Quote from: AndyT on 25 August 2017, 08:40:54 PM
Spartan always seemed to be focusing on "the next game" rather than finishing what they had started . . .

To be fair, that sounds like quite a few companies over the years. And yes, Mongoose, I am looking at you . . .

Cheers, Martyn
--

A friend of mine ran his own successful military modelling range for many years, before being fore closed on by the bank in the mid-90's despite being solvent; they simply called in their loan. Years later he re-started part time, along side his day job. After a couple of years he shut it down, as he was simply tired of gettng home at night and then having to sort out and pack orders. Even doing that he was earning less than the minmum wage, more like pin money in fact. I think it is very hard, if not impossible, to go from the part time cottage level operation to one that will pay a living wage on a full time basis. Looking at the market, there appear to be (well to me at least) lots of niche operations with a limited range and appeal to the wider wargaming community. Frankly I doubt their long term durability, but I wish them well.

Quote from: ianrs54 on 26 August 2017, 02:45:21 PM
Orcs - if you have ever tried to assemble a Battlefront Flak 36 - the single 37 - you'll know your assertion is only partially correct, still cant see how the shield fits.

Thanks Leon, was interested for personal reasons.

IanS

No I have never played WW2 at 28mm, as I have loads of kit in 20mm.  So I do not intend to start

Battlefront is 15mm....

Shows you how much Orcs cares about that, there

Battlefront name recognition zero, Orcs one

I always thought Spartan Games made a mistake in going for their own scale for their games. I understood the logic, but when part of your line-up was targeted at people who used to play other games (Battlefleet Gothic and ManoWar), making your figures at a scale that is different than the scale used in those games seemed to me like restricting it potential clientele. Same goes for DW. Why not try to get all the people playing Aeronef by making your game scale-compatible? Dystopian Legions made no sense scale wise. To put it simply in trying to create a "locked" clientele, I think Spartan missed a lot of potential costumers (leaving out my pet peeve that the scales they chose severely limited how much their games could be enjoyed by people with space issues). Don't get me wrong. Their figures were works of arts, and I appreciate their championing of resin. The worlds they created had potential. But I feel they were hobbled from the start.

I mean at a very basic why did Spartan Games fail when Aeronef is still around?

Quote from: toxicpixie on 28 August 2017, 08:52:02 AM
Shows you how much Orcs cares about that, there

Battlefront name recognition zero, Orcs one

Whoops got confused with Bolt Action stuff  

Quote from: KTravlos on 28 August 2017, 09:11:33 AM
Their figures were works of arts, and I appreciate their championing of resin. The worlds they created had potential. But I feel they were hobbled from the start.

As an inveterate converter of minis I loathe resin figures with a passion!

I mean at a very basic why did Spartan Games fail when Aeronef is still around?

Because Brigade are two blokes on a shed who eat cake... for them it's a part time effort, and they only expand when they can see a range (they only have five ranges and they're pretty comprehensive on their coverage of those too), plus Aeronef is a fairly cheap buy in, £30 gets you a fleet and the PDF of the rules (Imperial Skies is more expensive, but it has higher production values), you only need about ten to a dozen figures per side.

Tbh I prefer Brigades approach to the aesthetics of Victorian sci-fi, the cleaner more historical lines look better to my eye than the pseudo-GW High Spikey approach Spartan mostly took.

Were MMS the ones that came in a black box with a little picture stuck to the front? I have quite a few of those, some still unbuilt...

Quote from: Wulf on 28 August 2017, 12:47:11 PM
Were MMS the ones that came in a black box with a little picture stuck to the front? I have quite a few of those, some still unbuilt...

No, MMS came in a poly bag with a card header with a line drawing of the subject on the header and a small instruction sheet.

I think Skytrex sold some of their product in that format.

Regards,

Martin

I was a very early adopter of Spartan's "Uncharted Seas" fantasy naval game, I bought it as a dad and lad game and my son and I played it lots. It is now a very popular club game and we like the models and the rules. I personally liked the large scale ships.

A big mistake for me with SG was to cease support for this their first game, as this was a simple limited interest game to me I would add a few ships per year to my fleets so I was a loyal but not fanatical customer and would have continued to be this if the ships had still been available, even if they were only "special order" items. Once Spartan dropped all sales and even support for it it told me that my earlier custom was not valued, my enthusiasm for their product too was wasted. It told me not to risk starting another of their games as it may not be viable for me. Very sad as I liked their game a lot. It certainly put me off buying into their space combat game.I don't suppose I was the only person who felt like this. Sorry to see them go nevertheless.

Least with US you could scratch build, I've done several Dwarf cruisers.

Quote from: ianrs54 on 29 August 2017, 07:41:56 AM
Least with US you could scratch build, I've done several Dwarf cruisers.

How does one cruise a dwarf? I know Nicole Kidman was taller than her husband....

Trust the feline to lower the tone !!!!!

Quote from: Smoking gun on 28 August 2017, 03:50:45 PM
No, MMS came in a poly bag with a card header with a line drawing of the subject on the header and a small instruction sheet.

I think Skytrex sold some of their product in that format.

Ah, yes, thanks. I do have some MMS, but they're all built. I know I have their Matilda for a start...

Quote from: ianrs54 on 29 August 2017, 09:38:53 AM
Trust the feline to lower the tone !!!!!

Someone's let him out of confinement. (sigh)

To drag to thread towards the direction of its topic 

As others have aid looks like Spartan overstepped themselves on the HALO front.

As for their other gamers I've got a lot of Dystopian Wars land forces (the fleet actions never really clicked) but as others have said the rules were overly complex and went through various iterations without getting any clearer.  They did have some very nice mechanics though, their exploding D6 was very nice and could nicely reproduce a lucky hit.

Scale was always a bit odd, DW looks to be about 2mm, based on the size of doors etc. while their Dystopian Legions is about 32mm having said that I've mixed quite a lot of DL figures into my Steam Punk games without them looking out of place and a few DW vehicles (especially the Chinese) make great weird monsters.

Tor Gaming's Relics will continue.

https://torgaming.co.uk/2017/09/04/relics-is-saved/

""Tor Gaming are very excited to announce Relics is saved!

Since our announcement that Tor Gaming is closing we have been inundated with interested parties wanting to take on the mantle of 'Keeper of Relicia'! We were a little overwhelmed by the response and want to thank everyone who took the time to message us.

I am so pleased to announce the Relics gaming system has been acquired by TTCombat. The well-known producer of that awesome mdf terrain range is adding Relics to their growing stable of gaming systems, which include RUMBLESLAM and Carnevale. Coupled with their access to a large, well established distribution network, we believe TTCombat are perfectly placed to take Relics to where it deserves to be.

In the short term, we will be transferring the production of the Relics range to TTCombat's in-house production base down in sunny Cornwall, UK. They will then get on with familiarising themselves with the range, and in the very near future their design team will get to work expanding the world and pushing the game systems development forward.

We are over the moon with this change of ownership and have every confidence TTCombat are the best team to take on the care and future development of Relics.

During this period there will be some down time on the availability of the Relics range but you can all rest assured that the range of miniatures you all love will be back in the near future with the amazing backing of TTCombat.""

Ain't seen any further news on Spartan, nor Steel Fist, however (not that I've really looked)