The Plague Brethren

... or Stink bros?

I couldn't resist this "limited" boxed set with three more plague marines. I love the new plague marines, and despite knowing that a proper plastic boxed set is on the horizon, and despite having about 50 old and semi-old metal plague marines, these were a must buy. Prize-wise they are 25 quid (or 300 Swedish Krona) for three ordinary plastic figures which is a bit steep. But who cares, money will be worthless when the Trumpocalypse comes anyway.

They come in this snazzy box. Can I please have this as a giant poster, pretty please with sugar on top?

The first thing you see when you open the box is a booklet with the same illustration on.

There are actually two booklets. One is the designer's notes and the other is the building instructions.

...underneath the booklets is a flap that lifts up to reveal some art cards.

All feature art by John Blance, but none is actually of any of the models in this box.

Ok, a quick break here, I have to get something off my chest. I'm a big fan of John Blanche's visions and style, but some of his art is actually very bad. I like the plague marine and the pox walker on the art cards above, they are quite evocative and disturbing. If you look closer though, you realise John's method of colouring his art is just drawing some swathes of water colours in the general area he wants colour, hoping most of it will be inside the lines he drew. One is actually of Mortarion, the great Death Guard primarch, but you couldn't tell if the picture didn't have the caption. I stared at the picture for like five minutes without being able to tell where his head is. I suppose it's a case of the Emperor's new clothes syndrome, nobody dares criticise John Blanche at GW and just prints whatever he produces.

Back to the box though, are there actually any minis inside?

Back To Basics: Wargames Foundry Home Guard

(Warning: a small rant ahead. Pictures of models after the break, if you want to skip ahead.)

So I've sort of hit painter's block... I do paint... but I seem to take ages, not finish stuff other than the occasional odd miniature here and there. I buy stuff, build them, start paint a couple and then... I loose interest. It's just not the Wargamer's Attention Deficit Disorder, otherwise known as the Magpie or "OOh shiny" syndrome. Oh I got that too, but this is something else.

I was thinking back to when I started in the hobby. You bought a thing. Built it. Painted it. Played with it within a week or so. Sometimes you had a big project (like that Tamiya 1:35 Möbelwagen). If you didn't have the correct paint you used another, or mixed a couple of paints to a rough estimate of the box cover art. Things were simpler back then, I thought.

No this isn't a "Things were better before" post.

But no... things weren't simpler, my methods were. Now we have 200 or somewhere abouts paints in the GW range, many of them technical paints, some are dry, some are layer paints, some are washes and some are glazes, some are base paints. Back then you had paints, and inks. You could thin the paints to make washes, use the inks for pin washes or glazes, and you could wipe all of your paint from the brush for drybrushing. You drybrushed or highlighted, washed or pin washed, and that was it.

Don't get me wrong, all the new techniques, all the new kinds of paints are fantastic. You can do some amazing things. But they also lead to overcomplication. Do I need to paint every model like it could belong in the 'Eavy Metal section of White Dwarf? No, but I try to. It's partially because the models have become better and more detailed so they lure you into a complicated paint job. Back then the models often had unadorned armour, maybe the odd spike or symbol somewhere. If you wanted to you could freehand something or put a decal on it. Nowadays the armours are sculpted with lots of details and 3d insignia that beckons to be painted, highlighted, washed, weathered and then some git are doing them in non-metallic metallics. (Don't get me started about that... the Emperor's new paint scheme I call it.) But I'm setting my ambitions too high. It's not that I can't paint that fine, I can. But I don't need to, and it takes too long time.

My stash of Home Guard. Also includes some Crusader and Warlord figures in the top rows.

So I dug up a bunch of Wargames Foundry British Home Guard that I have had in my stash for a while, and decided to go back to the basics with them.

Heroines in Sensible Shoes review

Ok, so this is the second kickstarter from Oathsworn I pledged to, and boy do they not know how to run a kickstarter.

• They included an extra figure and a resin Dragon's nest as a "Thank You" to the backers -- not a stretch goal, but just as extras. Ok, functionally it's the same as a stretch goal but they didn't have to include them since they never said "Everyone gets extra stuff when we reach so and so much money."
• Despite the extra stuff included I recieved my pledge in time. Unacceptable. The first time they were a month late, even that was ridiculous. It's simply not how Kickstarters are done.
• The figures looked exactly like the pictures we were shown during the kickstarter. No change of design, no change of material. Surprise!
• Clear communications during the casting and sending out processes so everyone knew what was going on.

I'm joking of course, but it's refreshing to see a company using Kickstarter as it was originally intended and then actually delivering what was promised and on time.

For those of you who don't know what it's all about the figures are depicting female adventurers wearing sensible and practical adventuring gear. No chainmail bikinis, no high heeled boots, no slashed dresses revealing shapely thighs... just what women would wear if they had to go explore a dungeon and fight monsters. I don't want to make this into a feminist debate, but the thing is that these figures are needed. Have you ever roleplayed with a bunch of your male friends and suddenly a girl wants to join? Yay, you think! Awesome! But the only female figures you have are a half-naked barbarian and an evil elf sorcess with high heels striking that Angelina Jolie at the Oscars 2012 pose?

Yes that pose.

Sure, I like a bit of eye-candy. But there has to be ordinary figures too. And there are, they are coming, but those cheese-cake pin-up models are still the majority of female figures out there. So the Oathsworn Heroines in Sensible Shoes kickstarter was very welcome and fills a niche that's not yet full. Which about a 1000 backers also thought, as they backed the project. Compare that to their earlier kickstarters which gathered the interests of about 300 backers at most -- 207 for the Dwarf Brewers that I backed previously.

Enough soap-boxing, on to the miniatures.

So long and thanks for all the fish - being a rant of epic length.

(Disclaimer: Some of the pictures on this page is (c) Games Workshop and is used without permission for discussion purposes only. No challenge of copyright is intended.)

I guess it hasn't escaped anybody that Games Workshop are doing a new version of Warhammer. Like Microsoft they have dropped the numbering system (except that Microsoft is counting again, just not correctly) and gone for a brand name instead. Sort of like Ikea.

Funny cause it's true.

But instead of Warhammer Bönkfjordnurpur it's called Warhammer Age of Sigmar and is a big change from the previous version. (If you haven't heard about it, go check it out, the link is above.) Now it has divided the internet gaming community in two halfs, each about as rabid as the other. It's hard to say which group is the largest though, and I don't doubt that GW will sell tons of boxes and call AoS a success.

The new Logo.

First, I understand why GW is doing this. I'm not opposed to change, I'm just opposed to stupidness. And change for change's sake. I think GW are grasping after straws. They need to reinvent themselves. The Hobbit license has failed so miserably that GW didn't even put out a boxed game for the third movie and hardly any models. Most of GW's sales are related to either the hobby in general (paints, etc) or Warhammer 40k. So something needed to be done with Warhammer Fantasy.

Why I play historical games.

Wow, it's been a month since I last blogged, what's happened?

Well, I sort of ground to a halt on my ork project, not so much for lack of things to paint or inspiration, but simply the realisation that I'm throwing good money after bad product by a company that doesn't love it's customers. (Sort of like an abused spouse staying with the abusing partner.) That put a sour taste in my mouth and I have been playing lots of X-wing (the boardgame) and Castle Wolfenstein (the computer game) instead.

You see, it started with this guy:

A "failcast" ork Big Mek with Kustom Force Field.

Despite being released with the last version of the Codex, he's not in the new one. Or rather, this version is not legal according to the new codex. In order to take a Kustom Force Field, the Big Mek needs to upgrade to a set of Mega Armour.

And will thus look something like this:

The new Big Mek, although with a telly-porta.

Ok, I know I can play with my old model and I intend to, but bare with me and I will make a comparison. 

"Army Building"

I've been thinking a bit about "Army Building", by which I mean putting together a suitable force of miniatures for your favourite miniatures game. This may sound easy but may be rather complicated. Especially if you are changing from one game to another, but more about that later.

My first pet peeve is calling it an "army". Unless you are playing high-level divisional game where you maneuver around on a map of a continent, your force is not an army. I'm betting it's not even a company, although that one is more possible.

At the Swedish Warhammer scene another odd habit has crept up -- most tournament players are calling their force a "team" like they were playing soccer. Or Bloodbowl. What do they think war is, a game??? Well... um, ok then.

An ork "Battleforce" from Games Workshop -- more like a recon platoon in my book. 

Now that I have gotten that out of my system, let's take a look at some of the problems.

Kickstarter thoughts, part 2

I'm continuing a post from yesterday about kickstarters. I will talk a lot about the Mars Attacks kickstarter from Mantic games in this post, but if you want the background then read my previous post here.

Mars Attacks! This picture is what initially attracted me to the Kickstarter campaign.

For those who haven't heard about it, Mars Attacks - The Miniatures Game is based on the classic Topps trading cards. It's not based on the Tim Burton movie by the same name, rather it's the movie that's based on the trading cards as well. So while the Martians look the same, don't expect to see miniature versions of the movie characters. I love the movie and the miniatures look awesome, so I jumped on it immediately, thinking that if the game was crap I could use other rulesets for the miniatures, and the terrain and human heroes could do service in zombie games too.

Brandy, Buddy and Joe, ready to kick Martian butt. Or zombies.

I was lucky and bagged an "Early Bird" pledge, meaning my $100 level would only cost $90. This would net me the boxed game and $50 worth of "add-ons". So what are they, you wonder? Well, it's a bit sketchy, and I will come to that in a little while, but basically you get free credits to add stuff to your game. If I had pledged for the $150 level I would have recieved the game and $125 worth of stuff to add. I didn't see any reason to pledge that high as the only thing available then was extra figures and extra terrain sets for $20 and $25 respectively.

Everything included in the base game, so far. I think. It's not very clear.

What about stretch goals? I hear you cry. Well, when the campaign started, and through-out, we have been kept in the dark. We only know WHEN a stretch goal will be reached, not exactly what it is. Early on Mantic released some teasers in form of a free comic that you could download. It featured lots of stuff like Giant Stompy Robots, a Mad Scientist on a Giant Flee (yuck!), Giant Insectoids, Martian Special Troops and what-not. So when the first stretch goal was reached everyone was on their toes, eager to see what it would be. It was... *drum roll* 6 exclusive Topps trading cards. Say what??? And they weren't even included free with the pledges, you had to spend extra credits to get them. Mantic defended themselves saying that not everyone would want trading cards, so including them in the game wasn't fair, selling them extra was better, that way only those who wanted them would have to pay (or use credits) would get them. Fair enough. At the same time they announced the next stretch goal, which would be an upgrade to the boxed set. A fourth hero would be added, free of charge to all core sets regardless of pledge level.

Nice Creepy-Crawly. Too bad nobody knows when he's arriving...

This brings up the question about add-ons and stretch goals. There are three kinds of stretch goals. The first is called Upgrades. These upgrade the boxed set with extra figures or terrain or similar. Nothing complicated, they do what they sound like. The second kind of stretch goal is called Add-ons. They have to be bought either with extra money or the credit included in your pledge, and include stuff like more figures, or more terrain and what-not. The third kind is called Pledge Boosters. They include stuff that Mantic does not produce themselves, so have to be added using real money. They are not included in any pledge levels and they can't be bought with credits included in the pledge levels. Examples are a comic book, Mars Attacks themed memory sticks and terrain items made for Mantic by Antenociti's Workshop. Confused yet? As the icing on the cake, some of the "Upgrade" stretch goals don't upgrade the basic game, but instead they upgrade an add-on...  Confusing as hell, and I think it's a bit cheating to upgrade expansions that you have to pay extra for.

Overpriced USB Sticks and T-shirts? For extra money? How is this a stretch goal?

So, besides the confusion over exactly what would be in the game, when certain thing would become unlocked, I feel a bit cheated by all the add-ons revealed about half-way through the campaign. Elite Martian troops, new scenery, Flying Saucers, gun-trucks and a deluxe gaming mat. Had I known about those things beforehand I could better have calculated how much to pledge. As it stands now I want extra stuff for about $70, which means I have to add $20 to my pledge. What I'm thinking of is extra terrain pieces, the deluxe mat, and some extra heroes (I want that giant flea). Personally I think the deluxe mat is essential as the paper mat included in the game will not stand up to much abuse.

However, adding $50 at the beginning would have bagged me $125 worth of credit which I could use to buy lots of terrain and four mats, turning the board game into a fully fledged miniatures game. Now, since all the Early Bird pledges are gone I need to raise my pledge at least $60, which is no big deal moneywise, but I do feel cheated of the reward for pledging early. Somewhere along the line Mantic also added a $75 pledge level which would get you only the core game and no extra credits in response to backers not wishing to buy extra stuff. But the thing is, the main complaint about the game is that you don't know exactly how much is needed to get a good scenario from it. From the beginning the core set would have 8 human soldiers, 10 martian soldiers, 3 heroes and 1 martian general, as well as some terrain. A lot of the backers (me included) was planning to get some more terrain and a few extra figures for our credits. Now the core set contains 10 human soldiers, 20 martian soldiers, 9 heroes and 1 martian general. So what is needed for the scenarios included? Do we need extra heroes? Human soldiers? What?

What the hell Mantic? A stretch goal only useful to some backers?

Furthermore, some of the tasty stretch goals hinted at the beginning -- Giant Bugs -- haven't been unlocked yet. Instead we have got stuff like a Martian Dreadball team, a crossover with Deadzone featuring an Alien hunter character and card decks for humans and martians, sprung from nowhere. That would be like GW including a Genestealer Blood Bowl Team in Space Hulk! With just five days left this could be a disaster. I think people feel cheated by the way Mantic has set up the stretch goals. Personally I feel like they are trying to lure people to spend more money, drawing them in not just to unlock a stretch goal, but to reveal that sweet upgrade that's never coming. In a desperate last minute response, Mantic has stated that the Giant Bugs will be included in the next stretch goal -- if the total reaches $500.000 -- despite the bugs earlier slated for the stretch goal AFTER half a million. However I think people that wanted the bugs already have given up as some backers are starting to cancel.

This is what we want! Hear that Mantic?

The number of backers has dropped from 2509 yesterday to 2480 right now. So, 29 has left, big deal you say. But the amount pledged has at the same time dropped some 10.000 dollars. This means that not only are backers dropping out, the ones that are left are lowering their pledges -- at a guess I would say people are dropping from $150 (or more) down to the $100 level or just the basic game at $75. (And while writing this paragraph I saw the number of backers tick down to 2479 before my eyes.) As one backer stated: "If I pay $150 for a boardgame I expect all components to be miniatures, not tokens or cardboard markers." This was prompted by the fact that some of the pieces (like a flying car) would be Pledge Boosters, not upgrades, meaning backers have to pay extra for them. Mantic responded by suggesting a $225 level which would include the base game and all 3D terrain extras like burning cattle, crashed cars, piles of bodies and more, but not including any extra credits. So that's $225 for a pretty but basic board game with miniatures. That's not cheap. And yes, I get it, we are funding the development of the game. Except we are not, since Mantic always run their kickstarters like giant pre-ordering systems for games they would be doing anyway.

So where am I getting with all this? I don't know. I think the game will rock, the miniatures look awesome. But the devious kickstarter with many meaningless goals has left a sour after-taste. Combine that with the hit-and-miss experience I have had with other crowdfunding campaigns and I think I will wait a long time before supporting another project. I will at least see this one out as I do want the game. I hope that Mantic learns a lesson and do not bite over too much in their next project. So what do you think?

Kickstarter thoughts and a giveaway heads up

First I want to mention a splendid giveaway over at Loki's Great Hall. Andrew is celebrating 200 followers, and you have until 6 pm today (5th of november) to sign up.

You can win this figure!!!

Second, I want to talk a bit about kickstarter and other crowd funding campaigns. This will be a bit of a rant though, be be warned.

A Most Heinous Crime!

Some of you may have heard already, but on wednesday night Kev "Goblinmaster" Adams was brutally attacked and robbed in his home by masked intruders. Here is the news story. Kev was stabbed in the face and chest and had his nose and cheekbone broken by a knuckle-duster. Apparently he has been let out of hospital already, although he has to go back for facial surgery later.

Two of Kev's old orc sculpt for Citadel Miniatures, both from the Blood Bath at Orc's Drift scenario pack.

Now any violent crime is horrid and when a home intrusion occurs it can also cause psychic trauma as you are attacked where you ought to feel the most safest. What is doubly horrid about this crime though is that if Kev had seriously injured his eyes or hands he wouldn't be able to sculpt, depriving him also of his livelyhood. Luckily Kev is a tough old boot and plans on continue working as soon as possible.

A facebook support group called GoblinAid has been set up, with lots of hobbyists and industry folk offering their sympathy. Some sort of raffle is planned, but nothing is decided yet. Meanwhile Kev has left this message for his fans and friends on facebook.

Thanks for caring , ive had loads of suport wich is great , i'm not on favebook and cant see poperlt so typings bad 
I got three masked idiots in hoods with faces covered who got in my house when i was up here and cornered me in my loft , i got a knife pressed into my face and one of them kept hitting me in face hard with knuckleduster so all my cheekbones are smashed to bits and i look like elephant man , nose is broke in three places and one teeth broken and i cant eat so am having to drink gren goblin juice LOL , they wanted weed and money and jewellery but they had got the wrong house and i wouldnt entertain them and stood up to them hence the injuries so they gave up and made off with my imac .
the slags did similar to an 80 year old lady and tried to suffocate her with plastic bag . last night according to police they did two more raids and hurt people ,
they are being charged with attempted murder on me because my injuries are so severe and of course aggravated burglary but they need to catch them first .
i'm more annoyed at how traumatised my family are and they said they will kill me if police are called but none of them scared me as they all had faces covered up and are little cowards .
if they turn up i'm ready for them and will smash them with my cricket bat because they are nothing as i was caught off guard .
i didnt fight them in close confines of loft because i have a family to care for and in close quarters could have been fatally stabbed and its not worth getting killed over an imac .
Ive got to dash as my partner needs me nearby but will be back working as soon as i can see again .
dont worry i'm a tough old bird and wont be beaten by a bunch of mugs .
you can post this on facebook if you like so everyone knows what happened .
ive got to have a load of metal plates in my face so will get rid of my wrinklelsLLOL
Kev

 Let's hope for a speedy recovery. Meanwhile, if you are not familiar with Kev's work, check out the Kev Adams Challenge blog.

I want it all

I have been diagnosed with RAD: Raging Aquisition Disorder or Gamer's Magpie Syndrome. It's sometimes unscientifically described as the "Oooh, shiny!"-weakness... Basically, what it means is that while I labour away, painstakingly painting three hundred and fourty-two greek spearmen in 10mm scale, I get seduced by something new... we all have it in a fashion, how else would you explain people who buy new phones every six months?

"Hallo? I would like to order a platoon of Tigers please. What do you mean I must build all the Panthers first?"

But I digress. What I was going to talk about is the various stuff that recently have caught my eye.

Lord of the Franchise

I doubt it has escaped anyone that there will be a bunch of new Lord of the Rings movies out soon; they are based on the Hobbit (and various appendices) and the first of three will be out this december.

Celebrating three more movies to annoy purists with!

Games Workshop has had a series of battle games out since the first movie came out ten years ago. Originally a skirmish game which has branched out into a proper large battle game as well if one is so inclined as to wanting to game large battles in Middle-Earth, and quite frankly, who isn't? The new movies promise to breath more life into the franchise and offers new possibilities for Games Workshop to further add to the vast figure collection. More money to lure away from unsuspecting youngsters and their parents, I hear you cry. More of badly designed figures released to an odd schedule, meaning that you never, ever, can field the exact army you want. More of always having to buy more figures to comply with ever-changing army lists, to counter the latest powerful figures released for the opposition, or to add to a unit that has had its minimum size suddenly increased.

Nasty little Hobbitsessss... changing my armylists... Gollum!!!

But it's not certain that this will happen. And even if it does, Games Workshop is hardly the worst of the bunch when it comes to squeezing the last penny out of its franchises.

If you build it they will come.

Hi gang. Just a brief update, because to be honest, I have nothing to show.

From time to time I get stuck in a rut. I tire of painting and just keep building stuff. When I have completed building whatever I was working on, I start something new instead of finishing the project with a lick of paint. It's also at this time I go mad and buy a lot of stuff in a feeble attempt to fool myself that I'm not avoiding the issue.

Paint by numbers

Warning, this blog post contains some ranting. Lock up the women-folk and infants now.

You have been warned.

So my LRDG project is slowly plodding along; the vehicles are nearly finished and I have started to paint the crew figures. Time to start thinking about paint schemes. There is quite a nice painting guide on the FoW site, that apparently, is totally inaccurate. I should have known better, since they colour choices are a bit wierd at times, and I have seen a particular colour being recommended for two distinctly different shades of paint, on the same model!