The AoS Slaanesh Problem

So, some of these new leaked images have a number of people in the community in a spin and it's mostly related to this picture:

Notice something? That's right, three of the known Chaos gods symbols are there, but the fourth (Slaanesh) is replaced by a different symbol. So now the question running around is: Is GW getting rid of Slaanesh? I highly doubt that as he's one of GW few controlled names and considering just how protective they are, it would be completely insane to do so. There is mention of a Sigmar group heading off to capture Slaanesh while he was glutting on souls, so perhaps it's more a plot point to introduce stuff later on.

The only other reason could be a complete re-design, though why is the big question. Some suggest that it's because Slaanesh is too sexual and it needs to be more kid friendly, though the guts and gore of Khorne and Nurgle would be a good argument against this theory. Certainly Slaanesh represents excess and as one person pointed out, the corruption of spirit. He certainly represents a selection from the seven deadly sins and is ment to lure the hearts of man to his side by offering them their hearts desires, offering the pleasures of life until that no longer satisfies and that's when his trap is complete. No longer satisfied with the simple things, they then need to go to even more extremes to achieve the same feelings of euphoria and thus, becoming a slave to Slaanesh's will.

Again, this is what happens when you limit release information and one simple leak turns the community into rumoured chaos with little resolution until release and by that point the damage may be too ingrained to fix. Personally, I just like talking about this because others can produce an excellent point of view about what a power like Slaanesh truly represents. Besides, it'll be months before enough lore is release to give us a full picture anyway so why bother speculating.

Age of Sigmar Starters Set

I had planned to do an article on it, but have chosen not to and it's mostly for two reasons. The first is that I'm probably going to complain how the new 'good' force just looks like Space Marines and lacks any creativity compared to actual Space Marines, but I'll save that for the future article when more miniatures are released. Beside, Chaos still looks like Chaos and the Khorne part still looks Khorne (still wishing they'd give Tzeentch and Slaanesh some love).

My second problem is it's price. See, I don't know how pricing works for other countries or if people there feel it's fair, but most know of GW's 2013 policy to stop people from selling products to Australia and New Zealand and since then prices just keep going up. As such, I feel that it's $200 price tag is a joke, especially when you compare it to the previous Blood Island box at $165. Before anyone begins to whine about another price complaint, my one has a simple reason to it:

It's an introduction box set to introduce new players to the game.

It's this statement that is my reason. At $200, this box set is a pricey one and parents are going to be put off by it (remember, GW is now focusing on the younger market, that's why we have a new Space Marine look, cause Space Marines sell). One of the big complaints was that Fantasy wasn't selling, but if you want to get new customers in, you should produce a more wallet friendly game to start off. Once you've hooked those customers in, your going to have more people buying all those new box sets you have planned. This cost may put off those potential customers who will avoid this product and thus, possibly avoid future sales. It's clear from the rules and lore that the focus is on new customers, so why not produce a 2-player game that is an affordable starting point at work from there?

I don't know, I've given up trying to understand the bizarre business practices of this company. I'll wait and see what the future releases will entail before I do an article on this.

My Thoughts on Age of Sigmar - Warscrolls and my armies

So, while I was at work I was thinking over the various things in the Warscrolls and a few things have come to mind that where interesting to me. I have two main forces that I've got, my main Skaven force and the second being those miniatures I'm painting as part of my army painting challenge (although that challenge sort of ended when my brother gave up on his Daemons of Khorne). So let's start with the easier of the two.

The Empire

First of the bat are the Wizards. There are no longer Hero and Lord versions anymore, just Battle Wizard, but more importantly is that each wizard type only gets one spell based on their Lore of Magic. Yep, instead of a bunch of spells you can roll for, once your wizard picks his Lore he gets one extra spell based on that lore. This bugs me greatly cause when I think of Fantasy, I think Magic and Monsters, so for this magic to be so limited just feels disappointing. Speaking of disappointment, I also noticed that wizards can have horse mounts, but no other. The last section states that if you want to use your wizard on a Pegasus (which I have the parts and was going to convert a Celestial wizard lord on a Pegasus), you have to use the Balthasar Gelt rules. Sort of takes the feeling away when your Celestial wizard is based on the lore of metal.

On the other hand, the Celestial Hurricanum is still great, with some minor tweak to the rules so it only effects certain allies. The Storm of Shamtek is a shooting attack and you roll to see just what kind of damage is done. More interesting is if a Wizard is mounted on it. Apart from counting as a hero (and points no longer matter), he counts as a normal wizard (can cast one spell, unbind one spell), but he knows the spell Comet of Casandora (a normal Celestial wizard has Chain Lightning). Though the spell isn't as deadly as in 8th edition, it is guaranteed to do damage that turn. Which brings me to an important point, why would you not add a Wizard too it? I mean, there doesn't appear to be any restrictions on Heroes, so why would you leave it out? If so, should I alter mine to have one?

Troops seem to be fine, but then I get to the Cannons. With this new game, war machines done have a section, just there own rules. I admit, I was never good remembering rules for how war machines worked, so I'm not too torn up by these changes. Instead, it's a normal roll to hit, but this time the number of cannon crew actually counts, with two/three enableing the cannon to shoot two cannonballs (which do D6 wounds at -2 save) where as having just one lets you shoot just one and no crew means no shots. A lot more simpler and probably more fun in my opinion.

The Witch Hunter and Master Engineer seem good and the few other planned units seem fine enough. No real hard hitters compared to some forces (or those new units), but still seems a good force.

The Skaven

Any changes to this group was what really effect my opinion on this game and there are a few problems, but most of my army is still usable, so let's have a look.

Skaven Warlords are the main combat Hero with the Chieftain limited to just holding the Battle Standard. The Warlord gets three weapon options and a shield option, though I'm confused if no matter what option you pick, can you still add the shield? He is also no longer mountable. If he had a warlitter, then he counts as a normal Warlord. If he was on a Rat Ogre Backbreaker, then he counts as a normal Rat Ogre, so poor Skrag has been left behind on guard duty instead of the battlefield.

As was in the previous article, I'm happy with the Warlock Engineers and Ikit Claw, though Ikit now has a nice claw attack, which is great as my Skith Warpclaw redesign was to include a claw made of Warpstone, so this will work out great. Likewise, most of Clan Skryres inventions have benefited from this Warscroll, with the number of side effects and misfires reduced or even removed. I admit that this has left me somewhat disappointed, as I enjoyed playing with an army which mostly self implode by turn 3 (more of my Skaven have died to misfires, butterfingers and slave breaking then actually being killed by the enemy). While there are still a variety of mishaps, you could easily play and avoid them, though to hell with that I'm going all out. Bring on the mayham.

Assassins can either use Fighting Claws (more attacks and can re-roll hits of 1, but only does 1 damage per wound hit) or Weeping Blades (less attacks the fighting claws, but does D3 damage per wound hit). Good against other heroes. Rat Ogres are alright, though you can add a Warpfire gun to each model for free. Clanrats are good, though musician is replaced by Bell Chimer (which is weird since one of the Blood Island musicians has a drum). Standards mean you can retreat and then charge in the same turn and they get bonuses to their 'to wound' rolls if you have the unit size of 20+ and 30+. Shields work differently too, with them granting +1 to save vs attacks that just do 1 damage (attacks who's damage stat says 2 or more ignore the shields bonus).

Skaven Slaves have where melee failure break changed. Instead, for each model that flees, roll a die. On a 6, the nearest unit within 6" (friend or foe) takes one mortal wound (mortal wounds ignore saves). This is means my slaves will last longer in combat and while less likely to kill my units, still can cause some mischif. Considering their bravery is three, perhaps I could be wrong about lasting longer. Meh, that's what slaves are for.

Weapon Teams have a unique change in that you no longer need to purchase a unit in order to feild them. Instead, you can now purchase each one as it's own unit, which is great for the most part. Interesting to note is that although a Warp Grinder is a seperate unit, it can still tunnel and have a second Skaven unit join them in tunneling.

Overall

I'm still annoyed about those few problems mentioned, but for the most part I'm just glad my forces are usable. If anything, I'm interested to see how allying the various forces will work. Given that Empire is part of Order, can I mix them with those few Dwarf heroes I've got? Can those Deamons and Chaos Warriors I have join my Skaven? Will this allience thing and lack of points be complete BS when people go to actually play games?

Probably, but it really depends on how you and you opponent want to play. Me, I'm just going in to have fun.




Also, if Grey Seer Scratchnsniff where to use the rules for a Grey Seer, then he'd technically have a command ability which would let friendly Skaven withing 26" who fail a battleshock test and flee to roll and on a 4+ to ignore it. Apparently the text says they would be more afraid of the Grey Seer then the enemy, though in my opinion it's more that they'd be embaressed having to deal with him then scared.

I heard that Man-thing. Soon we see who scares who.
~Grey Seer Skratchnsniff

My Opionion: Age of Sigmar -The Rules and Skaven Warscroll

So, having read the rules and just now, the Skaven Warscroll, I've seen what has changed and how it will effect my group. One important thing to note is it looks like point lists are gone and so are many restrictions, meaning games will be very unbalanced. Stats have changed and initiative is gone. That said, let's take a brief look at the game rules (the Lore I'll look into in a future article as there isn't a lot of it so far for me to make a proper judgement on it yet).

The Rules:

The game turn is split into multiple phases:

1. Hero Phase: This is where heroes can activate Command abilities and Wizards cast spells. All wizards know the two basic spells (Arcane Bolt and Mystic Shield) with some knowing a third shown on their Warscroll. Each wizard may attempt to cast each spell once per turn, rolling a 2D6 to see if it equals or beats the casting roll of the spell. If the opponent has a wizard within 18" of the caster, then that wizard can attempt to unbind (dispel) it by beating that score with his own roll of 2D6. Limited spell choices, no pools and no miscast. Very simplified.

Edit: The wording in the rules state 'A wizard can cast each spell once per turn', yet this isn't entirely true. Wording in the profile of Wizard characters state that they may cast one spell per turn and unbind one per turn (two or more for some named heroes). Not sure if they ment each spell per army, though the wording suggests it's referring to each single wizard, which I'm now curious about.

2. Movement Phase: Unit's move based on their movement characteristic. Can't move within 3" of enemy models and if you start within that range, you can choose to retreat (enemy can't follow). Running and Flying are also part of this phase. Terrain movement might be similar to 40K, but there is no marching or rotating anymore.

3. Shooting Phase: Units that have a missile weapon (as long as they didn't retreat or run) can pick a target unit within it's ranged weapons range and shoot. The range weapon has it's own 'to hit' and 'to wound' stats, so no more charts. Also, no more markers too (flame or blast are gone).

4. Charge Phase: Units that did not run or retreat (or within 3" of an enemy) may attempt to charge an enemy unit within 12". Roll 2D6 and move one model up, if it reaches 1/2" of an enemy, it's successful and move the unit up. If not, it fails and the unit stays where it is.

Edit: Forgot to mention, there are no more charge reactions in the game anymore. The unit  either charges successfully or it doesn't and the unit they charge just stands there.

5. Combat Phase: The player who's turn it is goes first with his melee attacks, and the opponent goes second. Melee weapons have attack stats, to hit, to wound, the number of wounds they cause and save modifiers (range weapons are the same). Each unit/model has it's own save modifier to save against attacks.

6. Battleshock Phase: The replacement to combat resolution. Each unit/model has a Bravery characteristic. In this phase, you roll a D6 and add the total number of models slain. Then compare the units bravery to that result, adding +1 to the bravery total per every 10 models in that unit. For each point above the bravery total, one model is removed from the unit and from the game, having fled the battlefield.

Turn ends.

There is slightly more to this, but as we can easily see just how simplified this game is compared to 8th Edition.Is this a bad thing? It's hard to say. I suspect that many will be angry about the simplification and lack of strategy that the previous editions had. After all, the old style of unit line ups and formations have gone for a more free flowing style. The moving to round bases was inevitable in this regard, but you can still use square with no penalty. Personally, I'm a little disappointed with the lack of magic, but then we have no death bombs, so that's a plus. The fact the rules a free is a big difference here and so is a good chance for most to test it out and see what happens.

Many of my complaints about the changes were lore and visual base (I'll discuss that in a future article), so really, I've got no major complaints with the rules. That said, don't expect fair play or tournament play from this game and that my cause problems in it's future.

Skaven Warscroll

Reading the rules and for the most part, very simplified. I'm glad my Warlock Engineers have Warp Lightning and that Ikit Claw is still around (I use his rules to represent my leader Skith Warpclaw), but there are one or two things that bug me. Firstly, options are very limited. You can pick one of three weapon options for a Warlord, but there is nothing else really. My next is that a Warlord riding a Rat Ogre Backbreaker now just counts as a normal Rat Ogre is a major blow. In fact, at least six or so unit/model options were redirected to a plain variant or substitute. Worse, backlash and misfire effects are gone, meaning the fun of watching my army collapse on itself is now gone.

Still, not all bad. Most of my units are still usable and the fact that Weapon Teams are now on their own (meaning I can have as many as I want) should be good for a laugh. As it stand, my army has grown in strength, though I feel it's flavour and character suffered as a result. I'll wait to see what future products Skaven get, but at least my army is still valid to a degree. I'll do a bit more indepth to this in a future article.

Ophelia and Crew (Metal)

The metal crew is now done and can be found here. Finally glad to get that one done and have learned a number of things and seen a number of tutorals for future ideas thanks to this project.

One big problem I've just found is the quality of the photographs. Going to have to look into this one some more, but I can already tell that my lighting was too bright and too much was coming from one direction, which is obvious be looking at the first miniature in the picture. I'm hoping that a few tips from other people will improve not only my future basing ideas, but possible my photography too.

 Yep, defenatly going to have to look into the photography part.

N64 Version? Yes Please.

So ever since they announced the Rare Collection at E3, the big question I've been asking is 'what version of Conker will be on it?'. Single player wise, I don't really care, but it's the multiplayer that I'm interested in. While I liked both multiplayers, the N64 version had a good four-player split screen with many good games.

Well according to Gamespot, the Conker version will be the N64 version, which will probably be a good reason to get it. That said, I don't have an Xbox One, but the guy I board with has one, so I might see if he's willing to let me use it.

The problem with plastics

So the plastic mini's arrived today and I was quick to start them. Unfortunately, it seems that their designs are not best for removing. See, while trying to remove each piece from the spur, Rami's gun broke (I was removing the first of three when the second one just snapped). Then there was the problem with attaching the parts. Ophelia's head wouldn't fit in (actually, a few of there heads had trouble, but Ophelia's had consequences) and as a result, the face was damaged and I doubt it's salvageable. I even had purchased new tools to ensure problems like these wouldn't happen and sadly still did. Having double checked the instructions and spurs, I feel that this product was poorly designed and could have been better designed to be put together (I would have made Ophelia's hair as the attachment, not the face). I've put in a request to Wyrd about replacements, but I fear that since this is such a small company (especially when compared to Games-Workshop), that such an option is not available. What I'll do at that point, I simple don't know.

This is a real blow for me and I feel that it's knocked all the steam out, leaving me disappointed with the product.


Update: They responded and as predicted, they don't do replacements for this. Their solution is to go to their trade section of there forum, which is pointless for a problem such as this (no one is selling this sort of stuff). Ebay only has the box set (not separate stuff) and at that cost I'm better off re-purchasing the product from my current supplier, which sadly may be my only option in this regard. Let this be a lesson to those who wish to use these products, they are like paper so be very careful with them, cause Wyrd is incapable of giving a proper service to it's customers for this.

Update 2: Stupid me, was so stressed out about this I completely forgot I could dump it in Dettol and try to remove the glue. Did attempt it this afternoon, but only gave it a short amount of time. Seemed to get some of it off, but it still looks a bit damaged. Will try again tomorrow, but if nothing changes, I still have one back up plan left. The face didn't fit, which means I'll need to use some green stuff to fix it. With that in mind, I may attempt to add an extra wave line or two of hair over the upper head to cover the damage just above the eyes, giving an appearance that the hair is blowing just above/over the eyes. Not very good at sculpting, but at this point what have I too lose. 

Update 3: So, tried to fix the gun and Ophelia's hair. Couldn't get any more extra glue off the damaged face, but then again it could be the colour that is ruining the look and may be fixed with paint. Still not the best with green stuff, but I hope that with some paint the GS will blend into the plastic hair. We'll see in the next week or so.