Dinner with the Captain...Sky Relics Interview

Greetings Wargamers and Hobbyists, and welcome to another article guesting on Creative Twilight.


As promised after my last article which talked about their painting contest and engagement with the community, here I present the follow up article which gives the game creators a chance to give us their thoughts directly in response to my probing questions.

I give you 'Sky Relics - An interview with the Creator and Editor'.


Thanks for reading.

Sky Relics...

Greetings fellow wargamers and space combat enthusiasts. The stars are bright, but the storm is nigh...

Here I bring you another article guesting over on Creative Twilight. A few words about their Painting Contest, which they have used as a great way of engaging with the gaming community, and some photos of the ships I have painted.

Enjoy, and thanks for reading.

The Eternal Wargamer's New Year Message

Greetings Wargamers and Hobbyists. Here we are at the brink of a whole new year; but what has the old year taught me, as it limps wounded into the night?

 

I think that this year has been one of great change in our hobby, and much of that change at least in my neck of the woods has been a result of the metamorphosis of the Warhammer game into Age of Sigmar, which although it retains much of the branding and model range of Warhammer (The Game of Fantasy Battles), the game rules and the setting are almost unrecognisable. This wasn’t a revamp or new edition of the established game, it was an fundamental re-imagining, like a wriggling Nurgle blessed maggot into a bloated Plague Drone.

 

I won’t say too much about the change over from WFB to AoS, because it has already been said, and at great length, by a great many people. We have talked about the few core rules, the boat loads of Warscrolls, the endless re-basing and the various pros and cons of the new game. What the change did do for me was open the door to new gaming experiences. In the past year I have ventured beyond the once adamant borders of the Games Workshop realms into the wider gaming world beyond.

 

I have taken an interest in Mantic’s Kings of War game, and played it using the free rules, with plans to pick up the rulebook proper, especially now that they have released army lists to support those collections escaping the Old World. I have also backed a Kickstarter for Dropfleet Commander, which is something else that is new to me, but I am a sucker for cool space ship games. Also, there now resides on my shelf a copy of the Frostgrave rulebook, for which I intend to gather a Warband at the start of the new year – once I can lay my smoking paint brush to one side and take a break from painting for some assembly.

More than that, I have spent time reinvigorating older games and models in my collection, which I thought at various points may never see the light of day or the thrill of battle again. I have played Man O’ War (!), I have re-gathered my Warhammer Quest set, now ready to venture into the darkness below with my son, and there are rumours of unrest in the Underhive of Necromunda. Another spaceship game, Battlefleet Gothic, is one I intend to get playing again very soon. As I said in my post only last week, I have organised my models, gathered the accoutrements of gaming and generated ship damage record cards for every vessel in my collection.

 

So what else have I done in the hobby this year? Well I did get back to gaming, after getting in only a couple of games until about October, when my wife’s Thursday night dance class moved to Wednesdays and allowed me to get back to the club and play, which was a joy indeed! I also managed to get a fair bit of painting done.

 

My goal (for those who remember to this time last year and my 2015 Hobby Resolution), was to get 250 miniatures painted to a tabletop standard (and I know this means different things to different people), and if I hadn’t been able to return to club gaming in the latter part of the year, I would have beaten that goal comfortably, however as hobby time began to once more be taken up with list building and rules refreshers, my total at the end of the year stands at 219 completed miniatures, with another 15 only a few hours away from being done. I may have fallen short of my target, but having painted 377% of what I managed in 2014, I think I can live with that. I think next year the target will be a more modest 200.

 

The other thing I have done this year is to blog more, on this site, guesting over on Creative Twilight, and also taking part in a revived Sprue Cutter’s Union, which is going great guns, although we have taken a break for the festive season. Long may it continue.

 

I have done a great many things in the hobby this year, and expanded my gaming horizons, but what did I learn? I think I learned that the hobby is what we make it. Even when presented with what seems like too great a challenge to overcome, and our gaming world is turned upside and inside out, with a little time and effort we can achieve anything, make any game work, make any event fun.

 

There is a whole world of games out there my friends. Go forth and forge your own narrative. May I wish you all a fun, peaceful and prosperous New Year. Let’s make 2016 a good year. #EnjoyAllTheGames

 

Happy New Year, and thanks for reading.

Gaming Renaissance!

Howdy there fellow Wargamers and Hobbyists, and welcome once more to the Eternal Wargamer blog. Today I bring you a further article guesting over on Creative Twilight all about my recent gaming activity which has resulted from the months of upheaval we have all experienced after the loss of Warhammer Fantasy and the arrival of Age of Sigmar...

Follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road...


Thanks for reading.

What do we want?

Welcome wargamers and hobbyists to another post guesting on Creative Twilight.

After reading so much recently from gamers wanting to be provided with some guidance by Games Workshop for structuring their games of Age of Sigmar, I decided to give my thoughts about what I feel is something of s crossroads in our hobby.

I give you: What do we want from our Wargames?

I hope this sparks some creativity and reassessment of where we are going in the hobby. Your thoughts on this topic are welcome.

Thanks for reading.

40K is Epic!

Hey guys and gals, and welcome to my humble blog once more.

On and off from here on I will be contributing articles to the gaming blog 'Creative Twilight', as well as posting here, and to make sure you done miss out on those articles, I'll be linking to them from my Eternal Wargamer blog page. Topics like my Sprue Cutters Union posts will continue to appear in their entirety here, but it is nice to be able to do something collaborative alongside other gamers.

So here we are with my first post as a contributor: 40K is Epic!

I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for reading...

Is This Hobby Dying?...Sprue Cutters Union #31

Greetings fellow wargamers and hobbyists, and welcome to my Ponderium, which of course is where I come to think on the labyrinthine intricacies of the universe. And to watch the Rugby.

Is This Hobby Dying?

This month, the Sprue Cutters Union members have been asked to give our thoughts on the idea of whether the hobby of scale modelling is a dying pass time. I as always intend to answer this question with my usual 'wargamers twist'.

I must of course approach the question of whether the hobby of scale modelling is on it's last legs from a wargamer's perspective, because a wargamer is what I am, rather than a pure scale modeller, and my first inclination is to ask you dear reader whether you are open to the idea that birds are really flying dinosaurs?

You may be forgiven for thinking that this is something of a strange question to ask, but bear with me. If you are open to the idea that birds are in fact dinosaurs in another, more survivable form, adapted to their environment where their great big thunderstomping ancestors were not, then I put it that the hobby of Scale Modelling is not dying, but perhaps it is transforming into something else, something both the same, and different...

Let me start by dissecting the question. In my view, to know whether we can say whether the hobby is dying or not, we must understand what the hobby is. Not what it may once have been, but what it is now.

I consider myself to be a wargamer, a painter, a collector, assembler and converter of miniatures, but does that make me a 'scale modeller'? If being a scale modeller means assembling and painting purpose built scale models with the singular aim of creating models for display, then no, I am not a Scale Modeller, but if we begin to consider the hobby of Scale Modelling in a wider sense, that of the assembly and painting of models of multitudinous forms, then the answer becomes a rip roaring yes! 

If we take the example of what seems to be the majority genre of scale model building, that of military vehicles primarily from the World War II period, and look at how they fit into my favourite hobby of miniature wargaming, we see straight away a huge variety of military vehicles, from bipedal walkers to motorbikes to aircraft and three hundred ton super heavy tanks. Fair enough, most of mine are of a futuristic bent rather than faithful representations of historical war machines - I mean, look at the Sisters of Battle Exorcist: a missile firing church organ on tracks! I ask you! - but does that really make any difference when determining whether they qualify?

Ok, so if you are of a mind to insist on historical real world examples of wargaming miniatures, then there are plenty of those as well. How about two increasingly popular World War II games, Flames of War and Bolt Action? And that's without mentioning the raft of game rules available to try out which require miniatures to play out battles on the tabletop? 

If there is one thing that being a tabletop wargamer in today's world of internet and social media, it's that there are more styles and preferences out there than I care to try and name, and certainly more than enough to cater for the tastes of even the most demanding gamer.

So, if we want to see scale models in all their glory, these days we can look not only to the domain of the true scale modeller, but also to the battlefields of tabletop wargamers, whatever our tastes for genre, time period or scale. Scale modelling isn't dying, it's evolving. There are more miniature manufacturers jumping on the wargaming miniatures bandwagon than ever before, and the kits are getting bigger and more intricate all the time.

Not only that, looking at even sci-fi games like Warhammer 40,000, there are campaign books and supplements coming out like the Imperial Armour books and the entire Horus Heresy 30K series, which are in effect 'historical' and open up the possibility of sticking faithfully to the unit markings, vehicle paint schemes and even wargear options of the campaign, just like the true scale modeller and their real world historical referencing.

Maybe it's time some of my true scale modeller buddies jumped the fence and gave miniature wargaming a try?

Thanks for reading...


If you enjoyed this post, or more likely would like to read more sensible view from other members of the Sprue Cutters Union, I recommend checking out the links below to their posts, and to the main topic hub over at the Combat Workshop.


Scale Model Workbench
Doog's Models
Mattblackgod's World
Kermit's Bench
The Combat Workshop

Topic Hub


Finally, if you would like to join a group of dedicated collectors, assemblers, and painters of models of all kinds, how about joining the Sprue Cutters Union? All you need is your own hobby blog, and a passion for this hobby. We post on a monthly basis on the topic of the moment issued by our glorious leader, Jon over at the Combat Workshop - look here for more details.


                                  

The Next Generation...

Greetings fellow wargamers and hobbyists, and welcome once more during this festive season.

A few days ago, while listening to the Heelanhammer podcast, Wayne and Dan made a brief comment about planning to introduce their kids to the hobby of miniature wargaming, as I imagine many of us expect to do if we haven't done so already, and it made me realise two things.

Firstly, it brought me to the belief that our hobby - particularly where is concerns Games Workshop games - is now in a place it has never been in before. The second generation of players is coming through. The Old Guard (people like yours truly, and I guess the majority of hobbyists or gamers over 30 years old) are settling down and raising families of our own, and I expect most of us have plans for our own kids to benefit from our years of collecting and gaming experience.

My son is not yet four, but already asks to play with 'daddy's toy soldiers'. This is to be expected I suppose, not only because lots of kids take an interested in what mummy and daddy are doing, but also because it's fairly typical for small boys to want to play with toy soldiers, tanks, knights and dragons at some stage. I'd like to think that little girls could also take just as keen an interest in these things if they lean in that direction. If I had a daughter I would be surprised if she didn't take an interest with all the gaming stuff I have laying around.

So this is all fairly obvious I guess, but it does lead me neatly onto my second point of discussion, which relates to Games Workshop's approach to sales.

The commonly held opinion seems to me to be that Games Workshop's target market, partcularly in their stores, is the 'new gamer', which the usual discussions indicate people believe is the 'young teenager'/pre-teen. A 'hook them while they're young' approach, if you will. Well I can't knock that approach in general I guess, it worked on me.

I have started to wonder now after listening to Dan and Wayne chatting whether that tried and tested approach is inherently flawed. When I think now about those new gamers Games Workshop are targetting, I have to wonder how many of those kids are the offspring of the first generation of gamers?

********Intermission Rant*********

Ok, a quick sentence or two my thoughts about marketing practises that target children, for example adverts for toys during Saturday morning TV time. First off, I have to wonder about the ethical thinking behind bombarding small children with sparkly jingles and pictures of things they all of a sudden want, when they have no understanding of the way they are being manipulated or (more importantly), little understanding of the fact that toys and games are not paid for with fake money from their play shop.

Secondly, I will never understand why any company would target their marketing campaigns towards people WHO HAVE NO MONEY!!!

Typically, small children (in modern countries at any rate) don't have jobs, and at best have some small amount of 'pocket money' which they are paid by their parents in exchange for good behaviour, but even then they can't always spend it on whatever they want. 'Pester Power' should not be a thing! Parents should not be put in a position where they face arguments with the kids or capitulation in the face of screaming children that won't take no for an answer. 

This is not a civilised state of affairs. I can't stand in my bosses office and demand a pay rise otherwise I'll scream and scream and scream until I am sick. It just isn't cricket.

********Rant Over********

Anyway, the point I wanted to make is that these days, how many of the 'new gamers' are really wide eyed and new to the world of hobby wargaming, and how many of them have parents with stern faces and Void Shielded wallets?

To paraphrase a line from Cuba Gooding Jnr, we know what it's all about: we've been to the puppet show and we've seen the strings. We also know what things cost, what perhaps is worth spending money on and what isn't and what is good value compared to what is not. We know about third party manufactured models and we know about discount retailers. We know about the second hand trade in miniatures. We know about ebay. Our eyes (for the most part) are wide open.

It's all well and good a company like Games Workshop building a strategy that focusses on new blood, but I have a feeling that a considerable amount of that new blood will become inaccessible unless we, the parents, the veterans, decide that the hobby is still a worthwhile, rewarding and financially justifiable pastime.

If however we become disillusioned and feel disconnected from what Games Workshop are doing with their games and miniatures, then we may well be making the decisions  about whether our kids get into what can easily become a huge investment in time and money, and critically (and very different from what was happening when I was starting out in the hobby), we would be making those decisions based on actual experience and first hand knowledge. Until now I can see a situation having existed where kids have talked their unknowing parents and grand parents into parting with cash based on their kids assurances that it's all very necessary.

In conclusion, I think that Games Workshop (and perhaps companies like them) need to pay just as much attention to what they need to do to keep the veterans engaged and happy with the state of play as they pay to ways of attracting the raw recruits, because the line between the two is only going to become greyer and greyer.

At the moment, but depending very heavily on what we see over the next few months, I think Games Workshop are doing what could be great things with the End Times series, but the long term impact of that and how it fits in with (or doesn't fit in with as the case may be) the 9th edition of Warhammer will put everyone in a very interesting place.

I think that Games Workshop should certainly think about their sales tactics; for example putting together bundles of models and actually giving some kind of discount for buying the bundle. Their quality may be second to none, but sometimes price wins out.

Anyway, these are my thoughts. If Games Workshop wants to be selling miniatures and games to my son in the years to come, they need to make sure I remain engaged in the hobby and supportive of my son's involvement with the company's products and methods.

Something for us all to think about in the years to come I think. Thanks for reading... 

A world of uncertainty...

Greetings fellow wargamers and hobbyists, welcome back (after what seems like an age) to my humble abode. Before I begin waxing lyrical on my thoughts about the recent surprises unleashed upon an unsuspecting populous by Games Workshop, I am pleased announce the upcoming return of the Sprue Cutters Union!

I don't think it will be until the new year, but I expect this will be a full and regular posting revival, so watch this space.

Now, with that out of the way, what has happened in the hobby (for me at least) since my last post back in October? Well that post was about making choices between the shiny new thing that catches your eye, and the things you perhaps should really be dedicating your funds to in order to keep up with the game and give your army the solid foundation it needs to keep you playing with as much competitive edge as everyone else.

The choice I was faced with making was between the amazing new Nagash model, and the (also newly released) Void Raven Bomber for my Dark Eldar, who struggle with anti-flyer weapons at the best of times and entirely lacked any fliers. The Void Raven (and perhaps common sense) won out.

More recently, we have seen a spate of releases in the Warhammer End Times series, which began with Nagash (which I have read - introducing the End Times and the return of the Great Necromancer, not to mention his triumph in the lands of Nekhara), continued in Glottkin (which I have not yet read, but I believe in which the Nurgle-blessed Brothers Glott lead their hordes in an invasion of the Empire), and now forges on with Khaine (also which I have not read, but I am sure is crammed with Elven brofisting and sharing of festive cookie recipes).

There has also been some consternation about a release of red armoured Space Marines and debate over the introduction of a new base size for Space Marine models from Games Workshop, but I won't go into that now. Suffice to say that the important thing about the new base size is that we do not have to re-base our existing collections, so the quantity of fig I am prepared to give is relatively small.

So, major movements in GW's End Times story, and in general seeming to be received very well by the gaming community! You may think at this point that there is a distinct limit to how much I should be talking about the End Times until after I have read the second and third books, and that would be a perfectly reasonable thing to say, but I do not intend to give an in depth run down of everything that has happened so far in the story. I'm not the type for that kind of article, and other blogs and podcasts have already done so probably better than I could.

No. What I want to talk about today briefly is just my thoughts on the whole thing. We know what's in the books: amazing background material and new rules - but what do we, the gamers, actually think about the idea itself and its execution?

One last quick thing I would like to say as an aside before I spill the random and ill considered contents of my brain onto the page is that the other reason I am writing this and that I am also looking forward to the return of the Sprue Cutters Union, is that my chances to get out and play games has taken a major hit the last few months due to a clash with a class my wife is attending (give and take, you know how these things can be), and so my urge to write has become steadily stronger, both for giving some love to my blog, but also for writing some prose. I guess now is the time. So if this post seems a little confused or lacking in direction, that is the reason. Lots of urge perhaps requiring more in the way of moderation. On with the show.

The End Times series so far seems to have done exactly what many of us have wanted for some considerable time: it has introduced a major advance in the story line (comments about the Storm of Chaos aside - the return of Nagash and the family reunion between the Elves makes it much more than a simple re-run of that). What isn't clear is exactly how the series is intended to impact our games. Now this won't cause a moment's consternation for those of us who are used to simply cherry picking what we want from the ever expanding base of rules and source material available, but make things a little trickier for tournament organisers and players.

In my humble opinion it's not so much the new rules themselves, rather the fact that we don't have all of the rules yet that will be part of the extended End Times Release. Of course some of the rules seem unbalanced (because many of them are) when taken in isolation, but it's not until all of the End Times books (and complimentary Errata and FAQ documents) are in our hands that we will really be able to judge whether all the new rules and units are balanced when taken as a whole.

This is no different to when 8th Edition Fantasy landed, and the first few army books written for that edition were released. Things didn't begin to feel more balanced until the majority of armies had books for 8th, and look where we are now. The game as a whole is in a fantastic place, barring just one or two little tweaks. Tournament organisers need to take a breath, perhaps consult with their gamers and decide which elements of the new releases they want to include and which they don't. As new rules come out, the balance will probably change, and all they can do is do their best to maintain the level playing field, which I am sure that they are doing to the best of their ability and under tricky circumstances.

Ok then, why all the uncertainty? Well, at this present juncture there are several things going through my mind that make me hesitate before I do or purchase anything.

I would like to own all of the End Times books, but with them being in and out of stock all over the place at the minute that is easier said than done. And even if I could buy the second and third books, because we had first the hardbacks, now seemingly softback versions, and without knowing for sure how many books there will be, my inclination is to wait and see, and see also whether there will be a single compiled 'End Times mega-tome' at the end of it all.

Until I know what is going to be released and when, I don't feel happy committing funds to any of my armies, because I don't know yet what the long term effects will be. I certainly don't feel confident buying anything towards my Bretonnians over and above the models I bought and built earlier this year, because what is going to happen to the Bretonnians, Skaven and Beastmen is anyone's guess at the moment.

I for one expected to see a new book for each of them before anything major came out. In fact that is only partly true. I expected to see new books for them before 9th edition hits, and one of the questions floating around the ether at the moment is whether the End Times series is some kind of scene setting or table laying for the release of a 9th edition rules set. I did want to run a campaign at my local club, but apart from struggling to make it to games at the moment, The End Times has left everything up in the air.

Simply, we just don't know, and not knowing makes me want to hold off and see what happens. The background material is amazing, the books themselves are amazingly well produced (which is one reason it would be a shame to plump for digital versions), and the background material is amazing. Did I already say amazing? I think I did. Ok, time to expand on that a little I think, and show my age as well...

When I read the Nagash background and realised the scope of the story, I was awestruck. Several well established characters struck down out of the blue (although I had to think in a couple of cases to remind myself who they were, so perhaps not so big a loss), and entire countries and states overrun and decimated by hordes of northmen or over eager rodents. I thought to myself 'nah, this is far more than a simple rehashing of the Storm of Chaos. This is big. If it sticks'.

And I suppose that's one of the big questions weighing heavy on people's minds. Is this some kind of alternate source book style setting for playing games in, is it a fundamental change in the core background, or will it simply vanish when 9th edition arrives and cause riots in the gaming stores? I know which option I would prefer.

Like I said, I am not going to detail a blow by blow account of what I know about the story, because others have been there and done that. What I will do is pick out my three favourite bits of the story, all of which relate to new (or old) characters.

First off, I thought it was really cool to see the return of Dieter Helsnicht to the Warhammer world. He was a key reason I started playing Warhammer in the first place, after reading the battle report in issue 174 of White Dwarf way back in the mid 90's where Gav Thorpe lead the Undead in a battle called 'Revenge of the Doomlord', the Doomlord being Dieter Helsnicht, The Doomlord of Middenheim, and a playable special character who appeared in the 4th edition Undead army book alongside Nagash the last time he had rules. For a couple of years I have toyed with the idea of making my own Dieter Helsnicht model to replace the old metal one I have using the Chaos Lord riding a manticore model, but haven't got round to it yet. Perhaps there will be a new model now he's back - yet another uncertainty?

Next, the frighteningly powerful and somewhat depraved 'Nameless', a character whose identity has been speculated about at length. I think I know who the Nameless really is, so much so that I will be rather disappointed if it turns out to be someone else. My money is on it being The Great Enchanter: Constant Drachenfels. This is for three reasons. First, the Nameless is referred to as a Great Enchanter, and second, his initial location when called by Nagash is given as the Grey Mountains, which happens to be where Castle Drachenfels is, and thirdly, in the (very old) novel by the same name, Drachenfels has the power to control others. I think it's fair to say that also fits the modus operandi of the Nameless.

Third, and most importantly: the return of Vlad von Carstein. I am proud to say that Vlad is my all time favourite character in Warhammer, and to tag an 'in joke' at the moment, the story of Vlad and Isabella is a much better love story than Twilight. It was also done great justice in my opinion by Steven Saville's von Carstein trilogy. I am pleased beyond words that Vlad has returned, and his involvement with the story has shown how important and powerful he is. He may not be the most powerful sorcerer in the world, or the very best with a blade, but his will is iron, and his intellect and long term vision know no bounds.

This of course is all irrelevant, because all he wants in the world is his wife back. I dearly hope he gets his wish. And that at some point he takes some small measure of revenge against the upstart Manfred. That boy needs to be reminded that there are people it simply does not do to cross, and the fact that Nagash brought Vlad back from true death to lead the fight against Chaos in the north speaks volumes about both the Great Necromancer's belief in Vlad's abilities, and his trust that he can be left to act freely without upsetting his plans where Manfred cannot. Yay Vlad.

All we can do now is wait, enjoy each new release as it comes out, enjoy listening to various podcasts talk about them, and let things be the uncertain miasma they are at this moment. What more can we do?

I guess we could play a bit more 40k while the dust settles...

Until next time, thanks for reading.

P.S. I may not have been able to get much gaming done recently, but I have done a bit of painting, though I didn't make it to the end of the recent Hobby Survivors Series 10. I managed to get the first 15 of my Men at Arms painted for my Bretonnians (using Fireforge Games Foot Sergeants), and I also painted a Giant for our club painting competition, which unfortunately didn't work out quite as planned because only two of us finished our models.

Anyway, here are some pics. Next, I'll be working on my Hive Crone/Harpy kit, which I intend to magnetise to allow me to switch between both kit options.

The Good, the Bad and the Shiny...

Greetings fellow wargamers.

It's been a little while since my last post, but the slave masters have conspired in recent months to keep me my from writing desk. In other words, work has been exceptionally busy, and has left me with less time than usual for hobby. As the dust slowly begins to settle, I have managed to start painting again, though gaming is on a bit of a break at the moment due to unforeseen circumstances (my wife has taken up a new hobby which clashes with games nights!), but I am getting the itch to sit down and type again, so here I am.

So, what has happened since we last met? Well off the top my my head, a couple of books have dropped for armies I collect (Orks recently and just yesterday the Dark Eldar), and also the End Times: Nagash book for Fantasy, which I am part way through reading and thus far am very excited by. This could well be just the kind of thing Games Workshop needed to put out, and might turn out to be one of those historical benchmarks for the game I think. This book, and what comes next, promises much - fingers crossed.

On to the essence of this post. Forgive me if I ramble more than usual, things may pop into my tired cogitator as I type to add to the list of things that have happened since my last publication. Speaking of which, has anyone else heard rumours about something happening to or with Warhammer Visions?

Today, I would like to talk briefly about expanding your collection of miniatures, and deciding what to buy next between the options you have when a wave of models is released, hence The Good, the Bad and the Shiny.

Since the release of the Nagash book and the accompanying Warhammer Visions picture book, I have spent quite some time ogling the amazing new models. The three Disciples riding their flying constructs (a bit of a 'Marmite' release, but I like them), the fantastic Monstrous Infantry Morghasts and the extremely well designed Spirit Hosts are all spectacular kits, and as a long time Vampire Counts (Veteran Undead player right here folks, circa 1994), they all pique my interest.

We cannot of course forget to mention the incredible Nagash model, and I for one think that Games Workshop have done a real number on this one. The dynamism, motion and scale of the model are combined to give us the Nagash we have dreamed of for twenty years. And herein lies the rub.

Scant weeks after the release of the aforementioned Undead models and Nagash book, the new Codex Dark Eldar has been released, and thanks to Games Workshop doing a much better job of keeping the fine details of their release schedule quiet in the last year or two (or certainly quieter - I don't think many people saw the End Times book coming much in advance of it's unleashing), I found myself in a state of discombobulation.

The Dark Eldar have been my army of choice for playing 40K for my last half dozen or so games, as I have become determined to develop my skills with one particular army rather than my usual approach of flitting from one force to another to make sure I don't neglect any one collection of miniatures - they get grumpy when they don't see their fair share of tabletop action you see.

So in comes the new Codex and some tasty new models to go with it, and I am left having to decide between the Nagash model, and something for my Dark Eldar. My heart says go for the Nagash model, because it is amazing, and I really have been waiting two decades for this guy to get an update that does him justice.

 

I do love all of my armies, but to be fair some get more love than others (we all have our favourites I am sure), but at some point in my deliberations about which of the new releases to invest in, a thought bubbled to the surface that has manifest previously when I haven't had the funds to act on it.

Many of my armies are fairly old, and I don't have anywhere near the same amount of disposable income to dedicate to the hobby as I would like, because other things must come first, like food and nursery school mortgages - I mean 'fees'. The result of this, and especially when combined with the number of armies I have (six for 40K at last counting), is that when there is a fundamental shift in the way that one of the games works - like the introduction of flyers and anti-flyer measures as a staple of 40K armies - instantly updating all of my armies with all the necessary new tools required to thrive in the new environment is often a slow process.

This can sometimes leave me with a 'resource shortfall' on the table, such as my Dark Eldar going into battle against an Imperial Guard army toting a pair of Valkyrie Dropships and a Vendetta Gunship when I have precisely zero dedicated anti-flyer measures in my army and a proliferation of poisoned weapons which cannot harm vehicles at all, despite the jaw dropping rate of fire.

So a decision had to be made - do I buy the brilliant Nagash model (he is my one true master after all), or do I throw in my lot with Lady Malys (which is another topic altogether now that the special character is gone from the book and I can construct my own from the ground up using the generic Archon rules!) and the Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue? A fine coincidence really that I only just decided a month ago that Poisoned Kabal was the paint scheme I was going to use, then all of a sudden Malys is gone from the book!

In the end sometimes even when your heart tells you one thing, your head must lead the way. I decided to go with a Voidraven Bomber for my Dark Eldar, and intend to convert up some 'Dark Eldar' style Quad-guns for more anti-flyer defence. However much I love the new Nagash model, in the end I considered which would see more use on the table, and which would have the greater long term impact on my gaming. The chances are that I would be buying Nagash more as a display piece to be used in games only on special occasions, whereas the Voidraven will see use in the majority of the games I will play with my Dark Eldar once I get back to gaming, as I make a concerted effort to fill gaps in my armies where flyers and equally importantly anti-flyer capabilities. The Good won out over the often dazzling Shiny.

In closing then, it's always nice to pick up a model because it's the new shiny thing, and might well be cool to use and a terror to your enemies, but armies must be constructed with thought and planning and a degree of balance in order to be consistent and successful on the tabletop. It's like a football team - and that's football for any of my American friends reading this, not American football, though I guess the analogy works as well for both - a team of stars looks great in the publicity photos and on the team sheet, and they sure get some attention, but if they can't play consistently well as a team and cover all the necessities on the pitch, they are less likely to win games. You have to have the basics covered to give you a solid foundation before adding in the glamour-puss star players.

Until next time - hopefully soon! - thanks for reading...




...P.S. Speaking of Dark Eldar, here are my first completed Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue Warriors for anyone that hasn't already seen them splashed all across my Twitter feed.

6th Edition 40K - A £40 door stop?

Greetings wargamers and hobbyists, and welcome to my library. Some of these books used to be worth something. Maybe a few still are...

A few weeks ago, while playing what has turned out to be my very last game of Warhammer 40,000 using the 6th edition big rulebook, one of my club mates (who I am guessing prefers the functionality of the compact version of the rules rather than the version that is so thick that even Luis Suarez can't bite through it) joked about what I was going to do with my now worthless door stop of a 6th edition rulebook? This is a question I have heard repeated many times over the last few months, as 7th edition approached out of the ever shifting haze of rumours, and after it finally landed.

Over the last couple of weeks it has got me thinking about all those old rulebooks and what happens to them, about the ones that end up propping up coffee tables, the ones that go on eBay for a hundredth of what we paid for them, and of those that simply end up as landfill. Oh, and of course the ones that end up at the backs of shelves and cupboards and in lofts the world over, bemoaning their all too short time in the limelight. What ever will become of those I wonder...?

Well I am on my 4th edition of Warhammer Fantasy and 6th edition of Warhammer 40,000 (why the disparity in the number of editions of each game I wonder?), and I still have most of the rulebooks, Codices and Army Books I have accumulated in that time. Yes, on the face of it, versions of the rules that are a decade or two out of date are not all that useful, but earlier this year I found myself fishing out all the versions of the Warhammer Fantasy rulebooks I could find, because I wanted to gather together as many different scenarios I could to use in campaign games at our club, with suitable tweaks to make them 8th compatible of course.

As I looked through those older publications, I came across more and more things of interest, like a Warhammer 'Tournament Scenario', two or three versions of campaign rules and magic item tables, sections on making your own scenery (which of course we almost never see in Games Workshop publications these days), and even rules for different kinds of in-game weather effects in the old Dark Shadows campaign booklet. That is of course without counting all the maps that came with issues of White Dwarf over the years, and all the great material in publications such as the Storm of Chaos campaign book.

I found it interesting to look at how the the hobby has changed over the years, how different styles of models and paint schemes have come and gone, how incarnations of a well known special character have evolved across the editions, and also which things haven't changed all that much. These days we have maps that depict the length and breadth of the Warhammer World, and the points of origin of the Ogres of the Mountains of Mourn, the Great Wall of Cathay and the domains of the Dragon Emperor, and the locations of all the Temple Cities of Lustria, whereas once we had just maps of the Old World, with just hints of what lay beyond the western oceans and the Worlds Edge Mountains.

Though the rules within any given tome that is no longer the current rules set may have limited worth, that doesn't mean that all those wonderful old rulebooks are entirely devoid of worth. There are some gems to be had if you just take the time to look. How about some easily updated siege rules? Or some skirmish game rules for those dramatic inter-battle encounters? Or even just some inspiration for a one off scenario - it's all there somewhere...

Oh, and an old BRB is pretty good at holding doors open too.

Thanks for reading.

Games Workshop and Organised Play

Greetings wargamers and hobbyists, and welcome to the Hall of Battles. I could spend hours in here reading all the combat honours and action reports...

Today I would like to talk briefly about organised tournament competitive gaming and casual gaming. I have chosen to specify tournament gaming rather than organised play as a whole, because there are other kinds of organised play, like campaigns, which are not competitve in the same manner as tournaments, and tend to work very differently.

One thing I would like to say about it is an indirect response to a comment made by a host on a podcast I listened to recently that covered the same topic. The comment that was made, which I am sure was absolutely true for the speaker and their immediate gaming group, was that most gamers want to play tournaments. I personally have not found this to be the case when speaking to gamers, and in fact I ran a poll not all that long ago on a popular forum site asking gamers the following question:

What kind of games do you play?

1. Club/'garage'/casual gaming only?

2. Organised tournaments/Competitive events only?

3. A mix of both?

The result was about what I expected it to be. Out of over 90 votes cast, slightly more than half did not play any organised competitive or tournament games, about 45% played a mix, and only one voter said they played only organised tournament games. Does this reflect your gaming experiences as well?

So although we might hear an awful lot about tournaments and competitive gaming on podcasts, this taken in isolation might lead us to think that the tournament scene is bigger than it really is, it just happens that most podcasts I listen to are either tournament centric, or at least discuss them on and off. This is all fine and dandy of course, because tournaments are a popular part of the gaming scene, and tournament organisers and gamers both put huge amounts of time and effort into making them successful. Which leads me to my next point of discussion...

First, I will apologise in advance for what may sound like a rant, but listening to the '11th Company' Warhammer 40,000 podcast made me this way.

You wouldn't buy a 1.0 litre engine runaround and then complain that it won't win at Silverstone, no matter how many flame stickers you plaster along its bodywork, so why are a minority of players of Games Workshop games (primarily 40K - so there is a chance this might change as the new edition settles in, but the point stands) complaining that some games don't work in a tournament environment because the game and armies are not balanced?

Fair enough, we can hark back to the old days when Games Workshop did support tournaments in one form or another, but apart from their own local events run at Warhammer World, this is no longer the case. It's clear that the games aren't sufficiently balanced to allow straight forward no-comp tournament play without everyone ending playing one of a very small number of different armies because those armies are currently 'the shiz', yet some people seem to be implying that it's down to Games Workshop to fix this so that people can play what is intended (in its current incarnation) to be a dramatic but ultimately casual form of gaming as some kind of ultra balanced game that ensures that the general wins the battle and not the army. 

It is after all a game with multiple random elements, so the level of control a player has over what occurs in a game will always have its limits.

You cannot make a square peg fit in a round hole, at least not without making some necessary modifications to it first. So who's responsibility is it to make any game suitable for fair and balanced tournament gaming when the game doesn't necessarily play that way 'out of the box'? 

Well the answer to that is simple. Me. You. All of us that play and have a vested interest in getting what we want of a game. If the manufacturer has no interest in making the changes that you want them to make, then you have the freedom (with the proper amount of reasoning and productive debate and analysis) to make those changes yourselves. In fact the 'Big Rule Book' for 40K actually says that you should do this, that the printed rules are a starting point for us to build on in any way we wish to make the game what we want it to be.

I appreciate the amount of risk taken by organisers of large tournaments, of the financial outlay for running a big event and the awful consequences of making a substancial monetary commitment to an event that might fall flat and leave them severely out of pocket if it doesn't work out. 

I am not suggesting for one moment that they should have to just suck it up, but at the end of the day, the guys running an event have control, and have the power to make the changes they feel are necessary to address flaws with a rule, a unit or an army. In fact most tournaments already excersise that power when they think up 'composition' packages and their own considered scenarios for their event, all of which is intended to make the event more balanced, so why would an organiser not go a step further and simply change a rule if the majority of gamers agree that it should be changed?

In an age of instant global communication, where I can converse online with an endless variety of gamers and hobbyists at any time of the day or night, would it really be that difficult to ask the tournament playing community 'hey guys, I'm thinking we should change re-rollable 2+ invulnerable saves to a maximum of 3+ re-rollable, whaddya think?' Go ahead, put your rules pack out there and see what people think of it. If the problems are as pronounced as people seem to think, then surely any form of half decent fix will be welcomed?

Perhaps it would be too difficult and would be too great a risk for an organiser to shoulder, but I think I need to be convinced on that score.

Now although I hear a lot about the tournament scene, in UK, Australia and New Zealand, the US and Canada, I choose not take part in tournaments. They are just not an area of gaming that I am interested in. I play wargames because I love the narrative element, and the progression from one encounter to the next, which is not typically something I would expect to get out of tournament play, and given the stats that came back from the poll I talked about earlier, I am not alone.

Tabletop wargaming is a broad hobby encompassing multiple engaging and equally valid elements, so nevet let anyone tell you what form your enjoyment of the hobby should take. The whole point of this rant is to reinforce the idea that it is our hobby, not the manufacturers. They may take our money, but they'll never take our freedom (!) to make the games we play what we want them to be. For all the time people seem to spend waxing lyrical about how abysmal game designers are at their job, who's to say that we can't just take the advice already given and change what we want to? 

People might say that changing the game is ok within your own gaming group, but not across the entire community. Well why not I say? If enough people agree, it can work, all it takes is communication. We are already a global community aren't we? Why is ok to say a rule doesn't work but not be prepared to go ahead and change it?

Anyhow, that's me done for this post. A game is what we make it, because we are the gaming community. If Games Workshop has decided not to have involvement with with the wider tournament scene, then be bold and make the changes necessary to get what you want out of competitive gaming. There's no point waiting till hell freezes over and Games Workshop to come out with a tournament edition (they're just rumours!) because at least at the moment, it's not their thing.

Thanks for reading.

The Next Big Games Workshop Question...

Greetings wargamers and hobbyists, and welcome to my post room. This of course is where all my gaming and modelling purchases arrive from far and wide, and I am pondering whether I am likely to have to knock out a wall and expand 'Goods in' into the walk-in weathering suite next door...

What I am talking about, which is of particular significance to players of Games Workshop games, is the recent release of the 7th Edition of the Warhammer 40,000 rules set.

There are two conversations going on at the moment about the release of the new rules: one relating to the rules themselves, whether a change was necessary and whether the new rules set is better or worse than 6th edition, and the second relates to the timing of the release itself. This is because historically each new edition has come around roughly four to five years after the last, with a couple of exceptions; there was only a year between 1st and 2nd edition Warhammer Fantasy, and six years between 6th and 7th, while there was a six year gap between Rogue Trader (Warhammer 40,000 1st edition) and the 2nd edition of Warhammer 40,000.

The fact that 7th edition of 40K has come just two years after 6th has raised questions of some concern to gamers: did 7th edition come out so soon because 6th had a small number of issues that needed to be addressed, and so it was a one-off quick update? Did Games Workshop need a money spinner and so decided to produce a new rules set early? Finally and most significantly - is it because two years between editions will be the new norm? Given the phenomenal and comendable rate at which Games Workshop have been releasing Army and Codex books and supplememts over the last year or so, I am sure no one can doubt that they are capable of doing so.

Personally, I hope it was the first option. Though 6th edition was certainly not a 'bad' edition, there were some things that needed tweaking, and early signs are that 7th edition is a better rules set. However if it turns out that a new edition of the core rules for Games Workshop games will be released every two years for both of their signature games, then I think we may well see the end of that special breed of multi-army players, of which I am one.

I play five armies in Fantasy and six in 40K, and I think that players owning and playing more than just one army is probably pretty common, but with the rate at which Army and Codex books have been coming out, I am sure we can all agree that keeping up has become rather draining on the old bank balance, because it's not just the books, it's the supplements and new models too. While I think that the rapid release schedule is better than the glacial pace of releases were used to have, it has been bordering on too fast, and has probably crossed that line a few times as well. 

For it to even be worth updating a book for an army, there will be changes to rules, units, options and list building possibilities, not to mention new models, and all of this means it can take weeks or even months to really get used to a new Army Book or Codex, without even considering supplements like Escalation and Stronghold Assault. When we factor in a change in the core rules every two years, I feel it can become very difficult to maintain more than a handful of different armies to any real depth of familiarity and knowledge, and so players who own as many armies as I do are more likely to concentrate on a smaller set of armies, and might leave other armies gathering dust on the shelf because they simply don't think they'll get around to using them before the next edition of the game is due out.

My concerns could prove to be unfounded, even if we do end up with a new major rules set every two years. Perhaps I'm just used to only having to spend £50 on a new Rulebook twice or three times a decade instead of double that. I guess only time will tell on that score. Maybe most people only actually have two or three armies and not eleven like me...

So, the Big Question is 'how frequently are we going to see a new edition of a major game from Games Workshop in future?' The answer impacts both how long we have to get used to and actually play an edition, and the practical value of each new rulebook we buy.

What do yo think the answer will be?

Me? Like I said, I hope 7th edition is a blip, and we will be back to 4-5 years between rules sets. I think that Games Workshop would spend their time and effort more productively going back to and reinvigorating their Specilalist Games Range, maybe release some new campaign supplements for all their games, hell, why not a Global Campaign or an entirely new race for 40K or Fantasy? All of these things would be preferable to a new edition of 40K or Fantasy in half the time we have become used to, especially if that also means new army books and codexes in half the the time as well, that really would make multiple armies unmanageable, and result in a reduction in my overall spend with Games Workshop, not an increase.

As always, thanks for reading...

The Specialists...Opportunity for Games Workshop?

Greetings fellow Wargamers and Hobbyists, and welcome to the streets, as I mount my much used soap box for another rant about the world of miniature wargaming and the Games Workshop hobby.

It's been a few weeks since my last post, partly due to the break that the Sprue Cutters Union has been on with our weekly topics - which will return soon! - and over the last few weeks the urge to write on a subject that I often wax lyrical on has become overwhelming: Specialist Games...

I for one like variety in my gaming - fair enough, you might argue that I can't really make that statement with any confidence, because I generally only play Games Workshop games, but my response to any sneers would be that I might only play games by one manufacturer, but I don't just play their main big sellers, Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000, I also play a number of their other games.

For the  uninitiated (or coincidentally the younger player), the Specialist Games Range from Games Workshop includes a great variety of different game types, all set in their two worlds (or parallel world in the case of one game) - that of the Warhammer World and the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. They are as follows:

Epic - a game of massed infantry and vehicle battles using small scale miniatures set on the battlefields of the 41st Millennium - the one with the 'proper' Titans!

Warmaster - massed battles in the Warhammer World played with smaller scale miniatures.

Battlefleet Gothic - Space naval warfare in the 41st Millennium.

Necromunda - Gang warfare in the Underhive.

Mordheim - Gang warfare in the Old World.

Blood Bowl - Fantasy Football set in parallel Warhammer World where differences between nations are settled on the pictch rather than on the battlefield.

Inquisitor - Skirmish RPG using larger scale models, set in the darkest corners of the 41st Millennium.

In this number I even include the seminal Man O' War, a game my played an awful lot of in the mid nineties, and completes the puzzle by giving us naval battles on the high seas of the Warhammer World, which Games Workshop tried to re-invent with Dreadfleet.

This list gives you massed warfare using tiny 6mm models, space naval warfare, fantasy football, skirmish/RPG games, everything you could want in the world of miniature wargaming, but for quite a while now, Games Workshop's support for these great games (in most cases) has dwindled.

It could be said that the reason that Games Workshop's support for many of their Specialist Games range has dropped off or ceased altogether is because there isn't the demand for them to anywhere near the same degree as there is for their 'big' games, but the changing miniature wargaming market I think is evidence to the contrary. There are so many new games coming out now which are just these types of games, offering the same styles of gaming as Specialist Games range, whether it's massed battles with tiny soldiers, naval games, skirmish games or mad cap sports, that I think Games Workshop are really missing a trick by not re-invigorating their Specialist range, and leaving a whole swathe of the market open for their competitors to exploit.

Whether it's Flames of War, All Quiet on the Martian Front or Dreadball, all of which I have heard good things about and I would like to try out, it seems crazy to me that Games Workshop would choose not to contest those areas of the market where they already have games out there. There is plainly a demand, and all the new games we are seeing are testament to that.

If I were to give Games Workshop one piece of advice right now, it would be to dust off the Specialist Games, even if only some of them, and get out there to fight for the market segments those games were born to fight for. I'm not talking huge miniature releases off the bat, but why not some articles, perhaps rules updates? Now that they have embraced (some might say excessively so) the digital release medium, surely the outlay for supporting the Specialist range would be minimal? And sections of Warhammer Visions dedicated to the Specialist Games would give it some much needed variety in my opinion.

If a few digtal releases and some photos in Visions sparks enough interest, who knows, maybe we could even see a resurgence with miniature releases and everything that goes into fully supporting a game system. If not, then a few digital rules updates and campaign books would make us veterans very happy indeed.

The time is now Games Workshop...now get out there and fight!

I am sure to return to the subject of Specialist Games soon, as I dig out dusty boxes of neglected models and prepare them for battle once more. Until then thanks for reading.

P.S. Here is the human Blood Bowl team I am working on, and once they are finished, my wife has commited to her first ever game!

We're being tracked...

Greetings wargamers and hobbyists, and welcome to the jungle...ssshh! We're being tracked...

Having been in this hobby for a fair while, but even more so since the advent of the internet, Blog-iverse, Facebook and Twittersphere, if there is one thing that I think gamers, miniature modellers and hobbyists have in common is that we seem to like to track things.

Now I'm not talking about furry quadrupeds in idyllic woodland, I mean projects, gaming, modelling, painting etc. I'm not entirely sure why we do it, but I expect we have an in-built need to organise, catalogue, record and analyse information, it's hard wired into the kind of people we (or most of us) are, and when it's something that plays a significant part in our lives, like our hobby, then it can become something verging on the obsessive.

It seems that not only do we have this need to track hobby related data, we also seem to want to share that information with the world, which can sometimes be a double edged sword. Some people post regularly in a Works in Progress forum thread, others post simple lists of stats in our forum signatures, others still dedicate entire blog posts to it, and a tiny minority talk about it on their podcasts.

So, what kind of hobby related information do we track?

Look to the lists...

I guess the obvious one, but one that people probably don't even realise is a form of tracking, is when gamers keep a roster of their assembled army, and this of course tracks the size of their army as they add models to it (which we  need to know in order to be able to agree a size of game to play), and it makes choosing army far easier, because we can take units from our 'standard roster' to form our army to the agreed points total. I keep complete rosters for each of my armies, gangs, fleets, teams etc, so I know both what I have, and the size of game this will allow me to play. Some people like to list each of the armies they collect and their size in points in their forum signatures.

Recruiting and Deployment...

Next, Recruiting and Deployment, which you good people may know better as 'models bought' and 'models painted'. These two things show us and everyone else for that matter, how many models we have added to our collections during the given time period (typically 'this year'), and how many models we have painted. These painted models aren't necessarily the same models as the ones we have bought, but a comparison of the two figures gives us an idea of how well or poorly we are doing in the personal war we fight against bare plastic.

I started recording my own 'bought and painted' stats in my forum signature over on Astronomican at the start of 2012, but that's also the time I decided to trade away and sell all of my old Epic models - a considerable quantity of stuff - which I then used to fund the purchase of a sizeable Ogre Kingdoms army. Quite simply, I traded and sold a lot of models I wasn't using and had little prospect of coming back to finance a load of models that I would use.

Unfortunately, this totally skewed my 'bought vs painted' record, as 'bought' seemed to spiral and painted stayed stagnated, because I was spending my time doing modelling work, assembly work and generally organising the trades and sales and all the incoming miniatures. Well worth it though. I've started again this year. Let's see how I get on...

Role of Honour...

...in other words, 'Games Played'. Some people like to keep a record of the games they have played. Sometimes it's as simple as that he figure, how many games they have played this year, but it can go much further than that. A common record shows how many Wins, Defeats and Draws a player has earned, which can be a fun little stat or a stick to beat ourselves with, depending on how well we are doing and how seriously we take our gaming results.

For my own record, I found it interesting to keep a record which goes back to the point where I joined the MAD Wargames club that I attend regularly. It shows what games system was played, what size of game, what the victory conditions were, who the game was against, the result, and a couple of sentences about the game itself, which typically I use to remind myself where I went wrong. Gamers often say we learn more from our defeats than our victories, and this is where I try to record those nuggets of wisdom. The stats are also interesting because I can break them down by opponent, game system, army and victories vs defeats to see who I play well against, and who I get flattened by, and whether there are some armies I do better or worse with or against.

The thing about game result tracking, is that sometimes our results are being tracked by others as well. In a 40K campaign, or Blood Bowl League for example, it's important to track results in order to asses who is winning and by how much. In fact, games that include 'character development', like Blood Bowl, Necromunda, Mordheim, Warhammer Quest and innumerable other games and RPG's require a detailed level of tracking to be maintained just to enable us to play.

Finally, the most obvious and most talked about form of game result tracking is that which relates to tournaments and competitive events, whether points awarded for painting, or results from games, you can't have a tournament winner - in fact a tournament probably can't progress beyond the opening stages - without tracking the results of the games the participants have played, as the results can determine who a participant plays next, and ultimately who the winner of the event is. These results can then go even further to determine who is eligible to take part in other events, like Masters tournaments and international events, and even who the  current top player in a country is, or even just the most successful player in your own garage.

So, if you partake in any of these tracking activities, and someone asks you, 'do you have an analytical mind', you can answer 'yeah, in a manner of speaking...'

If you track gaming related info, why not drop in a comment about it, especially if it's something I haven't mentioned.

Thanks for reading...

P.S. their is no P.S. pic today, because I've been on a bit of a posting spree this weekend, and haven't had a chance to do any hobby, but I have made progress on DIY in the kitchen...watch this space.