Alternative Playing Pieces

I noticed in the Battle Reports section of the forum that Zhu Bajie once staged a skirmish battle between some acorns and rocks ('The Wardream of Yimir' I believe it was called)...using actual acorns and rocks.

Zhu, I was very impressed that you used Warhammer Fantasy Battle purely as a rule system with which to play a wargame of your own imagining, with your own pieces, which seems to me to capture the essential spirit of Oldhammer.

Has anyone else tried playing any version of Warhammer/40K with unconventional playing pieces instead of regular wargaming miniatures?

Lego? Playmobil? My Little Pony?

If so, do any of you have Battle Reports or blogs which chronicle such experiments?

Also, what do people think of this concept in general?
 

Asslessman

Member
I'm torn with that concept because I love models, Ilove to paint them and I love to make stories with them and the paintjob and careful attention I put in them helps me visualise the story. That said I loved Zhu's idea for the look of it and the fact it lets you run it like in some TRONesque manner.

If you loved those you should check his war of the acorns : viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1234
 

Erny

Member
Things used for necessity as a kid:

The card counters supplied in the books.

My own card counters colored in with pencil crayons.

My own counters printed on a dot matrix printer and glued to card.

Flats made from the adverts in white dwarf stuck to card.

My own hand drawn flats.

Lego.

And more recently virtual playing counters using top down photos of my own minis:

close1.jpg


bf1.jpg


http://ernysplace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-battle-of-plank-street-gms.html
 

Zhu Bajie

Member
Stormbringer":asl5uous said:
I noticed in the Battle Reports section of the forum that Zhu Bajie once staged a skirmish battle between some acorns and rocks ('The Wardream of Yimir' I believe it was called)...using actual acorns and rocks.

Zhu, I was very impressed that you used Warhammer Fantasy Battle purely as a rule system with which to play a wargame of your own imagining, with your own pieces, which seems to me to capture the essential spirit of Oldhammer.

I'm glad you enjoyed The Wardream of Yimir. We did play more of that campaign, using bent old rusty nails as People of Iron (Orcs), thorns and rosehips as Children of the Tithe (Dark Elves) and shells as Folk of the Sea (Sea-Elves) but I didn't document those. It certainly seems to capture the spirit of something. I highly recommend giving it a go, just taking a walk in the woods or the beach or digging around in the garden if you have one, looking and imagining what things could be symbols for, then pulling together a small game out of it. Early autumn is a best time of year, there is more stuff about.

file.php


Played Lichemaster and McDeath with the original card counters drawn by Tony Ackland that came with those back in the day. Never cut out John Blanches paper flats for Magnificent Seven. I think there are some big differences between playing with representational pieces - be it a card with a drawing or a miniature or toy and a symbolic or non-objective playing piece, both aesthetically and in terms of reading the battlefield.

file.php
 
Thanks, Zhu.

Asslessman, I particularly loved that blog using the Star Wars figures -- that's exactly the kind of thing I'm talking about.
 

Protist

Member
Errrr, that kid has jet black eyes. Its slightly terrifying in a "When I grow up I want to be the Dark Lord and rule the world from my sturdy, realistic castle. Cross me and you shall be cast from the battlements into the secret dungeons, with a limp flap of my wrist" sort of way.

Looks awesome though :)
 

Dieselhorst

Member
I've played warmaster using primed dominoes. I used 28 mm figs as abstract representations of the unit type and/or characters. One day I'd like to take a piece of artist canvas and do a tolkein-style map to play a game like this on.
 
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