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.

OMG I am missing my paint station

It's been a while since I last painted. I have a bad back from a car accident, it requires meds to control pain, lots of meds. Since May I haven't been taking them due to the government, but that's a different post for different blog, lol. This has stopped me from painting.  Well I now am able to afford/take meds, but what I call the gaming room,  the missus calls it the dining room, (silly woman) is being decorated. So my painting station is out of order. As painters will know, you can get burnt out, lose fresh ideas or just get "CBA syndrome", but atm I am eager to get a brush in my hands,  stuff is stacking up and it's annoying me. I feel a paint frenzy coming on. Is this just me or is it common to go through painting highs and lows.

Beards 2nd take on 40k rulebook, after gaming.

Ok so i now have a copy of the 40k rulebook (thankyou ebay seller for not knowing the value of your item ;-P) its a mini rulebook with most of the errata in it. Ok the fluff is missing, who care i know the fluff , unless they have decided they are going to rewrite history again but i think the Horus Heresy books will see this stupidity off.

I have read rules, page by page making notes. then read again looking at my notes and making adjustments, I then would like to say i asked Ash to go through them, he is very anti 40k atm.to gain his thoughts on bits i was wanting to confirm understanding. it went as follows ...................................................
Me - "I doing a blog about new rule book"
Ash - "so u have new rule book"
Me - "yes"
Ash - frowns / screws face up

Also I have got quite a few games under my belt. So here is my take on 40k and the changes to its rules, how it will effect MY gaming in reference to how i play etc. This will be in 3 parts, this being the first, to follow will be a look at my Chaos Space Marines of the sonic weapon variety, then my Imperial Guard tank list.

THE RULEBOOK AS AN ENTITY

As i said in my first look at the rules etc, its a tidy book as in its laid out very well, no really, honest. if you are looking at a rules & references a 2nd rule, it says (2nd rule, page 32) for ease of finding, OMG finally GW is organised.

MOVEMENT
* Models with HVY WPNS can move & shoot at reduced effectiveness, makes sense, more about that later.

SHOOTING
* Overwatch is back, YEY, at a reduced rate see below.

* Snapshots - in certain senarios you fire less effectively, you hit on 6s
* Wound allocation - on paper it looks broken but i will explain this below.

in old 40k if i hit you 10 times u shared the hits out equally amongst your squad, and then rolled each group of saves, obviously u got rid of "clappers" first (spare models in units that are there just to soak up fire). In new 40k, the nearest model is hit, Now this creates 2 casualty senarios,

i) a sqd with all the armour save the same, if i hit you 10 times , u roll yr saves first, so u save 4 models, leaving 6 dead, new way is the 6 nearest models are removed, or if multi-wounds you remove models taking as many wounds needed on one model till its dead, then move to next model,easy and brilliant.

ii) a sqd with multiple save or characters, this is the worrying thing for me, time will tell, you roll one wound at a time the front model tries to save it, u keep doing this till the front model has failed enough saves to lose all its wounds, sounds simple, but look at this, a character at front of unit, has a 2+ inv save mayb "eternal warrior" or "feel no pain", i hit you 10 times, said character with 4 wounds will suck up all of those hits and leave entire unit unharmed ??!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?, ok your character may lose 1 or 2 wounds, but hello!! SPACE MARINES DONT FIGHT WARS IN CONGA LINES, it just dont happen, i feel it should be case as soon as character / front model. take its first wound it moves on to the 2nd nearest model. now maybe this rule on paper this looks bad, maybe on tabletop its ok. i guess u just flank these conga lines?

*** This will only be a problem if you are low on units towards end of game, or yr opponent takes multiple HQ choices because of 2 forces organisation lists, but I guess more conga lines means smaller army, means, easier to kill,  for now I haven't had a problem with this like I thought I would. But as yet played no full on CHEESE OR BEARDY players yet.

COMBAT

I am unsure still of random charge distance, atm, but combat works well,  including over watch, hitting on 6s as per snapshots.  I like new initiative order, and moving in.  The new way combat wpns, well power wpns are classified, as in different types of perks for sword, axe etc.

So all in I am liking my venture into 40k again, Ash has also made rumours about Tau,  soooooo, let's see what happens I guess.

Beards first look at the new Warhammer 40,000 6th edition rules

EDIT:  IT SEEMS THE PERSON WHO TALKED ME THROUGH IT WAS STILL NEW TO THE RULES

As the title suggested, after delaying the inevitable first game of 40k, it has happened, so here are my thoughts.

First off let's start with the book itself; it looks amazing and for the first time in ages it seems to be put together in the right order, I know, I know, but it does on first glance seem to be the case.

Secondly, let's get to, for me what I think was going to be, the "elephant in the room", the main thing to scare me was the psychic phase. At first glance it appears that there isn't one, but it's carried out during the other phases of the game. Is it over powered? I have no idea, at all. Time will, as they say, tell.

Thirdly, and and this is after only 2 games of it being played, mind you, it seems the "beer and pretzels" tag is GW way to do away with loop holes and streamlining the game. ie, vehicles just have to be behind cover, and not 50% covered, and yes its silly that a "supermodel" can give cover to a "lemon fresh" Russ. But how many times have you or a player kicked off about the precise amount of the%. If - "that's 40.5% so u ain't in cover" or "my tank is 50.1% in cover" sounds like you, well done, you are why Kate Moss gives cover to my Tank, so "tank you". While on the subject of cover, it appears that some/most levels of cover have been reduced by one, on the surface, this appears bad, but, now instead of taking the best of 2 or 3 covers you could use, you add +1 to your base cover save, for every extra piece it goes through. Ie, you hide behind a wall, that's a 5+ cover but another wall is between you and the firers. Old rules would make you choose a 5+ or a 5+, under new rules, you get a 4+ cover save.

EDIT: OK HAVING NOW GOT MY HANDS ON A BOOK THEY MODELS HAVE TO BE 25% COVERED NOT JUST BEHIND IT. SECOND, IT APPEARS THE COVER SAVES DONT STACK,UST THROUGH MY FIRST READ THROUGH OF RULES, I MAY BE BACK TO RE-EDIT THIS.

Forth there will be always rules we hate, like or think are stooooopid, I am the same so I can't moan about peeps who do, I think we all do. It's human nature I think or at least a British one, lol. But the new rules I have seen don't fill me with dread, the one about your main guy getting a super perk is cool, its random, so no cheese festing, the replacement psychic powers are random and there fore maybe not over powered (maybe we will see), wounds taken of front I like, not from clappers at the back. Whether I like the rule of rolling on front person till a wound is taken, I am unsure of, as said it's only 2 games. But, I didn't come across anything rules wise, that made me want to invade a small country. That's gotta be a good thing, right?

EDIT: THE FRONT MAIN ON MULTIPLE SAVES TYPE IS WORRYING ME, A CHARACTER WITH A 2+ BASIC 3+ INV WITH 4 WOUNDS CUD SWALLOW 10 20 30 HITS ON A UNIT THAT WOULD OTHER WISE WIPE OUT A UNIT, HMMM OVER BOARD MUCH I THINK.

So I can only say as my fifth point I am not done with the the new 40k, as I have had said, it's only been 2 games, I think the game deserves a few more play throughs for me to fully absorb it all
Hopefully I haven't bored you with my ramblings, drop a comment. Do you agree or disagree with my thoughts or have something to add,

EDIT: AGAIN PLEASE COMMENT ON MY EDIT MUSINGS, AM I MISSING SOMETHING????