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The idea of proxies in wargaming is really nothing new. Wargaming is itself a sort of proxying, using blocks of wood or pieces of plastic or chunks of metal to represent infantry and cavalry and artillery. Everything is just a symbol of something else.

But the place where proxying starts to cause a problem is when we start to use one company’s models for another company’s games. And, to name the elephant in the room, we’re really talking about Games Workshop in all of this, because there aren’t any other wargames, that I’m aware of, where tournaments will turn you away if you’re not using the right models with the right rules. But bring in some 3D printed models to a Games Workshop store and try to play a game and you might get shown the door.

How I Got Started in with Proxies in Wargaming

As I’ve mentioned, I was a big time Squats player way back when I was just earning enough money as a teenager to actually buy models. But, to my chagrin, Squats got discontinued, and I was left with an army that was obsolete.

So, I started proxying. I switched to playing Imperial Guard (this was eons before they were called the Astra Militarum) and I used my Squats as Imperial Guard squads. They were armed the right way, with lasguns and flak armor, and aside from the fact that they were a little bit shorter than the average Guardsman, it wasn’t a big deal.

It’s worth noting that this was in days long past where the thought of entering a tournament had never even crossed my mind and I just played with a few high school friends. We didn’t even have a Warhammer store in my state, and wouldn’t get one for twenty five more years.

None of us cared that my Squats were Guardsmen. It just seemed like the thing to do.

Fast Forward Thirty Years

Proxies have become a big hot-button issue, and for the life of me I can’t see why. There are Facebook groups devoted to Warhammer–but not run by Games Workshop–who will ban you if you talk about 3rd party retailers and if you talk about your 3D printed bits. I am a person who is a die-hard (or die-fairly-hard) Games Workshop fan, and I just don’t have the love for a company that would restrict my fellow gamers from showing off models that look like, and can be used as, Games Workshop models.

I 100% understand tournaments. If they’re sponsored by Games Workshop, then Games Workshop gets to set the rules. That’s no different from any tournament organizer setting rules for a tourney and making sure that players are strictly obeying. So, for tournaments: I salute you, Games Workshop. Have fun. But for everything else, just let people play with what they want.

I suppose that a lot of my opinion on proxy models comes from the fact that I don’t have a lot of skin in the game when it comes to competitive play. I don’t go to tournaments. I have, in my life, been to one tournament (a non-Games Workshop one) and placed somewhere in the middle and had a relatively okay time. I’m not a competitive player. Open Play and Narrative Play are for me. Stratagems are not.

WYSIWYG–The Key to Proxies in Wargaming

All of this said, I am a firm believer in the WYSIWYG rule (What You See Is What You Get). If you want to say that this model is a Space Marine carrying a plasma gun, then it had better be fairly apparent to the casual observer that it is indeed a proxy for a Space Marine and that he is indeed carrying a Plasma Gun.

I’m not saying that model makers need to outright copy Games Workshop and have their guns be identical. I am, after all, a VERY staunch believer in the right of people who own Intellectual Property. (I should probably write an entire article on the subject, but if you don’t know I am a New York Times Bestselling author of science fiction, and I really hate the idea that someone is out there messing with my intellectual property. Copyright is copyright.) (I know the haters will say that Games Workshop stole from Starship Troopers and Dune and a million other things, and to that I simply say: there is a difference between influence–all authors are influenced–and copying outright.) But now we’re on tangents.

Back to the point. I want to be able to see that the models that I am playing with are relatively close to the models they’re supposed to represent.

Ravaged Star: Armies of the Veil-Touched

Enter Ravaged Star: Armies of the Veil-Touched, a project that was the brain child of Dave at Miniwargaming (and all the Miniwargaming team). When you see the Armies of the Veil-Touched, you know that they’re Chaos models. You just know. They don’t try to hide it.

I say this as someone who is totally in love with the Armies of the Veil-Touched and who has backed the Kickstarter and eagerly awaiting my models in October. But if you look at these Chaos soldiers with guns that are eerily similar to Chaos Space Marine weapons, and who even go so far as to have the eight-pointed star proudly displayed, then, yeah, I’m going to think that the Veil-Touched are nothing but proxies for Chaos Space Marines (and Chaos Demons).

Now, they’re not all exactly that. I backed the Dominiran War Pack, which is less Chaos Space Marines and more Chaos Cultists with a heavy dose of Necromunda vibes. I liked them better than the other packs (honestly it’s because I don’t want to paint ALL THAT CHAOS TRIM). But the Cult of the Veil are pure Chaose Space Marines. And the Veil-Scarred Abominations look an AWFUL lot like Obliterators.

But you know what? Good for Dave and good for Miniwargaming. They saw a market, they thought that it would be a good fit for something that they were already passionate about (anyone who’s been following Dave knows that he has been a Servant of Chaos for a decade). I honestly love what they’ve done with the whole range, I wish I could have bought them all, and I would love–hey Miniwargaming!–if they sent me some models to review.

Wargames Atlantic

This is definitely not the big player on the scene that Ravaged Star: Armies of the Veil-Touched is, but it would appear that Wargames Atlantic has a pretty straightforward business model, and that business model is that they make proxies for other games. They make them a little weird, a little different, but they make them nonetheless. And they make no rules that I’m aware of, so I think they just assume that their models are going to end up as proxies in other wargames.

And I’m a sucker for Wargames Atlantic. I bought the Grognards, thinking they’d be a fun addition to an Imperial Guard army. I bought the World War One Germans because, at the time, they were the easiest way to make Death Korps of Krieg conversions. And, I bought their Space Dwarves, the Einherjar. It was back when my YouTube channel was devoted entirely to building neat terrain, and I’m really thrilled with how my Space Dwarves came out in a 3D printed Dwarven Castle (from Printable Scenery). They scratched that Squat itch, and I loved them for it.

Warlord Games

Warlord Games, makers of Bolt Action, sell a lot of models for their game, but they have rules for a lot of units that there are no models for. And I think that they hope that ingenious players will figure out a way to model a specific self-propelled artillery piece or the Sturmtiger, a little-built German weapon that launched depth charges from its massive gun.

But I’m thinking more about Hail Caesar! being proxied into (and out of SPQR). There are some people who love rank-and-flank, and there are some people who don’t, and I’ve recently heard of some home rules taking their SPQR forces into a rank-and-flank role, while I’ve tried to take my Hail Caesar minis into a single-base role.

Of course, this gets slight off the beaten track of proxies in wargaming and into house rules, and I will never be a naysayer of house rules (as long as newcomers are welcomed in, helped to learn the house rules, and then not immediately slaughtered by rules lawyers).

One Page Rules

Now it comes to it: it’s time to discuss the big guys on the block, who are doing something that I find to be incredibly interesting: One Page Rules. First, they are, through their Patreon, My Mini Factory, and other online shops, selling their own miniatures which are not-at-all-subtly acting as proxies for Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Age of Sigmar. Their models are almost one-to-one comparison, staying just ever so slightly on the side of fair use and not breaking copyright, but making no bones about the fact that you can absolutely use their science fiction models in any game of Warhammer 40k.

But they’ve taken it one step further–and I think this is where it turns it on its head–they’ve made simplified rules for a whole bevy of games, including Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar, and they are, indeed, contained on a single (very dense) page.

So you’ve got three groups of people who are playing One Page Rules. You’ve got the people who are buying the 3D printed sculpts that they can use as proxies in a standard Warhammer 40k game. You’ve got the people who are buying One Page Rules so that they can play an extremely pared down and accessible version of Warhammer–even using their Games Workshop models to do it. And you’ve got the final group, who are 3D printing the models, and using the One Page Rules, and they’re playing what is–on it’s face–a different game, but which was inspired by Warhammer. The proxies in wargaming are not just the models but the rules.

Now, again, I know a lot about Intellectual Property and copyright and fair use, and it seems like One Page Rules are doing everything they can to keep their noses clean. I’m sure it’s a difficult line for them to walk. But the fact that the Games Workshop legal team hasn’t swooped in with a cease and desist order is a pretty good sign that they’ve got a good thing going.

My Skin in the Game

I have begun talking a little more openly that I am developing a commandos-style ruleset which is miniatures agnostic and can be applied to more than one genre. Currently, in my playtesting, I’m using World War Two Warlord Games models (the British Commandos against the Waffen-SS). But I can see this game being altered, either through fan experimentation or through supplemental PDFs, as being Cyberpunk or Space Marines or Squats or even Napoleonics.

So I’m using a lot of proxies in wargaming right now, and I suppose that it doesn’t really fall into the camp of proxying if the game is miniatures agnostic. But it feels like I’m dipping a toe into this world.

An Addendum: 3D Printing for Proxies in Wargaming

I don’t know how I got so far into this article without mentioning (aside from a little bit with One Page Rules) how 3D printing is completely changing the landscape of the market. A good–really good, for a starter–3D resin printer can cost you a fourth of what you’d spend on a 2000 point Games Workshop army.

I have made claims before that I don’t believe that 3D printing is going to make Games Workshop go the way of the dodo, but that’s primarily because 3D printing is a hobby unto itself. It requires space. It requires ventilation. It requires a little computer prowess. It’s not, as of now, a drag-and-drop affair. This is the reason why I own an FDM printer but not a resin printer–because there’s just no room in this house that I can properly ventilate and not fill with noxious fumes.

But… we’re getting closer. Some 3D printed models are better than others, but some are every bit as incredible as what you’d get out of Games Workshop.

Will it be the death knell of the wargaming behemoth? I honestly don’t think so. I think we’re going after different markets. But we’re closer than we used to be–closer than we were two years ago.

Conclusion: Proxies in Wargaming

Proxies in wargaming are always going to be a thing, and I think that’s healthy. I don’t even have a problem with someone playing with Space Marine and saying “I’m thinking about buying a Sisters of Battle army. Can I use these Space Marines with the Sisters of Battle rules to see if I like them?” I don’t have a problem with that (as long as that behavior doesn’t drag out for months at the gaming store.)

Proxies are part of the game, like it or not. They have so many legitimate purposes for use that it would be bonkers to shut down someone just because they have proxies.

But as for Games Workshop: we’re waiting to see your move.