uuuuuupdate!

I started painting again. I got some more time on my hands this week so I'll try and paint-a-lot.
Busy painting up Beer marines see for the first one made over a year ago:
Beer Marine

I got 4 more standard marines and 2 captains waiting.

Nids: will try and finally get the paintjob on the Broodlord done.
I also have the tyrant Guard halfway.

And next to that I've got a box full of gaunt parts and 8 stealers..but I forgot the white spray can so unless my parents decide to go to Groningen this week they will have to wait 2 weeks before getting primed. And I haven't taken my Zoanthrope and Ravener with me (darn).

Oh and I fixed up 2 hormagaunts (one is still missing a talon) and 2 stealers.
Haven't got a decent cam, but might be able to get hold of one somewhere (Rico has one and I might be able to borrow it after he get's back from Munich)

Improvements (just to get it off my chest)

If a codex is written, it takes long.
No problem. We can wait a bit. But make it decent!

So here's a set of things GW should abide by/should and COULD improve.

1: If you make a codex, do it right.
---1a Make sure there are no sloppy type-o's.
---1b Make sure the wording is chrystal clear. It sounds quite easy, but somehow GW is a star in fucking this up.
---1c Watch out for major contradictions: make sure you've taken other armies rules and those of the big rules book into account. Contradictions are only good for senseless hot debates and maybe even arguments during games.

Conclusion about 1: If 1a-c is followed, people won't have stupid arguments during games. These arguments slow the game down and fun get's set aside for argument.
There'll be less to post about on fora, but there's plenty of other far more interesting stuff to write about.

2: If after this clarification is needed in the form of a FAQ?
Do it fast! By fast I mean maybe 2 months. The major fora like B&C, Warpshadow, Warseer do most of their work for them by discussing loopholes till everything is said about it. They just have to scoop up the important questions and even answers.
2b: They should make sure they answer EVERY important question and don't suffice with half a pdf full off 90% irrelevant questions.

3 The White Dwarf (their magazine).
They've been trying to sell their Lord of the Rings game far too hard. After the hype about the movies died down they could've know things would go downhill. They probably had/have a contract which obliged them to squeeze it to the last penny. But they should have seen it coming that after a hype dies, things won't sell as much. In the case of the LotR movies, the game would (I don't know how big the market is atm) shrink to just a core group of people who stick around. People won't be attracted to the game as fast as during the movies hype.

To the point: they litteraly flooded their magazine with LotR stuff and allmost ignored warhammer fantasy and 40K got pushed in a very dark corner of the magazine. It should be one of 2 major game systems of GW, but LotR was used as the attention whore. I for one stopped buying/reading WD. I only buy it if there is plenty of 40K to pay the 6-7 euro's (if not more) for it.
What they should do (if they can): equel stuff.
Be realistic. Listen to the gamers!

3b: the content has diminished in quality too. Battlereports have been only half as fun to read. And the lists that are used aren't good lists, most of the time things are way off. Stupid mistakes are made. Decisions aren't explained etc.

4: Communication
This SHOULD be key in all GW handling. It sounds corny, but listening to the consumer should count. And with listening I don't mean obey slavishly.
Customer support just plain sucks.
Ordering stuff from the online store sometimes looks like a lottery in case of the delivery time. And the deliveries aren't all that too (missing parts etc etc).

4b---FAQ: see pt 2 (maybe even point 1). They should keep an eye on what goes on in the community and act towards that.

4c---Prices: it's a cursed subject. THe market isn't going too well, prices go up and up and up. Some feel you shouldn't complain about it because you will buy anyway.
True. But normally you expect to get your money's worth.

4d---Plastic vs Pewter
Ok so pewter (metal) gives some stature and sometimes does look and feel cool. But there are plenty of models which should be just plastic. They will be sold far better *gargoyles anyone?* because they can be sold in greater packs and are easier to model.
People have been begging for some stuff for years. And the only thing you get back are snide (sp) remarks or even worse: sarcasm (like one of the Nid developers in the WD: plastic gargoyles? hmmm maybe in the next edition).

Overall: Communication between the different departments of GW and between GW and their customers.

Clear rules + Fast faq-ing (sounds ikky) + Good customer support = HAPPY GAMERS!
Ot would at least show that they TRIED!
Making things clear should be easy, but apparently it's hard.

------------
I don't care if anyone can follow what I've written..just getting it off my chest.
I would like to join a board meeting of GW where I could point out these things, after which they would actually DO something with it because of course I'm not a lonely gamer with these frustrations, there are thousands (per country!).

Frustration and Games-Workshop (FAQ)

Two inseparable things.
Games-workshop for those who don't know is the designer/builder/maker of all that is warhammer.
Just a short sum-up. The game has one major rulebook for general rules and stuff. But next to that each army has got it's own codex (set of rules for an army which is used next to the great rulebook).

These codexes get updated now and then (somewhere around once every 3-5 years). New models come out, new background stories. All in all it sounds quite cool. That some models get a bit abandoned because the style of play changes a bit..well I don't like it very much, but it happens. And if people know 'magic the gathering' (which I've never been into that much though) they know that that game system regularly abandoned cards. GW supposedly just abandones certain loopholes. Except for Squats (hehe I can say it out loud here...don't ask).

But on to the really awful part about GW.
FAQ!
These codexes are badly written. Somehow it looks like they take forever to be put together, but rules aren't clear. Wording is off, major sloppy type-o's, things contradict with other codexes. These things light up discussions (even hot debates) which lingers on fora all over the internet.
The major fora often make their own Frequently Asked Questions (faq) with answers derived from a more or less consensus on that forum. This is done within one or two months after the release of a codex because well..we got time on our hands.

Thing is, GW takes 1-2!!! years to put up faq's. So ok, you expect the troubles to be dealt with. Serious questions answered, debates cooled down, rules clarified. But somehow they forget to answer a whole bunch of questions which should be really important. And they COULD have known which ones if they kept their eye on their own (and the other major fora, there aren't that many). Yes there are many fora on the internet. Maybe thousands (on 40K). But for every army there are at least 1 or 2 major fora. E.G.: Marines: B&C, Nids: Warpshadow, etc.
After not answering burning questions, they even light up more questions and put oil on the fire of hot debates by making impopular (and often unnecessary) decisions in ruleclarification.

They changed rules for my army a year back in such a way that in their opinion certain models would be more popular again to get more varied armies. In the wording of their rules and statements in interviews all looked well. Of course, not everyone was happy about everything, but you can't avoid that (nor want it because some people are hard to satisfy).
But in the faq they made 'clarifications' which turn the tables back to the way it was for at least half of a certain rule *instant kill*. The models that were popular for a while because they had a decent survivability will get dropped out of armylists of tournament players. I don't say that I will persée (sp) drop things out of my list, but I might.
They've flip-flopped the rules so often that people are almost forced to keep changing their list, which is not such a bad thing on itself, but the way they do it kills variety in lists. THIS is what is such a blow to armies, and to the game itself.

If I participate in a tournament I don't want an all powerfull list. I don't want a list that consists of only a small part of the choices given in the codex because the rest is just not worth it for a possible competitive list. I want a list which looks like a decent army compilation, it should represent the codex. It should have it's weaknesses, but also it's strenghts without having to revert to a 'Cheesy' list which is boring as hell and which you will see a dozen times fielded with little variety.

In a next far shorter post I will continue raging on a bit but just pointwise.

Fun & Time

I think those are the words to describe today.
We had a little tournament today. 1000pts. Scenario: just throw a dice or do whatever you like and fight. Those were the guidelines.

I started the day by getting up at 6am to get some outdoor training (ninjitsu). Left at 10..biked acros town, showered, biked across town. Tourney!

Some familiar faces, some new faces.
My first battle was against a former German guy called Mario. Very cool guy who just wanted to have a fun game, so we had one.
Imperial guard with some FW tanks and a leman russ. And a bunch of heavy bolter guys.
My genestealers got shot to bits leaving only one. And I think I might have lost a gaunt or 3 on turn one. Next turn I hit his ranks, a Ravener made it to one of his tanks but did nothing. My tyrant swept a sq of guards away and so did one of my hormagaunt sq's. The other sq just did a lot of damage. Oh and my tyrant made a 6+ inv save: YAY.

At the end of turn 2!!! the closing sign was given so we had to stop. Far too soon ofcourse, but they only gave us 1 hour (incl moving from table to table and setting up). I won with a solid victory.

2nd game: after asking a judge for another opponent the first round (when I was at first matched against the Iron Warriors of Albert) I now did have to fight him.
Iron warriors..a bit of a nemises maybe. But after 2 turns it ended in a draw, with him having only 20pts more than me. His predator annihilator shot at a Ravener (it could have shot at my tyrant!) but anyways it missed. And in return I demolished it.
I think almost all my warriors were killed. I killed his HQ and his entire assault sq by throwing in a lot of rending sqs.
Result at end of turn 2 (yes I mention it again): draw.

3rd game: I humongous lack of terrain. Facing marines with a whopping 411pt command sq (in 1000pt!!).
I had first turn: ran up. My stealers got shot at and the rest of the shooting against me sucked a bit. Half a warrior sq got shot away and my tyrant managed to irritate the hell out of my opponent by making 2! inv saves against lasscannons...oh and failing a boltersave (1 wound).
I assaulted stuff, but we didn't get past half the rolling when the judges called time. We decided it should be a draw because we just didn't have time to get the game really started. I would have had a turn more if I would have finished rolling, if we would have counted things after T1..things would have been really unbalanced towards me. So : draw.
I think I would have won this one though, given the full set of turns.


In the end: well there was far too less time to get your game played, but I well the judges had to abide by the time that was given so I don't blame them.
We had a lot of fun. I maybe didn't win anything, but I think I would have made a good chance for at least 2 and maybe even 3 victories.

Read about Erwin's fights on his blog he did quite well too IIRC.
Biked across town some more and now I'm LE TIRED!!! *grabs a beer and some food*.

Lords of war tourney

This saturday (when posting..it's still fryday..but who cares) there is a small tournament. 1000 pts.
I'm going there, Erwin will be there..and mister Iron Warrior aka canned food will be there too. I think we can arrange that we won't be playing eachother (been there done that a lot). But we'll have fun and you'll probably read about it in the next post on both our blogs.

*reads his heretical lithanies to the Hive Mind...come and strip Medusa V of biomatter*

off to sleep. Clock is gonna ring at 6am because before fighting 40K stuff..there will be some fight training in real life ;)

My 6x4 table

Finally got my table together after some fucking around.





As you can see the edges are sticking out..but it's not that bad.

Nids vs IW (piccies included..some)

So I had a 40K weekend.
3 battles on saturday at 1000 pts. And two more on sunday, 1000 pts and a final one at 1500pts.

Results from saturday: 2-1 for the Iron Warriors. I guess it was a revenge for the last time I faced them (and won 2-0).
The first two games, the dice looked kinda rigged. My tyrant got only 2 wounds for which there can be no shame (an ap2 blast weapon and a twin lightening wound). The others were either boltershots (and there weren't that many!) or close combat attacks by the marines that I turned my back on because I found it more necessary to kill the lieutenant with his lightening claws (which I did though). But turn your back on a marine and he'll stick a bolter (without shooting) up your behind. Meh..the tyrant died because of really stupid wounds. It didn't even have to make lots of saves :S
Next to that, one of the games 3 warriors had the biggest trouble killing 6 marines (which shouldn't be that much trouble) while in the same time a single genestealer managed to first stun and a turn later destroy a basilisk, I can't recall if it killed anything else..but I think it managed to attack and kill a couple of other marines too. The 2nd game wasn't lost that bad, but lost nonetheless. Had fun though!

Third game, I won blowing up tanks everywhere I went. In doing this I kinda blew up some of my own beasties too, but that's the price of making things explode in your face ;) The tyrant wasn't killed fast enough and wiped the floor with a Chaos lord and 2-3 squads (helped with 2, wiped one on his own).
The only sq above half strenght were my stealers though.
The Iron Warrior changed his list everytime because he was practicing/perfecting his list for the oncoming tourney (the whole point of the 40K weekend next to a lot of fun).

Sunday: I watched a friends nids getting shot up. But well, the list wasn't balanced enough, and deepstriking raveners might not be such a good idea ;) Although the broodlord wreaked havoc.

Played another 1000pts game, which I lost but barely. My tyrant blew up a tank giving him a 3rd wound and the IW only needed to shoot him once with an ap2 weapon from a vindicator killing the tyrant. 2 genestealers, 1 or two warriors and a ravener weren't in a rending mood and decided to stroke rather than rip the tank. A whole lot of attacks, but no rending. It should have (blabla) gone down. But it was left unharmed. The vindicator was the only IW thing left. I only had 1 or 2 stealers and a warrior or two.

1500 pts. We decided to close the weekend by playing a 1500pts for which I needed to use the other guy's Nids. But because I thought playing the CC only theme, I didn't use the zoanthropes (2), biovores or shooting tyrant that could have won me the game. I used a Broodlord & 5 stealers, 3 raveners and another 7 stealers.
Didn't get first turn (damnit). The IW had A LOT of firepower. 3 Heavy support (basilisk, pred annihilator, havoc with 4 autocannons) and of course 3 obliterators. The first two turns I got shot to pieces but after that the tide seemed to turn a bit. Things arrived and started killing. But there wasn't enough left to make the IW pay for shooting at me. A tyrant with only 1 wound left (he had to fly into the open for 1 turn, drawing heavy fire alas) wiped an assault sq. Sadly..because otherwise he might have blown up the predator tank. The broodlord and his stealers did a good job at first, wiping a sq and killing half of another sq. But after that I think he got a spasmic seizure (I hope I don't offend anyone, not intended at least). He was able to miss or fail to wound every attack for 2 turns and get wounded by throwing ones twice. Being the only thing left we decided the IW would shoot everything at him and only then start resolving the to-wound thingies. He failed 2 4+ saves which were almost enough to save him. Glorious death for the stupid fuck he was in the end ;)

We had A LOT of fun. So losing a bit, due to not enough prayers to the dice gods and a lot of firepower isn't that bad. Didn't lose every game. Didn't lose every game as bad. The 2nd loss on saturday might even have been a draw (I think it is, checking VP's).

Piccies:








Sö: 1000pts: 1 win, 1 draw, 2 losses.
1500pt: 1 loss.

Cake cake cake cake cake cake cccake!

if you do the cooking by the book, then you'll have a cake. Or something along that line.

Cake!

Click it!!!! You will get freaking addicted to the song! Play it over and over and over and over and over and over again. It's short..addictive, evil, demonic even!

Oh and look at the creative sculpting on the Lictor. Try think of it throwing a cake at the enemy by surprise!

Short battlerep.

Had a 1000pts face off against Erwin's Marines in a mission (darnit can't remember the stupid name) where you have to end in the opponents deployment zone.

I was able to choose a table side AND won first turn rolling. So that made one happy me. I used the list below (see last post).

The marines did the whole 'denied flank' tactic thingie, which I kinda expected. I could deploy everything to the left which made keeping synapse easier.
I boosted my hormagaunts (one group with S4, one group with WS5) but it didn't do that much eventually because too many gaunts got shot up.
My hormy's ran up, stealers and ravener hugged cover, warriors hugged the edge of a 4+ cover building. Tyrant flew a bit more forward, cowering behind a size 3 building.

Then almost every Marine (if not every single one) decided it was time for bugspray. When the smoke cleared, 2 WS5 gaunts were standing and 7 S4 gaunts. So..that kinda sucked because I didn't know if that would be enough to hold out if my warriors couldn't make assault. Thankfully they did. 6 leaping warriors ran into a tactical sq, stealers ran into another tactical (so did the hormy's), tyrant clashed with a dreadnaught.
The 2 gaunts did nothing, but they DID make the single 6+ saving throw I needed to take. The warriors killed some marines, but weren't exactly awesome for a first turn 24 rending attacks at S5. Tyrant mashed the dread although I was forced to re-roll because of the extra armour (IIRC). Stealers kicked ass! They really ran through the tactical sq. Although a part of bad luck was included (marines failing their Ld9).

Marines couldn't shoot too much, cause most of the stuff was in CC. Scouts shot at my tyrant and assaulted him (powerfists can be evil). I only killed 2! but the powerfist did only 1 wound. They fell back (failing their LD). I was able to assault next turn, kill another 3 and wipe them (again LD checking wasn't on Erwin's side).
In the meanwhile the stealers ran through a captain (well..with 7 stealers that wasn't a big surprise). Consolidating and moving into the devestator sq. The stealers didn't have any problem with them (stealers are NASTY).

Warriors were done eating marines (LD thing again..wiping). 3 ran upto one speeder, 3 upto the other. One down, 1 still flew. With nothing left but 1 speeder the game was pretty much done.
The nids were on the other side (have to make up an objective for that one I guess).

Hindsight: darn..my gaunts got shot up, and it could have been worse.
Gaining first turn somehow looks like a must..
If I wouldn't have won 1st turn roll, the gaunts would have been wiped, and some other stuff would probably have suffered..although maybe not all would have been lost. I'm still indecisive if I could have used my flyrant as an attention whore taking up some shots (with a good surviving chance).

Marines downfall: not winning first turn roll AND rolling misserably on the LD tests. Shooting wasn't optimal, but is anything ever optimal. My tyrant didn't exactly roll upto stats as well, did his job though.

About the list: cancelling boosted gaunts (back to normal). Throwing in another stealer and another raverer. The Ravener didn't see much battle (well he saw, but didn't do anything). If there would have been anything left to chew, it could have been nice.

Darn all in all a long post again (sorry). Oh btw watch out: I'm going to burn rubber on the road next week (almost done with the simulator car).