Hiatus

I am going on a hiatus and leaving my Blood Angels alone for a little. Instead, you are going to see here a few articles on Warmachine over the next couple months instead.

I have been playing Games Workshop games (in chronological order: Blood Bowl, Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40’000) throughout all my hobby life and so far GW has given me a great time with their miniature range that keeps getting better and the fantastic universe serving as a background for one’s own little campaigns. However, now is the time to try Warmachine. Here are the reasons why:

1. With the Blood Angels Codex coming in April I don’t wanna build that units now and wait and see first what happens.
2. Privateer Press is making awesome miniatures for Warmachine. I finally fell in love when I saw an image of Dannon Blythe & Bull. From this point on I knew I need an army just to have these models.
3. Privateer Press has a predictable release cycle with fast updates for all factions. If you play Dark Eldar, Necrons, or the Inquisition, you may like that.
4. Privateer Press is cheaper. You don’t need that many models to start a respectable army while the price range is about the same as GW’s. To get started, all you need to buy is the main rulebook because the rules for every unit are printed on a card that comes in the unit’s box.
5. Most of all, Privateer Press integrates the community. They have a forum on their website where I got quick and friendly help when I decided to take the plunge. But most of all, when they were about to release the new MKII rulebook, they had a field test where everyone in the community could download the PDF, give it a try in a couple games and give feedback to the company! Now how great is that? Today, we live in a connected world where everybody is talking about how important it is to reach out to your customer. This company is doing it!

Integrating the community in the production process is about telling your customer that you care. Furthermore, it’s a little bit like opensource software. Opensource software is so great and stable because many eyes review the code. I expect Warmachine to be a much smoother experience than Warhammer. GW develops everything in secrecy, pumps out FAQs, and still there are some gamers with no sportsmanship exploiting holes in the rules. I think at GW work many creative spirits who make great products, but once they’re out in the wild they morph to a certain degree into something the developer didn’t think of. When you integrate the community, you have even more creative spirits plus the checks and balances from out in the wild, so using that information is the best thing a company can do. Why should it not talk directly to its customers when it’s so easy in our modern world?