What did you do today.

[Mattb]

It's been a while since I posted anything, so here's a battlewagon I finally finished up.

[Jye Nicolson]

That is great work all around; the three of you have very different styles bit it's always a pleasure to see.

I have a Krondys and a Castigator each about half finished, but I got distracted by Necromunda and one of my Vertus Praetor orders finally arriving, so it's back to the glue mines for me!

[me_in_japan]

Great painting from everyone. It's good to see folks getting on with The Hobby

As for me, I did actually paint some stuff this week - I finished up my bodyguard for my corsair army. No pics right now, but theyre done, honest injun. Instead, here are some thoughts on how my game of One Page Rules (Grim Dark Future) went today.

My army was eldar corsairs, but since they dont exist in 1p40k (cos theyre an obscure no-longer-in-use FW army) I used the High Elf Fleets rules (ie craftworlders) for them. Spevna (my esteemed opponent) used orks. Well, he used goblins, actually. His whole army was grots. In killa kanz. (To be accurate, there were 12 in kanz, 4 artillery units, and 3 grot tanks. And his bigmek warboss, who was a grot in a fancy suit of armor.)

This led to a problem, and one which Spev is currently raising on the forums for 1PR, actually.

My army, even with the best will in the world, had no chance of taking out his guys. Zip. Nada.

Why?

Because every single one of his guys had 6 wounds and an armour save of 2+. Now, my guys could pump out a fair amount of shots, but those shots had no AP (due to being lasblasters and shuriken, mostly). My other guns (starcannon on tanks etc) had an AP of -2, but only do a single wound per shot. I didn't have the volume of fire I'd've needed to do enough damage with that calibre of gun. I had one gun that had the Deadly special rule, and it did 6 wounds per shot (my captains fusion gun), but he on foot, and a very squishy target (a single rocket hit from any of the kanz wouldve killed him, and eventually did.)

To be fair, his kanz werent exactly the best shots, but simple maths meant that even if I poured every single shot of my army at his (assuming they were all miraculously in range at any given time) I'd still have needed about 100 turns to beat his army down. Meanwhile he could take out one or two of my units each turn.

Conclusion: The game system is fundamentally good, but if you're considering trying any kind of edge-case army (eg all grot tanks/killa kanz) then consult with your opponnent beforehand, and maybe run some numbers on what that "fun idea you have for a bunch of grots running around" might actually play out like. Had I brought, say, a bunch of brightlances and some fire dragons, then things wouldve been very different, but as it was, it was doomed from the outset.

On the plus side, here's some pictures

[me_in_japan]

On an unrelated note, I also played a game of 1p40k against my youngest son on saturday. It's got him interested in the game, which is great, and he was asking for a dreadnought to go with the smattering of space marines he already has. I kinda thought that, maybe, it might be nice to get him one. He could paint it up, start building a small force for a skirmish. So, I went over to the GW site. It's been a long while since I last did so while paying any kind of attention to what things might actually cost.

Jesus. H. Christ.

What the hell is going on with those prices? Seriously. What the actual effing god-in-his-heaven are they thinking? The smallest of viable armies must clock in at hundreds and hundreds of quid. It genuinely, no hyperbole, makes Magic the Gathering look cheap. I'm honestly disgusted. I can't afford to get my kids into this. I just can't. And I can't be the only person thinking that. Other miniature games exist, of course. I play em. But Space Marines are cool. That's what the kiddoes want. It makes me feel bad to have to say to my son "sorry, you can't have this thing because it's too expensive". It's not like I don't have a decent job - most stuff is reasonably within my financial grasp. But hell no I ain't paying that much for a dreadnought. Or anything else they sell. Fuck that shit.

[Primarch]

On an unrelated note, I also played a game of 1p40k against my youngest son on saturday. It's got him interested in the game, which is great, and he was asking for a dreadnought to go with the smattering of space marines he already has. I kinda thought that, maybe, it might be nice to get him one. He could paint it up, start building a small force for a skirmish. So, I went over to the GW site. It's been a long while since I last did so while paying any kind of attention to what things might actually cost.

Jesus. H. Christ.

What the hell is going on with those prices? Seriously. What the actual effing god-in-his-heaven are they thinking? The smallest of viable armies must clock in at hundreds and hundreds of quid. It genuinely, no hyperbole, makes Magic the Gathering look cheap. I'm honestly disgusted. I can't afford to get my kids into this. I just can't. And I can't be the only person thinking that. Other miniature games exist, of course. I play em. But Space Marines are cool. That's what the kiddoes want. It makes me feel bad to have to say to my son "sorry, you can't have this thing because it's too expensive". It's not like I don't have a decent job - most stuff is reasonably within my financial grasp. But hell no I ain't paying that much for a dreadnought. Or anything else they sell. Fuck that shit.

eBay might be an option, or a birthday present from the folks back home. There is also the 3D printing option if you can find some files.

But yes, GW prices are the stuff of madness.

[Grantholomeu]

Combo of inflation, GW hiking prices beyond the scope of inflation, and import taxes/shipping to Japan.
I specifically remember when Finecast was first coming out everyone was saying, "Pewter is too expensive," so they changed over to Finecast, and raised prices anyways in spite of making a cheaper, worse product.

[Jye Nicolson]

GW are having record sales and are at the limit of their manufacturing capacity. I'm afraid regardless of how you judge the value they have zero incentive to lower prices.

That being said if you're not planning on doing tournaments nothing wrong with Jus' House of Resin or however you might get a pleasingly shaped dreadnought like thing. Even if you're playing actual 40k it only needs to be vaguely the right size and on a correctly sized base*.

(Also of course don't pay actual GW prices unless you're in an actual GW store and effectively tipping them for the play space. Or maybe taking advantage of the free shipping because there are zero Vertus Praetors in Japan what the hell).



* Or you have a correctly sized base around somewhere or an opponent that isn't fussed or whatever.

[Jye Nicolson]

Incidentally the Corsairs and Orks look awesome on that table.

For my part zero hobby today as I took my assembled Necronunda figures and played 5 rounds of 5 Parsecs from Home. It's a neat little system, the wargame side is a bit simplistic and involves a lot of whiffed shots, but there are a lot of tables to roll on between missions and your crew's life is quite eventful. Very much a Firefly/tramp freighter kind of feel.

I started with a plasma gun so despite my crew of Escher with the serial numbers filed off starting out a bit rubbish, they were able to farm some decent XP in short order.

Also got in a couple of TTS games today, so a lot of wargame for zero leaving the apartment. Managed to knock over Necrons with Sisters (I had Vahl and he didn't have the Silent King so a bit much, but my opponent did want tournament grade practice), and got tabled as Imperial Fists/Dark Angels in a Crusade game vs the new GSC. They are very good, extremely tricksy and have surprisingly good kit.

I've played those GSC twice before, once with Wolves where my opponent snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by throwing his Patriarch forward into melee (which to be fair is the sort of thig I can never resist) and once with Custodes, who, uh, absolutely would not die.

Slightly worried about the old Custodes for casual play . Probably best to only play them in games where the opponent is forewarned and has the gear to cut them down to size.

[Primarch]

For my part zero hobby today as I took my assembled Necronunda figures and played 5 rounds of 5 Parsecs from Home. It's a neat little system, the wargame side is a bit simplistic and involves a lot of whiffed shots, but there are a lot of tables to roll on between missions and your crew's life is quite eventful. Very much a Firefly/tramp freighter kind of feel.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think this is the first time I've seen you post about playing a non-GW game. 5 Parsecs looks like it could be pretty fun. Between that and Stargrave I'm tempted to see what random SF minis I can get painted.

[The Other Dave]

No painting for me this weekend - Horizon Forbidden West came out on Friday, so there was all my time gone.

(It's real good so far.)