Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Happy New Year from Necromunda! And another White Dwarf Rant

Here we are in 2012! Hey, only 1,000 years from 2112! ROCK!!!! Anyway, I spent New Years Eve with my old pal, the anonymous "Dr." and we played a 2nd game of Necromunda, the 1st one having been played around the 4th-of-july last year. Strangely enough, neither of us have ever painted our Necromunda models. The models seen in these pics he acquired in a trade from the old friend that he named his gang after. Above is Scottie and Mr. Hiser. He named his gang after friends and people we knew in High School, I named my gang after people in his current gaming circle. All in fun, and also in a 'wish you were here' spirit as well.

The scenario was the one where the two gangs have to collect loot counters. It was a pretty awesome set up, and although I got in the 1st shots, it was those two models in the top pic that won the game! See these two red shirts in the foreground? See those two on the bridge in the background? My Juv (the one on the right) shot and pinned his Gang Leader, who, in the next turn, got up and downed the Juv! While his juv, Scottie, downed the ganger with the shot gun! And, to make matters worse, I failed the 1st bottle test either of us had to make!

This left him with the field held as my gang bolted from the scene. He was already holding onto 2 loot counters to my... none. He racked in the dough in the post-game for sure! Oddly, most of my gangers received skill advances in the post game. The next game should be interesting as a result.

Good fun, but it really does make me want to get my own Van Sar gang more than ever so we can both have fully painted gangs for these encounters.

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A New Year's Resolution? Since every other gaming blog has at least one, why not? How about I resolve to get as many unfinished minis that are currently on my painting station done in 2012?



Heck, this alone could be a blog: just talking about the minis living out their existance on my table! Have fun picking out what they all are! And, before someone asks, this pic does not include the previously blogged about Land Raider and Drop Pods (but look closely and you might spot the Land Speeder Typhoon!) because there is is simply no room for them here! :)

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And on to a brief 'What is going on with White Dwarf!?' sorta rant. The above image was taken from the GW website where you can also find this statement: "January's White Dwarf will be released on Saturday, January 7th. Subscriptions should be expected within 10 days from that date."

This makes for the 1st time in my memory that I didn't have a shiny new White Dwarf to drool into around, or at, xmas! This is also the 2nd time in recent months that they played with White Dwarf's release schedule to accommodate an element of (what they think will be) surprise about a new release (they did this with the Dreadfleet launch also). Now, the content of WD, which followers of this blog have seen me rant about before, has improved. However there is a new problem:

I haven't received my subscription in the mail for 2 months in a row! In fact, I have had to make arrangements with Customer Service (who I have to state have been, and always have been, marvelous to work with) to receive my last two issues (way late I might add) which makes this whole jerky-rescheduling of the release date game they're playing even more annoying! I might not get the next issue until the 21st! Now, I'm like the only person I know who actually subscribes to this magazine any more (the others left when the content did), and this is somewhat begrudgingly considering they don't offer any real deals with it anymore. I think you get the approximation of a 'free issue' and the option to BUY a Limited edition model! Rewind this back to the '90s when you'd get a free small boxed set or, hell, at one point they were giving away Gorka Morka boxed sets! And it was significantly cheaper than buying it from the local game stores.

So, as a subscriber, I'm feeling a bit jaded. I'm thinking I will not re-subscribe but rather I will get it locally. This will allow me to get it before subscribers do (which isn't supposed to be the case BTW), but it won't be mangled by the post office, and if I really want the limited edition model, I can just get the near perfect knock-off from China after awhile... :/

4 comments:

Da Masta Cheef said...

"A New Year's Resolution? Since every other gaming blog has at least one, why not? How about I resolve to get as many unfinished minis that are currently on my painting station done in 2012?"

Points & laughs!

My new years resolution was to go on vacation somewhere! Nothing game related as I'm well aware that the end of the painting queue will NEVER be in sight.

And if it makes ya feel better, you'll still get your WD's before me as I don't get those anymore. The fact that their 'marketing scheme' now proudly declares that you can buy it in the store 10 days before subscribers get it is disgraceful (and that's at the minimum, as the post office is gutting the quality of their services).

I also agree with the WTF? on their giving you the 'option' to buy a limited ed mini for $20+ with a subscription. I once got a free Imperator titan box just for subscribing!

neverness said...

Interesting insight into this today on BoLS in regards to all of this stuff and the Hobbit.

War Frog said...

I am jumping on to the Masta Chief's wagon on this on. You still pay for advertising catalogs? every other company on the planet give those away for free.

But consider this if the limited edition model were truly limited to Neverness and the 3 other schlubs that still pay for a subscription then it might actually be worth the cost.

neverness said...

It's not a catalog, catalogs have prices for the wares within them! LOL