A Low Effort Guide to the No Pressure Introduction to Miniature Wargaming

[@WARdROBEPlaysWWII]

Don’t worry about painting…amen

[@Gronkula85]

One step you could take before even buying your first box of minis is; using standees, either bought or printed at home.

[@bobiojimbo]

Or token flats, and playing with entirely flat terrain.

[@WARdROBEPlaysWWII]

Love the title of the vid.

[@demitrisioannou7730]

Hey man your doing a good thing, out there there would be a kid like we were once, that’s going man I really want to do this stuff but it’s too expensive, no more little dude no more. God bless

[@dartmart9263]

“Rank and flank”? I thought it was known as rank and file. Lol BTW, around here (Houston) we have: - Hobby Lobby - Michael’s Arts and Crafts - Joanne’s Fabrics and Crafts - Hobbytown

[@charleslatora5750]

San Diego Michaels Hobby Lobby Joann's Walk thru Walmart. I always find something. Terrain? Trash. I have several pieces that were packing material but have enough shape to be building like in looks. slap cheap paint on it and you got some buildings.

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

Michael's! That is the one that was on the tip of tongue. Thank you.

[@bobiojimbo]

Add to that list dollar stores. I've seen them sell all sorts of arts and crafts supplies a noob could use.

[@bobiojimbo]

Decided to look up 1/72 miniatures, and found a 200 piece medieval army for only $10.99. 100 minis in tan/gold, and 100 in black. There's a very affordable mass battle starter right there.

[@manjr]

Excellent suggestion for 1/72 fantasy - especially if you're starting from scratch to equip a family or small club, and don't have to worry about fitting in with "the scene". Another nice thing about those colored plastics is that they can be painted in stages. Start with a wash to bring out the details, next a drybrush for highlights, then later on you can pick out weapons, clothes, hair, etc. Your dudes will keep looking better and better without a big barrier upfront to getting started.

[@martinmeltzer2696]

This was an excellent introduction to the Greatest Hobby Known To Man! This would have saved me A LOT of time, effort, & money back in the day when I first came across Wargaming. Well done!

[@patricklee2606]

Jon, your channel is the absolute best! You have a great sense of humor and the content is top notch. Thank you for all of this!

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

You're too kind. I'm glad you enjoy it so much.

[@crasher303]

Very thought provoking vid. I'm a returning Wargamer, & have been following your series of gaming play.

[@ninjamania]

This was a great intro to miniatures gaming. I especially appreciate seeing a Cartel Agent in the mix of minis displayed. Well done!

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

Cartel! That's the one! Those old Warzone figures were chunky as all get out, but looked so good on the table.

[@ninjamania]

@@TheJoyofWargaming especially the Mark Copplestone sculpts. I believe Kev Adams sculpted nice ones too.

[@NightDangerRPG]

Should be noted that standard beer bottle caps are 26mm thereabouts, so work in a pinch for any game where 25mm bases are common

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

Now that's clever. Are they heavy enough for regular use?

[@NightDangerRPG]

@@TheJoyofWargaming for light plastic stuff like green army men, yeah. I wouldn't put lead or pewter minis on them. You can always fill the bottom with epoxy or something, I suppose. The really cheap option is to simply paint the caps as tokens with no standing mini at all, mark one edge to indicate what direction he's facing

[@revd.phillipwallace-pugh9955]

Great video as ever. Paper miniatures and accessories are a great and inexpensive way to try out different periods for very little cost and particularly getting people into largeer scale battles where the cost of miniatures is beoming ever more restrictive. They are particularly good for club projects too.

[@rondanuser1204]

Great intro!

[@leksa2837]

Stainless Steel Flat Washers is pretty good substitution for coins also

[@TheJoyofWargaming]

I use them almost universally for foot troops.

[@willcorlett7630]

As always, enjoyed the video and appreciate where you were coming from, however maybe you missed a trick here, with that $50 budget? here are a few suggestions for introducing someone to this great hobby but for far less. Robert Lloyd has produced a simple but very tactical game called battle Blocks Sengoku, which uses jenga/tumbling blocks as the unit game pieces. All you need are the rules that include the counter stickers (available on wargame vault) and a box of the blocks, togther it will run yu to around $15 max, but probably cheaper. The game is played on a 2x2 foot surface and hills , woods etc can be improvised with card or felt pieces. As an aside it plays really well using wasy adaptation of the One Hour Wargame scenarios. This is a great intro to basic tactics the ideas of using dice and some situational modifiers. Bonus is that it is extremely portable. Second up , to fit in with your excellent suggestion of One Page rules , is to use paper minis, actually the quirky figures used in Sundered Vaults Battlelund - also via WVault. The all in bundle is just under $20 but includes the rules (the game itself is good) and several full size 15mm fantasy armies, which simply need printing out as required and stuck onto bases - you make as many as you want. I admit the art (based on early computer games) will not be to everyones taste but it gets the job done - my grandsons love to make up their own pieces based on the simple style - and is readily convertable to OPRules. Again terrain is easily put together Note Sundered Vault offer other paper miniature ranges including a almost parody of a game with lots of skulls, spiky bits and boltguns if fantasy does not float your boat. Only my thoughts

[@thomaswilliams5005]

I know I say this a lot, but great video as always. Looking forward to the painting one.

[@johnscarr70]

I love free rules and there are a LOT out there. it's just finding your preference. If they're still available Iron Winds of War is about as simple as mass battle gets. If you enjoy troop creation and command and control and tactics, proper; Undying Lands is quite satisfying. Dark Alliance have a great range of 1/72. lots of it "inspired" by Peter Jackson's LOTR, but other perfect fantasy standards too. 50 grunts for 8GBP? Great bang for your buck if you're starting out. The only thing to note with Ukrainian plastics is they can come in wacky and unexpected colours. that Cimmerian cavalry is impressive but don't be disappointed if you get blue horses and red riders!

[@bobiojimbo]

I'm glad you made this video. I thought about this subject as well, and my conclusion was to advise against getting into miniature wargaming. However, if someone is dead set on getting into it, your introduction is a good starting point.

[@Stygard]

The only real scale difference that bothers me is my Lord of the rings minis from GW. The plastic and metal are not the same. My merry and Pippin in gondor/Rohan uniforms look tiny next to the hobbit militia that are metal....

[@dartmart9263]

Have you made any recent improvements to Astra Tortuga? If so, what specifically? Also, I’d love to see it taken to a new level, perhaps with a more permanent resident “crew” on board that doesn’t disappear conveniently for gangs to fight it out.

[@mikeharrison6039]

Also, those Aliance minis are very fun and I highly suggest them, but they are made in Ukraine so expect shipping delays

[@mikeharrison6039]

I feel like it’s worth saying that 1/72 minis are roughly 25mm scale

[@BlackDouglas1000]

15mm is a great scale for cost, space and transportability...let's make wargames tiny again!

[@mhovar101]

I have seen the dark alliance figures for as low as 9 dollars on eBay

[@charleslatora5750]

15 then 30? And what about 25/28?

[@bobiojimbo]

Those, I guess are still in the heroic scale he was referring to.