Why I'll Always Love Miniatures Gaming

The RPG side of my gaming hobby has been experiencing a sort of golden age of late. I'm currently involved in...let's see, four campaigns, easily a lifetime high. (It's one of the reasons posts around here have gotten a bit thin on the ground--been too busy gaming to write about it!) But I've also been thinking a lot about the other side of my gaming hobby: miniatures wargames.

I've talked in the past about how that side has been subject to increasing atrophy over the years. Back in high school I'd say I was involved in minis wargaming at least as as much as RPGs. Nowadays I'm lucky if I can get in a game every six months. Most of my hobby today consists of painting figures. (Still gotta post pics of my Germanic Space Ork army that I put together last year...). Although this is partly down to a question of lack of time (viz. the "four campaigns" mentioned above, ahem), I also feel this is due to the wargaming and RPG hobbies going their separate ways over the last 10-15 years. There just simply aren't as many RPGers who play minis games as there used to be, it seems.

There are a variety of causes behind this, I think. Certainly, Games Workshop played its part by very much intentionally nurturing the perception of miniatures wargaming as its own thing (or, as GW calls it, The Hobby). I also think the emergence of pre-painted figures played a major role; people who were reluctant or indifferent towards painting no longer had to. The irony, of course, is that over the same span of time, D&D's various successive editions have become evermore miniatures-centric. Pre-painted figures enabled the quick and easy acquisition of lots of single models or small groups of models. But the idea of building and painting a large army and making the terrain to go with it? I've shown my miniatures cabinet to about a half-dozen gamers, ranging from total noobs to old grognards like me, over the last year. To a person, they have reacted with a sort of ambivalent amazement. The overall impression was summed up by one of their words: "I'd never have the patience to paint all those figures!" As if I did it all in a week of cocaine-fueled frenzy.

A while back I saw someone post some provocative words online. (Just the once?) The words were to the effect of, "Miniatures painting is a craft. It's not an art. Get off your high horse." I was a little taken aback at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I tended to agree. But I'd add a corrolary: done right, playing a miniatures game is where the art comes in. The sight of a table full of lovingly-crafted terrain and hand-painted miniatures is something to truly give one pause, to remind one of the beauty of human endeavor and creativity, hours of work simply for the sake of having a fun afternoon in the company of a few friends. I was reminded of all this today when I followed a link from the always-excellent World War 20mm blog to a series of pictures taken at a recent club game. Here's a selection of my favorites; the rest can be found here.

Those are pictures taken from the game in progress, not just posed to look pretty. That organic, almost alchemical process of figures interacting with terrain to create spontaneous vignettes...if that's not art, I don't know what art is. Aside from my own selfish reasons, I really wish more RPGers were also miniatures wargaming enthusiasts. It's such a rewarding aspect of the gaming hobby, and it's because of pictures like those above that, as much as my participation might have shrunken over the years, I'll never truly walk away from miniatures gaming.

What Is This I Don't Even

Oh, the miniatures you find on eBay...

Listed as "Dwarf Deamon Slayer"

The listing reads in its entirety: Description : Warhammer painted miniature ... what u see ... what u get

Alrighty then!

Armies of Arcana Battle Report #4

I'm finding that holiday weekends are an ideal time to get in some miniatures wargaming. With our usual Pendragon game taking a break this week owing to most of the group having other plans, Des and I sat down on Sunday for another match-up between my Undead and her Amazons.

I was particularly looking forward to premiering my new river and road terrain and incorporating my "house rules," which are really just some favorite bits from Fantasy Warriors mostly concerning table set-up and victory conditions. I was also looking forward to exorcising the rather disappointing last outing into AoA land of a couple months ago. Not counting that debacle, my skele-bones were 0-2. Would I finally chalk up my first victory or go down once again to ignominious defeat? Read on... (All pictures clickable, of course.)

The initial setup. Using the FW-inspired scouting rules, my Undead were completely outmaneuvered, allowing Des to choose the terrain and time of day (dawn, naturally). I quite liked the "new" FW-inspired terrain placement rules; after years of playing WWII skirmish games, I have a tendency to overcrowd the board with terrain. These rules created a nice, more open feeling while still creating enough obstacles to have an impact on deployment and maneuvering.

Right before battle is joined. At the last minute, Des ended up shifting her Peltasts (in the nearground) a bit, moving one of the units over to the other flank to guard her avatar of Athena (who was one of my victory objectives, the other being her Centaurs). For my part, I named my War Mammoth as an objective and the ruined temple as the other.

For years I've favored deploying my fast, hard-hitting units on the flanks but this game I took a chance and put my Knights right in the center. So it was that knights clashed with chariots on Turn One, kicking things off in grand style!

The "thousand yard stare" of a seasoned veteran...

The lines draw closer together, as the Amazon skirmish screen moves to contact my two infantry units. Meanwhile, the Centaurs and Peltasts move up towards the ruined temple, which has been occupied by my Troll-riding Necromancer, Germanotta. This marked the first game where I was actually able to get some spells off, finally rolling well against the inevitable Counterspell attempts.

Another view of the early stages of the battle. You can make out the Centaurs between the woods and the marsh...and my catapult drawing a bead on them. Shortly after this picture was snapped, I hit the Centaurs with a truly devastating shot from my catapult that wiped out five of the six horses! That catapult is easily the most effective unit in my army (when it hits, that is).

With one of my victory objectives nearly in the bag, I turned my sights on the other. As Athena was hiding behind a screen of Peltasts and a raging river, it would take some doing to get there. Here we see my War Mammoth about to attempt a river crossing. My Skeleton Pikemen, meanwhile, have made short work of the unit of Axewomen and are gunning for the Amazon Phalangites, whose numbers are being steadily whittled down by my archers. (More thoughtful deployment of my missile unit this battle allowed them an opportunity to play a more effective role, as well. I'm learning!)

Seeing what I was up to, Des sends her Barbarian Queen across the river as well. We had three units in total cross the river this game, and all suffered for it. My river-crossing house rules (developed back in the Fantasy Warriors days) proved their worth. Next game that features a river, I hope to see a bridge or ford if only to see how that affects things.

The situation mid-game. The chariot vs. knight contest turned into a real slugfest as neither side could force a morale check and we were both rolling hot on our armor saves...

In the end, though, the chariot unit broke, proving the old truism that if a chariot doesn't shatter a unit on its first charge it's probably doomed. The ensuing pursuit broke the center wide open and left my knights in an excellent position.

The other big melee in the middle. I'm finding Undead in melee to be an interesting spectacle. Being Fearless, they don't run away, but if they fail morale checks they tend to start disintegrating rapidly. Win or lose, my units are usually pretty depleted after a melee.

River crossings completed. Odds weren't looking good for my poor Mammoth, facing off against a General, a unit of Peltasts, and an Avatar.

After this picture was snapped, I charged the Amazon General with my Mammoth. She had lost 3 of her 6 Wounds crossing the river, but alas I was unable to finish the job. The Peltasts counter-charged and between them and the General my mammoth went down like a Mumakil. You can also see in the picture where I charged the Phalangites with my Pikes. Despite catching the phalanx on the flank, some phenomenally bad dice rolling on my part led to my unit's rapid disintegration. Ah well.

Meanwhile on the left flank, the lone remaining Centaur had charged Germanotta in her temple fastness and been dispatched. One victory condition met by each of us! I then managed to actually cast Raise Dead (a remarkable achievement for this army, trust me) and bring up some fresh skeletons to intercept the Peltasts who were menacing my Necromancer. As their numbers dwindled, Germanotta spurred her Undead Troll forward and joined the fray, cutting down Amazons with bolts of eldritch energy from her impeccably-manicured fingers.

As the melee in the center wrapped up (leaving just my Reaper and a single Skeleton Warrior standing!), my knights became the third and last unit to ford the river. Des had moved her General and Peltasts around to counter this move, and combat was joined.

I lost several knights in the ensuing melee, but the Peltasts could not stand up under the charge and fled, carrying their Queen with them. The loss of a General was good enough to trigger a Command Test (another FW-inspired house rule) and the Amazon army quit the field just as the sun began to set...

So it was a minor, somewhat Pyrrhic victory for me, but a win is a win! Woohoo!

It was quite an epic game: seven turns and about four hours! I was glad for the Command Test rules because without them the game would have probably dragged on for another two or three turns at least and by the end we were both pretty much ready to pack things up. We both had lots of fun, though. Those Amazons are a bunch of badasses, I must say. I'd love to put together another army just to see how they fare against them. May be a project for 2012...

Armies of Arcana House Rules

As I mentioned in yesterday's battle report, my last game of Armies of Arcana brought with it my critical mass moment - the moment I realized I'd played the Rules As Written enough to form opinions on what I wanted to add or change.

The core of the system will remain untouched for the most part. The only major rule I'm fiddling with (and this has been a house rule from the outset, actually) is to make Missile Immunity somewhat less powerful. The remainder of my house rules are really additions to the system, incorporating some of my favorite elements from Fantasy Warriors: pre-battle scouting (and its effect on terrain placement and army deployment), boasts, omens, time of day and bad light, and a rational victory system (which incorporates elements from the AoA Meeting Engagement scenario as well).

I'm looking forward to giving these additions a whirl at some point in the near future. I've promised myself I won't play another game until I've finished my river tiles, so it might be a little bit, but when it does happen I'll be sure to post pictures and thoughts as always!

Til then, if you want to take a look at my house rules just click on the nekkid necromancer below:

Armies of Arcana Battle Report #3

Over the last couple weeks we played host to my in-laws, who we finally managed to lure out for a visit to our ancient capital. As usual, this meant a showdown over the flocked battlefield with Des's dad Frank (clearly she got her gamer genes from his side of the family).

Although Frank's more of a computer gamer (insofar as he games at all), I've played a couple minis games with him in the past (a Fantasy Warriors game and a Blitzkrieg Commander game, specifically). This was the first time we'd have the opportunity to have at it on my new terrain and with our new armies. After due consideration Frank chose to play Des's Amazons, leaving me with my trusty Undead.

The game was a lot of fun, but in the final analysis I was somewhat bothered by a couple-three things. Of most immediate concern to seekers of eye candy on this here blog is the fact that due to the bright light flooding in through our dining room window most of the pictures I snapped ended up a bit on the washed-out, poorly-focused side. That's what I get for using my phone instead of a proper camera. (Lesson learned for battle reports: use the right equipment and draw the effing blinds during the summer!) I'll get to the other two items in the post-game analysis below. But first, on with the show (such as it is - as always, clicken to embiggen):

Frank's a canny tactician - he initially deployed almost all of his units in skirmish formation in order to mitigate my catapults' power.

I went for a more conventional deployment. I was mainly interested in the idea of letting my melee units interpenetrate my skirmished archers so that my archers could continue firing even after melee was joined (as my Undead are mostly immune to missiles, there was little to fear about hitting my own troops).

I do wish this shot had come out a little better. I love my necromancer and her wraith boyfriend facing down the avatar of Athena across the gully, as well as the composition of the units drawing closer, preparing for contact.

My left flank turned into a wonderfully roiling melee. Again, I was very favorably impressed with AoA's ability to handle large, complex combats with aplomb.

The wraith and the Amazon queen are about to face off in the center of this pic. The queen owned the wraith, but he managed to get in some good hits before he went down. I really want to either upgrade him to a Lich (still hurting from only having a single spellcaster) or give him a body guard of lesser wraiths (to make him a more formidable force on the field). Either way, we'll have to up point totals...

As the great melee on my left flank was unfolding, Frank got the drop on my catapult with infiltrating peltasts and a reckless chariot charge. Meanwhile, having disposed of the wraith, the Amazon queen had single-handedly charged my archer unit, preventing them from lending missile support. This not being "HeroHammer," the queen was eventually killed, but she took out about half the unit first, which had grave implications for the end-game (see below).

The aforementioned grand melee. Skeleton knights versus a chariot, axewomen, and centaurs. A thing of beauty.

I finally got to get my undead mammoth to grips with the hated phalangites! This is after the mammoth had completely obliterated an unbloodied unit of axewomen in a single turn. It's always great when your centerpiece model also turns out to be your best unit in the army.

The situation near the end of battle...

Yes, you read that right. The battle ended rather abruptly on, I think, turn five or six. And so was born my undying antipathy for the "Attrition" scenario in the AoA rulebook.

Basically, there are two scenarios laid out in the rules. Our previous games had used the other scenario, one I rather liked, in which each player names Victory Conditions that the other player must meet in order to win: "destroy this unit" or "take this hill," for example. The Attrition scenario, however, simply used a break point system in which once an army reaches a certain threshold, you have to dice every turn to see if you quit the field. Fantasy Warriors uses a similar mechanic, but the FW system is much more intuitive and easier to keep track of - not to mention it tends to produce more realistic results. One thing I particularly disliked about the Attrition scenario at play here was that a unit counted against you not only if it was destroyed or routed, but if it was "depleted" - reduced to a quarter of its value. My archers, being both Undead and missile troops, are worth a huge passel of points. So the Amazon queen's attack on the unit, which "depleted" it, counted against me even though she was killed and my unit was still in fine shape on the field.

As it turned out for this game, it was determined (after a lots of bothersome arithmetic - another tiresome element of the scenario) that both armies had reached their break points on the same turn. The Amazons had a higher chance of success though - for reasons I won't get into here because, frankly, I'm tired of complaining about the details of a scenario I'll never play again - and two dice rolls later the Undead were quitting the field, yielding a Major Victory(???) to the Amazons.

Yeah, not a fan of this scenario at all. Can you tell? An abrupt ending and a wildly inappropriate victory level just left us both with a bad feeling in our dice hands.

I'd feel the same way even if I'd won, for the record. I don't generally play miniatures games to win, but rather for the visceral experience. Part of that includes playing a system and/or scenario that I feel gives "realistic" (or at least satisfying) results. The core of the AoA experience is still brilliant, and the rules remain my go-to fantasy set. But I realized after this game I've got enough RAW games under my belt that it's time to start a-tinkerin'. I'll post my house rules (primarily just an amalgamation of some of my favorite pre- and post-battle elements from Fantasy Warriors - the core AoA system is to remain largely intact) in the next day or so, but suffice to say that from now on the real games will begin. Going hand in hand with that, I'm hoping to start up a little campaign to put our Undead versus Amazon showdowns in a larger context. I'll post about that as well if we get around to it.

The other thing that bugged me about the game had nothing to do with the mechanics. As you can see in the above photos, I got a little experimental with the field, creating a sort of inlet of water (due to the fact I didn't have enough edging tiles to make a full river). Even if I'd pulled off the full river effect I was going for initially, the hexagonal banks were just driving me crazy. I've had plans in the offing since I first picked up the Hexon II tiles back in '07 for creating much more naturalistic river tiles, and I think the time has finally come to jump on that project. I always love a good river on a battlefield, and battles for fords or bridges have formed some of the most epic moments in games past. Hopefully next time we play, I'll have the new tiles ready so the waters can flow read with Amazon blood. Muahahaha!