Sunday, February 26, 2012

Presence of Faeit: Tervigons and Thunderwolves, Terrain, My Grey Knights


This week we are celebrating the 25th anniversary of 40k with a huge announcement of missing models the community has wanted for the past 2 years. There is a ton of excitement over this release and GW has done an amazing job with this. It really is the biggest news piece we have for 2012 thus far.

Presence of Faeit is my weekly editorial. I generally report during the week what is going on, and today is my day to comment on what exactly it is that I am thinking of.

Does GamesWorkshop Listen?
One thing that is quite accepted in the community (well, mostly the whinny forum community), is that Games Workshop turns a deaf ear to its customers. That they really do not care to listen to them, and that they are going to do what they want to, regardless of what the world wide hobby thinks.

Take this scenario. (especially you parents). You have a whinny kid, throwing tantrums, crying and whinning. Sometimes there is nothing you can do to break through to that kid, so you tune out. You might hear the basics, but beyond the reason they are upset, you tune out the rest. (This is for sanity for you non-parents, just wait).

Our internet community at large is like this kid. In fact it is exactly like this kid. Whinning and complaining about anything that does not go their way. Would you listen to them?

Of course you would... However, you would also tune out 90% of the whinning that our hobby likes to throw out.

I believe that Games Workshop does indeed listen to its customer base, and this last release is a clear indication of that. They know the community was upset that this release was not done some time ago. We need to start acting like adults, and not 3-5 year olds. I know this is not going to happen, but its my two cents.


Tervigons and Thunderwolves
What an amazing release we have on our hands. The models are incredible. So much that I am considering starting a tyranid army. I sat down with the codex and pondered what I would want, and what I would like to play. Of course, I would want Tervigons. They really are just that cool.

I am glad they did a Thunderwolves model finally. We have needed one for all the Spacewolf players out there. It is a strong codex that many people love, so giving the space wolves their bone, is an excellent idea.

Of course, now that the models are here, I expect to see them on the tabletop almost immediately. The entire release was so much more than we expected, it was a nice surprise.


Terrain
I was able to get my first game in with the terrain I built, and it worked out amazingly. There was just enough area terrain and line of sight blocking that the game was very interesting. I did manage to snap a tree out of its base though. I am sometimes very rough with terrain, and overall it held up great.

What happened was this. I was putting my head down for line of sight, and smacked myself in the side of the head with a very obvious tree in the side of the face. Easily fixed though, and because of the incident, I am reinforcing all the trees bases with low heat hot glue.

Overall though a great experience with the my first terrain set built in the last decade. It was durable enough for everything but the full weight of my head. It looked great on the table, and worked well within the rules.


Grey Knights
Since last speaking about them, I have gotten in several more games with my Grey Knights. My love of Purifiers will not go away. They are expensive, and probably one of my favorite units out there now. They perform wonderfully.

Now to my inquisition units. My Psykers of course ( I have been fielding a unit of 8) lost their heads the very first round again. Now I dont know what kind of evil forces are at work here, but its been very consistent that I am getting perils the first time I use them. The odds say that someday I will be able to use this new unit, however, experience lately has dictated that I will rarely if ever have them survive their first attempt at using a psychic power. I will keep trying though.

Another thing I am loving, is techmarines. Armed with a Nemesis Force Staff and some grenades, I am loving these guys. Perhaps even a little too much, because I just might need to get me a second one.