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2025/01/27 06:31:41
Subject: Re:Gundam Miniatures Game from Bandai Announced!
Third, though not discussed as much, is the difficulty in putting the figures together. It used to be that you could take any pair of arms on a GW sprue, a random head, body, and pair of legs, and build a GW figure. Putting an infantryman together was quite easy. The contents of my Votann Boarding Party box are not like that, and it feels like it needs a matrix of which parts can be used together. Bandai's easier kits tend to put together quite easily. If the new Gundam figures are like that, then it could cause people to look less favorably at GW.
From what we saw of the sprue here it looks like they will be quite easy to put together with low part numbers but certainly not modular as older GW minis have been. Of course this could be special starter set sprues with the individual releases using more complex but also more modular sprues
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/01/27 06:32:30
2025/01/27 15:41:12
Subject: Re:Gundam Miniatures Game from Bandai Announced!
Gundam is a narrative with a setting rather than a setting containing narratives. It has multiple timelines too and little inuniverse justification for crazy paint schemes. There will be little creativity encouraged officially either with painting, modelling or rules.
The first Gundam was an unexpected hit and thus the "one year war" really did basically exhaust the setting. Similar to how Star Wars was a narrative containing a setting where the story followed a major conflict in which the fate of everyone was involved and... it ended, the good guys won. Not to beat a dead horse for anyone on the internet but that was kind of problem for them making stories going forward. What was shocking was that they felt the need to revive the Empire because it's aesthetic was seen as so crucial and integral to the setting but again, was clearly destroyed at the end of the third film. (I don't care that the Imperial remnant stuff was invented years earlier in the books, hack authors writing tie-in novels for IPs the didn't create will never count) Not to mention, of course, the conflict with the Empire was the driving force of the story. (The Vong then become a parody of what I just said. "Oh look another evil force imperiling the whole galaxy! Oh look we defeated them and made peace now!" What do you do after that? See also the idiocy of "moving the 40k timeline forward".) The Mandalorian and Skeleton Crew are actually an example of them treating Star Wars as a setting for narratives but the latter they ran into the ground since it was in essence more of a limited series and they tied up the main story with Grogu before deciding to go back on all of it and the former doesn't seem to excite anyone after the Star Wars brand writ large has been run dry.
Bandai should instead look to the likes of 40k and it being built from the ground up to facilitate a table top wargame and creativity. They should make something like 30MM tabletop wargaming and come up with all kinds of reasons the pilots and factions would adorn their mechs with camo and heraldry or religious symbols. As well as make a setting which justifies unending and vast scale of warfare. Make the kits easy to kitbash.This way you have all the advantages of owning your own production and IP like GW and have a setting that works well with a wargame going forward unlike Gundam.
Meanwhile AMG don't own their own production or IP. And PP and their new owners don't ever seen to want to make the rebooted setting more open to creativity. Why not art of Khador carrying giant Orthodox-esque banners? See Trench Crusade for all that imagery.
Because if you don't have a hobby side all you have is the game and there is always the danger of a death spiral if people begin to stop playing it. The energy of the hobby side is actually what keeps competitive 40k going and safe.
Hard Disagree. If you're going to do an IP-based game, you go with the biggest IP you have access too. Gundam has so many settings and sub-settings and various plots and films that a Game designer has plenty to choose from if they want to balance gameplay, popularity and options for expansion.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Flinty wrote: As long as their customer service is better than those morons at CGL it'll probably find some converts.
That's certainly a thought, but I do think distribution may be a complication in the USA for Gundam game. As any fan of Gunpla or Gundam Action figures will tell you, some items end up being quite available over here in "regular" stores and outlets, while others end up being devilishly hard to come by. Alot will depend on what their distribution ends up being like.
Do they go for an initial blast via big box stores, risking a flash in the pan and then slide into obscurity?
Will they be able to get traction in the FLGS distribution chain?
I do think this will be one to watch. It's been a while since a company with the financial power of Bandai made a serious entry into the wargaming space. Killing 40k or even Battetech isn't likely to happen, but it will certainly be interesting to see whether Bandai is making a real effort to have a presence in wargaming (and willing to put the $ and dev up to make it happen) or whether this is just a brief sideline product from a company who's interests are elsewhere?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/01/27 15:48:02
Customization really isn't a feature of modern wargaming, but if you think customization isn't a Gundam feature... you've not seen the endless parades of variants, let alone the pile of equipment options. The RX-78 alone probably has a couple dozen weapons in its arsenal. Alt paint schemes are also quite common. Bandai regularly releases full alt scheme kits and people paint them differently anyway.
2025/01/27 21:35:06
Subject: Gundam Miniatures Game from Bandai Announced!
Incredibly successful for a very short period of time before suffering from a long, slow, gradual and painful decline before quietly dying in ignominy.
CoALabaer wrote: Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
2025/01/27 23:32:27
Subject: Gundam Miniatures Game from Bandai Announced!
To an extent yes, but even before the ill received 2nd edition the game was starting to struggle and strain under balance issues and declining interests as FFG reached deeper into more obscure content thst wasnt familiar to many fans.
CoALabaer wrote: Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
2025/01/28 03:46:36
Subject: Gundam Miniatures Game from Bandai Announced!
chaos0xomega wrote: To an extent yes, but even before the ill received 2nd edition the game was starting to struggle and strain under balance issues and declining interests as FFG reached deeper into more obscure content thst wasnt familiar to many fans.
And it should be noted that while there is more and less obscure content in Gundam (show of hands - who knows what the Gold Astray is without having to look it up?), there's a *ton* of stuff that's showed up on-screen due to the sheer number and variety of shows, OVAs, and movies. While few people will be familiar with every show, there's a large number of people who will be familiar with any given show.
2025/01/28 12:23:42
Subject: Gundam Miniatures Game from Bandai Announced!
I don't know if the game will support it, but the setting is also more open to potential 'kitbashing' and custom builds from basic things like taking a different weapon all the way to frankengundams built from different parts of different suits.
hello
2025/01/29 16:40:08
Subject: Re:Gundam Miniatures Game from Bandai Announced!
Seems like there may be no rules overlap between the miniatures and the card game.
'It is a source of constant consternation that my opponents cannot correlate their innate inferiority with their inevitable defeat. It would seem that stupidity is as eternal as war.'
- Nemesor Zahndrekh of the Sautekh Dynasty Overlord of the Crownworld of Gidrim
2025/01/29 19:05:22
Subject: Gundam Miniatures Game from Bandai Announced!
I can't seem to find any reliable information about it.
The first models are already available as they are included in the limited editions of the TCG starter decks that launched this month but the actual game only launches next year.
Apart from that I don't think there have been any major news.
