io9
There are few things in life quite as satisfying as commanding your cyborg hordes to wage war against the grognard across the kitchen table. Whether you prefer to blast Darkseid with your heat vision or lead a heavy lance in a raid against one of the Inner Sphere houses, miniatures games will meet your need for conquest. Check out our list of the five best scifi games that wil burn up your tabletop.
Car Wars, Steve Jackson Games. Yes, the rules are flawed. It can take two hours to play through two minutes of action. And the "miniatures" were really 2D paper cars. But you can't beat the concept: Road Warrior style running battles between heavily armed and armored cars and trucks. If you've ever gone to a car dealership and asked which options package includes "Autocannon," this is the game for you. Photo by: Steve Jackson Games.
Star Wars Miniatures, Wizards of the Coast. Another game where the concept outshines the rules themselves, which were shoehorned into the Star Wars setting from Wizards' D&D miniatures game. They aren't bad rules, just a little dry. But anything that allows you to recreate the Battle of Hoth is a sure winner. Bonus: you can own your own Stormtrooper army. Photo by yowzer.
Heroclix, Wizkids. If you're looking for a comic book themed miniatures game, Heroclix is pretty much your only option. Luckily, it's a great game. You can choose between both Marvel and DC universes (or mix and match), and unless your tastes run to the impossibly obscure, a version of your favorite character already exists. Heroclix is a quick-playing game that captures the action of a good comic book fight scene.
Warhammer 40,000, Games Workshop. I'm going to confess that I've never played Warhammer 40K, so I can't speak to the rules. The minis are gorgeously sculpted, and the game's near ubiquity means that it will never be hard to find an opponent. Line up your Space Marines against your buddy's Tyranids and make your own "What if Earth waged all-out war against the aliens from Aliens?" scenario. Photo by: Games Workshop.
BattleTech/Mechwarrior, FASA/Wizkids. Whichever flavor you prefer, this classic game of warring giant robots is the godfather of sci-fi minis games. Old-school BattleTech featured metal minis you painted yourself, an intricate and detailed combat system, and the occasional hour-long turn. Bolstered by a rich backstory of galactic politics and conquest, the franchise was revitalized when Wizkids released a clix version. The larger-scale, prepainted miniatures negate the need for paperwork, and the game itself presents a compelling version of combined arms sci-fi warfare.
Top photo by: Catalyst Game Lab.
Comments
BattleTech and Car Wars were staples of the college experience. And yes, it's disappointing to not be able to get a car with the autocannon package, even more so than being able to get ejector seats (Bond still rules when it comes to cool cars).
I have to admit that I played HeroClix a lot, back when I had meat-friends.
I have tried so hard to get into Warhammer, but the cost kills me every time.
A starter set even on evilbay goes for 60-200 dollars. I didnt pay 60 dollars for my 1/350th scale USS Enterprise, which is a almost 2 and a half foot long model.... Im NOT paying 60 dollars for 10 cents worth of lead melted into a mold.
I sure did suck at Warhammer 40k, but those minis are freaking awesome... Plus they used to be almost all metal and you could beat the crap out of em.
Another miniatures game that is pretty recent is AT-43 and compared to Warhammer 40k is a lot simpler. (unites come painted and assembled, like in Star Wars.)Warhammer is awesome though. Who could argue with automatic hand held cannons (Basic space Marine weapon)or Demon princes?
Aww, what, no Heavy Gear?
40k should be at the top of this list.
I have 4 armies in various stages of being painted/complete.
Yes, I have probably spent a couple of grand or more on this game, but it's so damn fun, it's been more than worth it.
Space Marines vs. Tyrannids (the aliens) is good fun, but there are many races/armies to choose from, all with various strengths and weaknesses. I've been playing it off and on for almost 20 years now.
I know it's not a miniatures game by any stretch, but I avoided Risk like the plague until they came out with the 2210AD version with giant robot soldiers.
It makes me wonder if there are any games that can't be improved by adding robots to the mix.
Loved BT, but it took forever to do a single fire fight with five PC mechs. Best 30 seconds game time and 5 hours realtime ever.
@BrandonSweet: Chutes and Ladders? Twister? Texas Hold'em?
@ManchuCandidate: I remember trying to write software to resolve mech battles in college... but then I spent too much time playing Moria.
I'm surprised you didn't bring up Brikwars, the ultimate in do it yourself awesome. Best of all, winning a game usually consists of blowing all armies to kingdom come.
@Ed Grabianowski:
Twister with robots. THAT's a game I want to play.
The Epic line from Games Workshop is cool. Giant Mechs FTW.
@braak: I can never find anyone to play HeroClix with me anymore. And I have like a retardedly huge collection.
If you want cool mecha miniatures games you should check out Heavy Gear. Still on of the better miniature games I have ever played.
privateerpress.com
Warmachine and Hordes. The games are fun, and the minis are a hobbyists dream...god i am a nerd.
You haven't played a slow game till you have played Star Trek Star Fleet Command...
Oh my god that gets complicated.. and cloaking ships..?
Crazy...
Battletech was cool...
I could never see the point in spending mad cash just to buy miniatures for battles..
I mean yes a Warhammer 40k battle seen looks cool, but thousands of dollars? no thanks.
@Falconfire: if you want to play 40k-themed games but don't want to mortgage your grandmother, check out GW's "specialist" games, specifically Battlefleet Gothic (10,000:1 scale spaceship fighting), Inquisitor (54mm scale skirmishing), Necromunda (25mm scale skirmishing) and (my personal favourite) Epic (6mm scale). They offer as much depth as 40k but cost a lot less to get started. GW even publish the rules for free on their website, so you only need to buy the miniatures.
Car Wars sounds like a lot of fun, with some tweaking it could probably be a faster paced game.
I'm a big fan of Warmachine over Warhammer, personally. [en.wikipedia.org] Steampunk deliciousness with minis that are pewter instead of plastic (and for less than you would spend on Warhammer).
Federdation Commander looks interesting, too. [memory-alpha.org]
WARMACHINE!!
It's a travesty that WarMachine/Hordes were not included on this list. You want to talk about gorgeously painted minis? It has it in spades and its smaller scale means you don't have to worry about moving a couple dozen units just to wrap up a turn. Check it out here: [privateerpress.com] and here: [privateerpress.com]
Sorry, not gorgeously painted* I meant gorgeously sculpted.
@DocGratis: Apparently Federation Commander fixes the molasses-like gameplay of Star Fleet Battles.
Car Wars, good lord, that brings back memories of Junior High. I think that it was around the time the Road Warrior came out, so beating the crap out of each other with Virtual cars was the best that we could do. Probably best that we didn't have our own automobiles to hang out of the window swinging fake clubs whilst wearing a loin cloth.
@Waelwulf: Well, the quality of the sculpting definitely affects the paint job. I've seen Warmachine minis painted pink, and they still look badass.
@Adarael and @JonathanBreese: Heavy Gear is indeed fantastic; too bad its shackled to a publisher that can't run spell-check, release on time, or stop writing new versions of the game.
I kid, of course: but that's why i still play 2nd edition.
I dug out my copy of Technical Readout 3025 for my lunchtime reading today. Good times.
By the way, the scaled up version of Car Wars (with Hot Wheels cars) played on a giant 3D city block at Origins every year is amazing.
I visited my local hobby shop the other day and found that they still had some of the old West End Games Star Wars miniatures for sale - and cheap too. I wonder how well they would fit with the WOTC minis...
Warhammer 40.000 is an endless universe of possibilities. The Dawn of War game by Relic is a masterpiece and saves me the trouble of buying and painting those (expensive) miniatures.
Plus, the game also makes them move much better then my imagination... the up and comming MMORPG based on WH40k better deliver. The recently announced Dawn of War 2 certainly will.
I was a huge fan of FASA's Battletech, but then I discovered Macross and Gundam...
"Vor: The Malestrom" is what my friends and I are (still) playing now -- even though it's a dead game... One of the best game universes I've ever seen!
Nice list; and props for having Battletech as the lead-off image.
Now if only there were some people around where I live who were into Battletech/MechWarrior...
@Stephanie A Fox: Good to know, in case I develop any meatspace friends to play that game again.. (awww back in high school / college when I had friends in localized area) who played these games...
@Shiryu: Hear hear for Dawn of War...Massive armies to command for the low low price of 40 bucks (or whatever the cost for the game is now)
I've been a Warhammer 40K player since '96 (and to some that's still a relative newcomer). I always have gripes about the ruleset, but the miniatures? Damn sweet. Go Eldar!
With regards to the others, I think all the 'Clix games should've been lumped into one category. Whether it's Heroclix, Horrorclix, or BattleTech, they're really all the same game system.
I agree with the inclusion of Warmachine and AT-43. I also thing Games Workshops Battlefleet Gothic (the fastest, most fun space battles game I've ever played. Sure it ignores the 3rd dimension, but you get to fire Nova Cannons!) should be included as well.
What about O.G.R.E ?, another game I believe came from Steve Jackson. It involved giant nuclear armed AI tanks, hover tanks, and almost meaningless infantry.
I know a group of people, mostly kids, who are War Hammer fanatics... I always liked the miniatures, but just wasn't interested in the endless rules lawyering and all around snarkiness of those playing the game at my local game store.
What? No mention of Robo Rally? :(
@MadJackDeacon: I've played the Babylon 5 space combat game... fun just like Battlefleet Gothic.
@Qev: Robo Rally!! I'd forgotten about that one.
@MadJackDeacon: I would totally agree with regards to Hero/HorrorClix. In fact, they have intentionally moved those rulesets in the same direction to create a unified playing field. And HorrorClix has lots of awesome sci-fi stuff in it - irradiated zombies and so forth.
But Mechwarrior, while it shares many of the "clix" mechanics, is very different. There are the heat rules, artillery rules, multiple vehicle types, a different statistical set for to-hit rolls, different scale, a wider array of movement and attack options, plus rules for pilots and add-on armaments. It's a very different game.
I used to play Ogre and Starfleet Battles back in the day, and I enjoyed the heck out of both. Originally, they were paper counter & hex grid games, but eventually there were miniatures. Of the two, I really loved Ogre. I wasn't so much into the backstory/politics, but bigass cybertank nuclear warfare appealed to me quite a bit when I was 11.
I just got into playing WH40k recently, after being a fan of the fluff and the DoW computer game... It takes a huge investment in time and money to get started, but nothing's as satisfying to me than to see the finished product. Knowing all the tens of hours you put into the models before even playing makes it that much more enjoyable to me.
PS - Oldschool BT FTW, even if it did take two hours per turn...
Ah, Car Wars. Memories of getting half an hour into the game (my car moved about 100 feet) and having one of my friends pull a "I'm firing (long list of weapons) at you. I've hit with (slightly shorter list of weapons). Let's see...that takes out the machine gun you had on the driver's door...the armor on that side...the driver's body armor...the driver's body...the driver's body armor on the other side...and all but three squares of armor on the passenger side. I'll total up the salvage value at the end of the round."
It was like actuaries made a fourth Mad Max movie.
I love me some HeroClix! Props to i09 for including it.
If you like 'clix and want to check out some info, go to HCRealms.com :) Cheers.
When I was heavy into BattleTech back in high school, my best friend and I played 12-on-12 battles that took about 2hours per turn. But that's what weekends and Dr. Pepper by the case-load were for.
There's a free Java "classic" BattleTech version called MegaMek that's pretty decent. Network play and all that.
There's a lot about BattleTech that pushes the bounds of believability, but if you can get over the concept of giant walking war machines, then it's all downhill from there.
@AaronZ: I'm an HCRealmser from way back.
@phil.gs
The nice thing about Heavy Gear was you could do a 15-on-15 battle in two hours. It a really sharp little game. The robots fill the gap between infantry and tanks. It had great visual design too. The vehicles looks like things someone would build, and they were small enough to be believable. The RPG and the miniature game integrated perfectly. I can't praise the game enough.
check it out if you want: www.dp9.com
Love the Clix.
I only started playing warhammer 5 years ago, but Black Library novels now make up the majority of my book collection.
Anyone whose a fan of the 40k fluff but doesn't have a lot money, I'd recommend getting Dark Heresy. It's a new pen and paper RPG from Black Industries. You play as acolytes to an Inquisitor in the fully fleshed out Calixis sector. It's pretty damn fun.