The State of the Nation 2015 - Part 2

So upon review I have realised that I had left out Malifaux from my plans for the year. Far from being intentional I guess it's the issue you face with so many games in various states of activity. As such I thought I would write another post that included Malifaux and then discuss a couple of other things that I've been considering since the last post. 

So Malifaux. 

The State of the Nation 2014

I realised a few days ago that I set up this blog four years ago today, and wow, I've dodged a lot of painting since then! A canny reader will see that I've got older posts than that, but they were added retrospectively from my old forum posts so that I still had them after the forum shut down. The very first post concerned itself with my plans to assemble a pre-bought Adeptus Mechanicus Battlefleet Gothic fleet. In the end, it never came to fruition as we never really got stuck in to that game. Instead it went a long way to financing my early Trollbloods. 

I've done a lot since then, and many plans have been devised and sidelined in that time, but I think that it has been for the better.

I wrote a similar post to this last year, albeit a little earlier in the year than this. In it I outlined my plans going forward. I shall do this here this year, but first I intend to reflect on that post a little and provide an update on some of the systems.

I spoke about sticking with one list for each system, namely the chaos army for each but with the addition of a Daemon Army that was in the pipeline. This has stalled. 

I've felt very let down by GW over the last couple of years. I feel that they are stretching the customer's finances more and more with each release and yet are not actually adding much of value for it. I understand that this is just my point of view, however this is sadly how I feel. The only thing keeping my from shedding my collection wholesale is that they are stored for the move that never seems to get nearer. However there is a strong possibility that I shall be unboxing them to go on eBay. 

I plan to keep a couple of armies, and at least one for each system, but this is more in hope than expectation that things will improve. Frankly I'm having more fun with other systems, and the best way for me to finance these is to use money from sales of unwanted armies.

No real change here. I didn't have time last year, and that hasn't changed. A new edition has been, or is soon to be released, I'm a bit out of touch, and yet still as much fun as it was, it took too long to play a game at a worthwhile size; and the amount of clutter from tokens, markers and dice to indicate hit points etc was far too fussy. At some point I intend to re-look at this, but it won't be for some time and will probably be with the Russians. 

This has developed in to my main game over the last year. I'm very much enjoying the game and am really beginning to get the hang of my Trolls. I actually even have some of them painted now. This was so that I went to my first tournament with at least some models were painted.

Last year I spoke of sticking with Jarl and the Hunters Grim, however in a twist of fate, Grissel2 is now my strongest caster. She is the new thing now albeit with a different list to mine), but at the time many didn't rate her too highly. I found that for infantry spam she does enough to help out without having too many options to choose from. She's also got herself a reasonable kill tally in the 'Caster Kill Challenge. At present I don't really have a strong secondary caster, but as Borka2 is out later this year, I may well focus on him being my go to heavy hitter list. 

I've also now delved in to another faction. With the sales of some of my GW armies, I've been investing in Thornfall Alliance Minions, Circle Orboros and Convergence of Cyriss and it is the latter I've recently started. It is early days still, but I'm enjoying them. Having started with Axis, I'm not using too subtle a list, but whilst I'm keeping with him at the moment, I'm looking to the other casters to find something a bit different. However much I try to avoid it I keep heading back to the Prime Axiom for my lists, which means that sooner or later, so heavy duty assembly and painting is going to be required. 

A month or two after last year's article I went by train with Sam into Leeds. On that fateful journey, we bumped in to an acquaintance of Sam's that played Malifaux. He was an odd fish, but he did assuage a lot of my misgivings over Malifaux and as such I began to look further in to the game. I joined as Wyrd were finalising their playtesting for the second edition of the game (M2e) and so things were a little all over the place, however I saw the promise and began to play, and moreover, buy lots of models. 

It was a rough start, and there are still teething problems it seems, however I've played seven games now and I am in love. Initially I have been playing Seamus who is one of the Resurrection's masters. I do intend to branch out from him, but I shall discuss that later. 

I've recently been to a Malifaux tournament hosted by The Outpost and whilst I came 29/30 I had a great day, and did reasonably well on VPs if not wins. I shall write a bit more on this in another post.

I'd resisted it for ages, but as we all know, (wait for it) resistance is futile (boom boom!). Speaking of the Borg, that's one of the fleets I'm collecting. That and the Romulans. I don't mind having a few Federation ships but I much prefer playing the opposition. 

This is going to stay an occasional game and I...will...not...buy...X-Wing!

The plan for the year ahead

This is usually the bit where I get things wrong. 

Neither Warhammer nor 40k are likely to get a look in over the next year. I see things getting worse with those systems, not better and as sad as it is, I think that the sun has set on those games. Yet as I said I shall keep a few options for them in case I'm wrong. 

Dystopian Wars may get a look in, but not for a while. That's about that for that. 

Star Trek Attack Wing is an occasional game for me, so whilst I shall keep my hand in its not something I'm going to go crazy on.

Guild Ball. This is a new one for me. I pledged on the Kickstarter and I'm looking forward to the release in December. Hopefully it will arrive before Christmas as that is my present. I've opted for the Butchers, the Masons and the Alchemists guilds. I'm not too sure how each of those teams play, aside from the Butchers apparently being a bit of a blunt instrument, but I went for the teams that I liked the look of the most, and it was a hard task to be honest. We shall see how it plays out. Since this will be my Christmas present, I'm hoping it will be sent out before the expected release date of December 29th. 

Warmachine and Hordes will continue to be my first game. Not least as it's the most accessible game for opposition. I'm enjoying the Convergence at the moment and will continue to tinker with them including taking part in a modified Journeyman League at the club. The Trollbloods aren't being sidelined. I've got some lists planned which will need testing at some point. Grissel2 remains my main caster, though I'm not really sure whether I'm going to give in to the Meat Mountain list much time. I'm liking the look of a Borka2 list I've come up with, but it will need some playing as I'm not sure whether my theory machine is that strong. 

My plans for Malifaux are to continue with the Ressers. I'm waiting for Molly to come out so I can play about with a summoner. In the meantime I shall develop Seamus and play about with McMourning.

I've also signed up to another tournament in November, is time at Stockport at the NWGC. I think it would be wise to stick with Ressers for this, but I shall be looking at the Outcasts at some point too. I've got the Viks to look at as well as Misaki, and as soon as I can get my hands on Jack Daw, I shall be getting him too. So many choices!

So that's it really, another year on and another set of plans. Maybe the next time I write this type of article, I will actually have moved!

The State of the Nation 2013

I've not been too frequent with my blog posts lately, but as that is well documented already I won't go in to that too much other than to say that as much as I love writing, I miss wargaming as much as I used to be able to. 

Focus
One of the decisions I made earlier this year, which is again well documented, was that I would focus on GW games with a view to maintaining a consistent approach as well as to improve my knowledge. As such I have stuck closely to single armies for both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000.

Warhammer 40,000
The army I have played the longest for 40k is Chaos Space Marines. I've tried a few different styles over the years be they Night Lords, a mixture of the cults and none cults, but when GW started to focus more on the Red Corsairs more as a unified force rather than a rag tag band that is mentioned from time to time in the fluff, I really started to like them. The Huron model is superb, and as such with the new book I wrote a Red Corsair themed list. The list itself isn't a tournament list by any stretch, nor however is it too weak and as such I have enjoyed using it greatly. As I've tweaked it and become familiar with it, I have looked towards developing a second force, which whilst remaining a Chaos Space Marine force does perform in a different manner. The Red Corsairs were more of a fire base army with a few mobile elements with which to close up to the enemy. However, I have developed a purely Tzeentch army whilst is quite the reverse. It is much smaller even than it's Red Corsair counterpart, and is in truth a bit of a glass hammer, but although I shall need to test and tweak it further, I think it should perform strongly.

Warhammer

For Warhammer Fantasy Battles, I have again developed one army before working on a second. The first being a Daemon Prince led Tzeentch army with a few monsters in it, albeit that I have mixed marks in this army a bit. I liked the idea of men of the North worshipping all the deities, but perhaps some being favoured more and so the bulk is Tzeentch but some of the army is dedicated to Nurgle. Afterall, they are men even if they are servants of the gods, and men follow a strong leader even if he does speak of a different god. This army has done reasonably well. Again possibly not a tournament army, but solid nonetheless. The second army is a much newer beast. All units in this second warband are marked Nurgle, or cannot be marked. It is still early days, but is enjoyable enough to play with.

Children of the Empyrean
I have however begun building my dual system Daemon army. Very early days as yet, but initially I plan to use them as allies in 40k, then develop them as a force in their own right.

Privateer Press

Now, having spent the first half of the year keeping my promise to stick to GW, I find myself yearning to get back to Privateer Press. At the end of last year I felt I was finally starting to get somewhere with Hordes and Warmachine, something which I think I shll have to develop once more due to the break in play. I am still very much in love with my Trollbloods and have spent a lot of time recently thinking about lists. Jarl Skuld is still my favoured Warlock and so he is still going to be the crux of my main list, but I have found myself looking at the new Hunters Grim Warlock unit from the Gargantuans book.

Having played about with some list options, I am happy with the theory of how the units will play, and as such he is now on his way.

Aside from the War Wagon (which I think will have to be a Christmas present) and any of the currently unreleased models, I'm now at full faction and as such I have plenty of options and so I'm trying to vary the lists as much as possible at least up to and including 35 points. Inevitably the Fennblades are a popular option in most lists as are the Scattergunners, but I've resisted putting them both in all lists. I've also varied the Warbeasts as much as I can, though the Impaler, because of his animus and my seeming preference for ranged lists, makes it in to more than one force. Initially I shall concentrate on the two Warlocks mentioned above, though eventually the aim is to get back to developing the Borka list and some of the other Warlocks that I've not used before.

Convergence of Cyriss

Keeping with Privateer Press, I have wanted to have a go at the Warmachine side of the coin for some time, though as they did before I first bought the Hordes Trollblood starter pack when Mk1 was around, none of the factions really captured my imagination. Even the newer Scyrah didn't really hit the spot, and to be honest I had decided to forego that side of the game entirely. However, with the announcement of the Convergence of Cyriss as a playable faction, I decided to wait out the details and see how I liked them, and I must say, I really like them! The idea of them being clockwork beings that have foregone their flesh is a very good one to me, and I like the idea of the Vectors rules. As such, I have ordered the starter set for them and who knows, maybe I can cope with painting silver?

Dystopian Wars
To be frank, this has taken a back seat for now. I still have much less time than I would like to wargame, and either 40k or fantasy will suffer to fit in Warmachine/Hordes. But it is not forgotten, and I shall get back round to it at some point.

The Future
Some of you may know already, however The Whyf has been given a store manager position in Ilkley, and as such at some point the intention is for us to move to West Yorkshire. Their are pros and cons for us that we have carefully considered, but both think it will be beneficial in the long run. It may be in a few weeks that we go, or in a few months. That is the best information we have at the moment, but we are looking forward nonetheless.

In the meantime, thanks for reading.