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Well, I gave up my White Dwarf a couple of years ago like many of you for the same reasons, increasing price and decreasing quality. And
lately, I've been getting turned on more to the indy thinking mode for collecting. As GWs prices keep soaring and competitors keep making amazing products for cheaper, the switch is getting easier.

For instance, I dumped my frustrating GW carrying cases for Battlefoam Custom trays. If you've seen these in person, it's a no brainer.
Another case, a vast majority of my tourney armies are based with Micro Art Studio resin bases. Their selection and detail are amazing and saves me astronomical time in basing.
And then, I reluctantly started using outside models for characters in my armies. I really like the Avatars of War since they most represent Warhammer Fantasy in fluff and scale.
Now I am about to start building my High Elves using Mantic Games' new Elves. They are amazing and I recommend you check them out. They remind me of the Elves from the animated Hobbit I grew up watching. The one thing that prevented me from finishing my High Elves army were the horrible Core Plastics. Now I have a reason to return to my first favorite army.

Straying even further from GW I thought I'd give this new indy magazine a shot, Tales of Battle. At first I was very hesitant as I heard it covered only indy events and that it was quite short in length. But from what I saw on their website and read from the reviews it sounded optimistic. I finally received my first issue and I loved it. Every page was interesting and relevant to the fantasy hobbyist, especially if you're a tournament player. There were names, pics, interviews, and army list of competitors I had heard of and played before. (I live in California and the Tales of Battle guys are from Texas). I communicated with the publisher and he assured me that the length and content would definitely increase as their publications are already increasing. The most intriguing feature is the last section which details the army lists and a thorough battle report of game 5 at table 1, which is the last game of the tournament and usually the battle for overall first place battle points.

Again, these are my personal favorites lately and I'm sure most of you will agree that these are some potential up and coming products, I hope you will check them out and decide for yourself!

Roman Baker