Farewell, D&D Miniatures

[Maelstrom]

According to this article, Wizards of the Coast will no longer be supporting the D&D Miniatures skirmish game:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4news/20081023

They will still be selling the highly useful and nicely made plastic minis, but no longer as part of a game of strategy, reverting them for use as Dungeons & Dragons tools.

For me, this is a big blow. The recent D&D Minis skirmish rules that came out prior to the release of 4th edition were very well done. They game became more dynamic, quick to play, and full of interesting twists.

My excitement level had risen as they've converted over some of the sets I first purchased to the new rules. I spent hours perusing my sets of miniatures, coming up with new elite forces designed to win battles with my friends, and worked hard to buy up deals on EBay that interested me. Through mutually beneficial trades with friends, the armies continually improved.

Over the last several months, I have enjoyed many games with my friends, playing a solid strategy game that does so well of invoking the enjoyment of D&D. I watched as my 6-armed aspect of hextor failed to make even one hit before being overwhelmed. I would cower as a friend pulled out a dragon, cringe as my own Ettin charged into the fray against my army, and chuckle at my opponent's expression when I pulled out my Beholder.

I continually built and rebuilt my Drow army, which was exceedingly good at poisoning and playing dirty tricks on my opponents, until it went up against an undead army immune to poison *eek!*.

I was really hoping the new sets and rules would breath life into the game. It was difficult to find players, so I had to make new players by encouraging others to join in. Local hobby stores didn't have sessions that meshed with my schedule, so I was often left alone to peruse my collection solo. It looks as if the new rules we not enough bring in the droves needed to rescue the game.

So it is with sad heart I say farewell to the D&D Miniatures Skirmish game.




At least I got a whole bunch of miniatures to use for D&D! Players watch out as I try to find uses for all of them *evil grin*

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

You can always give Warhammer Battle a try. Ive played a couple of games and found it to be quite enjoyable. There are 3 types of Battle one can play: Fantasy, Sci-fi, and LOTR. All are enjoyable and the miniatures are second to none.

Sorry to hear that "Wizards of the Coast will no longer be supporting the D&D Miniatures skirmish game." I'm not surprised, though.

Game on!

[Dimthar]

Does it mean they are not collectible anymore?

Would you be able to buy any Mini you want? That would be cool ... Bad for those trying to make money on those "Rare" minis.

Santa Close is coming .... tonight!

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

Does it mean they are not collectible anymore?

Would you be able to buy any Mini you want? That would be cool ... Bad for those trying to make money on those "Rare" minis.

Santa Close is coming .... tonight!

Now that WOTC has decided to discontinue support, i believe it virtually guarantees them to be classified as collectible.

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

According to this article, Wizards of the Coast will no longer be supporting the D&D Miniatures skirmish game:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4news/20081023

They will still be selling the highly useful and nicely made plastic minis, but no longer as part of a game of strategy, reverting them for use as Dungeons & Dragons tools.

For me, this is a big blow. The recent D&D Minis skirmish rules that came out prior to the release of 4th edition were very well done. They game became more dynamic, quick to play, and full of interesting twists.

My excitement level had risen as they've converted over some of the sets I first purchased to the new rules. I spent hours perusing my sets of miniatures, coming up with new elite forces designed to win battles with my friends, and worked hard to buy up deals on EBay that interested me. Through mutually beneficial trades with friends, the armies continually improved.

Over the last several months, I have enjoyed many games with my friends, playing a solid strategy game that does so well of invoking the enjoyment of D&D. I watched as my 6-armed aspect of hextor failed to make even one hit before being overwhelmed. I would cower as a friend pulled out a dragon, cringe as my own Ettin charged into the fray against my army, and chuckle at my opponent's expression when I pulled out my Beholder.

I continually built and rebuilt my Drow army, which was exceedingly good at poisoning and playing dirty tricks on my opponents, until it went up against an undead army immune to poison *eek!*.

I was really hoping the new sets and rules would breath life into the game. It was difficult to find players, so I had to make new players by encouraging others to join in. Local hobby stores didn't have sessions that meshed with my schedule, so I was often left alone to peruse my collection solo. It looks as if the new rules we not enough bring in the droves needed to rescue the game.

So it is with sad heart I say farewell to the D&D Miniatures Skirmish game.




At least I got a whole bunch of miniatures to use for D&D! Players watch out as I try to find uses for all of them *evil grin*

Btw, Warhammer Battle has Drow(Druchii), and undead races. My preference is with the Skaven race. Another cool thing with these top-notch minatures is that they can be used with your dnd games, and others. Check them out when you can.

[Dimthar]

Now that WOTC has decided to discontinue support, i believe it virtually guarantees them to be classified as collectible.

I thought they meant that they were going to keep selling the same minis but now instead of being random and collectible, you would be able to buy any mini you wanted from that collection.

We'll see ...

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

I thought they meant that they were going to keep selling the same minis but now instead of being random and collectible, you would be able to buy any mini you wanted from that collection.

We'll see ...

I typically avoid fathoming any guesses to which WOTC will do next. Their logic at times loses me.

[Mindbomb]

Although I did start playing the skirmish game with the release of the new rules and have really enjoyed it greatly, along with buying rares and useful pieces from older sets and with all the older ones I had before I started playing the skirmish game I've gotta say that this is the way I thought they should have done them all along. Especially if they want people to use minis in their roleplaying game. They should just go through the MM and in order of frequency produce packs of large groups of commons, small groups of uncommons and individuals of rares and uniques.

[Maelstrom]

You can always give Warhammer Battle a try. Ive played a couple of games and found it to be quite enjoyable. There are 3 types of Battle one can play: Fantasy, Sci-fi, and LOTR. All are enjoyable and the miniatures are second to none.

There's always plenty of games you can sink your money into.

I chose D&D minis because of its applicability to the tabletop game, and DDM2 (the current version) is even better because they brought the skirmish rules more in line with the game rules. With a little creativity you can mix and match the rules for epic D&D RPG battles with some of the opponents using the simplified skirmish rules. They would be similar to minions in how much work it is to keep them in the action, making it easier to have larger battles.

Besides that, there is something incredibly fun to me of participating in epic battles using creatures of D&D lore, such as having a group of dwarves face down a storm giant, or a Death Knight led undead army face a group of heroes. The battles were quick and dynamic, and evoked nastalgia for old times. In fact, before the skirmish game came out, some of my friends and I were doing exactly that... we had rules to create armies of D&D monsters to face each other using 2nd edition rules.

D&D minis scratched those itches for me.

No thanks, I will not be taking the investment to jump onto another bandwagon.

[nijineko]

i just use the completely free version of the d&d skirmish game that has all the miniatures and all the rulesets. check out vassal. saved me money, lots of fun to play, people around the world play, so it's almost never hard to find someone to game with. =D or a game to watch at the very least. plus vassal will play any board game in existance. they have many modules, many board games you never knew existed.

[Arch Lich Thoth-Amon]

i just use the completely free version of the d&d skirmish game that has all the miniatures and all the rulesets. check out vassal. saved me money, lots of fun to play, people around the world play, so it's almost never hard to find someone to game with. =D or a game to watch at the very least. plus vassal will play any board game in existance. they have many modules, many board games you never knew existed.

Very cool, nijinko. Thanks or posting. Now, i'm going back to vassal and see what i'm going to try out first.

[nijineko]

it's hard to pick, there are so many things to try! =D i for one want to see ameoba wars done in vassal. ^^

[Mindbomb]

I like the idea but it's a little tech heavy.

[nijineko]

what? vassal or ameoba wars?

[kirksmithicus]

Well it figures, I just got interested in the mini game and started collecting them a few weeks ago. Not that I think this will really impact the local players for a while.