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 Ailaros wrote:


I went and got myself a copy of blade and heroes just because it's cheap and was recommended more than once.

You should have got the Warmachine rulebook instead. It's a really well made and enjoyable ruleset, a better game than B&H.

sing your life wrote:You should have got the Warmachine rulebook instead. It's a really well made and enjoyable ruleset, a better game than B&H.

Does warmachine meet the criteria in the OP? Or is it a game that you simply like more?

frozenwastes wrote:Mechanics that control the other side.

Yeah, this was what I was initially thinking it would have to be, though...

Eilif wrote:For cooperative, it works best if one side plays the GM side, and everyone else plays the good guys.

I hadn't thought of this, as obvious as it should have been. I suppose this works particularly well when you have a lot of players, as you just divide the number of minis by the number of good guy players, and as I've had a fair bit of experience moving around high-points horde armies in 40k, I could probably play the other side reasonably quickly.

In any case, thank the both of you for the links!

I think Force-on-Force and Tomorrow's War can be played solo fairly well due to the reaction mechanics too.

 sing your life wrote:

 Ailaros wrote:


I went and got myself a copy of blade and heroes just because it's cheap and was recommended more than once.

You should have got the Warmachine rulebook instead. It's a really well made and enjoyable ruleset, a better game than B&H.

That's an extremely subjective statement.

If you want a very well written, tournament-tight set of rules of medium complexity, that encourages combos and intelligent list-building and provides you with a very nice line of miniatures, then Warmachine is an excellent choice.

If you want a well written lite set of rules of low complexity that encourages narrative gaming and campaigns and allows you to stat up any miniature from any range, then Song of Blades and Heroes is an excellent choice.

Of course given the kind of ruleset the OP is asking about, it seems clear that in this situation, Song of Blades and Heroes is the better choice.

That said, I'm sure for some folks WM qualifies as an "easier, sillier miniatures game", but those are probably gamers who regularly play Battletech, Starfleet Battles,
Saganami Island Tactical Simulator and Tractics.

I think I also want to recommend Osprey Publishing's line of wargames with blue covers. The Osprey Wargames series. They're 64 pages, usually pretty simple and focused on a particular genre or type of game.

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/text_search.aspx?TextSearch=owg&Group=Book

EDIT: Looks like they're available through book store distribution channels:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=osprey%20wargames&sprefix=osprey+war%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aosprey%20wargames

 frozenwastes wrote:
I think I also want to recommend Osprey Publishing's line of wargames with blue covers. The Osprey Wargames series. They're 64 pages, usually pretty simple and focused on a particular genre or type of game.

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/text_search.aspx?TextSearch=owg&Group=Book

EDIT: Looks like they're available through book store distribution channels:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=osprey%20wargames&sprefix=osprey+war%2Caps&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aosprey%20wargames

Definitely a good choice. I've got In Her Magesty's name and Of Gods and Mortals, and they're both really easy to learn skirmish games based on proven game engines (In The Emperor's Name and Song of Blades and Heroes, respectively) and both give you plenty of pre-made unit stats as well as the ability to stat your own minis.

There's also a growing internet presence for toy soldier based gaming. I think it's spearheaded by current retirees going back to the gaming approaches of their youth when they painted up 54mm and 40mm toy soldiers. I was thinking of using something like In Her Majesty's Name with some 54mm plastic figures like these ones:



I'm sure some people would find them childish or silly looking. But that's the point. They're toy soldiers that cost less than a dollar each which have then been painted up with nice bold colours and maybe some black lining.

Maybe they'll hunt Shleich or HobbyQ plastic dinosaurs or something. That strikes me as something sufficiently silly that In Her Majesty's Name could probably be made to handle.

.

Add my vote to X-Wing as well. Its the ONLY minis game that I've managed to get my wife to play, usually she agrees to an intro game for whatever system I'm currently into, then refuses to play ever again. With X-Wing however we've been playing for nearly a year, and she's actually joining a tournament this weekend

For the record, she's not a gamer nor a geek, and unlike the average X-wing player on these forums, does not bother to memorize every pilot ability or upgrade card in the game. And yet she can still fly and win because the game is places more weight on maneuvering, bluffing and trying to out-guess your opponent, which she loves.

 cincydooley wrote:
Ted Terranova just released some Rivet Wars tabletop rules. I haven't played them yet, but should get a chance this weekend. I can give you a heads up about them on Mon or Tues?

I've played Rivet Wars and thought it was a lot of fun. The rules were explained to me in a few minutes, and within 10 we had a simple game going. Games weren't so long as to put new players off. The aesthetic style is cartoonish enough to differentiate itself from more "serious" games, and has the whole cute-dangerous vibe going for it. If I wanted to persuade a non-wargamer to try a competitve combat game, I would happily use Rivet Wars. I would definitely recommend it, and would consider getting it myself in the future to play against friends who weren't into 40k.