It's finally come to an end...

After a couple of years of posting on the subject, I’ve decided to call an end to it.  After hours spent blogging about it, I’m done.  I’m finished.  It’s all over. 
That’s right, I’ve finally completed my Orc and Goblin army!  I’ve now got 2400pts of tournament standard painted army ready to go, woo hoo!  It’s been a large undertaking, it’s been a challenge and it’s been a pain in the arse, but it’s complete.

The (proxy) Black Orcs get ready to do what they do best.  Hit things.  Hard.

 I’ve been painting for years, but it has always been figures for small scale skirmish games such as Necromunda and Mordheim, so I didn’t realise how much work would be required.  It only took painting the first unit before I realised that my usual painting style was far too slow and detailed to get me through in a reasonable amount of time.  I had to learn to paint a lot quicker, trying dips, all-over washes and loads of drybrushing in an attempt to get figures on the table.  I learnt the importance of making sure that units rank up and I realised that when painting an army, it was the overall effect that was the most important thing, not each individual model.  It took a while for me to get the idea, but I was happy when it finally happened!

It wasn’t all hard work though, I had great fun making some of the pieces; the rocklobber, the maggot hoppers, the spider riding boss and my own personal favourite; the snotling pumpwagons.

Some of the rough sketches for my Rocklobber

This is the first full army that I’ve painted so I’m feeling quite proud of myself.  I’ve learned some good painting skills, and probably picked up some bad ones as well.  I’ve already got plans in place for my next fantasy army, and I’ll be using what I’ve learned on the greenskins to great effect.

Of course, I know that no army is ever fully ‘finished’ I’ll be repainting some of the units and adding the odd piece, but the rush is now over and I can focus on actually playing with it. I’ve got my first game with a fully painted full size army at the club tomorrow night (appropriately enough, against Dwarfs!) so I’m looking forward to seeing if fielding a finished army improves my luck at all. 

I’ll add a few photos from the battle in the next couple of days and let you know the result :)

Happy Gaming

P.S. You can find all the stories of my work completing my army by clicking on the ‘goblins’ label.
P.P.S.  A big 'Hello' to all my fellow greenskin generals who may be visiting from 'Da Warpath'.  Check it out peeps!

Exeter Legionary

As regular readers know, there’s nothing I like better than getting in a car and driving up a dual carriageway for an hour to spend all day in a cattle shed with like-minded gentlemen before driving home again.  This weekend was no exception as I journeyed to the frozen north (Exeter) to participate in, and bring a bit of class to, the Legionary 2011 wargames event.


In fact, before we go too far, don't forget you can still win a copy of the latest Unseen Lerker magazine featuring my own article on Frugal Gaming, see the last post for details.  But hurry, you only have a few days left!

Anyway, this was the third year that I’ve visited Legionary, and it’s the third venue in that time.  There were a few criticisms of the layout last year for gamers (I didn’t participate in the tournament so I couldn’t say) but this year the venue was pretty good.  It was in an agricultural auction house on the outskirts of the city, though was nowhere as bad as you may imagine.  The large open space meant that all the gamers were in with the traders which created a good atmosphere and lots of people were wandering over from the trade stands to watch the games being played.

As with previous tournaments, I met plenty of people.  This included two of my Exeter twitter chums; Domonet and Wartrader (both well worth following) who turned out to nice guys rather than murderous psychopaths, which is always the risk of social networking.  Domonet and Wartrader were running a demonstration game of Infinity which looked very interesting, but I’m currently afraid of taking up another game system as I’d probably end up selling a kidney to fund my ridiculous gaming addiction.  But if you’re on the lookout for a new game then check it out and let me know what you think.  Of course I would be remiss to not give a big plug to Wartrader’s business; so have a look at that as well.

I also met James, who had made the epic journey from Surrey to compete in the competition (for my American readers; Surrey is a separate state, east of London Island, two timezones East of here.  Everyone there speaks like our Queen Elizabeth and drives around in Rolls Royces Automobiles).  It also happens that James’s wife had to travel to Exeter that weekend for work, but I’m sure that's just a coincidence.  James mentioned that he reads this blog (Hello) so I knew he was a man of taste.  As it turned out he also a great looking Warriors of Chaos force, which was one of the nicest painted armies I’m ever seen with my own eyes.  I’m sure that my pictures don’t do it justice, so take my word for it that his ‘Amy Winehouse’ champion conversion was superb. 

"They tried to make me go to the Realm of Chaos, I said 'No no no...'"

The bring and buy stall was well stocked and most things seemed to be reasonably, priced apart from the obligatory £100 copy of Space Hulk.  As it turns out, I did end up buying an original copy of the 40k Rogue Trader rulebook.  This was a bargain and was bought purely for nostalgic reasons, it was the first gaming product I ever saw and it opened up a whole new world to me!  Looking back over the badly rendered Space Marine drawings and crudely painted miniatures would have brought a tear to my eye if it wasn’t for the fact that I'd just sold my soul to Satan to learn to paint like James.

The bring and buy also featured this amazing 5ft long spaceship for £30.  File it under ‘Looks cool, but I’ve no reason or space for it’.

As for my games of Warhammer; I got beaten like an incontinent puppy at a carpet factory.  I did take a few of the enemy down, racking up a few hundred victory points from each game.  My overall ranking was the same as at my last tournament (second from last) but I feel that my game has improved massively in the last few months and I’ll be expecting a win or two next year.

Yeah, next year.  I’ll definitely be back to Legionary 2012 for more, a lot of the guys from the Cross Swords club agreed that it was a great tournament and we’ll be back next year.  Well done to all those who took part in the tournament and a great big ‘THANK YOU’ to all who organised and ran the event.

Happy Gaming.

Don't get more games, get more gamers!

As regular readers know, I like to game.  I like to paint, I like to model, I like to write my silly little blog, but in the past year I have made a conscious effort to play more games.  Inevitably, like many other gamers, I have now started to look around for other gaming experiences; new games systems, new armies, bigger and more spectacular battles.  Of course, as a frugal gamer I fear the required expense that comes with these options.

Recently though, I have come across another option, which improves my gaming for minimal outlay;  I’m not getting more games systems, I’m getting more gamers.

This has come about in two ways, firstly I’ve joined the excellent gaming club here in Plymouth ‘Cross Swords’ and secondly I’ve managed convinced a non gaming friend to take up the dice.

Heavily themed, skirmish games such as Necromunda can really appeal to new players.

The benefits of joining a club are well known, but can’t be overstated.  Plenty of new players to face, lots of other armies to battle against, trial games of new systems, and even the ability to share lifts to tournaments and other events.  Of course, going to a club does have it’s costs.  Cross swords costs me £2.50 per visit for entry, a couple of pounds in petrol and the cost of a couple of drinks.  I visit every couple of weeks so the cost averages out quite well, and the idea of laying out my army in front of a room full of other players helps me to focus on getting figures painted and building the best army I can.

The second option is perhaps one that gamers rarely try; getting non-gamers to have a go.  I’m excluding those of us with children; we seem to be pressing dice into little pudgy palms before our poor sprogs can even sit up on their own.  As gamers, we can be a bit shy about telling our workmates and acquaintances about our hobby, and those of us that do will probably only mention that we ‘play wargames’  and if pushed we’ll tell them what game system we play. This is generally met with a fixed grin and a patronising nod of the head.  It is only rarely that others will ask for further details.  I do make a point of subjecting one of my work mates to terrifyingly detailed battle reports on a regular basis in an attempt to annoy him, try it, it works.

Anyway, I had the rare pleasure of a friend popping round a few weeks ago, looking at my figures on a shelf and asking me if he could try a game.  I thought it was some elaborate sting operation, but I eventually set up a couple of small scale trial games of different systems (Warhammer and Necromunda).  He really enjoyed the games and we’ve arranged some more for the future.

Gaming at a club can be great fun... and may include chocolate.

So over the last couple of months, I’ve managed to massively expand my gaming, without a huge outlay of cash.  I’ve also made a few friends, and brought a new person into the hobby.  Playing any existing games you own with new people, whether seasoned pros or n00bs, can be great fun and put a spark back into your gaming.  Give it a try and let me know how you get on.

Happy Gaming.

Scorched earth? Send in the druids...

Another month, another radical shift of priorities.

A combination of real-life serious-business type stuff has necessitated a long, hard look at What I Own and What It's For, and most importantly, Whether I'm Using It.  This consideration has brought to light certain essential truths about what I play games with, and why.  The short version is that I've recently come to realise that getting back into WFB was a grave error, and so my Warriors of Chaos have been shown the door.

My Skorne have also gone - while I enjoyed playing them, I did not enjoy painting them, for reasons which have been explored previously. M'learned colleague Neal was good enough to take them off my hands, and since he enjoys uniform colourschemes and resilient, stand-up-and-fight forces more than me, I think he'll enjoy them.

The Chaos Warriors, who cost me £60 in three lots, have been sold off for £93 in two, thanks to the local Tale of X Gamers and an apparent high demand for cheap Beastmen on eBay (must be something to do with them being best in units of forty-odd and costing £15 for ten).  I did also part with a GW figure case in the process, but I've had years of loyal service out of it and see this as an opportunity to liberate myself from buying and cutting so much custom foam for the cases, and look into cheaper storage solutions for models not in the current away game force.  Admittedly some of that has gone on long-considered new Cryx toys, and a little more was eaten by postage and packing costs, but I've still turned a net £30 profit on the exchange.

The Skorne, meanwhile, were straight swapped, along with the case foam they live in and a pile of my old No Quarters - while an excellent mag, and improving all the time, it doesn't have infinite rereadability, and lugging them up and down the country every time I move house was becoming tiresome - for a Circle Orboros army, mint and untouched in its boxes.


Circle still fulfil my original goal of having a Hordes faction, they give me an alternative to Cryx that still plays fast and tricksy, the way I like, and they offer a much broader variety of 'looks' than the Skorne do, with great big hairy barbarians and armoured, uniformed paramilitaries and robed druids and big stone stompy things all sort of co-existing together and encouraging me to paint by offering me variety.  Oh, and they'll fit in with my terrain collection a lot better than the Skorne did, and allow me to use my neglected Nyss Hunters across two game systems, since they'll hire out to both my main factions.


As far as getting into a new force goes, acquiring a whole collection of stuff like this means that the limited-toolbox-at-the-start, which I talked about last time, is less of a factor, especially if the collection happens to include some known expensive/good stuff and the job-lot nature absorbs the cost of buying that on its own.  Its being unassembled and unpainted, from somebody else's hobby dead pile, where it's lain neglected for a good two and a half years, is a bonus, and trading it out for something they'll get more enjoyment out of than you will is even better.

So, monthly review: I've gotten rid of some belongings which were frustrating me, replaced them with stuff I'm more interested in and excited about, and I'm £30 up on the trading process, which covers March's bus-fare-club-entry-and-chip-run budget very nicely.

This time last year was when it all started to go wrong, of course, but this time I appear to be consolidating rather than expanding, and that's a good thing.  Almost all my hobbying has been self-financing, and I have a lot to be going along with, so the temptation to spend more money is offset by the 'in progress' pile.  So far, Von's Second Frugal Year is a proper bobby-dazzler.

Frugalnomics Lesson 2 - Shopping Around

If you play Warhammer (or even if you don’t) you’ll probably be aware that Orc and Goblin players are getting some treats from everyone’s favourite games company in the next couple of weeks.  Games Workshop have revealed a whole host of new models, alongside the obligatory magic cards and the new army book.  There’s been the usual criticism of price rises and sculpting quality (yawn), but I really like all the new bits and pieces.  I suppose that if all you have to complain about in your life is that some plastic models don’t look exactly like you’d hoped, then things can’t be that bad overall.  I’d certainly never overreact to something so unimportant in the grand scheme of things.  Personally,   I like the idea of the new book (hardback, full colour and much longer) and can’t wait to get my hands on it.

But where from?  There’s plenty of places offering these items for sale but which offers the best value?  As part of your ongoing education in ‘Frugalnomics’ let’s have a look...

The first step in shopping around is to be clear on what you want buy, otherwise you may fall into the trap of spending more to make up to a free postage limit, or just get carried away with the excitement of it all and spend more than you’d planned.  Decide what you want and then stick to it!  For this exercise, we'll look at a typical Frugal gamer, lets call him ‘Percy’, who is an Orc and Goblin player.  Percy wants to buy the new orc and goblin army book, the aracnarok spider and a set of magic cards.  After a bit of looking around on the internet he chooses the following online stores (Total Wargamer, Maelstrom Games and Wayland Games) and compares them to his local Games Workshop (Please replace pounds sterling with crazy foreign equivalent as applicable.):

		Arachnarok	Magic Cards	Book	P&P	Total	Saving
	GW	£ 36.00	£ 4.10	£ 22.50	£ 0.00	£ 62.60	£ 0.00
	Wayland	£ 28.80	£ 4.71	£ 18.00	£ 4.41	£ 55.92	£ 6.68
	Maelstrom	£ 32.40	£ 3.69	£ 20.25	£ 0.00	£ 56.34	£ 6.26
	Total WG	£ 30.60	£ 3.48	£ 18.00	£ 3.99	£ 56.07	£ 6.53

 
So, by looking at the table, Percy can see that Wayland Games is cheapest overall.  But he also notices that by buying the army book and aracnarok from Wayland Games and then buying the Magic Cards from his local GW next time he’s in town, he can increase his savings to over £7.  Good work Percy!

Next time you’re thinking about your next purchase, have a look around and compare prices, a little bit of time spent searching can save you pounds (or crazy overseas equivalent).

Class dismissed.

Please note that prices were correct at the time of writing this article, please check prices yourself before making any purchases!

A Tale Of N Gamers, Where N = Some

A long, long time ago, I can still remember, when White Dwarf didn't suck on chodes...

The Tale of Four Gamers is perhaps one of the most persistent memes that's ever done the rounds in the wargaming community, although I suspect FOOTDAR will give it a run for its money in time.  See, once upon a time, in the hallowed years of the mid-nineties, when 'Wiki' was just the Hawaiian word for 'quick' and Jervis Johnson was a pillar of the community instead of the laughing stock he's been made into by the kind, merciful kiss of the Internet, White Dwarf ran a series about four staff members who pledged to construct Warhammer Fantasy Battle armies to a budget which, all these years later, seems frankly laughable.  I recall those articles fondly, and still have a tendency to count meat-filled sandwich products as a gaming expenditure and refer to small children as Noise Familiars as a direct result of their influence on my unformed brain.

I was clearly not alone in being strongly influenced by the article - White Dwarf and, in later years, the GW website, counted it among their greatest successes, referring to the requests for a rerun, a 40K version, a follow-up on the armies, anything at all to do with it, on an increasingly exasperating basis.  I've never been active on a wargaming forum where there isn't some version of it on the go.  Privateer Press, as has long been their way, followed in GW's footsteps and recently got in on the act with their Studio Challenge articles, although these cheerfully omit the budgetary restrictions.  Only this morning, I came across The Western Immoren Economy Tours, a Warmachine blog which is pursuing the endeavour in the original spirit and style, with a tight £30 a month limitation on purchases.

All of this sets questions a-moving in my fragile, agile mind, chief among which is "why do I have neither pig-flesh nor baguettes in my house at this present moment?"  Hot on its heels, however, is a query more pertinent to people who aren't sufficiently fortunate to dwell in the House of Von, and this is it: "why is the Tale of N Gamers format so popular?"

Is it the sense of joy that comes from achieving a goal, in this case the construction of successful forces on a tight and inflexible budget?  Is it the sharing of your experiences with an audience?  Is it the slow pace of construction, which enables an emotional investment to be made in a force and a serious attempt at actually painting it all made?

I'm not sure.  It's possible to do all these things in isolation, although personally I fail badly at the first and third elements - whenever I've tried to set myself a monthly budget, it's exploded within the first two instalments, and when I'm set on a project all unfetteredly-like, I tend to rush forward, seeking broader and deeper gaming experiences than can be achieved at entry level.

I think it's the shame.  I think it's the knowledge that your fellow Gamers will rib you rotten if you go over budget, and rightly ridicule you for not managing to paint one lousy box of new models in twenty-eight days.

All right, there's a bit more to it than just humiliation.  I also think it's the guarantee of games against others who are similarly constrained by circumstances.  As recent events have reminded me, it's not always fun playing with people who can afford a more tactically viable force than you, and a player base that's subscribing to the same limitations levels off that playing field, especially when cheats will be punished by withdrawal of snack van privileges.

That said, recent 'official' Tales of Four Gamers have left me cold, and I believe the format may be dying a death as the realities of modern gaming hit home.  The truth is, games companies have a certain vested interest in sweeping the precise costs of new forces under the rug, particularly when their game doesn't scale down as well as it used to (I'm looking at WFB here, although I'll be following the Warmachine effort with interest, since the buy-in cost for that game is lower and it's the long-term maintenance of the army and expansion of its tactical portfolio that hurts, financially speaking).

This limitation was pretty obvious in the first ever instalment; Paul 'Fat Bloke' Sawyer's Beastmen, available only high-cost low-value combinations and yet requiring the second-highest model count of the forces involved, ended up as a small, top-heavy army, shackled to expensive point sinks and not necessarily equipped to handle its competitors.  Funnily enough, the Beastmen are in the same old predicament today, as I learned to my cost when I contemplated them as an army... so I suppose some things don't change.

Anyone for a bacon butty?

Testing, testing...

I mentioned the Mantic Skeletons in my last post and I've managed to get some painted.  I tried a number of different colours to see what final effect would look best (plus which would be easy to do 100 times over, and would look impressive when viewed as an army).  The results are below:

Of course the reason that they look so badly painted is due to some problem with my camera (and not because I'm a crap painter, they're only test pieces or erm... any other reason I can think of).  I'm going to go for the orange scheme (3rd along, looking a bit 'peachy') and the yellow and blue next to it.  I'll probably have units of each, though it'll be a while before I get started on painting them properly as I've got a metric tonne of Dark Eldar to get painted first.

Painting a few test pieces is a good idea if you're painting a large number of figures, it can be a nightmare to get halfway through an army and realise that it looks muddled and uncoordinated when it's all together on the tabletop.  Having to repaint or rebase figures can take up valuable time and money, so a few test pieces is quite a frugal idea!

Anyway, before I get onto my Dark Eldar or Undead I've got to finish off the Goblins, write a 2400pt list to go against Shiny tomorrow night and look at a 1000pt list for a forthcoming tournament (my first ever) so it's going to be a busy year.  Hooray!

Special 101st Blog Post Extravaganza!

Hooray!  This blog passed a couple of milestones in the last week or so; the last post was this blog's 100th (which helps any mathletes out there calculate my percentage of posts) I've also passed the 100 followers mark (106 as I write this) so I'd like to say a heartfelt 'thank you' to you all, and as a token of thanks, here's a photograph of me feeling suitably happy:

To celebrate this momentous occasion, I've created a remarkable frugal gaming quiz based on previous posts on this blog.  There are no prizes, simply look at the 10 questions, think about your answer and then click on it (no hovering!), use the return button on your browser to return to the fun!  If you're right, you'll see; if you're wrong you'll get a Boom!

Question 1: What is the Frugal gaming motto?

• Spend less, game more.
• Paying less, painting more.
• I'm loving it.
• To infinity and beyond!

 Question 2: Pete gave some tips on creating the perfect games night, what did he suggest?

• Popcorn
• A 'McGuffin'
• A box of staples
• All of the above

Question 3: With a small amount of wood, a polystyrene sheet and a hand made 'x' template you can make.

• Lots of friends
• A Blood bowl pitch
• A 2000pt Tournament legal Necron Army
• An elaborate, though mostly ineffective trap

Question 4: What method did Arabian Knight use to paint his Heroquest miniatures? 

• Basecoat and dip.
• Felt tip pens.
• White undercoat and colour washes.
• Dozens of layers, wet blended to perfection. 

Question 5: Which four of the following items have been made on this blog over the last two years?

• A post office
• Metal ladders
• A stone watchtower
• Tank traps
• Trees

Question 6: Is this a cycling blog? 

• Yes
• No

Question 7: What did Von say that his Warhammer army needed to have '...in order to destroy you!'

• Space Marines
• A Hefty Dose of Luck
• A Cauldron of Blood
• All of the Above

Question 8: What is best used to strip paint from miniatures?

• Domestos
• Dettol
• TCP
• TNT

Question 9: Can I save money and use Christmas as an excuse to get some more painting done?

• Oh no!
• Oh yes!

Question 10:Which three of the following offer fantastic free gaming resources?

• Bell of Lost Souls Minidexes
• Games Workshop Specialist Games
• Frugal Dave's Ultimate Awesome Free Gaming Website
• Dream Weaved Worlds

Special Bonus Ultra Question!
The 75 minute long, straight to DVD extravaganza Ultramarines 'movie' is now available for advance order.  What price are we expected to pay for this visual feast?

• A Bargain £5.99
• A Reasonable £9.99
• A Rather-pricey-but-still-justifiable £15.99
• An eye-wateringly-idiotic £25.99

I hope you enjoyed that.  Let know how you got on and I'll see you next time.

Happy gaming!

Building a Catapult... Sorry, Trebuchet.

Hello my fellow geeks.  You may remember last week I mentioned I'd been busy gaming, painting and building models.  This time I thought I'd show you one of the tasty fruits of my labour, namely a goblin catapult...

Sorry, it's a trebuchet*.

Being a tight arsed frugal gaming type, I didn't want to shell out for the Games Workshop Rocklobber for my Goblin Army, so I decided to make my own from balsa wood.  As usual I started off with a few sketches, which I then promptly ignored.

Von's Frugal Year: Month the Seventh

Oh yeah, baby.  On time, two months running.  I'm on fire.

Spending Less?

Sort of. I confess I did crack and buy myself the Forces of Cryx book a few weeks ago, but I look on that as getting the most out of an existing model collection and informing future purchase plans and actually bringing myself up to speed with the current game rules, all of which are probably worth it. Anyway, I'm going to make it back, oh yes.

I'm also looking at giving the Blizzard some more money (yes, MORE money) to move my World of Warcraft characters about a bit. It's a rip-off. Daylight robbery for changing a few entries in a database. It will, however, put all the characters I play on the same server, which will make the time I spend playing the game much more efficient (since I can buy heirlooms on the high level ones and speed up the levelling of the low level ones, and their professions can support each other, and I won't basically be doing everything twice because some of my little pixel people are in different invisible pixel places from each other). Won't be doing it juuust yet, though, as I need to make some disposable income appear first.

To help me with the spending that I'll be doing, you see, I'm returning to an age-old Von trick: when hard up, sell some miniatures.

If you're interested in decently painted, discounted-from-UK-RRP Warmachine Mercenary stuff, go here and check out my painted mini auctions. More photos, including close-ups of 'jacks and 'casters, can be found here.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and hum the Last Post for a bit.


Gaming More?

You could say that. For a start, I've got a World of Warcraft character to level 80 (finally, only took me the better part of a year), and another rapidly approaching (72 and counting). The plan of sticking to two characters and levelling them alternately (so one's Resting and gaining a period of doubled experience while I'm playing the other) seems to be working out so far.

I've also been playing my last games of seventh edition Warhammer (*starts humming the Last Post again*), writing up my first list for eighth (Dave will no doubt be delighted to hear that it includes a unit of 40 Spearmen, just to upset his Goblins even more), and trying hard not to want to do another WFB army (I think I'm cured; doing two armies for one system is an extravagance! Doing a new 40K army is too expensive for the moment. FOR THE MOMENT...).

The Dark Heresy game is rattling along nicely; we're now halfway through the ten-part storyline I've written up, we've broken out every token and spare die in the house (except the zombies from Zombies!) for big battle sequences on painstakingly hand-drawn maps (drawn in the last five minutes before the session), and the players are starting to put two and two together. They think they know what the Big Bad is and how the plot is going to resolve.

They could, in fairness, be more wrong... but they're not even remotely close to the truth. Not yet. Moo hoo ha ha...

Fanboy Fights and Gaming Gear

There's an ongoing nerd fight between Warmachine/Hordes and Warhammer (40K) players - or more accurately, consumers of Privateer Press products and consumers of Games Workshop products - over which game works out cheaper in the long term.  It's pretty much a wash - you can play a Privateer game with less miniatures, but they're more expensive than the Workshop equivalents and the game pretty much requires you to own a variety of pieces to meet a variety of tactical needs if you want to do well.



Anyway, what with the new Warhammer coming out in July, and the new rulebook costing a hefty £45 (incidentally, I won't be buying one - it's more expensive than I need, too heavy to cycle around with on my back, and contains a lot of stuff that isn't game rules and so gets in the way of using it as a reference document.  It's a lovely looking book, but it's not appropriate to my needs), the battleground of the week has been start-up costs.  You can read the nerd fight that inspired this post over at Stelek's rather confrontational blog (probably not safe for work, or the thin-skinned - he swears a bit and doesn't suffer fools gladly).

Wargames do frequently have quite a steep start-up cost, but there are always going to be ways of mitigating it.  Privateer Press do half the work for us, printing the rules for the entry-level pieces in their games in the core rulebook and providing some easily-photocopied templates and markers in the back.

The nice chap who makes Forward Kommander does a bit more work, as the printouts from that will have the damage grids and tracks you'll need on it.

There are always cheap options for tokens and templates - I use a lot of Gale Force 9 and Litko tokens, for my sins, mostly because my clear glass stones didn't go down to well at the club I used to use in Manchester (it was a dark space and it was difficult to read my handwriting, it smudged all the time, and yes, some of the lads were part of the Cult of Official Supplies), and paper ones would have gone mouldy in that cellar full of fish that we played in.

I have made my own for other games, though, and most of the online communities for wargames have links to PDFs that helpful people have made that you can print off and stick onto card or spare bases or what-have-you.  (Da Waaagh do a nice set of very Orky 40K ones, for instance.)  My smoke templates are all cardboard (I need a lot of them for most of my armies, more than it would be reasonable to purchase plastic ones for) and my new spray template probably will be too.

As far as rules materials go, it's like roleplaying - you have to learn to spot the difference between an essential core rulebook and a frivolous supplement.  Once you have a set of rules once, there's no sense in buying them twice - which is, incidentally, what the local Workshop staff have been trying to persuade me to do (actually, three times - collector's edition for owning and cherishing, regular one for background and using until the book comes out, and the little one for actually lugging around and taking to games, once it's come out).  What kind of mug do they take me for, eh?

Lest it be thought that I'm taking sides here, I should add that we Frugalists are not biased towards any game system: we make our own terrain and try to keep it good for everything, we make our own tokens for PP games and our own movement trays for GW games.  We don't buy anybody's overpriced hobby products when there are art shops in the world, and the only thing we get into Internet Fights over is people spending more money than they need to.

That and Blogger's text wrapping and inexplicably adding extra blank lines to my posts every time I try and do something clever with images.  IT WOULD WORK IF YOU'D STOP ADDING EXTRA BITS, BLOGGER!  Tch.  Anyway, hope you enjoyed the accessory tips.

So, I play Dark Elves in the Warhammer thing. You probably knew that by now. You also probably knew that it was a close thing: that I had designs on a Vampire Counts army, but botted when a mate of mine offered to sell me his evil pointy pirate men for less than half retail price.

The other alternative was Vampire Counts. It may still become a Project, if the new edition of Warhammer tempts me into playing them again. Even if it doesn't, I think there might be some Frugal tips and fiddles in here for the discerning player, so let's have a go.

I (would have) picked Vampire Counts because:
- I've played the army before and know I get on well with them.
- Undead are cool.
- They'd look good on the terrain I've built for my Cryx army.
- There are elements of their background that I have something of a soft spot for.
- Above all, there are lots of ranges of undead minis for medieval/fantasy games that are cheaper than Citadel.

Let's start with the background bit, get it out of the way quickly.


BACKGROUND


I've always had a soft spot for Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster. He's wise. He's powerful. He's mad as a broom. He's got a big hat.

He first appeared in a scenario called the Battle of La Maisontaal Abbey, pitted against Bretonnians and Skaven (both of which are played by mates of mine). He's also in WFRP, in an adventure set in a town called Frugelhofen (that's fate, that is!).

(Incidentally, Frugelhofen also featured in the excellent Warhammer Townscapes, a pack of cardboard buildings that seems to go on more or less forever. I have a PDF copy and will eventually be transferring it onto card so I can build some terrain on the very cheap.

White Dwarf 309 - 311 featured a run of articles called Return of the Lichemaster, which posited something very like the old Undead army for old Heinrich to lead, and pitted him against the Wood Elves of Athel Loren. I hate Wood Elves and any excuse to zombify them is always welcome.

The appeal in this is the army of Undead Wood Elves, raised from the barrows of Athel Loren after his last defeat and let loose upon the Old World again.



Let's look for some models.

MANTIC GAMES

Mantic do a range of plastic Ghouls, Skeletons, Revenants (armoured Skeletons, with cavalry currently available only in metal), Wraiths with a variety of weapons, and Skeleton Catapults.
The main attractions of Mantic minis are twofold: they look quite nice (especially the Ghouls, which I vastly prefer to the Citadel minis), and they're bloody cheap, working out at something like half the price of GW's models in most cases.
They also have some Elf Cavalry that would make rather nice Blood Knights in this undead Elf horde, and a range of rather tasty character models - although those aren't much cheaper than the GW equivalent.

(Incidentally, Mantic are a great choice for the Elf or Undead player on a budget, and they're working on a range of Dwarves at the moment too. Keep yer eyes on them. They're quite cool.)

I discovered Mantic through Carpe Noctem, a Vampire Counts forum I used to frequent.  Most of the Warhammer armies have a large online community or two, and most of those large online communities have forum threads or articles about sourcing models on the cheap.  It's a good place to start looking: CN's led me to Mantic, Wargames Factory and Heresy, back in the day.

That's Skeletons and Ghouls out of the way - what about the other Core choice?
Citadel Zombies aren't terrible value for money, all things considered, but there's always another option.



WARGAMES FACTORY

Zombie Celts Mash-Up Box!. Suitably wild, barbaric-looking zombies that you pretty much have to kitbash. Opportunity to get some more human-looking ones in there too, for variety's sake and that "raised from all over" feel. Nice.  Most of the other zombies I found were either metal (and too expensive to field in numbers) or just very old-fashioned sculpts that looked like refugees from a mid-90s Citadel catalogue.


HERESY MINIATURES

Our mates at Heresy (they're lovely people, you know) do some Ghouls, which are lovely models (I had fifteen in my old Vampire Counts army) but a bit pricey to buy in the sort of numbers the modern Vampire Count needs them in.

However, they also make a range of cheap, nice-lookin' characters.

This Apprentice Wizard would make a fine Necromancer or even a passable Kemmler with a bit of work and the Evil Pointy Hat.


I'm also very fond of this Vampire, and if I couldn't afford a Kemmler miniature (quite likely) I think he'd make a cool General. The top hatted head is my favourite, naturally.

He also comes in a grab bag with a winged Hero choice, perfect for that Flying Horror (or whatever the ability's called) upgrade. My first thought was 'Varghulf' but he's a bit small for that, and anyway, I can always use DARK SLAVE MINIATURES' Treeman for that.

Oh yeah. Big blighted Treeman dude. That suits the army more than a bat monster any day of the week.  It would also work nicely as a dark, foresty equivalent to the Bone Giant (Mantic make catapults and armoured Skeleton heroes, so why not think about using this same collection for two army lists?  You get more variety of play that way, without having to shell out on two sets of miniatures, although it might come out as more like one and a half if some of the models don't work for both).


I'm now forced to turn back to CITADEL MINIATURES for a bit, as they're really the only people who make Heinrich Kemmler and Krell. Their models are soooooo expensive these days and, to be honest, put me off the theme a bit, but they're out there if one can afford them and they sometimes go for not too much on eBay.

There are no rules for these guys any more, but I've been looking at the Vampire Counts book and it shouldn't be too hard to mock them up using the options in there. It won't be perfect, but it'll be 'awesome, very tough Necromancer' and 'badass Wight King'. Shame they don't do Krell's back banner any more, a battle standard would have been handy.

Citadel also make those Lord of the Rings Army of the Dead minis (quite an economical way of doing Spirit Hosts) and Flagellants (they're just mandatory for anyone doing lots of human-ish WFB models).


What to do about Bats (of all sizes) and Ushabti (if I were to go for the Barrow Kings option and fake up a Tomb Kings army using gothic-looking miniatures)?

Gargoyles! Something different (albeit a bit Warcrafty, but there's no shame in that). Took me a while but I eventually found some not-too-bad-looking ones from Reaper, Reaper again, West Wind, whose Gothic Horror range is full of fun Vampirey stuff (an atmospheric skirmish scale game with literary inclinations that unfortunately played like a mouldy sandwich with a small dog's insides, but does have the distinction of being card-based years before Malifaux), and this lot here as well.  Oh, and Fenryll do some as well, although the jury's out on whether I actually like them.

Some of these aren't much cheaper than GW Furies would be, admittedly, but I'm kind of into this looking-for-alternatives now. Mounted two to a base, these could serve as Bat Swarms or Fell Bats or Carrion (although the Citadel Carrion are gorgeous, and if I could pick some up for cheap I'd use those like a shot).


This was done in a couple of hours, just thinking about what I'd do with the army and doing a few searches for things like "28mm treeman miniature" and "28mm gargoyle". The result would be a very different-looking Undead army. Wouldn't be suitable for offical GW events, but to be honest I'm cooling on those a bit after some conversations that reminded me why I never liked them before.

As a slow, controlled-expenditure project, I would probably start with a core of Mantic Ghouls and Heresy characters, and then factor in Mantic regiments and monster units alternately. A sort of creeping death, rather than the "buy in, buy in big" approach I took with the Dark Elves.

That's if I did it.

I'm not going to.

Not yet.

Von's Frugal Year: Month the Fifth

Written in mid-June, about May. Sigh. We're all falling behind a bit, mostly due to actually doing things instead of blogging about them.

Spending Less - well, I was mostly good. I did shell out £25 on a Cauldron of Blood (since my Dark Elf army needs one in order to destroy you), but that has brought the Dark Elves to a point at which I can say "these are done, I don't need more stuff to play them, have fun and do well".

I've been sticking my fingers in my ears and ignoring the Warmachine releases (although I am, at the very least, going to pick up the Cryx and Mercenary books, a Harrower helljack and a box of Steelhead Riflemen before the year is out), and bracing myself instead for the upcoming release of Warhammer's eighth edition.

Most of the stuff they're releasing around it looks like overpriced ephemera that's not actually massively useful to the practicing gamer, although I admit to quite liking the new template set - and I've paid more than that for plain templates in the past.

The rulebooks themselves are now verging on 'prohibitively expensive', and so I might be borrowing Dave's strategy of waiting until the boxed game comes out, taking out the templates and mini rulebook, and then flogging the rest. GW staff members will no doubt be wailing and gnashing their teeth at this, but the truth is that two hundred (or three hundred) pages of background is a) a luxury for which I'm not able or even willing to pay and b) bloody heavy to carry on your back when you cycle or walk everywhere.

It will mean I have to wait until whenever the box comes out to actually start playing eighth edition, but what the hell, I've still half a Dark Elf army to paint and a couple of Warcraft characters to level.

Ah yes. Warcraft. Let's talk about that in a bit.

Gaming More - I've had a couple of Warmachine knockabouts with the honourable Shiny, and plans for a decent-sized WFB game are in the works (is that this week, chaps?).

These games, and the one between Dave and Shiny the other day, are being recorded, nay, chronicled in fact, using BATTLE CHRONICLER! (yes, you have to shout it. It's the rules...) which is a rather nice and very free utility for making battle reports like they used to have in White Dwarf back in the day. It takes a while to get used to the controls, especially if you're trying to manipulate individual figures (facing in particular has a tendency to stray when a report is in progress and you're clicking and dragging your dudes about), but it looks quite nice when it's done. The first report (on a Warmachine game) will be up on either GAME OVER or Hand Cannon just as soon as the chap who's hosting them gets back to me with a merry "yes Von your stuff is online now". I have the notes together for Dave and Shiny's game, but... well, did I mention I'm qualifying as a teacher in the next few weeks and have rather a lot of paperwork to do? Well, I am, and I do, and my gaming time is being spent... elsewise.

I've started painting Dark Elves (the Executioners, Witch Elves, Shades and Assassins are all on the go and have all had something painted: skin and metal mostly). It seems like a slightly bitty way to get things done, but when you've mixed up too much flesh or metal you might as well use the paint, and it does mean there's a lot of variety on my painting desk (so if I feel like painting armour, I can do some work on Executioners; if cloth, Shades; if big Eighties hair, Witch Elves). I'd rather have the variety to inspire me than have one project on the go and then not advance it when I just don't feel like painting those minis right now.

Also, I've been playing World of Warcraft. Quite a bit. See, my guildmates have finally become frustrated with me for rolling low-level characters and never bothering to do much with them, and so I've pledged to concentrate on my two highest-level pixellated slayers of lesser beings and actually get them to the endgame before the next expansion comes out.

This is beginning to be problematic Serious Warcraft Business territory, and I'm having to remind myself that time, once spent, cannot be regained. With that in mind, I've been setting up both my characters to spend extended periods of time resting, gaining double experience points when played and therefore levelling at something like an efficient speed, getting more done in the time available. I've also been using profession levelling guides to cut down on the amount of faffing around a bit.

So far I've got one character parked at level 70 (I want to take my time a bit more with him, since it's the first time I've taken a wee dude to Northrend and I want to enjoy the scenery and story a bit) and a Death Knight busily mining and grinding and battlegrounding away, not gaining experience, Resting so that when I do start playing him properly he'll rocket through the levels like there's no tomorrow.

Oh, and the Dark Heresy's going well. We're three sessions in and the plot is slowly beginning to move: the lads have requested More Combat, and so next week's session ('The Killing Floor') will be an extended fight scene with tanks and rioters and aircraft and things so they can get the urge to roll dice and consult charts out of their systems.

This means I actually have to learn how combat in Dark Heresy works instead of fudging it as garishly as I have been. I'd, um, better get on that. And painting Dark Elves. And actually finishing my teacher training on time. It's possible that I need to look at my time management skills again... although I have cut right back on my blogging/foruming time, so that's a start.

Von's Frugal Year: Month The Fourth

Spend less?  Hahahaha NO.  I've shelled out £150 on a Dark Elf army (granted it's a Dark Elf army that would have cost about £330 at recommended retail price and probably about £270 with online discounts and stuff, so I think I came out fairly well there), £20 on extra models for my Satyxis Raiders (just so I can top the unit up and run them at full strength), £6 on a can of NitroMors for paint-stripping metal Dark Elves with, and £21 on turning the World of Warcraft subscription back on (I keep telling myself that if it entertains me for three hours a week it's more economical than, say, the cinema, which so often doesn't).  Going to have to keep that belt tight for a few months (although the ranks of unpainted Dark Elves, Trenchers and Satyxis are having the desired effect of putting me off buying any more stuff).

Game more? Hell yes.  Played a game of WFB against the ever-faithful Shiny (report here, as is the custom), and a few extended sessions of World of Warcraft (I've actually joined a guild now, fulfilling the originally planned function of 'game I can play with old gaming chums who are now scattered about the country', which means the social aspect of the game is finally being explored as much as it should be).  I've also been painting on my mornings and afternoons off this week, and have turned out fifty Dark Elf infantry, two Bolt Throwers and a Sorceress.  Apart from the Sorceress, they are what might politely be termed 'gaming standard' (four colours, basecoat-ink-highlight-done), but when I have close to a hundred models to paint for an army I'm not going to spend the time making each and every one a masterpiece.  Oh, and my Dark Heresy game finally lurched into life last week - it's going rather well, even if I say so myself.

Plans for next month: more painting, more WFB, more Dark Heresy, more making good on purchases made and less spending of money on new ones.  May need to look into a way of moving my models about that's cheaper than buying new case foam from Kaiser Rushforth - I wonder how much it'd cost for a metal toolbox and enough magnets for the Dark Elf army?

Building a Ruined Defensive Wall - Part 2

A couple of weeks ago I started explaining how to build a ruined wall terrain piece, in this post I’ll carry on with my method; sculpting and texturing the base, and painting the finished piece.  Details of the tools and materials I used are included in the first half of this post.

Sculpting the base and finishing the walls
To landscape the areas between the walls and the base, I use expanded polystyrene, sourced from old packing material.  I cut the polystyrene roughly to shape using a hot wire cutter, this was then glued in place using wood glue (PVA works just as well) and plaster was used to fill any gaps.

The next step is to finish off the walls.  As I used blocks to create my wall, there were small gaps between some of the blocks which show up when the model is painted and can ruin the overall effect.  To fill these gaps I mixed some plaster with a lot of water to get a really runny consistency and paint this liberally all over the model.  It runs into the gaps, filling them nicely; a little bit of detail is lost, but overall the look of the wall is significantly improved.

When all the plaster has dried, it’s time to texture the base.  This is really easy (and pretty fun); mix up some plaster along with PVA glue, sand and fine gravel then paint it all over the base up to where the ground meets the walls.  I also painted a bit of this mix onto the floors to represent rubble and dirt from the collapsed walls.

Painting
I primed using grey spray primer, the main reason I use this is that it can be picked up for £1 a can, though it also gives good coverage and I prefer painting over grey than a black primer.

For the main painting, I went for cheap emulsion paints (remember this is a Frugal Gaming blog!) for the base and walls, with cheap acrylic used for drybrushing and painting the floors.  I gave the finished model a quick dusting of light brown with my airbrush to age it a little and bring all the colours together before adding the vegetation.

As this was a big build, I used a couple of different types of flock in patches and even added some long grass in various locations to break up the long walls.  This really added to the final look of the model and was well worth the couple of pounds I spent on different grasses (hey, I saved money on the paints, okay?).

To finish off the model I gave it a good couple of coats of satin varnish to protect the paintwork, seal the flock in place and ‘flatten’ the colours.  Giving a terrain piece like this a coat of dull varnish also stops any cheap paints that were used from shining.


Results
I'm very happy with the finished model; it looks good, it can be played on, it’s hardwearing and most importantly it didn’t cost much to build.

As this is a simple model, you can add as much extra detail as you like depending on your own personal taste, I decided to leave it relatively plain to allow it to be used for fantasy or sci-fi games, plus theres fewer pieces to get knocked off when moving it about!

Once again, thanks to Doctor Merkury for the inspiration and letting me steal his idea.

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em...

Okay. Back at the beginning I was attempting to frame my Frugality slightly differently to the rest of the lads, which I've decided to stop doing. 'Spend less, game more' is a catchy motto and it does cover everything I want it to cover, albeit with a bit of extension.

See, I consider investment and Frugality a bit differently than that. Basically, in Von's world, you invest three different kinds of currency in gaming.

There's the financial investment: the money it costs to actually buy the game and the stuff you need to play the game (tape measures, dice, modelling tools and supplies like paint, club subscription fees... it adds up!). The thing with money, though, as Grandpa George (from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: he's the grumpy one who doesn't get out of bed) says, is that they print more of it every day. You can't exactly afford to go throwing it away, but you can be reasonably sure you'll get more of it one day, and you can sell things to get it back.

Time, once spent, cannot be recovered. That's why I get all worried about temporal investment - because time doesn't come back. Now, I actually have more free time than I have free money, and I adhere to Bertrand Russell's aphorism that the time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. That's why I make my own terrain and paint my own models and write my own RPG encounters and stories, but why I don't knock people with more money than time who choose to buy terrain kits (I still think the GW terrain is overpriced for what it is, but if you don't enjoy spending hours faffing about with foam and wire and Milliput and want to use your time for something you do enjoy, I understand).

(Aside: it's this that makes me worry about the amount of time I spend doing things like, well, blogging. I've spent a lot of time in these last few weeks on places like Yes, The Truth Hurts and druchii.net looking at stuff about Dark Elves to give me ideas about what's good, what's considered too good, and what it's worth me finding a way to do on the cheap - at least, that's how it started. The time you can't account for once you've wasted it is wasted time, and after a few days of coming to at about lunchtime and realising I've been reading blog entries and forum posts all morning, I start to realise that I've lost control of my time at about the same point that I tightened control on my money. But that's not actually what I want to talk about today.)

The other kind of investment is emotional investment, and this is the part where we move away from things we can keep accounts of and into a more nebulous world of feelings and concerns.

Let's say you're getting into WFB, and your instinct is to do it Frugally: small purchases, small games, feel your way forward, learn the ropes, take it softly-softly. You have a vision of this cool army that you want to do.

Let's say that the local players play in a lot of tournaments, so they want to play tournament-sized games with the most efficient armies available. This army that you want to do isn't particularly efficient, and while you don't want to win every last game, you don't want to be chased off the board without making a dent every time - you want your defeats to be fun and bloody and brilliant.

There's a conflict of interests here, yeah? They want big games with the best stuff available, you want small games while you learn and you have your Vision for the army that means making some less-than-optimal choices, but you don't want to annoy anybody and you do want to have some fun games.

You've made an emotional investment in two things. You want to fulfil your Vision for the army but you want to get some enjoyable games in as well. It doesn't matter whether you stick to your Vision or compromise it to make a better army - one of your goals is going to go unfulfilled and your emotional investment unrewarded. Gamer angst results as you try to have your cake and eat it.

Controlling your emotional investment is about making informed choices about which games you'll play, and where, and with whom, and how, and why: knowing what your goals are and whether you can achieve them with the resources available.

It's about knowing your local gaming group, so you know whether your approach is going to fit in with theirs, or whether it's going to cause disappointment and stress as you try to reach goals that you don't share with the other people around you.

It's about being prepared to walk away from a game that you're not enjoying, try to recover what money you've spent and avoid wasting any more time on something that's not fulfilling.

It's basically about deciding how much you care about things - winning, having a unique army, doing a cheap army - and knowing that if you care too much about too many different things you're likely to be disappointed 'cause you're over-investing in the project.

I'm not as emotionally invested in Dark Elves as I was in Warriors of Chaos (that 'let's say' above is basically the story of Why I Stopped Playing Chaos) and so I don't particularly mind what kind of games I play with them, or who with, or whether I win: I'm pretty sure I can make a decent army that's not too good for casual games or too weak for tournament play, 'cause I've done my research and I've decided what I'm going to do this army for.

Although, having written all this, I kind of regret selling that Chaos army now... I just have to remember all the evenings of serious Gamer Angst as I fretted over how many Dispel dice I had and whether I'd wasted money on that £25 conversion that turned out to be rubbish in play, and whether I cared about having a Nurgle character in a Slaanesh unit just because it was a better gameplay option. No, I don't want to go back to that. Dark Elves are less stressful, because I don't care about them quite so much.

Wait A Second, That Looks Like Gaming!

Well, that "game more" part of the Mission seems to have lurched back into life of late. Since the last time we spoke, m'colleague Shiny and myself have presented ourselves at the hallowed gates of Frugal Towers and enjoyed a game or two of Space Hulk against our gracious host Dave.

Our first ever game, touted as a very difficult scenario for the Space Marines, proved to be a stealthy victory, with valiant rearguard Terminators and a suspiciously effective Sergeant holding up the oncoming alien hordes long enough for the last surviving Terminator to set fire to the room that needed setting fire to before turning, two heavy flamer shots left, to face the oncoming tide of Genestealers that had been boiling along the corridors after him.

The second proved rather less of a triumph for the valiant warriors of the Imperium - overestimating the efficacy of a Sergeant with thunder hammer slightly, we (by which I mean I) sent him off on his own, only for him to get scrobbled by the first Genestealer to look at him funny. Our 'castle up and let the assault cannon sort it out' strategy on the other side of the ship worked out okay, at least until the aforementioned cannon ran out of ammunition, at which point Dave's grobbly alien hordes were able to more or less surround us. A quick examination of the board afterwards revealed some more advisable choke points where we could have parked the Sergeant and let him hold up more of the Genestealers, allowing our other four Terminators to concentrate on eliminating the ones emerging from behind him.

Space Hulk. Good game. Nice pieces, too: the Terminators in particular are very characterful little blighters who could sidestep nicely into a Blood Angels army with nary a care. The Genestealers are a bit less flexible, given their highly thematic basing, but a patient modeller could base an entire Tyranid army like that and it'd look suitably post-apocalyptic industrial and smashing.

Anyway, Dave made the return trip to Castle von Von this Thursday to try out his Goblin army against Shiny's Skaven, dusted off after long disuses and empowered by their new book full of nasty things. Dave's Goblins pulled off a few successes - his Fanatics and Stone Thrower whacked a fair few rats in the early turns, his Spider Riders kept a Clanrat unit and Warlock out of the fight on one flank and his Giant successfully routed the Plague Monks without a single blow being struck (ah, Yell and Bawl, how elite troops loathe thee) - but unfortunately his line units started taking panic tests, and when Goblins start taking panic tests, they very seldom stop. Enough of them rallied for it not to be a total wash, but their turns of gibbering retreat had left the army strung out for Shiny's oncoming wall of fur to roll over unit by unit.

I really enjoyed watching this game - suitably anarchic and banter-filled, and we persuaded Dave to keep going after the Turn of Much Panicking (since, to my eye, it looked like the Giant's long lopey legs could carry him into the Plague Monks, and taking out one of Shiny's units was still better than none).

The next round will be after the Easter break, and probably involve Dark Elves in some capacity or other. I'm clearing the pewter backlog to make way for evil pointy spiky elves. My Warmachine Steelheads are finally painted, a trifling three months after purchase, which leaves six Revenant Crew ready to paint, six stripped Trenchers to reprime and paint, plus two Satyxis Raiders, four Trenchers and four Revenant Crew in various states of broken-with-bits-missing-ness to fix up and find bases for.

I suspect I'll buy those bases and top up the Satyxis Raider unit while I'm away in Manchester over the Easter vacation (Warmachine units come in either sixes or tens in the second edition, and I own eight models: not terribly helpful). That'll have to be it as far as away spending goes. I haven't spent any gaming money this month, and I won't be spending any in May (no, no matter how many nice new Cryx things come out: I still haven't fielded everything I own for that army, and I own plenty), so there's a financial buffer around the hearty expenditure I plan on making in mid-April.