So, following the rumors of changes to their paint line, GW made another announcement recently.
They're rebooting the Lord of the Rings franchise, and re-releasing a bunch of the models in Finecast.
...
...
If an announcement is made in the woods, and no one friggin' CARES, does it make a sound?
Maybe the sound you heard was my wail of frustration, as I watch the company that pulled me into this hobby do one stupid thing after another.
*My failure senses are tingling*
The recent Vampire Counts book featured a character sure to draw some dumb attention.
While I find it somewhat amusing that folks are complaining about it while NOT returning the books in protest, GW has us talking 'bout it...
I won't even discuss the rumored 40k 6th Edition 'leak.'
Not even gonna talk about it.
Plenty of other people are doing that, so...whatevs.
I hear GW will be switching manufacturers for their line of paints...this does not bode well.
You can bet we'll see a price increase, smaller, more annoying pots, or whatever.
Now you can bet that the colors won't be precisely the same, either, if this is true.
...
Personally, I hope they screw the pooch on Ultramarines Blue and whatever shade of red Blood Angels use.
Smart Grey Knights players prolly use Vellejo paints anyway, since their metallics are way better, so I can't hope for relief there...
Blah.
Frankly, at this point I am entirely used to GW having their way with me, and not offering a reach-around.
I am also used to paying for the privilege.
Up until the release of the Grey Knights codex, maybe I was even cool about the whole thing.
Sure, I was a bit butt hurt, but I still had faith, sorta.
Regardless, here I am talkin' 'bout GW...
In that regard, they've been quite successful, haven't they?
In truth, I think GW has a tough road ahead of them in the next few years.
Chinese companies are making cheap knockoffs of their stuff now, and those copies will only get better.
Other gaming companies are making smart use of the Internet, and have release schedules that make GW's look laughably slow.
I'm gonna mention this again- I'm still stuck with the VERY SAME army book that I bought my first week into the hobby.
IT'S SEVEN FRIGGIN' YEARS OLD NOW.
I've gotten more books outta Battlefront in 6 months than I would get out of GW in...what?
A quarter of a century? Half?
THINK ABOUT THAT.
I'm planning a series of posts about my endeavors into Infinity, although due to some slightly overzealous holiday spending I'm a bit behind schedule.
A Haqqislam starter set is on it's way, and I've already got my Combine under construction.
Do I need to mention that Infinity has MONTHLY releases?
How awesome is that?
What's GW doing?
More of the same.
And at this juncture in time, I'm starting to wonder why I care.
The reboot of the LotR games is a giant pile of fail.
While I find it somewhat amusing that folks are complaining about it while NOT returning the books in protest, GW has us talking 'bout it...
I won't even discuss the rumored 40k 6th Edition 'leak.'
Not even gonna talk about it.
Plenty of other people are doing that, so...whatevs.
I hear GW will be switching manufacturers for their line of paints...this does not bode well.
You can bet we'll see a price increase, smaller, more annoying pots, or whatever.
Now you can bet that the colors won't be precisely the same, either, if this is true.
...
Personally, I hope they screw the pooch on Ultramarines Blue and whatever shade of red Blood Angels use.
Smart Grey Knights players prolly use Vellejo paints anyway, since their metallics are way better, so I can't hope for relief there...
Blah.
Frankly, at this point I am entirely used to GW having their way with me, and not offering a reach-around.
I am also used to paying for the privilege.
Up until the release of the Grey Knights codex, maybe I was even cool about the whole thing.
Sure, I was a bit butt hurt, but I still had faith, sorta.
*Mmmm...Faith. Wait...where was I?*
Of course, the GK codex was OP on a level that made the Imperial Guard release seem downright friendly.
One day in the GW store, my Tyranids got into a lil' scrap with a bunch of GK Termies, and my opponent and I spent about half an hour figuring out Grenade effects, Initiative order and Wound distribution.
For one lil' skirmish, which I lost, of course.
Subsequent matches against the Grey Knights made me pack my 'Nids away, and I went virtually 'hobbyless' for several months.
Until I got hoodwinked into a 'demo game' of Flames of War, of course.
Thank almighty Cthulhu for that.
I would never admit it to the Ultimate Rival, but I am eternally grateful.
...he's still a big dumb jerk, and I HATE his friggin' American tank list of DOOM, but whatevs.
I'm pretty happy with FoW.
So I've slowly had my faith eroded by a serious of facepalm worthy decisions from GW, and in the last month or so it's only gotten worse.
Am I surprised that GW is wasting more resources on a system I've NEVER SEEN PLAYED?
On models I've NEVER SEEN PURCHASED?
At this point, no. Not at all.
They managed to virtually ignore the Xenos races for most of 5th edition, and the three Xenos books we got seemed perfectly calculated to be underwhelming, and not a threat to the Imperial status quo.
They may have overshot on the 'Nid book, but both the D'Eldar and Necrons are just shy of actually being kick ass.
Sigh.
One day in the GW store, my Tyranids got into a lil' scrap with a bunch of GK Termies, and my opponent and I spent about half an hour figuring out Grenade effects, Initiative order and Wound distribution.
For one lil' skirmish, which I lost, of course.
Subsequent matches against the Grey Knights made me pack my 'Nids away, and I went virtually 'hobbyless' for several months.
Until I got hoodwinked into a 'demo game' of Flames of War, of course.
Thank almighty Cthulhu for that.
I would never admit it to the Ultimate Rival, but I am eternally grateful.
...he's still a big dumb jerk, and I HATE his friggin' American tank list of DOOM, but whatevs.
I'm pretty happy with FoW.
So I've slowly had my faith eroded by a serious of facepalm worthy decisions from GW, and in the last month or so it's only gotten worse.
Am I surprised that GW is wasting more resources on a system I've NEVER SEEN PLAYED?
On models I've NEVER SEEN PURCHASED?
At this point, no. Not at all.
They managed to virtually ignore the Xenos races for most of 5th edition, and the three Xenos books we got seemed perfectly calculated to be underwhelming, and not a threat to the Imperial status quo.
They may have overshot on the 'Nid book, but both the D'Eldar and Necrons are just shy of actually being kick ass.
Sigh.
*Maybe just a teeny, tiny bit*
Regardless, here I am talkin' 'bout GW...
In that regard, they've been quite successful, haven't they?
In truth, I think GW has a tough road ahead of them in the next few years.
Chinese companies are making cheap knockoffs of their stuff now, and those copies will only get better.
Other gaming companies are making smart use of the Internet, and have release schedules that make GW's look laughably slow.
I'm gonna mention this again- I'm still stuck with the VERY SAME army book that I bought my first week into the hobby.
IT'S SEVEN FRIGGIN' YEARS OLD NOW.
I've gotten more books outta Battlefront in 6 months than I would get out of GW in...what?
A quarter of a century? Half?
THINK ABOUT THAT.
I'm planning a series of posts about my endeavors into Infinity, although due to some slightly overzealous holiday spending I'm a bit behind schedule.
A Haqqislam starter set is on it's way, and I've already got my Combine under construction.
Do I need to mention that Infinity has MONTHLY releases?
How awesome is that?
What's GW doing?
More of the same.
And at this juncture in time, I'm starting to wonder why I care.
The reboot of the LotR games is a giant pile of fail.
*Box cover art for the LotR starter set*
Look, I know that riffing 'bout GW is tiresome, and I sorta apologize.
I'm not gonna do it again for a while, I promise.
There's so much good stuff, so much cool stuff, so much stuff that's actually full of win in this hobby, that I'd much rather focus on that.
Sadly, GW isn't part of the 'good' in the hobby anymore, I believe.
People don't like being told what they want, they don't want to wait interminable amounts of time for what they want, and when they get something, they'd like it to be good.
I imagine if I was a Space Marine player, these would be awesome times.
Buy I'm not, so there ya go.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm tweaking my Grenadier list for FoW (I hate you, Ultimate Rival), and slowly ingesting the Infinity rules in preparation for my first games (totally psyched).
In truth, I'm happier with my personal hobby adventure than I've ever been.
I'm just disappointed that GW has nothing to do with it.
In some weird way, I thought they'd always be there...and maybe they will.
Just not in the way I thought.
*shrug*
Sigh...waddayagonnado?
Until next time, folks- Exit with catchphrase!
-SinSynn
Look, I know that riffing 'bout GW is tiresome, and I sorta apologize.
I'm not gonna do it again for a while, I promise.
There's so much good stuff, so much cool stuff, so much stuff that's actually full of win in this hobby, that I'd much rather focus on that.
Sadly, GW isn't part of the 'good' in the hobby anymore, I believe.
People don't like being told what they want, they don't want to wait interminable amounts of time for what they want, and when they get something, they'd like it to be good.
I imagine if I was a Space Marine player, these would be awesome times.
Buy I'm not, so there ya go.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm tweaking my Grenadier list for FoW (I hate you, Ultimate Rival), and slowly ingesting the Infinity rules in preparation for my first games (totally psyched).
In truth, I'm happier with my personal hobby adventure than I've ever been.
I'm just disappointed that GW has nothing to do with it.
In some weird way, I thought they'd always be there...and maybe they will.
Just not in the way I thought.
*shrug*
Sigh...waddayagonnado?
Until next time, folks- Exit with catchphrase!
-SinSynn
I, ah, like the Lord of the Rings game? Have played it, more than once? Only sold my Uruk-Hai because (all together now) I needed the money?
ReplyDeleteThey're pretty much obliged to keep selling it, I believe, so reinvigorating it rather than having a dead line taking up shop space does sort of make sense to me.
Rather that than another Dreadfleet anyway.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteStupid...lack of a comment editing feature....
DeleteAh Von...you never fail to give me a laff...
It figures you would actually play this game.
Now I feel bad for hating on it.
Despite the fact that the game may have merit (and if you play it I will give it the benefit of the doubt), I still think it's a waste of GW's resources.
As Farmpunk points out below, it overlaps with Fantasy.
Yes, I realize Fantasy is pretty awful right now, but still...
GW certainly renewed the license for the forthcoming Hobbit films.
I'm sorry, I think Hobbits, and Middle Earth as a whole, is too corny for words.
Game of Thrones, or even Tad William's Dragonbone Chair series are far more interesting (and fresher) swords and sorcery series.
I wish death upon Hobbits.
Seriously, though- anything is better than another Dreadfleet.
How outta the blue WAS that?
Oh, hate away, I'm used to it. :p And in your defence, War of the Ring? That's bloody awful, and really does overlap with WFB to an embarrassing extent. If we're going to talk about false starts, then let's start there...
DeleteI too wish death upon Hobbits - but I do like a game that provides opportunites to have my Uruks stamp on the malodorous runts. My opinions of LotR vary somewhat depending on whether we're talking about the books/films/games/franchisable properties/deep gnarly roots of the fantasy genre and I wouldn't lose enormous amounts of sleep if the same game system were to be used for other tie-ins. It's a very heroic, very cinematic little game and I could see it working for a Game of Thrones SBG, as it were...
I worked at GW when LotR's first hit. The sales were phenomenal of that product. No question. What wasn't mentioned quite as often was the amount of parents who brought plastic miniatures back because they were 'broken'. Now let me clarify. They weren't. They had mould lines, now some parents you could convince this was part of the product and the process. Others you could not and you'd end up having to take shed loads of stock back. What will a similar demographic think of having to resculpt bits of Finecast? Honestly I don't know, I'm just asking.
DeleteAs for LotR's the game. Well the first game was OK if played as narrative missions with the forces and challenge set accordingly. What ruined the game were points levels and GW's insistence that it was a wargame. When the Mines of Moria box set came out they kept the story based missions and they worked. But rather than create more scenarios for people in white Dwarf they totally dropped the idea and got people playing pitched battles. It's an utterly lame system for that, and wasn't designed for it. The core rules then started to warp into something else and I lost all respect and interest for it as a product. Despite a nice range of realistically proportioned miniatures.
As for War of the ring? Good lord that was a dire system. And again it was a game system designed around selling you more rubbish you didn't actually want. It wasn't just a case of taking existing models and playing in a slightly different way. Nope you had to buy loads more miniatures than you did before. Thus nullifying the ranges one USP over their other product lines. Then you had to buy movement bases that were priced stupidly... and to top it all off the game was poor.
Rebooting LotR's? Not a good idea. They are not under any obligation to sell the game and actually never were. They could've stepped away from it at any time if they chose to. They could have chosen to go a completely different direction with the range, but they didn't. They chose to do the exact same things again and again just in a different setting. What will the Hobbit bring? Not anywhere near as much attention as the LotR movies did in my opinion. The hype just doesn't feel the same. 2 years before the first movie was released we were hearing all sorts of exciting stuff in magazines that had nothing to show us. With the Hobbit those same magazines are like 'meh, not interested'.
I'll drink to all that! Especially pissing on what made the system charming by trying to turn it into a conventional points-buy pitched-battle fest. I don't play it like that, don't see the attraction in it. That does make it (yet more) difficult to find opponents though... that's why the Uruks were the first things to take the fall.
DeleteYou'll have to put up Ultimate Rival's US Armor list sometime, see if it's similar to the mid-war AC I've been using, and giving SandWyrm fits.
ReplyDelete(of course, we're still learning all the special rules. like protected ammo helps mid-war tigers be even BETTER)
I'd actually heard War of the Ring was one of the few decent game systems GW made. (outside Blood Bowl and Necromunda, which probably don't really count anyway)
so the Eldar 'dex is 7 yrs old? it came out about 9 mo (I think) after I started.
unfortunately, War of the Ring overlaps terribly with GW's pride and joy of stink-ti-tude... Fantasy.
War of the Ring is probably what they should have done FIRST.
Sigh...
ReplyDeleteIt causes me great pain to do this, y'know.
Confident Trained list-
HQ- 2 Shermans
5 Shermans
5 Shermans
5 Shermans w/76 mm's
Tank Hunters w/2 M10's
Armored Rifle Platoon (I call them clown cars, cuz so many dudes get out of 'em...15 stands, I think)
Mortar Halftracks
1750 points.
I play Tau- the Codex released in 2005.
Eldar are only slightly newer, having released in 2006.
I think the Eldar Codex has that same 'generic' feel that Dark Angels and Chaos both have.
The Tau Codex may have a buncha poor units (Vespid, Stealth Suits), but the core is more solid than Eldar, I believe.
Yeesh, this is uneducated drivle. One would think one should know what they were talking about before they threw up all over the place with words.
ReplyDeleteBlog card revoked.
There's a card?!?
DeleteApologies for the rantiness....it was a bad day.
Yeesh, if you're going to call something uneducated drivel the least you could do is spell it properly. lol. :P
DeleteBesides, if it is uneducated that's fine. As not everything has to be well thought out discursive essay's. Sometimes, and I know this might seem odd to some people, Blog's can be about opinions. Nothing wrong with a rant every now and then or a party political broadcast. IF they're about communicating some sense of passion about the hobby. I don't read all of SinSynn's or others articles to be 'challenged' or 'informed'. I read them because I know there's a love for the hobby that these people have and they might express that in extreme ways sometimes. I don't always agree with them, BUT you do get a raw emotional honesty from them. That's got to be worth something.
Thank you, Frontline...
DeleteThis will be my last GW 'rant' for a while.
I just needed to get it outta my system.
"Smart Grey Knights players prolly use Vellejo paints anyway, since their metallics are way better, so I can't hope for relief there..."
ReplyDeleteNo. The three shades of silver GW have are, simply put, the finest metallic paints I have yet used.
Boltgun Metal
DeleteMithril Silver...
is the third one Chainmail?
I've never used that one.
those are the three. The metal flakes in the vallejo paints are too large and make for an almost comical metal.
DeleteI've never tried them but this is the first dissenting opinion I remember hearing - that said, I've never been unhappy with GW metals myself, especially the lovely lovely Tin Bitz.
DeleteMithril Silver is also easy to mix for different, new metallics. Snot Green + Mithril Silver is a cool colour for Ork Walkers.
An awful lot of profesional miniature painters don't like GW metallics actually as the metallic flakes are a little too big for some actually Lauby. Most I know actually use Vallejo metallics because the opposite is true, they would also use the Vallejo metallics in alcohol base too. However, as for surface coverage they're (GW) pretty good, if a bit glittertastic for my own personal tastes. But I've never been truly happy honestly with any metallic paint range. Although the one good thing I've heard from North America buddies consistently about Reaper paints is that their metallic paints are quite nice.
DeleteThe issue that you have with GW changing their paint range is what are they changing it into? Currently their paint range is actually quite a nice mix of quick and easy coverage for painting lots of stuff, with foundation paints, good coverage of primary colours in the standard range and their washes... and being able to achieve quite good almost professional effects. It's a half way house if you will between the Army Painters very rapid approach with their dips and say a more professional range of paints like those offered by Vallejo or others. It's where they then lean with their paint range. I hear tell of dropper bottles and a slight formula change. I've not heard about price hikes though. For me I'm in wait and see mode, Like I am with the Army Painters new range of colours.
"An awful lot of profesional miniature painters don't like GW metallics actually as the metallic flakes are a little too big for some actually Lauby. Most I know actually use Vallejo metallics because the opposite is true"
DeleteThis has, honestly, not been my experience.
No I can believe it hasn't. GW metallics offer really quick and easy coverage, that's something all painters can agree on. Most metallic paints from other companies require some extra work and finessing to get them to where you want. but GW's do just cover nice and easy. I do think they're a bit more glittertastic though than many of the other metallic paints I use.
DeleteI gotta say I hate GW's gold paints, Shining and Burnished Gold.
DeleteTin Bitz is great, though
gold paints are always awful.
Delete