What Does "Use Whatever Minis You Want" Really Mean? 

My son and I test out new kill team configurations with green army men

Garlands, by Osprey is a fantastic example of this, it’s a Mad Max style future racing game. So naturally you use Hot Wheels cars. The cottage industry that grew up around Gaslands is superb too, people are cranking out some impressive minis by just adding custom bits to toy cars.

My two-month-old daughter really enjoys your voice. She doesn't normally look at anything too long, but watched this entire video with me. #kitbash4life

A great example of rules only companies is 2 Fat Lardies, with Chain of Command arguably their crown jewel. It is such a great rule system, and if you play 15mm scale, it is a relatively inexpensive way to play WWII historicals. Platoon level with armoured support with a patrol phase that sets the game apart from so many other games.

Great video, thanks Uncle Atom. Another good thing about this approach, which you touched on, is that it lets your miniatures be used in multiple games. I have an Age of Sigmar army, and just joined a wargames club, but no one there plays AoS, but they do play an Osprey Game called Dragon Rampant, which is a fantasy battle game that lets you use whatever miniatures you want. It has really flexible rules that let you customise your unit stats to what you have model wise, so I can use my AoS army in that game and it’ll still feel similar. Well worth checking out. (There’s also a historical version called Lion Rampant, but I like some monsters in my games)

I'm getting into the 9th age and really enjoying having tons of different miniature manufacturers to choose from. As long as the basing scheme and colour scheme are the same then all the models from different sources blend together nicely.

your pa chows are incredibly natural and free flowing these days. great video i don’t know how you manage to come up with so many new subjects each week. ❤️

Frostgrave is a great system for building custom warbands. My go-to warband is a motley crew of kitbashed Warhammer goblins. The main guy I play against uses a mixture of Warmachine and CMON minis for his warbands. For a hobbyist, it's great not being limited to a single model range.

I have never played this game. But your channel is extremely helpful for me as a Gunpla builder. Your tips and tricks for painting has stepped up my models ten fold! You rock Unc!!!

Rogue Star, Rangers of Shadowdeep, ASoBaH, and Operation: Last Train are all amazing. that's what I've been playing. My favorite thing about many of these types of games is the lighter rule sets. Things like Infinity and Malfiaux (while still being fine games I enjoy) have so many models that all need their own individual rules, and those rules need to be written in a way that it interacts properly and is still balanced... Meanwhile, Something like Rogue Star says, this is a laser rifle, this is how it works, doesn't matter who has it, it always works this way. and for a guy like me, who just wants to have a beer and play a game without stressing about the nitty gritty for tournaments, it's a solid win

My Undead collection contains models from multiples manufacturers and I play multiple games with them.. The 9th Age, Kings of War and Age of Sigmar. It's a good time for the hobby!

Great video, and really relevant for me and my wife right now! We bought the Song of Blades and Heroes PDF on your recommendation a few weeks ago. For our first few games, we made custom units to use with the miniatures from the recent Doom boardgame, that I've been painting over the past few weeks. Marines vs Demons, where Marines have stuff that represents the rifle, shotgun, chaingun, chainsaw etc., and demons being a bit weaker per model, but with special rules that make sense in the context of the game. Right now, we're playing a game of SOBAH with chess pieces, with rules that sort of makes sense for chess but on an open battlefield. King is a Leader, but slow and bad in combat, pawns are basically cannon fodder, knights counts as Mounted units, etc. Scenario rule is to kill the opponent king of course! I'm working on squads of Wood Elves and Greenskinz from Warhammer that are also going to be a great matchup! I really love that it only takes a turn or two for a new player to pick up the gist of the rules and the flow of the game.

Because of you I’ll randomly say pa-chow So thank you and keep up the awesome work

I can heartily recommend "Operation: Last Train". It is a small scale skirmish game from Joseph A. McCullough (the Frostgrave guy). It is a solo co-op game.

6:57 That is what this hobby is about. Fun. Always having fun. Great video. Thanks for sharing.

never heard of of Osprey Games before this video. good job mentioning that. by the looks of it, it seems to be up my alley. also: "Use whatever minis you like" said no GW staff ever.

A batrep for Zone Raiders finally came out, it definitely looks like a nifty game. I'd have never known about it if it wasn't for Uncle Atom!

The 9th Age fantasy Battles, the game made by players for the players, has been around for over 3 years. It is now in second edition with the set rules being frozen. They are now working on the actual army books now. The Warriors of the Dark Gods codex is incredible. The ETC had incredible models made by the players of this great game.

Excellent points about kit-bashing, customisation, and how you can use this as an opportunity to exercise your creativity.

I got asked the same question recently by a friend who is new to the hobby...and here I have Uncle Atom answering so I just forwarded him the video :)

We usually play with 25/28mm miniatures from various companies, but for a couple of months we didn't have access to them. So we gamed with my Star Wars Lego minis, swapping weapons and cloaks and such with fantasy L:ageo minis. In the way-back, we used various plastic board game tokens with the character's name on a piece of masking tape. It's just a representation of what is goin on to help people visualize distances, numbers, and facings.

To me Osprey and their Blue Book Series is the champion of it.

"Use Whatever Minis You Want" is every game if you have enough green stuff and bits in the bits box

We have to mention the excellent Studio Tomahawk with SAGA, Jugula, Dead Man's Hand, etc!

I play The Ninth Age, I started because I wanted to play with my old warhammer models and wasn’t satisfied with AoS. Now I think on of the biggest advantages is building a new army and trying to find great models that I love that fit my view of that army.

It means I usually play them and buy their books. That's what that means. Great example is Kings of War. I have one of their ogre armies, undead armies, and orc armies, however my favorite armies is my Perry Miniatures plastic Hundred years war fantasy army. Instead of guns I used Wizards to represent that fire power. I bought some boxes of the plastic Frostgrave Wizards to use as my Rifleman formations.

This is off topic but I'm using blood bowl guys in warcry. I love the idea of the shambling undead football team instead of the regular skeletons. all I have to say I the rule is cool and no one can tell you what you think is cool

Kit bashing one can say started with us model railroaders making our own rolling stick either cause no one makes it or what ifs or just because. My favorite rules for whatever minis are Gruntz, Ral Partha Chaos Wars and Full Thrust.

Never wanted to get into tabletop war game that doesn’t have a miniature line until I saw Carniverse on Kickstarter, just backed it so this is a timely video!

I finally got to a video before it had thousands of likes already! Feels pretty good :) Thanks for reminding us to just play the games and not worry about some of the particulars that may get in the way. If we're playing, we're doing well. Keep up the good work 👍

My daughter painted and uses Reapermini's Mouslings and I use GW Sisters of Sigmar for our Frostgrave warbands. I got her interested in the game because of how cute the Mouslings are.

This is a great idea, and I can also see this video opening up a discussion about model collecting/painting and what people want from their Minis. For me, I have been on the Games Workshop bandwagon for about 17 years, however recently I have been playing a lot more of other games from other companies. The group I play with likes to switch around what games we play and as such, it feels like every two months we have a new game system with different figures. In part thanks to your videos I have decided to paint up a a big batch of different models from my collection to a higher level tabletop quality then normal to use in these newer games. The way I figure it, I'm going to be wargaming for at least 20 years and I can see the games changing as I play. As such, I want to be able to use well painted models to represent whatever Minis I used in the games we play. That way whenever we switch to a new game system or get settled on one we like I will be able to have well painted figures that I can tell history of the games they've been a part of. For example, I am just now finishing up about 80 metal lord of the rings gw models that can be used for any medieval or D&D setting. (Another video that helped me to this mindset was your/the "who are you painting your minis for?" )

Thanks for addressing miniatures agnostic games. My company's new game, URBAN MANHUNT, has no model line and I'm glad I went that route for a lot of reasons. The main reason is that it makes the game more accessible and affordable, since you create your own hunters' game stats based on whatever miniatures you have laying around. People are used to the notion that getting into a new miniatures game requires a large investment and I did my best to throw that out the window. Each player needs one miniature to play and it can be almost any miniature you desire. It's also playable as a solo game, which also increases the accessibility. The more small press games companies can break down the cost barrier, the more our hobby will grow.

I've done some tinkering with a skirmish game design that would be "minis-agnostic" like this. I have some interesting ideas for dice mechanics and such, but generally, the idea is to make a competitive game with a tight rule set for tournament play that can be balanced without the conflicts of interest that come from the need to Sell The New Stuff.

I just got started playing Full Thrust, a starship miniatures game. It's sort of skirmish like since each fleet is only about 6-12 figures, depending on the point value played. The rules are available online for free. You are allowed and encouraged to use whatever miniatures you want, but the game company does have a model line if you want to use those. The community has extended the rules in free online supplements so you can have an easier time making your own custom factions and universe. It's an interesting kind of freedom compared to something strict like 40k.

Osprey do some great stuff, I ran into Gaslands, Ronin, Daisho, and In Her Majestys Name and the Ministry of Gentlmanly Warfare.. some great indie rule books out there!

One big example is my Landship basically a 1.35 london Bus with napoleonic canons and sails pulled by Perry mintures war of the Roses

Thanks for the Wreck Age shout out Adam xoxo

I think Battletech uses a halfway approach in this regard: Ral Partha make the miniatures, but it is stated in the rulebook that the player can use anything to represent the units. I recall that a given example is a business card on a stand.

Good video. You touched on using these games to stretch your creativity, to find other cool models out there, and/or kitbashing stuff. All great options. But I feel like you missed an opportunity by not stressing that many of these games can just as easily be approached and played with whatever you already have. For example, if you have even one decent Age of Sigmar army, I bet you could build 2-4 frostgrave warbands out of it. No new purchase needed. No extra hobby time needed. Just grab what you have and go for it. I agree with your main take that these games ARE a great way to flex creativity. But for the fiscally more limited folks out there, they're a great way to drop a few bucks on a PDF ruleset and have a completely new experience with what they already have. Thanks for the video!

I love Frostgrave. It was my second miniature game ever. Going to check out ZoneRaiders now!

Another new video, hit me with your knowledge uncle Atom

Thanks to this video kicking things off, I now have all the Frostgrave books, Rangers of the Shadowdeep, heaps of new miniatures and terrain, and a 3D Printer...

About 20 years ago (closer to 15)i had a huge imperial guard army, i loved the catachan soldiers, but decided they were not mean enough, i stuck orc arms on and painted them skin colour, they looked badass, crazy to see its still all the same teams!

I am an RPG'er and have lots of individual minis and have been thinking about getting into war-gaming and I think these types of games are exactly the type for me.

I personally love game systems without miniatures lines attached to them. Like uncle atom I'm more of a hobby hero and want to paint whatever model I feel like at the moment but because it bothers me a bit to give up space for models I wouldn't have any use for after I painted them, I always look for games I could use them for. Recently Rogue Stars from Osprey games has been my excuse to get lots of Infinity Miniatures.

Warlords of Erehwon by Rick Priestley : recycling my old GW mini collection :D

Kitbahsing is my favourite part of the hobby. I literally kitbashed all my models so they feel more personal to me

Kitbashing and doing conversions is my favorite part of the hobby!👍

So, a while back, when I watched your video about SOBAH, I followed up and discovered Ganesha Games' Giant Monsters and Robots bundle and I've found loads of bashable kits to customize from. Some of my favorites are the more goofy Bandai kits from canceled or dated shows from the early 80s and the like - I mean the ones where the styling looks more like 1950s B-movie robots where every appendage is a version of a flexible lamp neck and every antenna had a ball on the end. That being said, I don't know if it was the self-print PDF option or the fact that the rules are just begging for adjustment, but we have tones of notes (conveniently scribed on the back of any page because my printer only prints one sided) on this game that basically comprises a 'house rules version' which we wrote to fit the scale we chose to play in. We have a lot to be grateful for in our Italian friend... and in you as well, Atom.

Kit bashing for historicals is also legitimate. Even today, there are figures it's impossible to get "as cast".

I hadn't thought of tabletop wargames this way. Thanks for the inspiration.

An Orc is an Orc a dwarf is a dwarf and so on, there are so many companies making minatures its easy to find whatever you're looking for.

I do anyway! If I can fit them into my head cannon. My Frostgrave campaign is a sci-fi saga. Reason why? I own more sci-fi miniatures than fantasy.

This is a particularly attractive type of game if you're someone with a 3D printer (especially a good mini printer like the Photon), since you can piece together and customize groups of figures SOOOO easily from freely available figures online. Great video. Bummed I live in a somewhat geek-starved area and don't have a handful of people like you around to play systems like these.

Received my Osprey Reality's Edge book in the mail today!

I've always used what minis I like, even for games that have 'official' miniatures. The only people that need to use 'official' models are people that play GW events & stores exclusively. Everyone else that demands you use certain lines only is just gatekeeping the hobby. Sticking to only one company for the hobby is so limiting. Nothing wrong with liking one model line and sticking too it, but refusing others the joy of creating armies from what every they like is bad form.

I use my Seraphon skinks for frostgrave I need some archer type guys though for my Slaves to Darkness warband

Yeah love having these games around as means I can have loads of games in the car and it's fun to crank out lots of different teams. Well worth having done if these games handy.

Great vid! I'll second Osprey's games. Rogue Stars is AMAZING.

Great advice, however you need a big stock pile of bits and parts of unused models to start kitbaching effectivly.

"please stand by" is a nice little skirmish zombie combat book i bought about 6 years ago. no models, just rules and scenarios set in multiple time periods. cool modeling opportunities.

Dragon Rampant is another good Fantasy Combat Game from Osprey that uses any minis you like. I mix my Lord of the Rings, with Dream Blade and Wargods of Aegyptus.

Another great video and discussion piece. My son and I are new to the hobby (well, I've not played since my late teens) and we've fallen into the Warhammer 40k gravity well...does anyone have any suggestions of model-agnostic games we could use our 40k minis with (i.e, a futuristic setting)?

Speaking of rando minis: Have you tried any Heroforge minis? I like the customizability of them, but when I've seen them painted they always look like they have a weird, gritty surface. I believe it's a 3D print thing, but I was wondering if there's a way to prime them that could make them look better.

Anything of the major systems by warlords games for example... Hail caesar - they even say to use what you want in the rulebook. Bolt action - nobody cares what company sculpts as long as they're suitable for the period etc.

Great video! Glad you mentioned Osprey, because I’ve pretty much switched over to playing just their games and loving it. I looked up Zone Raiders, and saw it Kickstarted in Feb. of this year. I take it it’s not available anywhere else yet?

i remember the original warhammer fantasy had the campain box with cardboard counters for figs. got rule book and we made carboard armies and we had fun

Just to note that Mantic don't require you to use their models (at least not for Kings of War). Probably because the game is designed for to be compatible with with GW armies, but I appreciate the creative latitude it allows.

One of my new fav games, Gaslands, has some models around the internet, but the instruction book literally tells you to go find some hot wheels and use those, and just kb the shit out of them, and they're so much fun to make

Where might I find a list of games that work like this?

“gaslands” players have made some awesome madmax style vehicles from matchbox cars

I never want to play in a shop that won't let me use the miniatures I like. It's why I avoid Warhammer stores like the plague.

Striker (an old rules set for old Traveller RPG), though I don't usually wargame, it's my goto rules for my Traveller games involving larger scale engagements. I use a lot of Mantic/Warlord/Reaper/Hasslefree/Victoria minis. I wish there was a way to get an official updated revamp of the Striker rules.... that would be cool.

Thank you for this video! Since the beginning of wargaming, we old grognards have know that rules and figures are two different things. Heck the original Warhammer didn't have a miniatures line. You spent a lot of time on kitbashing - which is great, but you don't even have to go that far. If you build up a decent collection of historical figures, especially WWII, Ancients or Napoleonics, you will find there are hundreds of rules sets out there for you to try. Again many thanks for the video.

The 9th Age rules!

I start with this type of rulesets when I start with modern warfare wargaming. And is a big advantage if i can use my 20mm (mostly elhiem figures) modern stuff through different ruleset like Force on Force, Spectre Operations, Skirmish Sangin or Fireteam Modern. I can as detailed or less how i like to do for a specific scenario. Not to be bound on a specific range of figure range or scale is a huge advantage and give me much more possibilities to play that kind of game that I like.

Great video. Thank you.

Saga Age of Magic is really good for using all this kickstarter plastic and old dusty armies :)

Hey Atok, have you heard of Burrows and Badgers from Oathsworn Miniatures?

Gaslands is a great game. Uses hot wheels as a base scale but rules can be used for any toy car within reason

I'm liking this style of game more as big boxed board games are getting better and better minis - the CMON Massive darkness Enemy boxes are great value for money units & characters for fantasy games. Plus I picked up a painted up set of Runewars miniatures game, wasn't a fan of the rule set, but I do have 2 armies :)

Man, I'm still holding out for Harder Than Steel from Ganesha Games for a unit based generic sci fi skirmish game.

That rail bike on your shirt would be an amazingly smooth way to cycle..... Until you get arrested. ;)

I want to mention Ronin by Osprey also, Great Feudal Japan skirmish game ruleset.

Had a lot of success using 20mm plastics glued to FoW small bases for 1700s / ACW BlackPowder

Does uncle Atom has a video about that post apocalyptic game he mentioned? This is not a test? Can't find any

Awesome video! If you can proxy in a paperclip for a Primaris, why shouldn't you be allowed to do the same with an actual miniature?

Great vid. I have did just that recently and started my own Pagan Scots army using both old and new models to suit the rule book and backstories I have written. Been most interesting build i have done. Maybe make a,vid one day and get some feedback.

This video was so informative 😄

Except for Necromunda I just play this kind of games. Absolutely love that freedom. On the negative side I can say that I almost buy every miniature I see, because I think I can use them in 10 different systems :-D

I’m a predominantly historical war gamer nowadays (fed up with GWs rules) and you can play any historical game and pick n’ mix the rules and the figures and the terrain as you please, including making up your own rules. Check out littlewars tv on RU-vid to see what’s out there! There’s more to war gaming than GW!

Which games are best at really going into customized armies/warbands? Both in hobby, and mechanics/listbuilding.

Atom everyone I watch a video you mention another game I have never heard of and then must discover it.

Battlespace solo skirmish game is a great system for ultra modern use whatever mini you want.

When I first starting playing and we were considering buying a new unit we'd often proxy other models for that unit. It's a great way to see if you really want that unit, I'm using fire forge models for bretonnian peasants as well currently.

Great video. And Draculas America!

I really do think its a shame some of the bigger companies like GW dont let people bring their own alternative models for tournies within certain ranges, like I get them saying no to space marine alts because those are "the big daddy model" that they rely heavily on (i mean what, 1/3rd of the range they make are space marines iirc for 40k?), but for armies like say the astra militarum its a shame they dont let people use their own infantry models for the ranges given they simply seem to refuse to give us decent options to even kitbash from. Im glad many indie tournies do, but sadly GW seems to be getting their talons into a few of these too, where FW models must be actual FW no proxy/alt models while the GW plastic can be, which makes players like me who have an alt model death korps army have to either play an army we dont have the proper setup for (guard book) or sit out, kind of sucks . So long as you let a tourny know ahead of time with pictures etc, generally they are happy to let people have variation so long as its easy to tell what is what for people who obvbiously dont know your models by sight (eg if you have infantry and veteran infantry, having something different which is easily seen like say, clothing variation or colour changes).

Always be mindful of that 'That guy' that says it's ok to proxy models you don't have. He's usually the one with an endless supply of Clan Rats model in hiding to use as daemon spawns of Tzeentch. (Yes, that happened when we played the broken tzeentch rules with the broken AOS rules).

Only problem I've had is scale variation when shopping different company's miniatures. I try to pull as many from one company as I can.