Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This is what I see in the Chicagoland area from my view on it. The GW games seems to be fairly prevalent here, and with a good amount of stores and the GW Bunker being around the Chicagoland area and outnumbering the your typical FLGS by a good margin it seems, that would make sense. Malifaux and Warmahordes seem to also be the next closest thing to what is popular in the Chicago land area, with Infinity having a token presences (although if you go into the city itself, there seems to be a a lot more Infinity and the other games more popular there...

Anecdotal evidence, I know....

Edit: I forgot to add that the Non-Gw games are slowly starting to get more and more of a following.

Here in the Dallas area, two stores have just clearanced all their GW product to get rid of it and only one that I know of is even still doing special orders. Apocalypse was the last major release they were going to stock.

OTOH there is a very steady WM/H scene and it seems to keep getting bigger as people show up and get involved.

 Tanakosyke22 wrote:
This is what I see in the Chicagoland area from my view on it. The GW games seems to be fairly prevalent here, and with a good amount of stores and the GW Bunker being around the Chicagoland area and outnumbering the your typical FLGS by a good margin it seems, that would make sense. Malifaux and Warmahordes seem to also be the next closest thing to what is popular in the Chicago land area, with Infinity having a token presences (although if you go into the city itself, there seems to be a a lot more Infinity and the other games more popular there...

Anecdotal evidence, I know....

Edit: I forgot to add that the Non-Gw games are slowly starting to get more and more of a following.

This pretty much jives with what I've seen (I'm in the city). There seems to be pretty strong presences here for WM and FoW. Also the amazing store "Games Plus" store in the NW suburbs seems to serve as an anchor for many less popular games such as Battletech. Not a daily presence, but regularly scheduled events for those kind of games.

 Eilif wrote:

 Tanakosyke22 wrote:
This is what I see in the Chicagoland area from my view on it. The GW games seems to be fairly prevalent here, and with a good amount of stores and the GW Bunker being around the Chicagoland area and outnumbering the your typical FLGS by a good margin it seems, that would make sense. Malifaux and Warmahordes seem to also be the next closest thing to what is popular in the Chicago land area, with Infinity having a token presences (although if you go into the city itself, there seems to be a a lot more Infinity and the other games more popular there...

Anecdotal evidence, I know....

Edit: I forgot to add that the Non-Gw games are slowly starting to get more and more of a following.

This pretty much jives with what I've seen (I'm in the city). There seems to be pretty strong presences here for WM and FoW. Also the amazing store "Games Plus" store in the NW suburbs seems to serve as an anchor for many less popular games such as Battletech. Not a daily presence, but regularly scheduled events for those kind of games.

Yeah, that is the case for Infinity as well as the group that I know of that goes to Games Plus meets up for Infinity once a month. Although it seems there are some people that are willing to give it a try in it.But yeah, Games Plus is a damn amazing store (I mostly go on Saturdays for WM/H and Infinity if anyone is playing that.

Where I live, which is a good hour drive from Mount Prospect to the North a bit, no one either a) Does not know the other games other than Warhammer since they are more of the little timmys or b) give you the stink eye for playing anything else than Warhammer 40k/ Fantasy. Then again, it does not help that there are no FLGS within my town or a 5-10 mile radius of that, but only a GW store. Not saying all people who play GW games are like that, there are some cool dudes, but I rather go make that hour drive and then try to see if anyone here wants to try a different game here really.

As someone who primarily plays 40k and Infinity (trying to make Infinity my main game), what can you all tell me about Flames of War and Dropzone Commander? Both sound suitably sci-fi enough to interest me. I have absolutely no interest in Malifaux. Its just not a science fiction type setting and those are what attract me to games typically (I can do some fantasy but meh).

Grndhog89 wrote:
As someone who primarily plays 40k and Infinity (trying to make Infinity my main game), what can you all tell me about Flames of War and Dropzone Commander? Both sound suitably sci-fi enough to interest me. I have absolutely no interest in Malifaux. Its just not a science fiction type setting and those are what attract me to games typically (I can do some fantasy but meh).

Flames of War is about as far from Sci-fi as one can get without getting into fantasy.

It's a WWII 15mm "mass battle" game. I.e. you have companies of tanks, artillery, planes, infantry, etc... and you can fight other people as you might fight another 40k player, or you can reenact major battles from WW2. The army books are based around major operations or points in the war, and you can generally find a way to have one army and play it through a few different books. It's split into Early, Mid, and Late war you can technically play Early vs Late war, though there is a power difference between the wars since technology was getting better.

Dropzone Commander is a 10mm mass battle game where you have battlegroups of dropships that are carrying troops, whether it's tanks, infantry in APCs, etc... The game truly revolves around the dropships as those can move across the board quicker than the tanks and infantry, so it's about getting your troops into a drop zone, getting what you need, and getting out alive.

On that topic I've seen allot of Malifaux on sale recently.

Is this a new Edition type thing or is there a general dropping of the system?

 notprop wrote:
On that topic I've seen allot of Malifaux on sale recently.

Is this a new Edition type thing or is there a general dropping of the system?

There is a new edition dropping in a few months (was available for presale at GenCon) with all new plastic boxes (with several being available at GenCon). So people are either unloading because they got their new boxes, or they're unloading because they dislike the changes. I'm the idiot, I dislike the changes, but still love the models, the fluff, and the world. So I haven't sold anything yet .

And if Through the Breach is as fun as I believe it will be, then I've got minis for the game.

Eh. I think I'll stay with Infinity then. As much as I love history I don't think historical wargaming is my thing. History is best left to books and tomes for me to read about, not re-enact. And I perused the DZ Commander site today and while it looks cool I don't like the big scale of the game. Infinity appeals to me more what with you having as little as 5 models per side and each model acting as an individual squad. Also the background of Infinity is better for someone who is a poli sci/international relations geek.

Grndhog89 wrote:
Eh. I think I'll stay with Infinity then. As much as I love history I don't think historical wargaming is my thing. History is best left to books and tomes for me to read about, not re-enact. And I perused the DZ Commander site today and while it looks cool I don't like the big scale of the game. Infinity appeals to me more what with you having as little as 5 models per side and each model acting as an individual squad. Also the background of Infinity is better for someone who is a poli sci/international relations geek.

to be fair, its not necessrily all about recreating history. yes, you can re-fight the d-day landings if you wish, just as easily as you can re-enact one of the many famous battles in 40k.

but you can also 'explore'. take flames of war - yes, its a ww2 'historical' game. but its really, really well designed. i have been very impressed with it. and its just as easy to imagine some forgotten nameless battle in some godforsaken part of the eastern front between the germans and the russians. yes, historically we know what happened in the 'big picture' but in the mocrochosm of what is represented on a 6 by 4 board, we really dont care about all that. you can represent any number of skirmishes, scouting/recon missions, desperate last stands, with any number of attacks and counter attacks by any side during the early/mid or late war periods. Just like in 40k, 'you will not be missed' your germans will never 'win' the second world war, but you can 'win' those small tactical victories, and hold off those pesky russians for one more day. Within the war, it mwans nothing. To you, its still a vital battle. i suppose what im trying to say dont feel like you have to follow a script; or rather, dont let the pre-written script of ww2 deter you from thinking you cant have a say in it. dont exclude yourself from the joys of wargaming within a certain period of history-like i said, these battles wont change the war, but it doesnt change their relevance.

regarding infinity - its a great game. its almost brilliant. it has some flaws - the background isnt fully depeloped (its there, but its 'young', and nowhere near the scale of GW or PPs IPs) but its still solid. Big issues for me were (a) for a game with such a brilliant rules set, the presentation of said rules is godawful. Now, fair enough, its an english translation of the original spanish, but i found the layout and presentation to be nothing short of godawful. you genuinely have to dig through walls of needless (and needlessly small!) text, which is poorly written in a lot of places and the index isnt of much use half the time either! it makes the game come across as vastly more cluttered, clunky, and disorganised than it really is. If you can work through the appalling layout, you will realise it is one of the finest, smooth, and well flowing games out there - the rulebook just doesnt do it justice! My second problem (b) is this. its a small sccale skirmish game with about 10 doods per side. cool. but it strikes me as beyond ridiculous that they have a resurrected sun tsu, william wallace, joan of arc, saladin etc walking around the place, being generals of whole armies and getting involved in these wee warbands. personal gripe, easily solved with not bothering with 'names'.

Anyone know how old Infinity is? I think its been out since 2007? And its in its second edition, correct?

In my area especially friends etc. GW has pretty much died a death. No one plays any more.

Everyone eBay`d their forces and started collecting warmahordes.
Did also play malifaux but it also died off and even with 2nd the rules are not to anyone`s taste and the plastics aren't well received by me or friends.

Flames of War is pretty popular as well but its all Warmahordes pretty much week by week

I've never, in real life, even met someone who has played any of the non-GW games that the internet talks about.

Grndhog89 wrote:
Anyone know how old Infinity is? I think its been out since 2007? And its in its second edition, correct?

2005 I think, I remember buying my first model back in '06.

Deadnight wrote:
Big issues for me were (a) for a game with such a brilliant rules set, the presentation of said rules is godawful. Now, fair enough, its an english translation of the original spanish, but i found the layout and presentation to be nothing short of godawful. you genuinely have to dig through walls of needless (and needlessly small!) text, which is poorly written in a lot of places and the index isnt of much use half the time either! it makes the game come across as vastly more cluttered, clunky, and disorganised than it really is. If you can work through the appalling layout, you will realise it is one of the finest, smooth, and well flowing games out there - the rulebook just doesnt do it justice!

I'm not even sure why there is a physical rulebook. Right now it's nearly useless unless you are buying it for fluff/art. If you want rules the wiki is much faster to reference without the frustrating layout. If you want an army list or unit profiles you use the free army builders. I think Corvus Belli should just use the wiki and pdfs as a living rulebook and ditch the idea of traditional rulebooks. If people want flavor for the game CB can dump that stuff in a dedicated art/fluff book.

They're just about to release an artbook (for general sale) for Infinity.

Agreed on the only reason to buy the hardcovers, though. Fluff and art. Even the English language editor had issues with it (stuff got changed back AFTER he suggested how it should be written for native English speakers).

I usually carry the fan edit with me in a folder (not everywhere I game has access to a cell signal or internet) along with printed copies of the army lists.

As for the army builders - they're fine if you use an iOS or android device (windows phone, here) and the "official" builder is full of bugs and nowhere near as good as the previous version.

 DarknessEternal wrote:
I've never, in real life, even met someone who has played any of the non-GW games that the internet talks about.

Which is probably not all that uncommon. GW games have that critical mass thing going where they're the most commonly played games and even still in a lot of places the only played games.

Personally, I have to really search for people playing GW games outside of my group. When my friend and I go to the FLGS to have a game, we'll be playing 40k, and some other people might be painting their armies, but other games being played are either Flames of War, Warmachine/Hordes, Dystopian Wars or some PnP RPG. I've seen more people playing Connect 4 in my FLGS than I've seen playing GW games.

My personal group only really plays 40k, but is very slowly getting into Infinity and a couple of them want to get into Flames of War.

The more Infinity converts the better! It is a gem of a game.

I also want to break into Dropzone Commander, but that's going to take time, since I've only just managed to get two of them to get decent sized Infinity armies.

Though I could get the FoW guys into it, since it's still doing the small scale thing but sci fi.

Except that FoW is 15mm and DZC is 10mm.

It's the difference between 1/100 and 1/144.

Or to put it another way, between epic and FoW.

Whilst some terrain would transfer across, much wouldn't. Especially seeing that FoW is distinctly set in a past time period.

It's not Wierd War with martians.

 chromedog wrote:
Except that FoW is 15mm and DZC is 10mm.

It's the difference between 1/100 and 1/144.

Or to put it another way, between epic and FoW.

Whilst some terrain would transfer across, much wouldn't. Especially seeing that FoW is distinctly set in a past time period.

It's not Wierd War with martians.

I think he means the scale of the miniatures, and of the conflict itself - stands of infantry, platoons of vehicles, etc.

Exactly. The same guys looking at FoW are the same guys that were all over Epic, a 6mm game. It's not the scale of the miniatures, it's the scale of the engagements.

Dropzone Commander at least would be a better sell to them since it's still sci fi, and the new starter comes with a decent sized board full of city terrain.

Does anyone know if there's some sort of trial version of Dropzone Commander available? Or a beta floating around the net? I'm just not up for buying the rules untested.

I'm sure an FLGS would give a demo.

 DarknessEternal wrote:
I've never, in real life, even met someone who has played any of the non-GW games that the internet talks about.

I find this statement staggering, and almost want to call BS. While GW is a popular game, stores do sell other things and there are people that will play it.

 Alfndrate wrote:

 DarknessEternal wrote:
I've never, in real life, even met someone who has played any of the non-GW games that the internet talks about.

I find this statement staggering, and almost want to call BS. While GW is a popular game, stores do sell other things and there are people that will play it.

Don't think too hard about it. Like some other Dakkaites, DarknessEternal is prone to hyperbole and overstatement.

Still, if one lives in a relatively small town, never attends conventions, and only plays at a GW store or in a particularly focused FLGS, it's entirely possible to never meet any non-GW miniatures gamers.

 DarknessEternal wrote:
I've never, in real life, even met someone who has played any of the non-GW games that the internet talks about.

Variety is the spice of life. They day you meet someone who plays another game, and let them demo it for you, it'll be like Dorothy waking up in full color Oz.

Most of the Warmachine players I have met were old 40k players who had a story something like " I used to play X army until it got nerfed".

They were all powergaming d-bags.


There are a lot of flames of war players near me.

 AntomanElven wrote:
Most of the Warmachine players I have met were old 40k players who had a story something like " I used to play X army until it got nerfed".

They were all powergaming d-bags.

.

to be fair, its a valid reason as anything else. i enjoy the background and the modelling, but i also want to be able to play, and most importantly, enjoy the game. i find it hard to do that if my army is handicapped against all others.

Question though: why 'powergaming douchebags'. they're not necessarily the same thing - you can play competitvely and be a great guy, and you can not, and be a nob.

Well I regularly play a SoB army (and I don't even use allies), so I know how handicapped some can be.

I mainly play casual matches, I don't care if I lose because I don't associate with those manchildren who "must win every battle"

These people definitely fit into the powergaming cliche though.

I stopped playing only 40k when my local GW where I went to play closed down. I instead started going to the local comic book store. The scene for all these other games was so nice an healthy, I figured WM/H was something that had always interested me. Now I don't even take my 40k with me to the lgs, only wm/h