The end of the Affair

Ill thought out Rant:

I'm sure by now wargamers have heard or read about the sad news from Beasts of War. I find it a both a totally bizarre situation and really sad. BoW provide coverage and free advertisement for GW, and in covering many systems and companies can be considered quite fair. They were doing good for the wargaming hobby as whole which can only benefit GW.

To essentially punish them for doing so and seemingly being successful seems so vindictive and petty. I can understand having an issue with Wayland Games. However BoW was never a rumour peddler like some sites.

Either GWs products aren't good enough to be compared to others in and open and umbiased way, or GW needs absolute control over their products across the entire internet. Clearly as any one who has seen, say, the mins from Dark Vengeance box set, GW minis are some the absolute best in the business. They could only benefit from the comparisons with others.

Controlling brands and IP is not a matter of locking everything down. If anything its counterproductive. News of the BoW issue spread across the internet quickly, dominating my twitter feeds. Quite a few said they would boycott GW now. How many actaully do this long term remains to be seen. I am one of them. I was thinking about both Chaos Warriors and Lizardmen. No longer.

There are thousands of people who evangelise GWs products for free. It feels like GW would rather they didn't. Sad.

Back into the Emperors Fold

So this week I've been off work with a chest infection. It was bad, I woke up one night coughing and there was some blood in the phlegm. Not good - I've had an X-ray and is well with my lungs.

The time off work has allowed me to indulge somewhat in my sedentary hobbies. So I dusted off Civilization 4, installed it on the old laptop.and conquered the world several times, as the English. The bloody warmongering Aztecs, they always declar war when I don't need it.

I also got some hobbytime in! :-)  For some reason it was my Space Marines that called to be worked on, rather than my recent Mantic Games binge. I've managed to make progress mainly on the Dark Vengeance Terminators and Bikes. I am a slow and crap painter but it has been pleasurable indeed, the bikes in particular are smashing models.

All in all, I didn't realise quite how many assembled Space Marines I've got. Its approaching over half company at least. Not enough are painted but this has improved, no the real issue is stripping all the eBay bargains. This is at the best of times a tedious affair, complicated in this case by the thick paints the previous owner applied. A Rhino in particular is taking the piss - a month in dettol hasn't really shifted it. I got some more Dettol today so hopefully a less paint saturated tub will do better.

There is also a Dreadnought and Attack Bike in need of a deep cleanse, so in terms of cool models to add the the force there are plenty beyond Dark Vengeance. Looking on eBay tonight there seem to be a few cheap Rhinos out there: my eyes are peeled.

Armour is key to the fluff for my chapter, the Swords of Midnight. In my mind each squad has one each! My break from work has also given me time and energy to add and update the fluff I have for my chapter. Its coming along nicely, adding bits here, tinkering there. Its quite lengthy already and I have more to add. I love time off work, even if I am coughing like an eighty year old smoker.

LOOK WHAT CAME IN THE POST!!!