Future Money Burning a Hole in my Pocket

[ElectricPaladin]

As I may have mentioned here in some off-topic thread - or maybe not, I can't recall - I didn't get lucky in the parent department. My mother was awful - pretty much abusive - and my father didn't have a strong enough personality to get in her way. Anyway, the main thing is that I still have a relationship with them. I'm a grownup now, so they can't hurt me nearly as badly, and it's worth dealing with them once in a while to have a connection with my family. Anyway, they've been behaving themselves recently... so much so that my wife and I decided to invite them to Thanksgiving.

Ah, Thanksgiving... that curious American holiday of overeating and family bull****.

Anyway, to help us get through it, we've decided to splurge a little after they leave and take some money out of our savings to buy some special presents for ourselves. She's getting boots. I've decided to get Lizardmen!

The question is, what? My toy budget isn't tiny - it isn't huge, either, of course, but I do ok - so I want to spend this little reward on the sort of thing I'm not likely to buy without a special incentive. If I need a box of saurus or some skinks or whatever, I can just buy it. Anything $50 and under, I don't stress about.

But this is a Games Workshop game, and there are some really pricey kits...

I was thinking that my splurge would be a bastilodon (built with SUNLAZER!) and a carnosaur/troglodon kit (to be built as a scar-vet/oldblood and carnosaur, of course). That's a hefty purchase, and certainly worthy of dealing with my parents for four days, at least in terms of monetary value.

The question is, do you think I'll make use of them enough on the table?

For context, my current collection includes the requisite mobs of saurus with spears, skinks with blowpipes, skinks with javelins, and two Slann. I've got a stegadon, two salamanders, and a bunch of cold one riders, too.

In terms of "stuff I want to buy anyway which is expensive enough to be worthy of a windfall like this," other kits I'm interested in include: a second stegadon and the terradon/ripperdactyl kit.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Chronowraith]

The Bastiladon you'll certainly make use of. The Carnosaur needs a list built around them to work but they are a hell of a lot of fun to play with. Still, since you tend to play friendly games I'd say you could easily sneak either into a game pretty easily (certainly the Bastiladon would be easier).

[Wildeybeast]

I find I end up using the big lovely kits, even when I probably shouldn't. I'm playing with dark elves today and I've ended up taking the plastic dragon kit with an über lord on it. I don't really like super Killy units as they are a big point sink and leave the rest of my army slightly unbalanced, but I simply have to take that dragon because, well it's a dragon. And if you are taking the dragon you might as well max out its effectiveness and stick someone on there who is equally Killy. So long story short, go ahead and buy the lovely plastic monsters and you'll find you use them simply because you want to play with them. You may not win as much as with a properly balanced army, but you'll have fun because you are using the models you love.

[ElectricPaladin]

Thanks for the input. It sounds like the bastilodon is a solid and competitive choice that I will use a lot, and although the saurus on a carnosaur is more of a corner-case model - useful when the army is built around it, not necessarily something that can go in any list - it's fun and I'll enjoy it.

I think I'll do both the saurus and his carnosaur as albinos... that would be fun.

[Chronowraith]

Well, the Bastiladon is less of a "fun" choice. It's extremely useful depending on the army you are facing either to supply some ranged flaming attacks to hurt/hinder those nasty regen units (DE, Skaven, etc). In addition it's useful against seeing half your army fall apart versus pit of shades or other initiative based attacks... there is a big difference between I1 and I2 when rolling for attribute tests. It still sucks but you'll see far more survivors with that I2.

[ElectricPaladin]

Hey all, just an update:

1) I went with a carnosaur, bastiladon, and terradon squad. I figure it would be most fun to add a lot of variety to my collection so I could learn to use some new pieces. My next purchase is likely to be a second stegadon or bastiladon - or, if I decide I really like them, more terradon riders. Barring that, I probably need more skinks so I can make a squad or two of skirmishers with javelins. Anyway, the matter is decided. The Black Friday/Cyber Monday discount was pretty tasty, but I ended up being tempted away from Fantasy by a box of assault terminators for my Knights of Blood army, since someone gave me a land raider crusader for them to ride in... :oops:

2) My awful family was... actually, not very awful. Honestly, they were kind of awesome. Nary a nasty word to be heard, and only a little of my brother's casual "I have no filter" douchery. It was kind of touching, actually. I'm trying to avoid becoming too hopeful, but maybe I've held my own and lobbed enough love-bombs that they're finally come around? Time will tell, I suppose.