Mechanical Warhorse Gaming Aids and Dakkadakka’s Free Social Media Giveaways

Today’s post may be a slightly confused post, since I am writing about two rather different things. First, the fantastic gaming accessories made by a company called Mechanical Warhorse. Second, the current Dakkadakka giveaway to entice people to plug into their social media channels. Here is how the latter led me to the former.

Dakkadakka Free Giveaway

First things first. If you’ve been reading my blog before, chances are you know I like to haunt the internet-forums of Dakkadakka for news, discussions or otherwise to kill time rather than working as I should. Hell, I recently even lost a bet there, which has led me into a sizable pledge for Mantic’s DreadBall Kickstarter.

Recently, Dakkadakka started a free stuff giveaway for anyone willing to “like” them on Facebook and/or “follow” them on Twitter. It’s a popular and effective way to boost your social media profile and I have written before on why it is a sensible thing to do (I wish I had toys to give away to boost my facebook-page enough for a custom user-name!).

Unlike, say, a painting studio like Worthy Painting, who give away samples of their painting-skills, there’s admittedly little an online discussion forum can really give away from their own. So they apparently made the very smart move to get other outfits out there to join them in the promotion and sponsor some prices.

Below is the entire (current) choice of prizes they’ve collected for their fans.

The prizes are as follows (with possibly more to come still):

Courtesy of BattleFoam: PACK 432 custom bag: ($145)
Courtesy of MiniWargaming: Any GW battleforce or battalion (~$115)
Courtesy of Blue Table Painting: $100 of conversions
Courtesy of Warring Souls: $75 of painting
Courtesy of Mechanical Warhorse: $60+ of wreckage markers
Courtesy of Blue Table Painting: $50 of painting

Added 31 Aug:
Courtesy of On The Lamb Games: $100 gift voucher!

Added 1 Sep:
Courtesy of Modest Magic: Castles and Keeps terrain kit ($130)

All you have to do to be able to win a prize is click ‘like’ on our facebook page or follow us on twitter. If you do both, you effectively get two entries into the prize draw.

There are well-known companies in there, such as Battle Foam. But there are also some more recent companies. One I like a lot (from what I see online) is Mechanical Warhorse.

Mechanical Warhorse Gaming Aids

Mechanical Warhorse seem to have been around for less than a year. Looking through their eBay store, they have a few piece of terrain on offer. More notably however, they have a small (but presumably growing) choice of laser-cut acrylic products to use with roleplaying or tabletop games, including spell and flame-templates (see above) or wreckage markers (see below).

Here is what Mechanical Warhorse says about their own product:

Miniature gaming is all about emersion. You spend uncounted hours painting your figures, so when your wizard summons a might pillar of fire to carry him aloft, do you really want to just perch him on top of an empty soda can? Let’s face it, makeshift gaming aids just don’t cut it anymore.

Mechanical Warhorse specializes in bringing affordable, quality gaming aids, such as markers, tokens, templates and game effects, to your battlefield. Our laser-cut acrylic products are durable, look great, and have a wide range of uses. It doesn’t matter what game system or scale you’re playing, our products will take your gaming experience to the next level.

Pretty snazzy stuff! Ok, these might not be the most necessary accessory one may ever need, but I’m just a fan of well-done, “immersive”  tabletop that makes an effort to actually look the part of a battle field. Half the reason for me heavy love-affair with Epic, back in the days, was because those little card-board blast-markers hit this very same vibe of gaming-accessory and battlefield-visualization.

And now it’s here in laser-cut acrylic glory! Great stuff. Here is what I certainly hope to win in Dakka’s giveaway. And if I don’t, well, I guess I’ll have to see how I can port some of these to the UK for Christmas.

Enough ramblings from me for the day!

What do you think of these “luxury”-accessories? Are you tempted to indulge yourself?

Z.