Space Marines

So after playing numerous games with and against Codex Space Marines then playing several with Space Wolves I have come to the conclusion that the Codex Marines are just aweful. Anything a marine can do a wolf can do better, with 3 exceptions.


Exception #1. Hammernators, about 20 points per model cheaper for C:SM


Exception #2. Command squads with an Apothicary(FNP)


Exception #3. Sternguard special ammo


These are counter balanced by the fact that Grey Hunters are 100 times better than a bog standard tac marine. Acute senses(not important but its there), COUNTER ATTACK, and BOLTER/BOLT PISTOL/CCW all for about the same price. They can take an assualt weapon with 5 guys, a plasma pistol if they feel the need, 1 power weapon or fist(so no sgt is really needed), a guy with Mark of the Wulfen(makes his attacks D6 and rending), and a banner that lets me reroll all my ones in assualt a single time, and a free second assault weapon for 10 men. The only drawback is they dont get a heavy weapon. That seems to be mitigated by Long Fangs that can split fire if they need to. Wolf Claws are better than lightning claws as they can choose to reroll either hits OR wounds. Frost weapons > Power weapons or Relic blades, str 5 but can be used with a second close combat weapon. The wolves get the elusive 'commander' level HQ from the old SM codex, basically a Vet sergent with 2 wounds and better wargear options. The rune priest has better powers than the SM libriarian(arguably). I havent used the wolf priest at all so I cant compare him to the Chaplain who is probably the coolest part of the C:SM dex. Blood Claws of any flavor really dont have an advantage to thier biker/jump pack marine couneterparts, they get 2 attacks on the charge, but WS/BS 3 and the need for a leader counters it. Scouts fill two totally different roles so aren't worth compareing. No sternguard or vanguard in the wolves but a tooled up WG squad can effectivly pull the same duty, the vanguard ability is overrated and has a 1/3 chance of working and a fairly good chance to backfire. The stern loose thier special ammo but alas sacrifices..

Those are the main differences there are other such as sagas but I believe I have more than made my point.

The games that are won with codex marines tend to be won by luck more than anything, or at least a perponderance of armor, that cant score so it only works with KP. The several that I have played with space wolves have been close and competitive. To give an example the one game I have won with my marines involved a mass melee with a mostly full mob of Ork Boyz and 2 killer Kanz(one missing its CCW) with a lucky Krak grenade hit I blew 1 kan, the resulting 6" explosion caught almost all the orks in its blast killing half of them. This caused them to take a morale check at the end that they promptly failed(I had killed a number with my own assualt attacks to bring them below 10 with like a -20somthing to thier LD) the remaining kan was then the next turn felled by a volley of krak grenades. This all with a 6 man squad of sternguard with a librarian(useless) leading them. The ork Deth Star was vindicatored, speed bumped and killed with again a few lucky rolls(or unlucky depending on who you ask). What could make the marine dex work is if you use special charactors like Vulcan(is the basis of any competitive marine list, so that should tell you somthing)

In conclusion I feel that while the marine codex had potential the space wolf one is above and beyond better than anything. Therefore unless there is some grand plan invovling a special char(bah, stupid) the wolves codex should be substituted. Although cause this is a game some options really shouldnt be taken, like crimson fists wouldnt have anthing like a 'lone wolf' or 'blood claws' though the vet scouts would really feel like a crimson fist thing. This is on a case by case basis and should be discussed within a group for specifics.

Rebel Minis

Just received my shipment of 15mm Chinese PLA soldiers from Rebel Minis. I put my order in on the 17th, shipped on the 18th and received it today. We intend on using these for Force on Force as well as AK-47 Republic to represent Coalition Forces.

One set is already based and sand flocked, I should have pics up by Monday.

Edit: There will be a slight delay in posting pics of these models due to dog related shenanigans.

SandWyrm's Open Letter to GW

Reposted by permission.
Comments are enabled, but I prefer that you leave comments on SandWyrm's blog.

Dear Games Workshop,

You're in the process of losing me as a loyal customer of 20 years, popular 40K blogger, and leader of my local 40K gaming community.

I have already cut back my 40K related spending by roughly 75% in the past year. If your current trends of insane price hikes, sloppy Army Books/FAQs, greedy rules design, and lazy community service continues, then you will lose me completely as a customer within the next 1-2 years to your competition. Either Flames of War, Warmachine, Malifaux, Video Games, or some combination thereof.

I have already either purchased or been given, for free, the models and rules required to play Warmachine and Malifaux. The reasons for why I am actively seeking alternatives to your products are as follows:

1) Insane Price Hikes

In this time of continuing global recession, you are still raising your prices significantly every year, contrary to every other hobby related manufacturer; who have stuggled to maintain or even lower the costs of their products.

Instead of making it easier to enter this hobby by reducing the complexity and cost of your products, you are actively making changes ("Finecast", Full-Color rules/army books, decorative templates) that increase the end-cost to your customers even as some of them ("Finecast") reduce your own long-term production costs. The fact that you would raise prices while reducing your own costs is particularly odious.

I know (from reading your annual report) that GW management considers your industry to be a niche luxury hobby that is largely immune from the problems in the larger economy. However I believe this view is very, very, flawed. The 40K players I see every week in our 5 local game stores are not rich. Most of them are students, single guys with low paying service jobs, or married middle-class professionals with very limited hobby budgets. Many have no job right now at all. They are buying your products on ever-diminishing credit. I have more disposable income than most of them, yet even I have been forced to cut back on my hobby spending drastically as the costs of gasoline, food, health care, and other necessities have risen and continue to rise every month. While my family's income has fallen more than 25% over the last 2 years alone. Before inflation.

Raising your prices, instead of doing everything you can to lower them, is bad business for you. You may see some gains in the short term, but the hobby (and your customer base) will continue to shrink the longer you continue this policy. It's unsustainable in the long term.

2) Sloppy Army Books

It's become increasingly obvious that many of the 40K army books that you have released in the last 2 years were not properly finished/tested before release. The Tyrannid codex stands out as a prime example. The rules for that book are so sloppily written that a FAQ was immediately needed upon release. When that FAQ did finally appear many months later, it's rulings were so arbitrary and inconsistent with similar rules in other books/FAQs that I saw the number of Tyrannid players in my area plummet by half. In addition, this bad FAQ has cast a pall over every new codex. As players wonder if their choice of army (and the cash used to collect/build it) will be invalidated six months after a new book is released.

That is bad for your business. You should be doing everything possible to proof-read your rules ahead of time. As well as releasing timely FAQs on a MONTHLY basis to resolve issues and evaluate previous rulings. You do not want potential players delaying their entry into a new army because of FAQ-fear. Or comparing your paltry rules/FAQ output to what Privateer Press is able to accomplish with their much more timely updates.

3) Greedy Rules Design

I, and many other players, do enjoy the changes that come with a new codex or game edition. It keeps the game fresh and gives us something new to collect and learn. There is a point though, at which so much is changed that we cannot base a meaningful amount of our new army on the figures and models we had before.

Case in point: The Grey Knights.

When the new Grey Knight book was released, I was disappointed to find that none of the Grey Knights, Stormtroopers, or Imperial Guard models that I already owned could be used to field a competitive GK army. Options for them existed, yes, but it was also obvious that the rules had been designed in such a way that an army containing those models would be very uncompetitive.

If I'd had a competitive option for these models, I would have bought into the codex and purchased several boxes of Grey Knight models to fill the army out. But you did not give me that option. You wanted me to buy all-new instead. So I traded the GK models I had to someone else. This deprived you not only of new sales to me, but of some sales to the person I traded with. That's bad for your business. You would make more from 10 players upgrading half of their armies than from 3 players that buy all-new.

Again, it's a bad economy, and you must adapt to the new reality of that. I and many, many, others no longer have the free cash to buy an all-new army. For the foreseeable future, I will either upgrade an army I already have, or I will not buy at all.

Along these same lines comes a warning: If 6th Edition 40K requires me to rebuild my entire army as the switch from 4th Edition to 5th Edition did, it's over. I'm gone. I will not rebuild 50+% of my army in order to play 6th competitively. Instead I will either continue to play 5th (and not buy anything new), or I will simply quit and play something else.

4) Lazy Community Service

I know from talking to the individuals involved that GW management had to be BEGGED by multiple people both inside and outside the company to let Forge World attend Adepticon, North America's largest wargaming convention. Even then, they were only allowed a reduced presence that required 12+ hour days from their staff.

In case you're not aware, let me tell you some of what Privateer Press did at the convention:

1. Gave away a free $50.00 starter army and introductory rules booklet to the first 1000 attendees.
2. Had 3 Warmachine/Hordes demo-game tables set up between the doors to the 40K hall.
3. Had a complete booth set up where you could purchase Warmachine gear.
4. Had an official corporate involvement in Adepticon's Warmachine tournament. Including prize support.

Those are the actions of a company that cares about it's community/customers. Not only that, but they have an official competitive tournament format and ranking system for players. Plus timely rules updates and FAQs. Which is something that you, as a company, constantly fall down on.

Why does PP show up to events like Adepticon and make such a showing? Because they know that every player at an event like Adepticon is a representative of all the players in the local community where they live. If they can "flip" one of these players to their game, it will encourage many more in their local communities to give their products a try. That's why the local Warmachine community here in Indianapolis has grown from a couple of players at the back of the shop to a large group with it's own night that rivals the regular 40K crowd.

To simplify, PP is perceived as a company that listens to and supports it's community. While GW is perceived as a company that has not only abandoned it's community, but continually bleeds it with ever-larger price increases. That is bad for your long term business.

In Conclusion

I want Games Workshop to make money. I want you to prosper and continue. GW has been a huge part of my hobby life over the years. But I see you continually engaging in bad business decisions that emphasize short-term gains over the long-term health of both GW itself and the community you depend on to buy your products. It's time to re-think the way you do business for the better.

Sincerely,

SandWyrm & The Undersigned

Leave a comment if you agree. Permission is hereby granted to anyone that wants to re-post this elsewhere. -SandWyrm

GW's Price Increase/ Schadenboner

Rather than give details I'll link to a blogger that has done the leg work:
The Back 40k

This price increase pretty much cements my chosen army to Imperial Guard.

I expect any future purchases by myself from most retailers to be limited.

'NAM!!

I am getting the last of my Blackhorse ACR models when I get home! 2 M48 pattons, one with the VC eating mouth from a propaganda poster I saw, (see the M48 page on wiki) and the second one probably with a white cross on the front. 6 M551s and 2 Hueycobras.

I am also getting a pile of magnets, the turets on the ACAVs seems made for them. The M48s come with thier own as do the choppers. the 551s will get them if I havent run out by then, not quite sure how many are in a pack. There is a (40) next to the item name but that seems like alot for only like 3.50...


Then Friday there will be some good ole jungle action! Based on the models I have so far (ACAVs, Zippos, Huey) The Battlefront VN vehicle sculpts seem to be well done! So far the only real complaint I have had is the hatch on the back of the ACAVs is hard to position properly but its done on at least 12 right now so not to terrible.

Force on Force

For the last few days I have been looking online at a new set of rules put out by Ambush Alley Games called - Force on Force.  It is an adaption of their older game Ambush Alley which pitted a modern regular force against an insurgent.  Due to player request a mod was put out called Force of Force that allowed for two regular armies to fight one another.  Since then, Osprey Publishing (creator of those wonderful, thin books about every obscure unit or piece of equipment one could ever want, such as "Soviet Combat Furniture, 1944-1945) has teamed up with Ambush Alley Games to produce a new edition of Force on Force combining both original rule sets, updating them, and adding lots of pretty pictures.

I have a copy in the mail from Amazon.com and will give some more info on the rules when they come in.  For now I will just say that what I have been hearing has been intriguing.  Instead of giving units a complex stat-line like the Warhammer games do, or even numeric ratings like Flames of War does, FoF uses different sizes of dice (D6, D8, D10, D12) to represent the differing qualities of the units.  Units are not set up with both players having a set number of points to spend but rather the units are based off of actual TO&Es and it seems that a certain degree of imbalance is to be expected.

The game is supposed to be able to work in just about any scale, but usually using 15/20/25-28mm models.  The game designers personally use 15mm and these look like they may be the cheapest option.

For a good while I have been looking at getting an AK 47 Republic campaign going but have been held off by the cost of buying multiple armies on top of the several other game systems I am already playing.  One advantage of FoF seems that it uses much smaller units than many other games out there.  I have taken some of the left over Peter Pig minis that I was using for a Mercenary Army based off of Mike Hoare's 5 Commando from the Congo War of the 1960's and have based them on pennies.  Thus far they are looking pretty nice and as soon as I procure myself a decent camera I will hope to add some photos of the five I have done so far.

I will keep you all posted on the progress of my adventure into Force on Force as time goes on, and will hopefully be able to get some good games in with my buddies here.

Warhammer 40K Imperial Guard List

I also call this list "The Stovepipe of Doom!"

HQ
- Command Squad (Med-pack, Regimental Standard, Vox, Power Fist, 2x Bodyguards)

Troops
- Infantry Platoon (Platoon Standard, Vox)
1st Squad (Heavy Bolter, Vox)
2nd Squad (Amalgamated with 1st Squad, Autocannon)
5x Heavy Weapons Squads (Mortars)

- Veteran Squad (Shotguns, 3x Melta-guns, Chimera)

Heavy Support
- Griffon Mortar
- Leman Russ (Standard)

1000 pts.

I've laid this out primarily for 2 on 2 games. I feel that the low-ish number of tank busters and close combat weapons is suitable for an army of low toughness, high casualty characters. That and there are a total of 15 small blast templates, all barrage weapons, and therefore "pinning" weapons as well as 2 ordnance pie plates.

Yes, Marines in Rhinos, Ork Speedfreaks and Eldar Blisterwagons are a tough nut to crack with only one Autocannon, but I expect to whittle down the list for 1500 pt., 1 on 1 games. I'll add more power fists, flamers and autocannons to make up the difference.