Financial fortunes of GW

Storm of Money: I don't know who this guy is, but he looks happy...

Today I have added myself as a new follower of an apparently exclusively 40K blog. Why would I do such a thing? Well really, it's because I found the following post very interesting: Financial Analysis of GW.

Like many people (I suspect), I find annual financial reports very dull and less than completely informative. My interest has never been great enough to bother working out exactly what everything means, so I remain secure in my ignorance. The run-down given by Duke in the link above is given in simple English and should be understandable to anyone who cares enough to look at it.

Locking it in

I have written in the past about my use of tournaments as motivation for actually getting painting done. I have always found that committing to a tournament and including things that need to be painted in my list is a great way to make sure I actually knuckle down and get some paint on the models.

This year I have been entering fewer tournaments than normal. This is partly because it's a bit harder to commit to these things when you've got a toddler to think about, and it's partly because a couple of the tournaments I have attended in past years decided to go with player packs that didn't interest me. It's been 4 months since I played in a tournament.

Book of Grudges is in just over 2 weeks, and I submitted my list yesterday. I confess, I gave a reasonable amount of thought to the composition of the army, but little consideration to how much painting I will have to do. This kind of seems like poor planning on my part. Maybe I am out of practice.

Anyway, I have now locked in what I will be using, so all that remains is to ensure it's ready to go on the table. Here is a picture of my "to-do list"...

Imperial Progress VII

As is usually the case, my recent progress on the Empire has been moderate at best. However, in keeping with the sagely advice I was given, I will keep giving updates so that I at least feel guilty about my slowness - maybe that will spur me onward...

I used to think that I would never field a Steam Tank in my Empire army. Admittedly I made this resolution in 7th edition, and I resolved at the same time never to use a War Altar. Both struck me as decidedly no-brainer choices - too powerful and far too common in the Empire armies I saw.

8th edition had changed my opinion of the War Altar a bit; bound spells now require power dice, so that made a big difference. I haven't gotten around to making one yet, but at least I no longer have an issue with fielding one.

The Steam Tank, on the other hand... Well, it was revised to Toughness 10, so my immediate reaction was that it was even worse than before. I did end up buying one though, so I could use it in larger games where any imbalance it brought would really not matter. Then it sat in a shelf in its box for months.

Discussions with some friends have convinced me that the Steam Tank is actually nowhere near as rude as it was in 7th edition, despite the increased Toughness. The reason for this is that its immunity to most spells has been taken away. Now things like Pit of Shades and Purple Sun of Xereus mean almost certain death for a Steam Tank (Searing Doom scares it a lot too), which means a lot more armies will have a way of dealing with it.

I probably still wouldn't field a Steam Tank in a balanced army with Great Cannons and the rest - not in a tournament-sized game. I feel like it's adding an unnecessary level of hardness to the list. However, I have recently started toying with some all-cavalry lists, and I like the way the Steam Tank adds to the army. It is, in effect, the mobile artillery for the force. It provides the only cannon in the army (although it's only Strength 8 and D3 wounds). It also provides a holding force in an army that is somewhat lacking such things. I do think the Steam Tank will be one of those units where some armies swat it like a bug, whilst others can't really deal with it. But there are plenty of things in the game like this, and the lists I use don't normally include them.

So with this all in mind, and with my Book of Grudges list coming together in my head (it's due in 2 days), I have assembled my Steam Tank! I'm hoping it won't take forever to paint. The model does have a ton of detail on it. It also went together really nicely, which I was impressed with. This is a nice kit. Of course, I am probably the last Empire player on earth to assemble one, so you all knew this already...

When battle reports go wrong...

You sometimes hear people talking about the battle reports in White Dwarf, and how they have to play the games multiple times in order to get a game worth talking about. I used to think this sounded like poor planning - surely there are plenty of games that are close enough to be worthy of a report. A decent match-up of players and armies should ensure you don't have too many blow-outs, right? Well...

This report was going to be for the benefit of those who like to see a more competitive game. Chris Cousens and Ben Leopold are both currently in the top 10 of the national rankings, and they were using tournament-strength armies. So far so good, right? Apparently not. After setting everything up and preparing for a game worth talking about, the wheels came off Chris' wagon early on and there was no recovering. Chris tells me his army is a bit hit-and-miss. If that is the case, this game definitely goes into the "miss" basket.

Chris will be banned from battle reports until he promises to put in a better showing than he did here. Shame, shame, shame...

Poll results

OK, so the poll has closed and the results are in. The most popular preference was for a combination of story and actual game detail, followed by people who prefer straight narrative.

I will be working on a format that allows readers to follow the story without being too interrupted by game details, but making sure those details are available for people who want to see them. I have not entirely decided how I am going to do this yet - I may even just resort to using different colours for the narrative and gaming aspects of it, so people can skip a particular colour if they want to. This would, in effect, address all 3 criteria on the poll. However the emphasis will still remain on producing a proper story from the game.

Hopefully I will get a chance to have a bash at this method sooner rather than later.

Thanks to all who responded to the poll.

Battle Bunker closing

 It has recently been announced that a local independent retailer in Melbourne, Battle Bunker, is to close its doors. The announcement can be seen here.

It's always sad to see games stores close down, particularly when they seem to be going along well. Battle Bunker has established its own club, which took second place in the 40K event at the Victorian Club Championships earlier in the year. It's possible the club will outlive the store, but I guess we will have to wait and see.

It seems that running an independent games store is a thankless task, as evidenced by the high attrition rate that we see. I realise a lot of businesses don't last long (this is not a phenomenon restricted to hobby stores), but it really does seem that running a games store at a profit is an uphill battle. This is probably especially the case nowadays, with the rise and rise of the internet as the cheapest source of so many things.

Viv mentions that running the store has killed his passion for the hobby, which is perhaps the saddest part of all. Most people who start a games store are likely to do so because they have always dreamed of turning their hobby into a full-time job. The thought that realising a dream can actually suck that enthusiasm from you is a bit scary. Hopefully closing down the store will give Viv a chance to rekindle his passion for the hobby.

I feel a twinge of guilt whenever a local retailer disappears, knowing that I am one of the many who take most of their business online nowadays. Unfortunately my main consideration is always going to be price, especially when the difference is significant (thanks largely to the exchange rate at the moment). I have spent far too much on my hobby already to be knowingly handing over extra cash on a regular basis.

I don't imagine it's possible for a store to remain open if its sole source of income is from club meets and hosting events (and in the case of some like Battle Bunker, producing and selling high quality custom terrain), so it's hard to imagine a different fate for anyone game enough to try to turn their hobby passion into a viable business in the current environment of a strong Australian dollar.

Thanks for trying, Viv. Sorry it didn't work out.

Imperial Progress VI

My slow progress on my Empire army continues. Well, I guess the fact that the progress is continuing is the important thing, even if the speed is slightly depressing.

As predicted, I managed to complete the Halberdiers I was painting whilst still on holiday. That was about the sum total of my achievement, but it's still progress. The unit is very nearly ready to be used, however I am slightly undecided about command models. I got a command group along with these guys from EBay, however the standard bearer and champion are old Reiksguard infantry, and none of them really match my Halberdiers in all their Attack of the Clones glory. I am considering converting some random models heavily and making a command group that matches these guys instead.