"Why No Star Wars Miniatures Battles?" Topic

You would think with the new trilogy already in progress and with Rogue One just around the corner SOME company would pursue the rights for a 28MM miniatures battles license with Disney. WEG lost theirs with Lucasfilm when they went under in 1998, so I am surprised there isn't a company that wouldn't want to invest in it. FFG have the spaceship combat game locked up, but you would think someone would want to give GW some competition in the collectible, paintable, tabletop Sci-fi game market.

FFG also has imperial assault, 28mm scale skirmish and campaign game with collectible, unpainted minis, which are awesome in my opinion, except for the wookies…those minis aren't great.

But as for a more open ended star wars skirmish or mass battle game, I havent seen anything that matches what you've described.

I would LOVE 15mm AT-AT's :)

They're still trying to find a scale which will make the new product incompatible with all existing Star Wars figures. Also they need to figure out what the single Ewok figure will be to ensure that no matter what the rules say, you can't actually raise an Ewok unit.

But aren't the FFG ones plastic? I would rather if they were metal.

I'd love to see 15mm SW figures and machines. Problem is they'd probably be prohibitively expensive knowing Disney's greed.

I thought Imperial Assault included mass battle rules.

I thought Imperial Assault included mass battle rules.

If they do, then it will cost a fortune. Most of the figs come in at about $10.00 USD each, or $5.00 USD each if you buy the trooper packs – all of the same pose!

I also think 15mm would be the best scale for battles in Star Wars.

I'm missing something. You need mass battle rules when you have credible and interesting units and tactics. I've seen every Star Wars movie but "Episode 3." To call the mass battle scenes impressionistic would be charitable. Since you'd have to invent those units and tactics, why do we need Official Star Wars Rules with all the attendant troubles and expense? There are plenty of rules out there. Just let them make small figures in any recognized scale and we can do the rest.

What the Star Wars movies do well is classic skirmisher--maybe a dozen castings a side, max. But the merchandising people cannot bring themselves to make a decent line of castings with some variety of weapons and equipment in any one scale. I've counted at least four scales 20mmand up so far, and at best you can field Storm Troopers and Rebel Alliance. No squad of Wookies, Ewoks, Sand People or Tusken Raiders, let alone the more exotic stuff. If I can't buy multiple units of unique races in at least five poses, it really doesn't matter what they charge. They're not in the wargaming business.

You can buy scads of the WOTC pre-paints cheap these days.

Another point to consider: we've likely seen the end of open-ended miniature battle games based on big name IP. The real money is in highly produced, carefully developed board games featuring lots of nicely detailed minis. Those are easier to market, easier to sell off the shelf to confused parents, and overall offer a more impressive entry into the Gaming hobby.

TGerritsen I sorta did that some years back when WOTC was doing all those sets of figures.

Early in 2009 I decided I wanted to do a BIG Star Wars Massed Battles game and what I wanted to do was Grassy Plains from Episode I.

Now before I started to do anything one of the sets had 2 Gungan figures the Gungan on Kaadu and Gungan Infantry so that was a beginning.

Now when Knights of the Old Republic set came out that sealed the deal because that set had the following:

Gungan Shield Bearer
Gungan Artillerist
Gungan Soldier

And Jar Jar Binks

So the next step was to aquire a good deal of Gungans and a whole lot of Battle Droids.

And thru buying and doing trades I amassed a Gungan Grand Army and a Droid Army.

So in 2009 I ran my first Grassy Plains the rules we used were based of Sword and the Flame Colonial rules.

So my game has over 300 Gungans of all types plus a FAAMBA,Gungan Catapults,400 plus Battle Droids,Destroyer Droids and Battle Droids on STAP's along with Hover Tanks.

So if you can see over 700 Gungans and Battledroids on a table along with all the opther stuff is very impressive I must say.

I've ran Grassy Plains over 11 times with each side winning some and one draw and all the people who played in the game really enjoyed themselves.

I have a slew of WEG figures, all based on the original trilogy of course. Those figures are fantastic with just the right amount of detail. Very easy to paint.

Will probably play small scale adventure type games using TWERPS Star Wars and TWERPS Jedi. Coming to a blog post near you.

I thought Imperial Assault included mass battle rules.

If they do, then it will cost a fortune. Most of the figs come in at about $10.00 USD USD each, or $5.00 USD USD each if you buy the trooper packs – all of the same pose!

Oh, I wouldn't use their figures. I'd use the prepaints…

"WEG lost theirs with Lucasfilm when they went under in 1998"

Other way 'round, as I recall it. WotC/Hasbro pulled strings, and Lucas yanked the WEG license, causing WEG to go under since it's long-time flagship was gone with no warning.

With the Star Wars property now part of the Empire of the Mouse, I expect even the FFG license is a careful dance of product approvals. Disney is deeply tone-deaf to this hobby of ours.

We have been effectively using Combat Patrol for Star Wars skirmishes. See see.bucksurdu.com/blog.

The miniature licensing plans are NOT in the main computer…

With Disney controlling things, any licensing fees are probably too expensive for anyone in our little Hobby to make any profit out of it.
They would be laughed out of the office, if they could even get into the office in the first place.