7 Great miniatures games that aren't WARHAMMER

[Music] miniature wargaming is far and away one of the most intimidating aspects of the tabletop gaming hobby especially for newcomers and I think at least part of that most likely comes from the image that it has been largely dominated by the huge scale military fanatics paradise of Games Workshop in the fantasy and sci-fi worlds of their Warhammer franchise odds are of your even a casual gamer a tabletop or video games you've probably heard of Warhammer 40k fantasy battles or Age of Sigma much in the same way that Dungeons & Dragons has become the pinnacle of all RPGs in the public's eyes Warhammer has a terminators iron grip on the public perception of miniature wargaming odds are though if you've not already attempted to get into the 1 million different Warhammer property's on offer or even if you've tried and fell at the first hurdle it might not be the game for you whoever it's the theme the miniatures the sheer amount of them required to play all the rules that you play by Warhammer isn't for everyone and that includes those who have been playing it for so long that they want to look for a new horizon to explore and well maybe just additional games to add to their arsenal with that in mind here's our recommendation for some fantastic miniatures games that you can play right now that aren't Warhammer malifaux sets its conflicts in the strange and deadly alternate 1900's earth of the same name full of horrible monsters even more horrible people and a slew of ghosts steampunk constructs and hillbilly goblins if you're at all excited by the world of blaze in the dark which we've recommended on this channel quite a few times then this will certainly be a world that will grab your attention you could quite conceivably be leaving a swamp hag into battle surrounded by moss covered Gatling gun wielding clockwork robots on the other side of the table a gang of Japanese ghosts and deadly spirits manifold is incredibly evocative and it comes with some interesting new takes on the miniature wargaming formula done away with our dice favouring instead a deck of cards based system which will determine one-on-one conflicts as well as the damage you do and the defenses you put up against their damage you'll also be able to hold a hand of cheat cards throughout each around allowing you to make sure important steps in combat go your way by changing it to into a twelve that you've been saving up malifaux is a skirmish game which means that you'll be using a very small model count this is good for two that's for two reasons first of all it makes it a lot cheaper to get into combats as you'll only need to assemble a 10 unit squad rather than a 200 model mega army secondly each model becomes a lot more personal and important as losing just one of them is a significant portion of your army gone for good and it also allows each model to shine and have that special moment in the game skirmish games are absolutely great and if you've ever played a massive war game you should give one ago malifaux also features alternative activations which means I move them out all you move a model and back and forth if you've played a large game of Warhammer you'll know that sitting around for 30 minutes whilst your opponent murders you and you just get to sit and watch it's not very fun it also means that the simple act of choosing which model is going to take their action first becomes even more pivotal of a decision malifaux is very very cool and if you're looking at getting into that and the barrier for entry especially cost wise is pretty low the do be one that the small and quite finicky models are absolute hell to put together especially for those new to the Hobby be one as well that there are some pretty differ ideas in the rulebook that those who are mini-games diehards might be blindsided by is they go against tradition in a few different aspects it's also not the least complicated game on our list so if you're looking for something easy to kick off with well then you might have to watch the rest of our video or Nia you might not know it from the cover of infinity is actually set in our world just 175 years into the future where humanity has reached the Stars all the major powers in the world have begun to stake their claim on the hospitable planets in the galaxy and many of the nation's states that we know of today have combined forces to create new blocks of power both on earth and in the far reaches of space this real world clashed with fiction setting allows for some amazing factions and sub factions for players to pick from when assembling their squad you might grab a set of the pan Oceania space Templars the East Asian conglomerate Yu Jing or even wield some kilt clad sword-swinging Highlanders under the banner of Ariadna my squad fly the banner of Haqq Islam a force of Middle East and Muslim forces that have devoted their lives and culture to humanism and the advances of medical science making for some of the best healers in the game a quick side note that whilst infinity isn't perfect in its inclusion especially with some pretty overly sexualized female sculpts seeing strong and positive Islamic characters in games like these as a massive step in the right direction for allowing people to feel represented in the games that they play so good job on that Corvus belli infinity is definitely one of the more in-depth rule sets in this list and probably one of the more complex ones to learn though you can grab a star set and learn the rules pretty gradually with their ongoing tutorial campaign whilst also picking up some stock models to split with a friend just like malifaux infinity is a low model counter simulating squad tactics at the micro level rather than a hundred model mass combat scenarios move its complexity though infinity allows you to perform a massive amount of different tactics which really reward players that manage to stick with the rules your soldiers can go prone to avoid enemy fire suppression choke points and drop mines and smoke grenades to surprise your opponent giant mechs can be piloted and hacked soldiers can wear stealth suits and weapons have fire modes and effective ranges infinity brings breadth and depth by the bucketload and wraps it all in an incredibly stylish manga comic aesthetic clearly inspired by cultural touchstones like Kirra and ghost in the shell' you'll be able to see gun-toting motorbike drivers hackers mechs cloaking tech and invading alien empires or clashing on your table mechanically infinity is really smart with some lovely rules that make for a smooth experience on the table each player will be rolling 20 sided dice whenever they perform an action like shooting dodging or healing you'll have to get a result in lower or equal to the skill level of the soldier who's attempting it not unlike an RPG the fun thing about affinity though is that when attempting any of these actions your opponent is able to react to any one of them that leaves your model in their line of sight meaning you'll be doing just as much on your off turns as you are on your actual goes because of this infinity becomes claustrophobic ly tight and you'll be slipping between cover and peeking between buildings to try and find enemy paths of movement I really really love infinity and I'm always trying to get more people to play it but if you are completely new to the Hobby be warned that it is a big book of rules to cram into your brain hole you'll also need to construct and paint Peter models which can be a massive pain in the ass if you're still interested though grab one of these sectoral squad boxes or a star kit with a friend and get playing [Music] god it's been a lot of war and fighting going on to those past couple of games isn't there if only we could put our differences aside come together for some fun carefree organized sporting events and then punch each other to death or one of those instead not all miniature wargaming is about amassing armies and seeing whose guns can pump out the most led in a single turn Dredd bull and Gill ball instead challenge you to best your opponent in a game of goals and tackles laced with just a sprinkle of unfair play each will have you picking from a diverse of teams each with their own strengths and visual flares they'll both allow you to play through leagues and tournaments and they're both lots of fun so the question really is which is right for you Gill ball is by far the more popular of the two with a decent seen of players and most miniatures clubs set in a more fantasy such steampunk aesthetic you'll be representing various skills from across the cities of the world Gill ball is a lot more grounded than its competitor and plays using rulers and templates like a traditional war game there's rules for ball bouncing around the pitch and you'll have a step line for things like how far you can kick the ball and how easy you can waver an attack it's definitely the more traditional of the two games in my eyes which will make it appealing to those with previous mini games experience if you're a football fan and that's real for both not the American imposter then you'll be comfortable with the rules of the game and go from there you're passing a ball around the pitch and trying to score in there gold anything wackier than that is sprinkled on top like if someone added rules to chess that allows you to equip a flamethrower onto your Knights your ball certainly has the nicest sculpts of the two options as well with a gorgeous range of characters all unique and interestingly posed complete with thematic terrain and pitches that you can buy to up the immersion dread ball in comparison is a lot more silly and lightweight than its minutia of guild ball that doesn't mean it's necessarily easier or quicker to play but where guild war concerns itself of a true simulation of their fantasy version of the beautiful game dread ball is much more concerned with bombast and drama of televised sporting events in the far-reaching alien future of its sci-fi setting in de redbull you play through leagues and rile up the fans there's a referee patrolling the pitch that you need to avoid when you're committing blatant fouls on your opponents just like in real sports the rulers and templates are replaced with a hex based system and instead of your standard football rules there's a new strike zone based scoring system that gives you a few different point valued goals to pick from for a little risk reward you can also get everything that you need to play dread ball in a single box game and just go from there without having to worry about army compositions or how expensive your prospective team is whilst the models in dread ball aren't quite the same quality as guild balls there's a huge variety of sci-fi tropes and look-alikes from other games including Blood Bowl which is the Warhammer equivalent which it obviously owes a lot of credit to for inspiration this smorgasbord of Cinna factions is lovely to pick from in each feels completely unique and yet absolutely in universe in more comedy leaning world of Dredd ball my favorite part of the rulebook is the section on creating your own mutant team by combining lots of different body parts from other miniatures which is a lovely idea whether you do want to rough it up in the dirt pictures of guild wars fantasy setting or strap on your space armor and shunts and robots into a bloodthirsty crowd in dread ball the small niche of sports miniatures games have some very fun experiences just waiting to be had for the aspiring miniature gamer [Music] for better or for worse everyone knows Star Wars it's inescapable so it was almost inevitable the ministers game set in a galaxy far far away was gonna make its way to the tables of fans the world over what people might not realize though is that we'd be getting 3 separate miniatures games that allow you to fight across land air and sea although this is Star Wars of course which is more concerned with Galactic warfare than naval combat and attack planes so it's actually more like land space and big space these come in the form of Legion for land battles x-wing for dogfights in space and Armada for those massive fleet combats that are so prevalent in the film's if I was a recommender system that's incredibly easy for new players to get into I definitely think Legion is the one to go with there's a very strict back system that gets rid of a lot of the guff that comes with some of the older and more heavy systems out there the core rules are incredibly slim and the models are pretty easy to build all of your stats for each unit fit into a single standard size card and there's essentially two factions to choose from goodies or baddies gone are the brawler's and piles of D sixes instead you'll use eight sided dice with symbols for success and failure and measuring sticks for moving your units and set blocks it makes getting to grips with the system a real breeze and it's refreshingly quick and like to play not to mention the fact that if you're a bit of a mega fan you grab three different sets from each of the three games and go from a massive space Armada battle to a dogfight to a land skirmish with each game affecting the next in a crust system campaign although the standard battles you'll be having aren't quite as large-scale as some of the ones that have become standard fare and warhammer tabletop you'll easily find yourself purchasing a lot of boxes to get a good army in Legion and it's easy to fall down the money sucking wormhole that's all too familiar for fans of any hobby if you're looking for a cheap miniatures game to get into wouldn't be recommending Legion especially seeing as the star set doesn't even contain all the dice you need to get a proper volley going but if a light water and plenty of model variety is what you're after it's definitely a good shout I will warn you though that the model aren't made of the most sturdy plastic which might make them easy to assemble but you're in danger of some wonky lightsabers and not too detailed figures [Music] sometimes things get a little bit more spicy when you add an unknown extra ingredient a bit of coffee in your chili con carne perhaps or maybe some diehard in your Christmas movie marathon or in this case some brain hungry zombies in your table top minister's game the story of The Walking Dead exploded into popularity when the original graphic novels were adapted into a record-breaking TV series in the States the first season was pretty underfunded but received massive amounts of both critical and public success and then apparently some other seasons happened everyone at some point in their lives has asked themselves what they do if they were in that classic zombie apocalypse scenario The Walking Dead's : all our war gives you a pretty fun avenue to explore that there's rules for attracting the dead or avoiding them by cleverly using noise to redirect their attacks pushing your luck between sneaking and sprinting and scavenging post-apocalyptic scraps if you're a fan of the series of the graphic novels has spawned this big box of shambling corpses then the collector's edition will be full to the brim with recognizable characters not to mention some lovely scenery and a neoprene mat for playing on the miniatures in the Box are well built and come preassembled as well which is a good start for anyone new to painting the sculpt themselves are a little bit stickier than your average human but the exaggerated details will help those who aren't as experienced with the artistic side of the Hobby all that war isn't exactly revolutionary but it does do some really fun things and interesting ones with the setting that it's placed in the minis are nice the terrain is a good start for someone building up a table for modern settings and it all comes packaged in a nicely stylish box the problem then is the up for an asking price you'll be faced with which is where you'll need to decide on how much you're willing to invest in miniature gaming the collector's edition that I've been showing you right now will set you back a cool 90 quid which might be way too steep for someone just getting into the Hobby especially considering the buy-in costs for a lot of the other games on the list for that price though you have an honest-to-goodness starter set with absolutely everything you need to play inside and there's even a cheaper version with cardboard scenery and less content packed in one extra thing whilst this may be isn't the best game on the list if you're looking to just put down some models and have a scrap with your pals this does happen to be one of the only miniatures games that I've ever come across that allows you to play solo as well if you're willing to splash a bit of cash right out of the gate and you're looking for a quick and deadly game of undead dodging and The Walking Dead : all-out war might just be the game for you and even if you're wanting to play it on your own it still could be most walk home set of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros focus on the dirty dealings betrayal and blood spilling away from the battlefield there about dispatching rivals with a knife slipped between the ribs a poison goblet of wine or a crossbow to the nads boss you swapped the Iron Throne for a porcelain one but being a Song of Ice and Fire books and Game of Thrones TV show they inspired wouldn't be the same without the occasional big old battle and bloodshed on mass that's where this sweeping miniatures game steps in bringing the action down to the grunts at the front line of each house as they clash swords spears and deep-rooted philosophical differences resolved like all complex discussions by chopping each other into itty-bitty pieces to get across the sense of commanding a vast highly-trained army belonging to the Starks Lannister's or whoever you decide you throw your lot in with the Song of Ice and Fire tabletop miniatures game uses what's called a rank and file system in essence instead of moving individual models as in skirmish games like Warhammer 40k you're not all set on plastic trays that keep them tightly arranged in pleasing neat rows and columns just like in the old fantasy battles version of Warhammer when you move a unit you move the entire tray and clash it into a tray of your opponent's soldiers to attack like a particularly aggressive encounter over lunch in a cafeteria maneuvering trays makes for a distinctly different style of play compared to the nimble single troops and flexible gangs and skirmish games you have to account for trying to get an entire platoon to turn with all the speed of a pointy battleship with flanking playing a key part in defeating the enemy while the games in large scope comes from scores of anonymous troops being whittled down to nothing models are removed one at a time from the trays reducing their attack and defense bonuses as the numbers dwindle the characters that you know from the books and TV show also play a key role as well leaders can be assigned to particular units lending their personality and special abilities to the frontline you might have the fast striking ability of Robb Stark and his direwolf gray wind or the slower but more formidable might of the mountain or maybe someone in between characters not as home on the so battlefield aren't left out of the action either familiar faces that favor brains over brawn such as Tyrion and Sansa complete over a separate board that represents the political machinations behind the scenes granting each side extra powers and advantages you might be able to avoid enemy troops morale making them more likely to suffer losses in combat or boost your own units resolve it makes the whole thing stay true to the world of Westeros while also giving battles to a slightly different feel and flow to the most cut-and-dried murder fests that said with over a hundred minis in the starter box you'll still be slaughtering unfortunate soldiers by the Dozen the designers ample experience with bull games blood rage designer Eric Lang is one of the game's co-creators it comes through in the gameplay which is closer to learning a board game than these sometimes intimidating rules tomes thrown up by full-on miniature wargames you measure distances with a ruler but the main action is controlled with action cards and dice making it comfortable to play straight out of the box without having to wrestle through rules as lengthy and complex as George RR Martin's novels although it's not as deep as some of the other pure war miniature games on the list that doesn't mean it's skimps on the depth entirely there are multiple different types of scenarios to play from straight flashes to a castle siege and terrain is included in the box with specific rules for allowing units movement and battle prowess well then all a Song of Ice and Fire is a different kind of Game of Thrones game and a different kind of miniatures game as well compared to what's out there anyway despite the well known world it's depicting and attached to its combination of boredom urges gaming means it's likely to be more of a cult choice when it comes to finding nearby wargaming clubs and local opponents interested in playing but as far as getting started with miniatures games goes everything you need is in the box and you're likely to already be familiar with the law making this a decent first step into a brave new world if you manage to watch any of the Mad Max films without wanting to immediately strap a flamethrower on to the bonnet of your Peugeot 108 and spray silver food coloring over your mouth then I'm not saying there's anything wrong with you but you'll definitely be less excited by the premise of Gasland refueled than I was gasps lands is essentially a raw set for playing with matchbox toy cars like Hot Wheels no relation or whatever competitor or knockoff brand that you can find in a pound shop you'll also use a points-based system to assemble a squadron of battle ready bangers complete with crew members and welded on weapons Gosselin's uses a template system that you might be familiar with from games like x-wing which you'll place a car at the start of a cut out or printed off shape and then move them to the end of that template to simulate a maneuver each of your vehicles will be set to a gear which if you're familiar with cars at all essentially it's a state that the car is in which determines how fast it can travel in exchange from new ability the higher the gear that you're in the faster that you'll be able to travel across the board and the more damage you'll do when you smash into the side of another vehicle conversely though when you're in a higher gear you'll have less options when it comes to which template you can use and how quickly you can turn away from danger which could see you fly bonnet first into a brick wall the biggest obstacle for getting into Gasland is that pretty much the only official resource that exists for it is this rule book there's no official models no kits for updating cars and no tokens or templates or what have you that are sold by the actual official company that produces it there are a slew of different sites which provide third-party options but prices quality and availability are not guaranteed the flip side of this though is that you want to give gas fans a go and you have some toy cars and a six-sided dice lying around then all you really need is the rule book and a printer templates can be cut from paper and stock onto cardboard all the special dice can be rolled as a standard d6 and referenced on a table you don't have to do a single bit of painting on your vehicles if you're not fussed about visuals this makes Gasland incredibly cheap to get into absurdly so if you want to play a miniatures game that's truly unique from the standard laser guns and swords that features in every other system and gasps lands is a must of all kinds of fun bonus rules so things like crowd interaction campaigns driver experiences and leveling up tanks and helicopters and pretty much whatever you want to add in whether it's a Destruction Derby Mario Kart style racing or protecting a massive war rig that you're exporting across a barren desert there's lots to love in this gas guzzling budget miniatures game well there you have it Games Workshop might have the market cornered when it comes to incredibly big expensive and detailed models that admittedly do look rad as hell but they don't have a monopoly on good miniatures systems far from it in fact so if you have been trying to dip your toes in and haven't been entirely sure where to start or maybe you're just getting a little bit sick of the grim dark fantasy or future of the Warhammer world then there are massive amounts of games out there for you to try and I hope that this list has given you a good idea of where to start or maybe where to go next thanks very much for watching this this video I thin like a wheelin of dice breaker and if you haven't already please do subscribe to our youtube channel where we have plenty of good board game and wargaming now videos as well if you'd like to come in and get involved then please leave us a comment and make sure that you click on that Bell icon so that you get notified every time we put a new video live more importantly as well especially if you do like Dungeons and Dragons and all that kind of stuff we have pawlenty of things on dice breaker calm our home and website if you'd like to read some of our editorial by some of the fantastic writers we have on this team then I urge you to go over there and leave some comments on articles so that you can make us feel good thanks very much for watching and most importantly have a very grim dog day

Channel: Dicebreaker

Views: 204,252

Keywords: Board games, Tabletop Games, Card Games, Dicebreaker, mini games for beginners, wargaming, miniatures, warhammer, warhammer 40k, age of sigmar, malifaux, infinity, gaslands, ice and fire miniatures game, game of thrones, best mini games, games that aren't warhammer, games workshop, dicebreaker wheels, michael whelan

Id: 4jHZO514PYY

Length: 24min 59sec (1499 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 16 2020