~Your daily dose of tabletop fun! Enjoy. If you have an awesome shot you think would make a great BoLS pic of the day, email us!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
40K Pic of the Day 7-7-09
~Your daily dose of tabletop fun! Enjoy. If you have an awesome shot you think would make a great BoLS pic of the day, email us!
First BoLSCon Prize Announcement
BoLSCon 2009
August 22-23
Doubletree Hotel, Austin, Texas
Remember when we said that BoLScon's $4000+ prize pool will have lots of cool random prizes? Well some of them are alloted to early registrants. Congratulations to our first Random prize winner, Andrew B. of Washington, DC! Andrew was randomly selected from registrants, and will receive a Battleforce Box of his choice.
And, now that we've given a prize, the cat is out of the bag. We will have more drawings for registrants and pre-submitted armies between now and August 6th. If you've been holding off your registrations until BoLScon is right around the corner, well that time has arrived! We will also have plenty of random giveaways during the actual events as well.
Warhammer 40,000 2000pt Tournament
Warhammer Fantasy 2250pt Tournament
War of the Rings 2000pt Tournament
Warhammer 40,000 3000pt Narrative Events Anti-tournament
Open Gaming
Pod Racing
Lucky-13s
REGISTER NOW! There are less than 2 months to go!
~Come on down to beautiful, sunny Austin and enjoy a weekend of your favorite games with the Fly Lords. We'll see ya there!
40K EDITORIAL: Playing Fast is the Key to Paradise
Good day cadets! Today we will be talking about speed of play, and how it can take a soft, weedy officer candidate, and make an Emperor's-Blessed, enemy-crushing, merciless Catachan Devil out of him. Lets get right to it. At ease!
Playing fast is one of the most important skills to master if you want to be a strong player. Here are some key reasons:
#1 You make more mistakes when you play faster. Mistakes mean that things don’t go as planned, and you have to improvise more. This means you have more practice for when that missile immobilizes your Land Raider (after your opponent Stole the Initiative, of course), or all your Drop Pods scatter exactly away from their targets.
#2 You play more games in the same amount of time if you play faster. Playing more games is incredibly important for improving. You may not have the good fortune to have a wide variety of opponents and armies to fight against, but even playing twice as many games against your friend’s Ultramarines will increase your ability to understand the game more fully.
#3 When you play fast, you develop your instincts. Almost anyone can calculate the odds, given time. Playing fast takes that time away, so you learn to trust your feelings. Like Luke, at the Death Star. Being able to decide which target to fire on, which objectives you can and cannot take, and where your opponent will break through your defenses are all matters best managed through instinct.
#4 Playing fast develops your focus. Playing fast eliminates the long pauses to think about what you’re going to do after your opponent’s turn. This teaches you to be thinking about what you are going to do while your opponent is playing, instead of updating your Facebook profile or whatever it is you might be doing instead. Keeping focused on the game is one of the pieces too many players do not have.
~I want to note that none of these suggestions are pointed at people new to the hobby, nor do I mean to criticize anyone for playing casually at a relaxed pace. All tournaments have time limits, so practicing to remove the fear of the clock is your friend.
Now your assignment cadets is to try to get in just 1 extra game the next time you head out to games night. If you normally play 1 game, try to get in 2; if its normally 2, try for 3. You will be pleasantly surprised how quickly you will learn to hone that killer instinct once you get in the groove of playing fast and aggressively. It also has the effect of flustering opponents who are often taken aback at seeing a quick bout of activity upset thier well-laid battle plans. Flustered players make mistakes... What say you?
Monday, July 6, 2009
40K Pic of the Day 7-6-09
~Your daily dose of tabletop fun! Enjoy. If you have an awesome shot you think would make a great BoLS pic of the day, email us!
40K REVIEW: Planetstrike
Hi guys,
Bigred here, with our latest Warhammer 40000 product review. I have recently finished reading my copy of Planetstrike and want to go over it in detail with you guys who may be debating whether its worth your time.
Basics
80 Pages
B/W with color plates (like a codex)
Standard codex sized format
Softback
Price: $25 USD
Content Breakdown
Planetstrike Rules: 25 pages
Strategems: 13 pages
Campaigns and Missions: 8 pages
Fluff and Painted Mini Section: 26 pages
Content Review
First up, this book is an expansion for the main rulebook, so if you are already a 40k player, you're ready to go. In the same vein as Cities of Death, the book mainly covers large attacker-defender style missions, instead of the balanced missions with no predefined roles we get in the standard rulebook. With differing sides and contrasting FOC tables, Planetstrike will require a little bit of pre-planning, and lends itself well to narrative gameplay or more organized playstyles than just simple pickup games.
Planetstrike Rules
After a brief introduction we get right into the meat of the rules section. This is broken into 2 broad categories:
-Organizing a battle
-Defensive Terrain
Organizing a battle is a real homage to the old "battles" section of the 4th edition rulebook with even more embellishments added in. Both attacker and defender are presented with new FOC tables, allowing both players to build up forces that are otherwise not possible outside of Apocalypse. Things like 6 elites for the attacker and 6 heavy suppport choices for the defender and much more are guaranteed to peak players interest ,and produce some very different games.
The book goes on to cover the placement of objectives, how forces arrive on-table, and the attackers and defenders goals and objectives. In general the attacker has a hard road early to mid-game with the defender gaining the advantage of position, and formidable defenses, but it is the defender who will start the sweating late game. Objectives may be claimed by the attacker with only a single surviving model, and every squad counts as scoring, so the attacker must not only be prepared, but thorough with his firepower. Even small rag-tag remnants of attacking squads can achieve victory.
Defensive terrain is the visual highlight of Planetstrike. Here we get detailed rules for:
-Bastions
-Interceptor Guns (with limited overwatch abilities!)
-Defense Lines
-Landing Pads
-Fortresses
The rules are clean, and work with the core rulebook well. Did I mention that all defensive weapons on the new terrain pieces fire at BS:2 and are awarded to the defending player for FREE!
Strategems
After the core rules, we move onto the Strategems. These are really cool, if somewhat analagous to the Cities of Death strategems section. There are a large set of strategems divided into attacker and defender pools, to spice missions up. From attacking Stasis Bombs, to defending Drop-Bastions, there is something for every game. The section then moves on to my favorite part of the entire book: race-specific strategems. Here we see such awesome abilities as the Space Marines mighty Drop Pod strikes, to the fear-inducing terror of Dark Eldar assaults, and their craftworld brother's deceptive use of the Web-way. Along the way, we get little background tidbits on some of the game's older races that is sure to tantalize the fluff nuts.
Campaigns and Missions
Next up is a short section that expands the default Planetstrike mission presented earlier into a full set of 6 missions with differing special rules and objectives for variety. These may be played in series to represent a mini-campaign depicting the invasion of a world, and are a treasure trove for narrative gamers or campaign designers. I can see many of these being used with Planetary Empires to really add depth to league play.
Fluff and Painting Section
Next up a large section covers many famous invasions of the 40th Millenium, covering every race out there. Many of Warhammer 40k's older codices get a nice dusting off with dramatic new stories, and artwork. The Dark Eldar and Space Wolves are standouts in this department, with a bunch of intriguing hints and information.
Finally we hit the obligatory crazy color battle plates chock full of pretty pics. While not as over the top as the Apocalypse books, we get to see every major race slugging it out in and around the new Planetstrike terrain sets. High quality 'Eavy Metal work abounds, along with lots of Forgeworld goodies and its definately inspiring.
Downsides
While everything is good so far, there are some issues. Once again, we see Witchhunters and Daemonhunters left in the cold strategem-wise. While there are thankfully Grey Knight and Sisters models in a couple of pics, I'm starting to get the feeling that continueing from Apocalypse there is some reason GW is not mentioning those two codeices by name any longer. Some will note the broad similarity between Planetstrike and Cities of Death, and the criticism is warranted. Both supplements are broadly similar, and you will find the strategem sections to be blurred reflections of each other.
Summary
On balance, Planetstrike is a good bargain for the price, with the terrain sets being even better. If you enjoy the drama of disparate roles for both players, or you feel the standard pickup-missions from the rulebook are getting a little old, you will love this product. It opens up the game to include new playstyles that let you use your existing minis collections in new ways. The ruleset dovetails nicely into the existing rulebook with little to no hickups, and the expansion of the game to include such common 40th Millenium themes as bastions, fortified lines, and the like will only enhance the dark-gothic look of your tabletops. Lastly, it is cheaper and more accessable than Apocalypse supplements, being an add-on to the core game.
4 Stars (out of 5)
Goatboy's 40k Thoughts: Lets have Fun Dangit!
Lately we have been theorizing stupid lists for Ard Boyz and I have come to the conclusion that I just don’t care. I'm not bringing something insanely tough. I know some friends locally have been having some crap luck as of late, so they have built crazy tough, very expensive Forgeworld-enhanced IG builds that I personally find awful. These are the types of builds that can crush a normal player and make them not want to play again. It isn’t an artful army, full of interesting strategies or methods to win. No it just sits, and shoots, shoots, and shoots some more, before leaving you wondering why you wasted your 25 minutes to set up on the table.
Now where this is all going, is that with discussing this list and how it might work, it really brings up the question: is it really all the fun to win in all cases? Lately, I have found the games where both players are losing models can be a hell of a lot of fun. When just one player is pulling off models its often a miserable time for BOTH.
I know I am the “hard” player here, but trust me, winning the game on turn 2 or 3 is just not worth my Saturday. Thus my change of armies on Saturday to something that has more strategic elements to it, as well as some goofy bits that makes for an interesting game. So lets talk about how to create fun games and armies for yourself AND your opponent.
First thing you can try, is agree upon a build with your opponent. Nothing is worse then bringing something to the table that is goofy and having your opponent have a “no mercy” army facing you. So make sure what kind of army you are playing against. If they want to test a hard list, bring a hard army in response. I know I have played some hard lists against people in training for tourneys as well as goofy lists when they just wanted to goof off.
This leads to my number two thing, don’t be a jerk. If you know your army seems to be too tough, do something stupid. Give them something to kill. Nothing is worse then just not doing anything in a game, and as an opponent you should watch for ways to make things fun. Yeah it might not be the smartest thing to do, but this is a game of plastic guys, so winning here really isn’t that important as making sure you both have a fun time in the grand scheme of things.
The third thing I sometimes do, is let opponents take stuff back. Or I tell them when they miss something that would crush me. Nothing is worse then forgetting to do something that is important to the game, and you as an opponent, noticing it and not telling your opponent, is a pretty crappy thing to do. There are two people in this game, and if both get some kind of win in there, both will leave the game happy.
Finally, and I know that sometimes its hard: don’t complain. I know losing or rolling bad can suck, but the less you complain about it, the better the game will be. I know I have fallen into this rut at times with my newest addiction: Fantasy, and luckily I have some friends that will give me crap for being a whiney tittie baby. It is a hard thing to stay on top of, as sometimes luck can just continue to shove you further into the realm of crap. If your dice are failing you, then what you need to do is just go with it. Just see how bad they can get and see if you can top your last game with worse armor saves. I know a lot of Indy GT’s will give out awards for the worst rolling and I feel this is a good way to make light and have fun when dealing with the bad.
I know this isn’t your usual rant on how to create a better army. Lots of this stuff doesn't work well in a tournament space, but knowing how to play "up" or "down" based on your opponents is one of the true marks of a confident mature player. I know we all cherish our freetime and this game asks a lot more of us than videogames or other projects, so lets make that time enjoyable.
Again, as usual shoot me a question if you want at Goatboybols@gmail.com. I will always answer any questions you might have as well as give out any advice. I was on 40k radio last week, so check it out to here me talk about one of my favorite armies, Chaos Space Marines.
The pics below are some of the stuff I finished this week. I was pretty productive and got a lot of stuff done. I did another spawn as well as 3 more converted Oblits for a client. I also finished up two VC characters for another. Look for a Valk this week and more ork stuff. Woot.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
40K Pic of the Day 7-5-09
~Your daily dose of tabletop fun! Enjoy. If you have an awesome shot you think would make a great BoLS pic of the day, email us!
GW - 40K RUMORS: The Mystery Box
rumors brought to the community by warseer's: genestealer_baldric
So the plot thickens folks. In a highly unusual marketing move, word is starting to dribble out of GW of a totally secret product that will be unveiled in stores in August. It is described as something totally new and unheard of, that will be a limited run. The current rumors swirling about are:
-Product announcement on 15-16th August, with a ship date in September.
-August/september they are selling a box set for around £50. (@$70 USD)
-It is a completely stand alone set that is not related to any race.
-It is something that GW has never done before.
-Some local stores are only getting one shipment; when that sells out it will no longer be available.
-You can't advance order it. You have to be there on the day to get it.
-It is not Planetary Empires.
-It is a board game.
-Very limited GW people know what it is. Blueshirts have indicated what they know and the Blackshirts avoid questions.
-Likely to be 40K related, but not definitely confirmed.
There is also this image which showed up in the BoLS inbox, from a poster for the upcoming Gamesday-Germany which announces a "bomb being dropped" at the event.
~It's speculation time. Have at it. My money is still on Space Hulk, but who can say?
EPIC: Malcador by Evil & Chaos
Just a small Epic post today to shout out to Evil & Chaos, whose scratch-build work I found in my travels around the internets.
E&C decided to make a Malcador tank for Epic because GW hasn't. Check it out below.
It's just 3.5cm long--but that's 3.5cm of pure, unadulterated Awesome.
Here's the Malcador again with some other Epic units for comparison:
Great detail. Particularly when you compare E&C's work against the 28mm scale version by Forge World (see below), you start to appreciate the mad skills the guy is flaunting.
View Comments
E&C decided to make a Malcador tank for Epic because GW hasn't. Check it out below.
It's just 3.5cm long--but that's 3.5cm of pure, unadulterated Awesome.
Here's the Malcador again with some other Epic units for comparison:
Great detail. Particularly when you compare E&C's work against the 28mm scale version by Forge World (see below), you start to appreciate the mad skills the guy is flaunting.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
40K NEWS: Planetstrike Ships
On this 4th of July, Planetstrike is upon us Warhammer 40k fans! The whole ball of wax from the Planetstrike book to the Bastion, Defense Lines, and everything else is available for purchase RIGHT NOW!
Head on over to the GW Online Store or your local FLGS and check the stuff out:
Planetstrike
Bastion
Skyshield
Aegis Defense Line
Chaos Bastion
Mines Bombs and Booby Traps
Spear of Sicarius (for those looking for a serious challenge)
Bastion Upgrade Pack
Cities of Death Floor Pack
~In particular, check out those last 3. For those crazy guys looking for a challenge, the Spear of Sicarius is right up your alley. I myself shudder at the thought of assembling 9 drop pods! The other 2 upgrade frames are pretty cool for those who wish to build more elaborate bastions and fortresses.
Happy Independence Day
Happy 4th of July!
For all my fellow American readers, get out there and get some hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill! Have an ice-cold beer on BoLS. For our UK readers, well it looks like our little revolution all worked out in the end, even 230+ years down the road.
This is the perfect day for everyone to grab your rebel armies, find a tabletop and throw off the Imperium's yoke of oppression. If you have a Lost and the Damned, Rebel Guard, Radical Inquisitor force, or anything like it, fly your revolutionary flag, and get in a battle.
As one crafty BoLS reader suggested: nothing but 1776pt games today!
~Come back here and let us know how your fledgling rebellious efforts turned out. Playful jabs are encouraged!
40K NEWS: Damnatus on the Lamb! - Maybe?
So remember guys when that big brouhaha regarding the German fan-made file Damnatus hit a couple of years ago.
When we last heard the story, the film was consigned to a dark oubliette of secrecy, never to be released.
That is until a little bit ago, when the good ole BoLS emailbox was pointed to this little gem sitting out on Google Videos (which I'm stunned is still up and running in the wake of Youtube). According to the Google date, its been sitting there since February 18th!
Now I never saw Damnatus in its first drafts, so I can't say one way or the other if this is the real deal. But, whatever it it, its clearly a fan-made production running about 90 minutes.
~Is it possible Damnatus is out of its cage and running free on the tubes? It's also in un-subtitled German. Ugg...
Friday, July 3, 2009
WFB Pic of the Day 7-03-09
~Your daily dose of tabletop fun! Enjoy. If you have an awesome shot you think would make a great BoLS pic of the day, email us!
40K NEWS: Planetary Empires, Battlescape Advance Order
Planetary Empires and Battlescape are now up for Advance Order on the GW website.
Meanwhile, most of the major releases for Planetstrike are released this weekend on July 4.
UPDATE, July 4, 12:54 EDT: Check out these new scenery sprues now available as conversion packs from GW Direct. The two new items are the Cities of Death Floor Pack and the Bastion Upgrade Pack.
I just got back from spending about ten hours at a local GW. We had a great Planestrike/Apocalypse mega-game and of course, I picked up my copy of Planetstrike and a Bastion kit at midnight. Who else out there attended one of these events? Who's going to try out Planestrike this weekend? Feel free to share your stories in the comments area below.
I know I'm going to have a pretty full weekend of Planetstrike activities, starting with the midnight release party and mega-battle tonight at one of my local GW stores. Have a fun, safe weekend everyone. Happy Independence Day!
40K TACTICA: The Imperial Guard Infantry Platoon
ATTENTION! Today we Imperial Guard officer candidates are going to talk about the unsung heroes of the Imperium. Not those legendary Astartes, not the glory boys of the Stormtrooper regiment. The Infantry Platoon! You master it, and victory is assured. At ease, lets get started!
Special Upgrade Characters
First, the special upgrades Al’Rahem and Chenkov. Al’Rahem requires an army built around him to be very useful, so I’ll skip him for now.
Chenkov can be useful even without utilizing the Conscript Recycling System because of his Aura of Stubborn. Use Chenkov to avoid the cost of Commissars and he’s a good deal, if you’re planning a force that uses Stubborn. Of course, one must be careful in the use of Stubborn IG – the worst case close combat scenario for IG is having close combats last long enough to allow an assaulting enemy shelter from the guns. Chenkov also has Get Back Into The Fight, which is a very useful order, but loses First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire (FRFSRF), the most common order given by Junior Officers.
PLATOON HQ
The Platoon HQ is required, so you have to take one. Other than giving the FRFSRF order, the Platoon HQ is a small scoring unit that is best given only light upgrades. Because every member of the squad can be upgraded, the Platoon HQ is best outfitted with Flamers and mounted in a Chimera, for burning enemies. I find that the Heavy Flamer isn’t worth the cost in the unit. The other good way to use Platoon Commands is as sniper squads, but I find the flamers more useful time and again.
Platoon Level Orders – Platoon HQs have 3 basic orders to give. A Junior Officer only has a 6” range, so be sure to set yourself up carefully if you want to actually get any use out of these orders.
First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire: is the bread and butter order of the Platoon HQ. After the first turn, your Platoon HQs should be giving this order most of the time.
Incoming: is a tricky order, best used to keep a unit holding an objective safely covered or to make your screening units hard to blow holes through. While it seems useless at first glance, I use this almost every game.
Move, Move, Move: is a great order for getting troops from one place to another, and should be part of your game plan for latter turn objective grabs and/or getting screening troops away from advancing enemy assault troops.
Infantry Squads
Infantry Squads – Something has to be used to screen your forces and advance on objectives. Infantry Squads are ideal for this purpose. I recommend arming Infantry squads with cheap weapons like Grenade Launchers and Flamers, and I don’t put Heavy Weapons in line infantry. If you’re committed to fighting in close combat (instead of just dying or running away), Commissars and Sergeants with Power Weapons add bite and staying power. Make sure to combine squads for close combat, so that one Commissar can hold 20-30 men in a screaming mass of slow-dying casualties, while the Commissar and Sergeants work at cutting the enemy down. The math isn’t good for the Commissariat close combat technique, but being able to stay in close combat is attractive nonetheless.
Heavy Weapons Squads
I like Heavy Weapons Squads. Yes, one burst of Assault Cannon fire and the unit can die. Autocannon Teams project a great deal of anti-Rhino firepower and can use the Bring It Down order efficiently against any light-medium vehicles. Lascannons are expensive and more useful for the fire they receive than the fire they put out. Missiles are not as good as Autocannons and more expensive. Heavy Bolters are great antipersonnel weapons, but not strong enough for anti-vehicle or anti MC work. Mortars are weak, but barrage weapons are great – it’s always a pleasure to pin those Assault Terminators. If you take infantry platoons, Heavy Weapons Squads placed in terrain are worth taking.
Special Weapons Squads
Two Demo Charges and a Flamer is my standard loadout for Special Weapons. I use them either as Valkyrie suicide bombers or in Reserve to jump out and kill later in the game. For 50 points the Tri-Flamer configuration is also worth considering. Giving Special Weapons Squads Plasma or Meltaguns is not as good a choice as giving the guns to Veteran Squads.
Conscript Platoon
One change in the new Codex is this unit, which was a stunningly effective roadblock previously, is essentially useless for general purposes now. There are tricks – giving them For Cadia from Creed, or using them to get an enemy assault force pulled into a ball before Chenkov sends them away, leaving the enemy massed for Hellhounds and Battle Cannons to annihilate them, for instance – but overall the same tricks can be accomplished nearly as well with units that are actually useful for other purposes as well.
~DISMISSED, Comments are welcome after class cadets. If you have any battlefield tales and words of wisdom from your time in the junior ranks lets hear them.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
40K: Mystery Planetstrike Daemon Prince???
Hey guys,
Looking around GW's website I came upon this image from the recent Planetstrike section. Now every mini in there looks pretty standard, until I hit upon that Daemon Prince.
Thats kind of odd don't you think. Conversion of the current metal Daemon Prince, or something else altogether?
~You make the call, but I know where my money is. Also, is that sword from the Final Fantasy universe or what?
40K NEWS: Dawn of War II Update Beta Opens
THQ sends word a big update is open for testing to all current DoW II owners. The update includes bug fixes, balance updates, new content, new features, new maps, and the release of the world builder.
How to enter the Beta
Beta Update Details
Change List
~That is a big ole change list. Have at it guys.
40K NEWS: Thursday Odds and Ends
Hi guys, on this hot summer Thursday we have several little tidbits for you:
Planetary Empires Release Date
We have seen schedules with August-15 as the ship date for Planetary Empires. Look out for it.
Land Raider Crusader Sprue
This accessory sprue from the LR Crusader kit will be offered as a standalone piece on August-1st. With it you can do such cool things as convert Crusaders of course, as well as start to crank out all those twin-linked assault cannon Razorbacks the Space Marine codex has been tempting you with.
Crashed Aquila Lander Kit
This classic wreckage set from the 4th Edition boxed set makes a reappearance on August-1st
~It sure seems that Planststrike's launch window is surrounded by a bit of scenery, wreckage and other tabletop window-dressing doesn't it?
In other more important news, you will notice the top picture. Now flip to p.111 of the Space Marine codex. That's now 2 pictures of the "new" Salamanders skin color. Guys, they are black. Not cool Terran-African black, but creepy charcoal-black... I just thought all you painters should take note. :)
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
40K Pic of the Day 7-01-09
~Your daily dose of tabletop fun! Enjoy. If you have an awesome shot you think would make a great BoLS pic of the day, email us!
EDITORIAL: Narrative Gaming in Baby Steps
One of the things we really enjoy here at BoLS is diving into the fun-filled depths of narrative gaming. I know, I know... After reading Goatboy and Jwolf tell you how to vivisect enemy armies, you are saying "bigred, you're pulling my leg" But I'm not, and believe it or not, when narrative campaign time comes around all the Fly Lords switch out our hats and enjoy nothing more than several weeks of fluffy non-hardcore armies plowing their way through a well crafted story. Winning a tournament is one thing, but walking in the footsteps of some of the greatest heroes (or villians) of the 40k universe offers rewards just as satisfying.
So the next question I often recieve is how to get a group of pickup gamers to introduce narrative gaming into their group. It seems like a big nebulous hassle and most players who would otherwise love the experience are often turned away from the get go.
With narrative play, the key is to start with something simple. Don't go off and try to craft a crazy 130 page campaign book (like we do here at BoLS). Start with something like a set of 2 custom missions where the effects of the first mission slightly alter the second one. Have some fun inventing some cool narrative pairs of missions that allow your guys to reuse their army twice in the same night and get everyone's feet wet with non-pickup games. Before you know it, your ideas will begin to build on each other, and you're group will want to start making larger themed games than link into each other from week to week and you're off to the races!
If you want even less record-keeping why not turn to p.263 of your rulebook guys and take a look at the veteran abilities table. One very simple way to "roleplay" your force is to keep a simple sheet of paper on the wall noting each of your player's number of veteran abilities, alowing you to get a little feel for narrative play integrated into straight pickup-games. This simple system also gives both players a chance to have fun going over their game, and picking thier most memorable moments and awarding key units for their tabletop efforts (even if you lost). You might reset your veteran league after a month, or after the first person reaches some number of abilities, and start over.
A nice side-effect of campaign play, is you can set whatever house rules you want to get folks to not take really abusive armies and instead focus on having fun instead. I've found that once guys really get into fluffy narrative games and campaigns, that happens naturally anyway, as no one wants be the one who "brings the chainsaw to the wedding shower" and ruin everyone else's fun.
~You can expect more of this narrative talk coming up, and with Mighty Empires out and Planetary Empires fast approaching, the time is rips for some-crafted campaigns. I'd love to hear of your narrative gaming experience, your thoughts on the concept in general. The floor is your gentlmen (and women).
EDITORIAL: What to Do With Specialist Games?
In various Specialist Games-related forums, you often see players decrying Games Workshop's limited support for the many and varied Specialist Games. A case in point is the lack of 6mm-scale Necron and Tyranid armies for use with Epic:Armageddon, mentioned in an earlier post.
This situation was exacerbated recently when several popular Forge World Epic miniatures disappeared from the online store, such as the Tau, Grey Knight Terminators and Warhound Titans. Understandably, many members of the Epic community are more than a little annoyed by this--particularly since, to date, there has been no official communication from either FW or GW about what is going on.
My spies tell me the situation is that these Epic moulds require re-tooling, and FW is reviewing the financial viability of doing this, but official confirmation would be nice...hint hint, GW/FW!
Nevertheless, this situation raises the issue of what GW could and should be doing with its SG ranges. Most notably, GW's marketing department should be doing a lot more to communicate with these player bases, but there is more they could be doing as well: they could be leveraging their SG range in order to retain their aging player base. I will use my favourite SG game, Epic:Armageddon, to explain.
As previously discussed in my series of posts, Epic:Armageddon is conceptually more complex than Warhammer 40,000 due to its higher level of abstraction. In my experience, younger players (under 15, say) who play 40K may not get Epic, as evidenced by the "What?? Devastators only carry missile launchers??" question I keep seeing posted around various forums (it's an abstraction, guys--the missile launcher could be a lascannon). These younger players often bypass Epic in favour of 40K, which is of course fine for GW--so long as these players are buying 40K miniatures and rulebooks, its revenue stream remains secure.
There is a flip-side to this, however: the problem of retaining players as their gaming tastebuds change. I will use my own experience as an example.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader came out when I was about 14 years old, and myself and a mate of mine went nuts for it. We kept playing well into 2nd Edition, too, but he--always a gamer much more than a hobbyist or painter--eventually became frustrated by the tactical limitations of the game around age 20 and lost interest in 40K. Thankfully, he discovered Epic instead (then called Space Marine), and still plays Epic:Armageddon today--and I can even occasionally get him to play 40K.
The point of this story is that, if Epic had not been available as an alternative system, GW would have lost my mate as a revenue source--probably forever.
I think it is in GW's interests to seek to retain maturing 40K players (the 20- and 30-somethings) who, like my friend, might be looking for something new by transitioning them into Epic--or Aeronautica Imperialis or Battlefleet Gothic (or Space Hulk, for that matter). The universe of the 41st Millennium is as compelling as it ever was; in my experience, it is the gaming system with which people tend to get fatigued.
If I was running GW, that would be part of my player retention strategy: a player looking for something different from 40K (as my friend eventually was) all too easily leaves tabletop gaming entirely, and then ceases to be a source of revenue for GW; whereas, if this player is introduced to an alternative GW system that meets his or her gaming needs, the player remains an on-going source of revenue via both--or even multiple--systems, and one that was cheaply won at that in marketing budget terms.
That's just my 5 cents, of course. At the end of the day, I still get to play 40K and Epic. And Battlefleet Gothic. And Space Hulk. And Dawn of War 2. And Epic 40,000: Final Liberation (yes, I still play that old PC game from time to time--and it's still awesome).
I call that a win-win (win-win-win-win) scenario.
~So what's your take on Specialist Games guys? Important option for the veteran gamers, or useless appendage? What say you?
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