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I've been looking at this one a lot, and trying to figure out if it's worth stocking in my shops. I'm getting zero requests for it. So, sleeper hit? or dud? Is anyone here looking forward to it? It ships in about 2 weeks.

I've played some games with the demo kit and found it rather fun. I havnt decided if I want to get into it yet or not however.

I played it and found it to be very *meh*. The collectible aspect of the game is a major turnoff and the gameplay frankly was less than original / impressive.

With the market saturation that other games have it makes no sense to buy into this goofiness...

Hadn't even heard of it until now. I can't seem to find any good pics of the figures, but this review of the demo kit definitely turned me off:

http://drakesflames.blogspot.com/2009/08/almost-miniatures-game-review-arcane.html

You can't really call the figures window dressing, either, because if they were just there to be pretty, they would need to actually be pretty. Not that the figures are butt-ugly, but they remind me more of the plastic army men that you can get in plastic bags from the toy aisle at Safeway. Warhammer 40K is safe - nobody is going to quit spending hours painting super-detailed Genestealers just to paint these Chinese archers. I guess you could paint them, but I'm not certain it would be worth the trouble.

UGH.

From what I was told, the figs in the demo kits weren't up to the full level of quality the figs you buy are supposed to be. The rare figs seemed to be better, it was just the common unpai Ted ones that were crappy.

Its been getting a lot of push and hype, but I don't see many gamers in my neck of the woods going hyper over it. And we play lots of games and love trying new stuff, and have no bias against/for prepaints/unpaints (just played a great game of "Zombies!!!" last night for instance).

We're getting one of the starter packs to try it and see for ourselves (they're so cheap it would be rude not to) and if the game play is fun and the figures not too "meh" we may expand further. We'll see.

What's putting us off is:
1/ the quirkyness of the background doesn't have any immediate appeal to many of us,
2/ the figures, frankly, look like crap from the photos we've seen on the web, and
3/ those hideous, huge, brightly coloured bases spoil the look on the tabletop.

We're willing to give it a go, but there isn't the outright frothfest in our ranks like there was for Monsterpocalypse (for instance).

The D6 Generation has talked about it quite a bit in the past couple podcasts. It sounds like it has a good deal of tactical depth. Take a listen, or maybe Russ can chime in here.

Shellfishguy wrote:The D6 Generation has talked about it quite a bit in the past couple podcasts. It sounds like it has a good deal of tactical depth. Take a listen, or maybe Russ can chime in here.

Oh yes, I'm a long time listener to the podcast. I've also watched a few of the demo videos on Youtube. But nevertheless there's just something lacking in flavour form me and the others in my group who've seen the game advertised (there was a big splash review/infomercial in last month's Wargames Illustrated). I'm sure the game is worthy and has many "innovative mechanics", etc., etc. Just nothing we've seen so far has given us the "wow factor" that Horrorclix, Pirates of the Spanish Main or Zombies!!! (for instance) did when they came out.

Nevertheless, the price is so low it'd be ridiculous not to at least give the intro set a try, and if its not too horrible, we may invest a bit more.

Also, as a cynical, jaded Brit gamer, I'm not one to be suckered by the kind of OTT "American" style hype that has preceded the release of the game. In an industry that is notoirious for low margins, seeing such a hefty advertising budget being wheeled out just ... ooh, I dunno, just jars a little and makes the game feel more "corporate" than is my personal preference. It's sort of like seeing a big budget Hollywood movie advertised with a well known star billing. It may look flashy in the advertising, but does it have enough about it to do more than "open well"? From everything I've seen so far, I fear not. But I'm willing to give it a go nevertheless, based purely on the low, low entry price, (and it has to be said, lack of "rip off" factor in the "blind purchase" area as well... boy am I glad to see that blind purchasing as a method of distributing miniature wargames is pretty much dead!).

Purely personal feeling. I'm sure YMMV. And I think those that enjoy organised (inter-)national tournaments and prize fights etc., will love the game. That's not my crowd though.

I suspect it comes down to the big question: do tournament gamers abound in sufficient quantities to support a game like this?

I've got two of the boosters from Gencon (from fortune cookies). I was really put off by the "prepainted" aspect and refrained from buying any.

So the game is out now, who picked it up? Myself and two others picked up a starter each and did a three way trade so we got three starters worth of one faction each. A dirt cheap way to get started if you know what you want and can pull that kind of trade off.

I'm considering picking up a starter as a way to pick up dirt-cheap minis for a fantasy-historical GURPS campaign my group will be starting shortly. I went into one of my FLGS that tends to stock these types of games and they weren't considering getting it in - apparently it's been hard to get any decent info from the makers, they weren't even offered a demo kit to help build the hype.

That being said, they had the same issue with Monsterpocalypse, started off really slow, hardly shifting any in the first four months, then apparently took off in a big way.

I'm not sure this will go anywhere, even though I'd really like it to. They've done a lot of things right (unpainted common minis to be able to afford having tons of them, faction and type specific boosters etc.) and I like the idea behind the subscription-based component, so props for trying something new. I suspect if they increase the quality of the minis and continue with a good level of support, they'll be onto a good thing.

What's the subscription component?

I'm interested in Roman bear cavalry. But that might just be about it.

Right now the subscription service is in beta and costs 1 cent. Next month if you have not canceled youget charged the normal rate of I believe $14 for four months membership. Benefits are;

Access to buy special figs that are only avalible for ~month in their online store.

Access to member only forums on their site.

Member only tournaments and events.

The big one, access to their build your own unit program on their website. All figs and abilites have a point cost and you can conbine units from any faction together into nearly any form you want. Register that unit, it gets unique code, print it out, and it's now a completely official unit for use in even tournaments.

A software hack for plastic models?

I don't know about that...

"Hmmm. Upgrades."

The concept seems very solid. I've played one game and enjoyed it. The rules, especially for the unit formations and placement of the figs in the unit, seemed pretty good.

I just don't have the time for another miniatures game in addition to my WH and 40k habits, even one with as low barriers to entry as this one has.

I have two starters and Cav packs in the mail to try it out. Then... we'll see. I'm having trouble keeping up (financially) with all Monsterpocalypse factions.