Thursday, April 10, 2014

40K vs Star Trek Attack Wing, at least locally...

So, looking at the state of things now in 40k...  Looking like a real mess with the company producing more rules with seemingly no interest in fixing the previous ones.  The upper level Tournaments are dominated by a handful of armies, for the most part FMC, Seer/beast stars, Tau(dar) and White Scar bike armies?  Anything I missed there?  There is a much higher level Math discussion here , but pretty much anyone actually playing the game knows this at some level.  One reason I think that competitive play is stagnant at best, unlikely to grow in the long term.  

Casual play is fine ("fine" as long as the whole group acknowledges the giant elephant in the room and no one plays one of the problematic overpowered armies), and I have to admit that if the rumored fix to D class weapons hits, locally at least we will do well.  Knights, super heavies, etc. Are all decent and with that minor correction, we would have a fun game I think.  Right now, the D shooting attacks are simply too good, something that Forgeworld seems to have gotten at least...  GW seems to be ignoring the issue in their rush to sell more books/models...  

The speed with which the releases are hitting is dizzying, and I think that their "brand" is suffering badly because of it.  A lot feels rushed, the lack of testing and editing is obvious and the big price tag for 2 pages of supplemental rules is pretty insane.  Worse being the ebooks only releases and cutting out the local game store from the mix.  Maybe the UK has the GW monopoly, but here it is certainly not the case.  I do not now, nor will I think ever own an iPad/iOS device, nor will I make a purchase through tie Apple Store.  Likewise, limiting the releases in that fashion mean that I am FAR less likely to buy them and therefore play them...  It does seem rather like a "scorched earth" policy is in effect for GW, banning all competition for online sales, killing off any sales channel they do not wholly control, massive and rapid change to their games requiring new purchases to continue playing...  Really all seems rather desperate, like they're trying to milk out as much money before the inevitable collapse.  I don't know, I bought the Knight and the WD for the rules as I do not intend to field more than the one :-)...  Might well be my last 40K purchases for a long time.  IG codex hitting "soon", but it  looks like it is a lot of cut/paste with not a lot changing, except for the Storm Troopers getting better and taking over for the Vets in the current book.  Yea, AP 3 shots for everyone...  

Guess that is one reason I am really looking so hard at Star Trek Attack Wing...  Looks like a reasonable group of folks playing it locally, even if some of us are banned from the other store in town :-)...  At least the Gopher is having the events, and most of us are on more or less even footing at the moment WRT the ships out and Fleets we could build.  My Klingons are actually worked out well, and I'm now 1 and 3 for a record...  I know the rules and have seen the obvious traps that I think I can now play the game well enough.  Thollian Web being next then the big OP thing comes later with Borg, etc...  

Which brings me to the next thing irritating me :-)  I can look at the Wizkids page and see the next 5 full waves of miniatures out to October...  Not all of the stats or cards, but the ships at least and so a pretty darn good idea what is coming.  Contrast of GW where they send out the Inquisition to take down rumor pages, their own web page is "not great", their social media presence is now completely gone, etc...  

Right, that's about it...  Had a great walk with the puppy and my amazing wife :-)  Should be getting parts to get both motorcycles back to full operation and I may even get to actually ride again at some point...

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