Shadow War: Armageddon

barrowdown wrote: Just two weeks after saying he's wary of MDF, Barnes is all-in on a set of it.

Ha! Eventually, Mike will start a long post in which he lambasts the latest game. By the middle of the post, he will love it, and by the end of the post, it will have been sold. This will symbolize the End Times.

I wonder what the rule books and markers will be going for on the secondary market.

The more I look at this, the less I want to buy it, just to hassle with turning around and selling the crap I don't need.
Space marine scouts? Ork boys? Terrain that looks like it is straight out of self fellating 40k fan fic porn? Pfftt!

I really like the terrain and obviously want the rules, but have no interest in the Scouts. I had no interest in the Boyz, but with the information about Ork clans coming out, I might want more to paint up as a different group.

Yes Mark, one day that Grand Unification will happen...

The rules will be available digitally like with Blood Bowl- probably an app of some kind too, I'd imagine. You don't need the big box at all.

Built my Wych Cult set last night- those are fun for this, more ganger-like and with some bozo weapons. They are going to be gothed out- shiny black leather and neon hair.

I'm getting back into miniature painting after a month of hiatus, and was about to pre-order this. But then... marines and orks?... come on. The appeal of Necromunda (for me) are the gangs, the apocalyptic-survival-punk vibe. Marines and Orks don't fit in it. Unless a gang is comprised of renegade marines and slightly civilized orks and dark eldar and a pet tyranid.

I can understand the comments. I do think it would have been great to be able to get the set with no factions, and to be able to just buy the factions you want separately.

I think they should have furnished the starter with more exciting factions. But if this takes off, they probably will.

Vlad wrote: I'm getting back into miniature painting after a month of hiatus, and was about to pre-order this. But then... marines and orks?... come on. The appeal of Necromunda (for me) are the gangs, the apocalyptic-survival-punk vibe. Marines and Orks don't fit in it. Unless a gang is comprised of renegade marines and slightly civilized orks and dark eldar and a pet tyranid.

I prefer the Necromunda gangs as well, plus this doesn't have the awesome territory system.

However, one thing I like about this setup is that I've always enjoyed the 40k setting but never wanted to get an army. This finally lets me play and dip into multiple factions for an affordable price.

Back in 2000, we'd play 40k necromunda, as we didn't want to buy into new models to play.

The rules were fan made and marines were stupid, but it was still a lot of fun. I totally understand why GW are doing this. Why produce new models for a game when you really don't need to? Just use 40k models that you are already familiar with.

That's not to say that gangs aren't cool, but with the advent of the ash wastes, the writing was on the wall for a different approach to the system 17 years ago.

SM vs. Ork is the classic 40k matchup. Those factions are iconic, and really kind of inform the entire setting from the whole "grimdark" thing on through the goofiness. So it makes sense that a big starter set like this has those groups. Me, I wish it were Adeptus Mechanicus versus Necrons or something. There's also the fact that it's set on (more or less) Armageddon. And then there is the consideration that GW can likely crank out or already has plenty of these sprues to pack in. I don't mind getting more SMs and Orks, you can kind of always use more if you have those factions.

More faction rules are coming out and it is kind of clear that some factions are more expensive to play than others. Genestealer Cults is pretty cost-effective, especially if you have Deathwatch Overkill, because you have access to almost everything in their list with some options if you don't want to do some "counts as" stuff. Necrons, on the other hand, are going to require you to have Immortals, Warriors, and Deathmarks. That's three boxes of figures. Still just like $75, but it is a bigger outlay. Tau is pretty cheap, a box of Pathfinders will do you there and you get three Drones with it.

Where it gets more expensive is with the Specialists. These are all single figures that almost all come in multifigure boxes. So if you want to run the XV25 Stealth Suit, you have to either already have it, get a box of three, or try to ebay a single model. That kind of stinks, but whatever.

But what is nice is like what Charlie said...this is a game where you can play 40k WITHOUT spending $500 on an army. You can buy ten models and you're good, especially with counts as rules. I like that I can have the fun of playing with armies and units I might not in a full 40k game, and I like getting to build and paint other factions too.

As for the gangs, yeah, it's a shame they're out...but the GSC, Wyches, Mechanicus and some of the others sort of capture that feel. If you do some kind of crazy, per figure custom painting you can really sell that idea. Or, you can just use Necromunda gangs in SW:A, they more or less port right over. I wouldn't be surprised if GW doesn't re-release some limited gangs like they've done recently with OOP figures.

How much stuff will I have to buy to field a Skitarii force, I wonder?

You do "counts as" easily with Necromunda figs. Goliaths as Orks. Cawdor as Cultists. Delaques as Eldar maybe? Orlock as Cadians.

You can buy one box of Skitarii Rangers (same as the Vanguard kit) and you can make a leader or two, a few troopers/recruits, and a couple of heavy weapons dudes. They are about $30.

They have three specialists, one of them is actually in the Skiitari Start Collecting box...which also has the rangers.
I'm thinking about getting that soon.

I am thinking that if this had come out like 4 months ago, I wouldn't have gotten into Age of Sigmar. And had it come a year ago, I wouldn't have sort of gotten into Malifaux. I remember asking the question "now what?" having painted my first marine squad (except that now I don't want to play with those marines anymore, I am really ashamed of them or rather, of the paint-job inflicted on them).
And, yeah, I loved those Skitarii painted by Barrowdown, and I was like - makes no sense getting those, because I'll never play them. This Necromunda resurrection and the way GW did it makes a lot of sense, both in business terms and as a fan service. But I don't want to paint more Orcs & Scouts. I will not, I shall not. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to check that Doc Games page...

Barnes, the Skitarii specialist is an Engineer, which is different than the Tech Priest Dominus that comes in the Start Collecting set. The Dominus is also on a much larger base, which might make it difficult to play on the catwalks.

The Rangers/Vanguards can probably be built as either and you would still be okay as one of the listed basic ranged weapons is the Radium Carbine which Vanguards use and fluff-wise makes no sense for Rangers to field.

Looking at the added document, I can field a lot of these factions with what I have stuffed in the closet (of course, if anyone wants to buy it off of me, I wouldn't complain). This looks awesome.