Arcadia Prime

Master of the Arsenal

2012-01-17T08:00:00.001-05:00

Next up for my Brazen Claws is the Master of the Arsenal, the 3rd Company Captain. I'm getting close now--just the Master of the Watch, the Chapter Master, and his Land Raider and my Brazen Claws are done!

Plans for 2012

2012-01-13T08:00:00.001-05:00

With two kids now and a wife who works most weekends, I find I have less and less time to paint, and almost no time to game. The lack of battle reports up on my site is testament to that.

But even so, I have ambitions for the year to come, and many painting/modelling projects running in parallel. Some of them are doable within 2012, while others are ongoing projects that will likely span years. Making plans like this will hopefully keep me focused, and prevent me from going off the deep end and buying randomly.

So here are my plans for 2012. I hesitate to call them goals, since I know that many of these will remain works in progress.

Warhammer 40,000

Brazen Claws. I'm really close to finishing these guys now. This one is going to happen. Once I finally finish these guys, I'll be able to move forward and work on other things, like...
Blood Angels. This is still in the planning stages, but my ambition is to field the Blood Angels 8th Company. I figure that since the Blood Angels are the "assault" chapter, I might as well go all out and field 100+ jump packed marines. So far I've only a tiny fraction of that number, and only six of them are painted. So this one will take a while.
Raven Guard. This force I intend to keep pretty small, and I'll mainly be building it in parallel with the Blood Angels. Every time I get an Assault Squad, the Raven Guard will get any and all Mark 6 equipment, and the rest goes to the Blood Angels. My intention is to make a small strike force consisting of a few assault squads and a few tactical squads in drop pods.
Imperial Guard. For a while I've been itching to get back into my Imperial Guard. I've been listening for rumors about plastic stormtroopers, but so far that's all they seem to be--rumors. So until those come out, I'll have to wait. But that doesn't mean I have nothing to work on--I have many ideas for scratchbuilt vehicles and a bunch of tanks that still need to be painted.
Orks. My Ork army will be built around my Ork Land Battleship, which has been spending the past several months hiding in a closet. I haven't forgotten about it, and I have plans for it, but other priorities have taken center stage. I hope to get back to it soon. I have a bunch of orks who will be needed to man this behemoth, and once the Brazen Claws are done I plan to work on some of them.
Tau. These guys are all planned out, and when the Tau get a new codex this year, I'm sure I'm going to want to add to my army. But for now I still have plenty of miniatures to paint--they're just stuck behind all the other projects above.

At this point I need to stay away from starting any new armies. I had some plans a long time ago for an Eldar Army and a Word Bearers army. But those are going to have to wait.

Warhammer Fantasy
I have two armies in Fantasy that I'm interested in right now, Vampire Counts and Wood Elves. Both armies are still in the very early stages with only a few miniatures painted. (one Wood Elf Hero, and a unit of Skeleton Warriors) I'm sure that these will progress very slowly, mainly as I just paint a few miniatures here and there for variety's sake.

The Lord of the Rings
I still have a ton of these miniatures hanging around, and I'll get to them someday. I don't have any major plans for them right now, so if I do anything, it might just be a few miniatures here and there to help stave off boredom. When The Hobbit movie comes out at the end of the year, I'm sure I may want to buy some more stuff...so maybe this will wait until 2013.

Dreadfleet
Yeah, I have it. Will I paint it? Someday. I'm sure this will go the way of Space Hulk, which took me two years to paint after I bought it.

Flames of War
*Gasp* A non-GW game! This has been piquing my interest for a while now, and I might cave at some point during the year. But not just yet. I want the Plastic Soldiers Company to keep adding to their range! In the meantime I'm trying to resist picking up the rulebook. I want to check it out, but I know that if I do, I won't be able to stop myself from getting some miniatures!

Writing for Black Library

2012-01-09T08:00:00.001-05:00

In the summer of 2010 I stumbled upon Black Library's page of submission guidelines. Their submission window is annually from May 1st through July 31st. I had a few ideas rumbling around in my head and decided to give it a go.

At first I was motivated by simply wanting to write about some of the ideas I had about the 40k Universe, and perhaps putting my own take on it.

But another thing that motivated me was the books that have come out of the Black Library in the past. Black Library, with its prolific cadre of authors, has put out tons of material of varying quality. Some of it I have found engrossing, for example Dan Abnett's Eisenhorn trilogy. Some of it has been...frustrating to read, and I find myself thinking "I know I can write better than this." It might be conceited to say that; after all, these guys are published writing professionals and I am not. But I can't count the times I've read a Black Library book and certain scenes or descriptions either make me roll my eyes or even lower the book with an exasperated "Come on...!" There are times when I think some books are written more for adolescents than for adults, which, considering GW's target audience, they probably are.

That audience aside, I decided I wanted to write about things that I as a reader would want to read. I had several ideas, and the thrust would have been a series of linked novels about a war between the Imperium (focused on the Imperial Guard and the Imperial Navy) and the Tau Empire (specifically one isolated sept world and its sub-colonies).

The plot for Novel One (working title: Only War) was the lead up to the conflict. The isolated Tau Sept world of Viridis, low on resources, desires to expand into territory claimed by the Imperium. The Imperium, not ready for a fight, resists diplomatic overtures without rejecting them outright--they are playing for time. Political intrigue, conspiracies, and assassinations abound on both sides, and ultimately the Tau are driven to launch a surprise attack against the Imperium.

The plot for Novel Two (working title: The Charge of the Danoans) chronicled the opening moves of the war as seen from both sides. An unprepared Imperial planet comes under attack by a Tau invasion force, and poor leadership decisions on both sides lead to desperate situations for both the Imperial and Tau protagonists caught in the thick of the fighting.

The third submission was a short story, telling the tale of a Fire Warrior named Doran who is stuck under a vain commander. Doran struggles to follow the path to the Greater Good while trapped in a situation where he is effectively powerless.

Following Black Library's submission guidelines, I submitted all three stories (three chapters for each novel with synopses, and a 1,000 word sample from the short story) within the window. Black Library's guidelines state that if any submissions were accepted, they would contact that author withing 8 weeks of the submission window closing. Rejected submissions would not receive a response.

Well, I waited the eight weeks, and...nothing.

No big surprise, but disappointing nonetheless.

My guess is that they didn't fit the tone of what BL wants to publish right now. After all, Only War, in the words of a friend of mine, was more of a political techno-thriller than the "war porn" that Black Library usually puts out. I will allow myself the conceit that the writing isn't so bad that they were rejected out of hand.

Since the rejection, I've been wondering what to do with the submissions, other than just file them away into oblivion. I've been considering posting them up here. Since they've already been rejected and I can't publish them on my own because of the IP considerations, I don't see any real harm in doing so. So I guess my question is, should I bother?

Devlan Mud

2012-01-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

Devlan Mud. This stuff is awesome. It's fantastic for pulling a model together, making for a great finishing touch on a model, giving it just the right amount of dirt and grime to tone down too bright colors.

But since it's so useful, GW needs to sell this by the gallon, rather than the little pots it comes in...

So I calculated how much that would cost. It's $3.70 for 12ml...so that comes to...$1,167 a gallon. I can't help but think that GW's profit margin on their paints must be ridiculous. But if GW offered Devlan Mud for sale by the gallon, you'd have to think they'd give you a discount for buying in bulk. I'm sure they wouldn't charge you a penny more than $1,150 for it.

Master of Recruits

2012-01-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

A while back (ok, a long while back), I posted some pictures of the Master of the Fleet. Well, I've finally gotten around to working on my Brazen Claws again, and I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Here's the Masters of Recruits, the 10th Company Captain.

The Old Rules

2011-12-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

Unless you're one of those players who buys a new codex and army, plays it in tournaments, then sells everything on ebay as soon as the next codex/army comes out, you probably have multiple editions of GW rulebooks and codices on your shelf. (If you're a person who plays mostly in hobby stores or in tournaments against strangers, then this post doesn't apply to you)

All that old stuff is still good. There's no reason not to keep playing a previous edition of the rules long after it has been superseded. Just because GW releases new editions of the rules and new codices to go along with them doesn't mean that you can't still play the old rules sets if you want to.

The urge to play try out something new is very strong. But if you had a lot of fun playing the game in an older edition, there's nothing to stop you playing that edition long after a newer edition is released. New models might require some rules modifications if you want to include them, but what's to stop you from doing that too?

In fact, my gaming buddy Badelaire has been working feverishly on his Crimson Fists army, so we may soon play the "Battle of the Farm" scenario from the Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader rulebook. Using those rules. If we do, the battle report is going up here.

The Hated Fluff

2011-12-19T13:38:00.000-05:00

Any time a new codex comes out, the Interwebs explode with everyone hating on the new fluff. Beloved history and background are retconned out of existence, warped beyond recognition, or generally trampled upon. Authors (I'm talking about you, Mat Ward) with no concept of how their new vision of the 40k Universe RUINS EVERYTHING. I hate it as much as everyone else.

But who cares? This is the grim darkness of the far future, right? The Imperium is a totalitarian government that isn't exactly known for its freedom of thought and expression. Even the existence of Chaos is kept from the majority of citizens because it is information too dangerous for them to know. Everyone in the 40k Universe has their own agenda, and they are not above propaganda to further their goals.

Just because someone like Mat Ward has written the latest edition of the Codex including details we despise doesn't mean that's how it's going to be forever. When the current codex/fluff authors are eventually replaced and new editions of rulebooks and codices are written, things will undoubtedly be retconned again, perhaps in a way that players will actually like. I just see the current version of the fluff as merely the latest propaganda distributed by the powers that be, and as such, subject to change. So there's no reason to get too upset over it.

I'll end with a quote from Ward himself:

"The history of the Imperium since the Heresy is not a continuous story. There have been periods of rebellion and anarchy; times when the balance of power has suddenly changed and history has been quite literally re-written."

--p9, Codex: Space Marines, Matthew Ward, 2008.

History will be re-written again.

Balrog: Part 4

2011-12-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

Primed. I'm considering painting the flames using the technique I've never tried before. This worries me a little bit, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Force Protection

2011-12-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

It's taken as a given that when you play a game of 40k, during a game you're going to lose a large portion of your army. Maybe all of it if you lose. Watching your opponent remove his models from the table is part of what makes the game fun! The mental image you have of two armies of heroes (or evil bad guys) clashing in a desperate struggle in which only the few survive makes the game feel epic. Gamers plan battle strategies around their suicide units. They take it for granted that their elite unit will deep strike into the middle of the enemy lines, "pop a Land Raider", and then die. I wonder how the troopers would feel if their commanders told them that it's his intention from the get-go that their purpose is to die.

But wars are not single battles. Real military commanders have to look at the big picture. They don't want to win the battle but lose the war. So that means that you fight your hardest, but just as important as winning the game is preserving your army for future battles.

I wonder how the tournament scene would change if players had to take this into account. For example, a tournament might consist of multiple rounds. In each round after the first, a player may only use the models that survived the previous battle (with simple rules for casualty recovery, favoring the winner). If a given player's army is completely destroyed, well, he's out of luck.

This is one of the reasons I like campaigns--that is, campaigns in which your force goes from one battle to the next, suffering attrition along the way, casualty recovery, reinforcements, etc. The game takes on a whole new dimension, and you have to think both strategically and tactically at the same time.

Flames of War...is on FIRE!

2011-12-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

Flames of War is taking over the gaming scene! I predict that in five years, everyone will be playing Flames of War, and if in a gaming crowd you mention Games Workshop, you'll be met with a bunch of blank stares.

Just kidding... But there does seem to be increasing interest in this game. Pathfinder has recently been posting about his recent love affair with Flames of War, and it has sparked some interest in the blogging community, or at least it has encouraged others who have been eyeing the game to come out of the closet.

I have to admit that I've been looking over Flames of War for a while now too. I still have big plans for my 40k armies, so my interest in that will probably not go away, but Flames of War definitely has an appeal.

My FLGS seems to have recognized Flames of War's rising star as well. I moved into the area almost a decade ago, and back then the gaming store had a wide variety of stuff: traditional model kits, board games, puzzles, D&D, some historical minis, etc. One whole wall was dedicated to Games Workshop. A few years ago I noticed that some Flames of War stuff was appearing on the shelves, while the GW stock was decreasing. They still get new GW stuff in--the appearance of new Necrons is a testament to that. But now, the wall that used to be all GW? Now it's half GW, half Flames of War.

So what's so great about FoW? First, of course, is the cost. Compared to 40k, it's dirt cheap. You can make a credible army for maybe half the cost of a 40k army.

Even better, your FoW army isn't going to be rendered obsolete in a few years when the next codex/wave of models come out. In twenty years, if you show a gamer your 40k army, you might get a snicker replaced with a respectful "Wow, retro..." The models and the army itself will be dated. But a FoW army will be instantly recognizable as a World War II army. World War II isn't going to change its "fluff" anytime soon. Warhammer 40k, despite the protestations that the advance of Imperial technology is static, will continue to evolve, increasingly annoying us old timers with its incessant retconning.

From everything I've heard, players like the rules better than 40k. FoW does have advantages in the rules department as the scope of the game is limited. It doesn't have to worry about more than a dozen different types of armies, each with a unique playstyle, sci-fi weapons, monsters, and psychic abilities. Given the incredible variety of units and abilities in 40k, perhaps we should cut the GW rules writers some slack--as their rules have to handle all of that.

But there are downsides. There is little in the way of conversion opportunities in FoW. If I want to be historically accurate, I can't take a King Tiger tank and model side sponsons with additional 76mm guns on it. Yes, I can convert a M4A1 Sherman into a M4A3 "Easy Eight", but I can't strike out on my own and make something unique. The same goes for paint schemes. In 40k, you can paint models essentially any way you want. In FoW, you are restricted to the historical paint schemes. If you paint your models incorrectly, some realism nazi (no pun intended) will get on your case. "Great job on that model, but I'm sure you realize that the Panzer IV Ausf. G only had that paint scheme on the Eastern Front prior to 1944, and you're clearly using it during a Normandy Campaign. Tsk tsk." Will all players be like that? Certainly not. But they're out there.

Still, these disadvantages are not showstoppers. FoW has a lot going for it, and in learning about the game and building your army, you learn more about history. The miniatures themselves are improving in quality--I'm really liking the look of the Plastic Soldier Company's offerings--and with time the selection will be growing as well.

Knowing what a perfectionist I am though, I know that I'll want to do a lot of planning before I run out and buy some miniatures. I'll want to field a specific unit at a specific time period, and equip it properly. I won't be able to paint anything until I have the correct paint schemes and camouflage patterns down, so it looks like I'll have to be purchasing some Osprey modelling guides as well:

So it looks like that some purchases down the road are all but inevitable. I'll get the rulebook and give some thought as to what time period/army I would want to collect/play, and hold off a bit on the miniatures themselves...at least for now.

Lexicanium Calistarius

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

This guy was a pain in the butt. I tried to paint him similar to the way he was painted in the rulebook. Most of it wasn't too hard, but trying to get the force axe to look right was a trial. With time I think I have gotten better at using layering as a technique, but blending/feathering continues to elude me. I tried painting that axe over and over again, and it got to the point that I had to sand the layers of paint off the blade and start over...twice. Clearly I need much more practice with it. Perhaps I needed to try it first on a larger surface. I'm still not entirely happy with it, but I'll have to chalk it up to experience...

One Shot, One Kill

2011-12-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

In the real world, snipers have repeatedly been called "the deadliest weapon on the battlefield." Snipers have the element of surprise, can kill at very long ranges, are hard to deal with, and thus instill terror in the enemy. (As an aside I will ignore their other, arguably more important, employment as battlefield observers) If snipers are so deadly in the real world, why are they so ineffective in the game of 40k?

Now before you argue that snipers are in fact effective in large units (e.g. 10-man units of Eldar Pathfinders), and that you need to choose targets that are specifically weak against snipers (e.g. Eldar Dreadnoughts)... What I'm talking about is the typical "real world" sniper employed as he would be in the modern battlefield, supporting friendly units and having a psychological impact on the enemy. In practice this would mean shooting at a frontline unit to pin it down, or shooting at high value targets, such as heavy weapons teams, or officers. (I'm deliberately leaving out one of the sniper's primary roles, that of observation)

One of the biggest advantages to the sniper is the psychological impact he can have on the enemy. This is shown in the game by the pinning rule. I did some math (I was going to show all my work, but then my browser crashed and I lost all the work), and for the typical troop choice in any army, it was a less than a 10% chance of pinning them with a sniper shot.

The chances of a typical sniper to kill an MEQ are 5/6 x 1/2 x 1/3 = 14%, which means in a typical game of 6 turns, if you manage to kill one, you're doing pretty well. If you're going against an enemy with multiple wounds, it's even harder.

As an Imperial Guard player, I'm attracted to whatever "realism" I can derive from the game, while still enjoying the fact that it is fantasy. Oh, right, I forgot...this game is about fun stuff, like this guy:

Rather than boring stuff, like this guy:

Historically snipers have been looked down upon because they don't fight fair. Someone shooting at you from a great distance, without warning, and picking off your officer (or even worse, you!) isn't a gentlemanly thing to do. And something that isn't gentlemanly certainly isn't heroic.

I think snipers in 40k face similar discrimination. Players want carnage, not units that get pinned and do nothing for a turn. So the rules are deliberately designed to maximize the killing, and maximize it in a fun way (i.e., in the Assault phase)

But if I could "fix" snipers, how would I do it? I would do the following:

Snipers cannot be targetted until they fire, or until an enemy model approaches within Initiative distance in inches.
Snipers hit on a 2+
Sniper rifles are R36" S7 AP4 Heavy 1 Rending, Pinning, and deliver D3 wounds

Against vehicles they are still strength 7. Anti-vehicle rounds already exist--they're no reason to think that equivalent or better rounds wouldn't exist in the 40k universe.
Pinning - I think the Pinning test should have a modifier of at least -1--testing on straight leadership is ridiculous when half the units in the game are fearless or stubborn anyway...

I'm not going to put down a suggested points cost, as I really don't care, but it would be much higher than they are now. And it should be.

The Changing Face of the Guard

2011-12-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

Here is an old IG picture, from White Dwarf 109, from 1989. It shows a Necromundan regiment, marching into battle against the forces of chaos. It's an image that has stuck with me for a long time--these guys are marching in ordered ranks, carrying their lasguns at right shoulder shift arms, in the midst of battle. It is reminiscent of Napoleonic warfare, or perhaps the American Civil War.

Here is a picture of Catachan guardsmen holding the line against a Tyranid attack, from the latest Codex.

While they still fly the their colors proudly, that's really all they have in common with the guardsmen in the picture above. What you see in the original picture is something you'd never expect to see in the "modern" conception of the Imperial Guard--guardsmen marching into battle. Guardsmen go into battle in Chimeras. With Leman Russes trundling alongside. And Baneblades and Stormhammers and Macharius tanks. With Valkyries flying overhead. And throw in a few Basilisks too.

Actually, who needs the guardsmen? Just give me all their vehicles!

This isn't to say I don't think all of that stuff is awesome. But the Imperial Guard have become a fully mechanized army. What happened to the Imperial Guard being the most diverse force in the Galaxy?

Here's a selection of what we have available to us, and their inspiration:

Catachans: Vietnam-era, i.e., Rambo.
Cadians: Generic modern-era soldier, ranging from World War II to modern.
Tallarn: Middle Eastern/World War II desert fighters.
Death Korps: World War I Europe
Valhallans: World War II Russian

What they do have in common is a 20th century aesthetic. For a while the Praetorians bucked the trend with their Zulu Wars inspiration, but GW has since renounced this "heresy" and swept them under the rug. Currently the Vostroyans are the only guardsmen that do not have a 20th Century aesthetic. Even the Mordians, while they fight in their dress uniforms, have a 20th century aesthetic.

While the Imperial Guard codex talks about less advanced guardsmen, those from feral, medieval, or pre-industrial worlds, for the most part they are rarely if ever seen on the battlefield. Indeed, GW does not provide any models for them. The door is left open if you want to convert some Warhammer miniatures, but that's it...

What about the Scottish Highlanders at Culloden? If IG players can paint camouflage patterns, surely we can paint plaid!

The Battle of Culloden (1746) by David Morier

Just give those Jacobites some laspistols and they'd be good to go. For that matter, why not use some of those redcoats, too. Substitute lasguns for those muskets and you have some Imperial Guardsmen...

The point is, there are tons of really cool styles out there that would make some cool Imperial Guardsmen regiments.

I think the Vostroyans were an attempt at this, but the idea of Imperial Russians running around with tanks looks a bit absurd on its own, so they tried to give them a steampunk feel with their rebreathers and goggles.

I can't tell you the number of times I've come across regiments named "The 95th _____ Rifles" (fill in the blank with whatever planet name you want. Every planet in the Imperium has one. If GW sold a set of Guardsmen who looked like this...

...but with lasguns and Imperial eagles on their shakos, they'd be flying off the shelves...

Balrog: Part 3

2011-12-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Did the assembly and some gap filling.

Next step is to do some filing to make sure I haven't missed anything, then I can move on to priming.

Brother Claudio

2011-11-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

Brother Claudio rounds out my terminators except for Lexicanium Calistarius, who is next.

Balrog: Part 2

2011-11-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

Finished the assembly of the miniatures themselves, next step is to fill in all the joins with green stuff. Did some looking for a base to mount them on, and wasn't all that happy with what was available. I'll be looking for something more suitable at the hobby store later this week if I can make it down there.

Sergeant Gideon

2011-11-23T18:19:00.000-05:00

And Sergeant Gideon finishes up the second squad. Now it's off to paint up Librarian Calistarius.

The War against Doctrine

2011-11-21T08:00:00.002-05:00

The Codex Astartes is the holy tome written by Ultramarines Primarch Roboute Guilliman. It defines the organization and tactical doctrine of the Adeptus Astartes and is followed by many, if not a majority, of Space Marine Chapters.

Guilliman is undisputedly one of the greatest military minds in history, rivaling if not surpassing all of the other Primarchs. The Codex Astartes is considered one of Guilliman's most influential works.

Yet there is a schizophrenia in the 40k universe...

...other than the obvious.

The Codex Astartes was a work written by one of the greatest strategic minds in the universe, designed to cover every possible situation . . . and yet, one of the most common ways to portray genius in the 40k universe is to have your protagonist not follow it. Or, in the most extreme cases, actively reject it.

For example, take this guy:

Captain Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines

The Ultramarines, Roboute Guilliman's own chapter, are the epitome of the Codex Astartes. Yet what distinguishes Captain Ventris as a protagonist?

Uriel Ventris is a flexible military commander who due to the efforts of his mentor, Captain Idaeus, learned to think outside the confines of the Codex Astartes, the masterpiece of Roboute Guilliman and the manual of war that most Space Marine Chapters base their tactics, strategy and organization upon. [emphasis added]

Article on Uriel Ventris, from the Warhammer 40k Wiki

Those who follow the Codex, such as Sergeant Learchus in particular and the rest of the Ultramarines in general, are presented as inflexible and unimaginative.

The Codex Astartes (hereafter CA) is portrayed like a strait-jacket, and everyone who follows the "textbook" is always outsmarted by someone who doesn't follow it, and therefore thinks "outside the box". But the CA was written by the most brilliant commander of the Adeptus Astartes. I would have to think that someone doesn't get to be called that unless he does think outside the box. The CA should, by definition, discuss tactics that are outside the box. It should praise initiative, imagination and adaptability.

So who are these "inflexible", "unimaginative" guys who follow the CA?

Space Marine Captains:

Space Marine Captains are masters of the battlefield, able to read its ebb and flow as ancient mariners would judge the changing of the sea. It is not enough for a Captain to simply be a skilled fighter in his own right...he must also have a superhuman grasp of strategy and tactics, as well as the will to employ them in the ever-changing arena of warfare.

Codex: Space Marines, Matthew Ward, 2008, p54.

Chapter Masters:

With the merest glance, a Chapter Master can appraise a warzone, can see every threat and every opportunity presented by the shifting lines of battle and divine how victory can be assured.

Codex: Space Marines, Matthew Ward, 2008, p52

Marneus Calgar:

Since rising to the rank of Chapter Master, Marneus Calgar has employed his flair for tactics and strategy in campaigns without number.

Calgar is a proud man, a trait that has earned him more than a fair share of enemies within the Imperium's internecine politics. Yet he also possesses a shrewd self-awareness that prevents pride turning sour and leading him into arrogance.

Codex: Space Marines, Matthew Ward, 2008, p84.

Commander Dante:

"To his fellow Chapter Masters, Dante is an exemplar of the fearlessness, dedication, and strategic genius that speak to the heart of the Space Marines' never-ending mission." [emphasis added]

Codex: Blood Angels, Matthew Ward, 2009, p53.

Yet a common theme in the 40k universe is that the protagonist is a radical somehow, in that they go against the grain and rebel against the "rigid doctrine of the CA." Those that follow it are invariably portrayed as unimaginative automatons. The problem is with this line of reasoning is that if all the smart people feel that the CA is a rigid doctrine useful for only the unimaginative, then why is the CA held in such high regard? Why was Guilliman considered a genius, if the best he could do was write a book on doctrine that is only useful when your enemy is an idiot?

Calgar follows the Codex? Idiot.

Guilliman believed in rigid structure and hierarchy and had a firm battle doctrine from which his Legion never wavered. He was in the process of documenting the "correct" tactics and operation of a Space Marine force, tried and tested during his long years of command, and suggested that the young Alpha Legion should adopt this "Codex" behavior. However, this attitude was anathema to Alpharius' belief in initiative and adaptability, and a heated debate over tactics and ideology ensued.

p56, Index Astartes: Alpha Legion, White Dwarf 276.

Granted, the article is written to present the Alpha Legion in a favorable light (in terms of badassery, not necessarily "goodness"). So, to emphasize Alpharius' awesomeness, you have to make Guilliman look like a rigid stick-in-the-mud. I'm sure that in reality Guilliman valued initiative and adaptability too, and put that in the CA. I mean, if he did put values like initiative and adaptability in the CA, there would have to be a Chapter out there that follows the CA and is well known for its initiative and adaptability, wouldn't there?

Yup.

The distaste that people have against the Codex is really distaste against any sort of doctrine at all. In military fiction, whenever one wants to portray a protagonist as superior, one simply states that whatever action the protagonist takes is superior, and then declares that it goes against established doctrine. Everyone knows that doctrine is something written by a bunch of crusty old generals who haven't seen a battlefield in decades.

Like this guy, and kudos to anyone who recognizes him.

But Doctrine is actually a good thing.

Most readers of military history don't understand doctrine and don't want to, because it has no place in the tales of individual soldiers or great military leaders that they are used to. Indeed, doctrine is often seen as an unnecessary encumbrance that loses battles and gets in the way of exercising creative command. This is ironic, in that one of the prevalent goals behind doctrine is the simplification and streamlining of command, precisely so that commanders can fashion appropriate solutions during battle.
. . .
The development of doctrine is the natural imperative of any military trying to rise above the level of being merely an armed mob. It is an essential means by which militaries compensate for the negatives of warfare by building a certain measure of automatic behavior into the organization. Indeed, in the terrible crucible of combat, under the enormous pressures created by mass violence, doctrine is sometimes the only thing that holds forces together and allows them to continue fighting. By setting out a coherent set of tactical goals, units can continue to operate even if the chain of command is disrupted or destroyed.

Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, Parshall and Tully, 2005, p82-83.

Combat veterans frequently say that one of two things saved their lives in combat: their training, or the guy next to them. Training is doctrine. The Army has an entire command devoted to it: The United States Army Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC. Its whole purpose is to train soldiers and develop doctrine, in order to keep US soldiers from getting killed.

Ultimately having a maverick protagonist who rages against the system and succeeds against overwhelming odds while spitting in the face of established wisdom makes for a good story. In reality, in the chaos of battle, when a commander goes against established doctrine, the result is almost certainly disaster.

In short, the Codex Astartes really is a good book that has some worthwhile stuff in it. But if you decide to go against the Codex Astartes, you should take a long, hard look in the mirror. If you see this:

You're probably ok. If you see something else...I'd stick to the Codex.

Balrog: Part 1

2011-11-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

I had originally posted this on my defunct fantasy blog. Since I'm getting back into finishing this project, I figured I'd post my updates here instead, but that means a repost or two until I catch up to where I left off...

I received my first miniatures commission recently. Well, sort of. It's more a favor for a friend, who promised to do it for another friend, but doesn't have the time (she has a good excuse--she's leaving for the Peace Corps soon). Lest you think I'm doing this solely out of the kindness of my heart, since my friend will be out of country for a few years, she kindly sent me all of her paints, plus some stray miniatures that she's had in storage.

Laying everything out, it looks like all the pieces are present. Evening one consisted of primarily cleaning all the pieces, and doing some basic assembly.

Before I go too much further, I'll need to start working on the display base so I can get the layout right.

Brother Valencio

2011-11-16T08:00:00.000-05:00

Brother Valencio, the youngest of the marines in Space Hulk. Like many youths, he seems to like to decorate himself a lot.

Generalship

2011-11-14T08:00:00.001-05:00

It seems like these days, the focus of gaming is more on making the army list rather than playing the game. Army list posts on blogs and forums are extremely common. You hear about "unbeatable" army lists with [insert awesome weapon of the day] spam. Much (if not most) of the excitement generated by a new codex is determined by the rules/units available, and what units players can get to increase the power of their army list. In order to succeed at a a tournament, it's a given that if you don't have a "competitive" army list, you needn't bother playing.

Since the average player spends far more time thinking about playing than they actually do play, they spend that time doing what they can. It's hard to put tactics into practice without an opponent, so they work on what they can: creating and tweaking their army lists. The purpose of optimizing your army list is to make it so the army can almost play itself--such that if you make many mistakes during the game, the raw power of your army can save you from defeat. The tactical element of the game still exists, but takes second place to the army list.

Now I'll go off on a small tangent (or an analogy, you decide)

In the past three years I've gotten into the sport of paintball. In doing so I've browsed the various paintball forums, etc., and see much of the same stuff, as it applies to paintball. The most common newbie question is, "how can I make my paintball marker more accurate?" There are endless discussions about how to upgrade your marker to make it more accurate, shoot farther, and shoot faster. There's also a good amount discussion about camouflage (related to woodsball games), and which is better.

But there is essentially no discussion about tactics. It's all about equipment. At a recent game I attended, the paintball place was, as usual, filled with guys in head-to-foot camouflage (like me), and $1,000 electronic trigger 20 bps (balls per second) tournament guns (not like me) running around.

Me in my multicam and my Alpha Black

One of the off-duty referees (who are all very experienced players) decided to play a game. He overheard me griping to a friend about players with 20bps electronic guns and how I don't like them because in my opinion they are against the spirit of woodsball. He held up his Tippmann 98 custom paintball marker (an entry level, inexpensive paintball marker), and commented "This is all you need." (As an aside, he was dressed in a white t-shirt and basketball shorts--no camos for him) With that inexpensive, entry-level gun, t-shirt and shorts, he proceeded to annihilate hordes of opponents with equipment that must have set them back over a thousand dollars (or more likely, set their parents back). It was awesome to see.

Anyway, the point is that if you're a good enough player, it's your abilities as a player that earns you wins, not the abilities of your equipment (or army, if we're talking 40k again). A rationalization about building "competitive" army lists is that it's the only way to level the playing field. The only way to ensure that the game is "fair" is the unspoken agreement that each player was field the most "unfair" list they can.

Well, screw that. I don't make competitive lists, and I never plan to. As a player I'm not in it for the competition, and I see the game more as a simulation (albeit a fantasy one) than a competition. From that perspective, I'm in it more for the generalship than the logistics. In the real world, generals essentially never get to choose their forces. They have to make do with what they have. And what they have is usually far from ideal. It's the good general who can adapt to a fluid situation, making most of the assets at his command.

Fortunately I play with like-minded players. We all want to win, and we try to. But we play fluffy armies, and the result is a more relaxed atmosphere, and a fun game.

I must be patient...

2011-11-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

With all the hype right now it's hard to not get excited about the Necrons. The models are awesome and some of their new powers seem very scary. It makes me want to drop everything and start yet another army...

...but in the end I'll probably resist. But I can still dream.

How can you not love the Deathmarks:

That cyclopean visage is just way too creepy. Not to mention the Lychguard:

I just like the look of these guys with their Dispersion Shields and Hyperphase swords.

All this makes me want to start collecting a Necron Army, despite the fact that I already have way too many armies as it is, most of them incomplete. But I find myself thinking of color schemes...I'm thinking of chrome as the primary color--akin to their original inspiration:

But instead of green as the color of their power sources, I was thinking of ultraviolet, or rather extreme violet, as you see in a black light. I want to get my hands on a necron warrior to try out the scheme.

But I'm sure that my enthusiasm will fade...or at least my wallet hopes that it does. But in the end, since the new Necrons are so cool, it makes me look forward to a hopefully soon-to-come release that I'm far more interested in:

Brother Omnio

2011-11-09T08:00:00.002-05:00

And here we have Brother Omnio, another one of the easier Space Hulk Terminators to paint.

Aerodynamics

2011-11-07T08:00:00.000-05:00

In the design of any new model or miniature, one of the key things designers have to come to grips with is keeping the "theme" of the army intact with continuity of design. That is, each new miniature must fit, style-wise, with the rest of the army.

Imperial vehicles are blocky and inelegant. Ork vehicles are downright brutish and ramshackle. Eldar and tau vehicles are both curvilinear and elegant, but with different elements that clearly distinguish them. While some of the vehicles shown below can fly in space, they are all supposed to be able to fly in an atmosphere too. Right.

But the one thing in common is that none of these "aircraft" are aerodynamic. Some are clearly more aerodynamic than others, but even the ones that "look" aerodynamic have some serious shortcomings. Take the Eldar Nightwing:

Yes, it has wings, and vertical and horizontal stabilizers, and jet intakes... but take a look at the leading edge of the wings! Not curved at all, which is essential for a wing. The Nightwing might look nice, but it has all the aerodynamics of a brick.

This is what the cross section of a wing should look like. Now it might be argued that it's too difficult to design wings like this for GW's plastic models. Hogwash. The technology is there. Maybe it's too expensive, and would add cost to already expensive models. Maybe I'll buy that...

I know...I need to get over it.

Warhammer Quest: What if?

2011-11-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

What if Warhammer Quest turned out to be the next game GW publishes in its line of "one time release board games"?
Release

The first edition of Space Hulk came out in 1989, and the new release came out in 2009. Man O'War came out in 1993, and the new release (Dreadfleet) came out in 2011. See a pattern? Neither do I...sort of. Warhammer Quest was released in 1995, but if the Man O'War update was 18 years later, perhaps so will the Warhammer Quest update--fall of 2013.

Box Contents
What would be in a new release of Warhammer Quest? If this is to be a "complete" game like Space Hulk and Dreadfleet, they have to put some thought as to what goes in it. I imagine there will be the standard dungeon board pieces, perhaps similar to the ones provided in Space Hulk in that they will be debossed and interlocking, made out of thick card.

The miniatures would be of high quality, but I doubt that it would contain the 90+ miniatures of the original game. I'm thinking something like 6 characters, 30 monsters, and a few "terrain" pieces like treasure chests for flavor. The monsters might consist of something like this:

~15-20 basic dungeon denizens: skaven clanrats, orcs, skeletons, chaos cultists
~7-10 elites: stormvermin/assassins, black orcs, chaos warriors, tomb guard
~2-3 lieutenants: necromancer, sorcerer, shaman
1-2 monsters: ogre, demon, ushabti, dragon
The Boss: A vampire count, tomb king, warboss, demon prince

Characters
The original game contained the following characters: Dwarf, (Wood) Elf, Barbarian, and Wizard. Subsequent releases introduced the Pit Fighter, Warrior Priest, Imperial Noble, Elf Ranger, Dwarf Trollslayer, Chaos Warrior, Wardancer, Witch Hunter, Bretonnian Knight, and eventually even more through the Deathblow journal.

But if this is to be a one-off release, I can predict they'd include perhaps two more characters in addition to the original four. They might be designed to go along with the specific theme (e.g., Warrior Priest if the enemy is Chaos), or they might be more generic. I think Imperial Noble and Bretonnian Knight would provide the most variety in a party based on the original supplements. But perhaps new characters would be invented to fit the new release. In a nod to modern sensibilities, probably at least one of the characters would be female (Wood Elf, Wizard, Imperial Noble? Maybe even Barbarian?)

The Quest
Both Space Hulk and Dreadfleet were provided with 12 Scenario campaigns, so I can imagine that Warhammer Quest would be something similar. The quest as defined by the original game is the acquisition of loot, so that narrows our field a bit. The original Warhammer Quest did not have a specific enemy--it was basically a dungeon crawl with a variety of dungeon denizens for the party to encounter. But to follow the pattern set by the previous re-releases, I think it's likely that Warhammer Quest would have a specific race of enemy to face. So what are the options of races and/or quests?

Orcs are a classic enemy, but in recent times they have been more associated with village raiding than as dungeon denizens. Rooting out a dungeon filled with Orcs would certainly earn you fame and perhaps treasure, but this theme runs the risk of feeling stale.
Skaven are perfect adversaries for a dungeon quest, after all, it's where they live... But they are featured in Island of Blood, so another skaven release might seem premature...but perhaps not in 2013. Clearly the objective in this case would be to grab some warpstone from the warlord.
Undead would also be a good choice, but they've been done in Dreadfleet (although that fleet was an equal-opportunity undead force, welcoming undead of many races). In this case I actually see two possibilities:

Vampire Counts undead would make sense if the theme was raiding a Sylvanian Castle, which seems like an awesome idea to me. Raid the castle to kill the vampire, and steal his treasure to boot.
Tombs Kings undead also have their appeal, in that it is a quest to seize the treasure in a tomb in the Land of the Dead, and the party inadvertently awakens the restless dead... I can imagine lots of skeletons, tomb swarms, booby traps, with a finale of getting locked in the tomb to face off against a very angry tomb king and his pair of ushabti guards...

Chaos are always popular, so they have to be included as a possibility. The theme in this case would most likely revolve around the elimination of a threat than the acquisition of treasure.

I see many potential ideas for a great game here. I'll be keeping my eye out to see if a "secret new release" is coming for the fall of 2013!

Brother Scipio

2011-11-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

Compared to some of the other marines in the Space Hulk group, Brother Scipio is one of the simplest to paint. But don't let that fool you into thinking he's not a badass. In the last Space Hulk game I played with him, he scored 18 kills.

Halloween and GW Customer Service does it again...

2011-10-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

So with Halloween approaching I decided to paint something other than my Space Hulk miniatures. My Vampire Counts army quickly came to mind, and I decided on a pair of miniatures to paint, a Tomb Banshee and the Winged Vampire Lord.

Well, the Banshee came out ok, but there was a problem with the Winged Vampire Lord. I opened the blister and was about to start cleaning up the pieces, when I noticed something:

It may not be obvious, and it wasn't to me at first either, but...the head is missing. Sure, the Headless Winged Vampire Lord might be scary too, but it wasn't the look I was going for.

At first I thought, Crap, do I have another head in my bitz box that I can use to substitute? (The answer is no) But then I thought that since GW had responded so well to the defect I found in my Dreadfleet purchase, replacing the damaged game mat, I would try them again.

I emailed them and politely explained the problem, enclosing the above picture of what I had found when I opened the blister. I got a swift response, and they said they would send me a new model to replace the incomplete one.

So kudos to GW Customer Service, who came through for me again.

Tau Speculations and Wishlist

2011-10-28T08:00:00.004-04:00

The latest rumors are that Tau Empire will receive an update in Q1-2 2012, so as a Tau player I'm eager to see what might be in the pipeline...

I'm less interested in what rules updates they might have (although I do have some wishes)--but I'm mainly interested in seeing what new models and troop types there will be. Here are my thoughts:

Broadside plastic sprue. Perhaps this will be incorporated into the current Crisis Suit set, so that you buy one suit, and you can make whatever you want out of it.
The Sky-Ray needs an update. They just don't have firepower that can compete with the Hammerhead. See my bullet on Seeker Missiles.
An indirect fire weapon, like artillery? Well, one of the "themes" of Tau is the fact that they lack artillery. (which is odd...) The weapons that fulfill this role are seeker missiles and smart missiles, which each have their uses, but neither of them are ordnance or even blast weapons. Which leads us to...
Seeker missiles! Currently they have a lot going for them--unlimited range, no LOS required from the launching vehicle (but you do need a markerlight for targetting, which I think is good, not bad). But their hitting power is limited. S8 AP3...yay, you just killed one MEQ. What I'd like to see is some heavier anti-personnel power. I say give it the option to fire it either as per the old rules or as a submunition like the Hammerhead's railgun: S6 AP4 Large Blast. That would fix so much in my opinion...
More special characters? We already have ethereal special characters (Aun'shi, Aun'va), and two commanders (Shadowsun, Farsight). What else could we get? My guess is:

Battlesuit Shas'vre - either a Crisis Suit or a Stealth Suit special character
A Kroot shaper? Maybe a Vespid, or another alien race?
A drone... Tau are presented as the up and coming race, with advanced technology that is continuously improving. Why not allow them to have very good AI that borders on sentience. You could make a drone that is unique and experimental that pushes this envelope.

A new alien race? Although I'm personally not a huge fan of either the Kroot or the Vespid, another alien unit to round out the Tau Empire's forces might be in the works.
Finecast--Vespid will probably be moving to finecast, as would most of the characters like Shadowsun and the Ethereals. The Sniper Drone team is already finecast, but I'd like to see the Pathfinders become a plastic kit, not Finecast.
A new plastic kit--I'm guessing that they might make a plastic Barracuda, with options to make a bomber or some other kind of variant.

The Tau fulfill the manga aesthetic in the 40k universe, which is hugely popular. I think that if GW makes the right design choices, the tau will be flying off the shelves.

Brother Leon

2011-10-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

With Brother Leon I attempted to follow the technique that I saw on this post on From the Warp. I can't say that I was entirely successful.
The article suggests using three washes: Asurmen Blue, Leviathan Purple, and Gryphonne Sepia. Well, I don't have any of those washes, so I was forced to make do with the paints I have, that is, watered down Enchanted Blue/Regal Blue, Liche Purple, and Bestial Brown. My result was a bit heavy handed, and not nearly as subtle. But it works as a first attempt.

UPDATE: Well, I got my hands on some Asurmen Blue and Leviathan Purple, and I substituted Ogryn Flesh for the Gryphonne Sepia, and gave it another shot. Still not perfect, but I think the result is a bit better.

What GW Boardgame is next?

2011-10-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

So far we have seen the release of Space Hulk...

...and then Dreadfleet.

What game is next in the queue?Dark Future?

I'm inclined to say no on this one, as I think it was an attempt to cash in on the Mad Max post-apocalyptic frenzy of the 80s. I don't know that this would be as popular today.

Adeptus Mechanicus?

Well, this evolved into Space Marine, which became Epic 40,000, which became Epic: Armageddon... So I think this is probably a no as well. A form of it is still supported (sort of). You could say the same for some of the other games, like Bloodbowl, and Space Fleet, i.e., Battlefleet Gothic.

So that leaves us with...

Warhammer Quest? I hope so...I've said it before and I'll say it again--I want this game back!

What other options are there out there? I can't think of anything else that GW has made that could be next in the boardgame queue.

Brother Goriel

2011-10-21T08:00:00.001-04:00

Brother Goriel finishes Squad Lorenzo, so now I can start work on Squad Gideon. First up: Brother Leon.

Codex Creep

2011-10-19T08:00:00.001-04:00

A recent post on Bell of Lost Souls got me thinking about this. Actually I've been thinking about it for long while, but the BoLS post inspired me to finally write about it.

Give people something they don't need, and they will be temporarily, mildly happy. If you then take it away from them, the rage will erupt in a paroxysmal conflagration. The fact that it was unnecessary to give it to them in the first place is irrelevant. They had it, they owned it, it rightfully belongs to them, and may anyone who would dare take it away be damned to burn in a fiery hell for all eternity.

It's a fact of human nature that something is valued more when it is taken away. If you give someone a gift, you will earn their temporary gratitude. Take something away, and you will earn their undying hatred.

This is certainly not limited to 40k. Rather it exists in anywhere there is competition and there is the opportunity to tweak the situation. Everything from MMORPGs to entitlement programs to the salaries of CEO salaries. It is not my intention to make this political, but rather to illustrate the pervasiveness of the attitude throughout society.

So Games Workshop has found itself in another death spiral. It wants to make new codices and new miniatures attractive, so they up the ante with each release. Just a little bit. Enough to get people excited. I can think of instances when they tried to redress the balance with a release of the previous edition of Codex: Chaos Space Marines. The complaints came from all over about how C:CSM was nerfed, how it couldn't compete, so why bother playing them? The next time around GW "fixed" it, and now we're stuck with things like Lash of Submission. How do you think CSM players will react if for the next release Lash is removed?

The fix to the problem comes at the expense of the hordes of tournament players who would howl with rage at the injustice of balance being restored to the game. Since GW releases a new library of codices over a span of years, it would take that long for balance to truly be restored. In the meantime, the simmering anger of spurned players would grow, and many would leave the hobby. As each new balanced codex is released, more players would abandon the game. After all, who wants to drop money on a new codex and hundreds of dollars on new miniatures when the tagline is "Try this army: Not as badass as last time!" GW wants new Codex releases to spur sales of the new miniatures, and releasing balanced codices would result in the opposite.

There is no obvious solution. As soon as GW went down that road, their fate was sealed.

Like entropy, Codex Creep is going to happen, whether you like it or not. It sucks, but it's unavoidable. That's why in the end, Chaos will win.

Sergeant Lorenzo

2011-10-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

Next guy finished is Sergeant Lorenzo. I tried really hard to blend the inside of his skirt, trying to go for a brown out to a cream-white color, but I didn't quite succeed. The whole "blending" technique continues to elude me, I guess.

Preservation

2011-10-13T08:00:00.000-04:00

Since GW released Space Hulk and now Dreadfleet, I've started going through my miniatures with an eye to preserving them. For a while now, when I've completed painting some miniatures, I've given them a coat of matte varnish to protect them. The more I do it, the more I begin to see the necessity of doing it--if I want my miniatures to last beyond the next codex release.

Perhaps it's because I'm getting older. Back in the day, I'd buy a new GW game, tear the box open, and before I knew it the contents were all over the place. Nothing was organized, and with the passage of time, lots of it got lost. I can still dig up some of it, but much of the original content is lost or damaged.

But there's no reason why I can't play some of these games with my children when they're old enough to be interested, and no reason why I can't preserve the games longer than that. Especially "one off" games like Space Hulk and Dreadfleet. So with those games at least--and hopefully any future games going forward, I intend to treat them reverently, and with an eye to keeping them around for a long time to come. With the sturdiness of the recent boxes, I think GW is thinking the same thing.

I've no intention of kicking the bucket anytime soon, but as I see it things could end up in either one of two ways... My children could find themselves rummaging through old boxes of dilapidated junk, finding hordes of miniatures in various states of disrepair and think "This is Dad's old junk. What the hell are we going to do with it all?" Or they could find a complete game in good condition, break it out on a rainy day with their own children and say: "This is a game your grandfather had when I was just a baby. He painted all the little figures inside himself."

As my father gets older and my children get bigger, I'm beginning to realize the value of little heirlooms like these. Once your elders are gone, they're gone, and you find yourself wishing you had more about them left behind. I could always leave my children piles of junk in moldy boxes stacked in the basement, or I could leave them something they might want to hang onto. I think they'd appreciate it if I took an eye toward preservation now, as it will pay dividends later.

Brother Zael

2011-10-10T07:35:00.000-04:00

I did some surgery on my digital camera, and am pleased to see that the surgery was successful. As such, I can began to catch up in my documentation of recently completed miniatures. Next up is Brother Zael from Space Hulk.

Why do I have a separate post for each miniature in Space Hulk that I complete? Basically because with two young children, painting time is really at a premium now, and every single miniature I finish is a victory.

Dreadfleet: Opening the Treasure Chest

2011-10-05T18:10:00.000-04:00

Ahoy! My copy of Dreadfleet arrived in the mail today, so I thought I would dive in and check out the contents. I apologize for the quality of the pictures--my normal camera is still broken so I was forced to use a backup camera.

The first thing I noticed is that the box is made of the same thick card that the Space Hulk box is, however, it is slightly deeper--more stuff to fit in the box, apparently! The Space Hulk box is 9cm deep, Dreadfleet is 10.5cm.

Tearing open the shrink wrap and getting to the goodies, the first thing you see is the sprues. I knew that the models were going to be large...but not this large.

Each ship is several inches long at least. With Space Hulk, with all the parts assembled, you could still fit everything in the box. I don't think you're going to be able to that with Dreadfleet. Or if you can, not easily. But we'll see...

This dude, who is some kind of sea monster/swamp thing/ocean zombie (UPDATE: it's a "Sea Giant") is about the size of a normal 28mm miniature.

The side of the box is where the assembly instructions are located.

The sails are huge, and each is embossed with designs unique to each ship. Unfortunately that means it will be harder to customize the ships if you don't want them to be exactly the same as the GW paintjobs, but it's a nice attention to detail, and will help the novice painter avoid having to freehand all those sail images.

They didn't skimp on the terrain pieces either. The largest sprue contains various islands, shipwrecks and the measuring device. Like the rest of the pieces, they're huge!

Underneath all the sprues, a card divider keeps the sprues from damaging the rest of the contents and vice versa. With all the copies of Dreadfleet in the mail, this was prudent.

Under that we have the rule book, damage and event cards and dice (not pictured--standard D6s, several white, one red), all shrink-wrapped. They also include (shown at right), a bunch of other small baggies which can be used to store the cards when not in use--another nice little touch in a box filled with quality stuff.

And finally, the vaunted game mat. I was looking forward to seeing this, so I was eager to open it and check it out.

The cloth is pretty thin, but of good quality, and feels silky. The artwork on it is superb, and the stitching on the edge gives it a nice touch. However, being pretty thin, I can see how if you're not careful, during gameplay you might snag a ship's base on it and scrunch it up. I think I would have preferred a slightly heavier cloth, but that's a minor complaint.

So I laid it out to see how big it was--and it is pretty big, but I also noticed...the problem. See it?

Here's a close up:

And the reverse side...I don't know what happened, but it's almost like someone poured some acid on the cloth! I paid good money for this and it's defective! Grrr....

So I snapped the above photos, and sent them to GW Customer Service, telling them of the defect. I was originally going to make an update to this post when and if GW Customer Service got back to me. Turns out I don't need to make an update. Literally 16 minutes after I sent them an email, I got a response saying that they would send me a replacement mat. So kudos to the customer service department.

All in all, I'm pleased with the contents--aside from the manufacturing defect, it looks to be a high quality product, and I look forward to playing it!

Cameras

2011-09-27T08:20:00.000-04:00

There are some updates I could be making, by my camera is on the fritz (dust on the sensor, which makes all the pictures look horrible). I was going to take a picture of the offending camera as proof but...you see the problem. So I put up a stock photo instead.

In the meantime, I'm still around, and I'm working on some updates behind the scenes. When I can include some pictures to make them more interesting, I'll put them up.

Brother Deino...Gah!

2011-08-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

It took me more than a year to get back to painting my Space Hulk minis, but after painting Brother Noctis and a Genestealer, now I'm onto Brother Deino. The picture isn't so great, but things came out pretty well, I think, until...

Gaaaaahhh!

I knew it was too humid out when I varnished him, but I was dumb and did it anyway. The front came out ok, but then the back frosted on me. :( The actual model looks even worse then the picture indicates.

I think it's salvageable if I just paint over the frosted areas. We'll see...

Battle Report from the past...40k

2011-08-25T08:28:00.000-04:00

Here's another battle report from the past, this one the first that I know of that is for Warhammer 40k. There were a few other battle reports, mainly Warhammer, and at least one for Adeptus Mechanicus, but this one is 40k, pitting Andy Chambers' Blood Angels against Jervis Johnson's Alaitoc Eldar. This battle report appeared in White Dwarf 141, from September 1991. Just looking at the miniatures and how the game was played, I think it's very interesting to see what has changed and what has not. (Clicking on the pictures will make them large enough to read)

Battle Report from the Past...

2011-08-22T09:36:00.000-04:00

While doing some digging around I came across this: the first Battle Report that I know of in White Dwarf magazine. At least, the first one in my collection, which goes back to issue #98. This one, titled "24 Hours at Carik Mound", which appeared in issue #107, recounts a 24 hour Warhammer 3rd Edition battle fought by a gaming club that included some GW staff members. Battle Reports become one of the most popular features in White Dwarf. (by issue 140 or so, they become a regular feature)

I've scanned the article in its entirety below. (Seeing as the article is some 23 years old, I'm hoping GW won't mind all that much). As you can see, Battle Reports have come a long way in the intervening decades. At the very least it's an interesting read to see how much things have changed since then.

Commandos and Mercenaries

2011-08-16T08:00:00.001-04:00

I figured it was about time to do a shout out to a friend of mine: Jack Badelaire.

Jack and I have been gaming together for some 13 years now, when we met at Boston University. For a while we played tabletop RPGs in our gaming group, but I had been a 40k gamer long before I met him. It took some cajolery to convince him to give 40k a try, but the imagery of the Necrons got him hooked. Now he has a good-sized Necron army, a large Waaagh! of Orks, and has recently started a Space Wolves army. Over the years his forces have featured in many if not most of my battle reports.

Jack's blog, the Post-Modern Pulps Blog, deals with action/adventure novels, movies and television series--all things that have in part inspired the over-the-top action-packed adventure that is found in the Warhammer 40k universe.

Jack has made for himself a network of contacts in the blogosphere with other fans of the genre, and even several authors. With the help of several like-minded collaborators, he has published the first issue in a what promises to be an interesting eJournal called Hatchet Force Journal.

Among other things it consists of several movie and book reviews, an interview with action/adventure novelist Mack Maloney (author of the Wingman and The Pirate Hunters series), and the essay The Children of Vietnam by Jack himself.

The eJournal is $0.99--pocket change, really. So if you're into the action/adventure genre I encourage you to check it out.

The Journal isn't the only thing he's been working on. Jack's first novel, Commando: Operation Arrowhead, will be released as an eBook for the Kindle in the coming months:

This ebook is the first in a planned series about British Commando operations during World War II. This first installment introduces us to Tommy Lynch, a veteran of the evacuation at Dunkirk, and his first mission as a Commando in Nazi-occupied France.

Jack's also hard at work on another novel, Killer Instincts, which is a revenge thriller set in 2001. It is currently in the editing phase and stands a good chance of being released by the end of the year.

Killer Instincts is about young William, a preppy college student whose family is wiped out by mafiosi. He is introduced by his Vietnam vet uncle to the shadowy Richard, an eccentric mercenary who brings William's killer instincts to the fore, preparing him to exact a very personal revenge.

Where the heck have I been?

2011-07-27T08:51:00.001-04:00

I've been out of the blogging loop for several months, but not without good reason. Earlier in the year my family had some health problems, and while we've gotten past them, it took up a lot of my time.

Second, and this is good news, I got to welcome my son into the world on July 5.

Both Mom and baby are doing great.

Since I now have two children...

...finding time to paint miniatures is even harder to come by.

Coupled with that, most of my free time over the past several months has been spent writing. Last year I discovered that Black Library accepts open submissions for novels and short stories, but only during a window from May 1 to July 31. See their FAQ. Anyway, I've had a bunch of ideas about 40k stories (who hasn't?), and decided to give it a try. So I've submitted proposals for two novels and one short story. If one of them is accepted, I'll hear in the next two months. If not, I won't hear anything at all. I have few illusions that one of my submissions will be accepted, but the fastest way to get rejected is not to submit anything at all. So here's hoping that the powers that be at Black Library like what I wrote...

Perhaps during the waiting period I can get back into painting. Sitting idle while waiting would be a mistake... As for actually gaming and fighting any battles...that's even harder.

My usual gaming opponent and good friend of mine, Jack Badelaire, has also been busy this year writing as well. Although he's a fan of Black Library's novels, he's going independent. Jack is very much into post-modern pulp fiction--that is, men's action/adventure novels, running the gamut from WWII commando stories to 70s and 80s pulp thrillers (check out his blog for more details). He's recently published the first issue of an e-journal called Hatchet Force Journal, which includes many articles on the subject including an interview with a prominent author in the field. It's a mere $0.99, so check it out.

Jack's also working on a pair of novels--one is a modern revenge thriller, the second is the first in a series of WWII novels based on British Commando raids in Europe. Both of these should be released on Amazon.com in the next few months.

* * *
Despite all these things taking up my time, I have a bunch of miniatures queued up on a shelf. Every time I walk past them I feel guilty. Sooner or later I'll find a few hours of free time, and I'll start painting. Someday I might even be able to get back into gaming...

Update

2011-05-10T09:09:00.000-04:00

First I wanted to say thanks to suneokun over at Pathfinder for nominating my blog with the "Stylish Blog Award."

I apologize that I haven't been posted in a while--real life has taken over in a major way. Suffice it to say that my family has experienced some serious health problems over the past few months, and while everything is ok, the road to recovery can be a long one. As such I have had very little time to devote to the hobby recently.

Still, it is good to see that the blogosphere is moving along just fine, and when I've been able I've been reading the various blogs with interest. It's good to have a community of bloggers out there that are supportive of each other and our mutual interests.

It's been somewhat depressing to see that it's been well over a year now since I've been able to put up a battle report. I can't promise when the next one will go up, but it certainly isn't my intention to end my reporting now. But doing a report at this point is an ambitious undertaking, so I'll have to take what I can get and post what I can when I can. Until then, thanks for visiting.

Death Company Marine

2011-03-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Here's the first member of my Death Company, Brother Elemiah.

It's hard to tell, but I tried to give him a very angsty, sleepless complexion. The pale skin didn't come out quite as starkly pale as I planned. For his eyes I wanted to make them look bloodshot with dark circles under them, so after I painted most of the face, I gave both eye-sockets a wash of red gore, which I think came out good, but doesn't show up well in the photo.

I still need to flock his base, so that part's not quite done yet.

Generalship

2011-03-18T08:00:00.000-04:00

I'm not a competitive player. That is to say, I don't play in tournaments and I don't pore obsessively over my army list and tweak it to get the most killing power out of it.

Whenever a new codex comes out, you hear the same complaints on the forums and some blogs, over and over again. Things like "codex creep", "OP" (over-powered), "nerfs", "buffs", etc. Whine whine whine. It's pathetic.

Some people may thrive on the whining. They live for it. Or perhaps I'm being too cynical and there are people who look at new challenges constructively and as an opportunity for growth. Yeah, right. The whiners are everywhere.

With such a wide diversity of 40k armies and their playstyles, it is a monumental, perhaps impossible task to make 40k into a truly balanced game. The only reason to even try to do this is to promote competitive play. Unbalanced armies/rules are probably the single most complained about facet of the game. This is a staple of the gaming industry in general, especially PC and console games. The most popular form of play (multiplayer or competitive play) is also the most complained about, for being unfair or unbalanced in some way.

Guess what? Life is unfair.

And that includes war.

History is replete with more wars and conflicts than bear mentioning. But one thing you'll never find is a war or a battle in which both sides were evenly matched. Always, always one side or the other will have an advantage in numbers, quality of troops, terrain, etc. But, notably, the side with the initial advantage is by no means the certain victor. In so many battles, a random event like the weather, hard fighting by the common soldier, or perhaps even good generalship can be the deciding factor.

No real world general ever gets to pick the composition of his force. He has to make do with what he has. That is a challenge in generalship. It may sound unfair to take your green army into battle against a better equipped foe twice your size, but then, that's what makes a general a military commander and not a wimpy tabletop gamer.

What gamers see when they look in the mirror.

The games I find more interesting are the ones in which things are deliberately stacked against one player, and seeing how he deals with it. When the going gets tough, a player can either suck it up and stick it out, or whine and complain. The former are the men, the latter are the boys. (or alternatively, the women and the girls)

Also, real world generals never have the whole picture. Real world generals don't get to peek at the contents of the enemy's army list. They get intelligence reports, and those reports are usually incomplete or even flat out wrong.

Here's a idea for a different way to play the game.

You pick your general, since that's represents you on the battlefield. Your opponent does the same.

Get a GM for your game (The GM doesn't have to be a referee, but rather someone to help you prepare the battle). Pick someone you and your opponent can agree on, someone with a modicum of intelligence, knowledge of military history, and preferably an imagination. The GM comes up with a narrative/scenario, and makes the two army lists. There's no restriction on the size or composition of either army--the GM should just pick something that fits the narrative. Force Org charts and points values should be guidelines, not rules.

If you get the "weaker" army, don't complain. The GM is giving you a chance to shine. Instead of whining, you can thank the Blood God for giving you this opportunity to give him more skulls for his throne. Maybe if you win he'll make you a daemon prince. One can always hope.

Depending on the scenario the GM has devised, he may provide you with an intelligence report about the opposing army. The information should be vague, incomplete, and perhaps even wrong in the details.

The GM gives each army an objective, and depending on the scenario devised, this does not necessarily have to be revealed to the opposition. The objectives need not be mutually exclusive. (e.g., one side might be attempting to get the secret plans off the table, while the other side merely wants to kill the opposing general)

Let the battle begin!

If you're on the weaker side, blame the impossible odds you have to face. And if you win, the reason is obviously your generalship so give yourself all the credit. That's what real generals do!

Brazen Claws Command Group Part 3

2011-03-16T08:00:00.009-04:00

The second member of my Brazen Claws Command Group is completed. He is the 4th Company Captain, the Master of the Fleet. His chest eagle and cloak are indicative of his company affiliation. I'm not too sure of his facial expression, however, as I think his eyes and eyebrows give him a look of uncertainty...almost fear. Oh well...

I am proud however, of the design on the lining of his cloak. I wanted to make it elaborate, but I was concerned about ruining the shading, etc., I had done on it. But I decided to bite the bullet and put a design on it. It's not perfect, but I'm happy with it.
There's also the hammer...the intent was to make the hammer head look like it was made out of a chunk of marble. This was another experiment--I was tempted just to make it white and highlight the edges, but I decided to take a risk and put some more detailing on it. I think this one came out pretty well.

So now here's my command group. More to come as I work on them.

Brazen Claw Command Group Part 2

2011-03-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

Here's the first member of my Brazen Claw Command Group completed. An old school terminator librarian. I've had this guy, well, forever, so it's about time he gets a paint job and into the field.

Unexpected Heroes

2011-03-11T08:00:00.003-05:00

This post by Admiral Drax got me thinking about the Imperial Guard.

Like all armies out there, the Imperial Guard have their basic troopers with the "base" stat line for the army, some elite troops with slightly better stat lines, and "heroes" with the highest stat lines. There's always been something about that that didn't seem right to me with respect to the Imperial Guard.

Warhammer 40k is a fantastical setting, with larger than life characters, represented in the game by their superhuman stats. For genetically engineered superhuman Space Marines, six meter tall Ork Warlords, or Tyranids Hive Tyrants, this makes perfect sense. But for the Imperial Guard, composed of "normal" humans of the Imperium, it seems somewhat out of place. More than any other 40k army, the Imperial Guard is the closest to a "real world" army.

Theodore Roosevelt

Armies of the real world are also filled with colorful, larger than life characters, such as Robert E. Lee, Teddy Roosevelt, George Patton. (Can you tell I'm an American?) Perhaps I should add Henry V, Julius Caesar, Napoleon. All of these guys served in the thick of combat (at least early in their careers, or while they were young), but what made them stand out was their ability to lead and inspire men, not the bodycount they personally generated. As the leaders of armies, their value was in their leadership. (not to mention their values as leaders off the battlefield in terms of battle/campaign strategy) But if you took any one of those leaders and set him in a death match with one of his typical soldiers, it's by no means assured that he'd come out on top. Maybe his experience/general badassery would give him an edge, but certainly not to the degree that is portrayed by an officer's stat line in 40k, where special characters can lay waste to entire units without batting an eye.

In the real world, battles are won or lost by the individual soldiers. And in the real world, sometimes an otherwise typical soldier leaps out of obscurity and into prominence by actions that are far out of proportion to his lowly rank. For example, Cpl Alvin York of the US Army in WWI, Sgt John Basilone of the USMC in WWII.

Alvin York

Those are just two examples, but obviously there are many more, too many to list. For whatever reason, these guys did something amazing in battle that made them stand out among their peers. Added to this is the lack of predictability--you never know who's the one who will turn out to be the hero.

Gunnery Sergeant Harker is a character in this vein. However, he's portrayed as a huge musclebound monster. In the real world a physique like Conan the Barbarian is not a requirement for heroism. Frequently the most heroic soldier is the little guy.

I know that most players want their army to have a special combat monster that makes their army invincible (or at least MIGHTY). That's fine for other armies. But I think that many (most?) Imperial Guard players have a least a little bit of distaste for that kind of attitude. The Imperial Guard is the army of the common man. Space Marines are the army of the elitists. The Space Marine player gets giddy when his uber-character slaughters an enemy unit. The Imperial Guard player, on the other hand, derives his satisfaction from his lowly flashlight wielding grunt taking that one fateful shot that manages to bring down the Space Marine uber-character.

The previous edition of Codex: Imperial Guard had a piece of wargear called the Honorifica Imperialis, where the receipient's statline was ignored and replaced with that of a Heroic Senior Officer.

I think a cool ability would be to reinstitute a form of this in the rules. Perhaps a player can pick a specific guardsman in secret before the battle, "revealing" him when required. Or perhaps the specific guardsman is determined randomly before the battle.

The guardsman could perhaps gain one or a combination of the following abilities:

1. Rending
2. Feel No Pain
3. Fearless
4. Furious Charge
5. A special rule, like maybe for one turn in the game he shoots at twice the normal rate (e.g., if he's a heavy bolter gunner, he gets to fire it at Heavy 6 instead of Heavy 3). And maybe he hits automatically, or on a 2+, re-rolling to wound. With Rending. Ignoring cover saves. Using the 10" blast template...

Well, maybe I'm going overboard. I'm not one to obsess over the minutiae of rules like this to make sure it's precisely fair and costs exactly X points. But the special rule/ability should be pretty cool. The heroism of this type of guy is usually defined by his acting in an exceptional manner at a time that affects the battle decisively.

* * *

Who's the real hero of the Imperial Guard? Is it this guy?

No. He's just standing in the back saying, "Get 'em."

This guy is the real hero:

He's the one leading the charge, ready to kick some serious butt, killing hundreds of heretics/xenos with just a .577 calibre Mars-pattern lasgun. And some guts behind it. Note that the battle standard is properly following him, not the officer standing way in back.

Grey Knights

2011-03-09T11:18:00.000-05:00

(Note: All these pictures are taken either from GW's website or from a mass e-mailing)

I've been awaiting the arrival of the Grey Knights with anticipation. Although I'm not really in a position to start up yet another army right now, I'd been looking forward to seeing what the new models were going to look like. I had heard rumors that the new Dreadknight was "hideous", but it was hard to tell from the one blurry image we got. Then I got the standard press release e-mail from GW.

My initial response to this was...eh.

Nothing really to write home about here, either.

Or here. Although I have to stay this obsession with really wide stances for terminators lately to make them seem bigger is bordering on ridiculous. These guys are in serious danger of groin pulls...

But I wanted to see a little more detail so I went to check out GW's website.

This is a small image, but I like the sword on the Dreadknight a heck of a lot better than the hammer. And since the model's plastic, that's a big plus, so I'm already imagining all sorts of conversion work I could do on this guy to give him a really dynamic pose.

The Grey Knights themselves are pretty cool, and I like all the options that are available. The move to plastic is a good one.

Same goes for the terminators...

...which can get pretty complex.

I'm not all that impressed with Lord Kaldor Draigo though. I mean, the model has tons of great detail--the shield is amazing, but... I just think that in a horde of baroque Grey Knights, this guy just isn't going to stick out all that much.

In the end, I'm pretty impressed with the new offerings--I'm really tempted to pick up the Dreadknight at some point.

Brazen Claw Command Group Part 1

2011-03-07T08:40:00.000-05:00

I'm getting very close to finishing my Brazen Claws, so I figured I'd post progress on them as I go.

This model is a conversion of a Terminator Captain which will serve as my Chapter Master. The original model had a storm bolter and power sword, I think it's only fitting that the Chapter Master of the Brazen Claws be armed with Lightning Claws...

Sawed off parts of the plastic lightning claws and parts of the metal arms of the mini.

Supergluing the lightning claws in place was pretty easy--now I just need to fill in the gaps with green stuff.

Snow Day

2011-02-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Two feet of snow on the ground, at least, and yesterday we got another six inches or so, with another six or so planned for this morning. Rather than drive to work in a whiteout, I took the day off. Fortunately, my condo complex has landscapers, do I didn't have to do shoveling other than digging the car out.

A benefit of a snow day is that I have some some to paint up some miniatures, so I was able to do up these two guys yesterday:

I know that two isn't much, but I guess I paint slowly. I'll take what I can get.

The Miniatures Disease

2011-01-31T11:51:00.000-05:00

It's been six months since I've bought any miniatures, a fact that shocks and awes me. Due to various other factors, I've had to put down my paintbrushes and do other things for three months.

But recently I've been able to get back into the game, albeit slowly. I've painted a pair of miniatures, and I'm approaching completion of my Brazen Claws company--a long term project.

When I spent those three months not painting, it was easy to forget about it--or rather, I'd think about 40k, but not too deeply. Yet as soon as I started painting again, I started thinking about it. New projects to work on, new ideas for armies.

I still have many projects to complete, and a mountain of miniatures still in boxes unpainted. But I can't help but think of new things I want to do. It's amazing how quickly the addiction consumes you once you get back into it.

I still need to complete my Brazen Claws.
I still need to complete my Ork Land Battleship.
I still have my Space Hulk minis to paint
And tons of other miniatures lying around....

And yet, I see a picture like this:

The new Shadow Spectres from Forgeworld, and I want to start making that new Eldar Army I've been dreaming of for a while. The theme of the army is very ghost-like, and as such the Shadow Spectres would be a perfect fit.

And then the Grey Knights are coming out soon, which is exciting...

And to top it off, I still have lots of ideas for my Warhammer and LotR armies too... Sigh.

Knight of the Raven

2011-01-24T08:00:00.001-05:00

This past weekend I did something I haven't done in over three months: painted a miniature. Real life has been pretty busy recently, and I simply haven't had the time to sit down and paint since October. It feels good to be back. This doesn't mean that I'll be pounding out miniatures left and right again, but at least I'm back in the game a little bit.

I always thought that the Knights of the Raven chapter looked pretty cool. It seems clear to me (although it's stated in the canon that it's not definitive) that the Knights of the Raven are descended from the Raven Guard, which has always been a favorite of mine.

I had originally thought that their paint scheme was essentially the opposite of the Raven Guard, that is, white with black markings. But upon closer inspection, it's actually burnished silver with black markings. Pretty cool. So just for fun I decided to paint up a test miniature in this scheme.

Not the best work I've ever done, but passable, I think.

Sometimes real life gets in the way...

2010-11-23T08:42:00.000-05:00

Things have been crazy the past few months. I'm currently caught in a vicious cycle of sickness--catching a cold from my daughter, only to reinfect her and vice versa. This has been coupled with some home improvement projects. All the family is moving in with my mother-in-law. And work has been busy too. All of this has conspired together to mean that I haven't had time to sit down and paint for ages... :( And there's no end in sight. Perhaps in a few months things will settle down, but until then, I'm stuck taking care of other things. There's no question I'll get back into it, but it'll take some time. Out.

The End is Nigh...

2010-10-14T10:19:00.000-04:00

For a long while now I've been working my Brazen Claw army--specifically, the Brazen Claw 2nd Company. It's been a long road filled with distractions due to other projects, as well as burnout painting so much red and blue quartered paint schemes.

Recently I've been trying to inject some self-discipline into myself and not buy any new miniatures for a while. Then I saw my Brazen Claws sitting on the shelf. The company is almost done, mainly just the above miniatures left to go. Painting the whole company seemed like almost an insurmountable task in the beginning. But now, I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Finishing the company before I buy any more miniatures seems to be a reachable goal. Also, as it's going to take me a while (at least a few weeks) to find the time to finish these guys anyway, it'll also help my wallet a bit too.

Thoughts on the State of Gaming, Part 3

2010-10-11T08:00:00.001-04:00

I think GW has a workable business model with The Lord of the Rings line, provided they marketed it right. The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game is a perfectly workable skirmish game--easy enough for a new player to get into with a relative minimum of effort. Once they become a veteran and want to play games with huge armies, then they can "graduate" into playing War of the Ring, and purchase the additional loads of miniatures. If The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game was marketed as the "entry-level" game, it might attract new players. As it is now, it seems to be presented as a sub-game to War of the Ring.

It seems to me that there are three levels of games that could be tapped in a logical progression for each genre.

A fast paced "board" game. This could consist of interlocking board pieces like Space Hulk or Warhammer Quest, and a few miniatures that act as game pieces. The game should have simple enough rules to appeal to players who are not gamers (the genre itself should keep the veterans interested). The game should be something that you could play with your children or disinterested SO. An example is the Settlers of Catan, which is arguably has some fantasy elements and yet is popular outside of traditional gaming circles.
An intermediate level "skirmish" wargame. This should contain more miniatures than the previous level, while not being huge battles, either.
A wargame. This is the level of the current games of Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, and War of the Ring.

The key to a marketing strategy like this is to ensure that the games should be as compatible as with each other as possible, at least in terms of the miniatures. That ensures that a new player will "add on" to his army as he progresses up the chain, rather than feel like he has to "start over" each time.

For each of the three main lines that GW has, I can envision the following tiers:

Warhammer:
    Tier One: Warhammer Quest. A handful of characters doing a dungeon crawl to accomplish a quest.
    Tier Two: Mordheim, or something similar. Basically warbands fighting each other for whatever reason.
    Tier Three: Warhammer itself.

Warhammer 40k:
    Tier One: A Warhammer Quest analogue, perhaps a Rogue Trader or Inquisitorial Retinue on a mission on board a space hulk to accomplish a quest, like retrieve an artifact and then escape.
    Tier Two: A skirmish game, perhaps more like Necromunda, the original Rogue Trader version of the game, or something along the lines of the Kill Team rules from 6th edition 40k. A disadvantage of Necromunda itself was that you couldn’t use the miniatures in Warhammer 40k, and, as far as I know, the vice versa. Suffice it to say, it should a be a squad level game where each player has maybe a dozen miniatures.
    Tier Three: Warhammer 40k.

The Lord of the Rings
    Tier One: A game called something like “Escape from Moria”, where the Fellowship (or a small band of other heros), has to escape the mines of Moria before they are captured or killed by its evil denizens. This is a different concept from the boxed set The Mines of Moria, which is the starter set to The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game. Rather, this game would have the interlocking game pieces like Warhammer Quest or Space Hulk, which creates Moria as the players explore it, searching for an exit.
    Tier Two: The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, albeit marketed at the skirmish level like it was originally envisioned.
    Tier Three: War of the Ring.

Having a tiered structure like this I think would attract more gamers. As it is, many new players jump in and get hooked for life, while others start to get involved, build an army, get frustrated at the escalating costs or codex creep or whatever, and then and sell everything on ebay and leave permanently. Those that are lost are going to tell others about their experiences, and potentially drive others away. However, with more gaming options available, someone who gets frustrated might instead take a break from the Tier Three game and slide back down to Tier Two or One, and still have fun. Even if their never go back up to Tier Three, they’re still playing games within the company, and even if they spend way less money than they used to, less is better than none at all.

Thoughts on the State of Gaming, Part 2

2010-10-08T08:00:00.002-04:00

Another point of the Specialist Game Rant the I mentioned in Part 1 is that the purpose of the "side games" was to draw in new blood with the side games, in the hopes of hooking them into playing the more expensive flagship games. What GW supposedly found was that the veteran players were being pulled away by the specialist games rather than new players being hooked into the hobby by them.

On the other hand, I know several people who are gamers but not miniatures gamers, who stay away from GW stuff simply because they don't want to invest the time and money required to buy and paint an army (this is also a primary reason I don't play MMORPGs). In such a situation, a smaller game like Battlefleet Gothic would be much more palatable to them, as spending less than $100 can get you a decent fleet that won't even take very long to paint--even though many of the miniatures are still expensive metal.

But it's a maxim of the business industry that it costs ten times more to attract a new customer than to keep a current one. Every veteran of Warhammer or Warhammer 40k is going to get burned out eventually, and want to play something else, if only for a while. If the specialist games exist, the veteran will likely go to those. Even if the veteran never comes back--they're still playing within the company. If the specialist games aren't available, then the veteran might just leave the company and play another company's game, like Warmachine. And then they might like that game better...and never come back.

I find myself in that position right now--after not playing Warhammer 40k for a while, I'm looking at Warhammer a little bit, but it'll be a long time before I can build up a workable army, so my motivation is low. In such a situation, I'd be interested in checking out some of the other games, for example Warhammer Quest, Man O'War, Mordheim, Necromunda, who knows? But none of them are readily available.

The main one that is right now, Battlefleet Gothic, is great, and in fact that's the last game I played. Many of the people who have read my battle reports have said that they've enjoyed that I've incorporated Battlefleet Gothic games into my 40k mini-campaigns. With GW support of other games, I could potentially do the same thing with them... (for example, a Mordheim or Man O’ War game incorporated with Warhammer. How can that not be cool?). GW would do well to have more cross over campaigns and battle reports. The intermingling of fans of both games can only serve to increase the popularity of both.

Thoughts on the State of Gaming, Part 1

2010-10-07T10:36:00.002-04:00

It's been almost three months since I bought anything GW-related. The reasons are many--but boil down to distractions and discipline, pretty much in that order. As can happen with many hobbies, it's become a situation where I want to get back into it, and even feel a little guilty about not being more into it, but I'm not motivated enough to dive in it yet. Possibly this is related to the fact that I haven't even played a game since early June.

My White Dwarf subscription is nearing expiration, and for a while I was seriously considering not renewing (eventually I think I'll crack). The battle reports in White Dwarf were the original reason I got into doing up my own battle reports, and were by far the most interesting articles to me. Nowadays, even though their battle reports are little more than showcases for their army of the month, I still find them interesting reads, if only to read about the new armies and what has changed. Sure, I can probably get more news and battle reports than I know what to do with on the internet, but there's still something about having the magazine in hand that is appealing (much in the same way that holding an actual miniature can in ways be more appealing than just looking at a video game character).

Despite the fact that I haven’t played the games all that much recently, nor have a I painted very diligently recently, I’ve spent plenty of time thinking about it, both the games and the hobby. What I like about it, what I don’t like, and what I think is missing. The benefit of being out of the loop is...perspective.

I found an interesting link while surfing recently: It's some generic rants about the state of GW games and the company's marketing practices, and even though they are 5-6 years old, much of it still rings true.

One of the rants in particular talks about the demise of the Specialist Games, which I think is a real tragedy. The short of the story is this: Back in the old days GW had its two flagship games, Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40,000, but also released rules and miniatures for many other games. These other games, while popular with dedicated fanbases, didn't attract quite the same audience as the two main ones. As such, GW has essentially discontinued the specialist games in favor of their "primary" games.

This seems antithetical to the original purpose of Games Workshop. I don't purport to know what GW's original "mission statement" was, if it even had one, but a company that has a name like "Games Workshop" seems to have an implied purpose. Namely, creating games. Creating two games and then sticking with them (albeit with new editions) doesn't fit that title very well. Back in the 90s when there were a dozen games running around, many with their own dedicated miniatures lines, with new games being developed all the time...that when was Games Workshop actually lived up to its name. Even though I'm not interested in playing all of the games available then, I still wish some of them were still around.

One of the major problems I think is maintaining the multiple miniatures lines. With the move to mostly plastic miniatures, I would think that separate miniatures lines would be easier to maintain. I think the market still exists for Epic 40k and Battlefleet Gothic, and probably a smaller market exists on the fantasy side (Warmaster and Man O'War (the latter despite being discontinued)). The online communities that remain for these games are a testament to this.

The example set by Gorkamorka was a bad move in my opinion. while the miniatures themselves were cool and usable in 40k, why the switch to different bases? The only reason I can think of to do it is to provide some distance from 40k and emphasize the game’s differences. But why would you want to do that? Perhaps the fear was that people would think the game was essentially the same as 40k, and so there was no reason to get it. But it’s well known that many players buy the various boxed games because they just want the miniatures. By having a different basing style, it’s an immediate turn off.

The current method of revitalizing The Lord of the Rings line by making The War of the Ring game is a better approach. Yes, The War of the Ring uses additional bases, but you don't have to re-base the existing models you have--you just plop them into the new, large bases.

Space Hulk is an anomaly--which makes me think it was an experiment to test the waters. From the beginning GW said it was a one-shot deal-- (although this has generated no end of skepticism by the cynical, who assumed that it was just a marketing ploy, and that it would remain in production indefinitely). As a one-shot, the fact that most of the miniatures can’t be used in 40k without modification to their bases isn’t as much of a problem. But still...I’m hoping that Space Hulk was just a “one shot” in that it they won’t support it beyond the initial release, and not that it was the only “old school” game that they ever intend to re-release.

Medic!

2010-09-27T08:00:00.007-04:00

When you get wounded on the battlefield, especially one as brutal as the 40k battlefield, you'd like to think that your side cares enough about you that they'll try to treat your wounds, and possibly even save your life. The Space Marines have their Apothecaries, whose primary duty is to care for the chapter's geneseed, but also to treat injured Space Marines so they can fight again. The Imperial Guard, in an attempt to maintain some humanity in the uncaring grinding death machine of the Imperium, have medics to treat their injured guardsmen. Even orks, after a fashion, have their medics, known as painboyz. Their treatments might be more dubious, but orks medics exist nonetheless.

But what about the other races? There's no mention of medical personnel. Now I wouldn't expect a race like the Necrons to have medics... And being treated by a medic in the forces of Chaos or Dark Eldar might be considered a fate worse than death. But there are two other races, for example Eldar and Tau, that you might expect care enough about their own troops to try to salvage them from lingering death on the battlefield.

So here's my Tau Medic. Keeping my Fire Warriors alive to fight another day.

Space Hulk Genestealer

2010-09-13T12:24:00.000-04:00

Finished my first attempt at a Space Hulk Genestealer. I don't think the above photo really does it justice. I put gloss varnish on the claws, armor plates, and tongue, but it doesn't show up in the picture. The highlights are a little more vivid as well on what is mainly a very dark model, but those are hard to see as well.

Anyway, the color scheme is a reversal of my 40k genestealers. I wanted something even darker and more sinister looking.

In any even, I'm so behind in painting miniatures that anything at all that I complete is a step in the right direction, hence this post.

Still here...

2010-09-09T11:58:00.001-04:00

The past month or so has not been so friendly to me with regards to either blogging or playing 40k (or anything miniature related).

Fun-wise, I've done paintball twice in the past month:

You might think that a significant portion of my time would be taken up by playing this...

...but you would be wrong.

For the most part I've been busy with the backlog of chores and other jobs around the house that have piled up. Every time I think I'll get back into painting something, another distraction comes along. I still have hope though that in the near future I'll be able to find some time to do some painting.

One of my big chores is to reorganize all my storage--since my daughter has been born, baby stuff has been displacing everything else in the house, and the clutter has been piling up in a rather disorganized, space-inefficient manner. So I've had to move lots of crap around, while throwing away lots of stuff that I no longer need. In the midst of this I had to make a heartbreaking decision. My garage has long been the home of lots of my 40k scenery, including a bunch of cityfight terrain, featured in multiple battle reports, for example:

Well, the cityfight terrain has been sitting on valuable shelf space for years now, and so I had to make the decision to destroy the city. I hadn't had the chance to use it in years, and when I examined it, it was covered with a thick layer of dust, cobwebs, and other detritus. While I liked the terrain, it was just way too bulky and underused so I couldn't justify keeping it. Someday, when I have more room, I'll have to rebuild my terrain collection, and I think my terrain building ability has improved somewhat, so I'll probably be able to do a better job. At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

I do have several blog articles that I've worked on sporadically, but none of them are finished yet. Chances are I'll be able to finish one or more of those and post those before I'm able to get back into painting.

So anyway...I'm posting this update to try to tell myself that there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and that soon I'll be able to get back into painting etc.

Brother Noctis

2010-08-10T08:00:00.004-04:00

Painted my first Space Hulk miniature this past weekend, Brother Noctis.

The highlights didn't photograph as well, but they weren't really "extreme" highlights to begin with. I gave this guy a good coat of Testors Dullcote as well to give the paintjob some staying power.

I'll slowly work on the other miniatures from Space Hulk, but only once in a while to give me some variety from all my other projects...

Ork Land Battleship, Part 16

2010-07-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

I'll tell you one thing. Riveting isn't.

Port-forward track

Starboard-forward track

Port-aft track

Starboard-aft track

These pictures just shows the exteriors of the tracks--I had to do a bunch of riveting on the lower parts of the interiors of the tracks. I estimate there is something like 1,300 individual rivets on these pieces. The work isn't hard, it's just very tedious. In the end I think it's worth it, as the rivets add a lot to the model and make it look ten times better than if all the rivets were not there.

Ork Land Battleship, Part 15

2010-07-27T08:00:00.001-04:00

Ok, an Ork Battleship needs gunz. Lots of 'em. So here we go. Six supa-gatlers.

These guns are mounted underneath the bow of the battleship, facing forward. You don't want to be facing them.

Next step I'm working on the forward assault ramp, and lots of riveting. More to come.

Ork Land Battleship, Part 14

2010-07-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update as I got some more structure done. Soon I need to start working on detailing, which is going to take forever... Here's a (admittedly bad) picture of part of the superstructure, with some detailing on the after part:

The reason being is that I'm mounting another section on top of it--it will be visibile through the trusswork, so I need to put in detailing now.

Adding on the bridge section and another deck leads us to here:

And finally the top of the bridge:

Next post will have some detail work, as I've begun that now.

Miniatures Queue Update

2010-07-19T08:00:00.001-04:00

Since I've added the Abandon All Hope blog, I've made some changes to the Miniatures Queue, to reflect the addition of fantasy miniatures that I've added to my task list.

I've split up the Miniatures Queue into subdivisions: 40k, Warhammer, LotR, Battlefleet Gothic, and Space Hulk. I've left out Epic (for now), because that would truly make things scary.

The queue will probably spike several times in the near future as I get more organized and identify more miniatures I want to paint (and possibly make some ill-advised impulse purchases).

I've removed projects such as terrain projects and other scratchbuilt ideas from the queue. I do have lots of ideas, but they frequently change. As the queue is supposed to be a measure of mountain of miniatures I'm trying to reduce, scratchbuilt/terrain projects don't really apply here.

So here's the new queue, as of today:

Warhammer 40k: 185
Lord of the Rings: 147
Warhammer: 80
Space Hulk: 38
Battlefleet Gothic: 3
Total: 453

Ork Land Battleship, Part 13

2010-07-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

When I first posted this as a "mystery project", it seemed to generate some interest in figuring out what it might be. Responding to that, I attempted to do what I could to provide little hints, but without revealing the whole project. Well, I'm sick of that now--I might as well just start posting progress.

So this post is a sequence of pictures as I assemble the various parts of the Land Battleship from the bottom up.

All of the pieces I'm adding will remain removable in the final product, so I can add detail in each stage, and the various Ork krew will be able to fit inside.

Starting to get big... I still have some superstructure left to go, mostly in the after section. Once all that's in place, I'll start detailing everything up!

Ork Land Battleship, Part 12

2010-07-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

This will be a relatively small update, showing some of the parts of the superstructure I'm making. Lots of these pieces are material intensive, so I'm finding that I've been using up my stocks of plasticard at an alarming rate.

With the lack of large materials, I suppose I could start on the detail work, but I really want to finish the main structure first, then start on the details from the bottom up. Here's some pictures of some of my progress:

This is part of the superstructure that will contain a turret and aft of it, a control room.

Same thing, but with the turret ring in place.

An after section, which will go on top of the above section.

And finally, the bridge section. More to come soon.

Inaugurating a new blog

2010-07-10T08:00:00.002-04:00

With the release of Warhammer 8th edition today, I thought I would use it for the inaugural date of my new fantasy-dedicated blog, Abandon All Hope (of ever finishing painting all my miniatures).

The blog will be focused on the fantasy side, and I'll use it to post Warhammer battle reports, progress on the fantasy minis and/or projects I'm working on, and any general articles I decide to write.

We'll see how it goes. If it ends up tanking, I may just reincorporate it back into this one, despite "Arcadia Prime" having no direct relevance to the fantasy side of things. Either way, if things are to grow, they have to change over time. So rather than become stagnant, I'm branching out and trying new things.

Ork Land Battleship, Part 11

2010-07-05T08:00:00.001-04:00

"It's not big enuff."
"Wot?"

"I can't fit all da boyz in da front part."
"Da bow."
"Da bow?"
"Da front part."
"Whaddeva. It's not big enuff."
"I already extended it once for you."
"You wot?"
"Made it bigga."
"Well make it bigga again, ya git."
"All right."

"Gotta give it some supports, like."

"See, 'dere you go. It's bigga."
"What's wit da...hole thing?"

"Da wot?"
"Da two parts don't touch. You cocked it up, ya git!"
"Yeah, well, my foreman messed up with his measuring tape with the first hull extension, and one side was too long."
"Wot about da foreman?"
"I killed him."
"Good."

"See? All fixed."

Ork Land Battleship (formerly Mystery Project), Part 10

2010-07-01T08:00:00.009-04:00

This weekend I will heading off to the land of James T. Kirk's birth visiting family, so I'll be away for a little while. But I figured I would post some pictures before I left.

The commenters have guessed it...it's an Ork Battleship. Sort of... More like an Ork Land Battleship.

You know that when something requires trusswork that it's going to be big.

Here's a picture of one of the engine room control panels.

And a picture of the engine room--still a work very much in progress.

And finally, here's an early picture of a cargo bay.

"What, it doesn't look big to me..." (no, I didn't photoshop this picture)

Mystery Project 1, Part 9

2010-06-25T08:00:00.005-04:00

Well, I finally broke, and am posting something that's going to give away lots of information.

And finally, this last shot gives a clue as to what army this might belong to:

Mystery Project 1, Part 8

2010-06-23T08:00:00.001-04:00

Another part showing some of the complexity--this mechanism won't be visible on the completed model, but it shows some of what will end up being moving parts.

Warhammer Blog

2010-06-22T08:49:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, with the imminent release of the 8th edition of Warhammer, I'm tempted to get back into the fantasy side of things.

Well, it looks like I'm going to break down and get back into it. Fear not, this does not mean the end of either Arcadia Prime or my interest in the 40k side of things.

Just thinking about it I have plenty of ideas for posts. Thoughts on the game and how I originally got into it, pictures of my various armies (old and new), progress as I choose/work on new armies, and battle reports (my original raison d'etre) as they happen.

But I'm struggling as to what to name it.

This blog "Arcadia Prime" is named after the planet where my original Imperial Guard regiment was formed, and as the fleet base of my Battlefleet Gothic fleet (er...rather it should be called Battlefleet Arcadia). For the purposes of the 40k campaigns I've played, my gamer friends and I assume that they take place in the Arcadia Sector.

But what to call a fantasy blog? I think it would be cool to have a title that ties it to my 40k blog, but that's not required. It's easy to come up with a name for something related to 40k. It's a big galaxy, far too big to define in detail, so all you have to do is carve out a portion of it and call it your own. Not so easy in the Warhammer World, since it's just a planet, with locales already defined. Since many of the races are rooted in their various nations. (e.g., High Elves are on Ulthuan, Bretonnians are in Bretonnia, Lizardmen are in Lustria, and so on) So it's hard to pick a little niche in the Old World and say "here is where all those races are going to get together and duke it out.

At the same time, this blog isn't going to be about a single race. In my time I've played any number of races, and I'm going to bully Badelaire to do some posts about his army as well, so this won't be restricted by an individual race.

So I think I should avoid a title that's tied to a location or a specific army and keep it more abstract (or at least, more general).

Also, I don't want to keep it so generic as to be "Darkwing's Warhammer Blog". Lame.

While the 40k Universe is very dark, with a gothic style to it. So is the Warhammer World, and I want to capture that somewhat in the title.

Badelaire and I bandied a few ideas around yesterday--here's a few of what I can remember, plus others that I thought of since then.

Battles of the Old World (kinda generic)
Legends of the Old World (is it arrogant to talk about my own progress blog as "legends"?)

Thinking about my neverending battle against the tides of unpainted miniatures, and considering the sense of impending doom associated with the Warhammer World, I came up with...
Stemming the tide of Darkness
Abandon All Hope of ever finishing painting all my miniatures.
The Last Stand
Delaying the Inevitable
Impending Doom

And another random idea:

Fields of Death (too morbid?)

Any opinions? Anyone else have any ideas?

Mystery Project 1, Part 7

2010-06-21T08:00:00.002-04:00

Here's a zoom-in of part of the model...showing a couple of in-progress structures that have some kind of function or another...

Mystery Project 1, Part 6

2010-06-17T08:00:00.001-04:00

Here's a new part I'm working on. Here's a hint, which may or may not help. There will be two of them.

Warhammer 8th Edition

2010-06-16T08:00:00.004-04:00

Warhammer 8th edition is coming out soon (not that this is news to anyone). It's been a long time since I played it, as the 40k side of things has dominated my gaming for a long time now. I originally played High Elves and have since played Bretonnians. Due to getting various boxed sets, I've been amassing quite an Empire force as well, which has so far lay untouched and unpainted. And I've been eyeing Wood Elves for a while now. I still have tons of miniatures lying around, waiting to be painted. Maybe this is just the thing to get me into it again. (so many games, so little time...)

Warhammer Fantasy Battle, 3rd Edition, was the first GW book I ever bought. Here's a picture of it below--my copy, not a stock photo. It has weathered the 23 years rather well. The binding is start to come apart, but other than that it's in remarkably good shape, considering its age and the amount of use it got.

Some thoughts on the price. At $74.25 it's not cheap. On the other hand, I bought the 3rd Edition rulebook in 1987 for $34.95. Don't ask me how I remember that. I just do. It is a 278 page hardcover, not full color but with lots of color pages in it. I still have it after more than two decades, and I'll still flip through it occasionally to look at the art inside, and just to remember how "things were" back in the old days. I haven't once regretted spending the money, and this was when I was in the 8th grade. And yes, I used my own money earned from a job, not by begging my parents for it. Now the new book is $74.25, just over twice the price (2.12 times). It's also 528 pages, just under twice the size (1.9 times). It's also full color, and although I haven't seen it, I can imagine the production values are probably much better. The price difference being largely offset by the bigger size, it comes to only about a 12% increase in net cost. Considering inflation over 23 years is a lot more than that (about 92% according to my calculations¹), I'd say that this book is a steal. So for those who are complaining that the new book is overpriced...well, guess what, it's not.

I'm very tempted to pick up the new book. Will I have the chance to play Warhammer very much, if at all? Probably not. And it's hard to justify spending $75 for nostalgia's sake. On the other hand, it just might get me back into playing Warhammer... But considering the calculations I just did above, I might have convinced myself that it's more than worth it.

Notes
1. CPI Inflation Calculator: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl.

Mystery Project 1, Part 5

2010-06-14T08:00:00.006-04:00

Getting away from the tracks, I figured I'd focus on another aspect of the project. Playing the StarCraft II Betahas pulled me away from working on this for a while, but now that the beta's over I have some time to work on it again. The next thing that threatens to slow me down is running out of plasticard...I need to replenish my supply soon.

Mystery Project 1, Part 4

2010-06-09T08:00:00.004-04:00

It should be obvious what these are now. But what are they for?

Mystery Project 1, Part 3

2010-06-07T08:33:00.001-04:00

Here's another picture. This one might give a better clue as to what's going on.

Mystery Project 1, Part 2

2010-06-03T08:00:00.001-04:00

Next up was making 136 of these things. Talk about tedious.

Mystery Project 1, Part One

2010-06-01T10:38:00.001-04:00

For this project I'm just going to post progress, without talking too much about what I'm working on. With time what I'm working on will start to take shape.

Part 1: 88 little cylinders.

Chess, StarCraft, and 40k

2010-05-24T13:12:00.001-04:00

It's the background that gets you to play the game...but once the game starts, the background goes out the window.

To a degree, even Chess is like this. Chess has a hint of a politico-strategic element to it in the names of its pieces: King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Pawn, but the names of the pieces are only incidental to gameplay. They could be called Dog, Top Hat, Wheel Barrow, Race Car, Boot, and Iron, and it would still be the same game. But naming the game pieces after personalities (or fortifications), instills in the player the politico-strategic element to the game, and the players can better imagine it to be a battle of political heavyweights as the maneuverings of the pieces are analogues to maneuverings in a political environment.

At least until they start playing. When the game actually begins, the last thing a player is thinking about is "political machinations." They're thinking of things like the "English Opening", or the "Sicilian Defense", which describe certain opening moves. (I'm far from a chess expert--I just looked up some openings and picked two at random).

If a motivator to play the game is because it's an analogue to political maneuverings, it has been lost. The game has become divorced from its abstract background, and has fallen into a set pattern of opening moves, some of them so common that they've practically become scripted. These moves have been analyzed by expert players to death.

This perspective of the game is certainly not limited to Chess. I'm also a casual Real-Time Strategy game player, and a fan of StarCraft. Soon StarCraft II will be released, but in the meantime the beta is out. I recently got into the beta and have been playing a few games (and losing--clearly I need to get rid of the rust after ten years since I last played the original StarCraft). The StarCraft universe has a rich background, involving three races (Terran, Zerg, and Protoss), each striving for dominance. The game has a single-player mode that consists of multiple missions/games/scenarios in a story-driven campaign where you learn about the conflicting motivations of the three races and how they relate to each other (usually through violence).

But then, fully drawn in by the rich story, it then comes to an end, and the player, wanting a fresh experience, is left with one major outlet to play the game--the multiplayer mode. Nowadays StarCraft is all about the multiplayer mode. What was once an add-on for many games has now become their reason for being. But the multiplayer takes the rich background that hooked the players and tosses it out the window.

The rich background of the game allows the players to imagine Terran marines using their Gauss Rifles to fend off leaping Zerglings and Hydralisks while Siege Tanks support them with deadly artillery fire, and Protoss Zealots wielding their Psionic Blades and raging over the loss of their homeplanet of Aiur to plunge into close combat for revenge.

At least until they start playing. When the game actually begins, the last thing a player is thinking about is Gauss Rifles and Psionic Blades. They're thinking of things like "Marauder Builds", "Muta-ling Builds", "Reaper Rush", splash damage, micro and macro. (the terms micromanagement and macromanagement taking too long to say for such a fast-paced game as StarCraft.) The gamer terminology has overtaken the background to such a degree that players even refer to units with special powers and/or abilities as "casting spells," despite spells usually being associated with science fantasy rather than science fiction. Races in the background story who are the most vicious of enemies, e.g. Protoss and Zerg, are now allies as often as not in the multiplayer environment.

The background as a motivator to draw interest into the game has served its purpose, which can now be ignored. The game has become divorced from its background and has fallen into a pattern of strategies, based not on the background of the game, but rather the damage models used by the game, and the tactics players use to get the most out of the various units. These tactics have been analyzed by expert players to death.

Does any of this sound familiar?

Warhammer 40k is a game with an extremely rich background. Background text is all over the rulebooks, codices, etc. The art in the rulebooks inspires us to imagine the 40k Universe. Black Library publishes novel after novel of what could be argued is just "fluff" for the game (but just as arguably it exists in its own right these days).

But all of this just serves to get us to play the game. (I'd argue that the whole hobby aspect of painting miniatures is an offshoot of the origin of 40k as a game rather than the other way around, as the company is Games Workshop, not Hobbies Workshop, but that's a discussion for another day) Once the game actually starts, who among us bothers to truly think in terms of what is happening from a "background" perspective? We don't really imagine the Space Marines plowing into melee and beating on orks with their chainswords. We think about getting the +1 attack on the charge, re-rolls to wound, winning the combat resolution. We make "Leafblower" army lists, focus on our ability to kill MEQ, and are desperate about getting on troops choices the on objective markers in Turn 5. At tournaments the majority of games are marines vs. marines.

The amazing background of the 40k universe has served its purpose--to get us to play the game. It's rich enough that when we're not playing the game, we still manage to obsess about it, and so much of it would live on even if 40k the game ceased to exist. But while we are playing the game...where does it all go?

Inspired by Art

2010-05-10T08:00:00.001-04:00

Every so often I see a picture in a Codex or White Dwarf and I think, "That's really cool. I want a model that looks like that," and I feel inspired to try to duplicate it.

This first one is of a Tau Commander, the art coming from the original Codex Tau (I believe the same picture is in the current Codex: Tau Empire as well. It required a minimum of converting--I just had to trim off the lower legs at the knee joint and reattach them to make them bend more.

I always thought that this picture of Commander Farsight looked pretty cool, so I felt inspired to duplicate it. This one also required a minimum of conversion, I think it was just bending the knee a bit like with the Tau Commander.

Next is an assault sergeant from the new Blood Angels Codex--I thought that the Blood Angels marine with the pair of Lightning Claws looked particularly cool. This one required some more converting. I used one Lightning Claw from the Space Wolves Grey Hunters set (generously donated by Badelaire), while the other is from the Space Marine Commander's box set. I had to chop them off at the elbows and rotate them to get the angles right. To match the breastplate, I used a normal tactical marine breastplate and filed off the skull, replacing it with a blood drop from the Death Company sprue. The pauldrons (er...shoulder pads) are from the Death Company sprue and the Sanguinary Guard sprues. For the legs I hacked off the right leg at the hip, and replaced it with another assault marine right leg (so now both legs are the ones from the assault marine sprue that are more bent at the knee). I'm still working on the conversion (I have to greenstuff some power cables), so this is still a work in progress.

This last one is a model that Badelaire did, based on the picture of a particularly mean looking nob in Codex Orks. The arms and lower legs are from the Warhammer Fantasy Black Orcs sprue, while the choppa is converted using normal Ork Boyz bitz. The rest of the bitz are standard ork nobz bits.

Take no Prisoners!

2010-05-07T08:00:00.005-04:00

The 40k Universe is a dangerous place.

In the real world, last stands happen in wars, but are generally uncommon (at least in modern times). Far more common is that once a side realizes it's been beaten, it surrenders. The hope of a prisoner is that they'll get to sit out the rest of the conflict and be able to return home (if it still exists) and live a semi-peaceful existence. Frequently that doesn't happen, but it's the hope. That hope, even if possible, is usually chosen because it is perceived as being better than the alternative at the time--which is usually death.

Not so in the universe of 40k. There, nearly all wars are wars of extermination. "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war." Well, not really. More like genocide.

Let's examine the various races in the 40k Universe and the viability of surrendering to them:

Imperial: Humans are so xenophobic they won't tolerate aliens to survive. Individual humans might be able to live alongside aliens, but the official stance is that the only good alien is a dead alien. On the other hand, Imperials surrendering to Imperials (in the case of rebellions or civil wars) is possible, but not usually wise, as the rebels are almost invariably executed anyway. But there's the slim chance of performing hard labor in a prison for 20 years, tortured, and then killed. So there's somehing, I guess.

Eldar: Eldar, if they don't exterminate an alien completely, are more likely to just drive an enemy away. If they won't leave, they the Eldar will kill them. What possible use do prisoners have? I can see that if anyone surrendered to Eldar, if they did not kill them outright, they'd disarm them and maroon them on some out of the way death world where they wouldn't be a threat. But only if they were feeling very generous.

Orks: Orks could conceivably take prisoners to use as slaves, but they'd have to restrain themselves from just stomping you. But why bother, when there's already plenty of Gretchin to serve the purpose? But I suppose its possible. I can see a Mekboy using slaves to help him build some nefarious device and incorporate your race's technology into it. He might even keep you alive for a while if you do a good job. But then when you succeed he'll pat you on the back so hard it'll break your spine. Then he'll send you to the Painboy, who'll chop off your head and sew it back onto another's body. And that's likely to be the end of the road.

Necrons: Rend the living. Not so bad, considering that's all they'll do to you. Except maybe wear your skin after they kill you. But I guess that's better than wearing your skin before you die, which is what the Dark Eldar will do.

Chaos: Surrendering to Chaos is hardly an option, unless it is done so by trickery (think Slaanesh or Tzeentch), in which case it's not really surrender as it is capture. An eternity of being tortured isn't as good as it sounds.

Dark Eldar: Like with Chaos, death is preferable to capture by these guys, so surrenders generally won't happen. They do take prisoners, however, and you really don't want that to happen.

Tyranids: Nom nom nom.

Tau: Here we go...a race you can surrender to and they won't kill you out of hand. But the Tau are still a minor player in the grand scheme of things. They're not like to survive much longer. But hopefully you can get captured by them and live in peace. That is, before they get wiped out by an coalition of all the other races who band together solely to eliminate this upstart race that violates the galactic take no prisoners rule.

With so few options, it's no wonder that most 40k battles have horrendous casualties and most of the time combatants die where they stand. Considering the alternatives, one would think that heroic last stands are so common in the 41st millenium that they've become passe.

Cleaning out the Paint Box

2010-05-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

Those of you who are getting up there in age like me might recognize this style of paint pot. That's right, they're all Games Workshop paints, dating from roughly 1988-1992.

It's been literally years since I've opened some of these paint pots...and since space in my paint box is at a premium right now, I decided I had to do some housecleaning. Surprisingly, practically all of the paints look to be in usable condition. Still the chances of me using them are remarkably low...so I had to do a little bit of culling. But the rest? Well, they have some fight in them yet, so I'll keep them around a little longer.

Where did all the Battle Reports go?

2010-05-03T08:00:00.004-04:00

Back in the day, I had a website where I put up my battle reports. I had some other information up there, including some campaign rules, some pictures of my armies, and some other stuff. But the battle reports were the website's reason for being.

In October 2007 I started this blog, and the same thing applied--the primary reason for the blog was the battle reports, with the other stuff being secondary. At the same time I didn't want to restrict myself solely to battle reports, hence the "...and more from the 41st Millenium (and some random other stuff)" in my subtitle.

Yet since I started doing battle reports, the statistics are as follows:

2001: 2
2002: 14
2003: 16
2004: 15
2005: 9
2006: 1
2007: 4
2008: 11
2009: 7
2010: 2 (so far)

Clearly my heyday was in the 2002-2004 timeframe. I only managed to put up a single battle report in 2006, but it was my biggest: The Assault on Morkandy Beach. That year was something of an anomaly, as there were some major changes going on in my life, and I also was working on another big project that year, which took up a lot of my time.

I started getting back into things in 2008, with a dip in 2009, due to the birth of my daughter that February. Now in 2010, the early part of the year was very busy at work, but now it's lightened a bit, hence the recent flurry of posts on my blog. I do hope to get to more battle reports in the future, but right now I'm waiting for Badelaire to get to work on painting his new Space Wolves army so we can feature them in a battle report. :)

Here's an example, his Space Wolf dreadnought. Like many of his other Space Wolves, I think he did a great job assembling it--now he just needs to paint it!

So where am I going with this post? Basically it's an admission that the scope of my blog has changed somewhat. I still intend to post battle reports of the games I play whenever possible, but I'll also continue to post my works-in-progress, and the random other stuff that crosses my mind concerning 40k, and rarely stuff that only peripherally touches upon 40k. (e.g., posting videos re: paintball. How is that related to 40k? Well, my cousin Tyrant was considering modding his paintball marker to look like a bolter...)

Rules for Shas'o Da'Eldi

2010-04-30T08:00:00.004-04:00

Special Character: Shas’O Da’Eldi

During the Plexus Nebulosa War, Shas’el Da’Eldi managed to lead the Tau to victory over the Imperial forces, minimizing losses to the Fire Warriors under his command by making use of large numbers of drones. While the loss in drones was in some cases severe, Shas’el Da’Eldi countered criticism to this by pointing out that every lost drone was equivalent to a Fire Warrior’s life saved. Later in the war, Shas'el Da'Eldi was elevated to Shas'o, and designed a custom battlesuit, the XV-100, suited to his combat style.

Da’Eldi abhors the unnecessary risking of Tau lives, believing that for the Greater Good, Tau Fire Warriors should use drones and other technology to fight battles wherever practical. As such he commands his own hunter cadre consisting of nothing but drones (and himself).

Shas’O Da’Eldi					200 Points
	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
Shas’O Da’Eldi	4	5	5	4	4	3	4	10	2+/4+(I)

Special Character: Shas’o Da’Eldi is a special character. He may be used only in Tau Drone Armies, and must be its commander. You may not select any additional equipment from the Armory.

Equipment: XV-100 Battlesuit (Acute Senses, Relentless), Jetpack, Railgun, Airburst Fragmentation Projector, Command-Link Drone, Drone Controller, 2 Shield Drones, Ejection System, Shield Generator, Blacksun Filter, hard-wired Multi-tracker.

Unit Type: Jump Infantry (Jetpack)

SPECIAL RULES:

Independent Character: Except when accompanied by his personal drones, Shas’o Da’Eldi is an independent character (see the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook).

XV-100 Battlesuit: This experimental battlesuit grants the user the Acute Senses and Relentless special rules, and counts as having a jetpack. It grants the user a normal 2+ save.

Command-link drone: Networked to the drones under his command, the command-link drone allows Shas’o Da’Eldi to better direct the battle. Any Tau drone units within 18” may use his Leadership for any Morale or Pinning tests.

“Our brave fire warriors are all willing to sacrifice themselves for the Greater Good when it is necessary. But it does not serve the Greater Good for our warriors to die when their lives might be saved by our technology. Using our technology in this way does not dishonor our courage; not using it dishonors our intelligence.”

-Shas’o Da’Eldi

Three Blood Angels

2010-04-28T08:00:00.002-04:00

Now that the Blood Angels Codex is out I've started painting some up. The problem is deciding on which painting method to use. Since the early days the Blood Angels have appeared in various colors. All red, but different shades of red--from a solid, medium red, all the way to brilliant orange.

Now my personal opinion is that the color of the Blood Angels should be, well...the color of blood. And that's not orange. It's definitely a deeper red than that--more Red Gore than Blood Red. So I did up a series of three test models to try to determine which result looks the best:

Model 1: Primed white, then painted with Red Gore. This requires a few coats of Red Gore, but the result is pleasingly bright. The color looks decent, but maybe it's a bit too pink?

Model 2: Primed black, then painted with Red Gore. This requires several coats of Red Gore because it takes a lot to cover up the black. But like the Mechrite Red over black below, the black primer is good in that I get instant shading, and instant dark lines between the armor plates, which adds a lot to the final product, I think.

Model 3: Primed black, then painted with Mechrite Red. Mechrite Red has much better coverage than Red Gore does, although I still need to put on two coats to make it even. And I'm not sure it's quite the right shade of red that I'm looking for. I think that it has a slightly orange tinge to it. Also, its opacity makes it look less like blood because real blood isn't completely opaque.

Now which looks the most like blood? I need to figure out which one, because there are a lot of Blood Angels in the pipeline...

Crisis Suit Conversion, Completed

2010-04-26T08:00:00.005-04:00

Finished! Here it is, the XV-100 Battlesuit. I'm not sure if I should come up with another name for it, instead of "Crisis" (others being Broadside, Stealth, and Forgeworld's new "Hazard"). Any ideas?

The purpose of the suit is a command unit for a large force of drones, as well as a long range support unit for that force. The suit has a additional armor protection, an extensive communication and sensor suite, with an integrated drone controller system. The primary weapon is the railgun, with an Airburst Fragmentation System for close-in defense. The suit is equipped with a larger jetpack to to handle the extra weight, and yet maintain the mobility of a standard XV-8 Crisis Suit.

I had been working on the high-lighting for a while (mainly extreme highlighting on the edge of the armor plates, etc.), and it seemed to be taking forever, and then, almost suddenly, I realized I was finished with most of the pieces. I started assembling them all together, and before I knew it, it was practically done!

Currently the post that supports him is only 1/8" plastic tube, so he wobbles a little. The weight of the rocks on the base help keep him from falling over, which would have been a real concern otherwise. I may provide some additional support to the tube by filling it with a brass rod, or, if necessary replacing it entirely with something more sturdy.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I decided that I needed to varnish this guy. I approached it with some trepidation, but decided to bite the bullet. I took some pictures of him before I varnished him, just in case I ruined him I could point to the photos and say "Look at the model I made, before I destroyed him!"
Checking the weather before I sprayed him, the temperature was 66 degrees F and 35% humidity, so I had near ideal conditions. So I went outside and gave him two light coats of Testors Dullcote.

The results were even better than I hoped! The dullcote dulled the finish down a bit, reducing the annoying gloss that the Vallejo's paints had given it. Another side effect of the original gloss finish was that the imperfections in the sculpting I had done really showed up. The matte finish reduced that, so the finished product looks better than it really should. But I'm not complaining!

Here's a close up of the armor plates around the hips. It's hard to see, but the attachment points for the hip armor is a rectangular piece, parallel to the ground if the suit was standing up straight. The anterior and lateral armor plates attach to that piece, angled off of it. The lateral and anterior plates protect the hip joint, but they "float" above the leg, and don't touch it anywhere.

The white marks on the plates and on the chest above the Tau symbols is supposed to be markings on the suit itself (things like "Danger" and "No Step" etc., that you see on real world aircraft, etc)

In painting up the rail gun, I was partially inspired by the video game Fire Warrior, where one of the weapons you can get is a rail rifle (the coolest looking weapon in the game). In the game, when you're holding the rail rifle, little charges of blue electricity crackle their way down the barrel of the weapon from the receiver to the muzzle and then starting at the receiver again. Really cool. I didn't think I could achieve an effect like that, so I decided instead to try to make it look like there was a glow inside the barrel that was being reflected by the edges. I think the result came out ok...but hopefully I can do better next time.

Originally I was going to mount the Airburst Fragmentation Projector on the right shoulder, but after test fitting it a few times, it didn't look all that good, so I decided to scrap that idea. Instead, I drilled a pair of holes into the left arm. The left forearm of the model is very bulky, so I think a good argument could be made that the AFP is integrated directly into the forearm, rather than a separately mounted system.

The suit is really much larger than the standard Crisis Suit, which I first realized when I set them up next to each other.

And finally, an "action" shot, showing the two suits heading off to kick some butt.

In the end, I learned a lot in making this guy, not the least of which was building up my confidence in using both greenstuff and plasticard. The other side of the coin, is that it just gives me more and more ideas for new projects!

Crisis Suit Conversion, Part Five

2010-04-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Next I decided to work on the base. Both to make it look more realistic and to give the base some heft, so as to help keep the model upright, I went outside and found a couple of rocks, which I then glued to the base.

Here's the base fully painted and, ready to go.

I also started painting the main body of the battlesuit. I decided to paint the body, wing, hip armor, and arms separately, because trying to paint it fully assembled would be really difficult.

A comment on the paint--the primary color for my Tau forces is Jade Green. This is a shade that GW made a long time ago, but then discontinued. I despaired what to do for my future Tau forces until I found out that Vallejo Game Color also makes a Jade Green, and it's an exact match. So now I just use Vallejo's paints instead... I've noticed two differences between the GW paint and the Vallejo paints. The Vallejo paints produce a glossier finish, and they also seem to rub off rather easily. So I'm thinking I may have to varnish this guy once I'm done. I'm a little nervous about something going wrong with the varnishing, but I think I'll have to bite the bullet. I picked up some Testors Dullcote, we'll have to see how it goes.

Two kinds of Imperial Guard Players

2010-04-21T08:00:00.002-04:00

It seems to me that there are two main kinds of Imperial Guard Players: The Gamer and the Hobbyist.

The Gamer plays games often. He wants to win games, and enjoys the competitive aspects of the game. He has a lot of experience tweaking his army list in order to get the most out of it. The Gamer posts his army lists to the forums to get feedback and advice from other players. He reads tactics articles religiously.

The Hobbyist designs armies, not army lists. He plays games when he can, but usually this is far less frequently than the Gamer. The Hobbyist enjoys the game, but spends far less time playing than he does just thinking about his army. The Hobbyist is more interested in creating an army that fits the background or "makes sense" from a real world perspective. He's interested in fielding a force according to a real world organization, and be damned to its effectiveness on the 40k gaming scene. This "real world perspective" can be simulating a modern force (e.g., my army is theoretically based on a US Army Combined Arms Battalion) or something historical, like a WWII formation, or the Praetorians, simulating the British during the Anglo-Zulu War (q.v. Col. Gravis' fantastic Praetorian Army).

Warhammer 40k is designed as a company-sized game (although you could almost say platoon sized for the more elite armies). For a game of this size, the Gamer might field several armored fist squads, a Leman Russ or two, a Basilisk/Medusa, and a Vendetta. (Or perhaps they'd field the Leafblower list.) There's a little bit of everything, designed to handle many tactical situations. This may be tactically effective within the game, but an organizational nightmare (at least to the more bureaucratic Hobbyist). The Hobbyist is more likely to field something like an infantry company of three platoons of three squads and a weapons section each, with an armor platoon for support. If the Hobbyist were to consider using Vendettas or Valkyries, he would more likely consider using entire platoons of them rather than a singleton--platoons fit better into the TO&E.

The Gamer arms his Command HQ squad with an eye to getting the most damage from it. A typical Gamer Command HQ squad might be armed with an officer with power weapon and plasma pistol, four meltaguns, plasma guns or flamers (4 of each, no mixing), riding in a Chimera.

The Hobbyist may not even consider arming his Colonel with anything more powerful than a laspistol, except maybe a ceremonial power sword. (If he gives his Colonel a power fist, it's probably because his model has one and he wants his army to be WYSIWYG). After all, a Colonel should be commanding his troops. The fighting strength of a regiment is in the arms of the soldiers that make it up, not the commanding officer. His job is to employ the fighting strength of his men, not embody it. His squad would therefore consist of his command staff and liaisons such as a Master-Vox, Master of Ordnance, Officer of the Fleet, bodyguard(s) (aides, rather) and possibly standard bearer, depending on the army style.

The Gamer prowls the forums, reading about other gamers' battles, reading tactics and strategies, and discussing army lists. He will also check out the blogosphere--basically anywhere he can get information on how to improve his game. The purview of the Hobbyist is primarily just the blogosphere--he frequently has his own blog, and discusses painting, modelling, and army organization (as opposed to army lists)

When a new Codex Arrives, the Gamer asks "What new tricks do I have available now? Which units are worth fielding and which aren't?" The Hobbyist asks, "How can I fit the vision of my army into a legal force?"

The Gamer speaks in gamer jargon. He talks about army "builds", refers to other armies by terms such as "Nidzilla, Smurfs, Clown Cars, Lash Armies, Daemon Bombs, and discusses tactics such as "Melta-spam". The names of the armies builds frequently are the same as the primary tactic they use. The Hobbyist speaks in military jargon, and he usually doesn't talk too much about other armies at all. He refers to things like "sections", "detachments", "combined arms", "order of battle", and knows how to spell "ordnance".

After each game, the Hobbyist considers painting on honor badges to the models in his army that performed well. The Gamer considers how to tweak his army list to improve game performance.

The Gamer is more likely to be younger than the Hobbyist. There are plenty of older Gamers, but many players who used to be Gamers got older, got married and started families, and suddenly had much less time to play. When they did have free time, they might only have time to work a little bit on their armies, and suddenly found themselves morphing into Hobbyists.

All in all, there's nothing wrong with either type of player; they are both equally valid ways of being involved in the hobby. I find myself firmly in the category of the "Hobbyist". I consider myself lucky if I get a game in once a month, and when I do, half the time I make my army list the night before, and don't even start thinking about my strategy until game time. Most of the rest of the time I spend painting/converting my guardmen and thinking about their regimental organization. Would I like to play more often? Absolutely...but that'll probably have to wait until my daughter's in college and/or I retire...or win the lottery.

I keep saying to myself that GW would be far better served if they just paid me to play their games. I could then quit my job and do this stuff full time.

A Medic with Honors

2010-04-19T08:00:00.002-04:00

Last week my granduncle died. He served in the US Army in World War II as a medic in the European Theater, reaching the rank of Technician 4th Class. I don't know too much about his time in the service, basically because he wouldn't talk about it. But after the war he was a hometown sports legend in a semi-pro Baseball league, playing in the New England Championship in 1946. He served as a coach and umpire/referee for local basketball, baseball, and softball teams all his life. He served as a letter carrier in the US Postal Service for over 30 years. Personally, I'll always remember him in his USPS uniform and smoking his pipe.

Charles J. Tracy
1925 - 2010
T/4 US Army World War 2

In one of my recent battle reports, the Arduen Campaign Part Three, my medic performed admirably, going 12 for 14 Feel No Pain saves. I had intended on giving the model some kind of medal, but he'd be put on the shelf while I worked on other stuff. He was "Medic Schmidt" in that battle, but now he's Medic Tracy. I've given him an an updated paint job and an Imperial Laurel in recognition of his performance in the last battle, but I think the name change is the bigger honor.

Warhammer 40k:	185
Lord of the Rings:	147
Warhammer:	80
Space Hulk:	38
Battlefleet Gothic:	3
Total:	453