Been Gone for Thanksgiving

Posted by Ranillon on 29. November 2009 22:59

It's been turkey time with me off visiting the relatives.  But, now I am back so expect a resumption of regular postings.

This week I plan on giving a review of the new Fortress of Redemption (just have to get to the game store to grab my reserved copy) and a review of some alterative models that one can use for Warhammer and, to a lesser extent, 40K.

Stay tuned.

Mutants from the Future!

Posted by Ranillon on 22. November 2009 10:16

Games Workshop has released a picture of it new Chaos sorcerer figure for Games Day in 2010:

<Click to Embiggen>

Nice model.  Too bad that the scuttlebut is that the will be only one Games Day this year in the US, with more on the offing if you want to travel across the globe for your games day fix.  A lot will be riding on this single GD.  If it reaches the general level of stinkiness as seen at some previous events the fall out could be brutal.  Given GW's resources is leaving the promotion to their hobby in the hands of untrained recrutes doing their own tournaments a really a good business strategy for the long term?  Sure, promote independent games, but without a sizeable GW presence it won't even feel like it is their game being played.  This in turn creates a great opportunity for a company that could produce a compatable set of game rules into which GW miniatures fit well -- along with the own original ones.  In other words, a game that allows all the old stuff not to wasted while providing the excellent customer service we want to see,

Remember what I said before about taking customers seriously?  This is not the way to do so, at least given the event information I've see as of yet.  Hope things improve or otherwise "GW" is going to become just the label on the box in which your miniatures arrive -- until you start receiving real service from another company, that is.

High Prices, Underwhelming Deals

Posted by Ranillon on 21. November 2009 00:41

Generally speaking I have taken the price hikes of Games Workshop over the years in stride.  Yes, they have always been pricey, but the models are great and the costs for similar forces from other companies roughly the same.  Yet, looking over the new Skaven models recently I have to admit that I've experienced real sticker shock.

Take for example the new Skaven Battalion.  For $105 you get what amounts to one and a half infantry units (rats tend to go around in large groups, after all) and maybe half of the rat ogres and giant rats you need for full units.  In other words, for over a cool hundred dollars you get, what, a fifth or so of an army?  Sure, you don't play Skaven to have a handful of models, but still...

Then there is the cost of Stormvermin -- $50!  That's $2.50 a model for plastic.  Yes, I know I have spent $50 (well, usually not as I always try to get a discount) for a group of five terminators, but seeing a mere 20 models of an army that can require hundreds cost so much frankly made me go bug-eyed when I first saw it.  I shutter to think what Tyranids are going to cost when they arrive in a few months.  Yikes!  Thank goodness my bug army is basically done.

I read forums all the time where people drone on about how obscene the costs of GW figures are and I am usually willing to write it off to mere griping (and the odd, even masochistic need for some fantasy/sci-fi geeks to find something about the hobby to be offended over) but for the first time I am really beginning to wonder myself.  How far can the Games Worshop form of the hobby go with prices going so high?

Compare the new Skaven Battalion with this army deal from Warlord Games for a Royalist English Civil War force:

For the price of (using current exchange rates) $82.5 you get 120 pike and shot troopers.  Admittedly, the models are nice, but certainly not to the quality of Games Workshop.  They also don't have the options that GW kits usually do.  But, you nevertheless get a lot and you don't need another five or so sets for a complete army (unless you want to play at very high point totals).  You get more from GW, but at what point do players just balk at buying their kits no matter the cost and go with a less expensive game no matter how inferior?  Actually, in this case we are even talking about the same basic system.  Is playing with rats and magic really worth that much more money?

That is naturally a personal choice, but the fact I even have to ask that question is depressing. I really think GW has to do something about prices or at least the negative perception they have with many players thansk to the practical death of grand tournaments and similar support.  People don't like to think they are being taken for granted.  More and more GW comes off (fairly or not) as a sort of ivory tower business remote from the average player who believes it can jack up prices as needed without consequences to the bottom line (and support from its fans).  That doesn't make for a good long term situation.  Showing players that they actually give a damn would give people a reason to accept rising prices, but as it is...

Hmm, maybe I should take a closer look at those new ECW cavalry models...

The New Skaven Army Book -- First Impressions

Posted by Ranillon on 18. November 2009 12:45

I have been going through the new Skaven codex -- rats, big rats! -- since I got my copy last week.  It's interesting and intriguing to be sure.  Here are my first impressions.

1)  Thank Goodness for Plastic:  I understand that GW has been moving toward all plastic anyway, but for a huge army like Skaven it's an especially welcome development.  For one it makes things (somewhat) cheaper considering that you can easily have rat armies of 200+ models or more!  It also makes conversions easier.  The only problem is that it makes for a lot of shaving to clean the models!

2)  Great New Big Models:  The new Screaming Bell and Plague Furnace kit is just amazing.  It's large with an equally large amount of detail.  Likewise, the Doomwheel is just as good and far superior to the old metal version.  They are impressive enough to almost make me get them on general principles.

3)  The Missing Great New Big Model:  By comparison, it's disappointing to see that the Vermin Lord model has not been updated.  It was fine for ten years ago, but is now clearly outdated.  If I had a Skaven army with him as a member I'd do an entirely new conversion.

4)  The New Plague Army:  It's nice to see that you can take a reasonably well-rounded Plague Monk (Pestilens) army now, although you need to take Skrolk in order to make it work.  At a massive 470 points he is such a huge part of a force I wonder how effective a Plague Army would be in the end.  Still, it would be a very colorful.  It would also be smaller than the average rat force making it less of a daunting taste to construct and paint.

5)  Expendable:  You have to like Skavenslaves (at least as units) nowadays.  They still have a toughness of three and at a mere two points each (why add equipment) you can have a lot for a little.  The new "Cornered Rats" rule is rather handy as it allows the slaves to (if you time it right) conveniently disappear when it is time to attack with your real troops.

6)  Orky Without Being Orks:  In some ways Skaven are just orks with whiskers.  You see that in all of their strange and wacky inventions that can all too easily hurt them as much as the enemy (what is more orky than that?).  The new book provides a number of new selections (even if you can only take one weapon team) and they are always the sort of things that attract one to playing an army.  My only real question now is how well some of these new rat toys may actually work.  I look forward to reports on their effectiveness.

More thoughts as I continue through the book...

Judging Painting for Dummies, Part Two

Posted by Ranillon on 13. November 2009 17:46

Okay, here are some select examples from the 2009 Chicago Grand Daemon that I want to use to illustrate the various skills that go into great (and not so great) miniatures painting (It also makes for a new record for pictures in a blog post here).

 First, the Slayer Sword winner himself:

 
What you notice first here is the fine level of detail combined with neatness.  Examine the points of transition between various colors or portions of his outfit.  They aren't muddled, but rather distinct as you would expect the real thing to be. Likewise, the levels of blending are outstanding with the glint of reflection off the metals or the subtle transitions from darker to lighter areas both clear and natural.  I have seen better, but this is fine work.

Now check out the two examples above.  I list them to help illustrate what for the most part works on the model.  I think that the gems are especially nice, but the robe shading is actually not quite as good as I've seen elsewhere.  The best figures would have an even more subtle transition between layers, so much so as to make the shadowing effect seem completely natural.  Still, it's worth noting how difficult it is to achieve this level of excellence.

 

The next example is the 40K single miniature winner.  What is interesting here is how the model demonstrates just how powerful the "5 foot effect" can really be.  By that I mean painting with the notion of "How good will this model/army look at normal playing distances?"  In this case the effect is excellent -- notice how in the first picture the armor shines like actual metal.  Yet, when you examine the second close up image you can clearly see individual brush strokes.  This is only a mild criticism -- ideally you don't want to notice individual strokes even up close, but the overall effect here is nevertheless excellent.

  

This next example is of the winning 40K Unit.  What I really like here is how nice and vibrant the greens are.  It is easy to look at this and think "So, what?  It's just the basic colors being applied" but look at how solid they are.  It is harder than you think to get that "like if a machine sprayed it on" appearance on models.  The basic technique is to water down your colors to get an even application, but the solution sounds easier than it is to do in real life, especially when you are talking about the small areas on individual models.

This next example is the winning Warhammer monster and what's most obvious is the fine job done on the skin.  Ironically, whereas the last technique is a bit harder than it looks this is a bit easier than it looks as the natural contours on the model help define the areas of lighter and darker skin.  It is then just a matter of making sure you transition between them as naturally as possible (with the more complicated textures being the easier to do).  Its work that requires a lot of extensive, even tedious, work, but the end effect can be quite nice.

Continuing on in this vein...

   

Here are two more examples of color/shading transitions, one much better than the other.  The first -- the Large Model winner -- has a nice layered face, if not perfect (the transitions between grays and browns are a bit abrupt, but then again it does give a sunken, gaunt appearance).  If you compare this one with the giant you can see the advantage of having a more complex/muscled skin -- smoother skin means you can't use the rough edges as a 'cheat' to help produce shadowing.  That is something to keep in mind when judging.

In comparison to the last two, the second model in this row -- the third place diorama -- has some really average blending.  The transition on the tunic is especially heavy-handed, the sort of result anyone can get with moderate effort.  This doesn't mean it is a terrible job -- it would still be well above average at any typical gaming shop -- but is rather surprising for a placing Grand Daemon winner.

These next two are Young Blood winners so they shouldn't be judged as critically, but you can nevertheless tell that they are quite a bit less advanced that what you saw before.

The first example (the marine) has a lot of empty black spots.  Now, using (usually) black lining can be a handy technique for distinguishing different parts of a model (and saving on the effort), but you can't take it this far without losing points.  The rope is especially glaring as only the forward top is really painted at all.

The second example (the vampire) only has two layers most everywhere -- which is a bare minimum.  You just aren't going to get much depth with only two.  Likewise, it isn't that hard to do as it only requires a single round of drybrushing.

Well, I don't want to make this too long so I will end here, but in the future I will do similar evaluations and comparisons when the opportunity comes.