Black Friday Sale And So Much More....

Black Friday Sale! Up to 60% off select items!

 

We dug pretty deep on our discounts for this sale, so much so we offered a special discount to our retail and wholesale partners.

Speaking of retail and wholesale partners; If you have not heard, we are now warehousing and distributing our own products. WOOT!

But that's not all…. Wait for it…. We are also stocking and distributing some legacy Wargames Factory products. For now, just the WWII line, both 15mm and 28mm scales but more is on the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soooo much going on around here I am looking forward to the Thanksgiving holiday but dreading stepping away. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

 

All the best!

Mark

R.I.P. Matthew Frederick, One Of The Great Unpublished Game Designers

Some time ago -- almost 2 decades now -- I stumbled across a website called the Board Game Designers Forum. At the time I had recently graduated college and gotten a job, many of my friends had moved away, and I was looking for something to fill my time. It was a perfect storm that led to my eventual career in game design, development, and publishing, and it all started on that fateful forum.

In the early days of BGDF, I read a lot of posts, I wrote a lot of posts, and I spent a lot of time in the IRC chat room with some of the forum regulars. Several of those regulars have gone on to see great success in the game industry as designers, artists, or publishers (or all three)!

One of those regulars, an admin in fact, went by the handle FastLearner. His name was Matthew Frederick. Matthew was ever-present, always insightful, and always made sure the forums were going strong. He's the one that created this BGDF logo:

A logo I placed on the back of the box for both Terra Prime and Eminent Domain, as a nod to the role the forums played in the design of those games.

One of my favorite aspects of the site was something called the Game Design Showdown, which turned into a monthly design challenge where, given a week and a theme, component restriction, or other guidelines, you could submit an entry. Entries were posted anonymously, and then voted on. There was no prize, and the submissions were not intended to be finished, tested games anyway, but the challenge was a good way to exercise the design muscles, and I know of several ideas from the GDS that went on to become fully fleshed out (and in some cases published) games. I say that's what the GDS turned into, but it started as a sort of real time challenge in the chat room, run by FastLearner, where instead of a week to come up with a game idea, you had just minutes! We only did that a couple of times, but it was great fun, and it opened the door to the larger Game Design Showdown, which still runs today if I'm not mistaken.

As it happens, Matthew lived in Phoenix, AZ -- just up the street from my hometown of Tucson. A couple of times I drove up and got together with Matthew... we talked about our game designs, even played each other's games. Matthew was one of the players who I wrangled into may first two playtests of UK designer David Brain's prototype: All For One, and we did a prototype swap (I left 8/7 Central with him, and brought home his mountain climbing themed game: Everest). I recall several of Matthew's games that I played, and they were all very good:

Everest was a middle-weight euro-style game about drafting a team of climbers (with sponsorship from various countries), and climbing Mount Everest. There were different terrain types to navigate, and your climbers were better at some than others. You could set up camps along the way where you could rest your team. There were rewards for reaching certain elevations first, including a large reward for reaching the top of the mountain. It was a real, honest to goodness game, on par with a lot of the stuff I've played off store shelves.

Velociracers was a card driven game where you, a Velociraptor, raced around an island grabbing up eggs and trying to keep ahead of the T-rex that was hot on your heels. Each turn you would play one of your cards, and you wouldn't get them back until you did a special "rest" action. There were mechanisms in place to keep the dinos bunched in a pack -- a headwind to keep the front runners from getting too far ahead, and cards that let you advance more the farther back in the pack you were. Fall too far behind and the T-rex will hurt you, much like taking damage in Snow Tails. Like all of Matthew's games, this felt fully fleshed out, even if he wasn't happy with it.

Elvencraft was another excellent design, where you would move around an Elven village in the trees, connected by bridges (which I think you would build, if I remember correctly), collecting items and crafting them into better items. I don't remember all the details of this one, but I do recall it feeling like a real game as well.

Cow Tipping was a small, Rummy-style card game that a nascent TMG considered publishing. It had adorable art and a cute theme of gangs of cows taking revenge on people by tipping over vehicles stopped in traffic. Motorcycles required a smaller gang (set or run) of cows to tip, but are worth fewer points. Buses were the most valuable, but of course required the largest gangs to tip. I recently re-read my email threads with Matthew about this game.

As a neophyte developer, I was perhaps overzealous about wanting to change Cow Tipping a lot. In the end, TMG did not publish that game, but Matthew gave me some important feedback that I still need to take to heart at times- he said something to the effect of "with all those changes, what exactly are you licencing from me?" That is a significant question for a few reasons. Not only was it a wake up call to me as I stepped into the game industry as a professional developer, but it also stands in stark contrast to some of the sentiments I've seen in modern designers who might submit an unfinished game with the expectation that the publisher will finish it for them. In contrast, all of Matthew's games were fully fleshed out, thoroughly tested, and more complete than many submissions I've received over the years.

About a decade ago, I lost touch with Matthew. I wasn't hanging out in the BGDF forums anymore, and I didn't travel to Phoenix very often. I didn't have much occasion to reach out to him, and from what I could gather, he had a very busy life, sometimes plagued with additional hardships outside his own control. I did follow Matthew on Twitter, and occasionally saw some snippet of his life scroll through my timeline, and every time it made me wonder "what ever happened to that guy?"

Back in October, just a few months ago, Matthew sent me a Twitter DM, seemingly out of the blue. It was a very complimentary message, just saying that he was pleased and impressed to hear how well I'm respected in the industry. Apparently Matthew had followed my career, or was at least aware of it. He followed that with another message:

Perhaps one day we'll get together again and reminisce about the old days and talk about what's happened in the intervening years.

Two months later, I was sad to hear that Matthew was gone. I had gathered from tweets I'd seen that Matthew was sick -- fighting some kind of cancer. I know now that his message to me was something of a "goodbye," and I'm sorry I didn't drop everything right then and there and drive up to Phoenix to see him one last time, maybe play a game, or do that reminiscing he mentioned.

Matthew, I'd like to thank you for being the man that you were. The pillar of the game design community which brought me from a casual Magic player to a professional game designer. You are far and away the best designer I know, and the gaming world is poorer now that you're gone.

You will be missed.

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The Journeyman Project - Maximum Wave

Written by Reiko

Agent 5 Journal #2: "I've managed to avoid the distortion wave and retrieve the unaffected archive of history. The computer then determined that there were three separate interference events in the past that changed the flow of time. So far, I was able to save Dr. Castillo and destroy a murderous robot, but I've still got a lot of work to do, and it's not going to be easy. I'm going to have to put forth maximum effort to outsmart whoever it is that's caused all this damage!"

To review, I have to prevent three major changes in history: a missile launch toward Gorbastan from a NORAD base in 2112, the destruction of the Morimoto colony on Mars in 2185, and the death of speaker Enrique Castillo at the 2310 rally in Australia. Together, these three changes tipped the balance and prevented the Cyrollans from offering humanity membership in the Symbiotry.

I have no idea at this point how interlinked the solutions to each time period will be, nor how difficult they'll be, so I anticipate having to take a look around each one before I figure out what I need to do. I'll start with the earliest time.

That's one weird-looking robot...

I materialize in 2112 in a small room facing a doorway. In the doorway stands some kind of robot, which immediately taunts me, saying I'm no match for it, but it loves a challenge. Is this my nemesis, or is it some kind of remotely-operated drone or something? The door closes and the robot is gone, but immediately I get a notification that sleeping gas has been detected. I start turning around a little, and spot something that looks like it could be a gas mask or something, but when I grab at it, I'm immediately dumped to a death screen. Somehow I was caught by security, although I'm not even sure what I did. Surely I didn't succumb to the sleeping gas that quickly. Never mind, let's try a different time first.

Another robot??

I travel to the rally at the science center in 2310 next, appearing in a different sort of room, a bit bigger. In the doorway stands something else that looks more like a person in a suit, but still sounds like a robot. This one also taunts me, saying it's been expecting me, and this time it shoots me with a tranquilizer dart, which appears in my inventory after I pull it out of my suit. The robot thing shifts to look like a person in a lab coat, who disappears through the doorway. Some kind of door reappears behind it, and then I'm free to move around. (If I try to follow it through the door, though, I immediately collapse and fail, but I can move around inside the room for as long as I need. Adventure game timing!)

Tranquilizer Dart inventory item

I look around and determine that the room is full of equipment, most of it helpfully labeled for my convenience. We have a Compound Analyzer, a Prototype Holograph called ARES, a Molecular Compositor, a Compound Synthesizer, and (not labeled) two different video log displays.

Log choices recorded by Elliot Sinclair

One log shows someone examining a rat that's had something inserted into its brain, which apparently is going very well, with no sign of infection. I'm not sure of the significance of this. The other device offers me a list of three different log files recorded by Elliot Sinclair about his critical discoveries. The first two seem like they could be the basis for the disappearing doorways, with some technobabble about being able to morph elements into other elements, except for the noble gases. The third one is about his very first successful time distortion, which presumably led to the development of the time machine. It's interesting background material, but I suspect that if I come back and do an optimized run to improve my time, I can skip all this.

Analysis of the tranquilizer dart contents

The Compound Analyzer looks useful, though. When I poke at its screen, it turns on and asks for an object to analyze. I give it the tranquilizer dart, which it determines to be a substance containing a "Dimenhydrinate based liquid tranquilizer." It sends the data to the Molecular Compositor, which is over by the doorway. When I walk over there and face the device, I hear the same malevolent robotic voice taunting me again. Weird.

This tranquilizer's antidote will be related to Thorazine.

The Molecular Synthesizer Interface screen labels itself as belonging to Sinclair Laboratories. I have no idea why this lab is located so close to the stage where Enrique Castillo is about to speak at the rally, but it's convenient. I guess it's a science center, but still, a place for a large group of people to meet is usually not very near high-tech laboratory facilities.

The synthesizer tells me antidotes are available, based on Thorazine (which is apparently a real drug that is used to treat various psychological issues), and asks if I would like to build one. Well, certainly, that's exactly what I need right now. Apparently I have to build three different variations on the base molecule by testing the options to see which are stable.

Molecule-building minigame

It takes me several minutes to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing here. At first I thought I needed to connect the pieces to specific places on the main structure, but eventually I figure out that I just have to get the right order. In fact, the correct order seemed to be the same for all three molecules. (Later I redo the sequence and verify that this is the case: the pieces are just presented in a different order each time, but the correct order is the same.) Once I drag all six pieces onto the base in the correct order, then the variation is complete and I go on to the next one. Once I have three variations, then the synthesis is complete and the physical antidote is available behind me in the Molecular Synthesizer.

Whew, that's better!

Antidote inventory item

When I pick up the antidote vial, it's automatically administered, so I don't have to worry about succumbing any more. Now I can freely walk around the corridors outside of the lab. The complex seems to be sort of like a hotel / conference center, with many rooms, some of which are identified as belonging to specific people. The door behind me indicates that the lab is Enrique Castillo's room, and he'll be speaking at the rally, which of course I already knew. I find a door for another participant in the rally, but I can't enter that room the way I can the lab. Down the corridor, I find a label that says Auditorium, but I can't do anything with that either. I also have to be careful not to go too far. A few places give me a warning that says I detect people up ahead. Like the cliff warning, if I keep going, I get caught by security and encounter a failed ending.

Is that the robot from earlier?

I wander around for a bit and eventually find a door labeled "Auditorium Electrical Access". When I open it, I hear Dr. Castillo announced to speak, and I see what looks like a person aiming a gun down at the stage of the auditorium from a catwalk. Here's where I can stop him! There's no warning about detecting people, though, so I move forward into the access alcove. The person turns to face me. Uh-oh? There are two things in reach: something labeled "Fire Control Access 7" that I can't seem to do anything with, because it has a padlock on it and a cable on the right with a large label: "Danger High Voltage".

Now it's a fried robot!

I pull the cable out, and the end starts sparking. Then the person turns back into the robot. I guess it has some kind of technological illusion? I click the cable again, and this time I'm able to connect it to the catwalk, where it electrifies the robot. The robot crashes to the floor in front of me. I click on it and open up the head area, where if I'm quick, I'm able to pull out two new BioChips, one for optical memory, and one for a power shield. Then the robot self-destructs, and all that's left is a stun gun, which I also collect. Great, I have some offense and defense now.

BioChip - Shield item

Stun Gun inventory item

The notification screen gives me two new notifications: "Mission update: Dr. Castillo's assassination has been prevented; his life is no longer in danger." And: "Temporal rip status: RESOLVED. All anachronisms eliminated. Prepare for auto-recall." I'm then automatically returned to the Pegasus device in the present time.

So I guess I've managed to complete one of the three time periods. That was actually a little easier than I thought it would be given how quickly I died in the first time period. But I don't yet know if that was the optimal solution or if there are other alternate solutions. It's possible that I didn't use a non-violent solution given that I electrocuted the robot, although I don't really understand if it was a robot that looked like a person, or if it was a person in a robotic time travel suit, or what. I don't know what I look like when I've traveled back in time either, but given that the robot self-destructed, I'm assuming there wasn't a person in there?

Elliot Sinclair's video

Back in the Pegasus, I can see that the temporal rip in 2310 no longer appears as an option since the situation has been resolved. The other thing to note here is that the Optical Memory BioChip, which is for storing video data, already had a video on it that I could access, called the "Mercury Objective". In it, we see a rather insane-looking Elliot Sinclair ordering someone ("Mercury") to go back in time and eliminate Enrique Castillo by making it look like an accident if possible, but if not, doing it anyway. That's rather interesting. Elliot Sinclair was the inventor of the time machine, but apparently he's rabidly anti-alien and wants to change history to eliminate any chance of joining with the Cyrollans.

What's particularly odd about that, to me, is that this seems like almost the same plot as Journeyman Project 3. I'm getting ahead of myself, of course, but in JP3, Elliot Sinclair shows up again to interfere with the Cyrollan initiative. I'm going to make a prediction that, at the end of this game, he ends up disappearing into the past and avoiding capture. Maybe his hit man can be brought to justice, though, if there is one other than the robots?

To get all the death sequences, I of course restored back and replayed parts of the rally a few more times, and in doing that, I found one certain bug and at least one inconsistency. The first time, I saved the game right after I applied the antidote, while I was still in Sinclair's lab. When I restored that save later, the game acted like I was jumping into the time period for the first time, showing me the robot sequence, including shooting me with the tranquilizer dart again. I already had the antidote in my inventory, but I couldn't use it. Maybe I should have tried making it again, to see if I would have ended up with two antidote items or something. I started the area over and this time saved outside the lab, and then I had no trouble.

I was trying to optimize my path the second time through, so I just made the antidote as quickly as possible and then went directly to the robot and disabled it. Afterward, I noticed that my score was actually significantly lower this time: I'd ended up with 50472 after clearing the rally for the first time, with about 60% energy left, but now my total was only 43090, with more than 90% energy left. I went back and poked at a few things to see if some of the optional items like viewing Sinclair's logs gave more score points, but I couldn't find anything. I have no idea why my score was higher the first time, as I thought being more efficient and using less energy was supposed to result in a higher score, not a lower one. Am I wrong? Is this another bug? I also tried waiting until my energy was much lower (below 25%) but my score afterward was even lower, around 38k, so that seems consistent with efficiency = good.

BioChip - Optical Memory item

I also noticed that while most of the items I got in 2310 were listed as being found in the "World Science Center," the Optical Memory chip's location is listed as "NORAD VI." What's that about? I wonder if I'm really supposed to have gone through the time periods in order and gotten the Optical Memory chip first from 2112, and then perhaps later the chip just updates with more videos. It probably won't matter, but it seems like a minor bug.

BioChips: Interface, Mapping, Pegasus, Optical Memory, Shield
Other inventory: Transport Card, Journeyman Key, Tranquilizer Dart, Antidote, Stun Gun
Time travel trips: 2 (plus a failed trip to 2112)
Score: 50472 (first time); 45604 (later)
Session Time: 1 hr 45 min (not including half an hour to run out the energy in 2310)
Total Time: 3 hr 15 min

Deaths: 6 (total: 9)

"Curiosity killed the time traveller."

#4: If for some reason you stick around in 200 million years in the past long enough for the suit's energy to be depleted, you'll get a unique ending labeled "Pterodactyl": "You succeeded in escaping the bounds of time and space to travel 200 million years into the past, only to be eaten by a Pterodactyl. Next time you should heed the warnings and move a little faster, genius." This is actually pretty hard to do, as I had to just sit around for about ten minutes for the energy to fully deplete. In the comments on the previous post, Niklas suggested that it was possible to get eaten by dinosaurs by interacting with something in a cave, but I was unable to find any other interactions in the area. As far as I can tell, this is the only other death in that time period. If I missed something else, do let me know.

I barely touched anything!

#5/6: If at any time I succumb to the sleeping gas in 2112, or run into people in 2310, I get a "Caught by Security" ending: "Out of energy and in the hands of law enforcement offices, you have been escorted to the jail cell which is to serve as your new home. Had you paid attention to the warnings, it may not have ended this way." I didn't get any warnings in 2112, other than the sleeping gas, and there's one place in 2310, just past the electrical access alcove, that gives no warning at all.

"Ten-step poison"

#7: In Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series, there's a poison, usually applied to arrows, that's called "ten-step poison." It's called that because the victim will only be able to take ten steps before succumbing. There's apparently also a real pesticide that's called Tres Pasitos, or "three little steps," because mice will succumb that quickly to it. That's what this tranquilizer dart feels like if you try to leave the lab without acquiring the antidote. The ending is called "Poison Dart": "Despite your best efforts, you could not resist the life-draining exhaustion which crept over you. You have perished."

I'm so dead...

Laser fire at close range

#8: If I stand around and watch the assassin for too long, he first fires at the stage, presumably killing Enrique Castillo, then he shoots me. The ending is "Laser Blast": "The concentrated blast of the robot's weapon cut through your layers of defense like a warm knife through butter. He had no regrets."

I also included the previous moment before the ending screen to note three things: first, the completed map of the area in the lower right; second, whatever it is (the ending calls it a robot, anyway) appears as a person when firing at Enrique Castillo, but shifts back into a robot form to shoot at me. And third, the padlock that had been on the fire control access is suddenly gone. I have to wonder if there's anything else I could have done with that. Did the laser also shoot the padlock off? Seems like it's too late to make any use of it once the robot has already shot Castillo, though.

I'm lost in time again...

#9: If I wait long enough at the rally to expend all my energy, I end up with the "Encarcerated" ending: "Behind bars and out of energy, you must now live out the rest of your life in the past. Maybe you can start a support group for the temporally displaced." This takes quite a long time, actually, at least half an hour. The rate that energy declined was about 1500 per second when at 200M years in the past, but in 2310, it was about 300 per second. Maybe it takes more energy to maintain the suit when it's farther back in the past? The other quirk with this ending is that I only get the "General Exploration" 5000 points, plus a "Finale" award of 15000, for a total of 20000 points. The other endings all showed my current score up to the failure moment. I'll have to check the other two time periods later to see if the out of energy ending is the same there.

And that's as far as we'll get for this time. CAPS are also available for the first person to find a repeated typo within one of the screenshots in this entry. I'll be back next time with my exploration of the base on Mars in 2185.

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There's a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!

Building A Magnetic Model Transport System

Last June I started collecting Convergence of Cyriss.  Since I was getting the faction almost completely by doing model trades, the project turned into a bit more work than I had planned for it as more than half of what I got in trades were in a horrible state.

That said, I did get most of the faction in one swoop and after a bit of hard modeling work, I had everything ready to go.

Except I couldn't really go anywhere with it because as any war gamer knows, you need some kind of transport system for an army.

That's a lot of CoC!

I've typically used Sabol foam trays carried around in a Battle Foam Pack Air case, but huge based models require specialty foam from Battle Foam, and those are pretty pricey - $23 per huge base.  If anyone knows about CoC, they know you will have at least 3 huge bases, and I ended up with 4 after all the trading was done.

I'm looking at almost $100 in foam just for the huge bases, then at roughly $8 per Sabol tray, I'm easily blowing $150 or more getting everything in foam for this faction.  Then I'm lugging the large pack air case plus an old Sabol Army Transport bag to hold my huge bases if I'm using them in my list pair.

There simply had to be a better way. Then the idea hit me...

Magnets!

I went to the local craft store and bought myself some bins that were the same length and width, but had different heights. I did some pre-measuring of each of my huge bases and my "floating" vectors to check heights.

Each bin is 15.5" x 11.5" and I ended up with 5 bins in total: 1x 8.3" tall, 2x 5.6" tall, and 2x 2.9" tall.  The bins were about $12 a piece, but more importantly I wouldn't ever have to buy more in the future. The only recurring cost for this system is going to be purchasing magnets for new models.

Securing the Models

Magnets don't work on plastic, so I needed to line the bottom of my bins with metal. My local big-box hardware store had 1 foot square steel sheet at about $5 per. Not too shabby.  The only problem was that I'd need to shave off some of the sheet to fit into the bottom of my bins. What's more is that while the overall top dimensions of the bins are the same, the bottoms are not.  

There was a bigger problem. I'm not particularly handy, and I don't have a ton of power tools.  What I do have however is my friend Ray.

This is Ray. Ray is handy. Be like Ray.

Ray is one of those guys who makes his own furniture - as a hobby...and the furniture actually looks good when he's done! He's got tools galore and was kind enough to help me out by cutting my metal for me. I had used a pair of metal snips to cut one sheet and it worked, but it didn't look great. Ray sanded that shit down for me and trimmed it up so it looked better. 

So now I had 5 sheets of steel cut to the right size for my bins. 

Mixing Plastic and Steel

Next up I just gotta stick my steel to my bins, should be easy right?

I tried superglue. That failed spectacularly. The steel pulled right off with a tiny bit of tugging. It worked well enough to hold if I didn't rumble it too much, which was good for a short term solution of carrying the CoC to play games locally. 

So next I decided to buy a two part epoxy that said it would work on metal and plastics.  So I put on my gloves, was really careful, sanded down parts of the steel where the super glue didn't take and weighted down my bins:

After 24 hours of curing....the steel peeled right off with just a little bit of force, just like the the superglue. 

At this point I was done trying to find some kind of glue or epoxy based solution. It was time for nuts and bolts. Luckily the bins I bought had the raised section in the middle where I could have the bolt-ends sit while not exceeding the lip of the base of the actual bin (ie. I won't scratch up any tables due to having bolts on the bottom of my bins). 

Construction Tips

One thing I learned: Drilling through steel sheet isn't great if you don't have special drill bits, which not being a handyman, I didn't have.  You can however put a thick nail through the steel pretty easily, which then lets the drill go through easily and drill through the plastic.  I only hammered my thumb once. Ray would be proud. Sorta. 

Because bolts take up model space, and my huge base solution is kind of tight, I elected to only use two bolts per bin rather than 4. I will see how well this holds up, and if I need to secure it more it's easy enough to mark where to put the holes, remove the plates, make the holes, and re-secure it all. 

That said, there's only a tiny bit of wiggle with the two corners secured as it is, so I believe this setup will work.  Here are my results:

Magnet Advice

I recommend buying strong rare earth magnets for this, stronger than what you'd usually buy if you're magnetizing jacks/beasts. Specifically N52 strength is preferred.  I've gotten some magnets off Amazon but the affordable ones there are generally the weaker kind, so I've preferred to get magnets for this from K&J Magnetics. I'm not affiliated with them at all, but I've used them for years and they deliver quality stuff. 

You can get away with cheaper magnets if you use multiple, and cheaper magnets work well for small based plastic models that don't require as much force. Amazon can help out here. 

I actually had quite a few magnets laying around from years gone by which reduced my magnet purchasing requirements a bit.

That said, once you've used the right magnets, everything stays very secure in the bins. I didn't take a picture, but I was able to turn the bin upside down with the models in it and not have any casualties. 

Carrying Solutions

The final bit that isn't finished yet for this is a bag to hold it all. Currently I use a set of straps I had for carrying a PC around to LAN parties to secure the bins and hold my dice bag + widgets.  This works but isn't exactly pretty.

I am lucky in that my wife is a quilter, and she's currently sewing up a bag to hold this in, complete with pockets, straps for easy carrying, and all the rest. I realize not everyone can do this or has the luxury.  The alternative was trying to find a piece of luggage or a transport/case for a sewing machine that would have the internal dimensions to hold my bins. With better planning up front (buy bins that fit in luggage more easily) this is probably more achievable, but again you're still spending a decent amount of money this way. It's still probably less than a equivalent sized Battle Foam bag + rack system, but it's a lot of work to find the right combo of bin + case. 

Costs and Benefits

I started this project thinking it'd be good long term going forward wargaming wise and would save me money. Did it? Yes, but partially because I've cheated.

I am saving a good bit of money and getting a custom case + transport system, but that's really only because my wife isn't charging for her labor to assemble the bag, Ray didn't charge me for cutting the metal to size, and I don' t have to pay myself for all the work I've done getting the bins setup.  I also didn't have to buy lots of my strongest magnets because I already had a bunch from when I played 40k/WHFB. 

I probably could have just spent the extra money up front and bought Battle Foam's Magna-Rack system and one of their cases. They're pretty damn expensive, and you still have to buy the magnets, but it's basically none of the work and it looks great.  My custom case will look as good if not better, but not everyone is married to a quilter with sewing equipment to make a custom bag. 

The real savings are in the fact that going forward for any new armies I ever pick up, I'm using magnets, not foam. 

Magnets can cost up to $0.50 per magnet of the right size/strength, so 100 models is $50 in magnets. Is there really a cost savings here?  I think so, but in hindsight, it's probably not much.

Typically $50 in foam is not going to store 100 models, especially if you're counting lots of bigger models (30mm to 50mm bases) which take up a lot of foam space, but still only require one strong magnet.   Huge bases (120mm) require multiple magnets per, but even then it's only like $2 in magnets as opposed to $22 for a foam tray. 

You can also use weaker magnets for small based plastic models, where the magnet costs are significantly cheaper, especially if you look around on Amazon where you can get 50 to 100 magnets of the right size for something like $15. 

The real savings comes in the fact that once you've bought+built your bins to transport the minis, you can use them with basically any model set you want. Compared to foam where you need to pluck out whatever kind of foam for your specific models. The other benefit is storing models that have long reach weapons or stick out oddly...like Inverters or Reciprocators. 

When it comes to storing models long term (ie. when I'm switched to another army), I can put some metal sheet in larger storage bins and just put my models into one decent sized bin. This is probably more efficient than what I have to do now to store foam trays for models. 

The other benefit is when it comes to going to tournaments. I can fit my two list pair onto a single baking sheet, which makes for a great tournament tray that securely holds everything. I've already attended one event this way and it has worked out great. The baking sheet was something like $5 and slips easily into my bag. 

Overall I'm pretty happy with how the project has come out and I've certainly saved some money going this route, but it's definitely a lot of work to get here.

The Obscure Ultima, Ultima: Escape From Mt. Drash

Back in Ye Olden Days, I knew nothing of blogs and was content to post materials on forums and newsgroups and the like.  I contributed a few writings to GameFAQs back before the days when it was purchased by GameSpot.  The only actual FAQ for a video game I ever contributed that described how to beat a game was for the VIC-20 game Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash.  When GameFAQs took over, I removed all my content from that site.  Now, having finally been able to play the game on original hardware, I think it is time to revive the old FAQ.  Moreover, no longer limited to plain, monochrome text, I can do more now that I have my own blog and the ability to add images, color text and link video.  Let's take a trip into a rarely visited part of the Ultima Universe.

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You say "obsessed" as if it is a bad thing.