Its been a month

I haven't posted anything since May 1st and I bet some of you may be wondering whats going on.

I have been busy doing a lot of traveling and work has been pretty crazy.  On top of that with all of the rumors around 6th edition I haven't been very motivated for the hobby.  I have played some games this month both Arbitrator and 40k but I haven't been motivated enough to post anything about them.

This weekend I will be playing several Arbitrator games and at least one 40k game and I hope to be able to post battle reports of them next week.

The rumors about 6th edition have been a downer for me.  I don't like anything I have heard about 6th edition and I hope they are all wrong either that or the stuff we haven't heard about will make the stuff we have heard about tolerable.

I have just gotten into the swing of things with 5th and have my Minotaurs which are the first space marine army I have ever completed and I have really liked playing them with 5th edition.  I worry that 6th will make me completely change how I have to play the army to make it work.

If I have to roll a d6 everytime I have to assault to see how far I can assault, then my Minotaurs will completely change to a pure shotting army with NO hand to hand.  Shooting is already an incredibly powerful part of 40k and this change will make assaulting even less useful to the point where I will abandon it as a strategy all together.

If there is a psychic phase added with random powers I will also abandon my librarians as they will be too random for my liking.

If terrain randomly effects units that enter it even moreso than it does now, I will never enter terrain again with any unit unless absolutely necessary.

If random game length goes away then whoever gets the first turn will once again become a huge deal like it was in 3rd and 4th edition and again change what I bring to a game.

And if I have to deal with people bringing their own terrain that they can buy with points then it had better all be  identical to the size of the terrain piece GW says it should be otherwise there will be a hell of a lot of modelling to advantage.  Imagine a bunker that is 2 foot square and you get the idea.

And if my characters have to issue challenges to enemy characters I am just going to puke because of how stupid that will be.

I can't see how any of these changes are good for the game if every scenario one plays uses all of these rules.  For one-off scenarios and special events and game with your friends who like wacky stuff maybe these changes will be ok.  For creating a level playing field like in a tournament or at a game store for a random pick up game these changes will only result in bitching.

I hope this isn't just the pessimist in me but I am having a hard time seeing how these changes will make 6th better than 5th edition.

Just as a disclaimer I am not a tournament player or a guy who goes to game stores for random games with people I have never met.  I go to one tourney a year and probly play at the local store less than 10 times a year.

Anyways I just had to get some of this off of my chest its been eating away at me for about a month now.

Book of the Arbitrator Battle Report

Its been awhile since I've posted anything mainly because I've been distracted with work and other things.  But here we go my long-awaited Book of the Arbitrator Battle Report!

I for some reason forgot to take pictures of this game, so I only have a few.

Here is a shot of the table set-up:
(The far left side of the table is cut off though)

The scenario was a three player scenario with a new gang of adventurers based somewhat on the show Firefly (which I am only vaguely familiar with).  His mission and mine were completely different.

There were two gangs in this town, one on either side of the table holed up in their respective bases.

Here is a picture of the smaller gang which is on the far left side of the table and cut off from picture above:

In the middle of the board is the Police District house where the Enforcer of Vrall had a gang member from the gang above held prisoner:

In the center of the board above and to the bottom of the image is an arms dealer:

And on the far right side of the board is the other larger gang:

Now my mission was different than the other player's and I didn't know what his was and he didn't know what mine was.  I also kind of forgot what I was supposed to do and kind of botched the whole thing for my crew of course.

I knew that the larger gang were not kind to aliens of any sort and I was a little miffed at that so I sent my half-Eldar Alissa T'kar out right in front of them to lure them into the open.

It worked brilliantly and I began quite a massive brawl with them that lasted most of the game.  I went into full 40k mode and just slaughtered them with my gang.

Meanwhile the new crew from my other friend was busy doing whatever it was he was doing and basically ignoring the gang war that was going on across town.

This fight I was having baffled me a little bit because it was in full view of the precinct house and yet the enforcers were just letting Hulka and the boys go at it with no repercussions.

Eventually one of the gangers I was fighting rounded a corner into view of the Enforcers and they started exiting their precinct house.

I thought at this point they were going after me so my assassin Tor Alcorn throws a hallucinagen grenade right into the middle of about three enforcers and all hell breaks loose!  I'm now fighting a war on two fronts and then the other players crew and Fyord start going at it (which makes it three fronts).

Well at this point the other player pretty much has this mission wrapped up and I have four crewmen down its time for my little gang of crazies to get out of there.

I did end up killing quite a few Enforcers and at one point only Sargent Hulka was standing.  But I had a great time even though I botched the mission.

Here is my crew at the end:

I have to roll for my wounded yet and I will this weekend, but it was an entertaining game to say the least.

until next time....