There are lots of arguments you can make about how gaming isn't actually an expensive hobby. But when you need to get something through the Significant-Other Budget Approval Process (which, let's face it, is probably the only thing stopping some of us from just buying our own game store), gaming can certainly appear to be an expensive hobby.
When you say you're going to spend $60 on a book with creepy artwork or bunch of little plastic army men, chances are your SO isn't thinking about how it's going to entertain you and your friends every Thursday night for the next six months or how you'll be down to $2/hour of fun before your army even hits the table. Chances are - even if they're the most understanding SO in the world - they're thinking "wow, $60 is a lot for a book".
And, frankly, I'm thinking that too - at least when I'm not thinking about how awesome that $60 book is.
Obviously, if the book costs $60 but you only have to pay $50, it's a good thing. The SOBAP goes a lot smoother if you can appear to be getting good value for money, and if you've already budgeted to spent $60, you've still got $10 left over for something else.
Lets take a look at my recent pile of stuff (including the super secret project). If I had paid full retail price for everything, I would have been looking at more than AU$300. The Landraider itself is almost AU$100 from the GW website! Which is too much money to spend on a plastic tank, no matter how many guns it has.
Fortunately, I didn't spend anywhere near that much money. My Landraider, for example, ended up costing me about AU$50. Which is still a fair bit to spend on a plastic tank, but it's a much easier sell ("look how many guns it has! And I saved $50!").
Maelstrom Games is my shop of choice. They offer around 10% off UK Games Workshop retail prices (which are already significantly cheaper than the Australian GW prices), and they offer free shipping world wide. Combined with the awesome exchange rate at the moment and one of their periodic sales, it meant I could get a big pile of stuff for about 50% of what it would normally cost me. And no matter how you justify your gaming purchases, that's a pretty good deal.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Snow Storm Sale
I must admit, I always get jealous when I see a post by someone showing off the latest pile of boxes that arrived on their door. So when I got an email from the very nice people at Maelstrom Games telling me they were having a sale (combined with the excellent exchange rate), I decided it was my turn to get a big pile of boxes.It had to come in two boxes, so of course one arrived yesterday and the other one today. But I'm going to pretend they all came at once.
I felt my Angels of Redemption lacked some mechanised support, so I got a Land Raider (actually a Crusader/Redeemer), a Predator (I read just today that they're going to release a new Predator model around June) and I also got a Razorback (which will double as another Rhino as the need arises).
So I now have lots of cars to drive my army men around in!
I've already posted about the Mantic Elven Spearmen. And the last thing in the picture is the introductory sculpting set from Gale Force 9. I've been playing around with a bit of greenstuff, but it's really hard to do much with just my fingers.
Also, not pictured here is the box for my Super Secret Project. So actually my pile of new stuff is even bigger!
Super Secret Project
As of last night, I've put my Angels of Redemption on hold briefly to start work on my super secret project!
Obviously, since it's super secret, there's not a lot I can say about it right now. Except to say that I've started, and I'm about 1/4 of the way through the first stage. I'm hoping to get it all finished within the next week, so stay tuned for more info.
Obviously, since it's super secret, there's not a lot I can say about it right now. Except to say that I've started, and I'm about 1/4 of the way through the first stage. I'm hoping to get it all finished within the next week, so stay tuned for more info.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Initial Impressions: Mantic's Elven Spearmen
So I got a box of stuff in the mail today. I'm going to do a post about all of it, but I was particularly impressed by the Matic Games Kings of War Elven Spear Command box I got.
The box itself is the size of a PC game DVD box, made from hard white plastic. It's certainly looks very nice, and is a change from the standard GW boxes. The box is also designed to store the assembled troops!
Opening up the box, the first thing to see is a promo pamphlet/poster.
Unfolding it, there's an A3 sized version of this. And it looks really nice. On the other side is a whole lot of different things. There's some fluff pieces about the elves preparing for war. There's some assembly instructions. And there's some other stuff Mantic thought they'd like to tell you about. I'm sure if you were buying lots of boxes it would get old quickly, but I thought it was really nifty.
Then behind that is the single sprue. There are a range of different troop sizes you can get, but I opted for the smallest. This is 10 spear men (9 and a commander I think).
The sprue itself is full of detail and extra bits. There's even a dead elf to stick on a base or whatever. The figures are all multi-part (spear arms and the occasional head), so different poses will be pretty simple.
The detail on the individual figures is pretty impressive. This image doesn't even do it justice.
Overall, I'm really impressed. I know where I'm going for all my elf (and undead) 28mm needs!
The box itself is the size of a PC game DVD box, made from hard white plastic. It's certainly looks very nice, and is a change from the standard GW boxes. The box is also designed to store the assembled troops!
Opening up the box, the first thing to see is a promo pamphlet/poster.
Unfolding it, there's an A3 sized version of this. And it looks really nice. On the other side is a whole lot of different things. There's some fluff pieces about the elves preparing for war. There's some assembly instructions. And there's some other stuff Mantic thought they'd like to tell you about. I'm sure if you were buying lots of boxes it would get old quickly, but I thought it was really nifty.
Then behind that is the single sprue. There are a range of different troop sizes you can get, but I opted for the smallest. This is 10 spear men (9 and a commander I think).
The sprue itself is full of detail and extra bits. There's even a dead elf to stick on a base or whatever. The figures are all multi-part (spear arms and the occasional head), so different poses will be pretty simple.
The detail on the individual figures is pretty impressive. This image doesn't even do it justice.Overall, I'm really impressed. I know where I'm going for all my elf (and undead) 28mm needs!
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Cats Away: Night 4
Here's my updated scores (in a slightly re-formatted table so you can actually see all the numbers). I perhaps overestimated the amount of preparing I'd already done. But either way, here are my new scores.
| Model | Prep | Con | Ass | Prim | Col | Det | Bas | Total |
| Tactical (AoBR) | 10\10 | 0\0 | 10\10 | 10\10 | 0\30 | 10\30 | 0\30 | 40\120 |
| Tactical | 10\10 | 0\0 | 5\20 | 5\10 | 15\30 | 5\30 | 0\30 | 35\130 |
| Combat | 5\5 | 0\0 | 0\10 | 0\5 | 0\15 | 0\15 | 0\15 | 0\65 |
| Assault | 5\5 | 0\0 | 8\10 | 3\5 | 3\15 | 3\15 | 0\15 | 19\65 |
| Scouts | 5\5 | 0\0 | 3\10 | 3\5 | 1\15 | 0\15 | 0\15 | 12\65 |
| Terminators | 5\5 | 0\0 | 5\5 | 5\5 | 6\15 | 8\15 | 0\15 | 29\60 |
| Captain | 1\1 | 0\0 | 1\1 | 1\1 | 0\3 | 0\3 | 0\3 | 3\12 |
| Librarian | 1\1 | 0\3 | 0\1 | 1\1 | 1\3 | 1\3 | 0\3 | 4\15 |
| Dreadnought | 1\1 | 0\0 | 1\1 | 1\1 | 0\3 | 0\3 | 0\3 | 3\12 |
| Rhino | 1\1 | 0\0 | 2\2 | 1\1 | 2\3 | 2\3 | 0\0 | 8\13 |
| Total | 44\44 | 0\3 | 35\70 | 30\44 | 28\132 | 26\132 | 0\129 | 163\554 |
Sins of a Solar Empire: Multiplayer, Part II
Shaz and I both managed to find some time this weekend to try and finish off our game from the weekend before. Despite having saved the game before we stopped, I couldn't find it on my list of saved games. Fortunately there was an autosave from moments before I saved the game, so I just loaded that up.
The game progressed pretty much as expected. Since we were still on opposite sides of the map, Shaz and I basically just kept ignoring each other. The remaining PC player had control of galactic south of the map as well as parts of the centre (I was in the east and Shaz in the west), so I decided to push south.
My economy was humming along, so I concentrated on consolidating my planets and maxing out all the research options I wanted. I had another smaller fleet guarding my systems in the galactic centre, and they received a message that my culture spread had turned a colony nearby to neutral. Thinking this was a gift, I jumped on over.
The system had been held by the eliminated PC player, and so all their structures were still in orbit (and still hostile) - including a starbase. I quickly claimed the planet and left the fleet to mop up the structures.
My main focus was on my push south, so it was with a bit of shock when I discovered that the smaller fleet on mop up duty had been almost wiped out. All by the starbase. It took a fair bit of time, resources and micro-management to deal with the rouge base, but eventually it exploded.
I started building some Novalith cannons around the time the second PC player was wiped out (I assume by me, since I took out it's capital, but I'm not sure what Shaz was up to).
I then moved to consolidate my empire and reposition my forces to start targeting Shaz. Unfortunately we had to stop around this time, so we never found out who would actually win. But Shaz did say afterwards that a lot of his planets were uncolonisable now because of radiation (presumably due to my Novalith cannons).
Overall I was pretty pleased with the multiplayer experience, and I'm keen for some more!
The game progressed pretty much as expected. Since we were still on opposite sides of the map, Shaz and I basically just kept ignoring each other. The remaining PC player had control of galactic south of the map as well as parts of the centre (I was in the east and Shaz in the west), so I decided to push south.
My economy was humming along, so I concentrated on consolidating my planets and maxing out all the research options I wanted. I had another smaller fleet guarding my systems in the galactic centre, and they received a message that my culture spread had turned a colony nearby to neutral. Thinking this was a gift, I jumped on over.
The system had been held by the eliminated PC player, and so all their structures were still in orbit (and still hostile) - including a starbase. I quickly claimed the planet and left the fleet to mop up the structures.
My main focus was on my push south, so it was with a bit of shock when I discovered that the smaller fleet on mop up duty had been almost wiped out. All by the starbase. It took a fair bit of time, resources and micro-management to deal with the rouge base, but eventually it exploded.
I started building some Novalith cannons around the time the second PC player was wiped out (I assume by me, since I took out it's capital, but I'm not sure what Shaz was up to).I then moved to consolidate my empire and reposition my forces to start targeting Shaz. Unfortunately we had to stop around this time, so we never found out who would actually win. But Shaz did say afterwards that a lot of his planets were uncolonisable now because of radiation (presumably due to my Novalith cannons).
Overall I was pretty pleased with the multiplayer experience, and I'm keen for some more!
Monday, March 8, 2010
My Own Bits Boxes
While I didn't do much painting over the weekend, this is what I did do.That's most of the bits from a Space Marines Battleforce. All cut from the sprues, mold lines filed off and sorted.
Aside from the things I already have assembled, all that's not in the picture are some things from the scout sprues and a few extras from the rhino sprue.
I'll work out my current points tomorrow.
Oh, and torso are nice and easy, backpack are the devils work.
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