Battle Masters: The Game, The Figs

It's a Boardgame...

wait, it's a Tabletop Miniatures Game... 

no it's a hybrid Grid-Based Table Top Unit Miniatures Game!

Whatever it is, we'll never see a deal like this again, that's for sure!

There's plenty of story and history to this 1992 game at BoardGameGeek [BGG] and Wikipedia [WIKI] so I won't cover the astonishing partnership between a huge American game company like Milton Bradley and the - then - up and coming niche company Games Workshop. Suffice it to say that some gamers I know remember it as a craze and played the heck out of it, while other people - like me - have no idea what anyone is talking about. I do have an excuse... I was living in Belgium and playing rugby while studying various native dictionaries. No tabletop games were being played in those years!

Anyway, below is the - still amazing - list of what's in the box:

Over 100 figures in 25 Units with trays and flags, a plastic tower, a huge gridded 'board' [really, a large vinyl hexed mat] 'board', terrain templates, and 100 tokens to mark Units - everything a miniatures player needs to host a sizable game.  And people I know say they scarfed up the last games for $4 on sale.  Crazy!

There's plenty of games out there since it was mass-produced. But since it was aimed at 10 year olds, most copies got a fair amount of play and abuse, so it can be hard to find a mint copy, altho they are out there. Parts of the game are easily available on Facebook Marketplace and eBay. As usual, some prices are ridiculous and some are very reasonable. New in shrink wrap, expect to pay $300.  Excellent condition and complete, $150.  In playable condition and perhaps missing a couple of parts [and with some broken spears etc] about $80.  If you persist, like I did, you can get a 95% complete and playable game for about $50.

Again, there's lots of games out there, and you can still find them for $5 in someone's garage sale - parents from the 90s are downsizing and getting rid of their kid's junk / priceless childhood memories.

Initially, however, I approached it from the angle of just getting some plastic figures in an old-school mono-pose style.  The intent is to use these as "back rankers" in Units, with the front figs, the Big Mahoffs, being classic metal.  Can't get much more Old School than that. Sure, it's a toy soldier type of style, but that's the charm, also. I'd also argue that mono-pose figs make the perfect minions, so players know who is important and who is not. Dynamic, cool pose with unique paint job?  Yeah, that's a leader / hero.  

So, I bought two sets [without Ogres], a total of 240 figs for $110 total, incl tax & shipping.  At 50 cents a figure, that is a good deal for classic plastic miniatures. They also came with the Unit trays and flags, necessary since they are slotta figs with no bases - the figs fit into slots on the trays.

When it comes to sizing, these are a bit smaller than later GW, so closer to 25mm. Below, BM Chaos Warrior; GW Metal Chaos Warrior & Plastic Halberdier; BM Plastic Halberdier [note the BM figs have the stickers on the shields].

Above: the most obvious difference is the halberdiers, GW left, BM right.

Below, BM Empire Archer, GW metal Empire Archer, BM Chaos Archer:

Above, the Empire Archer is almost exactly 25mm, the metal GW one is 28mm. The Chaos archer is just a tad smaller, but remember "Chaos oversized mutant" ethos.

The wood bases below are 1" squares, and the Orc slottas don't quite fit, nor does the caparisoned war horse. The goblins and armored horses do.  So there'll need to be some trimming to get these to fit on single bases, whether old plastics or these new wood ones.

And here's what a Unit will look like with the BasEx D&D 1e rules I'm developing. A loose blob of figs mounted variously on bases, 3-4-3 for a tribal mob appearance. 

The goblins may end up on 20mm bases - pretty sure I have some, somewhere...

Below, a nice paint job of the wolf riders, showing what can be done with these figs.

After talking to some of my gaming peers and reading about the game at BGG, however, I downloaded the rules from the Hasbro [thanks!] site. Then decided to get a copy of the game. Between the plastic figs and the modest mental demands of the game, it's still a perfect intro to table top miniatures, and slightly larger units of 10 figs will be perfect with my ultimate fast-play game, One-Hour Wargames. Why a lot more of us OHW fans aren't using these figs is beyond me!

I got a copy for $50 [including delivery] and it is only missing a few figs and some counters - and three dice, which I'll make my own from old SAGA parts.  Ta-DAAA!

Missing parts, below. I have plenty of the figs.

Unboxing and sorting to inventory parts.

Both the Ogre and the tower are quite nicely done!

Trays and flags.

These illustrations just crack me up!

Most importantly, it came with all the cards and essentials to play the game, so I've no complaints, altho I should have done this FIRST and then decided if I wanted the additional figures. I might sell some off later, we'll see. Meanwhile, there's definitely enough to play mega-games with other people and their sets!

I really recommend this as a game to play unto itself - with a little bit of tweaking, it can easily keep experienced gamers engaged. As-is, it will be fun for newbies of all ages, and it is a visually spectacular set for nearly zero work.  Painting the figs will be fun [altho cleaning and prepping them won't be] and if properly protected in a 'miracle dip' will be nearly indestructible.