Kickstarter start-up Proxy War is offering tailor-made miniature soldiers set in the sci-fi universe of videogame X-Com, for tabletop wargaming. Its project could be the first to truly revolutionize strategic tabletop gaming, a world that has not changed much in the past two decades and may be in need of new ideas. Many enthusiasts have long theorized, and hoped, that such new ideas could come out of 3D printing and the possibilities it creates for character customization.
Playing with toy soldiers is a hobby for adults: nowadays there are wargames of all kinds, from historical ones with Assyrians, Romans and English of the 100 Years War, to those set within Fantasy and Sci -Fi worlds. In these last two segments in particular, the company that has most captivated global audiences through its gaming properties for the past 20 years is Games Workshop. Its games, Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Warhammer 40,000, are the real deal: buy the miniatures in metal or plastic, assemble them, colour them (which is already a hobby in and of itself), and then challenge thousands of other fans on the gaming board, unleashing winning tactics, strokes of strategic genius and — most importantly — an avalanche of “sixes” at the dice.
Games Workshop, however, must be careful: its weakness is its prices. Each one of its miniatures is a real work of art. Moulded with exceptionally accurate, and as of yet undisclosed, techniques, they are not cheap. The challenge, in this case, comes from independent producers, who are starting to create better models using increasingly accessible personal 3D printers. Proxy War intends to help more people do just that, in an even more personalized manner.
Players will be able to log onto an online database and assemble their own custom miniatures from a wide array of parts and pieces, much like in a videogame character editor or in My Robot Nation, an interesting service offered by 3D Systems and Cubify to create your own 3D printed robot. Once assembled, the pieces can be professionally printed, allowing everyone to create their own personalized models or even entire personalized armies.
The Fine Detail material option for the smaller pieces promises a better than 25 micron resolution, superior even to many current fine cast models, while the Regular Reinforced material option offers less detail but larger and virtually indestructible models. Proxy War’s Titan-class models can be as tall as 240 millimeters. The system includes a three-man design team that will provide support on character art, illustrations and 3D modelling, as well as a complete set of rules applicable to all types of different armies. The potential for this type of personalized gaming is undoubtedly enormous, as may be the costs involved, at least in these early stages of the personal manufacturing industry. Proxy War may thus, temporarily, become an elite type of personalized tabletop wargaming, until it is able to reduce production and materials costs.
At the time of writing, Proxy War has reached about 40% of its funding goal with 20 days to go. Deadline is December 10th so if personalized tabletop wargaming is your thing, you might want to pay them a visit. In the meantime here is a video on making a personalized miniature model.
It is interesting how many 3D printing wargaming companies are starting to pop up in recent weeks with 2 currently active on kickstarter and a friend and I soon to add a third, based around the creation of conversion packs and bespoke parts with a view to eventually be able to replicate the faces of others in 28mm scale among other products. Last year at university I wrote a (admittedly optimistic) business feasibility study into the idea of 3D printing wargaming scenery with the option for modular customisation which supported the idea that this could be big business, if handled appropiately.
There are a couple of areas where I think proxy war will struggle is in the initial capture of an audience (see The Gates of Antares). Games Workshop (GW) have developed an entire universe around their product line, originally intended as nothing more than miniatures for role play games. This allows a gateway into the hobby through imagination of what your miniatures could be, it gives them a place in a well established story while still allowing you to carve out your own ideas. In my experience (I’ve collected and played for around 12 years now) it becomes easier to rationalise spending the money if you’re buying more than plastic. Secondly, it is hard to deny that there is a level of hype surrounding 3DP which unless you keep abreast of the current developments is easy to get swept up in. My concern is that, particularly on their larger Titan-class models, surface finish may be less than the customer expects leading to disappointment which can rapidly turn to anger and distrust in the company, putting customers off. Proxy War claim to be able to get to less than 25 micron layering for their fine detail models but doesn’t state the resolution of the reinforced material. As it stands customers are used to the quality offered by Forgeworld (GW sister company) for their large items which provide exceptional detail so it will be interesting to see a comparison in end quality between a Titan-class Proxy War model and a Forgeworld titan.
Also, Games Workshop have recently been experimenting with 3D printing (they are listed as a customer on one of the major players pages but I can’t remember which one) and while this is most likely for prototyping purposes it shows they are willing to embrace new technology, something the rest of the industry seems to be lacking in. It will be interesting to see in the next few years where they decide to make use of this technology, personally I’d love them to create a digital library of .stl files which users can buy, download and print at home. This would allow GW to massively expand their product base with little capital expenditure though is probably a little way off yet short of hobbyists owning a Form 1 or having access to very high resolution printing services as the surface finish from popular FDM machines like the Rep2 just aren’t good enough for the detail level required.
I wish Proxy War all the best with their kickstarter, I’m in agreement with them that 3DP is the future of this particular industry in a lot of ways and will be interested to see how they get on.