Gouge Workshop – When is Enough Actually Enough?

Yeah, I know, we’re flogging a dead horse again. You can tell from the title what is coming up and we may be recovering old ground but if people don’t speak out nothing changes. Not that it’s really all that likely that one small voice will make a difference but still, this is the Internet so why not give voice to my feelings, it is my blog after all.

First, some context. Before Christmas I got the new 6th Ed 40K box and have been slowly building a second army for it. I’ve also been building another army to go alongside my Ogres in Fantasy. I’ve got all the models I need for my Fantasy force and am a mere couple boxes off having all I need for my 40k army done too. However, I’ve not played a single game of Fantasy this year. Not at all, and even worse than that (maybe) I can count the number of GW games I played last year on one hand. They’re just not as popular with our group as a whole and it’s really only Gribblin and I that ever play each other.

So, why the volatile post title? Well, the clue, as the more eagle-eyed readers will have noticed, is in the image attached to this post. No-one that plays GW games is shocked by the constant price increases, we’re all well aware that they are not basing their prices off inflation in the UK, more like that of Zimbabwe. I am old and remember Codexes costing £10, they are now three times that price, yes they are full colour, yes they are hardback, I’ll concede that the presentation at least has improved. What I am not happy about is what I hope is not a new trend. The latest book out was Codex: Eldar, worth a mention in and of itself for the fact there’s a £70 model in their range now. I think someone took a look at what Privateer Press were doing and decided to hop on a bandwagon without realising that the entry cost to their competitor’s game is much lower. Thirty quid Codexes I’m not really happy about but can’t complain as I’ve bought a couple. What I really don’t like is the Direct Only Codex: Iyanden. I am not against supplements that allow you to change your army up and play to a theme, what I am against is that this book is only available from GW and costs the same as the original Codex! I know that there are going to be people who will not only buy this but will also defend it by virtue of the fact that you don’t HAVE to buy it. I know that, but the fact that there’s a company that thinks that what amounts to an addendum to a book, that is completely useless without the first book, should be the same price as that first book, well, that’s crazy to me.

I can show my displeasure by not buying it and choosing not to buy any more products from the company. Considering this latest decision by them I am really thinking about ditching all my GW stuff. It would make a lot of room available in my miniatures storage and would allow me much greater focus on the other games that I have. However, that’s not necessarily as easy as it seems. You see, GW’s real value is in the fact that, in the UK at least, they are everywhere. No matter where you go in this country you are going to be able to find people who play GW’s games. You’re less likely to find folks for other systems although I believe that WarmaHordes may be gaining a lot of traction these days. So, if I did get rid of it would I have to buy in again at a later date if I move house to somewhere that doesn’t have anyone to play X-wing or Dropzone Commander against. I do have some Warmachine but nowhere near a full armies worth.

So, rather than just rant at things here, let’s look objectively at some of the options we have for gaming and the various costs.

Budget GW entry: £65 for either Fantasy or 40k set, two basic armies that you could play through with the scenarios. Imbalanced in parts on either side. To play either properly add £60 for Codexes in 40K or £50 for Fantasy. So, budget entry just to play £115 or £120 if you’re not fussed about playing equal points games or how the game is balanced to play. Total: £120

Fantasy Entry: £45 main rules (yes I know you can get the mini rulebook off eBay for £20 but is someone new to the hobby necessarily going to be aware of that?) £30 army book, £70 battalion set and £12 for a character model. Depending on the battalion this might not be a valid army either, but should get you in the ball park of at least being able to play. Total: £162

40k Eldar Entry: Normal 40k should be pretty much the same as Fantasy, but if we take this as a measure of what GW might be doing for the future let’s put this together for the sake of completeness. £45 main rules again, £30 for the main Codex, another £30 for the Iyanden as that’s what we want to play. £70 Battleforce set and then £12 for a Farseer. Note that this may not actually include any of the units you really want for the Iyanden army, Wraithguard and a WraithKnight will set you back another £100. Total: £187

Dropzone Commander Entry: Rulebook £15, Starter Army £88, let’s even be generous and throw in a Cityscape so you have a complete battlefield to play on as well so £30. Total: £133

Warmachine Entry: Rulebook £20 for the Mk2 and a starter box for £35. Technically you don’t need the rulebook because of quick start rules in the boxes but for completeness against other options I think it’s fair. If you do want to really expand though you’re also going to be looking at another £20 for a softcover army book. Then the same again for the extra books to bring you up to date with everything, although technically these aren’t needed as cards are in with the models. But still, book purchases can get expensive as you add to stuff. Total: £55

Infinity Starter: Excellent game but has a huge learning curve. You’re also going to end up spending a lot on terrain for this one, but we’re not factoring that in to start-up costs. £30 for the rulebook and £30 for a non-sectorial starter set are all you are going to need. Total: £60

Malifaux Starter: Rulebook £20, starter set £26 and a deck of cards £5. Total: £51 

I left Dropzone Commander in here as it is widely seen as a very expensive game to get into. To play at the same level as the GW entries though the cost is fairly comparable and I even added in a full tables worth of terrain for you too so it isn’t a bad deal by any stretch of the imagination. For the other games you can see that the entry cost is literally half of the GW cost. Yes, I know that these are skirmish games and not mass army games but then 40k plays pretty much like a skirmish unless you are play Orks, Guard or Nids. Most other armies have a few squads and some vehicles which is not all that dissimilar to PP with some Jacks/Beasts and troops rounding our your army. All of these games play differently and I’ve by no means put down an exhaustive list of all the options available. Yet, we can see now just how badly GW are trying to gouge their position as market leaders and ubiquitous presence on tables the world over. I do know that GW have been losing customers because of their rather aggressive pricing and from speaking to my FLGS this is only going to get worse. This is the company that got me into tabletop gaming so while it may seem that all I do is rag on them I’m actually upset that they are trying so hard to destroy their legacy. I’d love them to carry on, to be the same company as it was when I would happily spend every penny of pocket-money I had on their new releases. Sadly though, I find myself once more contemplating abandoning them completely as I do not feel I can support a company that does so little for its customers while expecting them to pay through the nose at ever-increasing values.

 

6 Inch Move Review – Hawk Wargames Cityscape

More grist for the Dropzone mill today as we take a look at the Cityscape terrain set from Hawk Wargames. When Carabus and I took a trip to visit Hawk and playtest the game prior to release we got to use the display terrain that we’d seen at Salute and that was in all the artwork. Dave explained about the customisation of the tiles and that they were going to be a premium product not designed for general consumption. I don’t think anyone was expecting it to be quite as expensive as it was, but there we go. Hawk also did release a lot of their terrain as free downloads which is more than a lot of other companies do.

Still, with a 10mm scale game rather than the far more prevalent 28mm we’re used to dealing with getting the right terrain means getting something in fresh rather than reusing something bought years ago. I’d seen the cityscape on Hawk’s website but not really given it a thought, I mean, a 6′ x 4′ battlefield for £30, can’t be all that good can it? As we kind of experience a gaming drought post Salute last year things around the floating citadel just didn’t play out as we’d all hoped. This meant that we didn’t get to see our DzC stuff on the table, nor show it off to anyone else as we had planned to do.

So it was that when we went to Salute this year Dropzone Commander wasn’t really on our radar. We planned on stopping by and checking in with Dave but not much else other than that. Fate it seems like to give us a good nudge every now and again. Gribblin and nBreaker got to enjoy a demo game, suitably impressed they bought in, as we knew they would. However, we also got to see the Cityscape up close and personal. It may only be card but it’s of a very high quality and looked excellent. Free buildings from the kit were being handed out on the stand too so we got to have a quick look at what they were like. For £30 this seemed like a steal now that I’d clapped eyes on the things so I picked one up to give us a battlefield that would be compliant with the scale, the objective based nature of the game and friendly on the wallet.

First up I need to tell you that the thing is heavy! We’ve actually got two of the things so I spent a lot of time with plastic bag handles trying to sever my fingers through the afternoon. This will also mean that we can have more than one game going at a time, or just use a really huge battlefield in a multiplayer game. When you open the box up everything is nice and securely padded with bubble wrap and it does feel like a meaty package. When you open it up you’re treated to all the flat packed buildings, pre-scored to make for easy assembly. I spent a couple of hours on Saturday putting the whole thing together. There’s a large stack of double-sided base tiles to use too. You may be better off choosing a layout and then gluing these to a board to give them some stability and stop them from moving on the table although obviously you’ll then have to store yet more terrain boards.

 

That really is a wad of card you get. Each building just pops open, the roof is then glued down to make the structure rigid, each wall then has a fold on top where you fold down a small flap to “warp” over the top to give you a lip to stop stuff falling off as well as make things look prettier than just having bare white card. I used common, run of the mill PVA to glue mine together. Not watered down, just fresh out of the bottle. I applied this liberally to the roof tabs and also to the flaps. If you want to save yourself a lot of time sat still holding things then I’ll pass on a tip we got from Bex at the show, use bull-dog clips! I put forward exhibit A to show you how I did it;

 

This works really well and I found that the glue stuck very quickly using this method. I only had the one pack of clips, which wasn’t a problem but I’d suggest people get two if they want to try assembly in this way as it would have just been a nicer experience if I wasn’t taking them off and using them again on the same walls of some of the larger buildings.

The only problem I see with the whole thing is that the buildings are probably going to easily be knocked about a little when gaming. Now this is nothing new but as this terrain is so light in individual pieces I can see this being more of an issue than with other, heavier terrain pieces, but for the price I’m not sure you can really argue against it.

We’re hoping to have a game using it very soon, if I’m feeling generous I might even take some piccies of it in use. However, from an assembly point of view and seeing it all together I must say that this really is a bargain and a very nice set, for the price you’d pay for a single kit from other manufacturers you have a full battlefield to play over. I am really looking forward to using it. Although I might let some of the other guys have a go at assembling the other set so I can get on with getting my army painted.

 

6InchMove does Salute 2013

As servitob has already so eloquently described the 6 Inch Move crew descended from our sky fortress this past weekend. As is familiar to gamers everywhere we recruited our 5 man party, journeyed without any summoning stone shenanigans to the capital of our great nation. As is also familiar when we reached our destination we found out that three fifths of the group hadn’t yet done the required attunement quest. Carabus and I therefore joined the queue for the Salute instance while the other three went off to make suitable supplications.

This meant that Carabus and I got to spend a little over an hour in the show before things got really busy. First order of the day was to find me a TIE fighter to finish off my X-wing army. However, within seconds of the event starting all the X-wing stuff sold out at every stand simultaneously. There was some on one stand, but the Machiavellian stall owner had rapidly repriced all his TIEs with a 33% increase over the RRP (despite the other ships still being RRP). Unsurprisingly I bit my thumb at him and snorted deridingly before walking off in righteous indignation.

It was nice to get in as part of the “Priority” queue for having pre-purchased our tickets. We got to see a lot of stuff before the show really got busy, although we didn’t really do much detailed searching as we wanted to check out lots of stuff as a full group.

I’m always a little hesitant when going down to Salute. In 2010 I didn’t think there was much there, it certainly wasn’t as good as when I was there in 2006, however, both 2012 and this year I have to say that the show was excellent. It really does showcase how big the industry has gotten, there is so much to see there across numerous genres and you can see the direction things are going. There are a ton of terrain stands now where there wasn’t really anything of the quality we can get now. I’ve included a couple of photos of the cityscape from Hawk Wargames. It’s a full 6′ * 4′ gaming table for £30. We’ll be doing a full review of it shortly and it’s rather impressive considering it’s just card stock.

We probably spent longer outside the Hawk stand than anywhere else, probably because of Gribblin and nBreaker getting a demo game. As Servitob also said we got a quick demo of the Mantic game Dreadball, seemed quite good however we picked up the rules faster than the Mantic guy demoing it could explain it and he was getting a couple of things wrong from his own explanations which was kind of off-putting.

I think that the main thing that I took from the show (other than the couple of things that I bought) was a reinvigorated feeling towards my gaming after what has been a very quite year for me. Real life definitely has been a curve ball but yesterday I got my DzC stuff out again and have set about actually painting some of it and working on getting the army finished and ready for the tabletop. Now we’ve got the proper scenery too I’m starting to feel really good about where we’re going now.

Watch this space to see just how that all pans out.

6 Inch Move Review: Super Dungeon Explore

As you can probably tell from the dearth of things on the blog recently, the good folks at 6 Inch Move have been rather busy doing lots of things other than gaming. Yes there have things that could be blogged about, however, in the interest of keeping things civil I’ve refrained a lot from posting about how I’ve had to sell my wife and daughter to African organ farmers to afford the latest stuff from “Plastic-crack Peddlers of Nottingham” (TM).

Despite the excitement building up to the release of Dropzone Commander and then 6th edition 40k landing as well things have been very quiet in the gaming halls of the floating citadel. This is a situation that we all would like to correct as gaming is what we do and it’s nice to get together and throw down with some dice from time to time. With that in mind and the rather obvious title of the post here, one can no doubt work out what happened. Due to some rather fantastic aligning of planetary bodies, not to mention sacrificing many delicious virgins, we managed to put together two evenings of gaming over this past weekend.

Super Dungeon Explore has been on my radar for a while now, it’s certainly not the cheapest of boxes which is the primary reason why I’ve not tossed some cash at Soda Pop and grabbed a copy myself. Luckily for me though, nBreaker grabbed the box and its first expansion a while ago and I’ve been itching to try it out and see it it’s as good as it looks.

For those unaware of this particular dungeon-delving delight it’s offered by Soda Pop Miniatures authors of the recent Relic Knights Kickstarter (which due to shortage of funds I couldn’t support myself) and manufacturer of some really nice anime inspired models. Super Dungeon Explore (hereafter shortened to SDE) is a game inspired by Japanese RPGs of old. You can play with up to 5 players and a 6th plays the various dungeon denizens. There are various game boards that you use to construct the dungeon according to how many heroes there are in your party. Between the first expansion and the core game there is a hero for everyone. I’ve managed to play through the game three times over the weekend, trying a different hero each time and I have to say that I love the Rogue. Each hero has their own abilities and stat card and you really benefit off creating a varied party. We tried an all melee party once and it didn’t go so well, but I mainly put that down to Servitob playing as the dungeon and his dice never run cold so we were up against it from the start.

The purpose of the game is to kill the spawn points that allow the dungeon denizens to enter the dungeon and then try to kill you. There is one spawn point per board with the number of boards in play equal to the number of heroes you’re using. As the heroes make kills and get wounded by the bad guys there is a power track that allows the dungeon controller to bring in more stuff per turn or, at certain pre-determined points, spawn a mini-boss and then the main dungeon boss. In the core set, this would be Starfire the Dragon. There are treasure chests to plunder and loot that can be claimed by defeating the nasties assaulting you. Whether playing as a hero or the dungeon there’s stuff for you to get and chances for you to win the game. The dungeon player isn’t just a drone scripted into what he’s doing but a fully functioning player hellbent on the heroes destruction.

Each hero and dungeon nasty has a card that gives it a movement and action value. Movement determines how many squares you can move and action points are there for you to activate abilities or lay the smack down depending on your preference and situation. At the start of each turn one hero rolls off against the dungeon to see who gets to go first, if the hero wins then that hero has to go first, if he loses the dungeon inevitably brings the pain. The dungeon can only activate so much stuff at once before the next hero in line gets to go so you’ve got plenty of opportunity try to clear some trash out before you get swamped. What we did notice is that with a couple of heroes having area-of-effect abilities, these are very nice to have. There are natural choke points that happen in the game and while this quickly accelerates the power metre to spawn the boss it also provides a good way to quickly remove threats, we found them well worth taking if you like those heroes that have it.

In our first game we messed up some of the rules and this left everyone feeling a bit “meh” about it. However, after another read through and some forum trawling our second and third games went much better and everyone enjoyed it with our concerns banished. It takes a couple of hours to get through a 3 player game and it doesn’t take long before your heroes are going back and forth with Kobolds and Dragonlings, kitting themselves out in extra armour and weapons that boost their abilities before daring to try and get rid of the nasty Dragon.

The dice mechanics are nice and simple, providing the chance to heal yourself and others as well as crumping the enemies you face. Each hero has a potion (or two) that they can use either on themselves or others to increase their prowess. It really is worth noting that you want to communicate and act as a team. If people get greedy or selfish, going after treasure chests or over-extending, then the dungeon can really hurt you. In our last game I looted a Resurrection Charm on my Ember Mage. I kept it myself (loot can be handed out around the party) to resurrect another character should they die (we had all died in the previous game). However, what this meant was that the dungeon player *shakes fist at Servitob* sent everything my way as I was, rather stupidly, at the front of things as well. If the heroes play together then they can be really powerful and tough to take down, they are not invincible however.

There are three colours of dice that are used for making attacks or defending from them, as well as being used for various skills. Loot and treasure can boost the number of them you roll as well as giving you extra action points or straight up bonuses to rolls. The mechanics of this are wonderfully simple and very easily picked up. Because you don’t use the same tiles from game to game (you can if you want) and the heroes you use are likely to change (there are no must-take heroes) there is a lot of replayability, especially with someone taking the role of the bad guys, you can rotate that around as you want. The Dragon boss is suitably nasty but can be taken down with co-ordination and planning. It might take a few rounds too. While things seem really simple on the surface when you actually play it and start to think about the game there is a lot of veiled strategy involved with how you do things. Do you wade in and AOE all the bad guys, getting loot quickly but also accelerating the power gauge to bring in bigger and nastier monsters, or clear a path for others of your party to come in and do their thing?

The models for the monsters and heroes themselves are fantastic. Everything is done is a super-deformed chibi style which I really like. nBreaker is doing a good job of getting them painted too so we’ll end up with something that looks as good as it plays by the time they’re finished. If you’re looking for a fun game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and be played in an evening then you could do a lot worse than take a look at SDE, it certainly got a big thumbs up from all of us!

 

Merry Christmas

Things are getting a little excited around the floating citadel. Not only joyous anticipation of a time spent with our nearest and dearest, but also the fact that we’ve got some new games to play in the New Year. New Year also means New Years resolutions. Erstwhile readers of our online organ might offer up that we should endeavour more regular posting on the blog…. Well, it’s something that I’d like to aim for.

No matter where you and what you celebrate, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope that whatever festive mythological figure you expect to arrive brings you all the toys you wanted. Except perhaps that mail-order Russian concubine!

See you in 2013!

 

Don’t you just love memes?

What Happened to 6 Inch Move?

Work, that dreaded spectre that rears its hydra-like visage and then lays waste to people’s free time in an apocalyptic wave of annoyance, that’s what has happened.

Things are a little busy in the Zombiepirate wing of the floating citadel, that has had the side effect of leaving me very little time to dedicate to the blog. We did manage to get some games in on the weekend though, playing through the first 3 missions of Dark Vengeance (very good I have to say) and then my sleep-deprived brain came up with a gimmicky Ogre list that got trounced by Gribblin’s Wood Elves. I also wanted to do a review of the new Chaos Marines Codex as I’ve returned to that long-term on again, off again, relationship I have with the traitor legions.

Everything should hopefully quieten down in a few weeks, so, as no-doubt our devout readership is on tenterhooks as it is waiting for new content, I’ll ask you to hold on just a little longer until we can resume normal service. Unless someone wants to pay me a six figure salary to work on the blog every day. I think I could do that.

 

 

A Kickstarter I can get Behind

Kickstarter – Almost there!

 

After writing a post a while ago about my own thoughts regarding the current Internet craze of Kickstarter projects, a post that was not liked by some people I had the pleasure of reading their comments on, I almost caved in and threw some cash at something.

While the pile of unpainted stuff I have continues to amass, despite large-scale sell offs, I keep my eye on things that I like the look of. As a gamer more than a painter that doesn’t stop me from looking at shiny new models and gawking over them. It’s been this way for a while with me with a company called Soda Pop miniatures. I’ve been aware of the company for many years and have followed their releases semi-closely but without actually having purchased anything, despite temptation biting. They produce a line of anime style figures that are absolutely beautiful.

In the past year or so they released their chibi like Super Dungeon Explore which I think has been generally well received. They are following up on this by producing a game for their model line called Relic Knights. As seems to be the case with everything people want to do with mini-games these days, they’ve started a Kickstater project to generate the funding required to bring this to pass. There are scant hours left for this to run and they’ve amassed over half a million dollars after they only actually wanted twenty thousand. I really like the style of stuff they have and yesterday was about a hair’s width from actually signing on and donating some money.

There were a few things that held me back. Firstly was the fact that who would I play this against? Carabus and I really enjoy looking over what’s out there, while long-suffering gribblin and Servitob have to humour us and no doubt roll their eyes when we start talking about yet another game we’ve found. Adding to my collection really isn’t what I want to be doing now. I’ve got Dropzone Commander waiting to be done, then the new 40k box also is begging my attention and that’s before I consider my Dark Eldar and Fantasy Ogres that need to be painted too. I’ve got enough on my plate without succumbing to yet another game and one I’ll not be motivated to paint because of no-one to play with.

OK, I’d have to wait until next year before potentially seeing my models but that’s neither here nor there. It does seem that unless you are a company like GW or Privateer Press that Kickstarter is going to be the norm for drumming up cash. I can see advantages here, you are not beholden to shareholders! The investors in your business know what return they are getting, normally a crap load of models, therefore you know that the money coming in is going towards making stuff and you’re not going to be tied down by a load of people wanting their money back and leaving you unable to run a business the way you want. Games Workshop get a lot of criticism for their business practices and I believe that this comes down purely to the fact they are a PLC and are run by people who want their money out of it rather than gamers who, yes, will want to turn a profit, but might do it in a less “pounding you in the ass” fashion.

When you see the amount of money getting thrown around on Kickstarter it’s simply incredible. What we have yet to see though is the fruits of any labours. Lots of money is being invested but we’re not going to see what happens until probably next year and beyond. People are given expected dates of when they will receive their stuff but what is going to happen when delays are hit? What happens is a company actually folds in the middle of one of these developments? I’ll admit I don’t know the fine print of these transactions but there is a lot of money here that people could lose if things don’t go to plan.

But still my biggest hesitation towards putting my cash in is that in general, for the stuff I want to get I’d be investing more money right now than it would probably cost me when it gets to retail. If we take the Relic Knights as an example. If I went with the Mercenary Charter $50 pledge, that would get me a starter for the stuff I like, Cerci Speed Circuit if you’re wondering, or I could go one higher for the $90, get two starters so I could demo it and get the rulebook too. However, add in the shipping and things are getting a little pricier. The $65 equates to around £40 with current exchange rates. I’m not bothered about the Lithograph at all, but £40 for a starter set is rather pricey when I’m used to stuff being £30 or under. Now the $115 is about £72 and is a much better deal in my mind, it’s almost like getting the rulebook for free. I do consider it a good deal, however, that’s still £72 of my money that I could use on something else or a game I already play and have opponents for.

So, while I can see that Kickstarter has its advantages and it seems like every man and his dog is using this kind of venture to secure funding, I still have my doubts about it and haven’t seen anything yet that would allow me to invest in good conscience. I’d be interested in hearing from anyone that has actually put their money down on how they felt about it, what swayed them and which particular project it was that they supported. I love the idea that so much COULD be coming to market, I just worry about the fact we already have so much choice in what we paint and play that all Kickstarter will do is create one-off projects that are snazzy on day one but lead to a dearth of continuing investment and growing of these product lines.

 

40k Boxed Returns with a Vengeance a Dark Vengeance

In the past 6 inch move has been criticised for being the vilest of heretics by criticising Games Workshop and some of its practices. I may just be a disgruntled veteran and am I aware that I am no longer the core demographic that the company is trying to cater to. However, this Saturday I took a sly trip down to our friendly local gaming store as I’d taken the liberty of pre-ordering one of the Limited Edition sets that was released this weekend. While I’m not a huge fan of the Chaplain model by getting this set rather than the normal one at least I have it if I do want it later. I’m not sure how much of a limited edition this really is but what the hell!

The only other boxed set I’ve ever bought was the 2nd edition one, it came with Blood Angels and Orks in it and a rather retro cardboard Ork dreadnought. It was £35 if I remember correctly. I never got to play with 3rd edition but 4th I got a to play against my 40k nemesis Gribblin and then 5th came out and our group had expanded to include the regulars. I’ve certainly gone through a lot of armies over the years currently I only have one, my Dark Eldar, a sinister bunch that have laid waste to enemies far and wide. They’ve also taken their share of punishments though as if you make a mistake Dark Eldar are rather unforgiving (make a wrong choice and you’ll normally lose the unit).

So it was that I found myself actually rather excited about this whole event. Yes I do not own either a Space Marines or Chaos Space Marines army, despite having had both in the past, but that was of little consequence. I tore open the shrinkwrap and popped open the box (when I got home and after doing the weekly shopping of course), drinking in the smell of newness. Rather than write huge amounts of prose I’ll sum up for you before maybe expanding on my initial verdict. This set is absolutely amazing!

There, you heard it from my very lips, or fingers in this case as I’m typing. This set has pretty much revived an excitement for 6th edition that I was unaware of. I was informed in the game shop that they reckon you’re looking at around £250 worth of models in the box. Now, I know that’s not quite accurate as these are different to the ones you’d get in the normal boxes, you’re certainly not going to be filling your bits box with spares and extras, however, you still get a lot for your money. While these are all snap fit models, I’ll still be gluing mine, GW have shown why they are still one of the top companies in the world. Their plastic technology is second to none. I have to admit that I was literally mouth agape at how beautiful these figures are. All of them are oozing detail, the Chaos Chosen and the characters especially, while they are only made of a few components that hasn’t stopped the sculptors from really laying it on.

While my dislike of Finecast should already be well-known this kind of thing is where GW truly excel and I’ll again echo my own position that they should go entirely plastic. Should I choose to expand on the models I already have then I’ll be able to have a wholly plastic army considering what I’ve got from the new starter set. From the moment I opened the lid I was impressed by what I saw. The small format rulebook is a triumph. I wish they sold this separately as I genuinely believe that there is a market for this. If I could get this on its own, officially through GW I’d happily lay down £20 for it rather than the behemoth that is the hardback. I know other people who feel the same, when I buy a rulebook that’s what I want, the rules. All the extra hobby stuff is rather irrelevant to me, sure it looks nice but when you have a rulebook that costs twice what your competitors are charging and doesn’t actually give you an ability to put a force on the table, that’s one of the things that I balk at. That’s by the by though.

Yesterday I had a read through of the booklet that teaches you how to play. I’ve already been in contact with Gribblin to suggest that we play through the six missions that are provided. You’re taken through a couple of turns of a game first, which teaches you the bare bones of 40k and explains things relatively easily. There were a couple of moments when I thought that a brand new player might have to flick back and forth to get a good handle on what it’s trying to tell you, but otherwise it’s evident that a lot of thought has been put into what is in it. The missions themselves are well thought out to introduce a couple of the more advanced rules and give you a feel for how things work in a “proper” game. I’m actually looking forward to giving them a try.

All the things that have gone into it are of a very high quality, yes you’d be expecting that considering the price tag but it’s nice to see that newcomers to the hobby are being given good stuff. If you are new to Warhammer 40,000 then I’d be happy to recommend this box without any reservations at all. Although it provides you with two flavours of Space Marines at least they’re easy to learn the game with before branching out into some of the more exotic races.

In all the furore of being excited about this new edition of 40k I’ve not been neglecting my DzC. All the infantry is now assembled and I’ve got most of it sprayed, a couple of bases fell off my spraying stick and then there was one more incident. I leave the models to dry on a windowsill after spraying, as it’d been a nice day I had the window in the study open. One of the bases of Praetorians then decided to see just how could their parachute insertion was by managing to fall off the stick and then finding the one route to freedom and a 20ft drop. Amazingly I found all the little men with barely a scratch on them although I wouldn’t recommend literally dropping your elite infantry from second story window.

Back to the main topic, if you’re on the fence about the set I’d say get it. You get a lot of models for your cash and personally I think it’s a sound purchase. I’m already thinking about expanding one of the armies and the potential for some exciting stuff to do with the new rules.