Weekender XLBS: Your Biggest Hobby Regret
October 13, 2019 by dignity
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Happy Sunday Brothers and Sisters of CoG!
******It’s the XLBS Show******
Grab your favorite drink, something to snack on, and be prepared for the OTT crew to lay some gaming wisdom on us man! (I’m hoping for a Mindbender. Or have those been abandoned as of late?)
For the record @warzan I’d be up for a ‘Snail Mail version of CogitoLudos’
I wonder what could be Waren’s Huge Regret???
As to the question of the day, what have I been working on? Well……..I’ve been churning away on my FLames of War Beach Assult setup. 3D Printing like a madman and painting infantry!
Also, I did take a breather to 3D Print a Stormtrooper Lander. It’s officially known as the ‘AAL-1971/9.1 Troop Transport’. What you might call a space version of the Higgins boat! It’s the design from Star Wars Episode 7, you know the one with the ramp in front that drops and the Stormtroopers come pouring out of. I figure that the design must have existed during the time of the Empire and not created by the First Order.
My printer is not big enough to print the whole thing at one time on the proper scale for Star Wars: Legion, so I had to chop it in half in the software and then print it as bow and stern. I needed to do lots of sanding to true up both halves, as the bases seemed to curl up just a bit at the corners. Does anyone have a fix for this? Really annoying, but only seems to happen sometimes and usually on the larger prints.
I still have to do some sanding and I’m sure a little putty work. Then more sanding to smooth out the print lines. Luckily I printed in 0.1mm so the lines are pretty tight but still there. Print time took about 3 days total for both halves of the model combined.
Happy Sunday…
@avernos – photocopied???
Go older school than that.
How about a gestetner machine?
Friends of mine used to use manual typewriters and carbon paper to produce pages that would go onto one a gestetner machine to produce their SF fanzines.
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Gestetner
Happy Sunday
Normally I’ve sucked at cyphers Cogito Ludus but this one is your own fez code at play. Woot! Laketown means those boats I sent will get used. Good to hear that there’s gaming potential from Pay It Forward.
Happy Sunday to my Cog brothers and sisters.
I saw an item online where various tests on skeletons that were from Sea Peoples graves that suggests they came from the Iberia
Happy Sunday all! Quick question (as I have a box of knights incoming next week…), beyond the COG Ankh is there any defined Cog heraldry that I could sneak in surreptitiously to the paint scheme on minis?
@lloyd could answer that. None that are as easy to reproduce anyway
Ah, I might just try and quietly sneak the ankh into one of the shields then…
Hmn! An interesting idea might try painting some on my next company of Wolf’s Dragoons Battlemech!s
Yeah the W-Ankh is the easiest to reproduce and is probably the most common CoG sign we are likely to see pop up at events etc.
I’ll get @lloyd to post the pattern jobbie 🙂
But feel free to explore and see what you come up with, as a community we all feed into this 🙂
The point of points? Good question. Let us know when equal points = equal forces. I always seem to chose the high quality, low quantity, high point value factions like Grey Knights, FoW Germans, KoW Ogres, etc. when everyone else chooses the “Quality of Quantity” forces. After being swamped numerous times by the ravening hordes, I need points in a game to reflect the relative ability to kill an equivalent value before dying. In other words, I want my single X that cost, say, 20 points, to be able to kill four+ of the 5 point enemies before succumbing to the buckets of dice that they roll. Gone would be the days when 10 space marines with their 20 shots a round couldn’t stand toe-to-toe against the mob of 60 orcs with their 120+ shots( or their 200+ melee attacks when they charge). And both sets of miniatures would still sell.
[Please note: it has been many years and way too many editions since I played some of these games and so I don’t know the current values/quantities.}
5th Edition 40K = Best Edition 40K
I love armies that need to be built with Troops as a core since well that’s what armies are built from.
On the other hand I also really like those special lists that let you build things like Tank Companies or Elite Formations but they should have some balancing features to them.
As a general rule I much prefer a game includes points rather than not include them. You can use them if you like but they are also a great way to balance any of your own lists. I don’t mind people who like to Stomp others for their fun, I don’t even mind being the person getting stomped my only issue is when those people who like to Stomp break a game to the point that it’s unplayable (like 8th is to me) with rules like being able to charge without line of sight, being able to consolidate into combat, being able to charge as many units as you like and it just goes on from there. I had a game of 8th (that was fun I’m not salty it was a genuinely fun experience) with an hour long first half of a first turn that consisted of him moving his army then charging units into half of my army before I had even taken a single action, that unit then slaughtered me (Guard) and then because the rules said so he was able to pin a huge chunk of the rest of my force down just by consolidating into it. Which meant my whole first turn was just disengaging. That is not a balanced game and no amount of points is going to fix that.
Points shouldn’t be the only thing used to balance a game, objectives are a giant balancing factor so many companies ignore. Jim and I have played many games of Valour and Victory and not once has the Insurgent Force ended the game with more than one or two units on the table but they win about half the time. They have very different ways to win the game than the Free World Forces.
Games need side plots. Everyone should go out and buy Muskets and Tomahawks to start using them immediately and a few random events which are quite mild every now and then makes a game very interesting.
I thought 8th edition was trying to move away from 1st turn charges but over the last few months a lot of updates and supplements have opened up some ridiculous Alpha Strikes.
I think it’s just something you have to plan your deployment around now. Screening units are more important than ever and spacing your units far enough that they can’t be consolidated into. Not that easy with your Guard though,you tend to have a lot of board coverage. I only play my mates and my brother and we’re casual gamers that avoid anything too cheezy, so far we’ve found 8th to be really playable.
a Christmas/Easter Surprise ?
That’d be cool.
Happy Sunday!!
Anyone else OCDing over the owlbear’s and Sean Connery’s tassles being red instead of yellow? Is this perhaps a next level of cultist?
Its fine Caesar has started a subtle mind suggestion Cultist campaign to get them changed to red. Gerry has red one in a recent cell, then the next one he has a red cap……not long now and the guys will fall into the red hat thinking.
I would be up for snail mail but you’d have to send me the Christmas one in June so that it will get here on time 🙂
How do you get on the list for CogitoLudos?
It’s sent to the email address on your profile
Happy Sunday!
IHIWIMO – I regret letting KS dominate my hobby meaning that thanks to FOMO I backed some projects that I shouldn’t have. They just consume money, storage space and patience. I now therefore have IHIWIMO – In Hindsight I Wish I’d Missed Out!
@avernos – wash your mouth out sir! Not over your deliberate boat~ship mangling, but over the assertion that Noddy Holder (b. Walsall) and Slade came from Birmingham! Anyone who knows anything knows Slade emerged from Wolverhampton – West Midlands certainly but a distinct accent from Brummie. Frankly I expected better from you… it would be as though I assumed all Northern Irish came from Belfast. 😉
3/4 Do 😉
The other 1/4 are alright though 😉
Except people from Lurgan…
I’m not northern irish 😉
I think of myself as Polirish these days 😛
Talking of Big Ears…
Why do elephants have Big Ears? Noddy won’t pay the ransom.
He’ll be here all week ladies and gentlemen. Please try the fish
Big Ears must have been sore after an elephant had him!
I feel for Warren – a lot of cash to drop on a project that may not be fully loved. I have had one of those Laketown houses for a few years. It is nice but limited – one reason I only have the one! I think the lesson (the one I believe that Warren was making) is pausing in the moment of excitement at the start of a project and plan what it is really for and what stories are to be told. I would love to see more Laketown from GW but being fair to them, it is a Licensed Product (so true scale) and there to support a specific scenario for their game (the set of three houses being the otimum for that). There is a lot of screen time (and fighting) around those walkways and houses, and (from memory) much of the rest of Laketown (bar sweeping arial shots) is mostly around generic locations – boat, wharf, market, town square, outside of an armoury, inside of an armoury, etc. There is the scene of the Windlass and Smaug, but there is little seen of the tower and it is not a great tactical games – dragon versus period light artillery.
So the product is probably fine for what it was designed for – supporting a scenario for a specific game, and staying within the constraints of a license. Not quite the thing for Warren.
One can use the GW Goblin town walk ways for expansion with a but of light conversion. They are (were) available as separate items (just the walk ways).
The attic dormer windows are shoddy construction though. 30 secs could have fixed that
I think from memory that laketown kit was a concept that GW had kicking around since the first outing of the LoTR game back circa 2003 but it never went into production until a few years ago. So while I’m not excusing the construction, the issue with the dormers might not necessarily be reflective of their current design standards – ie had the reengineered the kit or started from scratch today, that legacy issue may not have been present.
@warzan don’t go getting rid of the start you have made on laketown – there are plenty of 3d printed options which could be used and scaled to fit, as well as scratch built piers and jetties etc. Plus the MDF options you mentioned. You can always tie the lines together into a unified looking town in the painting and weathering stage. A town built on stilts is unlikely to look particularly uniform anyhow.
As an aside, can’t recall if this one got any visibility on the KS watch but may be of interest for you from a laketown perspective:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/968660672/fishing-village
A COG Fanzine could be fun. We could also trade tapes of demos and bootlegs of concerts! Bring back the 90s! Oops, wrong forum!
Did you ever watch those Nth generation VHS tapes from the US of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”?
Man some of those were hard to make out what was happening.
As long as I could make out Counselor Deanna Troi, I didn’t mind!
Also did you not already make Lake Town? Or rather did Warren not already get other people to make Lake Town? I remember coffee stirrers, chains and some cool weathering in a Vlog series or something…
Yep
That’s the studios though, this was for keepsies for me and the kiddies 🙂
I love the idea of getting a traditional newsletter. I’d be happy to chip in a bit extra each month.
Just one thing, though: you HAVE to have something like “Cult Newsletter” on the envelope, just to freak out my postman!
Totally lol
Wax seals and all 😉
Wouldn’t that be cool! A CoG signet ring for wax seals
Happy Sunday
@dignity hold your head in shame buddy for forgetting to wish the CoG Community a Happy Sunday. There will be punishment forthcoming, I would suggest Justin is made to rig Gerry’s ships!
@warzan what is snail mail? I am not really sure what this means and with you sometimes having ideas that melt peoples minds I am concerned I would be agreeing to receive a glass pressed snail through the post!
The Point of Points, as ever so much so cover in relation to points, how they should be applied, what method should determine the assigned value, should they be fixed or mutable, lots and lots of angles so I will only pick a few.
If a game has a starter set across a number of factions does it really need points? As the game designer, you could build in a level of balance which while not perfect would keep the margins between the two small enough that points really are not needed. This is on the understanding that what you take from the box is fixed in every aspect and ready to hit the tabletop running.
Expansion of these starter sets would require a level of accountability though and whether it is points, gold coins or another form of currency, the game will likely need a yardstick to be played and for one side not to be easily outplayed.
Re-enactment of setting in history and when I say history I don’t necessarily mean mother Earth but also the histories of the fictional literature that makes up the fluff and background of the games we play really does not need a points value. A detailed account of the forces fielded does help but if those playing the game do so in the spirit of the game points are not needed.
How many points! The guys talked about the potential restrictions the D6 places on the ability of companies to bring about successes and fails in a previous post. With points values, the size of a range and the increments of different minis abilities/capabilities will likely have to be a considering factor when deciding to structure points. GW have put together a quick game and a detailed game method for this which is actually something I quite like as it caters to both the list builders and the gamers.
Most games have a predetermined system for army selection with units having an assigned value but not all. In recent times I can think of a couple that use draft systems. This is to say that those forces can be allied with any party but has obvious or subtle synergies with certain other types that would be beneficial e.g. Super Fantasy Brawl, Mythic Battles Pantheon, I am sure there are more. Whilst this is not going to work for every game it does make for some very nice collectors games as you can conceivably have the option to use all the minis available giving you a valid reason to buy them all…..like you needed one 🙂
All in all a core part of getting a good points system is future-proofing from day one. Often companies are locked in with a system that doesn’t cater for growth over time and therefore you find units of the same points value not being the same in gaming value. Luckily for me, I go with whats pretty and hope not to get too mauled in the process of having an army I like the look of.
@avernos Battle of Hastings you say, stand on a hill and shoot and defend you say. Eye, eye you say. I think with this being two opposing armies it is going to be very interesting to see how you put the rules together. One thing I have always been frustrated by in most of the games we play is the lack of logistics and communication accountability, especially in historic games. Having the omnipotent power to see all on the battlefield and the lightning bolt communication that this brings means you have too much control. I would like to see an orders system something similar to epic 40k where you might end up locked into a mistake and have to change tactics on the fly. After all, horns, drums, flags and runners will only pass on so much information and not always at the right time once lines meet.
Anyway, another good episode and some awesome work from those who won Golden Buttons.
Have a great gaming week everyone.
great show as always
Happy Sunday
Shock horror… @avernos you called them boats ?? I didn’t actually twig until you mentioned it obviously not paying too much attention.
I know this may come as a shock to some but I have not actually bought into Black Seas yet …I am waiting after being burnt over Cruel Seas.
I also didn’t twig onto him calling them boats. I enjoy the fact that he points out just in case anyone missed it, so they would definitely be annoyed.
In a way I’m impressed
thank you, did you win on Saturday?
Won flames of war but lost Kings of War. @robert cheated though so I blame that
Guilty as charged. Gaming was the real winner and the filthy purple dice.
I was rolling for Gerry. 6 die 5 of them rolled 1s
Did he count twice the number of attacks?
he counted twice the number of attacks on the weird seige engine thing. So he got double attacks + D6. To be fair he did a great move and lured my wolves out to maul a sacrificial unit.
Also how fast is kings of war to play, its so bloody good
Happy sunday CoGs
Warren wants to send love letters to us all?
Hobby regrets…. buying too much aka the pile of shame we all own, not sticking to one army, picking up too many different systems… we could be here a while…
In terms of terrain, GW have moved their rules in AoS and 40k to a point where the terrain itself is almost irrelevant and basically table decoration. As a result I would say terrain sales have fallen, so the need to keep the vast array of kits isn’t worth their investment. Then what you do get for your money, is as you pointed out, a WTF moment. One of my local clubs looked at doing a Necromunda campaign earlier this year and picked up one of the Sector Mechanicus bundles, ~£100 mark, and after builing and painting it, we put it on the table and the reaction from everyone was “Is that it??”, at which point we decided that wasn’t a very cost effective route as it would be around £300 per table.
Points are a good thing as they help to control “that guy” who just wants to turn up and smear his opponent across the table with no regard of their opponent’s enjoyment of the game.
Regarding army builds, I’m going to bring my favourite Horus Heresy in here. HH was built on 5th Ed 40k so it followed the core 1 HQ and 2 troops Force Organisation Chart model. However, it also brings in Rites of War, which allow you to build variety into your army build from that model, with pros and cons for doing so, whilst giving your army a real flavour. For example, Pride of the Legion allows you to take terminators and veteran squads (usually an elite choice) as core troops, downside, you can’t take any allies, you need a minimum of 4 squads and if they all die you opponent gets extra VPs. Angel’s Wrath represents a fast moving force made up of jump infantry, jetbikes and flyers, so you can’t take tanks or fortifications, and your flyers wont be arriving until turn 2 at the earliest. There are also a few thematic force org charts (whch cannot be combined with the RoWs thankfully!) such as the Leviathan FoC which requires 1 HQ, 1 unit of troops and a Lord of War, so you can fight that thematic raid on a titan facility facing off against a titan and some troops protecting the facility.
In terms of simplifying points, Battlefront have done that with TY and FoW in their latest editions. I’m a relative newbie to FoW but I see a lot of the veterans complaining about the new system as it has removed the granularity from the points balance, which I can fully understand – This goes back to Gerrys comments on friday about the limitations of the D6-based system.
I have a problem with the points decrease in FoW, and it’s this, a 5point upgrade for a 50 point base has now become a 1 or 2 point upgrade for a 2 point base. At that point it changes the balance in itself. I don’t have problems with 2000 point games or 100 point games, but ease of army building really can’t be a reason to reduce points when people generally carry calculators in their pockets
Oh completely agree, as I said you’ve lost the granularity, which is a major factor in balancing any system. Justin’s comment of just take the 0 off the end doesn’t work 🙂
I get no letters 🙁 damn youuuuu !!! Damn filthy apes !
I have updated your email in your profile (you may have to approve that) 🙂
And I have created a version of the email and sent it just to you mate 😉
Enjoy!
The Laketown set was something that GW worked on briefly before the Middle Earth game had it’s resurgence, before the license was renewed and the game was rebooted. By all accounts when the Middle Earth team was formed they found the Laketown house sprues in storage and just thought it’d be cool to release these.
They are currently working through the whole of Middle Earth with new source books, maybe when they get back to Erebor and Laketown they may decide to expand the range but for now they work well with the scenarios in the rulebooks etc.
Gamers regret, I don’t think I’ve had any really, though several friends have after receiving a Kickstarter they were disappointed with. I’m very cautious when it comes to making purchases and try not to impulse buy.
I’m a big fan of Fanzines, I use to get several gaming ones back in the 80’s and wrote my first couple of articles for a fanzine. It was my inspiration for setting up Irregular Magazine, that and a bet over some beers. Fanzines these days are pretty much a dead as dodo idea, simply because you can set up a blog or make a downloadable pdf that has far better design. it can also all be done on cheaper and easier accessible software. So I like the idea of the Cult of Games fanzine style approach to the newsletter. A Cult of Games fanzine could be a good idea, designed to look like a photocopied 80’s version lol.
Easy ..selling my ENTIRE wargaming collection (loads of Rogue Trader/2nd Edition Imperial guard (including FOURTY “penal troopers with the exploding collars), My 15mm Russian Napoleonics (over 500 figs), my 6mm Modern Warsaw Pact (two divisons worth), and about 500 15mm Italian Wars minis when I emigrated to the US for seven years. I’ve never caught back up with the painted minis over 20 years later (past my prime painting years) 🙁
Oh my gods.I completely agree.As a teen i had Epic Space Marine,Adeptus Titanicus,Rogue Trader,Blood Bowl,Space Hulk and absolute bucket loads of mini’s to go with them.I caved to parental pressure ” no point keeping them if they won’t get played ” and sold everything.If i had a hot-tub time machine,i’d go back,keep it all and be happy as larry nowadays.
Happy Sunday to one and all.
I completely agree,my fun isn’t going to be your fun…But no-one likes an alpha striker…
@warzan i seem to remember john making you a lake town. You VLOG’d it and everything. Why not just use that?
You should link the Romano tartan paint video @warzan for everyone.
https://www.beastsofwar.com/3-colors-up/paint-tartan-part-1/
Don’t remember watching it the first time. Nice thing is, plenty of reference material out there and you might even be lucky and have a tartan for your surname.
40k filth memory back in the rogue trader era….harlequins on hover boards 60” move..-6 to a to hit roll..jump off melee and jump back on and fly away, with a build your own robot with four grenade launchers with virus grenades d6 plus d4 radius and the radius equalled the strength of hit models took if in the area and a fire and no move. Killed a lot of squats that day. Some scatter lasers helped that day too.
Consequently harlequins on boards banded by GW branch I used to frequent and GW dropped virus from the game and nerfed scatter lasers .
I had some Eldar on hover boards as well, mine had a vortex grenade with a mind link that went off when they died in melee, (This was pre soul stone stuff) used to really annoy opponents. Rogue Trader had some wonderfully cheesy combos for a suitable warped mind.
What about having all units being a playing card and you get extra bonuses/points for killing some of them counting them up at the end of the game to see who wins.
I am more of a narrative gamer but I do like points. It’s nice to know you’re in a broadly fair fight and therefore the outcome is determined by awesomeness of some form (skill, tactics, scenario, cinematic events etc) and not just playing out an inevitable conclusion. Also, I am more than happy having an asymmetric game, but with points at least you know the game is asymmetric. I think you can take more delight in the events of the game if you know where you are starting from.
For example, I had an awesome game of 40k yesterday. I don’t play 40k often enough to have any inherent concept on the relative power of the various units. If the game wasn’t points based, I really wouldn’t know how to feel about the outcome (I lost but it was epic!)
In between naps and cooking Sunday Dinner, I was contemplating why have points. My answer, points are good because not everyone has a Gerry.
Just finished listening on my ride up to my Mom’s in good ole Reidsville NC. Great show.
First off ill be a pen pal with any or all of you guys or any other backstagers. Just let me know and ill send you my addess!
I have to say being a member of a cult of games is triky Amazing. Since ive missed a bunch of shows since i moved back im not really sure how all that came about but itbis truly like being in a cult as its like ive woken up to find i am a cult member! Never thought that would happen to me but hey im just going to roll with it and embrace it!
@warzan as soon as you started with your hobby time and i saw the plastic laketown stuff on the board i cringed and said Oh No why did you not go with 4ground. They dockside dwellings even come with boardwalks! Ive bought most of their buildings so i can make either Laketown or Bree. Absolutely live the stuff.
As far as points and Min maxing i think points are a good baseline to start with but im absolutely a Narrative player at heart. Without a narrative i feel as if im just going thru the motions. Adding Narrative that might change point costs for one side or the other and cause you to adjust the scenario conditions makes for my most memorable games for sure!
Great show and good to be able to watch again. Cheers! “Always remember when you dont know what to do just ask yourself WWAD?”
Happy Sunday. Will watch in two parts, have some family time to do.
“It’s Sunday”. Yes, for us viewing today but not for you at time of recording…. am I ruining the immersion again? 😉
Snailmail? Sounds cool 😉 But on a more serious note: If you start raising prises you might want to wait until Brexit is done… otherwise potentially every non-UK-CoG will have to pay extra.
Have all our addresses? Well, we all have your address already 😉
7th letter of the 7th letter. He has the power to heal. He has the gift of the second sight. He is the chosen one. So it shall be written. So it shall be done. UP THE IRONS!
https://youtu.be/ZjphaXXEU9o
Seduction bootcamp? Naaaa, I’m good *g*
Golden buttons? I’m gonna close my eyes…. otherwise I will be demotivated 😉
The Black Sea minis look so much like the Pirates Pocket Model game from wizkids. Mainly because of the sails… and that make me think of my Star Wars Pocketmodel collection and that makes me sad… ’cause no one plays that any more.
Buyers remorse…. damn I feel bad for you Warren… Luckily I buy only what I really, really want (what you really want) so that buyers remorse is close to non existent to me.
Comments by me are closed now because I can’t type and paint and paintathon is a go!
Nice show as always.
By points what is meant is unit points. Unit points by themselves have inherent problems. The classic example is (‘standard’) Terminators vs. (‘standard’) Genestealers. I’m being edition non-specific here and simply using the fairly well known concept, but nonetheless, how well can points reflect the relative merits of those two unit types when they are up against one another (putting aside anything else they might be up against). The answer changes depending on the amount and type of terrain (and special weather rules and the like) on the table. The answer changes depending on how many more or less miniatures one side has than the other, by which i mean that the individual worth and thereby the ‘accurate’ points value of any one Genestealer or Terminator could be more or less depending on how many more of them there are than the opposing side. If there are double the amount of Terminators than Genestealers this could well mean that each of those Genestealers are worth precisely zero. If there are four times the amount of Genestealers than Terminators this could mean that each individual Genestealer is worth some points or a lot of points depending on the effectiveness it will now have because of the beenfits the relative numbers give it. The answer might also change depending on the number of Terminators or the number of Genestealers there are regardless of how many more or less there are of them than the opposing side. Having eight Genestealers up against two Terminators is a different thing to having twenty Genestealers up against five Terminators even though in both cases there are four times as many Genestealers as Terminators due to the effect that luck can have in those battles, or the way in which those Genestealers can tie up and gang up on individual Terminators. The answer could also change with how those numbers are divided up into units. The answer could also change with the scenario. I suspect there are other things too. And this is before we take into account any variability there might for a unit with weapon options and how they are allowed to set up and so on. These things could be accounted for in points values, and i don’t think it would need to be a huge amount of work, but it’s obviously more work to have points values change depending on how they are combined with other things than simply having a fixed points value for each unit and part thereof.
Whenever points are talked about I always wonder how competitive is our community? I agree with my fun is my fun and your fun is your your fun but what happens when these meet and the “fun” is very different. Whether it be gaming or playing sports I think I fall in cinematic area of fun. I enjoy the spectacular moments. My competitive edge only appears when I see injustice i.e cheating or people not playing to the spirit of the game. Then it is unleashed. I sound like a competitive vigilante. I’ll get me mask and cloak
Great show guys. Loved the points discussion. I’m a themed army guy myself(never won me any tournaments). I love making my army work for me. If I end up getting crushed…. well sounds like I need to change my tactics. Now I have played some death star army’s and it’s really not fun at all but like Warren said. That guy is really enjoying it. It’s his thing. All these different takes on gaming is what I believe makes our community the best. Happy Gaming Cultists!!!! Cheers from The Bay Area!
Oh yes. My biggest hobby regret. Buying in on the ROBOTECH Kickstarter. I got the first shipment. Was totally stoked. After I put one little guy together and it consisted of about 15 parts. I immediately put that bad boy up for sale. lol…. L888888888888888!!!!!!!!!
CoG life represent!!!!!!!
Count me in for Snail Mail.
I’m all for storytelling in a game, otherwise you’re just going through the motions.
I
m up for Snail Mail, and how about from time to time we CoGs return the favour. Justins idea about putting mail in packages is a great one, but instead of putting them in every order only put them in orders of CoG members.wait justin knows 3l1t3
@warzan – How about an Xmas/New Year letter/zine to wrap up the year and look forward to the new one? (Including teases about what is coming up.)
You’d get to play Santa for the wargaming world.
Purchase via the store, perhaps free if spending over a certain amount.
I haven’t touched points systems since playing GW games. Until I got into star wars legion but I’m a fluff player first. Its been odd going back to that after a few years of historical gaming where I’ve just collected the forces for a particular battle and hadn’t had to worry about points. People just turn up knowing one side has an advantage because that’s real life and like the challenge. The srory and education in history becomes the focus as none of my friends are that competitive. Maybe if I had a different circle of friends I’d think differently
Great to see my somewhat daring, and highly explosive pyrrhic victory against the Danish-Sea-Dogs got a suitable mention! On the other hand Christian had just “Spanked me with my own Army” in the Korea event!
My biggest regret is letting gaming slip away for so long. I have the ability to get into games more heavily but now in my 40s it is harder to find gameplay.
Cant wait to see if the rigging is worth the effort for durability of the black seas minis. Thanks @avernos for pushing for someone else to do the tough work. 🙂
So the points thing is a bit of an odd one in reality. If we are redoing a historical battle or being historical then points can be an unwanted sticking point. If we know what was going on in a battle then points dont matter and you just do the battle based on the order of battle. If you are playing historical games based on a time period then you can pick from what was in the area and you may not get a balanced game but you should get a historic game. Currently many people are upset that the Germans in the Flames of War DDay book dont really have air support. But they didn’t so why should you get them.
So points aren’t really the important part of a game. What really matters and this is the basic point of the previous statement is the scenario you are going to play. If you are on defense and holding out for a late reserve you shouldn’t have a bunch of available units. The attacker should have more more to start. The most important thing is the scenarios you want to play and they will dictate what is available to put on the table etc.
@warzan
In reference to your gamer regret, this is exactly why GW fanboyism(is that a word?) drives me nuts. GW have the best marketing reach on our industry and they drown out so much other better product out there for those not motivated to look elsewhere. Don’t get me wrong I play their games and buy their products but I do not consider them the best out there in any regard.
@warzan
Your ruined wizard academy terrain looks good. It looks like modelmates no longer exists, what would be a substitute for the modelmates weathering spray?
lol, couldnt figure out what that weird letter was in my junk mail. Lucky I checked it before classing it as spam. heheh
I have no issue with game systems including points values for the units. It’s just shame that many people don’t realise you don’t have to use them.
We have a fairly large Bolt Action player base locally with steady stream of new ones joining. By default, coming often from the 40k scene, they only know about building lists with pre-set point values and picking a scenario from the rulebook. Most of them are so positively surprised when I suggest setting up a cool table, coming up a custom scenario and objectives and picking out cool forces from our collections not giving a ?about points.
The point of the GW laketown set is that it’s supposed to be completely customisable. As it you can apparantly build anything out of the kits, I’ve seen on social media groups some pretty impressive builds. But i guess that is the point where it starts getting ridiculously expensive as you combine several kits for one building.
Overall I agree, the GW laketown stuff probably was the worst option, I guess its not too bad if you just want a couple of buildings and walkways, but if you want a large layout then I would go with 4 ground (or similar) as you were showing.
Bit late coming to this, but a few thoughts on points.
I hear a lot of complaints about real battles not being equal, and that historical games (especially) use other ways of determining victory to just killing. e.g. ‘if you can survive longer than the real soldiers did, you’ve ‘won’ even though you were wiped out.
But this is actually the point of points values. It’s to avoid games of 20 space marines vs. 20 goblins. That would be an ‘equal’ game’. Points assist players to make a game fun but tipping the scales against one faction. In this example, points enable you to make a game ‘unfair’ by outnumbering the marines.
I thought it was interesting that you also didn’t mention Power Levels in the current 40K. I don’t know how many people use them, but the system would be crippled by people min-maxing and abusing it, but it enables you to have roughly equal games without worrying about points or balance too much.
Also worth pointing out that, whether they do it well or not, GW have now been pushing 3 ways of playing for some time: open, narrative and competitive. They are encouraging players to play in different ways, including plenty that don’t make players a slave to points values.
Hi Warren,
I know how you feel about hobby regret. Had it myself once or twice.
For your particular case, might this be of interest?
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/968660672/fishing-village?ref=section-homepage-view-more-recommendations-p1
Cheers