Whoa, whoa, woe!

At work, one my friends plays Warhammer 40k. It is a really cool game, produced by a pretty awful company. My friend plays Grey Knights and Tau and I used to play Eldar. Nothing big, I had a 700-point (699 if you are stickler) army made up of Eldrad Ulthuan, Guardians, Howling Banshees, Striking Scorpions, 1 Grav Tank and a Wraith Lord.

                                                             Can't even paint this good

Through my talks with him, it has made me want to get back into miniature war gaming, but it wont be Warhammer mainly due to not enough time to assemble and paint and I also can't justify paying the ridiculous prices they charge for plastic figures, from what I have heard, are not in as good a quality as they used to be. This is also after a over all price increase.

I debated that maybe I could go with Dust: Tactics, Battletech, or Heavy Gear. Something where there aren't a lot of units on the table and just leave them unpainted, but then I know I wouldn't be getting the most out of miniatures from an ascetic stand point. Plus an army is much less impressive when it is a large group of featureless grey. My friend and I also were looking at Flames of War a World War 2 miniatures game. It had a lower buy in cost compared to Warhammer and the company seems to be much nicer and more in tune with it's customers. We could each just buy 1 box and have a full on army to play with. I know you can buy army boxes, but they sort of half an army in a way, but that is more opinion than fact. But again, painting I couldn't do on them for time and skill reasons.

Thus my search has led me to the now defunct game of AT-43. 

Now it isn't defunct in the sense that now one plays it anymore, I am sure people still do. It is defunct in the sense it isn't being produced or expanded anymore. Which is slightly maddening!!!!!!

Pre-painted, pre assembled. Yeah, at the time they were out, they were priced much the same as Warhammer, but all the nice work is done and they are ready to go out of the box.

Now, it can be argued that painting the figures is part of the fun, which I can't really argue against. It just isn't for me, but more power to you if you like painting the figures.

Alas, I could purchase AT-43 mini's off ebay and other online vendors and I am very tempted. But it is sad to see, what I have heard was a very fun game, with very nice (IMO) mini's, that the game is no longer supported.

I really loved playing Warhammer! It was great! I lost all except 1 of my battles, but it was great fun. I just can't stick with the company that makes it and I don't have the time or patience anymore to paint.

If there are any similar miniature war games that use pre painted figures, that are or arent supported, but worth checking out I am desperate to know