The Force Awakens

X-wing overtakes 40k as most popular tabletop game in North America.

The ICV2 survey results for Fall 2015 are out.

http://icv2.com/articles/markets/view/33912/top-5-non-collectible-miniature-games-fall-2015

X-wing has taken 1st place in the sales from distributors and independent retailers in the US market.

This happens at the same time as a reduction in retail sales for Games Workshop, and without licencing money GW would have had a much worse time. 

So what is ICV2 and why should anyone care? 

Internal Correspondence version 2 is basically a trade website for pop culture stuff. If you are a buyer for a chain (like Forbidden Planet) or an independent retailer (like most of the US market), then ICV2 is somewhere you go to in order to work out what to stock after Magic. Like it or hate it Magic, with Friday Night Magic, organised play, etc etc pays the bills for most Local Gaming Stores. The secondary market for cards helps as well, much like Game Stop and their second hand games. 

Aren't there problems with the survey? Doesn't it miss off ebay scalpers, people fire selling their collections and GW direct? 

Yes, GW never releases a breakdown of what they sell, and this leads to some amusing stories about how Space Marines outsell everything else put together, or how paint sold better than fantasy after the End Times that people can't back up with quotes from the financial report. GW are competing with people fire selling their collections as much as LGSs do, and some LGSs monetise this through second hand bins.

The secondary market for GW is huge, but that is because of the churn and burn business model GW has. 

What does this actually mean?

It means what I have been finding anecdotally in the UK already, that you are going to find it easier to get a game of X-wing at a club or store than a Games Workshop game. 

Why?

X-wing and Armada, which comes in 3rd on the sales list, both have standard play formats. For X-wing this is 100 points. How easy is it for a new player to get to 100 points? For Rebels buy the starter, Force Awakens X wing blister and either an E-wing or X-wing, and you have a good 100 point force to fly all Aces. For Imperial buy the starter, Imperial Aces and an Interceptor and you are there as well.

For Age of Sigmar there is no agreed play format because there is no balance mechanism, so unless you are planning out a game with people ahead of time and know what each others forces are and then engage in long conversations, facebook chats, whatever, then you might have a balanced game or you might have a one sided slaughter, you just don't know. This leads to a lot of people not bothering, because they have jobs and lives and families, and life is too short to engage in a long conversation on game design before every game. 

For 40k, you can still play games, but it seems to be getting harder to organise. You need to discuss allowing formations for a start. And buy, assemble, paint and then carry your army, whereas X wing you can fit it all in a box or small Plano case. 

Why is it important what other people play?

Games are a social activity. While 40k was on top you had the network effect, where you played because it was easy to find a game. Warhammer Fantasy Battle had that for fantasy games, something Age of Sigmar didn't inherit, with legacy players going to Kings of War, 9th Age and Frostgrave. 

There have been a lot of good games not make it because they didn't build up enough of a network of players. All Quiet on the Martian Front seems like it was a good game, got heavily backed on Kickstarter, but died at retail. The players couldn't find enough other players, and couldn't get the critical mass needed. 

So what does this mean?

40k losing the top spot means that any LGS or nerd store looking to get into miniatures looks at it, sees X-wing at the top, sees how similar the support given to stores by Fantasy Flight is to Magic, which is the 1st stop for any nerd store doing gaming, and picks X-wing. 

Lower number of product codes, a more familiar sales format, Fantasy Flight publishing lots of popular board games just makes that easier. 

Greater availability of X-wing + more store events reinforces the network effect. 

Fantasy Flight's biggest problem with X wing has always been not being able to get it into stores fast enough and in big enough numbers. They have solved that problem now.

The game is easily accessible, has depth to it, has possibly the world's most popular IP, is supported by tournaments and events and is a very good game. GW need to solve at least some of their issues not just to defend their market share, but to simply lose market share less quickly in North America. 

Fantasy Flight is a division of Asmodee, who are competing with Hasbro (WotC being one of their divisions). Games Workshop are used to competing with smaller players that they can crowd out. Warlord have, through clever expansion and deals, now got a lot of good miniature ranges in their portfolio and will be launching a Doctor Who IP miniatures game later this year with a plastic core set.

Also GWs smaller competitors are mainly composed of people who used to work at GW, and are part of the GW Old Boy network. Which led to Mantic Games having a better idea of what Age of Sigmar meant than the people at Forgeworld. 

Games Workshop are treading water in an industry that is massively growing. All the growth seems to be going to other companies. Kickstarter has helped some companies both get product out there and launch entire product lines at once and in hard plastic. Not all of them have survived, but things like Zombicide have, and Mantic have used it to get to hard plastic sprues years before they otherwise could have, as has Hawk Wargames with Dropfleet Commander. 

GW customer service - A tale of Two Emails

Here is where I'll see the difference in terms of GW as a modelling company vs as a games company. 

I had a slight problem with the genestealer character sprue in Deathwatch Overkill. 

Obviously the sprue got twisted  a little removing it from the mould, and then the Familiars claws caught on something and got torn off. There is a trace of a tiny bubble in one of the claws, but unless they get dozens of emails like this I don't think it is mould damage. 

I don't have the sculpting ability to make awesome tiny claws, and I have paid £100 for this, so I have emailed GW with pictures asking for a new genestealer familiar body. 

However, reading the Telepathy rules I spotted what everyone else has spotted for the last two years, and what is made really obvious with the Genestealer Patriach having Ballistic Skill 0. Psychic Shriek doesn't match up to the rules for Witchfire powers, as it has no weapons profile. 

So I have emailed GW customer services asking how Psychic Shriek is meant to work, if the Patriach can use it, and if so how. Or whether Psychic Shriek should just be a malediction like every other offensive spell in the Telepathy discipline. Which would completely solve the whole issue for Psychic Shriek and Psychic Overload. 

I fully expect GW to make good on the miniature issue. 

I also fully expect some sort of vague answer to a rules question people have been asking since 7th edition was published even though I gave GW an easy out in the question. 

I hope I'm wrong, because if I'm right it just underlines the difference in approach to producing high quality miniatures, but not supporting them with rules of the same quality.

Similarly Age of Sigmar is a living online rulebook. The strength of those is that you can get customer feedback and improve the rules. But Age of Sigmar has not been updated since it was first published. Even just to cover measuring from models/bases or clear up summoning. 

Have you considered accepting the four armed Emperor into your life?

Deathwatch: Overkill Review – Part One

I’ll be reviewing Deathwatch Overkill, and I’ll be going into enough detail to justify splitting it into three sections, two on the models and one on the game itself. As ever, I will be rambling on a bit covering the history of the genestealer range and my gaming history. 

Infection

I started playing 40k in 1991, at the age of 11, with Rogue Trader. I had Space Crusade, which gave me a variety of models, and then I got Space Hulk. By default that made my first 40k army genestealers, because I had 33 of them, 3 plastic from Space Crusade, and 30 plastic from Space Hulk.

This gave me enough to put together a decent sized force, and they would run across the board, and had -3 to enemy armour in close combat and wounded pretty much everything on 2s. So they would mince everything they got close to, and I had enough that they got there.

I got some metal hybrids, and got the Genestealer expansion for Space Hulk which gave me another 10. I even got a metal guard blister (remember getting 5 metal guard in a blister) to have some Brood Brothers. Add a toy car for a limo, and 12 year old me had a decent force. The 40k Compilation, which combined the army list articles from WD 114-116, gave some sort of focus to this.

Old metal Patriachs and Magi

Old metal Hybrids and Purestrains

While in 2^nd ed I would play Orks and marines, and sit out 3^rd ed entirely, I got back in with Battle of Macragge and even more genestealers. Genestealers had been retconned to be a Tyranid vanguard organism, which to me made them less interesting, but it was still technically possible to take a pure genestealer force.

So even more genestealers on the pile, and I had 2^nd edition Space Hulk as well.

Fast forward through several more editions of 40k and 3^rd edition Space Hulk and I had over 150 genestealers, a Space Hulk Broodlord, Death Storm Broodlord and Jazzhands Broodlord. My plastic Hybrids has disappeared in one of my many house moves.

However the Genestealer Cult list had disappeared long ago, with a last gasp in Citadel Journal (40 and 41) for 3^rd edition 40k. The latest Tyranid codex removed Broodlords as a HQ, so a pure genestealer force was gone. Genestealers themselves had lost the ability to take assault grenades, which had impacted their ability given the proliferation of cover on most 40k tables, while still being as expensive as a power armoured space marine.

Rending was nerfed (to be fair it was horrific when it was first introduced) and assault was toned down in the meta repeatedly over a number of editions. This made life very difficult for genestealers, as they lacked the numbers to get into combat, and when they got in they usually struck last because they faced an enemy in cover or with defensive grenades, and then they couldn’t wipe an enemy unit and consolidate into another.

However genestealers are such a good antagonist for marines, GW couldn’t leave them on the bench forever. There are enough genestealer fans that there have always been a few fandexes launched for each edition. The demand was always there.

Reproduction

By now you will all have seen pictures online. Some of you may have seen and handled the miniatures in a GW or LGS. If you have seen them in real life I don’t need to sell you on them.

The model direction and engineering for GW releases have been all over the place recently, which is symptomatic of a number of different business units creating miniatures. Age of Sigmar looks like something produced by a completely different company, the art direction is so different to Fantasy and 40k. The Wulfen from the Fenris campaign release, which is pretty much the first obvious step of End Times 40k, look so completely different to the Iron Priest and Ulrik from the same release.

One of the issues with modern GW art direction is the level of extraneous details. Compare the Mk IV marines and Cataphractii terminators to, for example, the Wulfen or Varanguard or Space Wolf Dreadnought. The Forgeworld designed plastics are clean, with clear lines. The Varanguard have huge amounts of detail and lack clear lines of action. These models show the pitfalls of CAD models.

Hand sculpted models, created as single pieces, tend to have clear lines and clear ideas. The basic model is created and the detail goes on top. With CAD you can create individual elements and then create the basic frame, and the endless bling on some models seems to indicate this sort of process.

I think the busyness of some models is very intimidating for less experienced painters, and stressful for OCD painters like me.

So why am I talking about this?

The new plastic Ulrik the Slayer is a character model. It has several areas of bling (the helmet, face, back pack banner, kneepad and some charms below the backpack) but it is not extraneous. Ulrik is centuries old and has picked up some tat along the way. 

The model is not a huge departure from the metal model it is based on, unlike the Wulfen which are completely different. It is on a similar level of detail to the Vampire Counts Wight King, which I painted in a couple of long sessions to a standard I was happy with.

It clearly shows it’s 40k lineage, and would fit into a 3^rd or 4^th ed era Space Wolf force without looking out of place.

The same sculptor who did Ulrik, Darren Latham, did all the genestealer cult miniatures for Deathwatch:Overkill.

They are coherent and strongly themed while being diverse in a way many recent GW releases have not been (Sigmarines and Fyreslayers are all based on the same CAD dollies, with weapons being pretty much the only difference between three different boxes of the sigmarines).

The smaller details (shoulder lamps, mining suits, etc) tie the different models together, as do the cult charms.

Theming is strong, and the models have character. I think Darren is going to be a sculptor to look out for in future.

Uprising

The models have 40k rules, available online and in White Dwarf 110. There are strong rumours of some plastic kits and a codex in the future, and if GW don’t give a limited ability to add Imperial Guard as Brood Brothers and give the Cultists some vehicles (even just Chimera and Sentinels) then people just need to house rule them in, or allow Genestealer Cult players to take Chaos Cultists with no marks from the Chaos Marine list as an additional troop choice. When I review the Deathwatch, because they are a much more limited force, I'll be giving some options to expand them now. 

Each group of models have a datasheet, and it is worth discussing each in detail.

The Favoured Disciples

These are the first and second generation hybrids. They obviously can’t pass for human. At 85 points for 12 they come in at 7 points per model.

They have assault grenades, rending claws, an autopistol, a close combat weapon, a 5+ save, Initiative, Strength and Weapon Skill 4 and are fearless.

They are unashamedly assault troops, and if the Genestealer Cult codex lets you take big units or a transport, then you are going to want to take them. 3 rending attacks base, with 4 on the charge with grenades to strike before everything except Eldar and Marines.

These are the backbone assault troops of the codex, who while they will lose guys to templates, bolters  or flamers getting into assault (toughness 3 and 5+ save isn’t brilliant, and I’d much rather these guys had been more expensive but toughness 4), but once they get there they are close to Purestrain genestealers in punch, and better against enemy in cover. They are Fearless, so will keep going to the last man as well.

They are absolutely worth taking as a unit.

In game design terms they have a clearly designed role and do it well.

The models are my favourites for the non-character models. Every one has clear lines of action, appropriate levels of detail, and simply look awesome.

The Faithful Throng

These are third and fourth generation hybrids. They are basically humans with 1 point more initiative and leadership. The White Dwarf unit has 2 special weapons (grenade launchers) and 2 heavy weapons (mining lasers, which are like short ranged lascannons) with 12 meatshield autogun goons.

What is this unit good for? Sitting on an objective in cover. While they have assault grenades they have a single Weapon Skill 3 Strength 3 attack at initiative 4, aren’t fearless, and have no assault special rules like Rending.

They are cheap, decently shooty, can threaten tanks and terminator equivalents in a way Tyranid shooting just can’t, and again, have a clear role.

I don’t imagine the eventual codex will allow them to take so many special/heavy weapons in a small unit, but as they are they are probably slightly OP (but nowhere near a Tau/Eldar level).

The Purestrain Princelings

This is where the limit of the sheets being written to represent the board game starts to impact the list. You want a unit of 6-12 purestrains, you get a unit of 2. The rules are better than the Codex: Tyranid rules with the addition of Hit and Run and Stealth for the cost of a point, but the current role for the unit is to bodyguard the Patriach and take two bolter rounds to the face that would otherwise have hit him.

The rules are good and move in the right direction from the genestealer rules in the last couple of codexes, the unit size isn’t.

The Brothers Aberrant

Big muscly genestealer mutants with power picks/hammers for opening up 2+ or 3+ armour in close combat. At 30 points a model they have Weapon Skill 4 and Strength 5 basic, boosting to Str 7 Ap 3 or Str 8 Ap 2 depending on Pick or Hammer. This means they can carve up light vehicles (definitely anything with rear armour 10), could conceivably glace Land Raiders but if you are fighting Toughness 3 5+ armour enemies (Imperial Guard for example) you have Rending Claws and fight at initiative 2, before any power fists or axes they might have.

The unit has some issues. No assault grenades is fluffy, but gives you problems attacking into cover. They are toughness 4 with 2 wounds and feel no pain, which makes them more survivable than a lot of the big assault troops GW have designed (Ogryns, etc) for their points, but I feel they should have either been toughness 5 or had 3 wounds. A squad of marines rapid firing bolters will kill half the squad on average rolls, and that ignores heavy weapons (a missile launcher would insta-kill one).

They are a unit that would massively benefit from a transport, though they should probably have been given the bulky rule to eliminate the Aberrant death stars being a thing.

As a unit they give Genestealer cults more anti-vehicle capacity and another infantry choice. There is no logical character to babysit them except the Primus, but they do have the Stubborn rule. However I just don’t think they are mobile or tough enough to get across the table unassisted.

The Characters

Patriach 

This is so much better than the Tyranid codex Broodlord.

A level 2 psyker with Telepathy. Toughness 5, 3 Wounds, 4+ saves. AP3 Rending Claws at Strength 5 that reroll failed wounds.

You pay 115 points for this, and he needs a bodyguard unit to catch some bullets, but he is a close combat monster. Unfortunately the most logical bodyguard unit is the Purestrains, who only have 2 models. A codex release will clear this up by allowing variety in unit sizes.

The BS of 0 also highlights that despite two years of people asking for an FAQ on whether Psychic Shriek needs to roll to hit (which Rules as Written it does) or whether it would be much more logical to treat is as a Malediction type power (like every other offensive power in the Telepathy discipline) GW have not covered it in the FAQ for 7th edition they released in December 2015. This is particularly obvious once you have models with Telepathy and Ballistic Skill 0. 

The model is excellent, and the Eavy Metal paintjob plays to it’s strengths. I’ll be leaving the arm with the hand pressed against the head off as a separate sub assembly so I can ink and detail highlight the brain without obstacles.

Of all the Patriachs/Broodlords over the years, I feel this one is the best model.

Magus

An absolute steal at 65 points for a level 2 psyker. However he absolutely needs to be in a unit (the Faithful Throng being the obvious choice) where he can sit and cast blessings or maledication, while giving the unit 5+ on deny the witch roles. Weapon skill 4, strength 5 (Force Stave, so also AP4 and Concussive) isn’t brilliant in assault, but he is so cheap it doesn’t really matter. A Genestealer Familiar gives him two extra Strength 4 Rending attacks.

However he is there for his psychic powers, if he ends up in close combat toughness 3 and a 5+ save is not going to keep him alive for long.

Again, the model is an excellent callback to the old metal magus.

Primus

A new character type, basically a combat Magus, the Primus is a decent and cheap character. Would you take him in a 250 point game? No, you’d take a Magus you dummy.

However in the greater scheme of things he is a 2^nd generation hybrid (3 attacks, rending claws, initiative 4, assault grenades, weapon skill 4) with a power weapon with Instant death on a 6. With Zealot he lets the unit he is with rerolled failed hits in the first round of close combat.

The obvious unit to put him with is The Favoured Disciples or Brothers Aberrant, even though putting him with The Faithful Throng would give them Fearless from his Zealot rule.

This is a mid-level assault character, and he needs to be with an assault unit. 3^rd/4^th gens are a shooting and support unit, so unless the codex gives the option for an even cheaper version (which would still be competing with the Magus for HQ slots).

Ghosar Quintus Broodkin

This is where a series of decent to good units become an excellent allied force for Tyranids. For 600 points you get 3 characters (including 2 level 2 psykers) and 4 units, all with infiltrate, shrouded to the start of the second turn and stealth. The Patriach and Purestrains can be set up anywhere further than 1” from an enemy unit and assault in the 1^st turn. While the Patriach is alive every unit has Fearless and Adamantium will (so the units with the Patriach and Magus in Deny the Witch on 4+).

For allying into a non-Tyranid force (Imperial Guard or Chaos with a large cultist contingent being fluffy choices) you can't set up within 12" of a unit from a different faction. However since you will be infiltrating everything anyway this is a bit less of an issue. You pick a middle ground objective or building and put your Faithful Throng in there with the Magus. Their job is to threaten the enemy flank or vehicles trying to get across the middle ground. Everyone else is looking to assault as soon as possible

I will be painting the models up and trying to find people to play small point 40k games.

I will also be picking up a couple more units on ebay.

Genestealer Cults getting a proper codex is something a lot of people have waited a long time for, and hopefully we will see it happening during the summer. I just hope it happens before the edition change given the rumours about that.