7 Great miniatures games that aren't WARHAMMER

Miniatures games are a dangerous and scary hobby for a lot of people, but fear not intrepid tabletop gamers to be, Wheels is here to guide you through the wide and wonderful world of mini gaming. (don't worry though, turns out it's not ALL about WARHAMMER)

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[weirdguy]

My favorite mini wargame, the only one I ever played a lot of is BattleTech.

[dicebreaker]

Hey everyone, a quick reminder that this is just 7 games that Dicebreaker personally recommend, not the top 7 minis games ever. If you'd like more suggestions or want to wax lyrical about your favourite game then the comment section is for you!

[RagnarLonewolf]

Surprised games like Frostgrave were not mentioned.

[TouchofFlairCards]

That yellow Guildball box appears to be making a desperate bid for freedom.

[wwkillerk]

I’m surprised historical wargaming wasn’t mentioned. Like, black powder or bolt action or the glorious Hail Caesar!

[gamesbymanuel]

Very glad to see Gaslands in your list! It’s the most accessible miniatures game I’ve played so far, you might have all the required materials already.

[Adam-bhlk]

"Land, space and ...big space"

[CISDK]

I'd have mentioned Battletech. Great game and they have a beginner's kit for those who may not want to take the plunge on the full game right away.

[davidleonardflanagan]

I love Malifaux so much. The games artistic style resonates so much with me and I love how it puts it's focus on playing the objective. I also highly recommend the RPG based on Malifaux - through the breach.

[toddwilliams]

"Malifaux may not be the easiest game to pick up..."
segues in Infinity...
oh the irony
One thing that makes sets Malifaux apart is that the mechanics make 3-player free-for-alls possible, and it is great chaotic fun.

[trentnichols]

Dust 1947 is a great introductory game. You can play it on a gridded mat, the figures come assembled and primed, and the rules are super simple. Makes it easy to try out without needing to make a bunch of terrain or buy all the associated hobby gear. Then if you like tabletop gaming you can start painting, making terrain, and move off the grid to tabletop with the same basic rules. That said its not exactly cheap and the model quality varies a lot from ten years ago too what they release today. The mechs have always been good tho.

[Gooch]

Frost grave is a great game, small warbands decend on a city to fight the undead and eachother while trying to plunder tresure.

[patricpeters]

Absolutely no mention of great historical games, Bolt Action, Sharp Practice, Lion Rampant, Saga, Flames of War. Perhaps try games that don’t require you to use “official” minis because there’s no copyright on history.

[jasonnewell]

For my money, the absolute best minis wargame I encountered after leaving Warhammer was Wrath of Kings by CMON. It's a bridging game between small skirmish and large scale wargames, the rules are easy to learn, the game is fast paced and exciting with very little down time, the minis are gorgeous and all in plastic, and the gameplay is very interesting as far as innovation goes. Every unit has a reference card with all their stats and abilities, combat uses d10s, and the roll is compared to a hit chart on the card which determines whether they are hit or the various ways in which they defend themselves. (armour, dodge, parry, magic, etc.) Some attacks work better against some defences, turning some defence results into hits, making those attacks better against some units but worse against others.
However, the two things that make it stand out to me are the synergistic mechanics and the objective based play. There are no dud units in the game, all of them are not only useful but really effective in what they do. They also interact with each other on the battlefield. They may grant bonuses to a nearby unit's attacks, or add tokens that another unit can spend to activate certain abilities or even borrow the abilities of another unit on a case by case basis. It creates some excellent strategies which makes for an exciting game. The objectives are where it really shines. Each of the five factions in the game choose one objective from two out of five objective types: Duty, Greed, Treachery, Vengence and Intrigue. Each objective gives you special conditions or activities to achieve during the battle (like assassinating commanders, holding territory, smuggling civilians through battle lines) that affect the opponent's morale if achieved. First to 0 morale loses the game.
The rules and reference cards for all the units are available free online, but the unfortunate part is that CMON seem to have turned away from this game and no new stuff or updates appear to be happening, which is a real shame. Some of the female models are also a bit over-sexualised (such as the Nasier Pelgarth Bloodmasks) but it isn't super egregious. But, every model that they have rules for have been released, and much of it is available for a very good price from online stockists. You also don't need a big financial outlay to stary playing, with a starter box giving you enough miniatures for the smallest size of game and almost enough for the next size up if discover that you like it.
It's definitely my favourite minis wargame. I just wish it was better supported and more popular with people. As it stands, I only play it with my best friend and my son.

[ulfhazelcreek]

It would be amazing to see Dicebreakers play Gaslands.

[DarenCep]

It is a newer game but Marvel Crisis Protocol is a surprisingly good skirmish game that is fairly easy to pick up, and the roster of playable characters is pretty good and actively growing with a release every month. It also helps that Atomic Mass Games are super involved with the community and do a weekly stream of either painting or playing the game with spoilers for what is coming up next being a fairly common occurrence. My biggest complaint is that the minis can be a bit difficult to put together if you haven't done anything like this before.

[J-kf]

Also, Bolt Action for those interested in WW2, Hail Caesar for Ancient History, Black Powder for Napoleonics. Historical wargaming is a thing believe it or not.

[proxytag]

Moonstone is a fantastic indie miniatures game, amazing resin minis with some of my favorite sculpts for fantasy settings, very easy to get into as well with it's starter set being only £55, and including enough models for two players to play right out of the box.

[PeterPottorff]

Kind of bummed that Bolt Action or Konflict 47 weren't mentioned in here. Fun WW2 and adjacent games that quite easy to pick up and play.

[cragmonkey]

Ranger's of Shadow Deep has been my entrypoint into miniature skirmishes. I have introduced it to several non-gamers and they have loved it, too.