Fantasy 8th edition and why I don't care

It's not 40k.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell really. I appreciate the beautiful miniatures, I love to see them all in rank and file and I even have a Tomb Kings army primed on the sprue all ready to go but I just can't bring myself to like Fantasy.

Well, Mordheim is pretty cool. I'd totally play that but it's still no Necromunda hahhah!

Rules wise I can get behind a more stratigic game, which is how Fantasy appears to me. Having to be more deliberate in your troop placements, adjusting for things like flanking and having to pay attention to the shape of your formations should totally appeal to me. I love overly-complicated board games, I always have. In fact, Battlemasters from Milton Bradley is one of my favorite boardgames of all time and its basically Fantasy for Dummies!



Seriously, for those who don't know, it's from that magical far away time when Games Workshop and Milton Bradley had teamed up to become an unstoppable force in the boardgaming market, where only deliciousness prevailed such as Hero Quest and Battle Masters and......

Well that was about it really, at least state-side.

Anyways, I played the Warhammer Online MMO and loved it. Until some update caused it to no longer load properly on my pc, then my love for it dwindled rapidly. I put in a game or three of Warhammer Quest, I always loved the look of Man O' War and the whole setting of Fantasy is magnificent.

Especially Blood Bowl!

Possibly it's because I was introduced to 40k first and it was love at first sight, while Fantasy really didn't pop up on my radar until much later. It could be something related to budgetary constraints, where the cost of maintaining my existing 40k armies which all get regular play could not be compromised by adding a fantasy army that only gets pulled out of mothballs occasionally. Maybe it's just cause I had a lot of fun with Hordes and never really looked back at any other fantasy setting. I don't have any serious reason, but it's just not 40k.

However, as I mentioned above there are several offshoots that I like, especially Blood Bowl so I'm thrilled that Fantasy exists if only to provide me with other things I'd rather play. Congrats to all the players out there who do love Fantasy. I hope you enjoy your new version and maybe you can explain to me what the big deal is!

THQ gives us Space Marine early 2011! And Freakin' Dark Millenium!!!!

But I'm torn! 4 player Co-Op as space marines is very cool and I fully support it. I've got brothers already lined up to play it and we're going to bring the Light of the Emperor to every level by means of His most holy instrument, the Bolter. But on the other hand, I would love to play as the orks too! Maybe they can have a spin off, based in Gorka Morka but with the gameplay of Borderlands! Oh THQ, make that happen and I'll be your bestest friend forever I promise.

UPDATE

Not 30 seconds after I get all hot and bothered about Space Marine but what do they put up next?



ZOMGZOMGZOMG! It's like they found the perfect way to put me in front of a pc until I starve to death! Why THQ? I like eating! I like living! Please don't make a game where I literally cannot leave my pc! Or at the very least, offer a Limited Edition with some sort of Grim IV that can be full of Dark liquid nutrients.

Giddy like a school girl!

So Spearhead dropped and I'm Loving It!

It's way easy to sound like a fanboy of course but come on, lots of new toys for my tanks (and 'Nids) and ways to turn my Orky vehicles into Frenzied Death Rockets is very cool!

First of all, for those who haven't seen the rules, Spearhead units can fire an additional weapon each turn as long as they are within 4" of each other and Monsterous creatures may fire after they run. This of course means my Leman Russ Battletanks, Demolishers etc can double fire their battlecannons and this makes me all gasmigety in my gashomgitey.

So my favorites of the new spearhead units so far:

Super Heavy Spearhead Love It! Allows you to deploy a Super Heavy Unit in a standard 40k game. Downside is that it takes one penetrating hit prior to the first turn but still. Baneblades whoo!

Crusher Spearhead Flaming Orky Missiles of Death! Tanks in this spearhead get a front armor of 15 for Ramming and knock down the opposing leadership as well. I just like getting a crap-ton of ork looted vehicles and charging them straight up the field into every piece of enemy armor they can possibly ram. That image strikes in a very amusing way.

Monsterous Spearhead Because what my Carnifexes need is Counterattack, Fleet, Furious Charge and Rage! It has always been a dream of mine that my Carnies were very fast and very, VERY pissed off.

So now I've got to get my 40k on tomorrow and put some treads on the ground!

Design a Banner Competition for Ultramarines movie

From their official site

Design a Space Marines standard and win one of five original and unique storyboards from the ULTRAMARINES movie, inked and signed by the storyboard artist.

To enter, create your own standard using the official design template entry form and submit it to the Ultramarines movie website www.ultramarinesthemovie.com/competition/enter by Midnight GMT on 27 June 2010.

Judged by a panel including Black Library author and movie screenwriter Dan Abnett and representatives from Codex Pictures and Games Workshop, there will be one lucky winner from each of four geographical zones and one winner in a category especially for professional artists, designers or miniature painters.

Each of five winners will receive an original and unique window-mounted storyboard from the ULTRAMARINES movie, inked and signed by the storyboard artist.

A selection of the entries will be posted for everyone to see in a special competition gallery on the website.

Good luck!


So I have ZERO artistic ability but I'll have to do something for this. And I'll have to force the brother who actually has a DEGREE IN ART to do something for it too.

Tankity Tankity Tank!

As an Imperial Guard player I have an overwhelming urge to drop as many massively armored titans of destruction onto the table as possible at any given time. Leman Russes of all shapes and sizes rolling where they choose, Basilisks and other artillery not letting anything stay behind cover and of course the utter and complete Goddess of Sex, the Baneblade!



I think if my wife knew how much I really like that tank she might force it out of my house.....

Anyways, I'm excited about Spearhead. From what it looks like, and the June White Dwarf is going to expand on this, it looks like an expansion that puts all your vehicles on the table. According to the Games-workshop.com blurb you play it lengthwise on the table so you have longer ranges and larger weapons to deal with.



On top of that, new tanks! I'm really liking the differant missile tanks like the new Manticore and Deathstrike launchers but I can't see a place for them in my army other than as a cool looking vehicle. I'm really more of a direct assault tanker since I've never had much luck with artillery. I think it's because I expect them to actually kill stuff when really they should be used as an area/cover denial weapon. I'll have to slip some pieces into my next army and try it again.



Mmmmmmmm... Tanks!

Da Stabby Onez VS Albion Wanderers!

Have I mentioned how much I love Blood Bowl on the 360? It really makes me wonder why Necromunda can't be done in the same way. Come on THQ, I am ready and willing to give YOU money and in exchange you will give ME a game. Seriously, who's with me?

So todays match was against the human Albion Wanderers. I've been on a bit of a dry streak lately, Da Stabby Onez have definately been living up to their name however we've gotten so caught up in making sure the opposite team never, ever gets back up again that the whole ball thing has escaped us.

I was a bit worried at the start, they took an Ogre star player along with some powered up blitzer however after Da Stabby Onez received the kickoff the front line, my good old Troll and Black Orcs, put the hurt on both their star players on turn 1! The rest of the game went pretty much the same way, none of their original team was left for the second half but the game subs in generic players at that point so we ended 2-0 Stabbyz! Go Boyz!

This stadium really has nothing to do with my game against the Wanderers, I just loved it.

Squad Command

Picked this up at the Gamestop sale and while the graphics on the DS version look like mud, the gameplay is well put together and enjoyable.

Squad command is a turn-based, tactical game where you deploy and manuver a squad of Space Marines and, later in the game, their accompanying vehicles and support. Each Marine is allocated a certain amount of action points that are used for movement, firing weapons and other actions. Character position is taken into account during combat as kneeling characters gain cover bonuses and tend to be more accurate while firing.



Now I'm usually all for playing the DS over the PSP, mainly because I believe that better games make a better system, but to be honest the graphics actually do make a differance for me in this case. The touch pad controls never felt as easy to use as the d-pad, there is a very noticable differance in the graphics and the crisper PSP display is much easier on the eyes. However, the constant top screen map display is handy whereas in the PSP version you have to pause in order to access it. Also, while the DS has static displays for it's story elements, the PSP makes use of video, some of which are pretty nice looking.



Both versions are on clearance and are worth picking up. While not as deep as I'd have like, the character advancement is basic and new weapons are doled out every other mission or so, the gameplay is close enough to X-Com to be enjoyable.

Based on this, and the semi-recent release of Blood Bowl, I wonder why the older spin off series aren't leveraged into video game titles? Blood Bowl is a pretty solid game even without the customization of the PC version, Squad Command as well and of course Dawn of War 1 and 2 are excellent RTS games. So why do we not have an amazing Necromunda or Mordheim turn based tactical? Their very nature lends themselves to this type of gameplay and I don't know about you guys but I'd be first in line for a Necromunda game equivalent to Blood Bowl on the Xbox 360 with online multiplayer support!

And the same goes for Battlefleet Gothic and Man O' War! Just put them on DS, pretty please THQ, I'll be your best friend!