How to: Research Other Gamesystems
For the most part of my wargaming career, I’ve only played GW games. I started 40K towards the end of 3rd Edition and Fantasy shortly after. Through the years, I’ve played hundreds of games of both 40K and Fantasy and own multiple armies for each. Though I’ve had great deals of fun with, after a while, things get a little stale. The occassional break is good for the most part, but if you’re an avid minis gamer like me, you wanna get yourself into something else really fast. But how?
First – the Minis
The first thing I do when I look into another miniatures game is the models. Believe it or not, visual appearence means a lot to me on the table-top. Sure, we all played in the day when Tyranids looked a 5-year old’s molded clay, but these days GW has put out some fantastic, eye-dropping miniatures. That’s what I have to compare to, so that’s what I look for when it comes to other gaming companies. How do they compare to GW? Does the models accurately resemble the playstyle of the faction? Are the models even good looking? They might not be close to the badassery as GW, but if they come close and fit the artistic style that I desire, then I’ll look a little closer into what else the game has to offer. If I don’t like any of the models, I probably can’t see myself getting into the game at all. Period.
Second – The Rules
The second thing I look at is the rules. Is it too complex? Is it too simple? What’s the learning curve like? How high is the skill cap? Basically, I look at exactly how deep the rabbit hole goes. The best way to do this is to look at stickied topics in their forums. That’s what I did with Privateer Press and that’s what I did with Spartan Games. I locate their gaming forums and I dive in the endless pools of information that’s offered to me. I look at their tacticas and links that takes me to other tacticas and strategy guides. We all start somewhere and this is the best place to do it if you’re looking for how the game plays.
Third – Read and Question
By looking into various strategies and synergies that certain armies have, you get a larger understanding of the game system and how it actually plays out on the table top without buying a rulebook. For example, I used Battlecollege and the internal tacticas sticky in the Cygnar forums long before I purchased my Force Book. I must have read through every single warcaster in every single faction for Warmachine multiple times before I finally decided on Cygnar. Whatever you do, just don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you have any questions on how certain things work or play out in game, just ask on the forums. State that you’re looking at the army and what your background is as a gamer and you’ll get replies in no time. No one, and I mean no one will alienate you when you’re thinking about starting the same hobby as them.
An Example…How I Came to Love Cygnar
Speaking of which, here’s a rundown of how I picked Cygnar as my faction. When I first started doing my research into Warmachine, I looked at Khador and Retribution as my primary factions. I liked their warcasters and the look of their units, but one thing put me off big-time: Playstyle. Playstyle is a very facet of wargaming and gaming in general. If you (the player) and your army doesn’t synergize, there’s no way you’re going to get any mileage out of the army. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this in gaming, and I know many of you have seen it too. For example: A player that attempts to shoot a lot with his Khorne army.. or a player that tries to employ hit and run tactics with his Khador. Now I’m not saying that these strategies are completely void and stupid, but there’s certain things that a particular army does best. Both Khorne and Khador love the bloodthirsty thrill of close combat.. so if a sheepish player goes out and buys these minis for the sole purpose that they “look cool”, then he’s not going to play them right on the table. This is a fact.
Now back to the playstyle thing: I look at playstyle after I look at the models. It’s true, I’m just like that. If the models doesn’t do me justice, I look elsewhere. In terms of competitive gaming, I’m the oddball out believe it or not. For most gamers, playstyle is very important. That’s where Khador failed for me after I looked at their models. The army is fairly slow and the high armor and low defense thing just didn’t do it for me. I liked the look of the Elves of Ios, but I wanted something a little more manly than just dirty tricks and speedy exploits. I eventually lucked out and found Cygnar as my calling. But wait.. I kind of cheated on that one:
A True story
You ever had that one mini that you absolutely fall in love with and is the whole reason why you play the faction? Believe it or not, that’s what happened with Cygnar. I was looking through my friend’s Cygnar book and he was telling me about all the cool long-ranged attacks that Cygnar could put out and I’m basically channeling it out. I didn’t really care for long-range warfare because I’m the kinda guy that likes to put out armies that gets in close and beat face. As he was talking, I fell upon Epic Allister Caine in the Cygnar book. I looked at his stats (I always look at stats first, I’ll get to this later), looked him up in Battlecollege, then looked at his mini and that was it. I put the book down and placed an order for a Cygnar army right away.
This has only happened to me one other time in minis gaming, and it’s the first time I walked in a GW store and picked up my first mini ever: A Grey Knight Terminator with Halberd. I guess it’s safe to say that I’m anxiously awaiting the Grey Knight codex.
Even though the Cygnar thing was a complete fluke, I still adhere to the same system for all games:
- Look at the aesthetics; the models, the look, the visual appeal
- Tactics, playstyle and army functionality
- The unit stats
- The money it takes for me to get invested
- The time it takes for me to assemble, play and paint
- Somtimes.. you just know!
Pulling out the Math
Since time and money is pretty obvious to everyone, let’s talk about unit stats really quick. As a gamer, the first thing I need to find out about an army is its strengths and weaknesses. This means I look at each and every unit’s functionality and role in the game and how it compares to others of its type. When I was doing research into Firestorm Armada, one of the first things I asked my friend (who was trying to get me in) was for the ships’ stats. He said that I didn’t need them to choose an army. No way! As a competitive RTS gamer all my life, I can’t help but analyze every single stat line and compare and contrast between armies. I want to know which ships can can move the fastest, which ships can hit the hardest and which ships can take the biggest beating. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of every faction plays a vital role when picking out a faction’s playstyle.
For that reason, I finalized my choices down to the Aquans and the Sorylians. Both look great, both cost the same, and both have the same amount of models to put together, and I loved both unit stats. By analyzing their ship stats, I could easily draw conclusions to their playstyle: Aquans have good speed, can drop mines and can take more small arms fire, but suffer from low crew ratings and don’t do a lot of damage. They’re a finesse army to play. The Sorylians are also really speedy, but they hit hard in both damage and boarding actions. Too bad they’re viewed as a glass hammer sometimes because their defense options are rather limited. So now I have two factions that appeal to me the most (either didn’t like the stats, playstyle or look of the other factions), which one did I end up choosing? I went with the Aquans because visually, I like their ship design more. Even though fluff-wise they’re a bunch of fish people vs. lizardman people, the ships are what I’m looking at on the table at the end of the day.
The Big Recap
- Look at the models first, if it doesn’t appeal to you, then you’re probably just wasting your time.
- Look at the armies and learn about what each one does. These include unit stat research, special rules you might like, even fluff, it doesn’t matter. What matters the most is playstyle. If it isn’t your playstyle, it probably isn’t the army for you.
- If you want to play your army a certain way and the army you’re looking at doesn’t allow you to, this is a red flag signalling you to look elsewhere.
- Look at the cost/time it takes to get started. You might be the hundred-Orks-on-the-table kinda guy, but if you also like Space Marines and you only need 30, I suggest going with them first.
- Lastly, always go with your gut feeling. If you absolutely know you’re destined to play a army (could be aesthetically or technically), go with that army. You can always mold yourself to the playstyle of the army later. That’s what happened with me and Cygnar.
There you have it guys. The methodgy used above is what I do when researching new game systems. I always look (and stare, actually) before I leap and this is no different when choosing a army.
Feel free to use the above as a rough guideline, but always remember one thing: If you fall in love with the models (or the fluff), it won’t be long before you pick up the army to play. Feel free to check out some more of my minis research here on my personal gaming blog. So what are you folks looking at, and what leads your decisions as wargamers?
