Warhammer 40k - Into the Darkness

He said it. . . . He had summed up—he had judged. ‘The horror!’ 

- Heart of Darkness, Joesph Conrad

If you haven't read it, I wholly recommend the Heart of Darkness. It's a quick short story that meditates on imperialism and godhead and seems to somehow fit the view of the current state of 40k. Kurtz is portrayed as a heretical figure, established as both a counterpoint and a testament to colonial imperialism. Not to roll poor Conrad over in his grave with the analogy, but 7th Ed 40k seems to hold much the same place in the dark hearts of many gamers.

Enough with the pedantic, quasi-intellectualism! My personal take on 40k7E is FINALLY! The wheel has turned and we are finally back to Basement 40k. Having only gotten in a handful of games, new 40k feels like we have reverted to a kitchen sink approach to the game while still retaining some of the formality and structure evolved from 3rd through 6th. 

Perhaps the biggest change for my gaming cohort is the inclusion of super heavies and the attendant gargantuan creatures in the main rulebook. This is a welcome respite in that now we can easily break out the big stuff without having to rely on ownership of myriad Forgeworld and Apocalypse books. You can take them or leave them, but when you decide to play them the rules are readily available.

I played a game recently with a Warhound armed with a plasma blastgun and a turbo laser destructor. At a bundle of points, he well ate into the 2k of my army and was totally worth his points at range. But then he was charged and tied up by a Chaos marine sorcerer and some spawn for two turns negating his massive guns and relegating him to Stomp attacks. Granted he had blown away a Transcendent C'Tan so there were no complaints from my side of the field.

Predictions being worth less than the digital ether they occupy, I would say that 40k7E is here to stay for a while. There is a level of refinement in the rules that I have not seen in the many years playing the game. Even the quality of the rule set far outstrips anything that GW has published and is one of the first sets that I feel are truly worth the investment. The lack of a "special" special edition is the one drawback in my estimation (I have both the 4th and 5th limited books) but honestly the three book set feels more quality than even previous special editions.

The core rules and a general move towards datasheets gives this edition more upgradability than any past. Our gaming cohort already played "unbound" armies depending on scenario so there is nothing new there. The addition of tac objectives cards really opens up a variety of play and I encourage people to generate and share their own unique tactical objectives. In a previous post, I shared a version of the core objective cards printable as Avery business cards and I think this is a great format in which to add your own objectives.

As gamers, we now have a common ruleset for fielding everything from the lowly grunt to heavy tanks to fliers to massive monsters cavorting across the canvas that is each of our games. Expand your mind and your tablespace to multi-table battles that range the depth and breadth of the 40k universe.

Clearly, I am a 40K7E enthusiast. Even with GW removing units from new codices, I encourage players to plumb their old books - use the units that GW saw fit to remove! The new guard book removed units wholesale yet including units from the old books (modified slightly with updated gear costs) grants an amazing level of flexibility in games that can be played. In my Basement 40k, spore pods are welcome; imperial armor encouraged; and forgotten xenotech a must if the game played is made that much more diverse.

Games Workshop has designed a game for everyone to play and I find myself diving head first into "the horror" that so long ago encouraged both my creativity and (meager) modelling skills.

Games Workshop's Formerly Known as Prize Support

I posted this long-winded comment in response to a Brent BoLS post. I liked it so here is a re-post:

GW cutting the cord from indie conventions has turned out to be a boon for the hobby side of the tournament scene. Once upon a time, GW hosted Grand Tournaments which included requirements for Citadel model usage down to the very percentage of GW vs non-GW parts on a model. Many indie events adopted these requirements in order to ensure that GW prize support would not be compromised. People would agonize on forums and chat boards as to whether certain models were tournament "legal" based on the model composition and parts used. This in turn influenced the local gaming scene as few people wanted to pour time into an intricate conversion that could potentially be nixed for use in a tournament.

Having said that, how much truth there was in reality versus perception of model requirements is up to some debate. I don't remember anyone getting kicked out of an event due to a 75% non-GW model. Objectively this did influence the models used by gamers and very much limited the creativity seen in armies both at national and local events.

No longer laboring under the "yoke" of GW prize support, tournaments are free to allow any and every type of model manufacturer at 40k, Fantasy, and LoTR events. Creativity abounds and gone are the forum threads regarding "legal" models - other than the occasional WYSIWYG discussion. The only place where model composition matters is at GW stores and very few tournaments of note (at least in the US) are held at these stores.

Editorial comment: From a business model perspective, GW dropped the ball when they dropped prize support. I realize that this support was sunset in large part because GW had no effective enforcement avenue and that there were abuses of their largess. However, prize support was the only real carrot to enforce the stick of GW-only models - even if the stick was perhaps more perception than reality. Games Workshop has inadvertently opened the doors for other model manufacturers to fill their product void (greatcoat guard, alternate greater daemons, tank and APC variants, etc.) - and these are now all "tournament legal".

From a more mercenary perspective, I would have continued prize support along the more restrictive model requirements and made sure that any prize support was provided by an on-site Games Workshop employee. That employee would have adjudication in deciding whether a given event was in general compliance and describe remedies (punitive or otherwise) when an event was found wanting. This policy would have continued to foster a very stove piped model mentality which had reach both within local communities and at national events and at least provided a chokepoint for the entry of new model makers into the space.

Thankfully that was not the route GW chose - I like the event/tournament scene as it exists today!

Indicium: Confessions of a Metal Junkie

With Games Workshop's announcement and launch of their Finecast line of miniatures, gaming blogs have been ablaze with pundits opining about the move to resin. The general opinion seems to be that metal models bad, resin models good, with sundry well-meaning rationales following in an orgy of TL;DR. Well I am here to say (write) that all those pundits and talking heads are wrong... so very, sadly, maddeningly, pathetically... well, uh, wrong (just kidding, you guys are totally rad - no, really, rad, I mean it).

Where are the posts espousing the virtues of metal models?! Their ineffable pointiness, bendiness coated in a fine film of mold release cracked fresh from a blister pack, slotta base just waiting to be... uh, well slotted. In the vein of a true metal junkie, I was driven to post in defense of our old friend!

A single pose, two (maybe three - madness!) piece metal model let me obscure the lack of talent required to clip out and assemble the multitude of tiny, plastic parts required to construct even the most basic mini. Look at our friendly, neighborhood space marine - requiring no fewer than eight separate parts to complete the simplest model, he is an exercise in sliced, sticky fingers resulting in the ultimately futile adhesion of manifold parts that never line up quite like the box cover depicts. Why would I ever want to subject myself to the misery of incessantly cleaning sprue cuts and mold lines when I could simply grip the heft of a metal model and scrape a Husky straight edge, razorblade across any raised points guaranteeing a reduction in overall detail and clarity of the model? Why would I ever not want to even consider not doing that?

And now I have to suffer with brittle, resin models, sold to me in bulletproof, clamshell, slice-your-fingers, plastic blister along with a collectible trading card! Clearly resin is infinitely inferior to metal when it comes to chucking a model across the room at the annoying, unchaperoned ten year old screaming his head off at the cashier for not letting him fondle the Golden Daemon quality models hidden so tantalizingly close behind fingerprint-stained glass.

I realize that resin allows simple conversions by dipping the model in boiling hot water then gently twisting it into whatever pretzel shaped customization that your little heart might desire. Straightening metal models was always so difficult given that you had to do it using room temperature air and your naked fingers. Recounting the number of times I strained my delicate digits in this process is both a shaming and unspeakable exercise in humbling, debilitating, humiliation! I mean... room temperature air - the horror, the horror!

Speaking of customization, why would I ever want to improve on the perfection of modeling that is the Games Workshop sculptors? What level of hubris and ego would dare to tarnish the amazing grace and perfectly poised dynamism of the original sculpts? Just look at how these new "fine"cast resin sculpts lend themselves to whatever conversion your little heart might desire. With single piece bodies and separate arms, you can point the arms up or down or even parallel to the ground! And don't get me started on the innumerable positions made possible by a separate head...

So don't meddle with my metal, don't aggravate my alloys, don't piddle on my pewter... these are my static, mono-pose, multi-stripped, toy soldiers and they will quite physically crush your finecasts into a highly toxic, finely granulated, resiny grit of... resin right before your horrified, tear sheened, gamer-doe eyes!

Oh yeah and the photo is of my friend's former band, Durga Temple, rocking the Fairfax, Virginia metal scene for a goodly chunk of the 00's.

Advocatus: GW Wants You (to spend money)

So GW has seen fit to post this monstrosity on their blog site. I am not really sure what the expected reaction is meant to be... are we supposed to want to build this thing, to just ooh and aah over it, or what?!

The MSRP for the kits used add up to well in excess of 400 USD. Why would you even bother posting something like this?! I can't see any hobbyist their right mind wanting to build this thing (of course, no hobbyist is truly ever of sound mind) and even if they did would they spend that much hard earned cash on it.

I would actually like to see GW providing suggestions for kit-bashing that are actually affordable (or at least leverage the meager bitz selection available through their site). I realize that the days of actual hobby content, either online or in White Dwarf, are long gone. But I do sometimes find the content posted on the blog vaguely offensive. It's like the little rich kid thumbing his nose at you when he gets his shiny new, rending pony and you are stuck with your 2x4, home built rocking horse.

What do folks out on the interwebs think? Am I being too sensitive? Should I just stop frequenting their site?

Annuntio: 2010 Games Day Mini

So here is the latest Games Day miniature and I have to saw I am less than impressed. Though not a Fantasy or Chaos player, I really did like last years Chaos mini. On the other hand, this mini just doesn't do it for me. I suppose its because GW already has a number of excellent sorcerer minis in both games systems and this one really brings nothing new to the game.