Luther Clay wrote:
> I'd like to hear about people's experiences with Warhamster and how they
> engaged PCs using the Warhamster rules.
If your characters are sticking together as a "unit", I've found it easier
myself just to use RQ combat rules for their participation, and Warhamster
for the rest of the battle. Very fun, all in all.
Both times I've done it I resolved the battle ahead of time, took lots of
notes, and used these to "describe" what the players saw. If the squads
the PC are leading are important (say, if the PC has a shot at charging
through the ranks and killing the enemy general), this may not work -- if
they're just another 30 grunts in the center, it probably would, since
they'll have little chance to determine the outcome of the battle.
> Also, I sold all of my lead figures a few years ago and have no desire
> to purchase more. Does anyone have an economical and aesthetic
> suggestion for lead-figure-army alternatives?
Several economical suggestions, but perhaps not aesthetic...
- Counters work well. If you have access to a color printer & a graphics
design program, you could try making counters that correspond to the
units. If don't want to spend the time, look for a used copy of TSR's
Battlemasters -- throw away the rules, use the counters. Print 'em on
heavy stock, or glue them to pennies -- paper counters fly away too
easily. You can buy blank counters, but they're a bit expensive IMO, and
printed counters look nicer.
- Scout around and see if you can pick up a copy of GW/MB's Battlemasters
or Heroquest, cheap. Or borrow -- lots of Warhammer types bought up
Battlemasters when it hit $5 (I've got three, myself) just for the cheap
plastic minis. I've seen it at garage sales, occasionally: the nonhuman
minis don't work well, but there's 50 or so human minis in the box that
are decent.
- M&Ms. Works doubly well for troll-on-elf battles. "Hur! Another war tree
defeated, chomp chomp chomp." Cheap to represent large units, and you take
it out of the Gaming Snacks budget. Stick a miniature or something in the
middle of each unit so you know what they are -- otherwise all those green
elf M&Ms look exactly the same.
*Pennies. For $1, you can get 100 "figures." Spray paint them in unit
colors, and use a Sharpie to mark info on them. I've done this -- you can
paint each side different colors, too, to designate wounded, dead,
whatever. Oh, clean them first (soak in a tub) so the paint sticks well.
And they're a good size to work with.
Hope that helps!
James Frusetta