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Hey All,

I am looking for a rules light system that can get my girlfriend onto the path of minature gaming. I was thinking Heroclix or Malifaux.

The bonuses for this are:
-cheap entry into the hobby
-Low model count
-Limited rules

I personally don't mind a heavier ruleset but I don't want it to be so overbearing that it takes away from the initial, ooh this is fun, part that I love about minatures. Anyone have any game suggestions or reasons for either system?

Thanks!!!

Any interest in X Wing or the new Star Trek game?

Song of Blades and Heroes. She can use whatever models she wants, and she can stat them up how ever she wants. The average model count for my games have been six or seven models. Also, the rules are 5 dollars.

Start with board games maybe? My girlfriend might be getting mice and mystics for her Christmas. She probably won't thank me, but it's worth a try I feel.

Super Dungeon Explore seems quite popular with the wives and girlfriends. But I haven't played it or tried to get my wife to play so I couldn't say from personal experience.

The miniature board game route seems like quite a good gateway to a bigger war gaming universe for the uninitiated.

 Ifurita wrote:
Any interest in X Wing or the new Star Trek game?

didn't think of those! that would be cool.

What kind of geek culture stuff is she into already? There are plenty of games that are great for entry level; the choice is really dependent on what she's into.

For instance is she likes anime, wait a few months for Relic Knights or go with Infinity. If she's into D&D and role playing then Warmachine or Hordes would be a good fit, Zombie, then Zombicide. Ext. Ext.

Would she have interest in playing Zombicide?

It is a board game, but it has some fun pop-culture analogs for its characters and miniatures, and lays the groundwork for introduction into more traditional miniature games by providing rules for movement, attack resolution, and identifying ability combinations to impact game play. Plus, it can be played quickly and it is cooperative, which I have found to be helpful when introducing non-gaming types to tabletop gaming.

Few suggestions:

X-Wing: Check out the X-Wing subforum, there are plenty of people that can help you out there. X-Wing is a quick, fun game with pre-painted plastic minis. Ships are sold in 1 of 3 ways. 1) $40 Core Set that comes with movement markers, tokens, 2 TIE Fighters, 1 X-wing, dice, rules, etc... It's a great buy and literally a must need. Unlike other parts of the game this one is almost always in stock. 2) $30 Large ship packs. These contain either the Firespray (Slave 1), the YT-1300 (Millennium Falcon), or the Lambda Shuttle. These are larger ships with a 2x2 base instead of a 1x1 base. and 3) $15 small ship packs. These are all the other ships like the X-wing, Y-wing, A-wing, B-wing, TIE Fighter, bomber, interceptor and advanced, etc... All the ships come with the movement dials you need, the pilot cards, tokens, and upgrade cards. It's good to collect at least one of all the ships, though you will find you'll want multiples of plenty of the ships. The only concern with this game is stock issues. When FFG released the game they bought 3x the amount of stock that they thought they'd need. This ended up being only 10% of what they ended up doing. So the game is extremely popular. This has led to some issues with getting in ships. Newer waves are having little issues being stocked, but trying to find Wave 1 or Wave 2 ships is like pulling teeth. Also you can buy the core set of this game at like your local Target. The game is simple to play and doesn't rely on fancy math or hard to read charts. You have a ship's guns (that are conveniently colored like the dice you need), you roll a number of dice equal to that number and you look for little explosion markers. Your opponent rolls his evade dice (again colored like the dice you need) and he's looking for a number of evades equal to the hits and crits you rolled. Movement is planned before you see what anyone else is doing, and you have pre-set movement templates. If you've ever played Wings of War, it's similar to that.

Dreadball: "Blood Bowl" in the future is the quick description of this, but it's a hex based sports game that is actually more similar to hockey or soccer. It's fast paced with 7 turns per player (or if you score high enough it can end in less turns). It's fun, it's pretty easy to learn, and the starting box isn't a bad buy at 50 bucks, which comes with a mini-rulebook, dice, roster sheets, Enforcers team, Orx team. Teams consist of 3 positions, striker, jack, and Guards. Strikers are your forwards and point scorers, Guards are the big bruisers and can't touch the ball. Jacks can do both, but aren't really great at either. Some teams have some of each (Enforcers), some teams have only Jacks and Guards (Orx), some have only strikers (Vermyn). Game is pretty easy to learn, and it's fun.

And I'd be a terrible salesman if I didn't pimp two games I helped with:
The first is Brushfire. Brushfire is a 32mm historical parody game where instead of humans evolving to be the dominant species on the planet, animals did. All the animals . It's really easy to learn, and the designers are here on Dakka (Cyporiean, miskatonicalum, and myself) and easy to get in touch with. The game features all sorts of animals from around the world from Red Pandas from China to cats and dogs of England to Hamsters in Prussia... Hamster Berserkers...

We have starter boxes available with all of the things you need to play including quickstart rules.

The second game is Endless: Fantasy Tactics. I'm not sure about you or your SO, but Endless: Fantasy is an attempt to bring those mid to late 90s JRPG games like Tactics Ogre to the table top. We have over 75 classes, characters, monsters and "bosses" that you can customize to suit your needs on the table. It's very easy to get into, with simple d6 mechanics and simple grid based movement. There are no starter boxes for Endless at the moment, but that's mostly because there are no factions in the game as players can just grab the models they like the look of and put them in a party.

Wargaming good but with a GF I recommended twister

Munchkin.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Munchkin.

This is only if you want to sleep on the couch.

My girlfriend did not really show an interest in things till i started to get into magic, she got on board with that and is now looking forward to trying zombicide and a couple of other board games, one having been mentioned already being mice and mystics.

For me its been about the social aspect, the idea we could play these types of games with friends over a few drinks and food seemed to appeal over the games themselves at first.

Also she loves fantasy fiction and has a like of bad zombie films, so neither magic or zombicide where a hard sell.

Long way off getting her to play a wargame, however not sure i ever would want that, its nice just to share a little geek with her while keeping some for myself.

My girlfriend has no interest in playing anything... she just wants some miniatures from kingdom death since she likes boobs (shrugs).

So to answer your questions:
1) I would qualify her geekyness as pop culture. She likes Star Trek and Star Wars but has only seen the movies.
2) DnD is too geeky for her
3) Zombies are not so much
4) She really likes marvel and the superhero stuff.
5) She doesn't like "ugly" models (as of yet I am not sure what exactly that means)

It sounds like X-wing might be the way to go!

The hobbit/LOTR sbg?

Da krimson barun wrote:
The hobbit/LOTR sbg?

I would say that to. Rule set seems simple enough. But I have no experience on any of the other non gw games.

I started my wife into board games with miniatures(Robo Rally), and RP games with miniatures that play a bit like tabletops(D&D) and have been trying to work her into other stuff ever since. So far she has accepted card games like Munchkin and multiple deckbuilders(LotR, DC, Ascension).

I got hard resistance to Catan(shockingly...I thought this would be an easy sell), the Risks of ANY variety, and she doesn't even like it when I play Twilight Imperium due to the 3am timeframe that the friends leave. :-P

Getting your woman to join you and the little plastic men can be a challenge. I personally just crossed one hurdle with my lovely girlfriend! She used the term "shooty" when describing her Fable character. Breaking the lingo barrier is generally the easiest, but don't make the same mistake I did and point out the reference. Now her Fable toon is going to be "choppy" she says, and I'm happy to let that one go by.

Next Step! Leave a codex under her pillow when she sleeps...

On a serious note though, she is an excellent photographer and she does enjoy taking pics of the mini's so that is one warhammer thing we share. Maybe if anyone else is dating someone who is handy with a camera that is something to try?

 Grey Knight Luke wrote:
So to answer your questions:
1) I would qualify her geekyness as pop culture. She likes Star Trek and Star Wars but has only seen the movies.
2) DnD is too geeky for her
3) Zombies are not so much
4) She really likes marvel and the superhero stuff.
5) She doesn't like "ugly" models (as of yet I am not sure what exactly that means)

It sounds like X-wing might be the way to go!

Perhaps the SUPER system. Essentially, a small group of heroes vs. a small team of villains skirmish style wargame using d6s.

 alanmckenzie wrote:
Start with board games maybe? My girlfriend might be getting mice and mystics for her Christmas. She probably won't thank me, but it's worth a try I feel.

There are plenty of board games that straddle the line between board game and miniatures game. Mice and Mystics is fun, though pretty dice dependent. You can dice yourself into a corner really quickly. But there's lots of games like this. Super Dungeon Explore is terribly fun, and the miniatures require assembly, so you get that aspect too.

You might also want to think about what she is interested in. There are lots of cool skirmish game systems that you can find in almost any genre. Is she into swords and sorcery, pulp era action, super heroes, zombies, etc etc? You might do well picking up a game where you can start small that really taps into something she loves and in which you can handle most of the 'miniature gaming' bits at first like painting the models, making terrain, and so forth. This might help to take off the pressure of seeming to force her into miniature gaming.

For example, my wife really loves Sherlock Holmes, so I could probably either find or design an RPG-like miniatures game that works through a Conan Doyle-style mystery in which she could run miniatures for Holmes, Watson, and maybe a few of the 'Baker Street Irregulars'. I know there's plenty of appropriate miniatures on the market, and if there isn't a game already done up, there's systems that might work out very well as a basis.

Something like that might take a ton of prep work, but it would also come off more as something you were doing for her, rather than you trying to get her to participate in something because you like it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Easy E wrote:

 Grey Knight Luke wrote:
So to answer your questions:
1) I would qualify her geekyness as pop culture. She likes Star Trek and Star Wars but has only seen the movies.
2) DnD is too geeky for her
3) Zombies are not so much
4) She really likes marvel and the superhero stuff.
5) She doesn't like "ugly" models (as of yet I am not sure what exactly that means)

It sounds like X-wing might be the way to go!

Perhaps the SUPER system. Essentially, a small group of heroes vs. a small team of villains skirmish style wargame using d6s.

Exactly. People seem to enjoy Hero Clix too, though that's not my cup of tea. You probably know your girlfriend better than any of us do, and in my opinion it comes down to trying to do something that you genuinely think she will appreciate or enjoy. X-Wing is really fun too, by the way, and very easy. But is all depends on what aspect of gaming you think will resonate the most with her. SUPER would be good if you think she would enjoy coming up with her own super hero, picking powers, making up a back story, and so forth. If that;s something she's into you can focus on that and maybe work together to find that perfect model.

At the end of the day, I encourage you to accept ahead of time that she might just not like miniature gaming. It isn't for everybody.

weeble1000 wrote:
Super Dungeon Explore is terribly fun, and the miniatures require assembly, so you get that aspect too.

The latest SDE stuff is already assembled, and the reprint of the core game will be this way as well.

Super Dungeon Explore is fun, light, and ties into videogame culture that is familiar to modern young ladies.

Would 3rd (or 4th!) the suggestion for Super Dungeon Explore!

Actually, any board game is a great way of getting any non-wargamers into it, not just girlfriends..

I'd suggest starting with something cooperative as opposed to something directly competitive (unless she's a naturally competitive person).

Saldiven wrote:
I'd suggest starting with something cooperative as opposed to something directly competitive (unless she's a naturally competitive person).

Absolutely. SDE is semi-cooperative, but there are fully cooperative games out there, Mice and Mystics being a good one, and really perfect for 2 players.

Simple games. Boardgames are good. Take it slowly. If she is into any computer games then see if there are any TT games of them. Just casually take said game up-dont push it on her. Let nature work her beautiful ways.

weeble1000 wrote:

Saldiven wrote:
I'd suggest starting with something cooperative as opposed to something directly competitive (unless she's a naturally competitive person).

Absolutely. SDE is semi-cooperative, but there are fully cooperative games out there, Mice and Mystics being a good one, and really perfect for 2 players.

Zombicide is cooperative, but it has a certain degree of imaginary violence that may or may not be her thing. If she's into The Walking Dead, she'd probably really enjoy Zombicide, especially if you tried playing the missions in sequence with the same characters, almost like an RPG or serial. This is most apparent with the Prison Outbreak expansion where the scenarios are designed with a serial progression in mind.

There are some deck building games that aren't competitive, per se, but do not have much in the way of antagonistic interaction between players, like Ascension. The players are competing with one another, but there aren't very many times where one player is directly messing with another, so it isn't really confrontational.

Something like that might take a ton of prep work, but it would also come off more as something you were doing for her, rather than you trying to get her to participate in something because you like it.

I like that. What I like more is that I want to do something with her. In the winter in Wyoming it gets pretty cold and going outside isn't so much fun. And we both get tired of staring at a TV. Since I love wargaming (and I don't get to play near as much as I like) I thought maybe she would too. But perhaps a board game might be easier to start out with (or board games). There are a ton of games I have that I haven't pulled out cause I haven't thought about it. She might like an Arkham Horror style game. Munchkin will be fun with a couple more friends.

I'd suggest starting with something cooperative as opposed to something directly competitive (unless she's a naturally competitive person).

I like this too, and this might make heroclix a better option for minatures. I'm not sure if LOTR (like mines of moria) is cooperative?

Malifaux

It's played sitting down on a 3x3 surface.

It uses poker cards and a "war" like mechanic at a fundamental level (the simple kids card game war that nearly everyone understands) instead of gobs of dice, which doubles as a way to connect to something more mainstream.

It has very strong female characters and leads, not all of whom are busty crazies (and some of whom are downright cool like Perdita Ortega), and a VERY diverse set of themes (Western, Horror, Zombie, Steampunk/Victorian, etc).

It uses a very low model count, but there's a lot of depth and room to expand, as the full game is played "Faction vs Faction" and not "fixed list vs fixed list," so you don't have to rush her out of it if you want to up the ante and she's getting into it.

It's in a more refined, simplified 2nd edition that is far less complex than it used to be, and far less complex than at least several other skirmish-sized competitors.

It's awesome!