I have long collected miniatures. Often for use in role playing games. Many of those figures often belong to specific game lines though.
One of my friends bugged me enoug th actually get me into playing. It wasn't hard as several other friends were actively playing Warmachine and Hordes.
My main faction is the angry elves, the Retribution of Scyrah. I like the different design of the models, the high-tech feel of the elves and in some ways, they do remind me of the Eldar, who I also like.
Mind you, my record in playing them is quite terrible but that's about 90% my fault. I tend to have issues with order of activation and not focusing enough on the inherent synergy in some of the models.
But I am getting better.
As I specifically go out to actually play the game now, I've been shopping from a few stores and thought I'd throw out some quite notes:
Advanced Deployment: They are the makers of all things acrylic for numerous games including War Machine and Hordes. My first order with them was slow and missing some pieces. When I say it was slow, I ordered some different things from about five companies at once and these guys were the second to last to ship out my goods. Mind you, that might not always be true in the future.
They're also not fantastic at communication. They didn't pack some stuff that was supposed to come with the level of order I placed and didn't reply to initial efforts. I made another order, as I was pleased with the quality, and noted that if they didn't including the missing goods, they could cancel this order, and I'd talk to my credit card company about the missing stuff.
Strangely enough that worked and that order came very quickly. So fast that all in all, I've ordered from them three times and for the templates and other stuff that they provide, I'd recommend them.
Discount Games Inc: One of my friends hooked me up to these guys. Usually about 30% off, have a fair selection of goods, including bases from Secret Weapon and CoolMiniOrNot and good turn around time on their orders with free shipping at $50. One nice thing? They also sell stuff from Broken Egg Games So if you get that free shipping, beats ordering directly from Broken Egg.
The free shipping and discount make them a better buy in many ways that my old stand by for online ordering, which is...
Miniature Market: A very good selection, a lot of different things in the warehouse, and often a lot of sales. Free shipping on orders of $100 or more. Very good customer service and very quick to get back to you.
FRPGames: On the outside of stores I normally shop at because they don't offer free shipping and as a matter of fact, the more you buy the more expensive the shipping gets, I still shop here because they do a lot of sales. Sometimes 50% off, sometimes more. They also carry a ton of stuff.
Noble Knight Games: I've been collecting miniatures so long that some of the sets I have, I had before they were sold in the now standard 10 man units. When I finally got into the gaming aspect of it, some units were very hard to hunt down and I thought it might be possible I'd have to just buy whole new units as the prices of the individual pieces I needed was almost what a full unit with discount cost. These guys have great selection and my experiences with them have been good.
So where does everyone else shop? Have I missed any of the obvious places? Any places people should avoid in general? Have your experiences been different than mine?
