So what's been going on?

Hello wargamer family and good morning/evening to you!  It's me again with another set of ramblings for you to hopefully enjoy!  I certainly hope that things are going well with you all and you've been able to get some games in or do some painting of some sort.

It's been awhile since my last post primarily for 2 reasons.  A) it's been pretty busy with recovering from the crash and I've been running around trying to get a new car situation going on.  B) as a result I've not done a whole lot with the hobby.  My painting has slouched a little and it's been awhile since I've had a game in with anyone.  So what I have been doing is keeping up with the news and new releases/upcoming stuff.

Aside from PP big news on the upcoming Mark 3 I have been keeping my eye out on a couple other things as well.  For one I've been eyeing up the new Infinity's Human Sphere N3 book due to release in the near future.  I for one am excited about the new book and hope it clarifies some of the more interesting special rules and equipment pieces (such as those holo-fields).  One thing that recently was teased by Corvus Belli is the new Maghariba Guard model.  Ooooooooooo my that is a sexy TAG.  I don't imagine myself as a Haqqislam player but I might have to get the model just for painting pleasure.

Looking over to the 40k realm of things there has been talk and recent postings about Renegade Imperial Knights which all I can say is "it's about damn time."  I suppose with the prolific presentation of Chaos Titans it just seemed odd to me that their tinier brethren would have non-traitor forms.  Now Gee Dubs has corrected this and we have confirmation about some traitor Knights.  I can't say I have laid eyes on any rules but let me tell you if there are any Plague Knight options you can be sure I will get a trio of them and convert them up real gud.

Speaking of 40k sometimes I will get into these moods and start tossing out ideas such as picking back up with my Eldar and getting some models for it, or working on some conversion bits for Chaos.  Currently those thoughts are Eldar centric and I'm not sure if GW realized it but they had a couple bundles with some...*gasp*...savings?!  Granted it's not like a huge percent but shaving off 5 bucks for 3 War Walkers is not something GW is known to do.  So it might not be a bad idea, maybe, we'll see.

I'm sure there are plenty of recent teasers, releases, news bits, and etc that have caught your eye.  These are just a few of the ones I've been paying attention to more over the past week but I'd love to hear from you what you've been keeping an eye on.  Until next time gamers have a good one!

In today's gaming news...

Good morning fellow wargamers and welcome to another set of Ramblings.  Here today I wanted to put in my 2 cents about one of the more recent news events that has been released in wargaming: the announcement of Mk III for Warmahordes by Privateer Press!  Ooooooooooooooooh snaps!  It also is getting released in June...of this year! Say whaaaaaaat?  Craziness I know, so let's talk about it!

The soon-to-be-previous edition of Warmachine was originally released early in 2010 and since then the game has grown quite large.  Since then each year has brought out a new book furthering the story, releasing new models, and adding new unit types to the game.  Since 2010 we now have Battle Engines, Colossals, Gargantuans, a new faction, a relatively poorly reviewed video game (sorry PP :( ), new warnoun types like a warnoun unit, and continued support from Privateer Press. 

Ah yes Warmahordes!

As a game it has evolved over time to being considered by many to be a solid choice to get into and has been growing in many different avenues.  From the hyper-competitive tournament scene to the local slow-grow metas, Warmahordes has filled out that spot in many player's hearts for a game that was just clear on the rules, quick, fun, and brutal.  As a veteran player of wargames my personal interest started as Gee Dubs made it clear that they did not care about the hobby but the profits.  While I do understand that these guys need to make money to keep going and ultimately they are all businesses, I at least want to have the illusion that the company is interested in keeping the hobby alive and well.  That and Gee Dubs kicked their prices to the point where I would need to sell an organ to start an army these days.

So now here we are at the cusp of Mk III.  Already PP has released some information about changes we can expect as far as rules go in a recent podcast of theirs as well as from the forum.  Point costs are being changed to help reflect accurate point values for smaller models, the focus is coming back to the Jacks/Beasts, pre-measuring, and more!  With that in mind here are my top three wishes for Mk III:

Re-vamping the Warnouns

Pug3 on Cavalry option

I agree with PP on their site that the Warnouns serve as a central part of your army and whichever one you choose is going to reflect a different play-style/personality/etc.  The thing that bugs me is that despite best efforts there has been a power creep in the Warnouns to where some are just not really viable choices for use.  There's something to be said if you brought the Testament of Menoth versus Butcher3.  Could you win hypothetically?  Sure.  Will you have a good probability of winning?  Probably not.  Ignoring the effect of matchups I think ultimately what I want is having a relatively equal playing field for all of the faction's Warnouns so that I don't feel like I have screwed myself over by taking someone versus the obviously viable choice.  I think every faction has the community choice of who is the worst and who is the best and honestly I'd like to see more diversity from a re-vamp.

 

Keep the options open

One appeal many players have for this game is the steam-powered robots or giant monsters that smash everything around them.  While I appreciate PP doing what they need to in order to bring the focus back on the battlegroup I also hope that they do not try to pigeonhole or punish players who might want to try running small battlegroups.  Currently some casters are considered the "infantry" specialists and I would like that to remain if possible.  It's too early to tell if they are going to make infantry/units so costly that you can only take 1-2 but I would like it to remain around 3-4 personally.  I think it's what makes this game great is that the different casters bring their own playstyle and I just hope that the ones who love their troops more than the jacks/beasts don't lose out during the effort to bring back the jack. 

 

Don't let older units "die out"

Dinopugs are still viable solos

 

The best way I can explain what I mean by this is my anecdotal example.  The unit that got me into Warmachine and my first faction of choice were the humble Deliverers of the PoM.  I got excited about the idea that these civilians used rockets to rain death down in the name of their god.  If I remember right it was the first infantry unit I purchased also.  Then I found out through time, gaming, and research that they were just...meh at best.  I heard the phrase "yeah you can take that but X or Y does it better so why take A?"  I've heard, read, and even said that phrase about more than the PoM's units, and I'm sure that mains of other factions have their own story like this.  I'm not saying every "old unit" is useless (have you seen the Exemplar Errants lol?) but I guess what I'd like to see in Mk III is that every unit has a chance of belonging somewhere in their faction lists.  PP made the unit for a reason, I'd like that reason to stand the test of time.

 

I'm sure I can come up with other wishes and hopes but with it being so close to release time in June I'm just excited.  My friend Josh had found some info that they knew about this edition for 3 years! Well with that length of time studying, tweaking, twerking, making dank memes, and doing their best I think this will be a fine change.  Still there's always the chance that things get dicked up, so here's hoping PP that the new edition is solid like we all hope for and here's to more years of not being THAT guy in terms of companies!

 

Cheers.







I think I'm addicted...

To miniature gaming! Haaaaaa...haa...hmph.  Good morning fellow war-gamers it's too early in the morning for me and I hope you all have a cup of coffee as well. It's been a bit since the last post and since then it's been hectic (was in a car accident with a totaled car but at least I'm here!) so let's get started.

This is also true, but games as well!

As you all might now I have invested into several different games from prior posts.  I'm sure we all have at some point been like this.  A warhammer army here...a warmachine force there...oh look Infinity...etc.  I think for some of us it's a continual cycle of interest, investment, and commitment.  That's not to say we lost complete interest in the games before, heavens no!  I'll still throw down a game of 40k if asked even though it's not the game I am most into right now as an example.

So where does this lead us today folks?  Well I wanted to talk a bit about some games that I've been wanting to get into but haven't reached the investment part yet.  Right now we are still in the interest phase of things and these are games I do not have forces/models for.  So let's have it, in order of current addiction!

Dark Age

An example of some of the updated models

Ah yes Dark Age, the post-apocalyptic grimdark skirmish game from Cool Mini or Not (CMoN) or at least they own the rights.  I'm not sure what the story is from what someone was once telling me about it, but either way they have the game now.  Takes place on a planet that was otherwise forgotten about by the bulk of civilization and subsequently technology and life have suffered from it.  Currently there are about 6 main factions with some have multiple subfactions that have certain model choice/playstyles.  I actually have made an attempt to get into this game once before a couple of years ago.  The model quality back then was very lacking in terms of being easy to assemble and so out of frustration I gave up, as well as my group.  Flash forward a couple years and I'm looking back into it, albeit with more caution than I did before.  I've been assured that the quality has improved and I can tell that there have been some updates model-wise.  Rule wise it's easy to get into and the core rules are not too complicated, CMoN seems to put the depth of the game with the model special rules than core game mechanics. 

 

Wrath of Kings

I believe this represents some of the 5 factions

Another CMoN, I've heard a lot of good things about this game and its growing popularity.  I'm also sure CMoN's game philosophy is to make the rules easy to pick up but the complexity is placed with the models.  Currently the gameplay is quick, easy, and brutal.  Game sizes are (from my understanding) open ended to be as large or as small as you'd like.  The game aesthetics are varied and with the current 5 factions it is likely that there is a force that someone would be drawn to.  I don't want to say it's your typical fantasy game because I don't feel like it is.  The factions have some uniqueness to them that I am having a hard time placing their influence from (I'm sure it's out there) but nevertheless is refreshing.

Malifaux

I love the models I have to say

 

I like Malifaux.  It's not something I've easily come to grips since the first time someone explained the game to me.  "It's a skirmish game...with caaaaards!"  Well I was not impressed.  After a few demo games I have to say the car mechanic has grown on me.  The models have also gone through an improvement and now that the rules are in their second edition Malifaux has been growing as a game.  The models look great unless you are not into the whole Victorian-era gothic stuff but they are well done and from my understanding have generally migrated to plastic making assembly and conversion work easy-peasy.  I also love the way you setup a game.  You start off by generating your scenario and scheme, reveal your faction of choice, and then come up with your list.  It encourages building a list for what you need to accomplish while trying to guess what the other player will be bringing, and that is a good thing I would say.  The only thing keeping me from getting into this game has been the uncertainty that the local scene is active enough to warrant it.  Maybe I'll figure that out in the future.

 

Firestorm Planetfall/Armada

Firestorm Planetfall Directorate I believe?

 

I've included both games as my last potential addiction because I think they both serve to curb that itch of large scale combat in small scale minis.  Spartan Games did a pretty decent job of picking up where Games Workshop left when they dropped Battlefleet Gothic and Epic 40k from their focus (I've heard of their impending return though) but I believe that the major issue with these two has been their lack of impetus in the North American scene.  Don't get me wrong I am sure there are many out there who play but here in my local area it's almost unheard of.  Still I love the idea of commanding a fleet of vessels and firing broadsides into the enemy ships.  Simultaneously I love the idea of commanding squadrons of vehicles and infantry blocks to secure objectives on a planet.  From my novice observations it appears that Planetfall has the stronger sense of diversity in terms of faction playstyles, but as a novice I could be wrong in that presumption.  Still I admire Spartan Games for their efforts and would be interested in seeing how they progress in the future with these IPs.

 

So that about covers my current level of interest in other games.  As you all know I am fully invested in some other games with the community being active to varying degrees.  I am sure that in the near future I will be getting into Dark Age and Wrath of Kings since there is a meta in the area.  As for Malifaux and Firestorm well until I feel like I can get some games in occasionally they will continue to sit at the interest phase.  What about you all, what games are you interested in and where do you feel like they are at?  Until then have a safe one gamers and happy gaming!