Mars Attacks!

I don't know why I bought Mantic's Mars Attacks!. The game appeals to me, but I know of no other person who plays it in Japan. Even Koizumi-San, the Mantic distributor, was evasive when I asked him whether he had played the game himself. He replied that he did know the rules, which meant that no, he probably hadn't. He needn't have worried. The crazy, magpie-like mind of mine would have bought it even if he said that no one in Japan had ever played the game. I wondered at how many people had actually bought the game from his store, but I was too polite to ask. I didn't want to put him in an awkward position where he might actually have to lie outright to make a sale. As far as miniature salesmen go, Koizumi-San is quite pleasant and non intrusive - he's never overtly hawked his wares to me. When I bought The Walking Dead last month he thanked Honda-San for introducing the game to me! I don't know if this makes him bad at his job, but I for one appreciate the understated approach. I've been in many Games Workshop stores in my life, and I've met my fair share of pushy, in your face store managers. It's a relief not to have to repeatedly rebuff people, especially when they are just doing their jobs.

My first game of Mars Attacks! The unpainted cars and barricades come from The Walking Dead Scenery Booster.

Regardless of whether Koizumi-San had played before or not, I now know for sure that he has, because I roped the poor bastard into a game last Sunday. The sales manager thing works both ways, because I can apply subtle pressure on him to play me lest he lose a valuable customer. I bought more of TWD from him last Sunday - the Days Gone Bye expansion, the scenery booster and two character boosters (Andrea and Shane) - and so he couldn't really say no when I asked him to play a game of MA. I know I can get all this Mantic stuff cheaper if I order them online, but instead I keep giving him business, so I reckon I deserve some leeway. I've spent $400-$500 to date on my conversion to Mantic, and expect to spend more in the future.

Anyhow, we played the introductory scenario, using the basic grunts from both sides. I lost (of course!) as the humans, but enjoyed myself while doing so. It plays quite similarly to Deadzone. The key differences are that the Command dice have been replaced by a hand of four cards per player which can be refreshed at the end of each round. Each player can also activate up to two models per turn, or use cards instead of activating a model. The terrain in MA is quite flat, and the vertical axis not as important - there are no shooting bonuses for elevation, although it will still help with acquiring true line of sight. The use of characters with special abilities looks interesting, too, but I haven't played a game with heroes yet. I'm glad that I have at least played one game of MA. Much like my Warhammer Tomb Kings, it was important for me to field them on the table at least once.

My contemporary urban landscape is coming along nicely, being composed of a mix of MA and TWD scenery. My purchases are still outstripping my ability to paint my acquisitions, but I've resolved not to buy anything new for the remainder of July and August. Hopefully two months will make a big dent into the backlog, but honestly I don't have any confidence in my ability to keep my resolution. Collecting miniatures has an obsessive aspect to it, and it has well and truly got its hooks into me again. Even the fact that no one plays MA did not stop me from buying the starter box and scouring the Internet for a copy of the out of print expansion, Humanity Resists. I've also bought three painted flying saucers from E-Bay. Why I did that who the fuck knows. I could just stop, but that wouldn't make the obsession go away. Instead, I'm planning to buy the Extermination expansion as well, as well as the two neoprene rubber play mats. That will finally burn out my obsession, because my MA collection will finally be complete.

After Mars Attacks! I played a game of Deadzone using the same scenery.

I can see my future self acquiring these last pieces, and then shaking my head at my own stupidity. When I started painting again it had much to do with the limited scale of Mansions of Madness Second Edition. There was a finite number of miniatures in that game, and I managed to convince myself that this was a project that had a realistic end date. Even the latest MoM expansion added only six new miniatures, all of which are done - in fact, probably 80% of all my MoM miniatures have been painted. Warhammer/Kings of War and 40K are insidious traps, because the range of miniatures is absolutely ridiculous, and you could literally spend a lifetime painting army after army. I think that I have convinced myself that DZ, MA and TWD are all similarly limited, and in a way they are, especially in comparison to WH, KoW and 40K. But I should focus on one game at a time, instead of voraciously acquiring models just for the sake of hoarding them. I feel like a twisted version of Gollum, hoarding a bunch of plastic models to my chest and croaking, "Mine! Mine! My Precious!" Games are made to be played with other people. Even the MoM project was impelled by a desire to play with my family back in Oz when I go back in August. When I buy something like MA, that has no players to speak of in Japan, who the fuck am I buying it for?

I console myself with the fact that I use MA scenery in TWD games. In terms of scale the two games are pretty similar, although TWD miniatures are bulkier and slightly bigger than MA ones. MA miniatures are more realistic in scale, while the TWD ones resemble GW models, having bigger heads and hands which give them cartoonish proportions. In addition the MA mats can be used in DZ games, and last Sunday we even played a DZ game using contemporary terrain. So it's not a complete waste of time and money. I've also wanted to play a miniatures version of X-Com on the tabletop, and even if MA is a bust the scenery and models can be used as a base for another 28 mm system in the future. Fuck, there I go again - another 28 mm system...?

My first game with the Plague, using DZ scenery this time.

I suck. But I'll stay the course I laid out for myself at the start of the year, before it was derailed by my foray into MA and TWD. Work on the DZ proxy project, and prepare for Star Saga. Koizumi-San and I are talking about organizing a DZ tournament next year for Japan, so that is something to look forward to. If this hobby is to be worthwhile it needs to involve other people. Otherwise it is a waste of time, cool miniatures or not.