Showing posts with label GW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GW. Show all posts

Saturday, 14 November 2015

GW tring to woo us back? Merry Xmas from the Grinch who killed the Warhammer world

Ho ho ho... Merry Christmas everybody! GW doing a turn-around? 


We are not a gaming company. We sell toy soldiers.
In a huge turn-around the Grinch that killed Warhammer announce that they will again support some specialist games (that apparently made them money)

Many that saw this post thought it was a hoax, but confirmation came from GW itself. 
Seems the biggest specialist niche game, WHFB is not there, and neither is Mordheim. Clearly aimed at the blam-blam community, where their audience now lies. Oh yes, and we wont let go of that nice little income stream that is LOTR...



Soorry GW, too little, too late. In the words of Julius Caesatr: 
Alea jacta est.


Think the Age of Sigmarines was a bad roll...
lets go back to something that made us money.
"Traditional" WHFB may just be in that mix.
But has the pigeon flown the coop? For me it has.  



Tuesday, 6 October 2015

Adieu Games Workshop

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye...


In a blur of motion Valten signals his departure from GW gaming

So I have come out of my period of mourning for the game that has been the focus of most of my hobby endevours for the last decade or three. Like many a relationship it has come to a natural end. Though I have to say, that end was none of my doing or intent.

I loved the Warhammer World. I immersed myself in a world steeped in lore and history, once written and produced by gamers for gamers. It appealed to me for many reasons, the quality of the figures, the depth and width of the fluff, the sense of community...
The excitement of new releases that fit with my existing plethora of armies.

Yup, many of them have never seen the gaming table, and I spent many a dollar just on the joy of building and painting many a model, often to find that it was worthless as a game piece, or to see its worth destroyed by a change in the rules.

I played Warhammer Age of Reckoning online, adding another level of enjoyment to my experience of the Warhammer World. I bought novels that brought the fluff to life. I got my young son into the game.

Then all of it was sacrificed on the altar of profit.

To me, my experience of my relationship with GW had become more and more abusive over the decades. Like anybody trapped in a relationship with someone they loved; and believed that the other party loved them back, I stayed. I loved GW, but they did not love me back.

Then we got to the point where GW killed the Warhammer World. It rolled out the Age of the Sigmarine.  The End Times, (or is it End Crimes?) to me, now relates as a cynical move to squeeze a few more dollars out of those who still believed the game as we knew it may survive. Thank goodness I did not swallow the bait. Only a single End Times model taints my workbench. Gutrot Spume.

furious about warhammer age of sigmar man burns army


Some gamers took it to the extreme.

I too am a business man. I get the business aspects of it all.

But I am also a consumer of miniatures, a gamer, and possibly one with more disposable income than many. Surely there must have been a way forward that did not destroy the Warhammer world.

I (too) have decided to vote with my feet. AoS is not for me. GW is no longer for me.

I suppose my dollar does not count to GW in the greater scheme of things.
So be it.
Hope you attract lots of 8-year olds !

I for one will now leave GW and their Sigmarines to their own destiny.
So long, fare well.
I notice others doing the same.

Interesting post from Pete at Fields of Blood  on the corporate analyst take on the situation, and today announcing NZTCs switch to KoW.


So, where to from here ?  I've looked at the options:

1. Flogging on with 8th Ed in one form or another, (Read "continue as is; pre or post End-Crimes", 8th Ed the new Old Hammer, or call it (Out-in-the-cold Hammer?) or some fan-based machination - we all know how that is going to end);
2. Using my existing figures for another ruleset. (Late medieval/early renaissance gaming sans magic ?)
3). Selling the lot, and sticking with FoW only and
4) Switching to a skirmish based gameset eg Warmahordes

The latter did not appeal, as every figure I have painted is an unique work of art to my eyes.
I have toiled over them for days, weeks and months (oft to my other half's dismay).
They are like family.

So, I weighed 'em up...Pike and Shot, Blackpowder, Deus Vult, Warmahordes, Saga...
Invest in X-Wing ? A nice game or diversion, lots of guys have gone that way...but not what I'm after; I have a love of the Fantasy genre, already have FoW as a diversion anyhow, and alack,  no spare space in the Man Cave...

(Ahem...Huge delivery of Dark Elves bought as kickstarter from Raging Heroes on the horizon; and SAGA still preys on my mind - I may still go that way for a skirmish based game)

Came to a conclusion: Kings of War



Had quite an enjoyable game with Matt at the club the other night. Tournament coming at the end of the year. AND NOW NZTC IS GOING KOW

Fluff not quite there, Magic a bit weak, but out of all that is our there, I think Mantic's KoW is going to come up trumps. See one of the big tourneys in the US have also swopped over. And yesterday P
D announced that the NZTC will also switch rulesets.

With many, many WHFB players flocking their way I can see Mantic carrying the massed block based Fantasy Game banner in future. GWs loss is Mantic's gain.

Mantic must be grinning ear to ear.
Cheekily calling their book: The Game of Fantasy Battles. The King is dead, fell on his own sword. Long live the King!


My GW Undead, Empire and Dwarfs are now in the process of rebasing. Enough of them for both Abyssal and regular dwarf armies; and Human and Basilean Armies, each 2000 plus. May need a couple of Eloi for the latter, and some chicks on panthers. Or do I just use those riduculous (sigh) chickens?


Rebased Graveguard..ahem, Revenants

Empire almost there (15 000+ GW points woth) Almost done with the Vampires. (Wow do they kick ass in KoW!) and same with my Greenskins. Suddenly I have both a Goblin and an Orc army, compared to a 8000+ pt well but neigh useless WHFB greenskin army.

...and keep a few of my armies multi-purpose, ...should I ever decide to play 8th ed or one of its Lazarus incarnations which may or may not happen. (Looking verrrry unlikely at this stage) other than ETC (?)

So Druchii and Daemons will remain on their magnetised bases. As for killing off Slaanesh to attract the soccer mums. Bleh on you GW. I am so over it all, and the way you treated us.


Yay! I can use my Confrontation Wolfen now! 

As for the young Prince? Sad to say that GW's move has killed gaming for him. The Lizards and Ogres have gathered dust since the End Times (Well, what would you expect if both your armies suddely get written out of the story fluff) and I have doubts that he will return to gaming for the immediate future. But who knows? The news of NZTC switching may have galvanised him too.

A week ago I set about the mammoth task of rebasing my 15 000 pt + Empire Armies:



White Wolf Greathammers and Knights of Ulrich being transformed. 
Yup, some collector's items in that line-up!

Really 4 or 5  distinct armies sporting the livery of Talabheim, Talabecland, Nordland (Incorporating Kislev) and The Knights of Morr, and a small contingent of Knights of the White Wolf. Not that it matters any more, as in GW's own words "such things are obtuse"



I could actually not have anticipated the feeling of liberation that I got when I started gluing bases to movement trays! "Yes, yes! Never have to remove and restack you, you little bastard !"


Handgunners, Arquebussiers, 10 to a stand. Sooo easy.


Same with the XBows. 10 to a base. Simple. 
Sorry Chaos Army. 
You will have to wait for the rules to catch up with you. No doubt in the pipe-line.


Anyone with a horde army will appreciate what I am saying...
Couldn't wait to glue down those skeletons and zombies. Never will you fly all over the place again!
Not even speaking about night goblins!



Still have to think about the Vargulfs, but everything else seems transferable

 

Night of the Walking Dead


Skeletons, Zombies and ghouls surge forth. No longer shuffle or shamble. Undead are not slow in KoW. Change of Mindset. Oh yes, and then there is SURGE.

Still a huge amount of work to do on the aesthetics, but getting there slowly...
 


Friday, 5 December 2014

Another hobby shop goes under: Toyworld in Paraparaumu shutting its doors

Sad news for scale modelers and gamers on the Kapiti Coast: Toyworld is shutting shop. 




I stood by the graveside of yet another gaming shop today. Steve is closing down Toyworld in Coastlands, Paraparaumu on Christmas eve. Everything went on sale today. Sad news indeed for the gaming and scale modeling community in the area.

A victim of competition from large retailers, circumstance and internet shopping. Add to that family health issues, and you have a perfect storm. So sadly, a decision to close the doors.

 The last purveyor of modeling materials on the Kapiti Coast now gone.

Steve has supported our club well through the years, and I find it very sad to see this happen. He was the only local supplier of GW, Tamiya, Airfix, Italeri and other brands of popular models, glues and paints. He also recently started stocking a great range (Zap) of glues and acrylate accelerator, which has revolutionised my own hobby glueing practices.

So,  30-70% off all stock today. (I was told of the sad state of affairs by one of my staff last night.) Got there at around 12 this afternoon, and the vultures were circling. Feeling quite guilty in some ways, I joined the fray.

GW at 30% discount. Not a lot left, but I made off with a daemon prince and a box of skullcrushers, a handful of citadel paints. Couldn't speak with Steve. He was to busy. Got a brief word in with his wife, pain and sadness clearly apparent  in her eyes. Didn't go into details, but just told them I'll miss them.

The Dutch and Afrikaans languages have a saying: " Een man se dood is 'n ander se brood" (One man's death is bread to another) Looking at the feeding frenzy in the shop I couldn't but wonder how many regular shoppers there were, and how many were just opportunists. I for one am saddened by the loss of yet another hobby retailer


With STP gone and Mighty Ape giving so-so service, and not being able to get to GW WTN regularly any more, Wayland games seem to be the way to go. If you can wait...

Thursday, 20 November 2014

Druchii to Embrace their long-lost cousins, Woodelves the winners with models?

Khaine arises, but no model. HE and DE are now buddies. Even the Wood Elves join in.

Strange times indeed. So ASF rules. ASF rules and ASF rules

Leaked WD bits seem to suggest that the anticipated good times for the DEs is turning out to be a family reunion, with Tyrion turning out to be the Black sheep, and Malekith being the wronged one. No surprise then that he has been bitter for so many years.

As his model has not sold for decades due to the high points cost, and GW has a warehouse full of yukky dragons with a mediocre figure on it, dating back to the 90s, the DE's will not be getting a Malekith -ala- Nagash model (sigh) I really looked forward to this. Anyhow new rules will do, and I have a decent model on the (better) black dragon anyhow.

So to the leaks:
Statlines not out yet, only the pictures from the WD:






Shamelessly lifted off the interweb thingy

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

The Nagash Cat's out of the Bag: Writing on the wall for WHFB for me ?

Nagash, the writing on the wall for me?

Enter Herohammer! Monsterhammer. Take your pick: The shape of things to come ?
Or just a (costly) diversion? Disillusionment for me.


Undead rising. the beginning of the end of WHFB for me?

So pictures of Nagash are now flooding the net, and the new Manfred, or is it Vlad?, and Neferata? and new Spirit hosts, and, and...

So hot from Europe, shamelessly reposted off the Interweb:

Nagash


Not Aghast, but Morghast!

Aghast is also my reaction on seeing the price in NZ. Lovely models. Beautiful, fragile, too expensive.
Anyhow, form your own opinion.

"Warhammer, The End Times is noted to contain new rules that change the way a game of Warhammer can be played. It is not a new edition."

(So read supplement or expansion?)

The Releases:


Warhammer: Nagash
2 hardback books in a slip case. ($165 NZ)

1. Book 1: 296 page fluff book detailing the return of Nagash and events that affect every Warhammer race
2. Book 2: 96 page book containing rules for Nagash, new miniatures, the Lore of Undeath, Undead Legion, fighting underground and more apparently.

3. Nagash - no mention of him being a dual kit, rules are included in the box. $175 NZ (Ouch) 65 pounds in UK, $105 US.

4. Magic Cards Lore of the Undead ($12)

5. Nagash Novel ($50)

Pew! Goes my excitement... Can anyone please explain to me how 50 Pounds becomes $160 (One pound = NZ$ 1.97 today) Even in China it is only 500 RMB (NZ$ 96) Why is GW screwing their fan base in NZ and Aus so badly? The US is getting the Limited Ed for the price of the standard in NZ. Come on GW!

"What the background in the WD tells us:

- I hope you didn't like Kislev, because there is no longer a Kislev.
<Ok, there goes another of my armies>

- Archaon advance have been stalled by Vlad under the order of Nagash (the Empire was in major trouble).
- Nagash goes fighting to unite the Tomb Kings and VC (one of the scenario pictured in WD translate into "the Fall of Settra").

Regarding miniatures/rules:
- Nagash is magnificent, and very very tall thanks to his flying posture (he is supported by a bunch of souls).
- But he's not that massive overall, I have no idea how he managed to reach the 85€ pricetag.
<Come live in NZ mate, and feeel the pain>
- Not a dual kit.
- No other models that week, but the ones serving under him are hinted at the end of WD for the week after (so I suppose Vlad and that Arkhan dude, note that I know the WFB lore very poorly).
- As people expected, the new magic lore appear to work like Demonology for 40k (except with undead).
- Rules are changing with that extension, 50% lords for example."

Quick Cost tally:

$175 model
$165 books
$12 Magic cards
$50 novel
$402      

So were talking $500 by the time we've bought glue, paint, etc. How about a few more miniatures?
I think not, sorry GW.
So maybe the End Times are Nigh for me too. 

Much as I love the Warhammer World and WHFB I fear that GW and their pricing structure in NZ has finlly succeeded in killing it for me. I have a gaming room full of miniatures that are becoming obsolete faster than I can build or paint them. You got me really excited about Nagash's return, but now shattered this with your pricing practices.

Oh yea, and you've shut down the online retailers in Aus. Not that this rant would make any ripples in Nottingham. "We don't listen to our customers. their opinion is otoise, serving no practical purpose or result, superfluous" Let me tell you something from my business: You cannot afford NOT to listen to your customers.

I suspect this rant heralds my exit from the game. If this is the shape of things to come, I'd rather not be part of your otoise customers.I  have had enough of the arms race you are creating. 

Rex, I think you were right in your post. GW does not care about its customers. Definitely not those in NZ and Aus.

I have just reread Tom Kirby's preamble to the annual report again:

The Future
"Next year, internally, there will be some disruption remaining from the big reorganisation we have just made and from the one man store programme. Nevertheless I, and all the rest of Games Workshop, still believe we should be growing by opening new stores; particularly in North America and Germany."

External events that may affect us are only those things that bother everyone: interest rates, tax rates, exchange rates, directives from Brussels, war, pestilence and disease. What will not change is the eternal desire for some always to want yet more of the small, jewel-like objects of magic and wonder that we call Citadel miniatures.

Beyond next year, the business ought to be able to increase sales (single digit growth, not more) for many years and to provide owners with a steady flow of dividends. I say ‘ought to’ because no plan survives contact with the enemy and we will not promise what we cannot deliver — in particular our policy of only returning surplus cash as dividends will remain. We will not borrow (nor engage in fancy financial engineering) to pay a coupon.

Sales
Reported sales fell by 8.2% to £123.5 million for the year. On a constant currency basis, sales were down by 6.5% from £134.6 million to £125.9 million; progress was achieved in Other sales businesses (+20.9%) and Export (+2.7%) while sales in UK (-7.1%), Continental Europe (-10.6%), North America (-7.5%), Australia (-9.4%) and Asia (-3.3%) were in decline.

Trade
Sales fell by 9% in the year, partially due to the continental european reorganisation and a disappointing year in North America.
Mail order
Our new online shop was launched this year and our online sales are broadly in line with the prior year.
We are vertically integrated. We design, manufacture and distribute ourselves; we have our own stores and web store. With the sole, and rapidly declining, exception of products from Tolkien's books we use only our own imaginary worlds. They are rich enough and deep enough to accommodate anything we may want to make, and they remain our property.

Risks and uncertainties
That we are ex-growth is a big risk seen by some. As I said above I do not believe it. But if it is true we have built a wonderfully efficient cash-generating machine. The bigger risk is the same one I repeat each year, and that is management. So long as we have great people we will be fine. Problems will arise if the board allows egos and private agendas to rule.We also need a constant flow of great managers for our stores. In the end that is still the most important thing of all.

Our market is a niche market made up of people who want to collect our miniatures. They tend to be male, middle-class, discerning teenagers and adults. We do no demographic research, we have no focus groups, we do not ask the market what it wants. These things are otiose in a niche.

Opinion: Very little mention of us, the consumer, it is all about management and the personnel being the key to profits, no explanation for why profits are down across the board, except it must be all be related to management reorganization. This report is designed to reassure investors that GW will continue to print dividend checks no matter how many employee sackings and price increases it takes. And it cares not how many long-time fans and customers in NZ and Aus they loose.

- See more at: Blood of Kittens

Sunday, 9 February 2014

To the Dark Sphere and Back: Circumnavigating the globe

To the Dark Sphere and back: In NZ again after 30 days circumnavigating the globe

Back to blogging: I am back at the keyboard after 30 days of travelling the world, many great experiences and more additions to the ever growing pile of un-built models.

 Luc and I are now working on our lists for the NZTC Warhammer  Tournament (NZ Team Champs) coming up in March. He plans on fielding an Ogre list, and I am working on my Dark Elves (No surprise that, eh, with the great new rules and models)

Our trip took us around the world, from NZ to the land of cheap electronics (Malaysia), beach paradise no 1 (Koh Lipe, Thailand) The land of affordable Warhammer models and Anglophile history (UK), the land of Guiness beer, whiskey in a jar, and folk music (Eire), the land of great cheese, foi gras, garlic and red wine (and things Napoleonic and Francophile history) - France, to Tinseltown (US), and finally to beach paradise no 2 (Moorea, Tahiti) before winging our way back to Aotearoa (NZ)

One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to Dark Sphere, London's biggest gaming store, now in Lambeth, London. They recently moved, and are now situated a stone's throw from the Imperial War Museum.

This shop just cannot be missed! We arrived at this gaming cornucopia after a visit to the Natural History Museum. (Trade-off with daughter Lisa, as she didn't want to go to the IWM, and they are renovating for the 100th Anniversary of WW1 anyhow.)


The bulging shelves of the right hand side of Dark Sphere's new home.

The purveyors of joy at Dark Sphere were still unpacking, having just moved into the new premises. Boxes of models were piled up to 3 metres high in places, and it took great discipline to stay within budget.


Needless to say, being free of the mark-up we have to endure in NZ made the experience all the sweeter. We had to unwillingly tear ourselves away, as it was getting late, and as usual when fellow gamers meet, we fell into taking about our hobby with the store staff and fellow afficionados.

Looking forward to the next year of gaming the two of us had to discipline ourselves severely to stick to the agreed budget. We ended up buying a DE cauldron/medusa, warlocks/dark riders, and scourge runner for me,an Ogre fire belly and a unit of ogre bulls, an iron blaster (Yes, Luc felt he needed more ogres and another blaster!), and Gor Rok, and a Carnosaur /Troglothingy,for his Lizard army and he also spied a board game that retails for $120 here,all  for the grand sum of 150 pounds ($300) Would have been even cheaper had we ordered it online beforehand, and collected from thye store!

I had to refrain from getting more Chaos Daemons and Empire stuff, as we still had 2 weeks of travel expenses ahead of us, and I resolutely looked past the racks and racks of Warmachine and other 28mm Privateer Press, and almost any other model maker and scale you could imagine. Ok, I looked. Just a little.

Yes, Battlefront was also there, but with price equity in NZ$ (Funny that). Only Plastic Soldier Co was absent from the racks, and some of the more obscure brands, such as Wargods of Hyperborea (Crocodile games, which I had hoped to find there)

I have just calculated the cost of our GW haul if we had bought it here - $563NZ! (Not counting the $120+ board game, which would have brought the cost to $680+ had we bought these here)  We are talking almost a 100% mark-up. Surely this cannot be justified on transport costs alone.


Anyhow, we got the expected scolding from mommy dearest when we arrived back at our accommodation with 4 bags bulging with models and games. We swiftly de-boxed the models and posted them back to NZ for the princely cost of 15 Euros when we got to Dublin. (26-28 NZ$).


Lots of building and painting to be done now!

Friday, 6 December 2013

Be'Lakor the Dark Master: Rules 40K and WHFB

Statline and Rules for Belakor, Special Character "Slate/Scroll" from GW



Verbatim from "The Artifcer"

Be'Lakor, The Dark Master Dataslate/Battlescroll

screenshot 1


The Dark Master is back.  That's right, the first daemon prince has his own rules again.  But unlike before, where he only had rules in Warhammer, he now also has rules in the far future.  For simplicity's sake, the first half of the post will be about his 40k rules, and the second half about his fantasy battles rules. So, without further ado:

40K:
Okay, for starters, The Dark Master has a seriously nasty sat line:
Weapon Skill 9
Ballistic Skill 5
Strength 6
Toughness 5
4 Wounds
Initiative 8
5 Attacks (6 on the charge)
Leadership 10
4+ Invulnerable Save
Special Rules
Daemon
Eternal Warrior
Fearless (what's you expect, he's almost a greater daemon)
Psyker (Mastery level 3)
Flying Monstrous Creature
Shadow Form: Be'Lakor has a 4+ invulnerable save and the shrouded special rule (+2 to cover)

Lord of Torment: Be'Lakor recieves D3 additional warp charge points if an enemy unit failed a morale check in the previous turn.

Psyker: Be'lakor knows all the spells from the telepathy discipline.

To add to this, Be-Lakor's warlord trait causes a -1 leadership penalty to all enemy units as long as he is alive.

Hellforged Artifact: The Blade of Shadows: Be'Lakor's sword has a strength of user +1 and an AP of 2.  In addition, it has the armor bane (strength+2d6 for penetration), fleshbane (wounds on a 2), Master-crafted (re-roll one failed to hit roll), and specialist weapon (no benefit for additional close combat weapon.

And you can get all this in a Chaos Daemons or Chaos Space Marines list for 350 points.

Now, on to the fantasy battles version.


Be'Lakor has pretty much the same stats in Fantasy as he has in 40k, with the exception that he has an 8 inch movement and that 4+ save is a ward save.

Special Rules:

Terror
Unbreakable
Fly
Loremaster (Lore of Shadow)
Shadow Form: similar to before, Be'Lakor has a 4+ ward save and a -2 to hit modifier.

The Dark Master: enemy units within 12 inches of Be'Lakor get a -1 penalty to their leadership.

Lord of Torment: similar with the 40k version, Be'Lakor gets D3 additional power dice if an enemy unit failed it's morale test in the previous phase.

Magic: Be'Lakor is a level 4 wizard.

Blade of Shadows:  This time, the blade of shadows is a magic weapon that ignore all armor saves.


So, there you have it. Even when you consider how much the rules have changed from his previous incarnation, he still can be said to have gotten a lot nastier

Saturday, 9 November 2013

Dark Elf and Empire Alternatives

Swap Day Haul: Alternative DE and Empire Models taking shape


I obtained a good number of models at the KWC swap meet a few weeks ago, and have also been looking at what resides in my pile of shame. With the new Druchii Armybook in hand I have set about plotting, planning and building...

The Empire is also ever in my mind, and has not been left behind.

Works in Progress:


Fantastic Little Dragonet. I intend to use him as an alternative Pegasus.

I also had a Giant Owl in my hand, but remembered someone fielding one at NZTC this year, and I do not wish to appear a copycat next year. I think he would make a fine mount in my Dragon Themed Druchii Army.


From the pile of shame came the Matincore:

Languishing there for a almost year, waiting for the new DE Book. Building him with interchangable removable WoC Lord/Mage, for my WoC Army;  and making place for, of course for a DE Dreadlord or Beastlord!

Empire Bits:


What a delightful, agile little  fellow! 
Great little Halberdier wielding Character for my Empire Army. 
Bought from Pukeko Games at the swap meet.


(Another) BSB: This time the Forgeworld Character on Foot.
Leftover from my Christmas Present Demigryff Bonanza (Got 2 by accident)



Mage-type Caster guy. Impulsive buy at the swap meet. Not to sure where he's gonna end up as yet.



Alternative horses for the Empire. Mantic Basilean Mounts (I think)
 I am soooo over the old empire cavalry mounts !

GW had better hurry up and get their act together. The knights are way overdue an overhaul. Mantic and 
Raging heroes (Clicky) are looking very attractive. Also waiting to see what their Dark Elf offering is going to bring. Kickstarter is hopefully coming soon. Have been watching since early this year (Think their teasers came out then)

 

Friday, 18 October 2013

GW (largish) Niggle sorted - Dark Elves book incoming (to a postbox near me)

GW and global trading: We have a problem Houston

 

As a complication of GWs global pricing policies I ran into an unusual problem. I bought a gift certificate as a present for my son a few months ago. When he wanted to use it online, it turned out that the voucher had been issued in US Dollars (Despite my login details showing NZ) and it was useless in NZ.
I ended up giving him the money in hard cash, and tried to sort out the mess...

The local GW shop would /could not honour the gift certificate, and after 6 months of to-ing and fro-ing we finally got someone in Aus to sort the problem.

6 months later...I was getting rather frustrated with the whole situation, as my bank had also stung me with a $25 foreign exchange rate fee. (On a $100 gift voucher, billed to me as NZ$135 at the time, it brought the cost of a $100 voucher to $160).

I received an email advising me that a new certificate (At today's exchange rate, $120, NZ would be issued) which would put me out of pocket $40 on the nett balance.

I thought just to let it slide, but someone at GW was perceptive enough to what had happened, and that the exchange rate was different at the time of purchase. Today an email with a voucher arrived for $150 NZ.

In the end this leaves me just $10 (plus interest lost) out of pocket,after  six months of trying to get an adequate response from the US/UK or wherever. Should I be glad?

So I bought the Dark Elves Army book, and DE magic cards, and the cards for Lizardmen and WoC. Lets wait and see...probably my last online purchase from GW.

Think I'll just go down to the local GW shop in future or buy off traders on TradeMe rather than go through this again!.

Anyhow, Kudos to the GW employee who saw the exchange rate difference and adjusted the voucher. Have a great weekend mate!

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

Here it comes: DE Magic and Items, Stats, and rearranged to make sense

DE Magic and Rules, Stats incoming

Via HEROs Gaming blog (Tip your hats that way, plse. Thanks HERO)

Poss some bits lost in translation from ? Spanglese, reorganised to make more sense.



Q and A:

Rules for Assassins and Death Hags:
Are gifts of khaine surpressed or is there a list in the book?

Assassins and hags use different things, former has 3 choices of poison, latter has 3 choices of gift. Hags can only take 50 pts of magic weapons, while assassins have access to 50 pts magic items.
They are  DE hero characters, they can only take one from the three choices.
Assassins: 90 pts with poison attack. Can get two hand weapon or a Handbows. Access to 50pts magic items and one of three poisons (See below)

Shadowblades and Hellebron can have all 3 choices at their disposal simultaneously

Poison:
Black lotus: for each unsaved wounds inflicted by the character, a cumulative -1LD
Dark venom: KB
Manbane: +1 bonus to wound rolls

Gifts:
Cry of war :Cause fear, and all fear test made by the enemy unit in base contact with the hag suffer -3LD
Rune of khaine: Model gains +D3 attacks
Witch brew: She and her unit get frenzy. if they already have frenzy, they become super-frenzied with +2A. but the unit suffers -3LD when testing not to restrain from charging.

Fluff background question? What's the relationship between DEs and Slaanesh now? Does the cult of Slaanesh exist in fluff?
It looks like the warlocks(and sisters of suffering)  have something to do with Slaanesh from the captions in the pics, but I can't make it out.
No info- source doesn't know background fluff other than that the warlocks have been cursed by Malekith, if they don't find and kill the innocents, their souls will be taken by Slaanesh. so they have to kill and satisfy the dark prince all the time for survival.

Stats and rules of the cauldron. Does it have a 4+ Ward Save and does the hag get it as well?
CoB has a 4+ ward save itself; it can give the hag and witch it joins 5+ ward save, other units a 6+ ward save.
Witch Elves keep poison? Yes WE Initiative? They're I6

Sacrificial dagger and Pendant?
Yes the dagger is there. No pendant.
Everytime when u cast a spell but before dispelling, u can use the dagger. remove a model from the unit, and roll a D6, 4+ gets an extra dice and must be rolled and added to the result, then opponent tries to dispel. If you roll 1-3 then u can try the dagger again and again until you get a dice, or you can simply give up.

Does an Assassin get mundane armor? Assassins do not have access to armour. Does the missing of an armour-option mean, that an assassin cannot get a magic armor as well? No he can't
Do Assassins count against the hero slot limit? Yes

Is the Sea Drake Cloak available for all characters- or just for corsairs? Yes the cloak is available to dreadlord and master

Weapons: 
Handbow rules? What about the bleakswords?
Handbow range 12'', the rest stays the same (AP)
Bleakswords have no other rules mentioned, 9pts.
RBT now special and 70 pts, you can take four.(yes four)

Hydra and Kharybdiss:
Hydra is 6445552(3+remaining wounds) 6, cost 160 pts, 4+AS, 20pts for flame breath and 20pts for a 8'' shooting with multiple shots=remaining wounds, s=remaining wounds.
Kharibdyss is 650755456, 160 pts, 4+AS, poison attack, abyssal howl (reroll successful ld test), feast of bones(if all attack hits, auto hit D6 S7 hits afterwards.)
and one more thing... hydra and the kharibdyss both are monsters now, without handlers. though you can see two on their base, there is nothing about them in the rules.
Hydra regen rule:  Roll to regen wounds at the end of DE turn only: at the end of your phase if it still alive, you roll the number of dice equal to number of the lost wounds. 4+ regains a wound
Are the Hydra and the Karbdyss water creatures? No they don't have the sea creature rule. (Strange that one)

Harpies (Was worried that they had been canned, but sounds like they're still there )Whats the cost of harpies, do they ve any special rules like no panic ti other DE? Herpies are in special, 15pts and do not have any special rule except for fly.

Shades are 16 pts, hand weapon and repeater crossbow, no armour. Can take great weapon or two hand weapons for  2pts per model.

All lores for small sorceresses (2 lvl) too? Is she 80 pts?
Strange but certain. Small sorcerer can also take all 8 lores. and she's 80pts.

Whats about the rules of the Black Guard?
BG have eternal hatred of all enemies, that means rerols of all failed rolls to hit every round. They keep other rules per 7th Ed.(Warrior elite replaced by eternal hatred)

Points and options for black guard and cold ones: What does the medusa chariot thing do?
BG 15 pts, EX 12 pts, Cold one knight 30pts.
The Medusa chariot:  All DE within 6'' +1LD, and all others -1LD, Called Aura of Agony.

Do executioners still have Killing blow or are they now D3 wounds: Still KB, not D3 wounds.

Which special characters are in, which are out?
They stay the same. No new special characters. (Though Lokhir would go - Ed)
Does Malekith get cheaper? Yes, he's only 510 pts on foot. Didn't change much of his rules, now the circlet grants him an bonus dice if failed his casting/dispelling attempts once per magic phase

Fleet Admiral and the Beastmaster characters?

Lord choices: Fleetmaster is 155 pts with 566433739. Two hand weapons, light armour and sea dragon cloak. 50pts magic items. have a special rule called show no weakness that if he's fighting in a challenge or killed a character and still alive, the unit he joins become unbreakable till the end of that turn.
Sea dragon cloak upgraded in this edition: Now a 5+ scaly skin.

High beastmaster is 300pts 577433839 including mount (Manticore or scourgerunner chariot) Spear, light armour and sea dragon cloak. 100pts magic items. Special rule called Beastslaver: At the start of each of your turns, choose a friendly monster within 3''.That monster gets +D3 A till the start of your next turn.

Scroungerunner's cost includes the bolt thrower, I'm quite sure the High Beastmaster can man the bolt thrower.Yes, he takes place of one crew. His BS 7.
Special or rare? Special, cost 150 pts, profile is S4 T4 W4 with 5+AS, M9, two crew with spear and repeater crossbow,  a harpoon launcher, like a bolt thrower but far more powerful. it's S7, 24'' range, and cause D3 wounds. if a monster suffer any wounds from it, the monster will be dragged D6'' directly towards it. If D6 > 3, the monster suffer another wound with no AS.


Scroungerunner



Magic items aren't that great but everything else seems awesome.

Malus Darkblade:  Daemon now gives him +1 to WS,S,T,I and frenzy. Any to hit roll of 1 hits a friendly model in base contact.
Supreme sorceress is 185pts with lvl3, dreadlord 140pts. sorceress 80pts with lvl1.

Kuran and Tullaris
Kouran 596432739 joins BG to make them unbreakable. Comes standard with  +2S crimson death, and a 5+AS with Armour of Grief which delivers a S5 hit every time an opponent hits him.

Tullaris 566432739 joins EX gives them frenzy. Magic great weapon called the First Draich:  5+KB

Are they still champions or moved to hero slots ? Moved to hero slot, W2 each.

SoS vs WE:
Sisters of Slaughter
Rare choice with very impressive state 564331629. 15pts model, with shield and hand weapon. Can have a magic banner up to 50pts. 4+ward save in close combat, and every close combat phase it can choose an enemy unit in base contact: They lose parry and rank bonus in combat result.(still can steadfast). If any enemy model in base contact with them have higher basic WS or S (before weapon modifiers), they get +1 to their to hit and wound rolls.


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Are they Khanites and do they get the same bonuses from CoB as WE's?
No they're not brides of Khaine, they're arena fighters. COB can give them 6+ ward save if join them... but still if they're 6'' within COB they can reroll all the failed rolls to wound. and COB have a bound spell can make them frenzied.

Magic item section look like? Do I still have access to the Hydra Banner (fingers crossed)

From my first glance they're not as good as HE. Only 10 items, including one 100 pts nearly useless sword (hydra blade, +D6 A, every close combat phase u must make a -2LD test or suffer -5WS, but gain HKB.) and one 100 pts useless banner (Banner of Nagarythe, makles the unit unbreakable). Hydra banner is not there any longer.

Magic: How does Power of Darkness work? Available lores?
Power of darkness is one of the two signature spell, which cast on 8+, target the caster's unit. all models in unit get +1S until the caster's next magic phase, and recover D3 casting dice, if you rolled 3 dice, the caster suffers a wound that cant be saved by armour. Dark elf have access to all eight lores this time, cheers. (Yeehaa! and thank you very much, ouch! - Ed)
DE sorcerer casting dark magic gain +1 bonus in casting value. It's called HEKARTIS BLESSING

What would you say is the best magic item the DE's got?
The dagger sounds pretty nice, how much does it cost?
25pts. DE have some "OK" items IMO

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Looks like the Dark Riders now have shields? Is this a default now, or still an option which causes loss of Fast cav? Upgrade with 1pts/per model. DR can have both light armour and shield without losing fast cavalry rule. 16 pts per model with light armour. 1pts for shield, 3 pts for crossbow.


Warlocks

Warlocks: Fast cavalry in rare Stats 544431528, and M9 on horse. 25ptsper model. Only have hand weapon, but have 4+ward save except for wounds caused by model with mark of Saanesh or daemon of Slaanesh. they're considered to be level2 wizard which is used like pink horrors. (+1 for casting value for each extra rank except the first, to a max of +3) They know 2 spells, one is doombolt from DE army book, the other is Soulblight from lore of death. (Think we'll be seeing a bit of this- Ed)

Basic DE warrior cost ? Core infantry comes with shield and sword or spear.  9 PTS for spearmen and swordsmen. RXB is 12 pts without shield upgrade (+1PTS)


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