So I got everything put together, filling the room with a mild odor of super glue in the process. Although one of my Ronin looks a bit like he has to pee and is holding it in, the pose on the other is quite appealing. Modeling these guys was not as horrifyingly tough as friends told me, so maybe modeling is just generally easier than I thought. Painting will be the test, though.

As for the actual game, I'm starting to pick out some interesting tidbits from the miasma of move-this-roll-this-measure-this sameness. (Nothing against Ronin War's particular version of this, although it could be written more clearly - I suspect translation is the culprit there - but all miniatures games are kind of alike on a basic level, and it can be hard to slog through each particular game's version of how to get around, turn order, and combat resolution. Does miniatures gaming need a d20 System equivalent, where multiple games can share a common foundation? GW, are you listening?) One neat thing is the aircraft units, which can fly off the edge of the table whenever, and reappear from any other spot along the edge of the table - a tactical wild card. Another is a special ability called Boomerang, which (as you see when you pick it out of the 178-item-long list in the back!) lets a unit bounce away by 45 degrees and keep moving as long as it keeps hitting people. That's just one of several cryptically-named special abilities in the basic army you get the parts for.

Yes, that's right. For all the talk about a collectible miniatures game, you can consider this baby a pre-built deck - and one that looks a lot more (re-)playable than the $80 Games Workshop starter boxes, at that. I was worried that I'd gotten ripped off - my weaponry sprue looked to be the same on both of its sides. Turns out you don't get random weapons in the Ronin War box - you get enough stuff to equip the pre-designed army they print in the back of the book. Said back of said book is an almost-exactly-clear-enough chart that provides the stats for all units and weapons, and a quick list of the special abilities thereof. I can't really see building custom units for fear of all the paperwork, but I guess that's why people use things like Army Builder. Anyway. I'm not sure whether painting or playing comes next, but either way, I'll be back for more.