Back with my continues coverage of Adepticon 2019.
Check out part 1 here where I talk about my first impressions of A Song of Ice and Fire game, Horus Heresy Knight Fight, and the Kings of War Big Battle.
I skipped my first game to sleep and paint that day. It was an ASoIF even, but only cost me $5, and I made the better decision considering how late I stayed up to finish for the 40k team event the next day.
I did make it to my second game, which was ASoIF Assault on Kings Landing. What made this game extra fun was it was ran by the game's designer. He had a really cool mission put together where the 8 players (mostly Starks and Boltons) fought his Lannister Army. I was that little green blob of Wildlings led by Tomund Giantsbane. Not the most accurate thing, but awesome of him to let my do that when asked who my favourite character was when he realized he didn't have enough units set up for us. He also had a constant narrative progression happening. AND BRIBES. He'd bribe up with free models to do certain actions. But I live and died as the Free Folk should and took no bribes, submitting to no King (it also let people more invested in the game get the cooler swag). In the end we slew Joffry anyway, so it all worked out.
After that I played a super aweome large scale game of Space Hulk. 6 marine kill teams (BA - my team -, DA, BT, Ultras and 2 DW) had 11 turns to stop the GSC from lighting off a beacon to summon the hive fleet. The 4 Marine players had secondary comms objectives that gave the Imperials 1 more turn for each up. There were also 2 power gerenrators for the DW, that each reduced the beacons health by 25% when destroyed.
We managed to get all the secondaries and finish the game in turn 13. Only 3 Marines made it to the central area, my BA Captain, the DA one and the BT one. I was also the first to take out their comms relay, first into the central chamber, damaged the beacon and slayed the Patriarch once before he got back up and killed me. Still over all success in what the event coordinators said was the deadliest game to marines they had seen in a while.
After that I just went and painted to be ready for the next day and then got some Giordinos and did the 40k team trivia event, which was rougher for us this year without our resident Chaos expert.
And with that I leave you will some bonus pics of some Star Wars Legion tables I checked out while waiting for my first game to start.
Well, Adepticon was a few weeks ago. I have had plenty of time to recover (I took extra vacation afterwards for family time. If you ever go, especially if driving, I highly recommend this approach). Now I should start sharing my experience. Over the next week I'll be posting numerous articles covering it including
-A Song of Ice and Fire by CMoN
-40k Team Tournament
-Making our Team Tournament board
-Horus Heresy Knight Fight
-Kings of War Big Battle
-Medeival Times
-Space Hulk
-Bonus Roadshow Podcasts!
-And it will all wrap up with our Allies of Inconvenience post Adepticon podcast!
This was my 4th Adepticon and it was as fun as ever. This year I went into it signing up for as many events with models provided day 1 and 2. Just took a lot of personal prep pressure off (which got put right back on later, but I'll talk about that when I get to the 40k team tournament this year). And man did this approach pay off big time. I had a lot of fun games starting with my introduction to the A Song of Ice and Fire game by Cool Mini or Not.
What was nice was my opponent had played 2 to 3 times already, so he was able to help guide me along. The models were wonderful (even unpainted) and the rules quick to pick up while still feeling relatively unique and having some good strategic depth. And if you have been missing a good massed battle maneuver based game since WHFB bit the dust, this is definitely one to consider IMO.
I lost my first game playing as the Lannisters vs the Starks, but learned a lot really fast and I am interested in playing this game more in the future. If they run more event games next Adepticon, I would definitely consider signing up for them. And my initial taste made me glad I was signed up for 2 more games the next day.
What is really great for me is the Premium swag bag came with a copy of the game AND I was gifted another copy. SO now I have a massive Stark and Lannister army. If I happy into a bunch of money, I'd consider commissioning someone to paint them. For now though I am going to treat it more like a board game and leave the models unpainted (I have way to much to do already) and break it out as a fun distraction game.
After my Intro to ASoIF, I played the Horus Heresy Knight Fight. This was an awesome game. They provided all the knights needed (Cerastus and Questoris only. No Acastus or Armigers) and had some really fun and fluffy custom fast play rules.
I brought my own Adepticon themed Knight Atrapos... because why wouldn't I? There were 14 Knights on a super terrain dense table, 7 per side. I was my team king. The unfortunate thing meant I was last every turn. This really would not have been an issue had I been a shootier knight, but as a close range knight, earlier each turn would have been advantageous for me. I wouldn't hesitate to do this event again though, I would just ask to NOT be the king next time I play it.
After that I got to go experience my first real game of Kings of War in the big battle. I had fun, but probably something I only need to experience once. The board looked fantasitic, the models were great for an army done en masse. The people were great. And it is Kings of War, so the rules were easy to pick up, and they even provided each of use with a handy reference book of the units in our armies.
The only real issue I had with the game is it didn't feel that strategic. Because it was SOOOO dense in models, we just kinda mashed sides together and let the dice duke it out. No terrain other than rolling hills. It also was pre set up for us, and looking at how I did at the end and the order my units hit the enemy in, I definitely would have deployed differently and this would have made the game seem more strategic as well. As it was I just kinda had to pick what was in front and move it forward. So overall it was just a cool battle of Fire vs Water. In the end I was on the winning side though, so there is that. If you are a fan of KoW, this is probably a cool even for you. For me, I'll stick to just using the historical version for quick play games.
Afterwards, my friends and I loaded up and went to Medeival Times in Schaumburg! They are always running a Spring Break special while Adepticon is happening, so we just show up on a Thursday evening show which still has plenty of room and pay about $40 for a show and dinner. Always worth it and if you go to Adepticon, you should do it.
Our Yellow knight won (we referred to him as an Imperial Fist. Last time we went the Black and White "Black Templar" knight won for us, so there is something about the sons of Dorn). Really a cool great time.
And with that that's my day one. A little bonus content below, some ESR Napoleonics and Titanicus.
Aos
Video
Soul wars/forbidden power- slot of nagash stuff
Ghost bone boat spell
Nagash head spell
Ghost bridge
Gryosphere terrain (orium?) - penumbra engine able to be used by any army
Storm vaults opened by the necroquake
2019 new battletome for every Alliance
Video fyreslayers battletome
"Equivalent of endless spells"
Magma monster spell- "force of nature summoned from underground"
Fireball spell
Wall spell
Duardin forge terrain
Looncurse- squig rider ate a fairy
Goblins vs trees?
Underworlds
Kharadron overlords
5 guys- 1 floaty dude, 1 engineer
"Literally brought guns to a knife fight"
War cry
Across the mortal realms chaos mortals send their best to join Archaon's hordes.
6 factions
Gladiator faction
Iron Golems faction "we create war" from the realm of metal. Forge weapons for archaon. Have chaos duardin.
2 new daemons- death chicken and New Jersey devil
8 more AoS factions in addition from across the range
40k
New game this summer
D12s
New apocalypse
New game from the ground up
10k points in an evening
Giant box "mashed battle system"
Future of 40k
New warzones and more faction exploration. Vigilus only the beginning
Fifty shelves of grey
New paint stuff on the way
New tool to make painting easier than ever
Event exclusive model
Next year has 2. Terminator librarian. NOT a primaris marine
Community survey 2019
Coming spring 15th. Prize draw.
3 key areas
-studio
-events
-community site
Prize- new sisters of battle army as soon as it comes out
One last thing
Realm of chaos
Slaneesh keeper of secrets- looks like a hindu god
New enless spells
Slaneesh face spell
Hand hold a mirror spell
Battletome hedoneths of slaneesh
Slaneesh male commander
New masque
All of them will get 40k rules
Q&A
No news on Emperor's Chidren
May see new big models for apoc for factions without any
Primaris fliers seem like a good idea
Alot of war cry stuff for slaves of Darkness
Still working on a 40k list building app. No eta.
Do not need malign sorcery to use forbidden power
More warhammer adventures feedback may see more warhammer adventures things
No news on or primarchs "loyalists are all dead" joke
Cards for 40k? Looking into it.
Will they make more carrion empire box sets- probably not but the minis are coming
No ETA on shadowspear multi part stuff
Will any of the island of blood stuff be made available separately- not likely
Working on a new kill team starter set box
No news on dispossed.
War cry supported by kill team.
No news on chaos Astra militarum
Apoc will have "formations" as the basic unit instead of squads
Conquest in the US- no partner to make it work here yet.
Games Day.coming back? They would rather help existing events. Answer the survey.
For the sake of this article, we are going to take GW at face value and believe them when they say "Old Space Marines aren't going away." I know a lot of people don't believe that. And it is hard not too. All the new artwork is Primaris. All the new Space Marine models are Primaris. The lore just makes Primaris better in pretty much every way... so why would old Space Marines even remain a thing (outside the Horus Heresy range).
But going forward we are not going to ask "Why?" We are going to ask "How?"
The title of the article claims GW needs to fix their Primaris Problem. Well "what is that problem?" you are asking. It is really a two fold issue.
1- Primaris are better in everyway to space marines as is. Lore wise they are bigger, stronger, faster, tougher and have more enhancements. They have newer weapons with greater range and damage. They have a few new vehicles which are pretty impressive. They are just, as I said, better in every way. To top it off, they are also better than how the Emperor designed them. The Emperor. The single greatest mind to ever exist, working with and army of geneticists, made the Space Marines. And one guy made them better as a side project. Just seems a bit of a stretch... and I'll get back to that in the end.
2- There is no cost to this "betterness". In fact there seems to be less cost. Space Marines used to have to spend basically a decade or more in training as a neophyte and scout before being elevated to be a Battle Brother. Primaris feel like they get placed in Cawl's easy bake oven and come out as 10 foot tall demi-gods ready for battle. Sure they weren't as experienced at first, but they quickly gained that. But training aside, the question of whether or not Primaris require excess resources beyond normal marines to be created has never been answered.
But here is a catch- Even if they are more resource intensive to create it doesn't matter, as Astartes are always worth the resources. It is like modern day militaries. Even in a constrained fiscal environment, do you know who is always fully funded- The Special Forces. Why? Because the investment ALWAYS pays off. So same goes for Primaris Space Marines. Lore wise the investment always pays off.
So what is the solution? How can all that possibly be fixed.
For this I am going to use an analogy.
Before we get to that you need to watch this (warning it does get a little graphic around 3:12 so stop there if you don't want to see that)
I hope I didn't spoil Blade Runner for you, but if you are playing 40k and reading my blog and haven't seen one of the greatest Sci-fi movies of all time that also happens to be older that Warhammer 40k itself, then that is on you.
There is an exchange in there that really is central to the concept of my argument
Dr. Tyrell: "You were made as well as we could make you."
Roy: "But not to last?"
Dr. Tyrell: "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long. And you have burned so very very brightly Roy."
Roy Batty is a Nexus 6 Series replicant. He stronger, faster, tougher, smarter than any human. He is better in every way.
The price he pays? An incredibly accelerated life span. He only gets to live for 3 to 4 years (his birthday was January 8th 2016, and he dies November 2019). It is the cost of being so much more, of burning so very very bright.
So what I am saying is GW should make Primaris Marines into Roy Batty and the Nexus 6 replicants. Now 3-4 years is way too short, but currently Space Marines are effectively immortal. They die in battle and that is it seemingly.
Commander Dante of the Blood Angels is by now 1400 years old (around 1200 of which he has served as Chapter Master, which by the way is 200 more years than Guilliman has actively lead the Ultramarines). He is OLD. Bjorn in a Dreadnought is 10,000 years old. These guys just don't die.
So, from a lore perspective there is really only one way to make a old school space marine worth more than the Primaris, and that is to make them last while Primaris perish. Give primaris a 300 to 500 year life span tops, but most of them going out between 350 and 400. This would make them valuable enough to keep making en masse, but temper their "betterness" by just the right amount to keep old marines around. Their vast experience would be too great a treasure to be lost. A few 600-800 year old terminators are just going to be more skilled warriors than a 100 year old intercessor or agressor.
And here is the true beauty of it... GW has time to implement this. It has only been 100 to 150 years since Guilliman returned and the Indomitus Crusade started if I am not mistaken. No one would know that Primaris Marines have a shelf life yet. Have it be a surprise, something unexpected that Cawl could not even fix. This is where we get back to him improving on the Emperor's design.
If Primaris die of old age, well Cawl failed and we are back to the Emperor having been the only one capable of perfecting Astartes. Sure Cawl made some temporary improvements, but obviously the Emperor did not go down the route, opting for the geneseed vice the Sangprimus Portum for its stability. That could even be the cause of the accelerated lifespan. It would be rather poetic. Only the Primarchs were made to be gifted with such genetic superiority, and not even the mightiest techpriests could forge warriors hardy enough to withstand the burning intensity of such power.
It would also allow for some interesting Marine dynamics eventually. Does a Brother opt to transition to a Primaris for the superior physicality, or remain true to his original forging to benefit the future generations of the Chapter with greater wisdom and skill?
And that is how you fix the Primaris problem and keep Old Marines relevant. Sorry Marneus Calgar, you will die young and Cato Sicarius will assume your mantle.
But in the end, it really is the only way for GW to make good on their "promise".
First episode of 2019! We start off as usual with hobby progress (to include some talk about the Lucius Pattern Drop Pod and Coastal Wargaming Group!) For our first segment, we heavily talk about the upcoming White Dwarf Assassin release and how we see them being employed by the savvy Imperial General. Our second segment we discuss what the difference between "Allies" and "Soup" is before closing off with some discussion of... a less than spectacular Forge World model.
And apologies for the Audio Quality this time. We were in a rush.
