Opinion piece: GW's image

So I saw an article on Spikey Bits the other day that got my head juices flowing and I wanted to take a second to expand on said juicy juices.  For those interested in the original article I will post a link here: Spikey Bits Article

The author posits a question in that how can Games Workshop regain their tarnished image that has been acquired over the years?  That's a great question and it's not something to be taken lightly all things considering that has happened.

To start off let's consider a quick summary of how Games Workshop appears to the community from my experience and history.  Remember this is an opinion piece so if you agree/disagree with me that's ok and we can have different opinions (we gamers get so mad about our games sometimes :p).  If you are up to snuff about GW's history then feel free to skip ahead to the question mark dude, otherwise enjoy :)

Seems about right for the wargaming community

Games-workshop is definitely one of the most well known modelling companies out there and the quality of their kits show that they are considered by some as one of the best.  Most of their plastic kits are easy to assemble, convert, and play games with and have been used over the years.  They own one of the most prolific IP's in wargaming and almost everyone who plays war games will be familiar with the name Warhammer in some fashion.  They have been a staple of wargaming for decades now and many players own a least 1 army for Warhammer, if not more in some cases.  When you look up videos on painting tutorials, battle reports, and hobby tips more often than not you will run into Warhammer 40k.  Many people love 40k for the game, for the hobby, for the lore, and many other reasons not mentioned here.  In other words when one thinks of war gaming, one will inevitably see Games Workshop's touch in some way.

Now many people are divided with GW as a company as it stands today.  The previous CEO, Tom Kirby, made many decisions that affected the community and company as a whole and left many people angry, estranged, and downright upset with the great Gee Dubs.  To some they are still a great company that pumps out great miniatures and content.  To others they are seen as a soulless company who is only concerned with your money and could care less about the hobby or the consumer, overpricing models for no real reason other than greed.

How I imagine GW feels when they shaft the community

In my opinion I fall into the latter camp which sees the greed that sums up the previous upper management and company direction.  They raised prices each year making entry point into the hobby ridiculous (some armies for 2000 pts could cost you about 500 at minimum, in many cases more easily) and making new players and veterans interested in a new army discouraged.  The company made it quite known that they were interested in making sure profits were high at all costs.  So they did things like sued anyone who even dared to threaten their IP (a quick google search of Chapterhouse Studios and Spots the Space Marine will give you some examples).  They closed down many stores, shut off social media contact/accounts, and made it so no one could sell their stuff online except under some very specific circumstances.  On top of that any presence they had in the tournament scene slowly dwindled and support became a rarity (from my understanding).  Also don't get me started on the rules of the game itself, which can be the biggest debate of them all for many people.

Yes, yes, what does it mean? Ook. Ook. Eep.

From various articles I read the methods behind a lot of these changes can be summarized as thus (please keep in mind that I am in no way an economist or understand business practice, but this is just how I understood the articles): GW is operating under the belief that the majority of people who buy their models do so because they want to assemble and paint the things, not play games.  Games Workshop would raise the prices of the models so that each unit sold would equate to the same revenue of what several units of a lower price would get.  They would make less models, and have less business expenditures through the closure of stores/firing employees, and therefore make more money.  So it didn't seem to matter to Tom Kirby or GW if there were less people buying their models, because the few people who were still buying would make up the difference.  Meanwhile they would target anything that threatened their profits and would work towards ensuring that only they could get the money.  A short-term strategy I would imagine, because eventually even the hardcore fans will eventually fall to the cost and relent to slowing/stopping purchases.  To many people this seems like a terrible road and in the vacuum of power many other companies rose and now GW has some legitimate competition that is stealing profits (Privateer Press, FFG, and Corvus Belli come to mind).  In the end what mattered was the profit margin and not the spirit of the hobby game.

So we come back to the question, how can GW salvage their image? Remember this is just my opinion.

Good question mate

For me I think GW can lighten the hell up about their IP and not be such a stuck up ass-hat when it comes to the community.  Open up social media connections, get back in touch with the people who support the game, be involved and build rapport!  Also for God's sake do some market research and realize that the majority of people who buy the damn models play the game and aren't just spending hundreds on models "to collect and paint them for fun."  They could use their IP and expand their product line to new avenues and insert it into some cultural memery (put a Khorne berserker on a shirt and make it "Khorne flakes" or some bs like that).  They could make a lot more money and new-comers if they would remember their roots and remember that having things like a bits store and decent White Dwarf articles that weren't just fancy ad-spaces kept people coming back for more.  To remember that if you make people loyal customers instead of temporary ones then we will spend more money in the future instead of looking at different options.  Prices of course would be nice for a change and from the gamer/community standpoint I would prefer cheaper boxes that more people bought than expensive ones that few did.  It would mean more people were playing and that is never a bad thing.  Also the rules, oh lawdy the rules.  Do some playtesting and work towards balance. 

I had been around when GW had friendly stores, helpful customer service, and you could start a new army easily without having to feel like you sold your child's inheritance.  At one point I had several more armies than I do now.  Chaos, Blood Angels, Eldar, Necrons, Tau, Orks, Imperial Guard, and Tyranids were armies I used to own.  Now due to the rising cost of models I had to sell off all but the first 3.  The point is, the access to the models were not at a point that it took pains to start and you could.  I am sure there were many more like me and I think GW had a good thing going for awhile in the early 2000's.  Even with all these changes I'm not sure if they will be implemented, or if they are even feasible.  Hell to a degree it just might be looking back at the "good ol' days" and reminiscing, wishing for the positive aspects I remembered.

I have heard the new CEO is starting to maybe fix the bastardized company Tom Kirby left behind and has been making some changes such as bringing back Specialist Games and offering some discounts (something I still have a hard time believing).  They even made the Betrayal at Calth boxed set an absolute steeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaal if you wanted to get into 30k.  Hell even for a start of 40k Space Marines it's friggin amazing.  Does this mean that Gee Dubs will turn itself around and start to recover their image in the community?  I'm not sure.  I've been burned baby, burned bad.  I will be skeptical about the future with Games Workshop but until I see some real heartfelt change I will still be careful about spending any hardcore money on their stuff.  I will love the lore for a long time (except Age of Sigmar stuff, that never happened in my books) and will still play 40k whenever I can.  I hope GW gets back into good graces and does well for itself, but we'll see.

Thanks for tuning in folks, have a good one and happy gaming!

40k conversion musings: Thousand Sons!

So if you've been keeping up with this blog for its short life span you may have guessed that I am a fan of the Death Guard when it comes to my Chaos Marines.  I love the lads of plague and Mortarion and have been in love since 3rd edition 40k.  So now we are here in 7th edition and CSM are in a mediocre position.  Many loved units are either in disfavor or just not as good as some other choices in the codex.  One of the units that have fallen deeply in disfavor are the Thousand Sons.

Looks badass, not so much on the table. Credit: warhammer40k.wikia.com

These possessed suits of ancient armor have such great lore but they just seem to fail on the table as many people will leave them for other more useful units (read: Plague Marines).  That doesn't quite stop me from wanting to do some conversion work as the standard GW models are just...well...outdated.  Great when they first came out, now with some of the CAD work they've done they are starting to show their age.  So without further ado here is what I am thinking of for conversion parts:

Heads/Shoulders

With these I am going to capitalize on the whole Egyptian theme and while Puppetswar have plenty of other options, I felt that going with 2 10 man squads these would be my prime choice.  I figure I would use the Egyptian god pads for the squad, and go with Forgeworld's 1k Sons shoulder pads to represent legion.

Torso/Backpacks/Tabards

 

I am going to pick up the chest pieces from Spellcrow as I like the chest pieces since they are not as crazy detailed and offer some form of cohesiveness for the unit.  I've always envisioned the 1k Sons dust suits to not be the "personality focus" like the sorcerer would be.  Sort of like the countless legions of death with a few differentiating figures.  Like pre-Ward Necrons.  I am going to grab the tabards and backpacks from Wargame Exclusive.

I could go all out and grab some alternative legs/arms/bolters but truth me told I am ok with GW's CSM standard bits for those parts.  I think with the above bits I should be good to go for the majority of the unit.  I am still hunting down some parts I want to use for the sorcerers as I want them to stand out more than the dust suits.  I might need to look at some other sites or just brainstorm some more with the aforementioned, I might just grab some tomes from Wargame Exclusive or something.

Until next time fellow gamers have a good one, and have fun out there!

Pre-Christmas throw down of dice and models!

So before Christmas I was able to go visit the lads up in Wise and get a couple games in.  It was a great time had by all and I got to test out some of the mechanics of Bolt Action!  So without further ado let's check out some of the game pics:

 Turn 2, my Brits move around to face the Americans!

So I took my standard Brits against Josh's American forces, and since neither of us knew what we were doing it was an interesting game for sure.  The mechanics were picked up rather quickly and for the most part we had the flow of the game down about mid-way.  As you can see in the above we might not have had a lot of terrain and we ended up with a large killing zone in the middle.  Essentially whoever went in first died first.

On the right side of the board...

Josh attempted to flank my right side with his half-track and for some reason I decided my Cromwell would be the perfect counter!  Unfortunately once it was immobilized my tank was stuck behind that terrain for the rest of the game.  You can see peeking from the side of the building on the left my Artillery Observer, who failed his bombardment call and the Once-Per-Game bombardment ended up landing right in the middle of the squad coming up in the middle.  Suffice to say it was hilarious and sad at the same time.

The Yanks on the left side (my left, his right)

Overall Bolt Action was a lot of fun mechanically and ran very smoothly.  There are a lot of things I will need to read up on to be more proficient but it was a great game.  I ended up losing sadly but really I didn't mind, I had more fun trying it out than trying to win.

When I went up against Josh again later that day we decided to do some 40k, so we settled on 1200 points and it was a mirror match of CSM vs CSM, and we both love Nurgle.  Go figure.  Still Josh was learning 40k so being the 4-5th game here are some snaps:

I think my Death Guard have that middle pretty much covered.

We decided on an Eternal War Mission, I think it was the one with objective having different point values.  I ran a simple list:

• Chaos Lord w/ MoN, Bike, Murder Sword, Gift of Mut, Icon
• 2 x7 Plague Marines w/ 2 Plasma Guns in Rhinos w/ Havoc Launchers
• 6 Nurgle Bikes, 2 Meltas
• Forge Fiend with 3 Ecto cannons
• Vindictator

I believe he went with something like this:

• Typhus
• 5 Terminators
• Land Raider
• 30 Zombies
• 7 Plague Marines w/ Rhino
• 3 Nurgle Bikes

The Forge Fiend was supported by Plague Marines and held the objective stubbornly

 I felt bad in a way because his list was not optimized at all for the point scale and so he had all of his eggs in a basket and as you can see in picture 1 that basket was far away from any objectives.  My rhinos were able to secure choke points on the field and in my opinion that is where Plague Marines shine is when they control those points.  With the prevalence of blast templates his Zombies didn't stand a chance and when his infantry was out in the open they were shot up by my Plague Marines and Forge Fiend.

Vindicator blasts made short work of those zombies.

Once his Land Raider was down Tyhpus had to foot slog it across the board but by then it was too late.  I dismantled everything else and in the end he had Typhus alone.  We chatted a bit after the game about list designing but I think it might take a few more games before it'll start to click.  Or maybe one really good sit-down session where we go over everything at length.

Finally I played a game of BA with my friend Mike who brought his Wermacht and it was rough.  Here are the shots!

My poor Brits shot up mercilessly

 So we played the scenario where my Brits had to run up to his table and secure 2 out of 3 objectives.  I had the chance to preparatory bombard him and I was able to get some decent pin markers on him but nothing to talk home about.  Mike's forces were small 5 man Veteran squads with assault rifles, so it was hard to hurt him and he could pump out the shots equivalent to my 10 man squads.  Not knowing any better, I took Regular infantry with no special upgrades!  Numbers over quality I say!

 

Trying to hold a center desperately

Unfortunately for my Brits, Mike breathes war and was able to hop from cover to cover and get into some good position.  Truthfully the major reason I was able to hold my own to a degree was that my Artillery Observer didn't fail me this time and was able to pin down 4 squads, including his Tank Destroyer Stug, for a good majority of the game.  Mike was not able to succeed his tank's morale check to save his life and with my pre-game bombardment and artillery shelling he had to make a 6 on 2d6, but kept rolling 10's.

The farthest I got up on the field :-\

My list was not ideal for this scenario and in the end I couldn't secure any objectives.  I got close, but that doesn't work.  The highlight of this game was that Mike's Stug had FUBAR'd his morale test and fired on one of his intact Vet squads out in the open.  A round of shelling later and 4 had fell to his own tank.  Immediately after my 6 pdr fired a round into the Stug and felled it with one shot.  I felt bad in a way but I was laughing too hard to feel too bad.

I apologize some of the pictures were sideways but that's my camera's fault.  Overall it was a great game and I enjoyed both Bolt Action and 40k.  I was a bit skeptical that I would have liked Bolt Action as much as I did but once I started playing it was amazing.  I might look into actually doing more with it now.  That's it for the game coverage, if you like the format let me know or if you want more information give me a heads up and I'll do what I can.  Until then take care and happy gaming!

Happy belated Holidays!

As I am sure most of you have been busy with the holidays, so have I.  In my short week of vacation I spent half of it with the in-laws and the other half with my side of the family.  It's been too short to get any meaningful rest but it has been a good time.

I did get to play some games this past Tuesday and tomorrow I hope to talk a bit about them more in detail.  I went to visit my friends up in Cavalier Comics and we ended up playing a couple games of Bolt Action and some Warhammer 40k.  I lost both Bolt Action games but that's ok because they were both fun as hell.  I won the 40k game but I can't count it as a win since it was my friend's 4-5th game.  It was more of a learning experience for him that's for sure.

Speaking of 40k I have been daydreaming about continuing my Chaos force up some and have been looking at making some custom 1k Sons, Noise Marines, and Berzerkers.  While I primarily focus on Papa Nurgle, I love Chaos and would love to include a couple squads of each to round out the forces.  I'll be posting up some of my thoughts of what I will be using to build in the near future. 

That's all for now, I've got to unpack and do whatever the wife wants me to do.  Until then happy holidays (belated) and happy gaming!

Beep beep boop sucka!

What a crazy couple of days it has been as far as crisis in mental health goes, so I've not had a chance to hash out some ramblings until today.  Mah bad :-\

Today I am going to look at one of the reasons I got into infinity: the remotes!  The lovable robots that are both anthropomorphic and not.  The robots that some are worth and others are considered trash by the community.  I care not! I love them! BEEP BEEP MADDAFAK- *ahem*.

One of the recent remotes I've been putting together has been the Lunokhod Sputniks (most likely becuase I have an excuse to say Sputnik) which appears to be part of a common trend amongst the factions to be part of one of 2 groups.

The main body, who couldn't love this?

Remotes either share 4 similar kit combos and are relatively cheap in cost/stats, or are more specialized for their faction and are 'beefier' but with higher point cost.  You can look at most factions and see that there are usually 4 remotes that have similar builds.  Then you might see the other 1 or 2 remotes that are different from the "common builds."  The sputnik is of the latter.

All remotes get a -6 to their dodge rolls meaning that you will need to use cover more often than not.  Since the cheaper remotes tend to have no natural ARM this is the only way to get a ARM bonus.  The Sputnik has a nice ARM 3, bumped up to 6 in cover, making it more durable than the others for the Nomads.

The big reason I take the Lunokhod Sputnik is that they are able to bring Crazy Koalas!  For those who aren't familiar with them imagine dynamite strapped, doll-sized, robots that will run at you and explode on impact and once they start you can't stop them.  Since these cute explosives activate in the opponent's active turn I use them to block off and deter areas of advance.  They will activate once someone enters/moves in their 8' Zone of Control, making it a nice 16' diameter of a cuddly explosive risk.  The Crazy Koalas have super-jump and a MOV of 6-4, ensuring that most of the time you cannot outrun these devices.

As far as the Sputnik itself goes, I'm sure the remote itself will be useful as well but for me I take this particular brand for the Koalas.  Until next time game on and dice be with you!

Reinforcements inbound

Welcome back you space-faring tech-junkies to another post of Wargamer Ramblings! Tonight I am going to look over a unit I picked up and have been working on assembling.

My usual method of war game collecting is I buy the models en masse, assemble them over a couple days, prime them, and then let them sit there until my muse slaps me up and I get to painting.  So here is what I've been assembling as of late:

Sexy Nun Ladies of Death~

The Reverend Moiras, ah yes the scarily sexy nun ladies of the Bakunin ship.  So what's up with them?  Well they have a relatively slow MOV of 4-2, above average CC, average BS, decent WIP, decent ARM, and 1 WND.  The cheapest loadout is 28 pts and ranges to about 1.5 SWC 36 if you want a sniper rifle or HMG and almost all of them come with a shock CCW.  With multi-terrain, ODD, and Religious, it rounds out the profile.

Unfortunately these ladies get compared with the Riot Grrls and often are left behind in favor of them.  It's not hard to see why, Riot Grrls have a better MOV of 4-4, the Moira's ODD is pretty much negated with any MSV or fire, and the stat line of the Moira's really accentuate their desire to get into CC in a shooting dominated game.  Oh and Riot Grrls are better at dodging and have a BTS score and 1 more WND.  You won't be taking a Moira for her shooting that's for sure.  Comparatively Moira's lack the Riot Grrls Frenzy rule and have some different loadout options but otherwise compartatively Riot Grrls are usually in favor especially since the point cost is almost identical.

So why take the scary nun ladies of Bakunin?  Well I take them because the current Riot Grrl models are ummm...like a potato compared to some of the stuff CB has been making.  So until they make some new ones I will be using the Moiras and hoping to get them into CC for some of that dank shock CCW attacks.

Until then goodnight and good luck!

Why so angry? Be...Nomad no more!

Ah yes the wacky lovable Nomads.  Who couldn't love their interest in technology and their desire for unrestricted freedom?

As we last spoke I went over the Nomads briefly and if you are familiar with Infinity great, if not then here is a good overview of who the Nomads are and their typical slant: http://www.infinitythegame.com/faction_NOM.php

Starting off in the previous post's pictures I have 3 Alguaciles in the back who are the basic line trooper of any Nomad force.  I pretty much use them as order cheerleaders and helping keep an eye on my flanks/rear but otherwise not much power at this point.

Mid rank from left to right we have my Mobile Brigada.  Nomads aren't heavy on the heavy infantry and we basically have two choices, these and the Riot Grrls.  This one came in the starter box and it is their newer sculpt so I tend to use it as my Lieutenant or a nice mid-board fire support for others.

Next are my Reverend ladies, the Custodier and Healer respectively.  One is a great alternative Lt. and the other is a decent doctor.  I like the Custodier's -6 MOD to hit her from her ODD so she tends to fill a nice spot for that aggressive hacking.  Finally my Grenzer who I haven't been able to find a decent use of him so far.  I think I might try out some of the more mid-range setups.

Front row starting off we have our lovely TO Camo Spektr who I just love to run around dropping mines and being a general pain in the arse with.  I like to use him in a Predator-esque way and try to hunt down some pesky models who might be an annoyance the longer they live.  The Prowler is next and with a Spitfire I like to use him as a glass cannon.  Finally my HMG toting Sin Eater Observant acts as a total reaction-bot covering up a section that he can draw a bead to.

Finally we have lurking in the back is my only TAG painted up right now, the Iguana.  With only 2 STR he may not last long compared with some other TAGs but once you knock those out then you have to deal with the pilot (next to him) who also is equipped with a HMG.  With 2 WNDS! So ultimately it is a 4 WND/STR model which is nice.  Downside is that there is only one loadout options which isn't too bad but lacks variety.

Overall I've been pleased but I've got some more Nomad options coming up that should expand my fieldcraft some.  Most of the models have been brilliant to assemble, except the Iguana which pinning is an absolute MUST.  Tune in next time for more ramblings in spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace~!

Warcor reporting in: Nomad forces inbound!

Hello again and welcome to another exciting post for my ramblings!  Today I wanted to go over what I've been pretty passionate about with the wargames and that is Infinity! 

In case you haven't heard about Infinity, then you are missing out.  I would highly recommend that you check out Corvus Belli's website and take a look for yourself: www.infinitythegame.com  Also the rulebook is free on their site :D

The gist of the game is that it's a skirmish sci-fi type where different factions vie for whatever agenda each of them hold dear.  I feel that the gameplay is inspired by sci-fi classes like Bladerunner and the well-known anime Ghost in the Shell.  There are a lot of things you can do in the game and at first it can be daunting but it is very fun and rewarding.

One thing about the game I enjoy is the order pool mechanic and that you get to react and still play while in your opponent's turn.  It takes a bit to get used to but it is definitely fun and I would recommend you check out some vids on Youtube to get the full details on the mechanics.

With that out of the way I wanted to show off some of my Nomads (think free-living, Shadowrun-esque, vagabonds with cool hackers).

Half of the Norangemads :3

For anyone who knows me, I am not normally a painter of the warm colors.  I prefer my blues, purps, and greens over any of the warmer tones.  So for me painting orange was a bit of a personal challenge to expand my skills.  I am mostly pleased with the results except for some of the guys who I painted the leather in a bright blue instead of the lovely brown you see on the ladies in the middle.

That's it for now, thanks for tuning in and next time I'll talk a bit more about what these lovely models do for me and some of my current Nomad projects.

The current gaming scene from my eyes

So I've been a long term-fan of the miniature war-gaming scene with several years of experience under my belt.  Granted compared with some of the old vets I've still a long ways to come.  I have seen Games Workshop in their earlier, golden years.  I've also watched them fall under the wicked ways of corporate greed.  With that being said I've been thinking about the current gaming scene as far as war games go and how things have come along over the years.

Oh boy just how things have come along!

I have to say I am glad in some ways that the rise in greed by a certain company has led to the rise of all these others little companies as well.  I can't say I can verify that the two are correlated but it just feels that way.  I feel that now there are many more flavors of your game to choose from and the diversity continues to grow.  Do I feel that war games fell to the might of the Vidya Game?  Probably not completely, it always has and will be a niche market and people who love war games will continue to do so.

Certainly I think in the past several years there has been a trend for games to be smaller scale in terms of models used and the correlation of how detailed some of them have been.  It's almost as if the less you have the more attention you can give to each model.  I personally enjoy these skirmish scale games as they offer some really great tactical opportunities.  I cannot relinquish the enjoyment from larger scale games completely and having the satisfaction that they bring to the table as well.

Overall while this being my first post I didn't want to get too in-depth of how things I have been (being on-call while typing makes things a bit more stressful than they should), I did want to touch upon the idea that I think war gaming is still healthy and alive and will continue to do so for some time.   I look forward to writing up more stuff in the future as well and hope you enjoy it also.

As a result I have been currently invested in the following games (and look forward to getting into more!):
Warmahordes (Trollbloods and PoM player)
Warhammer 40k (Chaos Marines, Eldar, Blood Angels)
Infinity (Nomads, PanO, Combined, Aleph, USAriadna)
Bolt Action (Britain)
X-Wing (nothing in particular)

Games I've been eyeing up:
Firestorm Armada/Planetfall
Malifaux
Gates of Antares