Thursday 10 July 2014

ETC lists revealed!

There is a total of 32 teams entered this year, which gives us 256 armies at the event
This creates the average of 16 of each army or 6.25% for purposes of army distribution

Full list can be found here

Race Quantity Percentage
Dark Elves 28 10.94%
High Elves 26 10.16%
Skaven  24 9.38%
Daemons of Chaos  23 8.98%
Empire 22 8.59%
Orc's and Goblin's  21 8.20%
Vampire Counts  20 7.81%
Warriors of Chaos 20 7.81%
Dwarfs 16 6.25%
Wood Elves  13 5.08%
Ogre Kingdoms 13 5.08%
Chaos Dwarfs  10 3.91%
Lizardmen 9 3.52%
Bretonnians  8 3.13%
Tomb Kings 3 1.17%
Beastmen 0 0.00%
  256 100.00%

From the above chart we can quickly identify the more popular races. The Dark and High Elven variants predictably top the charts followed closely by Skaven, once again proving they are a very competitive book even in a highly comped environment (despite what the sneaky rats will tell you).

Daemons are also over represented,as everyone knew they would be (I thought every team would take them) as are Empire. Interestingly enough, Orc's & Goblins punch above their weight highlighting the first book of the rank for 8th has some fight in it yet. Vampire Counts is also another surprise. I would have thought there to be far less fielded under the restrictive comp.

Warriors keep a presence in the top half. I had thought to see more of them however still an honest number. Dwarfs then round out the last to break even on numbers. The new book has created very little interest it appears, although the army preforms a very specific role in a team.

Now there's the losers in the list. Wood Elves at 13 does not I think fairly represent the strength of the book, more the short period of time require to have prepared for their use. Ogre Kingdoms still have a little fight left in them but many are shunning them in today's meta environment. Chaos Dwarfs come along next to the howls of those calling them not a real army (get over yourselves). This years comp allowed for a much stronger build than last year, and I am surprised there is not more present.

Lizardmen is the big loser here IMO, and I would have thought they would have had numbers closer to Vampire Counts (and the counts be down where the Lizardmen are). Bretonnians still manage to claim half their quota, despite the age of the book. Interesting as they do admirably well in a team environment. Hopefully the new book will help them along. 

Tomb Kings, those poor bastards. If this is not a clear indicator the book has failures in its mechanics I don't know what is. In an environment that has them with extra points and no comp, where the rest of the field is heavily comped, only 3 countries opted for them. And then there was Beastmen. No representation whatsoever. This surprises me but maybe is more of a reflection of how many other good books there are in 8th, rather than a 7th edition book trying to compete.

So the armies breakdown probably will not surprise many, other than a few armies. Next post I will look at some of the build trends that are prevalent in the field...

Tuesday 8 July 2014

Confirmation of new 40k starter set... Sort of...

So further pictures have been leaked from this weeks White Dwarf, and they confirm the contents of the new "sorta" starter set...


So the new boxed set coming out this month is a campaign box containing a range of existing models, plus two new named characters.


Oh yeah, and a mini rulebook!


 So in a new move from Games Workshop, we have a hybrid campaign box with core rules. Its not a new starter set, but its not just a campaign box, its both. 

I am currently hearing that we can expect more of these types of releases, where we get a campaign set which builds (this campaign is a 3 part set) into a new starter set, support two or more armies. Where models included will generally be existing range, the sets will introduce new characters and potentially be limited releases.



Monday 7 July 2014

Dark Elves progress

With the ETC coming up fairly fast I thought it prudent to spend some time preparing the final parts of my army. I leave for Europe in under two weeks and still have alot of work to produce a table top standard army...


I've purchased a set of Dark Sword "Thief of Hearts" models to represent my Dark Pegasus characters. 



The models are incredible. Each has a very high standard of detail and are fairly well proportioned. No ham fists here.



I've mounted them on 40mm bases and given them the old 3 colour shaded base coats. I'm looking forward to painting these, just have to find the right motivation.

Dark Sword have a very large range of highly detailed models, including an extensive range of Fantasy and Game of Thrones 28mm figures. I ordered 5 from the "Thief of Hearts" range, and Dark Sword where kind enough to throw in 2 free miniatures! I got a Danerious from GoT and a elven sorceress of foot! 

I highly recommend having a look at what they offer and supporting this boutique miniature company!



Some other things I have been working on are these Shades. They are a combination of Dark Elf Corsairs, High Elf Shadow warriors and Dark Riders, with repeater crossbows from the Dark Shards sprue











New 40K Starter set or something else?


The next White Dwarf cover has been circulating over the weekend and has created a bit of a stir...

It features existing Space Wolf models with a new one, and the caption "New Space Wolves vs Orks boxed set" 

Could this be a new core starter box? or something more benign or unorthodox like the start of a new range of boxed sets covering campaigns or scenarios? The leak of the next White Dwarf cover is timed with the rumours that Games Workshop has been quietly recalling the Dark Vengeance stater boxed set. This rumour may have sprung from someone viewing the cover or may be entirely unrelated of origin. One thing is for sure we will find out over the next few days as issue 24 is leaked more.

Still, no sign of anything WHFB related. Is this the quiet spell we normally experience before a new edition, or simple a fulfillment of the rumour from late last year that 40K:WHFB release ration will be 2:1... I for one am hotly anticipating seeing Brettonians next...