My starting mini fleet

Monty · Post by **Monty** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:56 am

I finally decided to start down the miniature path to enhance game immersion and try to bring in new players from my board game group. The mini's in Wings of War really enhance the buy-in of that game and i'm hoping the Fed Com/SFB minis will have a similar effect for an even better game engine.

I decided to purchase Squadron Boxes 1-15 and 19-30, 0 & 91, thinking this should cover the major hull types that get played. I avoided 16-18 because it seemed to make the collection very DN centric. I would've had more DN's in each empire than any other type and is there that much of a visual difference in a DN and a Light DN or Raiding DN?

With this setup, are there any interesting hull types, besides battleships, that I'm missing out on?

Also, has anyone tried the dipping method with these minis?

Thanks,

Monty

Bolo_MK_XL · Post by **Bolo_MK_XL** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 4:13 am

Price wise: to fill the hulls that go with the specific cards --
You might prefer going with the Border Boxes ----
Twenty-Four minis for $100 vs $40 for 5 or 6 (depending on sqd box) --

Then there will be individual minis for hulls like BBs, scouts, maulers, drone ships etc --

OGOPTIMUS · Post by **OGOPTIMUS** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:49 am

The border boxes will leave out the "command" ships like heavy battlecruisers (Fed BCG, Klingon C7, etc) and dreadnoughts, but are a GREAT deal. After that, you could purchase the individual command ships in blisters (and the battleships are mostly in Border Box #6).

Some of those light and heavy dreadnoughts are really nice, and are different scuplts from the standard dreadnoughts. The sculpters really worked hard on those and it shows.

You likely don't need Border Box #0, since those ships are repeated in all the other squadron boxes and border boxes. IIRC, that was a product that was released to generate interest in the "new" empires on the way before products such as Romulan Border/Attack, Distant Kingdoms, etc were released. It's still a great product, don't get me wrong (I just bought it a few months ago), but it will duplicate some other ships that you'll get in either the border boxes or the squadron boxes.

Booster 91 is great! That was the first taste of Starline minis that I ever got (and of SFB/FC in general), and it's the only set that you will find those ships in--you would have to buy all of them individually otherwise.

Monty · Post by **Monty** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:16 pm

I don't plan on excluding the BB's and DN's entirely, just going to save them for down the road. If the mass painting goes well I may start in on the border boxes.

I think about the way our group plays the game and we try not to have huge fleets of the same ship type, limit the number of capital ships and get a healthy mix of empires on each side. We try to limit one ship per player. Our goal is to get as many games in as possible because our time is so limited. Unfortunately Plasmas often get excluded because of the run-n-gun multi-turn tactics that are necessary to be competitive.

Has anyone tried powdercoating their minis?

Monty

wedge_hammersteel · Post by **wedge_hammersteel** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:24 pm

Where are you located? What City?

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:32 pm

I have not tried powdercoating the minis, but I have wondered about it. I don't have a set-up to do it, but it'd be interesting to see the results from someone who could do it.

My only concern would be the possibility of loss of some of hte finer details. I'm not as familiar with that process as I am with liquid paint.
Our auto-body shop in school (yes, they had schools back then!

) had a powder coating set-up, but it was rather primitive and the coating were rather thick.

By the way... welcome to the world of SFU minis.

Monty · Post by **Monty** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 6:31 pm

St Louis

wedge_hammersteel · Post by **wedge_hammersteel** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 6:54 pm

You should check out Origins 2011 in Columbus, Ohio.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 7:14 pm

Monty wrote:St Louis

You have hooked up with Jim and Steve and the rest of the Battlegroup St Louis guys, haven't you?

ericphillips · Post by **ericphillips** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 8:40 pm

I mainly have minis to use at cons and local gaming events to get people to try the game, as minis are more head turning than tokens (except for players of Advanced squad Leader; they get excited by tokens). For general play I am on FCOL or I play with tokens.

What I did was buy Cruiser Boxes 1 and 2, basically getting a cruiser from each Empire. So when I demo, everyone can have a ship from a different Empire.

Monty · Post by **Monty** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:02 pm

I think the cruiser route is a great approach.

I'll have to try to meetup with the other St Louis dudes sometime soon.