o/
(kicks the dust off of this ol' blog to see if its still alive...)
So, the State of my 40k, my on-again off-again series where I usually just whine/rant about 40k. Rather than just focus on any one army this time I think I'll just do an overview of all of them. Big things are afoot, both around the world and even here locally.
The Nova Open reveals have induced nerdgasms the world over in the 40k realm, a new psychic...something is coming for all factions! SoBs finally have a release date, PLASTIC aspect warriors after decades of begging!
Emprah be praised! What will we buy first????
Locally, there's a 40k escalation league at the FLGS, with prize support and best of all: the only models that get objective secured have to be painted to at least a table top standard! Hell, even Bob, a long-time 8th ed. hold out has a Knight nowadays, as apparently that's what's required to remain 'competitive' in 8th's kick their teeth in with pay-to-win models and make 'em cry meta.
Seriously, every pick-up game I saw in the last few weeks in which I was still a regular at the FLGS' game nights looked like games where any of my armies would be dead on arrival.
Even Neverness' infernal 20+ shots a turn flyer all but wrecked my army on turn one, killing a squad and a half in one volley, requiring my entire army to shoot at it the next turn in hopes of taking it out (which we all know is a really shitty way to try and enjoy a game). Oh, and before you get defensive and bring up the turn 2 'Vyper incident', I'm certain that that was a miracle of dice which will likely never be repeated.
Besides, its not your fault anyways, but rather GW's insistence on making I win button rules to sell over-priced models (Custodes army anyone?) taking just about all strategy out of the game because my new stuff is awesome and your old stuff isn't. Speaking of...don't tell the trolls that infest teh interwebz that you're tired of primaris updates/releases (lieutenants excluded, everyone's sick of those) because without constantly getting newer and better and better releases on a seemingly never-ending basis, that army is (quote) unplayable.
Seriously, every pick-up game I saw in the last few weeks in which I was still a regular at the FLGS' game nights looked like games where any of my armies would be dead on arrival.
Even Neverness' infernal 20+ shots a turn flyer all but wrecked my army on turn one, killing a squad and a half in one volley, requiring my entire army to shoot at it the next turn in hopes of taking it out (which we all know is a really shitty way to try and enjoy a game). Oh, and before you get defensive and bring up the turn 2 'Vyper incident', I'm certain that that was a miracle of dice which will likely never be repeated.
Besides, its not your fault anyways, but rather GW's insistence on making I win button rules to sell over-priced models (Custodes army anyone?) taking just about all strategy out of the game because my new stuff is awesome and your old stuff isn't. Speaking of...don't tell the trolls that infest teh interwebz that you're tired of primaris updates/releases (lieutenants excluded, everyone's sick of those) because without constantly getting newer and better and better releases on a seemingly never-ending basis, that army is (quote) unplayable.
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| Clearly that wasn't a very good Martini. |
...and thru all of that, even with my new projects and 40k purchases I'm just kinda meh. Hell, I'm not really even interested in playing 40k right now, with most all efforts going towards Battletech and a bit of Rogue Stars. Anyways, onto the state of my 40k...
Da Long Wayz Dezert Groop
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| Da Groop, assembled for their most recent battle. |
The baby squiggoth is still on hold, and still awaiting greenstuff. Guess I ought to just order it online given that I almost never make it to the FLGS these days. Also, Krump and Pittance are getting demoted back to a mere nob (appropriately enough, even as puns) as I have a new Da Masta Cheef warboss mini which needs to come out of it's bath of simple green water to remove the resin-mold release agents. Someday I might even assemble my dakka jet as well.
Orks will always be one of my favs, and its doubtful I'll ever sell the army (again) due to too many sentimental models, and following my 7th ed rage-quit/ebay sale and the subsequent horror/anger of My Beloved Wolfy when finding out I'd sold the lion's share of them. As such they're currently holding steady at approximately 1000-1250ish points.
Orks will always be one of my favs, and its doubtful I'll ever sell the army (again) due to too many sentimental models, and following my 7th ed rage-quit/ebay sale and the subsequent horror/anger of My Beloved Wolfy when finding out I'd sold the lion's share of them. As such they're currently holding steady at approximately 1000-1250ish points.
Spess Mahreenz
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| Its pretty obvious that GW doesn't give a fuck about any marine that isn't a Primaris marine, and personally I find that heartbreaking. |
To be honest, I'm thinking of liquidating my army again the 500ish points that are left of it (and what little I have left for 30k too). I'll just keep my Rainbow Warriors, Relictors, and Silver Drakes Kill Teams, and my ancient Predator will go into stasis in my dust-proof display box. Technically the Rainbows would still be field-able as a patrol consisting of a Lt., a minimum tac and scout squads and the pred., but I seriously doubt anyone would want to play a game so low in points. So just kill teams for them I guess.
The Eldar
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| Only three left to go... |
The Corsair re-arm-ament is almost complete, though I did keep a squad of 10 Iyanden Guardians with lasguns as is. They are all painted decently, needing only minor touch ups, and match one another relatively well. In doing so they've spawned another project/idea that I'm looking into but I'll get to that below.
Having removed about 200ish points just in over-priced lasblasters alone, my Corsair/Exodite/Craftworld menagerie is holding steady as about the 1k mark. The Corsairs are in dire need of a cohesive paint scheme though!
Having removed about 200ish points just in over-priced lasblasters alone, my Corsair/Exodite/Craftworld menagerie is holding steady as about the 1k mark. The Corsairs are in dire need of a cohesive paint scheme though!
Dark Mechanicus/Renegade IG.
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| No doubt you can see the need for my cultists to eradicate this clearly deranged foe... |
Nope, no further progress on the Venomcrawler from my last post. I did get a 3rd squad of cultists cheap though bringing that little band of misfits up to about 300 points. They just need some motivation by me which is sadly lacking these days.
RETROHAMMER
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| Kinda sad to think that these convoluted rules were a simpler time... |
Going back to those Iyanden guardians with lasguns. In looking at my whole Iyanden contingent, they're all 2nd ed models (like many Eldar armies due to 20 year old metal aspect warriors still being the standard), so I looked to our friends in France and sure enough, they had all of the 2nd ed rules, codexes, etc. available as PDFs and I downloaded all of it (well, only the codexes that are relevant to me), and assuming I can figure out the old rules again, maybe see if Neverness (or somebody) would be interested in playing some 2nd ed retrohammer at some point.
2nd ed does have the issue of not including My Beloved Wolfy's Fem Fa'Tau as they weren't invented yet, but she currently has zero interest in playing 40k at this point, and thus her 2kish army of Tau remain in stasis.
*****
Well I think this rant post has a high enough word count to make up for my recent lack of posts...lol.
I do lament the total lack of interest of normal Marines, the writing is on the wall for them, the new announcement of “rules forever” is just the cover to say the next SM Codex will not include old Marines. The new Impulsor replaces the Rhino, the Repulsor replaces Land Raider, the Phobos range will expand and give new Scout craft and bikes and Assault Marines, then my 17,000pts Of Relictors will be assigned to history.
ReplyDeleteThe really frustrating thing for me is that if you can manage to arrange a game between two actually balanced Armies, 8th can have some pretty solid strategy. But that's a really big "if", because the gap between the weakest and strongest Units is fucking huge these days. Even when you're trying to put together a balanced game, it's stupidly easy to accidentally mess up and end up with one force or the other having an overwhelming advantage.
ReplyDelete2nd Ed wasn't really any better, it was just that the broken stuff was less widely known. But there were some things, like Ork Pulsa Rokkit spam or an entire Army composed of a single Squad of Wolf Guard Termies waiting to teleport in at the bottom of Turn 4 and blow away half your force, that were even worse than anything today. You literally didn't even get to play the game in those matchups. It was purely a matter of who got the first turn. Most of my really awful Tournament experiences were during 2nd, actually.
@Siph: Well technically the Relictors are renegades anyways so...
ReplyDelete(runs and hides!) I kid, I kid!!! Yeah its really just awful I think, and its simply killed any and all interest I have in doing anything with the ones that I have. Hell, I may just keep my relictors as aesthetically they're the most interesting (i.e.: Goliath/Khorne Berserker hybrids), and ditch all of the rest.
@WestRider: Sorry to jog a bad memory. :-(
As for 'balanced' 8th ed games, basically what you're describing is the Ork vs. Ork games that Neverness and I play on a semi-annual basis. They are easily the most enjoyable of 40k games that I play these days, but sadly quite rare.
Also don't get me wrong, 2nd was no picnic either. Honestly I just chose that edition as it was the last to *officially* use guardians with lasguns (though in all honesty, I could use 'em in any edition as I'm sure my opponents would much rather deal with those crappy guns than shuriken cats!). I learned to play in 2nd and was taught by WAAC players.
Not knowing any better I was a WAAC player as well, thru and thru. Games of 40k were cut throat and tense as hell, in hindsight I wonder why I I even stuck with it those first few years other then for the minis. Personally, I think 5th was the best edition, and can easily download those books as well. It was probably more nostalgia (and those guardian lasguns) that made me look at 2nd. I'll tell ya one thing though, trying to make an army in 2nd is a very alien experience.
I haven't bought anything in 6 months. The glut of new releases has actually put me off. Thats not to say that I won't fall off the wagon again but I know I will never be able to keep up with the rampant consumerism so I've stopped trying for the moment. I feel your pain on the shawty marines but I actually built a Primaris army last year and it's already out of date and invalid.
ReplyDeleteNo worries. Bad memories jump out at me all the time anyhow, this was just a bit of variety from the usual "awkward social situations in 10th grade that my brain thinks I need to know about still" XD
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's easiest to do with mirror matches like that. Trying to work it out even with something like Death Guard vs. Ultramarines is pretty hard, and something like Nids vs. Eldar is almost impossible.
I can totally get that. There are definitely a lot of things I miss about 2nd Ed. Wargear options and all that sort of thing. Just not the actual Rules as a whole ;)
5th was a good edition. That was when I really recovered from my reactionary fluff-bunny-ism and figured out how to bridge the gap between casual and competitive relatively well. The Codexes were kind of hit or miss, tho, and I really missed the preceding Nid and CSM Dexes in particular. But the overall rules set was really solid, and 6th Ed would probably have been better just as a refined and tweaked version of 5th rather than a gateway to the mess that was 7th.
@Monkeychuka: Yeah I dunno how they think that people can always just BUY! BUY!! BUY!!! all the time. Sure we all have some discretionary income and as a company they need to remain relevant, but the neverending onslaught is just...exhausting.
ReplyDeleteBesides, its not like we could never buy another mini ever, and still get every last mini painted.
I haven't had the heart to open up the case and post the marines up for sale yet, but it is (sadly) only a matter of time. :-/
@WestRider: "awkward social situations in 10th grade" ugh. if 40k reminded me of high school, I'd have quit it cold turkey decades ago (god, its kinda hurt to put that 's' on decade'...).
Looking in hindsight, I recall having the most fun with the game in 5th, though I did miss the old CSM codex desperately!! 6th reintroduced allies with a totally broken (fluffwise) chart but otherwise wasn't too bad, but GW was in dire financial straits and released 7th for nothing more than a quick influx of cash (perhaps not entirely true, but that's certainly what it felt like), and our local group suddenly fractured once the new rules were fully digested.
Personally I don't think it fully recovered and was only exacerbated by 8th, but there's a new generation that's coming in and maybe that's what GW wanted all along, to get rid of us, bitter players clinging to nostalgia, rather than viewing the path forward with glee.
The high school memories are more or less my baseline. Depression sucks. The 40K bad memories were a bit of variety ;)
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that what came out as 7th was supposed to be 6th, but management/marketing locked them into a release window before they were done with it, and it became a sort of half-assed transitional thing. By that point, it def needed a hard reset, but the one we got with 8th didn't hold up, because it still needed to encompass Super-Heavies.
Those are the element that, to me, feels like it's done the most to rip the game apart. Not purely in and of themselves, but once they were in, and weapons intended to counter them were widespread, it kind of invalidated the whole middle ground. It's very difficult, if not impossible, to have a single game cover a scope ranging from Guardsmen to Titans and everything in between effectively. Anything that can handle both extremes will just laugh at the stuff in the middle.
If 7th is what 6th was suppose to be, that's a bit unsettling (and then again I might have been be entirely out of 40k at this point).
ReplyDeleteAlso yes, nuking apoc and folding it into 40k was a REALLY bad decision in my opinion. That lends to less-than-fond memories of: Sure, I've killed an Eldar knight, but most of my army died in the process and the rest of the Eldar were left to more or less run amok at my expense. The local escalation league has one knight-centric army and at least 1 other knight in it. I just don't care how cool they look, they all but require one of your own to field in order just to survive, much less have a chance at winning or, hell just having fun. Because as you've pointed out, they make a mockery of most of what the game is about in the 1st place.