Well, I've gone and 'invested' and completely blown my years budget. Already. In April.
You see, I had a shocking realization. I didn't have many fantasy minis!
Yes, maybe I have 1500+ Lord of the Rings minis. But they are so strongly tied to their IP... it's not a generic forest elf, it's Elrond. They ain't any old ork - they're Saruman's mighty Uruk-Hai!
Yes, technically I have 250+ Warmachine/Hordes. They too are pretty strongly connected to an IP and their unique steampunk vibe makes them even less useful for generic fantasy than my movie-correct LoTR.
What I needed was... some generic fantasy goodness. To fill that grimdark Mordheim-shaped gap in my heart.
So Wargames Atlantic (guards, conquistadors) and Frostgrave/Oathmark (various undead) are getting some $$$. 3D print some dire wolves, add in my existing bitz box/sprue dump of Dark Age warriors/saxons/vikings/cultists and we're already making progress. (Damn, I've done it again. I always claim when I have enough wargame dough I'll buy Titanicus but every time I end up spending the same amount of money in smaller increments. GW's beginner boxes are still too much sticker shock - especially when you need to buy both sides).
Anywhoo, I'll post up some comparison size pics etc - if folk are interested - when the minis arrive.
Why not resin?
I know everyone thinks 3D printing is the second coming, and will revolutionize the hobby.... but I dislike it. I don't like the feel of the material. I don't like how they explode when you drop them or break when they are being painted. I dislike the extra step of cleaning off supports. I dislike the lack of kitbashability. I dislike them far more than the switch from metal to plastic. At least plastic had redeeming features. I quite like the actual 3D printing myself with STLs etc (on my filament printer) but... ....it's a whole separate hobby on its own and I barely have time for this one.
So... ...Mordheim?
Nah. You can't go back. I liked the game back in the day, but the rules are showing their age (unlike MESBG my beloved; which seems to age the same as Keanu Reeves or Paul Rudd). Yes, I printed out the rules, and I'm deliberately ensuring I can make all the base Mordheim warbands, but reckon I'll end up doing my own thing. It's also a good opportunity to experiment with homebrew melee rules. (Allocating attack and defence dice secretly etc like Bushido; I want melee to be more interesting choices than just 'push minis together then chug dice til someone dies.') I also want to experiment with wounds that aren't just disguised, simplified hitpoints - but actually cause cinematic effects and give choices. Maybe I'll smoosh together Bushido and Trench Crusade and stir in d12s. Sounds like a plan.
Symbaroum
The kids and I wanted a dark forest setting (like Amon Hem/Mirkwood in LotR but creepier) and while there wasn't any wargames that specifically did this, we did find a RPG that did (all the books on special in a bundle for $24 at the moment if, like me, you are a person who collects and read rules sometimes without ever intending to play them).
Strong setting? Grimdark Scandinavian forest? Exploring creepy ruins in gangs? Corrupting magic? Slightly nonstandard, offbeat theme but can use generic minis? Yup.
The art is so good my 12 y/o daughter (who loves art) is hassling grandma (an art teacher) about how to reproduce the rulebook's art style (a kind of old fashioned impressionism+lots of light/dark). So now we have some inspiration, and as a bonus many of the minis I make for Mordhiem can do double duty if I borrow Symbaroum factions (there are Black Cloaks aka Witch Hunters, Queens Rangers/Noble Troops aka Mercenaries, Undead/corrupted cults... ...as undead/chaos cults. Elves are ....elves, just the very unfriendly kind. As a bonus, even a RPG has stats I can use as a base for my own homebrew mechanics (probably using d12, which are my favourite dice at the moment: they are lovely and roomy, convert effortlessly from d6s, but are not as 'swingy' as d20s).
French Indian Dino Wars
I tend to try to make terrain for several uses, and not sure if you remember my French Indian Dino Wars craze? I had just seen Last of the Mohicans, and thought "you know what would make these forests creepier? Velociraptors!"
So the forest terrain I'm going to be working on will do double duty. Also I noticed there are some really nice plastic militia sets for bulking out my forces (I love Perry sculpts - same guys who did my favourite MESBG scale).
I feel I can probably upgrade my terrain a bit and pimp out the bases. I have some model railroad trees which 'shed' a lot but an experiment with my daughter's hairspray has seemed to 'fix' this problem - kinda gluing them in place.
In my browsing I also notice some plastic lizardmen with muskets (Wargames Atlantic) who may be purchased to act as the herders of said dinosaurs. Maybe they control the dinos with psychic powers? Mind control. Muskets. Velociraptors. Yep, sounds good.
Painting
This has re-energized my painting. The unfortunate Drukari (alongside orks, the only 40K race not represented in my d12Finity tests) have been put aside. I have to paint more minis than I buy - a rule to clear my backlog. Now I was sitting on +230 minis in recent months but ~100 incoming puts a fair dent on this; so it's off to the shed to get an early start.
My d12Finity seems to work pretty well for shooting games and I may reuse it with some of my remaining Secrets of the Third Reich which await painting (actually the old original rules a pretty good, a bit like Bolt Action it's a 'improved 40k' with suppression, orders etc - plus werewolves! It's basically Konflikt 47 before there was Konflikt 47).
I'm digging around for stuff that may be useful in "The Forest." I've got dark age generic fyrd, Anglo Saxons and some vikings that might do as barbarian forest dwellers. Currently some Mantic skeletons are being painted. I really like Mantic ghouls but their skellies lack depth in their details and are thus surprisingly hard to paint (usually skellies are easy.) FYI, if you are getting into dark age etc - Victrix is the way to go. I have Gripping Beast mostly, and I don't hate them - also their weapons are pleasingly robust - but my goodness, Victrix quality rivals Games Workshop at a fraction of the price. It's just that good. They've even got me considering Napoleonics, an era I have little interest in!
