Stormcast Eternals - First Liberator unit finished (Lions of Sigmar)

First unit of Liberators are done in my take on the 'Lions of Sigmar' chamber. Beem working on a tutorial on how I painted these and hopefully it will be up tomorrow.

Not much more to say other than that it was really fun to paint these guys up. And the photos are not top notch right now and are not really showing the real colors, dunno why?! But it there will be better ones for the tutorial so if you like these, come back the coming days to see how I painted them. And if you have any question, suggestion or whatever just ask in the comments.

Unboxing Loot Crate July 2015

First unboxing of an Loot Crate here on the blog, it's actually my fourth crate but I never came around doing an unboxing until now.

First of all, what is Loot Crate? It's a crate you get loot in of course. Each month you get a new one with different stuff depending on what theme it is that month. If your'e a nerd of all sorts like me you will love this. (Would love a box like this for us wargamers :o !)

Anyway, this month's theme is Heroes 2 (2 because this is the second time Heroes is the theme) and it's pretty awesome so let's take a look.

My crate had taken some damage for the first time but no biggie.

 No t-shirt this month (I got one in each of my previous three crates, but many other cool things)

Legend of Zelda sweatband, always usefull and nice to look at

 You get this multi tool key chain, with screwdriver on each wing (flathead and crosshead) and a bottleopener. Don't know how comfortably it will be on with my keys as I'm mostly having them in my pockets, but I will surely try it out.

Star Trek Air Freshener to have in your car, and a download code for a platform brawler game that looks quite cool. It's a Free to play game but here you get some nifty things like skins and more with this code. 

 And now to the bigger things like this exclusive figure of Batman, I loved this as you can write your own messages.

For the first time we also get an hardbound book in a Loot Crate, and this one is pretty sweet. It's about the 50 of the strangest Superheroes you may heard of or more likely never heard of. I took a quick look and just the names of most of these heroes are hilarious. 

A nice small poster of Wonder Woman

In every crate you get an button for that months theme, I really liked this one.

You also get a little magazine with interviews, some nice history with the months theme in mind and showcase for the things you get in your crate. A nice read actually.

Finally, Batman says it all with the box turned inside out behind him. I liked this month's Crate very much, it's always nice to get a new T-shirt but you get some cool and even useful things here. And I love the theme. Will probably do this for the next month's Crate as well which is Villains 2, can't wait.

Miniature Monday: Stormcast Eternals Liberators (Lions of Sigmar)

Been working hard on my Stormcast Eternals lately, and soon very soon my first unit of Liberators is finished. I made some tweaks from the model I got in White Dwarf. The reason it takes some time extra is because I'm also doing an Painting Tutorial on how I painted these,

Here's an late WIP picture on the unit, just some final highlights and the basing to do. And will be working on the tutorial asap. Hope you like them.

Games Workshop is having me back - AoS pros and cons

While many hate Age of Sigmar, and I understand why they do... we go from a really nice complex system for doing Fantasy battles in the world we love(d) and that as evolved in eight editions! Into a 'four page' rules system, simple but in some places not totally clear... oh and they destroyed the world we loved.

So why is GW having me back then? First and foremost, I loved the old setting but as many others thought that it has gotten a bit stale, no progression in the world and storyline. Just fixing that and some tidying up on the rules a little from 8th and me and most I think would have loved it.

Problem is, and we have to face this... Games Workshop is a company, which needs to earn money... did they earn money on the Fantasy Range? I think they did, but WHFB had declined many years in terms of sales (according to most rumors, forums and what not, don't have any source on this) and each plastic frame (which is expensive) made didn't earn back enough. That's just how it was, so what could GW do to earn more money?

They had some options really, at least here's what I think they could have done. (not including the option we all would have wanted which I wrote about above)

1. Kill off the world, the game and let it be something the community can play and try evolve on their own. (Like the specialist games, Mordheim, Blood Bowl, Gorkamorka, Inquisitor etc.)

- No, this would not have been a good solution to anyone I think. The specialist games died slowly, and where never one of the two main games GW produced. Killing off all the stuff GW has done with recent kits and models in Fantasy with the plastic moulds already done? Not an good idea, but still something they could have done. 

2. Make 9th ed. Go to squares and use AoS rules. Maybe just a quick novel explaining the old Warhammer World was destroyed here you have the new one etc. 

- Fast, easy and cheap? Well if we thought we where shocked in the end of End Times and where we first learned about Age of Sigmar, what if they went with this route?

3. Doing they like they did. The End Times books, new models and rules etc. Ending the world we loved in the a big bang apocalyptic battle all over the world, just as prophesied. Ragnarök in the name of the Chaos Gods happened and they won.

After this, new gamesystem a new world(s) based on the old but with a twist and in the meantime making them more "IP protect able". Oh and do Space Marines in this new world but with a Fantasy theme.

We all know what they did, why they did it, now it's time to accepting it... or not.

Many did not, I understand that. Changing something you loved into something completely different, it's harsh. But it could have been worse, much worse. I however will give it a chance, here's why:

Pros

Easy to learn rules - I knew the rules (well basics at least) of 5th to 8th even if I never got a lot of battles. Why did I not get enough battles? Trying to get my friends into the game, some of them tried, bought small armies. But didn't get around to learn the rules fully and the interest died The four pages we have now? Well not even my friends can argue not to at least try it, especially if they have their small armies still. Will their interest die even still? That we don't know though.

Smaller armies - With tweaks 8th could scale well. But a regiment of five dudes on squares never looked right, at least to me. Currently there's no real balancing system that makes this game of AoS a smaller game, but at least an army of say 10 normal infantry, one hero, one "bsb" 3-5 elite infantry and maybe even a monster looks like an complete army on rounds. 

New world - This is as much a Con (as you will see further down) as a Pro. But let's see it this way. GW have all the opportunity to create a unique world right from the start, just vaguely based on the stuff old stuff of Warhammer Fantasy. They can now do Dwarfs throwing fireballs (might not be to far off actually) or even Space Marines in a Fantasy Setting!!

Sigmarines - Many hate them, I don't.. I would have liked them to be more like something from the Old World, but hey they need to protect their IP as well. Stormcast Eternals, easy and fun to paint, in my opinion still really cool models and well. Sigmar and humanity strikes back, I like that different approach, and really.... aren't that all the stuff we love in stories, comics, movies? When all looks grim our heroes strikes back and "win".... Well we are right in the first chapter of that. 

Free Rules - There are some funny and just fu*^d up rules ins some of the Warscrolls that's for sure. But at least we got a quite thought out 'Ravenging Hordes' treatment for pretty much everything, even terrain! I hope.. at least for the newer kits that they fit with the new ones (or get their warscolls redone)

Old world is no more - A Pro you say? Well it's dead, but we old timers are not (some of us at least) and as AoS progresses we can tell our newly brethren of the 'good ol times' and the World that was before, just as an grumpy old Longbeard, as a manling reaching 30 this year I loves this :P.

More - There are more minor stuff but this post is long as it is, remember I'm not an native English speaker and it takes time to write stuff you guys hopefully understand. (And I'm getting a little bit drunk as I'm typing this :O )

Cons

Killing the world -  I loved it, and it had much more potential... But it was based on to generic things, real world (just look on the map), tolkien, names (for IP purposes this was a problem) and what not.

A complex but awesome system, killed off - Many think 8th edition was the best ever, I think so too. But in the end we have to blame ourselves, we maybe had one or maybe two big armies we played with. The rest of our hobby budget went into other games like X-Wing, Malifaux, Warmahordes, Magic or all other sorts of games. The pace of the army books didn't get enough revenue.

Balance - Was there perfect balance in 8th? No. Well in AoS we have nothing more than Scenarios, it's not enough and I hope GW have some kind of system for this.

Shit in your face - Strange one I know,but many feel like this. All of time and money you have invested in this game is turned to shit! Well that really isn't the case If you think about it, I hope all that time and even invested money has brought you enjoyment over the years. That is not gone, and no one can take it away from you. Memories of awesome battles and what not.

This happens all the time in the rest of the world, bad sequels to movies you have waited 10 years too see. Bad sequels to video games. Strange retcon/redo worlds of comics (DC new 52 for example). In the war gaming world we are not used to these changes.

Final word

I don't know how AoS will turn out, I like Stormcast Eternals (personally I would like to see more diversity). The little I have played with the rules I like it, it's really simple, even to simple. But I hope GW can do and will something about this when the dust settles. Oh and fix balancing, please.

 That's it for now, more AoS is coming. And what I originally thought this post was about is actually that I today once again subscribe to White Dwarf.... and Visions... lets see what I think about that in couple of months :).

Review: Age of Sigmar Starter Box- Part 1 Unboxing

I'm a little late here, but I didn't want to go with just an little unboxing for the new AoS Starter but rather a full review of it, the components, about the new rules fluff etc. So to do this it will take some time. So I will do this review in parts, and first of all lets go trough what you get in the box (all of you know these already but hey got have in there)

Really nice box cover

At the back you can see what you get in the box, nice and clean.

All the components in the box.

You get two of this sprue with both Liberators, Prosecutors and Marau....ehm Bloodsreavers.

GW shows us once again why they are the best modelmakers in the world when it comes to plastic,.

Where you have to cut out the parts is most often on the best possible places to avoid damaging the model, the hardest onces is the helmets for the Liberators.  

Here we have the "command" and monster sprue for the Chaos models

It does takes a lot of time to cut out every parts and glue them together but most of the models are easy to put together.

Under the sprues we have the big bases, dice and transfer sheets. And of course the books.

Manual for putting your models together

It does it's job as good as it should be, the sprues are marked with letters both for the parts but also for the different sprues so you know you are looking on the right sprue. 

At the back you see all the models built.

The rule"book" on four pages, nicely laid out. 

You don't get any graphic examples like we are used to. But the rules is so simple that in most cases it isn't needed at all. More about the rules in a later part of this review. 

The campagin book you get is 96 pages.

Lovely and of course new artwork trough the book.

You get some history, extra info about the armies (especially the Stormcast Eternals) not like an army book but will get more of this in later campaign/scenario books I'm sure.

You get some variant painitng schemes and easy painting tutorials for both armies. 

You get six easy scenarios meant to make you learn how to play the game.

There's some old models in the book as well, all nicely painted of course. 

And you get the Warscrolls for everthing that comes in the box.

Warscrolls in the book is nice but it would have been even better if we could have had them on separate cards or something. When I played against a friend of mine we had to flick trough the scrolls and give the book back and forth between us. 

Almost done with the Khorne models as well but here's the full army of Stormcast Eternals. Looks really nice I must say.

That's all for this part, more in depth about the different things in the box will come in later parts so be sure to come back for that.