What would you like to see for other races beyond humans?


  • I'm just going to share my personal opinion up front here, I am so tired of 40k proxy miniatures. I know a lot of people see Death Fields and immediately think IG proxy, and I can see that, but I also see something much better than just another proxy miniature.

    So with that in mind, I would prefer to see stuff beyond the fantasy races in sci-fi outfits. I mean do we really need another set of space elves? 

    I'm sure there's races other than humans fighting on the Death Fields, sure the WA lizard men from the fantasy range are just calling for a tasteful kit bash. What I want to know is what kind of fresh blood do the Death Fields need?

    My take, intelligent molluscs, maybe a warrior decopi(10 tentacles?) or something like a hermit crab with a "tank" shell, that can be endlessly and hilariously bashed/converted. 



  • @Alexander Mars I mean that's cool and interesting. Who would the target audience be for these? Rpgs? Or are there other table top games that these could be used for. 

    I don't really play any Sci gi ganes, so I would buy just for cool minis. But would others if they don't have a set use? 

    That said... I would vote lion men... big cat heads with manes... 


  • @William Redford 

    Tigers would have more cross over appeal:

    (Kzin)

    .....

    (Kzinti)


  • Rules wise: stargrave, 5 parsecs from home, Xenos Rampant (Nov 2022), rogue stars, planet 28

    Species: fish/piscean, dolphin/whale, wolf, winged dinosaur (pterasaur), big-eyed bushbaby, ape/monkey or wallaby/kangeroo spring to mind


  • @JTam I think there would be space for lions and tiger heads in one kit, maybe gas masks as well.

    This guy is from League of Legends which would make a cool war game (Arcana on Netflix is based on this game)

    There are the Leonin (originally from Magic the Gathering) and Tabaxi in D&D and I'm sure they will pop up in Spell Jammer (D&D in space).

    So I think if they are done as a hybrid kit it will sell well.

     


  • I was thinking the Emirates of Hacan from Twilight Imperium. 

     


  • @JTam Could also do them as another "fantasy with DF parts kits". There have been quite few people asking cat themed fantasy beastmen.


  • Oh man, there's so many great rule sets out there, I don't even know. Planet 28 and Stargrave are great, I've never played Rogue Planet, but want to give it a try. 

    I almost never use the miniatures I buy the way they were intended, or perhaps more accurately rarely play the games they were made for. For example my Les Grognards have been converted to a French faction in Great Weird War diesel punk project. I've got British and Germans factions from different manufacturers. I always have a certain aesthetic I want for each faction, pickelhaubes for the Germans or just the right gas mask on the Tommys. 

    Felinoids would definitely be cool, and a Lion/Tiger head swap would be great for different uses.


  • you could easily do a whole sprue of animal head swaps.. felines, canines, birds..


  • I can see catfolk selling well although I am not after a set. 

    For me.... crabfolk!

    I like this design from Stellaris. However, I am not sure how many other folks would buy them. 


  • @Alexander Mars  I want all sorts of animal-folk kits, I have growing contingent of animal-folk warriors in my fantasy army, but if I had a top five set ideas it'd be "assorted birds" "felines" and "forest animals" I'd hope they'd be an upgrade sprue but full kits of minis would be cool as well. I just hope if they're ever done they're done as proper, truescale minis. Like the fox-folk from Stellaris, I like to think that you could field an army of mouse/rat troops from the halfling spure plus an upgrade sprue


  • 40k proxy is always going to be with us (as long as 40K exists) to an extent. I've bought more Iron Core than Death Fields mainly because I prefer the aesthetic and the sprues themselves are very well done with lots of spare stuff for conversions. I'm finding the Cannon Fodder very useful for other projects and its probably my favorite DF set, largely for the conversion potential.

    Armies wise, I'm pretty much mostly human based but have a techno-zombie (sedition wars), xenomorph (tyranid and zombicide dark side) and alien cyborg creatures (sedition wars and endure the stars) armies that I've the figures for but have done very little with at the moment. I'm also working on a bug army starting with the spider conversions and then probably the WGA bugs once they are available.

    The Shadokesh (Iron Core) have been teased but there is no info on if or when we will see anything for them.

    My main 'need' for other races is a ruling race for my cyborgs, with the idea that they have been conquering and turning races into cyborgs to fill roles in their society. The Shadokesh may end up filling that role.

     


  • @John Wilson  the Shadokesh are exactly the kind of thing I'm getting at, If you squint there's a tiny bit of the "Alien" in the ferals, but it's not a repackaged Tolkien race.

    Some of you guys might want to check out the Broken Infantry from Maelstroms Edge if you haven't seen them, looks like a bits paradise with all the extra alien heads. Combining that with some Cannon Fodder might be interesting.

     


  • @Alexander Mars The Stargrave figures are also a source of alien heads, honestly though I've never used them since I would want alien bodies rather than human ones. I may eventually use some as human-animal hybrids. There are some book series with hybrids being used essentially as mercenary companies cannon fodder, slave labour and in some cases as bonded freighter crews for interstellar shipping (it being viewed as to hazardous for most humans).


  • Y'all pressed it....

    Want to interject and reiterate what other people are saying here....Space Furries, PLEASE!!! I adore the One Page Rules anthropomorphs, and plan on fielding an army of Jackals in my Death Fields arena. (Perhaps I could cut off a tail of a Jackal, and use a puttied-up WA lizardman tail to make a kangaroo hero figure....) Wish there were sci-fi options for their Saurians and Beastmen. Gonna post a few of my favorites of all three here, for inspiration...

    Jackal Rifle Vultures (just imagine one of these with a big, kangaroo tail...and perhaps some blue fur and poofy, pink hair...)

    Jackal Satellite Veteran (I can't decide whether I like this one or the regular veteran more - the regular one has a rebreather which looks great, but I like the doodads on this one for a comms specialist...)

    Saurian Gators (would LOVE these with some rocket launchers or flamethrowers!!)

    Jackal Sniper Gunner Beasts

    Beastmen Raid Master (SO using this one as a NPC/boss character in a future tabletop campaign...)

    https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0299/7711/6804/products/d637c672c5def55aaa9a2cb86964ea34_400x.png?v=1646315243

    As far as Wargames Atlantic stuff, I know I want to make some DF lizardmen, but I do wish there were a few more kitbashing options for this (another gas mask head?) I plan on doing some heavier kitbashing of them to have some lizardman representation in my "Pests" army idea.

    I humbly suggest a second Lizardmen box to pair with the Classic Fantasy one, for further Death Fields conversion (maybe some cavalry on giant komodo dragons, to go against the Grognards' raptors?) I'd also love the space big cats posted about above, or perhaps something like the Giff space hippos, from Spellajmmer - Even a set of anthropomorphic heads compatible with the human bodies would work quite well. Either way, consider this my plea on behalf of furries everywhere: Get some anthropomorphs on the Death Fields!!

    (Okay, deep breathing....)

    If anyone could point me to the direction of other minis along these lines, for sci-fi use, I'd definitely consider picking them up. I want to finish my Grognards and future Cannon Fodder (and my DF pitch...) before I branch out into third-party and kitbashed army ideas. But I'd love some other ideas.  

    As far as more "traditional" aliens...I recently got a Stargrave Crew II box and was really inspired by the 50s-style alien heads included. I think this would get a lot of mileage for a Death Fields box. Going to be bashing a few of those heads onto my Cannon Fodder ladies. I also loved the catgirl head!

    The "space squids" posted above are also a great idea and honestly the kind of alien I have in mind when I think of the leaders of the Game Guilds. Eons of Battle is currently selling a "Squid Mage" in their store that looks really good, with a cuttlefish-shaped head that I love. But perhaps a more mindflayer-type head would work well, too.

    Other aliens? Can't go wrong with some Tyranid-likes. To expound on an idea that WA has already done, I like the Death Fields bits in the Giant Spiders box. Maybe there could be an army (or at least some brigades) of other giant insects? You could do the same thing, make them for the Classic Fantasy line, and then add some Death Fields bits. Giant scorpions with laser tails and iron pincers, beetles with armor and spear-tip heads, robotic praying mantises?

    Speaking of robots, I think a robot army would be a good idea, too. Maybe they could be used for training games.

    I think that's about exhausted my thoughts for now - looking forward to hearing more from this topic!


  • I really like the fantasy lizards but am not a fan of their weapons and think they could do with more torso variety. A DF/sci-fi version of them with some degree of compatability would be fun. I am also quite keenly awaiting the Einherjar command kit.

    As for something new, how about Grey aliens?


  • Sci-Fi centaurs would be cool, and not just horses. 

    I've got an idea for a rhino-ish centaur for my Five Parsecs crew, but I'm having trouble finding a rhino toy (or even better, one of those prehistoric rhinos!) that's the right scale to kitbash.

    (Not gigantic, though; maybe Ogryn-sized at the largest)

    I'm with @lauregami above, proper Beastmen with those back-canted legs (I know there's a proper term for that, just can't find it...) would be a great start, along with insect-people.

    I'd also love me some fantasy satyrs; I'm not talking "cutesy wood elves with horns and antlers," I mean down-and-dirty, earth-worshipping, kill-any-outsiders-who-defile-our-lands-with-their-presence old-world fairy tales types.

    Old-school fairy tales are metal AF.

    So, yeah, Sci-Fi and Fantasy beast-folk, centaur-types would be great.


  • @lauregami 

    What started as a "proper" thread of (mostly) adult men, discussing anthromorphs as a subject for little plastic toys for make believe games, has now gone furry.

    Ok, jokes aside. Here is a little blue-tac mock up I make with the Les Grognards Command and some Centaur legs.

     


  • Jackal heads would work really well with the Egyptian sets, too.  A sprue with all kinds of animal heads designed to fit on human necks/torsos would go a long way for alien variety.  

    I'd also like to see a digitigrade humanoid body for these heads to fit on.  Pass on some, hooves on others, maybe?  Generic clothing that could be made into fantasy or Sci Fi would be best, especially if some of the torsos are armored with a simple cuirass/carapace.


  • @William Ings in the first post I was totally bashing "traditional" fantasy creatures in sci fi war gaming. However, I gotta admit that Grognards Centaur looks ridiculously cool. Centaur Dragoons/Hussars would be a great conversation for DF. Also flamethrowers with oil drum size fuel tanks on their back. If I can find a Teddy Roosevelt head in scale I might knock out a centaur rough rider just for the hell of it.

    I agree with other posters, the lizard men need just a few more bits and bobs added and they're perfect as DF competitors. 


  • @William Ings I have no regrets!😅

    That's a great looking Grognard centaur! I think there's a place for some further DF kitbashing sprues, to mash up some more of the Classic Fantasy armies. Maybe some sci-fi goblins or halflings with a centaur riflemen squad. Or even better....sci-fi goblins _mounted_ on those centaurs!

    As far as goat-type/digitgrade legs, some Frostgrave Demons bodies have those kinds of legs. That'd be a fun kitbash, too!North Star Preview Painted Demons For Frostgrave The Red King – OnTableTop  – Home of Beasts of War

     

    I also remembered something I wanted to bring up yesterday, but forgot. As far as mechanical/powered armor things, I've also found inspiration in a recently announced mech in Bandai's "30 Minute Missions" line. 30mm is a line of affordable plastic mech/accessory model kits with an emphasis on kitbashing. Here's the one that was announced for release later this year:

    Aren't they the cutest thing you ever did see? 😍 They're about 2/3 the size of a regular 1/144 model, so they'd be a good size for a 28mm "power armor". I had an idea for a Death Fields objective capture type board, where two skirmish teams would be fighting to claim one of these in the middle of the battlefield, and would be able to use it in combat for a few turns if they did/would get bonus points at the end of the game if they managed to keep it alive during play. I don't know the first thing about wargame design, so I'll have to get some games in and access some guides.

    30mm has some other kits that are really inspired. I'd love these robot dogs as heavy support for a robot army, capturable objectives for use in a game, or maybe as mounts for some of my "Pests", built out of game scrap by brilliant engineers slumming it in the stadium walls.

    I plan on using a couple of these 30mm kits as scatter terrain/cover made out of scrap for my DF pitch. My thought is that this home planet's stadium would be on the lower-budget side of things, running smaller qualifier games played by hopeful teams wanting to secure a spot in the globe-spanning battle royales. They had a robot for a game, it got scrapped and they couldn't afford the repairs...had to use it for something! These things are seriously cheap, in the $10-20 range per model, so I encourage everyone to check them out if interested in getting some inspiration!


  • Somehow this video is now appropriate to the thread:

    Hilarious

     


  • To be honest, I would like to see a continuation of the classic fantasy races in alien form. 

    Space Elves that do not look like Eldar, but combine the classic elf look with alien weaponry and gear. The Mantic line has models that...except for the hooves...look perfect. 

    And Bestial Men/Orcs, not like the overmuscled GW/Mantic Orks. 

    And of course Space Halflings. 

    Ogres, Trolls, Lizardmen....No need to reinvent the wheel when models do not exist for many of the classic fantasy races. 


  • Every one as comented well on so many Alien Races I like them all one way or another. For me all I`d like to see added to the lists, Is correct species "LEGS",  those of the Cat, Dog Wolf, Crab etc. I`d like to have their own species legs, not made as human legs. This would add to the Alien race factor. and give then unique signiatures. 


  • Sigh....

    Thanks to this thread I'm now getting Furry adverts.  


  • @JTam it could be worse.  I once got rolled into a thread that left me seeing clown-related “honk honk heaven” ads.


  • @JTam every time I look up obscure mythological stuff on YouTube I get assailed by "Bigfoot is real, bible is mark of the beast" adds or somthing of the sort.


  • @Keith Gatchalian You know I've always been thinking of Space Orcs that had more of a gorilla like posture and other gorilla like features. I mean it would provide a good deviation from Modern Warhammer/Mantic Orks. Along with giving us a sort of harmonization of Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes and Warhammer Orks (I chose Tim's rendition due to it being somewhere in between the humans in monkey masks in the original and the cgi apes in the modern ones).Hear me out: why Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes isn't a bad movie | Planet  of the Apes | The Guardian


  • @William Ings Oh I've been there. And the latter part brings out the oof in me since I was raised a dispensationalist (that group of christians who believe in an imminant rapture and think vaccines are a precursor to the mark of the beast along with credit cards, social security, rfid chips, you name it then they can make up some crazy ass excuse to claim that "this new technology will be used in the reign of the antichrist").

    Its funny because as a Christian I do have an interest in mythology as literature, yet certain members of my family (really just my mom) look at me like I'm being sucked into the occult even though they believe in stuff that's just as insane if not more so (your typical one world order conspiracy theory stuff).


  • @Charles Tottington Yeah...I always thought of orcs as bestial half men when reading Tolkien. Ok to be honest I always thought of the grey goblins from the Hobbit cartoon, but as I grew older I thought the beast half man would be more like what Tolkien thought orcs would be. not Beastmen, but something pre-human evolutionary.


  • @Keith Gatchalian can I ask how you read Tolkien's Orcs as beastmen? I'm just curious where and when this idea originated.

    The first time I read LOTR, the unfortunate implications of his descriptions of Orcs (and the halfbreed in Bree) were clear to me: they are not beast men but East men.  It was a surprise, along with his portrayal of Semitic dwarves.  (Didn't keep me from reading the Silmarillion, Lost Tales and Fall of Gondolin, though.)

     

    And I'm not reading anything into it that isn't there.  From the Tolkien wiki: "In a private letter, Tolkien describes orcs as: squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types."  (bolding in original article) The description in his books matches this.

    I think we have Bakshi, DND and Warhammer to thank for beastly, inhuman Orcs, rather than Tolkien.  Did the old calendar art for The Hobbit or LoTR predate the cartoons?

     


  • @BS Kitbasher Well, just from general hints and descriptions Tolkiens drops. 

    In the Hobbit, Tolkien gives very little description physically to goblins. Ugly looking is one, and the Great Goblin has a big head. When Gandalf arrives and makes the fire explode, they are described as yammering, yelling, howling, jibbering and jabbering, growling and shrieking. They eat horses and ponies and....other things. 

    When we get to Lord of the Rings, there are a few hints that descibe the orcs physically. Many times they are said to have fangs. There are several references to them being hairy, but not furry, so they could just be...well...like Italians, if you know what I mean. Or like Sean Connery. The scenes during the chase across Rohan give us some great clues though. Grishknakh and his Mordor orcs are described as having arms that are long and reach almost to the ground, which reminds one of an ape. Finally, the last place we get some good descriptions of orcs are in the tower where Frodo is held. Again, they have long arms, and are said to lope when they move. Shagrat's face is said to be scarred by claws, and Gorbag's hand is decribed as being clawed. 

    Finally Orcs are dirty, and their behavior is, at least to me, reminiscient of a pack of animals where one is the pack leader ( for example Ugluk) who leads through force, and the various pack members jostle for position in the pack. When we get 2 packs together, like Shagrat and Gorbags, there is conflict. 

    That's what I got from a couple quick searches through the text. 


  • @Charles Tottington They weren't separate...😅

    How about some Alien Saviour Trump. 😅 YouTube adds are weird.


  • I agree with those calling for felinids.  An Arabian / Egyptian theme for fantasy, why not stick with whats gone before (Alchemy and others).  I would dearly love to expand my catfolk army, with more warriors and possibly even some felinid centaurs.  For the scifi side of things something along the lines of the old classic Chanur's Pride.  Those Larry Niven novels look interesting - thanks for posting that.

    I would also love to see a line of insectiods (a la District Nine).  I do love those bugs and the fact they are an intelligent space faring race with their own alien technology just makes them more desirable.

    The nice thing about alien races is that there are no limits to what can be done, though the above I think would be big sellers.

     


  • Something like District Nine “Prawns” would be cool.... “Don’t point your tentacle at me, man!”


  • @Grumpy Gnome 

    Or Alien Nation with the late James Caan  as Sykes... and its Tenctonese refugees.

    Det. Samuel 'George' Francisco: And that fits?
    Det. Sgt. Matthew Sykes: Well... Yeah, it's rubber. It stretches.
    Det. Samuel 'George' Francisco: And still it fits?

    😁


  • Any classic WOTW martians would be nice. Might be more classic fantasy though.


  • @lauregami I was trying to get into mecha/gundam models for a while but nothing was cheap enough. until now...

    on a similar note, some aliens encased in life-supporting armor would be...

    wait, thats WOTW martians again.


  • Space kitties are all over the genre. You have Larry Niven's Kzin (which crept into Trek), Traveller's Aslan, C.J. Cherryh's Hani and plenty of others. An easy seller, I'd have thought.

    Three points of difference are usually used between humans and animal aliens - heads, tails and digitigrade feet. Assuming fully clothed, you'd not see much other difference between hairless, furry, feathery or scaly aliens. My pitch would be generic tech clothing/spacesuit bodies with digitigrade feet and a suite of heads. Big Cat, Wolf, Avian, BEM and some others maybe. I'd throw reptile in there as well if we didn't already have the Lizardman kit.


  • The Other Side blog: Review: Traveller Alien Modules (1984 - 1987), Part 1

    Traveller Core Rulebook Update 2022

     


  • Not a true blue "Treki", so not totally sure of the name , was it Species 5/9, that even the Borg was scared of a "Centur" type race, I`d love to see dog headed  centurs. Also a really realistic Wolf alien with reverse dog style legs, would be a usfull item for Si/Fi and Horror. 


  • @Geoff Maybury Species 8472....

    https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Species_8472


  • @Grumpy Gnome Wow only saw them once, in what might have been the first contact . It was over before I even took sight, those my friend are bloody marvalous. Thats an Alien for you, as I said not a Treki , but credit where credits due, those are ace.  Nice info, I wouldn`t mind something as neat as those, it would be great. Pity about IP.


  • I would love to see something "small". Be it Racoon, Meerkat or Lemur based, a tribe of tiny aliens who fill the field with hordes of bodies 


  • to be honest.. i'd love something like the Birrin.. something that is very much not based on terrestrial body types, but which is just close enough you can imagine the biomechanics of how they should be posed and such.

    https://www.deviantart.com/abiogenisis/gallery


  • @Charles Tottington Well, I've always hated Planet of the Ape's monkeys, one of the few alien races i'll exterminate with extreme prejudice (with the Posleen & Daleks), but Wolfmen-like aliens (as in P. Anderson's Hunters of Sky Cave) or cat-like aliens, such as the Kzinti or better, C.J. Cherry's Hani, are generally my favourites, we could also add some cat-people in anime style!


  • @Mithril2098 Those aliens are really astounding, such a race would be a pleasant exception to the various mammals' derivated aliens or (worst) rubber forehead aliens we too often see.


  • Decided to play with some AI images

     


  • These. But in plastic in a similar layout as other wga kits with various weapon options/cyborg implants/head options/alien gadgetry/etc.
    And with some kind of "doglike" animal companion similar to the dark age irish or the german sentries.
    And with some "mounted" leg options so I can mount them on dinosaur toys! :D


  • @Carsten Ohlsson Those could be used as enemies as in the third season of Resident Alien, such a plastic set would be surely useful for conversions or similar.


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