So for some reason I had a sudden urge to update the blog, and by that I mean from a constructive update. For instance, the Project: Storm Spear section has been replaced by Characters, a temporary section where my published character profile will be linked to (I do plan some more work with them in the future). The Storm Spear page is there, but it now means things will be categorized more easily.
With my current study course, I've learned a few new skills and hope that I can update this blog to better suit my needs until I can start work on a propper web page for my work. Over the next few months I'll be making small alterations here and there to make this a much better blog. I'm also hoping that a few new things I have planned will work, but as they say, you got to take risks or you'll never know. They also say you can learn much from your failers, in which case I'm probably the smartest person ever. Think that one over.
Monday, 10 November 2014
End Times Thoughts
So, on reflection of the first two linked novels of the End Times, I've been thinking about what the future of the Warhammer world will be. We know all hell has broken loose everywhere and thus far, The Empire has suffered the most. A majority of it's major cities are gone, including Altdorf. Given the ending of the last book, the Emperor's fate seems a little up in the air and at least half of their special characters are gone. Brettonia seems like it's slowly crawling it's way back up and both Chaos and Undead have suffered some minor set backs. The Elves, Dwarfs, Skaven and Greenskins themselves haven't had much mentioned recently, though it's assumed that they too are probably dealing with Chaos and Undead, along with each other.
Speaking of which, are the Dwarfs aware of what has transpired within the Empire. Given their oath of friendship since the time of Sigmar, do they care about what's happened or even that they may have failed an oath or two in their lack of aid? I don't know, but am curious. Also, what has become of Grimgor Ironhide? In the Storm of Chaos campaign, he lead the Greenskins in a massive Waarrgghh!! across the old world and did battle with the forces of Chaos. It just seems odd that the Greenskins are still fighting amongst each other instead of being united, even more so with so many powerful foes for them to fight. Also, Lizardmen, bet your Slann didn't see this all coming. If they did, then they suck at trying to prevent it, unless they didn't want too in which case they are as insane as Tzeentch.
Word has it that this End Times event is to restructure the Warhammer world in order for the next edition of the game. My only problem with that is that with so many changes amongst the Warhammer armies, wouldn't they need to release new armybooks for each faction in quick succession for them to be up to date lore wise. Heck, rule wise some of those characters are now gone, so how would that work? Will have to wait until the next two installments to see how this will all work. Will be very interesting indeed.
Speaking of which, are the Dwarfs aware of what has transpired within the Empire. Given their oath of friendship since the time of Sigmar, do they care about what's happened or even that they may have failed an oath or two in their lack of aid? I don't know, but am curious. Also, what has become of Grimgor Ironhide? In the Storm of Chaos campaign, he lead the Greenskins in a massive Waarrgghh!! across the old world and did battle with the forces of Chaos. It just seems odd that the Greenskins are still fighting amongst each other instead of being united, even more so with so many powerful foes for them to fight. Also, Lizardmen, bet your Slann didn't see this all coming. If they did, then they suck at trying to prevent it, unless they didn't want too in which case they are as insane as Tzeentch.
Word has it that this End Times event is to restructure the Warhammer world in order for the next edition of the game. My only problem with that is that with so many changes amongst the Warhammer armies, wouldn't they need to release new armybooks for each faction in quick succession for them to be up to date lore wise. Heck, rule wise some of those characters are now gone, so how would that work? Will have to wait until the next two installments to see how this will all work. Will be very interesting indeed.
Eternal Crusade Kickstarter Thoughts
Article Here.
So, in short, did Games Workshop make the right choice? Yes they did. Was the reason for that choice right? No it wasn't. The idea that a failed Kickstarter could damage their reputation has very little to no actual ground and why? Because the only damage that gets done to their reputation is cause by themselves.
Fans point out all the time that as the over the last ten or more years, multiple decisions from the company have cost them. These range from the constant price rises, the recent hard-cover Armybooks/Codexes, Finecast, rules, some poor quality miniatures to rather bland & massive models and most recently, their licensing. The license issue is the most recent as it seems to make up for the lack of profit (which some agree is due to their expensive miniatures and thus making it difficult to get new customers) has resulted in a bunch of poor quality games.
While Eternal Crusade appears to be one of those rare gems in all this, the idea that a failed Kickstarter could damage Games Workshops reputation anymore then they have already damaged it is a poor excuse. Heck, throw in some limited edition miniatures and most fans will support it just for them. I agree that Kickstarters are now everywhere and people are getting sick of them, but why not simple suggest it would fail because of that instead. It just seems more logical that way, given most fans have already pointed all this out.
So, in short, did Games Workshop make the right choice? Yes they did. Was the reason for that choice right? No it wasn't. The idea that a failed Kickstarter could damage their reputation has very little to no actual ground and why? Because the only damage that gets done to their reputation is cause by themselves.
Fans point out all the time that as the over the last ten or more years, multiple decisions from the company have cost them. These range from the constant price rises, the recent hard-cover Armybooks/Codexes, Finecast, rules, some poor quality miniatures to rather bland & massive models and most recently, their licensing. The license issue is the most recent as it seems to make up for the lack of profit (which some agree is due to their expensive miniatures and thus making it difficult to get new customers) has resulted in a bunch of poor quality games.
While Eternal Crusade appears to be one of those rare gems in all this, the idea that a failed Kickstarter could damage Games Workshops reputation anymore then they have already damaged it is a poor excuse. Heck, throw in some limited edition miniatures and most fans will support it just for them. I agree that Kickstarters are now everywhere and people are getting sick of them, but why not simple suggest it would fail because of that instead. It just seems more logical that way, given most fans have already pointed all this out.
Saturday, 8 November 2014
A Thought Occured...
...I really need to stop doing stuff when I'm tired, I do nothing but make mistakes and probably piss a few people off to top it off. Sometimes night shifts are not always the best, particularly if the days are hot and difficult to sleep in. Still, could be worse I guess.
Friday, 7 November 2014
The Fall Of Altdorf - Not-So Short Review (Spoiler Heavy)
WARNING: This is spoiler heavy because I can't talk about it without spoiling so much. Do not read this if you don't want important key points or the ending spoiled.
So, after their last average book, The Rise of Nagash, it was nice to see that this book was an improvement. While characters in this one still made a few stupid decisions (such as Kurt being to focused on repairing the walls and ignoring the plague or Vlad's arrogance in his fight with Otto which backfires), it was well within their character personalities and made sense. Sadly, due to the events in this book, there was no way I could talk about it without spoiling it.
The story itself is simple enough. After a great battle to try and stop the forces of Chaos goes bad, the forces of the Empire are shattered and lost. Schwarzhelm, Huss and Valten have gone missing, the Emperor Karl Franz appears to have fallen and a wounded Kurt Helborg returns to Altdorf to prepare for the inevitable assault. Balthasar Gelt fled after his failures and under suspicion of dealing with darker powers and so a new Supreme Patriarch was chosen, Martek of the Amber Order. This sort of makes sense model wise as they do have an Amber wizard on an Imperial Griffon, though I would have thought an Amethyst wizard would be more appropriate give the fact that the Lore of Death has become dominate. Oh yes, they do mention about the fact that the Lore of Death has been unchained and that it's power is drowning out the other lores and that the barrier between life and death is breaking down, which is a key point for the ending.
Vlad is the second main character in this book. Yes, if you remember, Nagash brought Vlad back to life (still no answer as to why) and that Vlad is personally trying to help the Empire against the forces to Chaos. Despite being a slave to Nagash, Vlad has his own agenda. He wants the Empire to recognise him as the Elector Count of of his region, which I like given the situation. He knows he's not the same Vlad that had once been all conquering and that Nagash only brought back what was needed. The fact he still has the same drive is a good thing. What I don't get is that it describes him and his famous ring, but in the last book it states the ring was lost long ago, so is this a copy or the original and how did he get it?
Bretonnia is also in it, with apparently Louen Leoncoeur being still alive (I'm very confused by all this Bretonnia confusing End Times lore), though no longer King of Bretonnia. His story is between him and the Lady, who for those who don't know is their Goddess and is basically the Lady of the Lake character. The Lady herself appears to be dying (as are most of the Warhammer Gods) and tells him that the fate of mankind will take place at the battle of Altdorf, but if he goes he will die. And so he struggles with his pride and his fate, constantly being tested until the end.
Finally there are the forces of Chaos with just about every Named Nurgle Character who has a model being in it (or at least mentioned). I admit that the triplets are the most entertaining. They are Otto the warrior, Ethrac the sorcerer and Ghurk the monster. While I despise anything Nurgle, I did enjoy these characters, who seem to really have the luck of their god up until the end.
Which brings me to the final battle. Act three is the final battle itself and ultimately sees the death of a number of Warhammer special characters. If we ignore the Greater Daemon Ku'gath the Plaguefather (since he's a Daemon and so returns to the realm of chaos....or, at least I think he did) then the first casualty would be Festus the Leechlord, which is quickly followed by Louen Leoncoeur. Then we get to the battle of the Imperial Palace. Here Vlad battles Otto, but his arrogance gets the better of him, discovering that the blood of a champion of Nurgle is not blood but polution. This poisons him, leaving him violently ill and is force to flee. We don't know if he will die, if Nagash will save him or if this poisoning will somehow convert him to chaos )or at least twist him). Otto does end up killing Kurt Helborg and eventually Karl Franz. The thing with Karl Franz is that he planned where to be and somehow new he had to be at the special alter of Ghal Maraz. Remember that barrier of life and death. well with it gone and the light of the two-tailed comet overhead shinning on the alter, the spirits of the other dead Emperors took Karl's body and became some sort of golden avatar and engulfed Altdorf in golden light, destroying all evil. The light is still shinning in the palace and no one has yet entered it, so we don't know if Karl Franz is dead or is in a state of resurrection.
These deaths may annoy Empire players as now most of their special characters are dead, while chaos just seems to have lost one. I won't count the Glottkin as it's a new release, though why bring out an expensive large model if it's already dead is beyond me. It did say that the Gutrot Spume and Epidemius the Tallyman were both leading armies in the battle, but of their fates there is no mention, so I can only assume they survived and retreated after the golden light incident.
The book does end saying that the End Times had come, but they had not brought the utter destruction the gods of the North desired.One wonders if the Empire can ever recover, but it does give some hope that good can still overcome evil. Overall, this book was much better then the last one and was much more enjoyable to read. The battle of Altdorf itself really shows just how bad things have fallen and I hope they can keep up the momentom with the next book, though what that one is about I still don't know.
Wait one minute, me have question. How did ugly-fat Festus get under Altdorf? For those of you ignorant-stupid man-things that don't know, in book Grey Seer the grand-great Grey Seer Thanquol goes to mighty city of Under-Altdorf. Has many Skaven and great-many Spies in man-thing city. That bloated puss lover could not have gotten in unnoticed and without conflict. Me suspect trechery from them, purhaps by trecherous Clan Pestilense. Yes-Yes, that's it. Festus no beat Skaven for control, Clan Pestilence must have turned to bad Nurgle god and let him in, those flea-fools. Great Horned Rat will be vengeful. Wait, why no Skaven in book? Foolish man-things will pay for this indignity.
~Grey Seer Skratchnsniff
So, after their last average book, The Rise of Nagash, it was nice to see that this book was an improvement. While characters in this one still made a few stupid decisions (such as Kurt being to focused on repairing the walls and ignoring the plague or Vlad's arrogance in his fight with Otto which backfires), it was well within their character personalities and made sense. Sadly, due to the events in this book, there was no way I could talk about it without spoiling it.
The story itself is simple enough. After a great battle to try and stop the forces of Chaos goes bad, the forces of the Empire are shattered and lost. Schwarzhelm, Huss and Valten have gone missing, the Emperor Karl Franz appears to have fallen and a wounded Kurt Helborg returns to Altdorf to prepare for the inevitable assault. Balthasar Gelt fled after his failures and under suspicion of dealing with darker powers and so a new Supreme Patriarch was chosen, Martek of the Amber Order. This sort of makes sense model wise as they do have an Amber wizard on an Imperial Griffon, though I would have thought an Amethyst wizard would be more appropriate give the fact that the Lore of Death has become dominate. Oh yes, they do mention about the fact that the Lore of Death has been unchained and that it's power is drowning out the other lores and that the barrier between life and death is breaking down, which is a key point for the ending.
Vlad is the second main character in this book. Yes, if you remember, Nagash brought Vlad back to life (still no answer as to why) and that Vlad is personally trying to help the Empire against the forces to Chaos. Despite being a slave to Nagash, Vlad has his own agenda. He wants the Empire to recognise him as the Elector Count of of his region, which I like given the situation. He knows he's not the same Vlad that had once been all conquering and that Nagash only brought back what was needed. The fact he still has the same drive is a good thing. What I don't get is that it describes him and his famous ring, but in the last book it states the ring was lost long ago, so is this a copy or the original and how did he get it?
Bretonnia is also in it, with apparently Louen Leoncoeur being still alive (I'm very confused by all this Bretonnia confusing End Times lore), though no longer King of Bretonnia. His story is between him and the Lady, who for those who don't know is their Goddess and is basically the Lady of the Lake character. The Lady herself appears to be dying (as are most of the Warhammer Gods) and tells him that the fate of mankind will take place at the battle of Altdorf, but if he goes he will die. And so he struggles with his pride and his fate, constantly being tested until the end.
Finally there are the forces of Chaos with just about every Named Nurgle Character who has a model being in it (or at least mentioned). I admit that the triplets are the most entertaining. They are Otto the warrior, Ethrac the sorcerer and Ghurk the monster. While I despise anything Nurgle, I did enjoy these characters, who seem to really have the luck of their god up until the end.
Which brings me to the final battle. Act three is the final battle itself and ultimately sees the death of a number of Warhammer special characters. If we ignore the Greater Daemon Ku'gath the Plaguefather (since he's a Daemon and so returns to the realm of chaos....or, at least I think he did) then the first casualty would be Festus the Leechlord, which is quickly followed by Louen Leoncoeur. Then we get to the battle of the Imperial Palace. Here Vlad battles Otto, but his arrogance gets the better of him, discovering that the blood of a champion of Nurgle is not blood but polution. This poisons him, leaving him violently ill and is force to flee. We don't know if he will die, if Nagash will save him or if this poisoning will somehow convert him to chaos )or at least twist him). Otto does end up killing Kurt Helborg and eventually Karl Franz. The thing with Karl Franz is that he planned where to be and somehow new he had to be at the special alter of Ghal Maraz. Remember that barrier of life and death. well with it gone and the light of the two-tailed comet overhead shinning on the alter, the spirits of the other dead Emperors took Karl's body and became some sort of golden avatar and engulfed Altdorf in golden light, destroying all evil. The light is still shinning in the palace and no one has yet entered it, so we don't know if Karl Franz is dead or is in a state of resurrection.
These deaths may annoy Empire players as now most of their special characters are dead, while chaos just seems to have lost one. I won't count the Glottkin as it's a new release, though why bring out an expensive large model if it's already dead is beyond me. It did say that the Gutrot Spume and Epidemius the Tallyman were both leading armies in the battle, but of their fates there is no mention, so I can only assume they survived and retreated after the golden light incident.
The book does end saying that the End Times had come, but they had not brought the utter destruction the gods of the North desired.One wonders if the Empire can ever recover, but it does give some hope that good can still overcome evil. Overall, this book was much better then the last one and was much more enjoyable to read. The battle of Altdorf itself really shows just how bad things have fallen and I hope they can keep up the momentom with the next book, though what that one is about I still don't know.
Wait one minute, me have question. How did ugly-fat Festus get under Altdorf? For those of you ignorant-stupid man-things that don't know, in book Grey Seer the grand-great Grey Seer Thanquol goes to mighty city of Under-Altdorf. Has many Skaven and great-many Spies in man-thing city. That bloated puss lover could not have gotten in unnoticed and without conflict. Me suspect trechery from them, purhaps by trecherous Clan Pestilense. Yes-Yes, that's it. Festus no beat Skaven for control, Clan Pestilence must have turned to bad Nurgle god and let him in, those flea-fools. Great Horned Rat will be vengeful. Wait, why no Skaven in book? Foolish man-things will pay for this indignity.
~Grey Seer Skratchnsniff
Wednesday, 5 November 2014
Next Book
As soon as I'm finished reading The Fall of Altdorf I get my opinions up, but thus far there certainly less stupid characters in this compared to the last one.
Sunday, 2 November 2014
The Return of Nagash - Short Review (Spoilers)
WARNING: Spoilers, story and ending.
If there is one thing to be said from all this is that I hate the recent Games Workshop policy when it comes to the books now. Seems that not only have they stopped bookshops from selling them, but the big release ones seem to have limited physical releases, meaning in order to read them after the first wave you need to pay for the digital versions. A real pain in the arse when all I have is an iPod touch, screens to small and it get's really annoying to hold in a comfortable position when reading. Anyway...
The story is this, it's about the events that lead to the return of Nagash. If like me you were expecting for story beyond that then too bad, this book leads up to Nagash coming back and that's about it. The story itself is not bad, though it does rush through parts that (upon reflection), made the ending feel a little disappointing. It also didn't help with character stupidity. At one point in the book, some of the vampires realise that bringing Nagash back is a bad idea. One of them even has the opportunity to stop in by killing one of the sacrifices, but will only do it if they beg, which they refuse to do and so she leaves. Seriously? You make such a big deal of how bad it would be if Nagash returns and say how you'll do anything to stop it, and yet you don't just because a few prisoners who hate vampires refuse to beg. It's this shear genious of these characters which make you wonder just how they were are threat to the Warhammer world to begin with. There's also the stupidity of the Elves and Humans, but I could go on for hours about that too (thank goodness for the Dwarfs).
I know that it seems that I'm picking on the book, but while I did enjoy it, it was the stupidity of the characters (and the Chaos Gods too) along with the rather 'we have a short ending, quick throw in an obvious plot twist that fails' that annoyed me. Oh, and the end bit they throw in, yeah spoilers, it's Vlad returning. Nagash brought back Vlad.....why? Seriously, according to the story, it was Vlad who tought Mannfred at how bad Nagash, so why would Nagash have any reason to bring him back. Hell, as far as all the stories I've read, the two have never met and have no love of each other, so why waste time and effort in doing so.
Ok, so perhaps the book wasn't as good as I first thought. Certainly through typing this article I keep coming up with various flaws the book has. I still enjoyed the read, but if you just want a recap on events around the world that where happening at the time, you could just download the sample which does contain all that in it's Prologue. Atleast the digital download version is only $20 compared to the hardcopy which is $45.
Also, those pathetic flea-fools of Clan Mordkin failed to stop dead-things from taking sacred Fellblade. Dead-thing experts my tail. Suich weakness is an unacceptable and that showed all to well when stupid-dumb Warlord Feskit was beaten so quick-fast by cursed Mannfred. The Horned Rat will be most displeased.
~Grey Seer Skratchnsniff
If there is one thing to be said from all this is that I hate the recent Games Workshop policy when it comes to the books now. Seems that not only have they stopped bookshops from selling them, but the big release ones seem to have limited physical releases, meaning in order to read them after the first wave you need to pay for the digital versions. A real pain in the arse when all I have is an iPod touch, screens to small and it get's really annoying to hold in a comfortable position when reading. Anyway...
The story is this, it's about the events that lead to the return of Nagash. If like me you were expecting for story beyond that then too bad, this book leads up to Nagash coming back and that's about it. The story itself is not bad, though it does rush through parts that (upon reflection), made the ending feel a little disappointing. It also didn't help with character stupidity. At one point in the book, some of the vampires realise that bringing Nagash back is a bad idea. One of them even has the opportunity to stop in by killing one of the sacrifices, but will only do it if they beg, which they refuse to do and so she leaves. Seriously? You make such a big deal of how bad it would be if Nagash returns and say how you'll do anything to stop it, and yet you don't just because a few prisoners who hate vampires refuse to beg. It's this shear genious of these characters which make you wonder just how they were are threat to the Warhammer world to begin with. There's also the stupidity of the Elves and Humans, but I could go on for hours about that too (thank goodness for the Dwarfs).
I know that it seems that I'm picking on the book, but while I did enjoy it, it was the stupidity of the characters (and the Chaos Gods too) along with the rather 'we have a short ending, quick throw in an obvious plot twist that fails' that annoyed me. Oh, and the end bit they throw in, yeah spoilers, it's Vlad returning. Nagash brought back Vlad.....why? Seriously, according to the story, it was Vlad who tought Mannfred at how bad Nagash, so why would Nagash have any reason to bring him back. Hell, as far as all the stories I've read, the two have never met and have no love of each other, so why waste time and effort in doing so.
Ok, so perhaps the book wasn't as good as I first thought. Certainly through typing this article I keep coming up with various flaws the book has. I still enjoyed the read, but if you just want a recap on events around the world that where happening at the time, you could just download the sample which does contain all that in it's Prologue. Atleast the digital download version is only $20 compared to the hardcopy which is $45.
Also, those pathetic flea-fools of Clan Mordkin failed to stop dead-things from taking sacred Fellblade. Dead-thing experts my tail. Suich weakness is an unacceptable and that showed all to well when stupid-dumb Warlord Feskit was beaten so quick-fast by cursed Mannfred. The Horned Rat will be most displeased.
~Grey Seer Skratchnsniff
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