Gaming

My little brother was over for the weekend. I hope he enjoyed himself, as I was exceptionally dull for the duration of his visit. We'll have to have him over on one of the upcoming holiday weeks when we're both out of school and I've got time off from work. I've been extremely slow about painting anything, so I still don't have enough figures for opposing forces in any game. He is really interested in miniatures, but his limited budget makes for some difficulty. I've been trying to think of a way to help him build an army of his own for some game or other.

He really likes the Warhammer Dark Elves, which happen to be one of the most expensive armies around, due to all of the metal figures in the range. There are also rumors of a new army book being on the horizon very soon. I don't really like the Dark Elf fluff, but the models mounted on big lizards are cool enough. Really, any Warhammer army is cost-prohibitive for any kid who doesn't get free piles of money from his parents. He'll probably have to wait until he's out on his own with a job for any Warhammer armies. Even the Warhammer Skirmish rules require a bit much spending for his budget, especially when you throw in paints and other hobby supplies.

I was doing some math for the GW Lord of the Rings game last night and with the relatively low cost of basic troops ($25 for 25 figures, less with a discount) in several armies, you can put together a decent-sized force for under $100 easily. I'm thinking that might be the way to go for my brother. If we played 500-point games he wouldn't have too much trouble fielding a force, and there are several different armies to choose from. As an example, the Dwarf army box can be had at Hobbytown for $75 and it contains over 700 points. For painting on a budget, there are plenty of cheap acrylics at Wal-Mart. It's an idea.

For myself, I wrote up a list of Lord of the Rings armies I would like to build. I think there were six armies on the list. I'd probably build them out to the 500-point limit, and from there just add on whatever else I felt like painting. The Alliance system is pretty free, so you can combine armies together for bigger forces. It's pretty exciting stuff and the miniatures look good.

In Fantasy Football it looks like I'll go 3-1 for the week. That's not too bad. I'll be at 16-4 (5-0, 4-1, 4-1, 3-2) for the year. Tonight's game won't have any real impact on my games this week, unless Patrick Crayton scores -2 points.

I need to paint some minis this week.