The Eternal Warriors

It’s that time of the year again! Packing has begun (and God do I hate to pack) and last minute plans are being made. We have our Dan Abnet interview lined up for later today and I’m sure we will already be running into you guys later tonight. I’m bringing some of my Khador (with not as much as I wanted painted) and 1850 points worth of Black Templars. Due to space issues I can only bring the list I was going to use for the GT that I backed out of.

Hope to see ya there!

Cons.  I love them.  It doesn’t matter if they’re a pure gamer con like Adepticon or a fluffy “see and be seen/buyer” con like Comic Con.  They’re all awesome to attend. While I can rant on and on about how great they are let me focus on one small part of cons, Cosplay.

No, I don’t Cosplay.  It’s just not my thing to do.  The sight of me in a Batman costume would look pretty damn absurd so I’ll spare you the indignity of witnessing it. Yet despite the fact that I don’t participate in cosplay I freely admit that Cosplay is one of my favorite parts of a con.  I’ll also admit that it also tends to attract a bit of weirdness but that’s part of the fun too.

Before I get further into the topic let me give you the definition of Cosplay.

“Cosplay, short for “costume play” is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea.”

I’m sure you’ve seen people doing it.  Halloween isn’t generally considered Cosplay but it technically does count.  Con Cosplay is entirely different in its theme and sophistication.  Major cons like Comic Con is where you see hundred (if not thousands) of people who are serious into cosplay gather in one location.  They are there to perform, to see and be seen and for people like you and me to appreciate the work they and others put into their costume and performance.  They love the attention and wouldn’t do cosplay if we ignored them.  My role in con cosplay is as the appreciative audience.  With a camera in hand I’ll happily play my part.  Before taking a picture I always ask.  After taking the picture I always say thank you.  More often than not I’ll also spend a moment or two to chat about the costume.  If I have someone with me to take the picture I’ll pose with them and I’ve never been declined.

Games Day, GenCon, Comic Con, Adepticon.  They all have had their cosplayers in attendance.  For some the cosplay is limited to a few brave souls while for other cons it’s the non-cosplayers who can become a minority.

Adepticon might have only a few out of the 1,500+ who show up and those are primarily limited to booth babes and the random gamers going for extra points in the team competition.  Adepticon doesn’t promote it and those who do show up in costume are doing on their own.

In the middle would be Games Day where GW has used a contest in an attempt to get people to show up in costume.  So despite Games Day being primarily a “gamer con” a limited number of cosplayers have shown up and put on a good show.  In a good year I’d expect to see between 20 and 30 people in some sort of costume.

At the other end of the spectrum are the beasts known as Comic Con and GenCon.  While the purpose and origin of the cons are entirely different the cosplay culture is remarkably the same.  It is here at these cons that you will see cosplay in its true form and numbers.  This past weekend Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) hosted many hundreds if not thousands of cosplayers.  I saw it all from the uncomplicated to the over the top extravagant.

Star Wars is always a crowd pleaser not just for the legion of Storm Troopers…….

…… but also the guy in a Wookie suit and stilts who towered over the rest of the crowd.

And yes, the R2D2 was a costume with someone in it.

And who doesn’t still have a thing for Slave Girl Princess Leia.

There were also some uncomplicated costumes.  Some like this zombie hunters who required little more than a sign and a bit of stagecraft.

Seeing that it was Comic con there had to be more than a few comic book heroes and villains.  Marvel  Vrs DC?

Others, like these girls, left me speechless.  I admit that girls like this are the reason I go to cons in the first place.

This one was my favorite of the entire con.  Drop dead sexy with a charming attitude and a beautiful sense of humor to match.  Cosplayers don’t get any more perfect than her.

Then again there were these two who shattered any preconceived notions of who can cosplay and who cannot.  Being a bit overweight didn’t stop this “The Coon” from South Park.  A good sense of humor trumped his enlarged waistline.

And then there is this girl.  I won’t explain it.  Take a good look and see if you can figure out why she impressed the shit out of me.  I give her major props for having a good sense of humor and going as a zombie.

The end.

It is no secret that we have a new, shiny thing with Warmachine and Hordes from Privateer Press. From the background to the easy to learn rule set to fewer models that need painting to the unapologetic Pg 5 mindset to the overall balance of the armies to the roughly annual fluidity of the armies, Warmachine is a multi-faceted gem that appeals to us on many levels. That being said, my first love is still 40K.

For the last 6 months, thanks in no small part to the ending of DLT, I have been examining why I still play 40K. I can say that I do not play to own my opponents, but rather to have fun. To a lesser degree I do play competitively, but as any of my regular opponents can attest, I do try to keep us honest by playing strictly within the rules. I would also say I am far from a rules lawyer. Most games for me involve trying to use new combos or tactics that I had not done before or not tried in a good long time. Some games are grudge matches or, as I like to call them, a soul cleansing. In fact, I am due for such a game against both Dan and Chris since editing Ep 13 together.

My first and main army is Space Marines and are a large majority of models that I own. To date, I can field a company sized, full force org army with enough models left over for another full force org army with 85 infantry models. In certain situations, most of these models can also take to the field as a Dark Angels successor force. When not bringing the Emperor’s wrath to Jon’s Tau or Dave’s Dark Eldar, my marines will be led by Kharne the Betrayer or Fabius Bile. If I am feeling really nostalgic I will even break out the Necrons. Realizing the full extent of time and money I’ve put into the hobby, I can say that I own at least one unit for every codex entry in all the codices mentioned above.

Since the TEW episode dedicated to finding armies cheaply, I have also been slowly collecting a Dark Eldar force. Not to play, mind you, but for a contest we will be running later this summer. Also, ebay has brought me closer to my dream of fielding 9 Land Speeders. As I have no new models to collect or paint for Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines or Necrons, I have recently acquired an Apocolypse model: a Stormlord. But I have hit the glass ceiling of 40K as I realize there is nothing else in for 40K for my three armies to try, collect or paint. With Grey Knights coming (an army that was broken by the faced and faceless personalities of the internet before it was even released) and the expected “Summer of Fliers” (whose prospects do not look promising given the lack luster performance of its other two summer siblings, Spearhead and Planetstrike), there are rumors the Necrons will be pushed back again from their near-Halloween rumored release date. So that basically leaves me screwed.

With no good looking prospects for my three armies coming this year, I have been force to rely increasingly upon other avenues for my 40K outlet. Granted I could always come up with another home-brew dex or practice resin casting an entire army. And I have the near-weekly TEW podcast, but more so than that, I have the community that has sprung up around TEW and it’s Hobby Talk Network companions. Through regular and cursory listener feedback and our forums, I have access to a veritable host of potentially ‘late in their 40K life’ players who may be in my glass ceiling position. Equally as important are the GW employees who have good people/sales skills and are willing to chat with you vice trying to sell you something. From my experience, the employees from the smaller stores are the more amicable sales men. Just the other day while visiting the Naperville GW store, I meant for my trip to be a quick in and out but ended up staying for 35 minutes while chatting with the sole employee, Paul, about tips on building my Stormlord to 40K lore to Black Library books. Paul used to run the Battle Bunker, and when GW made the complete shift from hobby/sales to a total sales orientation, Paul was moved. I can say that we miss Paul’s energy at the Battle Bunker.

Speaking of Black Library, their books are the main reason for my continued interest in 40K. Not to take away from the community or podcasting with the boys, but what comes out of the 40K back story via the Black Library authors such as Ben Counter, Dan Abnett, Gav Thorpe, Andy Hoare or Aaron Dembski-Bowden, to a very large extent, influences why I play the table top game. It’s one thing to gather with my friends and roll some dice, but I want a reason why I play the games I play. If I just wanted to roll some dice with my friends, I’d play Craps with Jon, Chris or Dave (but not Dan because he knows how to load his dice).

In summary, I hope I have adequately detailed the state of MY 40K and why I still play. I haven’t jumped ship like some people I know by ending any 40K conversation with ” … well Privateer Press does that better by …” but I can say that, for now, 40K has nothing left for me. To whom ever is reading this, I can say that you too will experience this same drought if you have not done so already. My only advice would be to not let your interest die out. Turn to your local community; put down that PS3 controller and pick up a Black Library book; try Apocolypse; try making a home-brew dex; try your hand at wargames podcasting (like us, don’t be great at it but rather outlast everyone else who started when you did). Some would consider 40K to be a waste of time, and by dropping the game completely, you have proven them right.

Let me preface my article by saying my views also do not reflect the views of the other hosts of TEW. Also, I do not have a focused view on Black Templars (but not Eldar) nor Khador. So …. yeah. Finally, the Grey Knights are being re-done and it’s about time. After dwindling in power since the 5th Edition rule set came out, the Grey Knights not only get updated fluff but they finally get the plastic model love they deserve. Overall, I also am not impressed but let me explain instead of openly expressing my love for a completely different game system.

I am stealing this thought from one of our forum users (I can’t remember who said it) but I am very happy the Grey Knights are getting plastic models. For years, the biggest complaint I’ve had about GK models is that they are metal, expensive and heavy. When a friend of ours goes through two GW army cases because the weight of the models rips the backing layer of a foam tray off, it’s time to upgrade to better case or to make the models plastic. Also, the idea that GK armies are elite (aka few in numbers) not only stems from their units costing too much, but from the models costing too much as well. GW never said the GK models would be the next best thing since sliced bread or lava lamps, but they did say they were getting plasticized and that is exactly what we got.

Concerning plasticized model kits, we are also getting new models and new units. I’ll let the Dreadknight picture speak for itself but I would like to comment on the totality of the new model kits that are being heavily pushed right now. On one hand you have the Dreadknight. It’s kind of like having the 1960s Adam West version of Batman showing up in a crowded subway tunnel station. It’s weird and everyone is immediately uncomfortable by having him around. Then you have the Storm Raven, or chubby sperm or chubby goldfish as someone in our circle called it. It’s kind of like having the 1960s Robin show up on a cold and windy bus station corner. Again, people are uncomfortable even looking at it. But when has Batman ever shown up without Robin (besides the numerous movie reboots over the last 20 years)? When have you ever seen The Incredible Hulk and not thought about his counter part, Dr. Bruce (or David) Banner? One does not belong without the other; they are two sides to the same coin. Somehow the horrendousness of each model is erased when they are taken together.

These new plastic kits, in my opinion, are not kit bashed Grey Templars but wholly plastic kits of existing metal models. And given that these models were around before Black Templars I would say it is BT who are stealing from GK. As I am not such a hobby whore as some people are in the GW community, I can forgive less than average looking models.

What I cannot forgive is the re-writing of 40K canon and history. Before you jump the gun, there are only a handful of people who have seen the new GK codex and I am not one of them. But historically speaking, when GW wants to rev up sales for a line, they re-release it with new models and updated fluff. I am willing to be my next paycheck the same thing has already happened for the Grey Knights. To give you an example from previous GW ‘updates’, here is a brief run down.

Marneus Calgar has gotten progressively more powerful and more expensive, yet remains lame. Darnath Lysander went from Sergeant to Captain to Terminator Captain but, breaking from the Marneus tradition, has gotten better. Tycho from the Blood Angels is dead, but lives. Eldrad has gotten more cheesy in death. The Imperial Guard magically transformed their organization seemingly overnight. The Space Wolves went from a cock to the face army to one that sits back and shoots missiles. The Blood Angels can deep strike their Land Raiders (perhaps they visited an urban automotive specialty shop and got better suspension and hydraulics?). Chaos was gutted and from it’s rotten core and bloody remains emerged two codices (each not quite as good as the previous edition). With a stroke of a pen (or clack of keyboard), the Dark Angels and Black Templars still feel like a 3rd/4th Edition army but with updated wargear rules.

I can go on and on, but suffice it to say, each new incarnation of a codex feels like history that is being re-written to more conveniently fit into a pre-conceived picture of what the game is supposed to be like. In most cases, that is good, but in some cases, it is very bad and detracts from the bigger picture as a whole.

Now if they would only give some of the same love to those ancient and forgotten Necrons, I’d be happy. My love is still for 40K, but Warmachine does hold a sway over me now. I can only attribute that to GW having not given me anything of interest to me lately. The summer of fliers BS that we have been hearing about? Rubbish; don’t even print it. Instead, leave fliers to Apocolypse and finish updating 40K completely before you branch out. You want sales? Don’t publish potential summer crap that people will only play for a few weeks.

In closing, I do have to give a big ‘thank you’ to GW. Instead of a 3 Land Raider list with minimal troops choice squads and maxed out Terminators, a 40K douchebag can now take Terminator troops choices in two Storm Ravens with a Dreadnought and Dreadknight. Thanks GW! You’re letting douchebaggery live on while silently insisting you don’t understand the power gaming aspect!

Before I get started, I do not reflect the views of TEW in it’s entirety. It is well known that I am very opinionated and slightly biased, so take this with a grain of salt if need be…

So GW dropped pics of the upcoming Grey Knights on their website today. After waiting 5 minutes for the pages to load on their extremely poorly written webpage, I was not impressed. The Dreadknight straight up looks like the robot that Ripley used in “Aliens”. The Grey Knights themselves honestly look like Black Templars with Storm Bolters and different shoulder pads. They look so close to Templars that I swear they took the heads and cloaks straight off the Black Templars upgrade sprue.

I can barely tell that the Terminators (shown above) are in Terminator armor.

Lord Draigo (pictured above) looks decent, but once again I can’t help but think Templar when I see him.

In my honest opinion, it looks like GW kitbashed their own stuff in order to make the GKs. I guess you start to run out of ideas when half of your armies are Space Marines. I just can’t wait for the Black Templars to come out and have people say they look like Grey Knights with different bits…

Now add the rumors that the Codex was changed by the accounting department, GW retweeting people who are drooling over them left and right and the fact that GW posted 3 articles about the GKs in under an hour (one which still will not load properly), this reeks of desperation. Is GW this desperate for sales? What a let down.

At least there’s Khador…