Back In the Saddle

It's been a while since I've had a free moment to work on any personal projects or post anything to my blog. For the last two months my time has been occupied solely with finishing scenery commissions. If you attended Lock and Load you may have seen the buildings I made for Privateer Press: (More on these in an upcoming post.)

 

 

If you are going to Gencon, you'll be able to see more of my handywork– Some scenic demo boards for the Fantasy Flight booth, and a big display for Warcradle Studios. (I can't spoil these yet, but they are pretty cool.) I'll post plenty of pictures once the displays have been debuted at the shows.

In my previous post, I gave my opinion of the new edition of Warhammer 40K. Since then, the new Space Marine codex has dropped, but I have yet to get it or even even clip a single part off of a sprue from my starter set. There's also a new Path to Glory rulebook, and a new General's Handbook for Age of Sigmar, which GW just announced will be available for pre-order this weekend. They have also announced a re-release of the classic game Necromunda.

There's so much going on in just the GW hobby, (not to mention the new edition of Flames of War that I keep pretending I'll play someday) that it's nearly impossible to concentrate on any one thing. Focusing on one of those games and models with any significant level of commitment means neglecting the rest. And on top of it all, I'm still building new scenery kits for Skull Forge Scenics. Well, here are my thoughts and plans for everything:

Warhammer 40,000

The general consensus is that Primaris Marines will eventually replace "regular" marines. I guess the test of that will be how many regular marine models are released in the coming year or so. I have to be honest, compared to the Primaris models, the normal marines look a bit cartoonish, in the same way current marines make the models from 25 years ago look tiny and awful. So, I wouldn't be surprised to see the line evolve again.

 

 

There's also the the idea of using Primaris marines to represent "true-scale" regular marines. I don't know if that's going to become a thing, since there are clear rules for the two, and the Primaris seem to be filling the roll of a smaller, more resilient Space Marine force anyway.

I'm hesitant to mix Primaris into my Black Templars, so I'll be painting them as Imperial Fists and keep a clear distinction between the two chapters and model ranges. (At least until I build Primaris Templars to accompany a Sisters of Battle army if GW ever revamps that line.)

Age of Sigmar

The new General's Handbook is coming, and it has a whole slew of new artifacts and allegiance abilities for the different factions. We'll have to wait and see how the new Skryre stuff will impact my Skaven. As for the undead, it looks like Death players will be able to mix and match units and use allegiance abilities for the sub factions while including non-faction elements thanks to the new ally rules.

So, my Feral-aspect undead, centered around the ghouls, can include a menagerie of other beasts like dire wolves and bats while still benefiting from the Flesh-Eaters allegiance.

 

 

That's the assumption, at least. The previews listed specific keywords that the units could ally with, and I'm hoping it's open enough to allow that. Otherwise it will be back to the regular-shmegular Death alliance. I'd love to start playing with list ideas but, since the points are changing across the board, any lists would need to be readjusted in a couple weeks.

GW showed the table of contents for the different alliances, and there was no heading for "Deathrattle" which leads us to believe that there is a proper Deathrattle battletome on the way. Since the Tomb Kings line has been abandoned, I'm hoping some of the staple units will re-emerge with new model kits. Things like skeleton archers, horsemen, chariots, and a proper kit for a wight king with infernal standard.

Shadow War: Armageddon/ Necromunda

My Sisters of Battle Kill Team hasn't even gotten off the ground yet and Shadow War is already being overshadowed by all the enthusiasm for the new 40K and now the incoming Necromunda. I don't know how different (if they're different at all) the Necromunda rules will be from Shadow War. The only difference may be the gangs.

 

 

I still plan to finish up my Sisters, but the question is, do I really need to play two 40K warband games? I guess it will depend on the models and rules, specifically how the campaign and gang progression plays out. It will have to be pretty impressive because I don't feel like shelling out $50 for what could amount to basically the same rulebook. But the re-release of Necromunda gives me hope that a new Mordheim could be on the way.

Path to Glory/ Skirmish

Knowing that GW would release a proto-Necromunda game less than a year before the actual Necromunda gives me less incentive to invest in a new Path to Glory rulebook. I wasn't that impressed with the Path to Glory rules in the first General's Handbook. The new book has more comprehensive warbands, and some different avenues for progression, but it's still just a trimmed-down version of Age of Sigmar. It's obvious that it's just a way to play Age of Sigmar without a full-sized army, which is fine for people who are literally just getting started. But for me, Path to Glory seems almost too big for a warband game, somewhere between a regular army game and a skirmish game. I think Age of Sigmar Skirmish might be a better way to play little games with a sense of progression. I'd consider throwing down $10 for the Skirmish book, but when it comes to Path to Glory, I'd rather just play full-sized games or hold out for Mordheim.

There's no shortage of projects to work on. Looks like I've got my work cut out.

'Til next time!