No More Conquest

A few days ago it was at last revealed that the partnership between Games Workshop and Fantasy Flight Games has ended. No more GW related games from them. Normally I would not be too bothered after all FFG are well known for the board games and I have the 40K ones that I want and I have everything for the Deathwatch RPG. However, this also means the end of Warhammer 40K: Conquest, their living card game.

Conquest had a good future ahead of it. We have had three expansions and two new faction expansions (Tyranids and Necrons). It makes me angry as I feel now that I have wasted my money on this game. Card games like this, as good as they are, die off when there are no further expansions. The history of CCG's is full of such cast aside games. Surely the two companies could have come to some arrangement over this? I mean, really?

A couple of people have pointed out that part of the licensing agreement was that FFG would not make any miniatures based games as that is GW's domain. FFG have announced a skirmish war game based upon their own fantasy world of Runebound and I think that may have been the death knell. But again I ask, could they not have worked something out?

So, as we have hardly anyone who bothers to play any more anyway, it looks like Conquest will end up either gathering dust on a shelf or I may flog it all on EBay. It is going to make me think long and hard before I pick up anything else like this.

Anyway, rant over.

Internet Forums

Why are internet gaming forums so crap? They are either really busy but full of pointless and uninteresting topics or they should be that busy but are dead and largely unused? Either that or no one responds to your posts or comments.

It seems to be an issue regardless of whether or not it's wargaming, roleplaying or cardgaming.

League End Rant

Our 2013 40k league at the Primarchs club has come to a rather pathetic end. It was dragged out far too much and now too many people have dropped out, often for no real reason. All of which has annoyed me to no end. I do all the hard work and they just have to turn up and play. Even if you can't win, still play because its a game of 40K surely?

Theres a small Warhammer Fantasy league starting up next under someone else's charge, so I can just relax and hope that next time I'll have people stick to it. It will require a fixed dates for games, and if one or both players don't turn up without a good reason they get a lose. Players that drop out, again without good reason, they get a ban from the following league. That's what I am thinking right now.

When To Give Up?

In a thread this morning by my friend KhorneGuy, he talks about when should a player just give up. It's an interesting read that you can find here: When To Give Up?

I'm doing this response because we had something very similar to what he describes happen at a league game about a month ago. My nephew (Dark Angels) was playing opponent J (new Eldar codex) in a game where deployment was opposite ends of the table (Hammer and Anvil?). The problem was that J had filled his list with long range marine killing lances, star cannons and the nice new Wraithknight. My nephew had figured that he needed to do something similar and had maxed out all his lascannon options. Both deployed behind cover and sat there. Neither player was prepared to move forwards because it was just going to be shooty death and no good general wastes the lives of their troops. Turn 2 my nephew rage quitted saying that there was no point in playing if J was not going to move forward. J obviously wasn't going to move forwards either.

In that situation I was both in agreement because it would be foolish to do so and rolling my eyes in desperation because what is the point of playing if you don't? Yes, it was a league and it was competative but still! There was no right or wrong outcome to this. I've had more than a few games against opponents were were creaming me left and right but I stay until I have no chance of winning, even if the game has become no fun because of it. But there you have the rub of it, because if the game isn't fun why are you still playing? Both players need to have that fun and rage quitting isn't making the game fun for either side.

What do you guys think? How should this sort of situation be handled and when is it ok to just quit mid-game?

A sort of rant

Ok, so this isn't really a rant but it something that I have started to find does impede my enjoyment of the game. I'm sure some of you reading this will just roll your eyes and whatnot, but bare with me.

I play vanilla space marines and have done ever since Warhammer 40K was first dropped on our selves twenty five years ago (with a break during the horror fest that was 2nd edition). I like space marines but I'm not the sort of player who wants them to be utterly awesome or to have them play like they are represented in the novels.

However the bugbear in the room for me is the sheer amount of AP2 and AP3 weapons present in the game. I'm looking at Eldar, Dark Eldar and Tau, and to those annoying monstrous creature lists from Tyranids and Daemons. I feel that space marines are already overcosted and considering that a big chunk of that points cost is the 3+ armour save it is irritating to contantly find that I'm being denied it. That is my bone of contention here.

The topic really came up when talking to my friend Joel last night (Daemons, Eldar and Tyranids player) when we were discussing the rumours of the supposed upcoming Eldar codex. He wants lots of anti-flyer weapons, howling banshees to have AP2 close combat weapons again, and in the discussion I raised my points that Eldar are still a really good codex that doesn't need twinking up. I have to admit that I did get a bit angry about it for a short time.

I have played too many games under 5th and 6th edition where AP3 weapons and power weapons decimated my army. I'm dreading playing against Tau now after watching their new codex in action over the last couple weeks. It has got to a point where I feel it is too prevalent in the game right now.

I know nothing is going to change, and probably shouldn't, but one reason for my current break in playing is because of this.

Games Workshop at it again!

Today it seems that two of the biggest Warhammer blogs, Bell of Lost Souls and Faeit 212, were pulled down by Games Workshop. The reason? They showed photos from the next as yet unpublished issue of White Dwarf magazine. Now don't get me wrong, I can understand that Games Workshop want to be the ones to reveal the new toys and info but this is FREE advertising for them. That is really what our blogs are about, whether we are going through battle reports, new painting photos or showing info/rumours on the upcoming releases. It is all free advertising and the company needs to realise that.

Games Workshop's reputation is sliding further and further down with everything they do like this.

Rather than picking on the sites who recieve and then post this information, Games Workshop should be looking for the individuals who are leaking the info in the first place.

Advance Order Rant

Since the release of 6th edition I have preordered everything - CSM, DA and CD codexes, death from the skies (I know, technically this wasn't a preorder) and crusade of fire. None of them have ever turned up on the day of release. It's always the monday or tuesday after, despite getting the email of dispatch on the thursday before.

Maybe it's just me but I find this unacceptable. The point of preordering is to have it turn up on the day of release or the day before. Once my order arrives I am going to be sending them an email of polite complaint over this.

Not a happy bunny. For an extra couple quid I could have got the bus over to my nearest GW store and bought it on the day.

Games Workshop at it again

I'm a GW fan. I love their 40K game and I always will, but sometimes I really have have to wonder what goes through their brains at head office. Take a look at their latest numptiness.

Games Workshop claim copyright of term "Space Marines".

Yep. You read that right. They have screwed some poor online author over by claiming copyright on something that predates their game by fifty years! I hope that they come to their senses and stop this nonsense.

40K Facepalm

Death from the Skies!

 

 

So February looks like a new release for 40K, and this time it is an update/add-on to the flyer rules in 6th edition. From reading various internet reports it does look like some aircraft get an update, stormtalon and night scythe for example, and other races without flyers get one. Tyranid players will probably still not be happy.

The only aspect that I've read that I am not happy with is that there may be the extra optional rules and flyers mission that appeared in Crusade of Fire only a couple of months ago. That strikes me as both a waste of time (they were terrible rules) and a snub at the people who bought that book.

Forgeworld to do Horus Heresy

It looks like Forge World are going to be doing several Imperial Armour books based on the Horus Heresy. Does anyone else feel that the Heresy is being flogged to death by Games Workshop? Quite frankly I don't see love that people seem to have for it.

The Heresy novel series has been running for about four years now and still we haven't got very far in the overall story. I fear that it'll be ten more years, give or take, before it wraps up. That is far too much. A dozen books should have covered it. In other words it should be done by now.

The game is set at the end of the 41st millennium, not ten thousand years ago. The Heresy is part of the background fluff and IMO it should remain there. Let's focus on the here and now please.

Musings

Earlier today my friend Matt posted this link to his blog. I thought I'd put my thoughts to some of it.

http://natfka.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/faeit-212-exclusive-40k-design-studio.html

Q1. What were the key objectives of 6th Edition?The ultimate goal of 6th edition according to Jervis was to tackle what both he and Matt described as ‘Associative and Disassociative’ rules and to add more realism to the game.

E.g. If a poisoned dagger had +1 WS in close combat, that would be deemed ‘dissacoiatve’ as it makes little sense. However, if it gave you a re-roll to wound, that would be ‘associative’ as it would capture the essence of a poisoned attack being made and potentially causing damage as a result of it being laced with some horrifying toxin.
Other examples of ‘associative’ rules included the abiltiy to throw grenades and the distinction between different power weapons. By making certain rules ‘associative’, the game adds more ‘weight’ to the feel of units on the table. Flyers crashing to the ground is another example of this, as is wound allocation in shooting (models vanishing from the front of units and not the back), Its all about realism.
Realism is a fine goal but not to the point where it causes issues. If you want a hardcore realistic wargame you wouldn't play Warhammer 40K. You'd go find Platoon Leader or something. Games designers should just follow the K.I.S.S. rule (Keep It Simple Stupid!). Sadly they never do.

Q4. Why Hull Points?
According to Matt Ward, vehicles in previous editions didn’t seem to fit very well with the rest of the game system and made for odd and peculiar situations. He mentioned that there was little granularity to the vehicle rules compared to other unit types. The addition of Hull Points is therefore used to make vehicles more inclusive during a game and give them a continued presence even after having taken a few direct hits. Jervis said that it flattened out the extremes. Vehicles used to get obliterated in turn one or take damage that would render them ineffective for a turn or two which really didn’t flow too well. Hull Points therefore allow players to enjoy the attributes of their expensive vehicles without them vanishing off the table having done virtually nothing.
The only reason that vehicles don't fit very well is because they are too easy to take down. I repeat myself a lot with this but for the points you pay for them they need more survivability. Hull points is not helping in this regard. Would have been better to leave vehicles as they were rather than screw them up like this.

Q6. Why allies and fortifications?
Jervis said that the old fluff in previous editions made many references to scenarios where different races forged alliances in various situations. He felt that later editions had polarised armies and made them rather restricted. They want to open up the game as a means to circumvent some of those restrictions and allow for more diverse tactics on the table. The fluff can now follow on and provide literature that encompasses those often tenuous alliances. Many alliances have obvious narrative value.
Makes sense. Just not when Matt Ward is writing them. The addition of allies to the game was a really good idea but could have been handled better. A lot of the possible combinations would just never happen at least not often enough to have been included.

In terms of fortifications, Jervis considered these beautiful plastic kits as somewhat wasted given their aesthetic value on the table. Giving these kits rules and points values feeds into the ‘associative’ aspect of 6th edition. I do agree here as I often wished for rules regarding the 5 massive quad guns in my terrain box!

It also puts cash in GW's pockets. But saying that, I also like it. Now we just need some non-Imperial terrain/fortifications.

Q7. How difficult was it to add flyer rules into the game?
Matt Ward picked this one up. He said that it was relatively simple given that flyers were an extension to the revised vehicle rules. The team said that they had an idea of the mechanic due to Apocalypse but held off until 6th to fully include them. Seems as though they had been toying with the idea in 5th but the rest of the rules didn’t allow for it too well.
Forge World already had decent Flyer rules. Why not just use theirs?

Q8. Why Challenges?
The team wanted to create the sense that characters were leading their troops into battle and not just skulking around at the back of units. It also gave lesser characters (i.e. SM sergeants) the opportunity to exhibit moments of heroics (leaping in to save their captain with one wound left from a rampaging Daemon Prince for example).

Space Marine sergeants exhibiting heroics just before being pummeled into the ground by a character ten times their point costs! Challenges should have been left out entirely or be only for named characters.

Some extra tidbits:
· The reason that charges are not allowed on Deep Strike is to prevent the utter predictability of mega-hard units appearing anywhere and destroying whatever they want every game. There was a possible hint about Genestealers being able to do this at some point in the future!
GW whatever you don't don't let Genestealers become the overpowered close combat option again. Tyranids are nicely balanced right now. Don't screw it up.

I spoke to Matt Ward in person after the seminar and I really must emphasise that he’s a really nice, polite and engaging fellow who doesn't deserve the flak he gets from some members of the community. He deserves praise for his role in bringing us 6th edition.

How much were you paid to say this? Seriously, Matt Ward should be kept away from anything 40K related. Back away from the game now.

He explained that rule setting is always going to be ‘a moving target’ and what works for one person is going to upset another. He said that there were many things that were out of his hands because business decisions have to be taken into account when developing game systems and rules.

Fair enough. It's always going to be a case of "someone is f***ing with my game". We can grumble all we want but editions change.

A couple of key points that came out of that conversation:

· Flak Missiles are currently unavailable to all armies, but we’ll soon see them filtering through into the game.

Or GW, you could have just added a line or two to each of the 6th ed FAQs giving them to missile lauchers for X points. Sorted.

· He spoke about Tyranids being a tad difficult to work with as they have (in the past) been a little one dimensional (i.e charge everyone into CC). He made a point about there being no vehicle rules in the Tyranid army and that its monsterous creatures need to be able to kill Daemon Princes so how do you balance it out? We shall see!

Charge into everything is what they do. Don't change that. As for MC's taking down Daemon Princes, well they can do anyway. Not as well as they used to but why should they get special treatment?

Next I spoke to Phil Kelly (the dude) who again is a really sound guy (and by the way - he isn't leaving GW).

Phil said that there are currently 6 ‘projects’ on the go for 40k. I think he was referring to Codex’s. I asked him about Tyranids too and he said (rather excitedly) that he has ‘some really great ideas up his sleeve’ for the Nids. Sounds encouraging! It's worth noting that everyone I spoke to in the design team understands the need for Nids to get a boost.
Tyranids don't need an update. Tau, Space Marines and Eldar do. Let's get them out of the way first please.

He also shared his personal opinion on 5th edition and said (with the greatest of respect) that Alessio Cavorte seemed to want to make the game more competitive and simplified. He thought that this made the game a little to flat and generic in its function (which I personally agreed with). His words were that it ‘lost its craziness’. 6th has therefore moved to address this and give more feel and character to the units and the game as a whole.

Cavorte did the right thing with 5th edition. Simple is the way to go. 5th was not a flat and generic game. It was the most fun version of the game we have had so far. 6th is a step in the wrong direction as far as I am concerned.
It does seem to be a consensus amongst GW staff that 2nd was a great edition in many ways (although obviously broken in others).

I think they were having a laugh. 2nd was the biggest pile of pants 40K has ever seen. The sooner people realise that and stop looking back with rose-tinted glasses the better.

One other exciting thing that he mentioned was the release of expansions. He said that one example of an idea floating around is the introduction of relic’s which could be (for example) wargear from the Horus Heresry era, usable in today's battles. Possibly a new book or expansion but still just an idea at the moment.

Interesting. Would have to see how it works though. Remember what I said about simple not complex.


Lastly I spoke to Robin Cruddace. I asked him about GW’s release schedule and to my utter amazement, he said that they were aiming for some sort of release each month. Be it a codex or some sort of expansion. I would be surprised if this were true!

He said that there would most likely need to be a larger number of expansions between now and 4 years time so that you don’t reach a point where all codex’s for 6th are released with 2 years still to go before the next cycle. Take that how you will

Oh dear. I can see this being a bad move. You don't need loads of expansions.

Awkward Update pt2

So after my update at the end of last Thursday's game the wound allocation rules were explained to me in a better fashion than the rulebook or anyone else for that matter had done. So, I'm ok on those now and happy to play.

I still don't like challenges and will ask my opponent not to use those rules. I really hate that that has been added to the game.

Awkward update

Played a game of 40K tonight against my mate Fish at the club. 1500pts of Salamanders vs 1500pts of Space Wolves with Imperial Guard allies. For most part it was a really good and enjoyable game. However it drove home two elements of 6th that I cannot stand and have had to change.

1. Wound Allocation. Under 6th this is stupid and utterly pants! It really makes no sense.

Mallik the space marine takes a shot to the head and falls over. His battle brother Gallik looks over and says "Gee. I wish I knew how to pick up and fire my mates meltagun. I was trained to do so when I become a space marine. It would be really useful, but sod it."

Makes. No. Freaking. Sense!

So from here, I will only play games with the 5th ed wound allocation system.

2. Challenges. This is what really forced this tonight. It was no fault of Fish's but we tried out the challenges system. Hated it. Especially when my terminator chaplain ended up out base contact with the Wolf Lord he had been challenged but was in base contact with another SW terminator, and yet wasn't allowed to swing at him. WTF?

No. I hate these rules.

Though it will cost me potential games and drop me from future club leagues/campaigns, I will not play without the above changes. To do otherwise would ensure that I was playing a game that I did not enjoy.

Thankfully at least one other player is willing (more than willing) to go along with that.

More rumours

So, now rumours are saying that the 6th ed starter set will be Dark Angels and Eldar. I wish somone out there would just make their minds up and tell us whats what!

GW Price Increases

Look out, once again GW are about to put their prices up yet again!

We all know that they are a business with shareholders but there really is no need for this. We can take it or leave it but this isn't helping new players get into the hobby. Established players already have their armies. All this does is support those players with a generous disposable income.

At this time I am considering buying the new rulebook and the codexes as usual, but my plans on doing a new army have been shelved, possibly for good.

I can see 2012 being the last time Warhammer players accept these rediculous price increases, and that isn't a knee jerk reaction.

145

So this weekend GW have unveiled their new paint range. Can anyone explain to me what the point was? Did we need double the paints we had and did they need their names changing? That's just going to confuse people.

Thankfully there is this:

Someone on the 40Kforums has posted this guide:

I went to my store to try out the paints today.
Layer is the same as our normal paints. Nothing's changed.
Base is still foundation. Nothing's changed.
Shade is still wash. Nothing's changed.
Dry is useless. It's a thick, mousse-like paint used for drybrushing - but you still need to take the residue off your brush the exact same way. So if you need to drybrush white... why not use the white you've already bought?
Glaze is useless. It's watered down Shade. Just water it down. There's also more Shades than there are Glazes.
Texture is... kind of useful. It's weathering paint. It has paint and sand-like stuff in there that globs up a lot like the Tamiya weathering paint pens does. It's nice to have a GW range of these and it'll mean more newbies are likely to have 'based' models, even if it is based entirely with this stuff. I'd see this as the only welcome addition to the range. NOTE: You need to shake the fuck out of this for it to work right or you get thin paint with very little texture in it at the top.
Other than that, I like that there's more colours now.
Also, the new pots are MUCH better. They have this large plastic nub on them now that cradles the lid rather than holding it back, and the edges are far more raised than on the current ones. These pots are possibly the best ones GW has made in quite some time. Sadly no dropper on the Shades and Glazes.

Ashamed to be a gamer?

This vid was in response to an RPG based topic but I think it covers over to wargaming as well. Thoughts?

Um...

Sometimes I wonder if the GW staff know anything about their products. All over Facebook today and in stores GW is celebrating the 25th birthday of Warhammer 40k. Except, 40K was released at Games Day in October 1987. I was there and picked my copy of RT up on the day of release.

They did the same thing last year with the 20th birthday of GW: Cambridge. Except that store opened in the summer of 1990 not 1991. Again, I was there.

Small rant

Everyone has a bad game now and then. We all suffer from shit dice rolls or missions that don't fully work for us, and any number of other issues. With that we all get the occasional grumble but I cannot stand bad losers. Especially when it comes from players who are vastly overconfident or just don't use the table set up to their advantage. Unfortunately we had this issue tonight at the club and it has bugged me all evening. There just isn't a need for it.