Whilst we moved in months ago, a barrage of furniture (36 IKEA flat packs!) has dulled my enthusiasm for assembling minis. That said, I did make some progress with some low-hanging fruit; I grabbed some bright green glowy secondhand warriors of the deads off eBay.
I just did a bit of a darker wash and a white drybrush to make them a bit more subdued and less 'neon.'
They were dead easy to paint and as you can see line up OK with the oversized, beefy Victrix vikings aka Dunlendings:....
Given GW doesn't even MAKE Black Numenoreans any more (and they're a pretty core unit!) 3D prints are a no brainer. The beauty of 3D printing is it's also so cheap I can experiment - at a fraction of the price of GW even when you could buy the official sculpts. I had 6 mounted aka Morgul Knights and 6 foot Numenoreans resin printed professionally for the price of a single box of 4. Anyway, another +12 to bring my LoTR paint count to 104.
Hunt: Showdown. If its atmosphere was any thicker you could cut it with a knife.
Atmosphere in Games
I've been thinking about this a bit of late. Firstly, I've been a lot of Mechwarrior Online (PC) with my 9 year old. I'd recommend it as good 'old gamer dad' game, as it's pretty slow paced, and customizing (aka min-maxing) your mech is fun for tinkerers. It's a pretty basic kill-em-all arena shooter, but there's a surprising amount of nerds/lore in the chat, and it has inspired a lot of interest in mechs in our house! However - the Battletech rules are obtuse, antiquated and gluggy and the Alpha Strike rules are unfit for purpose. There are free generic mech wargames around - but we kinda want the 'feel' of Battletech - heat sinks, jumpjets, and the 'official' weaponry - PPCs, gauss, lasers, SRMs. We want to 'feel' Battletech mechs, not use LEGO gundam rules.
It's atmosphere. Lore. World building. It's why I am thinking about printing off Mordhiem rules again, even though it's gameplay is kinda dated. It's the gothic ruins and ratmen, the strong sense of identity and mood. (The PC game Vermintide does this pretty well too, but a tad too violent for my kid!). Mordhiem's strong sense of identity inspires scratch building, customisation and narrative - decades after it was discontinued.
Or why am I considering resurrecting Battlefleet Gothic with 3D prints despite having perfectly serviceable Dropfleet rules and minis? Kilometres-long flying cathederals jumping through demon-haunted hyperspace just makes the latter game seem sterile and generic with it's paint-by-the-numbers factions and world-building.
I am even trying/learning the PC game Hunt:Showdown - in genre I broadly dislike - an extraction based PvP shooter: kinda PubG with extra steps and permadeath/loot loss, so hackers can ruin your day even more - but it drips with atmosphere and has me digging out Wild Weird West miniatures. It's lore and atmosphere makes me want to play and be part of the universe, even if I am not that keen on the 'rules' so to speak.
Generic Mechanics, No Lore....
About ~10-15 years back the indie wargame scene had heaps on "generic/universal wargame rules" - basically a set of mechanics that claimed to allow you to "use any miniatures" to fight anything from Roman Legionaires to Star Wars. Basically, they hung their hat on having cleaner/better mechanics than 40K (admittedly not a difficult bar) and the ability to use 'any miniatures in your collection.'
I can't think of any that stayed around. There was nothing wrong with them - there was just no reason to play them. By catering to everything, and having no set background, lore or atmosphere - they appealed to no one.
The only game system that did well from this era I reckon was the Song of Blades series. Probably because it had spin-offs that specifically catered to different eras - Napoleonics, fantasy, Arthurian, furry animals a la Redwall, post-apoc, swashbuckling - while the underlying mechanics were similar, each rulebook was actually quite specific and actually did have a distinct atmosphere. The rules themselves were OK but not amazing - interesting activation, swingy combat, use of 101 special rules to actually differentiate models in attempt to 'simplify.' I think I spent more time creating warbands than playing the rules. Rather than being a staple of a gaming session, it enabled my creativity. Which leads me to what I see a fair bit of now...
....Strong Lore, Minimal Mechanics
I think Frostgrave is a good example of this. The rules themselves are pretty meh: packaged as a standalone generic set (like in the earlier era) no one would give them a second glance. However they are packaged with lots of lore and background, successfully bottling some of the Mordhiem lightening (warbands searching for magical artifacts in a ruined city *cough*). The lore and atmosphere carries the rules - they give you a reason to play. Most of the old generic rulesets are probably better rules than Frostgrave - mechanics-wise - but is anyone playing them?
Having a strong background; yet freedom to customise - this attracts the tinkerers, scratchbuilders - those who just want a framework to create. Who don't mind the odd house rule, swingy mechanics or lack of clarity. And there's a fair overlap between those folk and people who buy indie wargames. Those serious about competition and regular games will probably opt for something more popular and commercial.
I wonder if there is a risk in being too specific. I thought Zone Raiders did a great job of making a sci fi skirmish game for those wanting lighter fare than Infinity. It had a strong lore and background - mega cities like from Blame! - but the weapons and gear tended to only come from that setting. A list of generic standard sci-fi weapons would make the rules more adaptable. Because the weapons and gear kinda specifically focussed the game on a niche setting, it may have minimised it's audience? I know it's actually dissuaded me from playing until I get more terrain to match the mega city vibe and paint suitable models.
I've always enjoyed LoTR:SBG. It has very strong lore and background, and not only (a) decent rules simple but some tactics and (b) rules that match the lore - or at least the heroic action in the movies. Terrain is pretty easy - generic medieval. You can easily adapt non-official minis.
I wonder if there is another category - overly complex/detailed rules, strong lore - which would include many RPGs along with games like Infinity (which always felt like it was made by a RPGer).
Anyhow, I guess my question I am exploring/googling for the moment is:
What are wargame rules with strong settings, excellent 'atmosphere'? (Obviously not including the obvious ones like 40K, Battletech, etc)
Maybe there are RPG backgrounds (an area obviously strong on lore) that could be adapted to a wargame?
