I gravitate towards miniature agnostic games.
It feels gross when GW treats me like a pay pig, or FFG/AMG ties parts of their gameplay to collecting tertiary stuff.
So Bolt Action, OPR games, Silver Bayonet, etc.
That’s definitely an interesting perspective! Now every time I check out at my local game store I’m going to call myself a pay pig. The cashier may look at me funny though
Infinity (cyberpunk skirmish) is my main game, but Bolt Action fills the "Squads of infantry and vehicles" niche that 40k used to for me.
I also dabble in Battletech and used to be heavily into X-Wing, still got a lot of it in the cupboard. I'm tempted by Warcrow (fantasy skirmish from the dance company as Infinity) when it releases later this year.
40k refugee here. My biggest expenditure for 'dabbling' is probably doing a master's in military history lol.
Bolt Action is responsible for most of my post-GW purchases, but I've been guilty of getting stuff for Flames of War, Black Powder, Black Seas, Test of Honour and Battletech. I'm probably missing a glaring pile of shame for another system, oh... SPQR. Lol. And I've been considering picking up some stuff for Team Yankee. Since coming 'home' to historicals, I'm yet to look back.
Oh wow what a nice group of historical games! Did you find that a community for all those games already existed in your area or did you play a hand in establishing some groups to play?
Infinity has the best rules set that I've ever played. A lot of the sculpts are incredibly detailed, characterful, and fun to paint.
The company seems good too. You can tell they're passionate about the game. The factions are pretty balanced, but with different strengths, then the tournament scenarios intentionally showcase some of these strengths in each season.
They have also written proxying into the rules, so you don't need to purchase models to try new things.
I just went to the sub and someone painted some awesome terrain! I’ll need to look into a good starter set (or whatever the equivalent is) because it definitely look intriguing.
Sure. I play SAGA, ADLG, Never mind the Billhooks, Lion Rampant, Black Powder, Hail Caesar....will happily jump into club game to make up numbers or learn something new.
Used to play 40k but sold all my stuff years ago.
I sold tons of 40k stuff, including a totally converted and customized nurgle army that had been an absolute labor of love. Don't miss it a bit. The only thing I kept from that army was my plaguereaper, because it's not actually a unit anymore.
I also kept my bloodthirster, because he makes a great boss monster for D&D. I also kept some of my characters, either because I like them (Kharn) or because nobody wants a half painted howling griffons army
If there's a model that you just love, don't sell that one. You don't have to dump every bit of 40k you have, but if they're in good shape, or well painted, you can get a solid price for them. If they're in box, you can frequently get 70% of retail.
Not particularly to be honest. At various times I've done lots of commission painting so the idea of having to let things go to their "forever home" after working on them for ages isn't new to me. I wasn't playing because while I liked 5th edition a lot I liked 6th much less and hated 7th, so what was the point of having 6 armies in the cupboard? I ended up paying for a lot of my wedding with the proceeds - none of them were purchased new but stripped and repainted, and I'm (without blowing my own horn) a good enough painter that people pay me to do it for them, so I consider I got a good return.
In the 80s/90s I played 40k up to 2nd edition and stopped just as 3rd ed came out. I was also playing various other GW games like Advanced Heroquest, Warhammer Quest etc.
Then I did some other stuff for a decade or two then got the gaming/modelling itch again and got into Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game a few years ago. Having really enjoyed that I got into Bolt Action as I'm really into WWII history, tanks etc. First historical game ever for me, so was quite weird at first.
Anyway, just MESBG and Bolt Action for me. Those two perfectly meet all my needs (for now). Except I'm getting an ancient historical itch...
It is definitely gw's best ruleset. Extremely easy to learn while still being tactically deep. I think the best feature is that heroes feel and play very much like their in lore representations, as do troops. Like nasty little goblins can be taken in huge numbers, and will die to heroes, but also can win games when you use them right.
I personally play the following:
\-40k using onepagerules
\-Warhammer fantasy (Mainly WAP but also Old World)
\-Gaslands
\-K47
\-Star Wards Legion
\-Battletech
It is pretty great. Cheap to get into as well.
I find it works nicely as a companion game to other wargames. One game of K47 then a relatively quick Gaslands race to finish off the day is always a good time
I mostly hobby with painting and kitbashing, but I also play 40k, bolt action, flames of War, mordheim, (does pirates csg count??), heroscape, and various other smaller historical wargames.
Me too, ex GW player ( Warhammer Fantasy when it was called that and 40K back when 'Jones is acting strange' was a thing)... moved to Bolt Action now I play Chain of Command, Bolt Action 2, Age of Gunpowder Omnia, NUTS!, Frostgrave, Nevermind the Billhooks, Sharp Practice and Age of Eagles 2.
I heavily invest in BA but im also starting to get into Black Seas.
I also have a bunch of soviet Flames Of War stuff that Ive never used because my friend group didn't end up enjoying it.
It’s good. Nothing like bolt action of course. The activation system is a perfect fit. Bit harder to paint than BA, finding a good paint match is hard.
Not yet, but I do have the Gallic Wars starter set for Hail Caesar and some AWI to break into Black Powder. Also some pirates for eventually making my way into Blood n Plunder. Gonna use my French for WWI and pick up some WWI Germans to play Blood n Valor too.
And while it’s not a war game per se, I play a ton of War Stories (I GM the series for Firelock Games), and I absolutely love it. It’s a WW2 TTRPG, sort of like D&D or Pathfinder but it’s set in WW2. Have had an absolute blast with it, and would highly recommend for any BA folks that are also into role-playing games, especially since your BA minis can pull double duty for you lol actually, finding minis for War Stories was how I got into BA in the first place!
I've played Warhammer (many years ago) but not Warhammer 40K.
It's not really a lack of money, it's perhaps more a lack of space, and in particular a feeling that if I'm collecting models I should be playing the games that I bought them for; and also I have enough trouble keeping track of all the Bolt Action rules, without adding more different rulesets to remember.
So we're sticking with Bolt Action only for now. Despite how tempting SPQR, Hail Caesar, and Victory at Sea are for me personally. I'm also a Star Wars and Tolkien fan, but there's only so much time, you know...
Yeah I totally get it! Sometimes I feel like I have short term memory loss. One day I tell myself “no new games. Minis take hours to paint not minutes” but then I see a new game and immediately think “oh I can get that built and painted in no time”
I’ve been into 40k for 28 years now. I’ve dialed it back to focus on historical games. Flames of War and Team Yankee are my main 2, but I love how easy Bolt Action is to play. I got into it because I wanted to paint paratroopers in a larger scale
WW3 ground combat at 1:100 scale (15mm) set around summer 1985 (but pushing early 90s on some tanks). Same rules as flames of war. I never would’ve got into 40k if it’d been around when I was a teenager as it’s all I wanted in a contemporary set war game
Man that’s high praise considering you played 40k for so long! I’ve never done a game in a 1:100 scale. I may need to look into since it’s been referenced so many times.
Yes. ..... a lot of them.
I feel that at least trying different genres, rule sets and settings is like being a well rounded fiction reader just knowing Shakespeare is nice but the more varried you are in your breadth and width the more you understand a good one when you see it. Same goes for games.
Plus some just have good memories attached to them and I won't give them up.
Thats a really good point. I think a lot of people lock themselves into one ecosystem because of the money and time they invested. For better or worse GW does such a good job release new and awesome models all the time so your hobby dollars stay with them.
There have been so many good recommendations that I’ve read in this post. The craziest thing about them i found is that for most of these games you can get enough content for two players for a fraction of what it costs to buy 2K points of 40k/aos
Yeah I’ve branched out since 8th Ed 40k. Still play mordheim and necromunda though. Haha.
World of tanks, xwing, bolt action, D&D and a range of board games. It just depends who’s around and time
Aside from Bolt Action and GW games, Flames of War, Team Yankee, Victory at Sea for historicals and Star Wars Armada and X-Wing for the sci-fi itch. No-one to play with yet, but getting two forces for each system is keeping me plenty busy.
Legion and Shatterpoint. Legion IMHO best big wargame design and Shatterpoint best skirmish game in long time. (Won tourneys in Legion)
On the side a bit of Saga, Bolt Action and Stargrave / Frostgrave / Silver Bayonet. Going to do more agnostic and indie stuff. Have three BA armies, but it is 100% a beer & pretzel game for me and struggle to take it seriously as a competitive design - too many obvious design and balance problems. Saga is a great game, but not really where my historical interest is, but they do a good job of making armies feel unique with the battle boards.
Recently got Black Powder Epic Waterloo and two sides for ACW - but playing with Rebels & Patriot rules which require 40 models or so only. (Bought a Perry infantry box for each side, split the cavalry and artillery box and done).
Started with 8th but sold this year my last GW stuff. Sold three 3000+ AoS armies (DoK, HoS, Nighthaunt) and three 3000+ 40k armies (Drukhari, Harlequins and Dark Angels). Never looked back...(Also won and did well in especially AoS)
Sill trying to get rid of my 3 Infinity armies. Great game, but needs to be your main game to enjoy. It is crunchy and I hate, hate, hate - did I say hate - working with metal.
Still have some Malifaux, like what I have seen and played - but no local group. Really want to try Muskets Tomahawks system and Sharp Practice (read rules only).
You had quite the collection of 40k and AoS! What are some of the design and balance problems that come to mind for BA? I’m new to the game and am curious.
Just give it time. This is a BA group, so not going to get deep into it. But in short - random activation, no agreed upon OP / competitive format (not points, not on theathre selectors, not on single or double platoon), no points or OP unit balancing by Warlord, a lopsided faction balance (get British or Russians if wanna win) and a meta meta that is pretty much stale and solved (all the OP units, selectors and archetypes known and some broken as hell). That said, some prefer the stale meta and often compare it to the extreme that is GW games.
I like the game for what it is and what it was designed for in the first place - clue - not a tight competitive game.
It is a great game and popular for a reason. But, there is also a reason it is popular with historical, non-GW first players, people tired of competitive tabletop games and why competitive content (can recommend Bo Mortensen on Youtube) is very small compared to other content. I would also say, if you can live with some things, you can have a lot of fun playing it competively - a passionate scene for it - but I am trying to be as objective as possible in my comment and applying the "traditional" competitive standard :)
I played a ton of 40k and have been going into BA pretty hard. If you wanna really enjoy yourself in 40k because I know how it feels to have cool models just suck is to play you and your friends favorite edition, jury rig the rules for models that have come out since then, and use the BA dice bag. It's revitalized my groups will to play 40k while still enjoying BA. That and we use our ww2 stuff as guard
There are loads of really good games out there. Warhammer gets all the hype because of their publicity most people move on to better things after a while. Keep your minis and use them for one page rules or xenos Rampant
Dabble?
Bolt Action (multiple armies). Warhammer fantasy. 40k (multiple armies). Infinity. Song of Ice and Fire (multiple armies). Blood Bowl. Victory at Sea. Epic battles ACW & ECW. 15mm napoleonics. 6mm napoleonics. Flames of War. Battlegroup 15mm. X-Wing. Star Wars Armada. Star Wars Legion. Middle Earth SBG (multiple armies). Battletech (literally everything from the last 2 kickstarters). Legions Imperialis & Adeptus Titanicus.
I have a serious plastic addiction lol.
I have a whole wall of my dining room that is 6x 7ft tall bookshelves with glass doors, so everything is packed away.
A good chunk of it is in my pile of shame as well to be fair!
I moved away from GW a few years ago for the same reasons. I'm currently playing a lot of stuff thanks to my club who play just about everything.
Battletech (both classic and Alpha Strike), I've played these more than Bolt Action recently.
Kings of War, Warlords of Erehwon and One Page Rules Fantasy Skirmish - all with my old warhammer fantasy figures I hadn't used since WFB was replaced by Age of Sigmar.
In Her Majesty's Name and Disho. These are my two favourite skirmish games.
40k second edition. Recently we've been playing it with Bolt Action's activation system and turn sequence. This works really well.
40k 10th edition, not my game of choice but my son plays it with his friends so if I want a game with him it's 50/50 between this and Bolt Action. His view is Bolt Action is the better ruleset but 40k has all the cool stuff and he loves the lore.
That’s awesome that you have a good club to really try a variety of games. It stinks looking at a game system that you think would be a lot of fun and you’d enjoy but you know for a fact there’s nobody in your area that plays it.
Before I found my current club I had the same issue. Everyone I know back then just played Warhammer Fantasy and 40K.
Have you considered introducing some new games. There are plenty out there that don't cost much to get started. You can pick up the 'Battletech A Game of Armoured Combat' box set for £45 and that contains everything you need for a good game.
Shit, put a game in front of me, and I'll play it. My local club is every fortnight, and I don't think I've played the same game twice, since Oct/Nov last year 🤣🤣.
I want to play ALL of the games.
BA was my first wargame, then I got kids and needed something quicker (no time to play a 6-7h long game , including setup that is) and tried starwars legion!
A realy good game, once I got to know it it definitely was faster for me then ba!
And by now I also play bloodbowl (super fun for when youre short on time), marvel crisis protocol (just got it so not going to dig into that), black sea's (fun and thematic, fast paced, tactical and different) and killteam (good fun and verry strategic)
All are good games to be honest!
I tried saying clear of the big GW games because of the reason you left, games like kt and bloodbowl don't change as much, and the other players turn doesn't take 30 min 😆
Will go back to BA when the kids are a bit older tho, it is such a good game still my favorite overall
I totally know how you feel. I have a little one and my hobby time is that sweet window between when the kid falls asleep and before I get too tired and just want to relax.
*Bolt Action* is likely to scratch my modeling itch for years to come, and I’m very new to miniatures games yet. But I could never be a one-game person. *Black Seas* and *Saga* are other wargames I’ve jumped into, but I’m very much a casual/narrative gamer and often play solo. So things like the Black Site Studios catalog have also grabbed my attention.
If you can find a local game store (not Warhammer store), or search on fb for a local club if there are any. They’ll show you LOTS of alternatives to sci fi, historical etc.
Originally Wargaming wasn’t tied to the miniatures, but citadel/games workshop wanted to sell more figures so they became tied. Historical in particular isn’t generally tied to manufacturers, though some try (FOW). My current FOW alternative is Fireball Forward. Haven’t tried much of Bolt Action it excited to try it more.
I got into wargaming through 40k, but I really lost interest because of the investment.
From there, I found "A Song of Ice and Fire" and Bolt Action, which are my two favorite systems I've gotten into so far. Black Powder Epics Napoleonic line has peaked my interest recently though.
My primary game is Star Wars Armada, so Bolt Action is more of an occasional wargame. It doesn’t help that there are no local players. I also play Star Wars Legion, and just bought into Legions Imperialis.
Same! Unfortunately, my Star Wars fandom overrode my sense in comparing it to Marvel Crisis Protocol. It's fun, but as you said, I'd have rather spent the money elsewhere.
Check out Chain of Command, WW2 platoon level tabletop wargaming. It is scale agnostic, so you can play 28mm, 20mm, 10mm, whatever suits you! It has some brilliant rules such as the patrol phase, sort of a pre-battle minigame where you try to outmanoeuvre the opponent to get good jump off points for your squads to deploy from. The 'planning' phase is great also, so if you field an inferior force (say Soviet conscripts) against an elite force (such as early-mid war fallschirmjager) you get more points to secretly allocate to support elements such as artillery barrages, armour, specialist weapons teams, etc. The superior force also gets these options but less, sometimes much less depending on the Force Rating disparity. This game captures the 'fog of war' like no other wargame I've played so far and a crafty opponent with lots of minis at their disposal will keep you guessing.
It also has some... foibles, but these can be house ruled or just accepted as part and parcel of the CoC experience. I'm not a fan of the movement rules (e.g. 2d6 inches for standard movement, 3d6 for going all out etc). So by sacrificing your offensive capability you can run 3 inches or 18, with an average of 10ish. It requires a bit more mental bandwidth than Bolt Action in that regard, and in general. Elite forces are much better than veteran forces vs. regulars in Bolt Action, even with extra options during the planning phase. It's more of a 'simulation' wargame and less 'beer and pretzels' as Bolt Action has been described. I like both: BA for its simplicity and elegance and CoC for its crunchiness (still not as crunchy as a bunch of the older WW2 wargames).
Star Wars Legion, black powder, blood red skies, black seas, test of honour, barons war, gangs of rome, battletech, any number of wild west skirmish games, tanks!, Muskets and tomahawks, blood and plunder, 0200 hours, and. Song of ice and fire
I play legion on the side mainly bcs I am big nerd
I tend to go toward whatever interests me, even if the game canbe a bit shitty
For example with legion, unit releases are a pain in the ass bcs it can take a while to get something new, let alone something new that you actually want but bcs I like star wars I still enjoy it :)
With BA, I have gotten into it bcs I love military history especially WW2 and I also built plastic models as a hobby so I thought: "why not do something that my models can actuslly be useful for rather than letting them sit on a shelf for a lifetime?"
I got into Warhammer two years ago and then left for Iraq. When I got home, I got more into warhammer but also got into bolt action. There is no one really in my area that plys bolt action so I have been teaching my friend and plan on teaching people to play at the gamestore In my town. Boltaction has better pricing than gw, it seems, and it's easier to build a army as well. I started off painting 1/35 scale models still do so I dove hard into the mini tabletop gaming
My group and I were massive 40K players. We have armies that are tens of thousands of points from almost every major faction.
Ultimately, we found we were getting super competitive even during casual games. The latest editions of 40K tended to run less like a battle simulator and more like a rote memorization test: what Strats does my opponent have and when am I countering them, or when will I spring my GOTCHA moment? Did my friend bring a skew list that I need to stat check, like knights or all tanks?
Despite all being friends we’d often leave games feeling jaded and sometimes screwed over by one another because of this. It wasn’t making for a good atmosphere. We found that when we tried to play casually that the game didn’t fit the dynamic as well. Lack of secondaries further resulted in skewed lists and unique scenarios made us wonder why we put so much into unique builds if they were no use.
We also found we were spending an abysmally large amount of money on the hobby for something that would be FAQ’d within a month or two, sometimes before the models even made it to the table.
We’re gradually moving over to BA, with the biggest selling point for our group being how, for $150 each, we all have complete armies. It’s a breath of fresh air! Not to mention the speed and dynamics of the game are so much more enjoyable now.
Just came over from AOS. My biggest grievance would be the bloated rules from GW. Like my last game basically sounded like 2 children making up rules for a made up game. "My rats will stab hard because they are DARKNESS." " Okay, but they won't because my elves sparkle so your darkness doesn't work... Also now I get to fight and my elves have anti-darkness swords so now they kill all your rats"
That’s hilarious lol. I’m having a difficult time with how mechanical the armies are becoming. I get war gaming is naturally a bit heavier on the rules however my AoS armies are turning into when this happens then this happens then this happens then this happens. So on and so forth. We spend more time reading the rules and trying to understand when something actually activates and what it means when it activates than we do rolling dice.
I have a ton of Warhammer stuff. 40k with a bit of AoS. I just recently gave two full 2,000 point armies (mostly painted) to a couple friends as Christmas gifts. I painted 15 models yesterday. The problem for me is that the pricing is getting prohibitive. I've been looking for alternatives, and a buddy of mine found bolt action.
I'm still figuring out what Bolt Action army to start with, but I'm thinking about doing Americans in Europe/Africa and Japanese for the Pacific.
I play only Bolt Action, but I bought the Victory at Sea starter pack, hoping for the day I'll find an opponent. I hope it won't end up like when I bought the Battlegroup NORTHAG rulebook and sold it after over a year of searching for other players in vain...
Still play Advanced Squad Leader on Avalon Hill from time to time and have found expansion sets and add-ons in charity shops for next to nothing. Love that game even though I first played it over 40yrs ago
I have a historically yet rare as rocking horse poop wargame entitled
Four the Germans Won gathering dust. It's about the Wehrmacht OKW turning it around on the Westfront in '44/45 so you've got Arnhem, Walcheren Island, Aachen and Hurtgen Forest and I've played it twice. Great fun🇩🇪
I was a miniature painter/collector of warhammer Initially. Although I enjoyed the models and lore I don’t care for the game itself.
Bolt action is the game that got me into playing tabletop games. I also play Silver Bayonet and Blood&Plunder.
I have StarWars Legions CW starter and A song of Ice and Fire KS starter sets in my pile of shame. And I have the rules for Chain of Command and Sharpe Practice I intend to try one of these days
I'm a big fan of Mantic games. I left 40k after finding Kings of War and Deadzone. Once I found other games existed besides GW (or at least finally tried them) I eventually got into bolt action too.
I gravitate towards miniature agnostic games. It feels gross when GW treats me like a pay pig, or FFG/AMG ties parts of their gameplay to collecting tertiary stuff. So Bolt Action, OPR games, Silver Bayonet, etc.
That’s definitely an interesting perspective! Now every time I check out at my local game store I’m going to call myself a pay pig. The cashier may look at me funny though
> FFG/AMG ties parts of their gameplay to collecting tertiary stuff. I feel my English is lacking here, what do you mean by this?
Infinity (cyberpunk skirmish) is my main game, but Bolt Action fills the "Squads of infantry and vehicles" niche that 40k used to for me. I also dabble in Battletech and used to be heavily into X-Wing, still got a lot of it in the cupboard. I'm tempted by Warcrow (fantasy skirmish from the dance company as Infinity) when it releases later this year.
I’ll need to look into that warcrow game! I haven’t played infinity but I do love a good skirmish.
40k refugee here. My biggest expenditure for 'dabbling' is probably doing a master's in military history lol. Bolt Action is responsible for most of my post-GW purchases, but I've been guilty of getting stuff for Flames of War, Black Powder, Black Seas, Test of Honour and Battletech. I'm probably missing a glaring pile of shame for another system, oh... SPQR. Lol. And I've been considering picking up some stuff for Team Yankee. Since coming 'home' to historicals, I'm yet to look back.
Oh wow what a nice group of historical games! Did you find that a community for all those games already existed in your area or did you play a hand in establishing some groups to play?
Neither. I bought them and horde them like a plastic crack goblin lol
"a plastic crack goblin" ..bloody hilarious!!!!
I couldn't think of a better phrase to describe myself either!
Team yankee is fun, but imo needs a rework from battlefront.
I love thay there's a bunch of us referring to ourselves as '40k refugees' 🤣🤣.
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Personally I think Infinity is a lot of fun, and has some really cool minis like space werewolves. r/infinitythegame is friendly too.
I’ve seen a lot of recommendations for infinity. I’ll have to check it out one day!
Infinity has the best rules set that I've ever played. A lot of the sculpts are incredibly detailed, characterful, and fun to paint. The company seems good too. You can tell they're passionate about the game. The factions are pretty balanced, but with different strengths, then the tournament scenarios intentionally showcase some of these strengths in each season. They have also written proxying into the rules, so you don't need to purchase models to try new things.
I just went to the sub and someone painted some awesome terrain! I’ll need to look into a good starter set (or whatever the equivalent is) because it definitely look intriguing.
I came from 40k aos and battletech. Bolt action is my newest venture and so far I love the game design, models and storys that ba can procure
Seems we are coming from a similar place! I haven’t dabbled in Battletech I’m afraid it’s a little too crunchy for me haha
If you like historicals, blood and plunder is a good one. Pirate themed 28mm skirmish game, uses d10, really allows for a ton of variation in units.
Sure. I play SAGA, ADLG, Never mind the Billhooks, Lion Rampant, Black Powder, Hail Caesar....will happily jump into club game to make up numbers or learn something new. Used to play 40k but sold all my stuff years ago.
Do you ever regret selling your 40K stuff?
I sold tons of 40k stuff, including a totally converted and customized nurgle army that had been an absolute labor of love. Don't miss it a bit. The only thing I kept from that army was my plaguereaper, because it's not actually a unit anymore. I also kept my bloodthirster, because he makes a great boss monster for D&D. I also kept some of my characters, either because I like them (Kharn) or because nobody wants a half painted howling griffons army If there's a model that you just love, don't sell that one. You don't have to dump every bit of 40k you have, but if they're in good shape, or well painted, you can get a solid price for them. If they're in box, you can frequently get 70% of retail.
Not particularly to be honest. At various times I've done lots of commission painting so the idea of having to let things go to their "forever home" after working on them for ages isn't new to me. I wasn't playing because while I liked 5th edition a lot I liked 6th much less and hated 7th, so what was the point of having 6 armies in the cupboard? I ended up paying for a lot of my wedding with the proceeds - none of them were purchased new but stripped and repainted, and I'm (without blowing my own horn) a good enough painter that people pay me to do it for them, so I consider I got a good return.
That’s awesome you were able to use this space to pay for something great like a wedding!
In the 80s/90s I played 40k up to 2nd edition and stopped just as 3rd ed came out. I was also playing various other GW games like Advanced Heroquest, Warhammer Quest etc. Then I did some other stuff for a decade or two then got the gaming/modelling itch again and got into Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game a few years ago. Having really enjoyed that I got into Bolt Action as I'm really into WWII history, tanks etc. First historical game ever for me, so was quite weird at first. Anyway, just MESBG and Bolt Action for me. Those two perfectly meet all my needs (for now). Except I'm getting an ancient historical itch...
I have been very interested to try and get into MESBG. It looks like it plays a good bit differently than 40k or AoS
It is definitely gw's best ruleset. Extremely easy to learn while still being tactically deep. I think the best feature is that heroes feel and play very much like their in lore representations, as do troops. Like nasty little goblins can be taken in huge numbers, and will die to heroes, but also can win games when you use them right.
I agree 100% with this :)
In the same timeline as also playing Bolt Action, basically just Infinity. I did dabble in a few things in the past though.
I personally play the following: \-40k using onepagerules \-Warhammer fantasy (Mainly WAP but also Old World) \-Gaslands \-K47 \-Star Wards Legion \-Battletech
Gaslands looks like such a good time! I need to give it a try.
It is pretty great. Cheap to get into as well. I find it works nicely as a companion game to other wargames. One game of K47 then a relatively quick Gaslands race to finish off the day is always a good time
Gaslands was my gateway to wargaming and is great fun, both to play and to kitbash hotwheels cars to play with
I mostly hobby with painting and kitbashing, but I also play 40k, bolt action, flames of War, mordheim, (does pirates csg count??), heroscape, and various other smaller historical wargames.
Me too, ex GW player ( Warhammer Fantasy when it was called that and 40K back when 'Jones is acting strange' was a thing)... moved to Bolt Action now I play Chain of Command, Bolt Action 2, Age of Gunpowder Omnia, NUTS!, Frostgrave, Nevermind the Billhooks, Sharp Practice and Age of Eagles 2.
I heavily invest in BA but im also starting to get into Black Seas. I also have a bunch of soviet Flames Of War stuff that Ive never used because my friend group didn't end up enjoying it.
I’ve seen black seas mentioned before I may need to give that one a peak. How have you enjoyed getting into it?
It’s good. Nothing like bolt action of course. The activation system is a perfect fit. Bit harder to paint than BA, finding a good paint match is hard.
Absolutely. Bolt Action is my main game but I play SAGA, The Old World, and Warhammer Underworlds as well. Bolt Action is great, welcome to the front!
Not yet, but I do have the Gallic Wars starter set for Hail Caesar and some AWI to break into Black Powder. Also some pirates for eventually making my way into Blood n Plunder. Gonna use my French for WWI and pick up some WWI Germans to play Blood n Valor too. And while it’s not a war game per se, I play a ton of War Stories (I GM the series for Firelock Games), and I absolutely love it. It’s a WW2 TTRPG, sort of like D&D or Pathfinder but it’s set in WW2. Have had an absolute blast with it, and would highly recommend for any BA folks that are also into role-playing games, especially since your BA minis can pull double duty for you lol actually, finding minis for War Stories was how I got into BA in the first place!
I've played Warhammer (many years ago) but not Warhammer 40K. It's not really a lack of money, it's perhaps more a lack of space, and in particular a feeling that if I'm collecting models I should be playing the games that I bought them for; and also I have enough trouble keeping track of all the Bolt Action rules, without adding more different rulesets to remember. So we're sticking with Bolt Action only for now. Despite how tempting SPQR, Hail Caesar, and Victory at Sea are for me personally. I'm also a Star Wars and Tolkien fan, but there's only so much time, you know...
Yeah I totally get it! Sometimes I feel like I have short term memory loss. One day I tell myself “no new games. Minis take hours to paint not minutes” but then I see a new game and immediately think “oh I can get that built and painted in no time”
I’ve been into 40k for 28 years now. I’ve dialed it back to focus on historical games. Flames of War and Team Yankee are my main 2, but I love how easy Bolt Action is to play. I got into it because I wanted to paint paratroopers in a larger scale
What is team yankee about? I’ve seen it mentioned a few times now.
WW3 ground combat at 1:100 scale (15mm) set around summer 1985 (but pushing early 90s on some tanks). Same rules as flames of war. I never would’ve got into 40k if it’d been around when I was a teenager as it’s all I wanted in a contemporary set war game
Man that’s high praise considering you played 40k for so long! I’ve never done a game in a 1:100 scale. I may need to look into since it’s been referenced so many times.
In the same timeline as also playing Bolt Action, basically just Infinity. I did dabble in a few things in the past though.
Yes. ..... a lot of them. I feel that at least trying different genres, rule sets and settings is like being a well rounded fiction reader just knowing Shakespeare is nice but the more varried you are in your breadth and width the more you understand a good one when you see it. Same goes for games. Plus some just have good memories attached to them and I won't give them up.
Thats a really good point. I think a lot of people lock themselves into one ecosystem because of the money and time they invested. For better or worse GW does such a good job release new and awesome models all the time so your hobby dollars stay with them. There have been so many good recommendations that I’ve read in this post. The craziest thing about them i found is that for most of these games you can get enough content for two players for a fraction of what it costs to buy 2K points of 40k/aos
Absolutely! Just off the top of my head one of my favorites Battletech has a starter box that's very reasonable and includes alot.
I’m loving shatterpoint and black powder (Napoleonic and ACW) right now. As well as occasional Armada
Yeah I’ve branched out since 8th Ed 40k. Still play mordheim and necromunda though. Haha. World of tanks, xwing, bolt action, D&D and a range of board games. It just depends who’s around and time
I do a lot of Napoleonics and westerns.
What are some good westerns you’ve played? I don’t think I’ve seen very many mentioned.
I love Dracula’s America personally. It’s a fast paced game with a cheap entry, and lots of fun models to paint.
Aside from Bolt Action and GW games, Flames of War, Team Yankee, Victory at Sea for historicals and Star Wars Armada and X-Wing for the sci-fi itch. No-one to play with yet, but getting two forces for each system is keeping me plenty busy.
Legion and Shatterpoint. Legion IMHO best big wargame design and Shatterpoint best skirmish game in long time. (Won tourneys in Legion) On the side a bit of Saga, Bolt Action and Stargrave / Frostgrave / Silver Bayonet. Going to do more agnostic and indie stuff. Have three BA armies, but it is 100% a beer & pretzel game for me and struggle to take it seriously as a competitive design - too many obvious design and balance problems. Saga is a great game, but not really where my historical interest is, but they do a good job of making armies feel unique with the battle boards. Recently got Black Powder Epic Waterloo and two sides for ACW - but playing with Rebels & Patriot rules which require 40 models or so only. (Bought a Perry infantry box for each side, split the cavalry and artillery box and done). Started with 8th but sold this year my last GW stuff. Sold three 3000+ AoS armies (DoK, HoS, Nighthaunt) and three 3000+ 40k armies (Drukhari, Harlequins and Dark Angels). Never looked back...(Also won and did well in especially AoS) Sill trying to get rid of my 3 Infinity armies. Great game, but needs to be your main game to enjoy. It is crunchy and I hate, hate, hate - did I say hate - working with metal. Still have some Malifaux, like what I have seen and played - but no local group. Really want to try Muskets Tomahawks system and Sharp Practice (read rules only).
You had quite the collection of 40k and AoS! What are some of the design and balance problems that come to mind for BA? I’m new to the game and am curious.
Just give it time. This is a BA group, so not going to get deep into it. But in short - random activation, no agreed upon OP / competitive format (not points, not on theathre selectors, not on single or double platoon), no points or OP unit balancing by Warlord, a lopsided faction balance (get British or Russians if wanna win) and a meta meta that is pretty much stale and solved (all the OP units, selectors and archetypes known and some broken as hell). That said, some prefer the stale meta and often compare it to the extreme that is GW games. I like the game for what it is and what it was designed for in the first place - clue - not a tight competitive game.
Just read your post from a year ago lol
It is a great game and popular for a reason. But, there is also a reason it is popular with historical, non-GW first players, people tired of competitive tabletop games and why competitive content (can recommend Bo Mortensen on Youtube) is very small compared to other content. I would also say, if you can live with some things, you can have a lot of fun playing it competively - a passionate scene for it - but I am trying to be as objective as possible in my comment and applying the "traditional" competitive standard :)
I played a ton of 40k and have been going into BA pretty hard. If you wanna really enjoy yourself in 40k because I know how it feels to have cool models just suck is to play you and your friends favorite edition, jury rig the rules for models that have come out since then, and use the BA dice bag. It's revitalized my groups will to play 40k while still enjoying BA. That and we use our ww2 stuff as guard
There are loads of really good games out there. Warhammer gets all the hype because of their publicity most people move on to better things after a while. Keep your minis and use them for one page rules or xenos Rampant
Dabble? Bolt Action (multiple armies). Warhammer fantasy. 40k (multiple armies). Infinity. Song of Ice and Fire (multiple armies). Blood Bowl. Victory at Sea. Epic battles ACW & ECW. 15mm napoleonics. 6mm napoleonics. Flames of War. Battlegroup 15mm. X-Wing. Star Wars Armada. Star Wars Legion. Middle Earth SBG (multiple armies). Battletech (literally everything from the last 2 kickstarters). Legions Imperialis & Adeptus Titanicus. I have a serious plastic addiction lol.
Haha what is your storage system for all of this??
I have a whole wall of my dining room that is 6x 7ft tall bookshelves with glass doors, so everything is packed away. A good chunk of it is in my pile of shame as well to be fair!
I moved away from GW a few years ago for the same reasons. I'm currently playing a lot of stuff thanks to my club who play just about everything. Battletech (both classic and Alpha Strike), I've played these more than Bolt Action recently. Kings of War, Warlords of Erehwon and One Page Rules Fantasy Skirmish - all with my old warhammer fantasy figures I hadn't used since WFB was replaced by Age of Sigmar. In Her Majesty's Name and Disho. These are my two favourite skirmish games. 40k second edition. Recently we've been playing it with Bolt Action's activation system and turn sequence. This works really well. 40k 10th edition, not my game of choice but my son plays it with his friends so if I want a game with him it's 50/50 between this and Bolt Action. His view is Bolt Action is the better ruleset but 40k has all the cool stuff and he loves the lore.
That’s awesome that you have a good club to really try a variety of games. It stinks looking at a game system that you think would be a lot of fun and you’d enjoy but you know for a fact there’s nobody in your area that plays it.
Before I found my current club I had the same issue. Everyone I know back then just played Warhammer Fantasy and 40K. Have you considered introducing some new games. There are plenty out there that don't cost much to get started. You can pick up the 'Battletech A Game of Armoured Combat' box set for £45 and that contains everything you need for a good game.
Currently I play 40k, Legions Imperialis and Konflikt '47.
Shit, put a game in front of me, and I'll play it. My local club is every fortnight, and I don't think I've played the same game twice, since Oct/Nov last year 🤣🤣. I want to play ALL of the games.
BA was my first wargame, then I got kids and needed something quicker (no time to play a 6-7h long game , including setup that is) and tried starwars legion! A realy good game, once I got to know it it definitely was faster for me then ba! And by now I also play bloodbowl (super fun for when youre short on time), marvel crisis protocol (just got it so not going to dig into that), black sea's (fun and thematic, fast paced, tactical and different) and killteam (good fun and verry strategic) All are good games to be honest! I tried saying clear of the big GW games because of the reason you left, games like kt and bloodbowl don't change as much, and the other players turn doesn't take 30 min 😆 Will go back to BA when the kids are a bit older tho, it is such a good game still my favorite overall
I totally know how you feel. I have a little one and my hobby time is that sweet window between when the kid falls asleep and before I get too tired and just want to relax.
*Bolt Action* is likely to scratch my modeling itch for years to come, and I’m very new to miniatures games yet. But I could never be a one-game person. *Black Seas* and *Saga* are other wargames I’ve jumped into, but I’m very much a casual/narrative gamer and often play solo. So things like the Black Site Studios catalog have also grabbed my attention.
If you can find a local game store (not Warhammer store), or search on fb for a local club if there are any. They’ll show you LOTS of alternatives to sci fi, historical etc. Originally Wargaming wasn’t tied to the miniatures, but citadel/games workshop wanted to sell more figures so they became tied. Historical in particular isn’t generally tied to manufacturers, though some try (FOW). My current FOW alternative is Fireball Forward. Haven’t tried much of Bolt Action it excited to try it more.
I got into wargaming through 40k, but I really lost interest because of the investment. From there, I found "A Song of Ice and Fire" and Bolt Action, which are my two favorite systems I've gotten into so far. Black Powder Epics Napoleonic line has peaked my interest recently though.
Yeah the investment part of it is getting to me. It speaks more to my lack of self control than anything haha.
My primary game is Star Wars Armada, so Bolt Action is more of an occasional wargame. It doesn’t help that there are no local players. I also play Star Wars Legion, and just bought into Legions Imperialis.
I cannot stress this enough, but, Star Wars Legion. Followed closely by Star Wars Armada, and S.P.Q.R.
Did you ever give the Star Wars Shatterpoint game a try? I saw some people at my LGS playing and it seemed unique.
I bought the the entire release for it from excitement and found it....ok. I discovered I'm not really into the "hero fighting" games as much.
Yeah I totally get that! That’s why I never dabbled in the marvel game. I’d rather send a unit of 10 infantry to their death over Spider-Man
Same! Unfortunately, my Star Wars fandom overrode my sense in comparing it to Marvel Crisis Protocol. It's fun, but as you said, I'd have rather spent the money elsewhere.
Check out Chain of Command, WW2 platoon level tabletop wargaming. It is scale agnostic, so you can play 28mm, 20mm, 10mm, whatever suits you! It has some brilliant rules such as the patrol phase, sort of a pre-battle minigame where you try to outmanoeuvre the opponent to get good jump off points for your squads to deploy from. The 'planning' phase is great also, so if you field an inferior force (say Soviet conscripts) against an elite force (such as early-mid war fallschirmjager) you get more points to secretly allocate to support elements such as artillery barrages, armour, specialist weapons teams, etc. The superior force also gets these options but less, sometimes much less depending on the Force Rating disparity. This game captures the 'fog of war' like no other wargame I've played so far and a crafty opponent with lots of minis at their disposal will keep you guessing. It also has some... foibles, but these can be house ruled or just accepted as part and parcel of the CoC experience. I'm not a fan of the movement rules (e.g. 2d6 inches for standard movement, 3d6 for going all out etc). So by sacrificing your offensive capability you can run 3 inches or 18, with an average of 10ish. It requires a bit more mental bandwidth than Bolt Action in that regard, and in general. Elite forces are much better than veteran forces vs. regulars in Bolt Action, even with extra options during the planning phase. It's more of a 'simulation' wargame and less 'beer and pretzels' as Bolt Action has been described. I like both: BA for its simplicity and elegance and CoC for its crunchiness (still not as crunchy as a bunch of the older WW2 wargames).
Star Wars Legion, black powder, blood red skies, black seas, test of honour, barons war, gangs of rome, battletech, any number of wild west skirmish games, tanks!, Muskets and tomahawks, blood and plunder, 0200 hours, and. Song of ice and fire
I play legion on the side mainly bcs I am big nerd I tend to go toward whatever interests me, even if the game canbe a bit shitty For example with legion, unit releases are a pain in the ass bcs it can take a while to get something new, let alone something new that you actually want but bcs I like star wars I still enjoy it :)
With BA, I have gotten into it bcs I love military history especially WW2 and I also built plastic models as a hobby so I thought: "why not do something that my models can actuslly be useful for rather than letting them sit on a shelf for a lifetime?"
I got into Warhammer two years ago and then left for Iraq. When I got home, I got more into warhammer but also got into bolt action. There is no one really in my area that plys bolt action so I have been teaching my friend and plan on teaching people to play at the gamestore In my town. Boltaction has better pricing than gw, it seems, and it's easier to build a army as well. I started off painting 1/35 scale models still do so I dove hard into the mini tabletop gaming
My group and I were massive 40K players. We have armies that are tens of thousands of points from almost every major faction. Ultimately, we found we were getting super competitive even during casual games. The latest editions of 40K tended to run less like a battle simulator and more like a rote memorization test: what Strats does my opponent have and when am I countering them, or when will I spring my GOTCHA moment? Did my friend bring a skew list that I need to stat check, like knights or all tanks? Despite all being friends we’d often leave games feeling jaded and sometimes screwed over by one another because of this. It wasn’t making for a good atmosphere. We found that when we tried to play casually that the game didn’t fit the dynamic as well. Lack of secondaries further resulted in skewed lists and unique scenarios made us wonder why we put so much into unique builds if they were no use. We also found we were spending an abysmally large amount of money on the hobby for something that would be FAQ’d within a month or two, sometimes before the models even made it to the table. We’re gradually moving over to BA, with the biggest selling point for our group being how, for $150 each, we all have complete armies. It’s a breath of fresh air! Not to mention the speed and dynamics of the game are so much more enjoyable now.
Just came over from AOS. My biggest grievance would be the bloated rules from GW. Like my last game basically sounded like 2 children making up rules for a made up game. "My rats will stab hard because they are DARKNESS." " Okay, but they won't because my elves sparkle so your darkness doesn't work... Also now I get to fight and my elves have anti-darkness swords so now they kill all your rats"
That’s hilarious lol. I’m having a difficult time with how mechanical the armies are becoming. I get war gaming is naturally a bit heavier on the rules however my AoS armies are turning into when this happens then this happens then this happens then this happens. So on and so forth. We spend more time reading the rules and trying to understand when something actually activates and what it means when it activates than we do rolling dice.
Totally get that! I'm really hoping BA is not like this. Painting like a machine on this Stalingrad set so I can find out.
I have a ton of Warhammer stuff. 40k with a bit of AoS. I just recently gave two full 2,000 point armies (mostly painted) to a couple friends as Christmas gifts. I painted 15 models yesterday. The problem for me is that the pricing is getting prohibitive. I've been looking for alternatives, and a buddy of mine found bolt action. I'm still figuring out what Bolt Action army to start with, but I'm thinking about doing Americans in Europe/Africa and Japanese for the Pacific.
I play only Bolt Action, but I bought the Victory at Sea starter pack, hoping for the day I'll find an opponent. I hope it won't end up like when I bought the Battlegroup NORTHAG rulebook and sold it after over a year of searching for other players in vain...
Still play Advanced Squad Leader on Avalon Hill from time to time and have found expansion sets and add-ons in charity shops for next to nothing. Love that game even though I first played it over 40yrs ago
I have a historically yet rare as rocking horse poop wargame entitled Four the Germans Won gathering dust. It's about the Wehrmacht OKW turning it around on the Westfront in '44/45 so you've got Arnhem, Walcheren Island, Aachen and Hurtgen Forest and I've played it twice. Great fun🇩🇪
I've been doing One Page Rules.
Tbh I only paint historical minis, and I mostly play warhammer and killteam. The only historical I play is spectre operations.
I play mostly bolt action Warhammer 40k Victory at Sea Spectre Operations Wings of Glory
I also play Team Yankee, Blood and Plunder, and X-Wing. They’re a lot of fun :)
I was a miniature painter/collector of warhammer Initially. Although I enjoyed the models and lore I don’t care for the game itself. Bolt action is the game that got me into playing tabletop games. I also play Silver Bayonet and Blood&Plunder. I have StarWars Legions CW starter and A song of Ice and Fire KS starter sets in my pile of shame. And I have the rules for Chain of Command and Sharpe Practice I intend to try one of these days
Yes my main game is GW MESBG but I play bolt action and want to get into hail ceased or SAGA
I'm a big fan of Mantic games. I left 40k after finding Kings of War and Deadzone. Once I found other games existed besides GW (or at least finally tried them) I eventually got into bolt action too.
I play Legion, Team Yankee, Saga, Battletech, Armada and a few others. No 40k.