Worst Miniature game ever?

[oriskany 60771xp 1]

@bobcockayne – “can remember when ASL 1st came out and being told it was the best thing since sliced bread.”

It was, when it started.  Then it got popular, and they kept shoving out new rules expansions and supplements that didn’t always “talk” well with each other.  Before you knew it the game was an unwieldy, over-complicated mess.

This is what I support /what Battlefront did with FoW 4.0, even though it seems to have pissed off a lot of veteran players.

Every now and again SUCCESSFUL games (i.e., games that have done well enough to get tons of subsequent material published for it) need to “page one re-write,” as chaos slowly creeps into the machine through all the addendum material that gets piled on through the years.

FoW got that re-write, and survives.

ASL didn’t, and is a great “old” game in the dustbin of history, that probably isn’t as great as fans might remember it to be.

My favorite old game, PanzerBlitz, DEFINITELY needed this, and got it …twice … with the Panzer Leader release and the Arab-Israeli Wars release (with all new writers) after that.

[davehawes 7768xp 0]

I can’t say I find it easy to hate a game, usually, something to like, and often I feel it’s not a case of good or bad, but where designers have chosen to make compromises (as they must) whether they have chosen the one I would have or not.

That all being said, this thread has made me think that of the un-assembled and unplayed games sitting on my shelf, Aetherium will see the light of day before Sedition Wars does 🙂

[phaidknott 7023xp 1]

Probably going to get slammed for this one, but for me it was Conan (by Monolith). Don’t get me wrong, the game components were GREAT, but the game itself……..

Even after downloading the “fixed” pdf version of the rules (the rules that came with the box were a mess), it was fiddy (little gems going everywhere), and we found it just wasn’t fun in the end.

It looks like they went with a similar system for Batman (and again the game components look really nice), but after our experience with Conan none of us backed it.

 

I do feel that these days a lot of these Board game with miniatures seem to have excellent minis, but the rules seem to take a second place in the focus of the project design. About the only one I saw that perked my interest was the Core Space one from Battle Systems (BoW did an excellent series of Let’s Play videos that really highlighted the rules).

On “Old” wargame rules it definitely Newbury Fast Play Napoleonics (I think the only reason it got played was there wasn’t a lot of other options), followed by the “Empire” Napoleonic rules (that was definitely written with a bias for all thing Francophile). I was pretty famous for not bothering to fire with my Russian Infantry battalions (as even at point blank range you did about 20 casualties due to the rather dodgy “Russians had “bad” black powder rule that was added). I always thought that under Empire my best units were pike armed militia (as at least their pointy sticks were longer 😀 )

For Board games it was Star Fleet Battles, it was ok but then suffered for “creeping featuritis” with all the expansions. We stopped playing when one of our group got fixated on playing Kzinti (and wouldn’t play anything else). Problem with Kzintis is that nearly all there weapons were “drones” (think missile) which meant counters on the board for EVERY SINGLE SHOT….and the all moved individually. So about 2/3rds of the game was him moving all his drones. They should have left it after about the first 3 expansions (but then went on to publish over 45 expansions for the thing….ugh)

 

 

 

 

[beardragon14 7474xp 5]

I am going to be contraversial …. the worst minatures game I ever played was “Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition”  because I didn’t think I was buying a miniatures game … and yet I was

[meanboneParticipant 837xp 0]

I see the gem system in Conan as a pretty efficient system for handling fatigue and how that combines with wounds to gradually reduce effectiveness. I think the Book of Skelos with the river of cards works pretty well too for the Overlord player. There are a lot of strategic decisions to make and “go for it” or “play it safe” moments, which add up to a cinematic experience.

Yeah, the original rulebook wasn’t written well and created a good deal of confusion, and the scenarios vary somewhat in quality. But I’d say if Conan is your worst miniature game then you’ve been quite fortunate!

[torros 23816xp 1]

@bobcockayne The scariest part of Newbury Ancients is that they released in 1980

[dagsParticipant 3591xp 0]

AoS 1st edition was terrible, conceptually interesting but under developed and poorly written.  Objectively I would probably have to out this as worst set I played.

Personally I can’t stand shadespire, it’s as if they took all the things I loathe in gaming and put them into one rules set.  However,it is probably the most cleanly written gw ruleset.

Wargods of aegyptus 1st ed I found that off putting it never made the table.

Other contenders for my dislike list would be frostgrave (dice mechanic), drowned earth and infinity (reaction mechanics), kings of war (lack of interaction), current Necromunda (mass battle rules in a skirmish system).  However I wouldn’t say they were objectively bad, in fact some are really well written.

In terms of other issues mantics deadzone kickstarter delivery and quality killed my enthusiasm for it out right.

As an aside I would add 40k, AoS and X-wing played as a competitive game I avoid like thd plague

[jamesedwardsParticipant 1101xp 0]

I absolutely love the Frostgrave rules! Especially the dice mechanic whereby the wounds from a hit can be very different depending on luck. Goes to show you can’t please everyone I suppose ?

[jjgrubb 2726xp 1]

Im really really sorry for this, I really am because I know its an internet darling I know everyone loves to wear those rose coloured nostalgia specs and all but…….. Blood Bowl, I came into the game while it was “dead” (run by the community despite being dropped) and after playing through my second league I quit, I mean it has some nice moments but, you dont play the game, it plays you. The dice mechanics feel archaic and nothing has changed in the “new” edition. I love the lore but not the game..

 

Im sorry, Im very very sorry I have good friends that will likely have my head for this.

[sulphurParticipant 952xp 0]

For me it has to be Mercs recon by megacon games. The KS  was a total nightmare and the end product was complete garbage which is unplayable, close second is Sedition wars, took ages to put minis together and paint then I gave up, it’s been sitting in box unplayed since.

[volleyfireandyParticipant 2489xp 0]

I think the game that’s been most disappointing, and frustrating to me was Team Yankee. Love the concept, can’t stand the execution.

[osbad 4279xp 0]

There are lots of games that haven’t stood the test of time yet when released I would happily play them.  As products of their era stuff like WRG, DBM/A, WAB, Full Thrust are all games you couldn’t drag me into playing now, but that isn’t their fault as people have learned and developed better ideas now.

When it comes to more modern stuff then I have got to list Confrontation 3.  It is back via a kickstarter but really, I see no redeeming features other than models that were amazing for their time and are still lovely.  As a game its a confusing, badly written, unbalanced heap of dreck that should have been allowed to rest peacefully in its grave.

I would add Shadespire to the list but really it is a deck building card game and I hate that genre, so including it on my list due to the fact it uses miniatures is probably unfair.

[qmpsjjParticipant 215xp 0]

Age of Sigmar probably tops my list. I liked WFB and was excited by a possible big rules shake up. Where they going to introduce alternate activation? Or maybe switch to a D12 system so they could have greater verity in stat lines? Or were they going to make magic less powerful so you could not win thw game on turn one? Stop hordes and give cav back unit strength for flank bonuses?

No just turn the game into the most uninspired fantasy skirmish i have ever played even though GW still has one of the best in the form of the LOtR game. I played a few games just to make sure I was not missing anything. I was not.

In second place for me is X-wing. I hate blank sides on dice and having roll after roll do nothing. I find the game slow because of this. The movement breaks my immersion as it is so restricted. The game is also extremely expensive.

The next one I played quite a lot for about 2-3 years and thats 40k about 17 years ago. I played 2 editions cannot remember which. And it felt like any tactics were slowly being destroyed. It was a outdated  system even then. Played a few games of 7th before deciding it was really not for me and picked up infinity for my Sci Fi game.

Looking back now i only played it because others did. I always liked the LoTRs game or fantasy more.

There are other systems I have avoided over the years but cannot comment on them as i never actually played them.

 

 

 

 

[sundancer 42976xp 0]

@gmpsjj I can understand your dislike with the rules of X-Wing… but expensive? Most other miniature games (GW marching very much in the first line here) need much more investment to even get started let alone play the army/faction you like in a “bigger” way. Yes a single ship can be expensive but you don’t fly more than two YT-1300 at a time with 100 Points limit 😉

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