Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Kill them, my miniature armies, kill them all!
Although I hated and despised nearly everything about high school, it was during that period of time that I discovered strategy games and miniatures games. It was also during that time that I had to save pennies like crazy to indulge my interest in those games.
The original Supremacy set was $60 when I bought it, and each expansion set was about another $30 to $40. Expensive? Yeah, kind of. It was nothing like miniatures gaming, though.
The same guy that introduced me to Supremacy (I believe his name was Eric) also told me about a really cool fantasy football game called Blood Bowl. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to play Blood Bowl until late high school when I saved up the $80 necessary to buy the basic boxed set and plunked down the cash at Silver Snail in downtown Toronto.
Blood Bowl, made by Games Workshop, was my first miniatures game. I got into just before the dirty bastards at GW stopped distributing it in North America (it's a U.K.-based company). Still, I managed to get the basic box and the Death Zone expansion set (about $50) before it disappeared from store shelves everywhere. Steve joined in my lunacy, but trumped me by picking up a couple of expansion teams ($40 apiece, as I recall). For awhile, we were getting together fairly often to take to the fantasy football field and do battle with humans, orcs, elves and whatnot. Damn, but I wish I'd bought a skaver team when I had the chance.
Later, Steve, Logan and I all migrated to GW's Necromunda game (about $90 at the time). Another miniatures game, Necromunda was kind of a cyberpunk-ish gangland battle game that didn't use a board of any kind (most minis games are like this, actually, but Blood Bowl used a board -- something had to simulate a football field, right?). That obsession lasted a short while. I think the biggest problem I had with GW games was the paperwork involved. I just hated keeping track of everything that happened. It took away some of the fun.
Although I haven't played or bought a Games Workshop miniatures game in years, Logan is back playing them. He apparently hooked up with a group involved in Warhammer 40,000 (more generally known as Warhammer 40K).
Another thing that turned me off Games Workshop games was the official rules that required you to paint your miniatures. I'll let you in on a little secret: I despise painting miniatures. It's not fun. I want to play a game, not be a modeler.
So a few years ago, when WizKids arrived on the post-collectible card game scene with the first collectible miniatures game with fully-painted minis, I signed on. Steve, Sean and I bought Mage Knight during the first couple of expansions (Rebellion and Lancers, as I recall), and I've got a box full of a couple hundred minis to prove I was an MK geek. Unfortunately, the constant release of new expansions put a downer on my Mage Knight obsession, and I stopped playing. I still have the minis, though.
A couple of years later, WizKids got the licence to do a game similar to Mage Knight, but using Marvel Comics characters. This time, it was The Law and yours truly that was buying miniatures. HeroClix was quite fun. It was simpler than Mage Knight and was filled with easily identifiable characters -- Spider-Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Daredevil, Blade, Dr. Strange, Wolverine, etc. I really only bought into HeroClix during the Infinities set (the first of the Marvel sets). Unfortunately, The Law and I live far enough apart that we found it difficult to get together to play. I stopped buying. I think The Law has picked up a booster pack or two of the first DC HeroClix set, but that's about it. With the addition of the Free Comic Book Day special Spider-Man HeroClix figure, I've been starting to think about getting into the game again ... but probably more as a collector than as a gamer. The minis are pretty frickin' cool, after all.
During my time working on Total Gamer, WizKids public relations sent me a starter kit of MechWarrior: Dark Age, but aside from opening the box and looking at the minis, I've never done anything with it. The box and minis are collecting dust in my storage room.
That is basically my life as a miniatures gamer. It's not much of one, and I've changed my obsession every few months to every couple of years. I've taken long breaks from miniatures gaming, but I always come back eventually ... but usually obsessed about an entirely different game.
WizKids will soon be releasing a game called Pirates of the Spanish Main, which seems to be a naval fleet miniatures battle game set during the Age of Pirates. I'm not really sure what to think of it yet, but it's something I'm seriously consider checking into. It calls to me. ;)
The original Supremacy set was $60 when I bought it, and each expansion set was about another $30 to $40. Expensive? Yeah, kind of. It was nothing like miniatures gaming, though.
The same guy that introduced me to Supremacy (I believe his name was Eric) also told me about a really cool fantasy football game called Blood Bowl. Unfortunately, I never got a chance to play Blood Bowl until late high school when I saved up the $80 necessary to buy the basic boxed set and plunked down the cash at Silver Snail in downtown Toronto.
Blood Bowl, made by Games Workshop, was my first miniatures game. I got into just before the dirty bastards at GW stopped distributing it in North America (it's a U.K.-based company). Still, I managed to get the basic box and the Death Zone expansion set (about $50) before it disappeared from store shelves everywhere. Steve joined in my lunacy, but trumped me by picking up a couple of expansion teams ($40 apiece, as I recall). For awhile, we were getting together fairly often to take to the fantasy football field and do battle with humans, orcs, elves and whatnot. Damn, but I wish I'd bought a skaver team when I had the chance.
Later, Steve, Logan and I all migrated to GW's Necromunda game (about $90 at the time). Another miniatures game, Necromunda was kind of a cyberpunk-ish gangland battle game that didn't use a board of any kind (most minis games are like this, actually, but Blood Bowl used a board -- something had to simulate a football field, right?). That obsession lasted a short while. I think the biggest problem I had with GW games was the paperwork involved. I just hated keeping track of everything that happened. It took away some of the fun.
Although I haven't played or bought a Games Workshop miniatures game in years, Logan is back playing them. He apparently hooked up with a group involved in Warhammer 40,000 (more generally known as Warhammer 40K).
Another thing that turned me off Games Workshop games was the official rules that required you to paint your miniatures. I'll let you in on a little secret: I despise painting miniatures. It's not fun. I want to play a game, not be a modeler.
So a few years ago, when WizKids arrived on the post-collectible card game scene with the first collectible miniatures game with fully-painted minis, I signed on. Steve, Sean and I bought Mage Knight during the first couple of expansions (Rebellion and Lancers, as I recall), and I've got a box full of a couple hundred minis to prove I was an MK geek. Unfortunately, the constant release of new expansions put a downer on my Mage Knight obsession, and I stopped playing. I still have the minis, though.
A couple of years later, WizKids got the licence to do a game similar to Mage Knight, but using Marvel Comics characters. This time, it was The Law and yours truly that was buying miniatures. HeroClix was quite fun. It was simpler than Mage Knight and was filled with easily identifiable characters -- Spider-Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Daredevil, Blade, Dr. Strange, Wolverine, etc. I really only bought into HeroClix during the Infinities set (the first of the Marvel sets). Unfortunately, The Law and I live far enough apart that we found it difficult to get together to play. I stopped buying. I think The Law has picked up a booster pack or two of the first DC HeroClix set, but that's about it. With the addition of the Free Comic Book Day special Spider-Man HeroClix figure, I've been starting to think about getting into the game again ... but probably more as a collector than as a gamer. The minis are pretty frickin' cool, after all.
During my time working on Total Gamer, WizKids public relations sent me a starter kit of MechWarrior: Dark Age, but aside from opening the box and looking at the minis, I've never done anything with it. The box and minis are collecting dust in my storage room.
That is basically my life as a miniatures gamer. It's not much of one, and I've changed my obsession every few months to every couple of years. I've taken long breaks from miniatures gaming, but I always come back eventually ... but usually obsessed about an entirely different game.
WizKids will soon be releasing a game called Pirates of the Spanish Main, which seems to be a naval fleet miniatures battle game set during the Age of Pirates. I'm not really sure what to think of it yet, but it's something I'm seriously consider checking into. It calls to me. ;)
// posted by Chris @ 12:54 PM 
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