The Ally Matrix?

Apparently, the Eighth edition has an ally matrix in it for people teaming up in games.  They've developed forces of order and destruction, with a couple neutral armies in the middle.  Now, I'm all for team games of Warhammer, but I'm not sure that it really needed official rules on who can team up and who can't. 

Warhammer has always been a rich, varied universe in both versions.  Lumping armies together into "the good guys" vs. "the bad guys" ignores the fundamental idea that everyone is more or less at odds all of the time.  Even then, some allies don't make sense.  Dwarfs and Wood Elves?  Lizardmen and Empire? Beastmen and Skaven? Sure, you could justify these, and I think you should play them if you want to, but is it really any easier than just playing what you wanted in the first place, without a matrix to limit things? 

Good ally rules will be a plus, though, so outside the matrix, I am really looking forward to seeing what GW has in store there!

Sneak Peaks from the New 8th Edition WFB Book!

I got these pictures of pages from the book from GW this morning!  Enjoy!

Mass Effect 2

We got the old Xbox fixed here at the house the other day, and while we're at it, picked up Mass Effect 2 and Red Dead Redemption.  ME 2 seems to have no respect for the fact that I have tanks to paint up, as well as a Jabbersclythe.  The game is just amazing, as was its predecessor.  So after last month with thousands of points painted, this month may be more anemic.  At least I'll have saved the galaxy as second time! 

Why Not Warmachine?

Ben from Combat Resolution sent me the following (paraphrased) question:

"I was curious about something else, and would be very interested to hear your thoughts on it.  I've noticed you've been painting up some warmachine/hordes stuff.  Now, i know I the 2 minions were specifically for your Beasts army, but I also noticed you painted up some Khador stuff as well.  Now, in your blog, you claim you painted them b/c you liked them, but you don't intend to play warmachine.  I was wondering why."

I'm going to paraphrase a lot of my response, but it came down to this:

I picked up Warmachine/Hordes a couple years ago thinking they could be my second game, kind of a side thing to Warhammer.   I already played WFB and the odd game of 40K, so I was pressed already, but I really liked the models and the company philosophy of player responsiveness.  I still really like the models and the company, but several things have conspired against it as a game I would play.

First, having played it a few times, I can't say that I like the mechanics any more than I do WFB's.  I don't think they have tighter, better rules, and instead would argue that they have their own set of problems and imbalances.  Just like in Fantasy, certain armies/builds are far better than others, and while PP tries to fix things, it's been like that since before I started playing and hasn't really progressed.  Both versions of Khador's Vlad, for instance, have always been tournament winners.  So yeah, it's not a better game on paper than WFB, it's just different, with it's own problems. 

There is also the basic fact that we have a pretty tight group of people here playing WFB, and there's a big social aspect there.  Unlike in other groups, the level of satisfaction with the game is pretty high, and we've been playing together for a long time.  While we hang out outside of the game at this point, WFB is the central theme that brings us all together, and it would be rough to change things.  WM/Hordes is a big game, and with the limited time that most of us have in our late 20's/early thirties, playing it at this point would probably mean giving up WFB for the most part, which I just don't see happening. 

I have some problems with some of PP's philosophy as well.  I hate how the Page 5 "play like you've got a pair" plays out.  The idea of always playing hard is great in theory.  In practice, I really don't like how PP's events don't have any soft scores, especially painting and sportsmanship.  I think that in the same way that GW pushes balance to the side by arguing that their game is for fun, PP excuses their imbalance often by actively cheering it on.  Sure, they might make changes down the road, but the basic philosophy remains intact.  For most people, I don't think this is a problem, but for that certain kind of player who is a jerk during games / doesn't paint / brings cheese everytime, PP games are a haven.  It's like 'Ard Boyz all the time.


So to sum up: 


Rules and Balance:  Both have their issues.  Draw.
Game Philosophy:  GW is too soft, PP allows for the wrong kind of behavior too easily.
Local Group:  I like WFB, and my gaming group.  Win for GW there, although they had little to do with it.
Time:  I have time for one big game.  I have time and relationships invested in WFB.  

I think that Warmachine and Hordes are great games.   Comparing them to my favorite game, Warhammer Fantasy, and saying that they are just as good is high praise.  Maybe I'll play down the road, but I'm not interested in playing anything but (crazy eighth edition) fantasy in the immediate future.  

No Plaguebearers in the Daemon Release?!?

Bell of Lost Souls has the following up:

Latest word on the wind says the Warhammer 40k/Fantasy daemons wave headed our way in August contains the following minis:

-Fateweaver
-The Changeling
-Seekers
-Horrors of Tzeentch
-Plastic Daemon Prince

That pretty much the list we have been expected for a while.  Note the inclusion of the two named characters and lack of Plaguebearers.  Pics have already been seen of the Daemon prince in a variety of GW codices and supplements, and the seekers (seen below) were shown at a convention last year.

_______________________________________________________________________________

It would be a pretty ugly thing to have to special character models come out and no Plaguebearers.  Especially since those two character models are such simple conversions off of regular units that they really don't need special models.  I hope this rumor isn't quite true, and we see plastic Plaguebearers released!

Finished Aiyana

The other model that I really wanted to paint was Aiyana from Privateer Press' Mercenary forces.  She comes with Holt, a gunslinger, but I wasn't really that interested in his model.  Aiyana, on the other hand, is a great future Wood Elf (which is why she doesn't have basing here).  It's nice to work on bright highlights and different colors to break up the majority of my projects right now, which are browns and yellows. 

Finished Greylord Ternion

Out of all the models I painted this month, some of my favorites to work on were the Lady Aiyana (which I'll put up another day) and the Greylords.  I love their poses and details, and they have that great sense of motion and action which makes certain models come to life.   The only part I dislike is the eyes.  The blue I used was too thick, and although it's not bad to the naked eye, it's a bit rough on camera.  Hope you enjoy them!

Tale of Painters for May!

I just thought I'd share some rough shots of the models I painted for Tale of Painters this month.  I painted over 2,000 points combined.  These were the pictures that went up to make the deadline.  They're a bit rough, but good shots should come over the next few weeks of the various models!

New Daemons of Chaos Models in August!

Just got an email from GW about new model releases for Daemons in August!  They don't give any specifics, so what do you think we'll get?

Malifaux Video Battle Report - Ortegas vs. Nicodem

Two video batreps in one week!?!?  What kind of wackiness is this!?!? 

These videos are my first foray into trying to do battle reports for Malifaux.  The game is great, and I've really enjoyed both painting the fantastic miniatures, and playing the game.  It's got a great cinematic feel to it, and the game can turn for one player or the other in a heartbeat.  Enjoy!

Monsterpocalypse Movie?

I don't play Monsterpocalypse, but I have friends who do, and I found this story from deadline.com to be pretty crazy.  Apparently, Dreamworks has acquired the movie rights to the Monsterpocalypse game, with Matt Wilson attached as Co-Producer, and they're "making overtures" to Tim Burton to direct.  Crazy stuff.  I wasn't aware that there was any real story behind the game where every giant monster stereotype fought in the streets, but maybe a blank slate is a good thing.

And isn't Voltron a character in the game?

Video Battle Report: 2,250 Beastmen vs. Daemons of Chaos

Video Battle Reports are hard!  I'm still working on organization and speaking well, and would like to publish a more professional looking product, but in the meantime, here's practice!

The Camp Fire - Fluffing It

Kuffy over at The Trading Post sent out the following questions:

How important is fluff to you?  Do you base an army around the fluff and make the looks/minis suit the background you have for them or is it the other way around?  Do you use units that would never fight alongside one another fluffwise?  Do you care for the fluff or is it all about the rules for you?  Do you write fluff for your armies?

As a tournament player, this is a pretty common set of questions for me, because the fluff debate at tournaments is ever present.  So here's my take.

The importance of fluff is a personal thing, and is an important part of our hobby.  Done well, fluff can be used to bring an army to life on the table and in your mind, but "fluff abuse" is also a thing that we see around the area from time to time.  I think there are two keys to being a fun and fluffy player.  First, do what makes you happy.  Second, use some moderation and remember the other hobby aspects.  For me, fluff is a great and wonderful thing, but shouldn't dictate your fun.

Doing what makes you happy with fluff means different things to different people.  For some, playing their army as a certain faction, such as a Nurgle Daemon army or a Khainite Daemon army is the way to go, and so they limit themselves and build accordingly.  When I build an army, I love to have a theme or idea in mind, but I want to make it more big and general, because I want to use everything in the army book.  For instance, I always think of my red and bronze Dark Elves as a desert raiding force, plying the wastes to loot and pillage.  A little bit of everything shows up in the army, as each Dark Elf faction is represented and vies for glory and reward.  In this way, I enjoy my personal fluff without giving up some of the other things that I enjoy, such as collecting and painting.

My big joy is playing the game, mostly at a tournament level, and so I do notice examples of fluff gone too far.  There are two offenders that are related, and I call them the Intentional Gimp and the Hidden Cheese.  The Intentional Gimp is the player who intentionally makes his army terrible in order to make it what he or she considers "fluffy", and then complains about getting beaten by all the other armies.  While it's one thing to have a fluffy army, don't be a bad sport when you lose because you ran a Bretonnian all Peasant army.  On the other hand, the Hidden Cheese hides his cheesiness behind fluff.  When he shows up with your 25+ power dice Vampire army, he should still get a terrible composition score even if you painted your army to look like Necrarchs.  A cheesy army is a cheesy army, even if it has a great theme.

Finally, and this is my big offender, is the Fluff Nazi.  Don't be this guy.  Your opinion is your opinion, and while it's cool to share, don't condemn the guy who doesn't think the same way you do, or has other priorities with his army.  I'm going to play in a doubles tournament next month with my good buddy Lon.  We're running Beastmen and Lizardmen (or "Blizzardmen" if you will).  We both realize that it's not fluffy, but he's playing his army and I'm playing mine.  I'm okay with this combo because I'm going to the tournament to play Warhammer and to hang out with my friend, and that's my priority.  Years ago, when my brother and I started 40K, we were almost kicked out of a doubles tournament for bringing Space Marines (me) and Tau (him).  We had just started, and those were the only armies we owned, but we had to talk our way into being allowed to play.  My priority there was to go to a tournament with my brother. 

So like all things with the hobby, I guess what I'm saying is that you should be happy with what you do, and let others be happy with their hobby as well, be it in painting, modeling, fluff, or anything else.  I look forward to playing you with my Eighty plus power dice Dwarfs soon!

Hordes Wold Guardian

I love how directly following my last post, where I state that I'm done painting Privateer Press stuff because I don't play the game, I see this new model picture and immediately start drooling over it.  So here's the new official statement:

I will stop collecting Privateer Press armies, but will certainly buy their models to fit into my other armies, especially if they make the basis for an amazing Tree Man conversion.

Slow Down and Smell the Roses!

In the past month, I've painted around 1500 points of Beastmen, an Imperial Fists Tactical Squad, Rorsch for Trollbloods, and around ten Khador models.  I've been efficient and organized, and I've enjoyed the experience.  I haven't had to sacrifice quality, because I've gotten to the point where I'm happily painting up to my optimal standard very quickly. 

And therein lies the problem.

Just as in every other aspect of the hobby, it is my belief that when everything is going incredibly smoothly with your painting, things have to change.  It's not my life goal to become some sort of sweat shop model painter, churning out good models at high speeds.  Instead, it's always been my goal to continually improve my painting.  While the work I'm doing makes me happy, I've stopped improving in the name of speed.

So here's the plan:

I'm going to finish my Beastmen, Khador, Imperial Fists, and Trollbloods for Libriarium Online's Tale of Painters.  Most of these are down to a few models, except for the Beastmen, which will involve painting a lot of Gors and some Chariots.

After that, I won't have more Privateer Press to paint.  As much as I love the models, I've come to the realization that I am not going to play Hordes or Warmachine.  I don't dislike the games, but I have limited free time, and as it stands, I like WFB a lot more than anything else.

What I will have is a) more Space Marine models than I can shake a stick at and b) a new Warhammer Fantasy army to start working on.

So I'll start painting the new Space Marines (Blood Angels?  Space Wolves?  Salamanders?) and probably what will be a joint High Elf / Wood Elf Avelorn themed army.  Instead of rushing them through, I'd like to make each of these armies an army of individual, detailed models where I push myself to paint and model my best work.

That's the plan anyway.  Here's hoping!

The Quiet Limit of the World is "The Trader of the Week" at The Trading Post!

Whooo!  For those of you who aren't familiar with "The Trading Post" http://the-tradingpost.blogspot.com/, it's a blog that serves as a great hub for other Warhammer Fantasy blogs.  This week, The Quiet Limit is featured as "The Trader of the Week"!  I've copied the interview, and hope you enjoy it!


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Again we have another Fantasy blog up for promotion.  This is good old blog, lots of content - especially about Beastmen.  Go check it out folks:

http://quietlimit.blogspot.com/

The Interview

Real name or Avatar
My real name is Ben, and I use the moniker of "Tekore" on forums.  I'm based in Durham, North Carolina, in the United States.  Other occasional contributors are Blair and Tom.

What fantasy army(ies) do you play?
I have around 8,000 points each of Bretonnians and Dark Elves, and am currently playing Beastmen in their latest incarnation.
 

Beastlordette?

What projects are you currently working on?
I run the Tale of Painters over at Librarium Online, and usually have a lot of different projects brewing at the same time.  I believe that by running multiple projects you can paint regularly without becoming bored or burning out as much. Currently, I'm painting:

* Around 5,000 points of Beastmen
* A 2,000 point Imperial Fist Space Marine army.
* 100 points of Khador for Warmachine.
* 100 points of Trollbloods for Hordes.
* Various Malifaux gangs.

I recently finished my entire Dark Elf army, and always have Bretonnians to paint if I get bored.  I'm looking to finish my Imperial Fists, Trollbloods, and Khador in the next few months, and am considering taking on a Blood Angels / Space Wolves dual army project after finishing.  For Fantasy, I'm not sure what I'll work on after Beasts, but am thinking about a joint High Elves / Wood Elves Avelorn themed army.

Barbarian hero

What is the main focus of your blog?
When I created The Quiet Limit of the World, I wanted it to show aspects of all aspects of the hobby.  I love to model and convert, to paint and bring those models to life, and to game in both casual and tournament settings.  A lot of blogs only focus on one of those things, and while they are all interesting, I like a little bit of everything.  I'm also interested in a lot of different games, so I flit around there as well.  So I suppose The Quiet Limit doesn't have a main focus, but is rather a general blog on the hobby. 

What are we to expect in the future from your blog?
I'm going to strive for continued quality and quantity.  I like to try and update every weekday morning if possible with something fresh and new.  I'd also like to get more battle reports in, as it's an area that I'm not particularly good at.  2011 also is supposedly the Flames of War year coming up at the Friendly Local Game Store, so there may be some of that coming up. 

What/who is your biggest inspiration?
In terms of painting and modeling, I've always looked up to a few gentlemen over at Librarium Online.  I draw inspiration from several of the contributors there who have beautiful models, such as Minus_t, King Ulrik Flamebeard, and Andusciassus, and also from Cyric the Mad, who ran the first Tale of Painters and taught me to actually get projects done.

 Vargulf alert!

 In terms of playing the game, I draw inspiration from the players at my local gaming club, The Team Caribbean Breeze Women's Lacrosse and Warhammer Club (it's a long story).  We've got national GT winners and brand new players, but I think the general spirit of good sporting competitiveness is the thing that keeps me wanting to play each week.  To play as hard a game as you can every time and still have a fun, laughing game is a real pleasure.

What is your number one hobby tip?
Just do it.  Trite?  Absolutely, but true nonetheless.  The only way you'll improve with painting is with practice, and the same goes for green stuff and every other aspect of making your army look good.  Don't be afraid to make mistakes.  They're fixable, and you can always strip your miniatures if you're really unhappy.  Make some time to sit down and paint most days, if only for five or ten minutes.  You'll improve as a hobbyist, and you'll have the joy of actually seeing your army progress. 

Dark Elves Army

What is your number one gaming tip?
Don't be a jerk.  We're (generally) a bunch of grown folk playing a child's game.  Don't roll over if your opponent is cheating, but other than that, relax and have a good time, reveling in the great social experience that wargaming could be.  I've gotten to travel around and play a ton of people that I never would have met otherwise due to Warhammer, and it's been a real pleasure.  Don't soil the experience by turning your hobby into an unpleasant jaunt for you and your opponent. 

What is your proudest moment in wargaming?
I have a lot of tournament wins, but the tournaments I remember the best are the ones where I've gotten the very highest sportsmanship scores and painting scores.  Those are the days that I know I'm at the top of the hobby fully.  I especially enjoy when I'm put down as someone's favorite opponent of the day at a tournament.  It's a great feeling.
 

Dark Elf Dreadlord

 

If you could have a miniature made for a character or unit that does not currently have one, which would it be?
I've always thought a Crone Hellebron model for the Dark Elves would be a cool opportunity to make a really "over the top" Witch Elf.  Mostly, though, I'm happy to convert models that don't exist.  I think getting to play around on how I wanted to make my Cygor (converted Giant), Ghorgon (converted Shaggoth) and Jabbersclythe (LotR Fel Beast) was pretty great.

What are the top three Fantasy blogs you follow?
Drinkin' and Modelin'

- Randroid paints, models and plays in Warhammer, just like me.  Plus, we have the mutual interest of beer in common, although I'm a wheat beer guy myself for the most part.

The Painting Corps

- This is my site to read for great painting and modeling ideas.  I love that they post to different sites where they find the great stuff that I aspire to one day be able to do myself.

The Trading Post, ++ From the Warp ++, and Bell of Lost Souls

- I use these sites for their generally good daily information and to sort through other blogs for things I want to read.   It's kind of like the wargaming equivalent of the morning paper!

Painted Beastlord!

Based on the Nahimana model from Anima Tactics, my Beastlord (who goes by the name Gortia Gorson) has been a fantastic brawler so far for me.  I based her using a rock from my garden, and then used the red caulking to cover it.  On the display board, Gortia stands on her rock in the middle of the River of Blood, surveying her troops.

I've been running Gortia with the 1+ armor save and the S8/10 one handed weapon.  She has crushed a steamtank nicely, and done some great damage around the board.  I'm still not sold on her vs. a Doombull, but she doesn't do badly at all.

What is nice is the ability to move and charge 360 degrees if necessary by detaching her from a unit.  I've had this go badly for me, but she's turned things around in a couple games and won them by doing so, and that's her plus from a Doombull, alongside her Ld 9.  Unfortunately, she doesn't provide the raw threat and destructive power that the Doombull can, and she is slower as well.

I'll have to make the call between the two at some point to focus my army for a while, and I do love this model, but I'm not sure she's worth it on the table.

The Horus Heresy Board Game

For those of you who have missed Bell of Lost Soul's video play through of the Horus Heresy Board Game, I wanted to repost it up here for people to see.  Based on the Horus Heresy that took place around the 311th century, the game pits two players against each other in scenarios based around taking over the Imperial Palace on Terra.  I'm pretty excited to get a play in at some point, so we'll see how making that happens goes.