Old Dog, New Tricks...Sprue Cutters Union #30

Howdy wargamers and hobbyists, welcome to 2015 and the return of the Sprue Cutters Union. It's been a few months since the Sprue Cutters last rode onto the field, but as I threatened at the end of last year...we're back!

I'd like to start by saying that I have certainly been looking forward to reinvigorating the Sprue Cutters Union posts, and its return is all the work of Jon over at The Combat Workshop, who does a sterling job of running the show and keeping us all inspired with blog topics, even around his own real life demands, so thank you Jon.

The Sprue Cutters Union posts will hence forth be a monthly emission, so on with this month's topic:

What New Products/Techniques Will You Purchase/Attempt This Year?

Well well well, what kind of things will I be trying out this of all years, when I have set myself the resolution of painting up a minimum of 250 models before the end of 2015? I think it would certainly make sense for most of my efforts this year to be in support of that painting goal, and in order to achieve that goal there is one thing I need to get much better at.

Quite simply, I need to paint faster.

So then, when you are a wargamer with hordes of infantry,  cavalry, monsters and vehicles to paint, what does painting fast entail? Well the first thing I have to talk about is the standard of painting I want to end up with.

Malorian said it pretty well in his recent YouTube video about speed painting: you can get a model painted in about five minutes flat if you stick to no more than three colours and don't bother with any of the details, and with practice you can end up with a model that looks like what it is meant to represent from the extreme limit of battle cannon range - 72", or six feet. I however have spent many years building up my painting skills to the point they are at now, which I consider to be nearing the top end of tabletop standard.

This means I think my painting is better than what someone might achieve if they just rush out models as quickly and simply as possible, but they fall short of competition standard. That's just my opinion though; everyone has to judge for themselves whether they are happy with the work they are producing. 

My hope is to maintain a standard that I would be not be embarrassed to field on the table, but quick enough to keep to my schedule of about twenty models per month. It may be the case that further down the line I come back and take the fine details and highlights to the next level, but initially I would like to get caught up on the huge backlog of unpainted miniatures I own.

So what do I already know about painting quickly? Well, I know how to batch paint, I'm just not all that fast at it. What I want to look at this year is how to speed up the process, so what I plan on doing is experimenting with different coloured undercoat/basecoat sprays.

Until now, I have almost always undercoated my models in either black or white spray, usually black. Now this is pretty much the norm. Long gone are the days of undercoating miniatures by hand with a brush. What I want to explore now is the concept of using sprays to base coat miniatures in their 'dominant colour', and then simply add some details afterwards to get a result I am happy with in a much shorter time. I want to veer away from spray undercoating black and then painting 70% of a model brown when I can just spray the model brown to begin with and take it from there.

Hopefully, if I use my Orks and Bretonnian peasants as an example, I can spray base coat them brown, then just paint the skin areas and weapons, give the various areas a wash to shade, finish the base and call it done. My Tyranids too: spray them blue, apply a quick drybrush highlight, a wash to shade - done. That's the plan anyway.

So what else can I do to speed things up? One thing I can certainly do is give more careful consideration to my colour selection when painting models. In the past I have quite happily spent time mixing colours to get just the shade I want for a model, but when I'm meant to be knocking out models quicker, that is just too time consuming to maintain. From here on in I plan to implement a strict policy of no mixing of colours, unless it's just for a single session of highlighting and that's it. No coming back to the painting table and spending valuable time re-mixing a shade I used last session. If it can't go on the shade it is straight from the pot, it doesn't get used.

Anything else? Well, the last thing I plan to do is less a technique and more a motivational tool. I need to make sure I maintain consistency because I am working to a schedule, and each month I miss the target of twenty models means that much more of a hard time I will have on the home stretch at the back end of the year to meet my goal. I plan to maintain the pace by running pretty much back to back painting challenges online, because they are a great way to ensure that I get at least some painting done pretty much every day. Little and often, that's the way I find gets results, without sapping my will to live.

To summarise then, new things I am going to do this year to help speed up my painting:

1. Buy and use coloured spray paints to base coat miniatures in their dominant colour wherever possible.

2. Avoid mixing colours to produce other shades, because it takes too long. Instead, use colours as they are out of the pot, and if I don't have a colour I really want to use - buy it!

3. Limit the number of levels of detail I go to while I bring my collection to a basic but respectable tabletop standard. I can always come back later on and spend more time on them at my leisure.

4. Don't drop the batton! Do whatever I need to to maintain the pace; paint a bit every day whenever possible, aim for twenty models per month, take part in painting challenges and change it up between armies and units to avoid getting bored of painting the same thing for too long.

There it is then, the new things I will be trying this year to accomplish another new thing and get a record number of miniatures painted before the end of the year.

Feel free to drop me a comment below to tell me about any new techniques or products you plan on trying out this year.

If you want some inspiration, you could do much worse than check out the links below to the blogs of other Sprue Cutters Union members, and to the Topic Hub over at The Combat Workshop where members will post their links after mine goes up.

Check these out:

Doogs' Models
The Combat Workshop
Yet another plastic modeller
Kermit's Bench
The Museum Modeller
Motorsport Modeller

Topic Hub

And finally, if you yourself write any kind of miniature modelling blog, then perhaps you would like to consider joining the Union? All it takes is the dedication to produce one article per month on the topic of the moment, and include links to other members articles at the bottom of your own post as I have done. All you need to do is keep an eye on The Combat Workshop or any of the member blogs for details of the next topic! Look here for more details.

As always, thanks for reading.

Storm of Chaos vs End Times

Greetings fellow wargamers and hobbyists, and welcome to the twilight zone…noo-nee-noo-noo, noo-nee-noo-noo…

A very quick post today, touching on a subject that is big in the Games Workshop/Warhammer news at the moment – The End Times.

I am often inspired to type up a blog post by comments that I hear on the many podcasts I enjoy, and only this morning I was listening to The Dwellers Below discussing The End Times and differences between this and the old Storm of Chaos. They chatted about whether they thought the story being developed in the End Times would stick and officially change the setting of the Warhammer game, or whether it may all just disappear in a few months as if it had never been, just like the Storm of Chaos did.

The thoughts I have had since have been about what makes these two events fundamentally different, and therefore very difficult to compare fairly in a ‘like-for-like’ manner.

VS

Comparison no. 1

The Dwellers commented that the Storm of Chaos mainly existed online and in White Dwarf at the time of the event, whereas The End Times are fully supported by books. This may have been an ‘in-the-moment’ oversight by the Dwellers, who I typically find to be very knowledgeable, but the Storm of Chaos did have its own book, which detailed the build up to the events, new army lists and scenarios to be played. Without knowing more about what the guys meant, it’s hard to be definitive in my conclusion, but I think it’s possible that they may have meant that the Storm of Chaos was not supported by books as it progressed in the way that The End Times has.

Comparison no. 2

Game Rules. The End Times has introduced not only characters and rules for those characters to be used in game – which the Storm of Chaos also did – but much wider reaching additions and alterations to the main game rules, in particular the magic phase, and the degree to which armies have been combined to allow a vast variety of new unit and army combinations. This has allowed some lower tier armies to be combined with units from other force lists which either fill gaps in capability or boost the inherent strengths of the army, and has made some lesser used or underpowered armies far more playable.

Comparison no. 3

Plot arrangement. This aspect is what really clicked in my mind and made me want to address it in a blog post. A while back in one of my ‘Forging the Narrative’ series of posts, I raised the question of how you might arrange the narrative plot when organising a campaign – do you have the entire plot laid out in advance and allow the players to ‘play through’ the pre-determined story, or do you build up the story and then let the players take over from a certain point and determine the path of the conclusion for themselves based on their ‘in-game’ actions – wind it up and let it go?

This is in my opinion the single most profound difference between the Storm of Chaos (which was a worldwide campaign intended to be played to its conclusion by Warhammer Generals across the global community), and The End Times, which is in practice a set of source books which allow players to use rules in their own games set around the End Times events). This is also where the discussion ties back into my earlier Forging the Narrative post.

Games Workshop have seemingly decided to retain control (at least so far) of the plot development, rather than allowing the actions of the Warhammer community to dictate the development. When we compare this to the Storm of Chaos, this is quite possibly the reason that the Storm of Chaos went the way of the Dodo, because the way the story played out wasn’t what Games Workshop planned for or expected, and they had a hard time writing it out in a manner that players could believe and engage with. In other words, the well laid and well set up plan went somewhat awry, because the games that were played sent the campaign in rather a different direction.

I think that this was a good idea on the part of Games Workshop and their talented team of writers, and it’s also what has kept gamers hooked on the story as it has progressed, no matter how fantastical and unexpected the turn of events. With the number of well-known characters that have bitten the proverbial bullet as the story has gone on, and the way in which the relationships between races and nations has changed quite dramatically in some cases, the story so far is for me what I think GW would have wanted the Storm of Chaos to be if things had followed their grand plan, and then some.

Comparison no. 4

I would very much hope that people have already twigged this one, but I suppose that when I remember how many years it is since the Mild Breeze of Chaos blew out, it also reminds me how old I am.

The debate about The Storm of Chaos and The End Times needs to account for one rather significant piece of information, and this is something I mentioned as part of the last comparison:

The End Times is a vast and sprawling narrative with accompanying rules to allow gamers to play out battles using scenarios, special characters and rules all forming part of the release. In essence, although it is ongoing, it is a set of source books. It provides a setting and rules for playing out battles in the setting, or to actually re-fight key battled in the manner of a historical battle. The Storm of Chaos, in stark contrast, was a worldwide campaign, with all the associated implications – the story was built up, and then the gamers themselves were given the tools to go out and play out the action to a conclusion.

These are two very different formats and ways of running an event, particularly in the way the information is controlled by the ‘Games Master’ or Narrator (Games Workshop) and in the impact that the players are allowed to have on the development – in the case of The Storm of Chaos the impact of the players actions was huge (and relinquishing that control to the players is probably where things started to fall apart as far as the story was concerned), in The End Times the impact of the players actions doesn’t extend beyond depleting stocks of the wonderful books and models, and giving headaches to tournament organisers, for whom I have a degree of sympathy trying to deal with all the changes and uncertainty.

Anyway, before this quick post becomes a ramble, those are my brief thoughts about the differences between the two events. If you have any thoughts about the comparisons, or think I have either made too much of some points and not enough of others, feel free to drop me a line.



Thanks for reading…

Go on then, lets do some Hobby Resolutions!

Greetings fellow wargamers and hobbyists, and welcome to the cusp of a brave new year! It’s that time again, when we say farewell to the year that is ending, slam home a new powerpack, check our sights, and set the time circuits for 2015. Whatever you do…don’t look back.

It seems that year upon year we hobbyists and gamers make the same kind of wishful and occasionally wildly unachievable New Year’s resolutions that everyone else does, though we of course tend to make two sets of resolutions – the mundane kind, like ‘this year I will drink less’, or ‘this year I will lose weight’ – and then, hobby related, resolutions. For us, I think these are the ones that really matter.

While on the subject of hobby resolutions, I have to wonder whether this is something that is unique to Wargamers, or whether it is something that is undertaken across the whole spectrum of hobbyists, from the Scale Model crowd, to the X-Wing mob, the board gamers and even the card gamers? I’d like to find out a little more about this phenomenon.

So, I guess the point of this post (as I am sure it will be for every other hobbyist’s ‘Resolutions post’ you are likely to read), is to tell you all what kind of promise I plan to make for the coming year. Well I decided some months ago what my plan for the coming months (and years) would be, and I guess that this is a chance to make it official.

My New Year’s Hobby Resolution for 2015 is to paint a minimum of 250 models by the end of the year. I am not sure if this seems like a lot or not. It’s certainly enough models to make up one and a half to two armies, so I guess it is quite a few – given that many people make it their task to complete a single army within the current year.

When I break it down to ‘model count per month’, it only comes out at 20, which I think seems much more manageable – 5 each week every week. I plan to continue whenever possible to spend my one hour lunch break at work each day painting, and Thursday evenings for another hour or more while the wife is out at her class, so it’s perfectly achievable in my opinion, apart from the painting time I invariably lose when assembling new models! So the answer is seemingly to not purchase any more models. Or go on holiday – at least not without my painting kit.

In fact, I also need to consider the amount of time it would take to paint single large models as well, which might take 2 weeks on their own. I guess I need to refine my batch painting techniques so that when I am painting infantry models in bulk, I can whizz through them that much quicker. I already bought myself a can of Halfords ‘Rover Russet Brown’ to use to base coat my Bretonnian Peasants and my Orks, after getting on very well with the Halfords matt black primer. Best try a test model first though!

And why 250 for the year? Well, a couple of months ago I had a bit of a tot up of the approximate number of models I have in my Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 collections, and I determined that at a rate of 250 models per year I could have all of my Warhammer and 40K models painted by the time my son turns 8, which is an age at which I think he will be old enough to really start to understand the games to a degree that will allow us to properly start his ‘wargamer training’.

So, there is my hobby resolution for 2015 (and beyond), and my thinking behind it. I really intend push hard on this, and to keep up the momentum both by listening to gaming podcasts while I paint, and to change it up with every new unit I paint between the various armies I have, just to prevent me from getting bored painting all the models from a single army before moving on to the next army. This does however prevent me from taking part in any of the various ‘army painting challenges’ that people are running, because I’m not planning on spending enough time on any one army to complete it in the year – but you never know I guess.

I’d be interested to know what your hobby resolutions are, whatever kind of gaming you are into, so feel free to drop in a comment.

I wish you all a safe and prosperous New Year, full of hobby goodness. See you on the other side, and for the last time in 2014 - thanks for reading.

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.

Book Review: Darkness Rising - Book One

Greetings fellow bookworms. Waaay back when this blog first saw the light of day and I created my 'About' page, I wrote somewhere in the blurb that The Eternal Wargamer blog would primarily be a venting point for my Games Workshop gaming related shenanigans, but may also include the odd post that was about a film or programme I had seen or a book I had read if I felt that they were worth talking about. It's time I made good on that threat...welcome to my library.

This is the first book review I have ever written outside of the confines of the schoolroom, and I am not any kind of 'industry professional', but I do like to read, and I have studied the English language and literature. I am also trying to write a bit myself, and I have found that writing with any kind of real seriousness makes you look at the whole process in a different light. As a review, please don't expect this to follow a recognisable format for such articles; any resemblance to accepted 'book review' standards are purely coincidental. This is just a few words about a book I have enjoyed, and hope you might too.

The book I want to tell you about is the first in what is currently a series of four books, which collectively are called 'Darkness Rising', and written by a chap named Ross M Kitson of the UK. Book one itself is called 'Chained'. Before getting into my thoughts on the book, a smattering of basic facts about the story. It's a Fantasy Fiction tale which takes place in a unique yet familiar setting. In other words, the author has created what I came to realise quite quickly was a pretty detailed environment, but which incorporates many of the fantasy staples we know and love, allowing us to reconstruct the world in our minds without giving us a headache. The reproduction of the setting I created in my own mind is one of magic, monsters and rogues, with enough of our own real world history inspiration thrown in to make it amply believable.

'Darkness Rising' is well written in my humble opinion, and that's coming from someone who has become increasingly critical of other peoples work of late. The style is one that appeals to me, and is full of little details that hint at the amount of work that has gone into the creation of the characters and the various nations and realms in which the action is set. We are presented with a fully fledged world crafted as if by a skilled Games Master and story teller, and by the end of the novel, I was looking forward to seeing the story progress and reveal more of what has thus far only been hinted at.

The story follows a young girl sold into servitude by her parents, Emelia, and who finds herself tied to one of the great houses of the setting. She battles with inner conflicts, each facet of which tells us something about the world in which she lives. Emelia must come to terms with who she is, where she has come from and also where she belongs in a world where everyone seems to be cast as either life-bound servant or rogue beyond the protection of the realms highborn elite. Emelia must also learn to control the power within her, a wild and untethered power which must be mastered. This is a world where the denizens are strictly controlled, and power over magic and military might is jealously guarded by a greedy few. The high and mighty exploit the week for their own gain and position.

With the influence of a range of allies and adversaries, Emelia comes of age, while at the same time being swept along as the story evolves into what promises to be an epic confrontation between good and evil in later books. This first novel in the series is certainly the warm up that all great stories must have to set the scene for what must surely come later, and draws us in with tales of aloof mages, dark sorcery, griffon riding knights and carefree cutpurses. This story is the D & D adventure we all played out as young gamers brought to life as a full blown tale, and includes some interesting takes on some of the old Fantasy archetypes I haven't come across before.

The series is available both in paperback and in digital formats, and is highlighted as a '#1 Best Seller Epic Fantasy'! If you are looking for something to read, then I believe that Darkness Rising could be a refreshing change and certainly worth your time. It has been for me. I for one am ready to dive straight into Book 2, and will be back with a further review a little further down the road.

Until then gracious visitor, thanks for reading.