Damned Space Marines

As Vth edition gets even closer, I've put my order in for two Gamer's Editions, primarily because I want those ammo boxes. More money down the drain, but like a drug addict, I keep going back to get my fix....

A recent trip home resulted in my returning to Montreal with a batch of 2nd ed Space Marine tanks, distributed evenly across Predators, Whirlwinds, Razorbacks, and Rhinos. This has provoked me to build them up for my siegemarine army, which I built three Vindicators into last year.

I have not, of course, actually started to do any work on them; but my imagination proceeds forward at flank speed.

A Guardsman by any other name....

As a direct result of antipathy towards GW and their price model, and an eBay habit that won't quit, I've begun to build an Imperial Guard army based around proxied miniatures from Warzone. Actually, there are nominally two armies in the works, since I have 160 plastic miniatures coming, evenly divided between Imperial Regulars and Bauhaus Ducal Militia.

I've had a ton of Bauhaus stuff kicking around over the years (Venusian Rangers really defined the feel of the game for me), and, as a Germanophile, I've always wanted to build a first world war themed army out of them. Given the associated cost of an actual Death Korps army from Forgeworld, this seemed like a reasonable compromise.

Ask...and thou shalt receive?

I recently dropped a line to Jervis Johnson, purely out of frustration at not currently being able to get Steel Legion Plasma Gunners for my army.

Not able to entirely check my rancor, here is what I sent:

"Hi Jervis,

I'm a long time GW hobbyist, and I'm hoping you might help me out. I've recently taken out my Guard army and recognized the need dor a special weapon other than a grenade launcher. However, the SL Plasma Gunner is not available in GW's current Bitz Catalog.

While I have read and am prepared to accept the rationale behind the drastic reduction to the Bitz service, I am curious to know what happened with this model, and if it will soon be available.


Thank you,
Me"

As you can see, I did not vent my spleen on the subject of there only being two special weapons for the SL in the first place. I commend my own restraint.

I was astounded to find, in my inbox today, this reply:

Hi,

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll pass this onto the team responsible for the collectors & bitz range so they can deal with it.

Thanks again for writing in.

Jervis Johnson

Now, if this actually translates into action, my hat will certainly be off to Jervis Johnson. One of GW's 10 Commandments for Management is "Faith, Not Heresy", and I will be faithful in this circumstance that Jervis will follow through.

20,000 Leagues

I'm embarrassed to admit I'd never heard of this before today, but it seems terribly significant:

Bloop

For the Empire! Venerate the Immortal Emperor!

My job is fairly repetitive, and the upshot of this is that I listen to a lot of podcasts, and get paid an absurd amount of money to do so.

For sparing me a significant amount of boredom, I want to extend my thanks to Jeff Carroll at Podhammer. If you play Warhammer fantasy, you owe it to yourself to listen to Jeff and his gaming gang discuss the ins and outs of the game. The Australians really have a top-notch tournament scene and these guys know what they are talking about. So, listen to Jeff!

On the 40k side of things is 40k Radio. This is, I would argue, the best of the 40k 'casts. The cohosts, Spencer Harding and Phil Johnson have great chemistry and an in-depth knowledge of the hobby. On the downside, they are 40k players, and consequently their idea of what makes a great game is sadly awry. Face it guys--Fantasy is the better game. 40k has all the strategy of a simian dung fight. Maybe that'll change with 5th ed.

Two strong podcasts for your listening pleasure.

Chris Pine is a moron

Though I give the casting director credit for selecting Chris Pine, appearance-wise, as the youthful version of Captain Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek film, I must condemn his lack of loyalty to the franchise.

Most fantasy/sci-fi gamers are fans of either Star Trek or Star Wars, and often both, for varying reasons. Died-in-the-wool Star Trek fans know the pain of facing off against the pop-culture success of Star Wars, and can react only with outrage at a recent interview with Pine. Staing for USA Today that he is "“not trying to copy” the one, true Kirk, Pine instead says he is modelling his portrayal on HARRISON FORD:

"What Harrison Ford is so great at doing is bringing that quality to his characters that if they could be anywhere else in the world they would be there, but he is not, he just is in the middle of s*** and he has to figure out a way of dealing with it so that he can go back to doing whatever the hell he was doing before the film started…
I’ve always loved that quality about him in Star Wars, this sense of absolute grumpy manner; the accidental hero. Not to say that I modeled my version of James T Kirk on anything in particular but I think I definitely have wanted to bring that kind of Harrison Ford humour to Kirk."

Hey jackass: Kirk LOVED what he did. He would never have traded being a starship captain for anything else in the world, not love, not a family, not growing old. Being in the "middle of s***" is a starship captain's job. There is no getting back to doing something else.

Now to be fair to Pine, I don't really think he is a fan of either franchise. I think he goes to movies, or went to movies before he was an "actor", for fun. And Indy and Han are good "action" roles, fun and energetic. I also don't think he has an idea of what he was stepping in, vis-à-vis Trek fans and the problems we have faced in the shadow of Star Wars.

All good Trek/Wars fans know there is only one Captain Kirk, and there is only one Han Solo, and never shall the twain meet.

Seas of Blood

I just recieved my very first Man O'War miniatures. For some absurd reason, I've been eBay-ing this stuff like mad. I have three box rules sets (Man O'War, Plague Fleet, Sea of Blood) on their way and have ordered ships for a variety of fleets. 'Cause you know, having one fleet isn't enough; you need to be able to provide a fleet for a friend, and hey, two fleets aren't enough either. Variety, after all, is the spice of life.

So a bubble-wrap filled envelope was slid through my mail slot yesterday and with was the beginning of my Dwarf fleet. Despite their natural adversity to water, the Dwarves make fearsome sea-farers in their steam powered gunships. I lovingly unwrapped my first ever ship, a Dwarf Ironclad.... It was beautiful. The miniatures are well sculpted and nicely detailed. I can't wait to paint them.