Hello,
I have now pretty much gone through the issue. I have to say that the consensus over the last few years (that WD has gotten worse and is nothing more than a glossy Sears catalog for WH/40K/LOTR players) has become more true than ever.
I tend to dislike issues where one game system is "Showcased" over the others to the point where the non topic articles have an afterthought feeling to them.
I am also annoyed that the trend is to do articles about the most recent armies (usually the last 2 or 3) only rarely do they venture into articles about older armies. It does happen but not often enough for my taste. I would prefer that articles covered a wider range of armies so that one could get a feel for how armies are doing as newer books and rule sets come out. (Just an opinion)
If anything WD has become the single best advertising tool for PP products. One look at a recent WD and you will be dieing to look at Warmahordes!
--------------------
That being said it wouldn't be fair to not point out some things that the magazine did right (not meant as a joke)
1. The new rules for Tomb Banshees and Cairn Wraiths are pretty cool as both have been returned to their previous status as characters (see 6th ed VC book) keeping them separate from the Rare choice Wraiths and Banshees was a solid move. Good Job.
2. The Cavalry article for LOTR SBG. is part of that afterthought mentality but the information is good. Since I am a strong supporter of LOTR for GW (and think it's been dealt a poor hand by the Interwebs community) I would like to see more LOTR articles in future issues. (specifically for the SBG. I am not such a fan od War of the ring.
3. The Sisters of battle (P1) was interesting but having to wait another MONTH for the rest of it sucks! Since I have no idea how this will be costed I will not comment further.
In all it was a poor issue (I am already tired of storm of magic!) but with the addition of Official rules (coming back) and more editor comments in articles (I prefer the old issues where the "White Dwarf" comments on stuff.) The magazine may get better.
"Fingers crossed"
RGH
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
A Quick Rant- WD 379 P2
Hi,
Just a little more here... I have had a chance to page through the magazine (though not read most of it yet) my openions are based on first impressions!
Other than the usual first 15 pages of self stroking adds for the items of the month the rest of the issue seems to be focused on Vampire counts. That is all fine and good. I have a Vampire counts army and some new blood (pun intended) is always nice.
BUT...
WTF- More Giant Monsters! The new Zombie Dragon is on a Gigantic base. Waaaay bigger than the previous model. I am somewhat worried about the sizing of the newer monster kits as they are starting to hit a cartoon(ish) level that makes the game look even more juvenile than having Matt W. as a fluff writer.
They really are going to give EVERY army some sort of new giant monster kit even when it makes no sense to do so.
Essentially the new monsters are the "Mech" of the Fantasy game. In this case an imperial Chimera REALLY is a Chimera! The Monsters are filling the roll of "Tank" in fantasy and the new larger based monsters seem to support this idea.
The New stuff coming out for Ogre's next month look to be the "Land Raiders" for WHFB. next thing you know they will come out with monster carrying cases that can be used as a monster on the board and can store your mini's as well!
In conclusion of this segment I want to Quote from the movie Jurassic Part (Original) I thinkit sums up the situation. Please apply to GW designers...
Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum): "your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
RGH
Just a little more here... I have had a chance to page through the magazine (though not read most of it yet) my openions are based on first impressions!
Other than the usual first 15 pages of self stroking adds for the items of the month the rest of the issue seems to be focused on Vampire counts. That is all fine and good. I have a Vampire counts army and some new blood (pun intended) is always nice.
BUT...
WTF- More Giant Monsters! The new Zombie Dragon is on a Gigantic base. Waaaay bigger than the previous model. I am somewhat worried about the sizing of the newer monster kits as they are starting to hit a cartoon(ish) level that makes the game look even more juvenile than having Matt W. as a fluff writer.
They really are going to give EVERY army some sort of new giant monster kit even when it makes no sense to do so.
Essentially the new monsters are the "Mech" of the Fantasy game. In this case an imperial Chimera REALLY is a Chimera! The Monsters are filling the roll of "Tank" in fantasy and the new larger based monsters seem to support this idea.
The New stuff coming out for Ogre's next month look to be the "Land Raiders" for WHFB. next thing you know they will come out with monster carrying cases that can be used as a monster on the board and can store your mini's as well!
In conclusion of this segment I want to Quote from the movie Jurassic Part (Original) I thinkit sums up the situation. Please apply to GW designers...
Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum): "your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
RGH
Monday, August 8, 2011
A Quick Rant- WD 379 P1
W(hat)TF- Fantasy
W(here)TF-40K
I just got my new issue of WD 379. on August 8. I guess they were serious about this BS!
The New stuff came out on the 6th. This is the worst yet. I had to call direct services and switch my stuff to my local GW just so I can get it before it's old enough to wrap fish in.
I have to head out so more to come soon!!!!!
RGH
W(here)TF-40K
I just got my new issue of WD 379. on August 8. I guess they were serious about this BS!
The New stuff came out on the 6th. This is the worst yet. I had to call direct services and switch my stuff to my local GW just so I can get it before it's old enough to wrap fish in.
I have to head out so more to come soon!!!!!
RGH
Friday, August 5, 2011
Void
* Post is incorrect See page- 56 - Neal is correct (see comments)-honestly they really should have that comment in the shooting and not the general section*
Post Removed by Imperial Decree!
Later
RGH
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Heavy Hitter competition 2011
I think my cat is possessedHello all,
Just a quick update of yesterdays exploits. My local GW store held a painting competition through the month of July that ended yesterday. The main rule of the competition was that the model chosen had to be purchased, assembled, and Painted in the month of July (This was to make it a level playing field for all contestants.)
I decided to enter. even though my schedule this summer has been brutal. For the last three weeks I have worked on my entry and Thursday night I declared it DONE! (Sanity would not let me go any farther)
Here is what I ended up with. I call it "Playing with your food"
Here are some close ups of the details...
I am especially please with the results of this model. I guess Perseverance and hard work does pay off. I say this because the other models in the event were fricking Awesome!!! I am sure they will be posted on The their Facebook Page
What surprised me the most was when they gave me this...
Well until net time
Later
RGH
Friday, July 29, 2011
40K Fun
Just a Quick Post about the 40K game I had last Sunday.
I finally got to get a game in...
I tried out a 2K Ork list vs. a Codex Marine list Gratan brought over.
Over all it was a fun game even though both of us are a bit rusty (I am sure we did a few things wrong)
Here are a few picks from the game...
I managed to pull out a win but we ended the game after turn 4 so really it could have gone ether way...
Thanks for the Game Gratan!
Later
RGH
I finally got to get a game in...
I tried out a 2K Ork list vs. a Codex Marine list Gratan brought over.
Over all it was a fun game even though both of us are a bit rusty (I am sure we did a few things wrong)
Here are a few picks from the game...
I managed to pull out a win but we ended the game after turn 4 so really it could have gone ether way...
Thanks for the Game Gratan!
Later
RGH
Monday, July 25, 2011
The Battle of Windle's Tower (Battle Report Part 3)
The Battle of Windle's Tower 3
(Note: Lakait is both the player code name and the name of the Wood Elf General while Rattling the Mad is The code name of the Skaven player and Warlord Scratcheye is the name of the Skaven General)
Turn 3
Turn three is where things started to really heat up between these two combatants
General Lakait
The Wood Elf Spellsinger Worked her magic on the General’s Eternal Guard unit Rolling a double 6 guaranteeing a successful casting but took a wound and lost a spell due to the fickle nature of magic in this edition.
Lakait- ‘It's important to note that both spells can be cast on units that are engaged in combat. I cast fear on the Noble's unit again. It didn't do any good, since the Storm vermin were able to pass their fear check. And I cast Ariel's Blessing on the general's unit. I got a critical success and lost this spell for the rest of the game. I'd taken a magic item that allowed me to re-roll on the miscast table, but I found that I would have preferred one that allowed me to ignore a single miscast. This is what I thought I was getting at first.'
The Large unit of Eternal Guard (Lead by the Army General) Charged the Unit of Skink Slaves and blew them off the table.
Lakait- ‘After having defeated the Hell Pit, I decided that I might as well engage the Slaves (I hate slaves) since they were the best target I had. I wanted to get into the backfield and attack his general's unit from behind. I was hoping to act as reinforcements for my Noble's unit. This opened up my general's unit to all kinds of missle weapon attacks from the Rattling Gun, the Mortar, the Jezzails, and the Warlock. My unit was ultimately wiped out by missle fire more than anything else. I did have to make a panic check at one point. However, since my Wood Elf Highborn made the unit stubborn, it was unmodified.’
The second Unit of Eternal Guard now weakened was attacked by the undamaged Storm Vermin Unit of Scratch Eye himself! The Fight went against the poor Elves who were all but wiped out. (The Elf Noble survived but was left to face the onslaught alone.)
The Glade Guard Managed to Rally with the intention of taking the tower back!
Warlord Scratcheye
Both Units of Slaves were pretty much gone at this point. The first unit continued to flee while the second (Skink) unit was wiped out. They did manage to inflict some minor damage to the eternal guard and left them in a vulnerable position for the next Skaven turn!
The Clanrats held the tower
Lakait- ‘Yeah, but no one was assaulting it either. They were just twiddling their thumbs and ripping up my banner that added one to my move.’
The General’s Storm Vermin Unit killed the Wood Elf Noble
Lakait- ‘I tried to challenge the general, but he refused. All of that written elsewhere. So, yeah, I died’
Both The Warlock Engineer and the Jezzail team fired on the , now vulnerable Eternal Guard unit both scored a massive amount of hits but when the smoke cleared the unit still held!
Lakait- ‘So, Ariel's Blessing is the only reason that my general's unit managed to survive the rain of missile weapons that came forth to give them a shady spot to stand on the battlefield.’
The Ratling Gun moved to a better position for next turn.
Ratling the Mad- ‘It moved away from the Highborn’s unit to avoid being charged, I recall because next turn it couldn’t shoot because of the facing I put it in, my not paying attention to that because in the old rules it had a much wider arc of vision’
The Poison Wind Morter misfired and jammed for a turn thus no shots were fired.
Things were starting to look up for the Skaven!
Turn 4
Turn four was about position or reposition
General Lakait
The Spellsinger moved towards the glade guard to support their upcoming attempt to take back the tower.
The last Eternal Guard unit did a reform to get into position to charge the Storm Vermin. While doing this they took even more fire and it nearly cost the entire unit but they held against the odds.
The Glade Guard moved towards the tower and prepared to assault next turn.
Warlord Scratcheye
The Clanrats continued to hold the tower and prepared for the the onslaught of the displaced Wood Elves.
The General’s Storm Vermin also reformed to face the remains of the Eternal Guard.
The Jezzail team continued to fire at the Eternal Guard Unit killing several more.
The Ratling Gun did not fire as the angle of the attack was off to fire at the only in range target.
The Warlock Engineer attempted to Warp lightning the Eternal Guard unit again but this time it was dispelled.
Going into turn 5 it looked like the Skaven had it in the bag.
Turn 5
This ended up being the final turn. And here is why…
Charge declared by the remnants of the Eternal guard into the Scratcheye’s Storm vermin Unit. This unit of Eternal Guard used a Banner that made the unit cause Terror. Scratcheye declared a hold reaction. All Eyes were on this roll. The Dice came up 11! The Skaven were forced to flee. The distance was rolled and it came up 4” +1 “for Skaven and this equaled a 5 “flee. Unfortunately The Eternal guard were only 3 “away from the Skaven and rolled 10 on the Charge distance giving them 15” of movement allowing them to run down the terrified Storm Vermin.
Why did this end the game? Remember This was the Blood and Glory scenario and that Lakait started with 5 Banner points and Ratling the Mad had 4. Lakait lost 2 during the earlier in the game when her Glade Guard were defeated and fled the tower and another when the smaller unit of Eternal Guard was destroyed. This made it 4v3 (in Ratling’s favor) at the top of turn 5. When his general’s Unit was destroyed he lost 3 banner points immediately making it 1v3 (in Lakait’s favor) AND dropped the skaven army below the minimum 2 Banner points to stay in the game thus giving the victory to the Wood Elves!
Lakait- ‘It's important to note that this happened because Robby failed his terror check. That's the only reason I won here. I had three points in my general's unit and he had three points in his. This was the clash that would decide the game.’
Ratling the Mad had this to say in a later conversation:
‘I’d say my biggest mistake was not looking up what regeneration does, and just going on my obviously faulty recollection of how these things work (you try to save some time). Things went differently than I expected, the Hell Pit got thoroughly trounced, but both weapon teams and my Warlock Engineer actually survived. Apparently I was also wrong in some other assumptions that I made, like that her General was her spell caster (it wasn’t), and that My General’s unit (12 strong, modified Ld 7) could take 3 elves (Terror Causing Elves, Galadriel took the One Ring and came after me.) It’s hard to pick an MVP here, but I’ll have to go with my Poison Wind Mortar. It may have only gotten one good shot, but man was it effective.’
The End...
I Hope you have enjoyed this Battle Report. Please let me know what you think.
R.G.H
(Note: Lakait is both the player code name and the name of the Wood Elf General while Rattling the Mad is The code name of the Skaven player and Warlord Scratcheye is the name of the Skaven General)
Turn 3
Turn three is where things started to really heat up between these two combatants
General Lakait
The Wood Elf Spellsinger Worked her magic on the General’s Eternal Guard unit Rolling a double 6 guaranteeing a successful casting but took a wound and lost a spell due to the fickle nature of magic in this edition.
Lakait- ‘It's important to note that both spells can be cast on units that are engaged in combat. I cast fear on the Noble's unit again. It didn't do any good, since the Storm vermin were able to pass their fear check. And I cast Ariel's Blessing on the general's unit. I got a critical success and lost this spell for the rest of the game. I'd taken a magic item that allowed me to re-roll on the miscast table, but I found that I would have preferred one that allowed me to ignore a single miscast. This is what I thought I was getting at first.'
The Large unit of Eternal Guard (Lead by the Army General) Charged the Unit of Skink Slaves and blew them off the table.
Lakait- ‘After having defeated the Hell Pit, I decided that I might as well engage the Slaves (I hate slaves) since they were the best target I had. I wanted to get into the backfield and attack his general's unit from behind. I was hoping to act as reinforcements for my Noble's unit. This opened up my general's unit to all kinds of missle weapon attacks from the Rattling Gun, the Mortar, the Jezzails, and the Warlock. My unit was ultimately wiped out by missle fire more than anything else. I did have to make a panic check at one point. However, since my Wood Elf Highborn made the unit stubborn, it was unmodified.’
The second Unit of Eternal Guard now weakened was attacked by the undamaged Storm Vermin Unit of Scratch Eye himself! The Fight went against the poor Elves who were all but wiped out. (The Elf Noble survived but was left to face the onslaught alone.)
The Glade Guard Managed to Rally with the intention of taking the tower back!
Warlord Scratcheye
Both Units of Slaves were pretty much gone at this point. The first unit continued to flee while the second (Skink) unit was wiped out. They did manage to inflict some minor damage to the eternal guard and left them in a vulnerable position for the next Skaven turn!
The Clanrats held the tower
Lakait- ‘Yeah, but no one was assaulting it either. They were just twiddling their thumbs and ripping up my banner that added one to my move.’
The General’s Storm Vermin Unit killed the Wood Elf Noble
Lakait- ‘I tried to challenge the general, but he refused. All of that written elsewhere. So, yeah, I died’
Both The Warlock Engineer and the Jezzail team fired on the , now vulnerable Eternal Guard unit both scored a massive amount of hits but when the smoke cleared the unit still held!
Lakait- ‘So, Ariel's Blessing is the only reason that my general's unit managed to survive the rain of missile weapons that came forth to give them a shady spot to stand on the battlefield.’
The Ratling Gun moved to a better position for next turn.
Ratling the Mad- ‘It moved away from the Highborn’s unit to avoid being charged, I recall because next turn it couldn’t shoot because of the facing I put it in, my not paying attention to that because in the old rules it had a much wider arc of vision’
The Poison Wind Morter misfired and jammed for a turn thus no shots were fired.
Things were starting to look up for the Skaven!
Turn 4
Turn four was about position or reposition
General Lakait
The Spellsinger moved towards the glade guard to support their upcoming attempt to take back the tower.
The last Eternal Guard unit did a reform to get into position to charge the Storm Vermin. While doing this they took even more fire and it nearly cost the entire unit but they held against the odds.
The Glade Guard moved towards the tower and prepared to assault next turn.
Warlord Scratcheye
The Clanrats continued to hold the tower and prepared for the the onslaught of the displaced Wood Elves.
The General’s Storm Vermin also reformed to face the remains of the Eternal Guard.
The Jezzail team continued to fire at the Eternal Guard Unit killing several more.
The Ratling Gun did not fire as the angle of the attack was off to fire at the only in range target.
The Warlock Engineer attempted to Warp lightning the Eternal Guard unit again but this time it was dispelled.
Going into turn 5 it looked like the Skaven had it in the bag.
Turn 5
This ended up being the final turn. And here is why…
Charge declared by the remnants of the Eternal guard into the Scratcheye’s Storm vermin Unit. This unit of Eternal Guard used a Banner that made the unit cause Terror. Scratcheye declared a hold reaction. All Eyes were on this roll. The Dice came up 11! The Skaven were forced to flee. The distance was rolled and it came up 4” +1 “for Skaven and this equaled a 5 “flee. Unfortunately The Eternal guard were only 3 “away from the Skaven and rolled 10 on the Charge distance giving them 15” of movement allowing them to run down the terrified Storm Vermin.
Why did this end the game? Remember This was the Blood and Glory scenario and that Lakait started with 5 Banner points and Ratling the Mad had 4. Lakait lost 2 during the earlier in the game when her Glade Guard were defeated and fled the tower and another when the smaller unit of Eternal Guard was destroyed. This made it 4v3 (in Ratling’s favor) at the top of turn 5. When his general’s Unit was destroyed he lost 3 banner points immediately making it 1v3 (in Lakait’s favor) AND dropped the skaven army below the minimum 2 Banner points to stay in the game thus giving the victory to the Wood Elves!
Lakait- ‘It's important to note that this happened because Robby failed his terror check. That's the only reason I won here. I had three points in my general's unit and he had three points in his. This was the clash that would decide the game.’
Ratling the Mad had this to say in a later conversation:
‘I’d say my biggest mistake was not looking up what regeneration does, and just going on my obviously faulty recollection of how these things work (you try to save some time). Things went differently than I expected, the Hell Pit got thoroughly trounced, but both weapon teams and my Warlock Engineer actually survived. Apparently I was also wrong in some other assumptions that I made, like that her General was her spell caster (it wasn’t), and that My General’s unit (12 strong, modified Ld 7) could take 3 elves (Terror Causing Elves, Galadriel took the One Ring and came after me.) It’s hard to pick an MVP here, but I’ll have to go with my Poison Wind Mortar. It may have only gotten one good shot, but man was it effective.’
The End...
I Hope you have enjoyed this Battle Report. Please let me know what you think.
R.G.H
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