Replacement cycles…
Doing that at work, swapping out old, obsolete machines for either
slightly less obsolete machines or new ones…
Ideally new ones, but budgets being what they are of course… Fun times.
And something of a never ending cycle…
Guessing I have another 10+ years until retirement, so that is good I
guess… Grad School continues apace,
classes are different… Nothing at all
like I remember the “slightly higher pressure” classes in Engineering school
here at the University of Illinois. I do
think that this will be done a lot quicker than I expected…
Got me thinking about GW and 40K. Having seen a game company completely implode
when Rackham made their version 3.5 rules and tried to break the system enough
that the version 4 would be seen as good and a shift from “skirmish” to “massed
battles” I have to wonder if there is not what GW is doing on some level… Rackham had an excellent line of miniatures,
some of the best I’ve ever seen (and some of the worst, I did NOT like every
army, but tastes are individual of course) and their game itself was fun… If somewhat complicated at times. Then some changes came out that were good,
the free magic/faith spells for the folks who could use them and suddenly spell
casters actually started seeing some play time…
Well for some armies, my Wolfen were still really focused on the “Big
Werewolves rushing at you” theory… Effective J… But my Kelts…
Yes, the Druids and such were fun, and not even slightly over powered
really… The changes to “Assault Fire”
were broken and stupid for my Wolfen especially. Seeing the lads able to run 35cm (French game
company, so metric units), throwing a spear for a free shot before slamming in
with a charge… Getting to redirect their
charge in the event they killed their initial target on the point blank throw… That was not so good J.. But in any case, the game fizzeled HARD when
they changed it to a mass combat system.
Then it just quickly disappeared.
Have had that feeling with 40K for a long time now, and I am thinking it
is accelerating. Please do not take this
as a wholly negative thought, I have liked and played the game a LONG time,
just seeing it change so very much and make the iconic piece in the game relegated
to complete irrelevance is somewhat disheartening.
The pace with which they are releasing Codices is in and of
itself something of a problem. Yes,
there was that wish years ago to see more releases and not have something like
the 3rd Ed Wolf codex STILL in use late into the 5th
Edition of the game. So, got our wish I
guess. Kind of like my wishes when I was
back in High School… Wanted a Mustang,
to travel the world, become an Engineer, etc…
Got everything on that list, just nothing like what I thought I was
asking for J… A whole lot of interesting stories I guess,
and I’ve been a lot of places and done a lot of things most people only read
about… And per usual, a lot of it was
not good… But back to the Codices… Eldar got their SECONG hardback book in 2
years. At $60/book, keeping up with more
than a single army has long since become “difficult”. Especially with the “DLC” model of “Codex Supplements”
for more specific things like Marine Chapters and Eldar Craft Worlds… Those are now officially obsolete and
unusable. Glad I did not buy them, and
it makes me wonder what is in it for the FLGS in this environment… No clue if there is some sort of return
policy for dead product, especially with GW not officially announcing ANYTHING
until a week or so out and now with what is looking like a 2 year cycle for the
major books… I know I would be of the
opinion that I keep only the bare minimum on my shelves, but then my
negotiation skill has always been “poor” at best, frankly I would likely have
been rid of GW years ago to keep from getting repeatedly burned by that company…
With the Eldar release last weekend, looking like Knights
this weekend? The “old” Codex from what
a year ago with BOTH Knight Titans in it will more than double to something
like 5 possible Knights now? But of
course, not an update, a complete new book invalidating the previously
purchased one… GREAT models, I have one
that I hope someday to actually get assembled (the legs are done on mine now)… But this is getting kind of ridiculous… Marines are rumored for next Month as
well. So, the cycle has begun again, and
frankly I can’t see spending that much every month to keep my WAY too many
armies current. My wife is patient with
my toys, but there are limits J…