Friday, March 19, 2010

Infinite Possibilities...


Two little-known facts:


1) Eons ago, after hearing some friends speak enthusiastically about a tabletop war game set in the distant future wherein genetically-altered space troopers battle against space elves, space zombies and space orks... I rushed down to the closest brick-and-mortar and excitedly purchased my first two squad boxes in giddy anticipation of my first game.


One box of Tau Fire Warriors. One box of Necron Warriors.


Imagine my utter dismay when my companions literally laughed themselves out of their chairs as I proclaimed proudly I was "ready". They pointed at me too. While laughing. Pictures of me with a mullet are certainly more embarrassing... but not by much.


2) Upon hearing that I would likely need several more 30.00 - 40.00 boxes just to qualify for entry-level games, and the the strength of the models was directly proportionate to the amount of money spent on each, I swore on every shred of my existence on this material plane that I would NEVER even CONSIDER participating in a game so obviously designed to bilk money from consumers! I demand freedom! Military-Industrial Complex be damned! No sheep, this guy! They could take their overly-expensive game and shove it! 


Yeah... okay. So much for scruples.


So what does this have to do with the price of wheat in China? Here's the thing... my recent (re)interest in slightly more micromanaged squad-based combat, and consequently the Kill Teams/Necromunda/Death Squads rule-sets, got me to thinking: while I can (and, will) use Games Workshop models in these smaller scale confrontations... I don't have to. I'm not strictly playing 40K any more, so the obsessive-compulsive inside me doesn't need to be bothered on a very basic level if every one of the models that hits the table doesn't have some GW basis under the conversion. As epiphanies go, its not a doozy... I know. Not always the sharpest spoon in the drawer, me. But coming to this realization ramped my (re)enthusiasm up by eleventy and opened up a world (wide web) of possibilities.


I hit the internet and started my searches with coolness as the the determining factor. Two of Merc's Minis Kemvar line (featured in an earlier post) were the first purchases. They got here yesterday and man, they are pretty damn incredible... if a bit of a pain in the keester to assemble. Then I recalled stumbling across the Infinity line some time back and how impressed in general I was with the sculpts. But... darn it all, I couldn't use them because they're not official models.


I have five on the way...



These won't be used with the Infinity rule-set, as the last thing I need at the moment is to drop 50.00 on a rulebook for yet another game system. The miniatures I chose are generic enough that I will have little problem customizing them and combining with the Merc's Kemvar to so as to appear as one coherent unit.

I'm psyched. Been ages since I was this hyped about tabletop.  

Freedom. Accept no substitute.

... 

4 comments:

Wayne Snyder said...

I had the same thing happen to me. Then I started using Reaper minis for Mordheim. Next it'll be pig iron models in my necromunda, oh my. It's funny how wrong you feel doing this. Also I think you can download the Infinity rules free from their web site. You know, if you wanted to.

Dryw said...

Hah! No... I actually didn't know the rules were available for download. I grabbed the PDFs, but I'll be honest: I don't know what I have here in front of me.

Looks like 2nd Edition is the latest, and there is a new expansion called "Human Sphere"?

Guess I have some reading to do.

Max said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Max said...

I did a similar thing with Mordheim- got an entire Warband's worth of minis from other miniature companies for a sum total of $32. AND they look better (or at least more realistic) and are more customizable than GW minis to boot!

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