As they are often wont to do, Games Workshop once again recently shook up our industry with the announcement of plans to remove their entire line of metal miniatures to be replaced with their new Finecast resin. Why would the largest miniatures manufacturer in the world make such a massive change after the wild acclaim their products have garnered? In short, it’s all about the Benjamins. The rising costs of tin due to China’s metallic stranglehold has made the continued production of pewter miniatures untenable for GW. As well, they make more money on their plastic models, which are arguably the very best in the entire industry, and have been slowly pushing the metals out of the picture for some time. So why not convert everything to plastic? Well, oil is only getting more expensive, too, and the initial cost of making brand new plastic molds is enormous. And in walks Finecast. Pour it into the selfsame old metal molds and you’ve got some gorgeous new miniatures that GW claims will “revolutionize the industry”.

So what is it? To be honest, we’re not sure, as GW isn’t letting on. But we’re pretty clear that it’s some formulation of plastic-heavy resin with great flexibility and durability. It holds excruciating detail and is very easy to work with. It’s more expensive than metal for the end-user, though it undoubtedly costs less to produce. And it’s safe to use. Experienced modelers have always been instructed to wear a dust mask when working with polyurethane resin, as the particles can be toxic. And though they’ve stopped short of saying that their new product is non-toxic, they claim it’s been deemed totally safe by “a leading international toy safety testing agency. They identified no risks to health and recommend no special precautions”. Sounds pretty good, right?

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been getting a trickle of the Finecast models from all three of GW’s core games, and after a pretty lackluster launch, I decided to open one up and give it a go. DISCLAIMER: I am the world’s biggest Games Workshop critic. They’ve raised my ire in so many ways over the two decades in which I’ve dealt with them. I don’t play their games anymore, I am not impressed by their IP or game mechanics, and I think their hobby products are generally low-quality – perhaps with the exception of their newest formulation of washes. But they are a staple of our industry, and I need to know what to recommend to my customers and what I should tell them to stay away from. So in I went.

If you’ve never held Finecast before, the first time is a bit strange. Resins are normally extremely brittle and quite dense, with almost no give to them whatsoever. This stuff has the consistency of hardened chewing gum. It’s very flexible to a point, at which time it snaps cleanly. It is soft to cut and file, with very little dust left behind. This means that Finecast is an utter joy to clean and prepare for painting. There have been many complaints all over the Internet about miscasts, mold lines, and excess flashing. Some game stores have even refused to carry it due to poor quality control. Our experience, however, is that the shipments we’ve received have been pretty solid. Because it’s so easy to clean, any extra lines and flashing aren’t a big deal, especially for experienced modelers. And GW has the best return policy going; they’ll replace any defectives sight unseen.

And then there’s the question of heat. Soon after Finecast hit the shelves, there was a huge buzz on a number of prominent websites and forums about the resin material melting at high (or even normal) temperatures. Allegedly, even some GW store managers were commenting that the miniatures in their window displays were sagging and bowing under the hot lights. In the middle of a California summer, however, inside one of our upstairs storerooms within a building having no air conditioning, not one of our Finecast models showed any kind of structural changes whatsoever, inside the blister or out. And the impressive evidential result of Angora’s oven baking test pretty much stands on its own, as far as I’m concerned. Conversely, a warped Wood Elf greatsword was easily fixed by gentle application of a heat gun before a quick douse in cool water. Perhaps Finecast has its own sentience regarding heat resistance!

As for modeling and prep labor, there’s an immediate difference in the control you have with knife and file as compared to metals and even plastic. Nicks and dings to armor are easily added, and swords and spearpoints can be sharpened to the owner’s liking with little effort. There is a very low amount of dust created by filing, and the typical nasty smell of resin is favorably absent. Gluing with cyanoacrylate is a bit tricky at first. The adhesion is exceptional, but because of the textured surface of Finecast, it bonds incredibly fast. While superglues are meant to dry quickly, there is absolutely no time whatsoever for movement after the pieces are glued. The upside to this is that the bond is seemingly stronger than on metal and plastic. And this, added to the light weight of the resin, means less pinning (and less work).

GW claims that Finecast doesn’t even need to be primed, but my test below belies that claim. From left to right, I applied one coat of each of the following paints: Reaper Master Series Saffron Sunset, Vallejo Game Color Bonewhite, P3 Iosan Green, Rackham Arcavia Red, GW Foundation Mechrite Red, IWM Yellow. Bare Finecast resin is on the extreme right of the test piece. All of the colors adhered fairly quickly to the porous surface, and while each brand has variable coverage (with GW Foundation and Rackham being the thickest), all of them are somewhat translucent without a primer coat down first. As we continually recommend, then: ALWAYS prime your models.

After a proper primer coat, paint just loves the new resin. My first Finecast miniature was the Tomb Kings Prince Apophas, painted entirely with Reaper Master Series colors and Secret Weapon washes (forthcoming reviews on these lines!). I was blown away by the model’s detail both before and after painting, and I feel that the relief of the sculpting is truly optimized by the consistency of the resin that GW has formulated. Paint goes on smoothly, and as long as your coats are even, it doesn’t even come close to marring the sharp detail.

So is it revolutionary? Definitely. We’ve not had anything quite like this in our industry, at least not accessible in the same scale as GW is distributing it – and maybe not at all. They’ve solved a problem with a genuinely innovative solution, and one that fits in nicely into their current lineup of models. Added to their already-astounding plastic regiments and monsters, Finecast holds the detail that you would expect of a character model, army general, or HQ unit. In fact, you may never want to mess with metal ever again. And if you doubt that, prep one of each back-to-back and see what you think.

To sum it up: as much as I wanted to hate it, Citadel Finecast is amazing. It costs a bit more than those old metal miniatures, but your prep time and painting regimen will only benefit from working with the new material. In fact, the whole modeling experience is great, from first clipping them off the sprue to pinning them to a fancy resin base from Scibor or Micro Art after it’s all finished. Your results may vary, but this old cynic says to give it a try. If you have any further thoughts or questions, you can find me in the back of the store, putting together my Finecast models.

-Darren

If you like: Wargames miniatures of all kinds
You’d definitely enjoy: Citadel Finecast
MRP: Various
Designer: Various
Produced by: Games Workshop

It is very rare in the gaming industry for something to come along that introduces a totally new gaming experience. Dominion has done just that. Since its release in 2008, we have seen a steady stream of games that uses the new mechanic introduced in Dominion, but none of these others have been as successful – and with good reason. Dominion stands as the King of the Deck-Building Games.

For those who haven’t experienced a deck-building game yet, the basic idea is simple. Each player starts with a small hand of cards, and cards get added to that hand in an attempt to make your deck into a better “victory engine” than your opponents’. In Dominion, victory is won by having the highest total value of Victory cards in your deck at the end of the game. Victory cards don’t usually do anything except earn you points at the end of the game, so having them in your deck will naturally cause it to be less efficient. This puts a built-in brake on players who get an early lead in the game. The trick is to start adding Victory cards at the right time so that you get ahead of the other players but do not sabotage your own deck prematurely.

Victory cards, along with Treasure cards and Kingdom cards, are quickly added to your deck by purchasing them with other Treasure cards (it takes money to make money!) The Kingdom cards, however, are the meat of the game. These add different kinds of functions to your deck and you have to decide which ones will combine well and make your deck work better than your opponents’. There are 25 different stacks of Kingdom cards included in the Dominion base set, but when you play a game you randomly select just ten of those. It should be plain to see that this makes for a huge number of possible combinations in each game. Every time you come back to play another game you will get a slightly different experience because of different Kingdom card combinations. I love that moment before the game has started when all the selected Kingdom cards are on the table and the players scan them over as they start to build a plan on how to make the best deck.

If that weren’t enough, Dominion doesn’t stop at one set. There are now five expansion boxes in addition to the original set that have been released. Each expansion has a theme and tends to change the game in a certain way. This has given rise to a total of 126 Kingdom cards if you have all the sets. You could play Dominion every night for a year and never see the same set of ten Kingdom cards within a single game. Quite simply, the replayability of Dominion makes it truly in a class by itself.

In 2009, Dominion won the Golden Geek Best Card Game award, the Golden Geek Board Game of the Year award, and the coveted Spiel des Jahres award. But the biggest indication of its power is that it created a new genre of game. Deck-building games have been popping up ever since Dominion opened the door.

Dominion has a wide appeal and an even wider influence. Whether you are a long time, experienced gamer or a casual, occasional gamer, this one deserves your attention.

-Andre

If you like: Magic: the Gathering, Thunderstone, Ascension
You’d definitely enjoy: Dominion
MRP: $44.95
Designer: Donald X. Vaccarino
Produced by: Rio Grande Games

I jumped for joy when I read that Petroglyph and Ubisoft were putting out a new edition of SSI’s old computerized teeth-gnasher, Panzer General. That and Steel Panthers were my introduction to graphical computer wargaming, and I learned the course of the German advance and eventual defeat in North Africa almost entirely from those games. So when the news came through the wire that there would be a new version of PG for the Xbox Live Arcade, I flexed my thumbs and got ready to blitzkrieg some hexes as soon as it was available for download. I’d tell you about all of the details of the console game if this weren’t a review about a board game, as Petroglyph and Chuck Kroegel, the designer of the original Panzer General, have simultaneously released a physical port of the revised edition in all of its glorious cardboard and paper. And that’s where true love lies.

Upon first playing the Xbox version of the new Panzer General, two things are clear. One, it’s quite different from the original SSI game; and two, it’s perfectly designed and optimized for a board game version. PG: Allied Assault is a turn-based game of resource management with cards, where units are represented on a modular playing field that changes according to the chosen scenario. These units, which are also cards, can stretch their boots and tracks to capture enemy territory or engage opposing units in multiple types of terrain. To prevail, quite simply, you must fulfill one or more of the winning conditions of the scenario to best your opponent using a variety of tactics: movement, might, or materiel.

Each player has a scenario-based deck that contains two types of cards: Unit and Action. Unit cards are placed on the board to fight and grab valuable territories, and Action cards can be used in a multitude of ways on either player’s turn to alter game play depending on their abilities. Both types of cards are played using a system of Prestige points, which are essentially victory or resource points, and managing them carefully is the hallmark of this game. When a player uses too many Prestige points to play units and actions, including combat actions, he may not have enough left to initiate effective combat later in the round or even defend himself during an opponent’s attack turn. Prestige points can later be regained through the capture of strategic territory and by destroying enemy units. Some Action card mechanics also allow for Prestige gain. For certain, you need Prestige points to wage war potently, but you can also use them as a winning condition.

The combat system is a sixteen-point bloater, but engagements go incredibly fast once committed to memory, and the basic mathematical mechanics make the individual steps intuitive and logical. Arguably the best part of the combat system is that any card in your hand can be used in a number of ways, regardless of card type. If you’re plowing into an enemy tank unit with engineers, you can make the attack more effective by spending Prestige to add an Action (Combat) card to the fight. Likewise, your opponent could then spend some of his Prestige to do the same on defense, which might make his tanks more resistant to damage, or perhaps would sabotage the attack by removing its terrain modifier. Mimicking the turn-based nature of the game, a single combat flips back-and-forth between players until both sides pass. There’s even a chance to sacrifice certain cards for extra combat effectiveness, and an ability to play a bluff that can draw resources out of your opponent’s hand. Finally, a random card is flipped to determine “natural” combat variables, and you simply determine casualties from a comparison of numbers built up throughout the phase.

While the game mechanics are structured and streamlined for fast, cinematic play (à la the Panzer General of old), more serious wargamers will find familiar details that make PG: Allied Assault a candidate for Chit-fest of the Year. Units are blind to their opponents until scouted or engaged, and they can become more or less combat-effective through reinforcement and depletion. Moves and attacks can be manipulated through the careful use of special Command squads. And terrain absolutely affects the way units perform on the battlefield. Add to this airstrikes, minefields, breakthroughs, and multiple winning conditions in each game, and you’ve got something that is deep enough for hardcore gamers and still totally accessible for beginning strategists.

In short, you can think of PG as kind of a miniatures game played with cards in a board game environment. Not as incongruous or confusing as you’d think; these three things add up to a splendid wargaming experience. The new Panzer General is a winner, and Petroglyph have already announced a follow-up that takes place on the Eastern Front as well as a fantasy version of the current rules. Can’t wait to dig in!

-Darren

If you like: Combat Commander, Tide of Iron, Memoir ’44
You’d definitely enjoy: Panzer General: Allied Assault
MRP: $60.00
Designer: Chuck Kroegel
Produced by: Petroglyph

Infinity is a fabulous science-fiction miniatures game set in our own universe around 400 years from now. Humanity has struck out into the stars but hasn’t gotten very far yet. The human factions in the game (there is only one alien faction) are direct evolutions of the political forces in our world today. If you look closely you’ll even recognize some of the weapons being used by the troops as evolved versions of weapons in use by today’s militaries. The games are played out in skirmish-level encounters, which means that you’ll usually field seven to sixteen figures in a typical match. The quality of the miniatures was the main reason I got pulled into the game at first; they are very high-quality sculpts with incredibly clean castings. But upon one play, it was the rules that made me a super-fan of Infinity.

Several rules make the game unique. First, you activate units from an order pool. Each unit contributes one order except for the lieutenant, who has an extra order that only he can use. There is no limit to the number of orders you can give a unit in a turn. Let me say that again: you can have one unit use all the orders in a given turn. This makes for some crazy turns! Second, every unit is automatically on overwatch all the time. If a unit activates within LOF or within 8” of your unit, then you get an ARO – an Automatic Reaction Order – with which to shoot or move. Third, units that are directly interacting (such as shooting at each other) compete to get the best success. Whoever has the best success cancels the action of the other unit. This face-to-face roll makes for some very tense, cinematic moments as you move a unit up through enemy fire trying to hold your own with strong rolls.

Infinity stands out for me as the best miniatures game I have had the chance to play. I was hesitant to get into it at first because I am not generally a fan of sci-fi games, but with a little prodding from some tasteful friends and customers, I gave the game a try. I haven’t looked back since. This game is fast, intricate, unforgiving, and exciting. There is tension every step of the way as you try to outmaneuver and outshoot your opponent, and it never lets up until the end. Give Infinity a try and you won’t be let down.

-Andre