Hulk-A-Mania

We played the new Space Hulk yesterday and we were all big fans of the original.

It was incredible. Moreover, it was beautiful. Where I play is a place that has a lot of non-gamers coming in and out. Friends, pizza people, friends of friends, etc., and we set up the board (mission 4) up in a place where anyone coming into the house would pass us up to see it. We had people oggling it, and not the miniatures which are phenomenal, but as per usual with GW, need to be painted (that's really a drawback in my opinion).

The game played smoothly. I found the time limit dynamic to be immaterial (on no turn did it ever actually matter), but I believe they resolved some of the issues of the original game and made it a heck of a lot better. I really like the on-guard dynamic, especially with the Storm Hammer sergeant who puts the fear of the Emperor into genestealers but who ends up not being able to move much. The game provides real tactical choices for game play and can be played in about an hour easilly.

I have, however, two major complaints. It seems to me that the doors are still a major problem in the game as it's far more easy to open them to break them (so why break them?). Genestealers end up spending far all their forward momentum closing doors behind them so as to keep up their shields. As a result, in both games, the marine players won (though in both games, they won with 3 out of 10 marines left!).

My second complaint has to do with the assault cannon which has all these strange rules associated with it once it has fired ten times. You'll probably never fire it more than three. We fired it twice in our game to take the objective. It is highly possible that this was mission contingent, but I just can't imagine a space hulk game going for ten turns, much less more. Part of the game's fun is that it doesn't take very long to play. Having said that, I'm sure I will run into a giant space hulk battlefield at some Con where the game takes forty turns, and the assault cannon's maximum of 20 shots will come into play, but for my money, games of that size are better played using the 40k rules (or even Apocalypse--yes, I did say that).

Regardless, though, I think the game is a great occassional alternative to 40k. It is beautifully constructed, and with more than 10 missions, has great replayablility. I'm sure that some people will flinch at the $100 price tag, but it's well worth it (though don't count on using the genestealers in a regular game, they're poses would prove innefficient for purposes of cover and line of sight).

New Rules, Old Codexes

When the new rules came out, I had just finished painting enough Thousand Sons to host an army, and a rather, inconceivably awesome armada it was. I had converted Rhinos to look amazing, I had decorated terminators and defilers with headdresses, I had found appropriatly crazy spawn...

And then I lost for about 6 months straight. I've moved on. I tried Orks, which admittedly makes me the worst player imaginable because I lost with them. My defense is that I didn't play them for long enough until I moved on. I've met with failure, likewise, with Necron, and have had some success with Eldar. I have felt in no position to offer advice, but here it is anyways.

The new rules are entirely unforgiving. You simply can't pick up an old codex and make your army any fool way you want. At one time, grinding out a point or two here and there gave you a slight advantage. This is simply no longer the case. If you are playing the necron and you are buying anything but phalanxes (monolith/lord/20 warriors), you are wasting points that will end up costing you the game. Thousand Sons are simply cost inneffective and an army of them cannot win. CANNOT.

Now, obviously, someone may play badly, but equally matched, rolling well, you simply paid twice as much for your army than you should have. Invulnerable saves aren't worth it except on guys with powerfists and lightening claws. Moreover, you pay for that force weapon and it can't kill anything anymore.

What's more, I find that cheat armies can stand up in the new rules with greater impunity. Feel No Pain means that you should always play Nurgle if you play Chaos. If you aren't, you aren't doing the math. Deathwing terminators as troops choices make them win, and win big, because you can't get them off an objective across a board.

Now, the good points. The truth is the newer armies are a hell of a lot more powerful than the previous editions which means that the game becomes more interesting. Cheat armies from the previous edition are as good as the normal armies for the new edition.

Lastly, and I think this is the most important thing--game play in the new edition is much better. Tactics really matter more than they did before, and mobility is key, even more than 3+ invulnerable saves. I think the Eldar and Dark Eldar are very good armies right now, but that means that they're evenly matched with the Marines--making it a good battle.

So, the problem is that you have to wait for your codex, but the good news is that, as it stands right now, once the new rules make you even with everyone else, the battles offer far more options for scoring a win.

My two cents anyways. When are they making the Necron Codex anyways?

a few Nurgle-y tips

It's been awhile. I got two orders back to back-one for a 6x4 city and the other for a 6x12 landscape, and well...that's an f-load of scenery. I'll be returning soon with many other interesting ideas, but as for now I'll have to keep it short.

I'm working on three armies right now, my ultramarines (as always), my Thousand Sons, and my Death Guard. For the latter two armies, I have figured out how to make their terminators. For Thousand Sons, it's kind of obvious (add a head dress), but many I love my death guard termies, and really nurgle in general. Here's a hint for those of you playing Nurgle or planning to build a Nurgle army. Get yourself some self drying clay and some cheap zombie miniatures. Plus, the dollar stores sometimes sell something called a fly launcher which comes with little fake flies (just big enough to put in someone's head mount). I also recommend getting dollar store versions of Battleship. The little pegs are great for spikes.

Easy Roman Columns for Warhammer 40k

So, I got tired of buying roman columns 4 to a pack (cake topper aisle at Michaels) and decided to build my own en masse. Here's how it's done. Go to the dollar store and pick up one of their mops. You're going to be using the handle of the mop as the column so you want something that has that column texture to it. Okay, great. The stuff's made of cheap metal so you'll need somthing to cut it with that wont crush it. I used a dremel cut off wheel. It's really thin stuff so it won't really take much effort to cut it. Bases of columns and tops are the real tough part. I just cast mine with Hirst Arts molds--it's just easier. If you don't have Hirst Arts Molds, you still have a few options. For one, there's the Scrapbook textrure strips. They stick on but you're going to want to reinforce them with glue. If you wrap them around something already round and slightly larger than the handle (say a coke bottle cap) they'll have a seem, put it away from the world and you've got a kind of base. You can also use the spout of a two liter: cut it below the threading (just below the flat part and turn it upside down (this looks particularly sci fi). For the top of the column you can similar to the base, but an easier move (especially if you're dealing with ruins) is that while you're at the dollar store, pick out some of that crappy statuary they've got around. Normally it mounted on flat bases with some kind of texture to it. Bus. t that for the base. Remember to save the statuary itself. We use every part of our kill. I'm waiting to put all of mine together in some kind of demented chaos collage.

Apocalypse Yesterday

Has anyone figured out a way to fix Apocalypse? I just scratch built two titans, a Cobra, and a Scorpion and I'd like to play them in something resembling a game. You know, with rules...

Summer for casters

It's summer. It's hot. That means for those of you who cast, your molds are beginning to go out of shape. A good tip, always, is to pop the cast first, fill it and then leave it. A mold with a casting in it is far less likely to contort.

5th ed. a review

Well, like the rest of you, I have seen "the new edition of Warhammer 40k" (if the version I saw was legit, and I think it was) and it is...not good. I'm not sure that they fixed anything that was wrong with earlier additions and from what I can tell they mostly reverted back to 3rd edition. They don't clear up cover (though the forests are now 4+ saves so there's no point in playing space marines), they didn't fix rending, nothing. I was kind of hoping there would be a reason for producing a fifth edition aside from them wanting more money, but none of the arguments that you have at your table will be solved with this new one.

Because the new rules basically allow troops to block one another and because there is that 4+ cover save everywhere on the board, I imagine this will be the hey day of hand to hand and big shooty armies. Everything in between will probably have to call it quits for awhile. Like I said, I don't see any reason to play space marines (maybe Blood Angels). Maybe they'll fix this in the codex but if there's going to be consistant 50/50 cover saves for every army, they need to make the 3+ a little less of a factor in marine costs (or give them a 6+ invulnerable, that I think would work too).

Good things? Not much. I like what they did with the area affects (though BS for blast weapons has now become totally irrelevant). Being able to shield is kind of cool, but it will make the Hormagaunt/genestealer combo absolutely deadly. I think its interesting that they'd include city fight rules in the main book, but hey, how about covering how hills work. Seems like that might be worthy something to someone.

Overall, I just don't really see the point. The book corrects little, changes little, and what they do change or correct they either get horribly wrong or the rule is now as it was in 3rd edition.