In the wake of Leviathan

 Hello Gentle Readers,

Today we are diving into Leviathan, GW's latest box set and the herald for 10th edition warhammer 40,000. If you are somehow finding this post, that means you have pretty much scoured the rest of the web for various reviews and such on the box set. That means you already know about the distribution practices of Games Workshop and how crappy they treat their partners, ie third party retailers. Not much more to say on that. GW seems to have its head firmly up its ass with these policies and I wish that the stores could all boycott their product and teach them a lesson. But too many rely on GW sales to keep them afloat. Ugh.

Anyways, lets talk about the set itself. Okay, not about the box, but the box set, ie its contents. You have to be careful because some people (ie me) are very literal. (I feel like I used "ie" too close together there...)

The models are good. The detail is pretty amazing and they "push to fit" has been superb. Now, I will say, one of my terminators came broken. The stem in the back was broken so I had to glue it to the front plate. Not major, but GW should be careful about those things in the future. Other than that, and the fact that you will have to paint some of these guys as you are putting them together, one of the best sets of models I've seen out of GW. 

I got the 9th ed box set from them and those models were good, but these are better. I did have a couple of issues with damaged pieces where a stem was loose and broke off. Thankfully a little bit of glue saved the day, and it was on a model I wouldn't need to paint in pieces. All in all, a great job by GW.

The book is massive. I wish I had other words to really describe it, but I think it would be unflattering. There is no reason to have a rulebook that big. I'm sorry. Split the rules and the background into two books. I'd much rather have a smaller hardback book with just the rules for the various types of play, and then another book for all the fluff. Not sure why they are keeping it all with one. It is a lovely tome and will most likely find a place on my shelf and stay there. 

It also comes with cards for the Leviathan campaign. These are quite nice and come with a card holder. Perfect. Seriously, these are fantastic. How do you make great minis, fantastic cards...but then completely crap out the book? No idea. I'm sure these will be highly sought after. I've just flipped through mine, but can't see any reason not to use them for all my games ahead for the time being.

A little bit of an oddity here, but there are no dice in the box. Really? A two player box set to get people into warhammer 40,000 and you don't include any dice? You had room for them. They can't be that much. Does it ruin anything? No...but does come off a little cheap. Downgrade that tome to something useable and give me some dice. I'd rather that combo.

If you are planning on sticking with 40K, and you like the new models, then this set is for you. There is no denying that this is a pretty good bargain for the amount of minis that you get. I mean hell, most other box sets they came out with around this price point had about half of the figures in them. Sure, they are push to fit and mono-pose, but when they look this good, it doesn't matter.

I know I didn't post up any pics, because you should have already seen the contents about a hundred times already. I am looking forward to getting in some games and then will snap some pics of grey figures running around grey terrain. :) Until next time...

More Like A Long Hiatus

  Word play, gotta love it. So yeah, its been a while. Sorry about that. Not that anyone has been missing this, but you know, I have. I didn't quite make it a year between posts, but it has been a long while. Glad to see I am sticking with the same pattern of first talking about my absence before talking about gaming. Its like riding a bike apparently.

I could go into a litany of excuses and reasons for it, but it all falls into the "life" category. Lets leave it at that and move on. No...really.

Well so the big news that everyone in gaming is talking about is the imminent release of Leviathan for 40K. I'm actually pretty irritated at this to be honest. I had made the very brave and mature decision that 9th was going to be my very last edition of 40K. I'm sure I'd play 10th, but no more investing in the books and such. Unfortunately, 9th was a bit of a disaster, but it took me a while to figure that out. It was so complicated just to play one army. I have many....and when you have a hard time just deciding on what to play....then throw in having to figure out how to play each one...well my models did not hit the table very often. 

Now we have the new "simplified but not simpler" 10th edition. And it looks appealing. I won't lie. And the fact that they are releasing datacards and points (apparently) for all existing units...well that is unprecedented by GW....last time they did something like that it was for Warhammer Fantasy Battle and it was the Ravening Hordes booklet. (yes, I had to google it because my old brain couldn't remember)

I've got some mixed feelings though. I'm not sure about how I like the direction they went with certain armies, and I definitely don't like how uber powerful the special characters are. When one guy can wipe out a whole squad of marine in a turn....who isn't going to field that? But I digress. I'm not a competitive player anymore (never really was actually) and when I do play, I'm sure my opponent and I will keep it casual and fun. So if 10th's new ease of play can help make that happen more often, then good on it. I'll take any reason actually to take my models off the shelf once in a while.

I did preorder Leviathan. The models looked great and there were loads of them. Will I get anything beyond the starter? No idea. No plan to at this point. I've got rules for all my models already (or soon will have) and the rules to play. Not sure how GW is planning on squeezing its player base for 10th just yet, but I have the feeling its going to continue on with its "season" strategy. But that only really matters for the tournament types. 

For me, I'll be happy if this edition is simple enough for me to convince my wife to play. If I can understand it, then she'll have no issue at all. :)

Okay, that's enough rambling for now. Normally I dive into the variety of games that I've been poking and prodding for the last few months, but I'll save that for another post. If we are really lucky, maybe I'll even have some pics of 3D prints that I'm attempting.

So until the next time I feel guilty enough to make a post....