Another Batch of Axis

It'll be time for basing soon as I'm almost out of unpainted minis.

The (painting of the) Axis war machine continues, inching towards total domination of unpainted models.  This batch consists of:

• Snipers
• Spotters
• Brain Eaters
• Grenadier X
• Stefan
• Ludwig arms
• Flamm-Luther arms
• Wotan arm shields

I had another unfortunate Dust experience this week, akin to the previous one.  My Wednesday opened up unexpectedly so I headed out to roll some dice at Huzzah but found no other combatants.  The group there has taken a couple body blows over the past few months, but this was the first time I showed up in vain.  This saps my zeal for reinforcements as I don't want to sink money into a game that I may have no competition for, which is unfortunate on a couple levels.  With the recent release of Icarus there are a couple builds I want to try out with the new units, Brain Eaters among them, but said builds will require another couple boxes to manage which, despite Dust's reasonable pricing, is more than I'm willing to put towards something that might sit on the shelf.  While this is, in my mind, a reasonable response to faltering interest, it also reinforces the problem.  If less people show up to play because less people are showing up to play then even less people will show up to play.  Quite the spiral.  I'm not throwing in the towel yet, but with the Caps making the playoffs gaming time might be scarcer than it already is for the next few weeks, which could be the deathblow for Dust.

The last few posts here have been pretty down, so I'll end this one on an note of optimism.  I cut it pretty close without really meaning to, but I bought in on the Arena Rex Kickstarter just before it expired.  It's a gladiator skirmish game that looks fast to play while having a reaction system, like Dust, to keep everyone involved throughout the game.  The models are few at this point and mostly in progress, but what has been shown is gorgeous.  One of my Warmahordes locals bought in as well, so this won't be another Dreadball-esque solo leap of faith, and there's still the option on the AR site to kinda sorta get in on the Kickstarter via Paypal.  There are playtest rules in the works for "summer," which hopefully is in the near future.  In other news I'm still fighting the good fight against including flyers and dedicated anti-flyer tech in my Dark Angels army, but with EV fielding a pair of (unreasonably brutal) Heldrakes that time may be winding down.  I considered an Aegis Defense Line at Huzzah this week but balked at the $30 tag as I'd mentally figured $20 would do it.  High prices from GW shouldn't surprise me any more, but they still manage it every now and again.