3 Gateway Games for Those New to Miniature Wargaming

[Lodur]

3 Gateway Games for Those New to Miniature Wargaming

If you want to get friends into playing miniature wargames with you, here are three games that are fairly easy for them to learn.

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[Lightspeaker]

I always think its a massive shame that Havok died the way it did. I have the starter box and some additional minatures for that and it was very nicely put together. Cheap, almost no assembly and no painting required. Rules were simplified although a little flawed when it was released. Lot of potential to be a great introduction for tabletop wargames.

Absolutely disastrous marketing, bad timing of the release and the fact that you could only get extra minatures as "random" packs from Argos killed the entire thing stone dead in a few months. The company went bankrupt shortly before Christmas.

Given that I seriously doubt most people around here have a clue what I'm talking about. Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havok_%28wargame%29
http://havok.wikia.com/

 

[Stomperchomper]

Dust Tactics is a good game for beginners into miniature wargaming as well. Not super expensive if you look around a little, and the rules are simple but effective

 

[J.McMillen]

While Space Hulk may be a good game, why waste time recommending a game that isn't currently being published.

 

[Kahani]

The base game comes with 35 highly detailed plastic miniatures that require... painting

I couldn't disagree more, and it's comments like this that are one of the biggest turn-offs for people when it comes to tabletop gaming. Models absolutely do not need painting. That's true for Warhammer, and even more true for games like Space Hulk where you're playing with a few limited pieces on a board rather than whole armies with elaborate scenery. Most people really couldn't give a fuck about spending their time painting little bits of plastic; they just want to actually play a game. For some reason miniature gaming has got stuck in this bizarre paradigm where two completely different hobbies that appeal to different people are considered inseparable. There are a lot of people who would love games like these, but have never tried them just because someone told them they can't play until they've spent a week chained to their desk painting things.

 

[Lightspeaker]

The base game comes with 35 highly detailed plastic miniatures that require... painting

I couldn't disagree more, and it's comments like this that are one of the biggest turn-offs for people when it comes to tabletop gaming. Models absolutely do not need painting. That's true for Warhammer, and even more true for games like Space Hulk where you're playing with a few limited pieces on a board rather than whole armies with elaborate scenery. Most people really couldn't give a fuck about spending their time painting little bits of plastic; they just want to actually play a game. For some reason miniature gaming has got stuck in this bizarre paradigm where two completely different hobbies that appeal to different people are considered inseparable. There are a lot of people who would love games like these, but have never tried them just because someone told them they can't play until they've spent a week chained to their desk painting things.

Worth noting that this is pretty much one of the reason that I never got into Warhammer when I was younger. And why I was so disappointed that the aforementioned Havok died off.

I absolutely did not have the patience to be sitting around painting stuff. Nor have I ever been any good whatsoever at painting so I had no interest in wasting gigantic amounts of money trying to get into it only to give up on the painting. And so I never started. Despite the number of times I used to go around Games Workshop stores gawking at the models.

 

[Spacefrog]

Dust Tactics is a good game for beginners into miniature wargaming as well. Not super expensive if you look around a little, and the rules are simple but effective

It doesn't hurt that the miniatures are pre-assembled and primed.



OT:
There are several ways into miniature gaming, depending on what you want from the hobby.

Some games work like advanced boardgames, with detailed gamepieces.
- Space Hulk
- Mantic Games have Dreadball, Deadzone and LOKA
- Dust
- Sodapop have both Super dungeon Explorer and the upcoming Ninja all-star.
- Heroclix

Other games have miniatures that come pre-assembled and painted, eliminating an aspect many find tiring.
- Dust
- Heroclix
- X-wing
- Attack wing; both Star Trek and D&D

Some games just need a low number of miniatures to play, reducing costs and storage a lot.
- Mantic Games have Dreadball, Deadzone and LOKA
- Infinity
Generally way too many to list since that is the way many small miniature companies start out on kickstarter.
Several of these also comes with free rulebooks (or at least a set of demorules), so you can decide if the rules are worth investing in.

Some games just have a good starting set coming with everything you, and a friend need to begin playing.
- Mantic Games have Dreadball, Deadzone and LOKA
- Infinity
- Dropzone commander.
- Dust

Special mention should probably go to Diskwars as they have the feel of a wargame but uses cardboard disks instead of miniatures.

Generally it pays to look around.
- Some companies have cheaper miniatures that work well in other games.
- It a game have a free ruleset on their website, try it out with proxies (Before I bought my first miniatures I tested rules with my LEGO figures)