Frugalnomics: Increasing Cost, Decreasing Value

Price rises, price rises, all I seem to hear about these days is price rises!  Personally I think everything's more expensive these days, but Dethtron (first and second links) has a point when he establishes that GW's prices are in fact behind the rate of inflation (whether they were marked up to the point of lunacy to begin with is perhaps another matter).  Still, that's not what I'm here to bore you about today.

I have, in the past, been heard to discuss the notions of cost and value; that having low point cost kits and making them both essential to building an effective force and expensive to purchase in terms of real money is the gaming company's road to profitability.  Dethtron has been caught remarking that you don't want your ubiquitous and essentially mandatory METAL BAWKSES, included merely to transport models across the board and provide an additional layer of insulation against the rain of hot lead/laser/microwave death outside, to eat up huge chunks of your army's points that you could be spending on cool stuff.  I say that I prefer spending my money on transport vehicles that contribute something else to the game, hence my love of anything Fast with good guns that can move and still shoot, Land Raiders and even, at a pinch, the Ork Battlewagon, but that's still not the point that I'm trying to make here.

My point is that price increases are only half of the way that gaming companies can, if they so wish, diddle and fiddle you out of your hard-earned wonga.  The other way they get you is by devaluing what you already own.  We are familiar, I hope, with the various justifications for new editions that invalidate your previous rulebook purchases; some of these are more valid than others but I think that by the time you're on, say, the third edition of a game you're either a bad designer or a deliberately poor designer trying to set up pendulum swings and/or release bloat for business reasons (which, as I keep saying but will continue to restate every time lest I be considered a ninny, is a valid business model and not something unethical and vile that it's worth starting a protest march over.  Go on the ones to preserve teachers' pensions instead and at least do me a favour while you're there...).

What some of us are perhaps less familiar with is the really obvious under-your-nose phenomenon that I never see emerging from discussions of How Things Were Better Value In The Mid-Nineties.  Stuff was worth more then.  When I started playing, a Space Marine squad cost 300 points for ten lads before any upgrades.  Buy them a Veteran Sergeant with weapons and wargear, special weapons and a transport and you'd be running something in excess of 400.  With 1500 points established as the Holy Grail of game size, that means an 'army' might comprise three of those squads, the mandatory Captain and, I don't know, a Chief Librarian or a couple of Predators or a Bike Squadron (the New Hot Sexy Release during the month I started playing, sixteen years ago...) or something. 

Third edition 40K slashed the points value of that squad - and it's interesting that we talk about 'points value' as often as we do 'points cost', don't you think? - in half while continuing to present 1500 points as the 'standard' game size.  Suddenly you 'need' twice as many d00dz in order to roll up to your games night, unless you're the sort of person who asks insightful questions like "what's so special about 1500 points anyway?"  The later editions of 40K have been nudging the game toward a sweet spot closer to 2000 while continuing to gently nudge point costs (Ork Boyz dropping from 10 to 8 or 9 to 6 over the course of three Codices, anyone?) to the point where your old stuff, even if still playable, won't amount to what people are conditioned to expect.

Now, lest I be accused of favouritism here, let's take a swing at a couple of other companies.  Privateer Press managed to pull off the double whammy when they released Warmahordes Mark II, changing the entire points system in order to revalue pieces and change the expectations about what constituted a game.  Alas, rummage as I might I can't find any of my Mark I lists anywhere to run an Edifying Comparison, but there was a lot of effort sunk into creating a formula that would unpick exactly how the points costs and values converted between the two systems, and it was at first rather tricky to establish how much you now had and whether you'd been played like a stringed instrument or not - which, a cynic would argue, is what they wanted.  Wyrd, meanwhile, set out with two different game sizes and, while I don't follow the Malifaux gossip too closely, I'd npt be surprised if their first expansion brought with it an emphasis on the larger of them.  Changing costs is only half the game; sometimes companies change the value of what you own as well.

Grand Battery book review and competition

One of the things I love about wargaming is the idea of total immersion; not only learning the fluff, and spending hours painting the models; but playing a long game and getting deeply involved in every move, discussing the tactical aspect of potential moves with my opponent, as well as trading the occasional piece of ‘trash talk’ or gentle mocking.

I have always been attracted by the idea of larger and more complex gaming, with orders, chains of command and lots of cross referencing on complex charts.  This is the territory of the ‘old-school’ historical wargamer and, dare I say it, the Napoleonics wargamer.

Recently I was sent a review copy of ‘Grand Battery’ by husband and wife writing team Jon Sutherland and Diane Canwell (who you may have seen writing an excellent column in Battlegames magazine).

The book is a standard (novel sized) hardback running to nearly 200 pages, with lots of photographs of models, mostly being used for games.  As with all the Pen and Sword titles that I’ve seen, the book is well laid out.   My only criticism is that there seemed to be a few spelling and formatting errors, which distracted from the content from the book a little.  Anyway, with my history of spelling and grammar errors I’m in no position to get too upset.

The book starts with a very warm and friendly introduction, which immediately puts the novice gamer (or n00b) at their ease, before getting straight into the good stuff.  The first half of the book provides the background (what we modern gamers refer to as the ‘fluff’), discussing the history and main battles of the period, followed by a breakdown of the composition and armament of the various forces involves.  The second half of the book introduces the rules.

The rules are primarily designed for 15-28mm scale miniatures, but there is discussion of using smaller and larger scales on the table, and I don’t believe that this would impact on gameplay.  The game is based around an orders driven system, assigning actions to units in advance, and ensuring that the chain of command is maintained (or else having to send couriers between units to pass orders!).  This leaves players having to plan well in advance, fighting against the fog of war which will frustrate players as much as it did their historical counterparts. 

There is an unstated assumption from the authors that the two generals reenacting the battle are there to enjoy the gaming experience and discuss potential historical events rather than focus on winning at all costs, or using definitions of the rules that take away from the spirit of the game.  The rules are clearly to be played for enjoyment, rather than in a competitive environment, the spirit of the game is on an enjoyable gaming experience, rather than smashing your opponent. 

The rules provide a great degree of flexibility which will allow a large number of historical battles to be refought with ease, a number of scenarios are included at the end of the book for this very purpose, though you could easily refight you own particular Napoleonic battle (if you have one in mind).

If I had a friend or older child who fancied getting into historical gaming, or an interest in learning about the period, this book would be an excellent starting point; steering clear of the ‘rules lawyering’ that is present in other systems.  Though I wouldn’t attempt to take this along to my local club or try to win over some hardcore 40k players, but that's just me and my group and is no way a reflection on the book.

But the most important question; Is it frugal?  Well, yes.  If you fancy learning a bit more about the period or historical gaming, this book is reasonably priced and well presented, and will undoubtedly provide hours and hours of enjoyment.  Combine it with a couple of boxes of Perry Plastics and you’ve got yourself a fantastic starter set for a really good price.  If this sounds like something you'd like to try, I’d certainly recommend picking it up.

The book also hints at future wargaming titles from Pen and Sword, and I’m looking forward to other titles in this series.   The website already has ‘Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls: A Tabletop Game of Naval Battles in the Age of Sail’, promising both small and large scale fast play battles, on pre-order and if the quality is as good as Grand Battery, it’ll be a great read.

As is becoming the custom, I’m giving away my review copy of ‘Grand Battery’, no matter where in the world you are.  If you’d like to go into the draw simply send me an email with the title ‘Grand Battery Book Draw’ by midnight (British Summer Time) on Thursday 23rd June.

Happy Gaming

Termite Art, Branded Materials, and DIY in the hobby

Every so often, my blogging worlds (all this nonsense and Doctor Who fandom, in case you're keeping score) collide.  It's been a while since the last one, in which I was chattering about the Doctor Who roleplaying game, and so this has probably been a bit overdue.

Who pundit Lawrence Miles has (unless he's deleted it, as is his wont from time to time) been pontificating of late about brands, making things, and TV spinoffs.  Specifically, the rather cool Deadly Art.

But Deadly 60 has its own pilot-fish programme, Deadly Art. This is the latest and most carnivorous offshoot of the Take Hart format (or Art Attack, if you're dead common), and you can probably see how it all fits together. We get a precis of the accompaying Deadly 60, and then two artists in the studio - usually young women, y'know, like with Tony Hart - make A GIGANTIC SODDING PRAYING MANTIS WITH GLOWING EYES OUT OF SCRAP METAL. Only pausing to run off a smaller version out of the sort of thing you might find, ooh, in your bins.

I mention this less to rattle on about children's TV and more to pad the entry while explaining the term 'Termite Art'.  Y'see, Miles goes on to make an Interesting Remark:

If the Termite Art version of television provokes the viewer into going outside and poking around to see what's there (and I still hold that this is what most good telly does, especially children's telly), then this is more like siege conditions. Branding always closes the gates. This is your product, you don't need anything else.

Now, you can probably sense where I'm going with this.  Back when I was a lad, there was a lot of the miniature wargaming hobby that one was largely encouraged to Do For Oneself.  Sure, Citadel made trees (they weren't very good) and produced their own paintbrushes and paints and clippers and stuff, but there was never a particular drive for everything to be Official.  White Dwarf ran frequent articles on how to make modular chipboard battlefields, with terrain crafted from of bits of toilet and the ridiculous amount of white packing material that their larger kits came in, and they showed this stuff in battle reports; it was part of the Right Way to do the Hobby, and it was mostly pretty damn cheap.  Names were dropped in painting articles - Humbrol, Tamiya, Airfix - and there was a culture of crossover and usage between manufacturers.  Furthermore, it meant there were relations, however tenuous, between my hobby and the sort of shops my grandfather loved to visit.  The hobby sent me off into the big wide world looking for stuff to do things with (or things to do stuff with, if that's what you prefer).

Nowadays, of course, there's a Citadel-branded everything, and a definition of the Games Workshop Hobby that actively avoids mention of any other kind of Hobby.  The terrain you see in White Dwarf these days is exclusively the stuff you can buy in kit form in your local GW.  Mention of other manufacturers' paints and tools and miniatures and goodness knows what else is strictly off-limits.  I'm going to be fair here and point out that Privateer Press tried to go this way as well - Formula P3 paints, their own brushes and tools and even brass wire for pinning, not to mention the ill-fated Warmachine terrain kits - that Battlefront makes its own proprietary terrain kits as well, and that every bloody gaming company ever does it with dice, templates, tape measures and other accessories to play.

This saddens me, and it does so beyond the staggering expense of the stuff (this blasted thing is a particular offender).  I like to keep the gates open and to have a steady flow of people outwards as well as in.  I like initiative, and re-use, and re-cycling.  I like putting things to strange new purposes.  I don't like having the Official Product and being told that I don't need anything else.  Especially not when it's four times the effective price of what I've come up with.

The Stylishly Frugal Blogger

Blogging is a terrible job.  All I do is put in a minimal amount of effort in every week or so and I get loads of positive feedback from complete strangers.  I spend an hour or two every week jotting down rubbish and I have people coming up to me and thanking me for writing the blog.  I hate it.

Things got even worse a couple of weeks ago, as I was informed that I'd been given a 'Stylish Blogger Award' not only once, but TWICE!  It's a nightmare.

There's not actually a trophy to go with it.  But if there was...

Apparently the rules of the award mean that I've got to answer a few set questions, link back to the poor deluded individuals who nominated me, and then link to a number of of other blogs that inspire me.  Yes, it's less an award and more a chain letter with flattery, but hey it's a chance to talk about me,  and some of you of course.

1. Thank and link back to the person giving you the award.
Mucho thanks go to Ruaridh at The Ooh Shiny Complex and Tristan at GW Pertinent.  Thank you!

2. Share seven things about yourself. 
Do they all have to be true?  Okay, one of them is made up.

1. I'm a Dad of two lovely children, who I'm currently training to be gamers (I have a number of other children, but they're horrible and not interested in gaming),
2. I'm one of the best wargamers that I know, hardly ever losing games,
3. I have earned the right to wear the Green Beret of Commando forces,
4. I love cycling and often compete in Triathlons (but not as often as I'd like),
5. I live in Plymouth, but I'm originally from Yorkshire (USA readers:  A part of northern England, very similar to ancient Sparta).
6. I've almost completed a degree in Engineering... in my spare time,
7. I'm a proud member of the Cross Swords gaming club.

3. Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award.
10-15?  That's a lot, so I'll just go with the creme de la creme (US readers: That's how people from France say 'Shit hot'):

I must first point to the excellent work undertaken by the contributors to this blog, on their own sites; Game Over by Von, pagan-gerbil.net by Pete and last (but by no means least) the wonderous Wee Blokes by Arabian Knight (US Readers: AK lives in Scotland, and 'Wee Blokes' is Scottish for 'Little Dudes').  Before you check out any of the other geeks I've listed below, make sure you visit these geeks first.

As to the others, a blog I really like is Doctor Merkury's Lab.  I've mentioned this blog before when I built a ruined wall, and I often check back to see what the good doctor has been up to.

If you're a fan of 40k, Epic, Space Marines, Sharks or really rather good cartoons, you should pop over and visit NinjaBread, run by Curis.  Just don't tell him I sent you as it'll go to his head.

Studio Cyberlab has to be seen to be believed, it's just insane.  It features some of the best conversions I've ever seen.

There's some interesting work going on with toys over at Nathan 'Ironworker' Miller's site, gaming related profanity at Dick Move*, and some fortifications being built at The Sharp End of the Brush which are shaping up to be very impressive.

Fortifications being built at The Sharp End of The Brush

And finally, one of the best blogs out there and not in any way gaming related; the New York based cycling blog: Bike Snob.  Fantastically funny.

That's all for now, please visit these other blogs and say hello from me, just make sure you come back.  Okay?

Happy Gaming.


*I've just noticed that 'Dick Move' has been nominated a number of times, his response to the whole idea is much better than mine.  Check it here.

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?

To all the Ultramarines Fanboys...

If you got a haircut and it turned out looking terrible, would you go back for more?  Would you think,’He's a rubbish barber, I’ll go back so he can get some more practice?’.  If you went to a restaurant got terrible food, in small portions and they overcharged you, would you think ‘They must need my money to improve service so I’ll go again’? 

I hope the answer to all these questions is ‘No’.  If you get overcharged for poor service, you don’t go back for more and you certainly don’t go around shouting down anyone who says differently.  Which brings me onto the subject of the ‘Ultramarines’ movie, which is overpriced shit.  I think internet etiquette requires me to put ‘IMHO’ or something, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and state this as a fact, rather than an opinion.  It. Is. Overpriced. Shit.  Anyway, I’m not angry with the film or the various individuals involved, what I’m angry about is the chumps out there praising the film that they’ve just paid the best part of £30 to watch.

Don’t think that by buying it you’ll encourage GW to make ‘more and better’ films, you won’t.  I’m going to say this once more, then go off and kick the cat; IF YOU BUY A POOR QUALITY OVERPRICED PRODUCT, THE COMPANY WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE POOR QUALITY OVERPRICED PRODUCTS.

Thank you for your time.

Time And Motion

At the dawn of my previous Frugal Year, I spent some time burbling on about the different kinds of investment we all make in our games.  I believe I've chewed your ears off about emotional investment more than enough already, 'specially if you're already a GAME OVER reader, and this blog tends to focus on money and time (indeed, the Frugal struggle is often expressed as convenience vs. expense, for example in choosing to make your own terrain/war machines/accessories or buying them).  One thing I haven't looked at too often, though, is how these notions all fit together.

I also recently had a dispute with m'colleague Neal (he of the pink Menite fame) about this.  I have, in the past, been known to be a bit stingy about away-days to play games.  I tend to think that the kind of money we spend on transport, accommodation, event admissions, food and the inevitable booze doesn't offer the world's best return on investment - after all, a tournament is over when it's over, and if you're anything like me, memories really don't last forever (some days, I can't even remember the word 'pencil', never mind anything complicated and intense like a tournament).  If I'm going to spend more than a fiver on something, I'd usually expect years of service out of it...

However, I've recently been forced to admit that spending modest sums - for instance, on attending club nights, which usually cost me about eight quid by the time you've factored in bus fares and entry fees - to ensure that the larger sums spent on miniatures actually result in said miniatures being used and not simply possessed for the sake of possession, might actually be worth a go.  I had a lovely time at Evesham today and it only cost me a tenner (well, it cost me twelve after I picked up some Epic Order dice to use as extra spell tokens ahd a plastic High Elf mage for conversion purposes, but shh!); realistically speaking, getting to use my Cryx against some nice new people with unfamiliar armies was probably worth the money.

At the end of the day, what's bought needs using, and the same old uses every time end up becoming stale and unfulfilling, like the yoghurt I had for breakfast yesterday.  In that same spirit of using stuff that I have rather than mindlessly accumulating possessions, I'm going to focus my gaming time and funds onto expanding and revitalising my Cryx army, adding a few new pieces to inject some interest into a collection that hasn't seen full use for quite a while.  The Cryxies will be visiting a few events this year; I'm not the biggest fan of tournaments, but my eyes are always peeled for things that aren't tournaments, and a bit of money spent on ephemeral experiences can't hurt if it means that the money I've spent previously continues to reward and return on its investment.

I'm also planning on putting to use something that's lived in the bottom of my bookcase for many moons, but never actually seen any love; Advanced Fighting Fantasy, which has been out of print for so long that it would be effectively irreplaceable if I parted with it, but which I've only ever tried to play once.  I've read and reread those books so often that they no longer amuse me in their own right, so let's try something crazy like actually running the game!

Finally, I'm going to make an admission.  Ready for this?  Here it comes...

I no longer have the time, or the inclination, or possibly even the ability, to paint in the volume and speed that I did four years ago.

Painting a new army, on the scale that a Games Workshop mainstream game requires for entry-level play, is simply too major an endeavour for me, and I'm too attached to the spectacle of gameplay to really enjoy playing with unpainted miniatures; so I'm attempting to make painting a minor endeavour by sticking to low-model-count mods of the game like Killzone.  If I do go so far as to start a new army for a Games Workshop game, it'll have to be painted with the minimum of effort; I might go so far as to suggest dipping, or possibly greyscale, with dashes of colour a la Sin City - how awesome would the Micro Art Studios Orks look painted up like they've escaped from a black and white war film, and how easy would that be to do with an airbrush and maybe a bit of blending?  I'll be trying to make a major endeavour into a minor endeavour, through careful choices of techniques and steady expansion.

At least, that's the plan.  You know what I am for plans.  I'll have to think about whether I'm actually going to go through with it... in the meantime, here's another picture of time in motion.  This one's for you, Lawrence: it's the Prague Astrononical Clock, in all its eldritch glory.

End of Frugal Year Review

This is traditionally the time of year when magazine editors and TV executives have run out of good ideas and simply rely on re-hashing their previous 12 months of output in the form of 'Best of...' shows or the equally pointless 'Review of the Year' feature.  It's a sickening indictment of our modern culture that we can only celebrate the opportunities that a new year bestows upon us by regurgitating the nonsense that has gone before.  Disgusting.

On a completely unrelated topic, here's some of my favourite frugal blog posts from the last year...

• How to Build a Ruined Wall - My only large terrain project this year and I'm very happy with the results!
• Building a Goblin Rock Lobber - Some much needed war machine support to my Goblin Army for Warhammer,
• The best ways to shop and sell on ebay,
• A look a head at the Ultramarines movie and a look back at previous 40k movies.

In addition, we had some excellent advice by Pete on creating the perfect games night, a really good article by Arabian Knight on use of proxy models and an interesting piece by Von (on army selection and points versus pounds cost).  I’d be interested to know what the best and worst model points versus pennies ratio is in the game.  If anyone has any thoughts let me know.  Von also provided some advice to all frugal gamers.

I hope you've all had a Frugal year and are staring to plan the next one already.  Overall my year has been very successful; I've spent less and gamed more than in 2009 and I've got even more followers on the blog.  Many thanks to Arabian Knight, Pete and Von for all their work over the past year and I hope they'll carry on their frugal mission in the new year.

My posts will return in the January with a new look blog and more Frugal goodness.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Frugal Dave

Congratulations go to Steve who won the draw for a copy of 'Wargaming on a Budget' by Iain Dickie, the book is now in the post.  For those of you who didn't win, make sure you pick up a copy at Pen and Sword books, let them know that you saw the review here!

Want to be a Winner? Or a Blogger? Or Both?

The Banner competition closed last weekend and I'm pleased to announce that the prize goes to Lawrence for his sterling efforts.  I'm really impressed with his design and as his was the only entry it made the judging process a lot easier.  Yes, that's right, only one of you lazy lot could bother your backsides to enter the competition, shame on you.  Fortunately, you have a chance to redeem yourself as you can always enter the current competition to win a copy of the book 'Wargaming on a Budget', details are here and you have until next saturday to get your entries in, if that's not too much trouble.

Anyway, back to the winning design; I'll be changing the banner to coincide with the new year, so keep your eyes peeled.  I'm afraid that I don't have a photo of Lawrence, but as he was the only heroic character who took on the might of my evil competition this will have to do:

As is becoming traditional, December is the year when I open up the blog to all you muggles out there who fancy a go at blogging (In fact, I'm always keen to welcome new posters at any time of the year but I get particularly lonely in the winter months).  If you're interested in writing occasional words about any aspect of wargaming, boardgaming or RPGs then send me an email with the title 'I want in, how much does it pay?' to the usual address.

Look out next week for the traditional 'End of Frugal Year Review' when I waffle on for a couple of hundred words about how great I am, before listing some of the least worst posts on this blog from the past twelve months.  See you soon!

How to Make a Million on ebay

Step one: Send me £10 for my amazing ‘Secrets to Ebay Selling’ DVD. 

One of my Frugal Gaming aims is to ‘Make Money from Gaming’, and until the call comes from Fantasy Flight to become their head of games testing, it looks like I’ll have to be selling on ebay.

There are lots of auction and selling sites out there, but the big one is ebay.  I’ve only had experience of ebay, but if you can recommend other good sites for buying and selling, let me know.  Here’s my 12 top tips…

Be realistic. 

You are not going to make your fortune on ebay.  Sorry.  If you’re working, consider how much you would have to sell on ebay every day to match your wages.   Keep it as a hobby.  Ebay is an excellent resource for clearing out items you don’t want or raising money for something in particular.  I bought my copy of the new Warhammer rulebook using money from ebayed items and I have a smug sense of pride from knowing that I effectively got it free. 

Count the cost.

If you’re selling to clear out unused figures, games and sets of rules then any money you make is a bonus.  However, if you buy items specifically to sell, then you have to be very careful with your finances.  The money that comes in MUST cover the initial cost of the items, plus postage, plus ebay fees, plus paypal fees, plus any packaging.  If you’re only just scraping even, then you’re wasting your time. 

Good photographs.

A fantastic photograph can make all the difference.  Take the time to set up a couple of lights, and consider investing in a cheap camera tripod to stop wobbling.

Strip paint.

If you have a metal model that’s badly painted, it can be worth stripping the paint, as many buyers will want to paint it themselves.  It could easily add a pound or two to the final selling price…

Paint it.

Then again, many people like buying prepainted figures, a nice cleanly painted, based figure may also bring in a few extra pounds.  However the extra money brought in may not be worth the time you’ve had to put in.

Buy big.

If you want to buy something, try and buy in bulk.  Even if you want only a couple of units, it can be worth buying a whole army and then selling the rest.

Sell small.

When selling, the opposite is true; it’s best to sell items individually or in single units.  You’re likely to get a better overall price, though it does add to the time you spend list and packing items for sale.

Sell overseas.

Of all the items I’ve sold on ebay, perhaps 60% are to international buyers.  If you only offer to sell in the UK, you severely restrict your market and the final sale price could suffer. 

Accept cheques/postal orders.

There are a few people that don’t have paypal accounts or don’t have funds in their account.  Allowing alternative payment methods increases your number of potential customers.

Local delivery.

I have sold a couple of items total buyers, this has a number of advantages.  The first is that if you get paid in cash you won’t have to pay paypal fees, secondly (and perhaps more importantly) you end up meeting people in your area that play games!  I met my Necromunda opponent Matt by selling him some figures which he collected in person.

Sniping. 

Now this may upset a few readers, but sniping is one of the best things you can do on an ebay auction.  Sniping is watching an item and only putting in a bid at the last minute. People hate it, but it often works and since this is a Frugal Gaming blog, not a nicey-nicey blog, I’d be wrong to exclude it.  You’re not breaking any rules, and there’s always a chance your ‘sniping’ bid won’t be high enough anyway (someone else may have set a higher maximum bid).  I always do it and find it effective, give it a go.

Set a limit. 

Decide what you want to pay for an item and stick to it!  It’s easy to get caught up in a bidding war and end up paying over the odds for something.

So there you go, my top tips to buying and selling, if you have any more, let me know.  Happy gaming!

Von's Frugal Year: Month the Sixth

Spend Less - haven't spent a penny all month.  Bladder beginning to ache.  Ho ho.
In all earnest, time and money have both been a bit tight this month and only one of those is not an issue (in that I now have lots of time, but not masses of cash), so June and July are going to be about getting the most out of what I already have, rather than running off and buying new things.

Game More - one WFB game, painted up my Executioners and made a good start on the Shades and Witch Elves, the expected brace of Dark Heresy sessions, and quite a bit of World of Warcraft (I seem to have acquired access to the beta test for the next expansion, so I'm going to spend a few days knocking around on that and see if there are any gaping holes left for me to stick my electronic finger through).

I've had to endure quite a lot of mid-year, end-of-year, mid-module, end-of-module, end-of-course, hey-look-it's-Thursday-and-we-haven't-had-a-review reviews during the last few months, but one more probably isn't going to kill me: my Frugalism is going fairly well, with lots of purchases being held up and examined for genuine value, lots of things that I really don't need being brushed off like the worthless chattels they are, and the plan to invest time and money and energy in a board so I can actually USE my miniatures at home has paid off.  I've had my moments of weakness - the Dark Elves were a bargain but they were still a fairly hefty expulsion of cash, and the board wasn't as cheap as it could have been, but I've behaved better than I did last year, which is a start.

The biggest change to my habits has probably been the emergence of a Look, But Don't Touch behaviour pattern, in which I can allow myself to plan new armies and roll new characters, but I don't oblige myself to go out and buy them or play them. After all, most of my ideas are sparked by something I read or see or hear about, and then gutter out within a week or so.

Now, I could tell myself that a given idea is a flash in the pan, and that I can't do it and should stop thinking about it, but that makes me sad.  I'm excited about and inspired by something, and stemming one's inspiration isn't healthy.  Gets me all angsty and guilty and yearny.

So, rather than telling myself "no, this brilliant and exciting idea is a flash in the pan, don't waste time on it", I try to ride the wave out by doing things like writing a character profile, making a list of miniatures I'd need or thinking about conversions, and - this is the important bit - identifying the time, money and energy costs involved in the project. 

Theory-gaming, while it gets a well-deserved sneer from the sensible people who think that actually playing a game is a prerequisite of knowing how to do well at it, does have its place.  It lets me enjoy that rush that comes with a new OH SO COOL IDEA, and lets me let myself down gently, discovering the obstacles as I explore the idea and do something creative rather than just telling myself NO.

It also means that I have a plan on the table, should circumstances change.  If I'm still interested in doing something three months later when I have the time and money to do it, chances are it wasn't a flash in the pan after all.  If it was... well, I got to enjoy it while it was enjoyable and let go of it when it got boring.  I call that a win.

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.

Arabianknight signing up for duty.

Hello Everyone. Dave has obviously looked at the use of stereotypes in our little world of gaming and decided that using one more won't hurt. Namely if you are writing about being frugal with money you should have either a Scotsman or a Yorkshireman on board. So while he scours Yorkshire for the best available gaming blogger he's roped in a Scot.


I'm not going to bother outlining what sort of stuff I'll be posting here as most people reading this will know the rough "remit" of the Frugal Gaming blog. Over the last year Dave has done a smashing job and the Frugal Mantra of "Spend less, game more" can be now be heard from various corners of the globe almost as much the more traditional gaming chant of "Don't roll a one. Don't roll a one!".

Some of you may have seen my other gaming blog "Wee Blokes" (if you haven't please feel free to look there and boost the visitor numbers) or even the occasional post on The Miniatures Page (TMP). My main areas of interest are skirmish level Fantasy and Sci-fi with a bit of horror thrown in. I mostly use generic rule sets and as such most of my terrain is accordingly generic, so my posts here will be pretty applicable to most readers. Hopefully they'll be of interest as well.

It's a bit late in the year to be announcing my aims for the next twelve months, but if you want to see them they are on the other blog (see what I did there?). I seem to have just added another unexpected one here (and only 7 weeks into the year). So much for Pledge #7 - "Focus".

I hope you enjoy my postings. Cheers for now and good gaming.

Pete the Frugalista

Hey, Frugal Gamers! I think I had best introduce myself before the year disappears any further. My name is (don’t all shout at once) Pete, and I’ve been following Dave’s blog since I read about his fantastic tips for Dettol as a paint remover. This changed my life – primarily, it changed the way I smelled and the expression on my wife’s face on an evening, as I spent yet more time with a toothbrush and a tub of antiseptic Dark Elves.

Since you can’t stop me (moo ha ha), I’ll explain a bit of my history. I started gaming many years ago, when Games Workshop had a sale. I bought a lot of Dark Elves, and lost many games with them against a more experienced friend. Since then, I have played a range of GW games (Necromunda, Gorkamorka, Warhammer 40K, Mordheim) and lost a truly hideous number of games. I’ve also branched out into other game genres – card games, board games, roleplay games, and I’ll give anything a try if it becomes available.

As a frugal gamer, I have my own plans for fulfilling the Two Commandments of Dave:

Spend Less

I’ve already not done too well at this one, to be honest. Already this year, I’ve bid on a number of items on eBay to try and round out my collection. As far as new models go, I am resolved not to buy anything unless it is in a sale – Maelstrom Games is my store of choice for GW models, and they hold sales throughout the year with up to 17% off. This is a boon for anyone looking to save money on their models!

I feel that my losses here will be slightly mitigated by selling old games. I have a huge collection of Star Trek CCG cards which have been waiting for many years to come out of storage. I didn’t expect their eventual return to be a cataloguing exercise, prior to selling them. I also plan to go through old models and sell off anything that’s never going to get painted.

Play More

Games are no good sitting in cupboards. To this end, I am going to try and hold a Games Night at least every six weeks – that should be eight nights by the end of the year. My wife and I have held a few over the last couple of years, but we have a young son now and painful experience last year has taught us that we need to find a babysitter to make a Games Night work well. I will, however, be including any babysitting costs as a gaming cost this year, just to keep myself on focus!

Pete’s Year Ahead

One of the resolutions I have set myself is to paint all my Dark Elf figures. This resolution should help me stop buying too much more for them, because if I buy more... then I have to paint more. This doesn’t make sense (but then, when have gamers ever really made sense?) I plan to bring you any painting tips I learn along the way – nothing to save money, but at the very least it’ll make me feel guilty if I fall behind!

Alongside my Games Night resolution, I’ll use the opportunity to review games and give advice on how to run your own Games Nights.

Finally, writing this introduction has made me realise that I have quite a few things that I want to run forward with and talk more about that could easily become their own essays. I’ll be sure to write about those when I get the chance to.

Frugal Review of the Year - Part 2

Hello again and welcome to the second installment of my two review of my Year of Frugal Gaming. In part one I looked at my favourite blog posts of the year and now I’m looking back over my favourite gaming experiences of the year:

Best Gaming of the Year
This is a bit of a close one, I had two highlights for the year, the first was the Necromunda campaign I’ve been running with Matt. This had some fantastic moments; people being eaten by dogs, gang members being shot off the top of towers, and some totally useless zombies that wouldn’t do what I wanted them to. Though the best part has been to watch our gangs grow in skill and pick up larger and more bizarre weapons as the campaign has progressed. My other favourite piece of gaming was one of the many games of Space Hulk I played when I went to visit Jackson Pope. It was a fantastically tense game which pretty much came down to the last roll of the dice, which I managed to win. In your face Pope!

Best New Game
Well it’s an old one but it’s new to me, and it’s Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I bought the Battle for Skull Pass boxset when my son James came to visit over the summer holidays and we both loved. I then introduced Matt to the game and he loved it too! I have since managed to obtain a large box of Goblins and a Giant, so I’m looking forward to getting those on the gaming table next year.

Meeting People
One of the benefits of running this blog has been the people that I have met. By selling off old miniatures on ebay I met Matt who was a fellow Necromunda player and also met his friend Kenny, who plays 40k. I also met fellow Plymouth based Blogger Von (make sure you check out his work here), and I’ve also spoken to a lot of people at shows who’ve been following my Year of Frugal Gaming. Speaking of Followers, I’d like to say a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who has added themselves as a follower of this blog. It’s always good to know that people are out there reading!

So how did I do?
When I started my Year of Frugal Gaming I set three goals, but did I achieve them?
Goal 1 - Spend less. This is the goal that I certainly achieved! I bought very few new games and far fewer miniatures than last year. I did spend money traveling to shows and buying raw materials for projects, but more of that later.

Goal 2- Game more. I wasn’t sure how I’d done on this this year. My normal games night had been a bit disrupted throughout the year so I thought I’d have played fewer games than in 2008. The figures from my profile on BoardGameGeek speak for themselves, the top list is this year's games, the bottom list is last year's:




I was quite surprised that I'd played more games this year, but many of those listed are party games, which is mainly down to me taking games along to parties and forcing them upon people! This has proved to be a good approach and it also helps people to understand that not are gamers are complete geeks; Its something that we can all enjoy!

Goal 3 - Make money from gaming. Well, this has been the trickiest and, to be fair, wasn’t one that I put a lot of effort into. I made terrain, sold items through ebay and also sold off some old items at the Bring and Buy stalls of local wargaming shows. Selling off old items is an easy and satisfying way to make money, though it’s only a short term measure! Making terrain was pretty hard work and took a lot of time, though I really enjoyed it and all my items sold (eventually) I managed to over the cost of all my materials and transport to the show, and even had enough profit left to put towards an air compressor (which I’d been after for a while). I discovered that it’s not easy to make money from gaming and those people out there who run gaming related companies have my utmost respect.

The Final Statistics
So how many people have visited and read these pages? The official statistics for the year are 39,535 page views over the past 12 months, which works out at over 750 views per week! I’m really impressed with this as a single guy who only posts weekly, so thanks to everyone who’s clicked on these pages in the past year.

Overall I’ve had great fun running the blog, the fact that I have had to write has helped me find the confidence and get out to try new gaming related experiences and actually commit to finishing those projects and clearing out those shelves and cupboards.
So overall, I would say that the best piece of advice I can give to any other gamers who would like to live the frugal lifestyle is to start blogging! I’ve had a great year and I can highly recommend it to anyone. All the best for the new year.

Dave

Wargames Magazines

It's not all about the gaming...

One of the joys of being a Frugal Gamer, apart from a general sense of smugness, is the money saved. Now this may seem obvious, but I have come to realise that the money I'm not spending on gaming is money that I can splash out on other things. A case in point was yesterday when I went into town (Plymouth) for a stroll, I passed Games Workshop and had a little peer in through the window, all I could see was huge piles of the new edition of Space Hulk. Now I promised myself years ago that if SH was ever re-released, I'd be straight out to buy myself a copy, however, I restrained myself and instead spent my gaming pennies on sitting out in the sunshine by the sea, eating lunch with a friend. Very civilized...

It also goes to show that those 'must have' purchases aren't compulsory, which brings me nicely onto the subject of magazines.

I used to read White Dwarf as a youngster and loved it. It's changed a lot over the years, it used to cover a lot of games, feature reviews and take external advertising. I won't bang on about this, though incidently it is one of the things that marks out the older gamers, harping on about how WD has gone downhill, blah blah blah.

Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, magazines. I don't buy WD anymore, I used to buy Wargames Illustrated and recently stopped getting it as well. I thought that I could never survive without a monthly Wargames Magazine, but I found that I was getting the majority of my gaming news from various internet sites, so what was I buying the magazines for? The main reason I found was the 'in-depth' articles and the wonderful photos of painted miniatures and terrain inside. However, for £4 plus a month, I'm not sure I was really getting my money's worth, so I stopped my subscriptions.
I haven't missed reading the magazines, which is a pretty good sign and like I said above, I've been putting the money saved to good use!

Happy Gaming

The Gift of Giving...

Chances are, if you're a Frugal Gamer, you probably live the frugal lifestyle in other ways. I've always been a big fan of homemade presents and cards for special occasions. I've not only found it to be a very handy way of saving the pennies, but the reaction from the recipient is generally very positive! They can also be a cost effective way of getting your hobby 'hit' without adding more and more gaming paraphernalia to the shelves...

Here are my Golden Rules:

Make Sure You Are Reasonably Good At What You Are Doing
It's true that 'It's the thought that counts', but don't decide to use your friend's present as an excuse to try your hand at something new. If you want to paint a highly detailed Space Marine Character or similar, I'd suggest you only try it if you've done it before for yourself. You don't want your friend to be embarrassed by your dodgy paint job every time he puts it on the table.

Make Sure It Is Something The Recipient Wants
The photo on the right is one of a pair I painted for one of my friend's birthday. Now he's not a miniatures gamer, but he is a huge Doctor Who fan, so he really appreciated the gift (well, he told me he did). Not everyone would appreciate a painted model of their favourite TV character! If you're making or painting something for a fellow gamer, ensure it is something they want, and probably wouldn't make themselves. Lots of people are mainly in the hobby for the painting, so giving them a pre-painted miniature may not go down well, when they would have preferred it unpainted! The same goes for terrain and other bits and pieces, if somebody enjoys making terrain, they may not appreciate your shoddy efforts as a gift, just give them the contents of your bits box and they'd be much happier!

Set Aside Plenty of Time
The picture below (you probably saw it on a post a couple of weeks ago) is a diorama I made for my friend Jackson Pope of Reiver Games, which publishes a game called It's Alive! which I gave him a little bit of help on when he was developing the idea. It was my plan to send him the diorama as a Christmas present and I started in plenty of time. To cut a long story short, he only received the model this summer after various other projects and work got in the way! So if you plan a huge imperial fortress model for your friend's birthday, give your self plenty of time. I'd advise that you work out how long you think it will take, and then double it.
Use Your Imagination!
You don't just have to make a piece of terrain or a diorama or convert and paint a model, there's plenty of other options. If you are handy with a sewing machine, how about making a dice bag? It you have woodworking skills, you could make a box for all the paints your friend owns. You could even decorate an old folder or document case to act as a holder for their rulebooks.

There's plenty of options out there, use your imagination and let me know how you get on! Happy gaming...

Games Workshop - An Apology

Dear Games Workshop

My name is Dave and I have been a buyer and user of your products for many years. During this time I have made many comments to friends and other gamers about the terrible business practices of your company and how there are many improvements that can be made. However recent events have caused me to change my opinion.

This last week I have had my 11 year old son staying with me and he has needed constant entertaining. I have never been a fan of sitting children in front of a TV or computer screen for hours at a time, and the weather here in Plymouth has been pretty bad, so picnics on the beach were out of the question.

At the moment, to take my son out for the day is pretty pricey; to go on the bus to the cinema and get some popcorn can be nearly £30 for a total of a couple of hours entertainment. A trip on the local steam railway is about the same price for the same amount of time.
Whilst walking through town, we went into our local Games Workshop and I decided to splash out some money on the Battle for Skull Pass boxset. We got it home and started snipping plastic, gluing models and painting.

As soon as we had the models assembled we played a number of games which were easy to learn and provided great fun. Even when not playing or painting, I could sit my son down with a copy of the rulebook and let him read the background and look at the amazing illustrations.

Overall, we found The Battle for Skull Pass to be excellent quality and value for money and it provided hours of entertainment all in a single box.

So I apologise for all the years of insults, all the bad words and all the negative criticism, I am now officially a fanboy and you can do no wrong. Until the next price rise.

Kindest Regards

Dave

The Frugal Gamer

Six Months of Frugal Gaming

Hello all, it’s been a good gaming week. Even though I haven’t actually been gaming I've got plenty of painting done and finally finished off some terrain I've been working on (pictures next week). This week I'm having a look over the past six months, as I'm now halfway through my Frugal Mission....

Spend less
My first aim was to spend less on gaming and I've done pretty well. I've done well on this aim as I've tried to not buy more until I’ve got all my current miniatures painted and projects finished. It’s not been perfect, but I’ve severely reduced the backlog and I feel that when I’ve spent the money, it’s been on the things that I really wanted.

Surely the best way of spending less is to get things for free, and I achieved this by trading away some of my old and unplayed games via BoardGameGeek this is a great resource, and I’d highly recommend you check out the trading functions. Trough these trades I managed to get two full Blood Bowl teams, a copy of Power Grid, some Necromunda terrain and various other bits and pieces.

Game more
My second aim was to play more games. My stats for the year so far are:


This is a total of 41, compared to a total of 52 from the first half of 2008. This is obviously a decrease on my gaming from last year, though some of the games that I’ve been playing this year are slightly longer than those from last year (more Necromunda and 40k this year, compared to Memoir '44 last year), so I’ve probably spent more time gaming. This is partly due to a change on the way that I've been playing. I've recently started attending gaming clubs and haven't had many games nights at home, due to work commitments amongst myself and my friends. I enjoy attending the clubs, but I'm also keen to get my friends round more often.

Making money
The ultimate goal that I set myself was to make some money. This is the holy grail of any hobby, getting your pastime to pay. My main effort in money making was to sell terrain which I enjoyed, but it was a lot of work, for little reward. I managed to break even on my costs, have a lot of materials left over for future projects and even acquire some new toys (my air compressor). It was quite an experience running a stall and it gave me a new respect for people that do it for a living, it was also really nice to meet people who’d read the blog.

At the start of the year I had great success with the Bring and Buy stall at the PAW annual show.

However, when I went to Legionary at Exeter, the results were not so good. Only a couple of my items sold, though I did pick up some very cheap plastic Orcs for Blood Bowl! Pretty mixed results really, though I’ll definitely keep putting item in for sale in future Bring and Buys.

The best way that I’ve raised funds for gaming this year has been through the magic of ebay. I realised early on in my mission that there were certain figures that I’d never get to paint so the best thing to do was to sell them on. A lot went on ebay last week, and I was quite surprised. I’d picked up some old Citadel Empire figures a couple of years ago for a few pounds, I was planning to use them for Mordheim, but I decided to get rid of them as I suspected I could get my money back. I was surprised when I listed them all individually and I managed to make about TEN TIMES my purchase cost back. I was very happy (and very surprised) about this but I’m still not very happy about selling individual miniatures in ebay. It can get you great results as a seller (try it!) but it’s quite frustrating as a buyer.

Summary
So far, I think I’ve done well with spending less, and that it hasn’t affected either the quality of amount of my gaming which shows that Frugal gaming is possible. However, I’m gaming less than last year, not more. I need to get this sorted out! More games nights with friends and more attendance at Games Clubs are definitely on the agenda, this does mean that I need to get my Dark Eldar force painted (or at least assembled), so that's my next objective.

The past six months have been great and I’m enjoying my gaming a lot more, without the annoying feeling that I’m throwing money away unecessarily. The next six months will see more gaming, less spending and perhaps even making a bit of money from the hobby!
All the best, happy gaming!