Games
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Dust: Tactics and Earth Reborn are both games vying for my attention, but sadly I can probably only afford one. That is if I get the Deluxe Edition. Yeah, right.
With no indication about how either one plays, and with both games in their cheapest form being supplied with unpainted minis, I have to make a decision on which game to get based on what sort of man I am.
Earth Reborn apparently plays like a Space Hulk kind of game - which I like the sound of apart from the fact that the miniatures have the exact same white undercoat for both sides. This will be confusing if I don't paint them, so it's a dilemma.
Dust: Tactics seems right up my alley with a miniatures combat board game, and the plastic of the unpainted minis seem like they are distinct enough from each other for easy identification. The only downside is that I've never tried an FFG product - ever.
I could list on and on about how I want to support independent game publishers that are not-FFG but there's a difference between not supporting indie game companies like Z-Man who put out Earth Reborn and just being a Bansky fanboy who applies his art school morals to the world of the board game industry.
It's silly and it's pointless to compare these very distinct games from each other, since if I had the mind to do so I could probably afford both for the price of the obscene Deluxe Edition which seems like an exercise in excessive content overpricing. Yeah, I'm sure the minis that are prepainted in the Deluxe Edition of Dust: Tactics look great - but the price tag doesn't look so great, especially when I consider that there are non-board game related items I want for Christmas which are equally as expensive but can wait till my birthday in the new year. The good news for me is that the iPad so I have read is not exactly a "limited edition product". Yeah, you may have heard that it's very available.
I have considered buying one not just for the eReader potential and the apps, but to display my digital photographs to people in a way where I don't have to carry my hard copy prints all the time. Compared to that the Deluxe Edition of Dust: Tactics looks like an equally expensive folly - David Lynch's adaptation of Dune.
Yeah, as a board gamer I'm pretty impressionable, and yeah I admit my hypocrisy over the minis issue because in my heart I know inside every college age man is a boy who wants the thrill of Games Workshop at a fraction of the cost - but I draw the line at spending $400 AUS on a friggin' BOARD GAME. Because when you spend that much on a board game it better be worth it. Me, I'll be getting the unpainted version thanks. Besides, I'll feel less dirty.
Earth Reborn is still interesting to me though. I'll definitely consider it.
