Quirkworthy

A ramble and a rant:

I’ve been watching the Spectre Miniatures Kickstarter recently, as I mentioned a while back. In fact, I pledged for it then, and may be upping that amount to get some more of their increasing range of interesting figures. However, one thing they added lately made me think about how I view models in a broader way.

Yup, it’s a truck.

This looks like both a nice model and a huge one. This is deliberate on Spectre’s part as they’ve gone for something that starts as a large truck in the first place, and then modelled it with raised suspension and extra large off-road tyres, just as the PMCs do. A nice touch, and details that are often overlooked. These mods make it even larger and more intimidating than it would be anyway, and it doesn’t roll off the forecourt as a compact. Of course, that intimidation factor is the whole point…

So it looks like a nice model. Agreed. However, for me it lacks a really important detail: an interior (and non-solid windows).

The Patriot truck from Mars Attacks uses the same approach.
I’m not sure what this will be made from. Probably not resin. 

This isn’t just Spectre (they merely inspired this rant). The vast majority of cars and trucks you see for gamers are exactly like this: a big block of resin with details on the outside. All well and good, but especially in skirmish games I really want to be able to interact with light vehicles¹. Think of the movies and the newsreels. Trucks aren’t simply large boxes, they have doors you can open, and if they are armoured can use as cover. They have windows you can see and shoot through, engine blocks to hide behind, unarmoured panels to offer concealment, and so on. I want to be able to get in and drive off, or roll up and bail out. Of course, I can do this in an abstract way, and even if they had a full interior I couldn’t bend my models to get in. However, the vehicle could still be shown with doors open and this flexibility allows it to become not just part of the terrain, like every other modelled box, but a mobile and mutable part of it. It also looks a load better.

I appreciate that most people don’t seem to care about this. But I do. In this specific instance it’s the difference between me buying 3 and buying none. I expect I’ll end up with either 1/48th kits or die-cast models.

At the end of the day it comes back to the usual question: where do you want to compromise? In gaming there is no option – you have to compromise somewhere because reality is way too complex to model on a tabletop. You’ll compromise on models and terrain as well as rules because you need all these things to be practical and affordable as well as working in-game. Too fiddly a model and it will break, too complex a rules set and people will get bored. But in making these (necessary) compromises we remove our games from the realities we are trying to replicate in the first place. We all have our personal limits to how far is too far and which elements of the puzzle are key. Where are yours?

1: Note that this is predominantly an issue with light and especially light, unarmoured vehicles. Think cop cars at a shootout. Doors open and windows shot out all over – at least some of the time. Properly armoured vehicles tend to keep their doors closed in combat to retain that integrity, unless someone is actually getting in or out at that particular moment. In that sense they are just large lumps in combat.

Seems to be the season for it. Both Warlord and Victrix are having a sale on some of their plastics.

Warlord are doing 50% off their sprues until the end of May, and Victrix 25% off boxed sets till the 12th of June. At least for Victrix it’s something to do with the World Cup. Whatever that is.

From Warlord, it seemed like a great opportunity to try one of each of some of their ranges I haven’t looked at up close yet. It’s always very different seeing things online and in the flesh, so to speak.

The list of things they make plastics for these days is pretty impressive too. They’ve clearly been very busy bunnies since I last looked properly at their store.

For Victrix it was the push I needed to actually try a few of their toys too. I mean, individual figures around 30p for Victrix Napoleonics!¹ Can’t really argue with that.

I’ve read a lot about their models, usually compared to Perry ones, but I’ve never tried assembling any myself. That is always the proof of the pudding. And they make proper² French Napoleonics too, which the Perrys unfortunately don’t seem interested in 😦

It is entirely possible I may have accidentally bought a lot more models.

1: On the ones I counted. I didn’t check them all.

2: Peninsular War period, obviously. Not that Bardin uniform silliness. Hundred days? That’s not a war, it’s a stroll round Belgium.

I’ve not forgotten about the pictures from the weekend. In fact, I prepped a load of pics yesterday and selected the best from those. Unfortunately I can’t upload any images at all at the moment 😦

No idea why.

I’ll give it another try later…

The best laid plans, and all that…

Well the Mantic Open Day went off as planned, and much fun was had by all. I took loads of pics and some are even usable. We did 3 seminars and covered a wide variety of topics. I’ve seen quite a lot on the DKH stuff on the various forums already. However, just to set any confusions straight, and to give you somewhere to ask questions, I’ll post up a summary of the salient details on Quirkworthy.

Sunday went sideways as the planned trip to Triples succumbed to a family emergency (not mine, the guy who was going to drive). So, not wanting to waste a day, I did some more Deadzone work and then played Heroes of Normandie all afternoon. Naturally, we realised that we’d been doing some bits wrong after we’d finished. Still, after 6 games I’m getting the hang of it. When I’ve had a few more plays I’ll punt up a proper review. My initial impression is that there’s a lot of fun to be had in there.