The Imperial Guard back and beautiful

Last night, my friend Cain and I descended on the local GW shop to monopolize the PREVIEW COPY of the new Imerial Guard Codex. Cain's been collecting and fielding Guard armies since 1998-99 so he's WAY ahead of the curve and can fully adapt his boys to ever shifting tide of benefits and restrictions new editions place on humanity in the 41st millenium. My own collection is more modest and troop based, so I got a clean slate when it comes to the mahjority of the tanks now available in this latest incarnation of the IMP Guard codex...and holy crap are there the choices.

It's hard to say where to begin, but in the spirit of the majority of 40K blogs across the web, I'll start with a little bitching. As with most of the 5th edition geared codexes, the squad sargeants have been reigned in considerably -- not a problem for me really. But I don't like that a regular lasgun is no longer an option for the plain ol' squad sargeant. Yes they get a cheap-CHEAP power sword to make up for the loss, but at WS3, I'd rather have my sarges shooting with the boys. In the same vein, Stormtrooper sargeants can now TAKE a "Hotshot" gun like their boys. At WS4 and AP3! (AP fething 3!!)...happiness is extra shots!

The 4th edition codex saw a downturn, a recession and reigning in of the use of tanks, and apparently a blossoming of Forgeworld alternatives. With the new 5th edition codex there are tanks literally falling off the shelves in their number and variety. GW has taken their best customizable army and tripled the variety and character of it. From the familiar Leman Russ and demolisher and all of their wonderful children, and allowing 1 to 3 tanks per heavy choice it a tread heads wet dream. I'm especially excited about the mainstreaming of the Executioner tank! The only leman russ I currently own. Also, The Exterminator is back with a higher rate of fire. The autocannon is still the most underrated, understated weapon in the game, but not for much longer once these awesome 3rd edition relic tanks are dusted off and replaced on the tabletop where they belong.

From the 4 ways to use veteren squads -- as troop choices -- to the option for stormtroopers to the can't go wrong randomness of the penal legion squads to the long overdue arrival of PLASTIC VALKYRIES, regular humans in the 40K universe should have a better chance of showing off on the tabletop why theirs is the largest empire in the galaxy -- "time of ending" my ass.

U.S.S. Pulsar

Spending time away from Azeroth and World of Warcraft and the mind wanders. Not only have I made some progress converting my generic Codex Space Marines over to Salamanders, worked on a rocky desert tabletop for 40K and finished a full set of Imperial markers for a 40K Cities of Death Table, but I've found I've still got Trek on the brain. If you've seen the previous two postings, you'll know this has been building for awhile.



While my friend Mike and I were set on the "Movie Era" Trek and even played games of FASA's Star Trek Combat simulator with our futrure GM Jay to lobby this era, we've been sucked in to the late Next Gen era. My friend Casey's enthusiasm for ALL things Trek helped this along. Assuming we will start actual gaming soon, I'll be recording the exploits of the crew of the U.S.S. Pulsar here -- a Nova class starship patrolling along the Romulan Neutral Zone. With a relaxed Commander on his last tour of duty before retirement and a female Andorian XO not afraid of inter species "relations", it should be a good time on a tight ship.

Nerd-vana

For today at least, I have acheived Nerd-vana. 24 years late, I finally tracked down:

Trekkie, Trekkor, Whatever right?

With the new movie coming out soon, I would expect a lot more Star Trek gaming news and merchandising and collectibles and everything else that goes with the mania. I'm looking forward to seeing the latest addition to Hollywood's current trend of restarting and re imagining every franchise they can; the action looks fantastic. The Enterprise herself, not so attractive. Worlds away from the original Constitution class, but nowhere near the elegant beauty of the "movie era" Enterprise.

Frankly, from what I've seen, the new Enterprise looks like a Galaxy Class got the jump on the movie era Enterprise, raped her and spat out a bastardized version. The sets that I've seen look like SNL got themselves a huge budget, and the uniforms -- well yea for keeping 60's style mini's on the female crew. Still, that negativity aside, it looks like it's going to play well on the big screen.!


Speaking of "play", I started the year out right by dusting off the near ultimate in Starship table top gaming:

Only GamesWorkshop's Battlefleet Gothic plays better for Space Combat. Plus, you just can't beat the look and feel of movie era Trek. The Starship interiors looked functional and plausible the uniforms -- I have to say the uniform design was probably a mistake in their awesomeness because everything before or since, sorry to say, are pajamas in comparison.

Even Picard, arguably the greatest onscreen StarFleet Captain of them all, has that much credibility in the blood red tunic (sans the turtle neck unfortunately)

And the Klingons owe everything they are now to the movie era of Trek. Rebooted in the late 70's and 30 years later, they haven't changed from the look established for them in Star Trek the Motion Picture. And remember the phasers. Like the uniforms of the movie era, phasers before and since seem tame and lame. You hear and see the phasers in Wrath of Khan and there's no doubt those beams are going to punch through a ship's hull. This is the Trek Universe as it stood for Fasa and Star Trek Combat Simulator.

To be fair, the movie era and TOS are "my" Trek. I grew up watching the reruns in the early 70's and the brief run of the cartoon. The movies came out in my preteen and teen years. So my bias is built in. But it'll be fun to see the new version for sure. Looking forward to that. And as it's set before the original series, the old Fasa game holds it relevance for the new era.

Vulkan fever

I'm not alone in recognizing the awesomeness that is Vulkan He'stan. He's a link to a great 40K blog showcasing not only their version of Vulkan He'Stan, but 4 others as well, including yours truly. http://maxstarscloud.blogspot.com/2009/02/vulkan-hestan-space-marine-champion.html Thanks a lot for the nod Maxstar and finding all these great conversions to showcase.