A Return to Fantasy Warriors (and Some Musings on Miniatures Pricing)

In my last post I teased a bit about acquiring the legendary Nick Lund "Goblin War Giant" sculpt. Although recasts are available through Mirliton, I managed to find an original on eBay for only slightly more than the cost of the recast, so now I have the old box too! I have fond memories of drooling over the ads for this guy in Dragon magazine back in the day, and it's kind of wild to finally have it in my collection.

And yes, fond memories are at the root of this particular project.

Now, my love for Fantasy Warriors was what got this blog started waaaaay back in the day, but unlike then I am now a man in his 40s, and I am biologically compelled to get all weepy and nostalgic for lost glory days of old and such.


In all seriousness though, the classic look of Grenadier and Ral Partha instantly transports me to a time when tabletop gaming was brand new and terrifically exciting to me, and it's both useful and rewarding to be able to access those memories 30 years hence. Although I enjoy gaming on different levels—dare I say better levels—than I did then, I do miss that sense of unbridled curiosity and fascination that came with delving into a rich and rewarding hobby, and collecting old miniatures brings back a touch of that numinous experience.

Plus the figures are just damn cool.

So after much deliberation, I've decided to part ways with my Warmachine/Hordes collection as well as my Armies of Arcana collection. This frees up four shelves in my cabinets and gives me the capital to fund the putting together of four Fantasy Warriors armies (Humans, Amazons, Goblins, and Undead, plus selected allied commands like our Dwarfy friends up there).

Getting rid of my W/H collection was an easy decision; you can read all about my frustrations with the edition change-over in my last post on the topic, but honestly WarmaHordes and I never quite gelled. It's a bit like the 4e D&D of the miniatures hobby—it does its thing very well, but pretty much every single design decision went against what I look for in my gaming experience.

And best of all, the minis are all going to My Esteemed Opponent, so I know they'll have a good home!

Selling my beloved Armies of Arcana Amazons and Undead was a harder decision, but the reasons behind purchasing them many years ago no longer even remotely apply (long story, another topic for a future post perhaps), and the money goes to a good cause. Besides, I'll still have an Amazon and Undead army, just...different.

Once I settled on this plan, my thoughts turned to how to go about collecting. My usual approach (as it is for most hobbyists) is to sit down and work up a "master list" of what I want to get, and then start putting in orders, either all at once or in stages (depending on how hard the list is going to hit the ol' pocketbook). I wanted this experience to be different.

Back in the day, my miniatures collections grew organically. I didn't have anything near the means to afford to buy even a portion of an army at once, instead collecting in dribs and drabs. This was also the days before online shopping, when I was mostly dependent on what my local game store sold. This availability forced me to build my army in ways I might not have otherwise. (I never did get that unit of halfling archers for my Empire army...)

My intention is to follow this pattern to some extent via eBay. As much as possible, I am using what's available on eBay as a guide to what units will be in my army. For example, I picked up a blister pack of two Amazon Sabertooth Cat Riders, so that means I'll have a unit of those. I can fill in the gaps with orders of recast figures from Mirliton, as well as supplemental orders from Ral Partha, Alternative Armies, and even Hasslefree (since they scale well with old-school sculpts). I also have some pre-conceived ideas of which units are "must haves" (like the Dwarven War Cannon) and which I'm going to totally avoid (I want my Undead army to be wholly infantry, for example—it just seems more "Army of Darkness"-esque that way).

Over the past two or three weeks I've been quietly purchasing figures off eBay and I just put in a big order for my first "wave" of supplementary figures from Mirliton and Alternative Armies, so I should be seeing the first proper units taking shape for my various armies soon.

At that point, I'm going to start painting. I won't be ordering any other "waves" until I have this one painted, though I'll continue to troll eBay for more seed figures for future units.

Before I go, a quick and wholly unoriginal observation. Take a look at the photo below:

I was lucky enough to find an original box of the Dwarven War Cannon still in shrink wrap for a very reasonable price. And just look at that original price tag: $8.95! That is wild.

One of the reasons I wanted this particular set so desperately is because I actually owned it back in the day. I have vivid memories of picking it up during a trip to Wargames West in Albuquerque in 1991. Even with the meager allowance I was earning as a 13 year old, clearly $8.95 was well within my means.

Plugging $8.95 in 1991 money into an inflation calculator yields a price today of $16.35. Outside of Reaper Bones, you simply could not find a model of that size and "battlefield value" for that kind of price today. It makes me wonder whether it's even possible for today's youth to get into the wargaming hobby in the same way I did.

Of course, Grenadier ended up going out of business within a few years of releasing this set, so maybe their pricing wasn't terribly realistic even for those times...

I'm a Union Man!

It's been nearly two years since I posted here! Wow.

I've been kind of keeping a foot in my miniatures hobby during that time, but recently my dear wife pointed out to me that now that my other main hobby has become a full-time career, I was rather in need of an actual hobby to occupy my precious few spare hours. And hey, what better way to unwind and relax than with a bit of minis painting of an evening, and even—gasp!—the occasional game!

So I'm firing up this blog again as a way to document my focused return to the miniatures hobby. Which is a bit ironic, since last year I decided I'd kind of had enough with the "hobby community" at large...but that's a subject, perhaps, for a future post.

No, this blog is pure self-indulgence. I'll post pics and talk about plans, but mostly just to create a record for myself so I can go back and look through my process in the months and years ahead. I'd like to make posting to this blog a semi-regular thing. We'll see how successful I am in that. Comments are, of course, welcome, but I'm mostly just here for myself.

Another motivational tool I've just picked up came in the form of joining the Brush Wielders Union Patreon. I'm a sucker for cool swag, and I'm a sucker for analog record keeping. The fact you get a little "dues booklet" with space to record what you've painted and what you're planning that month? I didn't stand a chance...

I have a few posts in the queue regarding current projects, but for right now I'm just going to list what's currently in my collection and where things stand in terms of painting; all collections are 28mm unless otherwise stated:

• WWII Skirmish: East Africa 1941
• 4/11th Sikhs (mostly painted)
• Italian Colonial Infantry and Blackshirts (mostly unpainted)
• WWII Skirmish: Gothic Line, Fall 1944
• Brazilian Expeditionary Force (mostly painted)
• German 148th Reserve Division (unpainted)
• RSI Italian "Monte Rosa" Alpini (unpainted)
• Warhammer 40K: Black Templars (about half painted)
• Warhammer 40K: Sisters of Battle (mostly unpainted)
• Warhammer 40K: Genestealer Cult (unpainted)
• American War of Independence: Patriot army (unpainted)
• American War of Independence: British army (unpainted)
• 6mm Sengoku-era Takeda and Uesugi clan samurai armies (unpainted and mostly unbased!)
• Gempei War-era Samurai skirmish forces (unpainted)
• 6mm Epic 40K: Titan Legion (painted)
• 6mm Epic 40K: Orks (painted)
• Malifaux crews
• Ortegas (painted, though I have an "alternate Perdita" model I'd like to paint up)
• Viktorias (painted)
• The Dreamer (painted, though I'm going to re-do Lord Chompy Bits)
• Yan Lo (mostly painted)
• Brewmaster (unpainted)
• Fantasy Warriors
• Human army (planning)
• Amazon army (planning)
• Goblin army (planning)
• Undead army (planning)
• DBA (1/72 plastics)
• Classical Indians (mostly unpainted)
• Later Achaemenid Persians (unpainted)
• Skythian (unpainted)
• Later Hoplite Greek, Athenian (planning)
• Later Hoplite Greek, Theban (planning)

Phew! That's a lot of projects, and with only a very small percentage of them actually complete, I've got a lot of painting ahead of me. I feel a bit like Utgar Skullcleaver here, facing down a lumbering Goblin War Giant...

Oh yes, more details on that little acquisition next post!

More Malifaux!

Since my last post I've managed to put in a couple more games of Malifaux.

I've been getting my ass handed to me by My Esteemed Opponent, mainly because he is a very good player but also because he's got his Sonnia Criid crew dialed in and I continue to try out different crews to see how they play, which means it's mostly a steep learning curve for me every time.

These past two games, I've played first the Ortegas (Guild) and then Yan Lo (Ten Thunders/Resurrectionists). Both were lots of fun to play. Lists are reproduced below.

Ortegas (35 SS)

• Perdita Ortega
• Papa Loco
• Abuela
• Santiago
• Guild Austringer
• Hans

I thought the Ortegas would be good against Criid with their emphasis on ranged attacks, but I had trouble coordinating their signature chain-activation ability...and then the flames started raining down. :-/

So many Burning markers...

The game ended up with Hans the sole survivor and pretty crushing loss on my part.

Ten Thunders (35 SS)

• Yan Lo
• Reliquary Upgrade
• Chiaki the Niece
• Soul Porter
• Ashigaru (3)
• Penanggalan

I fared a bit better in my second game. I chose two Schemes with good synergy ("Breakthrough" and the Ten Thunders-specific theme, "Watchful Eyes"), both of which require depositing Scheme Markers near deployment zones. Unfortunately, I was unable to effectively defend a couple of my markers, as My Esteemed Opponent sowed his usual death and destruction—though not to the same extent as in the Ortega game! I'm definitely learning some effective counter-measures against Sonnia's mastery of the Burning marker the hard way, though.

(I really should take a look at some of those tactical guides on Pull My Finger one of these days...)

Speaking of Burning markers, My Esteemed Opponent showed up for this game with some badass custom 3-D printed markers! The condition markers even have tiny little magnets embedded that hold them together. The future is now, everyone.

A glimpse at the Criid crew

I still have a couple other crews I want to try out: the Dreamer (who I played once before to horrendous result) and the Brewmaster (and his trusty Whiskey Golem!). We'll see how that goes...

Moving on to Malifaux

So while I excitedly await reams of Skorne errata for my Hordes collection, My Esteemed Opopnent and I decided to move on to Malifaux.

To be more specific, I "refereed" a Malifaux game yesterday, as My Esteemed Opponent brought his equally-esteemed girlfriend to give the game a try. To no one's surprise, she ended up really enjoying herself, and the evening ended with her making plans to pick out a crew of her own. I've got my fingers crossed for some sort of campaign or at least semi-regular Malifaux play this year.

This game was the Guild's own Sonnia Criid and her Witchling Stalkers messing with the Viktorias and their all-lady crew of Outcasts. Our new player took the Outcasts and got into the game immediately, doing a great job of sticking to her Schemes despite coming under the fiery attacks of Sonnia and her napalm-hurling minions.

Seriously, when you go up against Criid, be prepared to see lots and lots of BURNING tokens on the table. I've seen this crew in action once before and it was brutal. Sadly for My Esteemed Opponent, he made the Classic Malifaux Mistake™of losing track of his Schemes in favor of going after blood for blood's sake. By Turn 4, he realized it had become impossible for him to win due to a combination of losses and ignoring his Schemes, and so conceded. And so the plucky Outcasts managed to not only Defend Their Turf but also Plant Evidence implicating Criid and her crew in some tomfoolery or another.

As I said, I'm looking forward to playing more Malifaux; my one critique of the game is that it runs verrrrrry slowwwwwwwly when you're first learning the game and your crew; this is easily solved, but not if you go more than a year between games like we did!

Here are some shots from the game. It ended up largely revolving around the wagon in the middle of the intersection. The board looks a little sparse to my eyes (though it's still way more crowded than what we're used to with WarmaHordes!). I've got 2-3 more buildings in my painting queue, plus more scatter terrain, so future urban encounters should be a bit more crowded...

Warmajournal #2: Privateer Press, Why Do You Make It So Hard For Me To Love You?

In my last post, I was looking forward to getting into a regular rhythm with WarmaHordes, taking the new edition as an opportunity to build up mastery of the rules. To this end, I started paying a bit more attention to the community at large and to announcements from the game's publisher, Privateer Press.

I wish I hadn't.

The latest FAQ and Developer's Notes from Privateer include some very dismaying news. To wit:

• Starting this summer, Privateer will no longer include cards with its models. For those unfamiliar with the game, cards are essential to playing. Going forward you can download the cards for free as PDFs or use their for-pay War Room app. There is also talk of offering cards as POD, but that hasn't been finalized as of this writing.
• The latest FAQ includes a bunch of updates, but for the Skorne (the only faction I play), it simply says: "Skorne has many, many changes coming. They will be receiving their own errata update in January of 2017. Stay tuned for some exciting changes!"

Exciting changes? Oh boy! I'm just so...

Seriously, what a way to get the wind taken out of my sails. Right when I'm settling in with the new edition, familiarizing myself with my warlocks and beasts and troops and whatnot, I get hit upside the head with the promise of "many, many changes" to come. I don't really care if the changes are good or bad at this point. The timing is just awful.

That's very much a personal beef on my part, of course. The decision to stop printing cards is something that affects the whole community. Judging from the tone struck in the Developer's Notes, I don't think this is going over as a very popular decision, either. Nor should it.

The high-quality cards that come with each pack are very much part of the game's charm for me. To replace those with PDFs printed off my inkjet (costing me time and money) or to go all-digital (and pay Privateer for the privilege) seems like a pretty cold lunch in my estimation. The claim is that this is so cards can stay "current" and they can engage in a more-or-less continual process of tweaking based on "fan feedback."

Aesthetic considerations aside, this is extremely dismaying. "Fan feedback" is what leads to these massive errata and FAQ documents, reams of clarifications and rules amendments that seem to reach absurdist levels. For example:

p. 93, Hill
Add the following to the end of the Hill text:
A model moving off of a hill does not fall or suffer falling damage.

Oh, thank you for that clarification! I wouldn't have known what to do about that otherwise! (Note that they are talking about a hill here, not a cliff.) What kind of pixel-bitching asshole necessitated that pointless clarification? Whatever happened to applying common sense during a game? Eventually we'll get to the point where every possible permutation of play gets covered in a 50-page errata document that's almost as long as the core rules themselves. (The current doc is already up to 20 pages.)

WarmaHordes has always been a fairly pixel-bitchy game, and Privateer has always catered to the hardcore tournament crowd. It's just unfortunate, as increasingly I feel like the more friendly/casual player is being edged out in favor of making the game almost exclusively about tournament/competitive play. I've seen this process before (::cough::Magic::cough::) and in my opinion it is always detrimental to the hobby at large.

So I'll wait and see what all this Skorne errata looks like before I play another game of WarmaHordes. I have no intention of selling my Skorne miniatures, as I like their look way too much to part with them, but increasingly I'm thinking I'll have to use them with some other rules set, one that takes itself way less seriously and actually acknowledges that the majority of wargamers play friendly games that don't require errata to tell them that moving off a hill doesn't cause discomfiture. Dragon Rampant or A Song of Blades and Heroes, perhaps. We shall see.