An Interview with Mammoth Miniatures' Nicolas Evans
We're honored to present to you, an exclusive interview with the creator of Super Tiny Skirmish and the recently successful Kickstarter project, Planet 28, Nicolas Evans of Mammoth Miniatures. In this special interview, Neuicon discusses with Nicolas, where he's from, what Planet 28 is all about and the present and future of his creative brand, Mammoth Miniatures. Neuicon is a huge fan of Planet 28 and what Nicolas is doing and hopes to share with all of you, just why Mammoth Miniatures deserves your attention, support and indulgence. Enjoy.
We're honored to present to you, an exclusive interview with the creator of Super Tiny Skirmish and the recently successful Kickstarter project, Planet 28, Nicolas Evans of Mammoth Miniatures. In this special interview, Neuicon discusses with Nicolas, where he's from, what Planet 28 is all about and the present and future of his creative brand, Mammoth Miniatures. Neuicon is a huge fan of Planet 28 and what Nicolas is doing and hopes to share with all of you, just why Mammoth Miniatures deserves your attention, support and indulgence. Enjoy.
CPOP: Thank you, loyal CVLT, for joining us tonight as we interview Nicolas Evans, creator of Planet 28, a set of incredibly simple and exciting tabletop miniatures skirmish rules, as well as the founder of Mammoth Miniatures. Our thanks, Nicolas, and thank you for joining us.
Nicolas: No problem! It’s really great to have been invited.
CPOP: Firstly, let us know a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Interests? What kind of music are you into?
Nicolas: Well, I’m from Leicester, England. If you’re not familiar with it, it's a sort of post industrial purgatory, slap bang in the middle of the country. My main interests are art and model making, often overlapping. Music-wise, I’m a sort of like a rusted ship - metal at my core, but encrusted with all sorts of non metal stuff.
CPOP: How did you become introduced to the tabletop realm? Do you have any favorite titles? When and what prompted you to begin the journey of starting Mammoth Miniatures?
Nicolas: My interest in tabletop gaming kind of came from two points. I was really into Lord of the Rings as a kid - the films came out when I was seven, and Games Workshop published their Lord of the Rings Partworks Magazine at the same time. I already liked making things and building models, so the idea of building models from the Lord of the Rings and making my own armies caught me instantly. Lord of the Rings is still a game I love and one I come back to all the time. At the same time, I got introduced to Warhammer 40,000 and fell in love with the universe - the village I grew up in was built next to an old gravel pit turned nature reserve, so the crumbling industrial aesthetic meshed with the kind of environments I would play in. That made it really easy for me to inhabit the Warhammer 40,000 universe and in turn, shaped my interest in world-building and fantasy as something that you could do as an actual pursuit. Eventually, I managed to get my hands on a whole bunch of boxed games from the local charity shop which gave me a nice archive of tabletop history to mess with.
Nicolas: No problem! It’s really great to have been invited.
CPOP: Firstly, let us know a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? Interests? What kind of music are you into?
Nicolas: Well, I’m from Leicester, England. If you’re not familiar with it, it's a sort of post industrial purgatory, slap bang in the middle of the country. My main interests are art and model making, often overlapping. Music-wise, I’m a sort of like a rusted ship - metal at my core, but encrusted with all sorts of non metal stuff.
CPOP: How did you become introduced to the tabletop realm? Do you have any favorite titles? When and what prompted you to begin the journey of starting Mammoth Miniatures?
Nicolas: My interest in tabletop gaming kind of came from two points. I was really into Lord of the Rings as a kid - the films came out when I was seven, and Games Workshop published their Lord of the Rings Partworks Magazine at the same time. I already liked making things and building models, so the idea of building models from the Lord of the Rings and making my own armies caught me instantly. Lord of the Rings is still a game I love and one I come back to all the time. At the same time, I got introduced to Warhammer 40,000 and fell in love with the universe - the village I grew up in was built next to an old gravel pit turned nature reserve, so the crumbling industrial aesthetic meshed with the kind of environments I would play in. That made it really easy for me to inhabit the Warhammer 40,000 universe and in turn, shaped my interest in world-building and fantasy as something that you could do as an actual pursuit. Eventually, I managed to get my hands on a whole bunch of boxed games from the local charity shop which gave me a nice archive of tabletop history to mess with.
Artwork for Planet 28, by Mammoth Miniatures' Nicolas Evans.
CPOP: Anything you play at the moment? Something that serves as your current go-to?
Nicolas: There’s a few games I have been tinkering with recently. Fabula Fantasy Skirmish, Death in the Dungeon and the Dolorous Stroke are all systems I’m building miniatures for right now. I’m also messing around with home-brewing a fantasy mass battle game and find myself referring back to Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames, a lot (if you ever want an example of simplicity in rules writing, I highly recommend picking up a copy).
CPOP: Planet 28. The game was recently on Kickstarter and saw a successful drive. Congratulations. What is Planet 28 and what makes it so special and unique?
Nicolas: Cheers! Planet 28 is a set of simple miniature skirmish rules, designed to allow quick pick-up games. The rules were inspired by the Inq28/Inquisimunda section of the Warhammer 40,000 community, and were written with miniatures in mind. One of the questions that came up all the time was what rule systems people were using to play games with their lovingly converted miniatures, and very often the answer was either an out of print rule system or a mash up of a few different systems. Now both of these are great options if you have a regular group to play with, but sometimes you want to play a game with a new opponent. Obviously teaching them the nuances of a 200-page rule system can be a bit intimidating, so i wanted to make a system that could be slung in a gaming case for those times you want to quickly get miniatures on the table.
CPOP: Do you have any plans on expanding the game, such as establishing a universe? Additional content? Anything that folks can look forward to, or is it too soon?
Nicolas: Absolutely. Although I tried to make the core rules as “generic” as possible in terms of setting, it doesn’t mean I’m adverse to setting, far from it. Right now I’m working on a couple of expansions for solo play and vehicles, as well as a campaign supplement that I can use to start building a bit more of a universe around the core Planet 28 rules. Something I’ve been threatening to do for a while is bring out a range of alternate history supplements - things like English Civil War Horror or French Revolution Gang War. Skirmish systems are a great way to look at odd settings in close detail and add character to them and that’s something I’d love to do. Beyond that, I’ve got a mass fantasy wargame and something dungeon crawl-y in my notebook.
CPOP: Could you give us a few examples of what Planet 28 plays like and what makes it different from other skirmish titles?
Nicolas: The main mechanics of the game are very minimal - you have characters, and each character has three core skills (agility, shooting and fighting) which determine how likely they are to succeed in certain tasks. When you want a character to perform an action you just roll a D10 and if you can roll under the relevant skill level then you’ve succeeded. What I think sets it apart from other systems is the degree to which you can customize your characters whilst still keeping the core mechanics easy. Rather than a huge stat line each character is defined by adding a range of traits or special abilities to change how they act. Add to that, custom weapons and a campaign system and you can play a simple game with a complex characters, without needing to keep track of loads of stats. All of this was written with the miniatures and story in mind - the system really works best when you have a handful of converted oddball figures and a story for each one.
CPOP: Mammoth Miniatures. Tell us all about it.
Nicolas: Mammoth miniatures really came out of me studying my MA. Towards the end of my course, I had three months to go out and prove that I could sustain myself as an artist, and at the same time I made a little game called super tiny skirmish to see if I could fit an entire fantasy game on a single sheet of A4. The game got a lot of attention on Instagram and I figured there was no better time to try and produce something than now. It sold really well and as such sold me on the idea of actually making a go of it as a game/miniature producer. Not long after i was given a studio for free and decided to set up a web store for mammoth related projects, since having a dedicated work space meant I could do all the things I couldn’t do in a kitchen (like pewter casting or messing with resin). As for the name, well in the village I grew up in, there’s a whacking great statue of a mammoth that acts as a local way-point and it seemed too perfect not to name my endeavors after it.
CPOP: What’s it like running Mammoth Miniatures? Hectic? Relaxing? What kind of things occupy your creative time when working on things related to Mammoth?
Nicolas: I’ve yet to really find out! So far, everything I’ve done has been real fun and it’s been great engaging with people and sharing the odd things I make with them. At the same time, I set up Mammoth at the worst time - I found myself moving into a new studio, trying to finish my masters degree, build new artwork , send out orders and start a new job all at once. But now the MA is done and I’ve got a lot more free time to dedicate to Mammoth-related projects, which is very exciting. Most of my stuff starts with drawing and a collection of odd notes. Since my background is in art, I tend to think visually, so having a collection of drawings together helps motivate me to get on with all the mathy bits of game writing.
Nicolas: There’s a few games I have been tinkering with recently. Fabula Fantasy Skirmish, Death in the Dungeon and the Dolorous Stroke are all systems I’m building miniatures for right now. I’m also messing around with home-brewing a fantasy mass battle game and find myself referring back to Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames, a lot (if you ever want an example of simplicity in rules writing, I highly recommend picking up a copy).
CPOP: Planet 28. The game was recently on Kickstarter and saw a successful drive. Congratulations. What is Planet 28 and what makes it so special and unique?
Nicolas: Cheers! Planet 28 is a set of simple miniature skirmish rules, designed to allow quick pick-up games. The rules were inspired by the Inq28/Inquisimunda section of the Warhammer 40,000 community, and were written with miniatures in mind. One of the questions that came up all the time was what rule systems people were using to play games with their lovingly converted miniatures, and very often the answer was either an out of print rule system or a mash up of a few different systems. Now both of these are great options if you have a regular group to play with, but sometimes you want to play a game with a new opponent. Obviously teaching them the nuances of a 200-page rule system can be a bit intimidating, so i wanted to make a system that could be slung in a gaming case for those times you want to quickly get miniatures on the table.
CPOP: Do you have any plans on expanding the game, such as establishing a universe? Additional content? Anything that folks can look forward to, or is it too soon?
Nicolas: Absolutely. Although I tried to make the core rules as “generic” as possible in terms of setting, it doesn’t mean I’m adverse to setting, far from it. Right now I’m working on a couple of expansions for solo play and vehicles, as well as a campaign supplement that I can use to start building a bit more of a universe around the core Planet 28 rules. Something I’ve been threatening to do for a while is bring out a range of alternate history supplements - things like English Civil War Horror or French Revolution Gang War. Skirmish systems are a great way to look at odd settings in close detail and add character to them and that’s something I’d love to do. Beyond that, I’ve got a mass fantasy wargame and something dungeon crawl-y in my notebook.
CPOP: Could you give us a few examples of what Planet 28 plays like and what makes it different from other skirmish titles?
Nicolas: The main mechanics of the game are very minimal - you have characters, and each character has three core skills (agility, shooting and fighting) which determine how likely they are to succeed in certain tasks. When you want a character to perform an action you just roll a D10 and if you can roll under the relevant skill level then you’ve succeeded. What I think sets it apart from other systems is the degree to which you can customize your characters whilst still keeping the core mechanics easy. Rather than a huge stat line each character is defined by adding a range of traits or special abilities to change how they act. Add to that, custom weapons and a campaign system and you can play a simple game with a complex characters, without needing to keep track of loads of stats. All of this was written with the miniatures and story in mind - the system really works best when you have a handful of converted oddball figures and a story for each one.
CPOP: Mammoth Miniatures. Tell us all about it.
Nicolas: Mammoth miniatures really came out of me studying my MA. Towards the end of my course, I had three months to go out and prove that I could sustain myself as an artist, and at the same time I made a little game called super tiny skirmish to see if I could fit an entire fantasy game on a single sheet of A4. The game got a lot of attention on Instagram and I figured there was no better time to try and produce something than now. It sold really well and as such sold me on the idea of actually making a go of it as a game/miniature producer. Not long after i was given a studio for free and decided to set up a web store for mammoth related projects, since having a dedicated work space meant I could do all the things I couldn’t do in a kitchen (like pewter casting or messing with resin). As for the name, well in the village I grew up in, there’s a whacking great statue of a mammoth that acts as a local way-point and it seemed too perfect not to name my endeavors after it.
CPOP: What’s it like running Mammoth Miniatures? Hectic? Relaxing? What kind of things occupy your creative time when working on things related to Mammoth?
Nicolas: I’ve yet to really find out! So far, everything I’ve done has been real fun and it’s been great engaging with people and sharing the odd things I make with them. At the same time, I set up Mammoth at the worst time - I found myself moving into a new studio, trying to finish my masters degree, build new artwork , send out orders and start a new job all at once. But now the MA is done and I’ve got a lot more free time to dedicate to Mammoth-related projects, which is very exciting. Most of my stuff starts with drawing and a collection of odd notes. Since my background is in art, I tend to think visually, so having a collection of drawings together helps motivate me to get on with all the mathy bits of game writing.
Planet 28, from Mammoth Miniatures and Nicolas Evans, as featured on Kickstarter.
CPOP: Does Mammoth Miniatures carry other titles? Are you working on anything new or have anything on the shelf you’re considering working on?
Nicolas: Right now, the only other title on the Mammoth store is Super Tiny Skirmish, soon to be reprinted. I’ve got a couple of things that are nearing completion and as such, artwork will be appearing on Instagram or Facebook in the coming couple of weeks.
CPOP: It’s understood you did the artwork for Planet 28, which is fantastic, by the way. How long have you been an artist? Have you illustrated for any other projects?
Nicolas: I’ve always done or studied art to some degree - I had a brief stint with academic subjects but we soon decided to part ways, and I went off to study sculpture at Wimbledon College of Art, then an MA in fine art at Chelsea College of Art afterwards. I work primarily as a conceptual sculptor and make a lot of installation based work , as well as working with a collective called Portland (that’s the UK Portland, by the way). I’ve done the odd bit of illustration for other projects, although none of them have made it to the public, as far as I know. One of the most recent developments artistically for me has been in understanding the degree to which my fine art and my hobby interests intersect, the two are very much linked and inform one another. Game rules and world-building overlap with the kind of structural concerns of conceptual art. I’ve been writing on the subject lately and gave a talk at the University of York on how artists can utilize the kind of material and conceptual processes found in model making.
CPOP: Where can the CVLT find you, your titles and Mammoth Miniatures online?
Nicolas: You can find me on Facebook as Mammoth Miniatures, On Instagram at @Nic_The_Evans or @MammothMiniatures, and on the Mammoth Miniatures website.
CPOP: How can CPOP’s CVLT get their hands on Planet 28? How can they directly support what you’re doing?
Nicolas: Right now the only way to grab Planet 28, is to download a copy from WargameVault - it’s free to download, but if you do fancy supporting future projects, then any amount of payment will go a long way to keeping me stocked up on pens and pencils.
CPOP: Thanks, Nicolas, for joining us tonight. We thank you so very much for your time and look forward to the continued success of Planet 28 and Mammoth Miniatures.
Nicolas: Not a problem, It’s been great fun!
Nicolas: Right now, the only other title on the Mammoth store is Super Tiny Skirmish, soon to be reprinted. I’ve got a couple of things that are nearing completion and as such, artwork will be appearing on Instagram or Facebook in the coming couple of weeks.
CPOP: It’s understood you did the artwork for Planet 28, which is fantastic, by the way. How long have you been an artist? Have you illustrated for any other projects?
Nicolas: I’ve always done or studied art to some degree - I had a brief stint with academic subjects but we soon decided to part ways, and I went off to study sculpture at Wimbledon College of Art, then an MA in fine art at Chelsea College of Art afterwards. I work primarily as a conceptual sculptor and make a lot of installation based work , as well as working with a collective called Portland (that’s the UK Portland, by the way). I’ve done the odd bit of illustration for other projects, although none of them have made it to the public, as far as I know. One of the most recent developments artistically for me has been in understanding the degree to which my fine art and my hobby interests intersect, the two are very much linked and inform one another. Game rules and world-building overlap with the kind of structural concerns of conceptual art. I’ve been writing on the subject lately and gave a talk at the University of York on how artists can utilize the kind of material and conceptual processes found in model making.
CPOP: Where can the CVLT find you, your titles and Mammoth Miniatures online?
Nicolas: You can find me on Facebook as Mammoth Miniatures, On Instagram at @Nic_The_Evans or @MammothMiniatures, and on the Mammoth Miniatures website.
CPOP: How can CPOP’s CVLT get their hands on Planet 28? How can they directly support what you’re doing?
Nicolas: Right now the only way to grab Planet 28, is to download a copy from WargameVault - it’s free to download, but if you do fancy supporting future projects, then any amount of payment will go a long way to keeping me stocked up on pens and pencils.
CPOP: Thanks, Nicolas, for joining us tonight. We thank you so very much for your time and look forward to the continued success of Planet 28 and Mammoth Miniatures.
Nicolas: Not a problem, It’s been great fun!
CPOP would like to thank Nicolas Evans for the interview. Are you interested in Planet 28? Visit the rules HERE.
2024, CRUSHPOP PRODUCTIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
THIS WEBSITE IS BEST VIEWED IN A HIGH DEFINITION DISPLAY OF 1920 BY 1080 OR GREATER.
THIS WEBSITE IS BEST VIEWED IN A HIGH DEFINITION DISPLAY OF 1920 BY 1080 OR GREATER.