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.
2022/10/14 20:59:20
Subject: Re:Archon Dungeons & Lasers - Encounters PM, D&L Heroes or Villains announced
I have their LOAD Unicast (?) and the miniatures look great. But, yeah, they are unusual, and I haven't found much use for them. (Haven't gotten around to playing LOAD because of the negative reviews.) Well, I'll just see the prices for the miniatures and go from there! (:
They could post pics of every mini from that pack in small groups (5-6 minis) like on the first photo, so the customer could look properly what is inside, but instead they chose to post two pics of the entire collection.
2022/10/28 15:00:00
Subject: Re:Archon Dungeons & Lasers - Encounters PM, D&L Heroes or Villains announced
I didn’t have time to catch the full AMA but picked up some bits from it
- Heroes and Villians will be 32 to 35mm scale they acknowledge that a lot of companies have moved on from 28mm so they need to as well. Full height details will be given for each mini in the crowdfunder.
- Encounters rapid delivery from 4th November
- Backers will get 4 sets (base on pledge level I assume) of the new forest bases - more than is required. I didn’t hear anything about them being sold separately but I didn’t listen to the full AMA.
Pictures
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/10/28 15:01:41
2022/11/02 03:24:03
Subject: Archon Dungeons & Lasers - Encounters PM, D&L Heroes or Villains announced
- D&L Encounters rapid delivery started today - 400 parcels out (as before there can be a backend delay in notifications)
- Next D&L retail release planned for end of January
- new sprues tooled see pictures
- Cart and Dwarven Entrance tooled - bases tool being cut
- extra base packs will be added to PM soon (after next update)
D&L Heroes or Villains includes hardback bestiary with D&D rules for the minis
- 32mm to 35mm scale minis
- new scenic base sprue (25 and 50mm)
- some terrain SGs included
This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2022/11/04 14:33:09
2022/11/04 16:17:17
Subject: Archon Dungeons & Lasers - Encounters PM, D&L Heroes or Villains announced
lord_blackfang wrote: Pressure to change scales must have been massive if they're making the next campaign incompatible with Woodhaven/Encounters
With any luck their 32mm range will be as underscaled as their 28mm range, so we end up with 28mm.
Truth be told, Archon make too many rash promises with their stretchgoals and then I suspect belatedly realised that humanoid miniatures take up a lot of sprue space each, and that they had to squeeze down to squeeze in.
People did genuinely and reasonably complain about the undersized miniatures, and that was capitalised upon by the minority after 32mm+. I said so before and will say so again 28mm is still where it is at, 32mm+ is good for some skirmish, but is a bad scale for terrain heavy battles, and is frankly unnecessary. 28mm is still the mainstay, has most of the major companies working this scale and nearly all the terrain including Archon themselves.
However defending 28mm is not done often as most gamers are asleep to the potential loss, while the handful of people who want the upward scaleshift are very vocal indeed.
It will be fine for Archon do do their own small scale (sic) 32mm+ miniatures line, but if they follow that as a general trend for their core competency, terrain, they will end up losing money over it.
n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.
2022/11/04 18:18:37
Subject: Archon Dungeons & Lasers - Encounters PM, D&L Heroes or Villains announced
lord_blackfang wrote: Pressure to change scales must have been massive if they're making the next campaign incompatible with Woodhaven/Encounters
Perhaps or maybe the minis they are drawing from are just bigger to begin with? - I'm not familiar with their old resins - so it's easier to say they are 32mm+? They haven't shown any human sized minis yet that will be the true sign that they have rescaled if they are bigger.
I do hope they have a book free pledge as well, I've no use for it and a hardback book will just add to the weight for shipping.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/11/04 18:19:40
2022/11/04 18:58:29
Subject: Re:Archon Dungeons & Lasers - Encounters PM, D&L Heroes or Villains announced
Hanskrampf wrote: Oh god, not 35mm giants. Let's hope they really settle on 32mm halfway-realistic proportions.
Proportion and scale are independent of each other, and the larger the scale the fewer excuses you have for heroic proportion, which mostly revolves around the durability of the model. We got heroic proportions because of old school metal castings and the need to add paintable detail in miniatures durable enough for tabletop play.
Reasonable proportion miniatures are perfectly possible for modern plastics, even the poster boys for heroic proportion, Citadel, have an established history of pulling off large range of realistic proportion miniatures with the Middle Earth franchises, and they didnt need to go over 28mm to do so.
n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.
2022/11/05 05:11:01
Subject: Archon Dungeons & Lasers - Encounters PM, D&L Heroes or Villains announced
The boat is the right kind of wrong. Exaggerated wood details which means it will look great with just a brown spray primer and a wash. Exaggerated proportions so you can fit several 25mm bases on it I suspect it will take seven without overlap, depending on whether you can slip the rims under the bench.
Very practical model for gaming.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/11/05 16:13:46
n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.
2022/11/09 10:06:37
Subject: Archon Dungeons & Lasers - Encounters PM, D&L Heroes or Villains announced
Hmm, I'd love to have a couple of boats for Frostgrave, but I don't really care about the rest of the swamp terrain. Pity you can't get them separately.
Oguhmek wrote: Hmm, I'd love to have a couple of boats for Frostgrave, but I don't really care about the rest of the swamp terrain. Pity you can't get them separately.
Oguhmek wrote: Hmm, I'd love to have a couple of boats for Frostgrave, but I don't really care about the rest of the swamp terrain. Pity you can't get them separately.
If you buy directly from Reaper, wait until their "12 Days of Christmas" promotion in December. (Reaper should have a BF sale as well.)
Dreasdmere Rowing Boat
I have two of this boat. I didn't get it on the Kickstarter (Bones 4) because I didnt like the Dreadmere set it was part of. I bought all I wanted from Dreadmere as single later and was happy with this choice.
The boat is cheap if you look for it.
What I did get in the Kickstarter (Bones 5) was Brinewind Expansion. I didnt buy Brinewind with the skeletons and pirates, I don't generally do a pirate theme as it ia too out of genre, I go medieval for RPG rather than gunpowder age, so any sailors I have are medieval miniatures and my ships are cogs, both Sarissa Precision Cog, or Zvezda Hanse Kogge, and I highly recommend both these kits.
But the Pirate City of Brinewind set is very nice. As with all Reaper sets there is some fillerjunk, but the mainstays are good.
A very nice large rowboat with a sail, two round tables and chairs, a wagon, several barrels and crates and four square 10'x10' deck sections. I regretted only buying one. So I bought two more in retail packaging at a reasonable price.
These are proproduction models, both boats are the same size as those above but different in design.
Dreadmere rowboat
Spoiler:
Brinewind sloop, image is large
The smaller rowboat called Dreadmere Rowboat is sold singly, it can fit two miniatures, It has cast in fishing nets and a hole to place a basket of fish at the stern you can fill this hole in. There are two small oars and a couple of loose fish. These are easy to lose. I recommend making a ^ of the two oars and then placing them on the rowboat, or gluing them flat to the deck next o each other so they don't interfere with miniature placement. One quaint feature missing in the above
The main downside of this boat is that while it is helpful to have more than one the boat has patch repairs and distress, this looks odd if you have more than one.
I had two so I took the time to file away the external planking on one and make it 'newer'. It mostly worked and was less trouble than it first looked as the plastic was easy to work.
If you don't glue fish to the bottom separate them entirely to add to plates in a tavern or something, meanwhile secure them in a tight container in your bitz collection or you will lose them.
The Brinewind Sloop is not available singly to my knowledge, only in the Pirate City boxset, which I believe to be worth the price. First it is not a sloop, but a large rowboat or jollyboat. If you bought Sophies Revene having one for Sophie is a good idea, and it sits happily on the deck.
The boat is a gunpowder era design, and has the Age of Sail 'pirate' feel, but is almost indistinguishable from a medieval rowboat from a few centuries earlier. It will not look out of place with George Washington on the prow, or a medieval knight. The square sail mast and spare are both removable, It will not be hard to make your own spare with a a billowed sail. The oars are big enough to not get lost, the deck planking is separated for painting and there are a number of small chest and barrels, a larger chest and a body in a sack. I like these cargo pieces. Most chests and barrels are fairly big, and represent large heavy chest or barrels that axct as mission foci or terrain, the crates and barrels in the set at large also have that dynamic, but the boat has some small chest and barrels which look like they can be easily transported by one man, and can be glued on a table rather than stacked next to one.
The body in a sack, is a great gaming piece, is it a murder victim to be disposed of, or a captive held to ransom. The piece has its own story.
n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.
2022/11/13 01:54:59
Subject: Archon Dungeons & Lasers - Encounters PM, D&L Heroes or Villains announced
This makes a large cog at 28mm scale, about 200 tons burthen.
This model varies enormously in price and availability and is known under several names.
You will need to height extend any castle you add to it, both under the castle deck and the deck walls.
Yopu will also need to replace the ladders with 28mm ones and widen the hatches. This ship is otherwise more accurately 28mm.
This makes a small cog at 28mm scale, about 50 tons burthen.
This model is stable in price, and quite basic being an mdf kit. But genuinely good for a cog owned by a party of player characters.
Production quality and detail is lower.
I recommend replacing the ladders with higher quality ones, as the shortcoming of mdf show through with things like stairs and ladders, but otherwise the kit stands on its own. You will need to make your own sail.
n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.
2022/11/14 16:54:23
Subject: Archon Dungeons & Lasers - Encounters PM, D&L Heroes or Villains announced
Oguhmek wrote: Thanks! That pirate boxset looks pretty good! Can always find good use for barrels.
If you are after barrels best sources are
1. Dungeons & Lasers old stretchgoal boxes
2. Mantic Terrain Crate
The Pirate City of Brinewind barrels are nice but have hard shadow, some Mantic barrels stacks also have hard shadow but it is generally less obvious. they are also wedged so they only fit one way.
I don't mind barrel stacks, I have enough barrels from various sources that I made barrel stacks, and even carved apart Mantic barrel stacks and re-glued them in different combos. But it you don't have a lot of barrels the lack of versatility might hinder you.
If you have Sophie's Revenge this set is still good to collect, probably at least twice, the cargo frame fits well on the ship as below deck decor, having multiples makes sense, and you can permanently assign one of your 'sloops' as Sophie's jollyboat..
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/11/14 19:52:15
n'oublie jamais - It appears I now have to highlight this again.
It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion. By the juice of the brew my thoughts aquire speed, my mind becomes strained, the strain becomes a warning. It is by tea alone I set my mind in motion.
2022/11/14 22:41:56
Subject: Archon Dungeons & Lasers - Encounters PM, D&L Heroes or Villains announced
Probably easier to have everything in one thread as the Rampart thread has run it’s course for now the MOTU thread is rarely updated and HoM&M is unlikely to get its own thread so I’ve updated the title.
Going forward this is the Archon Studios news and rumours thread.
In news my Encounters RD arrived yesterday had a quick check and looks good to me some might find the hills a bit small but they can be used together and I have larger hills so these fit a need I had anyway.
2022/11/16 09:13:55
Subject: Re:Archon Dungeons & Lasers - Encounters PM, D&L Heroes or Villains announced
Both my girlfriend and I used to play a lot of HOMM3 so we decided to back this one. And the nice thing is, I won't even have to think about the colours!
In news my Encounters RD arrived yesterday had a quick check and looks good to me some might find the hills a bit small but they can be used together and I have larger hills so these fit a need I had anyway.
Thinking of gluing some of the hills together to make larger hillls for more variety.
Thanks, Lord Blackfang!
