In the strangest places

October 5, 2014, 4:08 am

≪ Previous: Presenting the Games Workshop official product name generator

I have recently been reading Mary Beard's rather brilliant book Pompeii and, in chapter 8, entitled 'Fun and Games' came cross the following:

"Roman board games, like our own, came in many different varieties, with different titles, 'Little Robbers' or, perhaps, 'Little Soldiers' (latrunculi) was one of the favourites, and was certainly played at Pompeii; for one election poster offers a candidate the support - unwanted maybe - of the 'latrunculi players'. Another which is often mentioned in Roman literature was called 'Twelve Writings' (duodecim scripta). No rulebook survives for any of these games, and there have been all kinds of scholarly attempts to reconstruct the play from casual references. Latrunculi, for example, may have involved trying to blockade or hem in your opponent's pieces in a way somewhat reminiscent of modern draughts. But most of them, as now, followed the same basic principle: a dice throw allowed the player to move his counter or counters on the board, or towards the winning goal; the sheer chance of the fall of the dice was the crucial element in success, but varying amounts of skill could no doubt be deployed in the movement of the pieces. There was certainly enough skill involved for the emperor Claudius to write a book (sadly lost) on the art of alea, a generic term for such dice games."

Am I the only one who thinks the emperor Claudius may have written a book about wargaming?

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Fleeting Pleasures

November 19, 2014, 10:20 am

≫ Next: Works in Progress - Gargants

≪ Previous: In the strangest places

My birthday has come and gone for another year and I seem to have been caught up in a wave, or maybe just a puddle of nostalgia.

With the Amazon Voucher generously provided by my sister I acquired this.

A history of the Fighting Fantasy game books. And, shortly after my birthday I went along to see Knightmare Live, a comedy stage show based on the old children's series Knightmare.

It was more exciting on TV

For anyone unfamiliar with either of those, the Fighting Fantasy game books were created by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, the founders of Games Workshop. They were essentially a variant of the 'choose your own adventure' genre of books in which the book is divided into numbered sections. The reader reads the first section, they are then given a choice and continue reading from the numbered section corresponding to the choice. In that sense, they control the flow of the story.

The Fighting Fantasy books added a basic role-playing element. The reader or player first randomly generates a simple character using 6 sided dice and periodically, throughout the book, they encounter monsters they must fight using a simple combat system. This adds a game element to the books, hence the name game book. The books were originally published from 1982 to 1995 and the re-published from 2002.

Knightmare, was a TV series broadcast by ITV as part of it's Children's ITV strand between 1987 and 1994. It was essentially a hybrid game show in which a team of four, usually children or teenagers, would attempt to beat the 'dungeon'. One member of the team would don the 'Helmet of Justice' which would almost entirely obscure their vision (because Justice is blind, see what they did there?). They would then be pushed into a green screen environment, with the remaining three acting as advisers, watching on a monitor and telling them what to do.

Both of these had a big impact on my childhood and early teenage years and the audience for Knightmare Live was made up almost entirely of people my age.

Both arose at around the time that Roleplaying in the UK peaked, but their development also parallelled the rise of home computer games in the UK, with them dying out as the Playstation era began (Fighting Fantasy returned in 2002, but was never as successful and the audience for the 20th anniversary book 'Blood of the Zombie' was made up of nostalgic adults more than children).

Looking at the Fighting Fantasy books with their, often, multiple pages of background, illustrated maps and elaborate fantasy illustrations (one of the key draws of the series was it use of serious fantasy artwork) I'm reminded of the manuals for 8 bit Spectrum computer games. These often compensated for the limitations of the on-screen visuals with elaborate art work and full colour printed maps. Story information that would now be conveyed in a video sequence was then packed into near novel length text (or in some cases actual novels).

The map from the Spectrum game Tir Na Nog could have come straight from a Fighting Fantasy book

...and looks a bit more impressive the screen shots

The point is that the computer game players of this era were used to doing some imaginative work. They were used to somewhat abstract visuals and that games wouldn't exactly represent reality. Translating these ideas to book form was not much of a stretch.

Knightmare, in contrast, revelled in the fact that, with a television budget, it could offer what computer games could only aspire to provide, an interactive fantasy world. It's early computer graphics and green-screen effects, though primitive by modern standards, were well beyond anything that computers could provide.

It's hardly surprising that as computer and video games developed the appeal of both declined. By the Playstation era, games could create interactive 3D environments, albeit ones that look crude compared to the capabilities of current consoles. The effect was still to create a game world far more immersive than anything that had gone before.

The window of opportunity for both Fighting Fantasy and Knightmare to be successful was really quite narrow. Both were raised up and brought low by video gaming technology. They were dependent on a world where video games expanded the idea of what a game could be, but became redundant as video games truly achieved their potential.

I was fortunate in that that window fell straight across my childhood, a little younger or a little older and I might have missed them entirely. And yet they were hugely important to me, and, I suspect to my generation of gamers, influencing my taste in wargaming and video gaming years later.

And so I feel enormously privileged to have been born at exactly the right time for both of them.

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Works in Progress - Gargants

November 23, 2014, 10:53 am

≫ Next: Scenery in progress

≪ Previous: Fleeting Pleasures

A few pictures here of my latest project. When Games Workshop finally killed off Epic and the other specialist games, I took the opportunity to buy up a last few bits and bobs. But, nevertheless, there were still a few bits and bobs I didn't pick up. One of which was the Super Stompa, the second smallest of the Ork Titans/walker-based war engines.

I've thought for a while that it would be possible to build Gargants and/or Stompas using the current Warhammer 40,000 Killer-kans boxed set. And last weekend, at Warfare Reading, I finally picked up a box.

This was my first attempt at a Super Stompa

This is pretty much all Killer-Kan bits. The legs were cut down shorter and the head comes from the top of a Black Ork banner pole. The shoulder mounted buzz-saw was inspired by the old Mekboy Gargant model.

The shoulder mount came from my bits box, I honestly have no idea where it came from.

Unfortunately, this model turned out to be slightly bigger than a standard Gargant.

So I promoted him to a full scale Gargant, with two Soopa-guns and a Mega-choppa. He doesn't have the standard Gargant belly gun, but he was made by Orks so there's no requirement for consistency.

Having used up one Killer-Kan body, two guns and one close combat arm, I decided to take a different approach. Even cut down the legs were too long and the guns were too big. But I still thought I could use the bodies and the feet. So I improvised with other pieces from my bits box.

The heads are left over boss heads from fantasy Orks. The arms are made from parts of Killer-Kan legs. The guns were improvised from Killer-Kan bits, a plastic battle wagon and the gun from an old Mega-Gargant. The Axe from the right Super Stompa also comes from the Black Ork boxed set, which has been pretty useful.

My final plan was to upgrade my old Mega Gargant. I never liked the Mega Gargant model. The body and head were fine, but I thought the arms and additional weapons were too spindly.

I had long since cannibalised my Mega Gargant for parts, but I managed to dig out the frame of one of them.

I added two Killer-Kan close combat arms and shoulder mounted two of the Killer-Kan weapons.

The ram is from an old Imperial Guard tank accessory sprue.

I added two of the exhaust boxes from the Killer-Kans to the back in order to bulk it up. I couldn't find all of the original guns from the stomach, so I will either have to find them or replace them some how.

No I just have to paint them along with the several hundred other Epic Orks I have lying around.

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Scenery in progress

January 3, 2015, 12:11 pm

≫ Next: The Temple of mild annoyance

≪ Previous: Works in Progress - Gargants

A quick update of what's going on at my painting table.

And a slightly more obvious item, a Torii arch.

These are both from Sarissa Precision's range of 28mm Japanese buildings and both were Christmas presents (thanks Mum).

I have previously bought Japanese buildings from 4Ground but they only do village buildings. Sarissa do a Shrine and the arch which fit well with my Bushido Temple of Rokan models. Unfortunately, unlike 4Ground, Sarissa's buildings have to be painted, so I have been hard at work this weekend.

Hopefully, I'll have some finished pictures soon.

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The Temple of mild annoyance

January 4, 2015, 11:10 am

≫ Next: Painting Update

≪ Previous: Scenery in progress

And here is the finished temple in all it's glory. I have to admit, I didn't expect to get it finished quite so quickly.

I had a nightmare of a time with the vertical struts. There are four pieces, one for each side, each of which consists of four vertical struts, attached to a horizontal piece which holds the central shrine building off the ground. You have to slide the four struts through four holes in the decking.

I made the foolish mistake of painting the struts before pushing them through the holes. When I pushed them through, I scraped half the paint off, one strut snapped clean in half and another half snapped and ended up at an angle. I was able to fix them so the casual observer won't notice, but I will never be able to look at anything else.

The end result is two nice pieces that add a bit of variety to my Bushido scenery collection, but which were more difficult to assemble than the 4Ground buildings and, thanks to the limits of my painting skills, don't look quite as good.

But, if you want a nice Japanese-style shrine, I don't think you can find a better one for the price.

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Painting Update

January 11, 2015, 10:36 am

≫ Next: Bushido - All Dead in Shimoda

≪ Previous: The Temple of mild annoyance

My weekend has pretty much been divided between playing Tales of Xillia 2, watching Tabletop and painting this guy:

He's Hisao, crusty old man villager from Bushido.

And I had a bit of time to try out a Cinnamon crumble cake recipe.

There is a reason behind my sudden, frantic rush of fantasy far east painting and terrain building. More information soon, time permitting.

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Bushido - All Dead in Shimoda

January 24, 2015, 10:38 am

≫ Next: A few words on the end of Anima Tactics

≪ Previous: Painting Update

For a little while I have been wanting to try adding more of a narrative element to Bushido. My attention turned to the mini-campaiagns that used to be very popular for Warhammer games in which you would play two or three small games and then one big game. The winners of the earlier games would get bonuses in the last game, like extra points.

It then occurred to me that both my Bushido factions of choice largely divide into two type of model The Temple are largely split into Monks and Peasants (with a few extras) and the Savage Wave into Oni and Bakemono (with a few extras). From there it seemed obvious to devise scenarios that only allowed one of each type. This is why I suddenly bought and painted Hisao, to bulk up my supply of peasants.

In Scenario 1 - All Dead in Shimoda, a group of Monks investigate strange goings-on at a small peasant village, only to find the villagers gone and the village overrun with Oni.

There are three injured peasant left in the village, and both sides have to capture them. The Monks to find out what's going on, the Oni to silence them.

This was a small scenario of only 35 rice per side. The Temple faction cannot use peasants and the Savage Wave cannot use Bakemono. The full scenario rules are here.

And so to the battle.

Initial table layout before the two sides had deployed. The buildings are from 4Ground, the rice paddy and other accessories from Oshiro model terrain and the bamboo forest is home made from cork tiling, cocktail sticks and modelling putty. The peasant models are objective models representing the wounded peasants.

Both sides advanced through the centre of the village. Riku, defended by the Gorilla, headed for the peasant in the centre, throwing up a wall of water to protect himself. But the wall proved unable to stop the mighty Bobata the bell-ringer. On the left, Kenko and Hotaru fight with Waka and the Oni Slave over the left peasant.

In the background, the Nian advances across the rice paddy.

Disaster for the Savage Wave as Riku pushed back Bobata and a devastating charge from Gori-san finished him off. Meanwhile, Hotaru finished off the Slave and joined Kenko in attacking Waka. But they would both have to survive his giant stone Buddha head.

Sadly for Waka, Kenko survived the stone Buddha head with only minor injuries. No match for two monks, Waka was knocked down and then finished off.

Meanwhile, the Nian sneaked around the back of the village.

If the Nian had been lucky and had managed to finish off Kenko or Riku who were carrying the other wounded peasants, the Savage Wave still had a chance at a draw. He got off to a got start, hurling Gori-san to one side, but he wasn't strong enough to take out Kenko.

Scenario 1 went to the Temple.

It was an enjoyable, and pretty quick game, but it all went wrong for the Savage Wave when Bobata went down. While he would have had a hard time taking on both Gori-san and Kenko, he had a good chance of lasting long enough for the Nian to give him support from the other side. Gori-san rolled really well.

Hopefully, I'll update soon with details of Scenario 2.

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A few words on the end of Anima Tactics

February 26, 2015, 11:49 am

≫ Next: Bushido Game 2 - Prison Break

≪ Previous: Bushido - All Dead in Shimoda

Yesterday, I learned of the unfortunate death of Anima Tactics and felt it warranted a few words.

Long term readers of this blog, or people who just like trawling through the archives, will find quite a few old posts on Anima Tactics. The number of posts had slowed in recent years, but I still thought of it as one of my favourite games, so the news that Cipher Studios is discontinuing the game was sad, if not surprising, given that releases had slowed to a crawl.

Anima Tactics was very much a boutique skirmish game, by which I mean the individual models were very expensive, but the game got away with this because you needed very few to play. The emphasis was on small numbers of high quality models and players expected to collect most, if not all, of the models from a particular faction. Anima Tactics may not have been the first boutique skirmish game, but it was the first I played and was followed by many others including Malifaux, Freeboooter's Fate, Helldorado and Bushido.

Like most games of this type, Anima Tactics traded on a unique aesthetic, in this case Japanese. While a number of games have been based around Japanese history, Anima was the first I know of to be based around Japanese pop-culture. The characters and setting were not particularly Japanese, but were filtered through by a Japanese idea of western culture. Anima was the war game that got closest to recreating the look of Anime, Manga or Japanese video games. Anima's unusual and distinctive art work, mostly produced by Wen Yu-Li set it apart from other games.

In addition, Anima Tactics had an unusually straight-forward and elegant rules set. Its model activation system was based around action points, represented by counters supplied with the miniatures. Points were spent in order to perform basic actions, like walking, running and fighting, but also special actions listed on the cards that came with the models. The characters received less than the full amount of points they could store each turn, so players had to manage their supply from turn to turn.

The combat system involved rolling a dice and adding a characters attack and comparing it to the enemies defence and the same procedure was used for both close combat and ranged attacks. There were no tables and, while, in common with most boutique skirmish games, keywords were added to the characters cards to indicate special rules, the number of these key words was far lower than in most other games.

Unfortunately, Anima Tactics didn't do very well in the UK. The only game shop near me that stocked it game up on the game in 2011 and it has all but vanished from UK online stores. In order to get any more models I had to order them from the US and accept customs charges and the, far more irritating and inevitably greater, processing fees that came with them.

Anima started life as a Roleplaying game, Anima: Beyond Fantasy, still produced by Spanish company Edge Entertainment, but Anima Tactics was produced and distributed by Cipher Studios in the US, although the background and rules still came from Edge. The arrangement did not always appear to work smoothly and, apparently, lead to the slow rate of release of both models and rule books. It is hardly surprising that once Cipher acquired Helldorado out right they shifted much of their attention to the new game.

I feel somewhat ambivalent about all of this. On the one hand, I have almost all the models released for three factions and, once the range is moved to Ninja Division I will probably order the last half dozen or so I still don't have. There is something quite appealing about having a complete set of models. My little brother has a pretty good range from two more factions and between us to keep us busy for the foreseeable future. I can focus on actually getting the models painted without worrying about keeping up with new releases. And this may not be the end, according to a post on the Cipher Studios forum, developers of the spin off video game, Gate of Memories, are interested in keeping the game going:

Hi everyone.

Regarding the announcement of Cipher Studios about Anima Tactics, I want to coment some points to make everything clear.

1°) Will it have an impact on the videogame?
Of course not! Gate of Memories development will go on in the same way as it was planed. The game is going to be finished and all the pledges will be given as promised, regardless if you are a backer of the first or extended campaign.
Anima Tactics was not directly related to Gate of Memories development.

2°) Will the minis of the Bearer and the Nameless be released?
Of course. Including AT rules for them. ^^

3°) Will another company takes over and continue AT instead of Cipher?
Right now, we are working with Edge Entertainment in a new branch of Anima Tactics sequel game. Give us time to prepare everything. ^^

4°) Will the Saga 3 rulebook be released one day?
Yes, but in a different way than the original plan. Right now, we are working in Anima Tactics Saga, which is equivalent to Anima Tactics sequel / 2nd edition.

Time will tell if this turns out to be a pipe dream or if it has any substance.

On the other hand, this still feels like the end of something. There is an undeniable psychological impact when a game goes from being formally supported, however lightly, to formally discontinued. The height of Anima Tactics came at a point where my painting skills were really developing and I was trying out lots of new techniques. My first serious attempts at blending and my first use of a wet pallet were both on Anima Tactics models. It prompted me to assemble an entire cardboard town. It also came along at a time in my life when lots of other things weren't going great and so I will always associate it with making me feel slightly better.

With all that mind, the passing of Anima Tactics is a sad event.

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Bushido Game 2 - Prison Break

March 6, 2015, 12:55 pm

≫ Next: Painting Table Update - Ronin

≪ Previous: A few words on the end of Anima Tactics

Following on from my previous post here is the follow up, the second game in my Bushido mini-campaign. The first game didn't allow peasants or Bakemono, this one excluded monks and oni.

The first scenario saw the monks investigate the apparently deserted Shimoda village, but while this was going on the surviving villagers were being held prisoner by the Bakemono. But the villagers weren't sitting around doing nothing. Assisted by the fox spirit Kitsune and a minor Kami, they were planning an escape attempt.

If you're interested, the scenario can be found here.

The Battlefield: the Bakemono's foul lair, a dismal cave filled with twisted plants and stagnant pools.

Deployment, the villagers are held in the centre, surrounded by Bakemono waiting to pounce.

The minor Kami summons a wind to blow away a Bakemono archer.

Kitsune, Kintaru and a rice farmer attack the Bakemono, giving the others a chance to get away.

But Tra-Peng stabs Kitsune from behind, taking her out in one round and costing the Temple their highest cost character.

With Kitsune defeated, the remaining peasants are looking badly outnumbered.

Kintaru and the Rice Farmer are quickly defeated and the Bakemono pursue the remaining peasants.

Pushed into a corner, the remaining villagers hold out long enough to scrape a draw.

The villagers started the battle well, taking out two Bakemono, but the sudden loss of Kistune swung the game for the Bakemono, who quickly summoned reinforcements. The Bakemono held the far corner for the whole game, but fisher girl quickly did the same for the opposite corner. Despite being pursued right into the corner, the Bakemono couldn't finish off enough villagers to capture the other corner and so the game ended as a no-score draw.

Playing with only Peasants was really interesting. I had to make heavy use of buffs and Hisao was invaluable at boosting peasants combat value and using his command ability to give the Temple multiple activations.

I will post the details of game 3 when I get the chance to write the scenario and play it.

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Painting Table Update - Ronin

March 22, 2015, 7:54 am

≫ Next: Terry Pratchett

≪ Previous: Bushido Game 2 - Prison Break

I have been wanting to do something with 28mm historical Samurai for a while. I had a accumulated a few Perry Miniatures models, but hadn't figured out what to do with them until Osprey released Ronin as part of its wargames series.

Ronin is designed for small scale skirmishes with 4 to 20 models a side, which means I didn't have a lot of painting to do. But between Chaos Dwarfs, Bushido, Inquisitor, I only just got around to painting them.

The warbands/battle groups in Ronin are called Buntai. So here is my first Buntai.

They aren't supposed to have a very uniform look, but I tried to put a little bit of blue on all of them.

The Sashimono (back banners) show that they belong to the Shimazu clan. The Shimazu were based in the far west of Japan in Satsuma, far enough away from the centres of power to develop a few idiosyncrasies. They were one of the first clans to encounter westerners and to use muskets. But in spite of that, at the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, the clan leader Shimazu Yoshihiro turned up carrying a bow, which was considered quite quaint.

The Shimazu were unique among the Samurai in being involved in two overseas ventures. The first was the unsuccessful invasion of Korea in the 1590s. The second was in 1609 when, at the behest of the Shogun, they invaded the independent kingdom of Ryukyu, now the island chain of Okinawa, conquering it and absorbing it into Japan.

Two hundred years after this they were the instigators of the Satsuma rebellion whose history would be mangled by Tom Cruise and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles among others.

These first five are a 100 point Bushi buntai, consisting of three Ashigaru, including one with a teppo (musket), an Ashigaru-Gashira (basically a sergeant) and a Samurai. I'll be boosting it up to 200 points in due course and working on a couple of other Buntai so they have someone to fight. If you look in the background of the top two shots you see the beginnings of the next Buntai.

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Terry Pratchett

April 14, 2015, 11:52 am

≫ Next: Where is Doctor Who Armada?

≪ Previous: Painting Table Update - Ronin

A bit of background to this post, I originally wrote it two weeks ago, then saved it until I could take the picture that accompanies it. I promptly forgot I hadn't actually posted it and so now it's even more out of date then when I wrote it.Apologies to Sir Terry in the unlikely event that he is reading it somewhere.

It's been more than two weeks since Sir Terry Pratchett died so this post is, arguably, a little late. Especially as I managed a post about the death of Anima Tactics within two days of the announcement.

My only defence is that the news has taken a while to process. In part because many of us have been mentally preparing for this since the announcement that he had Alzheimer's back in 2007. Not that this announcement indicated his imminent death, in fact he achieved a remarkable amount in the following eight years, including writing more books, campaigning on behalf of assisted suicide and forging his own sword. But it did make us face the fact that he was not immortal and that at some point a last Discworld book would be written and published,

To further confuse the situation, he had finished his last book only shortly before his death and it is still to be published. For those of us who only knew Sir Terry through his writing, there is a real sense in which he hasn't gone yet and we are still preparing for a final farewell.

I was a relatively late comer to the Discworld. I originally read the Nomes trilogy, Truckers, Diggers and Wings, when I was about 12, but struggled with the Colour of Magic. As many people have said, it has a very different style from subsequent books. I never managed to finish it, though I did, eventually, read the comic adaptation. A few years later I read Soul Music, then the most recent book published, and for a few years bounced backwards and forwards through the series, keeping up with the new books while catching up with the earlier ones in a somewhat haphazard fashion.

This period of heavy Pratchett reading only lasted a year or two before I settled into a pattern of reading the books as they were written. Conveniently, he settled in a pattern of releasing a new book either just before or just after my birthday, which I would generally devour in a day or two before waiting for the next year's Pratchett fix.

As an analyst of his writing, I don't feel I have a great deal to offer, there are plenty of superlatives out there already. Suffice it to say he was a very great writer, whose work was still remarkably easy to read. He managed to create a fantasy world that was at one level more extreme and comedic than any other and yet, somehow, inhabited with characters who actually behaved like real people and whose lives and interests were relatable. It was also a world in which society, technology and politics could progress. Strangely, this all struck a chord with me as a Warhammer fan.

Bizarre as it sounds, when the Warhammer world was first truly developed, mostly through 1st edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, it was an andidote to the excessively epic heroic fantasy characterised by Dungeons & Dragons. The Warhammer world took a pretty close copy of late Medieval/Renaissance Europe as it's base and inserted fantasy creatures, without dramatically altering human behaviour. If you look at the early Warhammer novels (especially Drachenfels or the Orfeo trilogy) it's not hard to see the parallels, even with a somewhat grimmer atmosphere.

Remarkably, when Games Workshop were first casting around for writers for the first Warhammer novels, Terry Pratchett was one they approached and he tentatively said yes. Sadly, this first attempt came to nothing, but the idea of a Pratchett influenced Warhammer world is tantilising (for a start 9th edition Warhammer might have been ushered in by a change in the global socio-political set up or the development of new technology rather than a Daemon-influenced Megapocalypse).

An odd thing about Pratchett is, despite his clear and obvious success, his work has not seeped into popular culture as strongly as others. Most people have an idea of who he is and may even know the word "Discworld", but few of his characters or settings are known outside of his readership. In contrast Gandalf and Harry Potter are recognised well outside of fantasy fans.

Part of the reason for this may be that Pratchett's novels were not made into films. There were a few television versions. Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters were animated by Cosgrove Hall, but suffered from low budgets and poor scheduling. While Sky's live adaptations had bigger budgets, but the choices of books were odd. Hogfather largely involved established characters from earlier novels, the Colour of Magic isn't much like the rest of the series and Going Postal, probably the best adaptations, was one of the most recent at the time and befitted from existing knowledge of the city of Ankh-Morpork. Plus there was Sky's determination to shoe-horn David Jason into prominent roles in the first two. The series also didn't have as strong an impact in the USA as it did in Europe, despite some devoted fans.

The effect of the Discworld's failure to have much impact outside of the books was to give readers a more personal connection to the series. Reading is still a uniquely solitary and personal way to experience art and culture. Books allow their authors to speak to their audience directly and for the reader to feel some sense of direct contact with the thoughts and ideas of the writer. So for many fans the death of Terry Pratchett feels, somehow, personal in a way that the death of an actor, singer or celebrity isn't.

Terry Pratchett's legacy was that it was possible to feel this personal sense of loss, despite being one of an audience of millions.

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Where is Doctor Who Armada?

April 27, 2015, 12:51 pm

≫ Next: Salute Number Ten

≪ Previous: Terry Pratchett

The Guardian newspaper have published a review of Star Wars Armada, Fantasy Flight games new fleet level starship game. I think this may be unprecedented. Mainstream newspapers and the BBC have published articles on Games Workshop before, but normally under business or human interest. By publishing a review, and a highly positive one at that, the Guardian are effectively saying to its readers, "here is something that you personally may want to purchase and use."

Fantasy Flight have been very canny here. Star Wars Armada, and its predecessor X-Wing, are effectively table top miniature games, albeit one that uses pre-assembled and pre-painted miniatures, but they are packaged and marketed like board games and sold in the sorts of shops that sell board games. Also, they have managed to do something that the previous producers of Star Wars miniatures failed to do, level Star Wars enormous pop-culture appeal to sell a miniature game to a mainstream audience. In years to come I can see a generation of wargamers cite Armada and X-Wing as the games that got them into the hobby in the way that my generation talks about Hero Quest.

All of this leads me to question why no-one has done the same thing with a British IP that has a similar cross-over appeal - Doctor Who.

Since it's return to television in 2005, Doctor Who has gone from being a huge fad to a respectable part of the UK television establishment. It may not score X-Factor busting audience figures, but it's ratings remain high and stable, especially when you take into account the large numbers watching online via Iplayer. More importantly, its place in pop culture is assured and no longer the butt of jokes.

Board games and card games have been produced based on Doctor Who but these have tended to be either focused on young children or variants of existing games like Monopoly or Top Trumps. There is a Doctor Who RPG but this has remained a specialist product only available in games shops or at conventions and there seems little hope that RPG's will re-enter the mainstream in the near future.

At the same time there have been dozens of unofficial "not Doctor Who" miniatures that the BBC either knows nothing about or has no interest in policing. There are at least four different versions of the 11th Doctor alone none of which are, technically, supposed to be him.

But a well designed, accessible, and well made Doctor Who miniature game could have genuine cross over appeal. It's the sort of thing that, long long ago, Games Workshop might have produced. Is there anyone left to try it now?

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Salute Number Ten

May 5, 2015, 11:57 am

≫ Next: The UK Games Expo 2015

≪ Previous: Where is Doctor Who Armada?

Another Salute, the UK's biggest wargaming show, has been and gone and it only occurred to me on the day that this would be my tenth. My first was in 2006 and I have been to every one since.

Cloudships of Mars Salute 2006

In last year's post, I described Salute as "a pop-up wargaming superstore that trades for only one day each year." I still think that's an accurate description, but I don't think it's a negative thing. Salute is essentially a trade show, but one that gives small producers and traders representing what is, still, a very niche hobby the chance to reach the largest possible audience. At the same time, it gives hobbyists a chance to buy products they would struggle to find anywhere else.

But ten shows has left me wondering if their have been any major trends or developments? My Salute 2006 experience was dominated by Privateer Press who had just launched Hordes and had a huge stand set up at the front of the show to reflect that. Also present was Wizkids games, producers of Heroclix and other pre-painted miniatures with dials in their bases. Despite their medium-sized stand, their foot print was greatly increased by row upon row of demo games.

SF30 Salute 2009

Both were largely absent from Salute 2015. Privateer press long ago gave up running a personal stand, although their miniatures are still represented by a number of traders. Since being sold by their parent company Topps, Wizkids has become smaller and more US focused, and their presence at Salute has dwindled.

Games Workshop too has given up running their own stand. They are clearly comfortably represented by independent traders and it is unlikely they ever did much business given the amount of discounted Games Workshop products available elsewhere. Forge World was left to fly the Games Workshop flag, and was still doing well this year, although they had eliminated their usual disorganised mob in favour of an orderly, if extremely long, queue.

Lego Star Wars Salute 2010

In contrast, independent trader Wayland games have seen their presence expand year on year to the point where they are essentially running a their own wall-less games shop from the centre of the Excel centre, offering proper checkouts, carry bags and the chance to pay with plastic, a dangerous temptation for many wargamers.

This year, however, they were challenged by the Troll Trader who were offering a similar open-plan shopping experience, combined with even sharper discounts and an extensive range of bargain bins.

Trebuchet Salute 2013

If there is a trend here, it is the character of the show has shifted from being dominated by big producers to the larger independent traders. That is not to say that producers do not have a presence. A great number including, but not limited to, Perry Miniatures, Heresy Miniature, Hasslefree Miniatures, West Wind productions, GCT Studios, Crooked Dice and Warlord games, have been attending Salute for years meeting enthusiasts and diligently plugging their latest games.

But the biggest players, by which I mean those with the largest footprint and the most visible presence have shifted. With Games Workshop and the largest US companies gone, the place has been taken by traders, but they can only offer what the producers supply. Wayland and the Troll trader may get the bulk of the business, but the shopping experience is likely to be brief. If this gives the small producers more time to actively engage with their customers this may be no bad thing.

Stingray Salute 2015

One significant shift made only this year was the change to the Salute grand prize. Previously this had been a raffle held at the end of the day in which a random ticket would be drawn and the winner given a large prize of Salute vouchers. This had the effect of keeping a lot of attendees at the show until they end and ensured that a large crowd gathered for the shows gaming and painting awards.

This year, the prize draw was replaced with golden tickets hidden in three of the shows goody bags. The winners, and the much larger number of losers, knew where they stood much earlier in the day, but it removed one incentive to stay to the end. Whether this lead to a tailing off as they day progressed I don't know, because for the first time in ten years, I didn't stay until the end.

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The UK Games Expo 2015

June 19, 2015, 12:10 pm

≫ Next: Samurai Progress

≪ Previous: Salute Number Ten

Two weeks have passed since the UK Games Expo in Birmingham, but life has a way of interfering with blog posts, so my comments have had to wait.

This was my third Expo and and each one has been a markedly different experience. Not because the show itself has changed a great deal, but because it is broad enough to encompass a range of activities and one persons Expo can be different from another's depending on their interests.

I spent Expo 2013 bouncing from demo game to demo game, squeezing in giant-sized games of Castle Panic and Ticket to Ride along the way. At my second Expo I squeezed in visits to the dealer room around seminars and an RPG session, while this year I took part in my first wargaming tournament.

I decided to have a go at the Bushido tournament because I had never done anything like it before, because I already had plenty of painted models and because they were offering a 20% discount to anyone who took part. In the end I did spectacularly badly, though my opponents were unfailingly courteous and sportsmanlike, at least in part because I chose my warband based on the models I like best and had painted most effectively. The experience cemented my belief that I am not a very competitive player, plus eight hours of one game in a day is two to four hours more than I want. But it was a new experience and now I can now say I don't much like tournaments based on experience.

Tournament in Action

I have seen the Expo described as basically a board-gaming convention, but in reality it seems to be several different conventions sharing a space. As well as the wargames tournaments, there are board game and card game tournaments, RPG sessions, seminars and a few quirky oddities like LARPing and cosplay. The dealer rooms cover everything from board games to goth fashion. The whole thing demonstrates the extent to which geek interests tend to overlap and it is quite possible to have an enjoyable experience while ignoring more than half the convention.

It is unusual for me in that is the only event I regularly attend for which I stay more than a day and which takes place at a hotel.This gives the experience something of a community feel as groups of gamers hang around the bar into the evenings or compare notes over breakfast.

The UK Games Expo Food Festival - I'm betting you won't see many pictures of this

Next year though the character of the event is genuinely set to change as large parts of the event move out of the hotel and colonise parts of the neighbouring National Exhibition Centre. This is largely for reasons of space, the hotel having become increasingly jammed. This lead to rooming problems for several events and I found myself involved in a kind of tournament musical chairs as the Bushido tournament was bounced from one room to another a total of five times. It could have been worse, in 2014 an air conditioning failure resulted in a far warmer atmosphere than was comfortable.

It will be interesting to see what effect dividing the event has. Will there be a division between the tournament players and the casual gamers as one set are left in the hotel and the others troupe across to an exhibition hall? Will the sense of community be lost if there is a division between the event and the accommodation? And will the breakfast queue be even longer as everyone gets up even earlier because they have to walk further?

If nothing else, the UK Games Expo has provided a different experience each time I have attended and that, compared to the predictability of so many gaming shows, is very welcome.

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Samurai Progress

June 30, 2015, 12:56 pm

≫ Next: The Best of Times or the Worst of Times?

≪ Previous: The UK Games Expo 2015

It has been a while since the last update on my 28mm Samurai for Ronin project, but I have not been idle. Since my last post I have finished my first 100 points of two new Buntai.

The first is a second Bushi buntai. This time a very small, elite team.

The Bushi faction restricts the models you can choose pretty heavily. Combined with the high points cost of the models, most 100 point Bushi buntai are likely to be more or less the same. You will have no more than five models, of which only one can be a Samurai. The rest will all be Ashigaru and, although you have some choice of weapons, no more than one can have a teppo (musket) and no more than half can have missile weapons.

There is an alternative option, however, and that is to choose only models of rank 3 or higher which means Samurai and above. With that in mind, my second Bushi buntai is made up of only two Samurai and one Hatamoto* on a warhorse.

A confrontation between the Ii and Shimazu clans

Technically, this buntai is against the rules as the "what you will need" section at the start of the rulebook says you need 4 - 20 models per side. But I'm not sure this can be considered a hard and fast rule. The same section says you need counters, but if you chose to right down wounds and status changes on a piece of paper it couldn't really be called cheating. In any case, I plan to expand the buntai when I get the chance.

The Samurai are painted red in the style of the Red Devils of Ii Naomasa, who long term readers may remember were the basis for my 6mm Samurai army. The Red Devils are always a popular choice because they were one of the only clans to have anything close to a uniform colour scheme. Ii Naomasa himself was shot by a Shimazu clan sniper at the battle of Sekigahara, so they fit quite nicely with my first bushi buntai.

My third buntai are the Sohei, or Warrior Monks.

The Sohei are pretty good match for the Bushi. Their combat pool and fight values are about the same as the equivalent rank bushi and they have a similar array of weapons. They're more lightly armoured, but trade that for being fearless, which means they can ignore morale checks. They also include some rank 0 models, in the form of the two temple attendants armed with yari (spears). These guys are little more than speed bumps, but only cost eight points each, less than half the cost of the cheapest bushi model.

The models are all from Perry miniatures. I am using the bare-headed monks as Initiates and the one with a covered head as a full Sohei. I have no idea if this has any basis in history, but it's an easy way to tell the apart.

Most of the Monks are equipped with the fearsome naginata, one of those ambiguous weapons that sits somewhere between a pole-arm and a sword. Basically, if a pole-arm has a longer handle than blade and a sword a longer blade than handle, the naginata, like the Dacian falx, sits in between with a blade almost the exact length of the handle. In game terms, the naginata boosts damage (but not as much as a two-handed sword) and initiative (but not as much as a spear) and so is a good compromise weapon.

This picture is from a recent test battle between the Shimazu bushi and the Sohei. The battle was an absolute flat draw, which shows how good a match the two sides are.

More picture as soon as possible.

*Hatamoto, meaning "men under the banner" where the retainers of a senior Samurai or Daimyo (Warlord). Ronin appears to be using the term to designate an elite Samurai, as they are the lowest rank that can ride a horse.

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The Best of Times or the Worst of Times?

July 4, 2015, 4:29 am

≫ Next: Possibly flatly contradicting myself

≪ Previous: Samurai Progress

After months of faffing around, Games Workshop have finally revealed Warhammer 9th edition or "Age of Sigmar" (very much the Windows 10 of the wargaming world).

"The End Times" was never going to attract me in a big way because I don't react quickly to wargaming trends. I always sit around for a few months, or even years, before embarking on a new project so a range of models and rule books that were always intended to be very short-lived and quickly superseded by the next big thing were never going to work for me. That said, I approve of the idea of turning the end of an edition into as big an event as the start of one, even if it is an excuse to flog as many old models as possible before starting again.

Now that the new version is out we can see how accurate the rumour mill was and it looks like even the most extreme rumours were true. Pretty much everything has been thrown out, right down to the Warhammer world itself. After eight editions of minor tweaks and updates, everything has been thrown out, right down to square bases. The new game is leaner, simpler and very much skirmish based with units of five to ten models and standard and a more substantial role for heroes. There are free rules for all the old models for the moment, but the new models have a completely different aesthetic, looking more like Warhammer 40,000 without the guns.

There's a lot of anger on the internet at the moment with the simplification. The new rules are only four pages long and very straight forward. Games Workshop seem to have taken inspiration from Warmachine in terms of scale, but their rules are much simpler. Rumour mill currently has it that a more substantial rule book will be coming soon, but unless it is completely different from these starter rules, it will still be a radical departure from everything that has gone before.

I actually give Games Workshop credit for being this bold. They seem to be embracing their rule as the first port of call for new wargamers aged 10 - 12, with a rules set that is straight forward, uncomplicated and can be played with a small group of models. They seem to have recognised that eight edition's great misstep was pushing ever big armies with bigger units that no normal person could afford to collect. It is, once again, possible to buy a single box and have a usable unit. And the enhanced importance of heroes goes some way towards justifying their disproportionate monetary cost.

Having said that, I don't think I will be bothering with the new edition.

Partly this is due to the tone and style. I have been a Warhammer player for roughly 25 years and I had got used to its generic fantasy world with a twist. Games Workshop took the standard Hollywood Medieval style of Dungeons and Dragons, moved the technology level to late medieval and added a touch of black humour. Over time it had become more cartoon-like and more exaggerated, but the core had remained. There was still a touch stone of the Warhammer world grounded in the real lives of real people. Although it was nowhere near as accomplished, I always felt it had a quality similar to the Discworld with real people in a fantastic situation who, nevertheless, behaved like real people. But the Warhammer world was also broad enough to embrace a wide range of fantasy types, so it could take in Arthurian mythology, high fantasy, sword and sorcery, a version of Chaos taken largely from Michael Morcock and gothic horror without any of it feeling entirely out of place. Plus, at its best it had a sense of humour about itself.

The new reality of galaxy spanning wars across multiple dimensions doesn't really work for me, and sounds suspiciously similar to Warhammer 40,000.

But the main reason I won't bother is because this is simply a new game and I have no interest in starting a new game. I have something like seven different Warhammer armies built between fourth and eighth edition, none of which may be particularly tactically optimal, but all of which are playable. I have no desire to rework them for a new set of rules, especially when I have so many unpainted models for other games and other projects demanding my attention.

So for me, it's a no to Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

And yet this is strangely liberating. Eight edition Warhammer is now a "dead" game in the same way as Epic, Mordheim, Necromunda or Blood Bowl. Which means it's free of Games Workshop, there will be no new rules or model releases and I can simply concentrate on the models I already own (with one or two last minute editions while they are still available). Given Games Workshop's focus on new players I doubt I will be missed.

So this is not a farewell to Warhammer exactly, but rather the point at which I part company with Games Workshop. It will carry on in to the future with its version of Warhammer, while I stay put with mine.

UPDATE Just a small detail, but I think that daftest thing Games Workshop has done here is attempted to rename some of the most generic fantasy races so we now have Aelfs, Duardins, Grots and Orruks instead of Elves, Dwarfs, Goblins and Orcs. Presumably this is to make them easier to trademark, but I don't think they're fooling anyone.

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Possibly flatly contradicting myself

July 9, 2015, 4:24 am

≫ Next: The Magpie game

≪ Previous: The Best of Times or the Worst of Times?

Over the past few days I have read a few posts on forums from people trying out Age of Sigmar and the consensus seems to be that it's actually quite fun, if a bit rough around the edges.

Then I read this post on the Too Much Lead blog which suggests that Games Workshop intend to keep the rules permanently free and to never introduce point values. Both of which come across as quite daring and interesting manoeuvres. And that GW really want this to work and are interested in feedback.

Looking over the free "War Scrolls" for the existing Warhammer armies it also looks like pretty much everything I own does have rules and I wouldn't have to do any real re-organising of my armies (I might cut down the size of some units a bit, but that's all).

So if the rules are actually reasonably fun and very open to customisation, and I don't need to buy any new models, why not give it a go? I have no interest in the Age of Sigmar background with its Realms, its Eternals, its Orruks and its Aelfs, but who cares? As far as the rules are concerned it doesn't matter where the game is set.

And, if I don't have to revise my armies, then it may prove complementary to Warhammer 8th edition and I can keep playing both.

I'm still more interested in Dragon Rampant, mind you.

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The Magpie game

July 13, 2015, 11:14 am

≫ Next: First game of Age of Sigmar - a few thoughts

≪ Previous: Possibly flatly contradicting myself

The more I look at Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, the more I find myself thinking of another game.This is most obviously illustrated by looking at the box art.

While many people have seen similarities to Warhammer 40,000*, the image it most reminds me of is this:

It's not just the art style, which emphasises bold and heavily saturated colours with a lot of gold and red (in contrast to Isle of Blood's more muted shades), but also that we seem to have zoomed right into the action as opponents pile in on top of each other, and yet the action is frozen at the moment before impact, reflecting the models who can only pose at each other and never actually fight.

This isn't the only influence from Warmachine. The scale of the game, with an emphasis on heroes and large individuals with a handful of units of about five to ten models, is also similar. As is the idea of an ongoing narrative. The new book is not a core rulebook but "the first part of the ongoing narrative: The Realmgate Wars". Though, unlike Privateer Press, Games Workshop hasn't made any attempt to keep the cost down.

But it's easy to see the influence of more than just Warmachine. Having abandoned using tables to find hit and wound rolls, models no have a standard to hit and to wound value that does not vary according to their opponents, exactly in the style of Kings of War. The bravery system, in which the number of models killed is added to the bravery roll is also reminiscent of KoW.

The lack of points values and the expectation that players discuss what they want to achieve from the game recalls Black Powder and Hail Caesar. Both of these emphasise player discussion and co-operation to achieve a goal from the gaming experience, rather than a simple competition.

The scenarios from the leaked Tournament guide will be very familiar to Bushido players, from their preference for circular control zones in groups of two or three to the distribution of victory points at fixed intervals. Not to mention the abstract nature of the scenarios and the fact that their titles appear to have little to do with the scenario itself.

Finally, the new "Warhammer world" with its abstract realms and portals and its apparent lack of a fixed geography and focus on daemonic and mystical beings seems to recall Helldorado.

None of this is necessarily a bad thing. The previous Warhammer world borrowed elements from other fantasy games, novels and films and squashed them all together. Games Workshop could certainly do worse than borrow the best bits from a number of different games. The question at this stage is whether they have the right ingredients, the right recipe and the necessary skill to bring it all together.

*I like to think of it as Warhammer 40,000: European Edition (or Warhammer 40,000 without the guns).

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First game of Age of Sigmar - a few thoughts

July 19, 2015, 3:29 am

≫ Next: A little honesty

≪ Previous: The Magpie game

I actually tried out Age of Sigmar for the first time yesterday, digging out my dwarfs and Chaos Warriors.

The Dwarfs brought

1 Dwarf Lord
1 Rune Lord
10 Hammerers
10 Warriors
10 Miners
10 Thunderers
10 Quarrelers
1 cannon

While Chaos had
1 Chaos Lord
1 Chaos Sorcerer
10 Chaos Warriors
2 units of 10 Marauders
5 Chaos Knights
5 Marauder Horsemen
1 Giant

Deployment

I had no idea if these would prove to be balanced, but they seemed roughly right at the time. Having played the game, here are some observations.

1. It plays very quickly, The whole game was done and dusted in 2 hours, not including setting everything out and packing it up again. A similar sized game of Warhammer 8th edition would probably have taken a good hour longer, and that's with me knowing the rules backwards. I had never played Age of Sigmar and had the rules down in minutes with only a bit of checking backwards and forwards.

Chaos take heavy casualties from Dwarven missile fire

2. It is in some way like Epic 2nd edition, in that the basic rules are very simple, but just about every unit has its own special rules. In practice, a lot of these rules are fairly generic. The rules for musicians and banners tend to be shared across whole armies. These could have been summarised at the start of each army list, but the plan appears to be to make sure that all rules are included on the units war scroll. Like Epic, I could see the game getting increasingly unwieldy the bigger it gets. The rules say a game with 100 models a side should last "an evening" which is a pretty open-ended statement.

The miners tunnel there way onto the battlefield to assist the Thunderers who are still holding their own against the Chaos Knights

3. You can't use previous editions of Warhammer to judge how units will behave in AOS. There isn't nearly as stark a difference in the combat performance of different units. Take the Chaos Warriors and Hammerers, for example. Both have the same saving through, but the Warriors have two wounds each. Both have two attacks each and hit on 3s, though the Hammerers wound on 3+ while the Chaos Warriors wound on 4+. The big difference is that the Hammerers have a rend value (saving through modifier) of -1, while the Warriors don't. In fact, the whole Chaos armies is short of rend values, which means they don't hit very hard against dwarfs who are quite well armoured.

Having dispatched the Dwarf Lord, the badly-wounded Giant lurches towards the Dwarf lines

4. Individual heroes can be very vulnerable against units and large monsters. Because they can't join units any more, I made the mistake of treating them like units in their own right in the same way as Kings of War. If you do that, they can be swamped by larger units, especially as units can now hit and wound a Chaos Lord exactly as easily as a Goblin. The only thing that makes characters tougher is that they have more wounds, which makes them behave like an elite unit of 5 or 6.

Having defeated one unit of Marauders, the Dwarf left flank finishes off the Marauder Horsemen

5. On the other hand, monsters can be lethal. The Giant was comfortably the second most dangerous unit in the game, because of the sheer number attacks he could bring to bear. He swatted the dwarf lord aside in one combat round. If he hadn't been killed by the cannon (the most dangerous unit because of the amount of damage it did), he could have rampaged through the dwarf lines.

The Miners and the Rune Lord bring down the giant (taking some damage when it fell on them) and turn their attention to the Chaos Lord, who has summoned Marauder reinforcements.

6. Combats can become bogged down. The crucial fight between the Hammerers and the Warriors lasted for most of the game. Morale is no longer a decisive factor in combat. In now works by rolling a single D6, and adding the number of models killed this turn. If this beats the units bravery, they lose a number of models equal to the difference. This means the morale is only likely to wipe out a unit if they have already suffered significant damage. Combats last longer, but it also means that a good unit is unlikely to be wiped out by an unlucky roll.

Despite serious wounds, the Rune Lord defeats the Chaos Lord (who also suffered damage from cannon-fire)

7. The order in which combat is fought can be crucial. There are no initiative values in AOS and now priority given to charging units. Instead, the player whose turn it is selects a unit to fight, and the other player selects one. There is no need, and usually no advantage, to choosing a unit in the same combat. This meant that the Chaos Giant was able to kill the Dwarf Lord before he had a chance to fight, but this meant giving the Hammerers the first strike against the Chaos Warriors.

With the Chaos Warriors defeated, the Hammerers turn their attention to the last unit of Marauders

8. Ranged units are a little odd. There is nothing to stop them shooting when they are in close combat and, technically, they can shoot a unit they are not in combat with, though this is difficult as enemy models block line of sight. What this means is that ranged units are not as vulnerable in close combat as they used to be. In fact, thanks to some lucky or unlucky rolling (depending on your point of view), the Thunderers were able to beat the Chaos Knights, although it took them most of the game and only one Thunderer survived.

9. There are a lot of aspects of the rules that feel quite "gamey". Which is to say, it's hard to say they don't seem to represent anything in the real world. Hit and wound rolls being the same, regardless of the opponents abilities, that you can shoot in and out of close combat without penalty and that the order in which combats are fought is crucial. It's hard to translate any of these into any "real world" situation.

Overall, the rules are quick and easy, albeit with a few uncertain rules that could be clarified. In theory, it would be good for quick pick up games without too much planning, but the lack of points values complicates this, because you end up having to do more work to set up a balanced game.

The rules seem to have been written with novice players in mind, keeping the basics as simple as possible and adding additional rules only as you introduce new units. On the other hand, a refusal to introduce proper points values works against this. If the idea is to produce an uncompetitive game, I don't think refusing to provide guidance for army building will do it.

Although I will probably try the rules again, if only to see how well it plays with different models, but although I like the simplicity and speed of the rules, I don't like having to spend time working out balanced games.

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A little honesty

July 28, 2015, 4:52 am

≫ Next: What we will tolerate

≪ Previous: First game of Age of Sigmar - a few thoughts

I was in a branch of Games Workshop* the other day and got chatting to the staff member in charge about Age of Sigmar. He rather generously allowed me to have a look at the new great, big book before its official release date.

While we were talking he made a comment that during a recent Age of Sigmar test game, a player who was something of a power gamer brought along an army with a large number of summonable daemon units and proceeded to wipe the floor with his opponents. After the game they had a conversation and the power-gamer admitted that he hadn't had much fun and reconsidered what he was trying to achieve from the game.

On the face of it, this is just a neat little story about the way Age of Sigmar is supposed to play and the way in which players have to approach it in order to get some value out of it. But, delve a little deeper, and I think it says something about the direction Games Workshop is heading.

Before I go any further, have a look at this article

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2015/04/40k-safe-sane-and-consensual-or-the-arrogance-of-unacknowledged-playstyles.html

The article is basically about how different sorts of players have to approach one another and show tolerance of one anothers play styles and is well worth a read. It's probably better than anything I have written, so take your time. This post will still be here when you get back.

Anyway, the part I want to borrow from the article is the author's division of gamers into three basic types.

1. Competitive or tournament players - whose focus is on a contest of tactical skill and whose goal is to win.
2. Narrative players - whose focus is telling a story and have some relationship to roleplayers.
3. Casual or social players - whose main interest is in having an activity to share with their friends.

It's a fairly basic division, and there is certainly some overlap between the three categories, but it will do for my purpose.

For some years now, Games Workshop has been trying to shift its attention from players or type 1, to those of types 2 and 3 and Age of Sigmar is probably the apogee of this. On the face of it, there is nothing wrong with this, any more than there is anything wrong with being one of the three categories (I am pretty firmly in category 2).

However, Games Workshop are not a player, they are a company. And they are not choosing to play a type of game, they are providing a product.

Games Workshop's shift in focus two gamer types 2 and 3 has been characterised by two major developments. One is the tendency of staff, both in shops and in the studio, describing gamer type 1 using more prejudicial language. "Competitive" or "Tournament" gamer has given way to "Power" gamer. The other, is that the rules have gotten vaguer.

There have been complaints dating back for years that Games Workshops rules are unbalanced, that certain army lists are broken (either by being too good or too bad), that certain army builds dominate and that errata and FAQ are not frequently updated.

This is in part because keeping rules balanced is hard. It takes time and effort to play test everything properly and you are still likely to get flak from a community that can be very demanding. It's not surprising that Games Workshop would rather jack that in in favour of a game that isn't supposed to be balanced in the first place.

But, by not trying to produce a game that works for competitive players, Games Workshop are providing less of a product than they used to. Lets face it, no narrative focused or casual gamer has ever complained that these rules are just too fair and balanced. In practice, type 1 gamers are the hardest to satisfy because their demands are greater and, because they are more quantifiable, it's easier to judge when a game fails to meet them.

With Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop has basically thrown in the towel. By throwing out points values, or indeed any guidance on army composition, they have basically declared that they aren't even trying to make a balanced game. Play testing can go out of the window, because there is no expectation that any model won't be more or less powerful than any other. This isn't necessarily wrong, but it should be clear what Games Workshop has done.

Games Workshop has a very "creative" attitude to the truth. I remember when the Specialist Games department was down-sized, left with only one employee, no new products after six months and its magazine was cancelled, and Games Workshop announced "Good news, Specialist games has a new online focus" mentioning all the rest in small print.

What I think Games Workshop is doing with Age of Sigmar is announcing that it is no longer even pretending to support competitive gamers, no longer interested in game balance and no longer bothering to play test its games, and hiding it behind their "Great new focus on narrative games".

If you don't care about that and like Age of Sigmar any way that is absolutely fine, but don't let Games Workshop pretend that they are doing anything else.

*One of the ones that still is a Games Workshop and not a Warhammer shop

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