#mercs 2.0

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Alternative miniature manufacturers

Riding the wave of last week’s post, I decided to create a collection of all the alternative miniatures manufacturers I know of. You can look for the best proxy using the info in this thread or just start a gang for some minor rules-only game. I wish Tumblr had the possibility to make “sticky posts” but they seem not to exist so I hope Google will index this page for ease of reference. I will, of course, keep it up to date with all my new findings as I stumble upon them.

I had this thread in mind for some time but I still don’t know how to organize the contents to maximize readability. The first solution I came up with is writing the name of the site and link the various section and/or link the more prominent miniatures below. Feel free to suggest improvements if you so wish.

Kromlech

This site has huge amounts of Ork models. I mean... A LOT! And they’re also super-cool so if you are an Ork player, give this a good look. For example:

Goliath mines - cute moving mines. Not being an Ork player I don’t know if they are playable but they are really cute.

Ironshark jetbike - simply wow!

They also carry a wide selection of scenic bases and many Nurgle proxies so you might be interested even if you don’t play Orcs.

Warmonger Miniatures

I came to this site looking for paint combinations. It seems they also have their colors system but they surely have a huge line of fantasy miniatures. They are in the old Warhammer Fantasy Battles style and will probably fit as proxies or additional units for out of production units. The pictures on the site say more than words so, be sure you check out all the different factions! Here I just show you some good looking models:

Plague doctors - They’re simply awesome.

Karliki - I’m not the dwarf type of guy but this dude is great!

Elven spearmen - These can be easily painted to be Dark Elves!

Eureka minis

This is another huge site to source your miniatures. Maybe it’s not ideal to source Warhammer proxies but the amount of figures they sell is so vast that you may easily find something you like in there! Their range of miniatures varies between fantasy miniatures and realistic modern warfare figurines that also come in multiple scales. They have so many minis that you should really sit in front of their site for half an hour to get a grasp of the whole picture. Moreover, they are the home of “Pond Wars” one of the cutest miniatures lines I’ve ever seen. Check it out! Here are some minis I love:

Frog king - Reminds me of WHFB second edition Slann... may work as a replacement too if you don’t own the original.

Ethereal - You can use this in your undead armies, whatever the game you’re playing. It’s just a piece of floating cloth but they make it look so dynamic!

Soviet NCO - A Soviet agent with a gas mask! Fuck yeah!

Ironclad Miniatures

I already mentioned this site in the previous post about proxies because I bought two of their Steam Tanks to use in my Death Guard army. However, they’re not just that: they also carry many 28 mm figurines and terrain pieces like bunkers and trenches.

Ruins - You can use them in all kind of wargames ‘cause, you know... war=ruins, no matter the setting.

British Grenadier - Go and fight with that hat!

Sanwar - Star Wars, anybody?

Miniature Scenery

Another Aussie site that mainly consists of laser cut MDF terrain but also sells vehicles. The quality and complicatedness of the design are awesome... I was seriously thinking about buying their heavy tank for Warhammer 40k purposes but then I moved to the cheaper and more fluff-oriented steam tanks choice. You will agree with me that this tank can easily proxy all those kick-ass Forgeworld tanks easily. It is pricey but I think it is worth. I will probably buy one someday... If you need MDF terrain this site may be one of your best bets.

Imperial ruins - To use in 40k

Pagoda - To use in MERCS or Infinity

Dwelling - To use in Fantasy or Age of Sigmar

Buzzard - Viable Heldrake proxy?

Well, you have a lot of terrain and vehicle choices that do not really look like cheap MDF... they do come at a slightly high price though.

TTcombat Scenics

I have been eyeballing this site for a while because I wanted some cheap MDF terrain pieces for my Warlord death army (the project is sleeping now ‘cause I have nobody playing this game around me). They mainly sell their own MDF terrain but they recently became Dropzone/Dropfleet commander authorized retailers so you can also buy miniatures for those games from them. This is particularly juicy for me as I will need DFC miniatures in the future and I can combine shipping this way! Here I link you some nice products I’ve been looking at for quite some time:

Cyber defense platform - Nice to use as terrain in a Necron army! Too bad I don’t play Necrons...

Industrial Hive - I would like to buy this to combine with my Pegasus Toxic plant but then I will need a full house just to play MERCS or WH40k! It’s super tempting though.

Riftgates - The cheap alternative to the Baleful Realmgates in Age of Sigmar. You save something like 90 $...

Ramshackle Games

This is a small miniature company in Nottingham, like GW back in the days... but way grungier! Take a look at the vast selection of post-apocalyptic miniatures they offer and you will agree with me they can be used in a lot of futuristic miniature games. They have a semi-complete catalog to download here. Take a look at these great miniatures:

Gorillagon - May work as a proxy for some Nurgle dude

Chicken - He may be swollen and overweight but he always eats his cereals for breakfast!

Rhebok tank - This may be the perfect Plagueburst Crawler proxy!

This company does not only make miniatures but they also commercialize games. It seems they also had a successful Kickstarter in 2017 for a game called Mini Gangs but I didn’t hear of it and, therefore, I missed it... looks like an awesome gang game though so, I’m a little salty. I hope they release it soon. Meanwhile, I will download the free version of their Nuclear renaissance game (pdf rules here) and see if it looks interesting. I may buy the book if I find the system interesting and IF I find somebody to play it with...

eBay

I go with this last as everybody knows it. It is not strictly a “miniature” manufacturer but you can find almost everything in here. I usually source the test models for my color schemes on eBay and also many proxies. As I wrote in the previous post, most of my Chronopia proxies come from eBay but I also found 2nd edition 40k models and a bunch of Tyranid gargoyles on sprue for a ridiculously low price. If you are into that kind of thing, “Forgeworld” models are also available for reasonable prices. You should definitely check it out if you can. I write here a couple of shops that always carry interesting deals or interesting models:

The Troll Trader - cheap used GW models

Games Thriftshop - cheap used GW models (This may have somewhat lower quality models but is probably the cheapest. I tend to favor this one)

Warex Mini - Original resin models designed to be used as Warhammer 40k proxies. Mostly Chaos and Tau but they also have all the other factions. You just have to use your fantasy to match the names. Have a look at some completely dope alternative sculpts:

Typhus

Mortarion

Leman Russ

Tau Lady sniper

Ok, let’s say I put an end to this post for today but I want to keep it updated as I find new pages and new miniature manufacturers. I hope you like the idea of having a hub to put all the info together. If you want to contribute, please write your preferred sources in the comments and I will be very glad to add them here!

... game on!

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What’s happening to Megacon Games?

I am a great fan of the Mercs and Myth franchises from Megacon Games but lately the company seems to be sailing in troublesome waters. This is just a wrap up of my thoughts regarding this matter. A little note: I’m traveling from Japan to Italy right now so I’m writing this on the plane while my son is running all over the place! Needless to say it’s going to be a really short and probably poorly organized post…

If you use to read the blog you have probably already realized I am big into MERCS 2.0 and Myth, the board game. I own 6 Complete factions for the former (Kemvar, USCR, ISS, Texico, EIC and GCC) and the full Kickstarter edition for the latter. The game mechanics are usually super easy to learn and difficult to master but also innovative and unique; not to forget the wonderful miniatures they come with. To put it simple: solid fun for all kinds of gamers.

However, the other day I was looking for “IA the foundation”, the big elementals boss and it seems like he is nowhere to be found. Megacon Games site is even worst: the last post dates back to February 2017… it’s a ghost town, together with tumbleweed and all other ‘70s far west movie shenanigans. On a quest for information, I went looking around the net and I found out that Megacon Games is about to be sold to a (yet to be revealed) “buyer”. My reaction to this finding was mixed: I am definitely happy to see these franchises will have a future but I am also scared the quality of the games may degrade. Being Megacon Games a small indy company they had the freedom to try their hand at various game systems and that’s what led us to innovative games like Mercs and Myth and big companies, living on the other side of the spectrum, usually only focus on profits. This means that each and every expansion will be heavily overpriced… I hope not to the GW levels but this is what will likely happen. Something that’s also scary is that usually “big company”=“mainstream”, again with the aim of maximizing the revenues. While I agree with the fact that Myth rules would greatly benefit of a new revision I also believe that streamlining rules may sometimes require a complete overhaul of the system eventually leading to over-simplified rules or entirely different games. I think Megacon Games made a super good job with the game mechanics, the artwork, and the miniatures and, why not, the promotion but they probably went overboard by going crazy on Kickstarter, setting too many stretch goals, eventually failing to fulfill all the requests. They probably just failed from the logistic point of view… or maybe they overestimated their capabilities as a few-men team reaching worldwide success. I don’t know. Anyway, I do really hope this deal will bring Megacon Games back or, at least, keep their games up and running. I hope at least they release a new IA expansion so I can play the Elementals as the darkness. Also, super-dope sculpture!

Sorry for the short and belated post but internet connection is largely unavailable here in the deep Tuscan countryside. I promise I’ll prepare an interesting one for next week!

... game on!

UPDATE: as I connected to post this, I found out that the deal is already done! Let’s wish the nice guys from Megacon Games all the best luck!

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Mercs baby!

You know those days you keep preparing for and then they turn out even better than what you expected? Yesterday was one of them. But let's rewind this a little bit: yesterday I went to my friend's place to play some Mercs. It was his first time and I was so happy to see he totally had a blast! Wanna know more?

I know I've said this many times but a friend of mine was willing to get into tabletop wargaming and I offered him a Mercs demo game. This is basically the reason why I was holding back my Warhammer painting these days: I was preparing my USCR faction to be able to field two complete forces and trying to crank out as many terrain pieces I could. As it turns out I went a little short on the second goal but I was able to walk into my friend's house with two usable squads. It was USCR vs Kemvar.

USCR

Commissar

Heavy

Engineer

Behemoth

Gunner

KEMVAR

Leader

Heavy

Demo

Sniper

Shock

Assassin

Even though we didn't dive straight into the game (I'll explain why at the end of the post) we were both really excited to try Mercs because it's one of the best skirmish games to teach wargaming to newcomers: models look great, rules are easy to digest and the game plays super fast.

As you can see from the USCR heavy in the pictures above, the models are dynamic and full of detail. They're slightly hard to tackle if you are a beginner but the game provides some solid fun which is a good motivation.

Batrep. Sort of.

We decided to randomly assign the factions: I ended up with the USCR and my friend took Kemvar so I finally got a chance to see why a lot of people hate them. We also decided to place all the terrain I brought alternating back and forth but we ended up with a first game table setup which was not super optimal. The scenario: Kemvar attacking a USCR fueling station located in the middle of the table. Here you can see a couple of poor pictures.

We had containers, ammo boxes, and some road barricades but we felt the field was a little bit too open. I should have worked harder! Unfortunately, we didn’t have a nice gaming mat so, let’s say we were in the middle of the desert.

Anyways, the game started as usual with the Kemvar moving super fast forward and the USCR spraying them with relentless fire. God, that mimetic armors are good... the first turns USCR were just cycling through ammo clips with no tangible result while the Kemvars were totally controlling the field. Lucky dice rolls were helping but that sheer supremacy was fun to watch. Even from the USCR side. The Kemvar sniper was systematically breaking USCR armors but the bullets were too weak to actually do any good.

Then the wind changed: you know? When they're in active camo, those chameleons are hard to hit but when you do damage their armor they start falling like autumn leaves. It happened when the USCR heavy climbed on a shipping container and started to unleash a storm from elevated ground on the enemies with his lightning cannons. A couple of missed dice rolls for the Kemvars and the battle was over in two turns. The Kemvar leader, last of his men still standing, decided to flee leaving the USCR with a couple of dead bodies and some pretty badly wounded soldiers but still holding control of the fuel station. USCR wins.

Second Wave

As the first game was more of a learning session we decided to go on with another battle in the same setting, this time playing with the following rules/background:

The Kemvar leader went back and gathered a new squad to try again to destroy the fueling station. This time is a suicide mission: conquer the station or blow it up.

Kemvar must reverse the fueling station pump direction and blow it up.

USCR must stop them at all costs.

Maximum of 5 turns. At the end of the 5th turn, the winner will be determined depending on the current pump flow direction.

The Kemvar jumped into action, immediately trying to leverage their superior movement skills. With the USCR slowly advancing from the distance in their clumsy power armors, the Kemvar raiders managed to reverse the pump flow on the second turn. Only three turns to hold before the mission completion. The USCR group decided to split: a back support team with the Behemoth, the Commissar, and the heavy with some massive suppression fire actively limiting enemy’s movement and a fast moving front assault team consisting of the Engineer and the Gunner. With the Engineer engaged in a sustained fight with the Assassin first and the Shock later, the Gunner was free to get to the pump control console and reestablish the proper settings. Unfortunately, the USCR heavy miscalculated his line of sight when attacking an already badly wounded Shock and the Gunner fell under friendly fire that left him surrounded by enemies in a broken armor. It was the last turn when the Kemvar leader finally made his run to the console claiming his revenge for all the fallen Kemvar comrades. The Gunner was there, alone, under friendly and enemy fire, only a few centimeters away from that damn button, swearing while desperately trying to crawl to the console when a giant fireball erupted from the fuel tank, blowing away all that was left of the two groups. Kemvar wins.

Wrap up

We played two games and we had some real fun. There was strategy, last-second game-changing moves and all the good tactical aspects Mercs is known for. Even during the learning first game, it was fun to see how easy this game is to pick up. I have to admit that my friend is a hardcore boardgamer with an eye for miniature-rich ones but still, after two or three turns we had all rules nailed down. We did not use any advanced rule though. No, check that: I used some bounding because those Russians are super-slow movers but that’s it.

Being the first time I played with the USCR I can say that they look really cool but as far as strategy goes, they’re only good at spraying the enemy with bullets. They are slow movers and even though their armor is pretty thick (they almost don’t get any wound) it breaks up really easily. The Behemoth and the Heavy have surprisingly high TN so they’re not super good at killing foes in cover. I was hitting on 9s and 10s for the whole game even from elevated position. They do grant you some good zone control because of their scary weapons though. The Gunner and the Engineer were surprisingly good at moving and shooting with the Engineer also able to get double activation once. The two of them almost won the second encounter.

The Kemvar, on the other hand, showcased all the faction strengths: they move really fast, they hit easily (even though with low strength) and they are super hard to hit when the armor is working. The Sniper always hit because of her Aim keyword but with a strength 1 bullet, she is just good at breaking armors. In the first game, she managed to pin down three of the USCR but they were in good positions for shooting anyway and the final result showed how useless the Sniper was. I don’t even need to comment on the notorious lethal power of the Assassin and the Shock: they were tearing apart USCR power armors barehanded. The shock destroyed the Commissar in two rounds by making him flying around and bouncing him on a shipping container.

Final thoughts

If you can get your hands on some Mercs factions, do it. The game is cheap, fun and easy to learn/teach and I think it’s every wargaming lover duty to spread this as much as possible. Of course, because of the factions limitations, it may not offer the same tactical depth other games show but with proper terrain selection and deployment together with balanced faction choices, you are pretty much set up for endless fun.

Last point: why didn’t we jump immediately into the game? Cause we bought Warhammer 40k Dark Imperium starter set and we were unboxing. We split the contents. I got some Nurgle love... Of course, you’re all gonna hear more on this....

.... game on!

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Gamers or hoarders?

First and foremost: I apologize for the long blog post but I've been thinking through it a lot so... bear with me on this. The second point I want to clarify in advance: this topic is heavily affected by your surrounding environmental conditions, so, your mileage may vary.

Tabletop wargaming is really a niche type of hobby and therefore the numbers involved, whether sales based or people based are usually pretty small. I mean, there is no possible comparison with video games or even, let's say, board games which are closer to us in size but still have a couple more zeroes added to their figures. Lately, I caught myself thinking about this more and more for a couple reasons: 1) I started this blog to share my thoughts with other people and 2) I am actively trying to advocate tabletop wargaming in my local area. I usually end up asking myself: What's the reason for this difference??

I believe the main difference is the cost of the hobby as a whole: do you really want me to calculate how much a complete Warhammer 40k army is and compare it to the most expensive board game/video game around? The comparison is trivial. We are roughly comparing thousands of dollars vs. maybe a hundred bucks. And we are not even taking in consideration the humongous amount of "pro-tools" that companies sell us (paints, brushes, and all that jazz.).

Differences, however, are not economic only. Let's assume you bought all the units you need to play your favorite tabletop war game, you head to the store and you want to start playing: how do you plan to do that without (at least) assembling the miniatures?? I have never seen people playing with minis on the sprues but that may be the best idea if you want to play immediately. Board games and let alone video games are instant gratification machines and this is a killer feat in this busy new world.

So, putting it differently, having few models to build/paint should lower the entering barriers to the hobbyist-to-be and, in theory, we should see tons of small games with few models and people flooding the stores playing wherever they can. But this is clearly not the case.

Again, in theory, there are games that help to scratch these itches and they're called “Skirmish games”. You have probably heard of them. Some examples:

Mercs

Malifaux

Infinity

Song of blades and heroes

Warlord

... and many others. The problem with these games, despite the buzz they generate, is that they always struggle to gain traction. They may sell good but there seems to be a sort of upper limit they cannot move beyond. I mean, hardcore gamers tend to buy them as soon as they hit the (web)stores or even Kickstarter them but I feel the sensation that it’s hard to get them in your friendly local game store. The obvious consequence is that new casual players almost never jump on board. So, what’s going on?

Here we are, finally to the point of this long rumbling: I think that in the tabletop wargaming world the 80% of the “casual gamers” are not gamers at all... they are just hoarders that get over-excited by the big companies and keep buying the new shiny models just to paint them immediately and never field them. There is somebody that call this “the shiny syndrome” and it seems to be a hardcoded feat of the human brain: we always tend to go after the newest, shiniest, super-hyped trinket, no matter the real need. Humans are also known to be a herding type of animal, so, when you see your friends buying a crapload of new models, you simply feel the urge to jump on board. The problem is that, by doing so, you do not get to play at all ‘cause you’re always painting the new stuff and leave all your old projects unfinished.

When I used to play Warhammer Fantasy Battles back in the nineties (in Italy) I admittedly played very few battles because all the friends in my company were nuts about the new big miniature hero or the new book or whatever and we ended up having little to no time to play. Things are not different in the Kobe area where I live now: in the official WH store you see people buying tons of models and spending ages painting them and after 3/4 months down the hobby barrel, they still have to read the rules. It goes without saying that they haven’t played even once. I saw a crazy customer that was able to buy 5000$ of models and now keeps complaining that he does not have time to play/paint/etc. But when new stuff comes out he is the first on the buyers list.

The obvious consequence of having to deal with this kind of audience is that it’s overly complicated for small or indy firms to keep these people constantly satisfied: you cannot compete with the bigger companies that keep unloading crates of new models or faction every year and you end up being ignored and eventually become obsolete. Maybe some die-hard fan will still be interested in your system but he/she will eventually lose interest because no new models will ever be available again and that can put down even the most motivated gamer. So, are all skirmish games doomed to be fade out on the long run? Maybe yes. And maybe no. Infinity seems to be a pretty popular game (keep in mind the scale) as the company keeps producing new miniatures on a regular basis but, on the contrary, Mercs seems almost dead after only a few years of popularity. I find this comparison to be a clear example of the above concepts: while Mercs 2.0 was known as one of the most streamlined, action-packed and realistic rulesets on the market, Infinity is widely recognized as sightly farraginous and unbalanced, even by the people that play it regularly. Still, the latter is still selling well while the former is fading out (to the point that factions are not in stock even on the game’s homepage).

What do you think? Are the hobbyists in this niche world really “true” gamers? Or are they just collectors (aka hoarders) aiming for the newest and coolest mini on the market? I would really like to clarify this kind of behavior as I feel this heavily impacts the chances you have to find more players in your area and, consequently, the fun you can get from your gaming hobby.

I know it’s getting harder and harder but...

.... game on!

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Mercs 2.0 Kemvar faction pack

Just to dive directly in this new blog, here is my brand new “not-so-shiny” Kemvar faction pack from Megacon Games.

The box came with 10 minis (each one with its own card) in plastic bags. I’ll have to assemble them all and get on the juice. Paint juice. The models look awesome. And the set is really outstanding value.

Stay tuned for the finished models!