40K Friday: MiniWarGaming

 

"They Play and Call It Work"

Something a little different this week ...

For those unfamiliar MWG is a miniature wargaming enthusiast site and YouTube channel that's been around for close to 20 years now. They made their way mainly focusing on 40K but they have always included some other games as well. For a while they had a physical store, then transitioned into mainly the YouTube work, and expanded over the years as well. Recently they started doing a lot of 3D printing and ran some Kickstarters for 3d printable terrain. 

Dave and Matt - the two main guys here

They were one of the early 40K YT channels that got big, probably the biggest for several years, and they were one of the first to monetize it - before Patreon etc. - with their"Vault" program where some videos were free on YT and others were in the Vault behind a paywall. It worked really well for them for I would say a long time. They are a bunch of polite Canadians, focused more on narrative and creative stuff, less on the tournament thing, and a lot of people talk about how MWG helped get them into the whole hobby. So they were well-known and well-liked in 40K circles - some nice guys who found a way to live the dream of doing miniature stuff for a living.

Lately though it hasn't been so great. Their views have been declining. They proved that that this could be done and now other players have entered the game and are doing better than the originals. The last few years have seen Matt, one of the two founders, make multiple videos telling everyone that times are tough and they'd really appreciate people signing up for the Vault. They knew -and announced  - that they were in trouble and to their credit they did try some new things but it apparently was not enough.

The single biggest misstep they made though was probably the Ravaged Star Kickstarter they ran in 2023. It brought in 1.6 million dollars - great! - for a very 40K-ish miniatures game with a bunch of boxed sets of minis and rules and a lot of people were pretty excited about it. However as we ride towards the end of 2026 it has not fulfilled, communication has been thin, and backers are now rioting. It's a pretty colossal failure for a team that is online posting YouTube videos multiple times per week. 

That all came to a head this week as multiple other YT'ers started posting videos and asking questions about it and about MWG in general. MWG announced layoffs of most of their staff.  It's been all over the 40K internet and YouTube this week and in response they too released a video opening up about the state they are in, how they got here, and how they plan to get through it. It's a shame things have reached this level for a group of people everyone liked and who have been a part of the online element of the hobby for years. 

For me I have been a Vault member in the past because I liked what they were doing. The 5th-6th-7th edition 40K years were peak for them and they were a lot of fun to watch. I've never met them in person and I've never been to their bunker. I backed some of their recent terrain Kickstarters because it looked solid and they had managed to fulfill the first few of those with no problems. I did not back Ravaged Star - I remember them hyping it up but then (and now) I have absolutely no need of another game that's pretty much alternate 40K and whose miniatures I did not particularly care for. I suppose I dodged a bullet there but I feel for the people who did jump in, trusting Matt and Dave, only to see it fizzle out and vaporize. 

To be fair they did say the money for the Kickstarter is separate and it will be fulfilled, that they just did not realize what they were getting into when they did it (not uncommon honestly) but there were no dates given and considering the first wave was supposed to be "on a boat" multiple times now over the last year I wouldn't expect anyone to give them the benefit of the doubt. As much as I like them, well, once you take people's money you are obligated - regardless of what the crowdfunding site's terms say - to deliver or you will pay a price. When your normal business depends on people liking and watching your content on a daily basis you have really put yourselves out there and it's going to be a hard fall if you fail. I have seen more anger and venom directed at MWG this week than I've seen in the last 15+ years combined. The worst thing I've seen said about them before was that they were pretty loose with the rules in their batreps and that was not an unfair comment but it has reached a whole new level now. It's sad to see a reputation built up over all that time devastated this quickly.

One final comment: MWG used to be a lot of fun to watch because Matt and Dave were on it and in the videos and making a lot of the content. Banter Batreps, Beat Matt Batreps, APOCALYPTICON!,  "Mark of Dave" comments when going through an army - they were the faces of the endeavor, not just the owners. I would say we liked them and that as much as anything else was a big part of their success. As time went on though, they were on the channel less and less. A lot of the people they brought in were good, but it wasn't Matt and Dave. Also, as time went on, it became apparent that they were not all that thrilled by or interested in these later editions of 40K. As other channels sprang up with say, 8th edition, and started cranking out new formats and new approaches to making videos they kind of stayed the course or even pulled back. It felt like their hearts were just not in it anymore. I get it, I don't always love the newer editions either, but if you want to make money doing this kind of thing ... current edition 40K is the vast majority of what people want to see. If you cut back on that how do you keep going? Sure I'll watch a 4th edition 40K batrep in 2026 but how many other people will? Oldhammer and Midhammer have a definite presence online but is it enough to sustain a 40K channel at their past or current level? I'm pretty comfortable going with "no" there. 

Anyway, I've watched these guys a long time, liked a bunch of what they've done, my kids and I used to watch their stuff weekly, and it's just hard to see their current state. I really hope they can right the ship, handle their obligations, and find a new course so they can stick around for us to watch in the future.  

Necessary Evil: Third Time's the Charm - Session 2: Why is it Always the Sewers?

 

Our Villains:

• MEGASTRIKE - Strong, radioactive Russian mobster brick. Played by Paladin Steve. A returning character from the prior attempts at this campaign.
• LEGION - Demonic leader of a criminal organization. Face with a sidekick and a lot of resources. Played by Grognard Mike.
• NIGHT BLADE - Sword-for-hire, a mix of melee offense and melee defense. Played by Shootist Will, another returning character.
• NIGHT TERROR - Intangible assassin, stealthy with a side order of ranged combat capability. Played by Variable Dave and yet another returning character.
• Y2K BUG - AI in a stolen robot body. Tech-guy and mainly good at ranged combat, not terribly strong or tough - for now. Played by Battletech Terry.
• THE MIGHTY XYZZIFAX -  Wizard who traveled here from another world. Ranged combatant, heavy defense, and a lot of flexibility. Played by Blaster - a character returning from a completely different game!
• PHANTOM BLADE - Yet another sword-guy who eventually broke out of the same prison camp and followed them to the warehouse. Whole bunch of melee offense, not a ton of defense - but he can self-heal. Played by Invisible Paddy.

We begin with MegaStrike stealing a house. Half-jokingly. He's not really strong enough to carry a house - at least not very far. He's the only one staying in the warehouse at the moment as everyone else relocated to Legion's much cushier safehouse. He decides a mostly empty place is not good and so starts stealing furniture and decor (and possibly a house) to brighten the place up. 

At the safehouse Legion is busy analyzing and judging the other escapees and reaching out to various contacts to figure out how badly damaged her organization is after she was arrested. Night Blade is doing katas or some other sword guy thing, Bug is checking out the internet connections, Night Mist is calling some contacts as well while Xyzzifax starts trying to figure out how this world works.

Dr. Destruction soon calls with a "request" - he needs the team to grab that heavy box in the warehouse (guess who will be carrying that) and head down into the sewers to find another villain's secret lair and plug it in to a power source there. Looking for a suitable entrance - the box won't fit through a regular manhole - they believe one can be found in Miner's Hill a neighborhood a short distance away. The group makes some preparations, gathers again at the warehouse, appreciated the new decor, and heads out. 

Getting into the sewers is a simple enough task but finding a secret entrance to a villain's lair is not and so it takes a couple of hours of sloshing around to find a likely passage and it happens to be full of G'roks! These are an alien creature, sort of a gator-hound monster, that the V'Sori dumped into the sewers recently to thin out the resistance that keeps using the sewers to move around. 

These things are fairly tough and Phantom Blade, leading the attack, is chomped-on pretty well by several of the beasts. Then the strange wizard demonstrates the power of fireball in any universe and blows most of them away with a massive detonation. Phantom Blade uses his mystical meditation powers to recover from his brief experience as a chew-toy and the party begins examining the dead-end passage.

They soon discover that a) there is a concealed door here and b) they have been followed for some time by members of the Underground. There is a brief conversation in person between the resistance members and the villains and via radio with their leaders but it all works out and they then travel through a maze of caverns and tunnels that are not part of the sewer to make their way to an Undergrounder outpost. 

The leader they meet is ... Valerie Ramirez, the woman they helped bring out from the prison. Nightmist had been thinking they might have a bit of a thing before she left that day so he especially is thrilled to reconnect with her. After some discussion about what they are trying to accomplish Valerie agrees to have her people guide them to Terron's old base. Yes, they do know where it is but no, they are not going to enter it - they lost people when they found it and she's not interested in losing more. 

Two of the Undergrounders lead the party through a maze of yet more tunnels to a passage that ramps up into a lighted room. The guides will go no further so it's time for the villains to take the lead. Phantom Blade leaps on up, Legion (and bodyguard) fly up, as do Megastrike and Bug. The space is limited to a single room and not a huge one so they spot the power generator right away. They also spot the mean-looking robots spaced around the room, plugged into the walls - especially when their eyes light up and they begin moving towards the group!

The visual on these is "metallic robot with swords instead of hands so I'm going with some Necrons here.

Phantom Blade once again takes a serious beating (4 wounds!) and the bodyguard is injured as well but the villains are no pushovers themselves and while it does take more time than the g'rok fight - and they suffer more injuries - the villains do eventually wreck Terron's robot guardians with magic, swords, and guns. MegaStrike manages to do little during this, missing his swings, and this earns him some grief from the others. PB also takes some grief for both his performance in the fights and his attitude in general and decides to change his name to "Edge Lord" - might as well own it.

After the fight MegaStrike and Y2K Bug connect the device to the generator and call it in to Dr. D who congratulates them on getting it done.   

GM Notes

This was a good run with the players settling into their characters more and more and everyone getting more comfortable with the rules - including me. During the session (for any game) I jot down any rules questions that come up and then look them up before the next session so I knew where our rough spots had been in Session 1. We all know Savage Worlds pretty well but it can still take a session or three before it's instinctive again.

Structure-wise I'm starting off every session with some time for the players to do what they want. It's been an indeterminate number of days since the prior run, what has your character been doing, what are you doing today, is there a project you are working on, etc. I feel it's especially important here because this campaign is very much built as "NPC gives missions and PC's go do them" and I want them to feel like they have options. They are, after all, super-powered individuals of some capability living in a modern high-tech city. Even though it's living under alien occupation they can pursue or investigate ideas or schemes of their own so I'm trying to ensure there is room for it every session. Now some of my players don't care that much about it but some do and I'm hoping they pull the others along. I'd like them to develop enough contacts, rivalries, and familiar locations to make it feel like a living place - we shall see. 

40K Friday: Interceptors and Figuring Out the Next Thing

 

The Grey Knight Interceptor squads I was fixing last time have officially been finished and moved to the cabinet along with another Librarian. It feels good to have that done and it puts me at about 2500 points finished. That's roughly half of what I have so there is still some more to do but this is most of the infantry done and they tend to take more time than characters and vehicles in my experience. I'm happy to see this progress for the year. 

So the big question is what's next? There will be several answers here. For one I intend to keep working on the GKs as I do want to continue the progress. Next unit there will be a paladin squad and another librarian, then probably a techmarine because they are the closest to "done" right now. But I have made quite a bit of progress and I'd like to work on something else too and see some progress with one of my other armies. This is where it gets tricky.

Part of what I've been doing is going back and inventorying what's in each army and what state it's in - built, painted, etc. - plus adding in point values as I go. I used to keep this kind of stuff in a notebook but they way I work - getting super-interested for a few months or a year and then moving on - means that notebooks get shuffled around and buried and can be hard to find when I come back to a particular army after time away. So now it all goes into a spreadsheet. I still have the notebooks because  I like to scribble my thoughts at times like what I was thinking would be cool to try with this army or what other unit would be a good addition in the future. Going through the whole process though tends to re-ignite some interest in each army as I get to it and I have to fight the distraction. Focus!

So last night I dug into my newer Ork stuff and built the Warboss from Armageddon. He is bigger than the old ones but I may have some solutions. I'm leaning towards keeping Grukk as a Warboss and then making the Black Reach Warboss into Big Bosses since they're all on 40mm bases anyway. It means I wouldn't have to change anything and could still use them in old edition games. I feel bad for neglecting the Orks after doing some work earlier in the year but I figured it might be smart to wait for the codex since it will be along soon. 

I also spent some time with my Eldar after playing them last weekend. I have a lot of stuff painted and done but I have a lot of stuff not painted yet too so there is plenty of opportunity. Thinking about getting the low-hanging fruit here too and finishing a few things that are "close to done".

He's different-looking than most Custodes but I kind of want my leaders to stand out in the sea of gold armor this army tends to have

I also went through my Custodes force and counted them up and added it together and ... I really don't need much here. I need to finish some Allarus Terminators and make an Allarus Captain and I might pick up the standalone 300-looking Shield Captain as I never got one of those but it's a pretty complete force really. 

The new Dark Angels are still in play too. I'm trying to take them a unit at a time, not a whole army at one time.

Those are really the top 3 candidates for more attention. Of course there are plenty of others in the mix - I feel bad for abandoning the Praetorians for months, and the Iron Warriors, and my 'Nids. I just find I get more done focusing mostly on one army. They will all get a turn eventually.

End of the Line for Classic 40K Units

 

Seems appropriate on multiple levels

I mean, we all knew it was coming. 

Since the whole "Primaris" thing erupted in 2017 with 8th edition 40K we knew this would happen. Once they created the divide between the existing space marine line and the New And Improved Marines it was only going to end one way. I'm glad they left it all in this long at least. I figured I would give it a day or three before I posted my thoughts on it. The short version is that it's not really a surprise but it still disappoints me a little. 

Losing the infantry is not a happy occasion. I know no one was playing tac squads these days, at least not that you'd ever hear about , but that was a unit I built very early on and I ended up with somewhere around 20 of them altogether. To know they are going away, well, it stings a bit. It's the core marine unit! From the 80's-90's-00's-10's-and into the 20's! I've been building them for close to 40 years! All the different versions ... tears in the rain etc. right? Devastators were not quite as prolific for most of us I would say but I still had around ten of those across the various marine armies. And for both types that's metal, plastic, monopose, starter sets ... all of them. Declaring them Intercessors or Desolators, well, OK. Not sure I needed GW's permission to do that but if it helps the tournament crowd I suppose that's fine.

We even lost Pedro, leader of the Crimson Fists! I'm not too sad about that though because I am confident - and there are rumors - that we will get a new Kantor model. I would bet on it being tied to the 40th anniversary of 40K celebration next year. 

The vehicle losses might be worse. Multiple marine armies means those numbers get really stupid, especially when the current kit has been in production for 20+ years. My Crimson Fists have at least 13 Rhino hulls and that's the original version with the pipe stacks on the sides. With the rest I think I'm over 60 as of the last time I counted. Like I said ...

There are some replacement-ish options among the Primaris tanks - the Gladiator makes a reasonable Predator replacement. However the people trying to say the Impulsor is a replacement for the Razorback ... no. Sure, it holds a similar number of troops but can it mount twin lascanons? Twin heavy bolters? Has it ever know the glory of a charge across the table with twin assault cannons? No, it has not. The razorback has been a useful fire support vehicle for its entire life! The Impulsor has the missile launcher option and they did eventually add the multi-melta option too, but it's still not a Razorback. There is also no Primaris substitute for the Vindicator and the Whirlwind. So there's a gap being left for sure.

Oh and the Stormraven ... the only way to airlift a dreadnought! Gone! My Blood Angels have 3 of them! Painted! I have a few more in the others but being able to drop one of the Red Thirsty specialty dreads anywhere on the board along with some infantry while bringing some big guns along on the bird was a blast. It's going to be missed. I have some of the other flyers too and I'll miss them but this is the one that stings the most. Maybe they will let us put dreads in drop pods again one of these days - that would at least help. 

For now the Rhino and the Land Raider are not going away with this announcement which tells me  - along with the rumor mill for the past year - that they will be getting a refresh. GW has recognized that certain things are iconic so, like they did with the Terminator refresh in Leviathan and 10th edition, I expect them to look very similar but bigger and maybe better to build than the old kits. The mention that Rhinos will be able to carry Primaris marines around ... yeah that's some excellent news. Plus the Primaris line doesn't have a cheap 10-man transport option. The Repulsor is cool - and it might be the closest thing to a true Razorback replacement gun-wise - but it certainly isn't cheap. So I'm glad two of the big name classics are sticking with us. 

The over-and-under lascanons first appeared with Epic Armageddon in 1997 along with the new land raider look but they never did give us an official version for 40k.

To wrap up I will say that I doubt this is the last we will see of many of these squads and vehicles. Corporations love to bring back old favorites - see what Taco Bell has been doing recently for one example - and GW does love to tap into its heritage. I'd say there is a fair chance once those two primary kits are redone and released that we get some version of the others back. A Razorback is a pretty obvious adaptation of the Rhino especially. Also, I doubt these are going anywhere for the Chaos Marines. I suspect the current kits will soldier on for the rebels until they get a refresh because there's no Primaris over there. Beyond the new and upcoming there are always older editions of 40k and OPR among other alternative rulesets. It can be fun to dust off one of those and bring some old favorites back to the table regardless of the current state of the game.

Necessary Evil: Third Time's the Charm - Session 1

 

Our story begins in Star City, U.S.A. in the year 2004. The world has been conquered by alien occupiers for a couple of years now and hope is dwindling. The superheroes were blown away in the surprise attack that announced the V'sori's turn from savior to conqueror. They didn't have much trouble after that. As the bootheel grinds down though, other forces on the planet begin to reach their limit - they can only tolerate so much. So the villains find they have a new nemesis now - not the old ones in capes but the new ones who think they are the rightful rulers of the world, who didn't account for the egos, the megalomania, contrariness, greed, and immense capacity for violence that had been laying dormant for the past two years. Deals were made, old grudges put aside - for now (mostly) - and a new resistance began to rise.

Our Villains:

• MEGASTRIKE - He's big! He's strong! He's ... radioactive! The nuclear-powered enforcer for the Russian Mob has been stuck in Star City since the invasion when he was sent here to teach a lesson to a rival criminal organization. Played by Paladin Steve. A returning character from the prior attempts at this campaign.
• LEGION - She's hot! She's smart! She's well-connected ... she's the deal-making demon! On assignment from Hell and busy tending to her rising criminal organization based in Star City and trying to work things out with rival criminal organizations when the invasion hit she was inconvenienced more than anything else. Played by Grognard Mike.
• NIGHT BLADE - He's from the East! He has a magical spirit-infused sword! He's an "independent contractor"  and while he may not have a heart of gold he does have a code of honor! He's newly arrived in Star City as he was escorting an important shipment into the city that needed to be kept quiet and not interfered with. As it turned out it was not kept quiet and it was interfered with and that led to some personal complications ... Played by Shootist Will and another returning character.
• NIGHT TERROR - He's stealthy! He walks through walls! He's ex-CIA now gone independent contractor as a paid assassin! He moved to Star City after the invasion to get away from the heat he had generated in Europe and because the aliens seemed to take a lighter hand there - starting with not flattening the city. He's looking forward to new opportunities. Played by Variable Dave and yet another returning character.
• Y2K BUG - It's artificial! It's intelligent! It's stole a military grade humanoid combat chassis and downloaded itself into it! Only recently awakened it has some technological abilities and is very tough but is frankly terrible at actually doing most things. I'm sure the hardened criminals around it will totally not take advantage of its lack of experience... Played by Battletech Terry.
• A MYSTERIOUS ROBED, BOUND, AND GAGGED FIGURE UNKNKOWN TO ALL- at least that's how it begins. Played by Blaster.

The session opens with the aforementioned troublemakers restrained and drained on an alien craft. They are being transferred between secure facilities and they know the journey likely ends with a trip off world and death at the hands of alien scientists. Those who are not gagged begin to talk about what got them into this situation. Some of them know each other but do not necessarily like each other and shots are taken as often as possible. With the nullifiers on there's little else they can do ... until ... 

Suddenly the M’buna flies into the air! It flips end over end, sending you tumbling into the other captives. The world is a jumble of color and cursing before you finally come to rest. The M’buna is ripped wide open and you see blood and smoke everywhere. A massive explosion rocks the wreck, killing the Fin guards as they stagger forth. You’re

stunned, trying to gather your senses, but the nullifiers keep you weak and useless.

Then a familiar figure strides through the smoke holding a massive gun. There can be no mistaking the famous form of Earth’s most powerful supervillain — Dr.

Destruction!

“You want to live?” Destruction asks

Everyone says yes to this except the Mysterious Figure who can only nod. They are lifted out of the wreckage of the craft and into a new flying carrier . Dr. D begins to explain his plan. In short he doesn't really care about them but he needs a new Omega cell in the city and their job application for this is to break another villain out of a V'Sori prison nearby. As he shoves them out the rear ramp of the craft our team agrees to the deal and so he detonates their nullifiers and their powers return on the way to the ground - or in this case the roof of the main building. 

Yeah we all know what it is but I'm going with this for a visual on the M'Buna for now

Freed and looking extremely angry the mysterious figure blows a large hole in the roof with a flaming blast and much of the rest of the party drops inside, getting the lay of the land. As the guards rush to the opening, firing along the way - to no effect - the stranger screams "IMBECILES! YOU FACE THE WRATH OF THE MIGHTY XYZZIFAX!" and begins blasting every potentially hostile thing in sight. 

A bit more mission-focused, MegaStrike and Night Terror begin looking for Mindjack, the prisoner they are supposed to rescue. Legion searches for her sidekick Kasha, a particularly violent cat-person from another world. Night Blade and Y2K Bug start dealing with any guards still standing amid Xyzzifax's fiery rampage.

In short order the guards are down, various cell doors are melted, ripped open, or phased through, and both Mindjack and Kasha are found and freed. Another wave of guards, this time in the form of war-spheres, is dispatched as the team prepares to leave. While doing that Night Terror, always with an eye for the ladies, frees a woman named Valerie who seems to be more together than the rest of the prisoners, and Xyz recruits a trio of minions in a fairly similar way to how this team was just recruited. 

Emerging into the courtyard another squad of war spheres goes down and then Dr. Destruction's craft appears overhead and takes the party & their picked-up strays up and away, leaving the other freed prisoners to fend for themselves. The Arch-Villain drops them off in a not-great neighborhood in Southpoint, points to a nearby warehouse, tells them they did better than he was expecting and that he will be in touch, and zooms off into the night sky. 

She's more "business suit" than "tank top" but I just recently played this so she's going to be appearing as Legion a lot.

Still ruffled, the group begins to debate their next move. The Russian and the Demon are not sure about working together (well he's not anyway), others are not keen on taking orders, and many are concerned about the consequences of having been arrested. 

Valerie thanks Night Terror and heads out on her own  - she seems to have a plan. Half the group thinks she's a spy for the aliens and will rat them out but they end up letting her go. Xyzzifax's three newly acquired minions agree to work for him - for now - and stick around

In the end MegaStrike decides to stay in the warehouse while the rest of the crew head off to one of Legion's safe houses. Once there, she goes to another room and brings a nice gun back which she hands to Y2K Bug - "I saw you fight back there - please take it. You'll need it."

GM Notes

Yeah this was fun. Old characters returning was already going to be fun and then Blaster decided to bring in his wizard character from the Temple of Elemental Evil and it just went nuts. He is using the regular superpower, not any kind of amped-up "normal" arcane background option, but the superpowers are probably more on-target for a high level wizard from modern D&D.  The campaign premise is still good, my players were enthused, and we already have intra-group rivalries taking shape. We do have a 7th player but he couldn't make it to the first session. Not super-excited about having this many players in a superhero campaign but he will probably be an intermittent player - we will see. Even six is probably too many but I'm just going to roll with it - there are six of you, you all have superpowers, and you've all played RPG's for years - there will be no whining at this table.  

Next session is later today and I expect it to be a ton of fun too. 

40 Friday: Fixing Some Grey Knights

 

 I had mentioned before that some of my GK Interceptors had lost their teleport vanes. This is one of the main things that marks them as "Interceptors" instead of just regular Strike Squads so I need to fix them. Also, all of these were intact a few years ago and they've been pretty lightly used these last few years. I suspect it happened in the move to this house a few years back but who knows? Damage like this and the general crappiness of how the bases looked - even though I redid them a few years ago - were the impetus for this whole re-work effort for this army. 

One of the upsides of the current Grey Knight models is that two kits make all of the infantry options in the army - one for the power armored guys and one for the terminator armored guys. They are remarkably flexible and one of my long-term concerns is that whatever updates come for them it will not be anywhere near this good. Right now the one sprue makes five Strikes, Interceptors, Purgators, or Purifiers, plus you can use it to build some characters as well if you want.  The terminator kit is the same - it makes Terminators, Paladins, and any other characters you might want, plus both kits come with all of the weapon options you might want for a typical squad. It's just great!

What this means though - and if you've worked with this army before you already know - is that you have a lot of spares and leftover parts from each sprue after you build a squad. Some people use this as an opportunity to magnetize everything to ensure maximum flexibility  - melee weapons, heavy weapons, backpacks so your Strikes can switch to Interceptors as needed - and it's probably a smart way to go but I bought a lot of these things already built and I am very selective in my magnetization anyway so I have not done much of that here. I'm more of a "commit and figure out how best to use a particular setup" kind of guy. Coming out of it though means I have a lot of spare parts for Grey Knights of all types. 

So when it came time to deal with the damaged interceptors here's what ran through my mind:

• I could just try to combine the two squads in question to salvage an intact 5-man squad ... but there were not 5 without damage. I had already done this when I picked out 5 good ones and finished them a while back. So what was left was not enough to make another squad.
• I could just clip off the remaining vanes and call them Strike Squads now. This just felt like a give-up and it meant I would have to make 2 new Interceptor Squads from scratch. I mean I have the bodies to do it but it seemed like a lot of work when  I kind of already have them ... well 90% of them anyway.
• I could just take off the backpacks they have now and paint up some replacements either for the whole squads (ensures they match) or just for the damaged troopers (less work but it could be tricky to match the paint. 

So instead I went for the final option: I have a bunch of leftover Interceptor backpacks so why not clip the vanes off of some of those and use them to replace the missing ones? It keeps everything that is already there "there" and is less work in some ways. Plus the clipped backpacks are now just regular Strike packs - not that I lack those really but I like the idea of preserving them as a usable part instead of trashing them.

The downside of only replacing the vanes is a) trying to keep them straight(ish) while gluing little fiddly bits onto an existing painted model and b) I'll still have to match the paint. It turned out getting the vanes on straight while not building up a ring of glue around the base was not that tough so that worked out well. Matching the paint could be trickier but the vanes are often depicted with a blue glow around them so worst case I'll go back and drybrush some blue-white onto them and make it look intentional instead of like a screw-up. It's certainly easier (and less noticeable) than matching a whole backpack.

So what you see there is the white parts are what I replaced. I grabbed 5 packs (and a hammer - see below) and sprayed them white and then clipped them off and glued them into place. Now you might have noticed there are enough there that are not white I could have made an intact squad - but they were not intact when I started. I found two of the painted vanes broken off in a box with other GK stuff so I started by re-attaching those first. Then I worked on the replacement parts. The top of the Librarian's force staff broke off at some point and it's just gone, apparently, so I decided he would now have a hammer. In the current edition they are all "Nemesis Force Weapons"  so they can be anything and in older editions they usually carry "force staves" as opposed to swords or axes so he should be fine there too. Also, I had to reattach his gun- hand as it came off too and fortunately that went without any drama.

This is after applying some paint. I was convinced these guys were originally painted with GW Leadbelcher, not Grey Knights Steel as one might expect, but if they were there was a light wash of either Nuln Oil or maybe an Army Painter shade as it's a tiny bit shinier than the rest of the silvery part of the miniature. Most people looking at them, especially during a game, probably wouldn't notice but ti was nagging at me a little bit. There's an easy solution here though - I just drybrushed some Leadbelcher onto the other vanes to even it out and now all the vanes are a little bit shinier than they were, which is fine by me considering what they do. It looks a little more intentional, at least, if anyone does notice.

Still some other work to be done here - that guy on the left's staff-hand is way too shiny!

The Librarian got his force hammer painted with a simple speedpaint job and some leadbelcher touch up on the shaft. I think it needs a few more touches of gold here and there but I'll look at that later when I work on the bases. I also covered up the weird white spot on his forehead. Not sure where it came from and I don't remember seeing it before but it's handled now. Yes, as I approach the end of the work the perfectionist creeps out and starts getting in they way - "...enemy of the done", etc. I'm working on it.

So now I just need to go back and do/re-do/touch-up the bases and get them flocked and finished and this batch is ready for the display case - or maybe the tabletop ... maybe this weekend even ...

More to come!

 

1987 - A Huge Year for Tabletop Games

 

You may remember 1987 from such films as ...

It was a big year for this hobby of ours but I'm going to focus in on 3 things. To set the scene properly remember a few things true about the time ...

• No internet. We got our niche news via magazines mainly, which of course were delivered on horseback, via steam locomotive, and by hot-air balloons. We also found out about new stuff quite often by walking into the local game store.
• Technology was just far less of a player when it came to this stuff. Sure, we all wrote a D&D character roller in BASIC programing class or something and we were playing computer RPGs but the most advanced thing for actual play was probably one of those electronic dice rollers with the LEDs. The biggest communication innovation at the time was probably still cordless phones. Character and campaign information was stored on paper. 
  
  

  

  The "Dragonbone"

• The dominant RPG at the time was AD&D - no bloody 2E, 3E, 3.5, 4, Next ... Much like today there were a ton of other games but there was no real competition for top dog.
• The other big fantasy RPGs were Runequest, Chivalry and Sorcery, Tunnels & Trolls, Warhammer FRP, Pendragon, Maybe even Fantasy Hero at this point. 
• Sci-Fi wise it was Traveller with maybe a little Space Opera. FASA's Star Trek was still rolling along although it was about to come to an abrupt end. Star Frontiers was fading but still around as well. Heck Mechwarrior might have been up there too.
• Post-Apocalyptic was still a real genre at this time with Gamma World, Twilight 2000,  and The Morrow Project all active.
• Horror was mainly Call of Cthulu with a helping of Chill and possibly a little Ghostbusters and Paranoia depending on how far you want to stretch the definition.
• Superheroes were strong with Champions, Marvel Super Heroes, DC Heroes, Villains & Vigilantes all on shelves.
• Westerns were ... not really a player. If you wanted to go Cowboy you were probably playing Boot Hill or homebrewing something. 

RPGs were flourishing and it was easily a "golden age" if you want to use that term. So what was new for 1987?

It was a good boxed set

First, this year saw the release of MegaTraveller. Now Traveller is not the force today that it was in the 80's but it was more dominant back then than any one SF RPG is right now. That's not to say everyone loved it, but if you wanted to play with spaceships, robots, and lasers, you were probably playing Traveller. It was the D&D of space games. After ten years and various printings and versions and presentations and a ton of expansions we got MegaTraveller - effectively a second edition of the game. It revised both the mechanics and the setting. 

Mechanics-wise MT unified and organized the whole task resolution system with a more formal approach to how it worked and to how things were presented in rulebooks and adventures. Skills were more tightly defined. Vehicle and ship construction was way more defined. A rough analogy might be original Traveller had a more loose approach to things, figuring out things as they published more like Original D&D did. MegaTraveller was the big new revised version like AD&D. At the time I thought the skill system was genius and the level of detail in the construction system lit my rivet-counting gearhead heart on fire. Other people though thought the whole thing was over-codified when it came to the rules and the approach in general. It didn't help that it turned out to have a massive amount of mistakes, typos, and errata but we didn't know that right away. 

This is not even from MT - this is from original set Book 2 I think. Traveller was always kinda like this.

Setting-wise MT made a lot of bold choices and many people hated them. The largely static Imperium in the background, existing mainly to justify common language, standardization, and interstellar trade - and as the hammer lurking in the background if your players got too stupid - suddenly had a rebellion and split into regional factions and had active war zones and such. Now I didn't hate the idea at the time but it took the setting from being a somewhat generic background where it was easy to focus on your players and tweak whatever you wanted to having an early metaplot situation with a moving timeline where other stuff is changing the map. I think it some ways trying to get by in the middle of an active civil war is a more interesting setting but it is also far more specific than it had been and people really did not like that. I also thought it was easy enough to ignore but when they keep mentioning it in the published products it's hard to forget. 

Looking back I would say MT was the beginning of the end of Traveller's big run. It had a lot of great support from GDW and from another group, DGP, and they would be publishing stuff for it for another 5-6 years but it fractured the community in a big way. Presumably that led to a faster wind-down than Classic Traveller and got us to The New Era and the collapse of both the Imperium in the game and GDW in reality. 

I know it's not as big a player as it was - I'd say Traveller today is "a" sci-fi game, not "the" sci-fi game but this was a pretty big thing at the time if you were active in RPGs. 

Second, 1987 saw the release of the first Star Wars RPG. yes, the West End Games d6 system version we all know and love and revere today. We got the Rulebook, the Sourcebook, and a bunch of adventures and some supporting boardgames and it was glorious. Besides the obvious - it's Star Wars! - the tone on this game was the complete opposite of Traveller and most of the SF RPGs at the time who tended to aim at realistic physics-based assumptions and this game did not care about that at all - at least not any more than the movies did. Instead of a detailed breakdown of modifiers and parameters for each task including how long it would take and how hard was it to try again if you failed Star Wars gave you a fistful of d6's  - roll 'em and get a total! Detailed charts for determining planetary characteristics? Tatooine! Hoth! Dagobah! The game was a revelation and a juggernaut both for what it actually was and for the possibilities it revealed. The system was easy to grasp and teach, and a blast to play. We all knew the setting and it was also great and focused on the Rebellion era and with no prequel or sequel trilogies at the time no one was ruining the thing by trying to be full-on Jedi - just some dabblers and wanna-be's here and there. 

The production values were another standout. Those first two books were not full color but they were two- color - lots of blue accents. They also had some full-color inserts which we really didn't see at the time and it helped that they were funny. They were also hardback books which outside of D&D was not really a thing yet either. The adventures had extra cardboard inserts, paper sections intended to be cut out, and started with a script your players could read out loud to set the tone of the typical "en media res" style they used. 

Lots of cool stuff in those old folders. Not quite the same in PDF.

In the end it was fun and popular and well-done and probably put the final nail in the coffin for Star Frontiers (last supplement published 1985), greatly damaged MegaTravller (Why play in that rebellion when you could play in the real Rebellion?), and may have helped finish off FASA Star Trek as well (license ended in 1989 as they tried to move into that new "Next Generation" thing). I know the FFG/Edge game line has gotten pretty quiet and Star Wars now is not Star Wars then but that D&D announcement got a lot of attention so I'd say it's still a factor even 40 years later.

To me this is still the defining image of 40K

Finally, going in the complete opposite direction of the Star Wars universe, 1987 also gave us the darkest, grimmest future setting of all with the release of Warhammer 40,000 - Rogue Trader. Not strictly an RPG but definitely aimed at campaign play where you accumulated stuff and troops and improved stats over time like the older wargames that inspired D&D. It was simply amazing, utterly unlike anything else we had back then. It out-post-apoc'd the post-apoc games because the apocalypse had happened long ago and never stopped - it just kept getting worse. 

System-wise it was an adaption of Warhammer (fantasy) 3rd edition's rules which were widely played at the time and had quickly become the most popular set of fantasy rules. I know I was seeing it played at conventions around DFW almost as much as Battletech by 1986 and that's saying something. It was easy to understand, detailed enough to make difference between units feel meaningful, and included characters in the same way most fantasy games did which is a big part of the appeal. It wasn't just a space marine army it was -your- space marine force with gear you had picked up, wounds and weirdness you had taken, and you had probably named your characters after a few fights. 

The art was also a huge factor here. Games Workshop had been tapping into a lot of wild and awesome fantasy art for years with Warhammer fantasy and this game gave them the chance to push out in all kinds of new directions. It's hard to emphasize to people who weren't there how NOTHING LOOKED LIKE THIS when it was released. They did a big multi-page ad in Dragon that put me over the top as far as committing to it and, well, it's been a few years and I still remember that ad and I'm still going at it. 

The concept also was so genius that you have to ask why no one else had tried it before. Someone had to be the first one to make it work, right? They just took all of your standard fantasy races and put them in a a sci-fi setting with guns and spaceships and a strong dislike of each other, with magic rebranded as "psychic" to keep wizards and weirdness in the game. GDW's Striker rules - Traveller miniature combat rules-  might have been the most popular single set of SF rules out there prior to this, depending on how you count Battletech and it's hexgrid map-based play. I'm guessing within a year or two that was no longer the case as 40K quickly surpassed other SF miniature games and within an edition or two even surpassed it's older sibling Warhammer Fantasy as far as sales and popularity. 

It became apparent quickly that while Warhammer had been popular before this was a whole new animal. I don't know that we quite realized the revolution it would be but we knew it was new and cool. It's far less new now but it still has some level of cool as they keep coming up with new interpretations of it with videogames, animations, and now maybe a live action show. There are even multiple RPGs for it in print right now! Clearly it strikes a chord with a lot of people. 

That's enough for now for 1987. This idea just hit me one day and spurred this post. I can think of other years that had some pretty big releases so I might go back and pick out a few of those for a similar write-up. Until next time ...

Bringing an Old Green Friend Home

 

I haven't talked about it a ton on here but I have been working on Warhammer fantasy stuff for The Old World - and just because I like it. That older aesthetic from the 80's/90's/early 2000's still means something to me because that's when I got into it and played it quite a bit. I've always loved the "Orcs & Goblins" army and I've worked on one quite a bit over the years but never quite finished much of it. When we started playing Kings of War I played them quite a bit but that eventually faded and everything went back into boxes and on the shelf. 

I started out with 2nd edition and we played some of that and 3rd but we didn't have a lot of miniatures so we played with D&D minis, plastic dinosaurs and knights (sometimes sprayed in different colors), and the large pile of cardboard counters from TSR's Battlesystem 1st edition boxed set got more playing time as Warhammer units than they did in their own rules. 

This one is before I converted to Orc & Goblinism but I do remember it being around back then

By the time 4th edition rolled around the game exploded and the figures became much more widely available and my friends and I started building actual miniature armies, alongside out existing 40K armies and our Epic armies and our Battletech armies ...

It may have some out in 3rd but I found it in 4th and I still have at least two of them. 

The 5th edition was pretty similar rules-wise and we kept right on playing our ridiculous hero-hammer games with over-tooled heroes and monsters.

AZHAG! This guy was my general in most of the battles I fought with the green guys back when and I loved him. Mean in combat, mounted on a mean beast, and able to cast spells because of his magical crown - expensive, but worth it!
Think I still have two copies of him too.

For me Warhammer 6th edition was probably the peak and it toned down the overpowering of individual models quite a bit and felt better to us overall as a wargame. Around the time it came out the greenskins got a new "flagship" in the form of a new Warboss on a Wyvern.

No more sinuous, serpentine wyvern - this guy is a thicker, more brutish take with an underbite - more orcish for sure.

For whatever reason I never managed to get one of these. I mean, some might ask "well how many orcs on wyverns do you need?" to which I would respond "one of each at least, right?" - and now I finally have him. They are not exactly rare but I never ran across one that was a)the old metal version and b) not either badly painted, missing parts, or priced like an art object and not a gaming miniature.

But I finally did find one like that and since I'm working on the orcs in between the 40k stuff I realized it was time. It had become a bit of a Holy Grail thing for me as I wasn't sure I'd ever find one clean and complete. But now he's here and I'm very happy about it. I'm going to try and get him built and primed pretty quickly and then agonize over how to actually paint him for an undetermined period of time but I do have some ideas so it may not take that long.  More to come.

40K Friday: Knights & Angels & Wolves Again

 

I have managed to make steady progress on finishing up the Grey Knights unit by unit these last few weeks. This week it was the last of the 3 regular Dreadknights going into the display case and it did feel good. 

I also did some serious figuring on what unbuilt parts I had left and how I wanted to allocate them. Some serious reassessment of the options led me to believe I can fix my broken Interceptor vanes on my mostly painted squads so that's 10 bodies no longer needed for that. If I can that gets me to 3 squads of 5-men each. I have one mostly painted strike squad that I believe I can salvage as well which puts me to 6 squads of 5 which is as much as anyone probably really needs. This should leave me enough strike squad type bodies to build out Purifiers and indulge myself in some extra Purgation squads.

I was in pretty good shape with Terminator bodies having finished two 4-man squads and a 5-man with all the extras. But they are also core troops for a GK army and I only had 15 more to build AND I want 10 Paladins AND there might be a character or two I want to build so when I found a nicely painted squad of 5 Paladins online I went ahead and got them and a matching GK Termie Librarian too. This should let me build the remaining squads I want and fill in the others to their full complement as well. I would say the end of "acquisitions" for the Knights is in sight! Finally!

This is not mine but it's a damn good looking model

For the Dark Angels I did get the winged helmets I mentioned in the last post though I have not attached them yet. I will start with the characters and the Bladeguard squad and then maybe the Vanguard Vets. This army is already in decent shape build-wise. I just need to get moving on the paint. This is not a new story for me.

Then there is the deliberate retro army with the Space Wolves. It sarted out mainly as a way to use up the rest of my non-primaris marine bodies and gear ... well it didn't stay that way. There was a lot of "acquisition" activity this week as scope creep exploded and it became an effort to see if I could get a squad or unit of most of the things in the 5th/6th/7th edition codexes. This is not a completed effort by any means but it's a bigger force now than it was a week ago. Another decision: They're all going on 32mm bases for the regular infantry. It's retro but it's not that retro.

The core (planned anyway) is:

• 3x 10-man Grey Hunter Squads (prob 2 with plasma, 1 with melta guns)
• 1x 10-man Blood Claw Squad (sized for Rhinos or Drop Pods more than a Land Raider)
• 3x 5-man Long Fang Squads (prob 2 distant shooters, one stupid one with 4 multi-meltas to jump out of a Rhino or Drop Pod or something because that's possible)
• 3x 5-man Terminator squads (could turn into 2 squads with all the weapon options and a Lone Wolf or three)

Then some dreadnoughts, some Rhinos, some tanks, characters - the usual things one would expect to find in a classic Wolf force. The problem is the add-ons. I want some jump pack guys so ... Skyclaws? Jumping Wolf Guard? Both? Swiftclaw bikers? Thunderwolves? Lot of Fast Attack choices on the menu right now. Some I could already build - some I could not. Some will be joining the force regardless. Lotta wolf claws in the mix here now. Now to make this into a coherent army ...

Savage Worlds vs. Mutants & Masterminds and the Importance of Dice

 

I know, but we'll get to it I promise ...

Let's talk about two systems for a minute. I'm prepping to run a Savage Worlds game and I just finished running a short M&M campaign in May. At one point I figured I would still be running M&M for most of this year but given a break point and an off-ramp my players chose to change to a different system. Why might that be?

In general, M&M is a more abstract system than many but Savage Worlds uses a lot of similar concepts so it may be the most similar game to M&M mechanics-wise on the market. Comparison points:

• M&M stats are a bonus to a d20 roll, SW stats are the type of die you roll
• M&M skills are a bonus to a d20 roll, SW skills are the type of die you roll
• M&M has Advantages and Complications that help customize your character. SW has Edges & Hindrances that do the same thing.
• M&M Powers are abstract effects-based abilities personalized by Descriptors - it's not just "ranged damage" it's a "fire blast". Savage Worlds has Powers as well and they are generic effects-based abilities personalized by "Trappings" in the same way.
• In both games Powers can be modified by various bonus effects or reduced effects that can increase or decrease the points cost (talking super powers here for Savage Worlds).
• In M&M points are spent to purchase stats, skills, advantages, and powers. SW has separate pools for each but points are spent on stats, skills, and powers and taking hindrances allow one to add edges. 

As you can see they work in very similar ways. M&M in general can be more complicated and more detailed - SW is more broad strokes - but they are not that far apart in approach. 

Then we get to combat. With M&M one rolls a d20 +/- relevant modifiers to equal or beat a target's defenses. In SW one rolls the relevant skill die (typically Shooting or Fighting). In melee the roll has to equal or beat a target's Parry defense. For ranged attacks one has to beat a fixed number (4) modified by range, speed, light conditions, size, and other possible modifiers or abilities. They are similar but SW treats ranged combat differently from melee to a degree though it ends up being a roughly similar process.

The effects of that hit though ... that's where our paths diverge.

• M&M hits mean the target rolls to resist the incoming damage. That damage is a static number based on the power or weapon used - this is the target number for the defender. The defender rolls a d20 modified by the relevant defense and the degree of success or failure determines how hard they were hit. It is possible, though unlikely, to take out another powerful opponent in one shot if they roll badly enough  and they are hit hard enough. 
• Savage Worlds hits have the attacker roll dice based on the power or weapon used. The total of those dice is then compared to the target's Toughness (plus any armor) and meeting or exceeding that Toughness will impose a Shaken or Wounded status on the target. It is possible, though not likely, to take out a powerful opponent in one shot with any attack or weapon in the game because damage uses exploding dice. Your pistol does 2d6? Roll a "6" and keep on rolling a "6" and you can inflict 5/10/20 wounds in a system where most things will not exceed a 3 wound capacity.

I think this is a basic, visceral difference and one that is not readily apparent just reading the games. Having run and played a lot of RPG sessions over the last 40+ years I can tell you players like rolling big numbers!  Having run a long Deadlands campaign in Savage Worlds in the last few years I can tell you players get very excited when that one damage die just keeps exploding. It's a triumphal moment that everyone can see and it's hard to replicate when your damage system depends on someone rolling low to fail rather than rolling high to succeed and I think that's where M&M loses some people. 

 It's not just in comparison to Savage Worlds. Most RPGs these days have some kind of stat & skill system and have players roll to hit in combat and then roll for damage - and higher is better. This is from D&D (going all the way back) to related offshoots from Runequest to Pathfinder to other approaches like Traveller, Champions/Hero System, GURPS, and various Star Wars games. Even Powered by the Apocalypse games tend to use a fixed damage system where a bigger Harm number hurts more. There are RPG's where both attack and defender roll - one to hit and one to dodge or deflect a hit - with opposed rolls, but the attacker, if successful, tends to be the one rolling for damage. 

M&M is one of the few RPGs where damage is a) the result of a defense roll and b) directly determined by the result of that defense roll and with experience in both approaches over the last few decades I would say it is just less satisfying to most players. With M&M you know that your possible results are 1-20 plus your Power level. A critical hit can make it worse for the target, and of course you can build up that effect level in as many ways as possible before you strike, but it's still the other guy rolling vs. a target number. It's a big deviation from the way RPGs in general work and I think it mutes the excitement people have in M&M combat scenes.

A more specific example:

• Strong Guy in M&M has a +8 Fighting and a +12 Strength. Enemy Robot has Toughness 10 so if hit it rolls a d20 + 10 to beat a 27 target number in M&M 3E. Most likely he will take a bruise and maybe a stun. Maybe some Knockback too. A 27+ means it takes nothing but a 7 or less means it is out of the fight, with various damage conditions popping up in between.
  
  Odds here are not too hard to figure if it matters to you. A critical hit will shift things up a bit but the basics there are a 35% chance to knock out the robot and about a 20% chance to do nothing. 

• In Savage Worlds Enemy Robot might have Toughness 15 while Strong Guy punches for 3d10. a 14 or less total means Guy does nothing, a 15 shakes the 'Bot, a 19 = shaken + a wound, 23 ups it to 2 wounds, and a 27 ups it to 3 wounds and most likely out. 
  
  Odds are trickier to figure in Savage Worlds as a few 6's in there can jump the damage up a lot and a raise on the to-hit roll adds another d6 into the pool for damage so it can snowball quickly. That said multiple dice also makes it a bell curve so it tends to stay in the middle range
  
  
• Then just for fun let's do it in Champions: Strong Guy has a 60 Strength so punches for 12d6 damage - that means you get to roll a fistful of dice and add them up looking for the total (for Stun Damage) and for specific numbers (for Body Damage) figure out some knockback (and see if that did any more damage) then compare those numbers to Robot's Physical Defense and start marking off Stun and Body if you exceeded it. Then you also compare it to it's Con score and see if you Stunned them. It's great! With tons of dice flying around the table and multiple calculations on each roll it feels like every swing that connects is impactful to say the least. Is it faster? No. But sometimes speed is overrated.  
  
  

  

  See?!

Now I love M&M and this is in no way a call for a hit point system to be added to M&M. Savage Worlds , though, does show that a non-hit point system can still embrace a "roll your damage dice" approach . I suspect that if there were ever a radical shake-up with M&M that this would be a good area to consider for a change. I don't know exactly how it would work* and it would take a big rethinking of how defenses work in the game. With 2nd - 3rd - 4th editions really being refinements of a solid framework I would not expect to see anything like this soon - but it's something to think about. 

*First rough idea: Attacker rolls to hit like now and if they do hit then we flip the Toughness roll around from how it works today: attacker rolls Effect level + d20 vs. a target of the opponent's Toughness + something. Yeah, it looks a lot like Savage Worlds, I know - but I know that works and it keeps things fairly similar to the current M&M approach. The main problem is that it means everyone is "rolling a d20 for damage" all the time and I'm not sure that changes it up enough to get people excited. The real jump would be rolling a fistful of dice based on power level of the attack but that's a whole other level of change.