Warhammer Disk Wars...This is interesting

Fantasy Flight just announced it.  It's a revival of the old Disk Wars game mechanic.  Effectively a miniatures game without miniatures.

I've heard that one of the particulars of the Fantasy Flight/Games Workshop partnership is that FF couldn't directly create a GW licensed game that used standard miniatures.  Which is understandable.  I just don't know how GW thought it would be a good thing to approve this use of the license.  Are they really that deluded to think that a game like his is not an almost direct competitor to their products because it has no miniatures?     Maybe Fantasy is doing so bad that GW considers it a write off, and at least making some money off the IP is better than nothing.

A cheap tactical war game that uses GW's IP and has solid mechanics?   That's the holy-f'n'-grail.  Can't wait for the 40K version myself.  The only downside is the lack of actual miniatures.  Hmm...Maybe something with magnets...  

Less Fugly Marines

I was right. The ranged combat ones do look better.

The oversized prop comedy drills on the close combat ones really screwed with the proportions on what's still a pretty badly proportioned model.  At least with these the eye isn't drawn away from the center of the model so much.  Makes them look more taller than wider.

If they had stretched these guys out on the vertical axis 1/2 or a full inch, I think they would have been truly badass.  Which has kind of been GW's design studio problem through out 6th edition.  They're just that much effort away from awesome.  Always falling just 10 yards short of a touchdown.  You know, while continually raising ticket prices despite never winning any games or scoring any points.  

Though, man, I want to see rules for these guys.  I wonder how much 3 with 2 Heavy Bolters and a Hurricane bolter each cost points wise.

These, I would almost buy if they didn't cost $78.

Fugly Marines

I read the rumors about the new super-terminators in the upcoming Marine codex this morning, and was thinking about what kind of model I could use as a reasonable proxy for them.  If they turn out to be good.  I have a bunch of these guys from AT-43 laying around:

I thought maybe with a few bits swaps...nah.  Too Orky for marines.  This is the big kit for the new release we're talking about.  On par with the Riptide and Wraith Knight.  It's got to be awesome and dynamic, and way better than any conversion I could do.  

Then I saw these:

Yeaaaah.  Maybe they just don't photograph well.  Maybe the ranged combat ones look better.  Maybe GW realized marines sell no matter what.  

Edited to add...

I don't necessarily think this is a problem with the sculptors or design team themselves.  More likely decrease dev time, physical production constraints, and top down directives(Must have big $$$ kits!) are making it hard to produce top of the line models.  So instead of "hey, I have this cool idea for a kit," it's "Make me a kit that cost $75 retail, fits in a standard size box, and you have 2 months."  That's my internal rationalization at least.   

Don't buy from Warlord Games...Ever

Warlord's been releasing dice bags to go along with their Bolt Action game.  The latest one has the unit insignia for the Afrika Corps.  The one with the great big swastika on it.   Yeah, I know, that was the the symbol the actual army used, and historical gamers like their accuracy.  I personally think it's crass to prominently display a symbol historically and still today used as a symbol of violence and hate.  Decals on your 15mm army, yeah fine whatever.  Dice, well, your going with a theme I guess.

At one point are you fetishizing it?  I've played German armies in Flame of War.  Usually Wehrmacht; the common soldiers. At first I did it because I thought they had the cool tech and rules where solid.  It helped that due to their elite status I could build the army on the cheep.  If I had the opportunity to do it again, I probably wouldn't build a German army.  Having though about it, even just the common German solider fighting for the Nazi's is too problematic for me.  Still, back then I sometimes wondered about people who play SS armies in FoW.   Of all the units and all the armies in the whole of WWII, why that one?  OK, you like Tiger tanks.  Aren't there like 8 other lists that use them that are just regular army?

Anyway, I wasn't going to make a stink until I saw this post from Warlord games on TTGN.

Afternoon gents,

This was always going to be something of an emotive product but we would rather give our customers the options to buy the very items they have been asking us to produce than pretend these symbols didn’t ever exist.

Is the swastika a symbol of a tyrannical regime that visited death upon millions be they armed or otherwise? Most certainly. However, we didn’t receive the same reaction to the Soviet dice bag and I’m sure we all agree that the Soviet union had a similar record. Come to think of it the Romans weren’t angels yet plenty of Roman re-enactors, etc. The Waffen-SS were fanatical and responsible for an atrocity or two yet they prove extremely popular subjects for wargames armies. Where do you draw the line? In the end that is up to each one of us to decide.,

Ultimately this comes down to you the customer and your own ideals. If you find the image less than savoury or distasteful then please don’t buy it. For many, this is merely a symbol of the army they choose to wargame with and nothing more. For those players, we have produced this dice bag. It is not intended as a political statement but as a receptacle for your 6-sided gaming dice that follows the theme of the army of toy soldiers you choose to play with.

As this is only available via our webstore it will be up to the individual to decide whether they wish to add this to their wargaming collection or not. It won’t sit on store shelves or be thrust upon the unwary at shows. Any questions of legality or morality falls firmly with the customer – we do not presume to tell anyone what they should or should not buy. We are aware that in Germany the Swastika is banned but, like our other dice bags, it will not be made available to retailers and therefore not pose a problem.

We fully appreciate that this will not be everyone’s cup of tea, just as political correctness isn’t pleasing for others. Please take this for what it is – a dice bag for playing games with model soldiers.

Cheers,

Paul Sawyer
http://www.warlordgames.com

It's totally not a political statement to sell swag with swastikas on them apparently.   I guess symbols magically loose all meaning at the 70 year mark.  Or if you have a problem with it, you're just some PC liberal whiner.   Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration of his point.  What's more troubling is the apologetic's behind allowing it.  Because Rome and Communist Russian were bad, then it's OK to display Nazi symbols. If anything that's an argument that you shouldn't be slapping any of these symbols on things you're selling for a profit.

You also shouldn't be able to hide behind "giving your customers what the want" when what they want is so freaking problematic.  I'd rather go broke than cater to the Nazi fetish demographic.  You can be a historical wargamer and even play WWII Germans without ever displaying a swastika.  That little bit of historical inaccuracy is worth it to not even be accidentally associated with a genocidal fascist regime.

It's products and apologetics like this that give closeted racist assholes cover to fly their racist freak flags in public.  It's either that or they're ignorant of what that symbol means to people.  Either way, not good. Why would you want to own something with that symbol?  It's short-hand for hatred and genocide.

Play one of these divisions instead.