267: The new GW, a refreshing change

Its been pretty hard not to notice the change in GW recently. We've seen:

• the release of "Start and Army" bundles with actual savings 
• the re-introduction of Facebook groups for GW, Forgeworld, and Black Library 
• the tantalising possibility of the re-release of perenial fan favourites like Blood Bowl and Battlefleet Gothic 
• now we've had the call for questions and release of an FAQ that actually seems to answer real questions with actually thought out responses that while perhaps not perfect, definitely look like they are trying 
• and AoS is going to get a points system, and not just willy-nilly, but one that builds on the work done by the tournament community and has had input from mega tournament organisers and pillars of the AoS community HeelanHammer, Bad Dice, and FaceHammer (check their podcasts if you don't already, they're really good). 

You can hardly argue that GW isn't trying to become a new company and one that so many of us have been clamouring for for many, many years. What strikes me is that a lot of this seems to coincide with the stepping down of Tom Kirby as Chairman of GW. As of 1st January 2015, Tom Kirby was no longer in charge of the direction of GW and if what I suppose is true, GW made this change just in time. While Kirby was perhaps a necessary evil when he first took the helm, his drive for profits over community involvement and seeming impression that GW was infallible was producing a truly poisonous relationship between company and customer.

I've been so pleased to see the changes in GW, and look forward to whats coming in the future if they continue this course.

266: 1500pts game, GSF vs SM&Eldar

I got in a game recently against my co-blogger Colonel Fazackerley, we're taking part in a little tournament of local gamers, playing the Forge the Narrative missions. This game was mission 4 from that pack which is the diagonal deployment setup, the primary objective is 6 objectives setup evenly across the board which are scored cummulatively with the winner the first to 8 points (but with the option of a draw if both achieve 8 in the same turn), the secondary objective was the Emperor's will, and the tertiary objective was slay the warlord. The usual 3 additional GW objectives also counted.

I was trialling some of the new formations from the Space Marines codex, and CF was running Space Marines and Eldar.

My list was:
Gladius Strike Force - Iron Hands Chapter Tactics
Battle Demi-Company
Chaplain in Terminator Armour
3 x 5-man Tactical Squads with Missile Launchers
3 Bikes with 2 Grav-guns and a combi-Grav
5-man Devastator Squad with 4 Missile Launchers

1st Company Task Force

2 x 5-man Sternguard Veteran Squad

5-man Terminator Assault Squad with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields

Storm Wing

Stormraven Gunship with Assault Cannon and Multi-Melta

2 x Stormtalon Gunships with Skyhammer Missile Launchers

CFs list was:

Farseer on jetbike

Unit of Jetbikes with Warlock

Unit of Dire Avengers

3 Eldar Flyer Formation

Space Marine Captain on Bike with Primarch's Wrath

Unit of Marines on Bikes

Unit of Assault Terminators with mixed weapons

Devastator Squad with mixed weapons

CF won the roll-off and nominated me to setup and go first. I setup first, mostly down in my corner as you can see in the image below, CF only set up a few units, all hidden away as much as possible to be out of sight, as you can see in the image below that.