The Age Of Tyrants Kickstarter Has Launched
January 21, 2016 by brennon
The Age of Tyrants Kickstarter has begun allowing you to get together all of the various armies for this fantastic looking 6mm Sci-Fi world. Which of the armies would you want to begin your battling with?
The idea behind Age of Tyrants is to focus on combined arms warfare where infantry is supported by vehicles and vice-versa. The Beta Rules for the game are free to download right now so you can check out the activation system and how it all works. We had a lot of fun with the game when they popped over to the studio!
The Models
The miniatures for this game are 6mm in scale and made of resin. You can see some of the tanks here below.
You can also check out some of the painted miniatures that have been produced so far. See what you think of these vehicles and infantry that give you a taste of exactly what 6mm miniatures can look like when painted nicely!
Each of the different pledge levels will give you options for infantry and vehicles so you can pick which you want to form your army. Hopefully we'll see more expansions and different options appearing as the campaign continues.
Will you be backing this?
"The idea behind Age of Tyrants is to focus on combined arms warfare where infantry is supported by vehicles and vice-versa..."
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I’m going to stick with DZC for my sub-28mm sci-fi; but I’ll follow it with interest!
No room for two small scale games in your life or missus disapproving.
No in all honesty, once you play a John Robertson game you sorta come to like the balance and tactical depth.
Urban War is possibly my favourite miniatures game of all time. It’s certainly my favourite sci-fi game!
The only thing stopping me from backing this is lack of funds but I shall be following the progress with great interest.
Dude you know how to let a guy down gently 😉
That kickstarter is confusing TBH.
You really need to read those BETA rules in order to understand what you need.
And speaking of BETA rules …the layout certainly could do with a bit of work.
These are not pretty, they are purely for playtesting, the final rules set will be in full colour with lots of art and miniature battle shots.
I understand that and I know that even a semi decent layout can be a bit of pain in the posterior in Word (bloody thing always appears to mess with indexes), but some people might see this as a bad sign for the quality of the game itself.
It’s not a good first impression, which is a shame because Dropzone could use a bit of competition.
I think the KS presentation is pretty slick fella, so hopefully it’ll create a good enough impression that we’ll be able to get enough support. The whole point of the KS is to get backers to help us realise our vision and part of that will be to fund the design and layout of the book will more gorgeous artwork and splendidly painted miniatures and battle reports.
So this has nothing to do with Prodos?
I believe that Prodos is casting the resin miniatures.
They are one of 3 suppliers we have sourced but you have to admit the quality of their casts is very high, it’s what drew us to them.
I have always loved the quality of Prodos’s sculpts and casts. I guess I just have concern that this does not end up like AVP. While I think I will be jumping into this, Prodos’s involvment is making me question how much. If I put in £200 and see all the product in August it will be great, I can afford to wait on £200, I could not afford to wait if I invest £400. Does that make sense
See the point and in their defense, they have not been late on producing stuff for others, or such was the tenor at least.
Of course and believe me we are very aware of these issues. We are not crazy people we know backers may have issues with Prodos, one reason why we have secured 3 possible candidates to do the casting. When we do commit to a supplier there will be penalty clauses, no mater who we use, agreed with all three suppliers to ensure that we do deliver on time. I am very confident that we can do this, no matter who we use. Prodos have exceptional casts so they are a very compelling partner for us. Not sure where that leaves… Read more »
Thank you for replying @johnrobertson it is appreciated. I am going in for 2 companies for 2 factions (4 companies in total)
We have used them to do pre-production samples along with 3 other companies, that’s the extent of the connection. We are independent designers and it is our project, which we wholly own.
I find it quite easy and well explained by the creator. 4 bases a platoon, 4 platoons a company, add in a captain and you are good to go. Do not see what is confusing there tbh…..
BETA rules are called BETA for a reason I guess but hey, I am only a gamer for 26 years now, what do I know. LOL, seriously….
Tanks with monstrous guns and huge missiles ramps… and then infantry with swords, spears and shields.
To quote Warren “I felt like Napoleon, commanding a Roman legion, in WWII, in a sci-fi setting”
can’t be bad
I definitely saw sniper rifles!
Those Legionaries have Shotguns and Roman Shields! That’s just cool!
@limburger what’s the issue? maybe I can help? You simply simply select the value of what you want to buy, then choose the specifics models in the pledge manager once the campaign closes.
The basic game is played with one company a side, a company is 4 platoons- these are the ones illustrated under the pledge level Platoons in the Pledge section. You will need a single captain base too, but when the project funds customers will get a free captain base for every company they buy.
I think something like a starter set suggestion per faction would make it easier to get an idea of what you guys think is a fun force to use.
I also think that simplified army selection would make it easier for you to pick orders as there wouldn’t be much variation per backer.
Once the kickstarter is done we can always buy more in shops and/or on-line right ?
Its certainly puzzling me why folk are having a problem with this, to play the basic game you need a company, a company is 4 platoons, any 4 platoons from your faction. So if you want to play with one company then look at what platoons you want and pledge that amount, that’s it.
We do have some motion videos coming out shortly so hopefully that will help, as a stop gap we have started a discussion in our forums which you can find here:
http://www.ageoftyrants.com/index.php/forum/general-discussion/69-army-building#218
Hopefully that will help.
Thanks for the answers 🙂 Any new system is a bit confusing at first especially when the platoons are given referred to by different names depending on the faction. So at pledge level 1 you can basically get 1 company worth of infantry platoons for a single faction ? For the Junkers that might be ‘maniple I’, ‘maniple II’, ‘maniple III’ + the exosuit platoon. You’d have to add extra for the rulebook and the captain which is a key component in an army. I’m not sure if that is a decent army though. You’d need pledge level 2 to… Read more »
We’ve got a comments thread going over on the Kickstarter which addresses some of your concerns there. here’s a quote from John on that thread: “And I will let you into a very bad secret when we fund levels 3, 4 and 5 will get their rulebooks for FREE, 1 and 2 with get the PDF for free AND for every 4 platoons you buy we will give you a captain base of your choice from free too, that goes for all pledge levels. So just plumb for your level 3 and see what free stuff you can accumulate, then… Read more »
Yes i do understand we are trying to rationlise this all out for everyone, it is new but we have tried to be as flexible as possible to leave you to choose what you want to play with. So level 1 can get you 4 inf platoons, as you rightly suggest what we are going to do is, when we clear the funding level is give a captain base away for FREE with every 4 platoons, whether Inf or Armour and all pledges will at least get a PDF of the rulebook for free too, level 3 and above get… Read more »
Yeah, the Beta rules are my raw design document (apologies), as John says, it will be professionally laid out when we get it back from final edit, which it’s currently undergoing. There are also one or two tweaks we’ll be making that aren;t in the Beta to further finesse the gameplay. I’ve started a thread over on the AoT forums to discuss army building btw: http://www.ageoftyrants.com/index.php/forum/general-discussion/69-army-building#218
looks interesting are more vehicles coming out & I see aircraft on the website.
Dropships. I seen the VA3A artworks but psssssst, secret.
yes we have a supplement called Air Superiority that brings in ground attack craft and dropships for each faction.
We also have jet and road bikes, quad bikes, dudes riding lizards/mutant camels and a bunch of jet packed types, and some manned robots for Urban fighting
sounds good, mutant camels is that an homage to the 80’s lamas?
They are what we call Sandrunners, and they do have that 80s sci-fi vibe, in fact the whole brand has a sort of retro sci-fi thing going. I am a huge fan of the great Epic sci-fi films, particularly Dune and of course The Empire Strikes Back, so there’s a curious mix of animal and machine mounts, tanks and such, we do have large armoured gun towers on lizards in some of the future expansions.
sounds a bit Ork’y as well, not a bad thing I think.
Oddly they are the faction that have massively huge tanks covered in rivets 😉
Well, I have backed. Sigh, KS is my ruin … 🙂
You ARE a very nice Viking 😉
Welcome to the Club….LOL
@minigiant you are very welcome sir 🙂
The vehicles look nice but its too expensive for my budget
Where there is a pound, there is a pledge. 😛
I’m in the same boat, I like the look but a bit too pricey for me right now.
Dang, money is too tight to fund any more kickstarters right now.
After I get some income, I’m totally grabbing some of those Viridians because I’ve completely fallen in love with them.
Very glad you like them mistahsly, but you can actually earn free models by joining our affiliates program, see here http://www.ageoftyrants.com/index.php/affiliates/accounts
Followed this with great interest since an early rules post here as I think 6mm is a scale woefully under-represented. I have mixed feelings on the kickstarter and I hope the project originator doesn’t take this the wrong way, but I was hoping for a less is more approach. What I mean by this is that all the mini’s look fantastic and I love the rules, but I personally think 6mm needs a really good starter box with 2 opposing forces and terrain rather than this choose what you want approach. Additionally the pledge levels, while I can see the… Read more »
Hey there! You can pledge £48 and then up your pledge to £64, thus, in the Pledge Manager you’ll be able to grab the bits and pieces you want. Our aim is to make it like a book of slots you fill in. You just need to choose how many slots you want to buy, then in the pledge manager, fill them in (or buy more slots!). However, we are obviously concerned in beating our goal, so we aim for higher pledges. This is why the higher you pledge, the more you will get. I think we will have smaller… Read more »
okay lets take your plan to buy 2 infantry and 2 Armour first. You go for Pledge level 1 at £48, which will cover you for the 2 inf and 1 armour platoon, yes? Then you buy an armour platoon add-on for £24. No “normal” sized tanks planned this is AoT and they are massive 😉 As for the starter set we will be introducing terrain sets as this rolls out, resin, MDF and some downloadable card ones too that are very kind on the pocket. Please note that we offer all Captain bases for FREE with every 4 Platoons,… Read more »
You select the lower of the two pledge levels but you put in the total cost of what you want. When it comes to the Pledge Manager you can select what you want
Yeah that’s what I thought re: upping the pledge, Kickstarters normally work like that but clarification is always good as a couple I’ve backed have had some very odd rules when it came to the pledge manager.
Might be worth popping this in an FAQ at the bottom of the main page?
Look I may have come over a bit harsh, i have been up for over 2 days straight now and am really needing some sleep! We are going to edit the pledge text on the project page to hopefully make it clearer. Very shortly we will be uploading some motion videos of how to build companies so that will go some way i hope to clarifying the situation. What we can’t do is an endless iteration of small divisions between pledge levels, they are appreciably different in cost as we will be rolling out a whole raft of free stretches,… Read more »
Going to revamp the Pledging section of the project to make it much clearer today, further there will be some new pledges that might make things far simpler to back, thanks for the feedback, cheers
I’ve backed the 192 for this just so I could get all the basic miniatures for Syntha Just because I played Void and Urban War as Syntha so it’s a collection thing for me 🙂
Excellent, much appreciated 😀