February has actually been a pretty good month for new stuff at the shop. New rule sets and figures, so ya'll get comfortable. - This is going to take a while.
Dixon has released a set of rules to go with their Wild West line. While it was originally published in 1994, "GUNFIGHTERS, GAMBLERS, & VILLAINS OF THE OLD WEST' has just now made it over to this side of the pond. At $7.99, when you first look at the 14 page glossy rules, you're going to think you just got ripped off. But before you start reaching for that six-gun, take a took at what you get. The rules are concise, well organized, and you get a great character generation chart. The game systems is diceless, everything being controlled by a deck of playing cards and each player controlling one figure. There is also a nifty little chart for creating non player towns folk. Granted, this is a (shudder) role playing pntc, but then so are "DESPERADO?' and "BOOTHILL". If the Wild West era is one you enjoy gaming, you might want to take a look at this set.
Dixon has also released their he of 25mm Pirate figures. The initial offerings are eight different figures and one character figure which all scale out at 25M on the Barren scale.
If you have seen the Osprey Warrior series book on pirates, then you know what you're in for (especially the PTP-1 figure, a dead ringer for the illustration of Captain Kidd) Most all of the figures are well cast, flash free, and ready for use with the rules that are being printed in the lag few issues of "WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED'. The one poor unfortunate is PT-6, "Pirate, laying on back, loading musket" figure. Where you will use this figure, I haven't a clue. .. The range is expected to be extended by an additional six to eight figures as well as a ships gun in March so they will be competition for the new Foundry figures that should be, available in the near future.
Speaking of THE FOUNDRY, we have just lately seen the new Darkest Africa line. These little gems scale out at 25M on the Barren Scale, and while this particular era doesn't do much for me, I have to say that they are some of the nicest figs we have seen in some time. Currently, there arc two packs of European Explorers (one of which has a very nice Tarzan figure) as well as everything from Askalis to Zanzibaris. There are bearers, villagers, livestock, and pack animals. The figures are packed in lots of seven for the personalities, and packs of eight for most everything else. At $11.00 per pack, that works out to $1.57 to $1.38 per fig, which is not a bad deal. The downside is that you can no longer pick or choose the FOUNDRY figures that you want, but the packaging is varied and interesting so that shouldn't be a big problem. If you are looking for some really great figures in a really strange conflict (?), You Can't go wrong with these!
A lot of people have accused me of writing only positive reviews, That is because I can usually find at least one redeeming feature in a line of figures. A lot more time and effort goes into producing the lead we play with than most of us realize. Saying a line of figures is poor is like telling someone they have an ugly baby. That being said, someone needs to give EASY EIGHT's monkey a banana (to paraphrase an old joke)! These have got to be just about the worst 25mm World War II (or any other era) figures I've ever seen. Not only are they about 29M on the Barrett scale, they have those damn slot-a- bases which makes them tower head and shoulders above even 1st Corp figures. The quality of casting is poor, but what can you expect when they seem to be using some form of extruded aluminum to cast these things. The box of U.S. ETO that I got had 10 figures and the price was $19.95. They have since gone up to $22.95, which means that they now ran $2.30 a fig which makes them the most expensive figures on the market. About the only nice thing is that they are the only 25mm U.S- ETO figs on the market, but they will lose that advantage when BATTLE HONORS comes out with theirs next month. Sorry EASY EIGHT... Stick to writing you great rules. You can see the figures in your shops bargain box soon...
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