Monday 28 May 2012

GW 2012 Price Increase

It seems that June 4th marks the annual price increase at Games Workshop and Wayland Games have been nice enough to post the upcoming increases.








For those interested I'll add their pdf link here:
http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/images/newsletter/gw2012pricerise.pdf

Some interesting increases, most surprising is that Space Marine Razorback's will actually have a higher price than Rhino's which makes me wonder if GW are purposely increasing items which sell more to make a higher profit.
The most shocking increase I noticed was the Storm Raven, going up by £9. If you've still one to get, it might really be worth sorting it this week.


As for the Razorback, it just means I'll certainly be getting Forgeworld's in future (as long as their prices don't skyrocket). The models are far better in my opinion (I own three) and for only £1 difference in price, its an easy decision to make!

Sunday 20 May 2012

Modelling to a Disadvantage?

Converted Storm Raven
So, last time I spoke about 'Modelling for an Advantage', the logical (and always planned) continuation of this is the flip side of the coin. Now modelling for a disadvantage might sound totally nonsensical to you and I believe that to be a good and honest viewpoint.


It does however occur but not in the way it sounds at first.



The key to this discussion again revolves around two factors:-
A) Conversions, more commonly scratch-built or highly personal models representing unreleased models that are then later released.
B) The disadvantage is unintended by the modeller, but enforced by opponents and other players.

How does this work?
Well the most common example I have seen with this is hull-built weaponry on vehicles which on the 'official model' end up being positioned on a turret, which is the case for one of my friends Storm Raven's in his Blood Angel army (See Picture above).
With the codex having no note on weapon positions or firing arcs like older edition codexes and no picture being included my friend & I were forced to guess with our conversion (pre-official release) and position weapons where he felt they would work best, which in this case was wing-mounted and forward facing.
Since the official release, we all know that one of the weapon selections is hull-mounted and fixed while the other has a 360 degree arc on its turret, yet more than once my friend has been punished for using his conversion by opponents declaring both weapons to have a fixed 45 degree forward firing arc due to their placement.

Is this fair? I think not.

Should people with such models be expected to re-convert their models to bring them more into line with the official examples, risking ruining their designs, paintwork and model? I also think not.

Conversions add a lot of fun to the game, but should not be punished as long as they are done out of love of the modelling aspect of the game or artistic design and not out of desire for an advantage over others.

As a House Rule, I allow him to use the arcs and equivalent weapon positions from the official model on his conversion, rather than the actual position on the model itself (which represent WYSIWYG armaments) on the agreement, of course, that he always uses such arcs and positions and doesn't swap between during a game.

What thoughts to others have and what solution/decision would you devise?

Last note, laugh all you will that my 'I'm back' post was (after a period of regular weeks) followed by another period of silence. However good 40k is, there is always stuff getting in the way and I'm currently not actually playing. I took a break from all the fuss of organising games and getting pressured into bigger and bigger Apocalypse battles to relax, going over armies and hopefully paint some things properly! Still, I am disappointed in myself that Igota4 isn't as regular as I'd prefer but what is a girl to do?