Customer Respect?

This is obviously the way to shut GW up

So, I do have a couple posts just about ready to go up, a battle report, and a model showcase, but don't expect those for a while until I've reconsidered my own position in the community.  I've got a bad taste in my mouth, like many hobbyists right now, so I apologize for the rant that will follow.  Jump to about the 5th paragraph if you just want to read the more level headed observations.

The new GW policies had me concerned, I do almost all of my wargames shopping online.  The major reasons are that the local store doesn't keep much stock or provide much support, and I usually have other products that I have to purchase that the local store doesn't carry at all.  Those online retailers are often US retailers like the Warstore, primarily because of the secondary products that I'm ordering, not the GW products. So the changes in the GW trade agreement will limit my primary source of GW models in two ways, first a number of the potential online sellers will disappear because of the online selling restriction.  Second, because a number of those retailers are in the US, so they technically cannot sell GW products to me.

So the one online Canadian store that I do order from is MiniWarGaming, they have become a great hub in the online community providing a number tutorials and battle reports, even extending to starting a small wargaming television network.  Of course, the Apocalypticon event is a signature collaboration with Black Knight Games in Hamilton.  If you've visited and watched some of the various discussion videos you will know that Matt and Dave started the store from a love of gaming, and slowly expanded it into the online venue it is now to try and make their loving venture profitable, or at least viable. Unfortunately, the online sales restriction with a combination of a low profit margin from the online store means that MiniWarGaming is closing it's store, with the GW trade agreement changes being the final major factor.

This absolutely infuriated me, a visible hub that has worked tirelessly to support the community and the GW brand, with no help from GW, is having the rug pulled out from under them because GW thinks there may be an extra penny for them.  This is more of GW's historic us versus them mentality that they have with their 'trade partners' and the player base.  There are any number of horror stories about dealing with the GW trade reps, and their ridiculous minimum order requirements, it's the primary reason stores can't survive in a smaller market, and if the market is big enough, GW want's to stick their own store in to take the sales.  They don't respond to any client feedback, shutting down forums and facebook pages, disabling comments on what social media they do put out, let alone give any timely FAQs or go back and fix rules for the new edition, or even proof read the rules in the most recent books it seems.  God forbid that they do anything to promote the community, cancel and scaleback Games Days, no support for any of the independant Cons even when they are GW only.

So why don't we just quit GW and move to something else?  I had to stop and think about this for a while, and it made me realize a few things.

Really, the biggest reason that we don't switch is because there isn't really anyone viably competing against the Warhammer properties.  We are at a very young stage in the development of any competitors in the table top space.  Off the top of my head the major names that jump to mind are Warmachine/Hoardes, Malifaux, Dropzone Commander, and Warpath.  Currently, none of these are on the same scale in some form and I think that's where they fail to compete.  Dropzone Commander is physically not on the same scale, the smaller models in my mind make it harder to emotionally invest in and customize.  Warmachine and Malifaux while on a closer physical scale, are not on the same scale of conflict.  They are both skirmish games, although Warmachine can be bigger, it still revolves around the caster/general.  Warpath is obviously the most likely candidate to compete against 40K, but it needs the time to develop it's story and expand the universe to something more than just a 40k clone. They are still pretty early in the modelling process too, much of the work feels like that 2nd edition 80s GW work, which is also something they need to move away from.

GW does work at putting out high quality models at a scale that is easily accessible, and has a decent customer service to ensure the quality of the models are maintained.  They also have a long history, they've been doing this since the 80s, they've had time to expand their universe and provide enough variety to appeal to most players.  It also means that most people have heard of the game, so there is an established playerbase.

The biggest reason GW keeps going is WE enable them to.  We are doing all the work of promoting the games for them.  Major independant tournament circuits, huge conventions and events, numerous blogs and message boards.  Most of us are too invested in the games and have become complacent to the idiocy of GW to step away forever, sure we may leave in protest, but the nature of their business model will draw us back in.

I know I'm one of those players, I would like to boycott them and say I won't play anymore, but I enjoy games with friends, and the few events I get to attend.  I don't want to work to play, and promote some other game.  I did that already, I know it will destroy the new game for me and I don't know how to solve that.  But I know there are people out there that can, so I'll continue to watch what the independent circuits are pushing and make sure I give the alternatives a try.  In the mean time, I am going to let my dollar speak, and drastically reduce the number of GW products I purchase, look to more scratch built stuff, and alternative models from other companies,  like GW's bestie Chapter House.

My 6th Edition rant for the pile

So I got to go over the 6th edition rules and FAQ quickly, I'll give it a couple more intensive reads later.  Overall, I'm disappointed with the rules changes, but have a hard time being surprised at such bad design.

I think the thing that frustrates me the most is how every new or interesting change that seemed to add balance, was followed by a line like "except for models with and they shall know no fear", or "except for drop pods".  Just put a giant disclaimer at the front that says BUY SPACE MARINES OR DON'T PLAY!

Anyhow, I'll have to do some playtests, but I'm absolutely certain that my lists will be changing dramatically.  So I'm just going to go over a few observations that I've made for my Dark Eldar army, mixed with a few general observations and opinions I've read/heard else where.

• So lets start with the obvious, WWP Assaults are dead, FAQ double slaps us, no assault out of a WWP(no surprise), but also no allies out of a WWP.
• Assault is going to be harder to get into with random charges and overwatch
• Wyches are much less viable, slightly less threat range on average, subject to shooting if they come from WWP/reserve, and then subject to overwatch with a very real chance that they fail the charge and get shot again.  Wyches + shooting = dead wyches.
• Beasts threat range greatly reduced, and will be more vulnerable moving across the table.
• Flyers are slightly less effective shooting, no more single turn alpha strikes with all the guns and missles.
• Warlord rules don't do much for our army, most of these abilities we can get from upgrades/combat drugs/pain tokens
• FNP nerf hits us hard, with 5+ and 6+ nerf armour saves, the 4+ FNP was what most units survived on.
• Jetbikes got better, with a 4+ cover save all the time thanks to jink + skilled rider they may be viable shooting units again.
• Gunboats are back, splinter racks will become valuable now
• Raiders didn't really get as nerfed as other vehicles with Hull Points.
• DE Archons/HQ should excel at character hunting/challenges, huskblade/soul trap was made for this.
• Drazhar became very powerful with how difficult 2+ saves are
• Incubi will excel at what I'm going to dub the "Aspect Trick"
• Opinion seems to agree wound allocation slows the game down drastically, so points levels will likely fall back to 1500pts

There are a few others that I'm going to test a bit first, but I want to explain one thing I mentioned near the end, the "Aspect Trick".  Incubi, and all Eldar Aspect warriors for that matter, have a "character" that fights at a different initiative value than the rest of the squad, this allows your character upgrade to be the ultimate CC sniper.  This takes advantage of the new close combat wound allocation, and some sneaky charge movement, as I said, I've only read the rules once so feel free to correct me.

Aspect Trick: Move the Klaivex into B2B with high threat target, making sure not to touch any other models.  Klaivex strikes at I6, while remainder of Incubi strike at I5.  Thus when Klaivex makes attacks at I6, he should be the only one attacking at that Initiative on your side.  Wounds don at I6 can only be taken from models in base to base with models striking at I6, thus the high threat target the Klaivex maneuvered into B2B must die.  Bonus: If the Klaivex rolls a 6 to hit, he may use the Precision Strikes to allocate to another model in the combat, and still snipe his B2B target.

I expect this to be a HUGE advantage if the squad makes it into CC with anything with limited power weapons.  The problem I see arising, is a lot of units, the power weapons go to the characters, and they will get a "look out sir" roll.  But something like the grey hunter squad with a couple meltas and a power weapon, this will be gold  And don't we all expect to see more of those grey hunter squads in 6th?