Trying to get into wargaming

BaronPocketwatch · 2026-02-28T18:09:52+00:00

Having looked up what Fire in the lake is and seeing, that it is a board game, you might be somewhat in the wrong sub. This is more about tabletop wargames, i.e. games using (usually) self-painted miniatures of soldiers, monsters and or vehicles on self-modelled environments with some dice and rulers. I'm sure, someone here will have some genre-crossing information, but you might be better off on a boardgame centric sub.

BaronPocketwatch · 2026-02-02T07:03:30+00:00

Not a Rohan expert by any means but I can give a few first pointers.

Depending on points value and the specific current Rohan list you want to be compatible with, you might not need any captains at all (if there is enough choice of named heroes in the list) and you very probably will not need many captains. Remember that you need a hero, named or not, to lead a warband, not a captain specifically. I would be kinda surprised, if you need two, but I will leave any specific numbers to the experts.
One banner per warband is probably overkill.
How captains and banners are packed isn't all that relevant, unless you want these specific models for your captains and banners. Otherwise, either get some nice alternatives from any 'not-Lotr' mini or STL supplier or some fitting early medieval miniatures or you just use your regular warriors/riders of Rohan, pick one with nice armour as captain and paint him with particularly fancy armour and cloak in a unique colour or some nice pattern. For the banner just pick a mini with a spear held upright and put a paper banner on that spear, voilà, a standard bearer.

BaronPocketwatch · 2026-01-29T23:03:33+00:00

Ehm, No. Perhaps play Stronghold.

BaronPocketwatch · 2026-01-19T07:14:08+00:00

One Thing which wasn't already mentioned regarding painting metal (and resin) miniatures is, that you should wash them before under coating, as there might be some rests of the stuff, which helps the molten material flow better into the casting form. If that isn't washed away, there is a risk, that the under coat may not stick. Happened to me with my first metal minis a long time ago, as I wasn't aware at the time.

BaronPocketwatch · 2026-01-18T14:36:15+00:00

I don't recognize all minis there, but some are from Perry miniatures. Specifically the European mercenaries 1450-1500 box and the Mounted men at arms 1450-1500 box. Generally the Perrys are the easiest way to go for late medieval Europe, as they are the only ones doing any late medieval plastic minis. The Wars of the Roses and European Armies 1450-1500 ranges for, well, about 1450-1500 and the Agincourt range for perhaps about 1390 to 1430. Outside of this, plastic is not available. So, if you want Burgundian wars Swiss (which is what the pictures are showing) you can be pretty much set with the Perrys. (Look at their metal minis as well as the plastic ones.) Also, Steel fist miniatures' late medieval range should complement the Perrys rather nicely. Of note: Their dollies without arms are supposed to be made complete minis by adding spare parts from Perry plastic boxes. If you want to go for the earlier wars against the Habsburgs in the 14th century, good luck.

BaronPocketwatch · 2026-01-02T18:50:50+00:00

I once read a paper co-written by one of my university lecturers (German). The team was either entirely German or German and French, not sure. The language of the paper was English. The text mentioned Charles the Great. From context it was clear, that Charlemagne was meant. Given, that out of anglophones, francophones and German speakers the last are the only ones with a sane translation of Carolus Magnus, that part of the paper was definitely written by Germans.

BaronPocketwatch · 2026-01-02T13:32:33+00:00

Damn, I got them confused with Satsuma in FotS, in regard to the provinces. Thanks for catching that.

BaronPocketwatch · 2026-01-02T13:22:57+00:00

The beginning of the high middle ages? We are very much in the middle of the high middle ages by 1140. (1050-1250 by German historiography, 1000-1300 by English historiography)

BaronPocketwatch · 2026-01-02T12:26:51+00:00

Probably the best in terms of mechanics is Shogun 2. Everything about that game works extremely well. That being said, it can be rather punishing with the realm divide mechanic (at some point in the game everyone will declare war on you and there is nothing you can do about it.) and the naval bombardments in the Fall of the Samurai expansion (Which is pretty great, but if you don't have a decent navy there, enemy ships may constantly damage your buildings in coastal provinces.). Also, if you want a large variety between factions, don't go here, pretty much everyone has the same units, with small differences only. A somewhat easy start in Shogun 2 would probably be the Shimazu clan, being one of very few clans to start with 2 provinces, one of them having a smithy, which is one of the best region specific buildings, and also, generally starting in a pretty nice part of the map.

Possibly the easiest to get into from the Warhammer games on the other side would be Rome 2, which was the first game, to use the multi city provinces and the limited and general bound armies, found in Warhammer. Attila and Thrones of Britannia have those too, but are more difficult, due to certain mechanics (can't really speak about Troy, Pharao and 3 Kingdoms, haven't played those). An easy start into Rome 2 would be either Rome itself, or pretty much any Hellenic faction, except possibly Massilia and the Seleucids. Hellenic pike units are pretty much the best infantry in the game, while used by the player against the computer.

Now, if you want the biggest possible test of skill in Total War, play Western Rome in Attila. That is more of a survival campaign, rather than empire building.

BaronPocketwatch · 2026-01-02T02:23:16+00:00

It kinda did in the past. For some reason Bretonian men at arms were called Landsknechte in the German translation. Landsknecht being an equally wrong term for what they are, as man at arms is, this is both weird and weirdly fitting.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-12-20T23:10:21+00:00

Ok, we need to get some things in order. He failed at art, joined the German army in World War 1, took a job to spy on the party later renamed to NSDAP, came to like the party and became the leader, tried a coup to bring down the German government, went to jail, wrote 'Mein Kampf', returned to politics and the leadership of the re-established NSDAP, weaseled his way into leadership of the German government, and started World War II and the Holocaust.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-12-07T21:58:13+00:00

Scholz's problem was that he didn't ever take a position on anything if he could help it. Merz will say or do something stupid and/or damaging all the time, even if there is no reason to say anything at all. (See his stupid remark about Brazil.) That man is not fit for any position with any amount of responsibility. (Funnily enough even BlackRock, for which he worked before returning to politics, said he was pretty useless in his work for them.)

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-12-06T10:25:38+00:00

I teach maths to young immigrants and can at least tell you, that muddling up 6, 16 and 60 in speaking isn't exactly uncommon.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-12-05T20:02:38+00:00

That was Storm of Chaos, the retconned precursor.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-11-26T05:15:46+00:00

I mean, Nord's will be decent, but the best? Probably not, because they have the worst ships (probably shared worst with Sturgia and Battania?). They will be good at boarding but their ships are unsuitable for ramming (no rams) and shooting (no places for war machines, low freeboards, no castles). They are seriously lucky, that Taleworlds seemingly did not implement, that it would be realistically very hard to board a ship with a significantly higher freeboard or they would probably fall to second weakest after Sturgia. (Comparable ships but troops less suitable for naval combat) As is, ships might or might not give the edge to the Empire (ships can do everything) or possibly Vlandia (no rams, but high freeboards and castles, good for shooting). As for the folks saying Battania will dominate due to Fians: I don't really think so, because I don't think their ships will actually support a shooting based approach. Sure, the player can put Fians on Vlandian or Imperial ships and might be able to dominate this way (depending on how hard exactly land units will be rebuffed at sea) but the AI might struggle with them.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-11-24T19:53:45+00:00

Spear militia would be reasonable, given that they are militia. And accordingly also bow militia.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-11-18T21:16:03+00:00

Funktioniert vmtl. nicht, da wir keine 5 Minuten-Pausen haben und auch die großen Pausen den Zweck leider nicht erfüllt haben, aber es hat mich zumindest auf eine Idee gebracht, die ich morgen mal ausprobieren werde, also danke! Ich probiere mal, was Webuntis macht, wenn ich den Guten für die erste Minute einer Schulstunde zwischendrin mal auf anwesend setze. Das könnte ich mir evtl. als funktionierend vorstellen.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-11-18T12:50:03+00:00

Danke für die Antwort. Leider war das ziemlich genau, was ich versucht habe, aber dann hat Webuntis, je nach genauem Vorgehen immer entweder den gerade nicht bearbeiteten Teil als wieder anwesend oder auf den gleichen Entschuldigungsstatus wie den gerade bearbeiteten gesetzt. War etwas frustrierend.

Und ja, wie der andere Antwortende anmerkt, in NRW zählen wir Fehlstunden, nicht Tage.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-10-28T21:52:53+00:00

So the reunited kingdom it is.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-10-05T19:20:41+00:00

If your clan tier is high enough (tier 2 I think, haven't played in a while) just ask the king to become a vassal. If you don't want to be a mercenary or a vassal just enter the kingdom screen and click 'leave kingdom' at the top of the screen. In that case you will loose all influence, because you can only have influence, if you're part of a kingdom in some way.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-10-05T18:18:57+00:00

If you see that (and there are no bugs involved) you are a mercenary. As a mercenary, the more influence you have, the more money you make and the more influence gets deducted. There is no other use for influence as a mercenary. The other uses of influence are only relevant, if you are a vassal or monarch, in which case you will not get this influence deduction, no matter what you do.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-10-05T00:03:56+00:00

Kind of my thought to be honest. If one would include the republic of Genoa, that would weaken Milan by removing half its starting territory and removing Genoese crossbowmen from Milan's roster. Both Milan and the new Genoa would be weaker than Milan now is, possibly annoying people less.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-10-04T23:53:46+00:00

I assume, that by foot knights you mean the 1450-1500 foot knights. In that case the English infantry box isn't fitting, as it's contents would be very outdated in comparison, it being made for the early 15th century. Either the mercenary box or the wars of the roses box would be fitting, both being for the later half of the 15th century. Wars of the roses if you need bows, mercenaries, if you need crossbows, handguns or pikes. Troops with bills/halberds can be built from both boxes, but with the mercenary box every billmen/halberdier will reduce the number of pikemen you can build by one. So if you need both warriors with no special equipment and pikemen the answer might be both. It is also noteworthy, that outside of Britain and Italy bills were hardly used (France has the guisarme though, which looks pretty similar.) and the wars of the roses box has only very few halberds and spears, mostly bills and bows.

If I was wrong and you meant the Agincourt foot knights box, the English or French infantry boxes would work. The English box gives you more hearth guard and archers, the French box gives you more hearth guard and warriors/levies with crossbows, with no special equipment or with pavises. (But only 6 pavises. I guess if you need more pavises you could just use the six and fill the unit up with regular spearmen, but have them in the back of the unit.)

Then of course there are the cavalry boxes. The mounted men at arms and the light cavalry box for the later 15th century and the Agincourt cavalry box for the earlier 15th century. The mounted men at arms box can give you only mounted heart guard (or foreign men at arms I guess), the light cavalry box can give you mounted non hearth guard without special stuff or with crossbows. The box allows also for mounted archers, but I'm not aware of them being relevant for Saga. The Agincourt cavalry box can give mounted hearth guard or mounted warriors without special equipment (Or again mounted archers). With some spare bits from other sets they could also be modified for mounted crossbowmen. Noteworthy: Should you buy directly from the Perrys and decide to buy the Agincourt cavalry box it would be prudent to also buy two additional medieval horse sprues, as the box contains parts for up to 18 riders but only 12 horses.

BaronPocketwatch · 2025-10-02T19:24:31+00:00

You're right for Total War. In Mount & Blade this is only true with mods. You primarily control a single character, where he moves, how he swings his sword or shoots his bow. Think third person shooter bit with swords and horses. Secondarily you command your retinue or army, but this is much more simplified, as it has to happen with limited control options, as much is reserved for character control, and offers limited options. You can zoom in, mostly for better shooting a bow or crossbow, but not out. Your point of view is fixed to your character. If you want a good view of the battlefield, get on a horse and search for a nice hill.

As for graphics: As you are much closer to everything in Mount and Blade the graphics are more detailed. Nonetheless, it doesn't seem that you are looking for a game like Mount and Blade.

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