The Hype of Something New

Today my nearly 5 pounds of RSN fleet arrived on my doorstep (I'll get around to doing reviews of them as I get to it), but the best part of opening the box for me was unwrapping the new Firestorm Armada V2 rulebook.

It may sound strange, but one of the major things I enjoy about the wargaming hobby is reading the rules and how a particular company tried to make itself stand out from the other companies out there. I actually enjoy reading through rulebooks and looking at the various studio armies shown in the books.

Even if I don't play a game any longer, I find it hard to get rid of the rulebooks because I always seem to find something I missed earlier. Could be a rule that slid under my radar, an interesting piece of terrain, or a paint job that strikes my fancy. I still have the 4th edition Warhammer 40K rulebook for this exact reason, some of the terrain ideas could still work for Heavy Gear Blitz, Infinity, or a wide variety of other games (40K wasn't as GRIMDARK as it is now days).

Miniatures are great, nothing like holding a well sculpted work of art in your hands fresh out of the package, but at the end of the day, it is the rulebooks that keep me hyped for a game. If the book is good, fluff is well placed, and the art actually makes me want to look at it, then I will spend hours upon hours going over that book. Already I was going through the V2 rulebook and found a space station I hadn't seen before. It looks amazing, and my interesting is piqued in regards to how it was constructed. Looks better than my idea of just using the Battlefleet Gothic Blackstone Fortress (although the Orbital Dock looks good too).

So the obvious question to the public then; Do any other folks get more hyped about the prospect of reading new rules over the idea of new miniatures?

Customization - How Much is Too Much?

One of the things that irk me while gaming, and has turned me off of various games is the amount of character customization available to me during the creation of the army. I am not saying I expect every miniature to have it's own rules for creation, as that would be simply too much for the table. I do however go into a force creation wanting to make a force or fleet *mine*, and some games do this better than others.

One of the worse offenders of character creations is Anima Tactics where almost every miniature has a name, stats, and about the only power you have over it is if you give it an accessory or not. They have some absolutely lovely miniatures, but the fact everyone is a special character is a major killer there. They are not alone in this regard either, as WarmaHordes also has this to a degree with the Warlock/Warcasters being 'special' characters right out of the gate. You will find that I don't even really enjoy playing Warhammer or 40K with special characters either. To me, as soon as you add a special character, the force is no longer really mine at that point.

On the flip side, if you have too wide an option for character customization, then you run into the issue of redundant, overpowered, and just worthless pieces of equipment. you see this heavily in WFB and 40K for instance. Look at the WFB Slann and how many people take the Cupped Hands of the Old Ones magic item as just one example. HGB sort of falls into this same category as well to a degree, as there are many gears that simply are outclassed by other available gears. Cheetah versus Jaguar for a quick example.

Wargaming is a strange beast in that even in this topic you will find peoples thoughts vary greatly about what they feel about the use of special characters and character customization. You are going to have people that play games like Mordheim that put HEAVY focus on individual characters because that is the game it is built around, then you have the other extreme of games like Firestorm Armada that has zero special 'characters' as all ships come just as listed.

For me, I find Firestorm Armada's lack of customization fine for some reason because it is in fact a ship and not an actual individual  It could be from all the various Gundam, Firefly, and Babylon 5 episodes I have watched over time (I am sorry but I simply have not watched Star Trek or Star Wars outside of the passing glance if it was on TV so can't talk about their space battles), but for me the tone of a ship should be based on the exploits of the crew aboard that ship. You take that combat to a gear or other man shaped mecha, and suddenly I start wanting more option loadouts available to me as I could easily see a pilot customizing his mecha to fight in his preferred methodology.

Getting back into standard foot soldier themed games though, there are so many good games available to people, and yet I have found so few good character customization options available. Strangely enough, for me one of the best I have seen is the Kings of War ruleset. All the characters have a set stat line, they could be equipped with a great sword, sword and shield, halberd, or a harp if you so wanted, and it wouldn't change their stat line. In fact, even the magic items have a section that state that the magic items warp and twist to the form most preferred to the user. What this allows is for you the player to make ANY character to lead your forces and not worry about massive impacts and gear discrepancy since the weapons you put on the miniature don't actually affect that miniatures playstyle.

As I said, for me character customization seems a weird beast to tame. So obviously the question is, where do the players think the companies should aim for? Make a system like WFB, Mordheim and HGB with multiple loadouts per character, or a simpler game where the characters are preset like Warmachine and Anima Tactics? Should more companies walk that line Mantic does with trying to allow as many various companies as possible?

Reaction Tuesday - GW Price Increase Reactions

Something that is still making waves after a couple weeks has been GW's latest price increases. I made a blog about it last year when it happened, and didn't really expect to write about it again, and yet people are still making the same 'deer in the headlight' type posts/sayings again this year.

GW has this thing called an annual price increase, which people really shouldn't be shocked by, prices go up on nearly everything every year. The difference is though that the consumer of GW products actually does hold all the cards in this area, and yet they refuse to actually play with those cards they are dealt. you see the exact same posts as you did last year about how people were going to stop playing GW games because of the prices, and yet six months down the line you find those same people happily handing their credit cards over to GW at some new release.

If you dare ask them why they play WFB or 40K, they almost always have some terrible excuse that apparently helps them sleep at night. 'Oh the background is what keeps me', 'No one else at my club at play anything else',  'I don't like the rules of Warmahordes'. All these excuses are complete rubbish in the best of cases and on multiple levels.

First and foremost, while WarmaHordes might certainly be one of the more popular competitive products, that doesn't mean you have to play it. Mantic's Kings of War and Warpath rulesets are much closer to WFB and 40K respectively then WarmaHordes is. To top it off, the Kings of War and Warpath rulesets are FREE, no excuse why you and your club aren't willing to give it a shot. That is also assuming you aren't willing to start up a new game in a new scale. Heavy Gear Blitz, Drop Zone Commander, Dust Tactics, and many other games are simply amazing foot based armies in varying scales.

The background excuse was one I always did hate to hear as well. Where in the background does it say Teclis is going to be in 500 different battles throughout the day? Where in the background does it  talk about dice rolls not going well? Simply put, nowhere. The background is something that is completely separate from the tabletop game. if you play a game of Warpath, the background for 40K just doesn't change. You can easily keep up on the background of the game without having to buy multiple $33 dollar codexs/army books.

The last point was slightly hit on already about no one else using the system at the club. With free rules for Infinity, Kings of War, Warpath, Full Thrust, and multiple other games out there, there is no reason not to give something else a try. Most of those other system even allow easy conversion to use of your current miniatures to work with their systems. Even if you don't want to use one of those systems, most other game systems rulebooks are a half to a third the price of the GW rulebooks (and most tend to actually give you the full force rules as well).

In the end, if you don't want to give up GW games, simply say it. We live in a great time for tabletop wargames, with almost every type of game having multiple rulesets to use within our grasp. If you choose not to take advantage of that, then simply sit back and suck up the annual price increases and stop acting like their blindsided you again.

Another busy weekend ahead of me

This weekend should be fairly entertaining. In addition to all the normal house work I have to get done, I also have some gaming planned with strangers.

Found out only recently one of my neighbors played Heroes Quest, which is just a basic form of Warhammer Quest, and they made a bunch of house rules that more or less made heroes Quest into Warhammer Quest (Character advance, travel, blah blah blah). This of course will be the first time the husband will play Warhammer Quest at all, and the first time the wife has played the genre of board games period. Will certainly be interesting, and I am not sure if I want to bring in my Elven Ranger instead of the classic Elf or not. I guess it will depend entirely on what the rest of the group chooses.

I also want to start knocking out some of my Firestorm Armada miniatures, as I believe it should be fairly quick turn around on getting those painted. Found a basic color scheme on the web I liked, with some modifications to make it 'mine' of course. This site has more or less what I wanted to do, mine scheme of course will use silver instead of grey, darker blue, red instead of orange, green for the command decks, ect. Will be interesting to see if it turns out the way my minds eye thinks it should, or if the painting just gets on my nerves and I quit half way through again.

On top of all that I am still fighting with myself if I should start up Warhammer 40K or Fantasy again. I really do want a Tau force, as I have gotten much better at playing a range heavy force, but at the same time rumor mill says the Crisis suits are getting a complete overhaul, and I will hate to have to get completely new, and most likely more expensive, minis. Of course the fact I won't ever finish painting the force myself is another heavy factor. Heck, my Lizardmen force is still largely unpainted and incomplete.

Next on my busy weekend agenda is working on at least one of my RC helis. I know I posted about my 250 yesterday, but I think it'll come down to which I find requires less time from me over all. I do want something flyable by next spring though for sure, and one or another, one of these helis will be air born.

After all this is said and done, I still need to get leveling my Marauder and Lancer in FFXIV, fight Ifrit, work on my crafting. Almost finished with the basic Orcs must Die! game, so have to finish the up and try to clear all with 5 skulls. Maybe this weekend I'll also get some time to do a hot seat game of Might and Magic Heroes VI with the wife and maybe the kids. So much video gaming to top of the other hobbies.

This is all on top of doing yard work, changing the faucets in the house, visiting the wife's nephew (still not sure I care to), basic house cleaning, and many other 'fun' tasks all lined up. honestly these next four days off are just going to be loaded to the brim.

Lots of wargaming on the horizon

Lots of stuff happening soon for my wargaming.

Seems my wife has suddenly gotten the urge to not only play, but paint up our Firestorm Armada fleets, so looking forward to that. I am also going to buy a bag or two of lava rocks. use a few for asteroids in game, and the rest for the yard. I got the Warhammer Fantasy Storm of magic spell vortexs to represent gas giants on the tabletop. Firestorm Armada is really coming into it's own cheap and quick.

I am going to try to paint at least one mini this week, and keep that up. It will be slow, but maybe I can deal with one a week. Before I set myself up for failure, trying to do a mini a day on my off days when I can't stand painting and I simply don't have the drive to finish 3-4 minis a week. One a week however I should be able to do, and I need to get back into the painting thing and get my skills back up to par. Might break this up with other hobby things though, like finishing up the Realm of Battle board I bought like three years ago that still only has two panels painted/flocked. I really do need to finish up my Menoth force since I have a few minis painted up already compared to my other games.

GW recently released a new Saurus Old Blood miniature I am going to get to lead my Kings of War Lizardmen force. I like the way it fits in decently with my Temple Guard, and it look like I could swap it into Warhammer Quest easier then Chakax lets me do at the moment. have not played Kings of War for a while, but right now just playing the field, see other genres of games other then Warhammer Fantasy and 40K at the moment. I'll come back to Warhammer/Kings of War in due time, and most likely even 40K/Warpath eventually.

I kinda hinted at it, but I am still wrestling with the thoughts of starting a new Tau force up. Lots of ideas are swarming around my head for conversions I  could and should be able to do. I don't want to go all in though. I have simply too many other games going on right now. With Firestorm Armada taking off, Kings of War and Warmachine sitting on the shelves ready to go at a moments notice, Warhammer Quest easy enough to unbox at a given time.... Just to much. Maybe once we start locking down which games we will eventually stick with for a long term, I'll make a better choice if I'll really start collecting Tau, or simply get a mini here or there for the building aspects. What I might do is simply get the Tau ships from Forgeworld and use those with the Firestorm Armada ruleset. Either way is fine with me.

Like I said, lots of tabletop stuff rolling out soon. I am hoping I remember to actually start taking pics of my games for battle reports. Simply lazy and just want to play.

Thoughts on rebuilding my Tau force

I will be honest, it has been a long time since I played 40K, I believe it was right after the newest Eldar was released. Anyhow, prior to that I had a decent Tau army that seemed themed well enough. I don't know how it plays in today's game though. The list itself is:

HQ: Shas'o (1#, 137 Pts)
Cyclic Ion Blaster; Fusion Blaster; Hard-wired Multi-tracker; Stimulant Injector; Shield Generator

Elite: Crisis Battlesuit (1#, 67 Pts)
Team Leader; Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Multi-Tracker

Elite: Crisis Battlesuit (1#, 67 Pts)
Team Leader; Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Multi-Tracker

Elite: Stealth Suit (6#, 205 Pts)
Burst Cannon (x3)
1 Team Leader
Bonding Knife; Burst Cannon; Markerlight; Hard-wired Drone Controller; Hard-wired Target Lock
2 Marker Drone
Networked Markerlight; Targeting Array

Troops: Fire Warrior (13#, 255 Pts)
Pulse Rifle (x11)
1 Shas'ui
Bonding Knife; Pulse Rifle
1 Devilfish
Burst Cannon; Smart Missile System; Targeting Array; Multi-Tracker; Decoy Launchers; Landing Gear

Troops: Fire Warrior (12#, 135 Pts)
Pulse Rifle (x11)
1 Shas'ui
Bonding Knife; Pulse Rifle

Troops: Fire Warrior (12#, 135 Pts)
Pulse Rifle (x11)
1 Shas'ui
Bonding Knife; Pulse Rifle

Troops: Kroot (10#, 70 Pts)
Kroot Rifle (x10)

Troops: Kroot (10#, 70 Pts)
Kroot Rifle (x10)

Fast Attack: Piranha Light Skimmer (4#, 120 Pts)
Burst Cannon (x2); Gun Drones (x2)
2 Gun Drones
Twin Linked Pulse Carbines

Fast Attack: Piranha Light Skimmer (3#, 65 Pts)
Fusion Blaster (x1); Gun Drones (x1)
2 Gun Drones
Twin Linked Pulse Carbines

Heavy Support: Hammerhead Gunship (1#, 170 Pts)
Railgun; Smart Missile System; Targeting Array; Multi-Tracker; Landing Gear

Total Roster Cost: 1496

Still a decent enough army for the casual player? Would be cheap enough for me to rebuild, but would be yet another force I would have to paint.

My wife would most likely either be playing Orks or Tyranids. not sure yet.

A past choice turned to regret

For some reaosn I was thinking about something I did a couple years that I now regret with a passion. I was a heavy tau player for a long time, even have my codex still even though I don't play 40K anymore. I made a nicely balanced hybrid army list that I enjoyed playing because it felt like how the army should play. Of course I still didn't enjoy painting so I actually commissioned out my force to be painted my Blue Table Painting. The various minis could be found here.

As you can see, I didn't ask for much, but I loved how things came out. The race even had a decent win:loss value when I played with it. For some reason though I fell out of love for it, think the new Eldar drove me back towards Elves I have always played. Anyways I sold the force, and didn't really think much about it.

Until lately.

The last few days I have found myself kicking myself for selling such a great set of minis. I want them back and to play with them again. Of course I won't commission again, as Blue Table Painting has raised their prices simply too high for me to want to do it again.

So just a quick lesson for you. Don't sell your minis unless you really have to. you will eventually come to regret it.

The Wraithseer...

I haven't played Warhammer 40K in a decent amount of time. All my books are current, and of course I keep up on any happenings in the 40K universe. One thing I don't really keep up on though to much is Forgeworld releases since I don't tend to make purchases from them. I recently visited their site to see what they have added and I was absolutely blown away.

The Eldar Wraithseer is an excellent miniature. I want it just so I can build it, it is simply that awesome looking for me. Of course you can tell that I don't look for over the top details to make me like minis, but more of a particular stance or look that hits just the right nerve. Also helps that I almost exclusively played an Iyanden themed Eldar force when I did play from 3rd to 5th edition Warhammer 40K.

So onto the rules, first thing that made me sit back wide eyed was the fact the Wraithseer was an HQ choice, but didn't take up the mandatory HQ slot requirements. At this point it seemed as though we would have the much cheaper Avatar and the Wraithseer battling for the same spot. The Wraithspear is decent, and the Wraithshield gives the Wraithseer the same general protection as the Avatar, and of course being able to give him a D-cannon is a nice touch as well, but the real game changers is the fact that the Wraithseer can lead other wraith units on the battlefield AND cast spells to enhance his forces.

It seems as though the Wraithseer would be a decent support HQ choice, but the cost makes me wary. It is super expensive for a single HQ slot, and the Wraithlords are not the easiest units to make use of cover at the best of times which may well put a massive target on it's head. Doesn't stop me from trying to think of ways to add the the Wraithseer to a new Eldar list either way.

Warpath beta review

Well, it has been out for some time, and I have done some reading, rereading, thinking about forces, ect in regards to the recently released Warpath beta rules. Here is what I think of what I have seen so far.

Pros:

• The system will seem familiar to a wide audience, as it does a decently good job of mixing the Kings of War and Wahammer 40K rulesets. Combat works out almost exactly like Kings of War combat, but with individual line of sight becoming for more important.
• The rule system is relatively complete with all things considered. You already have rules for troops, transports, aircraft, vehicles running troops over (Overrun), and a wide range of other rules. All backed up by the Kings of War style special rules like Zap for  caster/psychic types.
• With the current rules and forces released, you can easily see the capability for a wide range of races to easily be fitting into the Warpath ruleset, with each being played much differently then the other down the line. As long as Mantic and fan lists stay away from the pit falls of the space marine syndrome and not try to support a hundred different version of the same Forge Fathers list with only minor differences. 
• The rules, like Kings of War, being free to download and use. This is a big plus, as I don't have to worry about buying another $75 book with each new edition.
• Still a relatively fast game system to play through, not as fast as Kings of War but not as slow as a normal game of Warhammer 40K.
• Most of the fat from the 40K ruleset has been cut for the most part, once again helping streamline the game process. Something that Mantic has proven good at with Kings of War.

Cons:

• While I considered it a pro, the fact that Warpath does feel so familiar to Warhammer 40K in a lot of levels will likely go a long way towards turning the less then willing away from the system. The whole 'Why play a cheap knockoff  version of what I am already playing'.
• I personally dislike the rules for aircraft, as they seem... cumbersome with the aircraft coming and going at will from the tabletop (not really at will, but just coming and going).Either keep the aircraft on the table or remove them completely I would say. I think it's an unneeded action to have to put the mini on the table, next turn remove then mini, turn ofter that place the mini somewhere else on the table. Just to tedious for me personally.

The Warpath game system is something I am looking forward to see grow. First thing that was going through my head while reading the rules was figuring out the stats for a Warpath version of Tau. Right now they have an Orc race (Called Orx), and a Dwarven race that appears to be far closer to space marines then anything else to me at this time. The rules for hovering vehicles are already in the game system, so Eldar and Tau should be functional, just a matter of getting points lists worked out.

There are already some folks that are trying to break the rules by making it far more like 40K then the system needs to be, things like making units with 7+ defense that really doesn't need to be that hard to hurt, just because they believe it is closer to what terminators should be. Of course I don't agree with this, as you already have to hit them, then roll a 6 on a followup dice, which already give 6+ defense models a huge ability to stay on the field. I am hoping in this regard Mantic does not go this route and make stupidly powerful units, without making them cost a stupidly high amount of points. The focus should be on the combat, not on who can bring the more invulnerable units (and yes, a defense 7+ model is invulnerable to a lot of attacks in the current version of Warpath).

I do think Warpath will be a good tactical skirmish style game for the most part, the issues will get ironed out over time, so not worried about a few annoyances here or there, like aircraft. The game does appear like it will take a bit longer to play then a normal game of Kings of War though, as you are no longer moving entire units at once, instead moving each trooper separately. This of course is a matter of perception, as I imagine the game will still finish quicker then a current game of Warhammer 40K. I haven't played 40K in a good few years now, so no clue exactly how quick a common point level game takes, but I am assuming the standard 2-3 hours still.

Overall Review:
Definitely give the game a shot. The rules are free, so what does it hurt?