Swarms on the sky


  • Box for swarms of flying animals, for example:

    - one or two swarm parts for ravens xor crows and two single of those birds

    - two or three swarm parts for bats and two or three single of them (probably most common swarm of flyers in games, friends of spiders in at least one game)

    - some bug swarms for example scarab beetles for egyptian sets (for examle as Scarab Swarms for 9th Undying Dynasties) (or mosquito like stinger from dnd or locust) and some single ones.

    - swarm of the parrots and four single models (pirates, aztecs, conquiscators)

    - optionally some single wreid (superb bird-of-paradise, toucan, kiwi) or popular flyers(wasp, owl, post version, hawk, falconer glove bits).

    Multiple of types of swarm in one box, because lot of the games would need less than all 6 sprues (based on spider size of them) and it would be probably impossible from buisness side to made them all separatelly.

    Some swarm parts and single models allows to customize swarms to not looking alike, tho making terrain support for them would be on customer or, in case of accepting this suggestion: https://wargamesatlantic.com/community/xenforum/topic/58949/creepy-trees-plastic-terrain it could use tree branches as a base for swarms.

     

     



  • Something that strikes me whenever I look at swarm minis on offer and compare them to what I need, is that apparently most fantasy wargames run them as a 40mm square base per "creature", whereas in D&D they are each a group of four 20-25mm bases. Staying contiguous, but otherwise in a shapeable formation.

    With ground based swarms, this is easily bridged by supplying essentially multiple minis per "creature", similar to strips in 10mm and 15mm scale games. But for a flying swarm, you'd kinda expect one big cloud. Not sure how to deal.

    Flying beetle swarms are a pretty cool idea though, as are exotic birds.


  • Some good bats would be welcome.

    Maybe some flying swarms incorporated into this idea/kit:

    Creatures of the Night Box

    Kind of like this classic...

    But taken to Eleven....


  • Certainly a good idea for a multitude of game systems and factions, though personally I'd say it would be better to have a smaller, cheaper box of each swarm type, so that someone specifically looking for scarabs for their Tomb Kings army, for example, wouldn't end up with a load of rats, parrots and other stuff that wouldn't fit in their army lying around unused after clipping off and using all the scarabs.


  • @Blutze My idea to deal with 40 vs 25mm bases is to make swarm parts so they can be glued as bigger or smaller groups to fit both sizes, plus it adds more random look or they can be used as terrain pieces additions.


  • @Rondaros A'terac 

    Makes sense.


  • @Caratacus I tailored this idea for current set size WA politics. For smaller boxes they could cast as easy to break on 2 or 4 parts frame. Or in case of scrabs, be a frame with bigger scrabs for sand stalkers or scorpions (for example for 9th Age's UD) or mummies or something else egyptian, but probably my core idea is more universal for marketing targeting, or even replace bugs and maybe parrots with spiders and/or rats for more one enviroment oriented area of animals.

    Or just put it on public vote.


  • A kit with various swarm types (bugs, crows, bats) would be great. I would suggests to create four parts per "creature". A base (tree trunk, direction sign, a pillar or whatever). They could also be suitable as a small piece of terrain. And then three elements of each "creature". That way you can play around with the shape of the swarm. Maybe you make one with two elements, one with four. One with three and use one as part of a character to give them some flavour.

    Or stick to a theme:
    Dungeon theme - Batsswarm, Giant rats & Ratsswarm
    Egyptian theme - Insectswarm, (undead) vultures & Scarabswarm
    Norse theme - Ravenswarm, wolves & individual ravens (couldn't think of a ground swarm)
    Meso-American theme - Parrotswarm, Jaguar & individual parrots

    I would be really down for a dungeon-themed one. Really could use models for bat swarms. Not only as bats but also as a swarm of imps. And I could use giant rats and rat swarms.


  • I think following up on the giant spider's format would be good for breaking some of these ideas into separate boxes.

    Currently for spiders we have.

    2 large creatures (horse sized)

    2 big creatures (dog sized)

    Then onto

    2-5 swarms to match (rat sized)

    1 huge version of the creature (elephant sized)

    I think a lot of RPG and wargame players would like the size variations.


  • Giant rats with associated small rats would be a goer, I reckon. Maybe 6 giant rats plus a bunch of small ones designed to group together on swarm bases. 6+12?

    Horse sized rats don't come up as much in Fantasy (although for some reason did in 1970's British TV...), but man-sized ones do a lot. Make the heads and bodies seperate to create variety and for making up beastmen with, perhaps?


  • @William Ings I would really like ravens swarms + big raven with mount options and raven themed guys, similar to lotr last aliance numenoran with mounting option. 1x Slightly bigger raven in sprue also would be nice. In case of crows instead of raven, option to make one with detective hat and scryglass to create murder invistigator or murder of murder invistigators.

    @Berggeit I would do put it this way:

    1x Additional sprue with generic base parts for flying swarms or terrain, like tree, rocks, trunks or bushes.

    5x Sprue (Flying Swarm + Bigger monster or monsters + Floor level swarm + Localized terrain accesory)

    Swarms as puzzle mode to put on 40 or 25 base and some singles for breaking pattern.

    For example:

    Caverns - Bat Swarms, Gigant bat, Spider swarms + Terrain fitting Generic Terrain sprue: Mushrooms, Crystals, Roots, stalagmite ends for rocks, mouth and eyes for tree or rock.

    Battlefield Scavengers - Raven swarms, Gigant rats, Rat swarm, Leftorwers from the battle.

    Jungle - Parrotswarms, 25mm Snakes or 40 and 25mm snakes, Snake swarms



Please login to reply this topic!