Jolly may already have mentioned this new area of Shadis but I'd like to take some editorial license to introduce what I believe New Perspectives offers you readers. While Shadis has always supported Role-playing games (in all their many forms) and provided a neutral ground for the exploration of new ideas, miniature gaming has grown tremendously in the last few years. Let's give a voice to that part of the hobby as well.

In almost every role-player there is little miniature hobbyist waiting for just the right moment… New Perspective will provide tips for miniatures collectors, painters, and gamers. This issue, due to editorial deadlines, we really only had time and space for a number of reviews. In upcoming issues we will present terrain building tip, designing scenarios for various games, playing strategies for popular games and, hopefully, some beginning sculpting tips from the pros.

The greatest emphasis of Shadis has always been to enjoy our hobby and I'll do my best to reflect that is what we present here. I'm sure you'll keep me honest.

Jolly already told me that we don’t have gobs of space for me this issue so I'd better stop rambling before he decides to cut….

LEAD-BAN IMPACTS INDUSTRY

There have been a good deal of changes in the miniature industry in the past year, not the least of which was a general move from lead-based white metal to no-lead pewter. Though this was a painful shift for the industry, there was little alternative.

State and federal agencies have targeted lead as 'the enemy' so the choices for miniature manufacturers was to change materials or spend every penny they could, collectively, gather in order to fight the lead bans state to state. Obviously, the government can afford to drag the battle out, thus driving the legal fees to the industry out of reality.

A year ago, Ral Partha, Games Workshop, Grenadier and many other miniature manufacturers, fought the New York State ban on lead products. It cost them $50,000 to do it. It was then that they realized exactly how expensive, and pointless, it would be to fight it in all 50 states.

Similar to the fundamentalist Christian stand against roleplaying games, the groups opposed to lead-based collectibles were largely driven by emotion, fear and ignorance, not any serious scientific study into the dangers of buying or owning fine, lead-based collectibles.

The reason I brought this up is because manufacturers have been the butt of too many attacks of late. They are not the bad guys here - they are just the victims of a inevitable movement toward a totally non-toxic society. The reason prices have gone up is because the new alloys have a higher percentage of fallout (meaning that a larger number of figures aren't good enough to sell when they come out of the spin caster, vs the white metal fallout percentage).

The change has been painful for everyone, the manufacturers because the higher prices slow sales, and the gamers because we can't buy as many figures as we'd like.

MINIATURE GAME REVIEWS

Company: Heartbreaker Games
Game: Blood Berets
Number: 9001
Cost: $34.95

Recently, Heartbreaker Hobbies & Games released licensed products from the Mutant Chronicles line. The Mutant Chronicles, developed and owned by Target Games AB in Europe (I believe Sweden or Scandinavia), is becoming quite the rage abroad and is quickly becoming popular in the US.

The first of these releases are Blood Berets, a miniatures style boardgame, and Mutant Chronicles, the Techno-Fantasy Roleplaying game. Let's take a look at Blood Berets:

Blood Berets comes with sixteen figures - six imperial troopers and ten legionnaires (including leaders), There are also nine double-sided terrain tiles that can go together in a number of different ways, character cards for the forces, equipment cards and Dark Symmetry cards for the Nepharite's (the leaders of the evil forces) powers. The game also comes with a twenty-sided die, the only die needed for play.

When I first looked at the game, I thought it was another Space Hulk lookalike. The premise was similar and even some of the terminology was the same. However, the more familiar I got with the game, the more I realized that my first assessment was wrong. There are a few similarities, like you have two forces moving around in an environment shooting at each other and the bad guys get to move around counters that represent their forces (without giving away specific numbers) until they are in the same area as the enemy. That's pretty much where the similarity ends.

Blood Berets has a lot of depth, such as the ability to change equipment between scenarios, add specialty weapons, scanning rules, planting mines, hiding cave entrances, etc. I also like the initiative system for turns - each player places one counter per figure into a cup, then the counters are removed one at a time. The player whose counter was removed is able to select one model and perform their actions for that turn.

The character cards are two sided, one side for the figure in full health, the other for the figure when it's wounded. The skills for each state are different, so being wounded actually has a great impact on the character's ability to perform. The combat process for firing and wounding is quite interesting too. Once hit, a model gets an armor roll based on the strength of his armor vs. the power of the weapon.

The rulebook is 30 half-sized pages long, though there are lots of illustrations, and it reads easily. There are a few places where the rules are a bit vague, but there are many examples to help clear those spots up

Though the box doesn't say anything about it, the game is really for two players, though more could play if they wanted to divide the playing forces, and I wouldn't recommend it for players under the age of twelve.

The game is a lot of fun and contains some interesting background information on the Mutant Chronicles universe, though not nearly as much as the roleplaying game.

Dragon Strike Miniatures

Company: Ral Partha Enterprises, Inc.
Catalog: $3.00
Name: Dragon Strike Miniatures
Series: TSR Boxed Sets
Number: 10-513
Scale: 25mm
Sculptor: Jim Johnson, Dave Summers and Geoffrey Valley
Cast: $24.95

This boxed set is designed for use with TSR's popular board game Dragon Strike. It includes seven characters and one dragon. Four of the characters, two human spell casters, a male elf bowman and a dwarf warrior, were sculpted by Geoffrey Valley. The other three characters, human female and male warriors and a human shaman, were created by Jim Johnson. Dave Summers sculpted the dragon figure.

Let's look at Valley's pieces first. His style is distinguishable from most of Ral Partha’s crew because he tends toward sharper features and craggy faces. I'm particularly taken with the cleric with his floor length robes, holding up the crystal ball in his right hand. The face is great! Not real attractive (it's not supposed to be), this is the face of a wizened old clergyman. The dwarf is also highly detailed, with good looking studded leather armor and tasseled vest.

Jim Johnson, who has been with RP for just over a year now, is a talented Sculptor with a style of his own. He has produced some great pieces for this set. His sculptures have Smoother, more attractive faces and fuller figures. His human male fighter is nicely detailed with what looks to be scalemail, though the left shoulder is free, gladiatorial style (though it was usually the sword arm that was bare). He also sports a long cloak and excellently detailed belt and bandolier.

The shaman is probably the finest character in the set. With a fox fur head covering, detailed vest, numerous totems and bric-a-bract plus the great looking scroll - this is a great miniature.

For those of you who were unable to beg, borrow or steal one of Ral Partha's limited edition The Great Red Dragon, Dave Summers, a veteran sculptor with a great deal of talent, has recreated a smaller version for this boxed set. One of the industries great releases of the last few years, The Great Red Dragon sold out in record time. This reduced size version does the original justice, though the size isn't quite as impressive.

The dragon will need some careful assembly but is well within even a novice's ability to construct. It comes in nine pieces, considerably less than the original's 20+ pieces, and the casting is impeccable. There is a slight mold line from the dragon's right arm to the left leg but it cleans up easily with a hobby knife and needle file. The neck pieces also need a little filing because of the difficulty in casting such needle-like spikes.

Whether or not you have the DragonStrike game, don't miss the opportunity to pick up this set.

Name: Albatross
Series: Battletech
Number: 20-794
Sca e: 1/285
Sculptor: Dave Summers
Cost: $7.25

The Albatross miniature, out of FASA's 3055 Technical Readout for Battletech, is one nice piece of work from RP. It comes in 6 pieces, cast in lead-free Ralidium.

From a players standpoint, the mech has an incredible array of long and short range weaponry. However, the pilot will have to watch the heat in a prolonged fight.

The arms mount an LB 10-X and a Large Pulse Laser, Plus dual medium lasers (a separate piece that mounts to the right arm). The ER Large Laser mounts to the left torso (near the shoulder) and both missile launchers, LRM-15 and SRM-6, are visible in the right shoulder.

The figure has a high degree of detail, especially on the arms and torso Th. quality of the casting is excellent, having negligible mold lines. The pieces fit together perfectly so you won't break a sweat trying to get the model assembled.

The position of the feet give the figure good movement and the fact that the model comes in many pieces allows a great deal of freedom during assembly. The potential for modification is good. Some hobby stores carry miniature ball joints that can be placed at the torso joint, or where the arms meet the torso, to allow the figure to move. Be careful as you install the joints that you make the joint tight, so there is some resistance - that way the gravity won't reposition the figure for you.

New Perspective, Part 2