Oi bin finkin'...
(Hey, it's Sunday. Sunday's my thinking day, so I'm not accountable...)
It was noted on the podcast (that's Meeples and Miniatures to you) a while back that we did seem to be moving into an era where there are a lot more RPG lite/skirmish/call them what you will games - see also a recent topic brought up by Peter from Baccus, which you can probably catch on the next Meeples episode.
Questions, though: are we going even further now, given the growth of miniatures-based boardgames that really blur the line (particularly Time of Legends: Joan of Arc is very much sitting on the edge, but there are other miniature-heavy games that are pretty much RPG-lite/skirmish)? is it a question of which side of the line you approach from? I'm thinking of Time of Legends: Joan of Arc vs To The Strongest here as a very interesting example, or even Wings of Glory WW2 (no board) vs Bag the Hun (hex board)...
And the followup to those: is this trend going to be a gateway to 'proper' wargames, in the same way that people seem (certainly in our club) to gravitate from fantasy towards historical?
(Hey, it's Sunday. Sunday's my thinking day, so I'm not accountable...)
It was noted on the podcast (that's Meeples and Miniatures to you) a while back that we did seem to be moving into an era where there are a lot more RPG lite/skirmish/call them what you will games - see also a recent topic brought up by Peter from Baccus, which you can probably catch on the next Meeples episode.
Questions, though: are we going even further now, given the growth of miniatures-based boardgames that really blur the line (particularly Time of Legends: Joan of Arc is very much sitting on the edge, but there are other miniature-heavy games that are pretty much RPG-lite/skirmish)? is it a question of which side of the line you approach from? I'm thinking of Time of Legends: Joan of Arc vs To The Strongest here as a very interesting example, or even Wings of Glory WW2 (no board) vs Bag the Hun (hex board)...
And the followup to those: is this trend going to be a gateway to 'proper' wargames, in the same way that people seem (certainly in our club) to gravitate from fantasy towards historical?
I think Neil called these ‘hybrid games’. If anything, I tend to be going from ‘proper’ miniature wargames to more of the board games with miniatures route. I’ve found I can get a box with everything I need in it, as opposed to chasing down obscure production run sculpts in an endlessly growing army. Finally, I can get a good game done in a couple of hours with no arguing about range or LoS because the board handles it all.
ReplyDeleteI see the middle ground between miniatures games and board games less as a gulf, and more as an unfulfilled continuum. It appears to me that designers and publishers are realizing the potential of games that combine the best features of both. This will certainly open up the possibility of people gravitating from one end of the spectrum to the other (in both directions), driven by their personal tastes and expectations.
ReplyDeleteWe had noticed this as well. My brother, coming more from the RPG side commented “why not just play a proper RPG?”
ReplyDelete4th edition D & D of course came from the other direction towards the same place.