Some speculation on collecting and recent codices ...

This weekend saw me come to a weird experience you only get occasionally in the wargaming hobby.  It's the experience of "done".  You need to embrace it, it doesn't last for long ...

It was a great opportunity to collect up my Storm Wolf army and put them on display.  They look amazing ...

Don't laugh, but Calgar reminds me of my grandfather

Yup - I've got almost a quarter of a chapter there, but I have no desire to build a whole set (I seem to just end up getting more and more marines).  I have a hangup about using any model for a battle without it being "done" (and based even).  So done is a big thing, and it's taken about 10 years to get this army to this state.  Of course in that time I've learned a lot about assembly and painting, and I occasionally notice a model that "needs a revamp" to bring up to snuff.

Of course a new Codex is a mixed bag of emotion.  When I played Space Marines at Call To Arms 2013, it was generally noticed that compared to many of the races which had been updated, they were a hard race to play at the moment.  That's not necessarily a bad thing - in the 2010 Call To Arms, we saw about 60% of players were just various Space Marine regiments.  Diversity is good for the game.

A new Codex means new ways of playing with your existing force.  I have to feel a bit cynical though - as also with a new Codex there are always "new toys" introduced, which typically feel like it's time to dig into your pocket again and buy more Games Workshop merchandise.

The new Space Marine codex in September last year introduced some interesting new weapons,

• the grav gun.  Typically most codices under 6th edition have been introducing high toughness, multi-wound, monstrous creatures.  With the relegation of the tank under 6th edition, these seemed to be the new "in vogue" killing machine.  Interestingly Space Marines didn't get them, but this weapon is very much the "monstrous creature hunter".  Annoyingly though (thanks Games Workshop), you only get one in a new pack of space marines.  And as you can imagine (I own about 200 of them), the last thing I need to do is buy three new packs of space marine just to get 3 x grav guns.  Hence I've ended up improvising my own - trying to make them look like almost an anti-grav coil/toxic super-soaker ...

• the anti-flier tanks.  I've been split between buying one of these or an Aegis defence line, with it's anti-aircraft gun.  Ended up going for the defence line, just so again I can improvise the Stalker tank with a Razorback.

• Centurions.  Hmmm ... in a way very cool, they're a squad of multi-wound tough guys.  They're somewhere between a Terminator and a Dreadnought.  I haven't ended up buying a pack yet, as I'm not won on them.  They don't have an invulnerable armour save, so would be the target of most malicious players (oh that's mean, but we're all malicious players at heart).  But against this they have 2 wounds and a lot of weaponry.  All the same as I saw in this video, I have to agree, "where is our Riptide or Helldrake?".

The codex was nice, and a good read, but of course, release on release there's a lot of repeated artwork and fluff.

Not so cool was my son's update of the Imperial Guard of Adeptus Ministorum as they're now called (technically they were always called this, but this is how they're now sold).  A bit like with the new rules changes, it's a lot of money for very little changes (it felt a very lazy update).

My son's really annoyed at losing his penal legionnaires (they were a cool unit), but there's very few changes - the introduction of a new mortar tank, and heavy armoured Ogryns, which although cool, there doesn't really seem much point in.  Certainly in a world of Terminators and Riptides, the Ogryns seem the poor and expendable cousins.  Heck I'd put my money on a Nob with a power weapon over the Ogryn.

Next projects ... I'm actually busy building a tank to use as a piece of scenery - very much a hunt for scenery type object.  I really like the idea of getting either a JCB model or old style tractor (pre-roll cage) to decorate our landscapes.

Warhammer 7th Edition quick reference and review

Technically the new rulebook "isn't really 7th edition", however ... the name's kind of stuck.

We were a little disappointed to find the rulebook was being updated - 6th edition has been out only about 18 months after all.  And here in New Zealand, it's a whopping $165 to buy (that's about 80 GBP folks thanks to the weighted price system Games Workshop uses).

It's a sad fact, but thanks to that weighted price system and a few other practices, Warhammer 40,000 has been very much in decline in New Zealand, with many gamers defecting to Warmachine or Flames of War, and with tournaments slightly struggling for numbers.

Our friend Luke summed it up nicely when he said "well ... I do have a lot invested in Warhammer to start over in another system".  I certainly find myself quite cynical about Games Workshops attitudes to fans, esp those of us in other countries (we typically pay a 50% markup on prices compared to UK/US prices).  Games Workshop was never in my 25 years of playing "the cheap option".

But at the same time, we do love the universe of Warhammer 40k, it's just something we love, live, breathe ... and certainly from my army below (I only really collect Space Marines ... although I've got a usable smallish Dark Eldar army) ...

What I've found essential is the Black Library - I bought the latest rules copy electronically - that came out for me as about NZD80 vs NZD165 - that helped, a lot!  Since 6th edition we've managed to get a couple of ebook readers, which has made this edition the easiest to read (I've an old Kindle, so I've been taking and digesitng the rules wherever I travel ...).

Overall as many blogs have said, it's not really a new "7th edition", more version 6.5, with a few tweaks over a major overhaul.  I've been playing Warhammer since 1988, so it's hard to reread the rules, you tend do go "to hit ... know this, to wound ... I know this as well ..." and it tends to be only when you play with someone else you notice "oh - I missed this tweak".  Usually it's the rule you've missed that always hurts the most ... [With 6th edition I'd missed about power weapons now being AP3 ... and I found this out ... at a tournament!]

So an overview of those changes ...

• Psychic powers get their own phase!  Pretty much a nice idea.  The psychic rules also feel much more like those from 1st edition, a little more powerful but a lot more unreliable as well.
• Vehicles - they got pawned in 6th edition, which made high toughness, multi wound monsters the way to go.  Now it's much harder to explode a vehicle.
• Force Organisation mods - you can now cast out the force organisation changes and build any army you want.  This is kind of fun ... we've never been too religious about this, and tried some things "just to see" in the past.

Somethings I'm a bit cynical about,

• Mallefic psychic powers.  You're able to basically spawn a large host of demons.  A lot of powermonger players already have plans around this "I can spawn even more psykers ... then spawn more".
• Lord Of War inclusion. I guess the Escallation book started this, but you can now include an apocalypse unit in normal Warhammer games.  I've seen this happen before when I've organised games and someone has included a Titan because "you didn't explicitly say apocalypse was banned".  But believe me, when a player has prepared an infantry heavy army and their opponent brings in a Titan or Baneblade, it's such an incredibly one-sided and no-fun a game.

So these changes, together with "no force organisation" - 'hey ... my 10 Riptide army, woo hoo!'- has me just a bit ...

Of course such gamers will always exist.  What worries me is will this mean really I need to go out and get some form of Lord Of War?  And then does the game become "both sides bring a Lord of War ... first person to kill the others Lord Of War is essentially the winner".  Well that will become quite boring.

I'm quite pleased that our local tournament, Call To Arms has included rules to say "no escalation models" from the off.

Personally I might like to face off against a Lord Of War (I don't have one), but I'd like to know ahead of time one was coming.  I guess it's just basic player courtesy and etiquette.

Anyway, as per last time, we've put together a 7th Edition quick play guide for the new rules.  I find it really useful to have this, and also to go through the rules to write it.  As I said last time, it's actually frustrating that Games Workshop aren't making these available anymore as a downloadable PDF - they did in the 5th edition, and another side of the increasingly ill-manner in which Games Workshop treats its fans.  The site (much like the magazines) used to be about inspiring and supporting the game.  Now it's just basically an "Amazon sales portal" for Games Workshop products

You can buy one only as part of the expensively packaged "limited edition" set, which is something like about NZD650.  So ouch, but no thanks.

This guide is not meant as a substitute for buying the rulebook, but just as an aid to gameplay.  And on that subject, here's a major feature of the ebook, you can search it!  I've been looking for "dangerous terrain test", just enter it into the search, and you find all the references for it.  This is going to be so incredibly useful!  In fact I'm trying right now to justify buying an electronic version of the Space Marines codex that I already own!