What happened to 40k

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Ben Jackson

So why is chapter master getting quite? Well partly because I have a back log of work that I get payed to do. Partly because all this blog does is promote a business that I think has now moved the goal posts so far that the game has changed. For me the latest space marine release was one bridge too far. I said I wouldn’t be negative this year but I just can’t be positive about a company that charges soo much for soo little. There are ways to increase profits without making your customer base angry, no I think we have past angry. In fact I think we have reached apathetic. What do I mean. Well gw continues to charge more and more for less and less. The new space marine characters at £18 for a single plastic frame??? Now I don’t care about these I don’t have to buy them. The fact you would have given then away with white dwarf once is your business, I don’t have to or need to buy them. But £35 for the new codex. I’m really very p****d off! If you wanted to make money you could have cut out all the ultramarine stuff and given them a separate codex. Then you could have charged £30 for them both. i can’t write what i would like to say at this point.

This is the first space marine codex I haven’t rushed out and bought. If gw want to charge a fortune for the nice to have items like wraith knights that’s one thing, but wasn’t the last space marine codex £20? That was only 5 years ago. The space marine codex is the starting point for players entering the hobby, well at least it was. I guess that honour has gone to the Dark Angels now? I mean what are gw up to. Yes I know it’s a hard back. But I’m looking at my 5th edition codex. When am I going to use that again? It’s joined my 4th, 3rd and 2nd edition box. And how have we reacted to this massive price rise, with apathy. We have gone out and bought it. Well I’m not going to! The gloves are off and the claws are out Mr Games Workshop, that right it’s space wolves time. If the tyranid codex costs £35, I’ll stop using my nids. If the Blood angel codex is £35 I’ll stop using my blood angels and so on. Until the only thing left to do is play another system. It’s plastic pure and simple you can pay people to paint it to goldEn demon standards however you will not get me to part with almost £55 for one plastic model and a book. What sort of hobby obsessed idiot do you take me for? No please don’t answer that.

The huge mistake with the codex aside I think this is a very cleaver release for gw. By slowly moving all the cheaper items to mail order, I.e. the old hq models gw can keep the stores margins high and cut the distribution costs on the cheaper products. They can in effect put the prices up without actually putting the prices up. I’m not happy but I’m still buying….. For now at least.

Fort Pain at Warhammer World – A word of warning – read this before you play.

Posted on September 15, 2013 by Ben Jackson

A group of friends and I played a game of apocalypse on the fort pain board at Warhammer World recently. While this game was spectacular and fun, it was clearly not balanced. The board is arranged is such a way that it is very hard to split it fairly. In my eyes the fairest way to split it is diagonally down the centre of the gate, but this still isn’t balanced. One player ends up with a smaller board and less cover. A lot of the board also becomes useless in games terms.

If playing length ways, using the fort as a 3+ cover fortification and giving each side of the fort a void shield, the attacking player should be given an extra 1,000 points.

If you are playing across the board and just use it as standard cover. I recommend given at least 500 extra points to the player who does not occupy the majority of the fort.

The other issue with this board, is standing up infantry is challenging in some places. Metal models and in some places even plastic models are very limited for level ground that they can be placed on without falling over. My gaming group used the slope (shown above) to store books and models and didn’t actually play on it. Another gamer told us they had tired to use this as gaming area once and just gave up.

Finally I want to reiterate playing on this board is fun and I thoroughly recommend it. Just don’t expect a balanced game.

The new Sternguard will you buy it

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Ben Jackson

Well this is an interesting question as there are so many choices for sternguard models, even if you exclude the old kit there are all the forge world models which are almost the same price.

Even with all the rumours I was still surprised when I saw these models. i really like the look of them. I often think plastics that have evolved from metal sculpts look a ton better than the one that are done in cad software. Just like the tactical marines these Sternguard have a fresh look. There are subtle differences from the old kit, so you can use it without duplicating the old finecast models. at the same time there are lots of common armour plate designs and poses from the old kit. There is a small risk that your old models won’t mix well with these new ones given they all have long loin cloths between there legs.

There are a host of options with the new kit, including some hat tips to the old power armour suits, a New MK4 leg and head design a couple of Mk6 torsos and heads including a mk6 helmet similar to the limed edition 25th anniversary model. There is also a new Mk8 torso and for the first time plastic mk8 legs, or leg depending on how you look at it. There are also new heads and lots and lots of weapon choices. Both a heavy flamer and heavy bolter come with the kit. There are also a ton of combi weapons enough to kit out each marine with a combi weapon which can be built as a combi grav, plasma, melta or flamer. The sergeant comes with a choice of power fist or power sword. There are also lots of alternative style bolters included.

Rules wise this new Sternguard Squad has a slight edge on the old one. There is the increased choice of combi weapons allowing a more useful build. Along with not having to build a sergeant with a power fist this has to be a better set to field the Sternguard.

Now it’s time to look at the price and it was going so well, £30 yes that the most expensive 5 man power armour squad gw sell. What you have to remember is there are a bunch of extra weapons that were previously sold for £8 separately. I was expecting this kit to weigh in at £25 Given the inclusion of all these weapons it not so bad, but we are still talking about 2 sprues including 5 plastic space marines for £30, that’s £15 per sprue design. One thing is for sure GW stand to make a lot of money of this kit

Over all I’m very happy with this. If you mix the kit with some tacitacal marines to make a 10 man squad it’s no more expensive than the old squad plus you get all the extra weapons. I’m looking forward to having a full play around with this set. That’s two kits GWs have done well with this release.

Appearance 9/10
Options in the kit 9/10
Rules 8/10
Price 6/10

Over all 8/10

Next time I’ll look at the Vanguard veterans.

To recap

Centurions 6/10
Captain 6/10
Librarian 6/10
Chaplain 5/10
Tactical Squad 8/10
Sternguard 8/10

The future of games day

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Ben Jackson

I’ve been reading with much interest another masterful miniature blog. It has been promising for what feels like weeks, but is probably only days to write about the future of games day. Well I’ve waited so long I thought I would do what most writers do.. Just make stuff up.

G,man and I both have tickets for games day uk and it looks like it’s going to be a very different event. The biggest change is there are going to be a lot lot less people there. The number of tickets has been reduced from 8000 to only 4000, however the size of the venue has been reduced from 2 large and 1 small hall to only 1 arena. This squashing in of people is less of concern given there have only been 2500 tickets sold so far.

Of course this isn’t the first time GamesDay has been held at the NIA. The last time it was there forge world was a very different business, which only made a handful of products. Given the trade stand had been given it’s own hall last year it will be interesting to see how the annual forge world world queue translates into the NIA even if there are only 3000 people standing in it this year.

In theory this extra £5 I paid for my ticket will give me twice as much time talking with the design and painting teams, twice as much time to take photo’s of the new forge world models. Twice as long to look at the displays, on hand. Oh hang on I’ve made a school boy error, twice as many people only gives me twice as long with the designers if I take the time out from doing something else. Maybe I’ll go to forge world next weekend so I don’t have to relate another account of standing in the forge world queue for over an hour and wasting a good proportion of the time I have at games day.

See you there if you are. I’ll be geek wearing the funny T-shirt oh wait that will be all of us, ok I’ll be the guy in the ring wraith suit.

New Space Marine Tactical Squad – Should you buy or not

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Ben Jackson

Well I think this question is a mute point, of course you will end up buying this kit. It’s going to be very hard to avoid it. There is still the question of should you buy the new squad, the old one while it’s still available, which should be a long time given how many have been made, or even should you take the forge world route.

I’ve been waiting for this kit for a long time. Given the level of anticipation Games Workshop have got to deliver on this kit. Let me start buy saying I both really like it and I’m disappointed by it at the same time. On the positive site it managed to have a fresh look. It has subtle differences from the old kit while still incorporating a lot of the same heads, torsos and arms; which is quite clever. If it had been made to look very different we would all have been up in arms about our old squads that now look tied and old. This way we can mix the new models through our collections and keep the old ones on the game table to.

There are a host of options with the new kit, including some hat tips to the old power armour suits, New MK4 legs, a couple of Mk6 torsos, more Mk6 heads and a new Mk8 torso with a high collar, there are also new heads and lots of weapon choices. All the old heavy and special weapons are included, the back pack for the missile luncher has been brought up to date with the devastator and old black reach kit. A Grav Gun, Grav pistol and a combi weapon which can be built as a combi grav, plasma, melta or flamer. Some of the old chain swords and pistols have been removed to achieve this. There is also a new aiming bolter stance and reloading bolter pose. The only issue on options is that there are no other heavy weapons included.

Rules wise this Tactical Squad has a slight edge on the old one. The grav pistol gun and combi weapons will allow a more useful build. The rules also now allow for a special or heavy weapon in a 5 man squad. As well as these you have the option of taking a Veteran Sergeant, although why you wouldn’t want the extra point of leadership escapes me.

Now it’s time to look at the price, £25 yes oh yes only £25. I guess I’m glad they didn’t add any more heavy weapons or this certainly would have been higher. I was expecting this kit to weigh in at £28. Given the inclusion of 10 different leg poses, more torso choices, the grav and combi weapons I think this squad is worth the extra £2. Not only are three different sprues, but they are all separate designs, that’s £9.33 per sprue design, as many as there are in the new necron super heavy kit but for a lot less. There are also 10 men in the box that’s £2.50 per man. A lot less than many of the other GW kits

Over all I’m very happy with this. I can’t wait to get myself at least one of these sets. At last something that was worth GWs effort from this release.