Where is Doctor Who Armada?

The Guardian newspaper have published a review of Star Wars Armada, Fantasy Flight games new fleet level starship game. I think this may be unprecedented. Mainstream newspapers and the BBC have published articles on Games Workshop before, but normally under business or human interest. By publishing a review, and a highly positive one at that, the Guardian are effectively saying to its readers, "here is something that you personally may want to purchase and use."

Fantasy Flight have been very canny here. Star Wars Armada, and its predecessor X-Wing, are effectively table top miniature games, albeit one that uses pre-assembled and pre-painted miniatures, but they are packaged and marketed like board games and sold in the sorts of shops that sell board games. Also, they have managed to do something that the previous producers of Star Wars miniatures failed to do, level Star Wars enormous pop-culture appeal to sell a miniature game to a mainstream audience. In years to come I can see a generation of wargamers cite Armada and X-Wing as the games that got them into the hobby in the way that my generation talks about Hero Quest.

All of this leads me to question why no-one has done the same thing with a British IP that has a similar cross-over appeal - Doctor Who.

Since it's return to television in 2005, Doctor Who has gone from being a huge fad to a respectable part of the UK television establishment. It may not score X-Factor busting audience figures, but it's ratings remain high and stable, especially when you take into account the large numbers watching online via Iplayer. More importantly, its place in pop culture is assured and no longer the butt of jokes.

Board games and card games have been produced based on Doctor Who but these have tended to be either focused on young children or variants of existing games like Monopoly or Top Trumps. There is a Doctor Who RPG but this has remained a specialist product only available in games shops or at conventions and there seems little hope that RPG's will re-enter the mainstream in the near future.

At the same time there have been dozens of unofficial "not Doctor Who" miniatures that the BBC either knows nothing about or has no interest in policing. There are at least four different versions of the 11th Doctor alone none of which are, technically, supposed to be him.

But a well designed, accessible, and well made Doctor Who miniature game could have genuine cross over appeal. It's the sort of thing that, long long ago, Games Workshop might have produced. Is there anyone left to try it now?

Mantic, Games Workshop and Substitute miniatures

An editorial on Tabletop Gaming news has had me thinking. The article talks about the virtues of Mantic Games 'non-competitive' approach to wargaming, producing models than can easily be substituted for existing Games Workshop ones and allowing you to produce armies compatible with both companies games. Its a good article, but what I found fascinating was some of the comments below. Most notably:

Please show me one single model that they’ve produced that isn’t a direct analogue of a Games Workshop model. I don’t see Mantic making anything other than a token effort to produce a set of rules so their lawyers can point to them and say “Look – we’re not trying to horn in on Games Workshop’s IP – honest!” They’ve put no effort into producing any sort of background or context for the miniatures, and definitely haven’t come up with any new concepts of their own as far as miniature design.

From Guinny. I'm going to take a look at this, not to pick on him specifically, but because it neatly reflects and attitude I've seen before and because its an interesting point of discussion. I've seen this attitude a lot, suggesting that Mantic are attempting to rip off Games Workshop and suggesting that there is something unethical or immoral in their approach.

Firstly, its worth noting that Games Workshop are not exactly slow to send out cease and desist orders when they feel their IP is being infringed. That Mantic have been left alone suggests that Games Workshop don't feel they have any kind of case on this score.

While it is probably true that most, if not all, of Mantic's releases can be substituted for similar Games Workshop ones, its worth looking at exactly what they are producing: heavy armoured dwarfs, elves with bows, Orc warriors, skeletons, zombies, ghouls, vampires. All of these are standard fantasy types, you could just as easily accuse them of ripping off Dungeons & Dragons. If they really were stealing Games Workshop's IP you would expect to see copies of their more distinctive creations. Where are the Gyrocopters? The Varghulf? The Arachnarok? The closest they get is the Abyssal Dwarfs, and that's more filling a niche that Games Workshop set up and have largely abandoned.

The supreme irony for me, though, is that producing models of standard fantasy archetypes is exactly where Games Workshop started and I regard this as very much a good thing.

Wargaming remains a niche hobby, while Fantasy and Science Fiction are very broad genres. Only the most successful and visible properties are every likely to be licensed for official wargames, which is why we have games for Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and little else. The advantage of producing a game based on archetypes, or even cliches, is that players can bring whatever they want to the game. Warhammer is a world that takes many of the high fantasy stereotypes popularised by Tolkein and developed by his imitators, and adds in gothic horror and a concept of Chaos that owes a debt to Michael Moorcock and H P Lovecraft. If you are a high fantasy fan, its not hard to take your favourite novel, comic or film and use it as inspiration for your Warhammer army.

For the most part companies seeking to carve out a niche within the niche of Fantasy Wargaming have tended to either reinterpret the archetypes (Chronopia, Confrontaion) or actively move away from them (Malifaux, Wargods, Anima Tactics). Mantic are different, in that they have decided that they can do the archetypes as well as Games Workshop or better.

That said, Games Workshop are hardly unique. Wargames Foundry, Wargames Factory, Renegade and Black Hat miniatures all have ranges of fairly traditional fantasy models, and thats just off the top of my head. The difference is that these ranges are one among many and don't have the profile of Mantic. Consequently they avoid the charge of 'ripping off' Games Workshop. Not to mention Avatars of War, which is far more explicitly aimed at Games Workshop players than are Mantic.

There's a venerable tradition in producing miniatures and games that can 'substitute' for a wide variety of source material not lucky enough to have a licensed game of its own. I am a fan of anime and manga, and there is a not insubstantial overlap between wargamers and that particular community. However, Japan has no home grown wargames industry at all, surprising when you consider the enthusiasm for model kits and miniature figures. Consequently, there are almost no licensed wargames based on Japanese IP, Privateer Press' Voltron is the only example I can think of. This has left a gap in the market for companies 'inspired' by the manga/anime aesthetic, notably Anima Tactics and Soda Pop miniatures.

Some companies have gone much further to attract the attention of gamers seeking unlicensed products - Doctor Who is a case in point. Black Tree Design still has a range based on the 'classic series' that ran between 1963 and 1996, but the only miniatures based on the recent series were produced by Character Options, who produce the Doctor Who action figures, and were clearly aimed at children. They were small and not well detailed, though plenty of gamers have gotten good mileage out of their Daleks and Cybermen. However, the free, unofficial Doctor Who miniature game remains available to download and both Heresy and Crooked Dice have a range of figures that in no way resemble the Doctor, his allies or enemies.

But the crucial question raised by the above comment is 'would we want it any other way?' I can understand why Games Workshop might have an issue with Mantic games, though they couldn't easily criticise without being accused of hypocrisy, but why would gamers? If you don't like what Mantic has to offer fine. Games Workshop products are still widely available. But surely all gamers benefit from an industry that is able to produce unlicensed substitutes for expensive or non-existent products?

The big Salute Review 2011

After all the months of build up the big event, Salute, has been and gone. Very much the biggest event in the wargaming calendar, with so many traders and games that putting together a coherent summary is a near impossible task. While the South London Warlords always have a theme (this year the American Civil War) it is always very loosely applied. There is little sense of unity and no prevailing impression. Also, I am a long way from being a professional photographer and others will provide better photo summaries, such as Joe Dever.

Most people approach Salute with a particular focus, whether it is shopping, gaming or even trying to record the event. But focusing on one tends to be detrimental to others. You can't spend all your time shopping and get a good sense of the games. I was buying this year and so didn't spend as much time gaming as I might have liked.

With all that in mind, I won't try to describe the show as a whole, but will will try to convey a few key impressions.

2011 seems to be the year when every company is legally obliged to release a set of Ancients rules. At Salute Hail Caesar from Warlord went head to head with Great Escape Game's Clash of Empires, while Scarab miniatures were demoing War and Conquest. I had already preordered Clash of Empires. Hail Caesar intrigued, particularly due to its lack of army lists and Rick Priestly's writing, but it seems better suited to very large armies and large tables.

Both seemed to be doing well. COE was probably helped by being available from a good number of traders. I got mine from Gripping Beast as they were handing out a free diorama of a Roman Centurion fighting a Dacian soldier and they were running very short by the end of the show. For Hail Caesar you seemed to have to go the source, but Warlord apparently ran out by the end of the show.


Swayed by Conquest Game's and Gripping Beasts's plastics, I had decided to build armies of Saxons and Normans. This also had the advantage that they would be usable in Gripping Beast's and Tomahawk's forthcoming Saga rules for Dark Age skirmishes. The game was being demoed at Salute and has an intriguing set of rules involving special Saga dice that determine permissable based on a battle board that is specific to the forces being used. It also apparently designed to scale up to bigger games.



Also being demoed was Mantic Games Dwarf Kings Hold, a new dungeon crawl game that uses their existing plastic Undead and Dwarves, although the version on display was a touch different than usual, using three ups for a giant sized game. The game itself uses a counter-based activation system. Dwarves get four counters a turn, the Undead start with three but only get one new one a turn. However, the Undead counters allow up to four skeletons to be activated at once. The effect is that the Dwarves generally have more options, but the Undead are better positioned to plan ahead, and have to use superior numbers to bring down the dwarves who hit harder. I have to say I was pretty terrible as the Undead, getting comprehensively smashed by my little brother, but it was an enjoyably straight forward and quick playing experience, unlike some dungeon crawl games I have played. I could see it as a good way to end a gaming session or fill in a bit of spare time.

I always like to watch the Doctor Who games that Crooked Dice put on. The rules are unofficial and so free to download with most of the miniatures being improvised or unofficial look alikes. Crooked dice's game mixed their own models with Heresy's and Haslefree's to create what would have been the most convaluted episodes ever, with Daleks, the Master, Autons and Gas Mask children taking on the Doctor, the Time Agents and Winston Churchill.


Meanwhile, at pride of place at the front of the hall the Daleks were invading the Tomb of the Cybermen, in a large scale participation game with custom rules and figures made from, sadly out of production, die cast figures.

UPDATE I have since been informed that the models are not out of production, not sure why I got the from.


The last game I wanted to talk about was Cthuleudo, half Call of Cthulhu and half Cluedo and entirely mad. Apparently highly involved, it evidently went on for hour and a half. Even though I didn't get to play, the board was packed with detail, both ranging from Chulhu statues to hidden Daleks.

So Salute is over for another year and hopefully the miniatures acquired will last until the next one. I have stacks of new plastic Saxons and Normans to paint, not to mention Dr Who, Helldorado and Infinity all of which will have time for at a later date.