Ork update

As Orkfest approaches, my Waagh is getting close to being finished. I have 15 boys, 3 kans and 5 lootas left and I'm done. I haven't based the boys yet but I have my nobs and bikers, so here they are. First my Warboss on a bike. He's mostly from the biker kit, with some bits from the Nob box (which is awesome for random Orkiness). He's being run with the standard Klaw, Cybork, Bosspole and the "attack Grot" hanging off the pole. I don't have a squig but I figure if you shake up a grot, give him something pointy and whip him in an enemy's face from the back of a speeding bike, you get the same result so there's his +1 attack.

The boss rides with 5 Nobs, including the painboy. These are again largely a kitbash between the Nob box and the Bikers. 3 came from a Battleforce and had a base so those went to the boss and 2 nobs...the others ride on the table until I decide to get them bases too. The squad has Cybork, 2 Klaws, one Klaw carries the Waaagh banner, one big choppa and one base rider. If I ever decide to add to the squad I still have other options to keep playing the wound allocation game but for now, here's the army's big bad hammer. I point them at what I want to die and off they go.

I also run a squad of Nobs that are for now mounted in a trukk. I have a metal Painboy in there, one Nob from Black Reach and the rest come from the Nob box. They don't yet have a Waaagh Banner or Bosspole, but a Klaw will get the Bosspole and a Big Choppa gets the Waaagh banner. They have 'Eavy Armor and Cybork. I have 2 Klaws, 2 Big Choppas, a Combi-Skorcha and one with just a Slugga and Choppa.

And finally, their Trukk, showing off what I think is some decent freehand checks. I have lots of cheched shoulder pads mixed in the army. Yes, despite me only posting fast stuff I am pretty much a Goff warband. the 90 boys on foot should proove that. I may run some deffcoptas, but most of this army just advances through the fire, with a KFF to get them there, then eats whatever gets in the way. I can't wait to field them and I look forward to Orkfest.

The Undead rise...well some of them do...

Well, because I like to be on the cutting edge of news, the Tomb Kings will be resurrected this spring. I'm not going to talk about them, largely because this was kind of a surprise and largely because everyone and their brother will be sucking up every rumor out there. I'm looking at what this might mean for us...

Well, for starters we're seeing 3 army updates in 3 months, something GW hasn't done in my tenure with the game. Not only that but this makes 2 Fantasy armies in 3 months after 13 with no new army books (sorry GW but one crappy army that no one cared about and the 8th edition rulebook did not make 2010 "The Year of Fantasy") Also the Grey Knights and Tomb Kings are in that bundle of what I see as "forgotten armies". After moving Dark Eldar out of that club finally they take 2 more which is interesting. (So when do my Necrons get to move out of that club?)

Now what can we get from this? Well for starters I think this is a direct response to the low sales numbers announced last year. I don't think lack of releases is why their sales dipped (I think they're pricing themselves out of their own market, but that's another article) but pushing up a release that most of us expected this fall is probably an attempt to speed up their release schedule in an attempt to boost sales.

I think this is a flaw in their strategy as once again they're acting reactively and not proactively. GW is a dinosaur and while they are still a mighty T-rex, the Raptors are swarming in the form of Privateer Press, Spartan Games, Battlefront and a few other companies that are working to avoid GW's mistakes. These little companies are evolving to meet the new gamer's needs and GW is only slowly shifting to catch up with these new competators. It's a matter of time before one of those little raptors turns into that big finned thing from Jurassic Park III and becomes a real threat to GW.

I'm also worried that if I'm right and the TK book was bumped up 6 months, we'll see a mediocre book and very limited first wave model release. Does anyone remember the Sega Saturn? No I didn't think so, but once upon a time Sega tried to beat their competition to the market by releasing their system 6 months before their previously announced "Saturnday" release. As a result, the system dropped with about 4 games as developers were still months from what they expected to be the release window. When those games finally hit on time, the Saturn had already been forgotten.

My other concern is did they shift everything up or will this now just leave a gap in their releases? I'm hoping everything will be shifted accordingly which means my Necrons might see an update before the world ends. We do expect another 40K expansion this summer, but considering how well Planetstrike and Spearhead did, I hope they're not banking on that and there's still 1-2 codex/army book release possibilities before the end of the year. The rumored flyers release will hopefully see a few plastic kits (fighta bomma and Thunderhawk please) but I don't know if Tomb Kings are opoular enough to boost their numbers. Only time will tell if this was a one-time boost or the beginning of an accelerated release schedule.

Orcs and Goblins

So partly because it's awesome and partly so I can scoop a certain "news" board that may post about this in a few weeks (you know who they are...) I want to address the new Orcs up on GW's site today.

First the Army book. It's nice to see GW finally acknowledging that color exists and a hardcover book that hopefully will last more then a week. The price is GW high but not bad considering the source. Of course this is before this year's annual price-gouge but I'm excited to see that GW has finally discovered the infinite value of Kinkos.

Next is the Arachnarok Spider. This thing looks HUGE and is another amazing plastic model from the industry leaders. Add price-bitching here, but otherwise this is a winner. I can't wait to see the rules for this beast and then to aim a few cannonballs at it.

Then we have the Savage Orks. This looks like it will be fun. I see tons of bits for customising which I think is awesome, but again $29 for horde models? This is why people should NEVER buy at GW retail stores. Go online and get these for a bit closer to what they should cost. This basically goes for the Boar Boys and Shaman, too.

The Whirling Death really doesn't seem to have any purpose as they're a re-release of older fanatic models and there's really nothing wrong with current models.

Overall, I'm interested to see to see where the greenskins end up. Not only is this the first new Army book in a year but also the first 8th edition book so we can see what to expect in the future. Will the new books be balanced or will they follow 40k's established pattern of releasing a codex that's even more broken then the previous one? Only time will tell.