Celestia Hurricanum?

I am so sorry for this joke in advance, I mean who else would charge forth on said device then Twilight. That said, the Hurricanum has been out for nearly two years and in that time I have not seen this joke once, so I feel justified in it.

Don't worry, the crew have now been glued on and the real Hurricanum should be uploaded later in the week.

The Rise Of The Horned Rat Not-So Short Review (Spoiler Heavy)

WARNING: This review 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 we finally reach the Skaven part of the End Times and I must admit, given what we experienced in the last book, I went into this with a world of dread. Skaven are my race of choice so after the mass killings of many great characters from many races, one has to wonder what the Skaven would loose. Well for starters we lost the Seerlord Kritislik, but given he wasn't well liked by most Skaven players, seeing him killed by The Great Horned Rat himself was most enjoyable. Indeed, this is the entire start of the novel, with the Shadow Council of Thirteen (the Verminlords Council of Thirteen) watching the events and making their plans. This is actually a great thing as we finally get a description of what part of the Horned Rats realm is like and his connection to the Chaos Gods (he's basically a lesser God, teased and ignored as insignificant by the main four, yet he's risen to a point where he may have the power to challenge them).

From here we have the Grey Seers banned from the Council, the Seers blaming Thanquol and Thanquol seeking safety with Clan Skryre. We later learn he was helping them try to launch a rocket to destroy the Chaos Moon, but we must assume it failed. From this point it goes into a long part focusing on Queen Headtaker. Much like the book 'The Curse of Khaine', this book does use them as references for plots and characters. Unlike 'The Curse of Khaine' there isn't any flashbacks (thank the Horned Rat for that). At this point the book focuses on the Skaven characters of Queek Headtaker and Grey Seer Kranskritt, both whom have Verminlords telling them what to do (though Queek hates it). It also tells of Skarsnik and King Belegar and what would become of them, but not before a number of great fights take place. We even get an appearance by that famous Ogre Golgfag Maneater and his mercenary army. Sadly, this is the End Times and things must be killed off. And by the end of the second act we see the King and the Dwarfs of the Eight Peaks finally killed off. On a more sadder note, we also see Gobbla killed off (I admit, I was more saddened by the loss of the Squig then the stupid and stubborned Dwarfs).

The final part brings back Thanquol, who's attempts to aid the Skaven in taking Nuln (Again - See the book Gotrek and Felix: Skavenslayer to see his first attempt) and once again is blamed for their failed attempt. Hidden away from those that blame him, he attempts a second time (Again - see book Doom of Thanquol) to summon a Verminlord, succeeding in summoning Screech Verminking, greatest of all Verminlords and from that point Thanquol follows him here and there through out the remaining part learning and following their schemes. Meanwhile Queek, Kranskritt and now Ikit Claw join the Skaven forces assaulting Karaz-a-Karak and the High King (I'll refer to him as the High King, saves saying Thorgrim Grudgebearer all the time). The first assault fails when during a fight between one of the great Verminlords and the High King, the High King is wounded, then his throne is infused with the power of the Lore of Metal and uses his power to defeat the Verminlord. After that retreat, the Skaven try again, this time the wounded King tries the tactic of assaulting the assaulting army. Things look bad until the famous Bugman and his rangers arrive along with Slayer King (former King since Karak Kadrin was destroyed) and his Slayers, except the Slayer King is now infused with the Lore of Fire. The High King and Queek finally duel, but in the end Queek falls thanks to Dwarf Gouger being destroyed by the Axe of Grimnir. It also looks like Ikit Claw is killed, but we later learn from the Verminlords he survived. However, the powerful rune Azamar is broken, symbolizing the doom of the Dwarfs.

We learn that the Lizardmen have been crushed (which will definitely tick off many of their players whom would think that their own Skaven killing God Sotek would have given them some chance), but that Clan Pestilens was nearly destroyed in doing so. With Clan Mors crushed and the surface Skaven retreating, we find Thanquol observing the thoughts of the High King thanks to the Verminking's scrying orb, seeing into the thoughts of the High King. Indeed, the plans of the Verminlords lead to this moment when Deathmaster Snitch sneaks in behind him and with new forges warpstone weapons, kills the High King and takes his head. Verminking says that the head will be given to Thanquol so he can claim the vacant seat on the Council of Thirteen and that thanks to casting the summoning runes within the Dwarf city, clan Eshins best will attack, opening the cities defences as lesser Clans wipe out the Dwarfs there and take the credit over the failed greater ones. Of course, Thanquol has learned much from the Verminking and now has aspirations to rule the Shadow Council of Thirteen in the future.

Must say, given the dread felt when I began, it wasn't as bad as I'd thought. Thanquol has done well, Ikit Claw still lives and Clan Pestilens has little power left. My only gripes was the undignified leaving of Skarsnik (and Gobbla's tragic death - I really do like squigs) and so many Dwarfs killed. I mean, Bugman's words at the end were ment to keep Dwarf players hopes alive and them boom! King dead and all in city killed. Seemed a bit harsh to me. I really liked that they kept much of the previously established lore from the previous books in and I would often remember parts of those books when reading. New readers may not see it that way, but I don't think reading those books was necessary to understand what was going on (and it left no plot holes in that regards). Would have liked to have seen more Thanquol in the middle of the book (like what did happen with that planned rocket and why were the Seers needing the moon intacted) and did feel Queek's death was rather rushed. Still much better then the last End Times novel. It does mention that the Skaven have allied themselves with Chaos, but in true fashion it's just buying time until it's ready for betrayal. Not much in the way of Nagash either, nor does it tell us what became of the Lore of Metal after the rune was broken and the power left. I'm also displeased by just how quickly Lizardmen were discarded. Having versed them with Skaven, they are no pushover, plus they have lots of stuff to crush Skaven. These are a few things that annoyed me, more so since those 9th Edition rumours.

Still, I can't fault the book on an unpopular business decision of a company, only what is written within it. That said, I enjoyed it. The Skaven bits felt like Skaven, the Dwarf bits felt like Dwarfs and even Skarsnik felt the same as in his book. Overall an enjoyable read and didn't find myself getting annoyed like in that last book (seriously, I did not like The Curse of Khaine one bit).




Good-Good, you see-see how great-grand mighty Skavendom has become. Not even so-called high and mighty bearded-things could stop themselves from dying to Skaven blades. Fool-meat thought they could win, now most merciful Thanquol will lead Skaven to rule all things, as was promised by the Great Horned Rat himself. Not even High King Grumblebum could save himself from doom. Hehe....Grumblebum...that's a good one.
~Grey Seer Skratchnsniff

Sooo......Skaven

So I while checking the Skaven pre-order section I noticed the pre-order for the novel, so I went to the Black Library page to pre-order the digital copy....and was able to download it. Not sure if the digital one was released early or I missed something.

Anyway, the introduction finally gives us a view of the realm of The Great Horned Rat. Apparently a lesser God in the Realm of Chaos, he gnawed a realm that has slowly grown over time. As the main four Chaos Gods mocked him, he stayed hidden building up. Now it seems he's a genuine threat and the End Times are a chance for his time to shine. The introduction part is a brief look at the Verminlords and why they've taken to involve themselves in mortal affairs.

So far the story is once again revolving around Queek Headtaker, though parts do see a view of other characters. I sort of feel sad for what has become of Skarsnik and the themes of getting old really give a view of what these characters fear, even if this feels like it's suppose to take place longer down the timeline (since previous books on these characters were based in the current time). This I'm sure is an attempt to explain why GW is killing off the world for their new 9th edition one (something I'm still not happy about). I'm only a few chapters in, but it does feel like a Skaven story thus far, though I wish I could of seen the Skryre view as to why they are building a rocket to destroy the chaos moon. Should have it finished before the end of the week and will hopefully get a quick review out by the weekend.

9th Edition Rumours - Reflection (The Re-write)

So I've decided to re-write this one after much thinking and viewing new opinions. It's no surprise that I got upset by it, given that I only have a few things that I love and have interest in and they keep getting screwed over (Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog comics anyone).

Clear thinking, it does partially make sense from a business perspective in that I agree that the game was becoming stagnet and too much focus is on 40K (because Space Marines so fuck Fantasy). I say partially because when you screw over a majority fanbase by messing with 25-30 years of lore, going from square bases or round and basically saying nearly 90% of your army will be invalid in the latest army rules isn't good for public opinion. And public opinion does count cause the company shuns social media, where as their customers (or soon to be former customers) don't. The only way they can calm people down and encourage growth is to be out explaining all this to the potential customers. Your selling a product, you have to actually convince customers why they should buy from you, particularly when the only thing people will find while searching up on you is mass negative feedback with no response. It's hard to convince new customers how great you are when you shoot yourself in the foot and then pin the blame on your current customers.

The new business model of having some base core units and possible hero or two available at all times with extra stuff coming in limited waves with out of box rules is a nice idea. It's only flaw is the same as End Times, people mass buying and then selling it back at a higher price on Ebay. If they can make enough within the first few months then I guess it'll be OK. They've now gone from claiming to be an amazing miniatures company (which is debatable) to being a collectibles company. My only though on hearing the words 'collectables' was the words 'price increase', after all, collectibles are expensive for a reason.

Then there's the lore. The idea is all these factions stuck in bubbles of reality fighting to survive and then a collision occurs between a couple of them. Thing is, are each faction in their own bubble (so 6 bubbles) or are there remnants of factions in each bubble (so a few in each bubble represent your usual play group with collisions being in-game store events). Thing is, not everyone will be in the same bubble and so if two hit and your force isn't in it, how do you explain the group suddenly getting new units if they weren't in that collision?

This is what I mean by the company coming out and talking, explaining to Warhammer fans how this new vision is good, but doing it in a way that answers many of their fans fears and making them want to buy this new version. I don't mind making a small force for small games from a warband/Mordheim style to a small 500-750pt roaming force, but give me a reason to. It'll be hard to explain the leap of 100+ years for my force, considering your asking me to kill off a number of my named characters, something that's painful for me to do (Skith would be fine, he's not really from their world and was over 1000 years old, but with some like the Trio of Terror it's going to be a lot harder to explain how they're still alive or to kill them off).

Some might say just don't buy it, keep playing 8th edition. The problem with that is that GW is fully supporting 9th and eventually 8th will fade away and it'll be 9th or nothing. As a hobbyist, this is a difficult decision, especially given that we don't know how much things will cost (given that it's GW, most know a price drop to encourage sales is out of the question). They are trying to sell this stuff to kids, but one has to remember that kids get their money from parents and as it stands with the cost of living, parents don't have as much money these days. If these rumours are true, then I might give it a go, but I feel the costs will stop me from starting in the first place. I may still get the occasionally single Skaven mini to paint, but I doubt I'll stick to getting much more beyond that.

9th Edition WTF!

Article

So having read this article (twice) and gone through some of the comments on it, it's safe to say Fantasy just got screwed over. To make it clear, this is GW's plan. It's finally occurred to them that they have competition in the Fantasy miniature setting, so they plan to compete with them. Thing is, they plan to do so by first screwing over their Fantasy fans and 20+ years of lore in order to do so. So what does one get in return?

If the rumours are to be believed, then it's round bases. Why? Cause that's what the competition is using. There will now only be six armies in total:

Empire (Humans): Consists of the remnants of the Empire, Bretonnia, Dwarf and Ogre armies.

Chaos: Warriors, Beastmen and Daemons are reunited, loosing a tone of stuff for them to fit.

Elves: Screw three unique factions, they loose most of their stuff for this unification.

Orcs and Goblins: Common fantasy creatures, though have done little in the End Times.

Undead: Because Nagash is still around and will continue to be around for some time.

Skaven: Because. I expect the loss of some uniqueness for them to continue existing.

Aparently Ogres and Dwarf groups are mostly gone and the Lizardmen have moved onto another world.....WTF! On top of that, with a large number of units and flavour now gone, they also plan to support 9th with a lot of White Dwarf datasheets. Why? To support the continued number of limited miniature releases. Yep, rumour says that GW will continue a constant supply of miniatures, but they will only be around for so long before being scraped for something else. So basically, you'll get new units, but you'll need to be quick cause once they're gone, they're gone. And you'll need the datasheets if you wish to use them cause there's a good chance your opponent may not have them.

So in other words: 'It's a new game, just like our competitor's, except it's still the same game'.

It's like Games Workshop is waving it's hands in the air saying "Hey, look at us. We listened to you and are being competitive. Buy our stuff",  except that they haven't listened at all. This is what happens when a company that rely on it's customers to make money doesn't listen to it's customers. There is a reason you must open yourselves to discussions with your customers, otherwise you may just offend the very people who are making you money. And sadly, this appears to be the case. Comments all over the internet have people up in arms over these rumours. Many have stated that this is the final nail in the coffin for Fantasy and more are outraged at the destruction of the lore and flavour of the game. Oh yeah, 9th is suppose to take place a number of years after End Times (I believe it was 100+ or something) and that there were now reality bubbles or some crap like that. So apart from characters infused with God-like powers, expect nearly all named characters to be dead.

Now admittadly, these are still rumours, but most agree that the source of these rumours are usually correct. Some of these rumours even state that there are a number of staff at GW HQ who are against these changes. Wouldn't blame them. Having a hobby you've spent years supporting despite the constant problems only to screw you over in one big change, yeah I'd be upset too.

What will I do if it turns out to be true? I honestly don't know. As a Skaven player it shouldn't effect me too much, save for the fact I'd need to either re-base my entire army or make a new one. I doubt we'll see affordable starting sets, let alone the ability to buy single packs to help grow armies like back in the day. I really don't get why they couldn't just leave Warhammer as it was and bring back Mordheim or make special Warband rules if they wanted a game to compete. Remaking a whole world, screwing with lore and upsetting nearly the entire Fantasy fan base just seems like a bad idea. As much as I hope these rumours are wrong and that this was a side game instead of 9th, I've dealt enough with GW and GW rumours to know that this is most likely true.

Thanqual Returns (Update)

So they just updated again with a better picture:

Whether both sets of horns are part of his head or the helmet I can't tell, but the fact they are becoming warpstone is really awesome. Blast, now I really want one. Still, I think I can add an extra bit here and their to put a little more 'Skryre' feel to it to better theme it with my Skaven. Even so, Thanquol looks like he's got more of an aggressive streak to him. Perhaps he feels more impervious with the blessings of the Horned Rat in greater focus?

Update: 06/01/15

Figure I just update this article instead of making a new one. Seems the rules for Thanquol have been leaked too, though my thoughts on them is slightly mixed. Stats seem equivilant to an average style monster with good strength, toughness and wounds, but with only basic weapon skill and ballistic skill and the leadership of Thanquol is the same (Bonerippers stats but Thanquols leadership). Thanquol's still a deadly caster and is still protected by The Great Horned Rat, but it's Boneripper which is basically the change to all this. The pictures above have him with Warpfire Projectors which are nice as he can fire them at two different targets and can cause some nice wounds, but can go off course and kill friendlies on a miscast (something which shouldn't surprise a Skaven player). The only problem is that I think it More or Fire rule and I don't think a monster can ignore it, so it means standing still and opening him up to attack in order to fire the projectors.

However, there is another option called Warpfire Braziers, which is apparently the melee version to the cannons. People have wondered if the model can have both, but given the pictures above, I must assume you can only have one or the other. The Braziers themselves give Boneripper some serious damage in melee, though would be better suited to fighting other monsters as a monster killing character (a tooled up Chaos Lord for example) could still make short work of him if given the right equipment. That and ranged weapons. Also, has a fumes rule similar to Censer Bearers, so would not be healthy to allies.

This leads to my mixed view: Having Choice. See, unlike a nameless hero who should have variety, named ones shouldn't have many options. This is due to having a set personality and reflecting that through the visual representation and in the rules. I like the miniature, but now I can't decide if he should be ranged focused or melee focused, and it doesn't look like the kit is designed to allow magnetic arm replacements (not very well anyway). This one will be tricky to decide.

Update 09/01/15:

$112AU for this guy....ouch! I still plan on getting it, but considering the rulebooks are sold out (not to mention that they're over $100AU as well), I'm going to just screw the rules and make it my own way, with two top arms as flamers and the bottom ones with braziers. Might add a few extra bits and then paint it. A nice display piece, just never going to use it on the battlefield. Perhaps it was the 9th edition rumours, but for some reason now I'm not as keen on it as before.

New Year, New Floggings

So despite another low depression and lack of motivation, I've begun to push myself into completing another project. Unlike some others, this ones been an on again off again project for about two years: The Celestial Hurricanum. About mid to late last year I had another eager to work on it and got nearly all the base structure complete before falling flat again. This time I'll finish it. I've got just over half the planetoids done and most of that which needs to be added just needs a touch up here and there.

In the same container I stored it I also found a half completed Empire Cannon & Crew as well, so I'll try to finish them when I'm done. While it appears my brother has given up on the challenge (although considering just how bad his High Elves got screwed over, he may yet turn back to Khorne), I still want to complete what I still have. The list of what remains of this Empire collection (including the two mentioned above) is as follows:

+Celestial Hurricanum (nearing completion)
+Great Cannon & Crew (Base colours done, crew still need work)
+Helstorm Rocket Battery (Undercoat done)
+19 Swordsmen with Full Command (base colours done, are bloody annoying to paint)
+10 Handgunners with Sharpshooter with Repeater Handgun (Undercoat done)
+Pistoliers with Champ (Still need to convert cloaks before undercoating)
+Celestial Wizard Lord on Royal Pegasus (Need to start conversion)

As you can see, still got a lot to go. I hope to knock the first two off before February, by which point I'll probably be studying again and I'll have to manage my time better. Still, getting the Hurricanum done would be a big relief for me.