It's here.
All the rulings are fairly reasonable. The only WTF one was that units with more than 6 monkeys get no Inconceivable Customization.
Looks like my Dread Knight is only strength 6 with Doom Fists. Le sigh. Looks like I'll be buying hammers and swords for them from now on. Very disappointed in this one; though, I was fooling myself to think it would go any other way.
The Ulumeathi plasma siphon should be renamed the "F-U Tau plasma siphon".
And to everyone who said Coteaz lets you take unlimited henchmen, I would just like to say, "I told you so."
Other things to note: no warp shunt during scout moves, and Grand Masters can make vehicles scoring.
I wish GW would do something about the 2 months of ambiguity after a codex release. I don't see how 75% of these questions could not have been anticipated.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Cost of doing buisness
It's been a few weeks and people are still upset about the business shenanigans of our favorite faceless multinational toy company. I don't mean to be the constant GW apologist because I agree they do some pretty bonehead things on occasion. I do so like to play the devils advocate, and that leads me to defend things a bit more heartily than they deserve. This is especially true when I think that opposing arguments are based on faulty logic. Seeing things like this on TGN doesn't help either:
Another argument that I've seen lately against GW is that other smaller companies release similar products at lower prices. The conclusion of that argument always seams to come down to GW is price gouging their customers because its obvious that GW with it's higher production rates should be able to produce it even cheaper. I'm not an economist or a business owner, but I've picked up some knowledge about business processes. I've worked for large and small companies, and there are vast differences in how they run. Most companies always tend to run along the same track when they transition from small to large because they all run into the same issues. There are certain realities to running a business that people who've never worked in a cooperate environment may not realize.
As companies grow they need more and more employees with specialized skill sets. When a company is small and does a small volume of business, they can get by with people filling multiple roles. There comes a point when one person can't handle distribution and sales and development and management all at the same time. So you hire new people to do it. Every person you hire requires more expenses in terms of taxes, salary and benefits. Eventual you get so many employees that you need managers to mange them and human resources to take care of the infrastructure. Then you then hit some magic number and suddenly your business is subject to different labor and tax laws. Now your office is too small so you have to move to bigger facilities driving up rent costs. Bulk production can reduce variable costs per product, but in order to start bulk production you have to incur lots of fixed costs first.
Interestingly enough, there is a good episode of the Office(US) that illustrates this point. Michal Scott quits and starts his own paper company. He undercuts the prices of his old employers and steals many of their clients. But he only has three employees and keeping up with the bulk of orders is taking its toll on them. They contemplate hiring additional staff but are dismayed to find out that even with their volume of sales they are loosing money and can't even afford to hire help without raising their prices.
A lot of miniature companies are very small. It's a couple of guys with a spin caster in their garage, or a CAD program and a contract with a larger generic manufacturer. And that works for the volume they sell at. They can even sell their stuff at very low margin because the are probably only supplementing their normal income by running their operation in their free time. If their product becomes popular all of a sudden, they won't be able to continue running their business in that fashion. To provide their product to meet demand they have to grow their business incurring all those fixed costs along the way. Suddenly the money they make per sale goes much less further than it used to.
Basically manufacturing products is complicated business. Especially when you are manufacturing enough product to sell across 6 continents.
GW made a lot of mistakes as they grew, but they where also one of the first in the hobby to get as big as they have. TSR is probably the only contemporary to match them, and look how they turned out. Companies like Privateer have been as successful as they have because they where able to learn from the mistakes that GW made and grow smarter.
My basic point is don't attribute every business decision that GW makes to malice or stupidity. There can be a lot of very good and unavoidable reasons behind each and everyone of them. They can also be trying to make the best out of a bad situation for the sake of making sure their thousands of employees keep their jobs and their shareholder interests are protected. Even the best companies can't make the right choices every time. Institutional blindness and maintaining the status quo can effect a larger company much more severely than a smaller one.
Also don't become emotionally invested in the products you buy or the companies you buy them from. Go ahead and get emotionally invested in the hobby; that's fine by me. The companies that support our hobby on the other hand; you need to maintain a detached skeptical outlook on. Even the really good ones like Privateer. Because when it comes down to your personal feelings versus their own bottom line, 10 times out of 10 you know which one they'll pick.
Don't hate them for it, they're just playing the game everyone else is. As they saying goes, "Don't hate the player, hate the game."
However PP is a company that LOVES you as a customer and listens to your concerns.Really? I mean really, really? I already countered this point last time. Privateer is a for-profit company. If they listen to your concerns it's not because they love you, it's because they think that a happy customer will give them more of their money. And I've seen some of the responses that PP staff has posted on their forums to their customers, and they sometimes come off as more annoyed and condescending than loving. That's only after putting up with gamer fanboi BS for a few years, lets see how they deal with their crazy customers after being in the business for 25 plus years.
Another argument that I've seen lately against GW is that other smaller companies release similar products at lower prices. The conclusion of that argument always seams to come down to GW is price gouging their customers because its obvious that GW with it's higher production rates should be able to produce it even cheaper. I'm not an economist or a business owner, but I've picked up some knowledge about business processes. I've worked for large and small companies, and there are vast differences in how they run. Most companies always tend to run along the same track when they transition from small to large because they all run into the same issues. There are certain realities to running a business that people who've never worked in a cooperate environment may not realize.
As companies grow they need more and more employees with specialized skill sets. When a company is small and does a small volume of business, they can get by with people filling multiple roles. There comes a point when one person can't handle distribution and sales and development and management all at the same time. So you hire new people to do it. Every person you hire requires more expenses in terms of taxes, salary and benefits. Eventual you get so many employees that you need managers to mange them and human resources to take care of the infrastructure. Then you then hit some magic number and suddenly your business is subject to different labor and tax laws. Now your office is too small so you have to move to bigger facilities driving up rent costs. Bulk production can reduce variable costs per product, but in order to start bulk production you have to incur lots of fixed costs first.
Interestingly enough, there is a good episode of the Office(US) that illustrates this point. Michal Scott quits and starts his own paper company. He undercuts the prices of his old employers and steals many of their clients. But he only has three employees and keeping up with the bulk of orders is taking its toll on them. They contemplate hiring additional staff but are dismayed to find out that even with their volume of sales they are loosing money and can't even afford to hire help without raising their prices.
A lot of miniature companies are very small. It's a couple of guys with a spin caster in their garage, or a CAD program and a contract with a larger generic manufacturer. And that works for the volume they sell at. They can even sell their stuff at very low margin because the are probably only supplementing their normal income by running their operation in their free time. If their product becomes popular all of a sudden, they won't be able to continue running their business in that fashion. To provide their product to meet demand they have to grow their business incurring all those fixed costs along the way. Suddenly the money they make per sale goes much less further than it used to.
Basically manufacturing products is complicated business. Especially when you are manufacturing enough product to sell across 6 continents.
GW made a lot of mistakes as they grew, but they where also one of the first in the hobby to get as big as they have. TSR is probably the only contemporary to match them, and look how they turned out. Companies like Privateer have been as successful as they have because they where able to learn from the mistakes that GW made and grow smarter.
My basic point is don't attribute every business decision that GW makes to malice or stupidity. There can be a lot of very good and unavoidable reasons behind each and everyone of them. They can also be trying to make the best out of a bad situation for the sake of making sure their thousands of employees keep their jobs and their shareholder interests are protected. Even the best companies can't make the right choices every time. Institutional blindness and maintaining the status quo can effect a larger company much more severely than a smaller one.
Also don't become emotionally invested in the products you buy or the companies you buy them from. Go ahead and get emotionally invested in the hobby; that's fine by me. The companies that support our hobby on the other hand; you need to maintain a detached skeptical outlook on. Even the really good ones like Privateer. Because when it comes down to your personal feelings versus their own bottom line, 10 times out of 10 you know which one they'll pick.
Don't hate them for it, they're just playing the game everyone else is. As they saying goes, "Don't hate the player, hate the game."
Monday, June 6, 2011
6/4/2011 Team Tournament
The team team tournament I ran on Saturday wen off pretty well except for the poor turnout. We had 4 teams of 4 show up, and fun seemed to be had by all. Steve's team from Saltire Games won first place. They beat out Spag's G2D4 team by one point. I ran the tournament BP style even though I'm a big time w/l evangelist. I felt since one pair of a team could win and another lose, there was no good way to avoid the tie situation. This lead to the winning team taking first place even though they where technically beat by the second place team in the first round. I still think this is a fair situation since every team played every team, and the result came down to Steve's team scoring 6 points against the team that Spag's team only scored 5 against. It's not a situation where Steve's team only played easy opponents, and Spag's team played only hard ones.
I was disappointed about the low turnout. We just barley made 4 teams thanks to the second G2D4 team needing to be rebuilt the day before. There are a few things that I think effected the turnout for this tournament.
Getting yourself to a tournament is easy; getting 4 people to a tournament is hard.
There are occasionally people who drop out of tournaments at the last minute. It's difficult to get a team together full of people who you are relatively sure will make it. Even then emergencies happen and one player has to back out and take his whole team with him.
Advertise, Advertise, Advertise
I thought that we would have no problem getting 6 to 8 teams together from the local hard-core tournament population. Unfortunately a good group of them couldn't attend, and I did put out advertisement to catch guys from a larger radius.
The Uber-Team
Word got out that the players that win most of the local tournaments where forming a super-team to compete. This may have put some people off of the tournament.
A bad case of GW-itis
GW went off and did their usual thing. You know how I feel about the about the recent GW news(though it looks like there may be some real quality issues with Finecast; hopefully they're just early production problems that will get cleared up in a few months), but I don't doubt that a few local where put off enough by the news to shelve their armies for a few weeks.
If anyone has any comments or criticisms about the format or the way I ran the event, please let me know so that I can address them the next time I run a tournament.
I was disappointed about the low turnout. We just barley made 4 teams thanks to the second G2D4 team needing to be rebuilt the day before. There are a few things that I think effected the turnout for this tournament.
Getting yourself to a tournament is easy; getting 4 people to a tournament is hard.
There are occasionally people who drop out of tournaments at the last minute. It's difficult to get a team together full of people who you are relatively sure will make it. Even then emergencies happen and one player has to back out and take his whole team with him.
Advertise, Advertise, Advertise
I thought that we would have no problem getting 6 to 8 teams together from the local hard-core tournament population. Unfortunately a good group of them couldn't attend, and I did put out advertisement to catch guys from a larger radius.
The Uber-Team
Word got out that the players that win most of the local tournaments where forming a super-team to compete. This may have put some people off of the tournament.
A bad case of GW-itis
GW went off and did their usual thing. You know how I feel about the about the recent GW news(though it looks like there may be some real quality issues with Finecast; hopefully they're just early production problems that will get cleared up in a few months), but I don't doubt that a few local where put off enough by the news to shelve their armies for a few weeks.
If anyone has any comments or criticisms about the format or the way I ran the event, please let me know so that I can address them the next time I run a tournament.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Confirmation Bias
From Skepdic:
Most people know that GW is an evil faceless corporation, and the PP is the gods gift to gaming. Here are some examples of how that bias plays out in the communities' reactions:
GW raises prices: OMG GW IS EVIL AND WANTS TO STEAL ALL MY MONEY!
PP raises prices: Have you seen the commodities prices on metal? It's the only logical choice for Privateer to stay in business.
(Fun Fact #1: The last round of Privateer price increases where in the 10-25% range. I can't find the exact numbers because PP has reset their forums since then).
Privateer switches to plastic: Have you seen the commodities prices on metal? It's the only logical choice for Privateer to stay in business.
GW switches to resin: WHAT! THEY WANT ME TO PAY MORE FOR LESS!! GW IS EVIL AND WANTS TO STEAL ALL MY MONEY AND EAT BABIES!
(Fun Fact #2: Plastic versions of older PP metal releases are 4 to 5 dollars more expensive.)
Privateer releases army books: You expect them to put all the units in one book? There are like a thousand of them, this way I can only buy the ones that I need.
GW releases a new codex: My army sucks now, and I have to buy 12 books in order to compete! GW IS EVIL AND WANTS TO STEAL ALL MY MONEY!
(Fun Fact #3: You still need unit cards for Privateer games if you carried you collection over from the last edition. That would be the forth version of the faction cards yet released)
GW releases a unit that costs $90: I can't afford to play this game anymore! GW IS EVIL AND WANTS TO STEAL ALL MY MONEY!
Privateer releases an unit that costs $90: Wow! This model is so beautiful!, and if you can't afford it, you don't have to buy it.
PP can't supply its distributors with product: Look how popular their game is! They can't even get it in stock so I can buy it.
GW can't supply its distributors with product: ...umm, not sure that that has ever happened but I expect the response to be something akin to - GW IS EVIL AND WANTS TO STEAL ALL MY MONEY!
Think about it. Privateer gets cut slack on doing a lot of the things that GW does. There are people who complain about privateer when they do things, just as there are people who defend GW. But in my experience, people are much more likely to accept that GW's reasons are for malice, and that Privateer's are the results of some hard decision where the customers ultimately come first. It's all spin and what we expect from the companies involved.
People have an opinion on the way GW operates. When they see a headline on TTGN that says GW has to raise prices, well, that's GW just being evil again. GW isn't a perfect company. They are just like every other public company out there. My bias is that companies will do what ever they will do to make money. So, when GW raises prices, they aren't my enemy; just a company trying to stay in business. When Privateer Press raises prices they aren't my friend; just a company trying to stay in business.
Here's a little secret. They both want to take all your money, and the better company is the one that can make you think you are getting the better deal. Not the one that actually gives you the better deal, mind you, just the one that makes you think it's a better deal.
And you can replace Privateer with Battlefront or whomever in this argument and it still holds true.
And in conclusion: GW is evil and wants to seal all your money.
Confirmation bias refers to a type of selective thinking whereby one tends to notice and to look for what confirms one's beliefs, and to ignore, not look for, or undervalue the relevance of what contradicts one's beliefs.We all suffer from this. It's something that scientist have to correct for when they do studies. It's not something gamers correct for on any sort of basis. Case in point; Privateer Press vs. Games Workshop.
Most people know that GW is an evil faceless corporation, and the PP is the gods gift to gaming. Here are some examples of how that bias plays out in the communities' reactions:
GW raises prices: OMG GW IS EVIL AND WANTS TO STEAL ALL MY MONEY!
PP raises prices: Have you seen the commodities prices on metal? It's the only logical choice for Privateer to stay in business.
(Fun Fact #1: The last round of Privateer price increases where in the 10-25% range. I can't find the exact numbers because PP has reset their forums since then).
Privateer switches to plastic: Have you seen the commodities prices on metal? It's the only logical choice for Privateer to stay in business.
GW switches to resin: WHAT! THEY WANT ME TO PAY MORE FOR LESS!! GW IS EVIL AND WANTS TO STEAL ALL MY MONEY AND EAT BABIES!
(Fun Fact #2: Plastic versions of older PP metal releases are 4 to 5 dollars more expensive.)
Privateer releases army books: You expect them to put all the units in one book? There are like a thousand of them, this way I can only buy the ones that I need.
GW releases a new codex: My army sucks now, and I have to buy 12 books in order to compete! GW IS EVIL AND WANTS TO STEAL ALL MY MONEY!
(Fun Fact #3: You still need unit cards for Privateer games if you carried you collection over from the last edition. That would be the forth version of the faction cards yet released)
GW releases a unit that costs $90: I can't afford to play this game anymore! GW IS EVIL AND WANTS TO STEAL ALL MY MONEY!
Privateer releases an unit that costs $90: Wow! This model is so beautiful!, and if you can't afford it, you don't have to buy it.
PP can't supply its distributors with product: Look how popular their game is! They can't even get it in stock so I can buy it.
GW can't supply its distributors with product: ...umm, not sure that that has ever happened but I expect the response to be something akin to - GW IS EVIL AND WANTS TO STEAL ALL MY MONEY!
Think about it. Privateer gets cut slack on doing a lot of the things that GW does. There are people who complain about privateer when they do things, just as there are people who defend GW. But in my experience, people are much more likely to accept that GW's reasons are for malice, and that Privateer's are the results of some hard decision where the customers ultimately come first. It's all spin and what we expect from the companies involved.
People have an opinion on the way GW operates. When they see a headline on TTGN that says GW has to raise prices, well, that's GW just being evil again. GW isn't a perfect company. They are just like every other public company out there. My bias is that companies will do what ever they will do to make money. So, when GW raises prices, they aren't my enemy; just a company trying to stay in business. When Privateer Press raises prices they aren't my friend; just a company trying to stay in business.
Here's a little secret. They both want to take all your money, and the better company is the one that can make you think you are getting the better deal. Not the one that actually gives you the better deal, mind you, just the one that makes you think it's a better deal.
And you can replace Privateer with Battlefront or whomever in this argument and it still holds true.
And in conclusion: GW is evil and wants to seal all your money.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
June 4th 4x4 Team Tournament Format
Here are the complete rules for the upcoming Hivefleet Indy 4x4 tournament.
Start Time: 10am
Number of Rounds: 3
Game Length: 2 hours 30 minutes with a 45 minute break after the first round and a 15 minute break after the second.
Max 8 teams=32 players (4 teams pre-set: G2D4team 1, GP North team 1, GP South team 1, Saltire/Bradford team 1) The 4 remaining teams are first come first serve.
Entry per team. $45
Tournament Organizer: Greg / Caulyn Darr
Rules:
*Teams: 4 players with a 1,000 point list that follows all FOC requirements and current Codex restrictions. (Only 1 unique character per 4 man team){No 4 Calgar's, or 2 Njal's, or 3 Straken's, etc.)
*Codex special abilities that effect any friendly units do not effect teammate's units.
*Codex special abilities that effect enemy units can effect both enemy players' units.
*Codex special abilities that effect enemy and friendly units can effect all units in the game.
*Team Captain will determine team pairings before each round, but before pairings of opponents are decided.
Missions:
Each team will be paired with another each round and play two simultaneous games. Each game will be comprised of two team members facing two opposing team members. The team will claim one point for each mission objective claimed in either game with the winning team being the one that claimed the most points. An equal number of objectives claimed will result in a tie.
Each mission will be comprised of three separate mission objectives. One mission objective will be a team goal that either player can assist in claiming. Each teammate will then select one of the personal objectives, and only they will be able to claim it in the game. No two teammates in the same game may select the same personal objective.
Mission Objective 1: Objectives. Five objectives are placed on the board; one in the center and one in the center of each table quarter. Objectives follow the rules in the 40K rulebook.
Mission Objective 2: Table Quarters. The team or player with the most claimed table quarters at the end of the game wins this objective. Whoever has the most Victory Points in a table quarter claims that quarter. Scoring units count as an extra 100VP for claiming a table quarter. If a unit is in more than one quarter, then they count as being in the quarter that contains the majority of the unit.
Mission Objective 3: Kill Points. Kill points are scored as described in the 40K rule book. In order to win this objectives the team or player must score 3 more KP than his opponent team or player. When this is a personal objective, a player may claim kill points by destroying either opposing player's units, but units killed by his teammate do not count.
Each game will go for 6 turns with a 7th turn played on a 4+ die roll.
Each time a player claims a personal objective type for the first time they score an additional point for their team. Each player can score 3 bonus points, for a total of 12 possible for the whole team provided they claim all three types of objectives as a personal objectives. For example if a player claims mission objective 1 in the first game, 2 in the second game, and 1 again in the first game, he would score 2 bonus points for is team. These bonus points will be used as a tiebreaker for teams with identical w/l records.
The objectives for each round are:
Round 1:
Team objective: Kill Points
Personal objectives: Table Quarters, Objectives
Round 2:
Team objective: Table Quarters
Personal objectives: Kill Points, Objectives
Round 3:
Team objective: Objectives
Personal objectives: Table Quarters, Kill Points
Prize Support:
Pending...
Start Time: 10am
Number of Rounds: 3
Game Length: 2 hours 30 minutes with a 45 minute break after the first round and a 15 minute break after the second.
Max 8 teams=32 players (4 teams pre-set: G2D4team 1, GP North team 1, GP South team 1, Saltire/Bradford team 1) The 4 remaining teams are first come first serve.
Entry per team. $45
Tournament Organizer: Greg / Caulyn Darr
Rules:
*Teams: 4 players with a 1,000 point list that follows all FOC requirements and current Codex restrictions. (Only 1 unique character per 4 man team){No 4 Calgar's, or 2 Njal's, or 3 Straken's, etc.)
*Codex special abilities that effect any friendly units do not effect teammate's units.
*Codex special abilities that effect enemy units can effect both enemy players' units.
*Codex special abilities that effect enemy and friendly units can effect all units in the game.
*Team Captain will determine team pairings before each round, but before pairings of opponents are decided.
Missions:
Each team will be paired with another each round and play two simultaneous games. Each game will be comprised of two team members facing two opposing team members. The team will claim one point for each mission objective claimed in either game with the winning team being the one that claimed the most points. An equal number of objectives claimed will result in a tie.
Each mission will be comprised of three separate mission objectives. One mission objective will be a team goal that either player can assist in claiming. Each teammate will then select one of the personal objectives, and only they will be able to claim it in the game. No two teammates in the same game may select the same personal objective.
Mission Objective 1: Objectives. Five objectives are placed on the board; one in the center and one in the center of each table quarter. Objectives follow the rules in the 40K rulebook.
Mission Objective 2: Table Quarters. The team or player with the most claimed table quarters at the end of the game wins this objective. Whoever has the most Victory Points in a table quarter claims that quarter. Scoring units count as an extra 100VP for claiming a table quarter. If a unit is in more than one quarter, then they count as being in the quarter that contains the majority of the unit.
Mission Objective 3: Kill Points. Kill points are scored as described in the 40K rule book. In order to win this objectives the team or player must score 3 more KP than his opponent team or player. When this is a personal objective, a player may claim kill points by destroying either opposing player's units, but units killed by his teammate do not count.
Each game will go for 6 turns with a 7th turn played on a 4+ die roll.
Each time a player claims a personal objective type for the first time they score an additional point for their team. Each player can score 3 bonus points, for a total of 12 possible for the whole team provided they claim all three types of objectives as a personal objectives. For example if a player claims mission objective 1 in the first game, 2 in the second game, and 1 again in the first game, he would score 2 bonus points for is team. These bonus points will be used as a tiebreaker for teams with identical w/l records.
The objectives for each round are:
Round 1:
Team objective: Kill Points
Personal objectives: Table Quarters, Objectives
Round 2:
Team objective: Table Quarters
Personal objectives: Kill Points, Objectives
Round 3:
Team objective: Objectives
Personal objectives: Table Quarters, Kill Points
Prize Support:
Pending...
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Someone else has to be crazy enough
I bought the Saganami Island Tactical Simulator a while back, and have never had the chance to really play it. It's a starship combat system set in David Weber's Honorverse. It has inertial 3d vector movement, so not a simple game. Any other crazy people out there willing to play a game of it with me?
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Missed it by that much
I took my Eldar to todays Hivefleet Indy tournament and didn't do too well. I had three good really close games, but I made mistakes, and you aren't allowed to make mistakes when playing Eldar.
I've lost all faith in my Eldar as a tournament army. I have to make some changes, or do something drastic to be able to keep playing them. My GK's are my only army I have any confidence in right now.
I've lost all faith in my Eldar as a tournament army. I have to make some changes, or do something drastic to be able to keep playing them. My GK's are my only army I have any confidence in right now.
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