Re: New boxed set.

Posted by MortiS-the-Lost on Oct 24, 2012; 12:00pm
URL: http://the-lost-and-the-damned.71.s1.nabble.com/New-boxed-set-tp7578552p7578958.html

Thousand and One Sons wrote

From looking through the literature that goes with it, the quick play guide and reference charts and missions, what i can say is that the version in Spanish contains inconsistencies and typos in the stats. The chaos lord is described somewhere as having a 5+ unmodified save and elsewhere as a 4+, etc. These mistakes may not be in the English version, but nonetheless one expects a 6th edition to be more polished.

I've heard that GW translations are notoriously bad in some languages to the point where people in some countries will seek out an English language version just to make the game playable. Some countries apparently get very good translations through, so I guess it depends on who is doing the  translation. I'd be interested to know how good the Italian translations are before and after Alessio Cavatore moved onto working for Mantic and others.

Thousand and One Sons wrote

one expects a 6th edition to be more polished

The phrase “polished turd” springs to mind when I read that

Thousand and One Sons wrote

The mistakes should be ironed out, the army lists should be already done and [play-tested] and more balanced (a concept which GW have never totally embraced as far as i could tell - the idea that certain units are exceptional value for points seems to get used as a selling point rather than evidence that the game is unbalanced).  

Ah yes GW and their fans talk about points value like it's a currency - it's really sad, all to often I hear things like “I don't mind paying £20 for it because it's a 200 point model” (and they're talking about a human sized figure on foot) or “That's a great model to have in your army because it's only 35 points”. Recently I even saw an advert for a Necron army which listed the points value of the models rather than the prices! The points value of a model seems to take president over quality of sculpt for a lot of GW fans. I don't know, maybe in future GW stores will have some kind of exchange rate between money and game points, and their customers will pay for things in points with a special card. Until then justifying a high price a for high points value model or a model having a low points value for how powerful it is in the rules being a selling point is pathetic behaviour. These people need to get their priorities strait and GW as company is exploiting this no-end.

Thousand and One Sons wrote

The loyalist space marines are ok if you suspend disbelief. Not too hard to do with the basic marines, but of course when a terminator with shoulder joints 6 foot apart and a head located somewhere in the middle of its chest is supposed to be piloted by a human, it requires some blind faith.

If you think the normal terminators are bad you should check out the new plastic Grey Knights

Thousand and One Sons wrote

As far as i know, there have never been any chaos cultist miniatures before, so i was hoping that these ones would be good. And they are OK.

Some much nicer Chaos Cultist were produced in the late 90's -

I've found it rather hard to find a picture of them online because of all the pictures of the new plastic ones and idiots trying to sell Necromunda Redemptionist miniatures as Chaos Cultist . (On a related point I'm sick of hearing how people have bought the new 40k to use the the Cultists in Necromunda)

Thousand and One Sons wrote

it would be nice if citadel sculptors made a close study of this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man. I was comparing the cultists to some authentic 28mm miniatures i got from hasslefree. In terms of the height they are almost the same, but in terms of width across the shoulders and size of hands and fist they are absurdly different. The close combat cultists have clutched in their enormous chunky fists autopistols which are more or less the size of a submachine gun in a realistic scale.

GW have really lost their touch when it comes to sculpting anatomy (not to mention texture) - and the culprit to blame is the the computer modelling and 3D printing process they use to make the masters for most of their miniatures these days - that and sheer laziness. There's always been inconsistencies of scale and proportion amongst GW's ranges but it's worse than even these days - again I blame the detachment of a computer generated model from the real thing.

Thousand and One Sons wrote

I fell in love with the original Rogue trader game and spent many (too many for sure) hours poring over it as a kid. They came up with a nice universe with loads of background (not entirely original, bits and pieces were lifted from films and books, but that is inevitable) and lots of character and charm. The gameplay was a bit awkward and didnt really work as a fixed points battle game without a GM. Then a series of ad hoc modifications were made to try and fix this. Then at a certain point it was decided to make the game more cinematic and forget the roleplay origin of the game (I remember a GW staff member telling me this some years ago). They seem to be making a sucess of that at least in terms of marketing if not in substance.

Totally agreed - this is what ruined 40k for me and many others

Thousand and One Sons wrote

I see that here in Portugal  FNAC are now stocking their products (specialist gaming stores have stopped stocking GW stuff for obvious reasons) and they appear on the shelves alongside Magic the Gathering cards and such stuff. I dont know whether they will sell much stuff, especially in the present economic situation and with the high prices they are asking. But the fact that they convinced the FNAC people to stock it says something. I dot think they have FNAC in the UK but in most of Europe they are a major chain where people go to buy music, books, computer stuff and films etc.

No we don't have FNAC in the UK, but I know the kind of store you mean, although I don't think we really have an equivalent here any more since Woolworths died in the recession.
The main thing to remember is that GW are trying to maintain a false monopoly over the miniatures industry - their approach to this is many-fold, but it all loops back to controlling prices and a the general ignorance of other brands amongst their core customer base. Basically GW don't like independent gaming stores because, not only do they offer GW products at a discount, but also because they sped awareness of other brands (most of which produce superior miniatures for much lower prices these days). To combat this GW make things hard for independent gaming stores by making them jump through all kinds of hoops and even have different levels of whole-sale prices for different stores. (See also the 'Australian Embargo') Selling through a large retail chain is of course preferable for GW because 1: other brands don't sell through large retail chains, 2: it spreads awareness of GW to a wider audience and 3: the large retailers will only offer discounts on products for short periods during a sale and not constantly like an independent gaming store. 4: Large retailers, will not keep a wide stock of GW products which will force people onto GW stores when they want more -  In the end GW wants you to buy their products directly from them because that's where they make the most profit, don't have to compete with other companies and never offer any real discounts.

This is compounded further by GW's practice of raising prices to increase profit-margins to make up for falling sales - which in turn of course leads to further loss of sales, their response to which is to raise prices again - which in turn of course leads to further loss of sales, their response to which is to raise prices again - which in turn of course leads to further loss of sales, their response to which is to raise prices again - which in turn of course leads to further loss of sales, their response to which is to raise prices again - which in turn of course leads to further loss of sales, their response to which is to raise prices again  - which in turn of course leads to further loss of sales, their response to which is to raise prices again  - which in turn of course leads to further loss of sales, their response to which is to raise prices again  …  

As wiser, more aware gamers of course we don't want to be exploited like this, so my advice is: Always look for alternative miniatures/products/games and if you must buy GW products do it though an independent store or website - if all did this GW would be forced not only to lower their prices to compete with other brands, but also up their quality to maintain their reputation - and the industry would be a better place!

PS: If you're looking to find the good old flavour the GW that you used to know, you need only look to other companies - nearly all the great designers, artists and sculptors of the past have moved onto other companies and that's one of the main reasons tLatD forum is here