Top 50 Movies (29-11)

To be honest the top ten list will be boring (spoiler: 80% of it is Star Wars or Lord of the Rings), so this is where it gets exciting.

29. The Dark Knight
This is the best super hero movie ever. The portrayal of a grittier, less comic bookish Joker, portrayed perfectly by Heath Ledger, really put this one over the top.

28. Army of Darkness
This is without a doubt, one of the most quotable movies ever. I am not a huge fan of "B movies", unless it is a B movie that knows it and rejoices in this fact like Army of Darkness does.

27. Goonies
Three movies went a long way to defining my childhood: Star Wars, Ghostbusters, and Goonies. I can not express how badly I wanted to find a treasure map and a secret cave in my childhood. I remember one time even going into a storage room in the garage and looking all over the place just to make sure there wasn't a hidden map somewhere.

26. The Princess Bride
This movie is made by its excellent characters, simplistic fairy tale story, and witty writing. Just like Fred Savage wanted his grandfather to come back and read the story again, this is a movie that stands up very well to repeat viewings.

25. Serenity
Serenity is the Return of the Jedi of the Firefly story, and it was the end to a universe whose life was to short. Joss Wheadon's "space western" hits on a lot of the same high notes that Star Wars does (a "used" universe, constant hints at a back story, glimpses of a larger universe). However, the Firefly universe is a lot more gritty and gray. Also, the characters in Firefly are all absoluty awesome.

24. Clue
I think this movie is under appreciated. The mix of a "whodoneit?" with a comedy works really well. Tim Curry as the butler is incredibly hilarious.

23. The Rock
I don't really know how to articulate it, but there is a 90's action movie blue print. Many of these movies (The Rock, Speed, Broken Arrow, etc) have a very similar feel to them. In my opinion The Rock is the best of them. The fact that Sean Connery for all intents and purposes played an older James Bond (they just changed his name to Mason) is what really makes this one.

22. The Braveheart
This movie went a long way to spawning "the historical epic" that is common place now. Like other movies already on this list, Braveheart gives a historical looking setting and creates a fiction story using historical figures. Braveheart is the movie that historians love to hate for this reason, because the average American's knowledge of English history probably begins with Braveheart and ends with the Patriot. While not historically accurate in the least, Braveheart is a compelling story of love, loss, and honor.

21. Black Hawk Down
Because of this movie, I have shot countless terrorist on the streets of sandy war-torn cities in numerous video games. This movie is on this list for the same reason as other war movies, it just happens to be with contemporary warfare.

20. Zombieland
This is the newest movie on the list, and it may be artificially high because of its newness. However, I loved this movie. It was laugh out loud funny all throughout, and it had some great Zombie killing action.

19. Die Hard
Smart Mouth action heroes are common, but in Die Hard John McClain created the "every man" smart mouth action hero. This is officially my favorite "Christmas Movie", and Abigail and I try to watch it every Christmas eve.

18. Aliens
As scores of B-Movies and Sci-Fi Original movies will show, Space Marines are hard to get right. That is because every movie that features Space marines is trying desperately hard to capture the magic that is Aliens.

17. Shaun of the Dead
While Zombieland may replace it, this is my current favorite Zombie movie. Like Hot Fuzz the brilliance of Shaun of the Dead is that it makes fun of Zombie movies, while being a legitimate zombie movie.

16. Fight Club
I like this movies unique storytelling and its exploration of some of the dark effects that are consumer culture has on the human soul. I don't know if this is a human trait or just a male trait, but this movie touches on the fact that deep down that all of us want to beat the living crap out of something from time to time.

15. Ghostbusters
As mentioned in the Goonies post, this was one of the defining movies of my childhood. This was only accented by the fact that my favorite cartoon for a lot of elementary school was The Real Ghostbusters. I really wanted to catch a ghost, and one of my favorite books was even a "how to" guide on doing that.

14. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
This is the best Indiana Jones movie in my opinion. The action is top notch, and the interaction between Harrison Ford and Sean Connery is brilliant. I also like the undertones this movie has about faith.

13. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Funniest. Movie. Ever. I have seen this movie many, many times and I still laught at it.

12. 300
From the visual style of the movie, to the fights, to Gerard Butler's intensity this movie is just cool.

11. Saving Private Ryan
The D-Day invasion scene at the opening of this movie is still the most incredible thing I have ever seen in any movie. The story while mostly fabricated is a very good one. For me this is the definitive war movie.

Top 50 Movies (50-30)

A while ago I listed my top 25 video games of all time. Since i have seen more movies, it is only fitting the list be twice as long. Plus, I need this long of a list because if I were to do a top five it would be boring as it is mostly Star Wars (top ten is similar as you will see. I am sure there is a favorte movie of mine that I completely spaced some how and left off, or the order may be slightly variable. However, this should be fairly close to accurate.

50. The Phantom Menance
This makes the list only because it is a Star Wars movie. You could be snotty and ask why The Clone Wars is not on the list for that reason, and that is because that was just a couple of TV show episodes shown in succession. You could be really snotty and ask why the ewok movies are not on the list. If either of those two movies had a lightsaber in them, then they would be.

49. Dodgeball: An Underdog Story
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. I find this movie to be hysterical. Plus if ESPN 8 were a real channel, I would watch it all the time.

48. Dawn of the Dead
This is the Zach Snyder remake not the original. I do like a good Zombie movie, and this is one is one of the best. It is very tense and bleak all throughout.

47. The Passion of the Christ
I try to watch this movie once a year on Easter. It is a hard movie to watch, but it is worth it every time.

46. Kingdom of Heaven
There are not enough quality movies with Medieval battle scenes. This movie has them, and it raises interesting questions about the nature of faith.

45. V for Vendetta
If a movie has at least one or two quality martial arts fights I will probably enjoy it. This does have one. On top of that it has an almost film noir feeling and raises questions about the nature of government.

44. Dead Poet Society
We all want a teacher like Mr. Keating. More over, if anyone has ever taught, it is there secret dream for students to stand up on their desk and call them captain.

43. We are Soldiers
As this list will quickly show, I like war movies. The best war movies deliver incredible visuals, capture the horrors of war, and the honors of war. This movie does all of that.

42. Enemy at the Gates41. The Man Who Knew to Little
A little known movie about a hapless man that is always in the right place at the right time. This movie shows off the comedic genius of Bill Murray

40. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
There needs to be more pulp hero movies, and they need to be more like this and less like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

39. Ocean's Eleven
I think this movie may be a little to "smart" for its own good, as I like it a bit less each time I watch it. Despite that, it is always fun to watch the heist go off as planned.

38. Aladdin
One of two Disney Movies on the list. This is mainly here because Robin Williams makes me laugh.

37. Zulu
If there is a movie in the history of cinema that needs to be remade it is this one. 100 British soldiers vs. 4,000 Zulu Warriors and the British win.

36. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
It is a shame Guy Ritchie does not make movies like this or Snatch any more. The set up is great and the dialogue is clever.

35. Fearless
Back to the Martial arts thing. I like a good fight, and if Jet Li is part of it then it is even better. This is a Kung-fu historical epic starting Jet Li and the fights are excellent.

34. Hot Fuzz
While not as good as Shaun of the Dead, this spoof on action movies is very well done. The movie is good because it parodies action movies, while still using legitimately using action movie conventions.

33. Gladiator
Historically, this movie is a huge mess. . . to the point that it should probably be considered fantasy. However, it is an excellent story of a hero.

32. Fist of Legend
I have watched a lot of kung fu movies, and this is probably my favorite. It has several very well done fights, PLUS a plot that is actually worth following.

31. The Lion King
The second Disney movie on the list. The voice acting for Scar is brilliant, but overall I really like the story of losing oneself and then finding it again.

30. Shawshank Redemption
This is not a "fun" movie to watch. However it is an absolute incredible one with great characters, great acting, and an amazing story of hope in a hopeless situation.

The Complete Star Wars Saga

So last week, Avon schools were on Fall Break. For the youth who were not going anywhere I held a Star Wars marathon, because there was more than 1 who had never seen a Star Wars movie. Fourteen youth participated in this event, but only five made it the whole night (technically if take out the people who dozed off I think only one made it the whole night with me.)

Watching all of the Star Wars movies in one sitting was a life goal of mine. Now that I have taken in the whole Star Wars story at one time here are some of thoughts about my favorite movies

1. The Original Trilogy is better
I have long been a defender of the prequel movies, especially episodes II and III, claiming they are not that bad and that episode III especially is quite good. However, when viewed from a story telling perspective and viewing both prequels as separate story arcs in the same saga, the prequel does not hold a candle to the original. The main reason for this, comes down to pacing. The prequel trilogy is to rushed in its pacing. For example compare Episode IV to Episode I. In A New Hope, there are three segments that feel roughly equal (even though time wise they are not). In a very rough outline form the plot progresses as such Tatooine (introduction)==>Death Star (rising action)==> Yavin IV (finale). Episode I though progresses as such Naboo (introduction)===>Tatooine (Introudction/Rising Action)===>Coruscant (Rising Action)==>Naboo (finale). Star Wars as always uses a change in location to push the plot along, and in the prequel movies they are changing locations to many times. Compared to the movies of the original trilogy the pacing of the prequels feels far to rushed and hectic.

2. The Best part of the story is not explicit
So when viewed as one story, all of the Star Wars movies together really do tell a good epic, with Darth Vader as the main character. The problem is that a lot of the major themes that are associated with Darth Vader's story are present but not explicitly presented. For example, a major part of the Darth Vader story is that he is the "chosen one" who will bring "balance to the force." However, the story never resolves if he actually does it (this is partly because Return of the Jedi was made 16 years before Phantom Menace, but regardless). Darth Vader does restore balance to the force, but the details are not told. Here is how it goes down. One of the MAJOR problems with the prequels is they never explain why the force is out of balance in the first place. Some references are made, and it is sort of revealed the jedi believe the force is out of balance because the sith still exist. However, this is not it at all. The force is out of balance, because the Jedi have lost focus of the light side. The jedi became to much of a political entity and focused to much on periphery concerns (avoiding attachment) instead of focusing on others unconditionally (which Anikan says is the point of the Jedi. Taking young children from their families, and commanding a slave army are not actions that a "good" organization would do without serious moral qualms. The fact that the Jedi did this show they had sort of lost their way. This is shown by how arrogant the jedi are portrayed (examples include the librarian from episode II, and Yoda saying that arrogance was becoming common in jedi) This is why their ability to use the force had diminished, and this is why the force was out of balance. Darth Vader and the Emperor swung the balance the other way, and plunged the galaxy in darkness.
However, in the end Darth Vader redeemed himself. One of the cool aspects of Darth Vader is the path that led him to the dark side was a selfish desire to save some one else, but the action that redeemed him was a selfless act to save someone else. This action left Luke the last Jedi or Sith in the galaxy. More importantly, as a Jedi he had learned to face his anger and hate without giving into them. This means that Luke, the sole force user, was balanced and this was brought by the actions of Darth Vader so he did fulfill the prophecy in the end.

3. George Lucas can not be trusted with technology
One of the biggest things the prequel movies show is that George Lucas gets carried away when he has access to computers that can literally do anything. Prime example of this is Jar Jar Binks, which reaches its climax in episode I with a juvenile and unnecessary fart joke. Even the original trilogy is tainted by this with the special editions. Going to far with technology is best seen in Return of the Jedi.


4. The music is awesome
Well actually this is a no brainer, but when watched together it is absolutly incredible how good of a job John Williams did at integrating some of the original trilogy themes into the prequel trilogies. This is especially true with the Imperial march, it makes a foreboding quick appearance in episode I, comes out in a bit more force in the other 2 prequel movies, only to be full realized in Empire Strikes Back. This music is used very well to convey the rise of Darth Vader and the Empire.

5. Timing is odd
This is a nitpick, but the timing of the movies across the board is odd. With the exception of Episodes I and II and the time between the movies is never stated, and I only knew them from outside the movie sources. Also some of the movies, especially Attack of the Clones and the Empire Strikes Back have internal timing issues. Basically, these movies have to be watched with the assumption that the events are being portrayed in the best story telling order but not necessarily chronological order, because if the events are shown in a strict chronological order, then some of then the timing is truly odd and off.

6. The universe is better than the Story
The appeal of Star Wars to me has always been the universe. George Lucas did create an exciting galaxy far, far away that is fun to get a glimpse into. When compared to other modern epics like the Lord of the Rings, story wise Star Wars does not get close. However, I would rather play a video game or read a book set in the Star Wars universe because the setting is much more compelling. Plus, with the exception of Episode I (and Episode II when I am being cynical) Star Wars is always FUN to watch and get lost in.

Zombie Day 2009 Recap

This past weekend Zombieland came out and my brother and I had plans to see it. However, these plans quickly grew from seeing a movie to a full on celebration of the undead, and thus Zombie day is born. Here is a recap of how we celebrated Zombie Day:

After getting some food (sadly I didn't know of any place local that served brain sandwiches), we started with some Left 4 Dead. This is THE zombie video game, that is all about playing well with others to survive Zombie hordes and infected with mean special abilities. Using the power of the internet we hooked up with someone else we knew who was unable to come up for Zombie Day but still wanted to take part. Left 4 Dead recently had a new level come out for download so we played that.

We played through co-operatively first and beat the level. We then tried it in versus, which is were one team plays as survivors and the other as Zombies. This did not go so well. In fact we got absolutly destroyed.

After that, my brother and I switched to another video game, Zombie Apocalypse. This is simple yet satisfying game that involves fighting wave after wave of Zombies


From there it was time to go see Zombieland.


This movie was absolutly incredible, in that it did everything right, and quite honestly it is hard to do Zombie movies right. This is because Zombies are really a setting for a movie. So the movie has to still stand as a good movie in whatever genre it is in (which fro Zombieland was clearly comedy). A good Zombie movie also has to make good use of the Zombies, which this one did. Finally, a good zombie movie in some way explores the human condition, by focusing on what makes us human (either the good or the bad) in a world that has gone dead. Zombieland does all of this well. Plus, Woody Harrelson plays one of the most fun to watch characters who may have ever been created. Abigail, who normally roles her eyes when it comes to Zombies even liked it.

After the mandatory Noble Romans deep dish Sicilian (aka the best pizza ever), we continued by taking on some 19th century Zombies in A Touch of Evil. This is a board game where everyone controls a hero and strives to be the person who defeats the evil villain and save the town of Shadowbrook. For this game the villain was the Necromancer, who had an army of zombies fighting for him.


After that we played a quick dice game called "Mmm. . .Brains!"

Theoretically this game is about Zombies collecting brains and then eating them. However it is a seriously stretched theme and the game is really about rolling dice. However, it is Zombie themed so it counts!
Zombie day ended with a little bit more Left 4 Dead and my brother being gracious enough to try a rough prototype of my own Zombie game.

We only began to scratch the surface of what could be done on Zombie day. Video game wise, we could have played Nazi Zombies, Resident Evil 5 co-op or rented a House of the Dead Wii game. When it comes to table top games we did not play Zombies!!!, Humans!!!, Last Night on Earth ,or Zombie Fluxx.

Plus, in theory by the end of the month I will be receiving in the mail All Things Zombie the boardgame, which is suppose to be the definitive Zombie game.


With all that potential, maybe Zombie Day should happen more than once a year. . .

LIfe Update

It is now October. Wait . . what? October?!? Really? This year has been an absolute crazy time warp of a year. May 1st, seriously feels like a decade ago, but I can not believe that it has been exactly three months since I started at Avon. It seems so much shorter than that.

This is, I'm not kidding like my fourth time to attempt and write this post. My problem is that I do not know what to say or how to say it. In short, everything is going absolutely wonderful, and every time I tried to write about it . . meh.

So everything is going great,I could use a lot of adjectives to describe how well everything is going. The more interesting thing to know about would be the three biggest adjustments that I have been coming to terms with since coming to Avon. So here are three greatest adjustments I have had since starting at Avon three months ago.

1. Being Clergy
So honestly, I didn't expect this one. I have never been big on titles and formality. I am seeking ordination, because I believe that God has called me to commit my life to serving God through ministry and ordination is the way that the United Methodist Church recognizes that call. I knew that being a deacon technically made me clergy, I just didn't realize how it would affect me. In the two previous churches I was at, I was viewed and treated as a leader in the church. That is still true, but being clergy is also different. It is like going from a leader (lower-case) to a Leader (upper-case). There is just something different and more "weighty" about it. I guess the best way to explain this is an example. I was in a meeting, and I asked a question that brought up an issue that had not been given any consideration. After the meeting, the senior pastor, thanked me for doing that. She said it was a point that a young person needed to bring up, and she said it also needed to be said by a pastor and I was the only person who could do both of those things at once. Also, even though it has only been three months I am still not quite use to hearing people address me as "Pastor Sean" (I technically know they shouldn't do this as pastor is a title traditionally observed for elders and not deacons, but this church does not historically use the title of reverend so from the before I even came I was referred to as Pastor Sean to the church.)

2. Working Full Time
This is technically the first full time job I have ever had. I say technically because at Pizza Hut on a light week I would work 40 hours, usually it was 42-50 hours. As a camp counselor I worked tons and tons of hours. In Corydon there were several weeks, where between three jobs I worked over 60 hours, and at Epworth I worked part time and was a full time student. However, the summer jobs were temporary so even though I was working full time hours there was always a known end point. In Corydon one of my jobs (subbing) was optional and I could decide not to do it on any given day, and at Epworth how much time Seminary stuff occupied varied from week to week. This is the first where I put in 40 hours (or has been the case a little bit more than that) every week and then do it again next week with no fixed ending. I am not complaining about this at all, but it is an adjustment. I think in some ways this was a bigger adjustment for Abigail. There have been multiple times where she has asked me to do something the day of in the middle of the day and I have had to remind her that I have to work. Of all three of these adjustments, I think this one has been the easiest and we have gotten fully adjusted by this point.

3. Split Group
This is one the adjustment I fully knew and expected coming in, and it has probably been the hardest. I have worked in youth ministry for six years thus far, and all six of those years were done with a Jr. High/Sr. High combined group. Avon (thankfully!) has split Jr. High/Sr. High groups. All of my experience has been in planning to shoot for a middle ground, and now my lesson planning has to be more specialized by age. I think by an large this is going well, but there have been a couple of instances with both groups where I felt like I "missed the mark." I aimed to low for the Sr. High and I aimed to high for the Jr. High. I am continuing to work on this, and hopefully with practice I will find the sweet spot.

Oh Hell

Last night I watched Hell House. This is a documentary about the original and biggest “hell house” in the country. Some times these events are called Judgment houses instead, but the principle is the same. They are an alternative haunted house that features graphic depictions of people dying from a un repentant sin and then suffering eternal consequences for it, while others repent of what they have done, accept Jesus as Lord and Savior and find eternal life.

This documentary was very well done, because like Jesus Camp it more or less just shows the events give a couple of different sides fair time, and stays fairly objective. Much of a “hell house” is based on shock value, and it is very easy to find it very, very offensive. Personally, I do not know if such scare tactics is the best way to reach lost souls, and they can deny it but the time of decision at the end was very much emotional manipulation.

One of the scenes they show is one of the church leaders talking to a group of people were very upset and offended by the experience. It was very impressive how loving the church leader was. Even though he was being cussed at and insulted, he never raised his voice and never acted in a way that could only be described as loving. Of this offended group, one of the more rational girls really hit the nail on the head of what caused this hell house to rub the wrong way. They portrayed the life situations as “black or white”. They had a scene where a girl gets raped at a “rave” and then out of depression commits suicide. The church member tried to stress that the girl went to hell not because of the rave or because she was depressed but because she did not know Jesus. However, the offended group missed that instead they just felt condemned because they had been to raves and felt like it was unfair the girl be eternally punished for making a bad decision while being depressed.

The problem is really one of absolute truth. The organizers of Hell House believe that there is absolute right (God, God’s will, and God’s command) and there is absolute wrong (sin). I agree with this. The problem is that they used human situations to convey this, and most human situations is a shade of grey. As creations made in God’s image (white) who are fallen into sin (black), grey is really the best color to describe us. The “humanness” of the situation is lost in hell house. Using the rave example, the human response should be to feel sorrow for a girl who suffered multiple date rapes. The Christian thing to do is support her and aid in her healing, not abandon her to condemnation.

Of course, one of the reasons why a Hell House can come off as offensive, especially to Christians, is because of how little we talk about hell. This is especially true in the main line denominations. We LOVE to talk about God’s love, and we should. However, we often over emphasize love at the detriment of what the consequences are if that love is rejected. “Fire and brimstone” in a United Methodist church just doesn’t happen. Mainline denominations may not need to go as far as preaching “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” once a month, but we should at least acknowledge there are eternal consequences for not accepting Jesus.

Of course this leads me to briefly state what I think this eternal consequence is. I believe that Jesus through His sacrifice atoned for our sins. When we accept this we become right with God and be with God. My understanding of heaven, is eternity with God, being surrounded and enveloped in God's loving presence. I have no idea what this looks like but I believe that God's love is what defines heaven. Thus, hell is eternal separation from God and the complete absence of this love. Again, I don't know what this looks or feels like, but I sort of doubt it involves being eternally poked with pitchforks.

One of the things that Hell House reminded me is that one of the sins that I am very guilty of is that I have quite literally loved people to Hell. I so wanted to not offend a person that I never took the time to share the gospel with them. I know that I am not alone in this failure of cravenness, and I know that I am forgiven but that does not make it any less tragic, and watching Hell House reminded me of that as well. I have spent a lot of time in churches and around church folk that I realized that my heart does not break enough for the lost, and that is something I should really seek to change.

Last Game Post

So I know I said the last post was probably the last post about board games for a while, but this one really is. Honestly, there is no reason to read this unless your name is Abigail Johnson.

So Abigail, here is the list of games we have that I really want to play. Many of these games are games that we have not really played enough yet to do them justice. I know that you remember the game, but not by title so there is a short description to help you out. These are listed in the order of how I want to play them, and I look forward to doing them with you :)

1. Starship Catan: This is the two player Catan game that we had a blast playing. It just took a long time, but it is time we did it again!

2. Dynasties: This is the "china game", I know we just traded for it, and we have played it several times. I just can not get enough of it.

3. Hidden Conflict: This is one of the two games I got at Gen-Con that we have not played yet.

4. Palatinus: This is the other one from GenCon that we have not yet had the chance to play.

5. Hera and Zeus: We traded for this two player game, and we have only played it once. . .back in April. I don't think you cared for it but I want to give it another try.

6. Battleline: This is the one where we play cards in army formations (based on number and color). We both like this game, it is quick, but we hardly ever play it. Why is that?

7. The Ark of the Covenant: We traded for this game. It is Caracassone with a bible theme. We got it right before we moved, and we have only played it once.

8. Dominion: Intrigue: We have not played very much with the new Dominion expansion yet. Here is a perfect cheap date some night. Let's get pizza, and watch a movie, while playing Dominion the whole time. It would make my week :)

9. Ghost Stories: Is the co-op game where we are ninjas fighting ghosts. You have really enjoyed this game every time we have played it. We just have not played it enough.

10. Humans!!: Yes it is a Zombie game, but you and I have not played it with just the two of us yet.

11. Last Night on Earth: Yep the other Zombie game. I really just want to play this more, and you are the person I play games with.

12. Dungeoneer: Vault of the Lynch King: We traded for this right before we moved, and I have not read the rules yet. I need to, and we need to play it.

13. Arcana: This is the game I got at GenCon, where you compete to win cards to add to your deck. We have already played it several times, but we have not used the advanced rules yet.

Games I should probably stay away from (aka the pretty pictures post)

So this will probably be the last game related post for a while. At GenCon two of the games I got to play were miniatures games. I played Star Wars pod racing, which was a variant of another game.



Along with that I also played a game called Reich of the Dead, which was a WWII man to man combat game that included. . .Nazi Zombies.


Essentially, miniature games are playing with toys with rules. There is also the element of being able to create and build something that is kind of cool. For example, the Reich of the Dead game had a fairly sweet "map" that we played on.


And compared to some of the other constructions at GenCon, that was fairly mild. These pictures are from a fantasy game:




What is really impressive, is that in the town set-up, each and every one of those buildings have removable roofs, and detailed interiors. I have always liked model terrain. For example, Abigail's mom and step-dad make really impressive Christmas village displays that are cool. However, it would most awesome to put together something similar that could be used for a game, and that is what miniatures are all about. On top of that, miniatures have a customizable aspect to them which I am truly all about when it comes to games. I could really see myself getting into miniature gaming if I let myself, whether it be a WWII game, fantasy game, or even straight up Zombie game.


The problem is that the stuff is bloody expensive. For example, in the Reich of the dead game I played, each figure cost $5. So if you look at the overview picture above for that game, the Nazi army alone cost roughly $220 (now in fairness, that is a game that was intended to have four players control that army, but still). Plus, in a traditional miniature games the figures come unpainted. Being able to do custom painting is one of the pluses of these games, but that also has an expense has the metal paints and small brushes are not exactly cheap. On top of that, terrain also has its own cost. So playing with miniatures is a very expensive endeavor.

Of course there are some cheaper options, in that of pre-painted miniatures, and some of these look fairly awesome. A video game that I really like is Battlestations: Pacific. Which has some strategy while controlling WWII-era naval and air forces in skirmish battles. There is apparently a pre-painted miniatures game that does this as well.


Even more awesome is that there are Pre-Painted Star Wars miniatures, that exist in two forms. There are miniatures for individual unit battles


AND for Starship battles


Seriously, how awesome is that?

The problem with these games is that they are collectible, which means they come in starter sets, which really do not have enough units to play the game out of the box, or blind booster packs which is built on a principle of buying a lot to get the units necessary. I suppose it is possible to buy singles, but for specific units that are "rares" I am sure the price gets rather high. So while the individual miniatures are cheaper and they come pre-painted, the collectible aspect also drives up the cost. It would be "cheaper" in theory to play these games as opposed to traditional miniatures, but the constant expansions make these a potentially greater money pit.

There are a few other options. There is a game called Arcane Legions.

the "commander units" come in random boosters, but it is possible to buy the commons on their own. Plus they are not completly randomized, so it is possible for about $270 to get the complete set, which in terms of miniatures and collectible games is an absolute steal. Unfortunately, I demoed this game at GenCon and thought that it was merely ok.

There are some other possibilities as well. The cheapest option is to find my lost book.

The company that made the Star Wars RPG I played a lot in high school also published some miniatures rules. I used the Star Wars micro machines, which I already had has the miniatures. I even bought some extra stormtrooper/rebel trooper packs and a felt mat. I think I even got my brother to play once, but it was when I was trying to figure it out and I do not think it went that well. I already had the Star Wars CCG, which was one Star Wars game I mostly played by myself, so I kind of did not pursue the miniatures that much. I still have all the micro machine men, but despite my attempts to find it the rule book is MIA. I can not imagine I would have gotten rid of it, since it is Star Wars and I only in the past couple of months purged my boxed star wars stuff. This leads me to conclude that the book got lost in a move, or is buried in some wayward box in my parent's storage shed/garage.

The other option is actually a board game called Okko, Era of the Asagiri. This game is essentially a miniatures game in a box, and it is promoted as such. The game comes with multiple boards and multiple units so that "armies" can be customized. There are a couple of downsides in that it is really not an army game, in that the game really just simulates ninja squad versus ninja squad. The other initial downside is that the game is made of cardboard

The plus side is that since it is a miniatures game in a box, they do make actual miniatures of the cardboard characters that can be used instead. These miniatures still require painting, but they are cheaper then traditional miniatures. In my opinion the extra investment of the miniatures are buildinig terrain would be worth it, because it turns the above image into this


Of course, the whole problem with this whole thing is that the games are only fun if I have someone to play them with. I know from brief flirtations with Mech Warrior several years ago that Abigail is not a big fan of measuring stuff out. This is another reason why Okko would be a good pick, because it is played on a square grid, that eliminates all measuring with rulers. I should probably stay away from miniature games in general because I know that I will like them way to much. . .but we will see. . .