Miniatures

For those of you out there looking for a great deal on  (non-painted) miniatures take a look at Reapers Kickstarter for its new Bones lines HERE.

$100 gets you over 100 miniatures at this point with more being added everyday. Lots of good bonus deals as well. I'm going to pledge for sure, I'm still undecided about which extras I will add in.

2011...where's the cool?

A few months ago, 2011 seemed like it would be another year of exciting new releases from several companies that would easily consume my monthly budget for entertainment all year long. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm has really taken a beating lately. Sure, there have been some good products out already, namely The Chronicles of Future Earth by Chaosium and Traveller Supplement 8: Cybernetics by Mongoose, but it looks like things could be getting a bit sparse from here on.

We've had two playtests for Pathfinder Ultimate Magic and one for Pathfinder Ultimate Combat and, at this point, I have to say my enthusiasm for those upcoming releases is not high. No doubt, I will still buy them and I hold out hope that the design team will find a way to make firearms awesome in Pathfinder, but right now, I am not exactly counting the days until the release of those books. The other project I've been looking forward to seems to have gone completely off the rails, that being Chthonian Stars by Wildfire. Originally intended to be published by Mongoose using the Traveller game system, that plan has been terminated. We currently await an announcement from Wildfire about the future of the game. We do have confirmation that there are still plans to release it in a dead tree format, but speculation is that Wildfire will publish it (or maybe Sandstorm, the publishing house of CthulhuTech, Wildfire's other rpg), using their own Framewerk game engine. I can see why they would want to support their own rules, but I really don't like the system with its rather gimmicky dice-rolling mechanics. If it turns out that Chthonian Stars does end up using Framewerk, I think that would be a dealbreaker for me.

Combine all that with the end of Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures and AT-43 and 2011 looks like a lean year for me. On the plus side, it means more money in my pocket.

-Rognar-

And so, it ends...

My last link with Wizards of the Coast has been severed. They ended my D&D addiction with the release of 4e, they ended my Star Wars addiction with the termination of the Star Wars licensing arrangement for Star Wars Saga Edition and the miniatures line, they ended my Axis & Allies addiction through declining quality and simple neglect of that miniatures line and now, from the January Ampersand article, this:

We have made the decision to depart from prepainted plastic miniatures sets. Lords of Madness stands as the final release under that model. We will continue to release special collector’s sets (such as the Beholder Collector’s Set we released last fall), as well as make use of plastic figures in other product offerings. Check out the Wrath of Ashardalon board game next month for the latest example of this. Moving forward, we will continue to explore more options for players to represent characters and monsters on the tabletop, including Monster Vault and other D&D products that feature monster and character tokens.


Perhaps it's fitting that 2011 is the 30th anniversary of the first time I opened a D&D book. It has been a wonderful relationship, but all good things must come to an end.

-Rognar-

The Christmas haul of 2010

It was a good year around the Rognar household this past year and that was reflected in the mountain of Chinese-made plastic piled up under the Christmas tree. Of course, not all the toys were for the yard apes. Daddy had an impressive haul as well.



Displayed above are:
Traveller Book:9 Robots
RuneQuest II: Monster Coliseum
AT-43 Red Blok Dotch Yaga
AT-43 Therians Omega Tiamat
AT-43 Operation Damocles Boxed Set
AT-43 Oni Virus Zombie Detonator
AT-43 Cogs Warmongers
Confrontation Griffin Army Fusiliers
Confrontation Griffin Army Demon Hunters
Confrontation Griffin Army Cannon
Confrontation Scorpion Army Crossbowmen

I will review the books at a later date, but at first glance, both look excellent. Heartfelt thanks to all the family members (and especially Mrs. Rognar) who made my cup runneth over.

-Rognar-

An AT-43 Christmas for me

With the demise of Rackham Entertainment back in October, the race is on to grab up the remaining stock of AT-43 and Confrontation pre-painted miniatures. Supplies are already dwindling at our FLGS, so I have decided to do a little proactive Christmas shopping. There will be a lot of Red Blok and Therians under my tree this year. I even managed to score one of these:



and one of these:



And guys, you better get down there soon if you want to snatch up some Confrontation minis before they're all gone.

-Rognar-

Cross-posted at Rognar's Space Horror RPG Blog

Beholder collector set....pricey, but cool

The Eye of Frost, my personal favourite, is made of light blue translucent plastic with an excellent white frosting.



The Eye of Shadow, I don't know what it is, but it looks pretty funky in translucent purple.



The Eye Tyrant, your garden-variety beholder. Hey, you can never have too many beholders.



The Ghost Beholder, my least favourite, is translucent blue and missing its central eye. Well, three out of four isn't bad.




-Rognar-

Have we seen the last of Axis & Allies miniatures?

I made a rare visit to the WotC website today and scanned through the brands...Magic: the Gathering, Heroscape, Dungeons and Dragons, Duel Masters, Axis & Allies, Star Wars. It got me to thinking. With the Star Wars license gone, has the streamlining stopped or are there other product lines on the chopping block. Magic: the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons have to be considered core brands and pretty well untouchable. Heroscape is the only one of the brands commonly seen in mainstream toy stores like Toys-R-Us, which likely makes the Hasbro overfiends happy. Duel Masters is a CCG based on an anime property, pretty much an obligatory product line for a card company. So, that leaves Axis & Allies. Hasbro owned Avalon Hill and rolled it into WotC when it bought the company. It already owned Milton Bradley (man, Hasbro is the Evil Empire of gaming) which developed the original Axis & Allies boardgame, and promptly switched that product line to Avalon Hill. At this point, the various versions of the boardgame, a few other boardgames such as Diplomacy and the miniatures lines are the only Avalon Hill properties actively being produced. Of these, the minis lines are clearly the most neglected, with only two sets being released in 2009. Pre-painted plastic minis are apparently quite expensive to produce, certainly more so than the unpainted play pieces of a typical boardgame and while the Axis & Allies brand is well-known, it's mostly because of the venerable boardgame, not the minis. So, I think all signs point to A&AM being the next property to face the firing squad.

-Rognar-

Further note: Hasbro also owns Parker Brothers, the makers of Monopoly and Risk. In other words, they bloody well own everything. I add Hasbro to my list of other companies and organizations I hate; Microsoft, Disney, the New York Yankees...

What is the future of the Star Wars game license?

With the news that WotC is dropping the Star Wars license this year, no doubt rampant speculation will begin over the future of the franchise. So let's get it started. My guess is that the tabletop rpg is dead, at least for the forseeable future. There just aren't many companies aside from WotC that could afford it and the few that could don't seem to be a good fit. For example, Mongoose, a relatively big company, would probably be seen by the folks at Lucasarts as being a bit too risky. They publish a lot of product to be sure, but they also miss a lot of release dates and there are frequent complaints about the quality of their products. Cubicle 7 is an up-and-comer, but my guess is that they are not ready to take on something of this magnitude. Besides those two, the only company I can think of with the means to pull it off is Paizo. The Star Wars license might be a good fit for a company looking to position itself as the alternative to WotC, but I think they have so many resources committed to the various Pathfinder product lines, they probably couldn't see themselves taking on the demands of the Star Wars license right now.

The other side of the Star Wars game license is the minis. WotC has certainly beaten that dead horse repeatedly over the last few years, so I think if anyone got an idea to revive a Star Wars minis line, they'd choose to do it differently. I think the one company that might see some potential there would be Rackham. Doing Star Wars using an approach similar to AT-43 or Confrontation might have interest for minis collectors who are fed up with blind packaging and 15 different versions of Darth Vader. Personally, I hope that doesn't happen since it would almost certainly impact the other Rackham lines negatively.

-Rognar-

A&AM Early War 1939-1941 comments

Bicycle troops (Belgian and Japanese) are actually pretty useful, assuming you have a decent number of road hexes in your map.

The Coordinated Fire commander ability of the Polish Officer is not as great as one would think. This unit can only attack adjacent targets, so in order for other units to benefit from the ability, you have to place your officer in the front line. That is a great way to lose your commander early.

It's not much to look at, but the Marmon Herrington is an excellent armoured car. I could see using it in any year of the war.

The BEF Infantrymen and the Finnish Ski Troops are both excellent 4-pt. infantry units and would be highly useful in any scenario. Too bad the Finnish Ski Troop doesn't actually have skis, though.

The T-28 is a beast. It looks scary as hell and is murder on infantry as well as early tanks.

The Semovente L40 looks awful. I'm even more annoyed that it's a rare and that I've got three of them.

The Cruiser Mk.III A13 is a great-looking unit. Too bad it has tin foil armour.

The Covering Fire SA of the Japanese Type 99 LMG is going to make the Banzai charge even more devastating and it's only a 4-pt. unit. At least it doesn't have Double Shot.

-Rognar-

A&AM Early War 1939-1941 first pulls

I got my first 18 boosters from the Axis & Allies Miniatures recent set, Early War 1939-1941 (thanks, D-bane). I'll have more to say later, but here are my rares:

Soviet Union
T-28
MiG-1
BT-5 (x2)

Finland
T-26E

United Kingdom
Cruiser Mk III A13 (x2)
Matilda II

France
Morane-Saulnier MS.406

South Africa
Valentine II
Marmon Herrington Mk.II AC (x2)

Poland
7TP

Germany
PzKpfw IV Ausf.A
Panzer III Ausf.F

Italy
Semovente L40 da 47/32 (x3) (WTF?!)

So, I missed two of the four aircraft in the set, including the Stuka. That sucks! Also, I don't have much use for three Italian assault guns (no idea how that happened). Still, it's a good start. I will obviously be jumping into the singles market at some point.

-Rognar-

What interests me in 2010?

Over the past few years, I have bought a lot of game stuff. Of course, D&D 3.5/Pathfinder has been my game of choice, but I have also invested heavily in Star Wars Saga Edition and CthulhuTech. Then there are the miniatures. Worse than game books, pre-painted plastic minis are my gaming drug of choice. WotC has certainly pried a lot of my hard-earned coin out of hands over the years to which my massive collections of D&D, Star Wars and Axis & Allies minis can attest. I have lost interest in serious collecting of the D&D and Star Wars lines, although I do pick up singles that catch my eye from time to time. Also, support for the A&A line from WotC has been drastically diminished, reducing it to a single new set in 2009 (and likely more of the same in 2010). This is actually a good thing, since my new miniature obsession, the AT-43 line from Rackham, is looking to lay a wallop on my bank account. So, what am I looking forward to in 2010?

1. Pathfinder - We know the Advanced Player's Guide and the GameMastery Guide are coming out this year. There are also rumours of a Pathfinder Bestiary II in the works, although no firm release date has been announced for that. All three would be must-haves for me.

2. Star Wars Saga Ed. - First up for 2010 is Galaxy of Intrigue, due to be released this month. Beyond that, only The Unknown Regions has been announced for release, prompting speculation that WotC will be finished with SWSE this year. If so, I'm cool with it. The game is pretty much complete anyway.

3. Eclipse Phase - I got into this game late in 2009 and I look forward to several new products coming out in 2010. The Eclipse Phase Gamemaster's Pack, Sunward: The Inner System and Gatecrashing have all been announced for release this year.

4. Axis & Allies Miniatures - Poor old A&AM, the red-headed stepchild of the WotC miniatures lines. Like 2009, there will probably be one naval and one land set released this year. I only collect the latter and it is expected to be a Mid-War (1942-1943) set. I will continue to support A&AM until the company kills it.

5. AT-43 - As mentioned previously, AT-43 is my new obsession. I've only just gotten started, so I have a lot of catching up to do and a limited budget to work with. I have some units from the UNA, the Red Blok and the Therians, so I will probably concentrate on those factions for the time being. I like the Cogs as well, so I might get a few of those. I will certainly be looking for sales like that awesome one last weekend at my FLGS. Thanks for the heads-up, N!

-Rognar-

RPG approach to AT-43

The miniatures game AT-43, published by Rackham, could be converted into a pretty cool, combat-heavy, role-playing game, perhaps using the d20 Modern/d20 Future ruleset. I would, however, make some changes to the setting, based on my own personal tastes. For one, I don't really care for space-based sci-fi settings in which humans are the main protagonists, but which don't include a prominent role for Earth. This is especially annoying when the humans exhibit very familiar cultural traits. A perfect example is Battlestar Galactica. Earth exists in the BSG universe, but it is lost in myth. Apparently, the humans of the future can retain the names of mythological and literary figures, but lose the spatial coordinates of their planet of origin.

AT-43 takes this to another level. Humans were transplanted in another galaxy by our descendents hundreds of thousands of years in the future. The earthlings of 600K AD are actually no longer biological, but rather digital. Still, they create humans and set them up on other planets in other galaxies. The humans of the planet Ava come to blows with our descendents, called the Therians. Ava has two factions, the United Nations of Ava (UNA) and the Red Blok. The latter has all the trappings of the USSR; Russian names, the red star, communism, despite being 600 millenia removed from the 20th century. Talk about genetic memory.

I would definitely set up an AT-43 rpg campaign in the nearer future. The technology level displayed by the UNA and the Red Blok is not that far advanced from the present day. They use mechs, lasers and gauss weapons, so an early to mid-22nd century setting would be fitting. The Therians would be some other extragalactic superempire and the Red Blok could, perhaps, be Russian colonists on Mars who have reverted back to their communist roots. The Karmans would be uplifted apes, who have been granted the same rights on Earth afforded humans and may have even created their own colony somewhere in human space, while the Cogs would be exactly as they are, an huge alien empire constantly warring on the Therians. Humans would find themselves in the middle of a galaxy-spanning war between the Therians and the Cogs. Meaty stuff indeed, for role-playing adventures.

-Rognar-

Further note: I have just discovered that Rackham has a game called AT-43 Tactics: Tactical RPG. Although it has some elements of an rpg, in that each player controls one character and that character increases in abilities over a series of missions associated with the AT-43 Operation Damocles boxed set, it seems to be extremely limited in scope.

Axis and Allies Minis - Early War list

Finally, the official list for the much anticipated Axis and Allies Miniatures Early War set is posted over at the WotC forums. Here it is:

AUS U Carro Armato M11/39
BEL U Belgium Bicycle Troop
BEL C Belgium Infantry
BEL U Belgium Officer
BEL R T-13B3
FRA C Canon de 75 Modele 1897
FRA R FCM 36
FRA R Morane-Saulnier MS.406
FRA U P107 Half-Track
FRA R Somua S-35
GRE U Greek Cavalry
POL R 7TP
POL U Polish Officer
POL U TKS Ursus Tankette
POL C wz.36 37mm ATG
SA R Marmon Harrington Mk. II AC
SA C South African Infantry
SA R Valentine II
UK C BEF Infantrymen
UK R Cruiser Mk III A13
UK R Matilda II
UK U Morris Reconnaissance Car Mk 2
SOV R BT-5
SOV R MiG-1
SOV U Mongolian Cavalry
SOV C Soviet Conscript
SOV R T-28
SOV U T-38 Light Amphibious Tank
FIN C Finnish Ski Troop
FIN R T-26E
GER R Junkers JU 87B Stuka
GER U Kubelwagen V
GER C Motorized Schutzen
GER U Panzer IB
GER U Panzer II Ausf. F
GER R Panzer III Ausf. F
GER U Panzerjager I
GER R PzKpfw IV Ausf. A
GER U Sd Kfz 2 Motorcycle Half-Track
GER U Sd Kfz 231
ITA U Autoblinda AB 41
ITA C Cannone da 75/27 Modello 11
ITA R Semovente L40 da 47/32
JPN U Japanese Bicycle Troop
JPN U Jungle Spotter
JPN R Nakajima ki-43 "Oscar"
JPN R Type 89B Chi-Ro
JPN C Type 99 LMG
SLO U Motorcycle Recon
SLO R PzKpfw 38(t)

I would have to say the aircraft interest me the most. The early war Stuka, the MS.406, the Oscar and the MiG-1 will all be great additions to the game. Also nice to see them add a couple more Finnish units and the long-awaited Japanese spotter.

As far as reprints go, we're getting another Kubelwagen V (groan), another Morris Reconnaisance Car Mk.2 (groan), another Somua S-35 (may be ok with a better paint job than the last one), another Carro Armato M11/39 (a captured unit used by the Aussies, i.e. cool), a PzKpfw 38(t) (Slovakian, suck it, Czech Republic!) a Sd Kfz 231 (groan), another Matilda II (not Australian, despite the rumour) and another Valentine (South African Valentine II). As far as the Valentine goes, we've had a UK Val I and a Soviet Val VI. They looked like the same sculpt to me, so I'm guessing the South African Val II will be the same. Still, an interesting addition.

-Rognar-

The seal is broken.

I love cool miniatures and I am an obssessive collector. The only way I can resist throwing myself into the many awesome minis out there is to never start buying anything. Sometimes sticker shock is enough to keep me at bay. This is why I never leapt into Warhammer. Other times, it requires sheer force of will. Most of the time, my interest fades over time or the quality of the product becomes so atrocious, I just can't justify the expense anymore (talking to you, WotC). But there is always a shiny new hotness from which I just can't stay away. And so, I come to AT-43 (You bastards!). I did it. I walked through the door. I broke the seal. Rackham did what Games Workshop and Wiz Kids could not. They hooked me. May God have mercy on my soul.

-Rognar-

Legendary Evils DDM - pics 1

My three huge figures, the Remorhaz, the Balor and the Elder Green Dragon.

-Rognar-

Legendary Evils DDM - pics 2

Here is a comparison of the Elder Green Dragon with a previously released huge dragon. Despite my initial reaction, the size of the Elder Green Dragon is actually quite close.

-Rognar-

Legendary Evils DDM - pics 3

This image is the Balor and the War Troll, with the Githzerai Mindmage for scale. As you can see, the War Troll is really quite large, comparable in size to previously released minis of fire and hill giants

-Rognar-

Legendary Evils DDM - my first pulls

It has been some time since D&D minis excited me in any way. I still pick up a few singles from time to time to fill holes in my collection, but today is the first day in ages when I actually headed out to the FLGS with the expressed purpose of buying DDM boosters. Legendary Evils is that awesome. The huges in that set are just as cool as I'd hoped, so I bought three, the Balor, the Remorhaz and the Green Dragon. Here are my pulls:

Balor (huge, visible) - simply awesome, nothing more to add
War Troll (large, rare) - score!, almost as cool as the Balor
Foulspawn Seer (medium, rare) - not bad, could proxy for some weird, subterranean spellcaster
Minotaur Thug (medium, common) - looks like typical DDM common, still useful
Hoard Scarab Larva Swarm (medium, common) - good proxy for a pile of gold coins

Remorhaz (huge, visible) - awesome mini, great proxy for huge centipede
Psychic Sentinel (large, rare) - so-so, could proxy for some kind of gem golem
Githzerai Mindmage (medium, rare) - looks great, but doesn't look like previous githzerai figures
Goblin Cutter (small, common) - looks much better than the other commons I got
Human Rabble (medium, common) - meh

Elder Green Dragon (huge, visible) - looks great, although it's a bit small for a huge
Chuul (large, rare) - pretty good, could serve as advanced leader for my other chuuls
Foulspawn Mangler (medium, rare) - four-armed thing, looks good, but don't know what to do with it
Scarecrow Stalker (medium, common) - ok, generic undead thing
Minotaur Thug (as above)

I'll post some pics later

-Rognar-

DDM Report - Legendary Evils

I have to wonder is WotC has started to learn from past mistakes. Next month, the next set of D&D minis, entitled Legendary Evils will be released. It is the first set containing huge figures since they adopted the current format which includes one visible figure and a bunch of randoms. In this set, the 8 huge figures will all be visible and ddmspoilers.com has them. They are Balor, Beholder Ultimate Tyrant, Elder Green Dragon (nice!), Elder Iron Dragon, Goristro, Storm Titan, Frost Titan and Remorhaz (seen above).

Colour me interested.

-Rognar-

Favourite minis, Pt.2

Favourite Construct
Arcane Ballista
War Drums








-Rognar-