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...

As I hope you haven't noticed comment spam has been plaguing this blog.  I've been watching like a hawk to delete the stuff as fast as I can, but the number of bogus comments has been going up.  So, I installed an extension that uses the Akismet (free) service to scan comments before they post.  This should remove the spam, but there is a small chance it might accidentally register your post as a false positive.  Sorry in advance if that happens.

However, there is a bit of irony about this I wanted to pass along -- the spam comment that finally tipped me over the edge to load the new extension was from a site selling LARP (Live Action Role-Playing) foam weapons. 

So, now gaming companies are spamming.  You want gaming to be taken seriously, but sheesh!

That's just depressing.

After reading through the latest White Dwarf where Jervis states his general disapproval of pre-painted miniatures and his confidence that GW won't ever be going down that route for extra sales I came away with a few conclusions.  Then, over time I realized that the situation was potentually more complicated for a bunch of reasons.

But, first, here are some examples from Rackham -- the minis producer that has been making the biggest jump from high qualiy metal non-painted figurines -- long the common standard -- to the new prep-painted units of mediocre plastic designs with equally mediocre paint jobs.  For the differences compare the first picture of an elven sorceresss of the old style which I painted myself against the next one coming up.

This is a confrontation model I did as to reprecent a character in my RPG who essense merged with that of her special familiar, one later reveal to be an actual angelic being.  The metal was a purchase from Rackham's old metal ranges that are now being sold off at discount almost where you go.

Here is a pre-painted Confrontation warrior pic I grabbed off their website.  Take a close look at the two.

First thing that catches my sight is that pre-painted Lion isn't half bad.  Some basic high-lighting and shadying have been done.  The end result is fairly flat, but is certain better than the hordes of bare metal players can bring to games.

While the pre-painted aren't terrible they don't compare to the paint job on the one I did above  (although my camera skills are insufficient to get across all the differences -- but, note that the first is done using my own limited photography skills while the second is a professional photo).  What's more is that the level of detail on the model is more limited as well.  Perfectly serviceable, but otherwise uninspiring.

It would be easy at this point to climb up into my ivory gaming tower and denounce the whole idea of pre-painted models as heresy that offends the one true miniature gaming faith.  However, the more I think over this subject the more conflicted I become.

For one thing pre-painted miniatures do concievably allow people an easier entrance to miniatures gaming.  Painting takes a lot of time and, moreover, takes a lot of time to even learn the basics.  While you won't see it at big tournaments in my experience local gaming groups are awash with large amounts of bare metal and plastic, even after months or years of use.  I am sure that in some cases the players in question just don't care, but one does have to wonder how much of those "naked" models are the result of people just being intimidated at the idea of painting them.

The flip side of this is that pre-painted miniatures are something of a "cheat" in that they allow the player to have a "painted" army without actually putting in time and effort.  Come on -- one of the appeals of going to the trouble of finishing an army is to show it off to your friends.  Accordinfly, there is apt to be an understandable let down to find out that the guy you are playing bypassed all that work by purchasing pre-painted material.  It's easy therefore to scoff at such armies as somehow being "forgeries".  Yet, people have been paying other people to paint their armies for a while already and, as long as they don't try to pass them off as their own work, are generally accepted without much grumbling.  The worst you face in such instances is being disallowed to win the Best Painting category (if there is one) while still getting full painting points overall to put toward your final tournament score.

One negative aspect of the Pre-painted models out there is that they all tend to be clones -- in twenty years of miniatures gaming we've gone to unpainted clones to a wide sellection of kits that can be assembled and painted anyway you like and then back to clones, just painted ones this time.  Hard to see that as an improvement, at least as a long term strategy.

I'd argue that it is all that hard work and effort that goes into turning a mere hobby into a true attempt at excellence.  It's what allows tho hobby to transfigure into the realm of true art.  Now that takes a heck of a lot of effort and struggle that in turn generates a lot of drive and energy into the whole miniatures experience.

The danger with pre-painted is that it might instead bring things down to the least common denominator.  Why struggle with painting and converting if it doesn't get you much in the long term?  There are already calls for regular GW tournaments allow non-painted armies or just qestions of why there should be a paint score at all.  It's in fact easy to see standards fall and painting miniatures seem to be just a waste of time -- after all, who cares about how pretty your troops look when the real fun is shooting them up?!?!

So, in a sense pre-painted models could alter the whole miniatures landscape even with games that don't use them.  It sets up a two-tier system where pre-painted can easily win tournament since painting is not judged only to fatailly doomed when used in other games where painting matters.  It's easy to see people complain about having to GW armies when other companies provide pre-painted stock -- why should the bother with 40K or fantasy if another game allows them to get away with no painting at all? 

In short, it can setup a division between the warriors and craftmen.  The first just wants to fight and win, while the second wants a more hollistic situation where all the various skills long associated with miniatures gameing are celebrated and rewarded.

So, what do others think?  Pre-painted armies bad?  Hired painters for your army bad?  Or, is it rude and elitist to insist that only accomplish painters should, in practice, be the only ones allowed to win (since having a bad score in painting can make a critical difference in scoring)?  Perhaps we should have different leagues, different awards for pre-painted and own painted?

What do you guys think?

As most of you no doubt know the Space Wolf codex is inbound and expected to arrive in early October.  Various places have extensive lists as to what's inside -- here is one at Farseer -- and let's just say a lot of it is looking pretty impressive or at least darn cool.  Here are some random thoughts on the subject (in no particular order):

• First, my usual refrain -- once again Dark Angels (and Blood Angels) are looking even more boring.  It's really hard to see how any of the immediate Marine codexes pre-SM codex really relate to those SM and after.  The SM and now SW codexes are full of new and interesting adjustments, units, or up-scaled characters.  Even if some of them prove to be overpriced at least they get your interest going.  By comparison the Dark Angel equivalents are ho-hum and unimaginative.  This is especially when you compare the new SW characters to their DA brethren.  The Wolves are varied, come with a lot of configuration possibilities, unique, and expand design choices.  The DA characters are all basically clones with minor differences in weapon load-outs and stats.  Yawn.

So, if Dark Angel players weren’t sure of it before now they can be – we had the misfortune to play a force that was the last codex under the old (and quickly abandoned) GW theory of streamlining over niftiness.  Now they have gone to the latter with a vengeance with every codex dripping with cool new toys and possibilities.  Over time there is always some griping about how “new codex A has outclassed my old codex B”, but in the case of Dark Angels it really is a fair criticism.  Their codex was nothing too amazing to begin with and is growing more uninteresting real fast.



Okay, enough with the grousing…

• I like the concept of Sagas.  It’s a great way to offer flavor and provide different basic tactical possibilities – plus the built in limitation of you can only take one once keeps down the cheddar.  This is also true for character material in general, also a good thing.

• Njal being able to cast three psychic powers a turn is just insane.  I hope he costs a lot.

• Bjorn is a great concept – a venerable dreadnought as a special character.  It’s really something any and all the founding chapters (not just DA) should have, IMHO.

• Wolf Guard still seem to have the old function of beefing up regular troop squads.  The extra leadership is handy, but the ability to take a power weapon is especially nice.  It gives them real close-combat bite.  Unless their price is outrageous I see them as part of pretty much every Space Wolf force.

• Arjak’s lowbrow version of Mjolnir is pretty sweet as it’ll allow you to get in a close ranged attack before charging – and at S10 AP1.  Great for going cheek-to-cheek with high value targets.

• I have to wonder how tempting Wolf Scouts will be since they are still elites.  There are just so many other choices that seem nicer that I expect they’ll only be taken when part of a deliberate strategy (as opposed to “god, they are great!”).

• You can’t take heavy weapons with any troop choice, but I usually wouldn’t anyway.  You want them to stay mobile.

• Lukas the Trickster’s “Last Laugh” rule is killer.  Sure, it’s not guaranteed to work, but the fact that there is a good chance it might will result in high value enemy units – especially characters – avoiding Lukas like the plague.  If you take him expect your opponent to throw a lot of small stuff in his way in hopes of a kill through attrition.

• Space Wolves seem to get all the new rules from Codex: Space Marines assuming they get the unit or item in question at all.  So, thankfully, no annoying issues like Land Raiders that strangely can’t hold as many troopers as your allies the next valley over.

• I know that Thunderwolf cavalry are 50 points base, but they seem potentially worth the points.  If nothing else the models are going to look great.  Thunderwolves strike me as a unit you’ll see a lot just because they catch the imagination (although, GW’s likely imaginative high prices on the models may dampen interest, admittedly).

• Being able to take wolves as a unit is just nice all on its own.  Again, a real flavorful addition.

• Long Fangs still get to fire at two different units, which is handy – although I suspect only if you go for the lascannons and want to nuke two enemy vehicles a turn (when facing infantry you’ll more likely want to just concentrate fire on a single unit).

• Bye, bye Exterminator – Hello, Redeemer.

That’s enough for now.  I will give a more in depth review when the actual codex arrives in October.

For those few of you that don't know, Games Workshop came out with an updated FAQ for Imperial Guard recently.  Here are some random thoughts on it (in no particular order):

• Many of the new clarifications were clearly meant to stop pure cheddar from over-running the battlefield.  Come on -- using a mortar to range in your off-the-board barrage from the Master of Ordnance?  Those are the sorts of tricks everyone should know are bad sportsmanship.
  
  
• That loud collective moan you are hearing are all those Storm Trooper players who suddenly can't use "First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire" with Hotshot Lasguns.  I guess this is a reasonable limitation as the guns are AP3, but then again Storm Troopers are as pricey as space marines now (but without the power armor and great stats).
  
  
• I'm not sure about limiting the effect of multiple Astropaths or Officers of the Fleet to a single +1 or -1, respectively.  I can see how having two Officers could really mess up an opponent if you know they are going to rely heavily on reinforcements.  Otherwise, bringing one might not be worth it let alone two.  Astropaths are more likely to be useful since you can obviously design an IG force to utilize their talents, but again is a +2 really that cheesy over a +1 when you are talking IG?  Maybe, which is why I won't say I flatly don't like this new clarification, but it certainly means you'll pretty much never see two Astropaths and maybe not even a single Officer of the Fleet.
  
  
• I can see why they limited Penal Troops with the gunslinger ability under the "First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire" order to three shots at just 12" for game balance, but it does violate the letter of the rules.  The point of assault weapons is that they can fire at full range even while the troopers move, but here gunslingers still only benefit from the order at half the assault weapon's range.  Not a biggie, but considering that you can't guarantee that your penal scum will have the gunslinger ability there wasn't a significant game balance issue anyway.
  
  
• The clarification as to what inducted Guard you can take in your Inquisition armies is quite welcome and will help 'Hunter players avoid arguments.  However, I do have minor beef with the 0-1 Leman Russ choice only being the vanilla Russ and no variants.  One, the price on those other types are pretty high anyway which limits their appeal, and; Two, why give people yet another reason to not play Inquisition?  Giving 'Hunter players the bonus of taking one of those cool new LRs variants would have been a nice reward for sticking with an otherwise rare force.  Oh, well -- at least being able to take appropriate IG special characters with your inducted Guard helps makes up for this.
  
  
• Nice to see that Grey Knight terminators can't hitch a ride on a Valkyrie/Vendetta, but there is nothing about not being able to carry power armored Grey Knights or Sisters of Battle.  I take back what I said about not encouraging people to play Inquisition -- Grav chute Gray Knights here we come!

I am going off to Washington DC starting tomorrow for a Labor Day Weekend vacation.  Hope to see the Smithsonians (especially Air and Space, Hsitory, and Natural Sciences) and a bit of the old home stead since I grew up in the area.  Should be fun.

Until I get back on Tuesday I can't promise any posts, but I will see what I can do. Otherwise, I may have pictures that will relate to gaming.  Trust me.

The latest rumors are that we can expect a new bug codex sometime in the first quarter of next year.  Since I am a ‘Nid player with a 200+ model army this obviously interests me.  As the Tyranid codex is commonly thought to be one of the weaker army lists nowadays a redesign is certainly welcome. Question is just what alterations is GW planning? 

I don’t know, but here is what I hope to see.

1)  Deal with the Nidzilla Armies One Way or Another:  I personally don’t like the “Nidzilla” armies – bug forces made up from as many big creatures as possible – very much.  One, they don’t strike me as being very colorful, and; two, they require a cheesy design strategy, namely taking a few token troop choices that usually hide on one side of the board while their big brothers take care of the enemy.  So, I would like to see the new codex either put in limitations meant to make such designs impractical or, better yet, add in rules to make them more colorful.  For example, make it worth the player’s while to take real troop choices.  Maybe if you take a certain character Tyranid you can take Carnifexes as troops (yes, that’s what I said), but troop carnies have strict limitations as to number of wounds and toughness.  Dealing with this won’t be easy and would require a lot of play testing to achieve the proper balance, but it would be better than what we have now.



2) Rebalance the Genestealers:  With the arrival of 5th edition and the lessening of Rending genestealers went from must-buys to maybe-buys.  To balance things out they need to be lowered a bit in price or given more abilities.  For instance, maybe give them a base 4+ armor with access to 3+ for a high price (this is not as bad as it sounds as it’s already insane not to get ‘stealers without the armor upgrade).  Another alternative is to make them better able to get at the enemy – more infiltrate or deep strike abilities at a proper cost.  Either way, something must be done as right now they are sort of like Space Marines with a glass jaw and no ranged weapon.

3) Make Gaunts Worth it:  Admittedly gaunts are meant to be cannon fodder, but right now they are far more “fodder” than “cannon”.  As you would expect they die in droves, but they also have a hard time actually being threatening to anything more burly than an imperial guardsman – even when outnumbering their opponents by wide margins.  So, come up with a way to make a horde of the buggers actually scary.  Perhaps up their close-combat effectiveness a bit or increase the range of their weapons.  A more fluffy tactic would be to add in a sort of “synergy” bonus to their numbers – above 10 they receive a +d6 attacks as a whole, above 20 +2d6, and so forth.  Regardless, there is already a practical disincentive for people to use them since they require a lot of money to buy and a lot of effort to paint.  Making gaunts appealing in game terms is therefore the best way to encourage horde armies, which is what I think the typical Tyranid force should be.

4) Expand the Range of Possible Basic Bug Army Designs:  Right now there are really just three possible designs for Tyranid forces, namely Nidzilla, genestealer cadre, or horde.  The first tends to be a bit over-powered (since unless you know what you are facing you tend not to bring enough anti-monstrous creature weapons) while the last two are somewhat under-powered.  I’ve already talked about balancing the units themselves, but I’d also like to see more choices for basic design.  For instance, what about a viable flying bug force where gargoyles can be taken as troops (perhaps only by taking a winged Tyrant)?  Likewise, they could expand the ranges within each of the basic types so that they aren’t all clones – a Nidzilla, horde, or genestealer force is pretty much going to have the same stuff every time no matter who is playing.  A wider range of variation is not only more fun to play or play against, but it also encourages people to round out their miniature collections.

5) Bring in Some New Units:  Let’s face it – one of the appeals of any updated codex is all the juicy new units that will inevitably come with it (after all, GW wants to sell more models).  Here are some random ideas for what I’d like to see.

• A Transport Option:  Most every other army has one, so why not some way for Nid’s to get around in style (or, at least, more speed)?  A variation on this would be to take a cue from the Zerg (or, did the Zerg take a cue from the Tyranids?) and have a stationary unit that can allow units to deep strike (e.g. they go in the tunnel entrance and come out someplace else).



• A Big Gun:  Yes, a Gunfex fills this niche (sort of), but something with a bigger bang would be nice.  It’s not like Biovores are used all that often.  Come on, haven’t the bugs realized the handiness of heavy artillery?



• A Power Armor Killer:  Not a unit per se, but it would be nice to have something that can penetrate power armor beyond monstrous claws at point-blank distances.  Again, the ‘Nids haven’t discovered the usefulness of a ranged can opener?

I realize that apparently a plastic Trygon is in the works as an official Games Workshop (rather than Forge World) model, but I expect it to be a strictly Apocalypse unit.  Would be nice if I was wrong, though.

So, what are the rest of you hoping for? 

Ranillon has already covered the flow of the game itself.  He mentioned having help from a teammate that flank marched into the enemy's rear?  Those were my marines, and this is my take on the battle.

FLANK MARCH

On setup, I found our force setting up opposite a player who brought a MASSIVE imperial guard tank company, complete with superheavy tanks and backed up by a Reaver titan and a Warhound titan.  While my own Reaver Titan set up on our side with space marine scouts as screening troops in cover around it's ankles, my space marine battle company was able to come in en masse over consecutive turns behind the imperial guard player, thanks to a distinct lack of jamming or chaos covens in his area.

I had intended to shoot up his transports and then assault the troops inside, so my marine company would have an assault to hide in during the IG player's next shooting phase.  But I discovered to my horror that the 16 or so Chimera transports he had brought were in fact EMPTY.  It seems he only had so much room in his car, so he'd left all the actual infantry at home!  While this seems a very odd thing to do for an unlimited-points game, it quite nicely left my space marines stranded behind a sea of battlecannons, and only his desire to shoot my tanks first saved my marines' ability to fight.  Krak grenades, melta bombs, and the odd powerfist or meltagun did most of the work.

HOT REAVER-ON-REAVER ACTION

Let's face it... no matter how you arm these monsters, a reaver titan is pretty much capable of savaging another reaver titan unassisted in 2 turns.  With the sort of help you find in an apocalypse game, even a Reaver titan stands up to only one turn of firing.

My Reaver went first, assisted by a squadron of my predator tanks who downed a few void shields.  An apocalypse barrage launcher stripped the remaining shields from my opponent, and I savaged him down to 2 structure points and a lot of engine hits with a Turbolaser and a stratch built Volcano Cannon.  Sadly, I inflicted no weapon hits and no "cannot fire next turn" hits, which I was counting on to slow his counterattack.

The IG player's reaver went next, preceded by a tremendous amount of battlecannon and lascannon shots from an approaching company of Leman Russ tanks.  They stripped my shields, and while his vulcan megabolter could not harm me, his plasma cannon inflicted some engine hits while his single shot Vortex Missile ripped through my titan like a hot knife.  His Warhound titan joined in and finished me off with a Turbolaser shot.

STERNGUARDS FOR THE KILL

I had two squads of sternguard veterans in the IG player's backfield at this point.  In an unlimited-points scenario such as this, both 10 man squads were fully equipped with Combi-meltas, and each squad had a librarian attached to them.  The librarian's job was to give the veterans a 5+ save and, more importantly, teleport them around at 24" per turn.  Though an enemy psychic hood was limiting the effectiveness of this tactic, one sternguard squad managed to teleport in behind the enemy reaver titan and unload with it's remaining 7 melta shots.  The damaged Reaver titan went down quite easily to this tactic, freeing my surviving predators and razorbacks to unload on other things.

80 PERCENT CASUALTIES FOR THE WIN

Doesn't seem like much of a win, but I did sweep the IG player off the board (Minus his superheavies, which Ranillon was dancing with) and claimed an objective marker or two in the process.  Oddly, about 1/3 of my marine casualties came not from incoming fire but rather from exploding tanks.  With so many krak, meltabomb, and powerfist hits each turn against densely packed IG tanks, I was losing marines at a steady rate to 6's on armor penetrations when they killed a tank.  One unit of assault marines in particular was reduced to a single model without ever being fired upon, due to 5 successful assaults with melta bombs.

LESSONS LEARNED

1 - For their points and/or cost in Assets, Orbital Bombardments are useless against tanks.  Even strength 10 ones.  Quite often, you'll just inconvenience a tank or two.  If you get them free as part of a formation or as an ability from your army codex, fine.  But don't waste an asset on them, and don't aim at tanks.

2 - Teleporting Sternguard Squads with combi meltas.  A squad is pretty much guaranteed to kill a superheavy target and then rough up any infantry they see on the way to an objective marker.  Even after they're out of combi weapon shots, they still have krak grenades at no extra cost!  If you're not limited by points and you have an asset that allows all your units to be scoring units, then there is no reason not to overload on these as much as you can.  Mine are represented by Deathwatch marines, since there are no current rules for Deathwatch.

3 - A Titan, any Titan, must endeavor to engage the enemy line from OVER 60" away, and use it's 96" or 120" range guns.  If it cannot do this for any reason (physical limit of table size), it will attract fire and die on turn 2.

4 - Psychic Hoods are normally wonderful for cutting down on the dirty psy stuff the enemy is pulling on you.  But a Psychic Hood has a limited range, and in Apocalypse it is easy for an enemy psyker to be out of range.  A DARK ANGELS Psychic Hood, on the other hand, HAS NO MAXIMUM RANGE.  One Dark Angel librarian with a psy hood can interfere with each and every enemy psyker in an Apoc game, no matter where he stands or how large the board.