantry, and either by the unit or by the trooper points costs for easy matchups when I don't want to go the scenario route. The latter is why I don't care for Tomorrow's War, even as wholly customizable as it is.