I want it all

I have been diagnosed with RAD: Raging Aquisition Disorder or Gamer's Magpie Syndrome. It's sometimes unscientifically described as the "Oooh, shiny!"-weakness... Basically, what it means is that while I labour away, painstakingly painting three hundred and fourty-two greek spearmen in 10mm scale, I get seduced by something new... we all have it in a fashion, how else would you explain people who buy new phones every six months?

"Hallo? I would like to order a platoon of Tigers please. What do you mean I must build all the Panthers first?"

But I digress. What I was going to talk about is the various stuff that recently have caught my eye.

This summer has been particularly cruel to me.

First, Plastic Soldier Company announced that they would release their own rules, called Battlegroup Kursk. They quite literally picked up the ball that Games Workshop dropped when they cancelled the Warhammer Historical line, snatching up Warwick Kinrade who wrote Kampfgruppe Normandy. Now, KGN was an overpriced but beautifully produced hardback book presented in typical GW fashion. I have never played the game, but bought the rulebook to read the rules since I had heard that some of the mechanics were quite interesting. Battlegroup Kursk -- obviously hinting at their lineage with the name -- is not the same game but will be in a similar vein, probably sharing some of the concepts. It retails for around £30 and is available for pre-order from Plastic Soldier Company, due for release in september. While I normally play IABSM I'm quite happy trying out new games and I enjoy just reading rules.

Second, Warlord Games announced they would bring out their own WW2 miniatures game to support their range of 28mm figures; imaginatively titled Bolt Action (same as their miniature range) it's written by none other than Rick Priestley, another ex-GW author. I remember reading an article in White Dwarf some 12-13 years ago which featured photos of the Perry Twins' gaming table. Surprisingly it had WW2 figures on it, and the caption said something about the Warhammer crew playing historical games with the Warhammer and Warhammer 40k rules. I did not know it back then but the Perry Twins and Rick has always been huge history buffs, and Rick has confirmed that what was published as 2nd edition of Warhammer 40k started as their own home-brewn WW2 game!

Being a huge Rick Priestley fan I want to buy these rules as well, seeing as Rick has evolved quite a bit as a rules-writer the past 15 years with great games like Warmaster, Epic40k and Lord of the Rings. Bolt Action will also be out in september, and can be preordered at a discount through Northstar Military Figures up until release. However, the summer has been mainly occupied with vacations and family stuff. Not boring, no, just a bit expensive, as family vacations can turn out. I'm not complaining, but pre-ordering a lot of stuff hasn't really been financeally sound, especially after blowing a big chunk of cash on LEGO sets for the kids. So, no preordering. But there is still time, and this brings me to my second problem. In the great words of Freddy Mercury: "I want it all. I want it all. And I want it now."

We all totally got the bug.

Seriously, if I pre-order one game there's no problem. I can just buy some other figures, or a book or order something else, while waiting. Of course I want my toys NOW, but I can wait. But if I order two games and have to wait for both of them, I start to get impatient. So I buy other stuff to take my mind off waiting, and suddenly there's this package at my doorstep containing something I ordered a month ago, but had forgot about. Ooops.

Now you are wondering what the big deal is. The big deal is this; apart from the two games I mentioned, another game will be released in september. Technically it was released just now at GenCon, but it probably won't hit Europe for another couple of weeks. I'm of course talking about X-wing from Fantasy Flight Games. As a serious Star Wars fan I cannot resist this. No, that's not correct. I do not want to even try resisting it. And of course I pre-ordered it a year ago when it was first announced at GenCon last year and slated for a Christmas 2011 release. So I have been waiting for over a year and now that it is finally coming I want it immediately. To ensure I get a copy of the game as soon as possible I have ordered another starter set from another dealer -- I mean shop -- figuring I will need lots of Tie Fighters anyway and extra templates and dice and stuff is always handy. If one shop hits a snag maybe the other will manage to get a copy to me on time. And now I hear FFG is doing a roleplaying game on Star Wars as well. You can already order the Beta rules. Oh dear... 

I haven't even mentioned the new Warhammer 40k set that looks very good indeed. Due for release in September... take it away, Freddy.