Sigh, so little money, so little time, so many miniatures to collect.  We'll start from the top:

First off, the Spugs guy has just released what he's calling a "Spugnaut", which is the Spug equivalent of GW's "Dreadnaught" - a sort of mech/power armor thing.  It's cool as can be, and I have one heading my way, or will pretty soon.  I'm mostly finished with my first round of Spugs, and I'm looking forward to playing some games with them.  I'm planning on using them for Chain Reaction, which is my current favorite skirmish game, but I need to try ShockForce, which seems like the perfect evolution of the VOID/40k concept.

On a similar note, another indy-caster has released some dinosaur like high-tech alien minatures called Hydrissians.  They have pretty much the same "stuff" available as the Spugs (troopers, a leader, and a super-heavy armored guy), but naturally with a very different look and feel.  I have a few of these guys as well, so my Spugs will have some other aliens to shoot at.

I have some 40k Space Marines and VOID Viridians for my "human" troops.  All in all, I should have quite a variety of scifi miniatures for gaming with - "Aliens" like Colonial Marines, Star Wars Storm Trooper like Space Marines, Spugs, Hydrissians, and a purly robotic army (VOID Syntha).  Now if I could just find time to host some games!  Hell, if I could just find time to paint them all, that would be something. :-)

Reaper's Warlord game is a fantasy combat game which I've managed to keep "out" of so far.  The problem is, I really, really, really love their elves.  Most games have elves that either look just like people with pointy ears, or have really stupid looking head dress.  Werner Glocke has sculpted the very best elves ever for this game.  They have an Anime influence, and TONS of cat-like attitude and grace.  No, they're not "cat elves", but they certainly have an almost feral attitude.  I don't care so much about the game (I played it at a con, and it was fine, but not exciting to me), but those elves rule.  I'm trying to avoid buying some, but it's not easy.  If they were less expensive, I would have bought the box set already, but at almost twice the price I'm used to paying for figures, I just can't justify it.

In addition to the almost criminal number of projects I already have to work on, I just found out two additional things that make me very sad, and bode ill for my financial and mental security.

* Games Workshop is coming out with a "master rules" book for their LOTR game that combines every rule and figure stat they've ever published into one book.  To top it off, they're releasing a series of campaign scenario books that tie to different parts of the trilogy and its surrounding history.  I'm a fan of the GW LOTR game system, but thus far I've managed to avoid buying any miniatures myself.  Well, I did pick up The Fellowship at a clearance sale, but that doesn't count, does it? :-)  In general, the LOTR line isn't horribly over-priced for a licensed product, the sculpts are pretty good, and the game is surprisingly simple and fun.

So I can see this becoming a serious bottomless pit for me, as I've always wanted to get a horde of Moria goblins, some cave trolls, etc. to fight the Fellowship.  And really, who doesn't want an army of the hosts of Mordor to pit against the last defenses of Man?  Yes, GW has had these products all along, but for some reason, with the line's "coming of age", I'm once again drawn to it.

Sigh.  If I can wait until November, I can probably pick up a lot of this stuff at 25% off at MilleniumCon.

* Privateer Press (makers of Warmachine, which is a very cool game in its own right) just announced a new game they're tentatively calling HORDES: Primal, which is sort of the flip side of Warmachine.

Both games are relatively small affairs, pitting a leader with a half dozen super-powerful minions against another such leader, with the ability to combine multiple leaders and some support troops for larger battles.  But while Warmachine has your Warcaster (wizard guy) parcelling out "focus" control points to his Warjacks (5 ton steam powered mecha), HORDES: Primal has your Warlock (a barbarian warlord) leads a raging group ofWarbeasts, siphoning off their primal rage to keep them under control, and using that force to weave powerful majiks.

Damn, but that game sounds cool, and most importantly, the miniatures look WAY cool.  But I need to try to resist!

At least HORDES: Primal won't be available until 2nd quarter next year, so I have some time to get my backlog worked on.  I'm not so foolish as to believe I'll catch up, but if I can just get my Spugs and Hydrissians painted...