SinSynn: OMG, GW...WTF?....smh...

Hey folks, SinSynn here.

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.

*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.

*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

SinSynn dinna trust GW no more

Hey folks, SinSynn here.

There was a time, it seems quite long ago now, when GW would make an announcement for some upcoming thingy or another, and I'd be all like, 'Oooh- cool. this is gonna be da awesome.'

Heh.
Remember those days?

Nowadays, of course, whenever GW makes an announcement, they're usually pretty awful.
Or laughably bad.

Case in point:

*What were you thinking, GW?*

When Dread Fleet dropped, it pretty much killed any positive vibes I had remaining for GW.
Nobody asked for Dread Fleet, and I don't know anyone that purchased it, or even cared about it's release.
Personally, I wanted Blood Bowl. I was kinda surprised when it wasn't Blood Bowl, actually.
Blood Bowl would've been big, I think.
I mean, it seemed like a no-brainer to me. But then again, I have no brains, so...

Instead we got...well, whatever.
No one cares.

The reason I got kinda miffed wasn't all Dread Fleet's fault, however.
No, it was a culmination of things, and Dread Fleet was just the capper. The straw that broke the Xeno's back.

Years of looking in from the outside as the Imperials got spiffy new Codexes, while I STILL HAVE my 4th edition Tau book.
Price increases, Finecast, blah, blah, blah.

Then all these other new systems start gaining momentum, and they show me you don't HAVE to wait YEARS to get an army update, or a new figure for the collection.

Wait- they let you get free stuffs, right off their website?

For the love of- I paid good money for Army Builder!
These other cats built me a fancy flash webpage to design my army in...and it's FREE!

Sigh.

Hey, does anybody else get the feeling that GW is making Imperial Armour books part of the main system in an attempt to appear like they're...doing something?

Companies like Privateer Press, Spartan, Battlefront, Corvus Belli and a host of others are churning out new material, expansions and models at quite a clip.
In all honesty, they're making GW look really antiquated and sad.

When GW announced that the Imperial Armor books were getting integrated into the main game, and would be 'tournament legal,' I totally made this face:

*That EXACT face, in fact*

Part of me was like, 'Oh, I see what you did there, GW.'
This was GW's method of emulating the new guys, in a way.
'Oh, look- we can adds new stuffs! We can be all edgy and hip, too!'

Sigh.
It's like watching some old dude try to talk 'street' while they lecture you...about like, nutrition, or something.
It's just...sad.

-_-

I'm sure folks in Europe are kinda amped about IA books being table ready now (Ha! There's a stamp, sucka! No more 'opponent's approval required!'), but here in the US, well...

We don't really have access to Forge World stuffs.
You can't pick it off a shelf in a GW store here.

Let's just gloss over the fact that Forge World stuff is expensive, as are the Imperial Armour books.
Or that they're mostly pretty lame, competitively.
No surprise the most recent one has the first decent list in years- Eldar Corsairs.
After all, the books ARE available here now, and GW wants them to sell.

Ultimately, the whole 'Imperial Armour is Approved' thing is almost a good idea.
If Forge World stuffs was made in plastic, readily available and reasonably priced, or if Imperial Armour books were actually really good.
But...they're not, so...

Waddaya wanna bet that the next IA book is totally OP, though?
;)

So just a lil' while ago I read that GW is preparing to make an announcement about their line of paints.
It's gonna be exciting, they say.

Excuse me while I make this face:

*Not quite as cool as this guy does it, but whatevs...I try*

Like I said, a long (long, long...really long...super, crazy, stupid long) time ago, I woulda been a like, 'Oooh!'
Now I'm like, 'Oh, gee...price increase is coming. What favorite color of mine will they kill off and replace with something worse? How bad is it gonna be this time?'

I'm not sure if my somewhat reticent attitude towards GW in recent times is a result of being won over by a few of these up 'n' coming mini games companies (Battlefront and Corvus Belli- I heart you), or what.
Maybe I've just been treated like a 3 dollar hooker by GW for too long (my Tau Codex sure is old, you rotten sons of-).

I suspect it's a combination of both things.
*shrug*
Waddayagonnado?

Damn, I really used to dig GW, and now, well...
I kinda think they're lame.

I'm not even gonna front, and pretend like I'm happy about it, or anything, cuz I'm not.
I'm not a hater, out to wish doom upon them- I love my Tau. I love 40k, too.
It's the company, and their dumb-ass method of...whatever the hell it is they're doing.

Does anyone understand whatever it is they're doing?
The lack of marketing, the seemingly counter-intuitive decisions, the blatant disregard for...pretty much everything- from the internet, to modern methods of generating anything but scorn.
That they seem pretty good at.

Ugh...Riffing 'bout GW gives me ageda.
:P

Now if you'll excuse me, I hafta go find the Vellejo substitutes for my (formerly) favorite GW colors, washes and stuffs.
I'm not even gonna hang around for this most recent GW round of baloney, thanks.

Here ya go, GW...dedicated to you:

*Time to convince Lo' to add a 'multimedia explosion' label*

Sorry for the complaining, folks...it's just that every time I see that GW's gonna actually do something, or release something, or whatever...I just get all annoyed and whatnot now.
I feel like I've been waiting outside in the cold and rain for a bunch of years, just waiting for a friggin' army book update.
Worse yet, I have this feeling that when I finally do get one, it's gonna be 'meh.'

Sigh, GW.
Just...sigh.


Until next time, folks- exit with catchphrase!

-SinSynn

[40K] Merry Christmas to Me!

Just one of my presents this year:

TheDude sure does love me something fierce. I think I'll keep him.

[40K] More of This Game is Just Pretty

So a new guy came into the store the other night (after much prodding from TheDude) and brought some of his beautiful Dark Angels to show us. I thought I'd share... 

I like it, I like it, I like it.

[40K] Sometimes, the game is just pretty

I showed up to my 40K night the other day, and one of my regulars was showing off his new toys. He had amassed a very large selection of figures for a theme army and wanted everyone to see them.

Pictures don't quite do this justice- there's a lot of shine and reflection taking away from the detail and lovely work he put into this army- but I really want to showcase his work.

Long shot of the whole army.

A narrower look at the oncoming mass.

Hey look! Skimmers and dreads!

I love the feel of the army- the different poses really helps it have a personality.

Who doesn't love a wheelie?

The bank on this is just super cool.

Ever hear of flanking? Yeah, these guys have it.

[40K] Works in Progress

On Saturday, our 40K league is hosting a Model Work Day. The idea is to allow a time to bring in models that need some work and learn from each other.

I'm thinking of bringing some of these guys

and trying to turn them into something like this

Courtesy of Darkfuturegames.blogspot.com

Am I up to it? Probably not. But I have a lot of bare basic Marines and some cool BT upgrade goodies, so we will see what happens.

[40K] Falling Off the Wagon

This one guy, generously donated to me last year by none other than HOP's Idol contest winner, Von; is the one thing that's keeping me anywhere near the Emperor's Children at the moment.

I'm burning out on Marines at the moment.

I'll admit I was never a big fan of the Marines. The sameness of them made me frustrated. I mean, what's the difference between this

and this?

From a stat viewpoint, very little is different. They all have the same WS,BS and I - it's just a matter of which weapons and so on.

For some, that's a bonus. I've heard Space Marines called "Legos"- a basic building block that you can customize endlessly by adding or taking things away. Maybe it's true.

I just know that they are really cramping my style right now. I prefer some personality, some silliness, some "unknown" factors as a rule... and Marines are not it.

Except Brother Darius, who has been known to speak to me while I'm sleeping of the Glories of The Emperor. That guy takes his job wayyyyyyyyy too seriously, but man-he looks good doing it.

Stay tuned for a possible exploration of Eldar....

[40K] Grey Knights VS Blood Angels

This was the beginning of our new league. I decided to give it a whirl, and after a lot of debating, decided to play the Grey Knights (or "Cheese" as my buddy FunDave calls them). 

I played against a guy I've known since the day I was introduced to gaming. He's new to the league, but has been stopping in to watch for almost a year. Our guys know him, but might not know his idiosyncrasies as well as I do. 

He's an old grognard/neckbeard, one of those guys that takes perverse pleasure in reading, examining, questioning and just generally ingesting games of all kinds. He also discusses games in a strange hybrid of kvetching/arguing that many people could easily view as misanthropy. I've gotten used to it over the years and don't think twice about his rumblings- I sort of hear them on another wavelength. 

Having effectively taken care of customers, I found a table and broke out my dudes, and my friend broke out his. His list was something like this:

Baal pred

2 las plas razorbacks 

2 five man assault squads melta powerfist

and here's what I brought: 

storm raven

4 terminators (troops) with a psilencer 

1 Justicar Tharn 

I was a little absentminded when we were setting up the table, and I sort of missed something important. Take a look. 

Notice anything? (Besides my hand on the right.) Yeah, there's not a lot to see.

We rolled mission and deployment. He won first but held off and kept his guys in reserve, letting me go first. We had to score an objective, and his was behind a ruin. Mine was on behind a bunker to the way left from what you see here. 

I moved forward towards the objective. He waited. I moved forward again.

I actually scooted around the ruin and sat on the objective.  I thought I was in good shape, and I was trying to follow the "keep the guys in the armored box" rule I keep hearing.

Yeah. Then he rolled all 3 reserves on and the one that was flanking came in on the side my bird was on.

The bird got blown up- totally exploded. The guys inside- 3 lived.

My poor, poor raven!

Then my guys ran away because they lost more than 25% of their squad. And at least one of them got blown up by the barrage of shooting he threw at me.

And you know, I never learn. I charged right at those tanks- with just 2 guys.

The roll to hit. This was probably the only thing that made the night not entirely terrible on a game standpoint.

I got completely surrounded. And the psicannon just refused to die. He was pretty crafty. Thawn died - a lot.

Of course the rolls to pen weren't so good. Can't win 'em all, right?

The game came down to 2 Lasplas Razorbacks and a Ball Predator shooting Thawn every time he got up. And then he didn't, and my friend won.

Overall recap: My friend got lucky with his reserve and shooting rolls. I didn't suck as much as I have in the past. I still lost.

About my opponent: I sort of covered this in the bat rep above, but I like him and get along with him fine. I know other people find his tendencies to discuss things to death somewhat annoying. 


What I learned: Trying new stuff is ok. Even if you lose.

In all seriousness, I was trying to apply some things I've watched or heard. I was debating between BT with a LRC and dudes inside or a StormRaven, and you know... I really wanted to play it. It was a birthday gift and I really like it. So I went with GK. I definitely need to read the Codex more thoroughly.

There's next week to try again at 500... I don't know what I'll bring yet.

[40K] The 500 Point Dilemna

Our local 40K group is doing an escalation league. I'm pretty excited about getting in on the "ground floor" of this, and I am fairly confident that GW won't be dropping any FAQ bombs on me during the duration of the league; mostly because I will be playing a faction that's already got one. (At least I think I am....)

I'm considering something other than my lovely Black Tide, and man is Big Sword yelling at me. I'm kind of considering something similar, but with a little more GW love....

Yeah, I'm thinking about Grey Knights. My main issue is that I don't have the codex yet, so making a list is an entirely hinky proposition. So at the moment, I am still thinking BT- but I am open to other ideas.

However, making the list for the league is a new kind of thought puzzle entirely- the first two weeks  will require some creative thinking.

For the first two weeks, we have to build our armies using the Kill Teams organization rules- but our missions will come from the Big Red Book.

My initial thought was to use a Ven Dred and some Termies, and bam! I would be done. However, after re-examining the board with the league rules, I realized we're not using KillTeams for anything except force org in weeks 1 and 2.

So I need troops and something kill-y in order to have a shot at winning. So maybe a LRC with some space doodz inside??  I don't quite know- I need something with troop selection, but good defense capability.

Ideas welcome as always, and GK thoughts are still running through my head. Or maybe Orks. I miss the green guys and their craziness... and their red paint, and their trukks....

[40K] Tootin' Lantz' Horn

The Admech Fandex is out- and the guy behind it is one of my nearest and dearest.

Please go over to Lantz's Place to enjoy his Magnum Opus.

Know that besides being brilliant and talented, Lantz is a genuine peach; a totally nice guy.

He works hard- 5 different blogs with incredible amounts of material. He's totally passionate about the hobby and loves promoting the community. He's a genuine asset and I'm really proud to be his friend.

Ladies, he's SINGLE.

enjoy

Mine's Bigger Than Brent's

Dethtron and Brent's little "war" got me motivated to do something I really haven't done here- show pics of my place. So, in the spirit of a good, healthy competition, let's do this!

Quoting Dethtron here: 

Well clap if you believe in Project Mayhem, because I’m throwing down the gauntlet. Brent thinks he’s got the disease, well it’s time to prove he’s still standing on the tip of the iceberg; still one straw short of a camel fracture. So, beloved space monkeys- if you’ve got a ridiculous collection/game room of your own let the world know. Post your own blog entry under the title “Mine’s Bigger than Brent’s” for all the world to see. Then, re-post this challenge to every blog and forum you’re on.

Here it is, folks- a challenge meant for the "big boys", and I am ready to kill 'em. Here's a look at all my stuff. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The outside, before we got a sign or any fancy stuff.

We did have fancy door graphics, though. Custom made acrylic transfers, baby.

There's places to play- lots of tables. These are set up for 40K.

This photo is of the early days in this location, before we got WAY more merchandise and so forth.

Here are some samples of our stuff. I swear, this was the day after we opened in this shop, because we have SO MUCH more crap now.

We found out that this shelf-on-a-shelf idea was not a good one. We moved it, don't worry!

 All right, this is from the WAAAAAY back machine, as we had AT-43 in stock still.

Other assorted sundries and such-again, probably from the second or third day at this location.

Wow, we were so proud of this clean, shiny case....

 The view from behind the counter- BEFORE it got messy. It's a wreck now.

The whiteboard is totally awesome. We use it for SO many fun things. It came as a donation from a customer.

So next, some pics of actual GAMERS and GAMING.

The giant windows are a pretty big hindrance in the summer months.

The following pics are from my *verysmall* house. The two larger shelves are *literally* packed from top to bottom full of gaming material. There's about a foot of my scrapbooks, but all the rest is games, books, minis,  notes, etc.

This is another shelf, tucked in the corner. It's actually got a shelf ON the shelf just to hold all the stuff we have.

Menoth, Part the One.

More Menoth.

Tons of paint. The top case on the left is the Vallejo line and the stuff on the right is paints picked up from hobby supply stores. Plus, tools! I love tools. Brushes, washers, clippers, many other goodies. The boxes are full of bits.

 Oops... That tray of models is full of Harlies I am supposed to be painting.

 More foam, waiting to be used.

A random game hiding between the couch and a shelf.

 While I don't have drums tucked away in my gaming closet, I do have to rep some music here.

Back to the store, where there's even MORE stuff. Here's a much more recent picture of the outside. I think I took this in August.

Lots of 40K and way more WarMachine than we need.

GW's greedy- it takes two full shelves, the tops, AND two spinner racks to fully display their stuff.

Our used shelf! Bargains, dudes!

 This is the "Big Red Monster", and it's the home of many board games. That we want to sell to you.

Middle shelf=roleplaying, mostly.

Grey Shelf=more board games.

 Of course, paint and all the stuff that goes with it.

The dragon, the case and the Confrontation models are all on "loan". One of our regulars displays them at our place because... well, it involves a wife- I'll be nice.

This is the second "Big red monster", also lovingly known as "The Gamer Nutrition Center" (inside joke). The setup varies, but it is usually sleeves, card boxes and other "Magic crack" related materials. 

This is my personal hell. It is also one of my proudest and best achievements as a store owner. Inside each box, divided by uncommon or common, are playsets of MtG cards. Each box holds several hundred playsets- and there are more than 50 boxes.

I was instrumental in taking huge piles of 5 slot boxes of random crap and turning them into a well organized system for our customers to find what they want instead of rooting through the dreaded "penny bin". Yes, we charge more- but we have made a killing out of these boxes. Well worth the HUNDREDS of hours put into it.

Also on this shelf is our "50 cent box", which is chock full of rares that don't trade at crazy insane costs. It's sometimes known as the "jank box", but there are a lot of cards in it that are great EDH material, fun to trade, or just interesting. The 50 cent box generates some serious cash, so we keep it stocked.

We recently filled that "gap" with boxes of cards, and added enough boxes to go all the way to the bottom shelf.

Here's our display case now. We pride ourselves on having the best pack choices around- and man, we find (and sell!) some oldies but goodies. Ravnica block, Onslaught, Invasion, Visions, Ice Age, Chronicles (we did an afterdraft with it!)- all kinds of things are in our case.

The blue binder above and the binders below are part of our singles. We divide by price- and stick cards in any order as long as it's starting low and going high. Our customers really seem to like it, and even ask for the "make your wallet cry" binder by name. (That's the red one seen below.)

A rare shot of TheBoy, from behind. He was hard at work, helping his buddy with something or other.

We have a fridge with sodas and snacks, too.

Chips & giant Pixy stix! Also visible is our "demo shelf" with copies of popular games to try before you buy.

Don't think this is a lot of stuff? We rented an entire PODS unit for overflow, random crap, and the assloads of terrain we have. Really, we have a shit ton of terrain. 

Four huge rubbermaid type totes, another Glass case, several random boxes, felt mats, and a ton of stuff I don't even know what it is. Here's some pics: 

 Well, this is an entire terrain table that was donated by one of our customers.

Some terrain.  (And models)

 More terrain.

Plus, more terrain!

And more terrain.

 More terrain.

 Even more terrain.

 Yeah, more terrain.

And, more terrain.

The POD and all the random stuff inside it. 

Don't think we have enough terrain? We have more.

And some of the nicest chairs you'll ever see in a game store. Really.

 Card boxes. Lots of them.

I don't know what this is. Maybe some more terrain?

 Older fixtures, files, light bulbs, other stuff.

This is terrain building material. Once upon a time, we made our own. I think we have plenty, now.

Well, the gauntlet is down- let's see YOURS.