A versus B, Old hats, New shoes

No surprise we have a 3 to 1 majority in the “player” poll, Obviously Plastic Legions is “B player” style blog, as with exception of Battle Reports I don’t offer a ton “A player” content here so the people that do stop by here have interest in B content. I put the smart ass 3^rd option for those the really feel they dont fall into either as I know there are out there. Yes, I am using the Spy vs Spy theme here because it seems just so appropriate.

When examining solutions and compromise let assume that breaking us all down into two basic player types covers the majority of people with the caveat there are always those in between or on the far edges but at heart they’ll still fall into an “A” or “B” slot when it comes to whether they’ll want to pay to play in a tournament. Let’s look at a new model that can simply be used as food for thought or in my own case what I’m going to use for an event I like to do next year. My goal is to appease both types of players you need to make both side feel equally as important. I'm not going to get ultra specific here but talk about new way to look at standard concepts and leave the future details up to the specific event.

SPORTSMANSHIP

Sportsmanship is most misunderstood concept in the tournament scene today. The way we are currently using it, It presumes everyone is raving a-hole and we are designing checklists that itemize how well someone behaved themselves on a given day. The current standard is to give everyone "X" amount of points that can only be taken away or give people of check list of things that should be requirement. Someone said to me recently “There is a lot to be said about a tournament player with a fully painted army who acts like a normal human being” Sad, but true. I say no more! We should not need to be worrying about hiring security guards to oversee games with toy soldiers. The ultra competitiveness of GW tournaments is one thing, but its gotten out of hand. Sportsmanship must be removed as “+” on your net scoring, being a good sport should earn you nothing as a base score- its expected. Being a Jerk will only earn you negative points, a forfeit or show you the door. lets take Sportsmanship as a category "off the table" in terms of a Soft Score and replace it with two different ways to punish people who cannot behave themselves and reward those who go above and beyond to give their opponents great games.

The card system-

I fully endorse the yellow/red card system used in the UK. Using a Yellow/ Red card system punitively against your overall points is a far more scary deterrent to the tournament player that a few missing checks on a checklist. Yellow Cards for subtractions to your overall score and Red cards for Forfeits and Ejections The criteria for this is up to the Tournament Organizer, but needless to say Yellow Cards can go for everything from excessive bad language, and rules gaming, While Reds are for outright cheating and or overly aggressive behavior or fighting.

Favorite Opponent- This is a great way to award the player bonus points for those who conducts themselves above and beyond the norm . Favorite Opponents points should be earned, not given and be additional points on a soft score. Details again I'd leave up to specific tournaments, Net scoring for giving your opponent a great game is a much better way to look at a Sportsmanship "soft score" than giving everyone "x" points for things that should be mandatory. Overall I see Sportsmanship as the smallest part of a soft score. The points should be well earned by the best players who see gamesmanship and fair play as important as anything else.

COMPOSITION

Beyond the stark contrasts of need for Composition in both 40K and WFB, lets keep two very clear points in mind. One- GW admittedly does not write rules for balanced tournament play, they write rules to help sell models. and -Two-we are trying to create a tournament atmosphere that encourages fair play, fun and diversity. Without accepting those two premises, I admit there is no need for Composition ever and may you find peace in "Gladiator" and "Ard Boyz" events. The rest of us need to find something that works.

Lets look at comp in a new way, not as punitive measure against those who want to bring hard lists but as a HANDICAP to encourage people to bring diverse lists. a Prejudged Composition score should be used as a handicap score, once your handicap determined, it should be used to seat your opponents always matching you up with closest handicap. A handicap as a positive on overall score will encourage non-cookie cutter lists and diversity for a better event. There are already plenty of events for meta-gaming the army books and in the spirit of a grand tournament, variety is key. Lets see it all and what better way than to give players a handicap that is a basis for a soft score. Again I'd leave up to the Tournament Organizer to base their player handicaps on the ability of the players to follow the composition guidelines of the event. Whether your using a WPS baseline in WFB or running a narrative based 40K event. Handicaps will encourage list other that most current 3 Codex/Army book power builds.

PAINTING

I’ve spoken tons on painting in the past, if you're running any kind of grand tournament the 3 color standard/ based is mandatory as an entry requirement. Again the problem begins with giving away Painting points for just showing up with the minimum. There should be judged paint with the the three color minimum being the lowest rating. No more full points for 3 color painted and based..its total cop out a slap in the face to the B player. Combine your judged base score with opponent rated paint scale on how well above the standard your army is and you have a real paint score. These points should be open to professionally painted armies as well. Great looking armies (no matter who paints them) bring a lot to the character of the event. As always Best Painted Award should not be open to pro painted armies and should be a separate contest for the hobbyist.. Since all your earned paint points go toward you Soft Score and overall, this should help bring non-painters with pro painted armies "out of the closet "so to speak.

I do reject the notion that people who bring sub, or non -3 color armies to events be allowed to play. If you want to participate in a grand tournament you need to step up. In short come up with an overall basis for a paint score based on player and judge feedback. Great painted armies add to the caliber of any events, Painting is a cornerstone of this hobby and should be appreciated as such.

A NEW MODEL

Most people accept the premise that in any Tournament that Soft Scores should never be worth more than Battle Points. The problem again comes with how do you create meaningful soft scores that attract "B players" that are not just giveaways in terms of extra or "empty" points, Lets look at a model that lets "A players" relish in what they do and gives "B players" a little extra for bringing what they bring to an event.

The 5 Point System-

Battle Points, Objective Points, Paint Score, Favorite Opponent Points, Handicap

Using these 5 categories, Battle and Objective being "A player" scores and Paint, Favorite Opponent Points and your Handicap being your "B player" score is a great baseline to determine an overall winner, if you use these 5 categories correctly it's clear the person with highest point total is actually the overall winner., The B player points are not giveaways but well earned as votes from your opponents while the Handicap is determined by what kind of list you brought based on the rules of the tournament.. In this model I envision Objective points being very hard to get, and a feather in the hats of the best "A players". The Best General award being the highest BP + OP score. I'd recommend 70/30 ratio between A/B scores..Allowing "A players" to overcome low "B" scores while enticing "B players" with a chance to be competitive. Will this work? and is it any better that what we are already seeing?, I think so- as recently its clear soft scores have become purely punitive for A players or total joke when it comes to the B player. Down the road a bit I am going to go into details on Tournament I like to run in 2010 based on this model, so more on that soon.

Space Hulk - Exterminate

Space Hulk mission recap


Blood Angels

Sgt Gideon- Thunderhammer/ Storm Shield
Brother Leon w/ Assault Cannon
Brother Valencio w/Chain Fist
Brother Scipio
Brother Omnio

Genestealers- 35


Mission 2- Exterminate. Once again we rolled off and I got the Marines. The mission features a very large map and all the marines begin dispersed, The Genestealer player alternates with the Marine player in placing the Space Marines down in one of the 6 rooms on the map.
I ended up with the Sgt Gideon, Leon and Valencio at the Southern end of the map with Scipio and Omnio on the northern half. Deployment in this mission is crucial as you can block the Stealers from entering the board by getting within 6 of any deployment area, Do this on both ends of the map and the Marines win.

Since the Blood Angels were dispersed and Gideon was closer to the men on the southern end of the map, I started moving the Sgt that way. I set the Assault Cannon up covering the long Southern hall, and had the Chain Fist marine move position against another approach and hope to get moving south toward the entry area.


Initial Deployment
'
Southern Side of Map, a few turns in

Bill learing his lesson from Mission 1 and knowing he had finite resources start stacking up blips on the north end of the map with only a few to the south, knowing I had less men there. My men to the North start backpedding toward the center. My strategy was to try to block the Southern entry, then link everyone else up and then move north until we could block or kill all the Genestealers.


Omino and Scipio move toward the center


Wasting too much time here


Bill- building up the Blip Horde to the the North.

I had numerous opportunities on the Southern End to move toward the block point however I choose to wait for his initial Stealer to attack and the he just held them back. I should just went for the Southern Block point right off and used the Assault cannon to cover his rear and move forward shooting until either the Chainfist Marine died or I reached the Objective. Instead I wasted time, moving around try to cover various approaches..I was stupidly moving backwards in the hallway at one point on overwatch try to protect the chainfist marine who had Stealers coming at him both ways. The Assault Cannon blazed away and killed many stealers. The Chainfist Marine was insanely lucky fending of three close combat attacks at "6" in a row by rolling 3- "6"'s in a row. at This point I had seen that thing weren't going to happen to the south if they did it be pure dice luck..so I was moving my Sgt toward the Other two marines. The two Standard marines where held up in the very center room positioned on overwatch so both could shoot into the hallway where the 20+ model conga line of Stealers was building. I actually ran out of time in turn couldn't everyone on overwatch and the Marine with the Chainfist..finally fell...the Assualt Cannon blazed away but eventually I had two rounds of not getting a "5" and the Stealers where on him and he died...I used about 6 of my 10 shots with AC.


Leon with the AC is just out of this picture to the left, I actually survived this onslaught
with some Assault Cannon clearing and Valencio rolling three back 2 back "6"s" in assault to survive the turn.


Not so lucky here, Leon is dead, Valencio will soon follow.


Three men left bunkered down at the center of the map, out numbered 20+ "we'll have to kill em all, the Sgt says"

With my Marines bunkered down in the center room and are already shooting at the genestealers and killing ALOT.. Sgt Gideon enters the room and stands next to the door way so he can swing at anyone coming in and I have Scipio and Omnio on overwatch shooting at either hallway as Bugs approach. Bill is moving two Conga lines of Stealers at the Blood Angels, one from the North one from the South..with twice as many models coming North. At this point I am killing a ton of Genestealers and Bill is worried as all the Stealers are on the board..he has around 10 left to my three marines. He rushes both rooms..I kill a few more and Scipio covering the southern approach is killed. Backs to the wall Gideon to taking on every Stealer coming at him, while Omino shoots at everything he can finally the Sgt Gideon Falls. Omino now is alone on he goes off overwatch using his last 2 AP to shoot twice and kills two of the remaining 3 stealers. It is now ONE VS ONE for the game..Bill attacks and rolls a 1,2,3 its 50/50 I can win the game all I need is a 4+, I roll a "1" Omino falls the Genestealers win!

Blood Angels Kills 34, Genestealers 5


The First "Conga Line" moving from the north, despite the Jam you see there
we cleared this one out pretty good.



With Leon and Valencio Dead, Genestealers are now on us from two directions.



Here they come from the North.



Backs to the wall!!



One VS One for all the marbles!!

Bill played this exactly right this time, my errors were clear and some hot dice steaks made it the coin flip it turned out to be. The Assault cannon definitely needs to go on the North Side of the Map in this mission. Bill and Billy played mission 2, twice more after I had played. In Game 2 the Bill played the Marines won in a closer game, and by Game 3 Billy who now had the Marines had broke the curve on how to win this and Blocked both exits early and had an easy win shutting down the Stealer extermination style.

In review, very fun mission although at first glance this seems very difficult for the Marines, once you figure it out the Marines have the advantage.

next up, Mission 3- Rescue

A versus B, The Soft Score Dilemma

Recently I have been reading alot opinions and editorials about Tournament Sportsmanship and Soft Scores on various blogs and the more notable websites out there. I've been talking to a bunch of different people privately via email the last few weeks about the subject .I know I've touched on the soft scores before right after Adepticon and its own controversy, yet the topic lingers on as more and more events happens and we continue to hear about conflicts over the same issues. I wanted to take another moment six months later to revist this issues with a bit more clarity.

Lets start with the big pink elephant in the room, that I don't see getting addressed much. Which is when it comes to miniature wargaming, there have always been two types of players and its been this way since I started fooling around with miniatures over 30 years ago. For easy sake of references lets call them "A" players and "B players, of course they'll will always be people who are some of both, but the people who cause the conflict are always rooted in one camp or the other.

"A players" see wargaming first and foremost as "a game" and a game they want to win above all else, sure they like the miniatures, they may or may not like the rules but like something enough, whether it be the models, the fluff, or just the other people playing, to want to be involved. "A players" see winning as the most important thing, the challenge for them is how to outsmart their opponent, work the rules and win the game, everything else is secondary.

"B players" see miniature wargaming as a "Craft" (notice I didn't say "Hobby") They like the models, the back story, etc...They don't care too much about the rules as long as when they play the game they have fun. First and foremost, B players just want to build stuff, they want recreate what's in their mind and in the books on table top, they love to slave away painting hundreds of troops and fiddle with their models into the long hours of the night. B players don't see this a chore, but believe it or not, see this as great fun.

Allot of this is all common psychology Left Brain/Right Brain stuff, but within the context of the miniature Wargaming hobby, A players and B players really can't survive without each other, in fact they compliment each other, its often the A players planning and running events while the B players are building the Tables and Terrain, of course it's more complicated than that and while I am a self described B player, I have no problem filling the role of an A player if need be. The problem arises when you get everyone together and try to score a tournament. Everyone immediately turtles up into either the A camp or the B camp.

Lets now throw Games Workshop, the biggest name in the Miniature Wargaming Biz into the mix. They have awesome stuff that everyone wants, and enough games and rules to suit just about everybody. GW HQ is well aware of "A" versus "B" but want to sell as much product as possible to everyone they can so they write rules that try to appeal to everyone and will help sell lots of models. Even though they know their rules are always in a state of flux and are admittedly open to a little bit to much interpretation, they promote "A" and' "B"'s as a group hobby putting everyone together and hosting Grand Tournaments that are designed to appeal to any and everyone.

Here we are in almost 2010, Games Workshop is massive and wargaming as a hobby is a multi- billion dollar business worldwide. However Games Workshop has dropped their Grand Tournaments due to hard economic times and the success of independent tournaments and full blown hobby conventions that celebrate their product and they don't have to pay for it. The problem is without the GW figure head to look to for guidance-The good people who run independent tournaments and conventions start getting pressured by the A players and B players to cater to each own individual needs- it's constant struggle of pushing and pulling.

Nowhere is this more glaringly apparent than when it comes to competitive tournaments. The "A players" covet their wins and battle points, while the "B players" relish in racking up those controversial soft scores. The route of the "soft score" problem is this- "A players" feel slighted because they feel the "Best Overall" award should go to an "A player"- the problem is that Soft Scores, (Painting, Sportsmanship and Composition) are the bane of an"A players" existence but weigh majorly in choosing the "Best Overall" player. So "A players" spend their time between tournaments on message boards at your Favorite FLGS trying to marginalize soft scores so they can also win the big enchilada..because you know Best Overall, sounds alot better than "Best General"

"B players" of course feel "Best Overall" should go to a B player and "Best General" is the "A player" award, "B players" don't care about the best General Award, they care about being appreciated for the hard work they put into their army, that they can be good sports and that they'd never put an army on the table they'd wouldn't want to play against themselves. It's not that "A players" don't also have some of these qualities, they are just secondary to winning.

Of course this is all semantic bullshit, why not just change the names of the stupid awards and add a few more to appease both sides?...sounds easy right?, but it's more complicated than that. Because "A players" kind of want to be like "B players" and vise versa. "A players" say "damn I sure wish I could paint like that B player, and "B players" say "Damn I sure wish I could win a few more games like that A Player". "A players" want both pieces of the Pie..and they want to be able to win it their way- by crushing the opposition. "B players" want to be like A players too, they want to win some games. They just want that other stuff (the soft scores) to help them score better than the "A players" who they feel don't try as hard as they do. So both players want to be like each other to an extent but also want to keep eachs own self centered motivations at heart.

So how the hell do you make "A Players" and "B players" work together in a competitive tournament?, that's the tough question everyone seems to be addressing. The problem is if you cant get past the basic premise I've laid out here- you are just beating your head against the wall. In part 2, I'm going to revisit Painting, Sportsmanship and Composition and look at it as a new model to hope to try to bridge the gap for 2010.

Until then fess up are you an "A player" or a "B player" say so in the poll on the top left.

And don't worry I have more of my "B player" pretty pictures of various things coming soon.

Space Hulk- Suicide Mission

Space Hulk Mission Recap

Blood Angels-

Sgt Lorenzo
Brother Zael
Brother Omino
Brother Noctis
Brother Deino

Genestealers- Hordes

Game 1- I played the BA, while Bill ran the Stealers.
I move cautiously into room 1, Omino opens the Southern Door and stands on Overwatch..Zael is protected from the rear and the Sgt leads the way to the East. Genestealers start pouring into the southern hallway..Omino's stormbolter is on fire and he drops at least a half dozen Genestealers single handedly from the south..the other move eastward while Deino stays back to support the rear should Omino fall. Blips are coming in from the east, both passages. Sgt Lorenzo is rushed but cuts thru three Stealers with his powersword. Zael blocks the northern passage with a blast from the flamer, killing another stealer. Lorenzo and Zael head North as Deino stands on Overwatch guarding the lower east tunnel. More blips are coming, My dice are on fire and the Blood Angels are dropping Stealers left and right almost 2 dozen kills at this point. To the rear Omino is finally overrun in the first room. Noctis and Deino are now back to back guarding the north tunnel with Genestealers coming from the east and west. Lorenzo and Zael are at the quad junction near the launch control room. Lorenzo steps thru the intersection so Zael can head north, moving backward flaming the intersection in retreat, Cannot do it, Lorenzo is still the way .Noctis brings up the rear from the junctions east side. Deino is now dead. Genestealers coming 4 ways now.. Lorenzo only gets 1 command point on the redraw this round!..he's shoots misses and goes on "Guard"...Stealers assault him in a long line..he cuts down, 1,2, the 3rd one kills him, they are on Noctis now...he quickly falls..Zael is alone , the launch room is 3 squares behind him...he won't get another chance to fire out of AP, no Command Points...Genestealers mob the passage...Zael Dies his objective in sight.

(close but no cigar, upward of 30 kills for the Blood Angels the game went at least 12-15 turns)

Game 2- I played the Genestealers, Bill played the Blood Angels.

I had a slightly different approach than Bill, I let my blips build up and didnt strike until he had moved past the 1st room...I had genestealers coming 3 ways..Lorenzo drops a couple but goes on guard and purposely moves into close combat...bad dice kill Lorenzo on the resulting combat (turn 3 or 4) With no command points, my build the horde strategy pays off, I am drawing lots of #3 blips..I know have all the available Genestealers models on the board, the BA are trapped between the two hallways and the 1st room filling up with stealers from the south..the game quickly ends, over by turn 5, maybe 6.

( a true suicide mission, Sgt Lorenzo was drawing big command points early, (5's and 6's)
he then overcommits after a few quick kills and is killed...the dice got the better of Bill on this one, losing your Sgt early is clearly game over. The BA had maybe a 1/2 dozen kills before going down on this one.)

All in all a good 1st delve into Space Hulk, Mission 1 is extremely hard for the Space Marines..you need to fend off stealers as you move and get Zael into the hallway toward the launch control room , while covering all the rear approaches, easier said then done. Uses the flamer to block passage ways you cant cover.

Result- Genestealers 2- Blood Angels-0

Next time Mission 2, "Exterminate" with Photos.

The Last Alliance-R.I.P

The Last Alliance is no more..cross posted from Table Top Gaming News this confirms what I feared for the last month its been down:
"It’s official. The Last Alliance website has finally sailed into the West. Due to a series of avoidable and unnecessary difficulties, bills weren’t paid and the hosting company has taken the extreme action of deleting the website files and databases – meaning that the site is unrecoverable."
Serious bummer TLA had amazing selection of user articles and the terrain section was simply awesome. I wasn't a poster there at all but referred to the database often for ideas or just to drool. Hopefully they will rebuild it or somehow replace that Data at the One Ring UK. For the Lord of the Rings player think of it like Bell of Lost Souls, From the Warp and Libarium Online all just going "POOF"..not cool...when you've got that many members and can't pay the bills...my god man ask for help...you let them delete the freaking database,??!! I mean WTF!, who lets that happen? .a damn unnecessary shame.

Looking into the Closet - a.k.a. Your project backlog

We all have one, some worse than others but in tough economic times you should always weigh your purchases against your budget or the "why" factor. "why" as in "what the hell do I need this for?" Gaming/ Hobbying is like a drug addiction, it slowly pulls you in, 40K is ultimate gateway drugs to all kinds of other games and before you know it, you playing a half dozen different games with boxes and boxes of unbuilt stuff and not enough time to play most the games you've bought product for.

Personally although I've been really good on my budget spending only about $185.00 the last two months $109 of that being Space Hulk. That's somewhere between my own self imposed budget and the actual reality of what I was spending Bi monthly up until earlier this ear..Overall I want to keep to $100 or less a month..I still need some paints this month and one cheap WFB kit but that's about it. My own Project Backlog is bad..not as bad as some people I know..but I considered it bad none the less. Being a terrain builder with constant ideas of cool things to build but none of the time only compounds the issue..So looking into the closet this where I am at.

I've prioritize this based on my own plans.

Warhammer Fantasy Battles
Empire 4000 point completed..
I have a few new models I want to do this year
recent news has me planning more for next year
No idea where this will end..but its one army I have most control of.

Daemons of Chaos- 2500 built about all of it primed and base coated
only about 25% has final paint. I dont play DoC much as there so stigmatized as being busted..I'm sure I will break them out for fun soon. I'll buy that plastic Daemon prince when it finally comes out..but I'm not buying anymore of these guys I got plenty. ( I have box of Daemonettes I dont need) and I wont play them outside of casual games, when I finish painting them who knows..

Lizardmen- I have a Stegadon, a Battalion, an extra box of Skinks and Saurus
all sprued plus 1 Kroxigor...A handful of models are my Blood Bowl Team
everything else is sprued..leading candidate for my next WFB army which gets started post Adepticon next year.

Vampire Counts..whoa boy Spearhead, 2 extra core boxes of Skellys, Box of Grave guard, 40 zombies, lots of Characters..fighting with lizardmen as next army..I'm keeping these around..the main thing holding me back is horde aspect
I should have started these guys instead of DoC but two of my freinds were running VC at the time and Daemons where tempting me..

I've also got Dwarfs and Night Goblins mainly unbuilt for sale.
I also have several unbuilt box terrain kits (Chapel, Arcane Ruins, some Trees)
waiting for use. I am glad I didn't buy that Chaos Temple I need that like a hole in the head right now.

Warhammer 40K

Space Hulk.. I want to paint the models..which a decent sized project..it will take me a month
just to do the Marines if I work straight thru..the Nids should take less time for more models
but its going to awhile before this gets done.

I have bunch of unbuild SM stuff for sale...I have gotten rid of a bunch of it, holding on to some
for some future 40K skirmish action

Lord of the Rings-
I've sizable amount of Mordor and some Grey Company with Hordes of Orcs, Rangers and another troll to complete. War of the Ring is off the table for me at the moment. I have enough unpainted but built stuff to do around 1500 of Mordor in WotR...I have plenty painted for the Skirmish game but not competitive armies and most of my painted stuff is the pricey characters. I need to paint what I have for future SBG events.


Blood Bowl- Got a team together 12 models, one Skink done...Krox on the paint bench, Saurus primed...remaining skinks in coversion status and they all have some time consuming green stuff work going on (helmets and pads) I've meant to buy the game but havent yet...enough people have it that with my grandiose plans to build a pitch..since I have the rulebook I may not.

Pirates- Legends of the High Seas- To pirate ships to finish..I knocked out a ton of terrain for this game earlier this year....I have a good two dozen pirates painted with a crew of British Navy and another Pirate Crew sitting in blisters plus bunch of tribals from Black Cat bases I got from Tim K.

Warhammer Ancient Battles- Oh boy, again where to begin, Wargames Factory screwing up their initial releases combined with my lust to try the game really did me in, I ended buying
both Warlord Games and Wargames Factory celts combined with some Renegade stuff I had
andI got in trade and I even got the WF celt Cavalry..in short I have about 1000 points of models assembled and unpainted..I've got over 1000 points in boxes/ unassembled..biggest problem is they are very time consuming to assemble and I dont particularly love the plastic models I have a ton of Celts making zero forward progress on this- this is a disaster..kind of waiting on the new rule book to get me going here.

Flames of War..I have the books, a box of Brit Paratroopers and 4 or 5 Sherman tanks..I did actually model up one stand of guys..it took way too long to paint as I went to the extent to do camo on the all the guys, etc..I've never played a game and don't have a clue how...it still interests me so I am holding on to them for now.

Terrain-

Osgiliath Table- the tile project is of course bogged down, all the city terrain is basically complete.some just needs detailing, I have some unbuilt kits to add to it if I want but dont need them. I have completed just 1 of 12 tiles..I may actually move this to its own table, I'm past my 1 year to complete this schedule..the tiles really bring the thing to the next level. I want to finish this ASAP. I also need to rebuild the top of my 4X8 (I used pink foam insulation and a couple years of continous play and my cats its trashed..time up upgrade to MDF.)

Reading all this in the long form is depressing but somewhat motivating..I'm going to kick something in the butt this weekend.

Ok thats me, what about you I'd love to hear some similar horror stories about your own over indulgence and what can be done about it?

2010- the year of Warhammer Fantasy.

This thread over at Warseer adding fuel to what I've been hearing and reading from some folks at GW as well as various places on the web. 2010 is gearing to be a year for WFB, like 2009 was for 40K, We got Skaven in this November followed by Beast of Chaos and Tomb Kings the first half of next year with third unnamed release in the 4th quarter.

The bigger news however is aa huge organized summer campaign in the works, based on the Empire versus Von Carstein (my friend Bill and I are going to love that) and an actual WFB rules amendment (lets call it 7.1 Ed) with changes in some rules, specifically cavalry (whether this changed rules or added is unknown) and a bunch of second, third and even 4th wave release of cavalry models for various armies..Rumor has it that my wish of new fancy Empire Knights in line with GW's great new plastics is finally coming, although I currently have 17 Knights completely done. I'll definitely be adding a whole lot more...hell with I have extra...I could run an all mounted Empire Army..(thou I don't how well that would do, but it would sure look cool)

Further analysis from ultimate insider and rumorlord "Harry" say yes he's hearing these things too...but certain things are not necessarily tied together (meaning the rules, the campaign and new models aren't all tied together but are planned releases, order and relevance still unknown). However it shakes out, next year is going to be great for us WFB players. Also pure speculation but with the success of Space Hulk and year of WFB releases in the works can a new updated Warhammer Quest also be in the works?..think about it.

Space Hulk has landed!

My copy of Space Hulk arrived yesterday.. despite my 3 year old literally freaking out at the big colorful box thinking it was something she could play, I had to pre occupy her with something else and then squeak in WFB game with my pal Chris before I could get chance to thru the contents around midnight last night. Everything holds up to what has been stated before, no need to rehash the awesomeness of this box set

Couple quick links

Arcadia Prime going over the box contents- I was going to do the same thing but this fellow here beat me to it and did a fine job.
Akozz with some serious inspiration linkage to lots of 3D terrain for Space Hulk, do some bookmarking here if your getting back into SH you won't regret it.

I started putting together my Terminators last night and here is some good modeling advice be careful..these models are made with a different plastic than the standard 40K models I own. It is much more brittle and you need to be very careful clipping the bits and drilling out gun barrels sprue points are often small attached very detailed bits..while I am being overly anal I am sure you want to take your time assembling these and not accidently damage the models. I am going to be painting my soon, and am waiting on the new Space Hulk issue of White Dwarf due anyday that has ton of SH info, and painting advice. I'll have more to offer on Space Hulk once I get it assembled and a get some games in shooting for this weekend.