An interesting topic that came up in our LGC.. Playing with just bases?

[Brother Tiberius]

A local member of my gaming club has asked the following which has kicked up a little controversy. I was just wondering what you guys think:

Heres what was posted.

What do people think about playing with only bases and not actual figures ?

I can't afford figures and have absolutely no interest in painting them. I'm currently carting around a borrowed bread tray of dark elves (Thanks Mark) without the correct models, occasionally without any figure with the correct base size, and reckon an envelope of bases would be far easier to work with.

I haven't found any rules yet that bases only would not work with, although I'm new to this game (and any wargaming).

would you guys reject my army; be happy to play; laugh me out of the club ?

Do you ever insist on having the correct models for the units you're fielding and of so, when ?

As an example, the rulebook says IIRC that when a character's monstrous mount is killed the character may fight on on foot, if you have a model of the character on foot. This implies that if I play Malekith The Witch King in my Dark Elf army and he's on a Black Dragon, when the Black Dragon is killed Malekith is dead if I haven't purchased the Malekith model, on foot on a 20mm square base. How do you play this rule ?

I hope this isn't sacrilege but I'm interested in the game not the hobby. I have little appreciation for the models and am positively annoyed by the impracticalities that the models introduce into the game. So far, I reckon the game could be fascinating once I'm up to speed but when trying to get 40 scaven to sit on a tray together and their weapons all interfere with each other, that's just a pain. Moving units of figures through woodland is just hell if you're trying to measure acurately, which to me is pretty vital for a fair battle.

The game would be improved by playing on a map surface with counters for troops.

PS How much easier would it be to judge your arc of sight if your square counter had a 45 degree line on it rather than a Black Orc without a single straight line on it and a huge axe over that corner of the base so you can't even see the corner when you look from directly above ?

Alot of controversy has been had.

[CapnCJ]

It's a royal pain in the ass getting 20 Skaven to rank up. It's expensive to buy an army, and it's a lengthy and frustrating process to paint them.

We still do it though, because we love it!

Playing without models isn't really the same in my opinion. He could probably buy built and painted models off ebay if he really wanted.

[Rising Leviathan]

But if he can't afford buying models to paint on his own I doubt he could buy a painted army, right?

I'd certainly let him play without the real models, at least because he's new to the hobby. My experience is that he will get more involved, and if you let him play he can get some models and start slow building a small army. Maybe let him play with bases but demand to see some progress after a month or two? He'll get into the hobby when he sees all those gloriously painted models.

Regards,

[Certs]

look into playing Vassal, it's a fan-made program not endorsed by GW (they've tried to shut it down in the past and failed).

it's basically playing the tabletop game, but on your computer instead, so no models or hobbying needed. all you need is an internet connection, then you can play from home with anyone around the world who's on the server, and there's generally 10-20 on most any time. it takes a little getting used to the hotkey commands (though it's all there on the right-click menu) and can take a little longer than a real game when typing out what you're rolling for (highly recommend using Ventrillo or other voice chat to nix that).

http://www.vassal40k.com
mods on the site include: 40k, epic, wfb, and blood bowl... there's also a warmachine/hordes mod somewhere around there too, and an almost never played lotr skirmish mod.

myself and a few others from the LO chatroom sometimes frequent the servers as well (though i generally only get on to play friends from the chatroom).

[Da Mighty Camel]

Sure, why not. If it helps him geting into the game.

I knew off a guy who made his entire army out of cardboard and drew the characters onto the cards. It worked for gaming, but wasn# very appreciated.

If he plans to play in a LGS, then it's a definite no-no IMO. If I were going to play him in a private club or such, then sure I wouldn't really care. Whatever floats his boat.

[AKM]

Let's face it, GW game systems are good but far from exceptional, so if you play without models and therefore without the backstory (because plastic bases have no backstory), then find another game that doesn't involve buying models and painting them.

Fantasy Flights Games and Days of Wonder make fantastic boardgames. You also have complex wargames such as Squad Leader where you do play with cardboard pieces. And of course, videogames of all sorts.

[Canew]

Despite my swearing off of it when I started 40k, I have no doubt that someday I'll get into WHFB. When I do, you can bet your sweet bippy I'll try out the game first with just the bases, but that's just until I know what I want. Then I'll buy the models. In case you're wondering, that shrieking sound you hear is my wallet crying out in pain.

As has been said, and as I've said many times in other threads, this is not just a game. It's also a hobby, and while it's POSSIBLE to play without painted models (or, I guess, without models at all in WHFB ), it's much more fun to build and paint them. I'll never preach to those who don't like building or painting the models. After all, if they (and their opponents) are cool with it, I'm not one to judge, but I really think they're missing out. On a less important note, I think it's so much more fun to play against someone with a fully-painted army. I'd suggest for those who won't paint their models to find/pay someone to do it for them. So much more fun.

[Sammy the Squib]

they finally made a wfb mod for vassal?

[gatesphere]

Apparently not... it's still in production.

[Riptor]

It all depends. Is he actually going to pick up the models in the fairly near future (Next few months)? Is he just wanting to try the game or an army out for the first few times?

If the answer to both of these is No, and the player is planning on permanantly just using empty bases with the unit name written on, I would try to avoid playing them, however if they are just trying the game/army/unit out, and/or plan on buying the models at some point soon, then I would not mind.