Oh yisssss

By keltheos, in Runewars Miniatures Game

Terrinoth property that I've been wondering about since Runebound 1e!!!!Wasn't sure about this when I saw the announcement, but when I watched the video of the demo playthrough at GenCon I was hooked. It hits on so many cylinders for me. The great movement mechanic of Xwing/Wings of War, custom dice ala WHFRP/SW and Xwing/Armada, customizations ala Xwing/Armada, tactical choices on how you build your army as any good minis game should allow (what a genius way to get value from wide frontage and deep ranks), great looking models, and a solid use of their proprietary mechanics. Long time FFG fan and even longer time minis game fan is excited.

Can't wait to see more as things unfold including more on the upgrades system and army building. Looks like a solid winner here so far...

...except...

...worried about how FFG releases things. This game will need a solid and predictable release schedule to be more than a passing fancy with miniatures gamers. Especially if we want to see more factions and deep unit choices. I worry about it selling out at release then 3 months or so before restock and maybe within that timeframe the unit packs to expand the lists. Hopefully this will all be covered, but the worst thing about Armada/Xwing (and many FFG products) is the molasses slow release cycle. Really want this to succeed and the hangup would be the release schedule (figs, extra trays, etc).

Edited by keltheos

If it sells out at release, that will be nothing but a good thing, because frankly, I don't expect that to happen.

FFG has improved a lot on releases and stock levels since the early days of things like xwing.

FFG has improved a lot on releases and stock levels since the early days of things like xwing.

True, but this is a pretty new venture for them. Battle-lore was much smaller scale pieces-wise and was in their wheelhouse with the boardgames end of it.

Hoping I'm proven wrong, but I have this feeling it'll pop big then stall out when people wait on materials. They can't do a quarterly 'wave' style release like with Xwing and Armada and keep the miniatures gamers happy.

FFG has improved a lot on releases and stock levels since the early days of things like xwing.

True, but this is a pretty new venture for them. Battle-lore was much smaller scale pieces-wise and was in their wheelhouse with the boardgames end of it.

Hoping I'm proven wrong, but I have this feeling it'll pop big then stall out when people wait on materials. They can't do a quarterly 'wave' style release like with Xwing and Armada and keep the miniatures gamers happy.

One, some of you guys need to stop acting like XW isn't a miniature game. Part of the reason for its success is because ifs not like a traditional war game like warhamster or $40,000.

Two, I absolutely want and expect them to release this the same way as IA, XW and Armada. Why mess with success.

FFG has improved a lot on releases and stock levels since the early days of things like xwing.

Hoping I'm proven wrong, but I have this feeling it'll pop big then stall out when people wait on materials. They can't do a quarterly 'wave' style release like with Xwing and Armada and keep the miniatures gamers happy.

I think this will hugely depend on the size of the waves - if there is enough stuff incoming to allow for diversity in list-building in a reasonable timeframe, I would be fine with quarterly releases.

For example, my big problem with 40k and the reason I never got into it seems that in order to stay competetive (meaning owning the miniatures for the most competetive builds at every moment) I'm supposed to shell out 500 USD a year after a 500-1000 USD initial investment. Perhaps reality is different, but this is what it looks like from the outside.

Honestly, I am more worried about the distribution of upgrade cards. I'm not willing to invest in another faction to get upgrade cards for the faction I play. They may get away with stuff like that in X-Wing because the investment is comparatively low, but for a miniatures wargame this will be a deal breaker for quite a lot of people.

FFG has improved a lot on releases and stock levels since the early days of things like xwing.

Hoping I'm proven wrong, but I have this feeling it'll pop big then stall out when people wait on materials. They can't do a quarterly 'wave' style release like with Xwing and Armada and keep the miniatures gamers happy.

Honestly, I am more worried about the distribution of upgrade cards. I'm not willing to invest in another faction to get upgrade cards for the faction I play. They may get away with stuff like that in X-Wing because the investment is comparatively low, but for a miniatures wargame this will be a deal breaker for quite a lot of people.

^This.

This is exactly what I am most worried about. In both X-Wing and Armada the upgrades are tied to specific ships, and it often forces you to buy what you don't actually need to get a few cards. If BattleLore does this, it will make it much less palatable to me.

Edited by Jedhead

One, some of you guys need to stop acting like XW isn't a miniature game.

Agreed.

Every time I've seen someone try to claim that X-Wing or Armada isn't a miniature game, it normally involves a definition that is pretty much intended to exclude X-Wing...

Having to assemble or paint your models is part of the hobby but has nothing to do with the actual game itself. So you can say that X-Wing lacks the hobby but that doesn't mean it's not a miniature game .

The simple fact that it's a game played with miniatures pretty much covers it all. If anyone ties to use the rather pointless line of 'well the models aren't actually needed' line of argument, the same can be said of most other miniature games as well. Warmahordes for example is completely based on the base, and the model means nothing in actual game terms.

It's not like there's some international body that has the authority to decide what can be called a miniature game or war game and what can't. It's also not like how random person defines the game is going to change the sales, or how popular the game is either.

Finally if you were talk to most people who play things like 15mm Napoleonics and the like, they'd tell you that games like 40k and especially RuneWars aren't true miniature games either.

Edited by VanorDM

I for one am looking forward to something other than a GW type game. What I really like about FFgs games are that they aren't designed to be played to the exclusion of everything else. The amount of time and money required to play something like 40k (and try to keep up with the latest "rules") , is the main reason I don't play that game anymore. It's too much. Awesome miniatures, awful games is how I feel about GW in general.

GW caters to the more hardcore collector/hobbyist. That's cool, and In fact even though I don't play I still work on my old armies from time to time. Not what I want or expect from this game though.

I don't want them to release a new unit every week, and I don't want their marketing department writing the rules. What I am really excited about it is this game finally being a tabletop battle game that draws in the people who don't play 40k or AoS, rather than try to cater to them above all else like so many other competitors. I want something I can play, that my wife will play, and that my non gamer friends will play. So far x wing is the only non board game I've had any success doing that with, and I'm hoping this game will be the second.

What exactly is a hardocre collector/hobbyist? A collector and a hobbyist are quite different, i know some people that would call themselves miniature collectors but they buy what the like not every GW miniature, mostly the just buy the miniature get them painted (by themselves or by someone else) and don' care about playing, converting and all the rest.

And a hobbyist well i wouldn't know how to describe that, some like painting more, others palying, assembling miniatures, converting them, building terrain and tables and much more so what would be a hardcore hobbyist?

And where does that notion for trying to keep up come? You don't need every last supplement, campaign book, codex, formation and so on and you can still have fun with 40K, i know a lot of people that only buy new stuff if they like it and only change their army if it is absolutely neccesary this is of course for casual play if go to tournaments you need to be up to date but still doesn't mean you have to buy everything, you normally got friends or a hobby club where you can look at stuff you don't own.

I don't own any Black Library Dataslates, only one campaign and one supplement, no rules from web bundles and still have fun and i haven't bought Centurions for my Space Marines.

I haven't played GW stuff (as you said, their games are horrible quality), but my impression as an observer is that part of the keeping up is changing armies every time a new codex comes out since they deliberately make new armies stronger than old ones as part of their efforts to keep forcing people to buy the newest stuff to remain competitive.

Three semi-separate categories of people in minis:

Collectors collect minis, sometimes they choose by army, sometimes just by models they like. Some of them paint themselves, others hire painters.

Hobbyists do their own painting, converting, basing, etc... They are attracted to doing this work themselves and enjoying the final result.

Players can be casual or competitive. They're here to play the actual game.

You can be one, two, or all three types. They're pretty independent. Some would argue that casual and competitive players are different types too.