The More Things Change....

The more they stay the same?

Recently there has either been announcements or rumors about new rules editions for various table top games. Warhammer Fantasy Battle is moving on to 9th Edition. 40K is rumored to be coming out with 7th Edition this year. Infinity is coming out with 3rd Edition (I didn't even know they were on second...). Firestorm Armada came out with 2nd Edition last year. So did Malifaux.

Do these new editions really change the game all that much? I can't speak about Infinity because I really don't much much about the game or FSA because I haven't played it in ages, but I can speak about the others, to some extent.

WFB 9th edition. The only new thing I've really heard is that they're moving the story line ahead, which is a great idea. I love how Privateer Press does this with Warmachine/Hordes. Every new rule book that they release moves the story line along. I'm still waiting to see what the hell is going to happen with Karchev! Other then that, what will really change?

40K and 7th Ed, or 6.5, or 6.1 or whatever the hell people are going to call it is odd. It's been 2 years since 6th Ed came out. GW did go a bit overboard with the additional rules and supplements and what not so I can see the need to try to reel all that back in with a new edition. I will be honestly shocked if they move ahead the story line, because it's been stagnant for years upon years.

Malifaux 2nd Ed was advertised as being a streamlining of the rules set. While it did this it also changed things around quite a bit in my opinion. The whole list building mechanic that was added to the game kind of took away from the charm Malifaux had in 1st edition. Everyone knew what each character did but now in 2nd you can build out your characters differently. Considering Malifaux is a character driven game it just took that charm away because now my Perdita could be totally different from your Perdita.

Now looking at WFB and 40K, my opinion is GW's new editions just rearrange thing around. No matter what they do you will still be rolling on the same table for ballistic still, weapon skill, strength against toughness etc.... The same system that's been used for almost 20 years, and I think it's really starting to show its age.

I believe that other systems out there are much better than the old GW roll on a table system. Warmachine/Hordes has you roll 2 dice (or more if you boost, weapon master etc...) and you add a score to it and compare it to a score an opponent has. Malifaux is very similar but you use cards instead of dice. Dreadball and Deadzone only has you roll against your own ability scores, so you don't even need to know your opponents ability scores to play the game.

The other issue with new editions is how they impact supplemental books, such as codices, army books, stuff like Planetstrike, etc... We all know GW is not on their game with keeping all of their armies up to date. Malifaux took months to get all of their masters and crews updated to 2nd edition. Companies need to keep this in mind when they decide to move on to a new rules edition.

So the point I'm trying to make is, do new rules editions fundamentally change the game or is it just lipstick on a pig? Is it change just for change sake? Is it a way just to make more money?

I find it to be a case by case basis and I know first hand how an edition change can just turn someone off from a game. GW edition changes fall under the lipstick on a pig and more money categories. Malifaux seemed to be change just for change sake.

This just makes we wonder how long will games like Warmachine/Hordes, Deadzone and Dreadball will go before a new edition. And when they do, just don't do it for the sake of change or for a quick buck.

New Fantasy Wood Elves

It pains me to do so, but I like to give credit where it's due. The new Wood Elf Treemen looking amazing! They're pretty fucking expensive (well it is GW after all, duh) but I'll always give credit when a company puts out an excellent looking model, and these are. It is always nice to see an army that hasn't seen an updated in god knows how long get some attention. I know Dan (from TEW) is probably excited.

If anything, I might have to try to obtain one and maybe use it as a counts as for Circle in Hordes, lol.

Here's the link in case if you haven't seen them yet.

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Warhammer?N=102351+4294967192&Nu=product.repositoryId&qty=12&sorting=phl&view=table

State of my 40K

Well for starters I would like to thank the International House of Paincakes for accepting me into their blog network, I really appreciate it guys!

So.. 40K. For old readers or listeners of mine you kind of already know my stance on 40K. You can skip to the next paragraph if you want. For new readers let me give you a brief history of me and 40K. I first heard of 40K way back in 3rd edition. I had friends of mine who would play in between days that we were not playing AD&D (Skills and Powers FTW!) and I would always watch over their shoulders. I would pick up a codex they weren't using at the time and read and I ended up getting hooked on the story line. I didn't actually start playing 40K until 4th edition when I picked up Black Templars as my first army. I always liked their color scheme since they first came out in the Armageddon Codex and seeing that they got their own codex made it a win win. I had such a blast with my Templars back in 4th and had many memorable moments with them on the table top. Then work got in the way so I had to take a year or two off from the game. When things settled down with work I got back into 40K and this was after 5th came out. I was in for quite a surprise when I learned that I could no longer consolidate into another unit after a successful assault. I felt that it pretty much broke my army because that was their main strength in 4th Ed, being able to assault someone on their turn. I then started an Eldar army because they were the other army I really go into when I first got into 40K. They did pretty well for an outdated codex but it sucked seeing all the new shinies the new codex armies got while my two armies were left in the dust. This on top of non stop price increases and a lack of new codexes (mainly mine) began to disenfranchise me from the game. Long story short I ranted about it almost non stop on Dice Like Thunder and The Eternal Warriors and by the time 6th edition came out I was pretty much done.

Now that you're up to speed on my history of 40K (or you just skipped ahead), let me tell you about the State of my 40K. For started I still haven't played a game since 6th edition came out. The rules just seem to be blah, too many of them. It's almost like they took a few pages out of 2nd edition, but the army sizes are still just as big is not bigger then they were in 5th. Allies are a joke in my opinion but it was nice to see GW come out with more codexes, until they got to the Space Marines. It was pretty insulting to a long time Black Templar player to see your army get their own book taken away from them. I would have even settled for one of those mini dexes they seem to throw around these days but I didn't even get that. The sheer amount of mini dexes and supplement GW has been releasing has, in my opinion, made things even more confusing because there's too much out there.

The game hasn't gotten any cheaper to get into, prices are still going up like they're going out of style. I have moved on to games like Dreadball, Deadzone and Warmachine/Hordes. I tend to prefer lower model count games. I recently tried to sell my Black Templars but I just couldn't do it. When I went to take inventory of what I had I realized how long I had owned these dudes and how much time, effort and money I put into them. I actually got really sentimental and told my wife "Honey, I just can't do it" lol. So they will remain in their foam trays for the time being.

Will I ever play 40K again? I don't think I can say yes or no. I recently had a conversation with Chaos Dave and the rest of the Screaming Heretics and Dave was telling us about the wargaming clubs in England. Just being responsible for a unit or two in a big team game sounds like a lot of fun. If something like this ever came up I could see bringing my Templars out and giving it a go. I've always had a blast in team games, they were always more fun then 1 on 1.

Do I still despise GW? Yea, I'm pretty sure I still do but I don't let it get to me as much as it has in the past. I still thing the company is in serious risk of either going under or being bought out if things don't change. I'll still make fun of them or call them out on their stupidity but I don't dwell on it.  I have other games and things to do now. The one thing GW does have going for them still is their fluff. As much as I've hated GW I've always been a huge fan of Black Library. I'll admit some books aren't my cup of tea and I'll refer to those books as bolter porn because they just glorify how amazing and awesome Space Marines are. Once you get passed that BL puts out some amazing story lines. I am currently going back and starting the Gaunts Ghosts series that I never finished. I only have the first omnibus in paperback. Now if I can only find my Nook that suddenly went missing......

Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter Everyone!






And if you don't celebrate Easter, then have an awesome day anyways!

What I've been playing recently

I kind of brought whoever's reading this blog up to speed on current events, except I missed one important thing, what am I playing now? Kind of a bone headed thing for me to considering this is a gaming blog.

Let's start with Diablo first. I got back into Diablo 3 when patch 2.0.1 came out with the new Loot 2.0. I really enjoyed the changes they made because I always prefered to play ARPGs as self found. This was one thing that really irked me about Path of Exile. Path of Exile almost forces you to trade in order to get better gear because, well the drops are shit. Diablo 3 was the same way almost forcing you to go to the Auction House to get better gear. You didn't really have to, but just like Path of Exile, the drops were pure shit so you would have to farm FOREVER to get great gear. Loot 2.0 fixes this in my opinion because the majority of the gear that drops is catered for what class you're playing.

The Reaper of Souls expansion just made Diablo 3 even better. First of all they added the Crusader. Back in the Diablo 2 days I rocked a Paladin almost the entire time. I got him up to about 83, that's how much I loved the Paladin in D2. Now the Crusader isn't a direct clone of the Paladin but it's spiritually the same class. There are some things I miss dearly (Zeal being one of them, and no the rune doesn't make up for it) but overall it still satisfies the Diablo Paladin itch I've had for quite some time.

Act 5 is very nice visually. It definitely has some grit to it and it's much darker over all then the other 4 acts. Malathiel is a fucking bastard though. Every time I've had to kill him I had to lower the difficulty. I don't know if I just suck or he's that much of a bastard to kill, but he definitely makes Diablo look like a push over. Adventure mode is a great addition, it alleviates the pain of going through the same acts over and over and over again. Nephalim rifts are a great addition too. They a lot like maps in PoE but much easier to get.

I've already reffered to PoE a few times so let me touch on that as well. Path of Exile is a free to play ARPG that's in the similar vein as Diablo 2. The developers kind of go out of the way to make the game unforgiving which is ok, but the amount of risk doesn't reward you in my opinion. The drop rates are also very bad and the game forces you to trade with everyone for better gear. This reminded me of sitting in the tunnel in the Eastern Commons in Everquest spamming chat over and over again "WTS MoSS, 5k obo". Diablo 3 does a much better job of rewarding the player.

I've also been playing Hearthstone, but who hasn't? In case if you're living under a rock or just totally ignorant, Hearthstone is a digital card game. Think of it as Magic, but condensed and with a lot of the bullshit removed. The average game takes about 10 minutes to play and it's free to play as well. You can drop money on card packs or Arena runs but you can earn in game money to do the same as well. Please check it out if you haven't yet, it's that good and everyone should try it.

The game is pretty balanced, almost everything has a counter. My favorite decks are Shaman control, Warlock Hand deck, Warrior Control, and my Druid "I'm gonna have taunt on every single fucking card I throw down" deck. I'm not the best (18 in ranked currently) but I do pretty well. I've also gotten a lot better in the Arena so I'm finally getting a good stream of dust and cards I didn't have before.

I'm still on and off with WoW, currently off. There's really nothing to do until the expansion comes out. I wanted to try out Wildstar but from everyone I've talked to about it and what I've seen on Twitch is that it should be called Mildstar. I was in the Elder Scrolls Online beta and I really didn't like it. The funny thing is my brother hated it as well, but he pre ordered and he now loves the game. I'm going to wait a month or two and see if he still loves it. If so, I'll pick it up.

I'm on break from World of Tanks. Once again I burned myself out on that game. It's still a good game but after a while you just need a break. It's a shame though because I dropped down for 6 months of premium time.....

As for tabletop wise I haven't done too much lately. I've been playing a little bit of Warmachine here and there. I'm still rocking my Khador but I recently started up Circle Orboros as well. I've always wanted to start a Hordes faction and they're it. I split the Hordes starter box with Joe from the Heretics so I just have that along with a Razorwing Griffin, Warpborn Skinwalker Alpha, and 1 other blister, forgot who.

I played a game of Deadzone with Lathan about a month ago and that was AWESOME. Such a fun game and if you've played Dreadball it's easy to pick up. The game is incredibly cinematic, really makes you think tactically and over all is just a blast to play. I'll touch upon Deadzone a little more in the future after I get a few more games in under my belt. The one thing I do have to say is that the terrain can be a challenge to work with. It's pretty easy to break the connector sprues. I think I need to make the time to go through all the terrain tiles and filed out the holes so the connectors can go in and out easier.

The last time I played Dreadball was during the inaugural Insidious Premier League season. I made it to the semis with the Miskatonic Minutemen (Nameless). I started with the Beercelona Pubcrawlers (Forge Fathers) but I got sick of playing (or should I say loosing) with them so I switched teams after the second week. I was really glad I did switch because I finally felt like I was playing the full game of Dreadball, not just playing defense and smashing faces. It was really refreshed being able to score almost whenever I wanted. I had to sit out of the 2nd season because of working midnights, boo!

Well I hope this post wasn't too long. I've kind of liked getting back into blogging, it's been pretty fun. I'll try to do at least 2 posts a week, hopefully I don't run out of material, and hopefully I don't turn this into a spam fest. But don't worry, I won't start regurgitating everything that Faeit 212 posts (coughbolscough).

So what's been going on with me?

So, what have I been up to? Well over the past two weeks I've went to two conventions, Adepticon and Vapebash 3.

Let's start with Adepticon. To be honest, I was bored and extremely tired. I'm currently working midnights so I had to flip my sleeping schedule and it knocked me flat on me feet.

I was bored because I don't play 40K and don't really care about it. I signed up for some Dreadball and Deadzone but I was so tired I ended up backing out of all 3 events.

I even barely bought anything. All I picked up was 2 limited edition Warmachine figs (the Bombshell Bombardier and the Druid Gone Wilder) that I wasn't able to pick up at Gencon when they came out, some Victoria Miniatures packs (Female Trooper and Penile Legionare) and some Mantic Corporation Troopers that were 50% off.  That was a very very small score compared to what I've purchased there in the past.

The food was too expensive at the hotel and honestly I'm sick and tired of eating at Harry Carry's, I've had enough of it for a lifetime already. I ended up leaving to go eat at other restaurants in the area.

The annual Screaming Heretic party was on Saturday and it was ok. I felt there were too many people there for me. There was seriously about 75 people crammed into the Governor's Suite.  So I ended up spending most of the time sitting on the couches in the hallway in order to avoid the crowd and we ended up having our own smaller party there, which was fun.

The only thing that really irked me was for the third year in a row an Adepticon volunteer/staffer won the charity raffle. All I'm saying is that if I was running an event I would not allow volunteers/staff to be eligible to win. I would say the vast majority of events follow that rule and there's no reason Adepticon can't do the same.

All in all I felt (for me at least) that it was a bit mediocre. Will I go next year? Honestly, I don't see myself going. I much rather prefer going to Gencon for gaming conventions. I feel that if you're not into 40K then Adepticon is not for you where on the other hand at Gencon there is something for everyone there. I know Adepticon has plenty of other events but 40K is by far the main focus. I am also at the point in my life that if I'm taking time off from work it's for an actual vacation, not attending a gaming convention that's 40 minutes away from my house.

Now moving on to the next convention, Vapebash 3. First of all a little preface, I used to smoke for 16 years but I was finally able to quit by using E-Cigarettes. There's a community I'm part of called VapeTV which is pretty much a Facebook for vapers (what we call ourselves). Vapebash is sponsored by VapeTV and a ton of E-Cig vendors. This convention was at the Westin in Rosemont, IL.

I honestly had a blast!. I am very into E-Cigs and all the new goodies that are coming out and Vapebash is the place to go if you're into that. I also got to meet so many amazing people that I already knew from VapeTV and plenty of others that I have not meet until the convention. Just meeting other people that have gone through the journey of quitting smoking and how they got there and did it is fascinating.

Overall it was a much different vibe then something along the lines of Adepticon. Something like Adepticon at it's very heart is competitive. You're there to play games and win and have fun. Sometimes both of those don't happen. The thing with Vapebash is that everyone there is united in the fact that they used to smoke and they now vape instead. Everyone is willing to help out with questions or recommendations. Vapebash felt more like a family reunion than anything.

So now I'm still recovering from two conventions in two weeks. What will the future have in store for me? I don't really know. If I can get the days off I will be attending VaperCon West in Reno, NV in July. Cmon, who doesn't want to go to Reno? I know I sure as hell do. For some reason I love going out west, mostly because I've seen more of Europe than I have of the United States and I need to change that. The Con is at the Peppermill which I've heard is a really nice place to stay so it should be tons of fun. Gencon? Still thinking about it. I already took the days off for it but I might just need a break for a year, I've already gone 3 years in a row and Gencon get's fucking EXPENSIVE!

I know I will blog a lot more often. My podcast (The Eternal Warriors) hasn't recorded since August 2013 and who knows when we will record again. John lives much further away and I'm working midnights which makes things even more difficult. So hopefully things will fall into place because TEW is sooo much fun :D

Coming Back

Recent events have made me consider returning to blogging. I doubt anyone still sees this but I think I have some more things to say away from any shows I might be a part of.

Stay tuned!