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How do!

A general thread about which game, whether you play it or not, and if you do regardless of what you think of the rules, is most visually pleasing to you? Assuming at least reasonable terrain and painted armies. Doesn’t have to be fancy paint and terrain.

For me, it has to be any incarnation of GW Epic. It is part nostalgia, as ever since I got going in the hobby, Epic has been my jam, and GW always did gorgeous displays. But I also find huge armies of teeny tiny dudes knocking seven bells out of each other to look fantastic.

It feels and looks like a Proper Battle is going on, one where the stakes are high. And it speaks a different aesthetic language. For instance, a line of assorted Orky Buggies and Trakks and Skorchas in a curving line not only suggests that someone is in for a high speed bad time, but looks like they’re racing one another. Lines of Imperial Guard Artillery with at least a skirmish screen of supporting infantry speaks about their method of war. Eldar have (not you, Epic 40K era with your stupid struts) always looked sleek and extremely dangerous. Titans towering above all others, supporting infantry swarming around their feet.

Every game is like an excellent piece of background art playing out before you. Best of all? In terms of the hobby skills needed to paint your army is reduced. Yes. Expertly painted Epic is one helluva sight. But due to the tiny scale, just a neat, careful but otherwise basic paintjob does the deed and looks good.

In the modern era a special shout out to Legions Imperialis, Aeronautica and Adeptus Titanicus for their sterling efforts in Picking A Scale And Sticking With It. Whilst old Epic still looks superb, that matching scale just tips it.

But how about yourself? Which games, on a purely visual basis, set your mind’s eye aflame?

Yea epic scale is gorgeous and delightful throughout, from og Epic to LI to Warpath and all those fringe little STL lines, and 10mm fantasy too. Terrain also has more sensible scaling compared to models.

Same goes for naval games, from age of sail up to space fleets.

Apart from that, the highly personalized, scratch built grimdark #28 stuff, Inquisimunda, Turnip, Forbidden Psalm, etc

Like here's a few I pulled from the Turnip discord from the past few days

It's weird, because my 3 answers would be 3 games I actually don't play.....

Infinity - I love the look of it, love the minis, but I just wish the minis were a tiny bit bigger......
Malifaux - love the design style, have quite a few of the minis and love building and painting
Mordheim - a full table of lovely Old World scenery and beautifully painted warbands is sight to behold

If we are talking about games I actually play, then visually it would have to be Necromunda. I absolutely love the setting, the GW terrain kits are the best GW have ever produced and I love the gangs.

I would say Epic scale could potentially look the best, but in practice its still not the case most of the time, due to GW not putting out enough terrain variety. In terms of terrain, 28mil games have several decades worth of advantage, so I'd be inclined to say 28mil games tend to look better. Its all about the execution however, and down to individuals painting and modeling skills

BFG. Big fan of gothic fleets clashing in the void.

For me it is Malifaux, I like how each crew has a distinct theme which also more or less sticks to the factions asthetic. Models which you can take a multiple of each have a different sculpt. In addition playing on a well built board with houses (which rules support climbing into and on-to) realy makes it an immersive game.

Monsterpocalypse by a lot. The 3D city looks fantastic and when the game is over and one monster is left standing in flaming rubble, you can see how the game played out from how it impacted the board.

Marvel Crisis Protocol can have a similar effect, but tends to look better before models and terrain are removed since there's no flaming wreckage.

Infinity is just an incredible looking game, though the models can easily get lost in the background.

For me its any game that requires a lot of terrain. Mordheim, Necromunda, Frostgrave, any game where the board is as much a character as the minis on the table.

I loved the look of All Quiet on the Martian Front with the American forces versus the Martian Tripods. Super cool looking stuff.



Sadly it is OOP.

I think some of my current favorites are 6mm Ancient games. There are a few different rulesets and manufacturers but blocks of 6mm troops looks great on the table.



I also love the look of Blucher, which is also 6mm but Napoleonics.

Warhammer The Old World looks great with decently painted armies and terrain. There's something satisfying about bricks of troops lining up and fighting it out in their serried ranks. Get some monsters in there for the fantasy element and it looks great just to watch.

I do love how Middle-Earth looks as well, but that's partly because I love Lord of the Rings. Once battle is joined it looks very chaotic, but it's still cool to see characters like Aragorn or Theoden in the middle of a big battle.

For games I haven't really played before, I'll probably say Necromunda, because I love how the terrain looks (at least proper terrain, not some of the fugly get-you-by stuff from the starter boxes). If there's proper vertical distance between the top and bottom of the board, it's just awesome. The actual minis look pretty cool too, for the most part. I do have a Necromunda Orlock gang, but I have yet to paint any of it or play a game.

I love any wargame with fully painted armies and terrain but I think 28mm warband scale (50 to 100 minis) is my absolute favourite. Can't decide if I like natural landscapes or rusted industrial hellscapes the most!

I love spaceships, so it has to be Dropfleet Commander for me. Second place has to be the combined arms armor and air groups of Dropzone/Horizon wars using DZC minis, CAV minis and lots of 1/144 or 10mm scale tanks and planes.

For 28mm, I tend to love WGA’s modern and Sci Fi minis while preferring Victrix for ancients.

Lotr or Oathmark of the games I play. Lining up big fantasy armies is great.

Really any minis game that uses more than about a dozen models at a time. any genre, any scale.
Unless its a naval game involving sailing ships...

StraightSilver wrote:

Infinity - I love the look of it, love the minis, but I just wish the minis were a tiny bit bigger......
Malifaux - love the design style, have quite a few of the minis and love building and painting

These two as well. I love the aesthetic of both. For games I actually play I really like the density of terrain and the individuality of models in Warcry.

Sgt. Cortez wrote:
Lotr or Oathmark of the games I play. Lining up big fantasy armies is great.

Exactly my favourite games