Looking to This Blogs Future...

Recently this blog has turned into a more traditional 'shit I'm doing now that I think is great please tell me how awesome I am' style of hobby blog and though I've always posted pictures of my own modelling projects (my very first post was one in fact) it's not really the only thing I intended it to be...

Searching for a job, finding one, clearing the debts accumulated while being unemployed and making sure I keep the job I've now got were major considerations and hobby in general and this blog in particular became a low priority...which was a shame as I really enjoyed some of the debates that my more...opinionated articles generated. I didn't miss the death threats particularly though ;-)

So here's what I intend to do in the immediate future...in no particular order...

Malifaux

As recent blog readers will be painfully aware of my current obsession is Malifaux. So much so that I became a 'Henchman' with the intention of 'spreading the word' to as many people as possible. While demoing Malifaux to people the main criticism that I heard was not of the basic rules (which are fairly simple), the models (which are usually pretty awesome) or my demoing (because to be frank I'm fucking ace, lol) but rather that the rulebook is a bit confusing.

In order to address that situation it is my intention to write a selection of basic tutorials covering the aspects of Malifaux that people appear to be having trouble with. My current idea is to do a basic overview of the aspects that are an issue and then do pictorial examples of the system in action using pictures of appropriate models together with sample card flips so people have a strong visual indication of how it's meant to work. I'll be starting this project tomorrow and if all goes well I should be publishing the first by next weekend at the latest. Once I have a few done I'll create a page with an alphabetised list containing links to each tutorial and place a link to that somewhere convenient in the sidebar so they're all in one place. This page may also contain links to other similar tutorials done by other bloggers if I think they're easy to understand or just well done as different people often absorb information in different ways and another point of view is quite often nice to have. One of my fellow bloggers and a fellow Henchmen has done at least one so (after I've asked his permission, lol) I'll add a link to that alongside my own version.


Warhammer 40K

The things I really enjoyed doing was writing Tacticas, gaming tutorials, list design and other similar activities. My primary focus for this activity was Warhammer 40K but that was effectively de-railed by the coming of 6th edition.

My issue with 6th (as anybody who has listened to one of my rants is painfully aware) is that it's no longer possible to build a balanced 'all-comers' list as the changes to the system make 'rock, paper, scissors' autowins/losses a virtual certainty in a tournament environment and depressingly common even for casual pick-up games and so I rather uncharacteristically gave up. This failure has somewhat bothered me and so I'd like to have another go at creating this elusive 'balanced' force...of course as with all things there's a problem...

Frankly Games Workshop's products have recently crossed the line from "I'll just grab one of those in case", through "do I really need that?" and have reached the "how fucking much?!?!?!?" category and I'd rather not have to spend a fortune in order to accomplish this goal. Fortunately what I'm not short of is Space Marines, Space Marine vehicles, Space Marine...well Space Marines in general, lol. Therefore any balanced army I create will need to be either Marine based or be a Tyranid, Daemon or Imperial Guard army that's doable with the stuff I have and of those choices marines seems the most viable. Unfortunately I'm hideously out of touch with the current codices, metagame and new rule interactions so I have a lot of catching up to do. Hopefully I should have a frame-work for a viable list by the end of the month...all being well...

Warmachine

I have promised my friend Dave that I'll start Warmachine...

Having looked at the various factions I decided to go with the evil techno-zombie faction of Cryx as the models I started to paint (for fun) were from that particular faction. I have acquired two of the starter boxes and an additional Warjack (Deathjack?) which I'm informed will allow me to field enough of a force for learning purposes and I've ordered a few more models so I can do a tiered list as apparently 'themed' is how I roll these days ;-)

Once I familiarise (and in the case of 40K re-familiarise) myself with the systems then I'll start doing those tactica articles and opinion pieces that seemed to generate discussion and death threats in almost equal proportions. Of course the real reason for all this additional content is so I can finally break the 150 followers barrier and generate some actual comments in the comment sections ;-)

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.