Planetary Empires/Mighty Empires: Expansions that Need to Return

Remember these sets?

I really really wish I had bought them back in the day. They cost an arm and a leg on Ebay now and no one is selling them really. Why? Because they are still infinitely useful and cool, so who would want to get rid of them?

If anything, they are more useful and cool now than every before. That is because each core game has 3 methods to play, one of which happens to be NARRATIVE. There is nothing more narrative than a well organized campaign, and a map based one at that. I really wish I could play in one. Add to that the Crusade system in 40k AND you are just begging for a reason to do campaigns.

And then there are specialist games too. Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis both lend them selves well to a map based campaign system, Titanicus in particular. And then the big daddy of Horus Heresy itself. All of these games expansions ARE campaign books. 

Heck, with some ingeniuty and clever hobbying, you could even make a great underhive map for Necromunda, allowing you to track gang territory and add some depth and realism to raids and the game as a whole.

The potential to work these into supplements, like they used to with WHFB with things like Blood in the Badlands, is incredibly high.

They would also make the perfect feature for a set of articles over the course of several issues of White Dwarf, and could cover multiple aspects of the hobby, from modeling your map to playing the campaign. And then these would be the perfect tool to utilize to introduce fun new narrative based rules, stratagems and mini campaign in both White Dward and Chapter Approved or the General's Handbook.  Environmental and Warzone type rules are the most obvious, giving in game effects for fighting in a jungle or a rad desert, ice wastes or an urban sprawl.

It would be even cooler if then there were faction specific or bonus tiles sold in specific kits. Special tile in a White Dwarf. Faction tile in a start collecting box. Manufactorum tiles in the 40k terrain kit. Civitas tile in Titanicus Terrain. Etc. Etc. You get the picture. Give people a reason and desire to get a full set of tiles in their Planetary/Mighty Empires expansion, and then reward people with those expansions for continuing to purchase GW kits and armies.

There is just a ton of reasons why this should happen and none why it shouldn't.

Now I understand there are plenty of 3d printing options out there for these, and that really is a great solution if you want a table. But in terms of full support it is lacking. I really believe the modern GW could really maximize their supplements with a tool like this, just flushing out campaign rules and providing even greater reasons to use things like the Crusade System. 

And there is a PERFECT opportunity coming up for GW to bring this system back, as there is game coming with a locked map, with factions tied to specific regions, and the greatest potential for meaningful, impactful campaign play. I am of course talking about

Imagine setting up your Empire Map and fighting off the forces of Archaon coming from the North, or challenging other players for control of the Border Princes. Think of purging woodlands of Chaos Beastman or marching out to besiege a Dwarven hold. 

C'mon GW. This is basically a money printer for you guys. Easy to produce cheaply, yet highly desirable and useable by many many hobbyists. The fact there are so many 3d printing options out there for it only reinforces that it is a desirable commodity. So what are you waiting for?

King of the Jungle- Old Blood on Carnosaur Showcase

I love Lizardmen. Note, Lizardmen, not Seraphon. The old lizard lore was so cool, and the way they worked before AoS way more interesting to me (if I wanted to play a summoning game, I would have picked Daemons). SO for me, that means my Lizard force is going to be built to WHFB 8th Edition, The Ninth Age and Kings of War. I may use them occasionally in AoS, but my opponent would have to be cool with Square Bases. My Tamurkhan's Horde army will be for AoS. My lizards are going to be for Rank and File battle games.

It has been a LONG TIME coming, but I am finally making this army.

With that said, I finally finished the my first complete Lizard of my own army. The Carnosaur kit is just such a cool kit, and I loved every minute of making this model.

Heroforge Miniatures Review - Schlemazal

I've been keeping an eye on Hero Forge Miniatures since their kickstarter went live. For those of you who haven't heard of them before, Hero Forge makes custom 3D-printed miniatures designed with a web interface where you can pick from libraries of parts (heads, torsos, limbs, weapons, armor, handheld items, etc) with options for fantasy, scifi, western, modern or east-asian genre styles and quite a few different poses.

A dwarven rogue I threw together using the Hero Forge interface.

Though their parts libraries aren't massive (yet), the concept always had me really interested, so when I was recently commissioned by a friend to paint a pair of Hero Forge minis, I figured it would be a good time to post my thoughts about the end product. Both miniatures were printed with their 'Ultra Detail Plastic' which boasts a good paintability and a high level of detail, but low durability (as opposed to their 'Strong Plastic', which is supposed to be much less detailed and rougher, but more durable. Also cheaper, though I haven't seen the end product).

Straight off the bat, I got to see that one-star durability in action. One miniature was posed with only one leg on the base, and it had snapped at the ankle in transit from the commissioner (I do want to stress this was not from the company, it was repackaged to send to me), requiring me to pin the leg. Later, a short tumble snapped the quarterstaff off, though some superglue easily repaired the problem. The detail held by the plastic was actually impressive, though the sculpts themselves are limited due to the fact that all the parts are meant to be modular and somewhat generic in their system. There was, however, definitely a rough surface texture to both models.

Spray primer worked just fine on the two, though a thinner layer is recommended or you start to lose what detail is present. Once primed, I had very little difficulty with painting. It was basically the same as working with any other wargaming miniature. The rough texture remained present throughout, though in the end I think the only place the models suffered for it were in the faces where a little roughness can make a huge difference in the final appearance.

Overall, I enjoyed working with these two miniatures. At $25 each, I think they're probably a bit too expensive for most applications - the rough surface, fragility, and the medium level of detail born of modular parts work against the customization for value. While Hero Forge has a cheaper plastic variant, given the roughness present in their higher end material, I'm not really sure I want to see what those look like. That being said, if you're looking for a miniature for an RPG character and can't find one that fits, or you need a specific set of weapons, gear and posing, Hero Forge is definitely a solid choice. Hopefully they'll continue to build their parts library and increase the level of detail they can manage.

I'll leave you here with some more pictures of the completed miniatures:

This is labeled as the 'Come at me bro' pose. Bonus points for style.

The bamboo flooring base was really well made

You can still buy Warhammer Fantasy Battles?!?!

Recently Black Library changed their site (a terrible change IMO, but that is a different story). Browsing tonight, I have come to notice something kinda crazy

You can still buy Warhammer Fantasy Battles and all the End Times books.

Yes, you read that right... you can still buy WHFB

RIGHT HERE

They may only be digital. However, there they are, for sale. And at a significant price reduction ($32.99 for the core rule book).

Now it may have still been this way on the last site, but I don't think it was. Correct me in the comments if I am wrong.

No army books unfortuately, but I don't think that means there won't be... they do have several battlescrolls up after all. Maybe AoS isn't the unheralded success they hoped for.

There is this disclaimer "Warhammer: Rulebook is designed for use with Warhammer: The Game of Fantasy Battles. That game system is no longer supported, but this title remains available for those who want to recreate the epic battles of the lost world. To continue the war against Chaos in the Mortal Realms, check out Warhammer Age of Sigmar."

But when has GW EVER sold old rules... sure this is digital and of no cost to them. It could just be a money making ploy, but maybe, just maybe, it is a little bit of back tracking too.

Super Cheap Plague Toad Alternative

So I found this little kickstarter today by Toad King Castings. Just trying to produce 3 models, but two of these are perfect for Nurgle Players as Plague Toads, especially now that they have AoS warscrolls as well.

Warts and Wings Kickstarter: Giant Toads and Stirge Swarms

EDIT 8/27: IT IS FUNDED, So little need to worry about not getting your reward (this is really low risk as the producer has been a miniature maker in the past and all the toads at least will be cast in house)

So it is just 4 GBP for that big guy (about $6). With shipping it came out to $13. Not bad IMO, and obviously cheaper per model if you back a larger pledge to get a bunch of them.

I ordered mine in hopes of it being a Beast of Nurgle for Blood Bowl, but these are also obviously great for RPGs and the like.

So back it if you are interested in the least! Help me get my Plague Toad and I doubt you will let down by the buy. And if the resin quality is just "meh" then it is NURGLE ANYWAYS, you wouldn't have to worry!

First Impression of the Age of Sigmar Warscrolls: 3 Points

So I am not a fantasy player. I was long long ago. I wanted to get back into it, but that was around the time End Times started, and so I bid my time, of which I am glad now. BUT I am looking through the Warscrolls and rules and these are my first Impressions.

Now I am going to use the term Fantasy here, not in reference to the game Warhammer FANTASY Battles, but because AoS is still a Fantasy setting. It may not be the Fantasy setting you prefer, but it is not a Sci-Fi setting either...

1- As they stand now, the rules are there to just push minis. This is the Fantasy equivalent of Apocalypse for 40k. With no points costs and rules bonuses for larger and larger formations, they just want you to dump as much stuff onto the board as possible. It may appear to be a "Skirmish" game, but they really want it to be played with a few hundred models on the table between 2 players.

2- Shooting appears to be superior to assault. Which is funny seeing how the entire boxed set seems to be all assault units. Weird how this works in both Fantasy and 40k. It is almost like they are trying to either get fantasy players to just switch over to 40k or get 40k players to play both. And most likely it is a combination of both. Part of why they likely
A) Did no advertising. Why advertise when you have a customer base you think is going to eat this up (whether that is true or not is yet to be seen)
B) Provided the rules for free. A LOT of 40k players wouldn't have even glanced at this if it had been a pay for rule book. BUT Now tons of them are checking it out, even though they never played before. Why? Because it as of now has ZERO opportunity cost. Heck, you can even proxy the crap out of Sigmarines and Goretide Beserkers with 40k models, and if you happen to like the game, why not just pick it up, right?
BUT I digress. A fantasy realm of swords and spears has become a Steampunk Firefight.

3- What the Crazy/Fun Rules reveal about the future of AoS . I have mixed feelings about these. It is amusing yes, and they are easy enough to discern from real rules that any play group can just throw them all out. However, they are indicative of two things
A) These aren't the full/final rules for each race. They are just something out there so you can continue to use your armies in the mean time until the ACTUAL faction rules drop. The fact that they use the covers for the old Army Books with the old race names on this AND contain many many dead characters is proof of this.
B) They were made simply so GW could keep their promise of "You can use your old minis". These rules will be updated and replaced, and if we are to believe, the new rules will come in the box of new models. Over the course of the AoS release, you are going to see more and more of the old armies invalidated in favour of new ones. I think that all models including and after Lizardmen, especially End Times models, are safe, but anything made before that is going to slowly go the way of the dodo.

AGE OF SIGMAR RULES! And other hints from the webstore! (Chaos Dwarves? Orcs?)

ALL THE WARSCROLLS ARE LIVE AND READY TO DOWNLOAD

Every Army is there, and they don't even have funky names yet!

HOWEVER There are no rules for the Stormcast Eternals or the Goretide yet... hmmm...

Has me think that they won't be free...

Additionally, all the Races have been reorganized according to faction, and I noticed one thing right away.

The Orcs and Goblins Battalion is "Sold Out"

New Orruks soon?

And there are "Sylvaneth" as wood elves. Troggoth as trolls. Hadn't seen those names yet myself.

The Chaos Hellcannon is under the Duardin Race, but is the only Chaos Faction type in there. Does that mean we will see Chaos Dwarves in the main game?

Beastmen don't have a new race name yet on the webstore, and there are Skeleton, Vampire, and Mummy races, all of which are interesting as they don't make a unique intellectual property name.

Age of Sigmar Models Revealed

Sorry this is brief as it is from my phone.
Age of Sigmar models.

To say the least I am disappointed that they have thrown away the uniqueness of Fantasy in favor of what are essentially Space Marines crossed with Warmachine.

Round bases too. And judging by the size of the models, my guess is this is at least over $230.

As well, they are all weilding hammers. It is as if some exec asked why the game is called Warhammer and no matter what explanation the design team gave, he decided there actually needed to be more hammers.

An Analogy for Age of Sigmar (if the current rumours are true)

So there are the current rumours for Age of Sigmar. It seems RADICALLY DIFFERENT. And ALL THE ARMY BOOKS ARE BEING PULLED JULY 26th! So get your stuff while you can.

I for one hope they are not true, but if they are, I can see myself finally acquiring my lizardman army off of ebay pretty easily and playing a bunch of oldhammer.

Anywho, here is my analogy:

(BTW this is humour, and done to illustrate the absurdity of the new AoS rumours IMOHO).

This year not only sees the re-envisioning of one classic world of geekdom (Warhammer) but another as well.

I am talking about Star Wars.

Now the trailers are out for this and it seems that we are in safe hands. But what if JJ Abrams decided to
1- Make sexy, lithe female Wookies and call them Wogs. (wikipedia link)

"We don't serve their kind here!"

2- Decide that droids aren't important any more. He can't get rid of them, but pushes them as far from the limelight as possible

3- Renamed the Millenium Falcon the Eagle 5 and made it a Winnebago.

4- Decided that there should no long be a light side and a dark side to the force, but instead a Rainbow of Force, so you can be ROYGBIV aligned, and even mix and match!
5- Renames everything we know. Coruscant is now Metro-neo-oplis, and Mandolorians are now Mercenarinites and they have gods known as the War-four (because there are four of them)

6- A bunch of stuff that seems oddly like Star Trek, Battlestar Galatica, and Firefly just works its way in. Plus a lot of lens flare.
7- AND ALL OF THIS IS KEPT UNDER WRAPS UNTIL THE WEEK BEFORE RELEASE!!!

Craziest 40k/30k/WHFB crossover theory.

So there is a lot of talk about a cross over between 40k and fantasy lately with upcoming potential release of 9th edition. Talk about Draigo appearing and Skaven calling Craftworld Eldar and Lizardmen running to the warp/webway.

I have a even crazier potentiality.

Warning: If you have not read the Horus Heresy novel Vengeful Spirit stop here. 

So when Horus goes through the gate on Molech to ascend to what is essentially Godhood like the Emperor did, he is transported to another world, presumably in the warp. In this world he supposedly spends thousands of years conquering until he reaches a final triumph in the name of chaos...

Sound like anyone???

So Archaon Everchosen is the chosen son of Chaos in the Fantasy World. Horus can be said to be so in the Grim Dark future. But what if Archaon and Horus are one in the same? Could Archaon's conquests actually be those of Horus after he goes through the gate? And the final victory that saw Horus return to the 31st millennium is the looming End Times cataclysm that is going to see the destruction of the Old World into floating warp bubbles at the hands of Archaon?

Some of you may say "But what about the 'appearance' of Draigo? in Fantasy, he is from 10,000 years later?" Well two things: That may be the Emperor and not Draigo AND warp time does not flow linearly, so it may be 41st Millennium Draigo warning Old World good guys about 31st Millennium Horus.

It is a wild, and 99% chance WRONG, theory, but it is a fun concept IMO and one I had to share.

Bretonnians and Khador for Sale

So I am back from my deployment and I have decided to focus on my Blood Angels for 40k. I will still be into Blood Bowl, Necromunda and BFG, but I am dumping my Bretonnians, Warmachine and eventually my Imperial Guard (airbrushing first. I think I can get more if I finish them)

So if you are interested here is are two good starter forces for the above mentioned forces and some accessories.

Bretonnian Army + Rules + Bits + Limited Edition Standard OOP

Khador Butcher Army (ALL METAL)

40k Apocalypse NEW IN PACKAGE

40K 3rd Ed + SM 4th Ed + Eye of Terror + 4 WD + 3 Novels

Warmachine Prime MkII + Wrath + Older Rules

Warmachine Forces of Khador

I'll have a real post deployment post on Monday.

One White Dwarf Changed Me

Brief background. For those of you who don't know, I am Gothmog, and I am in the Navy. As such I am away from home for a LONG TIME right now. It makes it difficult to keep up with the changes in the realm of Wargaming. HOWEVER I do still get White Dwarf magazine sent to me on my ship, and I recently got the August Issue, with that beautiful Carnosaur on the cover.

Let me say content wise, this White Dwarf was overall a little weaker for me than the previous 2013 issues. BUT that did not matter, for it was the pretty pretty pictures that caught me hook, line and :"skink"er.

A LONG LONG time ago, I played my first game of Warhammer. My introduction to the world of Wargaming was a 1500 point battle of Lizardmen versus Orcs, in 6th grade back in 1999. I loved lizardmen and pretty much played them everytime I got a game in, but they weren't mine. My good friend owned several armies, or rather a group of 3 brothers did. For some reason, we all started to get into 40k, and that is when  I hoped into Blood Angels Space Marines and never looked back. Some years later, I started Brettonians when their last army book and model wave came out, but that was at a low point in my wargaming career and didn't really have enough fantasy players to keep me interested. I still have those Brettonians, but upon returning from living in Japan, I had resolved to sell them. But going to GW in Norfolk and briefly in Jacksonville kinda sparked my interest in fantasy once more. But the idea of Brettonians was too daunting of a paint job with how slow I am, and they are too inorganic. I paint plenty of Marines and Guardsmen, with sharp lines and uniform symbols and colours. I had been thinking I wanted something with skin and flesh, fur and scales. I had been leaning towards beastmen, but then it happened. The white dwarf. THE WHITE DWARF.

Memories of my first love came rushing back. Flipping through the pages, my eyes feasted upon the bright colours and beautiful sculpts and my heart fluttered. That initial love of the game was re-awoken. Desire and inspiration for great projects and armies. The Scaly Horde calls to me. And why I may be away, I can still begin planning. I ordered myself a rulebook, armybook and battlemagic (along with the new SM codex).

So what is the point of this article. Well other than I could knock it out in 10 minutes on liberty (don't worry, I will have something better on Fri or Sat), it is to really just speak to something inside all of us. That primal spark of interest. That initial allure to the game. Do you remember what grabbed you? If you can, are you as inspired now as you were then? If not, I recommend trying to find it again. And when you do, grab onto it and don't let go. I know I wont. Maybe that is just because a Carnosaur doesn't release its prey that easily.

Dwarf Slayer and Runelord - Schlemazal

I’ve been finding more time lately to play some 40k (I might do an article at some point on the Dark Angels in 6^th), and that prompted me to go back and take a look at my Fantasy army – the Dwarves. I’ve had my Dwarf army for nearly as long as I’ve had the Dark Angels for 40k, but they’re nearly entirely unpainted and spend most of their time boxed up due to a lack of Fantasy players near where I live. After I got them all out and reminded myself of what I even had, I was struck by the urge to paint a couple of the heroes that I had never gotten around to, a Runelord and a Dragonslayer, and I thought I would share some pictures.

I had a lot of fun painting these two models, especially the slayer. It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything with so much cloth and skin rather than 40k style armors and beards are great. I decided to paint both of them in the Karak Kadrin paint scheme (emphasis on dark red and bronze/gold).

The slayer model is actually a Slayer Doomseeker from the Dwarf Slayer army list in the old Storm of Chaos book, but the idea of a slayer character running around with chain-axes was just too goofy to pass up on, so I picked up the model when I first saw it. I considered adding a tattoo on the back, but I really liked the way it looked without and I was worried the skin was already getting a bit busy with all the piercings and the woad. The ridiculous weights hanging all across the beard and belt didn’t help in that department.

Every suicidally insane monster hunter needs axes on chains

...and apparently one can never have enough giant brass balls

The Runelord wasn’t quite as interesting, and to be honest I found the model a little bit of a hassle to work with (probably a reason why that particular model seems to be OOP). This was my first attempt at painting white hair, but I think it came out alright. I did like the patterning on the edges of the apron and gloves, but that sort of thing is a standard on a lot of the Dwarf Hero/Lord miniatures.

Apparently runesmithing is particularly boring work

So there you have a couple of painted dwarves. I’m still debating what to do with the rest of the army (I might sell it, since I have nobody to play against), but I had a such a blast painting these two after so long of primarily painting space marines that I might do a couple more heroes or maybe some hammerers. If I do paint some more dwarves, I’ll be sure to take some pictures.