• Registered: 2005-04-17
  • Posts: 4

Topic: What minis do you use?

Okay, I'm wondering what kind of minis people are using to play Defiance.  Me personally, I prefer a near-future military look compared to science fantasy figs (WH40k, Void, i-Kore, etc)...so here are some of the figs I found interesting.

Right now, I have a platoon worth of New Anglican Commonwealth (NAC) regular infantry and a Power Armor platoon of Eurasian Solar Union (ESU) troops from Ground Zero Games Stargunt line of 25mm figures.  This will soon be supplemented by a platoon of ESU Naval Infantry, and in the near future, a platoon of Oceanic Union Defence Force (OUDF) infantry and at least a squad of NAC Power Armor troops.

Unfortunately, there's not a lot of good pics of these minis, but I'm happy with them for the price (about $2 per figure including shipping and handling).  If you haven't heard of Ground Zero Games, check them out.  Good minis for Starmada too.

But these figs from Pig Iron Productions look sweet.  Too bad there's only a handful of them.

For vehicles, DLD Productions looks nice.  And the price looks pretty good.

Some of the figures, especially the Troopers section, look nice from em4 miniatures.

Lastly, the figs from 1stcorps look pretty decent.

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 416

Re: What minis do you use?

Hmm, are you in fact sorta looking for recommendations on near-future miliatry style miniatures? In that case, you might like to check out Mongoose's Starship Troopers, Kryomek human troops (especially Colonial Marines, of which I unfortunately didn't find any pictures right away), and Copplestone Casting's future war range, at the very least. Note tho that Mongoose's minis are very much larger than 25mm (they are 30-something scale), as are Copplestone's (true 28mm). But then again, so are Pig Iron's. For further recommendations, look up posts by smokingwreckage -- he's the expert in finding new miniatures.

It also might interest you to know that I'm about 75% done on making a Defiance list for Pig Iron models wink

As to the question up front, I have put some thought into what minis to use for stand-ins of the official (that is to say "in the rulebook") troops, stemming from the selection our group used when last minute playtesting the rules a few years back -- although as you can see I haven't yet had time to unearth and/or write down my thoughts on the subject.

Other times I've used what is best suitable for the force lists I've used. Since all of them have been tailored for a line of existing miniatures (or what I've had on hand), I've never had any selection problems. For example I ran a couple of demos with Demian's Star Marines list using... wait for it... GW Space Marines.

  • Registered: 2005-03-28
  • Posts: 480

Re: What minis do you use?

Keep an eye on Pig Iron. With the basic troopers set (including a SAW of some sort), a missile launcher team, a laser cannon team, and a chain gun team, and also a command squad, there's enough variety IMO for a platoon. (I'd be using the moving team and the firing team as two separate heavy weapons, using loaders or crew-served, one heavy weapons baggie plus a troopers baggie gives you a full squad).

With one IFV, an APC and an MBT (love TLA's) you've got more than enough for a decent Defiance force, although a dedicated artillery platform of some sort would be nice. Check out armorcast for a variety of missile racks (generic and battletech) in 28MM that could turn an APC of any kind into a missile carrier or rocket artillery. Look to Grendel (available through discounthobby.com) for a pretty good walker, a chaingun-heavy APC, and a dropship/VTOL. Old Crow http://www.oldcrowmodels.co.uk/
also does two VTOLs, a stack of light and medium tanks, and a range of interchangeable turrets, speaking of which Antenociti's workshop http://www.barrule.com/workshop/
also does several turrets.

http://www.eurekamin.com.au has pictures of many of the GZG troopers and vehicles.[/url]