UPDATE: A Meeting Of The Minds

Well first of all I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!! I wish the new year is better than the last.

Hopefully the new year will be more kind to us over here at TEW.

I'd like to let you all know that we are meeting up next week to discuss the show and possibly to arrange a new recording schedule. We will also be taking steps to try to salvage the forums. I know they kind of went to shit but we need to desperately learn how to fully maintain it on our own.

So once again please be patient. Changes are coming in the near future. We will be back better than ever. We are Eternal after all.....

Update: Time To Rethink Things

Well I'm sure almost all of you have heard what happened over in TEW land. Shit went down and it took quite the toll on me. Those of us that are still talking have decided to take some time off in order to relax, reflect, rethink and regroup. After doing well over 100 episodes of Podcasts, transitioning from DLT to TEW and everything else we've been up to I think it's safe to say that a break is well deserved.

I also needed a break from the hobby as well. I still have stuff I bought at Gencon that I haven't even opened up yet. Life has been busy as hell for me as well. Between wedding preparations, family, friends also getting engaged and work it feels life has been a roller coaster as of late.

So unfortunately don't expect to hear much from me for the next few months. You still might hear me do a cameo or two over on The Screaming Heretics (mostly because I'm over at Joe's with She Swizzy) but that might be it. If I'm compelled I might blog here and there though but that's it for the time being. Rest assured I will be, in one way or another, still a part of TEW. And don't worry, Im already signed up for Adepticon. No way in hell am I missing out on that!

I didn't want to leave everyone in the dark so that's why I decided to post up a quick update.

PS. If anyone decides to play SWTOR, hit me up so we all can pick a server to play on.

GW Price Increases and My Reaction

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are C Swizzy's and his alone. They do not reflect the views of TEW in it's entirety. 

That's right, I'm not going to BUYcott GW as we have in the past with Planetstrike. As it turns out the term Buycott is the exact opposite of Boycott, as in buying goods from a company in order to show your support. So I would recommend everyone to get their terminology straight...

Now that I got that little PSA out of the way, let's get down to business. GW, unsurprisingly, announced another price hike that goes into effect at the end of May. Yup, it's that time of year again. You can almost set your watch to it.  Here's the best link I could find that has a list of the price increases http://www.3sdgames.com/iumaddog/?cat=5. Props to these guys for the info. On average we're looking at a 22% increase.

There is also a list of the new Citadel Finecast prices. For those who don't know, the Finecast stuff is the resin replacement for the old school metal models we all loved or hated. Shockingly enough, they upped the prices on these as well and rumor has it they are direct order only.

On top of all of this "good news" GW decided to screw over the whole southern hemisphere by putting an embargo on retailers selling and shipping GW product down there. I have already heard the rantings from the Aussies and a certain someone in Asia is already planning to make one last bulk purchase before this goes into effect. It appears that GW is trying their hardest to exploit the conversion rate of foreign currencies. This is such a great way to treat your customers....

So let's get this straight. A few months ago GW stated that their sales were down. What's the best way to increase sales? Apparently it's by increasing prices, again....

I seriously have had enough. I'm done. My Astral Claws project is on hold, if not axed all together. I'll probably make a squad or two from bits I have but that might be it. I hope (but doubt at the same time) that when my Templars get a new book, I'll be able to use my old BT stuff, but then again look at the Grey Knights book. A lot of the old figs the old school GK players had can't really be used as much as they were in the past.

I hereby vow that I will NEVER buy from a GW store again. I am officially boycotting GW but there are stipulations. I will still continue to support Black Library as much as humanly possible and I will leave open the option of dabbling in some Forgeworld from time to time.

Now I know some of you will say that Privateer Press isn't that much cheaper and you might be right to some extent. I still believe that it's a better bargain because of the support that PP delivers and due to a lower model count, you can get away without buying as much in order to get into Warmachine/Hordes. I still believe you can get a decent 25 point army for right around $100. Malifaux and most of the games put out by Spartan can be started up for just under $100 and this includes a decent sized tournament ready army, not just a beginner army.

I've just had enough of GW's oppression and I'm going to let my wallet do the talking from here on out. I know I'm not the only one who will be doing this, and if you feel as I do, I encourage you to do the same. E Bay is always an option if you just can't pry yourself away from 40K or Fantasy.

I made a prediciton last year that GW will go under in 5 years. We're one year in and I think they're making excellent progress. I even made a wager with Carl from the Independent Characters about this. So Carl, you better start getting sized up for that Sister of Battle costume! LOL

Off To Adepticon!!

It's that time of the year again! Packing has begun (and God do I hate to pack) and last minute plans are being made. We have our Dan Abnet interview lined up for later today and I'm sure we will already be running into you guys later tonight. I'm bringing some of my Khador (with not as much as I wanted painted) and 1850 points worth of Black Templars. Due to space issues I can only bring the list I was going to use for the GT that I backed out of.

Hope to see ya there!

KR Multicase Review

So my KR multicase FINALLY came in today. Considering I ordered the thing the last week of February, I'm not too happy with the shipping time. I understand it's international shipping so that might be the main reason for the delay but I still find it hard to swallow to wait a month for a simple box with foam in it to arrive.

First off the price is right. $38.99 which includes shipping is pretty nice. The box I ordered (just the simple card stock one) had a tray for 6 Heavy Warjacks and 3 trays for small based Warmachine models (18 per tray).

Likes: I like how to foam is soft so it won't scuff up and rub off the paint on the models. It's also pretty pliable so I was easily able to fit a medium base model (The Butcher) into a spot meant for a small based model. Models with what I call "pointy stuff" like Doomreavers and Pikemen fit in pretty well too. The slots are deep enough to accommodate the "point stuff" so they don't protrude out to much and there's enough space in between slots to let the pikes that the Pikemen have sit on.

Dislikes: I really don't like the backing of the trays. It's just about as soft as the rest of the foam on the trays. Considering the vast majority of Warmachine models are metal, they are already starting to sag through the bottom. I don't know how long the backing is going to be able to hold up to the weight of these models. The other thing I didn't like was the tray for the Heavy Warjacks was waaay too big. I easily had about 4 inches of wasted depth in each slot I had to make by plucking foam. Granted I think it's deep enough to easily fit a Khador Gun Carriage but if someone is just lugging around jacks, there's a lot of wasted space.

So overall I don't know what to think. The smaller based stuff fits really nice but the wasted space for the Heavy Jacks isn't cool in my book. I also mortified of the backings of the trays falling apart sooner than later. It's a good price for a decent sized case that will easily tote a 35 to 50 point army but I don't see myself using it as my main means of transportation.

Stay tuned for a review of the Warmachine Battlefoam case I ordered. Hopefully that'll arrive before Adepticon.

Incoming: Grey Templars?!

Before I get started, I do not reflect the views of TEW in it's entirety. It is well known that I am very opinionated and slightly biased, so take this with a grain of salt if need be...

So GW dropped pics of the upcoming Grey Knights on their website today. After waiting 5 minutes for the pages to load on their extremely poorly written webpage, I was not impressed. The Dreadknight straight up looks like the robot that Ripley used in "Aliens". The Grey Knights themselves honestly look like Black Templars with Storm Bolters and different shoulder pads. They look so close to Templars that I swear they took the heads and cloaks straight off the Black Templars upgrade sprue.

I can barely tell that the Terminators (shown above) are in Terminator armor.

Lord Draigo (pictured above) looks decent, but once again I can't help but think Templar when I see him.


In my honest opinion, it looks like GW kitbashed their own stuff in order to make the GKs. I guess you start to run out of ideas when half of your armies are Space Marines. I just can't wait for the Black Templars to come out and have people say they look like Grey Knights with different bits...

Now add the rumors that the Codex was changed by the accounting department, GW retweeting people who are drooling over them left and right and the fact that GW posted 3 articles about the GKs in under an hour (one which still will not load properly), this reeks of desperation. Is GW this desperate for sales? What a let down.

At least there's Khador...

First Khador WIP Pics

Well I'm posting these up a day late but I guess that's better than never. I don't know how to use She-Swizzy's awesome DSLR I got her for Xmas so I had to resort to my shitty cell phone camera.

I'm the Juggernaut Bitch!

This is the best pic out of 10 that I've taken.

I'm some what sticking to the traditional Khador color scheme and why not? It's an AWESOME paint scheme but I will try to add a little more black here and there.

So far I've been loving the P3 paints. Their red is outstanding and blows GW's Blood Red out of the water. So far I only have the paints in the Khador painting set but I hope to expand.

I'm sure my future figs will look better, these were the test dummies.

What do you think?

Warmachine Battle Engines, Maybe Not So Broken?

There's a nice pic to show the size of the new Battle Engines coming out for Warmachine. Now when I first heard about the battle engines I didn't know what to think. Part of me thought that PP was going the route of Apoc and part of me thought that PP was going to begin to introduce vehicles into the game. I would have been ok with the engines used in a Apoc style game but if PP decided to go the vehicle route ala GW, I would have been pretty mad. I've seen enough of vehicles in 40K and I don't want to see another game system go that route.

Apparently I was wrong on both accounts. Rumors that I've been hearing (that are pretty reliable) stated that the Khador Battle Engine will be FA:2. For newbies that means you can take up to 2 of them. It is also said that it'll cost about 9 points, so roughly the same as a Warjack. This means a few things right off the bat. First they can be used in normal sized games. If you want to be the jag off that puts 2 of these into their 25 point list, feel free, but you'll be gimping yourself severely. These are HUGE units that everyone can see and pull LOS to because of the enormous base. You're also playing on a 4 x 4 board which means your opponent should have no problem getting to the thing pretty quickly. Also with the thing only costing 9 points that tells me that they are not going to be game breaking. If anyone can correctly balance a new unit type into a game, it's PP.

So I'm pretty excited now after hearing about the rumored FA and points cost. I wonder if I can make some Budweiser barrels and fit them on the carriage somehow....

A Step In The Right Direction

You've heard us gripe about GW not progressing the story line multiple times on the show. Instead of beating a dead horse I instead decided to look on the brighter side. I decided to look at the current fluff that's out there and just read into it more. Coincidentally, Forge World released Imperial Armor 9 which is all about the Badab War.

Granted, I don't own it (yet) and all I've seen was while I was browsing through Dave's copy, but OMG Forge World, you did one hell of a job. Committing two books to the biggest Inter-Astartes conflict since the Horus Hersey means there's a TON of fluff and content to make any 40K player water at the mouth. Face it, the Horus Heresy was the biggest event in 40k cannon. I feel that the Badab War is like a modern, mini Horus Heresy and hopefully a sign of things to come in the future of 40K.

I've been searching and reading countless articles on the internet about the Badab War and I just get more and more interested. I even got a great idea to start another army, The Astral Claws. Now trust me, I'm not going to use ideas that don't make sense and use a Codex I've been using for the past year with this army... I have some really good and original ideas that are really making my creative side come out. I plan on making the army flexible enough where they can use which ever Space Marines Codex I plan to use, but also to where they can also be Chaos Space Marines. After all, we all know the Astral Claws turn into the Red Corsairs. I'll keep you guys updated on my progress with this army, but I don't think I'll be starting it right away.

So basically the point I'm trying to make is if GW isn't going to progress the story line, at least go more in depth with the fluff you have out now. 2 Imperial Armor books for 1 conflict is a great step in the right direction.