Resin and prices....

I found the following at FAEIT212, one of my favorite blogs. I have to agree wholeheartedly. One of the points he makes involving limiting internet sales and local stores is a good one, and in the end it contributed to a FLGS here in Ohio closing. Read on:

I have been avoiding the negative side of these rumors and announcements like the plague. I do not like to over indulge in negative posts. I enjoy my hobby, do not believe that Games Workshop is actively working against the hobby, or hates us so. This often puts me into a place where I do not want to post a few things that I find, so I skip over them, or try and handle them in my end of the week editorial.

Lately we have seen Games Workshop stop Northern European companies from selling their reduced priced products to other countries. We have seen resin models with a price hike, and now the latest rumor control policy that limits GW managers from getting anything. All of this, and probably more, has led to quite a bit of frustration, and to be blunt, is pissing people off.

First the overseas ban on companies:
I am in the United States, in Oregon. So I do not know how the pricing works elsewhere, and I will not speak for the people in Australia or elsewhere. It seems from what I have read that their pricing atm is out of control. I do hope that a local plant in that region will help on pricing. I don't know enough to really comment more though.

In my neck of the woods. I see Games Workshops new policy helping local stores. Too many people purchase their product from companies like Wayland Games, and only show up at stores to play, and do so with shiny new models that were bought online (even bragging about it). Since the local stores are bound to the pricing GW gives them, they lose a ton of business, and I see the new policy levelling the playing field. I personally love my local game shops (Knightfall Games and Rivals), and see this as a positive. They after all should be making the money on the sales. They just cannot compete with a company like Wayland who has no overhead in this local area.

Once again, I am only commenting on a local perspective, I do not pretend to know all the workings or pricing in other countries.

Price Hikes and Resin:
The full announcement is not here yet on the resin. So I personally love rumors, but do not jump the gun on something I do not have enough information on.

As for the price hikes. People will not spend more or less on models. You spend what you spend. If things cost more, you will simply be more cautious what you are spending, and spend the same. I want Games Workshop to remain competitive, and remain on the top of  tabletop games. I do not like spending more than anyone else, but I also want to see the quality of 5th edition maintain. It is the best out there.

I am sure they know of the negative images this kind of stuff gives them and I am sure it pains them greatly, (even if no one believes me), even though they must watch the bottom line, and make sure they are profiting, they also love our hobby. Costs in our world have increased greatly. Inflation is out of control (another subject personal to me like the skyrocketing cost of food and fuel), and to reasonable think this doesn't effect our hobby is alarming.

Rumor Control
Rumors will come. GW Managers are the ones who are no longer allowed to know anything. This is the just of the new policy. Managers in any company are generally the worst source of info, and yet everyone turns to them. They know just enough to get them into trouble, and yet not the truth of what is really going on. Generally they know just enough to piss people off. This is why I would find it important to limit their knowledge of what is coming out. The upper echelons I am sure know this, and know that rumors are important. This way they can control the negative, and then keep up the current rumor releases. This is logical and makes sense.

Conclusion
These are sensitive subjects. They tend to piss people off. I am the kind of person that stays away from all the melodrama the world throws me. However, it is OK to get pissed off on these subjects, they are tough ones. I do not vilify Games Workshop. They might make some decisions I do not agree with, but I do believe they are trying to do the best they can.


In the end we can only speculate on what they are doing and why, but they are a business and in order to continue to exist, they must make a profit and satisfy their investors. Do I like it? no, not one bit, but its out of my control.

June DE wave 3 up in pre order....

WOW....

Volscani Vs. Orks Part 2: Oh! the Drama!!

Basically we set up more or less as expected in opposing quarters. The 4 objectives were set up more or less in a box shape about 18" square around the center of the board. I deployed my  parking lot with the executioner on the right and the hydras on the left, with the chimeras peeking around the building at the front and center of my deployment zone. (thanks Jeff!)

Jeff set up shop all the way to the front of his deployment zone with the battle wagon screened by two trukks. These had his nobbs and a boyz squad in them, along with the Mekk and KFF (Grr).His big mob of 20 shoota boyz were on foot to the rear holding an objective.

I the deployed my snipers in a tower over in my left field in close enough that they would harrass his flanks, but far enough out to not bait out  his nobs or some other trouble. I then promptly failed to zeize the initiative and we were off to the death races.
yuJeff moved up quickly with his trukks and battle wagon and brought his boys up behind to consolidate them into cover near that back objective. None of this should be a surprise, but with Zaggstruk waiting in the wings I wasn't hugely confident. On my half of the turn I moved to spread out enough to clear lines of fire for my troops and opened up. I managed to kill the trukk with the Nobs and warboss, and I think put down a nob. Stupid KFF.....

Jeff began his turn by bringing Zaggstruck and his vulcha boys down in front of his nobs, and out in the open right in front of my snipers. He assaulted the nearest chimera....and whiffed....which set a trend for him for the rest of the game. He ran with all of his now foot bound troops and rolled a 2 for each of them....every turn for the rest of the game.....

Since Zaggstruck was now stranded out in the open I used the psyker squad and snipers to eat them alive. I used the remaining 2 veteran squads on that flank to pin down his nobs who were by now floundering through the small woods trying to get to Zaggstrukk to help. On the other flank I lost the Executioner but my veteran squads were making holes in his other trukk and the boys that pile out.

Turn 3 saw his battlewagon finally start to ram into everything in sight, and I started to lose tanks. Now, my guard hold up well, but I know from experience that once their transports go down, they are expected to live exactly one more turn if there are any enemy models within 18" of them.I nthis case, 2 10 man squads of boys and the nobs....not good for me.

I had dropped his other trukk so my tanks started hammering on his troops to whittle him down. With 12 plasma rifles hitting him, I should have eaten him alive....stupid KFF....His Deffdred was making mince meat out of what ever it touched....making things worse on the right. I finally downed it with plasma fire but it took a chimera and my executioner out first. WORTH it here.

On turn 4 Jeff still hadn't been able to get his Nobs out of those woods. Up to this point I watched him roll a 2 over and over for both his movement and run distances. A 6" wide wood turned into his downfall here. By now I had killed 4 or 5 of them and made a nice dent in the threat there. The Deffdred was down, so the only armor he had left was the battlewagon. I couldnt kill it as my vets with melta guns were the first to die to the remnants of Zaggstrukks vulcha boys in turn 3....Down to plasma from the rear I guess. Problem with that was the remaining 20 boys on his home objective....can't get behind the wagon without exposing myself to their charge range....

On turn 5 Jeff was basically spreading out his boys to contest multiple objectives while shooting as he could and ramming with the battlewagon. I lost another chimera to that ram, but the squad inside survived enough to help clear the boys off my home objective...but I still cant help that battlewagon.


We rolled and the game ended after 5 turns in a draw. It looked like I had to kill the battlewagon in order to win but Jeff was losing boys like crazy, so it could have gone either way with one more turn. This was one of the best games I have played in a long time. It was a real nailbiter all the way to the end. You owe me a rematch Astivus!!

Volscani Vs. Orks Part 1: The lists

Well had a friend come over yesterday and we got in a 1750 point game. Great guy, great game.

My List:
Alpha Psyker
Psyker squad (9) in Chimera
5x veterans, 3 plasma in chimera
 veteran squad 3 melta in chimera
3 hydra tanks
Russ Executioner
2x 2 scout Sentinels with autocannons
5 snipers

Jeff's list:
Boss Smashog PK, twinlinked shoota, cybork
BigMek Bentwrench, KFF
10 nobs, painboy, orderly, 3 claws, bigchoppa, waagh! banner in trukk
20 sluggsboys, nob with klaw and bosspole
12 shootaboys in a trukk
20 shootaboyz, nob with Klaw and bosspole
Zaggstruck with 15 vulcha boyz
Battlewagon with 'ardcase, deffrolla, Zzapgun, 4x bigshootas
Deff dread 2x ccw armor plates and riggers

Capture and control, spearhead deployment

This was a great game....nailbiter down to the end.!

Shifting gears

It sometimes seems like life loves to throw curves in the road. While I am happily working away at two armies in my Thousand Sons and Kabal of the Sundered Storm, I am reminded of a few big events this summer.....

First in Line is Origins 2011. This convention is the largest gaming convention in Ohio and I will be running a GW certified Golden ticket awarding tournament there. Now this tournament will be awarding the top two finishers tickets to the Throne of Skulls tournament to be held in Memphis in 2012. I have plans to support as many as 30 tables, a big event to be sure. The guys over at 40k Origins have lined up some incredible events to go along with it. There is even another group running a fantasy tournament and awarding Throne of Skulls placement for that system as well. Now anyone who is now or has been a TO knows how much work this is to coordinate, so I am head down getting details worked out there.

Event number two is at the end of July, Buckeye Battles. Now I went last year and ended up in the top tables only to choke in round 3. I would like to think I played well, and I certainly had a good time, so this year I am going back. Now, my Thousand Sons are not ready, and I don't like my odds with the Kabal as not all the models I want to use are available yet. This means I need to pick from my other armies to try and get a winner. I'm not going through all the details but I have Chaos Marines, Renegade Guard, Necrons, Chaos daemons, and space marines left to chose from. Lots of variety there.

Event three is this Boltgun Battles on September 24th. I am going back this year as the winning Best Sportsman from last year. I hope to defend that title. Details on this tournament can be found here. Of all the events this summer, this will likely be the capstone on the year for me. I am really looking forward to it. At the rate of almost one big event each month my wife's patience and goodwill will be tested....but hey, all is fair in love and war.

(ok, bad quote and even worse pun)

Thousand Sons update

I have been working on and off to build a Heresy Era "Droid" Drednought. After ordering parts and scrounging the stores locally I finally have the thign close to assembled.

Combat Droid Monthu

This thing has the legs of a Penitent Engine and the partial torso from a drednought. I used Dragon Forge Designs cabling to do the wires. These things are awesome. Due to the fact that they are metal, they won't work on every application, but here....just perfect. A little more putty work and some paint and she's done. What do you think?

WOW!!! 2 posts in a day....

I have been wracking my brain all day trying to find a way to get the Thousand sons to fit within 1750 points and be workable with the forced small model count this codex forces on you when trying to stay all grey knight. If I could find a fluff way to explain an inquisitor and some death cult assassins and a monkey in a chimera I would at this point. I am totally frustrated.... For now I am sitting on two heavy transports for the twin strike squads and a dredknight. Ahriman runs in a unit of terminators. That is IT...all of it at 1750. 31 models....Hardcore to be sure, but wow....

Thousand Sons in action

I went to the remaining FLGS in town to meet Craig yesterday. We played annihilation with Dawn of war deployment at 1750 points. I am prepping for Buckeye Battles coming up in July. I know my list has flaws, and I am inexperienced with it. The last time I took a list like that into the local tournament scene (and a "hobby" event no less) I went 0-2-1. This list is a touch frightening for someone who has never seen a "gray Knights" army in action. Craig brought Space wolves to play with them, thinking assault was the way to go..... and he was right.

My Thousand Sons army looked like this:

Ahzek Ahriman (librarian), halberd, 4 skulls, warp rift, sanctuary, and might of titan
Phosis T'Kar (Mordrak)
8 Ghost Knights, 2 falchions, 1 hammer, 2 halberds, and a banner
2x Pyrae Brotherhoods (strike squads) 10 with 2 psycannon, hammer, halberd and psybolts in rhinos
Rifleman dred, 2x twin-lin autocannon with psybolts
Dredknight with sword, teleporter and heavy psycannon

Craig's list was really straight forward.

wolf lord, frost blade, wolftooth necklace and some other gear
runepriest in termie armor
2x 15 blood claws, powerfist
2x 10 bloodclaws fist in drop pod
5 wolfguard in terminator armor, wolf claws and fists
2x predator with twin lascannon
vindicator

To start I had 31 models on the board to his 55....I did feel like I was outgunned to be sure. I set up my servo skull familiars along the center-line of the table, effectively killing any infiltration he might have had in mind. Craig won the roll to go first and set up with the two large squads of blood claws and the runepriest out on the table with the tanks clustered around a rock to provide cover. I set up my two Pyrae squads behind rock outcrops on my side of the board and the drenought behind a building ruin right in the center of my board edge. He had only a small line of sight to one bloodclaw pack, but it saved me the fire from the predators. My dredknight was on my left flank, again out of line of sight behind a hill.

I then seized the initiative from Craig and promptly killed a squad and a half of his bloodclaws...close to 25 marines in a single shooting phase....to add insult to injury Phosis (Mordrak), Ahriman and the boys dropped in on the first turn, right next to the remaining blood claws on my right side. Now ANY player who just watched half of their army get shot to pieces on the first turn is going to have a panic moment. Craig handled it better than most, in that he simply assigned threat profiles to each unit and decided to prioritze the terminators sitting on his flank....good call. Two of his three pods came in on turn one, and they contained his remaining 20 bloodclaws. He then shot EVERY gun he had available at the terminators, wounding Mordrak and killing 3. Of course that just spawned a replacement terminator. So I was down 2....in exchange for 30 marines. I think Ill take it.

Turn two saw the tide turn though. I shunted my dredknight up the left flank and killed a predator. I moved the Strike squads up 6 inches and continued pounding any infantry that was not in cover, and the terminators started to stall in combat. Over the next two turns Craig's wolf lord and friends managed to destroy Mordrak and Ahriman in combat despite have no defense from hammer hand and might of titan. I has s6 with halberds and swords, and had 2 s10 hammers, but couldnt kill more than 2 or 3 models a turn. Not bead really, but he was killing just as many....and when you are outnumbered 2-1 or more you cant win like that. To make matters worse he had deepstruck his wolfguard into my backfield and raped his way through a strike squad in one turn.

Now Craig and I had been working through this list and analyzing the units on both sides all through the game. We have basically decided the the strike squads are the fragile units of the list. Not EASY to kill per se, but easier than the other units to be sure. Unfortunately they are the most important units as well, given that they are the scoring units of the list. The list now looks more like this:

Ahriman, as above
5 paladins, 3halberds, hammer and psycannon, with apothacary
2x 10 man strike squad as above
2x dredknight with teleporter, and sword
drednought with 2x tinwlinked autocannons, ex armor and psybolt ammo

The list essentially breaks into to two pieces, using the dredknights and terminators as rapid assault units to delay my opponent moving out of his initial deployment zone, while the rifleman dred picks at transports and other armored units. The strike squads stay back holding objectives in my half of the table until about turn 4. If there are more than 3 objectives then I can combat squad them and keep half back on my side of the table and put the rest in the rhinos for a turn 4 dash to the midfield objectives.

In all it is a blitzkrieg kind of list, designed to scare the living crap out of a first time opponent and keep them pinned long enough to let my strike squads hold more than half of the objectives. I am considering doing something to add more scoring bodies on the field. There are two ways to do that here. One is to drop the paladins. At 370 points they would leave space for either another 10 man strike squad and a small purifier squad, but that strands Ahriman on foot in the backfield. I could drop the rifleman dred for a 5 man strike squad in a rhino...so I have options. I HATE to lose the utility of the dred, but I do need more scoring....he might have to go. What do you all think? 5 termies or strike squad in rhino? and what to change to get them, fewer paladins in Ahriman's guard (stranding him on foot), or lose the rifleman?

Necron rumors

From FAEIT 212 :

Today I had found a brief summary of necron units, and although it was brief it had some information in it that was new to me. So here I figured I would combine that with what we heard on Monday, and compile them into one single summary, with the new information typed in italics.

Of note there are two named new heavy support options, some possible names for Necrons Lords, along with some of the lords that will make other units troops. There is also some confusion on where scarab swarms will go, as the new information puts them into troops. I would not hold my breath on this one yet.


Please remember to take all rumors with a grain of salt.
Necrons
Author : Mat Ward for the bulk of the codex, but two others were involved before him.

Rules
We'll Be Back was still trying to be saved, last he knew.

Will be back is redone (Feel no Pain now)

WBB is basically FNP for most guys. Not FNP exactly

Gauss Weapons are Rending

Many Psychic Powers listed as "Tech Upgrades"

Phase out is reworked

Complicated rules from the codex are getting simplified and a lot of the war gear options are vanishing

Wargear
Not all gauss weapons are rending.

Living metal is changing

The way Res orbs work has been reworked

Necrons will have their magic power guy, tech upgrades instead of psychic powers most likely

HQ
C’tan are gone, and are replaced with powerful named Necron lords and special characters.

One of the Lords makes Immortals troops

Another Special Character has some really nice anti psyker abilities

While the Ctan are themselves out of the codex their influence is still in place.

One of the lords was like 240 points or somewhere around there. He looks like he has potential to be beastly in CC though.
(one of them is 240 pts worth, cc specialist vs 2+)

Named Lords:
The Enfleshed - making Flayed Ones Troops
The Undying - making Immortals Troops
The Silent King ?
The Voidbringer ?
The Stormcaller ?
The Harbinger of Night ?

Random Lords
Anti psyker guy. Pariah ?
Psyker counterpart guy. Cryptek ?

Troops
Warriors
Will come 10 to a box
New options and also other colors of rod (orange and red I think? Orange is not bright orange, but sort of dark, kinda like a beer color almost)
Warriors - no re-cut, possible additional sprue, yellow, orange, red, green rods, possible mark system. (10 per box)

Warriors are not changing, but doesn't preclude a new weapon/option sprue.
Otherwise look the same.

Scarab Swarms (my comment, since they are also suggested at being fast attack, I wouldnt hold my breath here)

Elite
Immortals
Redone, in plastic? Unsure of the material.
Lots of "Bling"
Bigger than old ones
One of the Special Character ‘Cron lords makes them troops
Will come in boxes of 5, can be in units of up to 10.
large (35mm) base; they are redesigned as larger, bulkier and more

Flayed Ones
Redone, unsure of the material.
(Harlequins counterpart?)

Pariahs
overhaul into Lord retinue (second wave)

Fast Attack
Wraiths

Scarab Swarms

Destroyers
-See heavy for combined rumours

New fast attack unit
Look kinda like flayed ones
They have an 18” charge with their special ability
Think jump infantry with special rules
5 per box

Heavy Support
Necromancer - Resurrection, Warscythe, Gauss smthn... (plastic kit, 1 per box)

Obelisk/Gauss Obliterator/Heavy Gauss Cannon platform (plastic kit, 1 per box)

Monolith
Remain expensive

Destroyers/Heavy Destroyers
Redone in plastic.
Like the old hybrid kits, but in plastic with fancier torso’s.
The skimmer body things don’t look much changed.
Option for a lawn mower (lown mower as in a gun that has alot of shots, to mow throw hordes) type weapon too if you want to deal with hordes, 1 per box.

Tomb spider
Tomb Spyders - 3 different builds (plastic kit, 1 per box)

Getting a remake
Will have several options and be able to fulfil a variety of roles in the army.
Spyders redone in plastic.
1 per box.

New MC/Vehicle
Can throw down some long range hurt but is still underwhelming compared to things like the Manticore 48” range
1 per box

New giant MC
Ranged or Melee options

Wraith Lord feel all around
One of the guns looks similar to the new gun the destroyer guys are getting which works well against hordes.
He has a lot of weapon options
1 per box.

New Blisters:
New metal lord on foot
Has a staff

First resin models in 40k 

That last line has me thinking confirmation (?) on the rumors of losing metals at GW....

Dance of the Skimmers

Well, I drove across town to play Craig today. I haven't seen Craig in almost 6 months due to his work schedule so it was really nice to see him again and get in a game. Craig brought his mostly mechanized Tau and I brought my Kabal of the Sundered Storm Dark Eldar.

At 2000 pts we took nearly three hours to play but man it was a great game. I don't remember the details of Craig's army but it went something like this:

Commander with missile/plasma
3 suits with Missiles
15 kroot, 2 kroot guns, 4 hounds
3 units of fire warriors  2 of them in fish
2 units of path finders in fish
2 hammerheads, one with pulsar
skyray

I had my newest force as follows:

Vect
Haemonculi with liquifer and portal
7 incubi
9 wyches in raider
3x 10 warriors with splintercannon in raiders
3 ravagers
2x 4 trueborn with 2 splintercannons and 2 shardcarbines in venoms with 2 splintercannon

We drew take and hold with 3 objectives.  I managed to completely coral Craig until turn 4 when his reserves arrived and started to do damage. Until that point his shooting had been completely ineffectual. Craig held on with everything he had that was not a scoring unit until turn 5 while my army slowly degraded under his fire. Once his reserves showed up I was down to about 2/3 strength. In the end he had enough left to hold one objective and contest the other two. The game ended there, but we played out another turn to see what would happen as it looked like my incubi (who failed to come until turn 4) would turn his flank and get me a win. After the dice fell, I lost my contesting units on one objective and he was able to move in to contest another, which would hold his win.

All in all, while a loss for me, the Kabal is looking good. Once the wracks and possibly flyers are released I think they will do well to plug the holes in my list and make it what I want it to be. Loss for me, but an excellent game.