Miniatures Games - That aren't GW

[Judge Dredd]

Warlord have cancelled pre-orders of the Soviet starter army for K47.

Announced on their facebook page (no link, sorry)

Their original plan was to have the starter armies in plastic, but for whatever reason that didn't happen and the kits (other than US and Axis) were resin instead. The soviet kits were delayed, and pretty much everyone assumed it was due to Ukraine being in the news again.

Turns out, they can't get the resin to work with the bear molds.

So, the plan is to 3D print existing orders, or issue a refund. They still plan to release them in plastic in 2026.

As a comment on a Mordian Glory stream said:

Soviet union having supply issues? Damn it must be a day ending in a Y

 

[GrammaNazi]

@Judge Dredd , no worries about double or triple posting in a niche thread like this. The views are lower so every post is appreciated. I feel the double posting rule applies more to the retards who can't figure out the multi-quote feature and post 5 responds in a row within 10 minutes.

Pile of shame? Brother, that ain't nothing. I have a ROOM of shame. Entire 40k armies still on the sprue. Tabletops of scenery yet to be built. Hell, I even have a shelf with an entire game system of shame. Anyone remember the failed Robotech miniature game by Palladium? My wallet remembers

 

[Orkeosaurus]

Anybody here ever play space weirdos? The cover art drew my eyes bevause its black and white rogue trader style and the actual rules are great but where it falls apart for me is that even the unit stats are agnostic. Where you basically take a number of points and buy stats for a model with it. Way too crunchy for my liking.

 

[Judge Dredd]

The stalhtuppen (big power armoured guys) and eisenkern panzerjager (the women in stormtrooper esc power armour). Painted with the same speed paint. The stalhtruppen came out near black, so I decided to lean into with a wolfenstein/killzone like scheme. Then the eisenkern came out how I expected the former to look.

Only real difference is the brush. A regular soft brush vs a large, flat, stiff brush. This also changed the amount on the brush, with it being almost a dry brush at times. Might re-spray the stahltruppen and try again? Not sure.

I missed a spot on the back of one figures leg, and due to the white prime, it sticks out. Not sure how to fix that. Might try a speedpaint drybrush.

The eisenkern have small feet and poses where only the toes or heel are in contact. I was surprised the crouching pose was the one to break from the base. I went with an anti-tank gun instead of the LMG in the kit because the LMG was too sci-fi looking, and the AT rifle looks more like a MG42 and fits the Weird War 2 aesthetic better imo.

 

[Orkeosaurus]

Anybody here play games on tabletop simulator? I like to play OPR there.

 

[RSU 1741]

Apologies for the triple, but something about Konflikt 47's slow rise in popularity I want to discuss.

It's probably a double affair: from one hand you have the neverending stream of people that want to drop 40k (because 40k is a bad system after all) and the relative dominance of Bolt Action (that still is 40k just the 30 years old version). So you get people coming from the sci-fi and people coming from the historicals.

K47 kinda puzzles me, Weird War has been done to death (but I'll admit that the completely gamey and 40k-derivative system of Bolt Action could support it well) but the.... setting is incredibly dull even for weird war. They tried to spice it up in 2nd edition but it honestly feels confused. Or maybe I'm simply salty they didn't respect tradition and gave the Soviets Tesla coils. The entire "suddenly the Axis is a Secret Society like we're in a Marvel Comic" is cringeworthy but , well, it's brits writing in 2025. Even the simulacrum of fantasy Nazis causes fear in the heart of the craven Anglo.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Even the simulacrum of fantasy Nazis causes fear in the heart of the craven Anglo.

I had concerns about that as well. According to some podcasts (ie. no source), Warlord did it for two reasons.

First is obvious one. Removing swastikas from the game so they can be sold at mainstream gaming shops. It's unfortunate that Britain is importing a lot of American hang ups, like fear of the word "nigger", and yes, fear of swastikas. A quick look at British TV demonstrates that there was no fear of making fun of World War 2. I don't like it, but I understand why they did it. It makes the haters criticism about nazi iconography and downplaying atrocities amusing.

The second is more interesting. Gameplay and creative. It allows them to lean in a more fun, Wolfenstein esc direction, with nazis that chase the occult and mad science. It also gets rid of arguments about minor nations by lumping them under one flag of "axis". The same way Brits are now "commonwealth" (though everybody calls them British) so there's no arguments about having Canadian or Indian soldiers.

but the.... setting is incredibly dull even for weird war. They tried to spice it up in 2nd edition but it honestly feels confused. Or maybe I'm simply salty they didn't respect tradition and gave the Soviets Tesla coils

It's funny you say that, because haters say the opposite. That the setting is now too silly.

So you get people coming from the sci-fi and people coming from the historicals.

Exactly. It also has a knock on effect of shutting down rivet counters. They can't complain about colour schemes or loadout problems. ...well, they can, but they don't have a leg to stand on. Complaints that you painted your soldiers the wrong shade of grey, or even if you paint them pink with green polkadots, that's just what that unit wears in 1947. One of the complaints I've seen from haters is that the soviet assault rifle being the AK47 is too modern and it should be some fantasy assault rifle that is more era appropriate.

Another thing it brings to the table is an actually cheap (ish) entry point. A starter army is a full, playable army. Even outside of that, third party kits for World War 2 stuff is super cheap.

 

[RSU 1741]

It's funny you say that, because haters say the opposite. That the setting is now too silly.

I have probably explained myself badly: the original Konflikt 47 worked to meld the Bolt Action and the Weird War thing together, to the point that you could ran standard BA armies with some K47 pieces. It appears to me that they're trying to distance themselves from having standard WW2-type armies mixed with K47 tech (for examples, all the starters are fantasy units).

With "dull" I mean their take on Weird War is rather unimaginative and derivative. Nazi zombies. Yawn. Soviet Bear Men and Siberian Men. Yawn. American Captain America Super Soldiers. How original. The only borderline interesting thing is the Brits going full mecha. I know Warlord isn't the most creative company around and BA is basic by design, but being boring and dull because you can't be arsed to find someone with good ideas is.... disappointing. The indie wargaming scene is chock-full of small little games (some of them even free) that have fascinating settings and interesting ideas: K47 is dull.

One of the complaints I've seen from haters is that the soviet assault rifle being the AK47 is too modern and it should be some fantasy assault rifle that is more era appropriate.

*Checks Soviet Starter Set* That ain't a AK, that's a Stechkin rifle, it's a 1980ies bullpup design.

I don't hate BA or its derivatives: I know a lot of people that play it religiously and enjoy it. Some even try, rather charmingly, to houserule trying to "fix" a system that doesn't simulate WW2 combat or WW2 unit characteristics well, but it's a rather mediocre system built on the bones of Warhammer 40k 3rd edition. I'm more disappointed in Warlord for always going for mediocrity.

 

[Judge Dredd]

That ain't a AK, that's a Stechkin rifle, it's a 1980ies bullpup design.

Yes. And daughters of the motherland use AKs. With the one used by the terror troopers being a design that was rejected.

Supposedly the AK was developed in the 40s, It's just still in use today.

the original Konflikt 47 worked to meld the Bolt Action and the Weird War thing together, to the point that you could ran standard BA armies with some K47 pieces.

You can still do that. You can run Bolt Action units in a K47 list, and the most common units are featured in K47. eg. All armies have a generic infantry unit that can work as a suitable stand in for most of bolt actions units. You can take a sherman with a tesla turret, or the regular turret. As mentioned previously, my list is basically two ww2 tanks (panther and king tiger) and a unit of mk 1 power armour, vs a BA US starter army with extra Sherman's (he likes the movie Fury).

It's hard for me to judge what people are saying things about the game unless I know their motivations because I see fanboys that blindly shill, but more often haters who fish for excuses to shit on the game.

In the case of K47 2nd, the armies are very elite. It's why a bolt action starter box will be 30 guys, 2 weapon teams, and 2 vehicles, but a K47 box will be a walker and 12 guys. Both are 1500 point boxes. The complaint that regular infantry with rifles don't do much against werewolves, zombies, and mechs. The counter argument is "yes". Why would they make these rift tech units if some guys with rifles outclass them?

You can still run a 5pt per man ww2 horde if you want. But a 60pt per man team of guys in power armour can stand up to them 12-1. To me, this isn't a failure of the game, but a success.

With "dull" I mean their take on Weird War is rather unimaginative and derivative. Nazi zombies. Yawn. Soviet Bear Men and Siberian Men. Yawn. American Captain America Super Soldiers. How original. The only borderline interesting thing is the Brits going full mecha.

I guess I don't know weird war 2 well enough then. I know of Dust, Ring of Red, Wolfenstein, and Achtung Cthulhu, and that's about it. Maybe Valkyria Chronicles if you count that. So the soviet bear men are new to me.

The indie wargaming scene is chock-full of small little games (some of them even free) that have fascinating settings and interesting ideas: K47 is dull.

I don't really know them. Most of the ones I know are either historical, based on a licence, or are 40k replacements.

 

[The Paranoid Organ]

Anybody here play games on tabletop simulator? I like to play OPR there.

I have goofed around a bit, also Talespire. If you have limited space then it s a good solution. IF you want to go hardcore, you can get deep into 3d modeling and colouring instead of traditional modeling and painting.

 

[Imperial Citizen]

I got to try out a game of Halo Flashpoint and it was enjoyable. Combat is designed to be fast and brutal, especially if you keep generating critical hits. I would like to see if the game could have some more of the multiplayer modes like Infection, King of the Hill, or Grifball.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I got to try out a game of Halo Flashpoint and it was enjoyable. Combat is designed to be fast and brutal, especially if you keep generating critical hits

Supposedly the rules are the same as Deadzone, or whatever their 40k equivariant was.


...and it seems I typed that out some time ago and never pressed "post reply". My bad. Though it works out. Because I was just looking into Mantic games. As late as this is, Halo and Deadzone, more or less the same game. According to the internet, Halo has crouching, weapon pick ups, and energy shields, but no fight-back.

I was looking at them because I'm considering picking up yet another minis game despite not really playing Killteam, K47, or Combat Patrol. I'm looking into boardgame-ified minis games because of some social issues I don't want to power level about. In short, people buying what I was going to buy, wanting fixed army list games to include their fancy new units on top, and failing to list build in games with full list building.

Anyway. What I came here to ask when I noticed my non-reply.



What's the best epic scale sci-fi game?

Mentioned in the 40k thread. I'm looking into epic scale to have big army battles in a smaller space. Here are my options from the research I did (ie. What I found on YouTube and random googling).

• Battletech Alpha Strike
  • The setting is cool, giant mechs are cool, and the game is overall cheap as a £30 box of mechs is an army.
  • The main issue here is cost per mini and availability. I've got to grab these from amazon as I've never seen it sold here. There also seems to be a lot of hate for Catylist as a company. The tanks also seem to be pretty pricey per model (£30 for 4 bottle cap sized tanks), despite being a cheap game otherwise.
• Epic Warpath
  • Mantics recent epic scale game. YouTubers say it plays well. You also get a lot of minis in the box.
  • 
  • The main downside is the factions are kind of bland and that's reflected in their unit designs.
• Legion Imperialis
  • Where to start with cons. The price. The mess of a rule book. The seemingly complex rules.
  • The main saving grace is the setting. Everyone loves 40k, and titans. And this game is sold at FLGS.

Others I know of but haven't researched much.

• Armour Clash
  • I know little about this game. The setting does nothing for me. The starter box needs extra stuff to play the game.
• Dropzone Commander
  • Seems to be ship focused instead of combined arms. Bland non-setting.
• New 40k epic thing
  • Supposedly GW is bringing back epic 2e. I thought that's what Legion Imperialis was, but never mind.

Still watching batreps and reviews.

Supposedly the Warpath/Mantic epic terrain kit is quite good. And even the overpriced GW kits give you almost a full table's worth. But I don't know.

 

[Judge Dredd]

I decided to look into what happened to Monsterpocalypse. I liked that game back in the day, and I remember hearing about a 2nd edition, then nothing after that.

Supposedly the game still exists, but nowhere actually sells it.

The game was involved in some kickstarter controversy a few years ago. Privateer Press teamed up with Mythic games. Privateer Press is the company that owns the IP, was supposedly burned by it too as Mythic games took the funds and funded other projects. Now it seems like they just sell STLs?

 

[Buckaroo]

The game was involved in some kickstarter controversy a few years ago. Privateer Press teamed up with Mythic games. Privateer Press is the company that owns the IP, was supposedly burned by it too as Mythic games took the funds and funded other projects. Now it seems like they just sell STLs?

Yep, Privateer Press sold off their other IPs and switched to STLs. It seems like when Mythic Games burned them, they really burned them.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Some news/speculation.

Supposedly WGA's The Damned has finally started shipping to Kickstarter backers after many delays. Not my pics, and there is a bunch of kitbashing going on here.

As I said in the 40k thread. Not seeing many lasguns, and seeing a lot of models raising a middle finger. Hopefully this is just the result of the model maker, and not a limitation of the kit itself.

As for speculation. The cover of the next Stargrave book shows a tank (or some kind of armoured car). This had people speculating that Northstar will be doing a vehicle kit since they do themed kits based on expansions. eg. The zombie robots expansion coincided with the automatons kit. The other speculation that is more of a request is that Northstar will make plastic robots. I don't know why this keeps coming up. They have some metal robots. And while I'd like plastic robots, I don't know what the stargrave aesthetic would be for them.

 

[Buckaroo]

As I said in the 40k thread. Not seeing many lasguns, and seeing a lot of models raising a middle finger. Hopefully this is just the result of the model maker, and not a limitation of the kit itself.

https://gamefound.com/en/projects/mwg--wargames-atlantic/the-damned/updates/69

 

[Feathers]

So I'm thinking about getting into Konflikt 47 instead of 40k and I have a quick question. Is it worth getting into, like is the game more enjoyable than 40k.
Anyways, I'm thinking about buying the japanese starter army since I'm a total simp for japan.

 

[Judge Dredd]

So I'm thinking about getting into Konflikt 47 instead of 40k and I have a quick question. Is it worth getting into, like is the game more enjoyable than 40k.

It's really hard to say. There's a bunch of things to consider. Can you find players being a big one.

As for K47 vs 40k as games. I haven't played enough of each to give a solid opinion on them as games. What I have played of Bolt Action/K47 seem solid enough.

As a product, K47 is way ahead of 40k. The starter armies are literally armies. A full 1500pt worth. For Bolt Action, it's a lot of stuff. For K47, it can seem a bit slight as the starter armies feature a lot of elite units. Still can feel bad to get a combat patrol sized "army" for your money.

Anyways, I'm thinking about buying the japanese starter army since I'm a total simp for japan.

One thing with Japan is that, currently, people complain about them not getting the attention of other factions. The roadmap has new plastic kits scheduled for Q4 2026. Japan and Soviet are mostly resin and metal atm so if that's an issue for you, just know that going in. They are also the finesse army of the game, K47 isn't as solved as 40k, so whether they are under powered or people need to figure them out is hard to say.

All that said, Japan has some fun units like scorpion tanks and ghost warriors.

 

[Feathers]

It's really hard to say. There's a bunch of things to consider. Can you find players being a big one.

As for K47 vs 40k as games. I haven't played enough of each to give a solid opinion on them as games. What I have played of Bolt Action/K47 seem solid enough.

As a product, K47 is way ahead of 40k. The starter armies are literally armies. A full 1500pt worth. For Bolt Action, it's a lot of stuff. For K47, it can seem a bit slight as the starter armies feature a lot of elite units. Still can feel bad to get a combat patrol sized "army" for your money.


One thing with Japan is that, currently, people complain about them not getting the attention of other factions. The roadmap has new plastic kits scheduled for Q4 2026. Japan and Soviet are mostly resin and metal atm so if that's an issue for you, just know that going in. They are also the finesse army of the game, K47 isn't as solved as 40k, so whether they are under powered or people need to figure them out is hard to say.

All that said, Japan has some fun units like scorpion tanks and ghost warriors.

There's a LGS that has around 6 to 8 people interested so I'm good on games. Didn't know the starter sets were completed armies, really makes getting one tempting. I don't see an issue with resin or metal models so I'm lucky on that front. Yeah the scorpion tank and ghosts look freaking sick, really got me invested in the game.
I just wish there was more lore not locked behind the rule book, it seems really interesting to me.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Didn't know the starter sets were completed armies, really makes getting one tempting.

It's one of the big benefits of BA. Look at those starter armies and you usually get 3 units of infantry, 2 vehicles, a HQ, and a couple of gun teams. They can be used in K47 too, which is a bonus. It's handy if you don't care for list building.

The army boxes are usually around 1500pts worth 1000pts according to Reddit. A game of BA/K47 is around 1500pts. I don't know if they come with all the dice.

https://www.reddit.com/r/boltaction/comments/1nudrlz/starter_army_point_values/

I don't know if the list accounts for weapon options. Iirc the boxes say on the side how many points you get.

The real expense is getting the fancy dice. They are really expensive. I guess you technically don't need them, but when I played we used them.