Sisters of Battle icodex

Where is it?? This is the closest achieved here - a scan of the image from White Dwarf. It does not seem to be on the Black Library site or in the itunes store. Why the hold up for digital releases? Why only ibook format as well? Rhetorical question the answer is understood here but not agreed with.

Besides this despite the silence for 2 weeks there has been progress with the Armageddon Pattern Medusa and the last squad for the Steel Legion. Progress may be slow as a new proper paint spray system has been acquired and there is a bit of a steep learning curve to make the best use of it.

How Physically Dangerous is 40k as a Hobby?

I have just stabbed myself at the base of the thumb on my left hand with a games workshop hobby drill. Because it was a drill bit, as a penetrating stabbing instrument it was pretty blunt. It hurt quite a lot. It slipped as it was being used to drill holes to create an new slot for a metal mini in a 60mm base. There is a 2.5cm scar at the base of the first finger on my left hand where I sliced completely through the skin, down to the tendons with a very sharp hobby knife while working on a metal mini. Fortunately the tendons were not harmed. There are other scars from previous injuries from working with metal and resin minis. Is it just my bad luck or do other enthusiasts also get injured with this hobby.

Should GW get sued through a class action in the states for their culpability in encouraging people to get involved in the hobby. Been watching Damages.

White Dwarf just needs .........................

July's White Dwarf is here. The glossy fat format introduced last autumn continues. This format has been met with little enthusiasm at least on the internet. Why so? There are at least 156 pages. The photography of the miniatures is superb. The set piece double page displays of models are amazing. What else is there - besides the editorial there are as regular features Jervis Johnson and Jeremy Vetlock's opinion led columns, Paint Splatter advice on painting, War Diary - the preparation of 7 hobbyists to produce a display army, then there are the design studio, forgeworld and black library sections, and not to forget the apocalypse battle report.

Why does it all seem so flat when clearly a lot of effort seems to have been put in to producing a high quality product. What exactly are its weaknesses?  Well, on the downside its not a coherent read. It makes no attempt to hide that its prime role is to advertise the latest releases, and that is at least honest, but there are so many, many of them each month leading to new model shockitis. Games Workshop seems to have gone into overdrive in the last 12 months in creating new and excellent additions to its ranges of miniatures, which is a good thing from the hobby point of view. But as a result the reader of White Dwarf is overwhelmed with the new product. Clearly this is seen as a good thing in the marketing plan, but too much shock and awe will overwhelm the reader who as a human outside of the 40k universe needs a comfort zone from which to appreciate the latest development. And that comfort does not exist at present. There is no attempt to soften the blow for the hobbyist with, possibly some sort of a heads up, as used to be on the last page or probably more importantly some sort of continuity from issue to issue. Last month was Eldar this month it is Apocalypse. In the past White Dwarf offered both continuity and a comfort zone, often with an army featured over several issues and a wider range of core systems covered in each issue.

Is this a fair analysis of what is missing from White Dwarf, or are there other ways in which it could be improved?

One final thought is that with the prices of new releases always edging upwards the minis must have moved out of most people's pocket money range. Which market segment is the target of Games Workshops apocalypse formations.

  

GW discontinues Mordian Iron Guard, Steel Legion, and Valhallans

Mordian Iron Guard no more, Steel Legion no more, Valhallans no more.

The BOLs form and Darius have flagged the fact that the GW have discontinued the only minis for these Imperial Guard Regiments. It seems to be part of their move away from metal minis, although the Sister of Battle are still on sale as are the Vostroyan and the Rough Riders. So metal is not completely out yet although it is clearly destined. Cadians and Catachian have also lost any metal minis although their plastic replacements must now be the mainstay of the Imperial Guard. This has created a great deal of disappointment. Here the Mordian Iron Guard sculpts were loved, if they reappeared as plastics or fine casts that would be great but it is unlikely given GW history. The available IG armies have been diminished by the disappearance of these 3 legendary sets of minis. The prices of used minis have gone through the roof on ebay. Is GW planning to release more and different IG regiments. Hopefully the withdrawal of these classic and excellent minis is a signal that this is in the pipeline.

Where are the rumoured Sisters of Battle? 

Painters Block

Saint Celestine has hit painter block. She seems to be close to completion but its not clear what to do next to finish her off in the style she deserves. Similarly a reluctance to chop up more of Osgiliath has struck. The plan there is to rebase the squad of 8 Seraphim with more rigid supports for the jumping girls. Then there is a Spare Steel Legion Sergeant, minus an arm acquired from ebay and scheduled to be rehabilitated into the Legion as a flamer operator. There is also an old Chimera to be redeployed into the Steel Legion to provide transport for the Squad of Veterans. Finally there is the assembled Thundertusk ready for finishing and painting. Also there in the background is a partially painted Genestealer who also has a few mates needing finishing. It's actually great to have several projects to switch between, avoiding letting any becoming a grind.
This is how painters block becomes unblocked here. So off to work on one of these or perhaps start another new project. 

Rant ..... PCs Windows and Security on the Internet

Suddenly this week blogger images from blogspot.com became undisplayable on my PC. When I browsed Bols (Bell of Lost Souls)  website - no images, but images on From the Warp, but not on Admiral Drax or Fritz 40k and so on. Most blogger images hosted on http//*blogspot.com/* had disappeared. How or why, it was not clear. Artificer had installed nothing. The PC was protected by Kaspersky, and Windows defender and kept up to date on Windows 7 by automatic updates. Firefox was affected and so also was IE (exploder). The only thing that had preceded this loss of functionality was an update on windows - thank you Microsoft. Quickly the laptop was turned on. It was OK blog sites images were OK. Wait a minute, as it was shut down it installed some windows updates. Lo and behold the laptop had the same affliction once it was rebooted. Logically blogger.com was being blocked by some security change but what as the lone user had done nothing! Eventually a solution was realised by the humble user - help pages and requests for help rendered as much assistance as a mirage in the desert - set blogger.com to be a trusted site for Kaspersky. Ok, but why did windows update break the usability of blogger? Is it deniable collateral damage from the war for dominance between Google and Microsoft. Is it a bug in Kaspersky uncovered by the latest Microsoft updates. Actually here at Artificers Workshop we do not give a damn. If software houses had to pay compensation to consumers for their waste of consumers time as a consequence of their dysfunctional behaviour there would be a massive change in behaviour. My bill to Microsoft and Kaspersky for the time wasted by their incompetence is prepared. As users we need to campaign for a change in the law. If petrol companies sell petrol with too much water in it and it breaks engines they are liable. If software companies update software without explicit permission for each change that breaks the Internet for users they must be liable also.

 Back to Sister of Battle Command Squads :

 Work has progressed.

Grey Knights and the INQUISITION

The Grey Knight's codex has been about for a while. The first part of the new Sisters of Battle Codex in the latest White Dwarf, this month. For Inquisition afficionados there seems to be little hope for collections of minis. What to do with all the stormtroopers squads apart from another squad in an IG army. What to do with the Inquisitors and their retinues. Doubtless the Witch Hunters &  Daemon Hunters codices are not continuing to shift as many minis as GW wished, while SMEGs (Space Marine Egguivalents) still do. SMEGs do well in tournaments, at least in the minds of the hottests hard list internet list followers. Some 40k afficianados feel that this is not actually helping the hobby. The game is about fun : -  states GW! Obviously ULTRA-kill is for some the end in itself, a bit like go faster stripes on cars. What the ULTRA-kill listers want is that wargames succeed or fail on the genius of the back bedroom armchair general regardless of tabletop skills. What ULTRA-kill listers forget that in real life and on the table top battles are settled by the skills and superiority of the opposing Generals. There is no ultimate list to guarentee a win and compensate for or hide bad gameplay.

This finally brings Artificers Workshop to the trigger for this post which was the post by Caldera on BOLs regarding Dark Eldar vs Grey Knights. In this post he disses the Inquisition and Inquisitors retinues to laud the Grey Knights as yet another SMEG (YASMEG). What is the point of another codex if its YASMEG? Actually the Inquisition embedded in the GK codex has oodles of potential for throwing out some interesting and  fun units to play with. Retinues are no longer limited to a specific number of  types of henchman. Think about it, a retinue with 3 stormtroopers with meltaguns (18pts each) plus 3 multimelta gun servitors (10 points each) plus 2 Jokearo weapon smiths (35 points). Total  - 154 points for melta goodness plus weapon and armour upgrades guarenteed each turn, the weapons smiths can fire lascannon, multimelta of heavy flamer firepower at the commanders choice! Add a an Ordo Malleus Inquistor with terminator armour, psycannon and force sword plus hammerhand psychic power for 110 points total. Add transport and here is mobile doom for any armoured vehicle commanded by a terminator with potential for a 1+ armour save and its not YASMEG!! And it can be assembled from existing daemonhunter mini collections. Amazing. Great.