10 January 2010

Purchase Dilemma

As I mentioned previously, my figure purchases are going to be extremely limited this year. (Getting married later in the year.) But I have an Old Glory army card that gets me the big discount on their figures, plus Crusader (they are the US distributor) and a few others. The card expires in another month or two, so I'm planning on making one of my only "significant" figure purchases, making use of the discount while I still get it, soon.

So here is my dilemma... Macedonians or Germans?

I've been considering a Successor army, though I'm still not certain I've got anything specific in mind just yet. But I figured I couldn't go wrong picking up a few boxes of the Crusader pikemen, plus a few supplementary packs, and maybe a few relevant packs of Old Glory figures (some cav to hold me over until I find more suitable figures.)

But now Crusader has released their Germans. It's a small range and the discount isn't stacked on the cheaper price of the boxed sets of pikemen. But the price is still good and I can always find a home for more Germans. If I go this route, I'll focus on supplementing both the German horde and the Romans, increasing the size of both. So maybe a pack of OG scorpios and some allied troops in addition to the Germans.


So the pros & cons...


Pros of Successors... My primary local opponent also has and/or is working on Macedonians. I've already got some of the accessory/allied/subject troops I'd need. It would give me an army for another period within ancients. Even cheaper price for the boxed sets. The Cons of Successors... Still no WAB book for them and no announcement of its release as of yet. I don't have a particular army in mind yet (a few ideas) so I'd probably need to figure out a few other choices for troops. I can pick up some OG figures, but I'm not crazy about many of their cavalry figures.


Pros of Germans... I like horde armies. I can field even larger Rome vs. Barbarians games -- maybe some nice big convention games. More variety of manufacturers in the army. They have all the army list info for WAB I need. Cons of Germans... I already have enough for decent sized games. "More of the same." Good price, but not as much of a bargain as the pikemen (pikemen are .30/figure cheaper.) I like horde armies... but they do have their limits.



So I'd be making a choice between a lot of this...

http://www.crusaderminiaturesusa.com/index.php?cat_id=58

vs. a lot of this...

http://www.crusaderminiaturesusa.com/view_product.php?product=Box014

4 comments:

  1. Go for the Successors. New book should be out in 12-18 months - that's plenty of time to finish the army.

    You can always pick up cheap Germans from WF later.

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  2. I say the same that Chicago Terrain Factory. Go for the Successors. Always is fun to paint new miniatures.

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  3. "You can always pick up cheap Germans from WF later."

    Actually... I've still got a small pile of WF Germans to paint already. I think it's my love of variety in horde armies that's calling to me.

    It would be nice to be ahead of the book, for a change, too.

    Yeah, the more I think about it, if I could convince one or two people into a (early?) Successor campaign, that could be fun. (Of course, I've been thinking the same thing about a Roman campaign, too...)

    If I go with Macedonian/Successors, the pike are the easy starting point. Get a bunch of them -- no thought required. But the remainder of the purchase is the puzzle. Maybe a small group of Tracians. I'd like some cav, but Crusader doesn't have any and the Old Glory sites have either no or poor quality photos.

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  4. Remember Macedonians relied heavily on Cavalry. Although I don't know too much about Successors. But once you have the pikes - anything is possible! Just protect their flanks ;)

    I can't wait to get started on mine. They'll have to wait a while until I get my Romans sorted!

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