Games Workshop covers a lot of games based around their two IPs.
Warhammer Fantasy - WFRP1, WFRP2, WFRP3 or Warhammer setting using some other Rules like Runequest or whatever.
Warhammer 40k - Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, Deathwatch, Black Crusade, Only War or just the setting using other rules.
In honor of them being right cunts about the Space Marine™. lets find a way to pay them less money.
What miniatures have you found fit well with the Warhammer Fantasy or WH40k universe but aren't made by GW.
Chapterhouse Studios (http://chapterhousestudios.com) - The place of honor has to go to these guys, for they've been sued by GW themselves. They make aftermarket 40k bits and stuff for conversions, like taking GW's retardedly small Storm Raven kit and turning it into a real war machine, not a super-deformed VW with wings.
Mantic Games (http://www.manticgames.com/) - These guys give away their own Fantasy Miniatures rules, and sell the minis. The fantasy range, Kings of War, is WFB with the serial numbers filed off, the futuristic range, Warpath includes non 40k stuff like Space Dwarves and Space Skaven...err Veer-myn. It would funny if GW did at some point add Space Skaven, and Mantic sued them.
Maxmini (http://www.maxmini.eu/store/index.php) - Another after market seller of conversion bits, terrain and stuff, these guys are great. Goblin Pirate heads? Check. Steampunk Assault Marine Jetpacks? Check. The list goes on.
Shapeways: Gangwar (http://www.shapeways.com/shops/gangwar) - Shapeways is a 3d printer site with lots of different vendors. Gangwar is a store dealing with Necromunda compatible figures. Probably a lot more stuff on Shapeways.
Wargames Foundry (http://wargamesfoundry.com/) - One of the better mini companies period. They serve both wargamers and rpgers because a lot of their figures, despite being metal, are designed to be flavorful and not one of 150 of the exact same figure in the army. From Assyrians to WWII and everything in between, yes EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN, the historical ranges are great, the Fantasy ranges go from standard fantasy to Licensed 2000AD stuff.
Scibor Miniatures (http://sciborminiatures.com) - Unbelievable minis. You know how GW stuff, especially their Space Marine™ figures never live up to the sheer awesome of the artwork. Yeah well Scibor says "Fuck that". (http://sciborminiatures.com/i/2011/big/emperor_of_rome_p01.jpg) Fantasy stuff is also off the hook (http://sciborminiatures.com/i/2010/big/dwarf_general_on_war_bear_p_01.jpg).
Heresy Miniatures (http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/) - The name seems ironic, since these guys have perfected the filing off of serial numbers. Dr. Who (http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/images/large/sciciv002.jpg), Empire Strikes Back (http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/images/large/monsters003.jpg), Big Trouble in Little China (http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/images/large/demon022.jpg), Predator (http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/images/large/hurn002_stevewingate_1.jpg) name your IP, these guys will try to get you a mini. They also have whole ranges of stuff suitable for Imperial Guard, Bloodbowl, Necromunda, and have an Officially Licensed Thrud the Barbarian mini. What the hell more could you want? A time machine I guess, I could have used the Predator Mini back in the Rifts days.
Black Scorpion Miniatures (http://www.blackscorpionminiatures.com) - The big draw here is the Tombstone, Pirates, US Marines and Iraqi Infantry ranges, but they also have Fantasy Pirates, and Fantasy Football, as well as Desolation Row, a few minis that don't fit in to the others.
Avatars of War (http://www.avatars-of-war.com/eng/web/) - You have a GW fantasy army? You want a Hero or Commander that makes anything GW puts out look like Gumby? Look no further. These guys decided to not get on the C&D List by coming up with their own setting and their own fantasy rules, which allows them to make Trollslayers (http://www.avatars-of-war.com/eng/web/images/minis/aow01/aow01_blister.jpg), Witch-hunters (http://www.avatars-of-war.com/eng/web/images/minis/aow35/aow35_blister.jpg), Beastmen (http://www.avatars-of-war.com/eng/web/images/minis/aow11/aow11_blister.jpg) and not get sued. The craziest shit coming out of Forgeworld can compete with AoW and Scibor, but most of the regular GW stuff gets worked by these guys.
So that's enough for now, what else you got? Who can we send money to besides GW?
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I like the Rogue Trader era of 40K... setting/rules and minis-wise. The Cobalt-I figures from Black Hat (http://www.blackhat.co.uk/online_shop/index.php?cPath=121_182) and older Spacelords (http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Spacelords.html) figs that EM-4 re-released are fun (though they haven't let out the robots yet, I have the originals and they're fun too). They fit that original style (Cobalt-I stuff was sculpted by Naismith who did a bunch of the old GW figs).
Also, buying old 40K minis off Ebay doesn't feed the GW beast either.
Countdown to Blackhand showing up to tell us how much we don't know about Warhammer: 3... 2... 1...
Ok here's some more I have:
NSFW Brother Vinni's (http://www.brother-vinni.com/index_eng.htm) - Some cool Landesknechts and 3 honest to god Rodeleros. They have fantasy, medieval and sci-fi. Awfulpurple would choke in righteous indignation over the slave girl minis, but the real reason Brother Vinni gets mad props, is this guy doesn't want to get sued by GW, that's blase. This crazy fucker wants (http://www.brother-vinni.com/gallery/28mm/m28foll01.jpg) to (http://www.brother-vinni.com/gallery/28mm/m28bot01.jpg) get (http://www.brother-vinni.com/gallery/28mm/observer.jpg) sued (http://www.brother-vinni.com/gallery/28mm/m28ogre.jpg) by Bethesda (http://www.brother-vinni.com/gallery/28mm/m28armour.jpg).
Nothing to do with GW settings, but if you play old D&D, you owe it to yourself, your players and your old school cred to check out Otherworld Miniatures (http://otherworldminiatures.co.uk/). They sell the Player's Handbook statue (http://otherworldminiatures.co.uk/figures/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/saidol1.jpg) 'nuff said.
Warlord Games (http://www.warlordgames.com) - You can't really talk about 40k without thinking of Rick Priestley, the guy that wrote 40k: Rogue Trader about a billion years ago. Well he's written some other historical games for this company and they have some awesome minis. 40 plastic celts on sprues allowing variable poses for 40 bucks? Sign me up. Warlord games is also handling the minis for Rick Priestley's new Sci-Fi setting called Beyond the Gates of Antares (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2037958218/beyond-the-gates-of-antares). It's going to start as a wargame with online reporting systems to keep track of campaigns and get lots of people involved in how the setting unfolds. Kind of like the "40k Events" but these might actually mean something. Also the game uses a base d10/d100 scaling for the purpose of having Wargame and RPG share the same stats. However, if you're looking to shank GW, not sure these guys are the way to do it, seems like a decent chance there's GW employee money behind this company.
Troll-Forged Miniatures (http://trollforged.com/) - Small outfit, building inventory, have some Imperial Guard stand-ins, Chaos Demons, etc. Where they stand out is coming up with alternate Tyranid sculpts something a lot of companies don't do aside from bits replacements.
UltraForge Miniatures (http://www.ultraforgeminiatures.com/) - Giants, Demons, Dragons, Treants. Huge Resin models to make your players or opponent quake in fear.
Wargames Factory (http://wargamesfactory.com/) - Not GW standins, but historicals. 32 Armored Saxon Thegns on sprues for $20? They gotta be crap right? Not exactly. (http://wargamesfactory.com/Images/andres-saxons-01.jpg) 25 Samurai for $20. (http://wargamesfactory.com/Images/ProductImages/boxsets/WGF-RS01/YariGroup1_screen1.5x.jpg) 48 Customizable Legionnaires for $30. (http://wargamesfactory.com/Images/jd_roman01.jpg) These guys are simply unbeatable in the amount and quality per dollar. Yes, that's three Celtic chariots for $20. (http://wargamesfactory.com/dake_celt05.jpg) I told you.
Quote from: Simlasa;626245I like the Rogue Trader era of 40K... setting/rules and minis-wise. The Cobalt-I figures from Black Hat (http://www.blackhat.co.uk/online_shop/index.php?cPath=121_182) and older Spacelords (http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Spacelords.html) figs that EM-4 re-released are fun (though they haven't let out the robots yet, I have the originals and they're fun too).
Holy shit, Cobalt-1 (http://www.blackhat.co.uk/online_shop/index.php?cPath=121_182_189&osCsid=ba0b7d50a6c6f823b4a3c253af4e3dee), that's Inquisitor and retinue stuff right there. Also good from EM-4 is the Future Skirmish (http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Future_Skirmish.html) line, a staple of my Shadowrun and Cyberpunk games for years. EM-4's Dunwich Detectives (http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Dunwich_Detectives.html) is good stuff too.
Didn't Laserburn have it's own line of minis?
Quote from: Ghost Whistler;626255Didn't Laserburn have it's own line of minis?
Yeah, but they're 15mm (vs. 28mm-32mm for the GW stuff). You can still get them here (http://www.15mm.co.uk/Laserburn_15mm_Sci-fi.htm).
There's a shit-ton of great 15mm scifi figures out nowadays... probably a more practical/affordable choice for big games of 40K as long as you don't need stuff that looks exactly like the 'Chapter Approved' GW figs.
Khurasan (http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/adventure.html) has a lot of neat stuff.
I never used 15mm for RPGs much but I knew people who did... weren't most of those old Traveller deck plans (Azhanti High Lightning) layed out with 15mm figures in mind?
THANK YOU for this great thread. Awesome links!
I will definitely be watching Gates of Antares. Rick Priestley is my favorite GW designer and his games have brought me waay too much fun.
One way gamers could stick it to GW is to support the new WFRP clone Zweihander (http://grimandperilous.com/) when it comes out.
Check out the links on my wargames blog. There are metric tons of things out there that are awesome.
www.thewargate.com (//www.thewargate.com)
em-4 miniatures makes a line of easy-assemble plastic space marines. Cheap too, used to be like four pounds per half a dozen.