"Iron Wind announces Babylon 5 Fleet Scale " Topic

From Tabletop Gaming News:

"Iron Wind Metals pleased to announce the addition of Fleet Scale Babylon 5 Miniatures to its web store."

link

I wonder if this means Iron Winds has negotiated their own license…

Not necessarily, I recall hearing previously that they had these in the works after the full sized minis were done. We'll know at the end of June unless another announcement confirms their having secured the license. If they did pick up the license, then I wonder why they didn't include that news in the blurb..?

what rules are these for?

I wonder if they bought the B5FA rules from AOG as well. Nice to see the FA minis coming out again. I wonder if the GROPOS minis will see the light of day?

Shakespear, you can use them for the original B5 rules and ACTA, or even FT: they just are a smaller more compact scale for doing large fleet actions on a table . . . I have soem myself, and they are accepted by many ACTA players.

Nice to see these showing up.

The ships were originally made for the "Fleet Action" rules for Babylon 5 by AoG. Though as Walrus says, people use them for all games. Many people who played Babylon 5 Wars used the Fleet Action miniatures because they were cheaper and less cumbersome on the hex map.

The AOG and Mongoose rules are OOP, right?

Just the AoG rules are OOP. Mongoose's A Call to Arms is in its second edition now.

You can also use them for Starmada or Warcosm.

mj12games.com/starmada

link

I only bought a few of the full size ships to paint up and place on the shelf. For my B5 gaming I use Fleet Scale!!!

Mongoose has lost the B5 license, ACTA goes OOP in June..

Yeah, the FA models are sweet. They fit very nicely on the hex map and were a lot cheaper than the regular scale minis. They were/are an excellent fit for any sort of B5 gaming. This is great news!

What's the point in releasing these now if they're just going to stop them in June?

If it's to stop the one in favor of these that's so much more awesome.

Cool! I bought a bunch of the FA minis when AoG was ending and it'd be nice to fill out some fleets.

Shakespear, that's not exactly true. Babylon 5 A Call to Arms goes out of print in June. The are going to publish a new generic A Call to Arms after that with no B5 references. No sense in throwing out a good set of rules, although it's gonna be real points based instead of the PL format they currently use.

I heard that, Delthos – And Mongoose have also said they are going to produce a minis line for it too, haven't they?

Brutally honest here, but it would be a good thing if Mongoose came up with their own licenses given their poor performance with others . . .

I'll get the generic edition of ACTA. I have 2nd edition and enjoy it, using the paper counters. I was planning to make my own conversion stats for non-B5 ships. A generic edition will be so much easier.

The Fleet scale minis are smaller than GZG and Brigade ships?

thats great news I love the ACTA rules

"The Fleet scale minis are smaller than GZG and Brigade ships?"

Yes, the largest Fleet scale minis barely make it to Heavy Cruiser size in the GZG and Brigade ranges.

Oh yeah! Time to get those Narn and Drazi FA fleets I've always wanted! It would hurt to fill out my EA fleet with some Olympus class corvettes and Oracle class scouts either.

These will be available until June and then both scales will be gone. This will be the last shot for either based on studio contracting issues(they simply want to much money).

Please enjoy these great models.

Jim Fox
Iron Wind Metals

They are VERY nice. Shame to see them go away.

Thanks,

John

Ok went to IWM page to order some B5 Fleet scale ships. I clicked on the B5 list and all I saw were the regular size ships, not the small fleet scale. I also wanted to order more AreoTech micro fighters and couldn't find them either. I did see some micro ships on the webpage only list?? Am I missing these?? Thanks for any directions.

Ironwolf,

IIRC, the Iron Wind announcement said they'd be available to order as of April 13. COuld be why they're not yet posted to their store.

As to the Aerotech micro fighters, I think you need to look under their 'web only' section of the store.

If the generic ACTA and connected minis include the FA2 stuff that AOG *barely* got released before shutting down, I'm all for it.

I'll have to browse the B5 FA stuff again and see if there are any more I need. Got a bunch already…

KJdidit, ooohh thanks I didn't see the april 13th when reading the post. On the aerotech micro fighters. I looked under their web only section and saw some ships. But none of the fighters. I'll go do some digging on the IWN page.

Ironwolf, check the archival section. Big chunks of the Aerotech/Space line are now "on demand" only.

Nobody I know collects these so I'll have to get enough for a decent couple of sides, as well as to fight small engagements with a few extra races. Ohh decisions decisions.

The fighters seem kinda pricey and just getting enough for 2 Omegas seems to require 2.5 packs of them. At least, I assume the 73- codes are the FA ships, you seem to get 2 Omegas for $9.95…

What ships should I get? I'd love 4 Omegas but the fighter complement would buy five Battlecrabs! Any ships that do double duty?

When I built my B5 fleet action fleets, I mounted fighters 2 per stand – even when they came out (some 10 years ago now), there was no way I was going to pay for all of the fighters I'd need for my Earthforce fleet (at its peak, it had 12 Omegas, 6 Novas, a Poseidon, two Avengers, 9 Hyperions, 4 Shadow Omegas, and 2 Warlocks – not to mention all the smaller ships…). I would've needed some 140+ flights to field them all at full strength! The other guys in my group liked to mount them at 3 per stand. Either way, you're looking at a flight of fighters – just not represented 1-for-1.

Ironwolf-

The Micro fighters can be found by typing BT- under the online store quick search engine.

Yeah, I'm with KJ. No way was I going to buy 30 packs of fighters. I own large fleets for 11 races. I mount my fighters 1 per stand on clear rod that I paint black. They actually look pretty decent. I think MUCH better than the regular mounting. Two fighters would be very nice.

You get at least 2 Capital ships per pack except for the Octurian, Bin Tak and Warlock.

The folks at Iron Wind are great to deal with.

This link should help sort out the items in a pack for you.

agentsofgaming.com/oshop.htm

I need to drop by Iron Wind and get a few packs that I need.

Thanks,

John

I sold off all my Fleet Action fleets (600+ ships) when I became disgusted with ACTA's endless tweaking of ship stats and still not getting them balanced. None of my gaming friends were willing to play B5Wars or Fleet Action (both of which I like better than ACTA anyway), so I no longer had use for them.

Mongoose killed my inner child.

I have a question. The AoG site shows 4 Sahadow Scouts in a pack, whilst the IWM shows 2. All other ships seems the same – is it a typo? I wouldn't mind not having scouts but not having the vanilla Battlecrab would suck more.

stupid question…

What is the nominal scale of the "Fleet Scale" minis, and the "other minis". I'm asking b/c I have a bunhc of the Mongoose Minis and now I'm wondering how they'll fit in with my Odyssey Slipways Star Wars 1/10,000 scale stuff.

Or BSG or Starblazers, etc.

Erbprinz,

They'll fit with Starblazers. An omega in FA scale is about as big as the Musashi battleships.

Keith F.

DANGER – MATH WARNING!

OK, I think I've answered part of the question.

Ostensibly, the Starblazers rebuilt the Yamato, which is only 250m (25,000cm) long which would be 2.5cm in 1/10,000. The model from SB is about 6cm long, or twice that in size, so we'll take them to be about 1/5,000.

If the 'real' OMega is 1700m long (!), than at 1/10,000 it would be 17cm long. If the fleet scale IW Omega is 6cm long, "about as big as the Musashi battleships" than it is 1/3 the size or 1/30,000 scale. So the fleet scale is not technically compatible, altho it may be "aesthetically" comparable if you don't know the scale of the ships.

Another example, in the Mongoose Publishing B5 ACTA ships an Oracle scout cruiser miniature is 6cm long, but nominally 1000m full size. This conveniently works out to 10cm at 1/10,000 so these are 1/20,000 or half that size.

Arrggg!!

Math makes my brain hurt!

looking at the pics from the AoG site, I'm preparing a large order…get'em while the gettin' is good!