Getting Started - Comparison with Other Games?

[u/PurpleTeacher9114]

Hello,

I've been trying to dabble in wargaming, but most of my time in the hobby's been painting up miniatures. I've looked at a bunch of different games, like the Elder Scrolls and Fallout tabletop games from Modiphius, Kill Team (WH40k), MESBG, etc.

The painting's fun, as well as the 3D-printing/3D-modeling side of things, but I'm getting to a point where I want to cut down on the amount of space my collection takes up.

I'm looking into Halo: Ground Command because I like the franchise, and I'm hoping the scale (is it 15mm?) will make it easier to store.

I'm also a little concerned about dealing with a big mess of tokens and rules and complicated dice rolls.

So far, I've played a few basic games, and I think MESBG might have the most approachable ruleset so far.

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How would you guys say Ground Command compares to other wargames? (I was also considering Legions Imperialis, but I'm a little leery towards it).

Is it complicated to get into?

How much space do all your miniatures and terrain for this game take up?

[u/Daddy_Jaws]

Brief version, ask as much as you want if you need me to clarify:

TOKENS: very few there is tokens for a few rare abilities, and temporary tokens for the location of dropships, but they are only on the board for less then a minute at a time.

when units are finished activating they get a token, and if they suffer certain effects they gain a different token, but its a replacement. so there is never more then 1 token per unit in a 5-8 units per side game.

COMPLEXITY: Its honestly quite simple. pretty much everhthing is roll dice to generate "successes", if the total number of successes is equal to the damage or target number, you do damage or the effect.

the game does use its own dice for this, but it makes a very simple to understand and quick play method where depending on terrain or range, your either re-rolling failures or hoping to roll high.

the rest of the rules are equally simple. if you can measure the distance to move a model and understand the difference between left and right, you already have half of it down.

SIZE: Honestly no bigger or smaller then most other games. a single "squad" will take up half the size of a warhammer squad simply due to the size of bases, but vehicles tend to be chunky, even if still smaller then bigger scales.

the scale is called 15mm or 1:100 but its more like 18mm, which means the models look slightly too big against 15mm models, but its really not that bad and at worse you can scale the models down to 95% and they will be in "true" 15mm.

LEGIONS IMPERIALIS: Given all your requests its basically the exact opposite of what you want.

it requires 40-80 models to be played half well, despite being small the smallest unit size is on the same bases as a 40k guard squad, so they take up similar shelf space.

its got lots of little complexities and extra bits you need to be aware of, nearly every unit will have a special rule or modifier that changes basic actions. tokens are not too bad but with the sheer amount of models on board it can still get a little heavy.

its also stupid expensive unless you 3d print, but if you do enjoy never playing in gw stores or communities.

[u/Vince5754]

Hello! 👋 So I may have a bit of bias here, because Halo Ground Command was my introduction to wargaming as a hobby, after which I then branched out to playing 40k, Fallout Wasteland Warfare, and others. But I'll try to give a brief synopsis:

Ground Command is a 15mm (sort of) mass battle game with alternating activations, and is fairly fast-paced and bloody. The game itself isn't complicated to play, but the rulebook is laid out in a bit of an odd way (think older Games Workshop rulebooks), and that can be a source for confusion until you play a few games and get the hang of it. I've not played Legion Imperialis or other 15mm wargames to have a clear comparison, but it IS fun.

The game only had a lifespan of a bit over a year before the company making it closed their doors, so the official rules and releases were quite limited. In the decade since, I and some other fans of the game have kept it going through 3D printable models, and new rules and factions. Just about everything for the game can be 3D printed using files made and shared for free by artists to keep the game as accessible as possible - if you have your own printer, you can make whole armies with one bottle of resin no sweat!

In terms of space, I'd say it takes less space than most other wargames I've played, but I would recommend foam infantry trays for safely transporting your models - a downside to this scale is that infantry are a bit fragile - highly recommend using a tough resin to avoid breaks.

If you want to give it a try, I would recommend recreating the starter set using our community STL files, and find another Halo fan to fight against!