Trader's Galaxy
I’ve written about Trader’s Galaxy in the past, and I’m sure I will write about them in the future. This month, if you subscribe to their tribes, depending on what tier you join, you can get the rulebooks for two of their games. Rise of the Democracy and Botwar, plus a bunch of models.
I was a long time subscriber then my wife went to Nurse Practioner school, and just graduated. While she was out of work, I had to curtail my Tribes memberships, I just couldn’t justify spending extra money for the last year. I have resubscribed this month, and will probably continue to subscribe for the long term. The creator Anthony Mallet appears to be a decent human being, and I want to encourage creators who continue to release their games as a 3d printable accessory. He also sells physical models on his website, but due to the fact that he is in Australia and I am not, I have never bought any from him.
I will confess that I have never actually gotten either game on the table. I plan to remedy that soon. I have watched a couple of Let’s Play on the OnTableTop Youtube channel. Game seems entertaining, and who doesn’t want to play Transformers versus Decepticons.
The models are great. They evoke that 1980’s cartoon feel. You get analogs to GI Joe, Transformers, and some fairly odd stuff like his range of clowns. He also does some Oldhammer adjacent stuff.
This is a great month to give the game a try, and see what you might be missing out on.
I will say that the models are not presupported, I have never had a problem with this. Newer (modern?) slicers have really great options for auto-supporting files and I have never had anything fail. They appear to just work. Sometimes the models are released with the idea of them being put in a mold, and made physically. Though, I think he has moved on to all his releases being 3d printed rather than any of the older methods of sprue and moulding.
There are custom dice, which was one of the main reasons I never played really got a game on the table. I am still opposed to custom dice. Just give me a d6 and let me roll them for all the relevant stats. I did a fairly comprehensive test of the test a last year, you can read about it here
Turns out that printing your own dice is cost effective and the die rolls are fair.
This month for Bot War you get 15 different models, all the dice and the rulebook for the low price of $10 USD and for RoTD you get 11 human sized models, and tank and a giant Robot.
RoTD is roughly 32mm scale, and the bots are quite a bit larger. This is an example of one of the models that was released with the idea of it being made in metal or injection moulded. That bot is rougly 85mm tall, while the soldier is 32ish mm tall.
As you can see the scales are quite a bit different between the two games. The larger bot is for RoTD, while the smaller bot is for BotWar. Of course with 3d printing, there is no reason that you can’t use either bot in game, you just need to rescale them as needed. I’m not sure what the rules differences are, so I can’t comment on what kind of conversions you will need to do to make them work in each game.
I really do like the models though. And I will get a game on the table soon. It is almost warm enough so that I have more time to print and paint, and my wife starts working the day this article is released, so I should have more discretionary income to spend.
Give them a shot, and please subscribe so I can get my Trashasaur model….
Also you can help support a guy who wants to make fun games, while he works a full-time job.
Once again, 3D printing provides the home hobbyist with opportunities he never had before, and I'm not just talking about that ability to scale the models so that the Transformers are in scale with the GI Joes. Both modern combat and transforming mecha are overlooked in tabletop wargaming: if you want to combine the two, there's nothing for it at all. It doesn't have to be GI Joe/Transformers, though of course that's a good place to start. It would seem a good fit for cyberpunk and could also be the basis of a Rifts-inspired wargame. And there's no reason why 'robots in disguise' couldn't exist in your grimdark far future campaign. Maybe that's where the Men of Iron are hiding.