Field of Glory Update

No, I still haven't played the game (my wife is still camped out on the one table big enough to play it on that isn't already in the garage being used to sort stuff). This is more of a news post tied to a brief discussion of the problem with getting into historical miniatures.

The biggest problem with getting into historical miniatures games is finding the miniatures. At least, that's the case in the US. The UK seems to have hordes of manufacturers producing historicals, but between shipping costs and the falling dollar, it's becoming increasingly difficult for US customers to do business with them unless they are very strongly motivated.

This was one of the reasons for the success of Flames of War in the US. The miniatures were readily available through Battlefront who initially had agreements with US distributors, and later even opened up their own distribution center in the US. You didn't have to hunt around for what you wanted unless you were into something really obscure, or that they hadn't yet published the rules for.

Fortunately, the initial sales success of the Field of Glory rules has led at least one company to offer pre-built army packs with everything you need to field the starter armies out of the core book, or a selection of armies from the two army books that have so far been released.

That company is Scale Creep Miniatures. The miniatures are 15mm and come in starter sets ranging from $96 to $130. They are actually made in the UK by Black Hat, but the fact that someone else is doing the work of importing them makes all the difference as far as I'm concerned.

In addition, registered members of The Miniatures Page get free shipping until the end of March, and a couple of free paint bottles of their choice (see the link for details).

One caveat to be aware of if you are interested in this, is that the starter armies in the core book come out to be worth a few more points than those in the army books. The army book lists all come out to around 600 points, but the starter lists in the core book come out to around 630 points. Either number gives you a good start, with room to add more if you want, but the core book lists will be slightly unbalanced against the army book lists if you are looking to get a pair of starter armies to play against each other.

Being the type to go for the obscure, I'm now thinking about picking up a Milanese army and a French Ordonance army from the Storm of Arrows army book.