Infinity does Xenos right! Meet some friends o' mine.

Hey, folks. SinSynn here.

Anybody that reads my stuffs over at the House of Paincakes knows that I've totally fallen head over heels for Infinity. I've tried my hand at a buncha different games now, and invested a few dollars (maybe thousands, actually...don't you judge me) on several of them, but I've never been quite as obsessed with any of them the way I am with Infinity right now.
I'm literally ashamed (ok, not really...I'm just being dramatic. I have no shame) of the money I've spent on 40k. Ditto that for Flames of War (I've got two untouched starter sets, even, along with several boxes of tanks, troopies and halftracks). I even somehow managed to acquire a small Cryx army for Warmachine and played a few games back in the day, but my regular opponent suffered 'spousal hobby interference' (that's totally a thing) and Warmachine fell to the wayside.

Ah, but Infinity...I gotta tell ya, folks...Infinity is already like, my game. It's the one I've been looking for, the one I've been waiting on and the one I was hoping to find, all wrapped up in a sexy, anime-styled, bullet-filled pinata.

Every Saturday for the past month I've played until the Crazy Lady I Live With puts a stop to it, usually between midnight and 2am. And yes, I get punished with extra doggie walks and garbage duty...never mind the seemingly inevitable hangovers.
-_-

You know what?
Totally worth it.

I mean, look at this- this is a soon to be released figure for my Army of choice, the Combined. How could I resist something like this?

*Kerrigan from Starcraft tribute, fer sure. But oh so awesome*

SinSynn: OMG, GW...WTF?....smh...

Hey folks, SinSynn here.

So, following the rumors of changes to their paint line, GW made another announcement recently.

They're rebooting the Lord of the Rings franchise, and re-releasing a bunch of the models in Finecast.
...
...

If an announcement is made in the woods, and no one friggin' CARES, does it make a sound?
Maybe the sound you heard was my wail of frustration, as I watch the company that pulled me into this hobby do one stupid thing after another.

*My failure senses are tingling*

The recent Vampire Counts book featured a character sure to draw some dumb attention.
While I find it somewhat amusing that folks are complaining about it while NOT returning the books in protest, GW has us talking 'bout it...

I won't even discuss the rumored 40k 6th Edition 'leak.'
Not even gonna talk about it.
Plenty of other people are doing that, so...whatevs.

I hear GW will be switching manufacturers for their line of paints...this does not bode well.
You can bet we'll see a price increase, smaller, more annoying pots, or whatever.
Now you can bet that the colors won't be precisely the same, either, if this is true.
...
Personally, I hope they screw the pooch on Ultramarines Blue and whatever shade of red Blood Angels use.
Smart Grey Knights players prolly use Vellejo paints anyway, since their metallics are way better, so I can't hope for relief there...
Blah.

Frankly, at this point I am entirely used to GW having their way with me, and not offering a reach-around.
I am also used to paying for the privilege.
Up until the release of the Grey Knights codex, maybe I was even cool about the whole thing.
Sure, I was a bit butt hurt, but I still had faith, sorta.

*Mmmm...Faith. Wait...where was I?*

Of course, the GK codex was OP on a level that made the Imperial Guard release seem downright friendly.
One day in the GW store, my Tyranids got into a lil' scrap with a bunch of GK Termies, and my opponent and I spent about half an hour figuring out Grenade effects, Initiative order and Wound distribution.
For one lil' skirmish, which I lost, of course.

Subsequent matches against the Grey Knights made me pack my 'Nids away, and I went virtually 'hobbyless' for several months.
Until I got hoodwinked into a 'demo game' of Flames of War, of course.
Thank almighty Cthulhu for that.

I would never admit it to the Ultimate Rival, but I am eternally grateful.
...he's still a big dumb jerk, and I HATE his friggin' American tank list of DOOM, but whatevs.
I'm pretty happy with FoW.

So I've slowly had my faith eroded by a serious of facepalm worthy decisions from GW, and in the last month or so it's only gotten worse.

Am I surprised that GW is wasting more resources on a system I've NEVER SEEN PLAYED?
On models I've NEVER SEEN PURCHASED?
At this point, no. Not at all.

They managed to virtually ignore the Xenos races for most of 5th edition, and the three Xenos books we got seemed perfectly calculated to be underwhelming, and not a threat to the Imperial status quo.

They may have overshot on the 'Nid book, but both the D'Eldar and Necrons are just shy of actually being kick ass.
Sigh.

*Maybe just a teeny, tiny bit*

Regardless, here I am talkin' 'bout GW...
In that regard, they've been quite successful, haven't they?

In truth, I think GW has a tough road ahead of them in the next few years.
Chinese companies are making cheap knockoffs of their stuff now, and those copies will only get better.
Other gaming companies are making smart use of the Internet, and have release schedules that make GW's look laughably slow.

I'm gonna mention this again- I'm still stuck with the VERY SAME army book that I bought my first week into the hobby.
IT'S SEVEN FRIGGIN' YEARS OLD NOW.

I've gotten more books outta Battlefront in 6 months than I would get out of GW in...what?
A quarter of a century? Half?
THINK ABOUT THAT.

I'm planning a series of posts about my endeavors into Infinity, although due to some slightly overzealous holiday spending I'm a bit behind schedule.
A Haqqislam starter set is on it's way, and I've already got my Combine under construction.
Do I need to mention that Infinity has MONTHLY releases?
How awesome is that?

What's GW doing?
More of the same.
And at this juncture in time, I'm starting to wonder why I care.

The reboot of the LotR games is a giant pile of fail.

*Box cover art for the LotR starter set*

Look, I know that riffing 'bout GW is tiresome, and I sorta apologize.
I'm not gonna do it again for a while, I promise.
There's so much good stuff, so much cool stuff, so much stuff that's actually full of win in this hobby, that I'd much rather focus on that.
Sadly, GW isn't part of the 'good' in the hobby anymore, I believe.

People don't like being told what they want, they don't want to wait interminable amounts of time for what they want, and when they get something, they'd like it to be good.

I imagine if I was a Space Marine player, these would be awesome times.
Buy I'm not, so there ya go.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm tweaking my Grenadier list for FoW (I hate you, Ultimate Rival), and slowly ingesting the Infinity rules in preparation for my first games (totally psyched).
In truth, I'm happier with my personal hobby adventure than I've ever been.

I'm just disappointed that GW has nothing to do with it.
In some weird way, I thought they'd always be there...and maybe they will.
Just not in the way I thought.
*shrug*

Sigh...waddayagonnado?


Until next time, folks- Exit with catchphrase!

-SinSynn

SinSynn dinna trust GW no more

Hey folks, SinSynn here.

There was a time, it seems quite long ago now, when GW would make an announcement for some upcoming thingy or another, and I'd be all like, 'Oooh- cool. this is gonna be da awesome.'

Heh.
Remember those days?

Nowadays, of course, whenever GW makes an announcement, they're usually pretty awful.
Or laughably bad.

Case in point:

*What were you thinking, GW?*

When Dread Fleet dropped, it pretty much killed any positive vibes I had remaining for GW.
Nobody asked for Dread Fleet, and I don't know anyone that purchased it, or even cared about it's release.
Personally, I wanted Blood Bowl. I was kinda surprised when it wasn't Blood Bowl, actually.
Blood Bowl would've been big, I think.
I mean, it seemed like a no-brainer to me. But then again, I have no brains, so...

Instead we got...well, whatever.
No one cares.

The reason I got kinda miffed wasn't all Dread Fleet's fault, however.
No, it was a culmination of things, and Dread Fleet was just the capper. The straw that broke the Xeno's back.

Years of looking in from the outside as the Imperials got spiffy new Codexes, while I STILL HAVE my 4th edition Tau book.
Price increases, Finecast, blah, blah, blah.

Then all these other new systems start gaining momentum, and they show me you don't HAVE to wait YEARS to get an army update, or a new figure for the collection.

Wait- they let you get free stuffs, right off their website?

For the love of- I paid good money for Army Builder!
These other cats built me a fancy flash webpage to design my army in...and it's FREE!

Sigh.

Hey, does anybody else get the feeling that GW is making Imperial Armour books part of the main system in an attempt to appear like they're...doing something?

Companies like Privateer Press, Spartan, Battlefront, Corvus Belli and a host of others are churning out new material, expansions and models at quite a clip.
In all honesty, they're making GW look really antiquated and sad.

When GW announced that the Imperial Armor books were getting integrated into the main game, and would be 'tournament legal,' I totally made this face:

*That EXACT face, in fact*

Part of me was like, 'Oh, I see what you did there, GW.'
This was GW's method of emulating the new guys, in a way.
'Oh, look- we can adds new stuffs! We can be all edgy and hip, too!'

Sigh.
It's like watching some old dude try to talk 'street' while they lecture you...about like, nutrition, or something.
It's just...sad.

-_-

I'm sure folks in Europe are kinda amped about IA books being table ready now (Ha! There's a stamp, sucka! No more 'opponent's approval required!'), but here in the US, well...

We don't really have access to Forge World stuffs.
You can't pick it off a shelf in a GW store here.

Let's just gloss over the fact that Forge World stuff is expensive, as are the Imperial Armour books.
Or that they're mostly pretty lame, competitively.
No surprise the most recent one has the first decent list in years- Eldar Corsairs.
After all, the books ARE available here now, and GW wants them to sell.

Ultimately, the whole 'Imperial Armour is Approved' thing is almost a good idea.
If Forge World stuffs was made in plastic, readily available and reasonably priced, or if Imperial Armour books were actually really good.
But...they're not, so...

Waddaya wanna bet that the next IA book is totally OP, though?
;)

So just a lil' while ago I read that GW is preparing to make an announcement about their line of paints.
It's gonna be exciting, they say.

Excuse me while I make this face:

*Not quite as cool as this guy does it, but whatevs...I try*

Like I said, a long (long, long...really long...super, crazy, stupid long) time ago, I woulda been a like, 'Oooh!'
Now I'm like, 'Oh, gee...price increase is coming. What favorite color of mine will they kill off and replace with something worse? How bad is it gonna be this time?'

I'm not sure if my somewhat reticent attitude towards GW in recent times is a result of being won over by a few of these up 'n' coming mini games companies (Battlefront and Corvus Belli- I heart you), or what.
Maybe I've just been treated like a 3 dollar hooker by GW for too long (my Tau Codex sure is old, you rotten sons of-).

I suspect it's a combination of both things.
*shrug*
Waddayagonnado?

Damn, I really used to dig GW, and now, well...
I kinda think they're lame.

I'm not even gonna front, and pretend like I'm happy about it, or anything, cuz I'm not.
I'm not a hater, out to wish doom upon them- I love my Tau. I love 40k, too.
It's the company, and their dumb-ass method of...whatever the hell it is they're doing.

Does anyone understand whatever it is they're doing?
The lack of marketing, the seemingly counter-intuitive decisions, the blatant disregard for...pretty much everything- from the internet, to modern methods of generating anything but scorn.
That they seem pretty good at.

Ugh...Riffing 'bout GW gives me ageda.
:P

Now if you'll excuse me, I hafta go find the Vellejo substitutes for my (formerly) favorite GW colors, washes and stuffs.
I'm not even gonna hang around for this most recent GW round of baloney, thanks.

Here ya go, GW...dedicated to you:

*Time to convince Lo' to add a 'multimedia explosion' label*

Sorry for the complaining, folks...it's just that every time I see that GW's gonna actually do something, or release something, or whatever...I just get all annoyed and whatnot now.
I feel like I've been waiting outside in the cold and rain for a bunch of years, just waiting for a friggin' army book update.
Worse yet, I have this feeling that when I finally do get one, it's gonna be 'meh.'

Sigh, GW.
Just...sigh.


Until next time, folks- exit with catchphrase!

-SinSynn

[40K] This Game is Fucking Terrible

Real Quote from The Boy.

He has played before, but usually in Apocolypse games. He enjoyed it then, and laughed and had a great time. No complaints.

He recently played in our local tournament. I asked if he wanted to play, and he said yes in a pretty positive and happy manner. There was no coercion going on - it was totally his choice.

I paid for him to play and loaned him my models. I offered him the choice of Black Templar, Space Wolves or "Vanilla" Marines to field since those were the factions I had a Codex for. He picked Templar and made a list.

I ran errands and did other things at home while he played. A few hours into the day, I got a text stating that he hated 40K, and that the game was awful. He was not having any fun.

What amuses me about this is that he owns an army and used to play. He was a big Tau fanatic (owns the FireWarrior video game) and had a blast and a half with the drones.

After some question and answer, I discovered that he just hates Marines- especially the ones that assault. Poor kid got turn 1 assaulted, and lost 2 entire units within a moment of play beginning. He also had the unfortunate luck of having Abhor The Witch against Grey Knights... NOT good news.

So is he right? Is 40K terrible if you don't like Marines? Are you totally hosed if you are a Xenos loving, tentacle having, Dis-integrator gun wielding fiend?  Please chime in, oh cult of not-Marines, and tell me like it is.