April the 1st Comes Early?

Of all the strange things that have been happening as of late, here’s another. Yesterday it emerged that the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), in the UK, had written to the Games Workshop CEO, Kevin Rountree, asking that the miniature war-gaming brand ban 'fur' garments from all Warhammer characters.[1] They go on to claim “while we appreciate that they are fictional, draping them in what looks like a replica of a dead animal sends the message that wearing fur is acceptable – when, in fact, it has no more place in 2017 than it would in the year 40,000.”[2]

This is not satire.
Source: PETA

Before I continue I should point out my personal stance on animal rights issues. I believe animals should not be treated as commodities or exploited. I live in vegan household and the majority of the time I follow a vegan lifestyle (and when I’m not, I’m vegetarian). I believe that conversations need to be had about our relationship with the other species that we share a planet with. I also believe ill thought out actions and attention seeking publicity stunts by people like PETA benefit only PETA and undermine the serious and hard work people are doing to raise awareness and promote active change.

So back to Warhammer 40K. I have no intention of getting deeply into the lore, as I've been out of the loop for some time. I'm more Quorn than Khorne these days but even so, I’m pretty sure there isn't any active promotion of the exploitation of animals within the game worlds of the Games Workshop. To be honest what they’re targeting exactly seems a bit of a muddled mess. Are beast races in fantasy setting included or indeed the fantasy setting as a whole? What about historical miniatures made by other companies?

And then there’s the target audience of the Games Workshop. Are they more likely to wear fur or condone the wearing of fur after seeing these miniatures? I would say not, the war gaming audience doesn’t exactly strike me as big wearers of fur. I’d like to see some genuine, actual research, from PETA along such lines. Do plastic figures dressed in fur make people less compassionate towards animals? If such research took place and showed a link, then I’d be prepared to listen (and write a retraction to this whole post).

In the midst of all this PETA miss some genuine issues which they could have picked up on. As I mentioned before, things get missed in clamour for attention. Such as, animal products within items like paintbrushes, or the environmental impact of microbeads in textured paints and the plastic production itself. These are issues and criticisms which could have been legitimately raised to the Games Workshop but now will mostly likely be missed in the ridicule which is sure to follow this empty gesture.

And just so I'm not completely hating on them, their recipes section is pretty good, do go check that out.


References

 1. PETA UK (2017) PETA Asks Games Workshop to Ban 'Fur' from Warhammer Characters. [Online] Available from: PETA UK [Accessed 31 January 2017]

 2. PETA UK (2017) Why is PETA Asking Games Workshop to Make Warhammer Fur-Free? [Online] Available from: PETA UK [Accessed 31 January 2017]

Kickstarter: Many Ways To Spend My Money – September 2016

As you’ll know by now, I like to keep an eye on what’s happening on Kickstarter, especially when it comes to miniatures (and board games) and this month sees a couple of interesting miniatures Kickstarters.

First up is another Oldhammer style miniatures release called Greenskin Wars. It’s very much like the Pantheon of Chaos Kickstarter I wrote about back in April, which is not surprising as its run by the same people. This time it’s some fantastic old school goblins, plus a few hobgoblins, which instantly takes me back to the early editions of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Source: Kickstarter

The models are sculpted by Kev Adams, something of legend when it comes to goblins, so much so he’s known as the Goblin Master. There’s a good mix of foot soldiers, plus interesting options such as mounted goblins and war machines.

Source: Kickstarter

Personally I will be sitting this one out, but that doesn’t mean you have to. My reasons are that I actually backed the Pantheon of Chaos Kickstarter and I’d prefer to have received them before buying more from the same people, (plus there’s the whole GBP v € thing which is still ongoing). Hopefully they’ll be with me soon, I’ll be sharing a first look with you when they do arrive.

That leads to the next of this month’s interesting project, Hasslefree Miniatures, Kev White Does Matt Dixon’s Female Fantasy Miniatures.

Source: Kickstarter

Hasslefree are becoming one my favourite ranges, I’ve bought a few from them, not yet finished painting any of them yet (the detail on them is excellent)… In this case they plan on releasing a range of pin-up miniatures based on the work of artist Matt Dixon. I know the pin-up models aren’t to everyone’s taste but Hasslefree’s miniatures range is going from strength to strength in my opinion and if you can find something you like then this certainly looks worth getting involved with.

Source: Kickstarter

Initially they set out to do a small range of female characters in three versions, a pin-up, a skyclad (their term for ‘nude’) and a winter variant. They flew through the initial options within a few hours and seem to have been caught out somewhat. However they’re going a very good job of engaging with their backers, listening to suggestions, posting daily work in progress reports (NSFW link) and working on more options. One very appealing option that’s been mentioned is an enhanced variant of some of the winter models (in addition to those on offer) in collaboration with Tre Manor of Red Box Games, these could be ideal for Frostgrave.

The pledge levels pretty much allow you to bid for one model upwards, which is good. I do hope they manage to get further than offering sketches for the majority of the models as I tend not to want to purchase models that I’ve not at least seen the greens for. However given the quality of their existing range I think they’re a safe pair of hands. So in this case I will be keeping a close eye on this project, especially for the Frostgrave related miniatures, and most likely backing them later on.

If you want to back them then:

Greenskin Wars can be found here (finishes on Tuesday, October 4th 2016 at 2:44 PM BST)

Kev White Does Matt Dixon’s Female Fantasy Miniatures can be found here (finishes on Sunday, October 2nd 2016 at 8:00 PM BST)

Kickstarter: Many Ways To Spend My Money - April 2016

I like to keep one eye on what's available on Kickstarter. Aside from the usual 'pre-order' Kickstarters run by the larger gaming companies this month has seen something that particularly appealed to me.

Source: Kickstarter

The Kickstarter in question is The Pantheon of Chaos, a miniatures range with a distinctly old school, Oldhammer, feel to them.

Source: Kickstarter

I remember seeing the greens sometime ago, although where exactly escapes me, and instantly having flashbacks to the golden age of Games Workshop miniatures.

I really think it's a positive step to see new miniatures being released in this Oldhammer style as I feel the actual Oldhammer movement is a bit of closed shop, especially if your interest is a passing one. Unless you're 20+ year hoarder, involved in gaming groups or prepared to cave into the demands of eBay profiteers it's really difficult to get involved. Try joining their Facebook group. Time after time I seem to be refused, obviously I don't know the right people / secret handshake / code words etc...

So anyway, now the Pantheon of Chaos has gone live, and been funded within 2 hours, I'm sorely tempted to get myself a few of them. Although the €30 to €50 price tag for a decent sized set will certainly test my spending resolve for this year they do look too good to pass up. And given the ease with which they reached their funding target it bodes well for the post-kickstarter plans for the range, including a book and further miniatures.

If you feel like getting involved then you can find the Pantheon of Chaos can be found here and there's still 10 days left to run (finishes on Wednesday, May 4 2016 at  8:44 PM BST).

The Age of Sigmar Is Upon Us

After months of speculation the Age of Sigmar is finally upon us, this being the Games Workshop’s latest fantasy battle game, replacing the long-standing Warhammer Fantasy Battle, now in it's 8th edition.

As I tend to write about models and miniatures I am of course going to start by looking at the new miniatures, which I got to see at my local store. There are currently two factions of new miniatures both of which will be released with starter set next weekend.

First up are the Stormcast Eternals, these are an entirely new faction, representing the forces of order. The models looked very good and the plastic looks to be finer and more detailed than the current models within the fantasy range. However they are not really to my personal taste, I felt they’re essentially fantasy Space Marines and I’ve never been a fan of Space Marines, they're just too bland and have little depth beyond being big and crushing all that stands in their way.

Even so Space Marines are the Games Workshop's best sellers, which probably says a lot about their target demographic, and so I can see exactly why they've suddenly appeared in the fantasy setting.

Next we have the forces of chaos represented by the Khorne Bloodbound, one of the original chaos powers from the previous Warhammer. In that respect they’re nothing particularly new but again there’s a new set of figures, chaos warriors and marauders. These again are excellent and look finer and are more detailed sculpts than previous models.

The older chaos warriors and marauders have been around for some time now. In my opinion they’re a welcome overhaul these older figures (especially the marauders) in the range and when I first saw them I actually contemplated collecting chaos again! It'll be interesting to see if, going forward, there's an update for the other chaos powers.

As for the game itself the onus seems to be on simpler rules, just pick up whatever figures you have and start playing. As I have a bias toward miniatures I think this in itself is a good thing. For a long time I felt there has been too much focus on army lists, powerful units and characters and not enough on collecting the miniatures (or themes) that you want to collect. Want a small skirmish battle? That’s fine; want a huge battle? That's also fine.

Do these change go too far in the direction of simple? After reading the rules I'm still undecided. While few could disagree that Warhammer had become somewhat bloated the omission of things like rank bonus and psychology from older versions of Warhammer initially seem to suggest it's a bit too simple but until I play I can't be sure.

On the point of skirmish battles I can't help but feel that they regret ending Mordheim. As a skirmish game goes, if it was still around, it could have been used as an entry point to Warhammer and we wouldn't be where we are now. It's like they've realised the Warhammer of old required a lot of time and financial investment before you could even field a force on the table which was probably putting a lot of people off. Their solution, merge a skirmish and battle game into one product because the skirmish game that previously could have fulfilled that transition has long been gone.

Of course if you’ve spent any time on the internet this weekend you will have no doubt seen a lot of complaining! There seems to be a rather vocal criticism of the the game as being far too simple and of course complaining that “power-gaming” army lists are no longer valid. Personally I get the feeling the more vocal complainers, at least around the latter point, are the type of players that try hard to win a game with an army list rather than on the table top. These people are one of reasons why I lost interest in the gaming side of things some time ago. Despite all the criticism I have to say seeing this game for the first time this weekend actually had me contemplating gaming again!

From talking to my local store staff I get the impression that there’s been an acknowledgement that they needed make collecting and gaming fun again. If the Games Workshop want to take the increased fun approach as well then I really do think that they should be commended for this approach.

Something I think a lot of people have missed is that the Games Workshop realise they’re facing increasing competition from miniatures board games. Now it’s not uncommon to pick up a battle themed board game and so this seems like a logical step to bring those players into their fantasy gaming world. Should they have done that at the expense of their current Warhammer players? I think they had no choice as there certainly isn't room for both the Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Age of Sigmar. If the sales figures that are frequently mentioned for Warhammer, are to be believed, then from a business perspective it would have become unsustainable and we'd have eventually been left with no fantasy setting at all, just Warhammer 40K.

Of course this all comes at a cost, the destruction of the Old World, a world I've known for the past 25+ years. The new world concept will need time to grow on me, it is of course instantly lacking the rich history that the previously established world accumulated over many years, but I suppose if I don't like it then I know I can carry on playing the older games as their rules are readily available. I can even mix and match older and newer figures and lore as I see fit. And that's it, at the end of the day a hobby like this will always be what you want to make of it.

If you want to check out the new rules, then they are available for free here.