wkehrman said:
No, that sci-fi and fantasy rules, and the minis that go with them are one-trick ponies. When the game system runs its course, that's it. You're stuck with a pile of lead that's only good for the one system. This is fine _if_ you are in an area with a strong fan base, otherwise, Ebay here you come.
Realistically, historical games are no different. In the 2+ decades I've been playing miniatures the *only* historical systems that have stayed around are the various DBx incarnations, Flames of War and Warhammer Historical. All the others have pretty much been flashes in the pan as well. Of the three I mentioned, Flames of War has maintained its position by embracing the continual update philosophy of a large company where others have not. Warhammer Historical has the backing of an already existing large company. DBx, well, I've personally never seen the appeal of that ruleset, but oh well
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While you may not be able to use some of your fantasy/sci-fi minis when the game support goes away, I know lots of people who continue to play or more likely search out places to use them rather than hit eBay as you suggest. I would liken it to the Star Trek / Star Wars franchises. Both have been *hugely* successful and lived far beyond their original incarnations. I have no doubt that were a popular miniatures game system be developed for either of those that it too would survive. I don't count Star Fleet Battles as it's overly complicated and you mostly use counters - thus it appeals mostly to board wargamers. I also don't consider that pop-up card thingy that Wizards put out for Star Wars. Ugh.
In any event, the only advantage historicals have over fantasy/sci-fi in any context is reusability of miniatures, assuming you can find a system you like that uses the same scale. Otherwise, the actual rule systems are no more enduring than any other.
Fair enough, if you are willing to deal with the incessant arguing / complaining about the various imaginary weapons and their imaginary performances! There's very little room for debate over the performance of an M5 Stuart vs a Mark VI Tiger.
IMO that's part of the appeal of fantasy/sci-fi, i.e. the imaginary world settings that can be anything you want them to be. As you say there is no debate about a Stuart vs a Tiger. As for the games themselves it doesn't matter what genre you're playing. You still have the same players who will either cheese out their lists or who won't. We were discussing this last night actually. Personally I would enjoy historicals, including Flames of War, much more if there were more scenarios. Sure, the "build & bring" method of army creation is great too. It does, however, lend itself to more min-maxing than scenarios. JMO though and why I like the newer version of 40K better than previous incarnations because it, while stil not perfect, does try to implement a flexible scenario-based system.
You don't really think I'm going to rely on -my- die rolls do you? :wink:
At least you have periods where your dice rolling approaches phenomenal. I have periods where mine rises from the depths of abysmal to being merely poor ;-).
Cheers, Gary
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