Alternative Armies: The Pragmatic Oldhammerer

In a way, we of the oldhammer movement have been the authors of our own rare-figure demise. By setting up a movement glorifying the good old days, and then blogging about that movement, we've created a situation where any muppet can find some old lead in his attic, google the thing, determine that he has the only remaining instance of that figure on earth, and price it accordingly on eBay.

Specifically, I am interested in Jaeckel's attempts to correct the balance by promoting figures he's not interested in, in order to reduce prices (and increase availability) of those he is.

Looking at the Goblobber listed above, I can see why.

Unfortunately, I don't believe the answer necessarily lies this way (because I want to collect things he's promoting, mainly!). One answer is not to blog about old figures anymore. Certainly, now that I've collected the whole Lichemaster set, I have already started collected another 'set'. I'm not going to tell you what it is, though, until its complete. Astute collectors might be able to guess where I'm going as I make contact with them, but you, good reader, will be left in the dark. Not because I don't like you - I very much want to share my collecting joys and woes with you - I just don't want to pay £100 for a figure if I don't have to, and not all readers are reading this with my budget in mind.

So lets talk about other manufacturers. This year, I've made some purchases from other figure companies (Yeah - FU GW!) - it makes a nice change not having to hunt for figures on eBay - you can just pop them in the basket and click 'buy' - and the prices are reasonable.

I've been specifically looking at alternatives for Rogue Trader. RT is a fun game, but having grown up with my feet firmly rooted in fantasy, its not something I've found myself willing to spend tons of money on, especially as I have a special fondness for Chaos Renegades - not exactly the most widely available of RT figures around.

Inspired by Coop's Rogue Trader game at the Oldhammer Bring Out Your Lead! 2013 event coming up, I ended up getting hold of the Nox Command over at Alternative Armies:

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Er...bloke pointing?

...and bloke not pointing

Comparison to Citadel Chaos Renegades.

An example of what can be achieved with the Ion Age range from Alternative Armies (src: Pil from Lead Adventure Forum)

Unfortunately, there are only six Nox figures from which to choose, making a whole legion a little samey, but its a place to start. One could start converting Retained Knights, or converting other elvish troops to get the same look - I'll have to look into that later.

Also, whereas I think the Retained Knights do have much of the character of space marines, I think the Chaos Renegades are much more characterful than the Nox troopers. It is unfortunate that the Nox are somewhat larger than the Renegades, which makes mixing the two... well, hard.

Fleshing out the force in other ways (that don't match the army lists perfectly, unfortunately, but somehow I find myself coping), I also want to explore EM-4-Miniatures - specifically their Phagon Beastmen. Pil, legend that he is, provides some insight into their appearance here.

I've spent some cash over at Hasslefree as well, but that's fantasy related, so it gets another post later.