My Hobby and Blog in April 2016

For the month of April, I accomplished very little and saw my hobby streak finally ended at 93 days. I spent the month mostly despruing plastic parts from miniature kits and following Kickstarters, specifically Rail Raiders Infinite and Rum & Bones Second Tide. The little I did worked on miniatures was adding shield emblems to ten Orc Warriors from Battle Masters. Lastly, I received the new rubber texture stamp line from Happy Seppuku, I am currently trying them out with different putties.

The World of Games and Miniatures

Anything related to past, current, and upcoming games and miniatures

Tablescape Tiles

I have been keeping an eye on the Secret Weapon Tablescape Tiles for a while now and have finally taken the plunge to purchase the tile sets. Originally I was going to get Rolling Fields, but decided that it is generic enough that it is not a huge upgrade to my flocked 6'x 4' mat. I decided instead to invest into the Urban Streets and Forgotten City tile sets. I am very happy with the modularity of these tiles. Not only do I plan on purchasing additional Tablescape Tiles in the future, I also plan to make my own tiles to be compatible with the Tablescape Tiles.

Rail Raiders Infinite and Rum & Bones

Majority of the games that I have invested into for the purpose of playing with family and friends are cooperative-based games. This include the Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Board Game system, Super Dungeon Explore, and Zombicide. Later, I decided to invest into competitive-based games with the first game being Ninja All-Stars. In April, I backed two Kickstarter projects--Rail Raiders Infinite and Rum & Bones: Second Tide--for additional competitive game options.

Backing both of these games, I noticed how both campaigns were handled differently. For me, the Rail Raiders Infinite campaign was driven mostly on how much savings you get per money spent for supporting the project. While supporting Rum & Bones: Second Tide campaign I would get a lot of savings, it is comparably less than the savings from the Rail Raiders Infinite campaign. The main draw for backing Rum & Bones: Second Tide is the amount of exclusives only available during the Kickstarter campaign.

With Rail Raiders Infinite, my pledge gets me 70 miniatures total--20 raiders and 50 lawbots of 9 types. The chibi miniatures are cute, seems to be more appropriate for younger children compared to Rum & Bones, and the game play seems fairly simple and quick. The main gripe I have about Rail Raiders Infinite is that the description of the game suggest it is a game where you are deciding when to team up or backstab the other raiders to get the most loot. So far the rules and demo of the game does not really have aspects of cooperation between raiders. Hopefully the final version of the rules will incorporate more mechanics to emphasize cooperation between raiders.

Rum & Bones: Second Tide is a stand alone expansion to the "first season" of Rum & Bones. Though I have not played the game yet, I feel that if you are not a Kickstarter backer, there can be a large balance issue between the factions from season one and two. However, if you are a Kickstarter backer for Rum & Bones and also are a completionist (like me, unfortunately), I feel that the game might be saturated with too many options! The reason for that is the Kickstarter exclusives. In my opinion it better to have more options and reduced it later than to have limited options from the beginning, Thus, I decided to splurge and get all the Season One and Second Tide miniatures. This would give players 8 factions total to choose from. You get 10 faction specific heroes for Season 1 factions and 11 heroes for Season 2 factions. In addition, each faction has a pool of 70 mercenary heroes to choose from, giving every player a chance to make very diverse team compositions. Those that did not get the Kickstarter pledges have considerably smaller range of team compositions. For Season 1 factions, you have 8 faction specific heroes to choose from. Season 2 factions you have 10 specific heroes to choose from. The main difference is having a pool of 70 mercenary heroes to just 6 mercenary heroes to choose from. This is of course if you do not proxy for the exclusive figures. Either way I look forward to playing both Rum & Bones: Second Tide and Rail Raiders Infinite in the future!

Infinity April 2016 Miniature Reveal

Human Sphere N3 should be released soon. For April, the immediate must buys for me are the new Imperial Service Starter Pack, Maghariba Guard, and the Reverend Healer. Immediate must buys in the future are Tohaa, Yu Jing, TAGs, and individual models that can be used for both the skirmish and role-playing game.