So, Reading @Brian Van De Walker and @Yronimos Whateley thoughts on Fantasy rangers, it sounds like an upgrade sprue similar to the scifi one would be a great addition to change the romans, Irish, Conquistadors and Goths in to fantasy minis.
So what kinds of things would you want on this sprue? I liked @Yronimos Whateley 's Idea about the Solomon Kane style hats and pistols... What else?
What heads or head gear would you want? Types of weapons, accesories...?
Probably went past the boundaries of "change the roman, irish, conquistadors and goths" there, but those are things on my mind at the moment.
@Blutze what is an A926?
A specific pollaxe. THE pollaxe, really. This one.
Though I think I'd be fine with anything that is axe+hammer+topspike. Its just that I want this character to be wearing late 14th century transitional armor instead of post-medieval fullplate, and Perry's kits with the right armor have only axe+backspike+topspike or hammer+backspike+topspike. Even the boxes I'll probably get to start a Warhammer empire army don't have the right bloody weapon.
So I guess that entry on the list should be taken with a grain of salt. It was influenced more by the need to vent than that being a sensible suggestion.
@Blutze Ok, that is a cool weapon... so yeah I am with you. I had googled A926... and all i was getting was what looked like a car stereo... :)
@William Redford I would actually like stuff to make up the uniformed sets from the WW1 and Imperal conquest for industrail fantasy. So I am thinking:
@Blutze I think it might be smarter to do a spellcaster sprue/kit with options for druids, they are not exactly a box onto themselves subject.
Glad you liked the ideas!
I think that if there were to be any fantasy upgrade sprue to do first, it would probably best start with some Elf and Hobgoblin heads: not a very exciting foundation, I think, but hobgoblins in fancy samurai-style helmets seem to be a popular request among fantasy tabletop gamers for whatever reason, and either type of head can instantly upgrade pretty much any Wargames Atlantic historical Dark Ages kit to generic fantasy pretty much as-is! (The Irish and Goths would make fine Tolkien-style elves, given the option of some typical pointy-eared and long-haired efl heads, while the Franks and Late Romans would make fine fantasy hobgoblins, given the option of those inevitable Samurai-style hobgoblin heads.)
It's just a question of what to add to that base in the form of weapon arms and accessories - if the first Death Fields sprue (a half-sprue size) is used as a template - which seems fair enough to me - it looks like there's room for two sets of 5 or 6 heads (that is, enough room for a small selection of Elf and Hobgoblin heads), and two, maybe three sets of different paired arm/weapon options for five or six figures. That would give us one or two fantasy weapon options suitable for arming a single sprue from a historical kit, which probably already includes spears/polearms, swords/melee weapons, and bows or slings.
Most Dark Ages historical kits will include broadswords or shortswords for the melee option with the occasional throwing axe or knife (or the great little warclubs from the WGA Dark Age Irish kit), so I'm thinking the fantasy weapon options for a first sprue might best include some some of the popular but uncommon fantasy melee weapon options: maces and morningstars, battle axes, scimitars, warhammers, flails, and spiked clubs.... Given the elf and hobgoblin-samurai theme, though, perhaps something better suited for elves and hobgoblins might work better: scimitars and rapiers, perhaps?
That sprue, combined with any of Wargames Atlantic's excellent Dark Ageshistorical kits, would pretty easily cover a lot of popular fantasy ground, without the need for a dedicated elf or hobgoblin box.
So, Fantasy Sprue #1:
Then, in no particular order:
For a second sprue, there's at least one thread in the forums suggesting a fantasy monster head sprue for various weird fantasy creatures, which sounds to me like it would be great for converting Dark Ages figures into cat-people, wolf-men, ape-men, demons, pig-faced orcs, squid-faced sanity-eaters, and so on. Include a few more melee weapon options left over from the Hobgoblin/Elf sprue (clubs, flails, etc.), and you're probably set. This might be best done as a fairly random beast-man sprue, though something focused on one or two factions, similarly to the Elf/Hobgoblin suggestion, might prove more popular (say, enough bits to convert five or six figures into either cat-people or devil-born....)
A third fantasy sprue might be dedicated to fantasy spellcaster gear: staves, wands, grimoires, scrolls, potions, familiars, and the like, as well as the usual array of beardy wizard heads in pointy hats, gaunt necromancer heads, skeletal/mummified lich heads, cleric holy symbols, charms and amulets, and so on... unlike warrior armies, spellcasters tend to be an individualistic lot, so there's room for a lot of variety with little or no duplication here. If you keep enough of the sleeves and hats generic, this kit can upgrade Victorain up to modern figures into (say) gothic/pulp horror cultists and investigators, or modern urban fantasy characters, or sci-fi psychers, or post-apocalyptic veterans of a psychic war, or whatever.
More than one person has suggested an undead/gothic horror conversion sprue for turning historical figures into zombies, ghouls, and other living dead. I think that sounds like a fun idea, and to me, the greater the variety of undead and ghouls that can be included in such a sprue (vampires, mummies, maniacs, ghosts, bogeymen, etc.) Weapons options can be kept relatively simple here - given the subject matter, I think a few things like a meat cleaver, butcher knife, claw-hammer, sickle, crude club, femur bone, and the like work well, as would bare claws, but I'd rather see a good variety of monster head optons than monster weapons. And, frankly, I rather see a full-on generic gothic horror set than just a sprue, with gaunt, twisted bodies dressed in rags to match the heads and simple weapons, but that seems to be a heavily "Your Mileage May Vary" situation, compared to a dedicated zombie kit (for example).
And naturally, I'd enjoy that upgrade sprue of those "Grimdark" Solomon Kane style bits, for sure - some of those great wide-brimmed,conical hats, the blackpowder guns and swords (with off-handed pistol and dagger options, naturally, staves, tomes, amulets and holy symbols, capes.... I'm dying to see the gaming industry shift gears for fantasy gaming settings out of pale and slavish imitations of Tolkien, and this would certainly be one alternative I'd really enjoy seeing! This add-on sprue would just need a suitable historical kit to source the bodies and more generic weapons from. Appropriate additions to Wargames Atlantic's new Reniassance line would certainly do nicely here. I'd be fine using @Brian Van De Walker 's pitch for generic cuirass-trousers-and-boots militia as a foundation here. I suppose this add-on sprue would work well with the conquistadors, too, come to think of it. I think it's a question of how niche this set might be, though: I think I can see a lot more people going for generic fantasy elves and hobgoblins, but I'd hope they'd be willing to give a different flavor of fantasy enough of a chance to make this Solomon Kane-style set economically viable!
@Yronimos Whateley They actually have plans to do an elf set so a head sprue isn't needed, though it looked really LOTR generic, so maybe some parts to do something like this out of the box would be a good "add to":
Likewise I can't help but feel that Hobgoblins, Samurai or otherwise, would actually be a good set idea. It might even be a good set to add exotic asian weapons that didn't make it into the boxer set and probably won't be added to the warring states sets like the repeating crossbow.
And if Hobgoblins where done as samurai or even just something Asian, it would actually work with Dark Ages, Renissiance, Victorian, Asian and even JRPG industrail age style fantasy, it kinda of sells itself.
Sounds like I missed an elf preview!
Weirdly, D&D style lawful evil hobgoblin armies always seemed like a natural enough subject for a wargaming army to me, but one that always seemed to take a back seat to GW style orcs and goblins. I think that the relatively recently-produce Oathmark goblins and Wargames Atlantic goblins seem close enough to D&D hobgoblins to me, short of that specific Samurai theme (also a D&D invention, I think) which I see pop up in fantasy miniature wish-lists.
If there's an Elf set in the works, but I assume no hobgoblins, that does perhaps open the possibility of hobgoblin bits sharing a sprue with that other specific orc/goblin wishlist entry, the "pig-headed orcs" (which more certainly comes from old-edition D&D illustrations!) about a dozen orc and hobgoblin heads in these distinctive flavors, with a selection of suitably goblin melee weapons like axes, scimitars, morning-stars, spiked flails, and sure: why not some repeating crossbows? The sprue might work nicely for some alternate bits for the Goblins set, or with any historical set..... (Could be some Death Fields possibilities in there, too, though I'm not sure I could quite picture that.)
A full-on vaguely samurai/ashigaru-themed hobgoblin set, however, might end up being a popular set, at least for a vocal niche. There are a lot of distinctive "exotic" weapons that don't seem to make it to plastic very often, and that might be a great place to find the most fantasy-friendly ones in one place: the usual sword/shortsword/knife blade trio (katana/wakizashi/tano), the naginata greatsword, the yari pole-arm, the kanabo warclub, the yumi longbow, and (for fantasy gunplay) there were some rather beautiful arquebuses ot thre as well.
On the gripping hand, I have a feeling one or more proper historical ashigaru/samurai sets would also be wildly popular - maybe no reason a these could be produced separately from fantasy hobgoblin sets, or that fantasy bits couldn't be included in a historical set, but I think that if I were to choose one vs. the other, the historical ashigaru and samurai kits seem like the strongest economic opton (at least, from my amateur armchair, the historical kits seem less niche than the specific fantasy version, and different enough from the existing goblin set to avoid competing with it!)
On reflection, that Spellcaster Sprue seems like it would be stronger as a spellcaster box of some sort: a box of coweled monks/cultists, for example, seem like a great opportunity for a large fantasy faction with historical uses, which might also benefit from magic-user bits.
Designing these sprues to get the most bang for the manufacturing buck is tricky! :)
I think it might be smarter to do a spellcaster sprue/kit with options for druids, they are not exactly a box onto themselves subject.
That'd work too. The current warrior boxes don't have any a robed bodies, so it'd have to be a full kit and not just an upgrade sprue either way.
short of that specific Samurai theme (also a D&D invention, I think) which I see pop up in fantasy miniature wish-lists.
At least in D&D, they are specifically the 5th edition style. Before, hobgoblins weren't really visually distinct in their gear and more in... formations and activities. And goblin-shaped heads with generic evil gear we all have coming out of our ears, because the WGA goblin set has ONE HUNDRED AND TWO heads for its 30 bodies.
I'm starting to warm up to gunpowder in fantasy because (as mentioned) I'm planning a Warhammer empire army, which may even touch upon witchhunters (roughly in that Solomon Kane aesthetic). But modern-ish gasmasks as shown in the other thread or already available with the WGA lizards would probably go to far for me. Maybe there are enough ideas to make one sprue of actual fantasy stuff and one of like, victorian/edwardian onwards?
Oh and while we are on the topic of sprues: My local store apparently can't get individual sprues from the distributor (the ones I asked for were from Warlord Games and Perry, but the reply was pretty generic). And ordering such a small thing myself usually ends up with more shipping than the value of the wares. How does Wargames Atlantic handle this?
@Brian Van De Walker That black powder Elf looks great, except maybe for the bayonet.
I seem to recall WGA showed an elf preview sculpt awhile back but it never went into production because of “lack of market interest”... and if I remember correctly it was just before or just after North Star released their plastic Elves. North Star is a lot less talkative about their development than WGA.
@Blutze I tend to find a lot of various sprues on eBay in the US, UK and Germany. I used to rely on one particular guy in the UK for sprues but Brexit made that cost ineffective so now I pretty much just use the German eBay for loose sprues.
I am surprised that there is not a dedicated sprue seller in Germany.
@Grumpy Gnome I buy sprues on ebay too... But for Wargames Atlantic Sprues @Lord Marcus offers individual sprues for sale on his store site.
@Yronimos Whateley
Reference:
This is interesting. I'm reminded a little of this exchange in the "Who Want WW2 Axis Cavalry?" thread:
https://wargamesatlantic.com/community/xenforum/topic/53782/who-wants-ww2-axis-cavalry
When discussing the potential popularity/sales of historical feudal Japanese sets versus fantasy samurai hobgoblin....... Sadly I'm inclined to think the hobgoblins will outperform the historical Japanese. I say that because from my observations anything that can be shoehorned into Age of Sigmar or the upcoming Old World Fantasy Battle Redux has an audience approximately 250,000% bigger than historical games. (I made that percentage up obviously. But I bet it is a factor of thousands.)
It's also worth mentioning that Warlord has some plastic Samurai and there is this set(s) coming:
So the 28mm plastic "Samurai" space is filling up. Not that I have any issues with so called "redundancy." (Some get really worked up about it around here.) I'm sure a WGA kit would offer some options the others wouldn't. Flexibility and choice are near always a good thing.
@Yronimos Whateley
Reference:
So close, the answer is Mongolian ;)
Hear me out.
The Hobgoblin Khanate is well established in lore:
https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Hobgoblin
And there are big hints that GW is going to pay more attention to that part of the world when the release Return of the Old World.
So, 1. Great timing on the Warring States Release from WGA.
2. The pseudo Mongolian Hobgoblins who constantly war with Cathay would probably be well received too.
@William Redford
I really like sallet helmet.
Why? They look really cool.
I think they possibly look coolest without the bevor. Which combines poor visibility with half the protection ;), but looks baller. Certainly a distinctive look for a fantasy troop type.
Would include a handful of black powder pistols. Let the end user decide the tech level of his guys.
Oh, and a flamberg sword or two.
@JTam The Fireforge Northmen have Sallet helmets... Open faced. I really like then as well. And these guys fit well size wise with the conquistadors. Having an upgrade sprue with some of these and matchlock or wheel lock pistols would be great.
@Yronimos Whateley
So more like Aly Morrison's C36 Hobgobelins mixing various elements from Far-eastern countries -Mongolia and Cathay?
@William Redford Thanks!
Hmm. The only real flaw I see with a fantasy upgrade sprue is that you can get the same effect simply by kitbashing spares from different historicals, plus the existing plastic fantasy kits with loads of accessories from Northstar and Fireforge. Science fiction cries out for generic and interesting tech gear - I really don't have much use for a sprue of swords, bows, crossbows, polearms etc.
Depends. If it is really just crossbows and halberds, it may indeed not be worth the effort. But even just swords tend to be rare in historical kits (WGA conqs are a welcome exception here), and most of the stuff we've discussed - on my list, all but two entries - is rather out there and very unlikely to show up in a serious historical kit from Warlord Games or Perry. The Frostgrave-specific kits are a start, but AFAIK they don't go nearly as far.
More importantly though, I don't know if I agree with the argument that you can just "get another box". I got my WGA goblins and irish as enemies for D&D. That means I needed 10-15 dudes each, maybe 20, not a full 30 or an army of 150. So I'm certainly not gonna get another box with 24 of the same creature from another manufacturer just for those, say, five arms with different shields. A sprue with those five arms plus stuff I could bash into other groups though? Yeah, gimma dat.
A box of fantasy accessories is £15 from NorthStar. Your choice of two kinds of Wizard stuff or one of Non-Wizard stuff.
Plus you get 8 male or 8 female Wizards or 10 non-Wizards as a bonus.
This area is already covered.
Wings ("angel" and "dragon"), tails (cat, "demon")
I'd go for a small set of 'fantasy scale' weapon arms. Basically, bigger swords and what have you. I would also like to see female options for say, the conquistadors or maybe a female landsknecht style mercenary sprue, if not a whole box.
@Davey C. I agree. From a fantasy standpoint, the conquistadors are great. The only thing they lack is female options. Having a sprue with female heads in the various helmets and unhelmeted would be great but if they added something like female torsos that you could convert the male conquistadors with a knife and a torso swap... even better. A conquistador character kit, with fancier armor, some capes, some pistols, etc... would be good too. You could make generals, or wizards or RPG characters. The set would have broad appeal. I know @Hudson Adams asked if people would buy single character packs. But a set of 10 "nobles" could have broad appeal with wargamers, historical players and rpg'ers.
as an example. I got a sprue of the stargrave female crew (crew 2).
so here is a "female" conquistador.
I think having female historical-fiction/fantasy kits with a similar set up as Cannon Fodder 2 would be good. Females with arms compatible with their male counterparts is a cool concept.
Having rare and experimental weapons for their time periods, or just straight up magic weapons would make them stand out as their own distinct unit. And since Wargames Atlantic always has high bit count, we all know the kits would be decent value even if your not into female troops.
@William Redford that reminds me! I shamelessly ripped off one the models from your conquistador thread.
@Davey C. Looks really good. :)
A faerie court would be cool. with enough sprues you could make an army of just faeries. 1cm... I kind of want them a bit bigger for painting/converting so if they were half the size of WA haflings, or 1/3 the size that would be perfect. So actually, 1 cm probably is perfect. I kind of want a Faerie court now....
Animal companions are always good. And I love the rats and cats on the Frostgrave wizards sprues. Spiders are good. A cat sized spider would make a great addition. You could use it as a familiar, or if you get enough sprues you could put several on a base and make some swarms.
@Rondaros A'terac Great suggestions!
Off the top of my head theres afew things Id love to see on an accessory sprue. Mostly things I cant find elsewhere or in insuficcient numbers/quality.
Dogs (and other animals)
Left hands with medieval weaponry (and accompanying empty right hands)
"Grey Alien" heads.
And have to second the above suggestion of Faeries! If it existed Id own a mighty army of Tinkerbellians just as fast as you could ship it to me :D
@Carsten Ohlsson I wonder if there will be any dogs in the farm animal set. I hope there is.
so far we have or will have:
the wolfhound in the Irish set
the German shepherd in the upcoming German sentries set
the mastiff in the conquistador cavalry set.
if we got a border collie in the farm animals set to herd some sheep thst would be great.
what kind of dogs would you like to see on a fantasy sprue? I wouldn't mind some Doberman or Rottweilers.
@William Redford In an ideal world I would love a sprue that contained:
Dobermans, Rottweilers, St Bernards, Pittbulls, Labradors, Mastiffs, Poodles, Great Danes, Bloodhounds, etc.
Really anything thats big enough to scare a mailman.
Im one of those "more warbands/armies than common sense" people I could very easily spread out 50+ assorted canines amongst my projects. From the dark ages through post apoc everyone needs more attack dogs :D
@Carsten Ohlsson "Really anything thats big enough to scare a mailman." 😅
For swarms instead of minis could be mini rollers or stamps for green stuff.
For different option models could be multi race faction box instead of current one race in box, for example Pirates, Circle of Wizards, City Guards, Thieves Den.
Also sprue could be for get girls to the hobby/order small present for daughter/girlfriend/wife with Epic Princess or Magical Girls teams.
I know it's been a couple years, but I wanted to reanimate this thread, just because there were a lot of great ideas in here, and now that I've had a couple years to mull it over with some fresh perspectives, I think there might be a few things I might see a little differently. And, I don't think I saw about half of these replies before.
@Blutze :
- Flails, of varying sizes and chain lengths.
I can't help noticing there aren't many flails in my bitz box, except for a couple really ugly bitz that came from a Warhammer cultist box; I really don't like those, I'm pretty sure Wargames Atlantic can do better. (And they really seem to be fantasy weapons, apparently!)- Lefthanded pistols (especially wheellock and other early stuff), both for dualwielding with a handweapon and for going akimbo.
Yes - both blackpowder, and "steampunk" style guns. There really doesn't seem to be a lot of fantasy or sci-fi handgun options around, outside of the usual Warhammer/40K bits, the Stargrave kits, or WGA's Death Fields stuff, which cover an odd smattering of Grimdark scifi bolters and whatever, a few fantasy renaissance-style pistols, and smattering of vaguely cyberpunk-style bitz. Most of the historical bitz I have handled seem to focus on WWI/WWII, Renaissance, Victorian/wild-western, and modern, which is great, but I'd love to see more variety, especially from different sci-fi and fantasy genres. And left-handed options for the rule-of-cool guns-akimbo thing are definitely sorely lacking!- Skulls and zombified heads of various creatures.
In the years since that suggestion was posted, WGA and Citidel delivered on this one, with the wonderful variety of human zombies in a variety of headgear in the WGA zombies kit, and the wide variety of human and demonic skulls in a (pricy) Citidel skulls kit. WGA has also quietly unveiled a Digital Atlantic set of alien heads or two, while the various Stargrave crewman/mercenary/scavenger kits include some additional alien and mutant heads, and WGA's Weird World War accessory sprue from The Last War has a couple additional monster heads. I'm loving all of these options, but would love to see many more!- Tails, wings and tentacles.
I've seen a FEW tentacles here and there, including from the WGA Weird World War accessory sprue, but we could really use more tentacle and other mutant, monster, and alien bitz. The huge number of zombie arms that have come from WGA's Zombies kit, and from the Stargrave Automataon and Frostgrave Cultist kits are great for monster projects! The WGA-made Dead Animal Bits box is a great source of some odd skulls and other bits, like horns and so on!- Throwing knives and stars, both loose and in hands holding them by a tip.
I've got a very few throwing knives in my bitz box, but have no idea where they came from. This is very much a fantasy thing, but it definitely runs on rule-of-cool for rogues, ninjas, bandits, and the like!- Pouches and potions. Scrolls and books.
I do see a wealth of pouches these days, thanks especially to Stargrave and Frostgrave kits, and WGA's historical kits seem to be giving us plenty of belt/harness gear (canteens, shovels, bayonets, mess kits, cartridge pouches, etc.) these days in their World War kits and Death Fields kits, which can also liven up some fantasy characters. Backpacks are pretty easy to come by as well thanks to these sorts of kits. Potions are easier to find these days too, thanks to the Frostgrave wizards, and the upcoming WGA-made Sorcerers' Spoils accessory kit is going to be another great resource!- Caster staff tops (the staves are usually rather easy to find as spears)... Double weapons.
Great idea! Actually, I'll add to that fantasy weapon tops that can be swapped onto spear shafts as well; these can be used for converting spears into those double-weapons too, I think. We've gotten a few new magic staves and interesting polearm bitz over the last couple years thanks to the Frostgrave wizards and a few odd historical and fantasy kits (such as scythes, pitchforks, shovels, and picks), but spears/pikes seem to be pretty common and easy to come across, while the spear shafts seem to take up a LOT of sprue space. Just add-on tops would take up little room, and can really put some of those hundreds of spare spears in my bitz box to better use!- Long chains as standalone weapons.
Actually, some chains in general would be great! There were a few short bits of shain that came with the WGA Cannon Fodder kits and Frostgrave Cultists (I believe) which I glued onto a Weird World War tank project to "sell" a 1/35 historical tank as a 28mm weird world war thing, and I loved the effect - more bitz of chain, spikes, and other gear that can be bolted onto these sorts of projects would be great! I bet lengths of plastic chain in various shapes would also be good for converting maces, for example, into flails....- Loose bows and crossbows (or with straps) as backup ranged weapons for melee characters.
Great idea - I've got a very few loose bows and crossbows in my bitz box from a few odd kits here and there, but have no idea where I got them from anymore. Maybe some were in the Frostgrave Knights or Soldiers kits? I don't think they're easy to come by in any significant number, and I'd like to see a few more, really.- Mushroom hats.
Whimsical fantasy hats in general, including wizard/witch hats, jester caps, and such. The top hat from that WGA/Traitor's Toll fantasy villager kit is great fun for all sorts of uses!- Laurel headwreaths, mistletwig bushels and sickles (actually just make a druid kit).
I have been seeing more sickles over the last couple years, probably from peasant, villager, and cultist kits, but not many, and a complete druid kit would be fantastic!- Scaled instead of furry cloaks.
Come to think of it, I REALLY love the scarves from the French Partisans kit, the cloaks from the WGA dark ages kits, the aprons and mantles from that WGA/Traitors' Toll villager kit, and so on. Definitely would like to see more cloaks, capes, scarves, lowered cowels, kerchiefs, gorgets and other neckwear!- Lanterns and torches.
We see a few more torches and lanterns these days thanks to kits like the Frostgrave soldiers, and I think a few also turn up in the WGA/Traitors' Toll villagers and guards kits, but we could use more. Some modern and sci-fi flashlight "torches" would be nice, too - I don't think I've ever seen any of those in a hard plastic kit! Those WGA Pulp survivors and agents are wondering why they don't have a single flashlight between them to investigate those dark basements and other dangerous places, just to go out at the first sign of a jump-scare!- Different music instruments.
YES - and as always, I'd welcome all sorts of other non-weapon adventure gear. The odd bits from the WGA-made Roman citizens kit, villagers and peasants kits, and Frostgrave and Stargrave kits are great, but we could use more. Also, fantasy "holy symbols" like crosses and ankhs and elder-signs, for clerics, vampire-hunters, and cultists to carry. Hands making arcane gestures for spell-casting and whatnot, too.
@Brian Van De Walker :
- Head swaps with goggle (human and human hybrid). Head swaps with bandana covered faces and various hats.
YES. I don't think I've got ANY heads with goggles in my bitz box, and it's kind of the default look for steampunk characters. Bandanas are great, too, for those default rogues, bandits, and assassins in everything from generic fantasy to the Wild West to post-apocalyptic settings and beyond, and I don't see many of those in kits either, beyond the Dead Man's Hand gunslinger kits, and maybe some of the Frostrave cultist bits.- Human hybrid head swaps (half orcs, anime style beastmen, and horned folk).
YES. I'm not a huge fan of what seems to be a very popular trend toward anthropomorphic animal RPG characters, but I'm a wet blanket like that. It's a popular trope for a reason, and even I can make use of animal head swaps for monster-making, especially if at least one out of every five of each "flavor" of animal-hybrid looked creepy enough to be a great monster - snarling werewolves, orcs, hobgoblins, gnolls, beast-men, and whatever. (There are a couple such animal-hybrid monster heads on the Weird World War sprue, wearing WWI style hats, and they're great!)- Left and right handed single edged swords options like cutlass, rapiers and sabers to go with hand guns. [+ other off-hand weapons]
Yeah, I really don't think I see off-handed weapons very often. I've got a few handguns like that, and a few machine pistols, and the occasional dagger or hatchet, but not nearly as many as one might imagine!- An Armored body option (which is why brought it up)
There have been several discussions where generic breast-plate bodies have been brought up, and I've always liked the idea. I don't remember who used to mention it, might have been you, but since the last time I saw it mentioned, WGA has designed The Damned infantry in basically the way I always pictured the concept when it was mentioned: simple non-specific cloth coats and trouses, jackboots, and simple breastplate armor. The other Damned bits are probably disposible for any historical project (though the Kalashnikov-like rifles and most of those gas masks could surely be useful for something!), but for anyone who has a bunch of extra spears or polearms and shields, and some appropriate helmeted heads for the project in mind, the Damned might be a versatile base to build a lot of odd projects from, particularly fantasy and sci-fi.- ...holy water sprinklers (I would actually be okay with this one working for the conquistadors). Left and right handed fireballs in hand options. Book options for in hand and out of hand.
Yes, as always, ditto for me on any sorts of uncommon fantasy bits and magic gear we can get. Sure, there are some bits of this sort in the (pricy) Frostgrave Wizards kit, and there are some useful bits in e.g. the WGA/Traitor's Toll villagers kit, but I bet WGA could top that tantalizing little bit of magical options available for building your own RPG characters and villains, or fielding a batallion of war wizards, etc.- pulpy riot/ballistic tower shields.
Looks like there's a couple of riot-style shields in some of The Damned kits, and that's something - I don't know of any other riot-shield bits! Sure, they're a bit worse for wear, in keeping with the Damned's post-apocalyptic/used-future aesthetic, but I can't complain about that. I've suggested a police-themed kit more than once before the new Pulp theme was unveild, and maybe some riot shields would be suitable for a pulp police squad kit? They'd kitbash really nicely onto some Operators standing in for a S.W.A.T. team....- Combination weapons like axe guns, sword pistols ...fantasy variations of later black powder guns that are not flintlocks but are also rarely seen on the history gaming table (ie things like revolver rifles, volcanic hand guns, or lever action guns)
Yeah, agreed, and I'll reppeat my support for things like fantasy and - I can find a better variety of gun bits today than I did four or five years ago, but there's always room for a better selection, especially where the more exotic, fantasy/sci-fi friendly, rule-of-cool guns are concerned.
@William Redford's and @Davey C.'s Conquistadora women conversions look great, by the way. They remind me a bit of Brienne from Game of Thrones, in a good way. Over the last couple years, the WGA Conquistador kit has really grown on me, there are a lot of great fantasy-friendly bits in that kit - pretty much all of those Conquistador bits are great fantasy bits, really!
On reflection over the last couple years, I'm pretty much sold on WGA's Renaissance, WWI, Imperial Conquest, and Pulp lines as great sources for fantasy gaming bits moving into the future, more so than the traditional Dark Ages, Medieval, and Ancients sources. The Lost War and Trench Crusade, with their more-or-less WWI take on fantasy, are one of my favorite developments in fantasy/sci-fi over the last few years!
Would love to see a WGA historical kit of some sort with figures in great coats and trench coats - that's something I'd use a lot of in fantasy and sci-fi: trench coats have been one of the great rule-of-cool fantasy/pulp noir/sci-fi accessories for much longer than I've been alive!
Regarding hobgoblins, I think that if I were to field a fantasy hobgoblin army now, I'd start with the upcoming WGA "The Damned" infantry as the basis, and load them up with spare spears and shields from WGA historical kits. The Damned would make the perfect fantasy hobgoblins in my book! The helmets, scarred mutant faces, tattered uniforms, and jackboots are a beautiful starting point - just add fantasy weapons. Hell, I'd even be willing to leave the gas masks on them for a classic fantasy armor - it's a weird anachronism even by generic fantasy standards, but it's creepy-looking and rule-of-cool allows- no, DEMANDS it! In fact, I think The Damned make much cooler "Orks in Space" than the familiar 40K default ever did!
And, the fairie army could be a lot of fun, given enough room for variety. Give them a dark-and-edgy Unseelie Court kind of theme, and it's even better, in my book: fairy tales always came across as horror stories to me, and even the "good" fairies always seemed just a bit sinister. It always seemed sort of a shame to me that just about the only surviving hints of that inherent, alien fairie darkness in modern fantasy are the familiar goblins, orcs, trolls, and ogres inspired more or less directly by Tolkien, a smattering of Deep Ones and ghouls from Lovecraft, and stylized gothic horror versions of werewolves, vampires, and witches, when there are so many other ways that fairie folk from around the world used to go horribly, horribly wrong, in all their weird and unpredictable variety, if you make the faintest hint of a wrong step in unmarked fairie territory, break some weird unspoken rule of fairie etiquette, or whatever. Fairie armies, both good and evil, march and fight and dance and sing by night, in the wild places and wast lands, soaked in gloom and gore, greaat and small in a thousand and one forms both beautiful and horrible to behold.
@Yronimos Whateley Thanks for the thread necromancy, I'm stuck in bed with a cold and need something to yap about. I've already posted at extensive length about all kinds of full fantasy kits I want so I won't go into that here, but know that I will get my shirtless barbarians someday. Also, I think the guards kit has done absolute wonders for fantasy kitbashes. Torches galore!
Stuff I still want:
> Weird halberds. Anyone who's played turnip28 or bloodborne knows what I'm talking about. Gimme some saws on sticks, sickle-polearms, gun-spears, etc. Would make a good upgrade kit bc it's specific, and most fantasy soldiers are pretty close to what we've got in the baron's war already, just with funnier weapons.
> Cool helmets! I still think fantasy knights could be a whole range. But in the interest of brevity, Victrix does an absolutely amazing upgrade sprue for templar heads and capes. Something similar, but for different time periods, would go hard as hell. Specifically, I think animal-styled helmets would be cool, like from berserk. For historical reference, see grotesque maximilian helmets. (look at that smile!)
> faeries would be cool, but I think that somewhat demands its own kit. Alternatively, the 10mm fantasy range could just get a flying army, in which case our demands are kinda solved, lol.
> I am a sucker for someone wielding axes in both hands. it's incredibly stupid, and will probably get you stabbed. I still want it. A couple offhand axes would go crazy.
> Not a request, but a recommendation: warlord games has a set of ww2 winter americans in trench coats. it's an absolutely fantastic kit that I will praise endlessly. they have a really nice weather-worn, beaten-down look to them that merges well with just about any setting. highly recommend picking up, even if its just a sprue.
> another recommendation: conquistadors are probably my favorite kit from any manufacterer ever. I have used bits from them in every concievable setting, from low fantasy to space opera to even some modern settings. GOD I love them so much. I've considered making a post about how to squeeze some extra usage out of WGA sprues, so lmk if you want any tips.
> combo-guns are one of my favorite weird historical things. every time I go to nyc, I like to go the met just I can go to the arms & armor and pay my respects to the german gun-knife-calender.
(it's beautiful).
> @Carsten Ohlsson yes. yes. please. i bought irish just for the dogs and am going to have to ebay off the rest of the models. i am down that absurdly bad for a dog sprue.
> frostgrave kits are a great source of wizard bits. i dont love the actual models, but the bits they contain are worth every penny, and bodies are always nice to have.
> i think elves/dwarves/orcs are most fun when they aren't really mixed with human society, but plenty of people do. in particular, cities of sigmar in warhammer used to be a much more diverse faction before being altered to be human-only, and a lot of the fanbase is pissed. i bet a generic sprue of heads with pointy ears and weird noses would go over pretty well.
> with the way the horse sprue is built, I bet it wouldn't be hard to make more exotic mounts that are compatible with existing kits. unicorns, pegasi, velociraptors, etc. me, i want nightmares or mutant horses.
> i'd like some kind of way to get extra flavor out of the existing skeletons. maybe do a couple upgrade sprues for other settings/societies? i like my skeletons dark ages flavored, but maybe thats just a different kit for a different manufacturer.
> i have no idea how popular this would be, but i want a way to make my zombies from fully undead to just people who fucking suck. specifically, a set of more active arms, maybe holding rusty shivs or lugging around crates for cruel taskmasters. the heads could either just be heavily damaged people or iron prisoner helmets, like the wretchs from trench crusade. however, im also kind of infamous for liking it when my armies are as useless as possible.
> last, weird request: a mini-sprue of those little weirdos from medieval manuscripts. cities of sigmar has them, but I WANT MORE!! could absolutely be digital, as i think this is pretty niche.
