Space Hulk

So the mystery box was announced, and as everyone had been predicting, its Space hulk!
I'm in two minds about this release. The new models look nice, but the price is quite high (£60!). Can anyone confirm if the rules have changed or are they exactly the same old rules? Not sure i can be bothered to buy if its just the same old rules (£60 for some terminators and a couple of genestealers???!).
If they are new rules then its a totally different case and i need to get my order in!

Is anyone else getting excited about this? I've not seen a massive buzz about it amongst the bloggers, which is odd, especially given the "limited" nature of it. Also, is there only me that thinks its a little odd to do a release of a big box like this in limited numbers?

GW, a question of value...

So, I wanted to talk today about Games Workshop. Not focussing on a single product, but on the whole GW ecosystem.

First let me give you a bit of background. I am a long time fan of GW; I've been playing their games since i was 6 years old (some 23 years ago now!). I've played all of their major games systems and owned most of them, as well as building large armies for both 40K and fantasy. I also kept up with all of the smaller systems that they produced (with the notable exception of Dark Future - if anyone has a copy they want to sell me for a reasonable price, please email me). I'm also an ex-staffer of GW, I worked for several years at the Manchester store, then the Warrington store and finally the London Ealing store. I had a lot of fun working at GW, and I've always felt (whether as a customer or an employee) that GW was basically a company that i respected.

Recently though, I've been feeling more and more that I'm no longer the target base for Games workshop, and that the money gouging has got to be too much. I can fully understand why GW has moved over to having plastic armies, in many ways its utterly sensible - no more replication of models, easier to assemble and with the improvements in the plastic moulding process the models have become a lot better than the ones I remember from my youth (anyone else remember the plastic gretchin from the 3rd edition of 40K?). However, in my mind I've always felt that the plastic kits should be a lot cheaper than they actually are. For example the new Cadian squad box has had its price reduced to £11.75, but the number of models in the box has also been reduced, by half - but the price has not been reduced by half (It used to be a box of 20 models). And worse still, to make a full squad with proper weaponry (i.e. without the rubbish grenade launchers!) you still have to go out and buy a special weapons pack at £7.85. So a total cost £19.60 for a single squad. And you need 3 to for a single troop choice.

I also have a bit of a problem with their armour models. For example the new Leman Russ is quite a nice model. But its £30! Now given the cost, I would actually expect that the moulding and construction would be a lot better than what i saw in the store the other day. For example the image to the left - notice that the glacis doesn't fit properly and the two halves of the gun barrel don't join properly. When you compare this to (for example) some of the recent Tamiya models that are roughly the same price, you start to wonder what exactly your £30 is going on. For example, the Tamiya kits generally include etched brass, some include turned brass barrels and many also feature bonus figures or accessories. I understand that there is an issue of scale here (as in I assume Tamiya sell a lot more kits that GW), but even so, I do feel that the value in the Tamiya kits is much higher per £1 spent.

Now don't get me wrong, GW still produce some products that i think are very well priced and worth their cost. Black Library produce some excellent fiction works and Forge World (whilst pricey) sells products that, for me, correspond in quality to the price charged (well, some of the models do. The Titans and a few other things are ridiculous prices!). Some of the paints (washes / foundation) are excellent as well and well worth the money, I just feel that the vast majority of GW's products have lost their value, or rather the price has increased to the point where the cost out weighs the quality.

As a more detailed example, I wanted to talk about the new brushes that GW have started producing. Its been a long time since I purchased GW brushes. I always found that they split, mainly due to the fact that they were synthetics. Over time i found other manufacturers that used Kolinsky sable (such as the Prince August brushes, Windsor and Newton and my favourites em4). However, when I was in the store the other day, the staff told me about their new "hand tied, Kolinksy brushes", which he promised me wouldn't split. I took a look and they looked like reasonable brushes, so I purchased a few to test with. Its a lot easier for me to nip in to GW when i need a new brush rather than the usual internet order, so I really wanted them to be good quality. Again, they are more expensive that the competitors. I got home and started to work on the new McVey miniature. Twenty minutes in, and what do you know, I've got a split brush! Now I'm a painter who takes very good care of my brushes. This brush had had very light usage and already its starting to fray. Given the cost, I would expect better.

Now I'm sure that a lot of people are going to be saying "Well if you don't like the cost, don't buy the products". And I would agree, that's a sensible position to take, and where possible, I try to buy from other companies. But I do fear for the future of GW when it scares away players with 20+ years of gaming experience. Surely we are the lifeblood of the gaming scene? Sure, the hobby needs the younger players coming in, but not at the expense of the old players. I also worry that GW has finally given up any pretence of actually caring about its games, and its all about "the bottom line" these days. It probably sounds very cynical, but I definitely noticed a change at GW when it was floated on the stock market; and that change seems to have continued the drive to the bottom of quality over the years.

Maybe I've just grown out of the GW spoon fed ecosystem and have realised that i can get better quality at a cheaper price elsewhere? Maybe GW has actually changed? I'm really not sure, but i do know that GW will now be getting less of my disposable income, which is a shame as they are a company that i have had a long association with.

As always comments are welcome! I'm really interested to see what other people think on this subject. Am I just becoming a grumpy old man?

PS - Just wanted to add this small point. I think a great example of the GW "rush to the bottom" is White Dwarf magazine. When I started buying White Dwarf (around issue 100) it had a lot of articles about gaming in general, there were small games published (Confrontation anyone?) and was generally an interesting read. Now WD seems to be nothing more than a catalogue that i pay £4 for. I can read it in a single tube journey back from work, and with the exception of Jervis' Standard Bearer article has little of interest. The main focus seems to be selling you more plastics now, and I for one, find this a real shame

Blog struggles, amongst other things....

So i've just read Ron's post over at FtW about writing blogs and i wanted to put up a longer post about my own blog writing problems, and where the future of this site is headed...

When i started my blog, it was during a renewed interest in 40K - Ive been playing since first edition, but i had finally convinced a friend to start playing, so i actually had someone to game against. Full of 40K fervour i figured that i would start a blog to encourage myself (essentially so i could look at it on the dark days when im stuck in a room with only XCode and a cup of fresh coffee to see me through!).

Unfortunately, we dont seem to be able to get many games of 40K in, generally we get to play about 3 or 4 games a year! There is also the small problem that ive realised that i totally hate the whole process of actually building and painting an army.

Let me explain a bit further - Im first and foremost a painter, that is where my true passion for the hobby lies. I think im okay at it too (Im not gonna win golden demon any time soon, but im happy with my abilities on the whole). On the other hand, whilst i enjoy playing the games, ive never been very good at them. My current record is one win at 40K (out of maybe 20 games)! I can accept this fact, and just look at games as being a cool alternative to playing video games with friends - as i see it, its no different than meeting friends for a game of poker.

But this all relies on me having an army! And guess what? We are back to the hating building an army. My problem is that I try to paint all the models in the army to the same standard - my display standard. Eventually (about 1/4 of a squad in) i realise that wont work and skip some steps. Then i get annoyed because the unit doesnt look consistent, so i try to simplify the paint job on the next unit.... Eventually ill have a couple of units, but they dont work together because ive changed the painting style so much. So i'll then scrap those models and start again! Given that im essentially a guard player (with the occassional foray in to Tau) I end having no where near the number of models that I really need to win a game... and the cycle continues...

So my first question for this post is:

Does anyone have any good solutions for this problem?

I read lots of other 40K blogs (especially the FtW group blogs), and im in awe and wonderment at the progress you all make on your armies - You seem dedicated, all your models look consistent and form great looking armies! So how do you all maintain the energy?

Anyway, i digress... I was talking about Rons post on FtW. Ron was commenting on how hard it was to keep the blog going, and this was mainly what i wanted to talk about - essentially the lack of Warhammer / 40K related posts on my blog. Essentially i read other peoples blogs and they are (as i said) full of great posts about army progress, or filled with really interesting tips; Then i come back to my blog to write a new post (for example i was going to post about stripping miniatures, but as soon as i looked on the net i found hundreds of other posts about the same subject) and I lose the will! Often what stops me from posting is that i feel that I have nothing original or interesting to say about the subject. So that leads me to my next question:

How do you guys learn these new and interesting techniques if not from other peoples blogs?

So anyway.. thats my little discussion about writing a blog... Its much harder than it seems; i now understand why so many blogs start up and then dissapear. Even discounting everything i said above, there is still the problem of actually finding the time to write a post!

In the meantime, dont worry, Exponent Wargames isnt going anywhere, but please forgive the lack of 40K content. I promise that ill get something together soon (the new guard codex and plastic valkyre should get me going again ;)).

The humble guardsman

Hi guys,

So it occurred to me that its been a while since i actually wrote anything about 40K! Most of my posts these days seems to cover my miniature painting exploits, so i figured it was about time i got back to the nitty gritty of 40K gaming. Handily, Ron has just sent round an email asking for articles about the Imperial Guard, so i though i would use this as an opportunity to write about gaming with the guard, and my tips and techniques to win with them! So lets get started with a few bullet points about playing with the guard...

1. Always remember, Imperial guardsmen are the worst trained bunch of cowards in the universe. Their weapons are poor, their marksmanship even worse and they run away at the first sign of danger. So take lots of them! For a unit of 10, you have 66% chance of missing. Once you have hit, the likely hood is that you will fail to wound your target (especially when playing against well armoured troops, such as, well pretty much everything else in 40K!). So rather than firing with one squad at one target, make sure you do your shooting en-masse. Generally i will fire an entire platoon at a single target, and will keep doing that until the enemy breaks or is destroyed. The same applies to combat. Never commit a single squad to combat (well maybe against gretchin, but nothing bigger than that!), as they will get slaughtered. But if you commit an entire platoon, they stand a much better chance, plus it looks ultra cool to have 50+ models charge another unit!
   
2. Given point 1, make sure that you always take the heavy and special weapon options for infantry. Especially the special weapons will make an enemy think twice about getting too close. Personally im a big fan of Plasma weapons. They tend to turn expensive enemy units in to molten slag! Especially when you fire six of them at the same target...
3. Remember the way that real soldiers move - they dont just charge in blind (no matter what you read in a 40K book, thats not the way people normally do things!). Make good use of squads to cover other moving squads. Remember the rules about Rapid fire, and make use of them. In the example diagram below, you can see how as one squad moves the other covers it, then the favour is returned. Leaving your guardsmen sitting in one place is an excellent way to have them killed very swiftly by well placed mortars or other guess range weapons (yes i know there are no more guess range weapons in 5th ed, but i still think of them like that!)

4. Orgyns are underrated! Nothing else in your army has S6 / W3 / Ld8 (Ld9 if you take a Bone'ead), so make use of them! I usually take 2 squads of five, and use them mounted in Chimeras to harry my opponents shock troops. Generally they dont win, but it holds up the shock / elite troops in my opponents army for long enough either for me to get the big guns trained on them or to move precious troops to another location!
5. Tanks! Now we come to the meat of any discussion about Imperial Guard, namely the use of tanks. Tanks are every guard players best friend - make sure you take as many as you can. By using them to screen your troops (i.e. have the tanks at the front soaking up fire and move the troops up behind them, effectively blocking line of fire to the troops) you can get much closer to your enemy than you normally would be able. Make sure when moving tanks that you always orient the vehicle so the tougher frontal armour is pointed at an enemy and never, ever expose the rear of the tank to the enemy!
6. Dont waste valuable points cost on snipers. Generally, unless there is a specific objective that requires snipers they simply end up taking pot shots and not being effective. I usually prefer to spend the points on more standard guardsmen.
   

Now all of the above may change in the new codex (I've not seen it yet, but i have high hopes given some of the rumours floating around the internet!), but in general the key point to remember is that the humble guardsman when used en-masse will often outmatch opponents much better equipped. Never forget that a guardman is much more expendable than for example a space marine!

I thought i would finish by showing you my current guard army - The 101 Mobile Infantry, 2nd Company (101MI/2c). The army was a test for myself to paint an army quickly and enjoyably, hence the use of dipping as a technique to paint. Hence the models are not up to my usual standard, but it does allow me to have a reasonably large army in a very short period of time (the entire army was about 6 weeks work, painting a couple of hours a week). Hope you like them :)

New Blogspot "Follower" box

Just noticed that Blogspot has updated the "Follower" box - am i the only one that thinks that the new design is horrible... Fonts that dont match, horrible big images and an advert for google at the bottom :(

Oh well, i guess i'd better put some time aside to adjust it as best that I can...

The good and the bad....

I wanted to do a post about two shops that ive recently had contact with. One to give you a warning to stay away from, the other to recommend with the highest respect!

So first, lets deal with the bad. I placed an order several months ago with Arcane miniatures for a big collection of miniatures. First thing that i noticed was the slightly odd ordering system. Rather than having an online "shopping cart" you had to email them with a list of what you wanted and then pay via paypal. Anyway, i sent my email off to them and within about 6 hours i had a response with details about what was in stock and how to pay. I duly paid through paypal and then waited. And waited. And waited.
When the miniatures hadnt turned up after several weeks, i thought that i would send an email to Russ at arcane miniatures to find out what had happened to my models and recieved no response. After several more emails (and a bit more waiting), i phoned arcane and was met by an answer phone. In total i sent about 8 or 9 emails and phoned half a dozen times. All emails and calls went unanswered.
In the end i had to resort to a claim through paypal. Even with this, Arcane didnt get back in contact. In the end (today) Paypal refunded my money because they could not contact Arcane to deal with the dispute.
So my recommendation is to stay well clear of Arcane miniatures. I dont want to say that they are rip off merchants (Indeed, i dont know if this is the case), but there is definately something odd going on. Im just glad i paid through paypal, rather than by cheque, because at least i got my money back.
If anyone else has had dealings with Arcane, id be interested to hear your comments / experiences.

Now the good. I cant recommend Antenociti's Workshop highly enough. Great selection of products, high quality casting on their models and very helpful staff. I've met them a few times at Salute now and they are always helpful and knowledgable about the products that they sell. An order placed late on a monday night was with me by the end of the same week. Make sure you check them out.

Painting Vs. Army Building

So in my last post, i talked quickly about the difference between 'Painting' and 'Army Building' - i wanted to expand a little on what i was saying in that post.

For me, the hobby started (oh some 20+ years ago now!!) when i saw a copy of White Dwarf for the first time - I was fascinated by the Goblins they had in the issue (as part of 'Eavy Metal). Over time i learned about the games and started to play some of them (well, truth be told, as many of them as i could lay my grubby mits on!).

However, in all that time, i never properly 'built' an army! I had large number of models (11,000 Pts of Warhammer undead at one stage, sadly lost in a house move), but they never gelled in the way the armies did in the pages of White Dwarf. Basically i was running in to several problems:

• Because I'm mainly a painter (i only get to play a few times a year, due to work and other commitments, and painting is what always fascinated me about the hobby) I always try to finish models to a display standard. I either get disappointed when i realise that i cant keep that level of detail up for the whole army or i let the standard slip.
• I always find that i end up either over complicating the paint scheme, or becoming distracted by another colour scheme for the army, leaving it looking like a rag tag group, rather than a co-ordinated whole.
  
• I find that i become bored in the middle of units, and so nothing ever gets finished properly (Usually i get to move on to something new fairly quickly when painting single minis, whereas units tend to take me much longer)

Recently tho, I started to realise that building an army is not about each miniature, the skill is in producing a reasonably painted, but unified looking group - the quality in the army comes from just this unification, even though each model is not the best paint job possible. "The whole is greater than the sum of its part", some might say.

So thats what i set out to do with my tau. The first thing i did was to spend some time looking at as many colour schemes as i could on the internet; I took an image of a tau from the GW website, loaded it in to photoshop and tried to airbrush new colours in to the image, to give myself an idea of what it would look like etc.

Once a new colour scheme had been established, i tried to figure out the quickest way of applying it - obviously the simplest paint job would be the quickest, and the simplest paint job is just basic flat colours. By avoiding high lights and shadowing (as well as all the intermediate washes, glazes etc) I instantly found that I had massively reduced the painting time per model, but that the units looked nearly as good as if i had done all the extra work

The other thing that i did when building my tau was to put away my paint set! I have a rather silly paint collection (i hate not having the colour i need when i need it!), and because it sits just by my right hand, its easy to think "I'll just grab a new colour" - by physically removing the paint set and just having the 4 colours i was using, i managed to reduce my "paint lust" to a minimal level.

So now i seem to have found a way to build an army that gives good results! The only thing i have found now is that i get "army fatigue" - basically i get really tired of painting the same thing and start to lose interest in painting. At this point I grab a cool single miniature (or five) and get painting on that, putting in as much detail as i can, experimenting with paint combinations etc.

What is everyone elses experience? And what tricks do you use to keep your army on the straight and narrow?