So many miniatures, so little time

The thing about starting a little secret project, while waiting for my Dark Age figures to arrive, was that I ran the risk of having a partially finished secret project on the table when the Dark Age figures arrived. I finished unit three (picture forthcoming) of five for the secret project and also have a good start on unit four; however, my Dark Age figures have finally arrived and I feel the need to get started on them.

As was mentioned in All About Miniatures Episode 6, I also recently purchased Hour of Glory from Warm Acre. I had wanted to order the game before the holidays when they ran their free shipping special; but, the budget did not cooperate. I told myself that I would order the game after the holidays if they ran the special again. This time the special was 50% off the game which made it a wash with shipping. The game doesn’t have a lot of figures (23 in total) but I am going to need to paint these as well.

Another thing to come out of AAM Episode 6 was the absolute blast (for me anyway) it was playing DBA. This reminded me that Little Wars is coming up in April and I would really like to go to the tournament this year with a new army. In the two and one-half months until the convention I should be able to finish a DBA army so I’ve ordered a 15mm New Kingdom Egyptian Army. I will chronicle my painting in future topics and give a report on how the army faired in the tournament.

So, I have to finish the secret project, paint Dark Age figures, get going on the Hour of Glory figures AND finish a DBA army by April 13th. Finishing the secret project (so it is off radar) and then Dark Age figures up until the DBA army arrives will be the priority. Sorry Hour of Glory.

Death by a Thousand Cuts

All About Miniatures co-host Dan made the comment recently that the new Games Workshop game Aeronautica Imperialis was insanely expensive at $70. I countered that there are historical games in this price range: not the least of which is Fear God & Dread Nought the WWI naval wargame. To further the comparison, a fighter for the Games Workshop game will cost you $12 and a GHQ WWI ship will cost you $11.95. It would seem that the Games Workshop game’s price isn’t out of line with other games not generally perceived as being insanely expensive.

The thing that makes these games seem expensive is the startup cost. For the games mentioned above, you need to outlay a fair bit of money in one chunk. A game like Flames of War is actually MORE expensive than either of these two games when you consider that a complete set of rules for late war Flames of War will cost you $115. The only difference is that you don’t buy everything all at once making the cash outlay more palatable.

I don’t know why, but war gamers seem to prefer a death by a thousand cuts when purchasing their rules, sourcebooks, handbooks, painting guides, and sundry.

Dark Age:0 Secret Project: 2

I have decided to continue to paint secret project until my Dark Age order arrives. Based on the performance of Dark Age's mail order department to date, I should have no problems finishing my five units of secret project before the order arrives.

I have decided to reduce the pixellation of each unit a little each time to increase the suspense. I have finished unit number two and have a good start on unit three.

Can I re-roll that order?

Have you ever had a choice of ordering from two different companies; and, after dealing with the company you chose, did you wish you chose the other? A member of our club started collecting Dark Age miniatures and I threw in deciding to paint 500 points of Dragyri. I had a choice of ordering from The Warstore and Dark Age miniatures directly.

Ultimately, I chose to order from Dark Age miniatures because they had Soul Warden #1 and The Warstore did not. That was on December 26th. My order has yet to arrive and communication was so nonexistent that I thought my order disappeared into a black hole. In fact, they never gave me any word about the status of my order until I gave them a two day ultimatum or the order would be cancelled.

I still haven't received my order which just goes to show "There's The Warstore and there's Not Exactly"

The Secret Project

About a decade ago, our club was heavy into Micro-Armor and 20mm WWII. In fact, I had both scales and was a champion of both. Then I saw some 15mm WWII and thought how it had so much more eye candy than Micro-Armor. At this time 10mm hadn't really become popular yet and so if you wanted something bigger than Micro-Armor, 15mm was the next scale up. Realizing that the club would beat be up, possibly even physically, for starting ANOTHER SCALE I began my journey into 15mm solo. This meant that I would have to paint both sides in order to have a game to play so for four months I painted nothing but 15mm WWII and told no one. Needless to say, to the club it appeared I had stopped painting and so I eventually needed to admit that I was working on a "secret project".

Thus, the Secret Project was born. As interesting benefit of having a secret project is that is increases excitement around building the army which is always helpful to see you though to the end of the project. For the past two weeks I've been painting figures for another secret project. The results of my labor can be seen below.

What's that? You can't see it? Of course you can't! If you saw it, it wouldn't be secret anymore now would it? All I will say is that this is one unit of five total in the project. Stay tuned for more secret project updates.

Screwing Your Customers Minus 1

This weekend, I managed to complete my collection of late war army lists for Flames of War. I say “complete” because I just picked up D Minus 1: the Late War airborne supplement; and this book, combined with Festung Europa makes for a complete set of army lists. I’m not normally so negative on this blog; but, the treatment Battlefront customers are getting is nothing short of shameful.

Festung Europa was supposed to be the complete (but generic) army lists for the late war period. That was, of course, until everyone noticed that paratroopers were missing from the book. The original news announcement was quickly removed from the Battlefront website; and, if I hadn’t have grabbed the Google Cache version which is now here, the truth would have been lost forever. Right there, in black and white, is the phrase "Our initial release for late war will be a 180 page full colour book covering every late-war list for every country." Furthermore, if you look at Festung Europa it is billed as "The Intelligence Handbook for January – August 1944." Funny, I thought D-Day and the paratrooper actions were in June? You know, a month between January and August? Perhaps someone forgot to tell Battlefront.

Then there was the claim that there was just no way paratroopers would have fit in Festung Europa. Unforunately for Battlefront, I can count. If you look at Afrika it has 212 pages for $40 MSRP. Festung Europa also retails for $40 and has 148 pages. D Minus 1 retails for $25 and has 60 pages. Last time I did the math, 148 + 60 equaled 208 which is still less than the 212 pages of Afrika. So not only has Battlefront forgot that June comes before August but they also forgot how to print 212 page rulebooks. What is especially painful about being able to count is realizing that $40 + $25 is $65. A fact Battlefront managed to work out, not surprisingly, on their own.

I almost wonder if it isn’t time to champion socially responsible wargaming. In the end, I guess I’d just be swimming against the current of all the other Kool-Aid drinking wargamers.

"Resistance is futile"