Games Workshop's New Series Of Hobby Videos Are Really Rather Good

I really do not like the GW house-style of painting. It's just not my thing: too bright and spangly on the whole, often verging on the utterly uninspiring to a degree that puts me off new offerings. I can understand why Oldhammerers looking at the website would be additionally put off recent releases.

However, the new GW hobby videos are rather good. An amiable host with a friendly manner helps make them easily digestible. They also offer viewers plenty of close up views of new models from many angles. Yes, they are pretty much 'how to paint them as on the box', but it's good to see GW providing a good line in genuine hobby support once again and I hope that they continue to add to this line of step-by-steps guides. The advice on how to glue an Imperial Knight was really instructive, even to an old fart like me!

Here's Militarum Tempestus: Painting a Tempestor Scion (Part 1 of 2).

Imperial Knight Errant Inbound

My goodness me, this big chap will be hard to resist. What a marvelous addition this will be to my year of mech and monsters - a mechy monster! I know plenty of people will think this is just a money grab by GW - and let's be under no illusion, it IS (primary detachment of SIX of these anyone?) - but for a modeller/painter such as me, this is a great opportunity because it's the first big kit that actually fits into one of my playable armies. The only thing that might hold me back for a while will be the price tag... Roll on March. 

Games Workshop In Danger, OR, A Storm In A Teacup? What I Would Do (For What It's Worth)

There's a huge amount of chin scratching and pondering going on at the moment in the blogosphere about the future of Games Workshop, given their substantial dip in profits. So here's a very brief summary of what I would do if I was in charge:

• Increase the number of miniatures available in each box as a way of reducing prices across the whole range. This would include multiple unit boxes and by-on-mass deals.
• Employ real writers who would develop the narrative of the universe (both 40k and fantasy) and feed this into the development of the range [this idea was discussed recently with Andy Bartlett, who should take some credit]. This would make everything 'click', make it a true hobby once more, and bring gaming and collecting to the fore... as opposed to simply trying to sell bigger armies for bigger profit.
• Change the retail side of things so that the shops sell miniatures from other manufacturers, possibly (I'd say definitely) even other game systems. This would mean taking the big step to not being total dicks about the reality of other game systems and models existing out there! 

Well, there are just a few ideas jotted down during a lecture on cyber security, just because these things were on my mind today. Any thoughts? What might be more realistic? 

Proxy 40k Armies And The Ghost Of Oldhammer, Or, Every Army A Proxy

It's a no-brainer for me that proxy armies are an obvious choice in 40k. In an entire fantasy universe with millions of planets there should be possibilities that go miles beyond the limited number of army lists provided by GW. 

So I was pleased to see a 'mainstream' blog covering this idea building on the new Space Marines codex. Goatboy over at BoLS provides a number of fun sounding suggestions such as these:

White Scars...I always liked an army full of Horsemen and this would be a great place to start as some kind of Marauding band of Evil Knights. The plastic Chaos Knight set is a great place to start and you can easily add bits to make them more "futuristic" with daemonic steads, evil weaponry and other bits and pieces. Their ability to scout with a Special character could also be used as an Alpha Legion heavy striking force.

Iron Hands... Here you get into the army I think has the most gas in the tank of Counts As. I can see them being used for Iron Warriors because both armies love technology. I really can see people using this as the base army for Adeptus Mechanicus and allying in the Tau to create weapons from the prayers of Mars. I even can see them used as a crazy Death Guard force with their army wide FNP and It Will Not Die on their Characters and vehicles. The Sky is the limit with their chapter set as it feels basic enough to cover lots of options and still give you room to build and design.

Imaginative and independently spirited gamers will of course go far further than this and in that there is nothing revolutionary about these suggestions. To an old fart like me, it's hobby common sense. What really astonishes me, though - and by now it shouldn't - is how dim, ill-tempered, witless, and limiting (I could go on...) the comments on this article are. Never has the Oldhammer spirit been needed so dearly! 

I can only daydream that all these tournament-types are visited in the dead of night by the ghost of Oldhammer*, and that he shows them the error of their ways. Because in my hobbyverse, every army is a proxy army, imagined, built and storied uniquely by its creator. Anything else and it's just... a game.

*I realise this gives the impression that Oldhammer is dead. Forgive me. Clearly this is not the case.

Dear Fan Boys, Please Stop Breaking The GW Website!

For goodness sake, has the world gone utterly mad? I'm just a casual observer wanting to take a glance at some new toys. From what I can just about see, what's on offer is an almost-exactly-the-same tactical squad, a couple of ok-ish characters, and the weirdest bloody fat Space Marines I've ever seen. Seriously? You want to break the GW site in a stampede for these?!

The Disappearing Pleasures Of GW Metal Miniatures, Or, Am I A Leadhead After All?

How many more times will I start a hobby session with one of these blister packs?

Here we have Morghur, Master of Skulls. Still available direct from GW in a soulless white box. I got mine from eBay of course.

Looking at this pack I realised that this is a disappearing pleasure - certainly where GW is concerned, and considering the way things are going across the market, one that will become scarce with all manufacturers sooner or later.

I decided to share the pleasure as best I could with my kids. My daughter was allowed to open the pack and 'check over' the components. On close inspection she seemed happy enough with them ;-)

Then I asked my son to mix together his first ever batch of greenstuff, which he did with gusto. In the meantime I primed up the super glue (by taking the lid off), and we then sat together and 'super-green-stuffed' the little blighter together. Excess greenstuff came in handy for creating additional tentacles of mutation around the base (Morghur is a powerful and twisted shaman).

And there you have it. Primed in white and with a light coating of a sepia ink wash, ready to be worked on during the coming cold winter nights. A really great and characterful model and an utter - yet unexpected - pleasure to work with white metal. Perhaps I'm more of a leadhead than I realised!

GW Makes The Satirical News: Looters Return Stuff To Games Workshop

The following article is from the British satirical news site The Daily Mash. It's not hilarious and it's oddly about 27 years off what GW produce today, but it does pick up on something I'm always told by family members or friends when trying to entice them with a casual game: "there are so many rules!" If you're British you'll also appreciate the sideswipe at faux-historical shop Past Times. (By the way, I dream of GW introducing D20s into their current games ;-)

Looters Return Stuff To Games Workshop

SCORES of disappointed rioters queued up this morning to return goods they had mistakenly looted from Games Workshop.

The crestfallen thieves had raided the store hoping for a PS3 or Nintendo bounty but arrived home to find they had stolen a box containing 300 unpainted Orcs and a board game called Beyond the Ultraforest of Kwang.

Martin Bishop, 19, said: “I am returning The Runering of Fangor.

“It includes two dice, each with about 40 sides and instructions on how to gain the trust of a ‘cloud wizard’.

“And yet somehow I’m the fucking bad guy.”

He added: “Nevertheless I am now immune to Dwarven magic, so it hasn’t been a complete waste of time.”

Meanwhile, historical kitsch outlet Past Times reported the return of a pair or resin bookends in the shape of the Egyptian cat-god Sekhmet and 254 teak statues of a fat, reclining Buddha.

And in Manchester, people who stole copies of Limitless starring Bradley Cooper have been setting fire to them and throwing them back through the window of HMV.

Roy Hobbs, manager of Games Workshop in Birmingham, said: “Welcome home my children. Let me bathe you in the healing milk of Fagnarbarak.

“I knew we would meet again.”

Games Workshop's Embiggening Philosophy

The age of the plastic titan has arrived with the new Eldar releases, which have just been unveiled to the world. The Wraithknight is both a blessing and a curse. The part of me that's still 15 (circa 1990) exploded with fanboy joy when seeing this immense walker as it truly is the scale of scratch built scout titans of that era - perhaps even larger.

The trouble - and the curse - from a current day perspective is that this is a further example of GW's embiggening philosophy. How will it be possible to play 'normal' games with hulking great machines like this on the regular roster and therefore on the table? 

I suppose that's a question for the tournament players and those who follow the latest edition rules with a three line whip. I can't see how a game with one of these would get past the 'whoever kills the other's titan wins' problem. A game like that might be fun once in a while, but as a regular aspect? I don't buy it. 

But perhaps that's because I'm more interested in playing a mash-up of current game mechanics with the army lists and stats from Rogue Trader/2nd edition - a smooth game with character, variety, and armies more suited to a tabletop game than a 'floor war'.

Wickedness made flesh.

Please don't be awful. Please don't be cartoony. Please be classic Chaos. Please don't be shit. 

Question Time: Should I Do Armies On Parade?

Ok online buddies, here's a question for you all: should I do Armies On Parade this year? It's Games Workshop's annual display-a-thon and I quite fancy a bit of that display board action. I've never taken my little fellas out of the house before, so this would be a big step for me. Worth a pop? 

I wondered if any of you had taken part before and what your experiences were? I wanted to use it as a good focal point, an excuse for modelling, painting and really tailoring a force - I'm thinking my Nurgle guys, boosted a little to make the sub-group that makes it on the board a full-on GW affair.

I do hope you all tell me it's a good idea... I've already got some new goodies on mail order...!

If you live outside the UK you'll have no idea who this chap is.

Thank You Games Workshop For Doing Away With Surplus Clicking!

For many years I've been looking to do away with all the unnecessary mouse clicking involved in ordering my wargaming miniatures online. How arduous it is to click laboriously on the 'buy' icon below each and every different item I wish to purchase.

Now, Games Workshop has an answer to all my woes! As announced on Faeit 212, our favourite premium wargaming supplier is now rolling out more of their extraordinary 'one click bundles'!

GW are reported as saying: 

So what is it exactly?

• Every month we will release six collections of themed products that have been put together from existing ranges of miniatures to allow our customers to purchase multiple, related products in one convenient click.
• These collections are put together as exciting opportunities for our customers to collect more miniatures. For example, a Space Marine Tactical Squad and Drop Pod is a simple one-click purchase that is nicely themed.

Amazing! No longer will I need to undertake the ever tiresome task of thinking for myself when building an army - and here's the clever bit - Games Workshop are deftly avoiding overcomplicating the process by not including any discount whatsoever! So, no additional worry about how much of your hard earned cash you're saving, because you're not saving anything!

Thank you Games Workshop for this stroke of genius. I for one will sleep better tonight!  

Chaos Space Marines Codex PDF An Official Leak? (And A Couple Of Other Thoughts)

So there's a very high quality PDF of the new Chaos Space Marine codex out on the internet. It's clearly a scan of the book and it's been floating around for a few days. Obviously I'm not going to link to it here, but it's pretty easy to find if you can click a mouse... It's a big saving compared to the hefty £30 price tag! (Wink). Talking about this last night in my regular gaming group someone raised the possibility that GW had leaked the codex purposefully so that people spent some of the extra cash of models. An interesting thought.

Other thoughts about the codex? Well on a first glance it looks pretty good and pretty much as expected. I like the way the different powers are represented and the animosity there is between them. Overall it's a boon for players shaping their army around a particular god. Also, Cultists as a troops choice are very useful (for me anyway...) and it's very useful given the contents of Dark Vengeance that a squad can contain both autopistols and autoguns. That means my crossbow toting conversions can be autoguners gained from autopistol models. Handy.

The Realistic/Negative Review Of The New White Dwarf

Most of us will have spent a week with the new White Dwarf so it's time to be realistic about what GW have actually given us... I say given, for the princely sum of £5.50 that is. I think it's fair to say that we all genuinely wanted the new White Dwarf to be a real hobby magazine. Last Saturday I would've said this was what we had now. And although it's certainly more of a hobby mag than in the last incarnation, we really shouldn't fool ourselves. I won't add too much myself, as this review over at Play Unplugged sums up what I'm thinking... to quote...

"It didn’t take long after my purchase for the shine to wear off. Pages 4-51 are not just advertisements in the sense that they are content about the game, they are advertisements in the “Ohhhh… look at this thing we’re selling and here’s where you can buy it way.” Think about that. 48 pages of straight ads. Pretty advertisements for sure, but advertisements non-the-less... That in my mind is where the “new” White Dwarf makes a big misstep. I’m already interested in your products GW. I hate to break it to you, but I wouldn’t be buying your magazine if I wasn’t. Your job is to give me cool reasons to buy more, and tons of front loaded advertisements (at least for me) is not the way."

Follow the link to the full review. In sum: it looks and feels really lovely... but it remains a catalogue. (Sad face). 

Chaos Space Marine Size/Style Comparison, The Old, The New

People often note or complain about the way that GW models have grown in size over the decades. One of the prime examples are Terminators, who have bulked up significantly over several regenerations. Over the last few days I've been working with some models that buck that trend. Ok, it's not really a fair comparison, as the older set of models actually comes from a board game; namely, Advanced Space Crusade. But a comparison is interesting nonetheless. So here are the before and after photographs:

On the left is one of the Advanced Space Crusade Chaos Marines and the example on the right there is one of the current push-fit Chaos Marines. I'm using both to test out some colour schemes for a Lords of Decay force that I plan to build beginning with the Chaos troops in the 40k starter box. I think the older model holds up rather well - sure, the detail isn't so clear and it seems to be wearing 1970s chaos flares, but it will serve very well as a test model, and might even make it into the final army. 

40K Sixth Edition Thoughts: Forging The Narrative

I wonder if I'm the only person who hasn't played 40k since the Rogue Trader era who's planning on diving into 6th edition? Like many people, I've spent the last few days with my head buried in the new rulebook, and I have to say I'm rather impressed. I'm all in favour of pre-measuring, random charge distances and the like, although why people persist with so-called 'true line of sight' baffles me (but that's for another day, maybe...)

I'm also really impressed with the 'Forging the Narrative' boxes that pop up all over the place in the 6th edition book. I do hope that new-comers to the game - 'youngsters' I might patronisingly call them! - will get into this side of the game. The Rogue Trader rulebook didn't have a hand full of scenarios - there are 100 plus ways of playing a single game, and plenty of ideas for playing campaigns. It's good to see that, in this odd world of competitive play and tournaments, some aspects of narrative gaming survive. I also think that (on reading only) the core rules appear to support this kind of play rather well.

Bravo GW, this is going to be fun.

Fantasy Miniatures 1988 - Oldhammer Gorgeousness

This link has popped up on a few blogs over the last couple of days so you might have already downloaded a copy of this fabulous book from 1988 featuring Golden Demon entries and other gorgeous miniatures. As others have already noted, this book is a real testament to the creativity and imagination that was then abundant in the hobby. I remember it fondly as I was getting into gaming for the first time when this book was published. I'm not sure that I agree with those who say that all this creativity is now lacking - in fact, I disagree quite strongly and offer as evidence the work seen regularly on the GW website taken from their flickr pool.  But I digress... follow the link, download and enjoy!

Forge World's Monstrous Arcanum - A Lovingly Negative Review

Let's start with a question: what do you do when two things from different times in your life - both of which you think are great - collide in a way that results in one of them looking like total shit. The answer? Tell the internet! And so begins our delve into Forge World's Monstrous Arcanum...

This is a book that I really wanted to love. I've had it for a few weeks now (as soon as it was announced on pre-order, out popped my credit card) but I haven't really known what to say about it: until now. My mind was made up during a conversation with my esteemed friend Dr Bargle. It was he who first said "compare the stuff FW put out with the old Realm of Chaos books..." and from that point the fate of this Monstrous Arcanum was to be forever sealed (in my own, humble opinion, of course). 

The positives

• Gorgeous art and design

As with Tamurkhan the artwork is gorgeous and really captures the essence of the book. Similarly, MA also has the feel of an artefact from the fantasy world, which has reasonable fetish value.

• Interesting rules

The narrative section at the front is superfluous so I'll skip that and get on with the rules. Quite a few monstrous beasts here: the elementals look fun, some others are reasonably inventive (e.g. Colossal Squig), while there will be plenty of scope for kit-bashing and scratch-building (e.g. Necroflex Colossus). A few new deployment ideas and a short campaign of sorts quickly round things off.  Interesting, but not much more...

• A somewhat caged urge to push boundaries?

Picture this: someone shouts "it's your game, do what you like!" always echoed by "as long as you use Storm of Magic and all the other official rules provided by GW!" So: be free, but don't ever forget that the corporation will crush you... which leads me to...

The negatives

• Gorgeous art and design

Hang on! Wasn't this a positive? Yes, but you can have too much of a good thing, and the artwork in MA is extensive, leaving little room for anything else, meaning that...

• Lack of scope and ambition

It's difficult not to look at MA and see a lack of ambition. There are hints through the sketchy fluff and rules - hints - at something much broader that never came to light. There is, or could be, a whole world buried here but we never get to see it. Maybe the whole project was shackled for some reason? Perhaps it was a rush job so that the next campaign book is ready in time for Games Day? Whatever... What we have here is perhaps 30 or so pages of useful expansion and little else.

• Mistakes!

K'daai rules replicate unit rules from the Fireborn to the Destroyer - the curse of cut-and-paste... Dread Maw is a monster but rules refer to units... These kind of errors in a book no longer than 20k words in length are embarrassing, unprofessional and lazy.

• Compare and fail

The Realm of Chaos books, published in 1988 and 1990, are the benchmark for works produced by GW - yes, they're jumbled and difficult to navigate, but that's because the ambition, scope, aim and imagination of these books outstrips anything else GW has ever produced. Looking back at Tamurkhan now, having seen how MA has taken the formula forward, I can only feel sad. Tamurkhan remains a good book, it's just not the great book I thought it was, given hindsight and some perspective brought by MA.

The verdict

I wanted to enjoy MA and in some ways, I do. This positivity runs dry, however, when I look to the dusty and dogeared books on my shelf from 'back in the day'. Perhaps it's age? The Realm of Chaos books came out when I was 13 and 15, so how can I expect to have a similar reaction now I'm a near-middle-aged man? No, it's not just age. I read Slaves to Darkness now and it's still brilliant - mad, chaotic and jumbled, but brilliant nonetheless. I feel the same when I look at the 3e Warhammer army lists: aside from all the 1/2 points and other odd calculations, it was just better then.

So the verdict is... I'm an old fart. No, I think we knew that. The verdict is: MA is a sticky treat that is full of empty calories (and likely to leave you with a headache) that dangles temptingly in the jaws of the GW venus flytrap. Avoid...      


Snap! 

Manticore Conversion - Twin Tail, Bad Attitude

A further addition to the Dread Host of the Dark Lord Davey: a Manticore. This is another model this I've had my eye on since it was released by GW, particularly because it can be put together without a rider with no conversion necessary. That being said... I've decided to convert it!

When I got my hands on the scenic base from a Black Dragon as a spare with the Warpfire Dragon from Forge World I couldn't stop thinking about how I might be able to put it to use - a little bout of eBay-ing later and... voila! ... one twin-tailed Manticore with a seriously bad attitude.

Not a complex conversion this one - a little work on the feet to set it up, then a good dose of liquid and 'traditional' greenstuff to join the two tails. A few bits from the Ghorgon kit and greenstuffed spines completed the transformation.

Hopefully it won't be bucketing down with rain tomorrow and I'll be able to get the primer on this chap and get a base coat layer started. 

New GW Citadel Paints REVIEW (Based On In-Store Trial)

Yesterday I popped into my local GW to take a look at the new paints. Here are a few thoughts based on the trial pots they had and the chat with the chaps working there.

The pots - will all have the prop-open system like the washes (no more tooth picks). New sealing system will apparently stop too much leakage and drying (we'll see...)

Base - these seem as good as the foundation range. The white in particular was quite impressive in covering a black undercoated space marine. Will be useful for quick jobs and beginners, hard to judge mid-to-higher expertise level uses at present.

Layer - seem to be ok, but only time will tell with these. Some nice looking new colours.

Shade - as good as current washes and the new colours look reasonable.

Glaze - interesting consistency on these, very thin but the pigment is tight so they could be a revelation to people not already using transparent mediums.

Dry - cottage cheese for painters.

Texture - grainy paint: nothing amazing, but there might be some interesting uses in creating rough skin on large monsters. Weathering mediums and powders might do this better though.

Technical - none of these were in the trial pots.

Supply - apparently each UK store will be getting 12 of each colour in the initial batch so pre-ordering is advised.

Hope that's useful folks!

Get A Grip! This Hobby Is NOT Expensive And GW Are NOT Shafting You

Take a look at this picture. See the prices? That's £129.95 for the green one and £115 for the white one (both reduced from their RRP). That's a shit load of money for a toy train that pretty much just goes slowly round a little track, can't be painted or converted and isn't part of any kind of game.

If I paid this much for a train I'd expect to be able to ride it round my garden at the very least

I didn't bother reposting the '40k on the BBC website' article from a couple of weeks ago - everyone seemed to so I'm sure you've seen it - but there was something in there that really struck me. It was another example of someone complaining about how expensive the hobby is, saying something along the lines of "it costs about £200 to get a playable army together."

For a while I used to compare golf to table-top gaming in terms of price, but I suppose that's rather unrealistic as most gamers are probably not likely to be golfers too... How about scale model trains then? Or anything else you'd find in a general hobby store?

So often people complain that GW are trying to rip them off and shaft them in the wallet. They seem to conveniently forget two vital truths:

1. Other truly comparable hobbies are almost always more expensive (and far less sociable/enjoyable).

2. Other miniature manufactures are - on a model-by-model basis - more expensive (with a few exceptions where the quality isn't as good)