"Era for Fantasy miniatures war games rules?" Topic

Back when I was first re-introduced to Miniatures fantasy war games I think almost all the rules were set in the High Medieval or at least Medieval era/tech settings.

I understand that the Slaughterloo setting is Napoleonic (So why isn't NapoLEON a lion?) and I know that at least one early set of fantasy war game rules was set in an ancients like setting. And the Victorian SF rules (okay, not exactly a fantasy game) seem to revolve around the late 19th/early 20th century and be very popular.

Sooo, are there any rules that put fantasy miniatures war games in any other eras besides Ancients/Medieval?

Any 18th Century settings? "Seven Wizards War" in Europe? Any in early Colonial N/S America?

Any Renaissance settings?

Any WW1/WW2/modern?

Heck any Science Fantasy/futuristic settings? I know there was at least one RPG game (which is not exactly miniatures war games in many minds I know) set in a future world setting (Something with Seattle DMZ in one of the books/supplements IIRC?) where there was "magic" and hard science involved...

Gracias,
Glenn

I hope the cross-posting doesn't offend (apologies extended if it does offend) but someone who does not play fantasy miniatures war games might know of a set of rules that touches on their historical period of interest that may be germane to my questions.

Gracias,
Glenn

Actually, I think that you could put Warhammer in the Renaissance era. Matchlock muskets, cannon, wheellock pistols, halberds and the like are staples of the Warhammer Fantasy universe.

What defines the line between SF and Fantasy? I think this needs to be answered before your question can really be thought through.

Wessex Games' offerings seem to fit the category.

link

Does Clan War count? After all, the Japanese "medieval" martial doctrine and system of feudalism was still soundly in place by the the Europeans were sniping at each other with early rifles...

*TIME* the Europeans were sniping... doh!

There is a game system called panzerfauste, which is a fantasy ww2 game.germans are dwarfs, italians are rats, british are orcs, etc... hope that helps.

Warhammer 40K is really more of a fantasy game in space than a sci-fi game. While it is becoming more sci-fi it is difficult to argue that too much when there are still elves and orks running about.

Crocodile Games is set in the "Antediluvian age" and uses a New Kingdom Egyptian-like setting. It is a very creative fantasy game and if you haven't tried it you should give it a shot.

There are various skirmish games I have seen dealing with various aspects of other mythologies too, whether it is Jason going after the golden fleece or Vikings and their gods fighting the giants. Old Glory makes a fantasy line that accomodates the later while Foundry makes an argonaut line that is quite good.

I have also seen some Fantasy World War II figures somewhere and if you wanted to make your own game it wouldn't be too difficult to get the old stormboyz from GW's 40K range and make them into your Germans while using regular historicals for your americans in a WWII game.

In addition to that Drew Williams sculpted the Gwar line. The game for that was more like a super-hero game in a lot of ways but was pretty fantasy oriented.

Citadel used to make a line of figures for the Michael Moorcock books. The Hawkmoon series always reminded me a little bit of a Fantasy WWII. And some of the other things like Jerey Cornelius (while being pretty whacked out) were set in the modern era.

Don't forget all the games that took their "plots" from MAD MAX. By that I mean all the Urban violence/Near future games. They tend to be a mixture of current day and futuristic weapons with gangs vs police and similar.

The only rules of this type that I've played are "Combat Zone". But there are tons of others with the same basic premise.

Bob

Pinnacle (IIRC) did Great Rail Wars, a fantasy miniatures game set in the Wild West. Quite a fun idea and a likeable game. They had an RPG as well.

I know less about it, but they also had a post-holocaust RPG - Hell on Earth - that was a Sci-Fi/Fnatasy type of game.

Does anyone know if there is a Shadowrun style game? a mis of high tech and magic - wouold make a nice battle game (other then 40k which already does this to a degree)

abuggeln,

Now that question hasa been discussed more than once (grin) and I doubt I can add too much to the past 'discussions' but here's my slant for wargames (as opposed to books - is Shannara Fantasy or Science Fantasy - which is another kettle of fish.)

Science Fiction involves elements of "Hard Science" that we don't have - FTL or Laser/Phaser/Maser/Disruptor handguns for example - without any "fantasy" elements.

If it involves non-psionic "magic" and or HTH combat over ranged fire it's becoming Science Fantasy (oops, GW does this I think - I don't play GW games) as also the element of Elf/Dwarf/Goblin without an explanation about mutations like Shadowrun (I think) or "non-human races from beyond" begins the slide into Science Fantasy from Science Fiction also (I have no idea how GW handles this.)

Not a good division but a general idea of where I try and draw a line.

Gracias,
Glenn

Chipco's Fantasy Rules cover many eras... they are wonderful. Everything from ancients to Spanish Conquistadors.

A game based on Moorcocks Jerry Cornelius would be cool, with Bishop Beesly and Frank running around with vibro guns and needle guns....but I don't know how you'd fit in the sub-phases for deviant sex and drug abuse. :)

Wessex Games Aeronef could be used for the airship bits though it's rather simplistic and short on rules for the money.

Wasn't Mary Gentle's novel, Grunts! (USMC orcs in Vietnam) transposed into a game?

If not, it should be. At least the figures. Quick! Quick! ;-) I don't care for new rules, there are plenty of sets already that could be adapted easily.

Fantasy pseudo-ACW would be cool too.

For c. 10 yrs, we played our own brand of fantasy campaigning, in the world of c. 52,000 AD! :) It was scifi and medieval and ancients all rolled into one. It got wild at times (spell wild "out of control"); and required that I (the god of this world) put the kibosh on things when they got out of hand, by dreaming up some counter: e.g. the resident scifi element was a race of demonlike anthropoids (called "Gogzai" - 9' tall and lanky, with tenticles surrounding an orifice for a mouth, bulbous eyes, with a subliminal noise they could emit that tended to lull prey into a docile state), cut off by the failure of their dimensional gateway portals, who came to the earth in search of a safe place to colonize, 'cause their own world was dying/becoming uninhabitable to their race: by 52,000 AD they had dwindled to a shadow of their peak population ('cause the earth's climate - following a massive iceage - was warming too much, driving the Gogzai underground and into the polar regions); Gogzai weaponry offers "artifacts" for underground explorers to find - but the balancing factor is that the weapons are unstable now, even capable of massive failure and the death or serious injury of the wielder. The races of men are of divergent culture and technology: none of which exceeds high renaissance (some canon aboard ships, pike and arquebus, etc.) In the extreme West lies "Shiracma" (former North America): land of the Undying Goddess, whose empire is at war with Kylbur, a much smaller empire of men and their allies in the extreme North (roughly central Alaska - tho the continental masses have drifted - the result of a savage meteor storm lasting many years way back in the beginning of the 4th millennium AD, which caused volcanic upheavels, and the iceage already mentioned - such that the lattitude of the Kylburian empire is "then" c. even with Vancouver of today). The atomic wars accompanying the end of days (predating and coinciding with the early meteor showers) produced horrible mutations in men (and the virtually permanent death of all central Shiracma - "now" a horrid desert of violent winds and blasting heat and dust: all armies march to the east and west around this cauldron), thus we have essentially orclike races (but, please, not called orcs, or urks, or anything stolen from Tolkien): and the Undying One is the physical form of the evil power, immortal in her age/aeon and immune to all weapons of that same age/aeon (did I mention the portals of the Gogzai? Yes, they are broken, but not utterly unusable: in failing, they merely connected to all the existing ages of earth's past, allowing warrior champions from former aeons to come into the "present" - 7th and last aeon - and confront the Undying One with weapons NOT of her present incarnation: thus posing a mortal danger to her lovely flesh). She can wield ALL sorcery from ALL previous aeons: including (naturally) undeads of copious variety and numbers. Oh the fun of it all. As I said, it went on for c. 10 yrs without letup. We had hordes of things, any that you wanted to dream up. I let almost anything in - even bear riding dwarfs (::gag:: - a pox on Raffim!) - tho I did stint at flying Wargames Workshop flying dwarfs on those ridiculous wooden "flying" contraptions: but we did see "ents" - called by a different name - and "ELFS" (Endochrine Latent Fault Syndrome: the super-race of near immortals, decended from the "Muellirs" who survived the cataclysms, along with a good portion of knowledge, if very little actual technology: lore, without the means to employ, or even adequately understand, it all): dwarfs are merely another of the (less) mutated races of post-cataclysmic man. AND, to top it off: we even had a space station orbitting earth, denizens (decendents) of a single colony of earthlings who had managed (during the 3rd millennium) to make Alpha Centauri in a space craft powered by a solar sail: the decendents are back, observing things but not as yet interfering. So there you have it: everything rolled into one: and we did have fun ::sigh::

MtM

RAFM makes appropriate miniatures for 'Nam Grunts!

See "Space Orcs" or "Marine Orcs"...

ok here is one from the vaults, in the mid to late 90's steve jackson games was going to produce a miniatures game called Space Knights. Basic premise being - Merlin Discovers some sort of Vernian like lift substance and uses it and magic to send king Arthur and the Lads off into the cosmos (After of course uniting Earth and Ruleing from camalot yadda yadda yadda), while trucking through space one of their fleets bumps into the necrovore hordes (think GW like necrons) and of course goes the biffo. They made the figures but the rules were never published. I have some of the Knight figs and they are pretty neat. The figs have hand weapons and "ion lances" which are stubby lances that are ment to fire laser beams as well as poke into folks. The background was published in one of the first 3 or 4 pyramid mags (Steve Jackson Games). It was about as alternate fantasy as you could get. Get the background and use generic rules (only a billion of them on the net)

Hi Warbeads

I came accross game based on 'alternative' history type for WWII called Gear Krieg from 'Dream pod 9'

The game uses weaponry you could consider Sci-fi for that period. It looked interesting mainly because you can use any manufacturers 15mm WWII vehicles alongside DP9s own walkers.

I believe DP9 also do a kind of Confederate V's North Sci-fi Game called Heavy Gear.

We did army list s for Far Future inter-galatic forces and miniatures as well. This included Centaurs and Minotaurs with rayguns. I gave those 12mm molds to another company in Florida.
Medeival has been the most comfortable era to use fantasy and human armies. The later era the Orcs and barbarian armies would be at a disadvantage due to the lack of ability to use firearms. Though Flintloque is real popular is some areas.
And earlier than medieval/daark age would leave humans at a definate disadvanatge.

Daisho is a medieval Japanese skirmish wargame that allows you to play historical or with a full panoply of fantasy elements.https://daishogame.wordpress.com/
Similarly, Blood Eagle is set in 9th-10th century Northern Europe in which you can play historical or fantasy. link

Thre is a "home brew" Fantasy version of Maneouver Group for Grav tanks etc and other strange energy weapons and strange war robots. You design your own vehicles and make them/convert them etc. The author is AOTRS Commander on here. His Shapeways shop has some of his own stuff if you chose to use it.

Besides Flintloque, Black Powder and the various Wessex games, there have been a number of fantasy pirate games, I'm sure.

The following are RPGs, but as they they are for Savage Worlds, they have probably been used with the Savage Showdown rules:
Deadlands Reloaded – the abovementioned Weird West setting, developed into the SW system from Great Rail Wars, which was spawned from the original RPG in the setting.
Hell on Earth – in all 3 incarnations of the RPG, this is the post-apocalyptic setting.
Deadlands Noir – also SW, but no need to "reload" it, as it is a new product, not in the former two systems (Classic and D20). Set in the interwar period.
Kaisers Gate – gates to the faerie world open everywhere on Earth after the Tunguska incident, leading to magic being reintroduced to Earth and the worls geopolitical landscape becoming an even more incomprehensible mess than ever, yet still leading to the Great War (with a second Mexican-American War and the Dragon War thrown in for good measure.)
The Sixth Gun – a Western quest to destroy 6 legendary weapons that continue to exist millennia after the enemies they were created to fight are extinct.
PEG's Weird Wars series, which currently cover 'Nam, WW2, and Ancient Rome. With sufficient support, will soon be joined by a WW1 setting.
There are many modern-themed RPGs, but I cannot think of one currently so easy to adapt to minis. There are some of the old Shadowrun (fantasy Cyberpunk) minis available from Iron Wind Metals, though.

Malifaux might be pushing a bit far, given that the action takes place on another world, although the characters tend to come from turn-of-last-century Earth.
There are, however, many 19thc. Gaslamp Fantasy games, some referred to as "Steampunk" but we can all see that not only is the exaggerated technology most likely magical in part, there are also genuinely werewolves and vampires…
Rippers: The Horror Wars comes to mind. Although the lame excuse for allowing the Count to survive has gotten old over the years; Anno Dracula and The Bloody Red Baron weren't too bad, but it happens so often that it's no longer acceptable.
Empire of the Dead.
link

This is some hefty thread necromancy. It's weird reading yourself from c. thirteen years ago! =O