Games Workshop Was Right to Dump Specialist Games

Yep, they did the right thing if the rumours are true and ye old Specialist Games are going the way of the Man O War / Space Hulk / Dark Future / Chainsaw Warrior and so on.

Let me tell you about my opinions.

Why do I say this?

Well GW is a miniatures company first and foremost - they've said as much and they take (mostly) deserved pride in the quality of their new releases. But Specialist Games were, for the most part, a bit of a blot on that record.

For example, saw you saw one of Forge World's beautiful Warhounds:

But thought "hey, 250 quid is a bit much, but I love Titans so maybe I'll give this Epic game a look..."

Not so much interest now, I'd wager. One of the best looking minis available (not so much anymore) for Epic is the Phantom Titan, who turns 25 this year. Yes, Games Workshop, the leading light of miniatures technology, is selling miniatures it first released over two decades ago. Whether that's a testament to Jes Goodwin's skill and vision, or a sign they've never really known how to move Specialist Games forward, or both, I'll leave up to you.
Similarly there have been more "fantasy football" teams put out by non-GW companies than by GW themselves in the last decade, and the old models do not compare in most cases:

The way I look at it this: Specialist Games figures are the Christmas jumpers of miniature lines. They're too ugly to actually use, but you know your granny will get really upset if you throw it out.

Gee thanks, Grandpa Jervis, it's just what I wanted!

So instead they hang around the joint and you hope when you're showing off your wardrobe to a new squeeze they don't see them and laugh their ass off at you (to clarify this metaphor: you're GW and the girl is a new customer).

Just be honest and chuck 'em out - you never wear it and it's taking up space. The argument is made that the Specialist Games range was still profitable, but barely. That's... not a good argument for a business, especially one that seems to be doing loads of cost cutting in the way GW is (and the whole global economic turbulence thing). Say that one out of every ten casting jobs was for a Specialist Games range - and I'm probably being generous here. If you get rid of that you would, in theory, get a greater than 10% increase in another area as you would have the casting time plus the time needed to change moulds and so on shifted over. That would mean increase in production of the lines that sell well, so you can get them stocked up for their new release and out the door, concentrating then on the next lot.

Some, like Lord Frontline, pictured to the right, have indicated that GW were simply sitting on their stock since the Finecast introduction, and this is merely the last dregs of stock disappearing. But regardless, time taken from the logistics workforce to deal with Specialist Games, as well as just physical space, can now go to stuff that sells.

"But, mighty Gotthammer," I hear you cry as you grovel before my dread throne, "Blood Bowl / Epic / Necromunda still has players! What will become of that once great community now that our support is gone?"

Erm, what support? I guess it was nice of GW to put up the PDF rulebooks, but I've seen in discussion threads about this very topic enquiries about rules directed to go to fan site to get the latest fan-updated editions. As Porky the Wise, that intrepid traveller of the expanse, would say "the game is now totally in our hands. But, of course, it always has been. Also, there is no game, there is only ourselves."
Nothing, short of a DMCA notice *cough*, can stop people playing Blood Bowl or Necromunda. Hell, the Blood Bowl PC game comes with the rules as a PDF.


BUT

What should GW do now? I think they have three main options, and I'll address them in what I consider order of least to most likely to happen:

1) Re-release. They'll totally redo all the ranges and re-launch the Specialist Games line with much fanfare and it will be 1995 all over again. I find this unlikely because of the sheer amount of capital required to resculpt / move to finecast and build up stock for what is a gamble that gamers will, in fact, put their money where their mouth is and buy Specialist Games in any volume.
It is more likely that one or two games may be moved, Blood Bowl has been rumoured for some time and has a bit more exposure with the PC game, and Necromunda's miniature line still holds up well (much thanks to Jes again, no doubt).
The success of Space Hulk has shown there is demand, but I understand GW's trepidation to invest so much capital on a risk at a time of economic uncertainty (double given what some of their more... unusual corporate moves of late may indicate).
Also, they may have missed the boat for other titles. In the skirmish stakes Mordheim is effectively superseded my Malifaux, Freebooter's Fate and more; Necromunda by Infinity and Relic Knights to a certain degree. While Epic has been nobbled by Drop Zone Commander and the currently Kickstarting Robotech Battles for small-scale sci-fantasy. And there is, of course, Firestorm Armada taking over BFG's slot.
Had they done this even five years ago when the indies were still in their infancy GW could have potentially cleaned up. Or, like many big corporations reacting to upstarts, it could have lost a boatload of money (see TSR vs Magic the Gathering).

Also costs around four times as much.

2) Licencing. Most likely to Fantasy Flight, but perhaps to a new player. GW has shown they can make a lot of money with their IP through the RPG books and various games. They've also shown savvy by getting paid to let others take the risk for stuff they don't want to do (movies). However none of those have been real miniature games. The closest are Fantasy Flight's board games, and I'm not sure GW would be willing to outsource it's core area, or it would likely be so restrictive / costly for the licensor they may find the going tough.

3) Nothing. Yep, I think GW's likely course of action in the near future will be nothing. They'll let the dust settle long enough for this to all be forgotten or just remembered with a roll of the eyes or a joke like the Squats, and then, when the time is right, maybe bring one or two titles back. Perhaps they're waiting out the expiry of the LotR agreement, and we'll see Specialst Games, or maybe just a singular game, back with a vengeance in three or four years.

So I do think the loss of Specialist Games is sad, and certainly and end of an era, but it is also a positive in that it will no longer be confined to a hellish semi-death for decades on end with no reprieve, and that any activity within GW will now solely be on new products, be they re-imaginings of the forgotten games or simply faster updates of the current generation.

Review: Imperial Armour 12: The Fall of Orpheus

Imperial Armour Volume 12: The Fall of Orpheus is Forge World’s latest offering in the series, covering said fall at the hands of the dastardly Necrons. It’s the first to feature our cyborganised chums, but the Death Korps of Krieg and the Minotaurs Chapter are here for some familiarity.
What I’m interested to see is if they’ve overcome the all too familiar editing errors that hamstrung the last IA outing…

Story and Background

In a departure from the last few IA books volume twelve, despite the title, isn’t the full story. The background is, in fact, merely the prelude to the campaign setting. See, the background charts the Orpheus sector all the way from its discovery pre-Heresy through to the Necron incursion, and then stops after the Necrons have flattened the Imperial forces. The campaign is designed to represent the war to reclaim the sector / save what’s left, so there is no fixed winner or loser as in books such as Vraks or Badab.
That said Alan Bligh’s introduction (itself a good read) indicates that there may be more to come from the sector, so who knows what end will be made canon.

Now, my biggest gripe of IA:11 (aside from the editing, or lack thereof) was that there wasn’t enough Eldar. This book does and doesn’t address that issue, but I was left overall happy with how it was balanced. It’s told as a history analysis, a textbook account interspersed with snippets of Inquisitorial insights to guide future generations so they may avoid the same fate. Because of that the Necrons themselves don’t appear in the flesh, as it were, until almost the end. The best comparison I can draw is the movie Predator – you don’t really see the Predator until very late, but its influence guides and shapes the story and actions of those it’s toying with.
We, as outside observers with the benefit of our meta knowledge, can see what all these portents and mysterious actions are shaping into, but the Imperial forces’ lack of action seems almost reasonable in the circumstances. The Necrons are always there, doing their Necron-y thing, but like all good horror monsters they have the good sense to do it off camera.

The Necrons themselves aren’t left as shadowy bogeymen, and there are a great number of insights into how the different courts interact with one another, the different methodologies behind their long sleeps, and even some tidbits about the origins of the Flayer Virus.
I’ve seen a few people comment that they’ve been looking forward to the rumoured return of the Red Harvest, and it is certainly back here with a bloody vengeance. The particular Necron dynasty in the book, the Maynarkh, are all touched by the Flayer if not all totally crazy, so whilst the Flayed Ones are of course doing their whole “it puts the lotion on the skin” thing the rest of them are given reason to participate, and it brings a degree of pathos to their actions in my eyes.

The Imperials get some loving, as would be expected ,with the Death Korps having the usual background blurb and some new bits thrown in to do with their names and organisation. The Minotaurs have their turbulent and shrouded history revealed a little more after the Badab books, but no conclusions are drawn (though there are plenty more implications).

There are no particularly amazing moments that I feel the need to gush about, but more importantly there are no brain-dead moments of editorial idiocy to cringe at. In fact I didn’t notice a single error in the entire book! There may well be some, but given the hack job they did to 11 and 8’s numerous missing rules, it’s a million percent improvement.
I found it an enthralling read, well planned and dripping with atmosphere. Like Badab I, Orpheus is also a great resource for background junkies. There are small details about the procedures for colonising planets (including edicts that can just up and move a population if the Imperium sees fit, or give them all over to the Mechanicus), politicking and inter departmento relations. Despite the growing doom it gives a view into how a sector runs day-to-day, with the disruption and tension pirate raids cause interspliced with the economic balancing required of the different worlds.

Mmmmmurder donut

There is not a lot of action when compared to other IA books, but the Death Korps get a few battles and are allowed to show off a bit, while the Minotaurs wreck some serious face. It’s never one-sided in the combat, or, if it is, it goes to the Necrons who annihilate the ever-loving-bejeezus out of a lot of stuff with contemptuous ease due to surprise or overwhelming numbers.
The story does contain a few links to the Badab books by virtue of the Minotaur’s presence, and has a few cameos, such as a brief appearance by the Grey Knights and a retro appearance of the 8th Necromunda “Spiders” regiment, which was pretty neat.


I would also be remiss if I failed to give special mention to the art. This is hands down the best looking Imperial Armour to date, and I personally think the best looking GW book since Rogue Trader days. The illustrations are beautiful, and rendering the character plates over a black background with deep, shadowed colours was the obvious, but totally correct choice. To put it simply this book sis just so evocative, there’s little besides total praise I can say.
Literally the only negative I can think with the art is that they a) didn’t make the Asterion Moloc art as a poster – it is phenominal, and b) they don’t show enough of the Necron minis in the book. Mind you that does mean the diorama shots of the Death Korps fighting through tunnels takes on a very Aliens feel with the shadowy half-seen or unseen foe. See – even the negative is a good point!

Rules, Armylists and Units

There are two complete army lists presented – the Necron Dark Harvest and Death Korps of Krieg Assault Brigade – while the Minotaurs are essentially a list of add-ons for the current line of Space Marine Codexes.

The Necron Dark Harvest list is, aside from the few unique Forge World units, close to identical to the Codex list. There are some minor force-org changes , and many units gains some minor wargear choices, but the biggest change is to the HQ units who, to tie in with the Dynasty’s flayer taint, all have special rules that can make them go crazy during the game. Additionally the list can be built to be very construct heavy, mainly due to the additional Forge World units present.
The list is geared as a high number aggressive attack force that can take a lot of casualties. No doubt many of the usual Necron uber-builds will work just as well, but then there is no need to use the list.
There are a couple of special characters to use as well. First is Dynasty’s most implacable and deadly warlord, Joan Collins:

With shoulder pads like that I'm surprised GW hasn't tried to sue her...

I mean Kutlakh the World Killer. He’s not overly remarkable, but unusual (for the Necrons) in that to befit the army he is built as a close combat monster.

The other is Toholk the Blinded, a Chronomancer and Arch-Cryptek. He is a buff-giver, doling out bonuses to his war machines and re-rolls to units he joins.  Of the two Toholk seems to be more useful to me from that point of view, but he’s nowhere near as tough to kill.

New units are the Tomb Stalker, Tomb Sentinel, Acanthrites, mini pylons, Tesseract Ark and the Night Shroud Bomber.
The Sentry Pylons are heavy support units, also purchasable for the standard Codex, and come in batteries of 1-3. They are unique in that they don’t need crew and can deploy in a slightly dispersed formation.
They have three weapon choices, though only one can Skyfire/Intercept, but it’s got 120” range, so all good.

Tomb Stalkers haven’t changed much from the previous rules, but have a couple of options to bring them in line with the new Codex.
The variant model, the Tomb Sentinel is basically a Stalker with a short ranged no-save make a Str test or die blast weapon.

Tha Acanthrites are jump infantry with short range melta weapons and aren’t too shabby in close combat either.

The Tesseract Ark is essentially a gunboat. Heavy with moderate defences, but well armed. It hits very hard and, while it can take a punch, it's not as tough as a Monolith.

The Night Shroud’s rules look ok to me, and it is definitely a bomber, armed with twin-linked tesla destructors and five Death Spheres – str10, AP1, large blast, blinding, pinning bombs – and nothing else. It is tough with 4hp but only moderate armour.

The rules for the Gauss Pylon are also updated (the only Super Heavy in the book, actually), and the Tomb citadel has its rules introduced. The Tomb Citadel improves the shooting of a unit docked to the main building, gives a save to any unit on the citadel and can take a pair of gun turrets. It seems underpriced for what it does, as Necron forces castled up there would get a 3+ invulnerable and re-rolls to 1s on resurrection rolls.

The Minotaurs characters are Lord Asterion Moloch, Chaplain Ivanus Enkomi, Dreadnought Hecaton Aiakos and Vigilator-Sergeant Hamath Kraatos.

Asterion Moloch, like most Marine characters, is an unholy death-machine in combat, and is geared solely towards close combat. His profile and abilities are reminiscent of Lysander, though beefed up as befits a Chapter Master.

Enkomi, in addition to having one of the most metal mini in GW’s history:

Slaaaaaayeeerrrrr!!!!!

 is, amazingly, even more geared towards close combat than his glorious leader, buffing his squad into Rage filled Zealots.

Aiakos is a Contemptor dread with a special close combat attack.

Kraatos is, despite the name, not a(nother) hand to hand specialist, but the 2iC of the 9th company. He’s a devastator squad upgrade and carries a heavy bolter. Sorry, a sniper heavy bolter.

Most of the other units are updating some of the older units (Damoclese Rhino, Deathstorm Drop Pod, Sentry Gun) and including newer ones such as the Deimos Predators and Storm Eagles.



The Death Korps Assault Brigade list is, essentially, the Codex: Imperial Guard list with Forge World units subbed in.
They have the special character Marshal Karis Venner, who in keeping with the book’s theme, is a badass in melee. Yes, in IA12 even the Guard are hand to hand murder machines!
Otherwise the Death Korps, like the marines, are seeing a tidying up of older units (making the Hades less broken [it has to deep strike, as do units coming after so if the enemy blocks them they mishap]) and the inclusion of newer ones (Rapiers, Avenger).

As best I can tell every special rule is either cross-referenced or listed in the book, and I didn’t spot any particularly glaring oddities present in some of the more recent products. It seems the attention from the Horus Heresy series has made them pick up their game.



Campaign and other Rules

The Campaign is a pretty standard campaign set-up – multiple theatres, different battle types etc, with some limitations about assigning units to certain theatres making them unavailable in others, but nothing radically different from the last few books.
As mentioned above the campaign is less a reconstruction of the events in the book but a continuation of the war described. This is something I think Forge World would be better served by in some instances, so as to alleviate the debate of “the Imperium never wins” vs “they make the xenos suck and die too much” if nothing else.
The Zone Mortalis rules are also included here.

One notable thing I mentioned above is that there is only one Super Heavy in the book (the Gauss Pylon) and no Apocalypse formations – another sign Apoc is being updated soon?
One odd thing were the six pages of adverts in the back of the book for other IA tomes. Full colour ads for some of the newer releases. Given GW isn’t stocking FW in stores anymore it seems like a wasted effort to me as if you have this book you’re unlikely to be any more spurred to pick up a copy of IA Masterclass than you were ordering it from Forge World’s website.
Not a big deal, just… odd.


Summary and Scores

Overall a fantastic book. The army lists may not be divergent enough for everyone’s tastes, but then again they could be seen as not too divergent to be more widely acceptable. Even though the Necrons aren’t as visible as other xeno races in their books it felt they had a greater impact on the story, like the Tyranids in IA4.


Story and Background – 8/10. While you may think I’d give it higher I am aware that things like the methodology of a planet becoming an Imperial World isn’t something everyone is interested in, so the somewhat dryer text may be a bit dull for some folks. That said the story is skilfully crafted and the many asides and callouts are very characterful and enhance the book even more.

Art and Layout – 10/10. This is a gorgeous book that drips with atmosphere. Not much more to say than that.

Army Lists and Rules – 6/10. Again, a seemingly low score, but while well executed there is much of the same-old here. If you want new rules, or just to use one unit, this book will not hold a great deal of value for you. If you want rules that work, there will be no issues. On a positive units that have languished without a 6th ed update or have been long reviled are cleaned up and there is quite a host of special characters to choose from.

Extras – 7/10. The campaign fits the story, and is presented with a slight twist to the previous iterations. Zone Mortalis is a sensible addition and a great set of rules by themselves and a welcome inclusion.

Overall (not an average) – 9/10

Yep, I think it’s that good. Do keep in mind that I am basing this on a weighting towards the story and art over the rules as explained above. However if you’re a fan of 40k lore, this book is a great read.

Kickstarters: Good or Bad for the Hobby?

So, with Reaper’s Bones Kickstarter winding down with just over three million dollars pledged, there is certainly a great buzz about crowdsourcing for wargames. We’ve had a spate of companies large and small hopping on to produce new lines and there have been some fantastic (and not so fantastic) offerings.

But is it good for the hobby?


The reason I’m asking this question is a comment from EldarGal on the BoLS lounge in regards to Dreadball by Mantic:

“17 miniatures for 80 is frankly absurd right when Reaper are offering 200+ for one hundred and Dark Vengeance will be coming out with 60 odd for a similar price. 33 or so for 150 isn't any better. The sculpts aren't that nice either. Even taking into account that this is a board game, Sedition Wars provided 51 lovely miniatures for 100.” 

 My reply was:
 

“I think you're being a little harsh here. Those other Kickstarters only reached that number of minis after they'd started and gotten a crapton of cash to enable the mass production - they initial mini to dollar ration was much lower. GW also already has the capital and business model to mass produce and potentially loss-lead on Dark Vengeance.” 

Lady EG responded that Sedition Wars came with more miniatures initially (50) and many others have also. I work in retail, so this reminded me of a common thing I call Gotthammer’s retail 101:

People are greedy cheapskates who won’t want to pay a cent more than they have to and expect perfection in response. 

If you’ve ever worked in retail you’ll no doubt agree. The reason I ask if crowdsourcing in the Kickstarter vein is a bad thing is that people might get used to getting high quality miniatures for 40 cents a piece. There are of course other factors in why some Kickstarters are better value than others:


- Pre-existing logistics

Reaper are already an international company, and their offerings are recasts using and already existing medium. They’re simply making moulds and producing these guys. With a locked in number of pre-orders it will be simply a matter of cutting moulds, ordering more plastic (bulk discount!) and shipping. It will be a lot of work, but the framework is already there.

 

 - New frontiers / business

Wreck-Age is a new startup. They don’t have the connections an existing company like Mantic or even Studio McVey have to get stuff made. Even comparing Sedition Wars to Dreadball, perhaps the McVeys know people in the games industry who can get them a good deal on the board pieces to save costs (this is pure speculation, but it’s Aly and Mike McVey – I’d do them a solid).

In one of the Order of the Stick Kickstarter ($1.125 million raised) posts creator Rich Burlew commented that pledge bonus items were delayed due to the initially contacted printer taking too long, and needing to find a new one. Long term business customers can often get better deals or, like Games Workshop, save even more money by doing everything in house.

 - Stars in their eyes

Aka thinking that Kickstarter is an unlimited trough of money to draw from. Reaper got three mill, surely people will have money to spare for me, right? In what I consider a disturbing, or perhaps just ill thought out, move a group has recently put up a bid for money to make an admittedly awesome sounding series of dioramas.

Now the highest levels do net you either a piece of the diorama itself ($650, limited to 15), or a painted mini/vehicle ($70/$160) so you’re either getting overcharged for their commission service or this is essentially a fancy advert for their painting service. The lower levels get a making of video and tutorials. Again, this gives me an uneasy feeling as many companies may be eying these funding options as a quick way to make cash. Or, as a commenter of HoP put it:

"So, they're making dioramas and asking money for it? Hmm. Are the dioramas being auctioned for charity or anything? It seems to be just one massive hobby project they want money for. That's fine but it feels like crowd funding has gotten a little out of control."

“Well, mighty Gotthammer,” I hear you ask, “that’s what they’re for aren’t they?”
Yes, yes they are loyal minion but I ask you this: what if Games Workshop decided it was going to release the next army book / codex through a Kickstarter campaign? Raise five million or Tau won’t get re-done. You no doubt scoffed at that – GW is a global company with a huge line, its own production facilities, distribution and so on.

Well… so’s Reaper. What's to stop GW from doing it that way?

Food for thought, certainly. I don’t much like the idea of a pre-existing, well established company relying on crowdsourcing for its basic operations (I consider Bones an expansion out of Reaper’s normal territory), but there may well be some thinking that that’s the way to go. There is only so much hobby money floating around and, going back to the original quote, people are looking for value for money. It's an awful big risk to put your company's future and your customer's goodwill when there are other more traditional, albeit less flashy, routes to go.

The company I work for is engaged in a seemingly never ending price war with its nearest competitor, driving prices of many items ‘down down’ (for you Australian readers). Problem comes when the prices go back up to normal, or are forced up by uncontrollable events.
As an example we recently had flooding and various other weather phenomena that have played havoc with local produce. For a brief while some items were ridiculously cheap – both through oversupply and artificial reasons. When this becomes untenable the price goes up, often tripling or more. To say some people are not happy is an understatement.

See, people like good things for cheap – I know I do. And they get used to getting things for cheap. Think the stereotypical ‘back in my day X only cost Y’ old guy rant and you’ll be on the right track. So sales of that item slow as it isn’t ‘good value’ anymore or is ‘too expensive’.


Now, imagine if you will all those minis you just got from your $100 pledge to Reaper (I don’t mean to keep using them, but they’re really good for illustrative purposes). Now imagine paying full price – even at the bones price they average around $1.80 or so – and you’ll be paying around $400 or so. Would you buy spend that much for those minis normally? I imagine Reaper is really hoping so as they’re going to be investing a lot of money in this line.

If it becomes ‘normal’ to get such good value for money with minis it does paint a rather dark future for small indie producers. Perhaps I’m being a bit melodramatic there, but in the world where minis cost $5 each (and some are as large as a Relic Knight) will people decide that a company like Hasslefree (or even Reaper themselves) isn’t ‘good value’ anymore?

I think the key is to always compare to 'normal' miniatures when looking at value for money, not other Kickstarters. Seeing the great discounts Reaper can offer with all that cash will make anyone look like rubbish next to them.

I do think Kickstarters and other crowdsourcing do have great potential – obviously given my shilling of some here over the days – but I do think people looking at diving in should weight up their options and not just assume they’ll have an instant winner. They’re all going strongly at the moment, but they’re also new and shiny and exciting. I’ve already seen talk of ‘pledge fatigue’ setting in, and then when this recent spate starts rolling in people are going to have mountains of minis to paint so might be put off even great deals when they come along.



But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check out Wreck-Age.

Nothing New Under the Sun - pt 2

Following on from part 1 yesterday, I’ll start off by answering my final rhetorical questions in reverse.

Where did it all go wrong?

Here’s where:

Ok, wrong is probably too strong a word, but Inquisitor was a huge opportunity for both Games Workshop and Warhammer 40k to expand that was missed. For those of you who don’t know it Inquisitor (or =I=) was released in 2001 as a hybrid skirmish RPG game, a narrative combat game, written by Gav Thorpe. It’s tagline was “Everything you’ve been told is a lie” and nominally focussed on the internal wars plaguing the Inquisition.

And the artwork was amazing.

Players controlled only around four or five models, as there was a much more detailed weapon and damage system along with ammo, bleeding and the like involved. It was Necromunda meets D&D.
It’s biggest draw was that instead of playing front line soldiers for the most part, the players took teams (or warbands) of operatives into urban areas, ancient ruins and the like to vie with the other players for dark secrets of the 40k universe.
Players could be Inquisitors, Tech Priests, Assassins, Arbites, Rogue Traders, Astartes, renegades, gunslingers, xenos and anything in between. The series was launched with a line of models (including one of Eisenhorn himself) in 54mm scale…

54mm?

Wait, what?

This, in my opinion, was a HUGE mistake.

1. Most importantly, who has enough terrain to go with 54mm scale models? Nobody aside from the few who play the large scale Old West games, that’s who. It’s large, harder to make and store, and given the narrative nature of the game you really need a lot of it.

2. Characters were as customisable as you could get. Want a Marine twin wielding assault cannons? You can do it. Want a female Inquisitor in carapace armour with an Eldar long-rifle and a plasma pistol? Sure! But I hope you’re good a sculpting as the range is limited…

3. Which leads on to the next point – all metal models means they were pricey, so people were loath to try and convert them as it was a big dollar investment to mess up. Then they stopped making any more designs.

4. While some of the sculpts were great, some were… less good shall we say (they're still available to see on the main GW site). Not bad models by any means, but the sculptors clearly hadn’t got the hang of the scale yet.

Before I continue I need to digress into a quick discussion of GW’s current nemesis, Privateer Press. Those familiar with Warmachine and Hordes know that when you buy a model for your army – that’s who or what it is. Sorcha is always Sorcha. PP had a sister line to WarmaHordes, the Iron Kingdoms series, designed for the RPG of the same name. These miniatures were more based around archetypes of their world, as well as a few characters. However due to the nature of WarmaHordes it was generally not easy to bring the IK minis into the wargame. I haven’t seen PP release a new miniature for the IK line in quite some time now.

Warhammer 40k suffers no such problem. GW as a company encourages “counts as”, parts swapping and making your own characters. Why they didn’t release =I= as a 28mm line still mystifies me. Tau had just come out, and Codex: Witch Hunters was not far off so would have been well into its design phase. They released an army based around the Inquisition and a game based around the Inquisition, but didn’t make them compatible… though they did re-do the Death Cult Assassins and Daemonhosts in 28mm later.
Think of the modelling and gaming possibilities of it had =I= been a 28mm game. New terrain (compatible with 40k, =I= and Necromunda), new models (character models for collectors, customising your HQs in 40k) and so on. It would have enabled them to explore the unlit corners of 40k with new models and units.

There was much discussion at the time of it being a pre-cursor or testbed for a 40k RPG, which as we know didn’t materialise until much later with Dark Heresy (which, as a relevant aside, I’ve seen people discuss which non-GW manufacturers to get models from to represent their characters).

This was, however, in some ways what many consider the darkest days of GW, with the soon to be purging of Specialist Games, the gutting of Codexes and the turn from ‘veterans’ to the younger market. For a variety of reasons I didn’t see / don’t remember much of this period of GW history, partly because I didn’t buy anything GW for a number of years – make of that what you will – but my main point is not directly about corporate policy, though it no doubt directed much of what we are seening now.
The lack of any real miniatures, by which I mean ones not designed entirely for the tabletop, has left GW hugely vulnerable to their competitors and lost a market share (though it may well be a smaller one, it’s still lost).

Warhammer Fantasy is the best illustration for this. People still play Dungeons and Dragons and the like. People need miniatures for it. GW used to make minis for it, and when they stopped doing it officially you could still buy an Orc Warboss blister or a couple of Mummies to represent just that. A while back when I was building my Heroquest set using contemporary miniatures I noticed a funny thing – my hordes of troops were GW but all the characters, the players and enemy bosses, were all from other company’s lines. This wasn’t out of personal preference, but a combination of $ value and availability.

Take the prototypical two main villains – the Lich Lord and Gargoyle. The first I could maybe kitbash with some skeleton parts and an Empire Wizard kit (and have a lot of stuff left over), the second I’d need to use something totally different and still do a lot of work. Or, I could just go to Reaper and get them both for less.

Now, I’m not saying that GW should start making a massive character line to compete with Reaper here, but when their main sci-fi game extols the virtues of a huge and varied universe there’s not many options out there unless you wear Power Armour.

To leave this topic for a moment I’ll head back to a point I raised before – the canning of Specialist Games. I remember going to the opening of the first Games Workshop in Australia, and standing in line for hours to get that much prized Deathwing Terminator boxset. I also remember the wonderment at seeing all the games there – Warhammer, 40k, Space Hulk, Epic, Talisman, Man ‘o’ War, Blood Bowl…
Yes, the ranges are better and bigger now so there obviously isn’t going to be the same amount of shelf space as there was back then, but let me tell you a story of Space Hulk.

When Space Hulk 3rd edition was released there was much rejoicing, and every time I went in there were people playing it, and the stack of box sets they had gradually got smaller and smaller. Then one day the last box was sold and nobody ever played Space Hulk in the store again.
Why? Because of a corporate mandate that unless the game is currently for sale in that store it cannot be played. Battle Bunkers are exempt from this, but not every store is a bunker. The manager explained that it would be unfair for someone to come in, see people playing a game and not be able to buy it.
For a limited edition like Space Hulk I can see the reasoning, but for a game like Epic or Blood Bowl where they can still order the game in to the store? Idiocy.

House of Paincakes recently had an article up discussing the importance of Specialist Games for getting new players involved in the hobby. I know my brother and I played more games of Ultra Marines than Rogue Trader back in the day, and when I went to NaSGuL I usually played Space Hulk or Blood Bowl.
Now, somewhat older and slightly wiser, Specialist Games provide a great thing – an alternate way to get a 40k fix without playing 40k. I can play a couple of missions of Space Hulk in an afternoon, including set up and teardown. Blood Bowl is timed, and Aeronautica Imperialis has limited turns.

We all have ‘off’ days with 40k. Maybe we’ve hit a funk list design, a losing streak’s rocked our confidence, or a game with That Guy’s sapped our enthusiasm. But we still want to play a game. Big Jim has given us Kill Zone, but I don’t rate my chances of getting a game of that in at a GW store. The options are to play anyway, or not play at all.
At a non-GW store the options are much greater… and a lot of them aren’t Games Workshop. WarmaHordes, Infinity, Malifaux, Dystopian Wars, Flames of War, Incursion and so on all beckon to sate the alternate playstyle bug.

Games Workshop’s discarding of both their Specialist Games and non-army based miniatures has come back to bite them, as if you don’t want to play a big game or paint a unit your options are slim. Slim, that is, unless you look anywhere else.

What would I have done / What should GW do?

Obviously I don’t know their corporate strategy, and I’m basing this off my personal opinions not a sound economic foundation here, so this is geared towards that end of the discussion.

Firstly, get in my time machine….
Secondly, put on my robe and wizard hat…
Thirdly, go back to the end of second edition…

Second Edition was, at the end, a bloated, convoluted, time consuming mass.

This is what a game of 2nd ed looked like, but with piles and piles of books everywhere.

It was a skirmish game playing at a full scale battle simulator. It drastically needed an overhaul to remain a viable system, no argument there. I personally would have split the game off into three separate, but interchangeable and fundamentally the same rulesets:

40k: Kill Team – 100 to 400pts – a game more like 2nd ed and Rogue Trader (or Big Jim’s Kill Team), with individual move rates, more variety of weapons and customisation.

40k: Battlezone – 750 to 2500pts – what we know as 40k today. It has issues, but works well for the most part. The main game.

40k: Apocalypse – 3000pts + - same as now.

Necromunda and Inquisitor would have the same scaling to each other, so you could play all the same characters and cross them over between games. The key thing here is that this wouldn’t have any effect on the main game, but would allow new players to get their feet wet more easily with a ruleset designed to be played at pocket money level, and give veterans and backgroundophiles more to chew on.
For releasing the miniatures it would provide not only more stuff for painters, but a constant stream of new units and upgrades to the main game (and give White Dwarf actual content outside the LotR articles). Those who remember the ‘glory days’ of White Dwarf oft recall that instead of the ‘splash releases’ we get now, there was a much more constant stream of units coming out.
As an example when the Razorback first appeared it wasn’t in a new Codex, it was in White Dwarf with some blurb, it’s stats and the new model on the shelf.

With my idea above it would mean that this month there would, for example, be a new model available (limited on shelves that a month, then direct only) the K’ruthian Marksman. It would list his background, show off the model a bit and give stats for Inquisimunda (a deadly underhive mercenary caste on the fringes of the Ultima Segmentum) and 40k stats (recruitable by Radical Inquisitors, Renegade Guard and Chaos Factions as a unit attachment).
Rather than having the meta game changing every couple of months with each new book, there would be a constant flux as new units pop up (and they’re cheap to add with small sizes), so people can try new things without spending huge amounts of money. With a smaller game actually being supported in store it would open up the opportunities for some crazy things like twenty warbands brought in from =I= facing off against a massive Chaos army commanded by the Inquisitor’s arch nemesis in an Apocalypse game!
Sure you could do something like that now, but what’s the bet the generic henchmen would be played by Imperial Guardsmen and the battle wouldn’t have much effect on anyone’s multi-player campaigns?

Games workshop is moving in the right direction with Finecast and the recent Storm of Chaos releases. Finecast gives them a better medium over metal for modelling and converting, while the single character plastics for the sorcerers are fantastic. All they need now is to do the same thing for 40k, and expand upon the offerings (for both games) beyond what is allowed strictly in the main games.
There's no model for a Techpriest, none for a Hrud, an Eldar Mercenary, or even a Rogue Trader. Wouldn't the 40k world and the GW name be enhanced by their making more of the rich background available to play on the table?

I think so.

Nothing New Under the Sun - pt 1

מַה-שֶּׁהָיָה, הוּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶה, וּמַה-שֶּׁנַּעֲשָׂה, הוּא שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂה; וְאֵין כָּל-חָדָשׁ, תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ.

That which hath been is that which shall be, and that which hath been done is that which shall be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.

quid est quod fuit ipsum quod futurum est quid est quod factum est ipsum quod fiendum est

What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done.

So it goes that everything repeats itself eventually. While that’s great for philosophers and scholars, for miniature aficionados it’s a bit of a problem. See a company can’t constantly produce the same thing over and over expecting people to buy it ad nauseum. They’ll get sick of it, get ‘enough’, or get distracted by a new shiny thing.
This is why we get periodic re-designs of what are perfectly serviceable models. If people really could put up with just the same old models and designs we’d still have beaky marines, stahlhelm Orks and craxy machinist orang-utans (wait…).

GW periodically redesigns their lines to keep up with new materials and manufacturing procedures (just look at the Dark Eldar here), but in some ways the increasingly iconic nature of their designs is really hampering their long-term prospects.

How is that? Shouldn’t having an icon design (like the Jeep front grill or the Stormtrooper) help them?

In a way it does for brand association (oh hey, it’s a Space Marine, I know them from Dawn of War…) but I’m meaning in terms of retaining and re-energising the interest of more entrenched players. First this requires a slight digression to explain how I see it.

40k’s pull is it’s background and aesthetic. It is not a character driven universe. Sure, it has great characters like Cain, Eisenhorn and the like, but the core is the setting rather than the people in it. This is contrasted by, to use my earlier examples, Jeep which is associated with a lifestyle or image (and aside from a vague stylistic allusion to part of their vehicle for the most part the look is very different overall), and the Stormtrooper who is tied in with the movies, books and comics – character driven devices (though many would argue the depth of character).

I’m also deliberately ignoring the game aspect for the most part as rules development and changes is not an issue (quality is to some, but not that they are changing them). It will come into play later though.

So what we have is 40k is style over substance to a degree. It is a device to sell physical representations of that universe after all, so it’s understandable. However when that stagnates the ‘universe’ stagnates. It’s hard to get excited over a new model when it’s almost identical to the one you currently have. The “she’s got a new hat!” effect only happens rarely.

Quite a makeover they got really.

For me this was most apparent during the Grey Knights release. While most of the focus seemed to be on the rules and their relative levels of broken-ness, the model discussion seemed almost solely to fall on the Dreadknight. Why? Well, he was the only new thing there, and a lot of people hated him.

Sure we got teleporter backpacks, a couple of new guns and the plastic kits were very nice… but they’re the same guys as before with a couple of bits stuck on. Most discussion of the Grey Knight plastics pre-release involved discussion about how their new bolter magazines weren’t right, or how people would have to cut the halberds off their metal dudes to give them swords and the like.
Remember when the Dark Eldar first appeared at Games Day and the forums were flooded with people’s brains exploding at the awesomeness?
The difference was the power of redesign and giving it something new.

How does this relate to 40k being held down by its iconic designs? Well the more entrenched an idea becomes the harder it is to shake. Anyone familiar with Transformers fandom will be well aware of the “Trukk not Munkey!” arguments, now superseded by hating on “Bayformers” or Animated.
For a 40k example imagine the nerdrage if GW introduced female Space Marines, no matter how well done. There’s still that one line some 20 years old that hasn’t been contradicted before and has stood for so long that I’m pretty sure Jervis’ face would melt off Raiders otLA style if he read half the hate mail he’d get.

That said, GW has quite successfully changed a large number of their designs quite successfully – and I don’t mean an update like the Dark Eldar – I mean a redesign like the appearance of the brick style Dreadnought at the beginning of 2nd ed, the new Land Raider, replacing mk6 with mk7, the aforementioned Grey Knights and more recently the Dark Eldar Scourges and Haemonculus coven units.

This look isn't new, it's the plastic 2nd ed Epic design.

But why is this change important?

GW is in trouble at the moment. Price rises and increasing (and increasingly aggressive) competition in an unfriendly economic climate mean they’re competing in a tough market for limited funds. He who has the best product at any one time will get the dollar. This is doubly true for those of us whose primary interest is in painting and modelling over playing - I’m not going to buy a GW miniature out of loyalty when a Dark Sword, Red Box, Studio McVey, Maow, Infinity, Wyrd, Soda Pop, Hasslefree, Privateer Press, Reaper, GOT, Heresy, Scibor, Micro-Art or any other of a dozen manufacturer’s minis will do just as well.

By this I mean the last GW models I bought were the Scourges, before them the Forge World Corsairs, before them the Dark Eldar when they came out and before that…. Um I think it was probably Marines to continue building by Company. It’s honestly been quite a while since I’ve picked up a GW miniature on a whim because it was too cool to pass up. Most of their designs are many, many years old so unless I want something specific there’s no need to go in and check things out. I’ve bought quite a few character minis, yes, but they were for projects such as needing to finish an army or the like.


GW, despite claiming to make the best miniatures in the world, is not the miniature lover’s miniature company anymore. It all seems very much same ol’ same ol’ down at the design pits at Nottingham. Is all hope lost? Is there a future? Where did it all go wrong/miss big?


More on that tomorrow, but for now: No, yes and let’s just say that everything I’ve just said is a lie.


Edit: Part 2 is up here.

Raaarg, Gotthammer smash GW! and why I don't like mixing paints

So I went into my local GW to buy some more small drybrushes and some more Tentical Pink, since mine is looking a bit gluggy.

Games Workshop no longer makes Tentacle pink! What the hell guys?

If I was female, a lawyer and a superhero I'd have done this and wrecked up the place.

The minion there informed me that they're cutting a few lines from the range, not just the pink I need as the final highlight for my entire Dark Eldar army. Probably some of the twenty shades of green they have.



I find this personally very annoying as, despite the minion helpfully telling me I could mix some purple and white, I hate mixing paints.

I really do - it ends up wasting a whole bunch and I can never get the colour quite right again, something important when it's a main colour for your army. I guess it is easier from GW's point of view that they have to make/carry less colours, and make more from selling multiples to mix, but the draw for me of citadel colours has always been the good range of shades available.


I'll probably stick with the pink I've got and thin it a bit (even though that makes my brushes taste weird), but later i guess I'll make a bottle of Liche Purple/White blend so everyone gets the same colour.

Review: Path of the Warrior

Non spoilery review:

Good, but the last third has next to nothing to do with the first two thirds so the whole thing feels incomplete and disjointed.

It does have some excellent insights into Eldar culture and society, but unfortunately many of these plot threads are left sparse in favour of overly repetitive battle scenes.

Major Spoilers Ahead!

Path of the Warrior tells the story of Korlandril, and his eventual stumbling onto the titular path, and his fall into Exarchdom (told you there were spoilers).


The book opens with Korlandril , on the path of the Artist, waiting with Thirianna, a poet and forme Aspecct Warrior, waiting for their mutual friend Aradryan – he is on the path of the Mariner and has been sailing the distant stars for some time. Korlandril is basically in love with Thirianna , but is trying to suss out if she feels the same. Korlandril is also very jealous of what he sees as Thirianna ’s attraction to Aradryan .

Each chapter is prefaced by a legend of Eldar myth relating to that chapter’s subject. For example when Korlandril is injured and healing, the story of Isha giving a lock of her hair to Eldanesh to heal him is told. They are done neatly and don’t intrude into the narrative, and certainly enhance the Eldar mythos.

The first section goes on to cover how paths work, how the Eldar change their psyche (and personalities to an extent) when they take on certain paths, and how everyday life on the Craftworld goes about its business. This is very well written and the characters, while relatable, still seem alien.
Korlandril is further put out by his friend’s return as Aradryan seems distant and distracted, and uninterested in Korlandril ’s upcoming unveiling (he’s a sculptor).


It all comes to a head when the sculpture is unveiled and Aradryan criticises Korlandril ’s work, calling it uninspired and derivative compared to the marvels of the cosmos. Korlandril flips out and storms off, and Aradryan leaves the craftworld (to become an Outcast/Exodite).
After unintentionally insulting Thirianna ’s military past Korlandril makes a pass at her, asking her to stay with him as artist and poet. She tells him it is inappropriate to concentrate on one path, as well as unhealthy. Korlandril flips out again and storms off, raging and brimming with rage.

Seeking to find a control for his feelings he seeks out his friends Arthuis and Maerthuin, brothers walking the Warrior path as Dark Reapers. He also meets Elissanadrin, a Striking Scorpion. Korlandril tells them of his feelings and his need to be rid of them, while the Aspect Warriors tell him he needs to find a release for his anger.

I thought this part was superbly done – Korlandril wants nothing more than to be rid of his anger, he finds it ugly, wasteful and against everything that creates beauty. His mind is truely set as that of someone seeking nothing more than the creation of splendour, destruction is totally abhorrent to him. The Aspect Warriors, here at rest, tell him that they put on their ‘war mask’ to release their anger, but take it off outside of battle so they can release it and be free of it.
Korlandril ’s conversations with Thirianna reveal that as a former Aspect Warrior she finds that the experience has better helped her manage her anger outside of the Path.


I found this very interesting as, while Korlandril is certainly a self centred layabout (all his paths we know of are self indulgent), he reflects the Eldar’s natural distaste for violence. Other Eldar sit apart from the Aspect Warriors in communal places, and the Warriors seem only to associate with each other for the most part.
It also ties in with the prologue where an Exarch loses a member of his squad, and is not concerned as another always appears. It is basically saying that there will always be Eldar driven to the Warrior Path, as if the Paths simply create a proportional balance of the Eldar psyche across the whole society. So there will always be roughly the same number of Aspect Warriors at any given time, as there will be Bonesingers or Mariners. This appears later when Korlandril becomes an Exarch and a number of Eldar are drawn to him as soon as he takes the mantle.


Elissanadrin takes Korlandril to her temple, the Shrine of the Deadly Shadow, where he meets Exarch Kenainath who takes him in. He goes through an extensive Kung-fu training montage sequence, learning about his War Mask and how to control it. He does this in isolation lest he harm others, and is confined to the Shrine. After a time he is allowed to mix with the rest of the squad, Elissanadrin (there is brewing attraction between the pair), Arhulesh ( the joker), Bechareth ( the silent mysterious guy without a past) and Min (the older jolly guy).
The training continues and Korlandril eventually gets to put on his helmet, and thus his War Mask. It doesn’t go well, with him losing control and blacking out, but he eventually gets there and is allowed to leave the shrine.


The montage of training I found well written, as with the descriptions of the Kung-fuesque stances and moves. The training fights were short and sharp, and focussed mostly on Korlandril ’s thoughts about his skills and feelings. He also is growing as a character, and when on the outside he meets Aradryan again he apologises, revealing his mindset is now more serious, less emotional than before (again, the changing psyche). Basically he was a snotty, whiney brat who got a reality check and realised what a douche he was being for not accepting his friend had changed.

Aradryan reveals war is brewing on a distant world, and that he had seen Thirianna . Korlandril is unmoved by this, saying if they meet again he won’t be angry, but similarly won’t be sad if they don’t. Aradryan draws his friend out into revealing the attraction to Elissanadrin , but Korlandril gets embarrassed and says nothing is happening as it would be unprofessional.
Battle draws near and Korlandril receives a token of well wishing from Thirianna – a rune from her Aspect Armour, which makes him happy (Love triangle alert!). All through the book the Eldar’s psychic nature has been used very subtly and effectively in instances such as this. Communication is done through the Infinity Circuit, and people can look for each other by seeking out their imprints in it. Instead of doorbells people go to a doorway and send a psychic ‘request’ to enter, that sort of thing.

It is integrated smoothly and never feels like Gav is going ‘look at how psychic the Eldar are!’, as the Space Hulk novel often clumsily introduced Overwatch and such into the text.

As war draws near the Avatar wakes up and Korlandril is drawn back to his temple and to war. After they suit up the Warriors mill around, and see another Striking Scorpion group, the Fall of Dark Rain. Their Exarch Aranaraha , unlike Kenainath , is talkative and disturbingly friendly. His group is also much more sizable than Kenainath ’s. Elissanadrin explains that Aranaraha enjoys being an Exarch, while Kenainath hates it and that he is needed to train others to control their bloodlust. Kenainath is revealed to take a very personal interest in his pupils, wishing they didn’t need training, while Aranaraha teaches en masse and actively tries to recruit new members (I’m not sure how this works as Exarchs aren’t meant to leave their Shrines [excpt when they do]).

So basically Kenainath is Mr Miyagi and Aranaraha is Cobra Kai.


Things go badly for in the battle and Korlandril ends up nearly getting killed. We are then treated to a scene where we have Korlandril helped back to life, so to speak, by a healer. Korlandril has to face his fears and the terrible pain he feels to survive, rather than shying away from it. He eventually does, and awakes to discover that his psychological damage has been compartmentalised into his War Mask persona, and that he has to don it to repair the damage lurking inside. Initially reluctant to return, Korlandril ’s healing is interrupted by Aranaraha on a recruitment mission. Aranaraha attempts to lure Korlandril to his Shrine by blaming Kenainath’s teachings for the injury, and claiming the FDR training will make him strong.
This freaks Korlandril out, who vows to return to the Deadly Shadow. The healer is also furious at Aranaraha for coming into a place of healing with his bad vibes.

The healing section was interesting, but felt incomplete. The subject of Korlandril ’s fears being locked into his War Mask is never really mentioned again, and he is basically back to normal in a few pages. I would have liked to see more about the psychological/psychic healing personally, at least another couple of pages.


Korlandril rejoins his squad, meeting Min as he leaves the Shrine – he is finding it too hard to take off his War Mask, and cautions Korlandril against overconfidence in his ability to do so. Of course Korlandril laughs it off and goes on as normal.

We then get some good banter between the remaining squad, until time passes and Arhulesh is headhunted by Aranaraha . This provokes an honour duel between the two Shrines to prove who’s style is most worthy, and who keeps Arhulesh . Naturally Korlandril is set to fight him, being the newest Deadly Shadow as Arhulesh is the newest Dark Rain. It is doubly important as without Arhulesh the Shadows will be too few to operate as a squad and would be disbanded. A very interesting point, tying in to the whole Exarchs drawing people to them, as it shows there is some higher authority over them to do so (maybe simply tradition). The warriors do not know what would happen to Kenainath if he lost his squad though.

Of course Korlandril wins the duel, but a jibe from Arhulesh at the end causes Korlandril to lose control and almost kill him. The two make up and Korlandril is set to train by himself for some time, and upon his release makes the conscious decision to seek non warlike companionship, forsaking his squadmates initially to meet with Thirianna .


Thirianna is happy to see him, but reaveals that as a Seer she read his runes and they are confused and that he is treading down a dangerous path.
It goes badly, with Korlandril deriding Thirianna ’s concern for him and mocking her observation that he treats everything as a battle to be won. He then goes on to call her jealous of his feelings for Elissanadrin , and sees her crying as an attempt at attention (smooth move dude). Returning to the Shrine for some training he meets with Elissanadrin , and they have some sexually charged banter before another war breaks out.


Honestly, I was pretty annoyed with this battle scene. It went on for a bit too long (there are only so many descriptive ways to kill someone with a chainsword), and it interrupted a very interesting part of the story. I’ve often heard people say Eldar only have few children because sex is so intense emotionally and blah blah blah (though no idea on the source – anybody?). But here we have two Eldar basically saying

Korlandril : “I like you and am attracted to you, we should go out some time.”
Elissanadrin : “I’d rather just do you now, and then we can go out after that.”

Prettymuch flies in the face of the whole “no Eldar gettin’ jiggy with it” thing.

Na-na-na na-na na-na, Na-na-na na-na na-naaaaa, gettin' jiggy with it

The battle is doubly annoying as after he comes back Korlandril falls off the deep end with his growing insanity and becomes an Exarch. There are some scenes I found amusing where Korlandril will do something perfectly normal, everyone will freak out, and he’ll review it in his mind revealing he was acting all crazy. One example is that he walks out from a grove to ask for directions, but in reality he leapt out of the shadows in a combat stance. I thought it was well done, but unfortunately he doesn’t pull back from the brink at the last minute and the book goes down along with him.


From here on in, everything you have read is basically irrelevant.
Korlandril no longer exists, being replaced by the Exarch Morlaniath (he puts on the suit and the gestalt personality subsumes him); the Deadly Shadow squad don’t appear much, certainly no meaningful interaction; and the few characters (Thirianna , Kenainath ) who are around are talking to an essentially new main character – one with all the personality of a rock.
Morlaniath also gets a bunch of new recruits who are basically irrelevant. Eventually Thirianna comes to Korlandril (or rather Mor), asking for his help. She is a Farseer now and is having strange visions of doom that no-one else listens to.

Wait... she’s a Farseer now? lolwot? Didn’t she abhor the idea of getting caught on a path? If only there was a main character who had feelings and emotions to comment on this...
I’m inclined to think this might be an error, and they mean a scryer of some sort, rather than a full blown Farseer, but if it is it a terrible mix up for a 40k book to make – Mutilazorz level of bad IMO.

It’s fairly irrelevant in either case as Morlaniath doesn’t care in any way, shape or form about Thirianna , so he sends her away. Eventually he convinces himself to call in a favour one of his past incarnations with an Autarch, and it is revealed her visions were in fact true and the Imperium is about to invade Alaitoc!


Strap yourself in for a hugely tedious battle scene! Short version is: a bunch of Phoenix Lords show up, including Karandras. Kenainath gives Morlaniath the Deadly Shadow as his own squad is too inexperienced and Kenainath ’s mortal body is dying. We are treated to page upon page of epic battles – from the POV of Morlaniath waiting in the shadows mostly. See, the thing about stealthy close combat dudes is that they tend to wait and hide and spring ambushes. Not very exciting when they’re waiting around watching other guys do the fighting.

Eventually they team up with Karandras, Elissanadrin gets killed (maybe, she’s described as wounded later), Bechareth is also hurt (but must survive as he’s actually an Incubi and his reformation proves the worth of the path) so it ends up with Karandaras getting ‘killed’, and Korlandril /Morlaniath giving themselves to him so he gets up and goes back into the fight.

So basically Elissanadrin (probably) dies with no emotional reaction, despite being a love interest at one point – its literally a couple of lines - and the main character, who only peripherally exists at this point anyway, now totally ceases to exist. You see while Exarchs house the souls of their former ‘bodies’, Karandaras simply absorbs their energy but not their personality so they gain peace at last.


Now, why I hate all of this:

1) If you look at the inside cover of the book it is listed as ‘Path of the Eldar Series, Book One’. So there will be others. My guess is Path of the Seer (Thirianna ), Path of the Outcast (Aradryan ), and probably one about the Incubi guy.

2) This means that this entire book was essentially set-up for the others. The only real carry over is that Morlaniath convinced the Autarch to listen to Thirianna ’s vision. Aside from that Korlandril ’s story is largely irrelevant.

3) That it’s irrelevant wouldn’t be so bad if it was a complete story – Korlandril ’s relationship with Elissanadrin is never resolved, his own personal development just stops when he ceases to exist. I would have much preferred the final battle scene to be massively cut back, maybe just to be the part where they fight the Space Marines at the end with Karandaras.
This would have left room to have Korlandril step back from the brink, a bit more love triangleness between him, Thirianna and Elissanadrin , and then have Kenainath give his life to Karandaras at the end – it would be symbolic of Korlandril ’s mentor attaining peace at the same time as he does and have him leave the Path and resolve his personal issues (ie being a self centred ass [though to be fair he only seems to be around Thirianna ]).

Essentially it was like the first two thirds were a separate novel from the end, and the story never completes. For all it’s worth it could have been Kenainath instead of Morlaniath as the Exarch at the end, such is the character. It makes sense in terms of the universe to have the personality change, but it really ruined the narrative for me (and that last battle goes on far too long).

Overall it started great, but the sudden shift in the thirds section left me deeply disappointed.

6/10