40K – Allies Fur Alles – Von’s Crons

So, last week I dragged myself onto Skype to discover that my lacklustre 40K Correspondent has actually played some sixth edition 40K at last, and while he won’t be blogging about it (something about proxies, unpainted miniatures, non-existent records and so on), it did at least start a conversation.

Von: Did I tell you I have been thinking dire thoughts of Allies for the 40K thing?

Lexington: No! Polate most extra-ishly, plz.

Von: Does sir have time to give any thoughts on Allies which he might have? I say so because, well, there’s bloggin’ in this.

Lexington: A co-article, as it were?

Von: Yeah. The sort of thing we said we’d do when you joined.

Lexington: We’re bad at that. Anyhow! Allies for your Cybermen, or Allies for Alles?

Von: Well, I figured I’d talk about my particular predicament first, and then if you had anything broader to say (you know, as a man who owns multiple armies and such). Although I like Allies fur Alles as a series. Maybe we should do that. Talk about the various reasons for taking Allies, and use our collections as a case study.

Lexington: I like this.

Meanwhile, in 40K…

So, as intimated in his last entry, Von really did foul up in having me on as a 40K Blogger, since I spend a more-than-significant amount of my 40K time being plainly irritated at the game, the universe and the nebulous “community.” You know the drill. Shaking of the proverbial cane, kids can get their ugly Blood Angels Golden Ta-Ta Brigade and their Ward Fiction off my damned etc. Having been in the game for close to fifteen years now, and being of a species that’s programmed to see the advances of time as threatening and ruinous, this is just the way of things, and I sort of jumped ship for a bit to just play Warmachine and Hordes with co-workers in our swank little Game Pub, rented from our place of employment. That’s plenty of fun, but not very interesting to blog about. Radio silence and an irritated Von ensued.

Anyhow. Like our illustriously-bearded host, I find 6th Edition to be massively encouraging. Narrative focus, well-written rules (which manage to conjure the old GW tongue-in-cheek style quite well) and an expansion of the game’s basic premises are all exciting. Still, with all the Warmachine going down, I hadn’t actually gotten a chance to put theoretical enjoyment to laboratory testing ‘till this past weekend’s Games Day.

Now, to get back to the Cranky, Games Day kind of sucks anymore, at least for me. It’s still fun and all, but the selling is aggressive, and at thirty years old, a man of even more advanced age enticing me to shout Orkish war-cries for no immediate reason causes me to have a full-blown case of the Dignities. Still, I got to have a good time with friends, grab a gorgeous miniature, chat for a minute with favorite 40K author Aaron Dembski-Bowden and witness one of the most amazing pieces of hobby work I’ve ever run into, courtesy of the Snake Eyes Gaming Club.

So nice, I forgot to actually get a picture of it – shamelessly stolen from the Snake Eyes Boys.

40K.6 and Cautious Optimism

I’ve made little secret of not really giving a toss about 40K. Previous efforts to get back on that particular donkey during this blog’s lifetime have either been strictly theoretical (Blood Angels), doomed from the start (Chaos), pipe dreams (Orks), abortive and painful (Tyranids) or swiftly neglected (Necrons). This might be why I’ve spent the last fortnight of Blog Time sitting around with my fingers in my ears, as everyone who hasn’t been talking about sexism in gaming and game culture has been talking about the impending/imminent/just-gone-by release of 40K’s sixth edition.

And I wasn’t planning on giving a toss. I really wasn’t. I’d fobbed the job off on Lexington before he moved house, apparently to somewhere where blogging doesn’t happen, and rejoiced in the knowledge that all the giving-a-toss-about-40K that was going to happen on this blog would be done by someone who’s not me.

Then, though, word started trickling in from the blogs I was still paying attention to; the Oldhammer crowd started to say a few words of cautious commendation. Apparently, 40K.6 is very much about encouraging narrative play, going to far as to point out ways and means by which this might be done; attempts have allegedly been made to flag up the Imperium as the dystopian nightmarescape it is; some have even gone so far as to say that the new Big Green Book doesn’t so much lay down the law as encourage you to shoot big holes in it in the cause of exploring/devising a vast and unfettered galaxy of crazy notions.

I’m as surprised as you are.

A (10 Millenia) History of Violence

First off, well, apologies – from both the illustrious Bearded One and myself – for the lack of posts. We’ve both had one of those outbreaks of Real Life over the past weekend, which led to a fairly egregious shortage of free time. We hope that your rage is softened, somewhat, in knowing that the beatings doled out upon our fragile human forms have been more than sufficiently brutal.

Anyhow. So. Little mans.

I did hint, back in the previous entry, at a Word Bearers army of mine that is, indeed, in the making. Or, really, re-making, as it’s existed in some form for the past thirteen years or so. Pictures and details forthcoming, but this being the blog it is and all, let’s have have a swing at the “whys” of this particular Lorgarian collective.

I honestly don’t remember any precise instant in which the idea of playing Word Bearers first wandered into my brain and decided to take up long-term residence, but it rather clearly happened. It had to be somewhere in the latter days of 2nd Edition, as I do remember it being motivated by this:

It’s a block of text from those fell paragraphs which first defined the Legion, with emphasis on the idea that’s really stuck with me – that humanity needs a religion, needs a focus of faith and an unquestionable source from which meaning is derived, else we’ll all just be so many nihilistic apes smacking each other with femur bones across the barren ruins of civilization. There’s a cold, patrician lack of faith in humankind there, one that’s at the center of many real-world philosophies. It was a cold, gnawing antithesis to the vaguely humanist ethos I’d constructed in my teen years. It’s still at least a bit disturbing today, even with a heart filled with the dark misanthropy of adulthood.

Anyhow, the original army grew and shrank in spurts, through college and beyond, and even got a fair amount of paint on the boys. Taking inspiration from John Blanche, their color scheme was limited and clashing.

That all seemed well and good until recently. Armies like Raz’ Word Bearers and Dan the Daemon’s legendary Immortal Terrors over the on the Bolter & Chainsword have sparked a creative avalanche. Most of the army went into the dip, was disassembled, and is now being remade bigger and badder than before. Thus far, it’s been almost worryingly pleasant to challenge the modelling skills. Here’s a Terminator that’s come out of the project, compared to a one-armed Aurora Chapter Terminator, who’s been a great sport about things.

‘Till next time!

WoC Quickie: Testing The Waters

I have a Chaos Lord build I want to try out, and I think it makes sense within the rules as written, but I want to acid-test people’s reactions to it before I plonk it down on a table in a list that’s been designed with it in mind and would be a git to retool and rebalance.  So, your thoughts on the following, if you have any:

1. A model with the Book of Secrets “becomes a level 1 Wizard”.  Wizards may take Arcane Items.  Therefore, a Chaos Lord (or Exalted Hero) with the Book may take Arcane Items.
2. A model with the Book of Secrets may use spells from the Lores of Death, Shadow or Fire.  However, a Wizard with a Mark of Chaos must use the Lore for the appropriate Chaos God.  How do we resolve this conflict?

I assume that ‘must’ takes precedence over ‘may’ – that makes sense, but it’s an argument that’s rooted in other game systems with consistent and established house styles and vocabulary for rules mechanics, and frankly I’m never sure whether GW actually has any of that or not.

By my reckoning, a Chaos Lord (or Exalted Hero) with the Book of Secrets and Mark of Tzeentch is a level 1 Wizard with one Tzeentch spell and a +1 to his casting roll (and Ward Save if he has one, which he should). Furthermore, he may carry other Arcane Items if his owner is inclined to do so.

Am I on brain drugs or not?

By the way, there is a reason behind this particular Lord/Hero build, honestly; you’ll see what I’m driving at when I start posting army lists. Suffice to say, for now, that I want a decent Ld stat and a second Wizard in my Lord allowance, and this is a way to get both, especially since my Dispelling needs are being addressed elsewise.