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Antares and Bolt Action are both great gaming experiences. Loads of fun. There's one store in town that sells Antares stuff and one club in town has it going on twice a month. It's not really spreading into the larger community though.

And everyone I've asked why says the same thing-- that some combination of the miniatures and the fictional universe doesn't do it for them. And it's not that it doesn't do it for them at all. In order to not pick it up it just has to do it for them less than what they're already involved in.

In my group it's more that we don't play Antares because the rulebook is a disorganized mess. It needs better editing and a more fluid layout. Other than that the game would be fine, it's got pretty decent mechanics, if you're used to a Priestley/Cavatore game you'll pick it up pretty quick.

We've been playing a good bit of Bolt Action at my club, as well as a home-brew Command and Colors we call Fantasy Banners.

I'm working on an off-brand Adeptus Titanicus I'm calling Titanomachia. Currently I'm working on getting manufacturing and fulfilment lined up before going cap in hand to Kickstarter.

You may have seen the thread I started about it in the News & Rumours forum.

Here's the link to my development blog:

www.titanomachina.blogspot.ca

Somewhere along the line, the Kids of War game has gotten into a pattern of 1st week - Kids of War, 2nd week - painting. Rinse and Repeat.

Which is fine - but somehow, only two or three of the painting kids are also in the Kids of War game...

The whole point of painting night was that the kids could get their armies painted.

What we have instead is a passel of young RPG kids.

The Auld Grump - most of the armies are unpainted, even now....

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
Somewhere along the line, the Kids of War game has gotten into a pattern of 1st week - Kids of War, 2nd week - painting. Rinse and Repeat.

Which is fine - but somehow, only two or three of the painting kids are also in the Kids of War game...

The whole point of painting night was that the kids could get their armies painted.

What we have instead is a passel of young RPG kids.

The Auld Grump - most of the armies are unpainted, even now....

Get them to throw a quick coloured wash on them if they are going to stay unpainted. That helps a lot and takes very little time.

niall78 wrote:

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
Somewhere along the line, the Kids of War game has gotten into a pattern of 1st week - Kids of War, 2nd week - painting. Rinse and Repeat.

Which is fine - but somehow, only two or three of the painting kids are also in the Kids of War game...

The whole point of painting night was that the kids could get their armies painted.

What we have instead is a passel of young RPG kids.

The Auld Grump - most of the armies are unpainted, even now....

Get them to throw a quick coloured wash on them if they are going to stay unpainted. That helps a lot and takes very little time.

Most of the minis actually being painted are done with the Block Colors and Dip method - Sam painted up an entire box of the old plastic Chaos Dwarfs that way. (Being used for Duergar in her Pathfinder game - Duergar and Fire Giants are the background bad guys for the campaign she is running.)

She brought in a dragon yesterday - and has started suffering from that dread disease so common to dungeon masters - MUST TALK ABOUT GAME!

It's adorable.

There seems to be a decent mix of games in my area, Atlanta GA.

One game that always seems to stick around under the radar is bolt action; which is fortunate as I enjoy playing it. It has a few quirks but it’s a fun system, and many players of it seem much more willing to play alternate scenarios, use interesting terrain, and use themed lists.

The one game I don’t see but wish I did is Runewars.

I have high hopes for the forthcoming Legion game from FFG. I’m trying to decide if it’s worth dropping several other games for it, as I just don’t have the time or money to add another full-blown tabletop game to my life without stopping x-wing, Armada, or 40k. If it picks up enough steam where I can get pick up games easily I just might.

My local club has players for all the mainstream, non-historical games going. Much to my dismay, no one is interested in anything that isn't fantasy or sci-fi related. I play 40k, 30k and terminator genysis but I'm very much into Bolt Action and Chain of Command at the moment and the nearest club with a player base for it is 30-40 mins drive but I don't have a car so the only way I can get a game is if one of them can pick me up or come to my local club which isn't very often.

When the kids were playing last night, my wife commented about how quiet they are when they are playing.

As soon as those words escaped her lips one of them shouted 'Boom! Boom! Baby!' at the top of his lungs.

He just added a Steel Behemoth to his dwarf army - not the official Mantic model, but some cheap plastic toy that looks a lot like the old ork Battle Wagon from way back when.

I need to ask him where he got it - it would be wicked easy to convert for steampunk gaming....

The Auld Grump

Just got my father to sit down at my new house while the kids were asleep and play a game of Age of Fantasy Skirmish which is a great free ruleset from One Page Games, which makes rules-light rulesets that cover both 40k and Warhammer, with both army and skirmish-scale settings. Models only have two stats (and weapon profiles).

It was a fun game of forces at each extreme, with me fielding 4 Stormcast against his Orc force of about 13 models, but still pretty balanced, as big models like Stormcast and Ogres get 3 wounds and several attacks, but all the weaker forces get units of 3 (or sometimes 5 in the case of pansy things like Gnoblars or Skaven Slaves) single-wound models.

It was a great time, although my Stormcast crushed his Orcs due to his absolute inability to roll anything higher than a 3 on any of his dice, or in the case of his Shaman, 2's, resulting in a spellcaster who ironically never cast a spell successfully in the entire game.

Highly recommend others give this little gem a try, though my situation is a bit of grey area for this thread, as I am using 100% GW models, with free indie rules, to play games set in a GW setting, lol.

Our Bolt Action group is growing it seems, we picked up a new member. Guild Ball seems to be a thing at the store. I was hoping someone up there played Frostgrave but apparently that is not a big game. Bought the rules anyway. They are trying to get a Blood Bowl league going but it doesn't look good.

Pardon my ignorance on this subject (and if I'm bringing it up in the wrong thread), but isn't WMH kinda going through a rough time at the moment? I had heard somewhere (I believe on YouTube, and I know you can't trust everything you hear there) that their Mk 3 rules just weren't very popular.

I know they have recently come out with their own Skirmish game called Company of Iron, but it just seems to be a rehash of Shadow War: Armageddon from GW with more models on the board.

SG

 ServiceGames wrote:
Pardon my ignorance on this subject (and if I'm bringing it up in the wrong thread), but isn't WMH kinda going through a rough time at the moment? I had heard somewhere (I believe on YouTube, and I know you can't trust everything you hear there) that their Mk 3 rules just weren't very popular.

I know they have recently come out with their own Skirmish game called Company of Iron, but it just seems to be a rehash of Shadow War: Armageddon from GW with more models on the board.

SG

Depends where, really. Anecdotally I've heard of folks getting back into the game now that mk3 has been around for a bit.

And company of iron is essentially skirmish-machine, without theheavy jacks and casters. It's pretty decent actually.

 ServiceGames wrote:
Pardon my ignorance on this subject (and if I'm bringing it up in the wrong thread), but isn't WMH kinda going through a rough time at the moment? I had heard somewhere (I believe on YouTube, and I know you can't trust everything you hear there) that their Mk 3 rules just weren't very popular.

Eh, there's always a few loud voices who'll claim they represent everyone. My perception is that the transition into Mk3 has been rough--it seems that it was released before it was entirely playtested. Some factions (Cryx, Skorne) were severely disadvantaged, and several game-breakers shook out in the early months. Theme forces were apparently pivotal to how the game was meant to be balanced, but were uneven in release frequency and quality.

But to give PP credit, they've done a lot of work to fix things, and I'd say now the game's in a better mechanical state than it ever was in 2e. Most of the NPE's, game-breakers and one-time dud choices such as battle engines have been fixed, entire factions have been reworked, and the current pattern of community-assisted development for new stuff is working out well.

Warmachine/Hordes has done extremely well in my area, and with CoI and its support (really its PP's continuous support to the FLGS) it has pretty much blown GW away. I gave up shadow war because i was the last person left willing to play (I like it alot better than 8th 40k) but with so much more support to other games, there just is no real reason to pay GW prices for what are only subjectively "better" models/rules/etc...

My non-GW game, Infinity, is doing okay, as far as people playing it. During the summer, it picks up a bit. But the local shops don't stock the models any more. When they DID, they had like 10 of the same starter box. All the places were under management from cantankerous old-timers that didn't understand 'variety' of stock. Now they're all under new management and they're still not willing to stock anything.

On the subject of other games in my area (keep in mind we have quite a few tabletop gamers here, it's always a full house on the weekends and even the recreation centers are full)

-I haven't seen anyone playing X-Wing in over a year. The one guy I know that was big on it is selling his stuff and can't find anyone who wants it.

-A group of weird hipsters comes in to play Guild-Ball sometimes, and thanks to their attitude... no one wanted to play Guild-Ball, so the stores don't stock it.

-One guy brought in some Warmahorde stuff once. Had two armies. Couldn't find someone to play, never came back.

-The World War 2 games (I don't know the difference between them) are popular with some older dudes that come in on Sunday Mornings. The shops will order stuff for them. One of the shops had a meltdown over the German Army, and refuses to allow it in their store- so the old dudes come to our store and we don't care as long as they're not goose-stepping and doing Roman Salutes.

-A cute chick came in one time to paint some Malifaux stuff, she was really nice. Now she's a Tyranid player and I don't like her so much.

 ServiceGames wrote:
Pardon my ignorance on this subject (and if I'm bringing it up in the wrong thread), but isn't WMH kinda going through a rough time at the moment? I had heard somewhere (I believe on YouTube, and I know you can't trust everything you hear there) that their Mk 3 rules just weren't very popular.

Anecdotal, but the Warmachine scene in Sydney has all but died from what I know. The events we used to have with a large amount of players (40-50) just don't get run, and even the big conventions seem to have a much smaller amount of people playing. I've noticed a lot of the previous Warmahordes group move on to Judgment and Guild Ball, while my own local group have moved to a variety of things, with some going to historicals, some to Malifaux and some to Batman.

The local player base for WMH went from 20ish regulars at events to 8 or so. I think it's still big in the USA, so I'm planning on eBaying my armies sooner rather than later. I could totally see Star Wars Legion eating Warmachine's player base up pretty quickly.

Local WMH community died, remaining (starter) product is on the discount aisle (and about 3 boxes at that) at one the two local FLGS's (it's disappeared completely at the other, with no restock). I think Mk3's initial release AND their pricing policy changes hit them real hard.

I think our X-Wing community is going through a negative shift ATM, player interest is pretty low and participation has noticeably dropped.

Having recently started back up playing D&D, I've been shocked to find a robust 5E (& Pathfinder) community at the local FLGS - I'd last been involved back in 3E, and the community had imploded during 4E, at one point with much tension between the 4E community and the Pathfinder community. Now, about half the community plays in both a 5E AND a Pathfinder campaign of some sort.

I think our local Xwing players mostly went to that Star Wars dice game, it seems very popular.

My wife and co-conspirator was sick last week, so no painting circle.

Getting ready for the next Pathfinder game for the kids, when they finish with the modified Skull & Shackles game - 6-4 in favor of Reign of Fire over Kingmaker....

And I noticed that most of the kids in favor of Kingmaker are also in the Kids of War campaign.... Purely a coincidence, I'm sure....

The grownups game is going to see my wife GMing and me playing, for the first time ever.

Eberron, I am going to be playing a loud, boisterous, warforged GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER!

HOT CHOCOLATE AND SCHNAPPS ALL AROUND!

The Auld Grump

WW2 is in this week. Lots of 15mm tanks built (Early British, German and Russian) for Flames of War / Tanks / Other

Had a tournament down at Ft. Leonard Wood last weekend. Was 46 spots and I"m guessing at least 40 players there for Bolt Action. BA kept taking tables from FoW, which had 4 players total. Warlord and other vendors sent a lot of stuff which was great, I finished way in the back and still got a sprue of Blitz Germans, a copy of Duel In the Sun for BA, a set of pin markers, and a Viking mini from some company I can't recall offhand.

Started the Kids of War game with a meeting engagement - and after that the kids started doing their own version of the scenario - they honestly do not need me anymore, being fully capable of creating their own scenarios.

The Auld Grump - we never got to the second scenario I had planned - they were too busy playing their own scenario.

Well, Strahd claimed another party in our 5E game, so they're all playing MtG for now until I convince the players (my eldest son and his friends) to make up a new party.

Tales of Equestria game is on hold - that group (Wife, sister-in-law, my sons) thinks they've beat the villain. I hate to break their hearts, as the trouble is just starting.

I've assembled quite a German Panzergrenadier army, just waiting to find someone to play (my eldest has no interest in WW2 :( )

Right now, of late, Magic has been the game going on around the house. I've hated the game for so long because it "destroyed" my RPGs, but I've found myself getting a few prebuilt decks to train my son how to play it. As long as I stay away from the competitive scene, I'll be happy with an occasional game - it only takes up about 20 minutes or so. Less as my son gets better at killing me.

My buddy and i just played a game of Chosen Men by Osprey. Napoleonic skirmish at 28mm. Super fast and easy rules reminds me of older fantasy/40k. We have a group of 8 meeting at historicon this summer to play. Besides that i live on long island and it seems to only be 40k at the few stores that are left. Used to have infinity but cant find any solid groups by me anymore.

- steve

I just got into Team Yankee, and it seems to be growing in my area.

Seems to be a lot of fun, and doesn't take long at all to play.

Wrath of Kings going gangbusters here

Well, Runewars, just died in Chicago...

...because the store supporting it went out of business.

Other shops appear to stock some but there doesn't appear to be any other shops in Chicago actively supporting it so I guess it's dead.I hadn't played in a couple of months because my gigging schedule had picked up but I had always planned on getting back into it. I always assume the game would die but until recently it looked like it would be because FFG stopped supporting it.

Oh well, there are 3 silver linings to the whole situation.

1) I have friend who has the game and plenty of undead so we can play if we want.

2)I like the figs and had always planned on using my "Daqan" (Human faction) figs in KoW anyway. I scopped up a couple boxes of the crossbowmen in closeout, so now I've got a mostly painted "Good Guy" army with:
-LOTS of Spearmen
-Some troops with hand weapons
-Fair number of crossbowmen
-LOTS of Cavalry
-Mounted and Unmounted leader
-A couple of Charachter types
-Wizard
-6 Stone Golems
That seems like a pretty complete army for KoW or virtually any other fantasy mass battle game.

3) I also got off pretty cheap. After getting the box set for free at adepticon, trading my undead for another set of Daqan, scooping up another 2 sets of Daqan for about half the price of the box, and buying the rest at near retail, I've not got alot invested in this army.

So I've got an army of figures I like and no feeling that I've got to keep buying new units just to keep up with upgrade cards and power creep. Not an entirely bad result.

Bolt Action is on a steady climb up. Local players are bailing on Team Yankee (including me)

Warmachine is going strong after the dip from MK2 to MK3

Antares? huh?

New star wars 28mm game has a demo table at the local store and a ton of copies. Doesn't seem to be moving. They have a demo night too with 2-3. The guys that play XWing have no interest in painting.

X-Wing is a solid 6-8 players.... MTG is 50-60. Run on the same days.

Infinity is strong across the board and you can get pick up games on the 40k night. The stores have the terrain to back it up.

Frostgrave is a strong group but they meet over at a buddies house. Same crowd does D&D. D&D seems to be almost always college kids that go to the uni library instead of the local store except for the one store. Easily 10-20~ casual to serious players

Without me running DZC, the scene is dead. Dropfleet is a monthly meet up

Runewars on 50% off

Guild Ball has grown to the same size as Xwing and Warmachine. Good showing and weekly leagues at multiple stores

Necromunda is big enough to warrent a 4x4 table at two stores has regular games. Not sure the player size

Kings of War has stock in store that's astonishingly not on sale. Only at one store, the other two dropped them. 6-8 players that I've stumbled upon on a few game nights with the 40k crowd.

 djones520 wrote:
I just got into Team Yankee, and it seems to be growing in my area.

Seems to be a lot of fun, and doesn't take long at all to play.

It's quicker than the last edition of Flames of War. tl;dr things die faster