Merry Sithmas

I hope everyone enjoyed a break of some sort over the last few days, even though I don't really believe in Christmas I seem to have managed to have three Christmas dinners over three days and have enjoyed the holidays more this year than I have in a long time.  With all the (justifiable) hype over the new Star Wars movie I correctly predicted that I'd get a slew of Star Wars related gifts.

Some good stuff here, the 'Spark of Rebellion' DVD is one that I haven't seen and I really love the mug, I feel the tea will be strong in this one (sorry, terrible joke I know).  I'm not entirely convinced with the sticker book however.

The highlight has to be the metalworks 1:20 scale R2-D2 model.  This was a lot more complicated than it looked at first glance.  Clearly I'm no novice when it comes to model making, but this is the first time I've never done metal-folding and there was a lot of learning of techniques as I was building it, I found it pretty tricky at times and in the end I haven't got it quite right.  It took a lot longer than I expected as well, several hours in fact.  I like the end result and will have to try and get another one from the range at some point.

I couldn't help but buy myself some of the brand new Lego sets for 'The Force Awakens' as well, focusing for now on the incredibly stylish First Order.

I saw the new movie a couple of days before Christmas, and whilst I'm not going to do a full spoiler filled review I am just going to say that I liked it a lot, it's not perfect, but I reckon 8.5 out of 10.  Star Wars is finally back and I can't wait for the next installment.

May the force be with you, always....... 

Warhammer Is Dead, Long Live Kings Of War

I've played Warhammer for many, many years, it was in it's 4th edition when I started and I've played it on and off ever since.  So it is with some sadness that I greeted the news of Warhammer Fantasy Battles discontinuation.  Although it saddens me, it doesn't surprise me, if the 'end times' wasn't a big enough hint there's been a problem with Warhammer for a long time.  It's got clunky and unwieldy, in background and rules, and whist I've still been playing every so often I've hardly been buying any new minis for it at all, and I expect that's a common story.  The entry costs are too high as well, so if older players aren't buying and new players aren't joining it had to go.

What's interesting is its replacement the 'Age of Sigmar', the new fantasy game from GW.  The successor to Warhammer, but a very different beast.  There's some stuff to like here, GW have provided the rules (all 4 pages of them) and stats for all old Warhammer minis as free downloads so you can start playing straight away.  Also apparently army books are a thing of the past and rules will now be included in the box of minis when you buy them, excellent stuff, this will help players pick up a box or two of minis they happen to like and get them on the gaming table, this is a move forward.  The new miniatures are of course fantastic, I really like the look of the new Sigmarites and whilst the chaos stuff isn't a radical redesign, it is well done.  However there are some mortal problems that I see with the new system, firstly it's way to simple, Warhammer was a game of manoeuvre, this isn't, this is a game of rolling dice and killing stuff.  The real killer is the lack of points values, you just use whatever takes your fancy or until you run out of space to deploy it!

I can see what GW are trying to do here, it's a big gamble and I hope it works for them, but I'm not going to be getting on board with this, I'll still play Warhammer and will be keeping an eye on the new model range to see if there's any cool stuff I can retrofit into my Warhammer armies.  It seems to have got off to a good start in one way at least, the White Dwarf with the free Sigmarite mini has completely sold out, and before I could get a copy :-(

However as it happens this has all happened with fantastic timing for Mantic Games who see the release of their own mass battle system 'Kings of War' next month.  The mechanics are different, but this is very much a strategic fantasy massed battle game.  Two of us in our gaming group pledged for the Kickstarter a few months ago and the first packages are due soon.  We'd been looking at Kings of War as we were finding problems with Warhammer and wanted a slicker, but still strategic, fantasy battle game, and Kings of War seems to fill this hole nicely.  Ultimately whilst Warhammer and Kings of War were direct competitors, trying to do the same thing, Age of Sigmar and Kings of War are doing very different things, which I suspect will ultimately benefit both systems.

And as for the bases? I'll be sticking with square ones.

This Month I Have Mostly Been Playing.......... Warhammer Quest

I've not been posting much recently, partly because I've not been buying much new stuff, or indeed painting very much, somewhat shockingly I've actually been using my hobby time to play lots of games!  Well technically one game, but many times.  That game is the absolute classic Warhammer Quest.

It was around mid-December after a discussion about the forthcoming Dungeon Saga from Mantic Games, the idea of a game of Warhammer Quest was mooted, always keen for a good dungeon bash I happily headed upstairs to get the box.  Two months and many dungeons later we've just reached level 6 (of 10), we've been playing at least once and often twice a week in sessions lasting between 5 to 7 hours.  I can't remember the last time I've done so much gaming in such a small space of time.

A hairy moment from this evenings game

I love Warhammer Quest, I think it's the best game from Games Workshop that I've ever played, and my copy of the game is one of my most prized possessions, but why is it so good?  I think it comes down to two things, one is the co-operative nature of the game, it makes a nice change for you all to be on the same side for once.  The key mechanic I think though is the one of random dungeon generation, you never know what room, monster or event is coming next or where that crucial objective room is.  This does mean that sometimes it all gets a bit much and you get swamped by masses of monsters and die horribly.  This is especially true at lower levels before you have a cart load of useful treasure items trailing behind you.

The other great thing is that even with the basic boxed game you have three distinct ways of playing.  The first is to grab the four warriors out of the box roll up a random adventure and off you go (almost certainly to your doom).  The roleplay book contains two more ways to play, the first is a 'roleplay-lite' game which allows you to level up your warriors, visit settlements and face tougher monsters, all using random tables and cards and without the need for a gamesmaster (this is the way we always play).  The second mode of play from the roleplay book is the guidelines for a proper full on roleplaying game with gamesmaster and pre-determined dungeons, this isn't for me, but adds huge scope for those with the energy and vision to create those adventures.

A starting party of adventurers soon to meet their fate

 

Another thing the roleplaying book provides is an extensive bestiary of baddies from the Warhammer world for you to smash your way through everything from Snotlings to Bloodthirsters.  Rules are provided for greenskins, skaven, undead, chaos, dark elves, chaos dwarves and a whole bunch of generic monsters.  These are arranged in monster tables so the monsters get harder as you progress up the battle levels.  This is important as it keeps the challenge fresh, every time you level up you end up facing new monsters with new abilities that need different tactics to beat, you have to think hard as by this point you've grown attached to your warriors and don't want to see them die. 

Even with the variety provided by the monster tables I've found in the past that enthusiasm tends to wane around level 6 (which is where we've just reached), which leads me to what was meant to be the point of this post;  Whilst the monster tables are very well done and provide a satisfying range of stuff to kill from start to finish there are two areas that start off fine but after the twentieth dungeon start to feel a little unsatisfying and repetitive, the dungeon rooms and lack of treasure variety.  Well I've gone and done something about it......

The new treasure deck nearly 12cm high!

Everyone likes to get cool treasure items, and in Warhammer Quest the clever use of the right items can make all the difference, however there are only so many in the basic game and you soon start getting the same stuff over and over again.  GW actually published a lot more treasure cards, three packs you could buy separately, plus a few cards in the lair of the orc lord and catacombs of terror expansions and even a few in white dwarf.  I've printed them all off and put them in deck protectors and the main treasure deck now has just under 170 cards in it, which should keep us going for a while!

More importantly for me are getting hold of some new dungeon rooms, whilst I love the way the dungeon generates randomly, I've always found it a bit unsatisfying that all the corridors and dungeon rooms in the main game are exactly the same, I've always felt the rooms especially needed a little bit of simple differentiation to give them that little bit more flavour.  I think GW knew this as well as both the lair of the orc lord and the catacombs of terror included some new rooms and corridors that started to add that simple variety, and I'd managed to print these rooms off some time ago, but I was still hankering for more.  So after quite a bit of searching and killing an ink cartridge or two I've expanded my room selection quite considerably.

Adding a bit more flavour to the random dungeon bash

 

There's a lot more rooms out there than I've printed off, but I've been quite picky.  I didn't want anything too radical, a simple special rule or new shape per room is fine.  Also I rejected a lot of rooms which although I thought the rules were fine the artwork just wasn't good enough (not that I'm claiming I could do any better), I wanted it to look natural next to the rooms that I already had.

As I was doing all this I realised that it was really about time I painted the plastic doors that are used to link the rooms together, I haven't spent too much time on them though.  Just a quick spray with the grey can and then a coating with black wash.  I  might come back and add some more details later, they're hardly works of art, but they do look a lot more 'natural' when playing the game and it's something I should have done years ago.

Warhammer Quest also provides a good excuse to pick up a few random fantasy models and still be able to use them without needing a whole army.  The Manticore above is a new addition to my collection, more for practical reasons than ooo that's a nice model reasons.  It's a plastic mini from an old boardgame called Darkworld which was a heroquest type thing.  This one came in a job lot off of ebay and is slightly damaged, and although I already have a better metal GW Manticore model this one fits on a 25mm base which makes it far more practical in the dark confines of a dungeon.  He will find himself representing a lot of cockatrices, gorgons, griffons, hippogriffs and even the odd Manticore over the next few weeks.


I'd just like to finish with a few recommendations of the websites that I found the most useful when looking for extra stuff to expand our games with:

Beyond the Grey Mountains
Quests of Legend
Warhammer Quest Chronicles
Warhammer Quest Museum

Happy New Year 2015 & 2014 Highlights

Where did 2014 go? It only seems like yesterday that I was writing last years version of this post.  I'm not doing any resolutions this year either, but lets have a look at my favourite games/minis/things from the last year in a sort of mock award ceremony style that was quite popular last year.

The blog got off to a good start, but petered out over the summer as life and a new role at work got in the way, one major change was the introduction of a second writer, my mate Mike who contributed 5 posts throughout the year, hopefully we'll hear a bit more from him this year too.  Gaming has been quietly going on throughout the year, but with no one game dominating our time, a bit of a bitty year.


Favourite Project Finished in the Last 12 Months

Right at the start of the year I finally finished painting my High Elf army, that had been of the verge of being completed for around two years.  It was very gratifying to finally get it all finished, it's an army that I'm rather proud of as well.

Most Popular Post

This was much closer than last year, but the most popular thing I wrote was this little post on the miniatures from the new Mars Attacks game.  It was so good someone even decided it was worth copying!  Which whilst I can joke about it now riled me up at the time.


Best Wargame

It's been a year of small scale gaming really, with skirmish and board games coming to the fore.  However there were a few games of 40K and Warhammer fantasy and a single game of Kings of War, but the most played 'wargame' this year and the one I had the most fun with was Battlefronts' Flames of war.  We've still a lot to explore with this as well and I hope we play a lot more in 2015.

Best Board/Card Game

A surprise for me here as I'm awarding this to Mars Attacks by Mantic games.  I wasn't expecting much from Mars Attacks. I got it on Kickstarter as the deal became really good and I could use the minis in Deadzone, but it turns out that it's a really good fun game.  The light hearted silliness and scenario based format make replayability high as well.

Favourite New Miniatures

This is always the hardest decision, contenders this year included, Beorn & Thranduil from the Hobbit range, my Emhar Whippet and my Battlefront TOG 2*, but in the end my favourite new minis are definitely my Jalopy conversions based on PSC Stuarts for use in Flames of War.
 

Best Trip

It's not been a massive year for getting out and about for me, but my first ever trip to the tank museum at Bovington and a trip to Carisbrooke Castle (that I never quite got a round to posting about) were definitely fun, but my favourite trip of the year was my behind the scenes look at Bembridge fort on the Isle of Wight.

Favourite Book Read this Year

I read a lot over a variety of different subjects and fiction styles which makes picking a favourite book tricky, as comparing science books and Victorian fiction is next to impossible, however I think I've managed it.

The best book I read this year was the History of Mr Polly by HG Wells, if you haven't read it I recommend you give it a try.


Favourite New Movie

This doesn't have to mean released this year, just new to me, I go to the cinema rarely and am often 6-12 months behind.  There were four contenders here; The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies, Thor: The Dark World, The Lego Movie and Noah.

I've surprised myself, but I'm finally admitting it, The Lego Movie was better than the last Hobbit movie and is my favourite movie of the year.

Thing I'm Most Looking Forward to in 2015

Whilst you never know what the next year will bring, some things are expecting and some have been rumoured.  Possible highlights include Warhammer Fantasy 9th ed, and the second Deadzone Kickstarter.  I am also looking forward to receiving both Dungeon Saga and Kings of War from Mantic.

In the end the thing I'm most looking forward too is getting and playing Kings of War, I've only played a single battle so far but I enjoyed it a lot, depending on what's in the starter set I might not even get warhammer 9th ed.  I have several Kings of War units on the painting table in ready anticipation for the rulebooks arrival.

Best Wargames Company

The biggy, but somewhat predictable I think, I drifted even further from my original gaming home of GW this year, and have only bought 4 minis and one book from them.  My gaming group has also passed on the latest edition of 40K and look unlikely to bother to try and catch up, it's a shame their minis are second to none, but unless I win the lottery (which I don't play so that would be more than surprising!) GW have priced me out. 

Battlefront's Flames of War has had many games and lead me to collect two new armies, but again the prices mean that those armies contains minis from many other places as well as battlefront.

We've also played a bit of X-Wing this year from FFG, but although I like the game I've been playing with my mates models and haven't liked it enough to invest in my own set.

Which means of course we come to Mantic Games as this years winner (again!).  The year started with a flurry of Deadzone gaming before mantic took a backseat to larger scale games (flames of war, 40K and warhammer fantasy) over the summer before coming back with a vengeance when Mars Attacks landed.  Add to that the Dungeon Saga and Kings of War Kickstarters that I'm eagerly awaiting and Mantic are the deserved winner.



Finally I'd just like to wish all my readers a happy new year and thank you all for stopping by and reading what I write.

I've Been Plagiarised!

UPDATE: The offending blog post has been removed from the hitting on a double 1 blog.  Presumably due to either this post or some of the messages left on that post.  No apolagy has yet been received.

I'm annoyed, very annoyed, a couple of days ago I posted a post on the new Mars Attacks miniatures from Mantic Games.  This has been a popular post and has generated a lot of hits in a small space of time, and too be honest I was quite pleased with it as a post.  Please take a minute to read it here.

Now take a second to head over to Hitting on a double 1 and read Carl Packham's post on the same subject posted a day after mine.

He's changed some of the wording and added a few bits of his own, and at least has had the decency to take his own photos, but as I read it was still clearly my post that I was reading.

Plagiarism is the "wrongful appropriation" and "stealing and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions" and the representation of them as one's own original work. (definition from Wikipedia).

Which is what I feel has been done here, it's the sort of thing you get when a 14 year old copies his mates English homework and I don't think it's acceptable.

Some evidence;

My post 'The minis come in three colours, red for the heroes, tan for the US army and green for the Martians, again a good idea as not everyone will paint their minis and this looks better than them all being grey'

His post 'The miniatures come in three colours, red for the heroes, tan for the US army and Turquoise for the Martians (But with the Martian Hero in Red) again a good idea as not everyone will paint their minis and this looks better than them all the same nondescript colour'

My post 'The first thing to note is that a lot of the minis suffer from what I call 'floppy weapon syndrome' as can be seen in the top photo above.  However I can also report that this is easily fixed by dipping the minis in a cup of hot water.'

His post 'Typically with the minis being soft! they suffer from the 'floppy weapon syndrome' as can be seen in the photo right showing the Heroes.  This can be easily though by the hot water method, a few of the bases will need this treatment as well as they are slightly warped.'

My post 'The minis are in true 28mm scale, rather than the 'heroic' scale favoured by many manufacturers'

His post 'Sculpts are fairly good and they are true 28mm scale, rather than the 'heroic' scale favoured by many manufacturers'

My post 'There are of course mould lines, but these are no worse than on any hard plastic minis and a damn sight better than those on Mantics restic minis'

His post 'The ubiquitous Mantic mould lines are evident, but no worse than on any hard plastic minis and a damn bloody sight better than those on the restic stuff.'

My post 'There has been some talk on the internet about the undercuts on the Martian grunts, well they exist, at least it exists on one sculpt.  Each pack of 10 Martians comes with one of the ones on the right in the pic above, which does have a ghastly undercut'

His post 'There has been some talk on the internet about the undercuts on the Martian grunts, well they exist, at least it exists on one sculpt. Each pack of 10 Martians comes with one of the ones at the front in the pic right, which does have a bad undercut'

It's not just the wording either, the structure of the two posts are so similar as that can't be coincidence.

Thank you if you bothered to read all this.

I'd really like some thoughts on this.  Am I overacting? Should he have credited me at least? Are 'derivative' works like this fine?  I put a lot of effort into my blog and having it taken like this just makes me feel angry is that right?

Guest Post - Nagash vs Dungeon Saga

My mate and occasional guest blogger on here Mike has another rant to get off his chest, it's the old familiar topic of pricing at Games Workshop, however a couple of recent releases have really made the scale of the issue come to the fore, over to Mike.......

Being an old Undead/ Tomb King’s gamer I always fancied having a Nagash model, but somehow I never got round to buying one one. The old metal model was not a priority buy back in the day and they are quite hard to find now, even on ebay. Games Workshop have recently brought out a New Nagash, and it is you would expect quite a spectacular model. Actually its little too spectacular for my taste if the truth be told (I disagree I think it's fantastic - Keith). It might even look a bit out of place next to my old skeletons, and I’d be frightened of knocking it over (really, if you knew me)(There is no clumsier human being - Keith). No seriously, it does look really nice and I wouldn’t mind one for my shelf. The really bad news is its £65. Sorry Games workshop I’m just not going to pay that for a Nagash. As I understand it that’s £65 for just the model too, no add ons, extras or freebies. The rules for Nagash appear in a separate book and you have to pay a lot of extra money. Interest over. 

This is admittedly an Awesome model

 Fortunately I was alerted to a new Kickstarter project by Mantic a couple of weeks ago and it cheered me up a lot. The quality of Mantics previous Kickstarters and the sheer amount of money being pledged to this one alerted me that it might be something to really look forward to. This Dungeon Saga game seems to be something like Warhammer Quest, where the player battles their way through various rooms and challenges meeting various cool baddies on the way. You know the script. We don’t know for sure of course because the game is still in production, but when I saw what comes in the box I went for it immediately. It turns out that for a pledge of $100 (that’s £4 less than Nagash) I will be getting an entire gaming system, packed with new models. Mantic have also Thrown in art prints, bonus scenarios, digital adventure books and all of the Dwarf King’s Hold scenarios for people like me who didn’t get around to buying those games first time around. That’s worth waiting 12 months for in my opinion. The Mantic crew who usually seem to have their finger on the pulse, have even included a mystery ‘undead demonlord’ model. Good move Mantic, I haven’t thought about Nagash since.

How much stuff?

 

I have to admit I made the same decision and I am eagerly awaiting the chance to play Dungeon Saga.  The 12 month delay is a slight issue, but once you get started on kickstarter being the way to get new games you have a steady supply of big boxes coming, before this arrives I'm expecting Deadzone wave 2, Mars Attacks, Deadzone wave 3, and Dreadball extreme.  And despite a few missing bits (that always get replaced eventually) getting the big box of kickstarter goodness is always a joy.  This is Mikes first kickstarter and I hope he has a good experience and helps fund more products that I also want to buy!

Belgians In The Congo

Todays minis are an addition to my ever growing collection of colonial figures from late 19th century Africa.  Two packs from Wargames Foundry's darkest Africa Belgians range, a pack of officers ad NCO's and a pack of Askaris for them to lead.  As with all my other minis from this era I plan to run some pulp adventures or possibly dino hunting games at some point, these Belgians will provide a third European faction (along with adventurers and the British Army) to contend for the spoils.

Officer Types

NCO Types (I think the guy on the right looks like John Hurt!)

Askari's

Some great characterful minis here I think, but now time to get a bit serious;  Obviously these models are for games loosely based on the historical period 'the scramble for Africa'.  What got me to thinking was the title of the pack of officers; 'Darstardly Belgian Officers', which seemed a bit harsh on all Belgians and rather stereotypical (although I cast no doubt on the fact that many atrocities were committed in the Congo Free State under the rule of Leopold II of Belgium).  I couldn't help but then wonder if any sort of colonial gaming was somehow glorifying colonialism and was in its way a bit racist.  I'm a white Englishman and I'm just after a bit of fun in a pseudo-real world of exploration and adventure, trying to recreate something like the adventure stories of Haggard or Kipling on the table, but I can't help but start to wonder how a 'Darkest Africa' game would look to a African and what they would make of our little bit of harmless fun.

I'm not sure what the answer is, I'm not entirely sure that there's even a problem, thoughts anyone?

R.I.P. Boltgun Metal - Hello Vallejo

Finally my last pot of Boltgun Metal citadel paint has been used up, this was a sad day for me, I've been using Boltgun Metal since my very first paint set over 20 years ago now, and it's been used on nearly every model as base for all metal parts ever since.

Oh well off I go to my local GW and I come back with a pot of Ironbreaker from the new citadel paint range, it might be a slightly different shade, but surely it will be fine I think.  How wrong I was, possibly I got a dud pot, but this is awful.  It's so thin and the pigment seems to clump and not give a smooth colour.  It takes at least two coats to achieve anything and then still looks awful and sort of pale.  Not happy I go off to ebay and try to find another alternative.

I find and order this pot of game color chainmail silver made by Vallejo.  It cost around the same as a pot of GW paint but is 17ml instead of 12ml, which is actually a significant saving.  Upon trying it out I'm happy enough and will be continuing to use this, it's not quite as dark as the old Boltgun Metal, but at least it goes on properly and provides a perfectly good metallic base for highlighting/applying copper/gold over.

As I was trying out my new Vallejo paint I realised something; that paint was pretty much the only thing I ever bought from GW now (almost all GW minis entering my collection now come second hand off ebay).  This paint disappointment might be the thing to help me make that final break from a company whose products, whilst mostly great, I simply can not afford any more. 

Rest in peace Boltgun Metal, you will be missed.

The Liebster Award

Thanks to Red Dog of Dog of War for nominating me for the Liebster Award.  The Liebster Award is a sort of internet chain award which encourages bloggers to promote blogs they enjoy reading once they have been nominated for the award themselves.  It's not the sort of thing that I normally get involved with, but I was pleased to receive the nomination and giving a shout out to a few of my favourite blogs isn't a bad thing either.

The award comes with 11 questions as well, which I had answered, but blogger then somehow deleted and I'm afraid I haven't the heart to type it all out again so you will have to make do without.  I will however nominate a few of my favourite blogs and recommend that you give them a look.  In no particular order;

28mm Victorian Warfare

Admiral Drax

Breakthrough Assault

Sam's Minis World

Scott's Wargaming

The Marienburg Gazette

A Quick Update: SWM SSB Collection Complete & Wayland Games vs Battlefront

It's been a very busy week since I got back from my holiday and I've managed to get almost zero hobby activity done in the mean time, however I still have a couple of bits I'd like to share with you.

Firstly I have a new addition to my Star Wars Miniature Starship Battles collection; which is this droid control ship shown above.  They are a key part of the separatist fleets and feature in the prequel film trilogy.  In the game they are a useful capital ship that make all your droid fighters better.  I wouldn't normally bother showing something like this off in a post, but as I mentioned when I talked about this game a couple of months ago, this was the only ship that I was missing from the game, which now means of course that my collection is complete!  Which is a surprisingly good feeling.  All the playing of X-wing recently has made me want to have another go at playing a few games of starship battles as well, and you never know one day I might make my intended victory at sea mod for these cool Star Wars ships.

Next up are some new minis that I've bought for flames of war, a British TOG 2 experimental heavy tank, a German armoured car and a couple of command stands.  I initially ordered these from Wayland Games some time before I went away and when I got back from holiday and still hadn't received them I emailed Wayland to see what was going on.  They stated that I'd misunderstood their 3-9 days dispatch on the products was a guideline only and sometimes it takes longer, fair enough to a degree but rather annoying.  I then checked the products and the TOG 2 was now showing as unavailable, which would imply they weren't even sure if they were going to get any more!  What annoyed me is that at this point they hadn't bothered to contact me to explain the delay or problem.  I wonder how long they would have sat on my money not fulfilling my order if I hadn't contacted them.  Anyway I did get my money back and placed the same order from battlefront (at admittedly higher standard RRP prices) and it arrived 2 days later.  I will definitely be wary of ordering from Wayland again after this.

And finally it's been nearly free Lego week this week if you buy the daily mail (all quickly sent to be recycled) in WH Smiths.  Whilst it's not really relevant to this blog as such I really like the style of Lego and especially when they turn already cool stuff (like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings) into Lego my inner geek can't get enough of it.  The highlights from this little collection are definitely the two Star Wars ships and the Spiderman Minifig, although I can't say I'm too impressed with Spideys glider thingy.

Thumbs Up To The Isle Of Wight

I've been away on holiday for the last week in my first ever trip to the Isle of Wight.  It's a fantastic place and we had a great time.  The holiday was split pretty much half and half between history and natural history, and there will be a couple of posts in the next few weeks focusing on some of the military history sites I visited and can recommend.

The Hoy Monument raised to commemorate The visit of tsar Alexander to Britain in 1814, later inscribed with a dedication to those that fought at Innkerman in the Crimean war.

Before we even got on the ferry we had a couple of hours to take a walk around Portsmouth (where I've been before) and as well as taking a look at the Warrior and Victory, HMS Illustrious and HMS Defender were in dock.

 

HMS Warrior

 

 

HMS Illustrious

 

 

HMS Defender

We then took a walk round the old walled city including the square and round towers that formed part of the defences of Portsmouth harbour.  It's a really interesting place for a walk and there are a lot of old (and current of course, but they don't let you look at them!) military sites in the immediate area.  I thought the sea forts out in the solent looked particulary cool.

The Round & Square Towers defending Portsmouth

 

 

Sea forts In The Solent

All that was before we'd even got on the ferry and started the holiday properly!

I even came home with a few new toys, a silly cheap plastic Mig kit from grafix and a set of Tudor pewter figures (bought at Carisbrooke castle).  I've been collecting those pewter figures they sell at historic sites since I was about 5 and have a quite large collection now (see below), it's normally the same 5 romans and 5 knights at every site that they've been making my entire life, it was nice to be able to add something slightly different.  The Tudors came with a basic little board game as well, we didn't get a chance to play it, but it looked like it would be playable if not overly engrossing.

New toys

 

 

Pewter Tudors

 

 

Yes, yet another collection of toy soldiers!

Review: White Dwarf Weekly #1 & Warhammer Visions #1

I've read white dwarf magazine for many, many, years, the first issue I bought was waaaay back in 1992, and it was with some trepidation that I received the news of the demise of white dwarf as we know it and the creation of two new magazines; white dwarf weekly and warhammer visions.  I have a direct debit subscription that I set up around 4 years ago, this means I got both of the new magazines to have a look at this time, although in future I'll be getting warhammer visions instead, which is very odd as I subscribed to white dwarf.....

Lets start with white dwarf weekly, it's 32 pages long, and apart from that it's very much like white dwarf has been recently.  About a third of the issue is new releases, then we get Jervis (who's better than usual), a somewhat simple tyranid tactics article, then paint splatter and an explaination of how to use plastic glue (useful for kids maybe).  The back 10 pages of the magazine are rather good, we actually have rules for the new dwarf king, and a couple of tips on using him, we then have designer notes for the new models.  The magazine ends on 5 pages of 'the week in white dwarf' which is a bit of a mish-mash of little tit-bits, I really like this section.  The more condense format works and it's much better than I was expecting.

White dwarf weekly is only available in GW stores, and there's no subscription service.  I think this is nuts for a weekly magazine, a lot of people won't be able to pop into a GW every week and I think it's only going to harm sales and exposure, which ultimately is what WD is all about for GW.

I like this new bite-sized white dwarf and the weekly format. but in the end it feels like GW have taken the old white dwarf and then split it into four bits and racked up the prices.  I won't be buying this every week, but will problay pick up the odd issue, espically when interesting rules are featured.  If there was a subscription deal I'd consider it (price dependant).

Warhammer: Visions is the new monthly mag, very oddly it has a smaller footprint than WD, it does have a whopping 228 pages though.  Unfortunately it's very dull, it's a picture book, that's it, pictures after pictures after pictures.  Mostly of the standard studio models we've all seen before (often they show you the same model many times in different settings), there are some interesting fan models as well though.  What there isn't in warhammer visions is much text, at all, and what there is in all in English, French and German, which I find very annoying, maybe they know it sucks and are preparing to only have to do one print run as it won't have to be very big.

The price of warhammer visions is insane, £7.50 for a monthly magazine, I had a look round my local smiths and couldn't find any other monthly at that price. I don't know anything about printing costs, but from writing this blog I do know that articles that are mostly pictures are much easier and quicker to do than those that are mostly words, this seems like another attempt to get lots of money for little effort.  Even with my cheaper subscription I'm seriously considering cancelling, it's ok for a quick flick through, once, but I expect more content from a magazine.


In conclusion, they are both way overpriced, however white dwarf weekly is an OK little mag, but unfortunately warhammer visons, which my subscription has switched too is pretty awful, they really should have given us the option of which to switch too.  Overall a sad sad day and yet more disappointment coming out of Games Workshop. 

Guest Post - Games Workshop Past, Present and Future - Part 3

So onto the final part of Mike's discussion about the state of GW  Part 1 Part 2

Games Workshop has tried all sorts of things over the years, but through the ups and downs I have generally been impressed with the quality of the models they have produced. After a spell of selling a few dodgy plastic/metal hybrid kits in the late ‘90s, the quality of the kits (to my mind) has improved again. Some of the recent plastics have been excellent, no doubt about that. And despite my complaint about pricing, the models look great on the table as well. Then we were offered something even better...

 

I was looking forward to GW’s Finecast range when it was first brought out. Forgeworld resin models had been out of my price range for years, and I was keen to see what working with resin would be like. So... I did the proper thing and walked into a GW store (ignoring their sales pitch), and purchased a Finecast Zoanthrope. When I got around to opening the blister pack later that day, I was somewhat surprised. I had assumed, like most people must have done, that my Finecast model was going to be finely cast. Unfortunately as you gradually learn over years, one should never assume anything. It was not a fine model at all. There were some lumpy imperfections on the main body, which annoyed me... not so much because I couldn’t fix those problems (using a file). I was more irritated that a GW employee had gone out of his way to ‘big up’ the quality of what I had bought, just a few hours earlier.

 

 Oh my what a big hole!

 

After construction, the Finecast model never did look quite as nice as my metal Z’s. There was something about its gait that I was never quite happy with. Moreover the thing tended not to stay upright on the gaming board. It was not overbalancing as such, like some of the very old metal kits did. The model just seemed a little bit too top heavy and light for use on a crowded battlefield. The slightest touch sent it toppling. For that reason I sometimes kept it in a box, while it’s supposedly inferior metal brethren graced our games table.

 

When I moved to the big city, my Finecast Z was stored in its own section of a padded metal case. After some months of them not being handled, I unpacked my models. The Finecast model bent when I picked it up (by the base), and it broke off at a point of weakness (Z’s have a thin ‘tail’, connecting to the base). The metal Z’s, which I have owned for years, and have all been dropped a good few times, and are all still in one piece.

 

My first finecast mini - Keith

 

Maybe I had bought a ‘dud’ model, and the quality of Finecast is actually okay? - Perhaps. But it seems that I was not alone. People from my gaming group and various others have reported bubbles in Finecast resin. These faults might be unavoidable in resin, or they may not, I don’t know. Whether it is or not; GW are not afraid to charge a lot of money for Finecast, and to talk up its quality. Without listing the full extent of the horror, until recently GW was asking £15.50 for a single Finecast ripper swarm... (cough) ... mind you, even they realised that one was a complete a giraffe. The product was removed from GW’s website once their new Tyranid range surfaced. These prices, combined with the borderline false advertising associated with Finecast, which has caused me to be annoyed enough to write this short article.

 

So why might I buy Finecast, or even GW’s expensive (but good) plastics over a cheaper set from Mantic’s range? The answer is I no longer do. The Mantic models are almost as nice as GW plastics (some are, some aren't - Keith), and I get a lot more for my money (yes definitely - Keith). My only real complaint about Mantic is that a few of the smaller models are a tiny bit warped/bent near the legs. But hey this is plastic not Finecast, so any relatively experienced modeller can fix the faults with polystyrene cement, I managed it. Let it be known that poly cement is an amazing tool. The folks at GW clearly think so as well, judging by what they charge for the product.

 

The quality of the plastics has definitely gone up.

 

Buying cheaper but slightly dodgier plastics is not something I worry about greatly. To my mind that’s sort of the point of having a lot of plastic units to game with isn’t it? Besides, inexpensive plastics, even single pose ones, are great for kids who are learning to how to make models. No parents in tears when bits break off either, even if minis end up in the bin. We are increasingly offered less of those cheaper, expendable options with GW. That’s because GW isn’t for the average young enthusiast any more – despite the pictures of happy kids holding GW branded tape measures we see churned out by their marketing department. Instead, GW is rapidly becoming a big collectors range. And that said, arguably something of a dodgy collectors range, with Finecast being what it is.

 

I could ramble on further, but I will not. Instead, allow me to conclude with a polite message to the powers that be at Games Workshop.

 

GW - I can forgive the fact that we need more models to play your games these days. The games are quite good. However, please realise that you pricing strategy is driving people away from the hobby. You have some real competitors now, and they know what they’re doing. I can’t help but see that you are too precious to admit this. Please have a good think about your next business moves, because if they aren’t the correct ones, there might not be any Games Workshop stores in a few years.

 

So obviously this is a big topic at the moment and whilst GW don't seem to be in trouble yet they aren't doing as well as they were.  I agree with Mike that the prices are driving customers away, it's frustrating, we don't want GW to do badly, far from it, we love the worlds they have created and this fantastic hobby they introduced us to, but if they continue as they are we simply won't be buying much from them in the future.  Thoughts anyone?

So thanks to Mike for writing these posts, it's been a successful experiment I think and I'll have to have a look at doing it again some time.

Guest Post - Games Workshop Past, Present and Future - Part 2

Today we have part 2 of my friend Mike's epic rant on the state of Games Workshop.  If anyone missed it yesterday here's a Link to part one.  Over to Mike.......

Previously I reflected on gaming in the 1990’s. Make no mistake; I think the current edition of Warhammer Fantasy offers us a better, better balanced game than the really old editions did. However a lot has changed at Games workshop. Here I comment on the current major bugbear of GW gamers, the cost of the hobby.

 

My proper first unit purchase was 20 Skeleton warriors at £12, I was happy with this affordable set. 15 years later I think that some of GW plastics are still affordable. For example £20 for 16 Skeletons/marauders/equivalent box sets isn’t too bad, inflation taken into account.  These plastic sets are also all well designed, easy to assemble and come with some extra bits and pieces. Moreover the units have long been available, along with a few more choice units in battalion box sets. This makes all of the units included a little more affordable still; even if a kid who pays with his paper round money might struggle a little. That’s the positive bit.

 

Some of the classic skeletons

 

The Empire battalion set, now available at £65 (I purchased it at £60 3-4 years ago) stills seemed to me to remain a fairly reasonable buy (for 4 units). But when I looked at GW’s website recently, I realised the photograph on the box had changed, and a unit was missing. At some point in time one of the units, a special choice, the Greatswords, had been removed from the set and replaced with the old cannon model. The cannon retails at £15.50. Greatswords are now available as a separate set only, at £25.50 for 10 models. No new moulds here and slight price rise as well.

 

The astute among you will realise this is the sort of move that GW has become very, very good at in recent times. While some of the older plastic troops (for now) are just about within financial reach of the average collector, we gamers have to pay quite a lot of extra money for the special and rare choices that are rapidly filling the army books. Similarly, in 40k Marine players will be familiar the making the painful choice between forking out for a Land Raider (now £45) or another purchase that contains about the same amount of plastic, but is worth considerably less in gaming terms. Mind you that comparison might not stand any more, as most of the Marine and 40k prices in have been jacked up horrendously of late.

 

The Space Marine Sterngaurd kit is fantastic but £30 for 5 plastic marines is insane!

 

Personally I think that if sanity is to be restored to the hobby, then there has to be some sort of basic ratio between the amount of the material a model is made from and its price. £1.25/model (Skeletons/Marauders) and £2.55/model (Greatswords) are all plastic models, and about the same size and weight, but the prices are very different. There may be variable design costs, and inflation of course – but work out the percentage difference in cost between some model sets, it’s an eye opener. By doing this sort of thing, GW is really saying that models like the Greatswords are now real collector’s pieces. Only the wealthier collectors will be able to field these choices in any number, and that’s that (and don't forget that 8th ed fantasy encourages bigger units - Keith). It’s quite something for a gaming store that markets its games as family friendly products. GW doesn’t see things that way though, as I realised when I saw what it was charging for some of its actual collectors pieces, in Finecast of course.

 

Back in 5^th Ed, flawed as it was, all one had to do was spend £8 on a durable metal hero/lord and that purchase made a real difference to the army – but not any more. Nowadays one really does have to purchase a number of different sets in order to stand a chance of having a genuinely competitive game. GW knows this and it has clearly adjusted its prices accordingly.

 

Recently I had to make a decision between purchasing the Empire battalion and another £65 set, Mantics Deadzone. Because I didn’t know too much about Mantic, I considered delaying my Mantic purchase in favour of the battalion. However because Greatswords had been but cut from the battalion set, I plumped for Deadzone instead. As it turns out Deadzone is a wonderful set and good value for money to boot. It will be a central part of my gaming life for some time to come. (Deadzone is great, look out for my review coming soon - Keith)

 

Mike considers his next move in a game of Mantic's Deadzone

 

A further nasty surprise arrived last week in the form of White Dwarfs preview of the new Tyranid range.  It’s all nice looking stuff of course, it always it. But once again a lot of the items are expensive, even the troops. At £33 for 3, we may expect significant upgrades to the Tyranid Warriors in the new codex…. . As for the choicer models at £48 a pop - nice as it is, the new Harpy will not be on my list of future purchases.

 

Many years ago, my old man bought a bag of chips in St Pancras Station. He embarrassed me at the counter by saying, “at that price I’d expect them to be gold plated”... sadly I’m starting to know how he felt… Goodness knows how many Mantic Enforcers one might be able to put on a table for £48 (31 for £50, including 2 10 man normal squads, a five man assault squad, a 5 man heavy support squad and a hero - Keith).

 

In the final part I’m going to comment on something that has impressed me over the years -The quality of the models.
 

Oh dear, price, perhaps the most controversial aspect of GW's behaviours over recent years.  Ultimately I think the prices are too high and that's been reflected in the recently announced poor results.  I think it's a hang-over of the pre-internet days when for many people GW was the only readily available source of miniatures, and I would spend all my hobby budget in GW no matter what the prices were. I was (am) addicted to buying minis, so they could keep rising prices and I would still buy them.  They now have a lot of competition that I can buy from at the click of a few buttons.  I still spend a lot on minis, but a lot less of that money is going to games workshop, their share of my budget has decreased from 100% to maybe 30%.  If I'm a typical customer that spells disaster.  I love most of their products, but the prices are making me go elsewhere.  I think Mikes missed one issue with his proposed plastic/price ratio though and that's that the moulds are the main cost, and cost similar no matter how many times you make models from them, so minis that will sell less units (like rare units and heroes) will have to cost more than tactical marines for example, so as to recover the costs of making those moulds.

Part 3