Plans and Praise

In a world of rising prices and falling wages, Cheap Minis and Free Rules? Oh be still my beating heart.

So recently I have been dipping my toe in the waters that is Mantic Games. I say dipping, I actually mean mostly look on the shop alot and planning armies. However as there are also free rules, trying to get it together to learn and play instead of just wishlisting.
I also joined the forum. There are some great threads for beginners like myself, such as the battlescribe rules and army list stickys. Some friendly people responded to my intro post and we met up to play Kings of War. 

The games were awesome! The very lovely forum members, Sardonic Wolf, Darklord and Maccwar bought loads of lovely miniatures, wound counters and Maccwar even some handy cards with stats on to help with the gaming.

I played two games both with Maccwar's lovely Elves, once against his Orcs and once against Darklord's Undead. I won in my first game against the Orcs (clearly beginners luck) and the lost to the shambing hordes of Darklord's Unread. All I can say is I don't like Darksurge!  A few deployment mistakes in the Undead game taught me some lessons I plan not to forget about spreading too thin.

The venue for the night of gaming was Stockport's Northwest Gaming Centre, which was a veritable cavern, filled with Wargamers battling away. There was a pleasing diversity in the games systems being played and lots of tables. I had great time and have decided to get a Kings of War army and divert myself from getting a Warpath force till the kickstarter at least. The question is which one?

I do like the Dwarfs as a race, being beardy, stoic and fond of a drink, somewhat like myself. Plus Badgers! The Elves I played as had some strong units but they could never be described as tough which is something I would like. Elite and Phalanx are great rules to have it seems. Dragon Riders are cool too, and the Bolt throwers can dish it out with good dice. The Orcs seem strong and straightforward, smashing all before them, and I do like the boar-riders too. Having played against them I feel that they would suit me. The Undead, while powerful, seem a bit too nuanced for the likes of me.

So a toss up between Orcs and Dwarfs? Hard drinking miners or savage beasts? Orcs have one tactic and that is SMASH and have no shooting unless you take allies with Goblins being an obvious and legit choice. Simple is good.

An amazing eBay deal has swayed me:

More minis to paint. My backlog has increased by 55 now.

I have to say I am loving the friendly and inclusive nature of the community, it's really welcoming. That there is a official Mantic run forum is something awesome in its self and part of that. The only thing I'd like to see changed about the forum is making it compatible with the Tapatalk to increase convenience.

It's all quite quite exciting really for me. I feel I can get an army, maybe two and a Dreadball team going, all with out taking up a second job or selling a kidney. I showed the one player Corporation army boxset on the online shop to the Sweet Lady. She said 'Ooohh, that's cheap!' in a totally serious way. As opposed to the 'Go and play with your little men' tone I sometimes hear.

I guess that must be a common sentiment to many. Times are hard and bills seem to be going up, so its nice for something in life, in this case wargaming, to drop in cost.
Let gaming continue.