Y-Wing Down!

The Beard and I had a game of X-Wing yesterday, in which for the first time ever, he managed to destroy my Y-Wing!

It was quite spectacular too! The R2-D2 equipped Y-Wing had already taken two points of damage, but when the Beard managed to manoeuvre a TIE fighter directly behind it at range band one there was only one target it was going to go for. It was also the only target, but that's semantics! All three dice landed as critical hits and the Y-Wing went on to fail on its single dodge die. The first crit blew away the single point of shield it had left, leaving the two remaining crits to deal a whopping four points of damage, taking it's total to six. As the Y-Wing only has a hull rating of five, we felt it sufficient to say it exploded into a burning inferno of death and destruction!

I lost the game but don't mind the slightest as it has proven that Y-Wing can be beaten - the Beard had been complaining that it's overpowered. I am inclined to agree, but who knows, the TIE interceptor might change that when we get one!

New Generation of Toy Soldier Enthusiasts

So from the 10th till the 20th, my (getting taller by the day) son & my 2 princesses (that are growing up to quickly) came to visit.

My son is dabbling with 40k, as back stabbing, untrustworthy Eldar. Also he is getting to grips with his painting. He is 16, my girls are 12 and 14, they just like painting figures, at the moment, maybe so they ain't left out, who knows. The youngest paints each part and/or detail of model a different colour, so is yet to find her painting way, or get bored of it, lol. My eldest girl is trying to go semi realistic, she has some potential tbh, I might be able to train her up to do my stuff, unless she gets bored of her Dad's silly hobby. My son well he is the same, in the fact of trying to be neat and get realistic looking models,  but he (due to eagerness to play) may be a "table top standard" painter, he may prove me wrong.

This is all got me thinking, about All aspects of our wonderful hobby of "toy plastic soldiers", what's right or wrong to teach the new generation, obviously beardiness is something to be avoided,  but is cheesiness, good or bad, or is it the situation that makes it ok or bad.

I know I will teach them my mantra of "winning is all well and gd, but having fun is the key", that said if you are obviously in a tournie, the winning is kinda important, but not at the cost of fun, for you and more importantly your opponents. I feel a loss is a good thing, as you learn more about your gaming tactics & army.

Should there even be a Short list of what to teach/inform the next generation of? That's a doozy of a question, hmmm, I have hurt my brain.

GAMES WORKSHOP & COPYRIGHT, AND HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED

So things are heating up, in and around all things  Games Workshop. I remember, when said company was free thinking and open.  When they looked to outsiders to expand and grow,  when money and profit wasn't the be all and end all.  When the staff in shops where called "Sales Assistants", then they decided to cash in, They either listened to FAT CATS, or they just got greedy. You could say they gave in to the whisperings of Chaos, Money, for the Money God. The said sales assistants got ironically renamed "Hobby Experts", they became over protective of the products, they stopped people using anything but Games Workshop parts in models for Golden Daemon,  the true "Open Category" disappeared.

It gets worse. Now they are trying to stop people using a phrase they didn't invent "Space Marines", How can they you ask, "stop people using a name they don't own the copyright on". It's  Simple, they are using MONEY & SCARE TACTICS, this is a disturbing turn of events. It's weird to think that a company so against copyright Nazis (see the pic below, of a white dwarf article), could go one step further and police things they don't even own. 

I can see them struggling to hold the old school gamers, if they insist on going along this road, as I sense from what I have heard and seen is a large number of older gamers, bailing on the company they have grown up with. Many gaming buddies have been dropping GW as prices rise and value for money seems to get thrown out windows,  over profit margins,  I mean they don't have a monopoly in the market any more, to many companies are able to compete with them.

I think we are going to have to watch this space I guess. To see which path the company decide to go down and if the gaming community follow on regardless.