Which miniatures should I play?

So, I've been debating on getting into some miniatures games. And I'm asking for some guidance. I've played MageKnight Dungeons (it's a dungeon crawl not the massive battle one) and also HeroClix Marvel. And I have some of those figures still around. I liked Dungeons and they had some great miniatures but the ones they are producing now don't look that good. Plus, there's not too many people that play. As for HeroClix, it was fun but the rules in my opinion were really hard to understand and I hated the 'activation' markers. Also I did play Warmachine once and loved the miniatures and the play. So here's my options:
1) Make my own game rules using my MageKnight Dungeons guys (like what many others have been doing)
2) Make my own Heroes games using my HeroClix (a little more complicated with all the different hero ablilities)
3)Start Warmachine (I like the miniatures and the play)

Any other suggestions? I'm looking for something that's not too expensive, that's why I like Warmachine ($40 to start...cost of a board game). What do you think?

Return fire!

Return fire! Well...may not since I'll be talking about Euro-games which are very much non-war games. I wouldn't call them anti-war games but they generally do not have pieces being destroyed. Thank you to WargamerBert for his excellent article and I will try and respond for the Euro-games. First I want to note that I love both wargames and euro-games. After all I am the current reigning champion of Samurai Swords! Yes, WargamerBert was the reigning champion of 3 times until my sneaky ninjas came and have triumphed during the remaining three past games. But I digress. Since WargamerBert has listed his responses so shall I.

Image from Flickr: Gun by aterpeirun

1. Eurogames are quick to play. A typical game can last from 30 minutes to 1 hour. This makes it easier to play more games. Set up time takes usually only a few minutes.
2. Eurogames have easy rules (now I know that this does depend on the game but it is typically euro). This is nice because it allows an easy entry into gaming. Where many people may fear the massive set up/pieces/time and 30 page manual on how to play of wargames, they will find eurogames easy to approach. This can lead them into learning different gaming systems and then the approach to wargames will not be that difficult.
3. Eurogames do promote non-violence. Typically any pieces are not destroyed but 'pushed' or there are not destruction of pieces but gathering of resources.
4. Eurogames promote social interaction. Now all games have social interaction but eurogames promote it within the structure and rules of the game. Imagine Settlers of Catan without being able to talk to the person next to you and persuade them to trade your piece of wood for two ores!
5. Eurogames are typically inexpensive. While a typical wargame costs about $30-50; a eurogame typically costs $10-30.
6. Eurogames provide different systems of strategy. While a wargame will teach you tactics and military strategy; eurogames will teach you a variety of strategies with each game. This way you will learn the basics of strategy and this helps to increase your learning and your ability to play other games.

Well...I only have six compared to WargamerBert's nine points! But hope this brings some good discussion of wargames and eurogames. What do you like? Is there anything to add to eurogames?

Noisemaker: the Podcast

I've joined the podcasting revolution, guys! Please check it out! The show is about an hour long, and I think it holds up well. I review a book on wargaming or military history, talk a little bit about the hobby, and tell you what my project for the month is... And then you get to contact me! And you can listen wherever you have a computer or an ipod. I'm not on iTunes yet, although I'm sure that if someone likes my game, iTunes will pick me up... So, check my podcast out, and let me know what you think!

The project for this past month (August) was an ancient Trireme combat game... Enjoy!

The podcast:
www.noisemaker.libsyn.com

Ancient Trireme Rules
www.triremebattle.blogspot.com

Mini Bert Bat Con August 2008

Well, the Ketelsens came over to Amherst the other day, and if you know Brian, well, we couldn't help but play a wargame. We played a game called "Sword and Shield version 2" that I made up last year. I can't believe it was last year, but it was, the date I put on the document was 2007. Regardless, it was a fun game! Here are some pictures, and some commentary.

Sword and shield is appropriately a medieval combat game. However, it is a fantasy medieval game. Each soldier represents one soldier. Version 2 is played with d6's. In this picture, you will see the main objective, a tower. Brian unfortunately got there first with his archers, which was decisive. However, it was not apparent that this was decisive until we compared our respecitve piles of casualties.

Here is a really sad picture. The officer in charge of leading the Bertonian Militia Spearmen was killed at the head of the column. He went down in a flurry of blows from Brian's clubmen and axemen.

Here's Brian looking pretty pleased with himself upon killing my officer. Basically the fight had gone poorly for him until he killed this guy. I was pretty sure that I could use the officers buff stats to pound my way through the enemy and to the door of the castle. Then I could throw the archers off the tower and put my own bowmen up there. But alas, Sam Fireson had to die on the battlefield. Apparently an axeman bashed through his armor. Tragic. But I didn't stop fighting!

Here, near the end of the battle, Brian's steadfast legion receives reenforcements (the guys with the blue shields) who had run away at the beginning of the battle. Yup, that's right, at one time I had three units to Brian's one in front of the door of the castle, and Brian held on. All of his units routed except for this one unit. And I tried to destroy it, and I lost... A very glorious day for Nevan Arms, and a very sad day for the Bertonians.

Brian's casualty pile...

Bert's sorry casualty pile.

All in all, a good time was had by all. Brian and I both liked the game, which is a blend of morale and losing figures. The combat system worked pretty well, and I was pleased because I developed it. However, we both decided that using a ten sided dice would provide more edge cases and better unit differetiation. Also, it is possible that I made it a little to hard to kill axemen and officers. So, having a 10 percent per node spread instead of a 17 percent spread would probably be better. So, look for new game rules for Sword and Shield version 3 coming out soon! The six foot by six foot table was pretty handy as these miniatures were pretty big. I've thought about buying some 25mm medieval miniatures, but my wife says I need to paint my American Revolution and Napoleonic figures first. I'll probably get around to that by Christmas? or maybe Next Summer? Who knows... :)

My Broadside...

OK, so Ryan asked the question about Euro games vs. War games. I don't want to break the "geek on geek" attack rule, and I don't want to "attack" the gamer from Denver. I will say that I will gladly play a Euro game when I don't have time to play something else, or when someone else is unwilling to learn a war game with me. However, I feel compelled to give all my reasons, my broadside as it were, for playing wargames over eurogames. Here goes.

1. Wargames allow better plot development. What could be more dramatic than war?
2. Wargames "game" historical human interaction (as opposed to non-historical interaction).
3. Wargames "game" (simulate is not always the best word) conflict.

4. Wargames make military history tangible.
5. Wargames combine the disciplines of geography, history, sociology, psychology, and sometimes economics.
6. Wargames are usually about real people in real life situations.

7. Wargames don't pretend an imaginary world where conflict doesn't take place.
8. It actually takes some time to play a wargame, and this is a good thing (see point A).
9. Wargames are just a lot more fun.

OK, so the last one is completely subjective. But I felt like I had to have nine reasons, because the USS Iowa has nine 18 inch guns. Such is life.

Point A: I think it is to a Euro game's credit that Euro games can be played rather quickly, at least usually. However, I tend to like longer games. I don't know, I guess I like the detail. When a game takes a long time to finish, I feel like I have accomplished something. When a game is over quickly, sometimes I feel cheated.

So, if you question any of my broadside points, or if you want to add a point, or if you want to give your broadside in favor of Euro games, then do it!

Dan's Contribution...

Dan has found an awesome site for 25mm miniatures... I checked it out, and I am nearly envious (trying not to break the 9th commandment...) concerning the fact that he has purchased some of his own moulds with which to cast metal figures! Wow! Looking forward to seeing your casts, Dan!

Here's the site...

http://www.princeaugust.ie/

The prices are in Euros, but I'm sure that Wargamer money is just as good... ha ha... :)

Heroscape: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly...

Well, Ryan asked for it, and since I've become a little more of an expert on this one in the past few months, I'll talk about it a little bit.

First I'll tell why I think I'm qualified to talk about it...

I've bought both of the starter sets, you can still get them at the Hasbro site, along with many of the expansion sets. I've also listened to a couple of podcasts where the whole show was dedicated to the game. I have also played a couple games with my wife and by myself. I like the game, so I want to talk about it a little...

Let's start with the good.

First, I have to say that the miniatures are well done. They are pre-painted (which is confusing to some... Basically that means that you get them ready to play, out of the box). They come in dynamic poses, and they rarely repeat within units. The miniatures are large, I suppose the size for the human soldiers is somewhere around 35-40mm, foot to eyeball (that's how miniatures are classified -- by a measurment of miniatures from foot to eyeball...)

The conflict resolution system is good too. It is extreemly satisfying to roll 8 dice at a time and have 5 of them come up skulls (i.e. hits).

The many various units are a mixture of history and fantasy, and they have unique special effects that are well thought out.

Now let's talk about the bad... (Not the cards, they're pretty cool... but the activation...)

Frankly, at first I thought the activation system was good. But now, it really lacks something. Basically, in the rules you place tokens on the units you are activating that turn. Then you activate your units in order. But this means that only 3 of my guys can shoot at one time. That doesn't seem realistic. It also means that you can't move all your troops at the same time. While it is true that you probably can't get away with this in real life, the activation system puts more restrictions on the player than a general would expereince in real life.

There have been some attempts to fix this, basically leaving activation up to card draw. I think this could work. Therefore, in stead of putting order tokens, you would draw specially designed cards that would have things like "Activate any two adjacent units" or "Activate any three units" or "Fire all ranged units in range" or stuff like that.

Now let's talk about the ugly.

At first I really liked the terrain, but now I've got a better idea... The terrain is hexagons, and you know that as a wargamer I just love hexagons. But to tell you the truth, I think a miniatures game ought to be more "free form" movement. This means ditching the hexagons and going with terrain pieces on the tabletop. I've got some trees that are just the right size, and some hills that are really good at blocking line of site. Just multiply all of the movement numbers by 2 and do the movement in inches on the tabletop, and change a couple of engagement rules, and you've probably got a better game.

Finally, to answer Ryan's question...

I am not bothered by the collectibility factor. My experience has been that if you buy the master sets, you have a lot to play with. They both retail at 40 bucks a pop, but I got my master set 2 for half that because of a sale at my local Target store. If you can catch a sale, I recommend it.

It is true that there are some expansion sets that are "out of stock," but I really don't think that they will ever tell you that your miniatures are "fased out" like some other popular miniature games. Take a look at Hasbro's site below...

http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com/ProductsByBrand.htm?BR=746&ST=SO&PG=1

Also, here's the official heroscape site address...

http://www.hasbro.com/games/kid-games/heroscape/

Heroscape is the intellectual property of Hasbro. It is also a pretty cool game.

Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars for the Xbox 360

I have always been a fan of the Command & Conquer series. My first experience of it was playing at a bachelor's party (Dan was that yours?? I can't remember). We had 2 TV s and 2 Playstations, so we had to groups playing one each team (one could only do the controls). It was a blast. Of course my best experience was playing Command & Conquer Red Alert 2 on the computer. Real Time Strategy games are best on the computer. You can do every faster.
So when Command & Conquer 3 came out, the question was: Computer or Xbox 360? It came down to this: I would need a new computer to play this game! So Xbox 360 it was. I was leary about playing it on the console and even though my first experience with Command & Conquer was on the console, I know the great ease of playing it on the computer.
Well, after playing it for several months now I must say that the Xbox 36o version is great! They have helped try and take the ease of having a keyboard into a controller. Certainly it is not as fast but it is simple and fluid. Purist will not like it on the 360 but you still get that feeling of playing it. There are times when I play that I wish I had a keyboard because I know that unit wouldn't have been destroyed with my engineer in it! But to experience Command & Conquer again without purchasing a new computer, the 360 is perfect.
They stick with the Red Alert 2 like physical cutscenes which is fantastic. And the story is as thrilling as the previous ones (excluding Generals...ugh). So if I'd recommend you check Command & Conquer out on the console...you'll be surprised.

Wargames or Eurogames?

This has always been a conflict of mine: war games or euro games? To clarify war game are board/miniature games that usually focus on attacking or gaining territories. These games are similar to Axis & Allies, Samurai Swords, Heroscape (although that's maybe a 3rd Category), and your typical Risk game. Euro games are not just games from europe. They are called Euro games because many of the games from Europe do not have 'war' or the pieces are not destroyed but 'pushed'. Some 'euro games' are also from America. These games are similar to Settlers of Catan, Carcassone, Citadels, Game of Thrones and Ticket to Ride.
The big question is which one is better? Which one has the highest level of strategy? Why do you prefer one over the other? I have a feeling what "WargamerBert" will say!
Images: Fase Preparatoria Dello Sbarco Alleato by Pigliapost
Includes Free River Expansion by Brett L.

Heroscape

So, the question is, does Bert think it is OK to play a game that he has not made up? "Of course" is the answer. One such game is Heroscape. The figures are pretty good, and the terrain is OK too... however, I would like a more free-form style of movement (ditch the hexes and go with a ruler) as well as a different activation system. But, no game can be "perfect" not even my games...

Well, I was going to show you some images of a heroscape setup that I have on my table, but the interface is proving uncooperative. So, just wait a bit...

A Little Teaser...

Well, I've been hard at work today turning this...

Into this...

Click the Bertonian Blogosphere July 2008 link to the right and find out what I was doing...

Family Stuff...

I guess I could put a little bit about my family here... Here are some pictures of Naomi and Micah...

As you can see, Naomi is really doing well. She's a "big girl" and enjoys playing with her stuffed "friends." Clifford is her favorite TV show, and her favorite toys include the "Little People" (daddy's influence, I'm sure...), her "Et" (a security blankET), and anyone she can get to tickle her.

Here's Micah. He enjoys dreuling, cooing, standing at the water table and splashing, and crawling all over the place and chewing on anything that he can find. I found him beginning to chew on my computer cable when I first started to blog this afternoon. Anyway, I caught it in time... :) (let the reader understand "right away.")

Here's both of them playing the piano. I love my kids. Micah is ten months and Naomi is three years old. He weighs only 3 pounds less than she does. But they are both fun and a lot of work to boot. It's great being a dad. Just to let you know that I don't (at least I try not to...) let this wargaming hobby take over all aspects of my life... :) I did have a few pictures of Kristen, my lovely wife, too, but I'll save them for next time...

I'm Baaaaaack...

Ok guys... Yes, I know, I messed up. Mea Culpa. Let's get over it. And let's start talking about wargames again. Yes, lets.

So, I've decided to add another link to this site. I'm developing rules for 25mm Napoleonics combat. The link to the left will show you what I'm talking about. So... I'm back. Deal with it.

Anway, I also wanted to let you know that I'm going to be publishing a monthly magazine focused on having a get together sometime in, yes, you guessed it, 2009... :) It will be a monthly magazine posted as a blogspot dealy. Look for new coming out soon.

Sorry abou the Bert Bat Con 2008 deal, I guess I dropped the ball. But I also guess I'm a little busy. In August, of course, we added future wargamer Micah to our cadre of Muellers, and now the ten month old baby boy is allowing about 15 to 20 minutes a day for wargaming. So... Enjoy!