Alternative Systemes Review: Horde of the Things and Impetus

In my attempt to find an alternate gaming system to Warhammer Fantasy Battle, I have started reading through some of them when I can find a free online system, or read through their online introduction.  There are around 16 gaming systems from my previous post, (located here for reference) which is a lot to go through.  Therefore I am going to winnow out a few that I know are not going to be what I am looking for. 

Well I went through most of the gaming system called Horde of the Things (HOTT), and it is a game that is more align with Warmaster than Warhammer.  The authors of HOTT are the ones who also created De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) and De Bellis Multitudinis (DBM), and thus run very similarly to these ancient games.  The rules can be found here a little bit down the page, and for personal use only.  DBA, DBM, HOTT and Warmaster are all games where stands are use to represent your troops, most likely units that are of battallion strength or larger.  Given that I am not intersted in playing a game right now that uses stands to represents regiments of troops, I am not going to spend a whole lot of time evaluating those type of systemes when I see them. 

These rules may be an interesting alternative to Warmaster, however I am not that much into Warmaster and thus am not really into playing anything like it.  I am sure that these are great system's to play, and I like some of the original ideas about the game, but I don't have that much interest in playing with these systems.  They are brands of gin when I am a scotch drinker.  Impetus also falls into this category as well and thus is something that I will most likely not be intersted in playing.  So that is two gaming systems that I can take off of the list right now that I will proabably not be evaluating to the level of test gaming. 

Of course this is only what I have read, and I know that most people think that this is rather harsh to do to a game system.  Problem is that if I dont have interest in the system, how can I sell someone to play a game that I really don't care to play.  However the list is by far an extensive and distinguished list. 

List of Fantasy Game Systems:
1: Reaper Warlord
2: Kings of War (Mantic)*
3: Fantasy Warriors (Miltron)*
4: Armies of Arcana
5: Mighty Armies (Rebel Miniatures)
6: Hostile Realms(Piquet Master Rules)
7: Songs of Blades and Heroes
8:  Rally Around the King
9: 100 Kingdoms*
10: For the Masses (Majestic 12)
11: No Quarter
12: War Engine/Shockforce
13: Pride of Lions
14:  Battle Systems 2 ed.

There are a few others that I have gone through initially and some look great while some are proabably not going to be ones that I am intersted in.  Of course I will post my thoughts on these systems as I go thorugh them.

My problem with Finecast

I have heard the horror stories as every one else has about fine cast.  They are prone to melting in the trunk of your car.  They are riddled with bubbles so much that GW made their own liquid filler that you have to buy. (I would call that insult to injury)  They come with bent items and given the strenght of the material are prone to breakage.  The obvious cheaper material of finecast yet more expensive cost of them.  All of these issues would normally would detract me from buying the miniatures.  However I originally thought that they dont effect me nearly as much as they would have in the past.  Mainly due to the fact that I am not buying anything new from the lines. 

I have decided to go for older models on average for most of my armies that I do still collect, so I should not care about finecast, and I really don't care.  Everything that I collect for my fantasy armies will be from an older edition to match more easily historical miniatures.  However I am not just collecting only fantasy miniatures.  I am still in 40K a little bit, and with the new edition I will proabably will be playing that more often than not.  The problem that I have with GW is that instead of re-vamping new miniatures with finecast so we collectors know which model has which material, they have taken existing sculpts and casted them in finecast as well, as with these guys that I was going to add to my army:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440176a&prodId=prod1160097a&rootCatGameStyle=

This is what I really dont like what GW has done with their policies.  I can understand using finecast on new sculpts, but this really casues trouble as to what exactly you are buying on the secondary market.  Along with that I have been informed that stripping off paint from finecast is a chore and most likely will ruin your model.  Usually you may have to worry that someone is giving you a counterfit sculpt from time to time made from this material, but here GW has done it for you.  Now if I want to make sure that I am getting the model made out of the right material, I have to see them stripped.  I have to say thank you for making my life harder GW.  Ironically I really can't afford to be one right now, but in the event that I do become a customer once again, it will be of the classic editions and not of any of this crappy finecast that GW seems to think is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  I will still buy the plastic units from time to time, albeit sparingly.

As promised I am trying to limit my rants on GW from now on so this will have to do for the next six months.  I will try to make it to the end of the year folks, I will really try.  Hopefully I will have some good things to say about 40K when I get the rulebook.  So far it sounds like a game that I may be interested in.