Hi there and welcome to I Am Your Target Demographic. Today we’re starting a three-part
series on collectible miniatures. I want to create videos based on things I’m interested
in, so hopefully some of you are too. This video is going to focus on the different
games you might run across, such as Warhammer or Dungeons and Dragons.
How are these games compatible, which ones might be for you…
Part two next week will focus on the variety of models you can find out there in the world,
including the wide world of 3D printing. Our third and last video will then discuss painting
methods and terminology. All of these videos are for beginners and are meant to be introductory.
On the screen, I’ll also be highlighting channels that you may want to look into,
from various gaming and hobby channels that I’m a huge fan of.
There are many many games you can play with miniatures, but I discovered them through the
company Games Workshop. They have a game system called Warhammer, with two variations. Warhammer:
Age of Sigmar is a fantasy-style wargame where two or more people pitch their armies against
each other. It’s primarily dice-driven and you have many options for which armies to choose,
so you can lean towards traditional fantasy races such as elves, orcs, or humans, or a little more
out there such as the lizardmen called Seraphon or the various races of demons present in this world.
There is also a science-fiction version of Warhammer called Warhammer 40,000 or shortened to
40K. In this version, the gameplay is relatively similar but you have races that are much more
technological and alien. Games Workshop also has a game centered on the Lord of the Rings franchise,
which is a much simpler scope but might appeal to you if you love that franchise already.
This is still a competitive game, where one player might control one of the armies of good
against a friend who has a force of darkness. Games Workshop games
are traditionally massive sprawling battles requiring many miniatures but you can find
smaller skirmish-based games that utilize the same models if you can’t afford a huge army.
We’ve also got the company Privateer Press. They’ve got a lot of different games under
their umbrella, but most notably the games Hordes and Warmachine. Hordes is the fantasy variant,
with a handful of different factions that you can collect and face off against your friends.
Warmachine is a little bit more sci-fi, but veers into steampunk rather than outright futuristic,
so you can collect warcasters who control massive warjacks. These games are both smaller in scale,
so you need just a handful of models to play. We now pivot to Frostgrave. Frostgrave is a
miniatures competitive game but incorporates much more in terms of spellcasting,
as your force revolves around a wizard or two and the spells they can use,
as well as brute force to attack your enemies. There’s also a focus on stringing smaller games
together into an overarching campaign.
Very similar to the fantasy Warhammer, we have Kings of War. This is much more about
rank and file armies, so you might have a lot of miniatures on the table.
Warhammer has moved away from ranked units, so a lot of players interested in that feel and
movement of the game has moved to Kings of War. And then we have Dungeons and Dragons and
other tabletop roleplaying games, which utilize miniatures but aren’t traditionally competitive.
I have entire videos outlining both Dungeons and Dragons and Warhammer if you want a deeper dive,
but D&D specifically… I like miniature-focused Dungeons and Dragons, seeing the environment and
the monsters you’re facing. Others might prefer what’s called “theatre of the mind” games, where
it’s less about the logistics of the battlefield and measuring distance and more about the
theatrics and imagining what’s happening. But if you wanted miniatures, D&D has their own minis,
as well as plenty of miniatures from other games that are transferable.
Let’s talk about what that means, to use other models. Each game has a specific scale,
which is how big the miniatures are, and you should make sure your models adhere to that scale.
Typically the scale is from the base to their eye level and for an average human,
how many millimeters is that. For example, D&D is typically 25mm scale, while Warhammer is 28mm,
sometimes even closer to 32mm. So a Warhammer average human would look larger than one in D&D.
So if you’re mixing and matching systems or trying to use other brands, make sure you know what
scale. D&D also uses a standard sizing system, so all Medium-sized creatures or humans fit onto a 1
inch (or 25mm) sized base. So even if you find a Warhammer model you’d want to use for D&D,
you also have to consider the base size and shape. It can be complicated but rewarding
if you’re able to use your models across systems. These are just a few of the big games. You might
know other wargames, you might even have board games that have fantastic miniatures.
Next week our video will discuss the details of these models, a bit more about scale,
and the best places to purchase models, including the wide world of 3D printing. See you next week!