Wiki quote:
Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming that incorporates miniature figures, miniature armor and modeled terrain as the main components of play. Like other types of wargames, they can be generally considered to be a type of simulation game, generally about tactical combat, as opposed to computer and board wargames which have greater variety in scale.
While such games could also be played with counters on a table with colored paper to denote terrain types, the visual attractiveness and tactile satisfaction of painted miniatures moving around on a table with model trees, hills and other scenery has such an alluring power to convince many wargamers to prefer model/miniature games over the cheaper and easier board-and-chits alternatives.
The miniatures and scenario items at the core of the model wargaming experience are available in different scales, and many sets of rules are written with the assumption that a particular scale is being used.
So we all know what miniature wargaming is. Wargaming with miniatures, basically. But there are many types of wargaming. For instance: Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40k, Axis & Allies Miniatures, Flames of war, etc.
(please let me know if you want me to add to this list)Warhammer, the Game of Fantasy Battles:
gee wizz another wiki quote how excitingThe game has been designed with regiments of fantasy miniatures. It uses stock fantasy races such as humans (The Empire, Bretonnia, Kislev), Elves (Dark Elves, High Elves, Wood Elves), Dwarfs, Undead, Orcs and Goblins, Vampires, as well as some more unusual types such as Lizardmen, Skaven and the daemonic forces of Chaos.
Each race has its own unique strengths and flaws; Wood Elves, for example, have the most powerful archers in the game but have poor overall defence and Bretonnia have the strongest cavalry but weak infantry.
Warhammer is a tabletop wargame where two or more players compete against each other with "armies" of 25 mm - 250 mm tall heroic miniatures. The rules of the game have been published in a series of books, which describe how to move miniatures around the game surface and simulate combat in a "balanced and fair" manner. Games may be played on any appropriate surface, although the standard is a 6 ft by 4 ft tabletop decorated with model scenery in scale with the miniatures. Any individual or group of miniatures in the game is called a "unit", whether represented by a single model, or group of similar troops.
The current core game rules are supplied in a single book, with supplemental Warhammer Armies texts giving guidelines and background for army-specific rules. Movement about the playing surface is generally measured in inches and combat between troops or units given a random element with the use of six-sided dice. Army supplements also assign points values to each unit and option in the game, giving players the ability to play on even terms. An average game will have armies of 750 to 3,000 points, although smaller and larger values are quite possible. There are also different rules for movement, shooting, combat and so on, the action usually being dictated by the roll of a 6-sided die or a 'D6', or it can be a 6-sided 'scatter' die used to generate random directions, often used alongside an 'artillery' die, used mainly for cannon, stone-throwers, and unusual variant artillery.
Warhammer 40k:
Warhammer 40,000 (informally known as Warhammer 40K or simply 40K) is a tabletop miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop, set in a dystopian science-fantasy universe. Warhammer 40,000 was created by Rick Priestley in 1987 as the futuristic companion to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, sharing many game mechanics. Expansions for Warhammer 40,000 are released from time to time which give rules for urban, planetary siege and large-scale combat. The game is currently in its fifth edition, which was published in 2008.
Players can assemble and paint individual, 22-millimeter (.98-inch) scale miniature figures that represent futuristic soldiers, creatures and vehicles of war. These figurines are collected to compose squads in armies that can be pitted against those of other players. Each player brings a roughly equal complement of units to a tabletop battlefield with handmade or purchased terrain. The players then decide upon a scenario, ranging from simple skirmishes to complex battles involving defended objectives and reinforcements. The models are physically moved around the table and the actual distance between models plays a role in the outcome of combat. Play is turn-based, with various outcomes determined by tables and the roll of dice. Battles may last anywhere from a half-hour to a whole weekend, and battles may be strung together to form campaigns. Many game and hobby stores host games, and official tournaments are held on a regular basis, such as the Throne of Skulls.
Warhammer 40,000's space-fantasy setting spans a vast fictional universe set roughly thirty-eight millennia into the future. Its various factions and races include the Imperium of Man, a decentralized yet totalitarian interstellar empire that has ruled the vast majority of humanity for millennia, the Orks (similar to Warhammer Fantasy Orcs), the Eldar (similar to Elves in Warhammer Fantasy Battle), and Daemons (very similar in both universes, although the precise natures of their creation and existence vary slightly), among others. The background and playing rules of each faction are covered in the game's rule books and supplemental army 'codexes', along with articles in the Games Workshop magazines, White Dwarf and Imperial Armour. The game's miniatures are produced by Citadel Miniatures and Forge World.
The Warhammer 40,000 setting is used for several tabletop games, video games, and works of fiction, including licensed works published by Black Library, a subsidiary of Games Workshop. The events and characters are described, below, using in-universe tone.
Axis & Allies Miniatures:
Axis & Allies Miniatures is a miniature wargaming system including both a rule set and a line of 1/100 scale miniature armor (15 mm figure scale) collectible miniatures. The game is set in the World War II era with units representing individual vehicles and artillery or squads of infantry. The system was first released in 2005 and is currently produced by Avalon Hill, a division of the game company Wizards of the Coast, which itself is a subsidiary of Hasbro.
Aimed at the collectible miniatures game market, the title Axis & Allies drew on that game's historic strength and notoriety. However, the miniature game bears little resemblance to the widely sold board games and other Axis & Allies items. Instead of a game of grand strategy, the miniatures game focuses on the tactical battle, with units fielded on either side of the battle being rarely greater than a company. Each piece is assigned a point value so that balanced matches can be constructed. Tournament play is typically done with 100 points per side, with infantry units usually having values of fewer than 10 points each and vehicles range from less than 10 to 50 or more based on relative strengths. Scenarios may alter these numbers or otherwise determine the constitution of each side. The map board consists of 2" (5 cm) hexes, with different terrain types represented within. Most set-ups are fewer than 20 hexes in either dimension. Combat resolution is done by rolling pools of standard six-sided dice.
Rule books are included in every starter set. For the Ground Sets, Expanded Rules were published separately. For the Naval Sets, Advanced Rules are available online.
The initial release included a broad range of units for Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with a more limited set for Japan and the Soviet Union. Two units each were included of French and Italian forces. The second set added Nationalist China, Poland, and Romania to the mix, while the third set adds a single Australian unit. The fourth set debuted Canadian units, the fifth Hungarian units, the seventh Greek units, and the eighth Finnish units. The ninth introduced Slovakian, Belgian and South African troops.
Flames of War:
Flames of War allows players to wargame company level battles from the European and North African Theatres of World War Two, using 1/100 scale miniatures (15 mm figure scale) and miniature armour.
In the 1st Edition rulebook basic army lists were provided for the mid-war period (1942–1943), while Battlefront published early (1939–1941) and late war (1944–1945) army lists on their website (subsequently these early and late war lists were removed). The 2nd Edition of the rulebook was published in 2006. The 3rd Edition of the rules was released on March 10th, 2012.
Gameplay takes place over a series of turns, with players alternating movement, shooting and close assault. This simple sequence of play, often called "I-Go, You-go", helps people who are unfamiliar with wargames or who are familiar with other games with a similar structure to quickly learn the rules. The game is optimised for two players, although it can be played by a larger number of players playing against each other or grouped in teams.
Play revolves around company-level tactics, with each stand or element representing an infantry fireteam (half-squad/section), an artillery piece and its crew, or a single vehicle (such as a tank, jeep, or armoured car). Air support is also available, in the form of fighters (like the Hawker Hurricane) and ground attack aircraft (like the Ilyushin Il-2 "Shturmovik"), with aircraft generally being represented by 1:144 scale models.
The main rulebook has numerous scenarios players can use for their games, from a simple all-out battle scenario to objective-taking missions. Additional army sourcebooks contain further scenarios, usually centered around historical events relevant to that particular book. Game play utilizes six-sided dice to pass various skill tests used to shoot at enemies or pass motivation based tests. Movement distances and weapon ranges are provided in both inches and centimeters and are usually measured with tape measures or other measuring aides.
Current army sourcebooks are based on particular campaigns and include lists for the German Wehrmacht (including the Deutsches Afrikakorps, the Waffen SS and Luftwaffe ground troops), the U.S. Army (including Rangers and Airborne units), the armies of United Kingdom and Commonwealth (India, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand), the Red Army of the Soviet Union, (including the Soviet 8ya Gvardeyskiy Strelkovy Korpus), the Italian army (including elite Bersaglieri and Paracadutisti, regular Fucilieri, and fascist Blackshirts paramilitaries), as well as nations that played as smaller role such as the Poles, Hungarians, Finns, and Romanians. Sourcebooks have so far been restricted to the European theater and Mediterranean theater; Battlefront has indicated that future releases may include coverage of the Pacific theater, but only after army lists and campaign supplements covering the early and late periods of fighting in Europe have been released.
Flames of War provides players who are interested in World War II wargaming but lack an in-depth knowledge of the period with a "one-stop shop".
The rulebook and sourcebooks provide not only the rules of the game and scenarios to play but also background material on historical forces and battles and simple guides to organising, assembling, and painting miniature armies.
BrikWars:
BrikWars is a miniatures wargaming system by Mike Rayhawk, created for use with plastic building blocks and figurines. It is designed to be simplistic and flexible, allowing for its players' full range of creativity in creating armies, creatures, vehicles, and worlds out of construction toys. Although targeted primarily at adults, BrikWars is known for its straight-faced acceptance of the kinds of ridiculous scenarios and multi-genre mashups that arise naturally when children dump out their unsorted toybins on the floor. Much of its humor comes from satirizing "serious" wargames and their players, while flouting or deliberately misinterpreting conventions of the genre.
BrikWars uses "minifigs" (usually LEGO minifigures or equivalent miniature figures from other construction toy brands) as small soldiers, and terrain constructed from construction bricks or random objects found near the playing area. While the game can be played with completely non-construction-toy related objects, such as action figures, stuffed animals, or tin soldiers, the rules lend themselves best to figures and structures which can be easily disassembled and reconstructed. These models might represent real or fictional-world forces and situations, but are just as likely to represent exactly what they are - toys engaging in arbitrary battles for toy supremacy.
BrikWars 2005 is the most current version of the BrikWars rules, and is greatly reduced in size and complexity from the BrikWars 2001 rules. The 2001 rules are now considered the "advanced" version of the 2005 rules, containing additional material that covers subjects excluded from the 2005 rules (such as adjudicating superpowers and magic). The 2001 rules version as well as extra units can be found on Brikwars.com's Supplements page. These rules are compatible with BrikWars 2005 and are used by many players to add supplemental unit and weapon types, such as flamethrowers or Mediks.
THIS TOPIC IS NOT FOR THE DISCUSSION OF COMPUTER GAME RTS STUFFS
GO DIE IN A FIRE IF YOU MENTION IT HERE
