Change of tack...

Unfortunately of late I have been becoming a little sick and tired of the WFB scene. In particular the "comp" argument/bias and perceived/real inequalities between army books. I'm not a fan at all of the "ETC" regulations mostly because I am of the opinion that Dark Elves get away with murder (effectively), although I did find that the Equinox player pack (which used ETC as a basis) had to be one of the best packs I have seen in a very long time.

No doubt I could be accused of being biased myself in that I am currently running with a Daemon army, and this is a valid point. I do note however that those (in particular here in NZ) whom go on about how "hard/OTT/broken daemons are" the most don't actually play them. They seem to be preferring to run with those armies that in my own opinion are flying well beneath the "comp radar" - in particular Chaos Warriors, and to a lesser degree Skaven. Lizardmen I feel have been dealt with appropriately, Vampire Counts a little too harshly, and Dark Elves not recognised for being as hard as they actually are.

I've found through watching many game results that in regards to the "big three" Daemons seem to beat Vampires, who in turn beat Dark Elves, who in turn beat Daemons. The three seem to balance each other out. I guess that the thing I mostly don't like about ETC is that Daemons are treated far far more harshly than Vampires or Dark Elves by having 250 points less to field AND a 10% VP penalty. Which may work out well enough in a true ETC style event (teams and picking matchups), but just isn't "right" for a standard tournament.

So it is likely just as well that 8th Edition WFB is on the horizon. Whilst the "gist" of the rumours currently doing the rounds indicate some fairly major changes to the game, I am as yet undecided if that is going to be a good thing or not. The "gist" also seems to indicates that from a comp perspective the current hardest comp'd armies will suffer heavily at tournaments (Daemons and Dark Elves in particular), whilst the horde armies seem to be hinted at gaining quite a boost. This says to me that the likes of Skaven, Empire, and Orcs & Goblins will be the big winners out of the first few months of 8th Ed.

Anyway, with the new rules coming out in July, that doesn't leave many events still to run under the current ruleset.

I have decided to attend Tin Soldier 3 with the same daemon list that I used at Equinox (which was indicated by every person I played to not be at all OTT and quite a reasonable Daemon list - and yet likely to still end up the worst comp'd list at the event unless I am ridiculously wrong in peoples bias), and not particularly care about comp. I will also be heading to Nicon in June down in Tauranga, and at this stage am undecided whether I want to take Daemons or Wood Elves.

The first two events I am likely to attend under the new 8th Ed rules will be Call to Arms and Fields of Blood. Firmer decision to be made in regards to those two events once I have read/explored the new ruleset.

*****

In the meantime I have been strongly diverted into lookinng once again through all the Flames of War material I have. To be frank I have no real idea at all in regards to an army list (having never played the game - although I have watched a fair number of them).

Bearing that in mind, and also given the strong historical bent of the game system and players, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I will just build and paint elements of a force that I like the feel, imagery, and history of. As I may have mentioned some time ago as well, I like TANKS. So things with tracks are pretty much where I want to go.

So over the past year I have been looking here and there and have now firmed up on theming my army around the 11th "Gespenster" Panzer Division during the late-war period just prior to the Ardennnes Offensive (better known as Battle of the Bulge).

Why the 11th? I like their symbol (a Ghost), their history, the manner of their surrender, and also that their seems to have been no war crimes attributed to this division. They were accused of one massacre of civilians in a french village, but acquitted in a post- war trial. Their unit TO&E (from what I can thus far find) seems to have many of the models I want to paint etc, although there doesn't seem to be any mention of Tiger tanks ever being used by this division.

No worries, if I want to paint Tigers I can do that at a later date.

With wanting to use as much of a historically accurate basis as I can (whilst still being one that fits the FoW army mould - especially since the Ardennes are yet to be covered by Battlefront), I have after much searching identified a series of books that seems to have the information I require. Now to find them.

In the meanwhile it is pretty much obvious that certain unit/model types are going to be present. The ubiquitous half-tracks, Panzer IV's and Panthers amongst others.

Should be fun!