Warhammer 40k pay to win.

Its no great secret that the digital gaming world is fast becoming a free to play venture. But with most of these free to play games there is still a price attached. They sell off bundle packs and all the good stuff separately meaning they gain a revenue from the people willing to pay for items to increase there In game ability's and weaponry etc. the system works. People don't mined paying the odd £3.99 for a better weapon in the game. Using planet side 2 as an example. The game is vast, huge in fact. And it's totally free. And for the most part is playable without ever having to pay a penny. The issue with this is of course when you go up against a bunch of guys who all have purchased weaponry. You are going to come off worse in most instances. But the option is there if you are struggling that much to buy a decent weapon so you are more equipped to deal with those situations.

We have a phrase for games like these. It's not free to play. It pay to win. And that's pretty obvious. 

Now wile I actually like some of these extra rules we are getting, and the supplements are great for fluff. It does seam as though GW are falling into the same trap with this pay to win. The supplements caused some upset, with some being just cheesy tournament lists. Farsights all suit lists, and 4 helldrake black legion lists. But they where not as common. We had the warriors code posted at the weekend, allowing is to use imperial armour, escalation, stronghold, data slates and practically any officially produced army list with exceptions to 30k lists. In all warhammer world events from now on. Now initially I thought this would be great. Elysian drop troop army's, chaos renegade army's, death Corpse army's. But just one little search of Games workshop on iBooks makes you realise just what is actually going to happen.

These data slates that where introduced mainly in the advent calendar that GW and black library produced at Xmas time are going to be the lists we will see at tournaments. Buy a data slate from iBooks and you can bring the best units from the new codex's without even having to worry about force organisation. 

And this is where the pay to win factor comes in, GW are producing a lot of these data slates now, I saw one today different from the tyranid one, allowing you to take 1-6 storm talons per unit. 

As long as you have a tablet PC you can purchase these overpowered lists for £4.99 and become the ultimate douche bag at you next GW tournament,  ok calling someone a douche for taking advantage of these data slate rules is probably harsh. But for the most part true.

And granted yes GW has always been pay to win of sorts. But it's getting worse and worse now. A box of 3 centurions, that uses less plastic than a tactical squad does for half the price. Hell 3 centurions are more expensive than land raiders. It has long since been a case of paying for a stat line over the model it's self. I think we all know this. So yes I personally think that GW is turning into a pay to win game system. The more money you can throw at extra rules the more games you are going to win. 

It is now legal to turn up to a GW tournament. With a space marine captain, two 5 man space marine squads and a Reaver Titan. Just as long as you have a copy of escalation and the latest FW updates.
Sure you cant grab many objectives using only two 5 man squads, but neither can you openent when his entire army has been wiped out by a reaver titan on turn 2.

But yet I'm not going to say any of this is Games workshops fault. At the end of the day all they are doing is producing more rules to keep a game system alive, And get people to buy more models. I applaud them on some of the rules, death worlds, and massacre being awesome little systems to play with. But if I am perfectly honest about this. the 40k game system has enough holes in it without having to add any more. 

I guess we will fined out just how bad things are going to get when the warhammer world tournaments start up again. 

Tabletop Tyrant figure cases.

So we have all spent hundreds, thousands in some cases on are miniatures, and countless hours painting them, to get them looking good, I have one friend who spends 8 hours per space marine 8 flipping hours!!! I paint 40 in that time. How ever the quality does show. But with that a side, no matter how long you spend painting or how much you spend on the models them self's, you want to protect them. Now when it comes protecting your minis we have a few options available to us. On the top of scale price wise we have battle foam, expected but yet the quality and versatility of the product is very high. Plus the option to customise each and every tray adds to the protection of you models. We then have the next big contender KR multicase. Now these are also very good the quality is not up to par with BF, but this shows in the price. Around £35 will get you a cardboard box with enough foam for say   A battalion box from GW. They also do aluminium boxes as well as ruck sack style bags that you can load the card board into. Then we have GW own......... Moving on.

So TT figure cases. Have a range similar not quite as big as battle foam. Different sized bags that fit different amounts of foam. But I'm going to be talking about 2 bags in particular, as in my mind they give both the best versatility and the best bang for buck. There is a £20 difference between each of these bags. The dreadnought bag offering hard plastic sides and multiple pockets for storing gaming supplies. Whilst the standard bag just offers storage for foam. The dreadnought bag weighs in at £65 whilst the standard bag is a mere £41. Now bare in mind both those prices include the bag fully loaded with what ever foam you. Can fit in it. On the gift for geeks website there is a tool to create your bag, and add it to your basket with the foam you require. You get 8 slots in total. That's 5 more troop trays than the £36 GW model.

The cases are well made With Zips that don't pull apart, this is my pet hate, and even on my very expensive Makita tools bags, this is an issue. The canvas is Waterproof so you dant have to worry about your army getting wet whilst walking to your local gaming meet. And the shoulder traps are not only strong, but the release catches are easy to use if you want to take them off for any reason. Foam wise You have as many options as you like as the TT cases hold Battlefoam, KR multicase, and GW foam. Making them a great Substitute for Heavy Aluminium cases or Cardboard cases. Whilst not costing you a fortune.

 

And the cost is something that needs a comparison. So below is a list of the closest Product for product comparison.

 

 

 Battlefoam P.A.C.K 720:   

 

Holds 9  troop tray's, Pockets for storage, hard side walls Cost £148

 

Games Workshop Large troop Carrier:

Holds 6 25mm troop trays, No pockets for storage, Hard plastic case, Cost £61.50. WARNING! chance of being beaten up whilst walking to a game, due to the huge Warhammer or Warhammer 40k stamped case.

 

KR Multicase Kaiser 2: Holds 8 troop trays With pockets for storage, Soft side walls, cost £76

Tabletop Tyrant Dreadnought Case: Holds 8 Troop trays, Hard side walls, Pockets for storage, Cost £61

Tabletop tyrant Tyrant case: Holds 8 troop trays, Soft sidewalls, No pockets for storage, Cost £41

Tabletop Tyrant cases closer look....

 

 

 

The front pocket on the case is large enough to carry bags of dice, tape measures, all the normal gaming items you need with you.

There are side pockets on eaxh side, that fit the 40K templates,

Inside a selection of foam, currently holding my Dark Eldar army.

In this foam tray I have:

• 20 Warriors
• Archon
• 10 Jetbikes
• 10 Scourges
• 5 Helions
• 2 Raiders
• Razorwing Jet Fighter.

High quality zips, mean that the bag will stay shut during transport with out the zips splitting apart, and the quick release catches for the shoulder straps are secure yet easy to operate.

Inside of the case, there is a Pocket big enough to carry a new style hardback Codex, even when full with foam.

To sum up, I think the TT cases give you the best bang for buck. With strength and durability, plus nice soft foam to protect your mini's. If you are looking for a new Figure case then head over to http://giftsforgeeks.org.uk And click the Build Your Case Now button, to start customising your TT case.

 

  

Hobby Update

Well I have been slightly inactive on the blog for a wile. In truth, I have had so much Hobby time available I have made good use to it. But now the Xmas holidays are far gone, And Its back to work time for me. (well maybe next week) 

So i will be slowing down on what gets painted, in some ways that's a good thing, as sometimes you speed increases but your skill does not. So its good to have a slow down for a wile.

I have practically stopped doing the world eaters at the moment, and concentrating on other army's. Its not that I'm bored of them, its more the fact that I have done the bulk now. All the troops are done, and a few key units. I expect once they release Kharn I will get back to them. But they are staying in there sealed zip lock forge world bags for now.

I have been getting on with my Eldar allies for my Dark Eldar of late, apart from doing a Farseer on a Jetbike conversion I'm practically done with them. Even picked them up a Revenant Titan that I can now use in games of Escalation.

Actually been playing the game as of late as well, had a great game of Escalation (was more apoc than escalation) at Warhammer World with some friends to end a great hobby year, and I think all 4 of us went home with empty pockets. used twice as much fuel on the way home as the journey up to Nottingham due to the weight of all the resin we had to carry back home with us.

Also been getting ready for my Local clubs Badab War campaign. And randomly decided instead of using my world eaters as a chaos army. I would just do an entire new army. So went out and brought all the models I needed for a Tyrants legion Army. and then was greeted on twitter by a tweet from Forge world with a link to the new Tyrants Legion Army list, so that worked out rather well.

I have about 2000Pts worth all in so far with most of that painted and ready bar some 40 imperial guard. but they will be done soon, and ready to shield the Astarte's of the Astral Claws from incoming fire.

Looking forward to the Campaign, I'm not to worried about winning any games, hence the nice fluffy list rather than a 120 zombies and 3 helldrakes.

Talking of the campaign We need to figure out some sort of Fortress wall to use in the end game. Would love to have the funds available to spank £800 on the forge world imperial fortress. But don't see that happening. 

So anyway, A few Pictures of some models I have been doing. Also have a 2 in 1 review of Table Top Tyrants Figure cases, And Gifts for Geeks own brand of Foam trays.

Codex: Inquisition sample pics.

Here are some screen shots from the latest sample up on iBooks. Codex: Inquisition

GW are no longer giving any thing rule wise away in these samples now, so all we are left with is a few pictures, and a bit of fluff. Not really worth the 20 seconds it takes to download these now. At least with Eldar sample we actually got a few snip bits of rules, that made a huge buzz around what the rest of the book held for us. I hardly think giving away 1 or two little rules will cost you sales GW, if anything it will raise sales.

World Eaters Terminators: Special weapons.

Pulled my finger out and finished the first 5 terminators for my world eaters, I did the specialist weapons first comprising as you will see of mostly flamer based weapons, Heavy flamer, and Combi bolters/flamers. Also an Auto cannon and Plasma gun. 

My terminators will mostly be comprised of Flamer based Weapons, as this will make them not only great Assault troops, but be able to put out walls of death against any units that are stupid enough to charge a World Eater. I have 15 left to do now, 10 of them need minor sorting out after a really bad Undercoating, consisting of still after 3 washes, the paint still did not stick and the undercoat just flaked off. With the 5 I have pictured now, I actually sprayed purity seal on the bare resin first, and then used undercoat. The clear coat has a slight Etching effect to it, so it bites into paint and protects it, This works to the advantage of biting into the resin and providing a nice Matt coat on what you can then undercoat onto.

Weathering 101

 Been asked a few times Now on some Forums how I go about weathering my world eaters stuff. So rather than make a half ass reply to people, I thought it best I do a little Tutorial to show you guys how I do it. And like anything in this hobby eventually you will work out your own ways of doing things that work best for you. Now this tutorial took me all of 30 minutes to do, from spraying the model to finish. That gives you some sort of idea at just how fast you can achieve the heavily weathered look. Spending a little more time on Parts will obviously give better results, but for a basic 101 in World Eater weathering this will do.




Now you will need a few things here, most important is High density foam, the sort you fined in the back of old metal blister packs, of packing foam. A cheap Washing up sponge also works. And secondly Cotton swabs, these are a must, if you are in the UK you can grab a pack of 500 for 99p. 
Then you are going to need a half decent brush, if you have a brush that you use for edging models, that is the brush you want to use. Then there are the optional tool, craft knife, pin drill and something to make scrapes/gouges, I use an old Airbrush needle. These items depends on if you want to add some damage to your Models. 

So the first step is to get your model Painted like it would be if it rolled off the production line, And Built, if you are like me and paint everything before you glue it together. For this tutorial I am using a Rhino side section, as you get a few spare when you buy the MKI Rhinos from forgeworld, so these sides give you and excellent practise piece. And for this I'm just going to leave it on the Sprue, as its never going to get used, and will most likely end up in the bin after I finish this. 

So its time to give it a warn paint look. Easiest way to do this is using some high density foam. You want to rip a small piece off that you can pinch between your fingers, and then you can start to shape your self a little tool, I fined a Domed shape is best to use, and then make one that goes to a point, for smaller hard to reach places.

Now what colour to use............... If you have a two colour paint scheme this is very easy to choose, you just use the colour that there is the most of on the model, in the case of my world eaters this is White. The reason for this is we have to imagine that the colour with the less percentage is going to be painted over the main colour. So with my World Eaters, this will be the Blue painted over the white, So when the blue paint is damaged and chipped or just worn down the white paint will start to show through. 

So as you can see below on the blue areas i have sponged on some White Scar, to give the effect of the blue paint worn down, or chipped away.

The next stage is deeper amount of damage, we can assume that in the 41st millennium, they did not bother to make indestructible paint. SO we need to add the effect that in places the paint has worn off so much that we are down to the bare metal.  or for what passes for metal in the 41st millennium. So the next stage is to take Leadbelcher or Bolt Gun metal for the old school paint. and sponge it on.

 When applying the Silver paint you want to sponge over the white that you have created on the blue sections as well. sponge all the edges you want to, you can go for very subtle amounts or like I do with my world eaters, go very heavy. The sponging will naturally pick out edges, but after you finish with the sponge you want to use your edging brush and make sharp edges just as you would if you where to highlight the edges of your models. you only want to do this on the areas that you applied sponging too, I suggest making it heavier on the front edges and the bottom edges.

Now we want to highlight that silver with a lighter silver, for this I use Iron breaker, this give the appearance of a just scuffed of damaged part, or an area that is constantly being hit or rubbed against, so areas like around the door, and the front and lower edges especially.

Now this next step is not for everyone, For reasons I will explain at the end. But for now, this is how i make my rust effects. This consists of Vallejo Light red, and Vallejo Burnt Umber. You want to get a lot of red down first and then add a single drop of Burnt umber at a time, as light red is a very washy colour, and burnt umber easily overpowers it. so just add what you need, don't just splodge some on and hope when its mixed it works as it wont, "GO EASY WITH THE UMBER YA HEAR" .

Once you get a colour that you like, Then you can go up a notch and add in some weathering powder, this gives a deeper colour, and if you don't mix it in perfectly you get a change in colour on parts that also gives a better rust effect.

 Again sponge this on, but do it sparingly, and only do it on areas of silver. if you apply to much here you can wait till it drys and go back over it with silver, and you will get the same effect, Sometimes I do this step before the silver, but its entirely up to you and how you work with it.

 After you have done all of that its time to tie the whole thing together, And like any lazy Painters a wash is the best way to do this, but also add more weathering effects at the same time. For my world eaters, I use a mix of 70% Agrax Earthshade and 20% Nuln Oil, depending on your colour scheme you may need to adjust this, for yellow like Imperial fists I would be looking at a 50/50 mix, and maybe add in a medium as well, as to much Agrax earth shade will turn yellow very brown. I have a few pots ready mixed of this, and ready to go.

Applying the wash is simple, get ya biggest brush, and paste the model in it, cove everything in it, metal work, etc. even things like purity seals. Worst thing I have seen weathering wise, was a nicely weathered tank, but with bright and clean purity seals and emblems. Its like the Servs, decided to only clean parts of the tank on to save time. So at this stage everything gets it.

 
 Now the most important bit, removing that wash. This is where a ton of cotton swabs comes into play. you want to remove that wash you just splatted over the model by rolling the swabs back and forth, changing them over for clean ones regularly. Then on the high spots, you want to use a clean swab and rub hard, this will bring more of the base colour through the wash and in some respects give it a sort of highlight. the wash also tones down all of the rust effects and brings out the difference between the two tones of Metals you applied.

And that peeps, is that, a very very fast way to weather your models using my world eaters technique as an example. Now I mentioned earlier about the rust effects, If you happen to play with a bunch of guys that for some reason know the ins and outs of the particles that make up Ceremite, you may wish to skip the rust effects, hell skip the metal effects. we all know our self's that in the 41st millennium they probably wont use a material that rusts, hell if the name has anything to do with it then Ceremite is some sort of ceramic material hardened by the hairs from L337 Neck beards from the virgin stock of basement dwellers. and as such probably is not silver in colour even though th colour of Grey knights can be argued here as there armour is apparently bare Ceremite. and it wont rust. however we want a look to our models that says they have been through hell and back, and the easiest way to do this is by giving them chipped paint and rusty metal.

World Eaters Sicaran Battle Tank.

Got the Bulk of the Sicaran done tonight, Just need to Hit it with the weathering powders, And she is done, ended up going with Heavy Bolters for the Sponson Weapons. The extra point's cost of the Lascannons are not worth it considering the amount of Heavy Weapons available to me with this army.