Unboxing: Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King's Quest

As I've gotten older and had less time to play large scale wargames, I've had more and more thoughts of a smaller game that could be played that was also more accessible to non-gamer geeks.  I even did a post about it, hoping for a return Warhammer Quest. That hasn't happened, but Mantic Games has answered the call with Dungeon Saga: the Dwarf King's Quest.

Wargaming Terrain: Mediterranean Villa

I recently completed a relatively large piece of gaming terrain for use in games of Bolt Action, using plaster blocks made from molds from HirstArts.

It could also be used in any 28mm wargame, including Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy or Kings of War.

Book Review: What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank

I picked up What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank: A Fantasy Lover's Food Guide by Krista D. Ball after seeing it mentioned on David Gaughran's inestimable writing blog, Let's Get Visible.  I respect David's opinion regarding anything to do with writing, and it seemed like a perfect research material for a fantasy writer, so I snapped it up.

Book Review: The Children of Hurin

It has been several years since I last read The Lord of the Rings, and even longer since I last read The Silmarillion.  Returning to Middle-Earth was a better treat than I had at first expected.  The first time I had read The Silmarillion, in middle-school in the 1980s, I found it to be interesting, although tedious in places.  Two of the longest tales (and therefore the most tedious) were the tales Of Beren and Luthien and Of Turin Turambar.  I found that I just had to plow through them to "get on with the story" of the First Age.

Movie Review: The Hobbit

This past weekend I went to see The Hobbit. These days I don't get out to the movies much, so I really have to want to see it in order to make the effort.

 Prior to seeing The Hobbit I had heard that critics were saying "it's too long, unless you're a Tolkien geek." That made me think that Peter Jackson got it right. While naturally making the movies is a money-making venture, I also think that a good part of Jackson's motivations is to do Tolkien's work justice, and to make the movies something that will last decades, rather than a film that will start strong and flame out in a few weeks to be forgotten and/or forever reviled as trash (q.v., anything made by Michael Bay).

The Pirates of Alnari

It has been a long road, but my first novel, The Pirates of Alnari is now live on the Amazon Kindle Store.  The Pirates of Alnari is a hard fantasy novel that involves revenge, intrigue, lots of swordfights, and yes, pirates. So if any of that sounds interesting to you, run on over to Amazon and buy it! And tell your friends!  :)

To quote the Amazon description:

Martyn and Arycke are two young nobles forced into hiding after experiencing an act of unspeakable violence. They buy passage on the Isalian frigate Selene, but after a bloody battle against two pirate vessels, Martyn and Arycke find themselves shipwrecked castaways along with a beautiful young woman, her ever-watchful grandfather, and the rest of the Selene's crew.
Unfortunately for the survivors, they now find themselves stranded within reach of the pirate city of Alnari. In short order, Martyn and Arycke find themselves fighting for their lives, not only against marauding bands of savage pirates, but mutinous elements within the Selene's own crew.

The shipwrecked survivors are dragged into a maelstrom of vengeance and intrigue, as rival pirate lords maneuver against each other for dominance over Alnari. Martyn, Arycke, and the rest of the Selene's crew will need every ounce of courage, cunning, and strength they possess if they hope to escape alive...

The Pirates of Alnari is a gritty fantasy adventure story filled with bloody naval battles and vicious sword fights, combining the cutthroat political intrigue of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire with the dashing nautical adventures of Patrick O’Brian.

Halloween and GW Customer Service does it again...

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.

Dreadfleet: Opening the Treasure Chest

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.

Thoughts on the State of Gaming, Part 3

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.  

1. 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.
2. An intermediate level "skirmish" wargame.  This should contain more miniatures than the previous level, while not being huge battles, either.
3. 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

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

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.

Warhammer Blog

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?

Warhammer 8th Edition

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.

Warhammer Townscape

Twenty-one years ago, back in 1988, GW released "Warhammer Townscape", a collection of thirty-nine card buildings. They were pretty simple, but of decent quality, especially for the day. Back then I assembled some of the simpler buildings, as I didn't want to tackle the more complicated ones. Some of my creations did not survive the years, but many of them did.
Just recently (as in, last week), I decided to tackle the rest of the buildings and construct them. They're just card buildings, so I didn't treat them with the utmost loving care, but assembled them using mostly Scotch tape and some white glue for reinforcement.

In the various boxed editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, GW also released some more card buildings, some on stronger stock, which I've also assembled.

Now I've amassed quite a little town. But it's not limited to Warhammer Fantasy--these can be used in Lord of the Rings games as well as Warhammer 40k, representing a town on a low-tech Imperial world.

In fact, that's where you're going to see them first, in a battle report that will be appearing at some point in the future...

Tankards & Broadswords

A friend of mine recently began his own blog, Tankards & Broadswords. The blog primarily concerns his musings on various RPGs, and designing his own RPG systems. He also collaborates with me on creating the many battle reports that are on my blog. So feel free to stop by and check it out.

Far Away

This is another thing that isn't 40k, but it's fantasy, therefore at least vaguely related. It's at least related in the sense that along with wargaming and miniature painting, it is another expression of my nerdiness.

Anyway, a few friends of mine got together last year and made a fantasy-themed music video to Nickelback's "Far Away". It basically follows a soldier returning to his love after being away on campaign, with various trials and tribulations along the way.

Fantasy Miniatures

Just as a slight diversion from the 40k stuff, here's a selection of the some of the fantasy miniatures I've painted, from Warhammer and the Lord of the Rings.