No game night again this week so a chance to make a start on a new project, or really an extension of what I’ve already been working. I’ve really enjoyed painting up the Deathwatch Kill Team so I decided to carry on and picked up the Deathwatch Cassius Kill Team. I’ve liked these models since the boxed game came out so being able to pick them up as a set of models without the game is great business idea for GW. And this got me thinking about something GW said earlier this year that didn’t really make sense to me at the time. They said that they are first and foremost a model company and not a game company. With most of their sales going to collectors and not gamers. At the time I thought they were way off with this remark but thinking about my recent purchases I’m not so sure they are. My excuse to pick up the first kill team was that Pete thought that playing kill team might get us back into 40K. I didn’t really need them for this as I have enough minis already to make up kill teams for several factions but I’ve always liked the Deathwatch and this was an excuse to paint them up. So the five models I had cover this off but I’ve no intention of making up a full Deathwatch army and with my main 40K army being Orks I’m not going using in the same game as detachments or whatever the rule is to use different forces. So why did I get another box of minis. The simply answer is that I like them and wanted to paint them. I’m probably never going to use them so I’ve got them because I’m a collector not a gamer. I know it’s not quite as clear cut as that but it does make me think that how many other people are there out there that are still buying GW minis but not actually playing the games. Which give some credence to that statement by GW that most of their models are purchased by collectors. To the best of my knowledge they have never published any research to back this up but anecdotally it could be correct.
Having waffled on a bit their I’ll get back on topic with the Deathwatch. I’ve built and primed all the models but as I got started I decided I wasn’t going to do them all in a production line fashion. I couldn’t face edging and highlighting all that black in a single go. So I did all the airbrush work in one go and then my plan is to do some of the edge highlighting and when it starts to get boring start to work on some of the other details. At the end of the day it’s still only eleven models so it’s not like I’m trying to grind out a guard army or anything like that.
In other news Spartan Games are going to Kickstarter to fund the version 2.5 releases for Dystopian Wars. This is mainly about a new rule book, available in both soft and hard back along with some new models for each faction. They have started to move to a more modular design for the ships so that you can use them for a couple of different functions. I’ve decided to back this on the Captain pledge to pick up a hard back rule book and some new additions for my Russian fleet. They have some pledges that allow you to pick up two player sets that look like good value along with some campaign books so all in all it looks quite good. It’s nice to see that they are showing a bit of love for Dystopian Wars which I felt had been a bit side-lined with all the work they had been doing on HALO. If you are feeling a bit flush there is also a pledge that allows you to design your own model for the game. That’s way out of my range but if that lottery tick come in I could see the Russians getting something that was good at dealing with both rockets and torpedoes, Al and Pete really be pulling their hair out then.
That’s it for this week. My plan for the rest of the week is to plod on with the Deathwatch and see how things go. Have a good weekend and I’ll see you all again next week.
