Hi Erik,
preview pics are always fun to have. Thanks.
On a serious note, this picture reminded me what I dislike the most
about the GW marketing engine; WYSIWYG. Not in the painting sense
and I really don't want to reopen that question now.
What I mean is more of the idea that 1 GW metal or plastic model
equals 1 trooper/monster/whathaveyou, which has its own points cost
and tactical relevance. This guarantees maximum sales of released
models, which would be the logical goal of a model factory.
I think this is the first time I've seen GW change the scale of an
individual model within a range so completely that some abstraction
becomes necessary to play. I have 15 of the old plaguebearers, 15
Beasts and 15 Nurgling bases (Hey, I like the Nurgle scheme! As
someone once mentioned on the list, it's dirt easy to paint). There's
no way I can pass five of these stands side by side (10mm x 50mm) as a
substitute for the new stand (5mm x 20mm) and maintain viewing
perspective. OK, I _could_ throw away my old models and buy up enough
new plastic sprues to replce them, or I could make up new rules for my
towering "Super-Plaguebearers", "Super-Beasts", and "Super-Nurglings".
So... abstraction. One of the old plaguebearer stands (1 model)
equals one new stand (5 models). I bet people have been doing
something like this already with the hard to find plastics. The usual
solution is to mix common basic troops in with one or two specialist
models and call the whole thing a specialist stand. (Termies,
Warlocks, Commissars, Aspect Warriors, Assault marines, Assault I.G.
etc.) Another I've seen is only 1 specialist model on the stand and
nothing else.
But why stop there? Historicals and other SciFi games use stands as
mini-detachments. Casualty caps or sideline paper records track the
number of effective units still in the detachment. 1 model represents
any number of fighting units that the player paid for. Usually
there's a standardization over the maximum number of units allowed to
be proxied by a stand. It would probably work best at the start with
only units of the same type grouped together.
Anyway, I think my point is fairly clear. I dislike the "GW Hobby"
for its fanatic insistance on 1 model = 1 warm body or vehicle. In
fact, that's why I play Epic. At 6mm, I can afford the models; at
25mm I'd be so broke trying to build open-ended armies with no upper
size limit. I also wonder what interesting ways players have found to
keep playability and visual effect (we are using miniatures after all,
not cardboard counters) while using some degree of abstraction.
Regards,
Steve
xlorp_at_...
---"Erik K. Rutins" <snowdo1_at_...> wrote:
>
> Here's a pic of the new plague bearers from Andy's review site:
>
>
>
> ATTACHMENT part 2 image/jpeg name=223_epicpbs.jpg
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Received on Fri Jun 19 1998 - 17:19:41 UTC