Old Games & Old Guys

 So,

This week I have been thinking about a few things going on with me and gaming. No I am not getting out of it, but were my recent thoughts have been on with my gaming. Really its what am I focusing on and I started to wonder why I am thinking like this.

My recent interests seems to be older games that I either played in the past or never got a chance to play, like this recent obsession with Waraster. This past weekend was also one of our shops local gamers garage sale day and of course I had certain things I was looking for.

But my list of items were all for long forgotten games such as Warhammer Quest, anything Pirates or Old West related, Mordheim related items and possibly LotR items. I made two trips around the sellers area, and nothing jumped out at me. What I noticed was lots of 40k and AOS projects, nothing on my list. My buddy Mike found a few things, but these were more role playing items. But nothing really jumped out at me as anything I needed to purchase.

Also the other day I reached out to my game group, our discord channel and a couple of FB groups about playing some Gaslands, other then one person, no one seemed interested in playing and this is not a old game by any means! It seems that the interest for playing Gaslands has dried up here in the valley. This had me asking my buddy Mike, if he was maybe interested in helping run an event for the game over in Vegas for LVO next year. He was not interested in hosting a game and honestly he was not very excited about playing much other then classic old games as well like Quest, or Space Hulk. 

I totally understand where he is coming from, games today, just are not that exciting anymore to us older gamers. Part of the reason is constantly chasing new versions of the rules and having to spend more money on things we already have. A certain company sure has locked down the FOMO attitude and is constantly changing things up. Perhaps I have hit that point that I really don't care about the latest and shiniest thing anymore in gaming. 

There are a few games that look interesting, but the availability makes them tough. Take for example Black Site Studios, they have three games that I would love to play, Hamutsu, Lunar and Don't look back. But the problem is they sell directly and do not send to retailers, this makes it hard for me to try to get anyone excited to play, especially in your local game store. "Hey that's a cool game, can I buy that here? Nope dealer dosn't sell it. 

And on the topic of new games, I think my time has passed as a flag bearer for games. I have done that for many games, trying to get folks interested. But its a lot of work and I do not think I have it in me to be a cheerleader for free for a company anymore. I know my gaming buddies are not interested in doing that either, once again the curse of the old men, get off my rocks you young kiddos!

So where does that leave me? Well its still in a place of uncertainty, one hand I want to play some older games, want to play them with regularity, but those games now have a small following so it will take time to get them to the table. The other hand, I am tired of always trying to get games going or going again. I guess I just need to learn to be appreciative when I do get to play with friends these older games that we enjoy.

Sorry for the ramble, but felt like I needed to get that off my chest.

TK  

Games?, what games!

 Well,

Its been almost a month now of no work on anything game related, no games have been played and no urge to work on anything. It seems that the Covid Lockdown is playing havoc with my gaming interest. I know I am not alone  with this as some of my friends are feeling the same way. And just last week, someone at our local store came down with it causing the store to shut down and clean and get everyone tested.

I wonder if this is going to have a longer lasting effect on me as well as others. I have switched to doing Model Railroading to keep me busy as there is nothing new out there that I am reall excited about. I have not given up on gaming, just put it on the back burner for now.

For some, this is going to be a game breaker, I am sure of it. For others its a chance to catch up on their painting and assembly. I have been painting most of the time during lock down, I closed my Commission painting service to focus on painting my own stuff. But even now I am bored with that and it seems pointless to keep painting for something that may not ever come back.

Sorry if this sounds so negative, but its depression that is kicking in and I just need to vent about it here. I have not crossed the path yet of selling my stuff off, just have no real interest in it right now. Although at Christmas I got the awesome Ghost of Tushima and that is making me look at Samurai scenery and models.

But the reality is why buy and work on stuff for a game that I may never get to play on the table, I already have it virtually so I should be content with that.

So to all of you out there feeling the same way, I get it, I really do get it. Try to focus on another part of the hobby or look at something else that you can enjoy solo. Now maybe I need to get off my butt and get to designing my Tiki Bar for the backyard during the lockdown.

TK

To Game or not to game...who cares anymore?

 Well, 

That title seems a bit disheartening now doesn't it? Sorry to sound depressing, but thats how I am starting to feeling with my gaming of late. With the state of the world right now and having to be in lock down I am starting to really wonder if gaming will ever get back to normal. What started out as "Flatten the Curve" has turned into life being turned upside down and I am wondering why do I still collect stuff for games.

They say that it takes the brain 21 days to form a new habit, for some things a tad longer, what about months of doing the same thing? Up until about 3 weeks ago I was still working on my own projects and still had hope of possible games, but maybe its the holidays or maybe I have just tired of all of this but my interest in games is falling into a dont give a crap attitude. I have been watching lots of videos on Youtube about games and projects, but those are getting old and I am finding it hard to be excited about gaming.

Of late, I have been getting more involved in Model Railroading as this tends to be more of a solo project and may be turning my attention to this more then gaming. Buying, building, painting models is just not very exciting anymore with out the opportunity to use them in a game, maybe thats what I am getting from model railroading, I am getting a sense of satisfaction from using it unlike gaming right now.

Sorry for the rant, just needed to get this off my chest and putting it here helps with that.

TK

Opps, they did it again!

SO,

Games Workshop just announced that they are releasing another new box set along with a New hard back rule book for Blood Bowl to be released this year.

New Version of Blood Bowl Already?

So, I have very mixed feelings about this, on one hand, I am glad that GW is supporting one of my all time favorite games, then on the other side I think What the Hell GW???

I started playing BB back with the 2nd edition back in 1988, I loved the game and so did my buddies. I was hooked and have bought each version up until today. This most recent edition came out 4 years ago and they are still releasing teams, but today they officially announced a newer version.

Why does this make me mad? Well that means all the money I have spent on this new game is about to go out the window! All the extra stuff like tactic cards, GW made sleeves, bought teams and extra boards, pretty much went in with both feet. Now there will be a new rule book and from what I am hearing, a new stat added to the game, so that means all the team cards, and rule books are now garbage and I would need to buy more stuff! 

Of late GW has gone to this collector mentality for the last few years, causing a sort of buying frenzy for products and I think GW dosn't mind, it helps with the frenzy and everyone wanting their products. It drives demand and I am sure GW banks on the sales spikes caused by this which helps their bottom line.

Well though for me & my situation, I think I am done feeding the GW cash cow, its time for me to take back my hobby, its not about the fevered buying and collecting, its about the hobby in general and I want to have fun with it. So I will be pumping the brakes and turning my focus to other games and spend that money on things I want and not things I need to get before it sells out!

TK

You want to play what?

So,

Been thinking about this for a while, so I thought why not write something down, so here goes. Why do we gamers stop playing certain games? Lately I have been wanting to play some classic games like Blood Bowl, Legends of the Old West and Necromunda, but I am finding it hard to get some of my game buddies to play.

I have noticed that with Games Workshop games, once the game goes out of print, the interest is lost on these games. Now sometimes the game companies don’t help this, like releasing a new version of the rules and totally screwing up the game (can you say LotR and then the Hobbit?). Now I understand it is hard to get new players into an older version of the rules and its even tougher if the rules are gone all together. But what about the folks that kept these older games?

If you invested into a game and still have all your “stuff” for the game, why not play it still? I understand that there is only so much gaming time available to folks, heck I only really get one day to play games now because of family obligations. I also understand that with less gaming time, there are many newer games that need to be played, so the older games slowly take a back seat. My own gaming experience shows this, for a few years Flames of War took up all my gaming time, heck it was the most played game for me for three years running. Now I hardly ever play, partly due to my interest level being low on it and the other part is that I want to play other games.

Is that the case then, too many games and not enough time? Perhaps I answered my own question then. This past weekend I heard from a friend tell me he missed Lord of the Rings, I replied that we all did in the game group. But that’s the gist, we all still have armies and all the books, so why don’t we play it? Maybe it is a nostalgic thing as my good friend Rob told me, it’s as if we have moved on from certain games like you do in relationships, I don’t know.

Now as I mentioned earlier, the game companies don’t help with this. Take Warhammer Historical products. When GW closed this branch of the company, there seemed to be a mass exodus from playing their games, people said things like “It’s not supported” and “Can’t buy it anymore, won’t play it anymore” as if that was a reason for people to stop playing the games. Once again my personal experience is that I had a few WAB armies for the dark age period. I had all the dark age books so I was set and didn’t care if they released anymore books. But our group moved away from playing WAB 1 or 1.5. Same thing for Legends of the Old West, I have all the figures I need, have all the books and terrain, but once Warhammer Historical closed, people got rid of their stuff.  

Maybe it has to do with the community, take Blood Bowl, it was a game that GW killed a few times but the community kept on going. They did not need GW to support it, they just kept playing. Heck once GW tried killing it, many other companies stepped up and kept making figures for the game. Blood Bowl still lives on and is still played all around the world. I find it funny that for a game has no support officially, there is ton of other companies supporting it. Heck one tournament back in the Midwest, had over 64 players show up to play, that’s amazing!

So where am I going with this? I guess what I am trying to say is keep playing the games you love and enjoy, you don’t need the companies support, just gather a few friends together and keep playing it if you enjoy it, maybe I am over thinking all of this, time to get back to painting my toys…

TK

The Hobbit - An Unexpected Price Hike!!!

So,

Like many on the Internet I have been waiting for the Hobbit game from GW. I have seen and heard the rumors and have been holding my breath as to how much GW was going to charge. Well the wait is over and OMG, I just about fell out of my chair!

Come on GW, what the hell are you thinking???? I saw the Ultimate bundle deal on their site was a staggering $745.00!!!! What the hell???? Really, you think this will get folks to play a game you have run into the ground? So after seeing that and crossing that off my list, I took a look at the rulebook, thinking if anything, I would buy that. But what is that price? $85.00 Frickin dollars!

ONCE AGAIN, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING GAMES WORKSHOP????

I'm sorry, but GW has jumped the shark on this and they are never going to get the sales like they did during the Lord of the Rings movie years. With the economy still in the tank here in the states, I just do not see this stuff being your financial win fall like before.

So where does this leave me, well I will tell you, I am heading back into Historical gaming! Warlord Games has a bunch of games that I am interested in (Bolt Action, Black Powder) and I can see my hobby money going to Warlord and even Mantic (Dreadball). Hell for the price of the Hobbit Rulebook, I can buy a ton of Perry Miniature Plastics or Victrix Models or even Warlord miniatures.

So, I am sorry GW, but I will not be getting my hobby money anymore. This was the last straw, you have finally sent me packing, I am sure Warlord Miniatures will appreciate my money more than you!!!

TK

What is going on????

So,

As many of you know, I have a certain fondness for the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle game by Games Workshop. In fact I enjoy the game so much, I wrote a little pirate game based on the rules. I also run a Lord of the Rings tournament called Gathering in the Desert and it is going into it's 5th year.

But today I need to do a little ranting for a minute. It seems that Games Workshop has no clue what it is doing with the Lord of the Rings game. Let me explain, for years while the movies where out we (the LotR community) had support from Games Workshop with them releasing Source books. We also had articles in White Dwarf (which many WHFB and 40K players hated!) Times were good for Lord of the Rings players.

But recently GW has been doing some strange things with their 3rd Core Game (Yes GW thinks of LotR as a Core Game!). I started noticing that it was getting harder to get Source books. In fact many were taken off the GW web site. As someone who runs tournaments for the game, this made it hard to get new players into the game. But there was a bright spot, GW released a PDF of the special rules and stats for entries that were found in the source books.

The bad thing was that they did not include points cost, but we still had Legions of Middle Earth. But now, LoME is out of production! So where do players get the point cost? What the heck are they thinking??And how the heck do I as a tournament organizer, recruit new players? It seems that Games Workshop is letting LotR die a slow painful death.

So where does this leave us (LotR Players)? Well there is always hope that with the new Hobbit movies there may be a re-do of the game. I am hopeful that the new movies will be an new resurgence in the game. Although I am worried that GW's track record of late with rules may see some drastic changes to the game that I love. Only time will tell, but for now, I will be left scratching my head and wondering what the heck GW is doing with this game!

Sorry rant over...

TK

What does it take???

So I have been wondering about a few things lately and figured I would post them here.

Now as most of you folks know, I love Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game by Games Workshop. I love it so much that for the last three years I have run Gathering in the Desert, an Independent Grand Tournament for LotRSBG. What I am wondering is what does it take to get more folks into this game?

LotRSBG was considered one of Games Workshops "Big Three" core games while the movies were out. Now that the movies have come and gone, there does not seem to be much buzz about this game anymore. In fact even GW is lack luster in promoting it themselves, this is of course has to do with sales of the game I am sure. So we really can't blame GW for the reason why sales are down or their lack of support.

So what is it? I have been wondering this since 2001 when the game came out. I have been a cheerleader for this game since day one here in the valley. Heck Drunkensamurai and I were both screaming it from the mountain tops about this game. But no one seemed to be listening. Sure there are a few people that heard us, but I would say out here in Phoenix we may only have about 16 players that play LotR.


It is even so bad that the folks that travel from outside of the state out number the locals. Out of the 24 people last year at GitD, we had only seven local players! And it doesn't seem to be any better anywhere else in the country. My good friend Brent Sinclair has to travel at least two hours to find anyone to play and he lives in the Chicago area!

So what is it? Is it the rules? I have heard people locally say that LotR is about rolling 6's. Well hell, isn't that any game that uses a six sided dice? Most people that I teach the game to fall in love with it. As I like to say, it is a easy game to learn, but hard to master. It is after all a skirmish game and is fairly complex in what it can do, so what is it with the rules??

Is it the miniatures? Hell most of them are sculpted by the Perry Twins and if you have to ask who they are then you do not play GW games. To boot the minis are mostly in plastic and compared to GW's other games, you get more figures for the buck! Also LotRSBG has a model cap of about 75 figures for most games. So that means you could buy three box sets and nearly have all the figures you need. And once again they are cheaper than other GW ranges.

Could it be the playing surface or area needed to play? Well hell, most games are fought on a 4'x4' table or smaller. Take a look at the LotR Journey books and some of the scenarios take place on a 18"x24" board! Maybe it is the amount of terrain needed as this is a skirmish game. And that's another thing, most people I see that do play LotR play on wide open tables like WHFB. Come on folks, load the tables up and have some fun.

Is it the cost? As I mentioned above, LotRSBG is the cheapest game that GW puts out. Now I do know that their has been price increases, but overall it is cheaper to play LotRSBG than it is to play 40K or WHFB.

So what is it and what does it take for people to notice this game? I fear that when GW discontinues this game, many people will be crying out for it to come back like Space Hulk, Blood Bowl and countless other games that have gone away.

So what am I trying to say here? Well it should be pretty simple, why don't you try playing LotRSBG. And if you had and liked it, than get out there and play it some more. Hell this Sunday I am headed out to my local store (Imperial Outpost Games here in Phoenix) to throw down a few games...

TK

Todays Rant!

WHITE DWARF

So last November my wife decided to get me a White Dwarf subscription because she was tired of me buying it at my local shop (where other items would come home with me along with the WD). She was swayed by these magical words from the GW website:

Subscribe With a subscription to White Dwarf you will never miss an issue, each issue will be delivered directly to your door and there is a huge saving over buying issues individually.

Wow she thought, if it comes to the door we will be saving money since he will not bring home anything else! She read further about the benefits:

Never miss an issue - A subscription guarantees your copy every single month.
Convenient - it's delivered straight to your door
Early - subscription copies are sent out to arrive before the magazine hits the stores
Save money - subscriptions offer a saving against buying White Dwarf every month.

Wow she thought, this sounds great, I will be happy saving money, he will be happy getting his White Dwarf at Home, everyone wins she thought. So she plunked in the Old Credit card number and informed me that I would be getting WD now at home.

So after the wife told me about the subscription I was overjoyed and figured that the following month I would get my first copy since I just missed the deadline for it to come out that month. So I wait a month and no WD had came. So I called GW and they informed me that it takes two months before I get my first issue! WTF? Two months, were they filing this subscription in slow motion?? Now I have had many magazine subscriptions in the past & all of them (including WD about 6 years ago) could get the subscriptions started in a month, why does it take GW so long?

So I wait and get my first copy, but on the second copy I find that it does not come to the mailbox, in fact my local store gets their copies before I get my second copy. So I call GW up to find out whats going on, they tell me that I should have received it and they would get it out ASAP. So I wait a week and it shows up followed the next day by issue 3.

So for the next few issues everything is fine, until issue 5 does not show up, so I call good old GW again and inquiry whats going on. After verifying my mailing address they tell me they will get it out in about 14 days! You see it has to be order from the warehouse and takes longer. So I wait. issue 5 shows up and about 13 days later and right before issue 6 shows up in the mail.

Issue 7 disappears into the warp & I call GW yet again, we verify same info, nothing has changed and they say they will send it out, so I sit and wait! It shows up just before issue 8 which arrives three days later.

I get issue number 9 on time (issue 356 with the Space Hulk release) and I am a happy camper.

So today, with it being September 30th, and no WD in the mail, I decided to give old GW a call to find out whats going on. I was told that I should have received WD#357 already but technically it's not late until tomorrow. Then the guy tells me I should re-new soon since the subscription will be ending in a few months with issue 359.

Hold the phone sparky, but to date I have had to call GW 4 times now to find out where my lost subscription is & you try to sell me another subscription??? So I tell the guy on the other end my woes but I can tell he is not listening, he then tells me that they are doing a new system that will make sure everyone gets there WD's at the same time and that he will put my name on the list for the lost issue. What the hell is going on people????

So lets review GW's own words about there subscription:

Subscribe With a subscription to White Dwarf you will never miss an issue, each issue will be delivered directly to your door and there is a huge saving over buying issues individually. Um never miss an issue, you have lost 4 issues now already with god only knows what will happen to the last 3 issues!

Never miss an issue - a subscription guarantees your copy every single month Well that's a broken guarantee!

Convenient - it's delivered straight to your door. Well it must be going to someone elses door but not making it to mine!

Early - subscription copies are sent out to arrive before the magazine hits the stores. Early? What before next years issues come out??

Save money - subscriptions offer a saving against buying White Dwarf every month. Okay I will give them that, I got my subscription at $60.00 for a year, so I beat the price increase, but the times on the phone off set the price.

So, where does it leave me now? I am not sure, I still have three issues that are due to me, so I am sure I will be on the phone again with GW looking for at least those issues. Sorry GW, but I will not subscribe to your magazine again, as the old saying goes, Burn me once, shame on you, Burn me twice shame on me!

TK

Did the Cardinals really lose?

Okay,

So not much gaming stuff happened this weekend due to the Superbowl and the Cardinals making it to the big event. So this will be a blog entry on football today, so no game stuff today.

Now let me give you some background on my football passion (or lack of it in some years). I spent most of my life growing up in Southern California with the LA Rams and the LA Raiders. but when the Rams moved to St Louis & then the Raiders made the exodus back to Oakland, Los Angeles was left without any NFL teams (and is still team less today!). So without a home team to root for, I became a fan of quarterbacks instead of a home team. I rooted for Dan Marino and the Dolphins as well as Brett Favre & the Packers. So without a home team I became fans of these other teams living in So California.

Then 10 years ago I moved to the Valley of the Sun, Phoenix AZ and was excited about moving to a city with an NFL team. But when I got here I was faced with a horrible team of Cardinals and never really got on board with the Cardinals. I mean come on, how can you get excited about a team that puts more in the loss column than the win column!! So I kept rooting for other teams not becoming a Cardinals fan. Even with a new state of the art stadium I could not get behind them. Perhaps it was the owners (The Bidwells)and how they seemed to make bone headed decisions that reminded me of Al Davis and the Raiders & George Frontiere and the Rams. I will not go into the coaching troubles or the quarterback flip flop but regardless to say, it has not been a great time to become a fan of the Cardinals.

We then move ahead to this year, while watching the training camp reviews I saw something different with Coach Whisenhunt and the team. They seemed to have a different feel to the team, but then again they were the Cardinals and one thing they seemed good at was letting you down. I watched a few games through the season and was surprised to see them start heading towards the top of there division. And when they clinched the NFC Division I was shocked and could hardly believe it. But then the Cardinals played the Patriots at home & were blown out, & I thought "Hmm same old Cardinals". But I knew they were going to move on into the playoffs and this was now history in the making.

So with the Cardinals making into the playoffs I started to take more notice of them, and I was totally blown away when they actually kept on winning and moving on to the next round. Which takes us to Superbowl Sunday. The Cardinals faced off against the Pittsburgh Steelers with the number one Defense in the league. So I sported Cardinals Red and sat with just about everyone here in the state watching the drama unfold on TV.

Funny thing, that during the game, it was like a ghost town outside here in Phoenix, the street were wide open and it looked very weird to have a busy city be almost empty! I did not get to talk to my folks, but our Super bowl tradition was in effect were we make a dinner bet were the loser buys the winner dinner. My parents knew I would be rooting for the Cardinals while they took the Steelers. needless to say my streak is pretty much the same and I owe my folks dinner yet again!

But as I watched the game unfold I knew that I was a Cardinals fan from here on out. The Cardinals played an awesome game & I have to say that this was the best Superbowl game I have seen for many years because it was so close. I was disappointed during some points in the game (100 yard interception run for a TD) and was on cloud 9 when Fitzgerald scored in the 4th quarter to have the Cards take the lead. There were bad calls by the refs as well as badly executed plays by Kurt Warner & the rest of the teams but yet I am still proud of how the team played.

So in the end the Cardinals lost 27 to 23 to the Steelers who are now being called the Lords of the Rings. But in the end I think the Cardinals came out ahead of the Steelers because the Cardinals finally earned the rights to have a fan base, and they earned my respect and I can now say I am a Cardinal Fan! So now I can't wait until next season to start, go Red birds!

TK