When Ferrus Manus awoke to find himself alone amidst the wilds of Medusa he, as one would expect from a child, was scared and confused. However, unlike a normal child, he was scared and confused because he assumed that he was there because he was weak. Unlike many of his brothers, Ferrus did not seek out human contact but instead set about testing himself against the very worst creators Medusa had to offer. Only once he had bested the Great Silver Wyrm, in the process encasing his arms in living metal, did he seek out humanity and set about teaching them engineering and other secrets of technology.

At every turn he set out to assert his superiority. The living metal of his arms made him a warrior without equal and an artisan of extraordinary feats of engineering. Yet for all his efforts Ferrus Manus was never able to create anything of beauty and warmth. He ruled through fear of an unparalleled temper and his creations were cold functional things despite their sophisticated design. Even when the Emperor came to Medusa, Ferrus Manus challenged his authority.

As Manus took his place amongst his brothers he suddenly found himself but one of a flock of luminous beings. Many far more luminous than he. Horus was charismatic, Guilliman wise, Vulkan compassionate, and Dorn an architect without peer. All he had achieved turned to ash and Manus resolved to push him and his newly named legion to the limits to prove their mettle and supreme worth to the Emperor.

It was this crushing sense of inadequacy that would drive him to deliberately restrict the combat doctrine and units available to the Iron Hands to make them stronger, hardier warriors to prove that they were better than any other Legiones Astartes. He also allowed his sons to believe that flesh was weak, allowing a cult of personality to form around himself and his metal arms, the legion seeking to augment themselves at every turn. Unaugmented Legionaires were treated with mistrust within their ranks, it being seen as a slight against the Primarch. The sadistic truth of his actions wouldn’t be realised until after his passing in the Neimerel Scrolls in which he detailed his loathing for his metal arms and the horror with which he beheld the self-mutilation of his sons. The bitter and sad fact was that Manus’ loathing of flesh – particularly that of mortals – was actually the misdirected loathing of his contaminated body.

But he remained silent because Manus was, for all intents and purposes, a psychopath. He was utterly self obsessed, born of a staggering sense of inadequacy and self loathing that led to fury and abuse towards his sons. Failure of ill news was met with tantrums and violence. The successes of his brothers only further fuelled his rage, pushing his sons even harder even at the cost of their lives. Questioning his orders lead to scorn and derision because deep down Manus didn’t trust his instincts. He only new explosive violence that came from fighting the malignant influence of the living metal of his arms.

The only peace he could find, it seemed, was in the company of Fulgrim, the Primarch of the Emperor’s Children. On the surface this pairing seemed an unlikely one but Manus enjoyed Fulgrim’s beatific countenance and poets heart, it salved his tortured soul and helped him channel his energies in forging weapons of sublime beauty and devastating power. But even in these Manus took no pleasure beyond the weapon he crafted for Fulgrim. The hammer Fulgrim forged for him proved to be a psychological anchor for the troubled Primarch often wielding it as much to focus the humanity at his heart rather than channel the cold fury in his arms.

The true tragedy is Ferrus Manus is that he was always on a path to destruction. The rivalry and resentment he haboured for his brothers pushed him to seek out the worst of the fighting. To conquer the unvanquished foe. To prove his worth above all others. It’s entirely possible that when he heard of Horus’ elevation to warmaster his isolation was sealed, every kindness and gesture of fraternity would be met with hostility and derision, hiding the abject sense of failure and irrelevance that lay at his core.

As the years wore on Manus felt his control over the living metal of his arms slipping, pushing him further and further down a dark path that only Fulgrim or the crucible of war could salve. Manus was as doomed to an eternity of bloodshed as Angron unless he could win the battle of wills that he fought every single day against the constant and indelible symbol of his first and greatest failure. It remains to be seen if the Emperor was aware of Manus’ struggle. If he did he gave no indication which only further deepened his sense of isolation and his brothers mistook his profound and enduring depression as moodiness and ill cholor.

When the betrayal came Manus led the merest fraction of his Legion to Istvaan, determined to see the treachery for himself. It was as much about disproving his worst fear – that Fulgrim had become corrupted. If a being as perfect as Fulgrim could fall from grace what hope did he have? This was coupled with the betrayal, not against the Emperor but against him. Fulgrim was the only soul in the galaxy that understood him and even liked him. That Fulgrim should turn from grace was unforgivable to Manus and had he been victorious and slain Fulgrim there’s every chance that the despair that would have taken hold of him would have pushed him into the embrace of the Dark Powers.

It seems that Ferrus Manus was the doomed of the Emperor’s sons. The moment he landed on Medusa he was set on a path that would see him dead at the hands of one of his brothers, it would have just been a question of whose banner that brother rallied to. But tragedy over tragedy is that his passing left his sons pursuing a goal that he abhorred. Their continual augmentation in his name would be the final cut in a tortured soul as he was little more than an abusive father, lost in the shadow cast by his kin, justifying his choices. And with his passing the cycle continues and the Iron Hands embrace ever deeper an ill conceived truth until one day none of their humanity will remain and the legion will cease to exist, and Manus’ failure will be complete.

Those that read my review of Codex Tau Empire back in April will know that I was rather taken with the grey skinned bastards. So much so that I’m doing a little 1,000 point allies force to go with my two companies of Ultramarines. And those that read my review will also remember that I was rather taken with the Pathfinders. So it’s really little wonder then that I’ve got hold of a box and giving them the once over. For the greater good you understand…

Even before I read the Codex I was pleased when I heard that Pathfinders were going to be plastic as even when the Tau were first released the Pathfinders were a useful unit to have on the board, but the fact that they were metal and came in blisters of 3 and units of 6 meant that those that didn’t buy the big army box rather missed out. It was doubly true over the years metal models became increasingly expensive and the use of Pathfinders, especially with the introduction of railrifles, became more important.

The third iteration of the Codex has made at least one unit of Pathfinders a compulsory choice in all but name because they’re so damn good. Their options, especially the pulse accelerator drone (which increase pulse weapon range by 6″) means that although vulnerable in the open, they are a heavy hitting unit that can take on medium infantry as standard and then bring the pain on Terminators and the like with the handy addition of the aforementioned railrifles. To be fair the plastic models aren’t any cheaper than the metal ones were but you do get variety and lots of drones including the fooking massive recon drone. But more on that later.

So what’s in the box? Well two – which seems to be the norm these days – sprues that are crammed full of components.

I do have to hand it to the Games Workshop, although they’ve been pissing gamers off left, right and centre these last few months, they have really upped their game with getting the most out of the plastic. This arguably should make the models cheaper, but as I said – they piss people off. But I digress. The sprues are crammed with bits including some dudey pulse pistols, some pretty decent bare heads – at long bastard last – some spare pulse clips, bonding knives that don’t look lame and some other gubbins. Most importantly, you have enough bits to make a ten Tau squad armed with pulse carbines with bits enough to swap out three with railrifles or ionrifles or a combination of the two. So plenty of ptew ptew for your buck.

Although the fatigues on the legs are a little thin on detail and feel a bit more baggy than a recon unit would probably wear – and the poses are a bit shifty – the rest of the components are ace. The helmets have been refined and have improved comm aerials – just be careful trimming them free. All the weapons are crisp and the separate markerlights allows for the a degree of choice in how you build them. My small force doesn’t have them so the option of not sticking them on is good news for me. Although I suppose if you can be bothered and find magnets small enough you can make them removable.

Truth be told, the quality of the casting of the Pathfinders or the fidelity of the helmet antenna - especially compared to the Fire Warriors – or the quality of the weapons or the cool accessories, or the staggering lack of mould lines don’t steal the show. It’s the drones. They’re awesome. I mean. Awe. Some. The tits. The business. The dog hairy gonads. The recon drone is huge and may as well be Thunderbird 2 for all its whistles and bells including the pokeball grenade dispensers, a burst cannon and some nice detail. Plus the fact that you can mount it on a Devilfish is way cool.

But, importantly, it doesn’t feel like an after thought like accessories and ‘bonus’ often do. The only bummer is that, aside from the recon drone there’s only enough drone domes to make two drones. But if you’re not bothered about giving your fire warriors drones then you can make the set which does give your Pathfinders a pleasant amount of versatility.

The Pathfinder kit is one of the strongest unit boxes Games Workshop have done in a while. The arm poses coupled with enough accessories means that you’re knocking on the door of variety that the Space Marine tactical squad offers. Not quite mind you, but pretty close. But the sheer volume of cool shit makes up for it. And having the railrifles cast in lovely crisp plastic rather than metal just makes them as cool looking as the boltgun.

Throw in the fact that Pathfinders are frigging nails in the game and it’s pretty much an essential purchase if you’re collecting Tau. Unless you take a butt load of flyers, but that’s a story for another day.

Tau Pathfinders are available from Firestorm Games priced £18.

Ahhh, yes – board games… Games you can play with friends when you are bored. (No one has ever made that unfunny non-joke have they?) But let’s get serious. It’s been about a thousand years since my last board game article, so let’s take a look at another one. Shall we?

My most recent board game acquisition is Wizards of the Coast’s “Lords of Waterdeep.” In my book, this game has one major advantage right off the bat – it feeds on my feelings of Dungeons and Dragons nostalgia as the game takes place in Waterdeep (you could probably gather that from its name…), a city from the DnD fantasy setting Forgotten Realms.

Although it isn’t close to having any RPG elements, the fact that there are quests, and taverns, and guilds, and adventurers in this strategy game definitely enhances its atmosphere and ups the fun level for nerds like me.

But anyway…

“Stop Blabbing. Let’s Take A Closer Look At This Game…” “Well, Okay…”

In Lords of Waterdeep, the goal is to gain the most victory points during the game’s 8 rounds. Players each take on the role of a particular Lord (“you said there were no role-playing elements.” “shut up.”), with each of those giving a player a secret end-game victory point bonus. They also choose a color at the beginning of the game that determines what city organization each player is supposedly representing (ie. the City Guard, the Harpers guild, etc.), though it has no other affect on gameplay. During each round, players take turns sending their agents out into the city (the game board) to further their goals. And the primary way players gain victory points is by completing “Quest” cards.

Quests can be gained at the city’s inn (one of the spots on the game board), and are completed on a players turn once they can fulfill the quests requirements. These requirements take the form of particular resources, namely money and adventurers. Money is primarily gained from a couple of other board locations. Adventurers are little, wooden, cubed game pieces that are gained from multiple locations on the board. There are four different colors of adventurers, each representing one of the four iconic DnD classes (cleric, fighter, rogue, & wizard).

As mentioned above, the game board has multiple locations, each one with its own rewards. Players can gather adventurers, money, gain more quests, build new city locations, and gain and play Intrigue cards. Intrigue cards are special action cards that can sometimes offer special benefits to the player who plays them and sometimes create special challenges to opponents the cards are played on.

Here’s How A Round Works…

Players begin the game with a specific number of agents (game pieces that are placed on board locations to gain their benefits). Each round, beginning with the player who has the first player token (which can be stolen by utilizing one of the board locations), players take turns assigning one of their agents to a board location to gain whatever that location’s benefit is. Then, that player has the option to complete one of their quests if they can meet its requirements. If they can’t, or they choose not to, play proceeds to the next player to his left.

Play for the round continues until all players have placed all of their agents. Once that has happened, the round is over. Players retrieve their agents (thus clearing all of the city’s locations), and the game advances to the next round. In this manner, play continues through round 8, at which time the players’ final victory points are totalled, and a winner is declared.

Sounds simple enough right?

Here’s How I Rate This One…

Accessibility: 8 – In the 20 some odd pages of the rulebook, only 10 or so pages contain the rules needed to play the game. The others contain more in-depth descriptions/clarifications of individual cards and locations in the game. And although there are several components to this game, which at first might appear overwhelming, gameplay is actually simple and straight forward. Place your agent, and get the benfit. Complete a quest is you are able. Play passes to the next player. Throughout the course of the several games of Lords of Waterdeep that I’ve played already, we only had to google a rules clarification once. (When all of the vacant spaces where players can build buildings on the board have been filled, you CAN continue to build buildings. Just place them next to the board). All in all, you can be up and running on your first game in about half an hour. And it’s not difficult for even novice gamers to pick this game’s mechanics up once they’ve played a few rounds (I taught my 65 year old dad how to play on his birthday…and he enjoyed it!) Plus, I think I paid $50 dollars for it. This is right in the range of what I think is reasonable for a good board game. There are some notable exceptions (some excellent bigger box games like Space Hulk and 1st ed. Descent come to mind), but this game is a great value at $50 (cheaper on Amazon, but hey, go support your local gaming store!

Re-Playability: 8 - It’s a strategy game, so yeah, it’s definitely re-playable. Also, the fact that you play as a randomly-assigned Lord of Waterdeep every game somewhat changes what your strategy will be throughout the course of the game. Also, there’s a blank spot at one place on the board that the rules say will be utilized by an upcoming expansion. So look for this game to have even more future re-playability if/when wizards releases another product for it.

Fun: 9 – I’ve had a lot of fun playing this game, every time I’ve played. One 5-player game seemed to drag on just a little too long, but it turned out to be due to the fact that we were playing 2 of the rules wrong (we understood them; we’d just forgotten them!) This game takes about an hour to play, and is perfect for a night of fun with friends.

I’m actually going to add a fourth criteria for this one review…

The Game Box: 10 - The biggest headache with most games that contain a lot of pieces is the enevitable crappy box that does little to nothing to keep the components well-organized from game to game. A well crafted game box can literally save half an hour on setup the next time you play it. And the Lords of Waterdeep game box does exactly that! Well done, Wizards of the Coast! Top Deck could learn a lot from you when it comes to their Marvel Legendary game (maybe I’ll review that one next… *unwarranted maniacal laughter*)

Overall Rating: 8.75 (“Man, this guy sure likes parentheticals… and elipses”)

So there you have it. If you like fun board games, strategy board games, or fun strategy board games, then you WILL enjoy Lords of Waterdeep. Buy it! NOW!

And of course, as with every game review, I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you…

Until next time…

Avoid Playing Against Grey Knights!

John

John Caboche of The First Expedition forum is running a Horus Heresy Weekender charity raffle to raise money for Swindon Children without a Diagnosis which is an extremely worthwhile and important cause to support. Because it’s for children for crying out loud.

The prize is a fully signed copy of the Imperial Truth. I shit thee not.

And all you have to do is bip over to the First Expedition donation page and pledge ten splendid shiny pounds. One (extremely) lucky winner will be drawn at random and win the book. But there’s also some brilliant consilation prizes too which are:

Two fully author signed and Forgeworld signed programmes donated by Black Library

A Horus Heresy Weekender backpack (donated by BL)

An event only Loyalist Legions Poster

An event only Traitor Legions Poster

So get over there, donate £10, bask in the warm glow of your beneficence and if you’re really lucky, you’ll get an awesome prize for your trouble.

I should quickly point out that my hobby hasn’t been the only thing bumming me out, so other things have been re-evaluated too. But on the hobby side of things, I was beginning to question what enjoyment I was really getting from it and what I’m feeling burned out on.

One quick crowd sourced answer to the question of ‘shall I just flog everything and call it a day?‘ suggests that the best course of action would be to shelve it for now and wait for the spark to return, give it 6 months or so and go from there.

To be more specific, the ‘spark’ is only really missing from the gaming side of the hobby. I still love painting and modelling, I’m just feeling a bit bummed out from being hemmed in to what I can and can’t paint, stressed by how quickly I should get it painted up (because to game with unpainted models is a sin) and a whole variety of other factors I can’t be arsed to go into here.

I’m not restricted by force organisation charts or whatever is most effective for my army… I can paint whatever the hell I want

So for now I’m going to keep painting, keep modelling, keep building terrain because those are the things I really enjoy spending my time doing. After all, it’s the creative side of this hobby that really lured me into this hobby in the first place, playing games was just a happy side effect of having some painted models that seems to have taken control of what I can and can’t paint.

So.. the benefits of putting gaming on hold then are two-fold.. firstly, I’m not agonising over what to get next because I don’t care:

a.) whether it’s an effective choice for my army
b.) whether I’ve already painted 10+ of these suckers
c.) etc… !!

Secondly, thanks in part to the above, I’m not restricted by force organisation charts or whatever is most effective for my army… I can paint whatever the hell I want. It sounds daft but saying that out loud to myself has been quite liberating.

As a cheeky third bonus that’s just occurred to me, it means I can really go to town focusing on developing my painting skills rather than trying to find that happy ‘gamer’ balance.

But as far as gaming is concerned, for the time being I’m just going to shun anything that involves more than a handful of models and massively huge rule books. I still like playing games, who doesn’t? I just don’t want the headache I’m creating for myself by trying to bend the creative side of the hobby into line with the game playing side. Games I play for now will reflect that need until I want to get back into to it.

*But not really as drastic as a real existential crisis. And yes, I realise there’s some irony in using the word ‘real’ there.

Reblogged from The Shell Case:

Whilst at Salute this year I stopped off at good friend of The Shell Case, Amera Plastic Mouldings. I've always been a fan of the company as they produce great looking terrain at prices that won't make you begrudge paying it. And as scenery is often the last thing on a gamer's mind, that's a very important quality.

As I chatted with Andrew and Jane my attention was drawn to a massive piece of plastic with a sign on it that said 'Dreadball Arena available to pre-order'.

Read more… 699 more words

As I chatted with Andrew and Jane my attention was drawn to a massive piece of plastic with a sign on it that said ‘Dreadball Arena available to pre-order’. I immediately turned to Neil of The Chaps who was patiently waiting for me to finish prattling. He too had spotted it and was wearing the same silly grin on his face that I had. I uttered one word:

‘Halves?’

Neil, having been gripped by Dreadball fever by playing games with me, had just spunked his last £50 on a set at the Mantic stand and so was just as excited at the prospect of (a) having our own Dreadball arena and (b) not having to pay for it until after pay-day.

So we placed our order and all we had to do was wait…

Last Thursday I got a text from my wife saying ‘You’ve had a MASSIVE box arrive in the post. What have you ordered NOW?!’ Needless to say I unperturbed by my wife’s scorn, being rather use to it by now, and hugely excited that the Arena had arrived in time for the game of Dreadball I had arranged with Neil the following night.

So, what do you get for your £25? Well…a lot of plastic… (Dreadball board and giant chocolate buttons not included)

The look of the thing is the perfect amount of sci-fi. The temptation would have been to do something overly complicated and a bit mental, but instead Amera has focussed on keeping it functional whilst still looking completely awesome. And the nice thing is that the detailing it does have means you can go as mental or not as you like with the paint job.

And speaking of paint jobs. As Neil and I got increasingly into the game we concluded that the only thing for it was to buy another arena and paint one up in my team colours – the Lark Industries Iron Men – and the other in his – the Halsey Tech Spartans. Needless to say there was much giddiness and searching on the interwebs for places that sold metallic spray paint.

I love how much excitement having the arena brings to the game. It just makes the game grander. Somehow more immersive and fun. I suspect the plastic is laced with magic.

It’s a solid bit of kit too. It’s vacuum formed plastic like all of Amera‘s stuff but the design and size means that you don’t feel like you have to be precious with it which is good, especially as were you to play a league it’d see a fair bit of use. The only thing to be careful of is choosing the correct spray. You’ll need something hard-wearing as lifting boards out and throwing dice against it will need to chipping otherwise. And, thinking about it, because of the material it’s made of, you can quite easily decorate it with LEDS or ambient lighting. Which would be way cool.

The tiers mean that you can put spare/dead models out-of-the-way as well as have you coach models looking eagerly on. As the range expands, or if you have particularly deep pockets, you can have you bleachers packed with crowds. Although if you look around you can probably find some models that suit.

My only grumble, and it’s not even a fault just more of an idea that we had during play, is that the arena could also do with being an aid to play in that middle of each side could have a recess to keep the deck of Dreadball cards and/or a tray to put your action tokens in as you use them. To be fair it would detract from the authenticity of the arena but it’d be very convenient.

I absolutely bloody love the arena. It’s a total non-essential but makes the game just better. You can’t help but get captivated by that stadium atmosphere. And amusingly enough my iPhone fit in the recess that’s meant to look like the Jumbovision which means that you can bust out some appropriate tunes whilst you play. It’s also light weight and easy to store whilst being tough enough to take the punishment of regular use. And considering all of that £25 is an absolute bargain.

Twenty-odd years later and to be honest, little has changed. The toys are just a bit more expensive and require assembly and painting.

Fatherhood has brought many challenges, and among them is having to keep to a much stricter personal spending limit for as long as we are a single-income family. I would never begrudge this state of affairs, but it certainly has made me aware of the importance off choosing what I spend my ‘pocket money’ on.

This might not have been so hard a few years ago, when I was only really aware of GW games, but now I am aware of other companies like Spartan, Privateer, Prodos, Mantic, Hawk, and so on. This means that there is a dizzying array of options to stun one into the paralysis of indecision, barely able to choose a game system, let alone an army (or perhaps that should be which army, first). I’m the kind of person who gets stressed if I feel I can’t do something ‘properly’ and this goes especially so with hobby projects so the prospect of juggling multiple army projects across multiple systems has always filled me with an irrational sense of horror. I’m also capable of getting irrationally resentful of the time it takes to build a fieldable army in some games, which is perhaps a sign that I need to relax and enjoy the collecting more.

That said, in times when I have had more disposable income I have managed to splurge hundreds on models that I never touched, so clearly a happy medium is the ideal.

I blogged a few weeks ago about the siren lure of 40k and Warhammer that never really goes away, even though it’s been years since I played either. If money was no object, I could probably slip back into the embrace of GW with only a few qualms, but the fact remains that you have to buy a great deal of pricey models to play those games. That said, it’s a lot harder to ignore the temptation now that the codices and army books for armies I might actually want to collect are being updated.

Skirmish games might be the way forward, but finding one that appeals is the key thing. One thing I have liked though is the new Warzone Resurrection game from Prodos, which I backed on Kickstarter, and in the next week or so I should be invited to select which new shiny things I want them to send to me. I’m 99% sure I’m going to get some of the Capitol faction. For a long while I was leaning toward Bauhaus, but Capitol won me over with models like the Orca walker, Terminator-esque Heavy Infantry and the Purple Shark jetbikes.

After clearing the decks, getting rid of a lot of unwanted stuff and letting the dust settle after some rather abortive attempts at getting back into the wargaming hobby. It’s good to find something I feel happy committing my money too and to have what could be the beginnings of a proper hobby project.

Spurred by this I’m also starting to seriously look at maybe doing some small forces for 40k and WFB – maybe starting at a Combat Patrol sort of size, and maybe only aiming at a 1000 points I can use for the occasional knockabout game. Something that size should be reasonably easy to collect even if I can only buy one box per month and/or set myself a ‘no new toys until what I have is painted’ rule. In addition to the box of unpainted Dystopian Wars ships somewhere in my spare room, it looks like I could have a goodly few projects. Which will mean it is important that I remember what i said in my last post about taking responsibility for making sure I get some enjoyment out of my hobby.

Intro and what they’ve been up to
A look at the Dark Angels HQs, troops, and special rules/features
Warhammer 40k rules that we’d like to see changed
Things you should check out, which include the following:

· Samurai Jack on Netflix
· WTF Kitty on YouTube
· Two Iguanas and a Cat on YouTube
· Upcoming Meme with Matt eating strawberries
· Universal Battle (like Vassal but for Fantasy)
· Star Trek: Into Darkness
· Any other 40k army that’s not Dark Angels or Grey Knights
· http://phoboslab.org/ztype
· fantascape.com
· Lords of Waterdeep
· The Plan and Razor (first episode of Season 4 on Netflix)- A couple of Battlestar Galactica movies

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Christina Campbell (1983-2013) of Deepstrike Radio. She will be missed by many.

Warning: This podcast contains explicit content.

To Leave Topic Suggestions Or Other Comments…

Email us at info@hittingon3s.com

Join our forums HERE

Leave a comment below

Music Credits…

Where used, the bed music is used under Creative Commons.

Show Theme “March of the Ho3s” and excerpt from “40k Ho3down” written and recorded by Tim Drennon.

Promos provided by The 11th Company and The Heroic 28s

The “bed music” for our closing theme and promos was written and recorded by Galan Aldaco and/or John Laird.

As it is/was a landmark I thought I’d write about something very important. The Chaps.

The Chaps, you see, are a big part of why I love my hobby so much. Whether it’s writing campaigns for them, getting them into new games or just having huge amounts of fun playing games and generally acting like complete children, you won’t find a finer bunch of…um…chaps anywhere else.

The Chaps and I meet once a month for games night. We try and meet up more than this but it’s usually in a pair or a three. games night brings us all together so we can catch up, cock about and play games the only way blokes can.

It’s something I look forward to immensely.There’s few things better than spending an evening with your 5 best mates, rolling fistfuls of dice eating far too many snacks, drinking far too much coke, staying out far too late on a school night and generally messing about.

They each bring different qualities to the group in terms of gaming experience, gaming preference, faction choice, insight, painting method, snacks etc. But they share the same desire to play a game, have a giggle and not take it too seriously. We’re long past the point of worrying where we buy our models from, as long as they look the part. We’re also beyond arguing over an eighth of an inch here or a whisker out of charge range there. We play to the spirit of the rules and always try to put the narrative first.

Basically we’re in it to have as much fun as possible, not field broken lists in an effort to beat the sweaty middle aged fat bastard that tends to appear at every Wargaming club in the world.

The other thing that never fails to amaze and humble me is their willingness to trust me. Not just when I talk about new games but when the group has grown. Lee has only been a part of of the group for about a year and a half, but the others trusted my judgement that he was a good guy and would fit with our dynamic. And equally when I introduced them to prospective Chap, Mat, a couple of weeks ago they were equally trusting of me but, more importantly, welcomed Mat and made him feel at home.

It sounds like a snobby, exclusive, club and I suppose, in some ways, it is. But for me it’s more than that. The Chaps are family and I’m very lucky to have them. If there’s anyone out there with a similar group of friends then they’ll know exactly what I mean. If you don’t: go find some awesome Chaps to game with and your wargaming will never be the same.

To that end, this post is dedicated to Ian, Neil, Jeremy & Lee. You’re all awesome and long may our shenanigans continue.

I am still waiting for my season 2 stuff to turn up so I have to make do with finishing off my Season 1 stuff.

In the mean time though our club will be running it’s first Dreadball tournament on the 25th

So now I can add the PanzerGrenadier Lehr Command and platoon to my completed Germans.

PanzerGrenadier Lehr Command

PanzerGrenadier Lehr Platoon

So not that these are finished I can move back to the Dreadball pile and get cracking on with these guys. I am still waiting for my Season 2 stuff to come through so in the mean time I shall be finishing off my Orx team that I will be using during next Saturday’s demo day. So until next time

Intro and what they’ve been up to
A John Laird specialty segment
Board games we enjoy and you might too
Things you should check out, which include the following:

Marvel Legendary
Chuck (the TV series)
Painting your miniatures
The Cube 3D printer
Tabletop on YouTube
The Rise of Nagash
Iron Man 3

Warning: This podcast contains explicit content.

To Leave Topic Suggestions Or Other Comments…

Email us at info@hittingon3s.com

Join our forums HERE

Leave a comment below

Music Credits…

Where used, the bed music is used under Creative Commons.

Show Theme “March of the Ho3s” written and recorded by Tim Drennon.

Promos provided by The 11th Company and The Heroic 28s

The “bed music” for our closing theme and promos was written and recorded by Galan Aldaco and/or John Laird.

At first, speculation was that the entire line would be done away with, but as of May 4th our good friends at BoLS had a little more info on what was more likely to go (http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2013/05/specialist-games-going-going-gone.html).  While I’m not surprised to see games like Inquisitor or Mordheim being phased out, Epic and Battlefleet Gothic have a much more loyal following. While still not an integral part of the Games Workshop bottom line, the social media outcry is sure to be more vocal regarding these two. Of course, with GW suspending their social media accounts, that outcry will fall on deaf ears.

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook or have listened to our podcast with any type of regularity, you’ll know that I am very outspoken about GW and it’s completely illogical business practices. Typically the appearance of any decision they make seems sure to only destroy the game, as well as the company, that so many love. True to form though, their 1+ ward save always comes in to play.

While there is a lot of talk on the interwebs about why they may be doing away with the Specialist Games line and how it will alienate many, I for one happen to think it’s a great idea. Anyone paying attention to all the goings on at Imperial Headquarters in Nottingham can’t help but notice that Games Workshop is streamlining their product line. By doing away with games that do not have the following of the three core game systems (Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warhammer 40k and Lord of The Rings/The Hobbit) and choosing to keep the only Specialist Game that is able to sustain itself with minimal updates to lore, fluff, rules, models, etc (Blood Bowl), they are “drawing in the net”, so to speak, on their IP. This will allow the sculptors to focus on less models, thereby making new sculpts and reworks even better than the already fantastic sculpts that are there. It will give writers the ability and freedom to move around within the fluff without the constraints of current models/systems/lore holding them back. It will give the game designers the ability to focus on writing better and less confusing codices/army books and rules books, which in turn will lead to less updates through FAQ and Errata. All in all by streamlining the games and game systems that they promote Games Workshop should be able to produce an even better gaming experience thereby expanding their already large player base.

Games Workshop doesn’t often make sense in what is does in its business practices and their often seeming persecution and alienation of their retailer and player base often seems more counterproductive than helpful. But by doing away with the Specialist Games line they should be able to create and even more pleasant gaming experience, as well as compete with the myriad new miniatures companies that are coming about.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? See something more to this? Let me know, and thanks for reading!

Matt

What does this mean for you? Well that depends, do you play any of the specialist games range? or do you occasionally cough up a wad of cash for the ‘collectors’ range? (otherwise known as the ‘shamelessly re-cast some old stuff and mark up the prices’ range) – yes? Then it hits you. Go to Games Workshop’s site and stock up whilst you still can, go on, off you go. When you’re done, come back and we’ll continue..

Ok, all done? Brilliant. There’s a lot of hate being thrown GW’s way for this, but it’s hard to look at the facts and stay angry. The specialist games ranges haven’t been a high priority for a long time.. games that don’t require a massive outlay of cash for playable factions will never keep a company like Games Workshop afloat. Yes it was lovely in its heyday, but we know that today’s Games Workshop would never put themselves in a position where they have to support a product that doesn’t generate as much revenue as say, 40k or the LotR franchise.. and why would they? In doing so, they’d take staff away from those more popular franchises. Every hour spent sculpting / painting / making rules for an epic scale tank that only 1% of your customer base is interested in is an hour not spent sculpting / painting / making rules for a 28mm tank that the other 99% of your customer base are interested in.

Why only 1% of your customer base is interested in them is a completely different topic of conversation, one for another blog post I think so I won’t go delving into the nitty gritty of that particular drama bomb right now.

In a nutshell, it’s just not realistic to expect GW to continue supporting these ranges (and I use the term ‘support’ in the loosest sense possible)

On the plus side, the PDFs for all of the specialist games ranges are, at the time of writing, still available on the Games Workshop website and there are plenty of alternative model ranges out there. I mean, who actually bought the expensive bloodbowl teams from GW? Not me, they are prime conversion fodder.. as for epic? There is a plethora of alternate 6mm manufacturers out there that are just ripe for commandeering into an army from the grim dark future. Mordheim? Warhammer has everything you’ll ever want or need to fill our your average Mordheim warband. Again, you get the point, the rules don’t suddenly cease to exist the moment GW decide to stop casting in metal. Nor do 3rd party miniature manufacturers.

At the end of the day, the specialist games are generally a great bunch of games worth keeping alive, sure you won’t be able to play with official completely 100% legit Games Workshop Citadel Miniatures but if that doesn’t bother you, you’ll be able to enjoy the games nonetheless.

Overall the day was a success, I ran a few potential new players through a couple of games and they seemed genuinely interested. Fingers crossed there will be a few new recruits to the local Flames scene.

Whittman vs a lot of Russians!

I’m keen to keep purchasing hordes minis, but I’m conscious of the fact that I’ve not gotten on very far with what I’ve currently got. It’s taken me almost 3 months to get one Trollblood impaler painted. I don’t want to buy stuff just for it to gather dust for the next few months before I get a chance to build / paint it plus I have a dire troll waiting some loving too.

I’m also keen to carry on filling out my Malifaux arcanists crew but the next batch of models that I should get are a bit pap so my enthusiasm has taken a little kicking there.

I’m also conscious of the fact that dropzone commander is still a gorgeous looking game and I really want to give it a crack.

Then I’ve been painting up 40k bits recently as well but I don’t want to plow money at that until I’m certain I’m definitely going to play (after all, the bits I’ve been painting have been gathering dust for a year or two so I don’t consider it a lost investment if I don’t end up doing anything with them) – I do have a little 500 point starting force in mind, I’m mostly there with what I’ve got.. just need to throw in a dreadnought and some scouts and et voila, 500 points.

Then there’s the obligatory distractions such as x-wing and dreadball, the former I own but haven’t bought any expansions for (and again, I’m keen for it) and the latter I’m yet to try, yet both are crying out for attention.

God damn Wargaming ADD.

Intro and what they’ve been up to
A Ho3s Review of the new Tau codex
40k Quick Hits (that aren’t all that quick)
and Things that you should check out, which include the following:

Batman Beyond: The Return of the Joker (make sure you watch the unedited version, found on the Amazon link)
Epic Duck Studios (@epicduckstudios)
Shane’s resume (hire him!)
John’s mom
Hemlock Grove (Netflix original series)
Bobcat Goldthwait’s World’s Greatest Dad (free to stream with Amazon Prime) and God Bless America (free on Netflix Instant)

Warning: This podcast contains explicit content.

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Music Credits…

Where used, the bed music is used under Creative Commons.
This episode contains “Buffalo Gals” by The Heftone Banjo Orchestra

Show Theme “March of the Ho3s” written and recorded by Tim Drennon.

Promos provided by The 11th Company and The Heroic 28s

Closing Theme and HittingOn3s Promo bed music written and recorded by Galan Aldaco and/or John Laird.