New editions

 There are a few editions of games that I play (or collect) that have come out with a new edition.  Some of the most revised have been Car Wars, Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Blood Bowl, and Space Hulk.

 

Some of the newer small games that I have picked up have done well enough for a second edition.  Sometimes this happens even before I get a chance to get the original to the table.  A few of the Osprey Wargame series have had this happen like Lion Rampant, Gaslands, In Her Majesty’s Name (confirm name).  Of these three I have only picked up the new edition of Gaslands so far. 

 

I even picked up Frostgrave on sale before the second edition came out.  I have picked up most of the older expansions but have not gotten the new edition yet.

 

 

There are three more new editions that are coming out this year.  One for a game I have not played.  One for a game that I have played.  One for a game that I used to play.

 

I have not yet played Street Wars NYC but am in the midst of painting some gangs for it.  I will probably pick up the newer edition, and look forward to a few clarifications on the rules.  There are also two more gangs that I need to pick up, so far.  I will probably not back the kickstarter if there is one but will pick it up afterwards.

 

I have played Don’t Look Back solo already.  The rules could certainly use some tightening up, but the game seems quick, and plays well for the theme.  I have picked up a bunch of the expansions but had been putting off getting the extra rules when I heard that they were going to release a newer edition.  They are running a preorder right now of their site, and I have already ordered the Tier 1 level – with the new book and new Core Heroes, and Killer boxes.  I did not get the Tier 2 level with the extra expansions and terrain, as I will get the expansions later and this will already be pushing the duty limits.

 

Warhammer 40K will be pumping out a new 10th edition.  I haven’t played since probably the 3^rd or 4th edition but have been picking up the new editions as placeholder sets.  I have not gotten much of 8^th edition codices, or any of the 9^th edition though.  Since it seems like this edition will probably be Tyranids vs Primaris Marines, I will probably get this as well.  It sounds like they might release the rules for the armies online, at least to start, so this would be a good time to get back into it.

 

40K Army Preferences

I looked at the current list of codices available and sorted them according to the armies that I would probably play, the armies I would like to play, the armies I have some interest in playing, and the armies I have no interest in playing. In these groups, I sorted them again in order of favorites.

In my Top list of groups, I have Space Marines, Genestealer Cults, Space Wolves, Tyranids, Orks, Sisters of Battle, and Imperial Agents (Inquisition). I have my original Space Marine army, as well as my Tyranid army. I have a lot of figures for more Space Marines, Tyranids, Orks, Space Wolves, and Genestealer Cults.

In the next list of armies, that I would like to play, I have Necrons, Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard), Craftworlds (Eldar), Grey Knights, Harlequins, Deathwatch, T’au Empire, Chaos Demons, Adeptus Mechanicus/Skitari. I have a lot of Imperial Guard but not a lot of tanks, a lot of Eldar but not a lot of Aspect Warriors, a lot of old metal Harlequins, a bit of T’au and Necrons, and the Deathwatch figures from the boxed game.

I do have interest in playing these ones: Chaos Space Marines, Dark Angels, Death Guard, Drukhari (Dark Eldar), Ultramarines, Imperium 1 (Legion of the Damned), Adeptus Custodes, Xenos 1 (Ynnari), and Imperium 2 (Talons of the Empire). I have Chaos Marines, Death Guard, and Dark Eldar from the various edition rules boxes.

I really have no interest in playing Imperial Knights, Thousand Suns, Chaos Knights, Blood Angels, Raven Guard, White Scars, and Iron Hands.

What are your favorites?

New New 40K

They have announced the new 9th edition of Warhammer 40,000. I don’t have much of the army books for the current edition, just the 5 basic index books and the Space Marine, Chaos Marine, and Grey Knights codices.

They do say that the new edition will use the current codices, so we will see. I still need to pick up the hardcover rules. I had gotten the mini rules with the First Strike starter but am looking at snapping a copy of the Dark Imperium starter before they disappear as it includes a copy of the hardcover rules.

New GW boxed sets

So there are more boxed sets coming out from Games Workshop. Since they use the same figures as their regular lines, they are a lot more expensive than an introductory game would be.
Some I am able to pass over easily. With the close of the Warhammer World I was able to make a clean break and did not get any of the Age of Sigmar sets. Although I do have to admit that the Night Haunts in the new AoS boxed sets look very tempting.
Skipping Age of Sigmar made it easy to skip the new Warhammer Quest set, as well as the Shadespire boxed game.

The new Necromunda looks very good. I had the old set and might be tempted but there is so much of the new set, with the gangs, and terrain, and all the rule sets that I will probably pass on it as well.

I am definitely going to take a pass on the new Titans sets. With the new scale and the amount of figures needed, I am not going to be able to afford it. If they come out with Tyranid Biotitans and one of my friends gets the main set, I might be tempted, but would only get some if one of my friends has the main set.

I still haven’t picked up any of the boxed sets or rules for the newest 40K edition yet. I’m still likely to get it, but am not in any rush as I will have a lot of codices to pick up. The choice is harder with the three boxed set levels to choose. The smallest set is only $50 but the set with the Hardcover rules is $180.

Kill Team seems like it might be a good way to ease back in to 40K. But there are already 2 big box sets for it as well as a lot of figures. I will likely pass on it as well. The second box set with the Rogue Traders is very tempting though.

Speed Freeks is the new Ork racing game. It comes with 2 vehicles, 6 bikes, and a bit of terrain. So far, it isn’t really grabbing me.
As I do have figures for an Ork army, the vehicles would probably help to bulk it out. To get the boxed set (2 big vehicles and 6 bikes) plus the other 4 big vehicles would cost $400 though. It is not one I would rush out and get but I might have to pick it up due to the pricing. It is not quite as good a deal as the Gangs of Commorragh box was but it is still cheaper than getting the figures alone.

I am already getting a fair amount of the new Blood Bowl stuff. I have the boxed set, the extra rules Almanac, two big figures (Ogre and Troll) and two of the extra teams (Skaven and Dwarves). I will definitely get the Undead team, and probably the Elves, and Dark Elves.

When they advertised Warhammer Quest Blackstone Fortress, I was figuring it would be an easy one to pass over. But, even though it is called Warhammer Quest, it is really a 40K game than an Age of Sigmar one. The figures look good so I might have to pick it up. I just hope they don’t start churning out expansions for it like they did for Kill Team.

Prospero achieved!

Our local Games Workshop posted that the Horus Heresy games have been discontinued and removed from the website. Even though they were released about a year apart, they discontinued both Betrayal at Calth and The Burning of Prospero at the same time.

Since I missed out on the Gangs of Commorragh, I will probably have to pick up the rest of the game (without figures) online cheap, and then have to buy the figures for a much higher cost.

I wanted to be sure that I was able to get Prospero without having to do that. So even though I haven’t been able to save up beforehand, I checked with the misses and got the approval that it wasn’t going to cause any problems to pick it up. I probably could have waited a little bit as they had six copies but I didn’t want to take the chance.

I also popped in to a new Hobby Store called Hobby Sense and picked up some glue as well as a Revel Nieuport 28 and Fokker E-III. They seem to be a nice new store with a lot of model kits.

The Grim Cheapness

I don’t have the same internet access that I used to. I work on a bit of a rolling shift, so I can start anywhere from 8 am to 10:15 am. My wife starts work at 8 am. With dropping my wife off in the mornings, I often used to have a couple hours on most days, plus my lunch and breaks, when I could watch videos and surf the net.
They had tightened up on internet access earlier this year. We are no longer able to browse while on breaks. This means that I am now way behind on the youtube videos that I was following, the online comics, as well as the sites that I was watching.

That’s how I came to miss that one of my favorite blogs has stopped updating since January. TheGrimCheapness is a good site for ‘paperhammer’ – or papercraft templates that you can build for stand-ins for Warhammer 40K vehicles, especially the titans. He also had a good writing style, which is well as it turns out that he is a now-published author. He’s taking an extended break from updating but will leave the site up.

If you haven’t been in before, it’s still worth a look.

Figure Painting Total - February

I finally got a Bommerz over da Sulphur River. It only has 6 figures - planes, and 4 of those are Orks. I look forward to playing it. If it is even passable, I should be able to paint up the planes and get a few in the painted column.

I was also able to get my hands on two of the Games Workshop painting handles. I've heard good things about them, so anything that makes it easier for me to start actually getting some paint on the figures has got to be a good thing.

Bommerz over da Sulphur River – 6

Feb figures bought - 6, figures painted – 0

Running total 2018 – figures bought 6, figures painted 0

Shopping in Thunder Bay - or not-so-local FGS

We did a trip to Thunder Bay to visit relatives for the Canada Day long weekend. It’s a bit of a drive – with the Ontario part being mostly one lane each way and only 90 km/h. I’ve done it once in the early spring and it was harrowing.
As the semis would pass, they would splash slush on your windshield and you could not see for 3 – 4 seconds. You had to hope there wasn’t a turn or a drifting cars until you could see again.

Thunder Bay has two great gaming stores. Thunder Games is located underneath a strip mall. It mainly focuses on miniature games, and has a large Games Workshop section, including many older books and games. This time I was able to get a copy of Kill Team, and the hardcover Imperial Agents codex. They also had the revised Dark Angels and Tau but I passed on them for now.
I did pick up a Season One for Blood Bowl. I don’t have the newest version of Blood Bowl yet, but I know that I’ll end up getting it eventually.

The other good store is The Game Shelf – which is attached to a used book store called The Book Shelf. It reminds me of a Sentry Box-lite. They had a bunch of Warhammer books that I could have picked up at the Book Shelf but I left them this time. I did find a hardcover Farsight Enclaves for $6.95 so I grabbed it.
Going through to the Game Shelf part I picked up some Heroclix starters. I also got another Dust building, and I picked up the Trinity set for DC Universe Miniature game.

I’ll probably have to pop back to Thunder Bay next year for a wedding, so I’m already looking forward to going back to these two stores to fill in more gaps from my lists.

Marvel Universe buyer issues and buying short list

One of the sellers that I had bought the Emma and Jean figures from flaked on me so I still need to get those two to complete my key figures for the Marvel Universe miniature game. I need others as well, but the rest are much more pricey.

Knight Models also seems to no longer be producing their Watchmen figures for the Batman Miniature Game so I picked up some of those as well. I got the Comedian, Rorschach, and Silk Spectre figures. The first two are the main ones I had wanted from the Watchmen and the third will be harder to get later. I’ll probably try to get Nite Owl and Ozymandias to complete the set if I don’t have to chase them down.

On the top of my list right now is the Kill Team set from Warhammer 40K, and the last three codices I need in hardcover. I’m particularly looking for Imperial Agents in hardcover, but also need the revised Tau, and Dark Angels to complete my set and might settle for those in sofcover.

New 40K

Games Workshop just announced that there will soon be a new edition of Warhammer 40,000 released and that it will be incompatible with the current codices.
I only need three current codices – Imperial Agents, Dark Angels, and Tau. I am missing several of the supplements though. I am currently reading through the old codices – having just finished Dark Angles, and Tau from the sixth edition.

It sounds very similar to what they did with the Warhammer game, where they had a big ‘end of days’ event spread across a few books, coinciding with large figure releases, and then wiped out the old ruleset and army books and started fresh with Age of Sigmar.
I wasn’t active in Warhammer at the time, so I didn’t get the end times books or models, and didn’t make the jump to the new system. I would have to chase down the end times books and a lot of the army lists from the last few editions to complete the sets.
I had liked the narrative that had been building in the old Warhammer world and don’t really have any ties to the new one. For me, it was a very good point to make a clean break.

I am closely tied to the Warhammer 40,000 narrative, from the early days of Rouge Trader, all the way through the grim dark present future, with the additions of the Tyranids, Dark Eldar, Tau, and Necrons, as well as the loss of the Dwarves along the way. A lot of fine details have modified along the way, examples being the Genestealers/Tyranids, the Space Wolves/Dark Angels history, the Chaos gods. A lot of the big picture has stayed the same.
Depending on how much it changes, this could be the last of my placeholder sets. It remains seen to see if that is because we part ways or if the new set will be a clean start.
The nice thing about having all the sets along way is that I can always go back and play with the rules from my favorite edition.

White Dwarf - full circle

My weekly subscription to White Dwarf is churning along fine, apart from a few issues that went astray and which they quickly replaced. They are usually are later than they should be, sometimes not showing up until well into the second week following.

I got a letter from Games Workshop letting me know that White Dwarf will be returning to a monthly magazine.

The last weekly issue will be the July 30, and the first monthly issue will be September 2. Per the letter, since 4 of the weekly issues cost almost twice what the monthly issues will cost, they will convert my subscription and double my remaining period, plus three extra issues, plus an extra issue for the missing August. The said that this will now extend my subscription through to August of 2017.

The math seems a bit off but it seems to work out in my favor. I look forward to the new, old format. As long as they don't reset the numbering again.

White Dwarf renewal

My six month subscription with White Dwarf is drawing to a close at the end of November. Since they used to need two full months for renewals, I called them at the beginning of Oct to renew but they were unable to add to my subscription at that point.

They could start a completely new subscription, and I could overlap for a month, but the rep was unable to extend my subscription early. He said to call back mid November and that would be enough time to catch it. He was pretty new though so I am hoping that this is a training issue rather than a new policy.

I called today and renewed the White Dwarf - not the Visions. There seemed to be no problems with extending my subscription. Hopefully it is all back to normal again.

HC buying - finally back to working away at it.

Now that I am pretty caught up on 40K codices, I looked at picking up some Heroclix to complete some of the older sets. I usually keep an eye on Strikezone – as they have HC figures. I use them as a base price when I find figures on ebay or in person - if they are too much out of line, then I don't bother.

I was looking to fill in some of older sets and so I popped over to Strikezone. They were having a big sale on some of the older sets. This was great but it seemed that they were finally blowing out their stock of these older, pre-card sets. So I missed a good chance to get some of the ones I needed.

I was able to finish the KA2 set (except the chase figure), as well as Collateral Damage. I also picked up some more figures from a few of the other sets, bringing me even closer than I was.

I missed it from Strikezone but was able to get the remaining figures I needed to also complete the Pacific Rim set from an dealer on ebay from which I used to buy. This and the KA2 figures were the key ones that I wanted to complete right now. I'll have to start looking on ebay to work away at some of the other older sets.

Buying 40K for 40% off in Fargo

While in Fargo, we popped in to Paradox Comics. There wasn’t any new games that caught my eye but they did have some in their 40% off rack that did. I was able to pick up Bring Out Yer Dead, Assassinorum: Execution Force, and a Firefly RPG module. I also got a Necron Battleforce, and Imperial Knights datacards for the same 40% off. I was able to get into the back room again and get some more 40K books for 20% off. I picked up Cities of Death, Planetstrike, and Battle Missions, and a Necron Catacomb Command Barge. It seems like they are thinking about stop carrying Games Workshop so were willing to discount them. I could have picked up some more armies and codices but it the dollar being what it was, I could only bring back so much.

Game shopping on holidays

For the September long weekend, we were in Thunder Bay. In addition to everything else, we managed to pick up some games as well.

Thunder Games is a deceptive store. It looks tiny from the outside but the door leads to a staircase - with the store downstairs. I picked up some 40K books on sale as well as the two White Dwarf copies I had so much trouble finding (issue 47 + 48) for $5 each. Now I can pull the cards out and still have a nice copy. I also picked up the Haemonculus Covens codex at regular price as well as a few used 40K books that ended up being on sale - Escalation for $36, Stronghold Assault for $25, as well as the new Apocalypse for $44.
I also picked up the rulebook for the Batman Miniature Game. I figured I'd give it a try before I bought the miniatures for it. I can always try it with Heroclix figures before getting the real Knight Model ones.

The other game store was the Gameshelf - attached to a used book store - the Bookshelf. In the Bookshelf I picked up the Iyaden Codex for only $9 as well as some hard to find Serenity RPG books.
At the Gameshelf I was able to get Colt Express, Monsterpocalypse Volton, and even White Dwarf 66 to fill in the last gap. I even picked up the revised Dust Tactics rulebook to see if it's worth picking up the figures.

We even popped in to the Value Village to check it out. Much to my chagrin they had what seems to be the entire set of Time Life: The Old West books. So I picked up nicer copies of 3 books to replace the placeholder versions I have. I now only need the index to complete the collection.

codex update

With ebay and the local Games Workshop, I now have all the regular 6th edition codices except Chaos Daemons, which is the next one on my list to get. I am still missing all of the supplements from that edition – Farsight Enclaves (Tau), Black Legion and Crimson Slaughter (Chaos Space Marines), Sentinels of Terra and Clan Raukaan (Space Marines), and Militarium Tempestus (Astra Militarium). The only one of the supplements I am really looking at getting is the Tempestus book if I can find it for a decent price.

Of the current 7th edition, I am still missing the Dark Eldar, Blood Angels, Khorne Daemonkin, (Eldar) Craftworlds, the updated Imperial Knights, as well as the Space Marine and Dark Angels. Higher on my list are the Space Marine and Craftworld books and lower are Khorne and the new Knights. I’ll eventually get Dark Eldar, and the Angels just to fill the gaps.

The Space Marine and Dark Angels have a new cover design. Usually this means that a new edition is coming out shortly although they didn’t change the design with the change from 6th to 7th. But with only a 2 year gap between those editions they really didn’t have a lot of time. It does mean that, out of the 17 full codices, 13 have been for the 7th edition. It also means that, out of the 17 current codices I have 9 of the them. I also have the Harlequin book – but I’m counting that as a supplement rather than a full codex.

The Old West / Realms of Chaos

While at Value Village on the last Friday in May, I circled through the books. I was happy to see a stack of Time Life: The Old West books. They had an End and the Myth but it wasn't in as good a condition as the one I had finally just gotten from ebay. I was able to get the last book I needed to complete my set of the regular books - a nice copy of The Mexican War. I still need the index but I've never found a copy of that so I will have to get that online.

On the shelf below them, an orange book caught my eye. It was the Warhammer/Warhammer 40,000 Realms of Chaos – Slaves to Darkness. It had a small bit of wear on the front top corner but otherwise was in really nice shape, with none of the cover-falling-off issues that used to be standard GW HD fare. I spent a few more moments searching the shelves for its companion - The Lost and the Damned. But it was nowhere to be found. In fact, there was no other Warhammer or 40,000 books – which I found odd.

The price, either $2.99 less 30% - so $2.09, or possibly even free as it was one of the three books at that price I got for free for buying 5 books, the Old West book being one of the others. This was much less than the over $100 it usually goes for online. The Lost and the Damned usually goes for twice that. This is why I hadn’t really expected to check either of them off my list.

I am glad to find it since the two original Chaos books are the only ones I am missing from the first edition Rogue Trader set. This one has rules for Khorne and Slaanesh as well as what looks like the first Grey Knights. The other book has Nurgle and Tzeentch.

New 40K set and codices

I hadn’t even managed to get up to speed on the 6th edition of Warhammer 40K when they release an even newer edition last May. I received a 7th edition set for Christmas and, with the current lower gas prices leaving me a bit of extra money, I picked up a few of the new codices.

With the change to 6th edition, they changed the format of the codex to be a hardcover book. Those of us who were with the game since Rogue Trooper recall the problems that Games Workshop used to have with the binding on their hardcovers, but they have long since solved their issues.

I already had a 6th edition Chaos Space Marine codex that I picked up when I got the (now old) boxed set - Dark Vengeance, but have been watching the old codices get replaced by the 6th and now the 7th editions without picking up any as they churned through the updates. The main reason I got the Chaos Space Marine was because it was the first 6th edition codex and the boxed set included both Chaos and Dark Angels figures.

The four codices I picked up were Tyranid and Imperial Knights from the 6th edition and Orks and Space Wolves from 7th edition. That’s two of the last three sixth editions and the first two seventh editions. I’m working (or at least planning to work) on my Tyranid army, and the boy and I both like the Space Wolves so we’ll work on that as well. I also picked up even more Orks a few years ago with the fifth edition – including gargants.

The Imperial Knights seem so cool but the codex only has 6 pages of actual rules – describing the 2 variants of Imperial knights. The models are also crazy expensive but there are a few sites that have papercraft models that you can use, plus you can make an army with three models. It’s only a matter of finding the time to make them and the space to store them.

Miniature painting total - finally, an update for 2013

After a long drought, I am finally updating my figure buying/painting total.  To no surprise, I’m not updating the painting total, but I did get some new figures.  Our friends at GC-Minis had a sale on last month and I picked up the new Warhammer 40,000 rulebook (6th edition) as well as the Dark Vengeance boxed set and Chaos Space Marine Codex.  

I was also able to get the Walking Dead Horde army men-sized figures.  All the local comic book stores were out but the wife found some at a pop culture store called Pylon.  While I have no immediate use for them, I know I can add them to the RWNN without too much trouble – when I get around to painting them, and making some buildings.

 So my new total for the year is as follows:

40K – Dark Vengeance boxed set - 48

Walking Dead horde – 14

July figures bought – 62, figures painted – 0

Running total 2013 – figures bought 62, figures painted 0

Heroclix overview - 2012

While I didn’t achieve many of the goals I left last year, I do feel better about my Heroclix collection. I did get a few packages to start filling some of the gaps in my sets and picked up a few of the LE/single-figure-box sets as well as kept up with the starters and Fast Forces sets. I didn’t pick up any bricks but did get a brick of Batman:Streets of Gotham as well as a few boosters for Christmas. I did manage to complete one set – Justice League. I also picked up most of the Batman Alpha sub set, including the Target exclusive figure, now only needing 4 more to complete it.

In addition to the 4 regular sets that they published, and the single-figure-box sets that went with them, they also churned out another 5 mini-sets as well as eight starters/Fast Forces sets to go with them. That’s too much. Even if I had dedicated much more resources to keeping up I still would be behind.


I’m still close on Ultimates (6+7), Mutant Mayhem (3+7), Legacy (6+11), Fantastic Forces (0+2), Armor Wars (11+1), Collateral Damage (8+0), Supernova (6+0), Origin (9+0), Avengers (0/3), Mutations & Monsters (1/5), Crisis (0/10), Secret Invasion (2/6), Arkham Asylum (0/6), Hammer of Thor (3/8), Brave and Bold (8/7), and Web of Spider-Man (9/11). I’m still working away at Sinister (14+2), DC 75 (33/11), Avengers Movie (17/18), Chaos Wars (38/9), DC 10th (18/0), Marvel 10th (18/0), Batman (47/11/5), and Batman:Streets of Gotham (26/15/3). I still haven’t picked up any of Giant-Size X-Men (45/13/6), Captain America (47/11), Incredible Hulk (36/10), Galactic Guardians (36/10/6), The Dark Knight Rises (29/0), and The New 52 – Justice League (21/0).


Right now, I need 760 figures – 561 REVs and 199 U/SRs. This is almost as many as when I started keeping numbers – back in April of 2007. Any brick purchased would have brought both of these much closer. Counting figures by Wizkids or Neca – 126/634 compared to last year’s number of 155/258 you can see that I made a little progress towards the old figures and see the amount of new figures churned out this year.

I kept up with the starters/Fast Forces sets – managing to find the ones I had missed so all of those are current.

On the large figure side, I still need the Spectre, two Fooms, and both of the Phoenixes as well as the original Manhattan and Galactus. I even picked up some of the maps but still need most of the new maps – although I did get the Helicarrier maps.


That one last LE from Horrorclix still evades me. I’m going to put a bit more effort into finishing that off. I’ve still been looking for another another map from the Cthulhu set.

I’ve got that last ARC-170 to get to ‘complete’ what I want from Star Wars minis. I’ll probably try and get some more Monsterpocalypse figures. I still have to look out for the Voltron set. I am also hoping to fill in the gaps in my Cheapass games as well as pick up a few new games. This will cut into my ‘Heroclix budget’ for 2013.


I’m going to try and keep up with the Fast Forces/starters as well as some of the smaller sets. I’ll try to pick up some of the previous sets as well as some of the figures needed to work at finishing the older sets. I’m hoping to complete at least two more sets as well as keeping the number of figures to under 1000.   I'd like to see the number of pre-Neca figures be under 100.