January>April 2025: Year of the Sucess Story

First painting tutorial for Pano paint set promotion form The Army Painter :


Interesting result indeed but I'm a bit disappointed with a paint set specific color as they explicitly explain that there is not exact match in their existing ranges.

 

This is a plus for me.
If the paints had an exact match in their range, I couldn't justify buying this (as I already have all the Fanatic range).
What is disappointing though, is they could have integrated the new paints in their triad system like they did for most of the paint from the Blanche boxes but it seems it's not the case (but it's not a big problem honestly).

 

I love their concept design videos. And this box has turned out particularly good. Great job.

 

I love particularly Bayara Palace Guard. They made a great job with these new dessigns and is specially intresting they talk us about the process. Don't know since when they are doing that because I was out for a long time, but it is very appreciated.

 

ISS gets Dragon Lord, Qianfeng, Jinwei, Bayara, Koga, Jinyao, Shenji Ying, for a total of 7 new units.

Bakunin had: Initiates, Orphans, Wabara, Daemonist, Cenobites, Stigmata, Penitent. Later on they gained Rounders, Marspiders for a total of 9 new units.

I’m a little disappointed there’s no new characters and no REF units. Looks like there’s a new HI and Skirmish. It looks like Kuang Shi are moved to Skirmish? We also lost Sophie and Garuda. Garuda was expected. Sophie was slightly.

I can’t tell what’s the new Doctor and Engineer yet, but there’s Yaozao for them.

 

Rounders and Marspiders were reinforcement units added later. If you count them info "Bakunin update added", why don't you add Long Wang, Qi Shi, and Fei Quan to "ISS update added"? And you missed Robin Hook for Bakunin ;)

I can agree somewhat about missing a character, but there also was complaints about "so many characters in Infinity". We'll see how it goes.

 

True, but it's still an addition last year. ISS didn't get any REF troops.

Yes I should have included those. For some reason I was thinking of them as already existing. So if you add those then they are equal.

I would have liked the MI version of Sun Tze. Right now. I see no reason to take him. He's so expensive that ruins any benefits you gain from his Stratego. For me, I need some benefit beyond the Lt. roll. if they made him a Specialist Operative, I'd consider him more often.

 

Garuda become unnecessary when they added another paratroop

 

That's true if they do the same things. There are others that have more than one. Hellcats and Meteor Zond for example.

 

I am happy that we not get much more characters - YJ have already enough. In ISS we have Tao Wu, Xi Zhuang, Adil and of course Sun Tze (which maybe gets a fresh rulset and miniature). REF units where Koreans and go all to WB. Shenji Ying are "troops with deployable devices" so maybe we see pitcher #2 or at least some forwarded (FD Versions) dep reps.

 

Yeah I knew that if we ever got to see a HRL Wrecker it would be be one you can't get easily . Or cheaply.

 

Sorry it’s taken a while. For those that are new, I keep track of new figures each year. Because I’m stupid like that, I guess. I don't count things we know are coming out. Only new figures that are in the store.

Here's the totals from last year and the sum up of the last five years.

Total new figures per year.
2024: 119
2023: 129
2022: 91
2021: 112
2020: 103

2020-2024 Total new figures per faction.
Nomads: 81
Combined Army: 78
O-12: 72
PanO: 68
Aleph: 59
Ariadna: 55
NA2: 49
Yu Jing: 40
Haqqislam: 34
JSA: 19

I'm hoping Yu Jing and Haqqislam get a boost this year. Sure Yu Jing is getting the new ISS but that doesn't mean they will get more beyond that. It's possible they will get new set and then only 1 of each of the new troops and then nothing beyond that.

Haqqislam has got the short end for years now. I don't know if it's because they are not popular or what. I have a few players in my meta. About average I guess. Neither are as popular as Nomads, PanO, and Combined though.

I’m expecting a new Dire Foes with Xi Zhuang. No idea of it would be against Lila Sharif again but I think it would be good for Haqq. It would also make sense for them to do a set with Yuriko Oda and Bipandra.

2025 Figure Release up to February 2024
JSA: 2 Releases, 6 figures (Alpha pack, Beta pack)
PanO: 2 Release2, 4 figures (KCF Beta pack, Dr. Priya Harper)
O-12: 2 Release, 4 figure (TB Beta Pack, Jamie Arantes)
YJ: 1 Release, 3 figures (WB Beta pack)

2024 Figure Release up to December 2024
O-12: 6 Releases, 21 Figures (Torchlight Brigade, Gladius Team, Nightshade, Wreaker, TB Expansion Alpha, Raveneye)
Aleph: 7 Release, 21 Figures (Myrmidons, REF Pack, Regular release Maximus, Atalanta, Sophotech Support pack, Ajax, Posthumans)
JSA: 6 Releases, 20 Figures (Mechazoid, REF Pack, Takeshi Oyama, Sandtrap, Beyond Sand)
PanO: 4 Release, 13 Figures (Regular release Maximus, Tikbalang, Sandtrap, Beyond Sand)
Ariadna: 5 Releases 13 Figures (Cateran, REF Pack Alpha, Jacques Bruant, Ratnik, Kibervolk Patrol)
Haqqislam: 5 Releases, 12 Figures (REF Pack Alpha, Azra’il, Hassasin pack Alpha, Mukhtar RF, Al-Djabel)
Nomads: 3 Releases, 5 Figures (Lizard, Zeros, Daemonist Observant)
NA2: 5 Releases, 5 Figures, (Digger, Liberto, Samsa, Triphammer TAG, Beasthunter)
Combined Army: 2 Release, 2 Figures (regular release Caskuda, Anathematic)
Yu Jing: 2 Release, 3 Figure (Guilang Hacker, Yaoxie remotes)
Special: (All Factions except CA & Tohaa): 1 Release, 1 Figure (Warcore)
Special: Dire Foes 14, 1 Nomad, 1 O-12, 1 HVT

 

Thanks. Not happy with Koga having Decoy and Mim -3. He had better be cheaper than a regular Ninja. I mean like Beasthunter cheap.