Breaking with the long time girlfriend that is GW...

I wasn't sure how to title or phrase this particular blog post until I was chatting with Old Shatter Hands on gmail and we came around to the topic of GW's actions of late. To sum them up for those who aren't familiar:

One - The new wave of Dark Eldar models are really nice. The 40k online community is generally all in favour of them, the models, prices not too bad for GW and all is well. Hope blossoms.

Two - GW decides now all info about new things will come out a week prior to release. No exceptions. No excitement for what's coming next. No seeing plans for model releases in advance (like almost every other game compan), nada. You will get it with 7 days warning and like it!!!

Three - GW announces they are basically recasting their metal figures into resin to reduce costs. I'm on the fence about this one. Cheaper figs is good but resin can be warped, bubbly and is fragile. I don't see certain sculpts lasting well (Lelith for one). Now we find out that they are actually going up in price by about 10% average (a few £/$ per figure). Oh, they are there to reduce GW's costs and shaft us? Gotcha

Four- GW announce an annual price rise to jack everything up a few % more than inflation. Not out of the ordinary but coming along with the rest makes me a sad panda.

Five- GW orders online sellers in the UK to stop shipping outside the EU. For people in Oz/NZ it is actually cheaper to buy forge world models than GW models because of the screwed pricing (box of terminators for £48 anyone? Nearly double RRP). The online retailers helped that but no more. A lot of down under gamers have expressed their imminent migration to Warmahordes etc. Hey GW, how about making prices virtually the same across the world or at least within 5-10% on the same product?


So me and OSH start chatting and here is the the conclusion.


OSH: I dont even care...I feel like I have broken up with a long time girlfriend and I am in the stage where I kind of remember the good times, but if I think about it hard all those bad times come back to memory

Pete: Ok, that's my blog title right there. Consider it stolen (I'll credit you lol)

OSH: Haha, go ahead. Really its like that. It's time for a break up. GW is the girlfriend that doesn't appreciate what you do...

Pete: Such a good analogy




To me the key point is that GW just doesn't seem to want to communicate with the playerbase and community. OSH sent a list of FAQs to Jervis, got a response, but half of the questions were not addressed when the actual FAQ came out and sometimes we have to wait months or years for simple rules questions to be addressed.

GW's pricing has always been at the high end of the market but now it's gotten to the point where I just don't care to play any more. Not that it is that much more expensive with the annual hike (a few £ per box set) but with the other issues of the game, corporate money-first attitude, lack of player base connection and communication, it's just a little more than I care to deal with.

I'd rather support games companies that are more interested in their players and have a more vibrant feeling to them. GW feels like they've stagnated, despite some of the best fluff and background out there.

From now on, I'm going to do what Steve Holy suggested. (He is one of the many good country singers who came to the studio when I was working in radio in the states)

For me it's going to be Infinity and Malifaux, with some Warmachine if I want a bigger game.



On the other hand, I'll be keeping up with my Deathwing since they are a finished army and you can't deny the terminator models are pretty sweet. In fact, model quality is something I don't really look down on GW for. For the most part they are great and their plastics are really nice. I did so much mix and matching with these Deathwing and I think they look great for it. I'm also going to put out a WOOT for the Army Painter colour primers. Saved me so much time on basecoating.

Gosh darn you GW and your temptuous ways.

Hey everyone,

So despite winding down on my time here in America (leaving April 13th) and trying to sell off the vast majority of my wargaming collection.....I am getting tempted to collect a new army.

How is it that we can be hooked so powerfully by these pieces of plastic, pewter and resin that sensible ideas like dropping the hobby for a while due to impending travel drift out of our minds and are replaced by the urge to create a new army of tiny toy warriors?

However it happened....I want to get and play a Deathwing army

I trace this particular new urge to a few factors:
- I don't want to stop the hobby, despite planning on country hopping.
- I can make an army of all terminators and only have to transport 25-30 figures.
- The new FAQ makes them better on the tabletop.
- I like the idea of having mixed armament squads
- I read the original story of the Deathwing in the novel compilation Deathwing when I first got into the GW hobby at age 10 or so.

So let's bring on the Deathwing.



Games Workshop has managed to create a rather awesome collection of plastic terminators for various armies and I like them all.....so I want to create a fun mishmash army. I will use various boxed sets and enjoy the mix of armaments that playing deathwing will allow me to take advantage of. I also have a great love for plastic models and will use it whenever possible since metal and resin don't click with me. I swear my skin exudes chemicals that prevent superglue from working on anything I'm holding, no matter what it's made from.

Army 'List'

To start with, the army needs to be led by Belial, the master of the deathwing. He allows Deathwing to be taken as troops as well as Elites, giving you 9 slots to fill with terminator goodness. There is no model for Belial so I'm thinking of using the Chaos Terminator lord as a base for him with lightning claws or converting using spare bits from the other sets I'll get.

Here's a good example of a Chaos lord Belial Conversion from Dakka



I cleary need to have some regular terminator boxes, for the cyclone launchers if nothing else but with the other sets on offer I can make some beastly combinations and fun models.

So I will start with two boxes of regular terminators and one box of assault terminators to give me some good models and basic options.

Who doesn't love hammers, claws and missiles?



Next up for me is the extremely cool Space Wolf Terminator set. This comes with a great selection of ranged and melee weapons (love the belt-fed assault cannon) and as long as I cover up some of the more obvious wolf imagery, I think it will add character.




By adding Belial to the mix, one Deathwing squad can be upgraded to have a banner and an apothecary. That's right, feel no pain on fearless terminators. Until today there was no obvious way to get a terminator-armoured apothecary and so conversion was the only option.

......then the new Grey Knight terminators set was released, including a sweet banner, apothecary, multiple great weapons and some fantastically ornate armour pieces. Clearly I'll have to fiddle around with the parts and perhaps use some green stuff to edit the many Inquisition symbols but I think they will make for great Deathwing models. Also, if I spread the Grey Knight pieces out over the whole army and add some robes with Green Stuff then the army as a whole will be coherent.




Last on the list for now is to add some Dark Angels' bits from the conversion sprue to help maintain a theme of Deathwing, particularly given the multiple sources of models I'll be using.




So there we have it. Games Workshop has tempted me back in again and I'm thinking about this quite strongly. It'll make for a good longer-term project too that I can take with me to whatever new country I'm living in and will give me a nice creative outlet for when I want to just nerd out :-)

Pete

Ork unit breakdown and probable army list Pt 2: Elites

Okay, finally got around to Part 2 of my Orky guide.

The Elites section of a codex is typically where you find some of the most effective units, though usually they appear in small numbers. The ork codex has a good selection on offer and they all have ups and downs. I will include both tactical concerns and modelling/cost ones, since both have a place in this hobby.

As before, pictures are taken without permission from Games Workshop's main website. Go there for more details on models and some more great images.

Without further ado, let's get started.




NobzThe Nobz are the biggest and meanest orks after the warboss and have a solid set of stats. They have the usual low ballistic skill for orks but come with +1 strength, initiative, wounds and attacks over boyz. With furious charge and 2 combat weapons, this means each nob will have 5x S5 attacks on the charge and two wounds mean they can stick around to keep fighting longer.

The Nobz are also perhaps the most customisable unit in any codex that I've seen with each one being able to take any of the equipment allowed (rather than the usual 'for every 5 members, 1 may exchange....' etc.). The equipment list is long too and includes: sluggas, shootas, kombi-weapons, big choppas, eavy armour, waagh banner, power klaws, ammo runts and bosspoles. This variety allows for the nasty Nob trick of making each model unique, allowing you to spread non-instant death attacks around so that each Nob takes a wound before any needs to be removed. That means you can take 10 wounds on a full squad of 10 and will only have to remove a model once the 11th wound is dealt. This can help Nobz stick around a lot longer than the enemy would like them to.

Also in there is the option to add a Painboy, who gives the unit Feel No Pain (and the choice for cybork bodies 5+ inv save), making them even nastier and more resilient. While I don't plan to do it (both for game and conversion/cost reasons) I have to point out the incredible power of Nob Bikers. The entire unit may choose to ride bikes. When accompanied by a painboy and warboss (the latter making them troops) you have a complex wound unit with 2 saves (4+ cover and FNP) where Str8-9 shots can be assigned to the warboss to prevent Instant Death, multi-charges are very easy and they can pretty much wreck anything in combat with a profusion of power klaw attacks. You generally have 1 turn to deal with this unit as it will turbo boost 24" on turn 1 and be ready to assault you come turn 2. It's not invincible by any means and is expensive, but it is very nasty to deal with and a threat that cannot be ignored.

For me, I used the Nobz boxed set, an AOBR nob set and some converting skills to mix up 2 units of foot nobz. I have 16 models total, 6 power klaws, 3 big choppas, some kombi-weapons, a waaagh banner and plans to convert a painboy or two. I will probably mix these models up a bit in two units and transport them in trukks or battlewagons (covered by a Big Mek KFF) to get into krumpin range ASAP. Looking forward to seeing how they turn out on the table.


Pros:
- Solid melee fighters with staying power and option for FNP
- Customisable and wound allocation
- Fast threat that can't be ignored easily when transported upfield
- Can be troops if a warboss is taken
- Nob Bikers
- Good value ($25 retail) set with loads of gubbinz that fits nicely onto AOBR models

Cons:
- Slow if forced to footslog
- Expensive points wise (20 base) and more when customised.
- Not the best initiative so can lose to nasty CC units (though their staying power helps offset this to some degree).



Mega Nobz
The Mega-armoured Nobz are actually a cheaper way to get smashy powerklaws onto the table than a regular Nob with a klaw. Costing 40 pts (vs 45 for a PK nob) they also get a TL-shoota and a 2+ armour save. On the other hand they lose the upgrade options (save for kombi weapons) and are slow and purposeful. The latter basically means you must have a transport for them as being stuck in the backfield and only moving 1-2" with bad rolls will not help your game at all. Be wary of fighting against power weapons or powerfists because they have no inv save and will go down to Instant Death. Choose your fights carefully.

These guys do really tempt me just because they are so fun and orky. I mean, strap a few hundred kilos of metal to an ork and point him on his way is such a greenskin mindset. My big downside though is that they are so expensive ($20 per model) if you don't convert. Still, a fun unit that is killy when it hits and definitely attracts your opponent's attention.

Pros:
- Cheap Power Klaws, 2+ save
- Nasty assault unit that draws attention

Cons:
- Slow and Purposeful.
- Require a transport (and if it's popped, see previous con)
- $20 per model :-(




Burna Boyz
Now these orks bring some versatile flamethrowers to the table and can be a real nightmare if used well. Essentially they are orks with a flamer (S4, AP5) who can use them as power weapons if they don't fire them in the shooting phase prior to assault.

In my view there are some good times to use them in the latter role (vs Power Fist terminators) where their low initiative doesn't matter and the power weapon is key, but generally I prefer them to use their flame templates. Given that they are the same as Boyz stat-wise (and cost nearly 3x as much), they aren't going to stand up to dedicated assault troops well enough to warrant frequent hand to hand.

A great change in 5th edition for the burnas is that there are no partial hits on flame templates any more and with no roll to hit, orky BS doesn't matter at all. If each burna boy can cover 2-3 marines with a template, then the hits really add up fast:10 burnas, 30 hits, 15 wounds, 5 dead marines, follow up with an assault move and you'll probably take out that marine squad. It gets even nastier in vehicles as you can either drive up beside (or tank shock into a clump) your foe, drop one template coming out of the wagon and multiply the number of hits by the number of burnas. So 5 marines covered by a template equals 50 hits with 10 burnas.

From a modelling perspective, these guys come in the same box as the Lootas and have the option to be lead by a mek. I don't really see too much utility in the mek but you might find space for a kustom mega blaster to add some punch. Money-wise, your best bet is probably to buy 2 boxes (giving you 10 bodies total), make up 8 lootas OR burnas then buy a box of boyz and use those bodies to make up the 8 of the other elite unit. Much cheaper than buying repeat boxes of the same.

Pros:
- Flaming burney death on a large scale
- Power weapon assaults can slaughter certain targets
- Good boxed set combination with Lootas

Cons:
- Expensive per model with no more survivability than a boy
- Vulnerable to assault threats
- Boxed set provides odd numbers (multiples of 4)




Lootas

Lootas are definitely one of the premiere elite units in the codex and one that few players should (or will) leave out of their army.

Each loota brings a deffgun, which is essentially a Heavy D3 autocannon. A unit of 10 will fire between 10 and 30 shots out to 48", more than enough to put the hurting on enemy vehicles and mess with a mech player's day. You roll once for the unit each turn on shots though so the damage output is variable and you can certainly have a bad game where each turn you get the minimum shots. Conversely a bunch of 5s and 6s will have you wrecking light armour like nobody's business.

The downsides of lootas are fairly simple. They are regular boyz who can have leadership issues, cost a bunch of points (15 each) and come in a box that only makes 4. It can be costly to build up large units but their guns too look very cool with a mix of tech from all the different races.

Pros:
- Great range unit that swats light armour or high Toughness targets through torrent of fire
- Relatively cheap for high damage output potential
- Tempting target, taking heat off your advancing boyz/nobz/etc.

Cons:
- Relatively small units with low leadership (max unit of 15 doesn't give much mob rule leeway)
- Variable damage output with the usual orky BS
- Annoying boxed set comes in multiples of 4 (great models though)



Kommandos

Infiltrating orks here who get to move through cover. Their classic use is for first or second turn assaults on foes who cannot react in time but they act as nice area denial troops too. Leading them with a PK nob who gets first turn auto-hits on a vehicle your opponent thought was safe is definitely mean. One option is to use them in conjunction with Boss Snikrot too. Though you lose the PK nob option, Snikrot lets you bring the Kommandos on from reserve on any table edge. Woe betide those Long fangs who though they were safe on the rear or flank position.

Pros:
- Area denial and/or first turn assaults
- Snikrot gives tactical utility

Cons:
- Smaller units with limited survivability
- Expensive models ($38 metal set of 5).




Tankbustas

The tankbustas bring some orky mayhem to the mech environment of 5th edition. Each ork has a rokkit launcher and must fire it at the nearest enemy vehicle in LOS, regardless of range. They can also come with tankhammers (S10 assault weapons vs armour), AT grenades and bomb squigs who go scuttling off to blow up nearby vehicles. Definitely a lot of fun and with great potential.

The key weakness of Tankbustas that must be mitigated is their requirement to shoot at the closest enemy vehicle. If you have LOS to a Land Raider 40" away but there is a squad of marines right next to you....tough. This means you need to plan carefully with tankbustas so you can deny them LOS to the targets you don't care for.

Pros:
- Lots of rokkits
- Bomb squigs let them engage multiple units
- Tankhammers can be swung from atop trukk boarding planks :-)

Cons:
- Glory Hogs means they must shoot vehicles
- Smaller units with limited survivability
- Expensive models ($38 metal set of 5).


That's it for elites. I'll try to be faster on the other parts of the codex so I can get on and put my final list up.

Sorry for the quiet - I have two dogs! Also a new Ramshackle Release

Hey all,

My posting has not been what it should have been recently and mostly I blame the sheer exhuberant nutcase joy of getting not one, but two great dogs.

So here are my two engines of great cuteness and destruction. They have no rules so far (we're trying) but many strength D+ attacks can result from their behaviours.




And just for a funny face moment. This guy makes me smile all the time with his crazy face antics. He's a complete nutcase but also very loving and adventurous. He's happily tried bread, cottage cheese, spinach, sugarsnap peas, icecubes and frozen blueberries without complaint or digestive issues. The little guy must be buzzing with vitamins and antioxidants by now ;-)





In other news, Ramshackle's Curtis got my corpse markers so hopefully we'll see some resin casts of those up for sale on the website sometime. Also he is releasing some new stuff and venturing into Fantasy. I don't play those game systems but I could see the giant making a great venture in a NR battlefield as a result of radation leaking.



The Hill Giant is part of an upcoming range of fantasy models. The range will launch with the Hill Giant and orc archers shown, plus a bolt thrower with goblin crew, a goblin war giant and two mounted goblin mages. Trolls will also be available.

The fantasy models are to compliment Ramshackle Games range of post apocalyptic figures and vehicles. The next Nuclear Renaissance release will be a set of metal bikers and new resin bikes.

Looking good to me. I can't wait.

At a crossroads with 40k - incoming price rises

So I logged onto Bell of Lost Souls today to see the latest news and BOOM!

Now price hikes from GW are no great surprise and it shouldn't be a big deal but this one is getting to me. I've got a completed marine army (~2500-3000 points) and a half done (~1000 points) Tau army.

My issue is that I need a goodly investment into my Tau to make it to a standard 1850 point army and I'm getting less and less interested in GW in many ways. The fluff is rich and thick, but stagnant in that nothing changes. Being on the back end of the cool models and rules is annoying as a Tau player and I just don't get the same excitement that I used to. Instead I'm finding myself excited by warmachine and it's dynamic pacing, great models and moving fluff line.

So my question is whether I should take the time and effort to invest in my Tau army. My current list is:

- 2 Helios (plasma/Fusion) crisis suits
- 3 Stealth suits + Marker Drone
- 12 Fire Warriors
- 12 Kroot
- 2 Piranhas
- Hammerhead
- Skyray

And to this I'd like to add:
- 3 Deathrains
- 3 Stealth suits
- 12 Fire warriors (6 converted into Pathfinders)
- 12 Kroot
- 2 Piranhas
- Hammerhead.

This neatly corresponds to 1 battleforce, 2 Crisis suits, 2 piranhas and 1 hammerhead boxed sets. Using prices from The Warstore which are pretty solidly at 20% less than retail I will be spending: $72 on a battleforce, $48 (3x$16) on crisis suits, $40 (2x$20) on Piranhas and $33 on a skyray kit (for the hammerhead) for a total of $193 plus $6 postage, so we'll call it $200 even. Please note that this already $40 odd under retail so it's a good deal right there.

Adding 10-15% (the general tone of the price hike from GW) pushes it up so that I would have to buy one fewer crisis suit to hit the same price level. It's not a huge increase but it's got me thinking about my 40k gaming and what I'm willing to spend.

Also my wife and I are talking about getting dogs, a house and kids in the not too distant future so I really have to think about what I can afford to spend. I think that my enthusiasm for 40k has really waned in the last few months so I'll see where I go from here. Thankfully I have Warmachine and Nuclear Renaissance to keep me excited for new models, and I can still play 40k with my existing armies.

Perhaps I'll come back to 40k in a collecting mindset in the future but I'm not sure right now. It's a shame but at least I have a solid army core to work from for now.

I think the new players coming into the hobby will be hit hardest though. I can't imagine how difficult it will be for an excited young player (like I was) to get an army going when it will involve dropping $200-300 or more. The basic boxed set games are fun but they run out of variety pretty fast in my experience.

Any thoughts or grumbles from other 40k players?


EDIT: I've found a local gaming club in Frederick, Md and somebody there is selling a whole bunch of Tau models so I might be able to get my army finished on the cheap. Perhaps that will be the way to do it and then I can set 40k collecting aside for now.

Forgot one more troll.

Hey all,

I just realised that one more troll I like and would definitely find cool to play with is the one and only: Mulg the Ancient.



He's really old, has a rune-carved mountain on his back and carries a tree as a club. I've read a few battle reports and it seems like he is quite the beatstick as well. Battlecollege describes his melee abilities thus "Mulg is a premier beatstick. His damage output is insane, if you send Mulg to kill something it will die, guaranteed."

Sounds good to me.

Unfortunately this all comes at a price. While he costs a lot of points, I'm more worried about his cost in dollars. $59.99 retail and $44.99 even with the Warstore's discount is a hefty chunk of change. I will definitely consider it but let's see if that job application goes anywhere first.

When gaming acquisition syndrome spreads to writing.

Well I imagine that most wargamer will understand the bizzare, yet undeniable, compulsion that afflicts most of us and causes us to go out and buy more models when we have limited need for them.

I know all of the arguments: I want to have variety, I need to reach 1500/1750/1850/whatever points for my games, I need to get the next powerful unit, I want a different model/model set to paint, I feel like trying a new army, I WANT IT I MUST HAVE THE ......... MODEL NOW.

I've used most or all of these at various times. Mostly now I'm driven by wanting to try something new (gaming and painting wise) and so my purchases are lessened somewhat. My marine force is sitting fairly solidly somewhere near 3000 points and so I have no need to add to this and only a few left to paint. My Tau army is closer to 1000 and so will need a fair bit of investment to make it up to the typical 1850 points for games that are generally played around here. I'll get there eventually but at the moment I'm trying to control my spending because I feel bad (my wife is glad of my internal spending guilt-o-meter) and because I hate having unpainted models around.

I will be buying up a big stash of Nuclear Renaissance models as soon as they are out (new rules version in a week or two, can't wait). I'll do a more complete post on them soon but check out http://www.ramshacklegames.co.uk/nucren2/boxcontent.html

After that it's Tau on the shopping list and maybe a few fun units for the marines (land speeder storm anyone).

A little bit of me wants to branch into fantasy but that is way off for now. I've got a stack of dwarf models from when I played in my teenage years but I'm not sure about them. If anyone wants a reasonable sized painted collection, please let me know and we can work something out.


ANYWAY...to the point of the post.

How does model acquisition syndrome spread to writing?

Well basically I got a good idea for a victorian fantasy steampunk novel (I hate genre labels but it gives you the flavour quickly) about 18 months ago and have been working on it ever since. It's gone fast at times and slow at others and I've definitely chopped and changed my way as I went. Characters have been added, other removed, roles shuffled around, challenges introduced and overcome and I'm still not done. It's currently running at around 96,000 words (that's 157 pages in word give or take) and I'm really trying to bring it to a conclusion.

Now my problem is that while I'm rightly proud of all that I've done with it, I am getting creatively tired with these last few chapters. It's not that the story is any less good (it's a LOT better than the first outline I came up with) but just that I've spent so much time with it and not finished yet. I'm sure anyone who has painted a large army for warhammer understands. After a while, no matter how good the army is and how much you like it, you just need a little change.

My problem is that I have three (and a half) ideas competing for my attention. Three novel length pieces (and one short story/novella) is no small amount of work, especially going by my speed record with this current book. I think I'll be faster on my next piece as I've learned a lot but each will require a lot of though and investment of time and effort.

My issue is just that I don't know whether it is better to finish Wind and Steel (the current one, working title) and then start a new piece, or whether it would work for me to branch out and start the next work to give myself a break from my current struggle. I'm a bit torn at the moment and it's tough to find the right way. I feel like it would overall be better to finish typing Wind and Steel, print it so I can read/edit by hand, and then start typing the next. That way I only have one thing on screeen at any one time.

Alternatively I'm thinking of taking a whole day one weekend to shut myself away and push out a huge (5000-10000 word) chunk of the next book idea, not worrying about good writing and just vomiting the story onto the page. That might get my creative juices flowing and let me go back to Wind and Steel with new enthusiasm. In fact, Secrets of the Noctis came out of just such an exploration when I was stalled on my enormous Grey Knights/Inquisition piece for the Black Library Forums.

Anyway, enough rambling. This was partly to put my thoughts in order, partly to discuss the interesting parallel, and partly to ask for any thoughts. Based on your gaming and/or writing experiences, what do you think would be best?

Pete