Talk to wargamers long enough and you will hear invective hurled at the humble army list and its cousin "balanced scenarios". Today I am going to take a moment to defend the humble army list, because I think it has received more abuse than it really deserves.

What do I mean by army list? A list of units you can purchase with points values and with some degree of restrictions guiding how you build an army. If a game has a list of every weapon in the game and a points cost but does not have some control of how you create units or that you can't make an army entirely out of left-handed tank drivers, then it's not an army list in my view.

I am not going to opine on the dichotomy between scenario driven games and tournament games, other than to acknowledge that often people tend to favour one style over another. I think the army list often gets assigned much of the blame for faults of tournament style play however, and I think that is something that is a bit misguided.

So let's get into it:

Scenario play takes experience that a player may not have

The first time i sat down to try to play a Napoleonic wargame, I literally did not know what a "corps" was other than "quite a lot of guys", nor did I have any idea of how many guns said corps might have. Historical games sometimes include tables of organisation and equipment but not always (and they can be contentious in their own right for scenarios - An infantry division in ww2 does not include any tanks, but gamers howl in protest if you don't include tanks, so how many tanks should I include?)

For science fiction this applies as well. One squad of MegaHeavyAssaultMarineDudes is cool because thats how the game was designed but an entire army of MegaHeavyAssaultMarineDudes might break the game. An army list can helpfully limit the number of MegaHeavyAssaultMarineDudes to something more reasonable because as a new player to the game, you may not even know the problem exists.

(Of course army lists famously don't always catch everything but this is usually a factor of it being better for the game if the army lists are more permissive than more restrictive. I think the general point stands however). 

People sometimes retort that you can just learn from scenario books (some systems don't have them) or from conventions/club games (often not available) but in the end, some percentage of players will be learning from the actual book. 

You don't have to use them

Is this controversial? I feel like it rarely gets mentioned in discussions but you can just not use the points and army lists. Heck, even the most "tourney heavy" editions of 40K have always suggested this sort of thing. If having the army list is cramping your style because you already know how to balance a scenario or you just can't be bothered to count up points, then don't do that. 

You can take the units you want to use in the scenario and then that's it. Heck, if you want you can each pick about the troops you like and then haggle it out. We did that a few times when our 40K games were starting to get REALLY experimental. I suppose there is an argument here that some players wouldn't want to not use the points system if it's offered, but I find that most of the time those players are also not really interested in playing games without points to begin with. I might be wrong about that though. 

You don't have to use the same number of points

Much of the opposition to points values tends to come from the idea that "real battles are never exactly balanced" which is true. But it does not follow that using points values means they must be either. Certainly you can give the attackers 2500 points and the rearguard 1500 points and have a go at a suitably desperate and dramatic last stand. Shoot, you might even use mismatched points totals to slightly adjust other things. One might imagine a WW2 Barbarossa campaign where the Germans have more points than their soviet counterparts in the early invasion, but the balance shifts to a Soviet advantage for the winter counter offensive. 

The funny thing is I have seen people opine on forums that "attackers need 3 to 1 superiority" but you can literally quantify that with a points system :) 

Use as a starting point

This ties back to point number 1 but the army list can always be your starting point. I find this pretty helpful when building a scenario. Let's say the scenario is going to involve a lot of dense terrain and an objective that is difficult to get to. In this case certain units (light scout type of troops) might be more useful while big, heavy tanks will be less so. However using the points values to get a decent starting point can be really helpful just to get in the ballpark of things before I start changing things up, whether I do this mechanically ("For this scenario, tanks are worth 75% of their normal cost") or just eye ball it ("Since those tanks are not as useful here, I'll give them an extra squad of infantry"). 

Pick up games are fine actually

Finally pick up games are fun. Yes, you can whip up a scenario pretty quickly on the fly, but there's something really fun about figuring out an army in advance and then going to your friends place and having a go. I don't always want that specific experience, but when I do, it's nice to have the option complete with trying out new units or a funny idea in the build. 

Army lists are fun to guide collecting and painting

Lastly army lists serve a pretty good purpose in giving you some direction in what to paint and collect. Especially if you are poorly organised (me) and poorly disciplined (also me) it can be very easy to end up buying, building and painting a bunch of units that do not really add up to a playable game in the end. An army list is a ready made check list of things to get and paint which will inevitably guide you towards a playable force on the table. I've even talked to people who don't really play 40K but who use the codex to figure out what units they'd like to paint next. 

Of course army lists do not solve every problem, nor do they avoid having some problems of their own but I think we are, broadly, better off with them than without them. Discuss in the comments.

A round up of assorted questions people sometimes want to know. Some have been answered before but its been a while.

How did Paranoia come about?

The overlords had a license for the board game and wanted to get more out of it by also doing a miniatures game. I got the offer and jumped on the opportunity since it was something that did not really exist and how often do you get a chance like that? 

Some of the original folks provided feedback on it, which was cool. I think they understood that the requirements between an RPG and a miniatures game are pretty different, so they were happy letting us do our own thing.

How did Forgotten Ruin come about?

This was a project that Chris Birch over at Modiphius asked about, I had no experience with the books but the basic idea sounded fun, so I took it on. I crawled through the first book as quickly as possible and then set about figuring out how to do that as a tabletop game. 

This was something the creator of the books was happy to just let us do more or less freely, so I had a pretty free hand to do whatever I wanted to do with it. 

How did Planetfall come about?

Some sort of "planetary" game had been discussed basically since we first agreed to do Parsecs. The exact pitch was mine, they did have some suggestions though (calamities and the pre campaign missions were their ideas, my execution).

The basic structure did not change an awful lot during development though, it was always more or less going to look like what it ended up as.

How much input does Modiphius have on the rules?

They give feedback on everything, usually pretty small stuff really. A lot of it is things like avoiding too many dice types or whatever. It is more so for a licensed item like Paranoia, because then there are things we have to (or cannot do) and you have to showcase the game world. 

Are there other writers on 5X books?

No. Everything is written by me. NOW there are passages that the hard working editor will do. For example if we are missing a few lines to make a page work, he will write a couple of lines of fluffery and send it to me to okay. Its a lot easier than having to send it to me, me sending back the lines and then it turns out its still 4 words too short. 

How is the art decided?

I provide an outline for what the art vibe should be (Hard space opera, keep the swords to a minimum, no warcraft dudes) and then the artist goes and does their things. Usually Ill get asked to provide some ideas for say 10 scenes. "3 soldiers moving through the snow, rifles at the ready while something watches from the forest". Chris Birch usually does a lot of this as well, since he is a more visual thinker than I am. 

When the art comes in, I get to complain about it but usually I like to let the artist really give their own feeling as well. There are one or two instances where a piece of art meant going back in and adding something to the rulebook :) 

Will you do any indie 5X games again?

Unlikely. It suits me pretty well that 5X is the "glossy" book series and then I do different projects on my own. I do have an idea for a warband campaign game that would have similar vibes but different rules, but we will see. 

The one exception is probably an update to 5P Gang War as a Patreon goodie. 

Will you ever use another die type in 5X?

Probably not if I am honest. The one exception would be if I get to do a "Advanced Parsecs" / "Combat RPG" book in the style of Inquisitor and those, in which case I'd probably move to D10s. 

Are there more Leagues and Parsecs games planned?

I am working on a Leagues stand alone currently. Nothing planned for Parsecs right now, but we have discussed at least one game there as well that we both really want to do.

I have also suggested some things that they are interested in, but which we have not decided to act on yet. 

Are there more licensed 5X games planned?

Yes, all kinds of stuff. I am not sure I can say anything concrete here but there's a lot of excitement I am waiting to tell people about :)  

Will there be an eventual 4th edition Parsecs and Leagues?

Some day yes. We have had some discussions about what that could look like, but it is not really nailed down at the moment. Nothing concrete yet. I kind of go back and forth myself on exactly what I would want to do with it, beyond the obvious stuff like fixing unclear areas and so on.

Should I tell you about my wish list games/items/expansions?

You can. If its spaceships, I already know because it is the most common request by a mile.

If it's a licensed property, even if it is an obvious one, I can't do anything about that since I am not the one who have to open the pocket book to buy the license. Even if Modiphius already has the license that may not cover a new game type. You can ask them though :) 

Rogue Hammer Patrol Mode

Coming to a wartorn something something near you, Rogue Hammer Patrol Mode is the “Warband mode” for Rogue Hammer.

It will be a cooperative game where the players are each commanding small teams of troops and adventurers, fighting against environmental hazards. Also playable solo of course.

I suppose you could say its a scifi dungeon crawler of sorts but not set in a dungeon or if you remember the venerable Space Crusade board game, a bit inspired by that.

A typical army will be 6 units (generally) split between 3 characters and 3 teams of 3 figures each (though they could also be a single stand with multiple figures). 

As you play your units will become stronger and you will unlock cool new options, but you will also have to fight stronger opposition. 

This will all be drawn from the “Rogue Hammer Universe” which includes a lot of familiar faces.

The core game engine will be Rogue Hammer, adjusted for the smaller scale and will be a stand alone game.

Hoping to include a handful of scenarios as well as procedural table setup. 

I am gathering up initial funding through a Weaselfunder. 

For those who have not been involved in one before, you make a donation through Paypal to help the game get made. Then when the game releases, usually about 3 months later, you get that money discounted towards the cost of the game. Folks donating 20+ dollars also receive their name in the book when I add some fluff text.
Easy peasy. 

Donations are done to nordicweaselgames@icloud.com through Paypal. 

Victorian Scifi using the Squad Hammer engine. Do I need to say more?

Well, maybe a little. Venusian Hammer provides rules for regular infantry and heavy weapons, walking fighting machines, combat balloons and giant bugs / dinosaurs, all powered by the simple Squad Hammer system (2D6 rolls to hit, unit based damage, limited activations per turn). 

All in a concise and clever little package. The rules are being released without a ton of frills, the idea being to expand over time in response to what people end up wanting out of it whether that is more rules, more units, more scenarios, background information or something different. 

This really is a game for the kitbashers and people who enjoy creating unique looking armies.

You can pick up the rules at https://www.wargamevault.com/en/product/553245/venusian-hammer-victorian-scifi-wargaming 

If you had donated prior to release, email me and I will get a discount code sorted out BUT that will take me a couple of days so please be patient :)

A lot of things can get in the way of a project. Burn out, lack of resources, realising that you got started wrong, lack of research, life catastrophes,  a topic that does not warrant the page count.

And sometimes its Lancelot the cat trying his hardest to prevent you from typing

Planetfall is now available for pre order! 

https://modiphius.net/en-us/products/five-parsecs-from-home-planetfall

You get the PDF with your preorder immediately, then print books are expected to ship in February with the stand alone PDF being available then too. We will be using the time before then to iron out any bugs that escaped us in proof reading. 

Make sure to check the correct Modiphius store for your region.

This is probably the biggest game I have done, so definitely excited (and nervous) to hear what people think.

A few questions to pre-empt here:

This is all developed by me. Additional parts were added based on input from Modiphius (the intro missions and adding a bit more story definition), though all the actual design was me. 

There are four types of opposition: "Tactical enemies" include the usual K'Erin, pirates etc. You probably already have suitable minis here. "Sleepers" are robot sentinels that guard the world. The Slynn are reptilian psionic aliens. Finally alien wildlife. If you know how you got to create your own enemy table in Deep Below, it works the same way here (because this is where the idea originated). 

The campaign includes both base building and research. Its not specifically based on any one thing, but if you imagine something like the old Alpha Centauri computer game, you are not that far off.

Upgrade paths include experience points, genetic augmentations and new tech. 

The player characters now have classes with Troopers, Scientists and Scouts all having different weapon allowances and unique advantages. 

There is a clearly defined end game with multiple victory conditions.

You CAN lose though it's not super likely. 

A map is required.

Combat has been modified a little from base 5P: Armour saves dont cause a stun (and you do not "stun out", big monsters use Kill Points (similar to Tactics) and a hit that rolls equal to Toughness now knocks you Sprawling. You can also provide Aid to another character giving them a bonus. 

An optional random factor is added to enemy AI movements. 

There are more mission types than before (quite a few actually) and they are more specific. 

Characters can be brought over from another campaign or you can create them from scratch. 

A quick update as we move towards the end of the new year.

Victorian scifi is moving along. Most of the units are done by now. Im trying to decide whether to let people at it with just the core rules and units in an early version or to wait until scenarios are done. I may do the former, so we can get more eyeballs and thoughts earlier in the process.

SLAM and Mystic Space updates are coming, though I would expect the major updates to be after the holidays, it just ends up being a bit too crowded. The next update for each is likely to be a bit more "stuff". I know some people have asked for some sort of space magic/psionics system. 

It looks like a big licensed property will be in the cards in the new year through Modiphius. Something I don't think people would have guessed, so look forward to that. 

As always the list of "possible future projects" is very long. I am hesitant to share too much because people tend to assume it means something other than what it is but some possibilities include a "cooperative competitive space dungeon crawl game" (think Space Crusade or Siege of the Citadel for those who remember), a fantasy campaign game inspired by "Horse girl" fantasy like the Valdemar novels, Napoleonic Squad Hammer. 

https://modiphius.net/en-us/collections/paranoia-five-clones-from-alpha-complex/products/paranoia-five-clones-from-alpha-complex-book 

New book on preorder :)

(along with some rather nice official Paranoia minis I must say)

The game covers principally "co op" and GM play but there are some solo notes in there as well. Setup rules, blasting traitors in the back and being eaten by dinosaurs in Alpha Complex. There will be an FAQ later on.

Just a few quick updates:

Rogue Hammer version 175 is out, adding the completed Space Dwarf army list so go have fun.

EKPS 104 adds 3 new unit types for scenarios under the heading of "fantastical folk" (sprites, ghouls and tomb guardians) and adds a bit of detail to shooting from towers and walls.

As always updated versions are available in your Wargame Vault library.

The "unit list" for Victorian Scifi is coming together more.

For regular infantry, there will be 6 types: Conscripts, Regulars, Repeating Rifles, Guards regiments, Naval infantry and Skirmishers.

For heavy weapons there will be 3 types: Multi Barrel Guns, Crank Guns (think Gatlings etc) and Field Guns (regular artillery pieces). 

This should let you use most heavy weapon figures out there on the market. If your army of choice doesn't have a readily available option on the market, buy a weapon model and just swap in a few artillery crew figures from your regular army, so you can have a Prussian gatling gun or whatever. The rules assume 2 or 3 crew figures per gun, but they can be based as part of the gun if you like. 

Of course I imagine people will also be kit bashing some contraptions to use. 

With version 174, Rogue Hammer now has a completed Kill Bot army list (based on the 3e Necron codex with one or two extra units added) and a completed Hired Guns army list (mercenary troops that can be hired on by most armies.

These include updated special rules as well as unit upgrades.

You can find Rogue Hammer at https://www.wargamevault.com/en/product/418767/Rogue-Hammer-Gothic-scifi-miniatures-gaming?manufacturers_id=5701