The official Rough War (of the Ring) wishlist

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I have a looong wishlist I things 'I must Have'. I tend to think of myself as a $500 a year wargamer, which seems high when viewed through the lens of lump sum purchases but fairly accurately reflects what I'd go through once paint, rulebooks, tournament fees and terrain are taken into account. What this means is that I can't have my wishlist nearly so fast as I'd want. Dreams are free though and I have a definite agenda in mind for the future so when the opportunity arises, away I go.

A good example of this is my sudden desire to get a Sengoku (ie Late Samurai) army for Impetvs in 28mm. I had that idea back late 2011 (has it been so long?) and I DID go get myself a copy of Kessen on TM right away but have bided my time (heh) on the Samurai army. Until Jason decided he wanted to get one - then boom, army purchased and away we go at the cracking rate of one 8cm Impetvs stand per week. I fond modest targets are the best ones, as they will always be met or exceeded. Here is what I've managed so far:


Two bases worth of T for the Samurai. These boys are on 4cm squares so that if I ever want to do 12cm frontages, I can pretty easily. I've stuck to my usual 4 guys per base for T archers (as they tend to be pretty poor troops and the VBU 3 Ashigaru Archer is no exception) but have gone with 5 guys for the T Teppo as they are *almost* a melee effective unit.

The unit on the left (archers) has the characters for the first part of the name of the god of war. The unit on the right (teppo) has the characters for 'Dragon'. That's right Samurai fans, this is Kenshin's (the ex monk, on the odd occasion considered to be an avatar of the god of war, and aka 'The Dragon of Enchido) army.

Next up is some Ashigaru longspear. In the new list this is FL so I've used my standard 6 figs. Beside them is a base of VBU 2 skirmishing archers with longbow B. I actually think they will suck in game vs the firepower heavy armies of the period but I love the idea of suicidal Samurai Zen Archers right out in front!

Here is the other possibility for them, as base extenders for the T Ashigaru with bow, if I ever play on 12cm bases.

Stating that, I don't see myself actually playing 12cm frontage Impetvs. I know the boys up in Wellington think it is fine based on Basic Impetvs Baroque but I've 'been there, done that' as regards doing that in the Ancient/Medieval period. I do think the Samurai army would do better than most on a 12cm frontage, as almost everything is FL or T and there is very little FP. However, Western style armies tend to suck on the wider frontage IME, too clunky, too cluttered, too slow. Like an old PC strategy game having path-finding issues because of the AI. This is all on a 6'x4' mind but I really don't think 'but we can use bigger tables' is a genuine answer either, even if it is the Backpowder etc way. 6'x4' is a good standard size that can fit in lots of tables at a tournament or on our kitchen tables.

Anyway, what else is on the Wishlist? Well:



1. Arthurians! I Still don't have these in 28mm as I got them in 15mm for the bad old FOG days.


2. Romance of the Three Kingdoms Shu-Han  

3. Some kind of (non Space Marine) power-armoured Sci-Fi guys. there are many options out there but I want something that is both good and not tied too much to an iconic setting. Unlike the awesome fellow above.


4. Romulans and Klingons to go with my Star Fleet ships.
 
5. Byzantines. So cool.



6. Macedonians/Seleucids


7.Some kind of Fantasy Human Empire army. No not Warhammer, that game is appalling in its design. Something to go with an actually playable system like Impetvs or at the very lest something coherent, if more limited - like a Blackpowder/HC based game (which is in the works). It will be the perfect excuse to use the above figs. With Wizards and Gryphons.

8. My Pike and Shotte Swedes! I had these then somehow lost all my Swedish bits. Sigh. One day... 


9. Lastly lots of these. For no particular project really, I will be able (over) use them even more than my Dunlendings/Carn Dum/Vikings/Anglo-Danes/Huscarls... I am so glad these are finally out. It's been a long wait but I applaud them for pitching the set as generic. (edit) I knew what I was talking about - these are by Gripping Beast.


(edit) 10. I kind of consider this a subset of '7' but the Human Empire Figs I would use would be Perry C15th/16th, which would do for Italian Wars. Probably Venetian. The Italian Wars are awesome. See the above clip of the French bastards kicking it all off.

Anyone else have such a long but specific wishlist? You can see some projects there I have dipped my toe into (eg the Star Fleet stuff and the TYW Swedes) but it can be hard to really get going unless you have others doing the same project. So much of the above may stay on the back-burner, waiting for gaps in amongst what else I am doing like FOW (which is never on the wishlist but often expanded if someone is running something themed) etc.


Comments

  1. Hey Jamie,

    Yumi and Teppo armed Ashigaru look good man! I wasn't fussed on the 40mm square idea but now I see it it's pretty good. I will just make expander if it's ever required.

    Love the wish list, but as I suffer from a shocking lack of focus sometimes I won't let myself be distracted....

    Cheers
    Jason


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    1. Thanks Jason. I've not been finding these figs anywhere near as bad as the Celts I got from them. Those were appalling. These are not bad at all. I even find (despite having more parts) that they go together better than those Celts did. I also prefer assembling these to my experience with the GB Vikings. Not quite as pain free as the Warlord Romans were though.

      Lack of focus? Having my own list lets me evaluate others' crazy ideas more readily. I think the big 'gap' in what I have is some sort of non LOTR (which I admittedly have heaps of) Fantasy army. I know all my historical armies tend towards the fantasy/movie side - Kenshin army included - but I'd love something with magic and mythical beasts. One day.

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  2. Glad to see it's not just me with Three Kingdoms China on their wishlist!

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    1. I'll have them one day. I do see the Impetvs Beta Three Kingdoms period lists have been reviewed and updated, which is pretty cool.

      http://www.dadiepiombo.com/beta1e.html

      However, I would probably want something that let me have Guan Yu, Zilong, Xiahpou Dun et al as rampaging generals. Impetvs is a great game but no 'special characters'.

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    2. Yeah, I was thinking about using wotr, as it'd let me have powerful characters cutting through ranks of mooks...

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    3. Good call. The WOTR rules would be perfect. Magic is the most clunky thing in the ruleset and wouldn't really be necessary for ROTK.

      Hmm. Zhang Fei causing Terror, Guan Yu with Epic Rampage.... Genius.

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  3. I agree with your basing comments. The 4cm abot is a good idea, for vs those who have yet to see the light, 2 of them even make one of or standard bases so is a good compromise.

    Seems that the Japanese armies are suddenly popular. Alas they don't interest me. Though I have pas to do a Mongol amry soon. However, I lived for 3 years about 100m from the local jo (castle) in Japan, they are truly awesome, even small provincial city ones. We used to have races to climb the walls on our way home from the local pub!

    Lots of good projects there Jamie. Kent is keen to get some successor (pike) armies as our next project so we will see.

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    1. Basing wars! I figure that this way I will now have an Impetvs army to use if I ever need to play peeps on 8cm bases. That stated, everyone I know in Chch uses your 8cm size. It just makes so much sense. I think the only reason 12cm was adopted as official was to fix WRG standards, which to me is putting gameplay second.

      I think Japanese are popular for a coincidence of reasons: 1. Economics - we have plastics for them 2. Cultural recognition - they are the most recognised of the Eastern Lists. Now I think, as wargaming nerds, that we all have another Eastern list we'd do instead (mine is ROTK Chinese) but it is hard to go past the great deal Hobby hub did us and the plastics were a good price to start with.

      Mongols are very cool. IMO what I think will happen with so many Samurai lists is that enemy foot lists will really struggle in an Eastern only theme. Jason used to try running Romans vs me when I used a renaissance list and Harquebus A and high VBU cav with pike/spear to hide amongst is a vicious combo. At least they have no skirmishers with muskets!

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  4. I agree that Impetvs 12cm was designed to keep the WRG/DBx crowd happy but I for one never liked thier basing conventions and the 8cm frontages seem to work very well (though sometime I do look with envy at 12cm diorama bases).

    Mongols appeal as they can fight my Crusaders and Arab armies too so would be a good choice. I guess though whenever I try to fight a Japanese force my army should get destroyed by a Divine Wind before reaching land.

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  5. Who makes those plastic dark age spearmen you have a picture of?

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    1. Sorry! http://www.grippingbeast.com/webpage.php?PageID=1036 Gripping Beast.

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