Miniature Mondays: Board Game Mania
As many of our frequent readers know, I love board games. Preferably the ones that are hideously complicated and contains oodles of little wooden meeples and plastic bits. I f there is one really great thing that Kickstarter is doing, it is creating more of these. Whether this is because the amount of money available to finance such luxuries is on the rise, or because creators are better integrating a budget supply chain to Asia, I can’t say, but it is having an effect.
I, for one, am certainly willing to pay a little extra for higher quality components, but is the quality there? With no reviews on most crowdfunding projects in this vein, it is hard to say whether there are good books behind these pretty covers.
Let’s dig right in, shall we?
This week, three of the five miniature-containing-projects on Kickstarter or board games, not wargames. This is a new high water mark in both total and segment volume.
- Zpocolypse Aftermath: Rise of the Living – This is a sequel to their previous Kickstarter – there is even a limited package to buy everything they have put out to date (including one time only extras from the first launch, it seems.) If you want zombie minis, then this project is for you. There are probably even reviews out on the first efforts since the project has been fulfilled.
- Terramyyd: Earthsphere – This game of airship piracy features a steampunk theme, and (if they make their stretch goal, a 4″ tall dragon. The airship pieces are certainly interesting looking, though as they are only renders, it is hard to get a sense of final quality of scale.
- Krosmaster Arena – This project is a combination of Pokemon and final fantasy tactics. The miniatures are stylistically interesting – beautiful even, if anime is your thing. The concept is certainly interesting, though as they are all already painted, I don’t think they are up my alley. This one is pricey, though even with it’s high cost I would be surprised if they are making any money – those components don’t look cheap.
- Arena Rex – The mini’s in this small unit/single unit mini’s game are beautiful. If they were only 28 mm rather than 35, they would have a sale already. Still – this one has talent and I hope it really takes off.
- Ruination – This last project is a bit of a mystery to me. Trying to create a one on one combat game with 54mm miniatures doesn’t seem like much of a market; trying to do all that with only a thousand pounds seems impossible. I don’t hold out much hope for this one.
The miniatures painted this week are really quite exceptional.
Clint promised me something big this week, but I didn’t think he had finished a whole building! I love both the work and the scale. I just wish I had scenery this cool.
Jessica has also outdone herself. Her Harlequin is outstanding. Notice the diamonds. All of that is freehand. At first I thought that the black lines seperating them were micron pen, but she assures me that every inch of this model is painted. I don’t think I could have painted this model half so well.
This week I finished my Rhulic unit, though compared to the two previous models, they do not compare. Practice does make perfect though, or at least a little closer to, and this makes 19 miniatures completed so far this year, significantly ahead of the 1 miniature a week target for the year of 12. If only I could get ahead of my writing target’s with equal ease.
Want to join or weekly Mini paint off? Email me your pictures at Caffeineforge@gmail.com
Caffeineforge 
Clint, that house is awesome, how large is it?
It’s about 5″ by 8″, approx. 9″ tall.. I think.
I tried very hard not to drybrush this at all. I broke down and did some on the roof, but did so tile by tile, rather than big strokes.