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Kid_Kyoto wrote:Someone posted this to the gallery:



................
I would have bought it.

But GW basically said here's you Space Marine Dream House, build it one way, and like it.

So I said no.

Wow, your skills with Microsoft Crayon are really coming on! [tips hat]

To be fair I recollect some nice buildings that integrate the FoS into other kits like the CoD stuff.

I don't see how someone with such mad skillz with the crayonz couldn't integrate it into their plans.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
[checks facts]

[re-tips hat to aka_mythos]

Ugghhhhh, more fantasy scenery? There's a million and one companies that make stuff like this. Give us more 40k scenery. Looking at the same old bastions, defense lines, crashed aquila landers and Fortress of redemtions get's really old.

I dont mind the look of it.

Concept wise it's a neat piece. The skulls annoy the heck out of me though. It turns a good piece into something silly imho. If they had made them add-ons, that would have allowed you to either make it skulltastic or not as the mood hit ya. To me it feels like they came really close to awesome and then unfortunately whiffed when they hit it with the skull bedazzler.

Sidstyler wrote:

Tailgunner wrote:If there's something you don't like, change it. Unless you've become such passive consumers that you expect everything to be given to you exactly as you want it. Yes, the huge skulls are silly to many of us, but there are also a lot of nice features.

Have you seen the size of those things? Assuming they're actually molded into the walls you'd end up with giant, flat, skull-shaped sections on each side, and while you can always try to green stuff a brick pattern to match the surrounding wall, it'll still stand out and won't look anywhere near as good as if they had just made the walls normal brick walls to begin with.

I'll forgive them if the giant skulls are optional, but judging from the pic I doubt it.

That's just my opinion though, and no offense to anyone who does like it since I assume you probably have plans to "fix" that stuff. I'm just saying I personally wouldn't want to bother with it.

Yeah, that's the thing. They do look out of place/silly but they'd be easy enough to "fix" by filing or cutting the skulls off and covering those walls with brick-textured card, which is easy enugh to get from model railway stores. Then you've got quite an interesting piece of fantasy architecture. Should you have to do that? Of course not, but we've only got what we've got...


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http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/wargaming-materials-tools/sheet-materials/embossed-styrene-sheets/slaters-plasticard.html

If I'm paying that much for some terrain, I don't want to have to make a bunch of modifications to make it tolerable to me. If I wanted to fart around cutting brick shapes into greenstuff or plasticard, I'd make my own terrain for a fraction of the cost and to my exact specifications.

By going for the skull heavy look on all of their terrain, GW are alienating me as a potential customer for that terrain.

I'm not sure what GW would lose exactly by leaving the giant stupid looking skulls off the terrain. Kids will still like it just as much minus Skullz, and I haven't seen a single poster say that they would not like it without them, whereas numerous posters have said that they hate them and will not buy the terrain piece because of them. This seems to point to me that the design choice is losing GW business needlessly.

scipio.au wrote:Yeah, that's the thing. They do look out of place/silly but they'd be easy enough to "fix" by filing or cutting the skulls off and covering those walls with brick-textured card, which is easy enugh to get from model railway stores.

GW makes "the best miniatures in the world". We should not have to buy other companies' products just to "fix" their poor designs. The design should have been good in the first place.

Yeah, I think I already touched on that point.

scipio.au wrote: Should you have to do that? Of course not, but we've only got what we've got...

But feel free to bitch at me as though I'd said it were wonderful in every way.


Seriously though, maybe I come from an earlier age than some posters where we used to have to make or kitbash all our scenery ourselves for a long time - bits of 1:35 scale diorama was amongst the best we could get for a very long time, and that stuff needed work. So seeing a kit that is flawed but easily fixable isn't sending me into palpitations.
1) leave skulls off
2) add textured card (if needed)
3) profit!

Worglock wrote:

Sidstyler wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:The WD contains some more or less obvious rules suggestions for including the terrain in normal and "Storm of Magic" games.

"Obvious" rules suggestions being "You could have the skulls shoot magical lasers out of their eyes that kill entire units on a roll of 3+ on 2d6!"

Which would be just like the normal magic phase in WHF 8th, I hear, with the combined firepower of each skull wiping out over half an army in a single turn.



...so anyway, has anyone else thought that maybe the kit is actually fine and we're all just getting too old for this stupid game? :\

Well, I guess you guys would be, luckily I dodged the WHF bullet when 8th came out and put my DE army on hold indefinitely, lol...but it could apply to 40k or WHF, really.

8th Edition is fine and Dark Elves are still good.

The only locals that have problems with 8th are "those guys" that needed to win to validate themselves.
They're not missed.

Implying that it is much more difficult to reliably win in 8th ed? I agree. 8th edition is not great, but thankfully I have plenty of good skulls... I mean TERRAIN to balm my cares.

Nagashek wrote:

Worglock wrote:

Sidstyler wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:The WD contains some more or less obvious rules suggestions for including the terrain in normal and "Storm of Magic" games.

"Obvious" rules suggestions being "You could have the skulls shoot magical lasers out of their eyes that kill entire units on a roll of 3+ on 2d6!"

Which would be just like the normal magic phase in WHF 8th, I hear, with the combined firepower of each skull wiping out over half an army in a single turn.



...so anyway, has anyone else thought that maybe the kit is actually fine and we're all just getting too old for this stupid game? :\

Well, I guess you guys would be, luckily I dodged the WHF bullet when 8th came out and put my DE army on hold indefinitely, lol...but it could apply to 40k or WHF, really.

8th Edition is fine and Dark Elves are still good.

The only locals that have problems with 8th are "those guys" that needed to win to validate themselves.
They're not missed.

Implying that it is much more difficult to reliably win in 8th ed? I agree. 8th edition is not great, but thankfully I have plenty of good skulls... I mean TERRAIN to balm my cares.

No, it's not. That said, bad people/players that relied on one trick ponies found their pony running off into the hills without them. It takes actually strategy now and a little bit of luck. Or at least not being an awful person that blows up their wizards on turn one.

ChorusLucia wrote:Does it make me too much of a fanboy to say that I really, really dig the GW terrain? I like a lot of the other-party stuff too, but even with all the skulls I really like the look of the new observatory.

Nope, it just makes you a very normal and happy customers, and GW is happy to have created something to your liking.

A fanboy would be, telling that we have no right to not like skulls because its made by GW which you arnt <3

Da Boss wrote:I'm not sure what GW would lose exactly by leaving the giant stupid looking skulls off the terrain. Kids will still like it just as much minus Skullz, and I haven't seen a single poster say that they would not like it without them, whereas numerous posters have said that they hate them and will not buy the terrain piece because of them. This seems to point to me that the design choice is losing GW business needlessly.

Exactly! I don't see how GW would lose out by making them optional or just leaving them off altogether. People who want them still have them, people who don't can still use the kit without having to modify it.

God I hate these damn skulls, and I hate how they insist it's a feature and not the eyesore that it really is. It's like if a car salesman tried to convince you that the ugly black plastic trim pieces on a car actually made it "better" than if they were just painted to match the body...anyone know what I'm talking about?



It just looks like someone at the factory forgot to paint the bumpers. This is what your skulls remind me of GW, it's ugly and it sucks and I'd feel like a tool for spending money on it. STOP IT. STOP IT NOW.

That's just my opinion though, lol.

Worglock wrote:

Nagashek wrote:

Worglock wrote:

Sidstyler wrote:

Kroothawk wrote:The WD contains some more or less obvious rules suggestions for including the terrain in normal and "Storm of Magic" games.

"Obvious" rules suggestions being "You could have the skulls shoot magical lasers out of their eyes that kill entire units on a roll of 3+ on 2d6!"

Which would be just like the normal magic phase in WHF 8th, I hear, with the combined firepower of each skull wiping out over half an army in a single turn.



...so anyway, has anyone else thought that maybe the kit is actually fine and we're all just getting too old for this stupid game? :\

Well, I guess you guys would be, luckily I dodged the WHF bullet when 8th came out and put my DE army on hold indefinitely, lol...but it could apply to 40k or WHF, really.

8th Edition is fine and Dark Elves are still good.

The only locals that have problems with 8th are "those guys" that needed to win to validate themselves.
They're not missed.

Implying that it is much more difficult to reliably win in 8th ed? I agree. 8th edition is not great, but thankfully I have plenty of good skulls... I mean TERRAIN to balm my cares.

No, it's not. That said, bad people/players that relied on one trick ponies found their pony running off into the hills without them. It takes actually strategy now and a little bit of luck. Or at least not being an awful person that blows up their wizards on turn one.

The only "trick pony" that used to work but doesn't now is Fear.

The other things that are gone (or nerfed to unrecognizability) that made the game MORE strategic are: Movement, Charging, Flanking, Flyers, and March Blocking. Oh, and ironicly: Initiative.

In my area (YMMV) there is a new trick: Hordes of multi attack models with S4ap/S5. That's all the game is now. Massive, rediculous levels of carnage. That isn't Strategy, that's Medieval warfare. IE: no tactics, no flanking, no surrounding, just charging straight forward and screaming, hoping that you get enough kills to win, then the battlefield looking like the aftermath of Stirling in Braveheart. 10-15 dudes still standing, everyone else dead, fled, or dying. Strategical. The worst part being is that it is far more difficult to mitigate the OMFG factor of ridiculous units like that by using strategy of your own. And yes, I know that it is still POSSIBLE, my point is that it isn't at all what it was. You can't win in the movement phase anymore like you once could.

Bringing this back on topic, the asthetic of the terrain matches the designer intent of the game: MOAR skullz on buildings, MOAR skullz on the battlefield. These things match.

It's another generic wizard tower...boring to say the least.

Concerning the 8th discussion...yes, 8th has been dumbed down. A lot. The entire metagame now is about having huge infantry units, no tactics involved, just ram them into enemy units and hope for the best. In the very best case, you also own a few war machines that can soften up enemy units before you charge them...no need to have skill, you don't even have to guess range anymore. If you want to be good at 8th, just start playing Skaven...can't go wrong with them. Ridiculously overpowered right now and fool-proof yet expensive.

Could this be the next Warhammer terrain? (courtesy to Daniel Brouwer):

Skullhouse Awesome ... That is truly amazing!

I think it needs more skulls. How will anyone know it's a GW piece without at least 5 skulls?

I like the WHFB Terrain.

It fuses a mixture of gothic, grim dark and Tudor era and makes it rather unique.

Mind I think some of GW other terrain is better, such as the Ruins of Osgiliath and the generic Citadel Scenery.

that observatory would be amazing if it wasnt marketed to ten year olds. Bummer.

From Friday's GW post

On a product-related note, many of you will have noticed in White Dwarf that we were due to release the Middenland Tufts, Mordheim Turf and Skullvane Manse on the 19th November. Sadly our crack team of Warhammer horticulturalists haven't managed to harvest enough turf as yet and we're still waiting for it to arrive in the warehouse. As such, the Turf and Tufts will go on advance order on the 3rd December, and will be available to buy in our Hobby Centres on the 10th. Meanwhile, the release of Skullvane Manse has been slightly delayed due to a misalignment of the stars. A local wizard is currently investigating the phenomenon, but he believes that the kit will be on sale within the next few weeks. As soon as we know more information we'll let you know here on the blog.

from

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=18800010a


One could not help but notice that in one of the pictures



that the sofa, in true GW fashion, also appears to be have a skull growing out of it.

Perhaps then this is in fact just something that happens in Nottingham -- I've long had my suspicions about the general oddness of "folks" north of Watford -- and they merely replicate this in their terrain pieces, innocently assuming this is what happens everywhere else in the world too. It would certainly explain a lot.





...


.... possibly.

Maybe they forgot to add enough skulls to the tower

What are the Middenland Tufts amd Mordheim Turf supposed to be? I've never heard of them.

Anung Un Rama wrote:What are the Middenland Tufts amd Mordheim Turf supposed to be? I've never heard of them.

It's basically static grass for those who...

...actually, I can't complete that sentence, because I don't see the benefit of the product at all. Let me try again...

It's basically static grass sold in tufts which you then glue to the base creating pretty much the same effect as normal static grass.

Strips of static grass you normally find in model and train shops. Army Painter has a nice selection of those found here.

Grass? And here I thought it would be some terrain piece I've missed.

Really nice kit imo, great potential for some conversion work.

I got curious about this piece, as it was in my local Gw today.

The GW website didnt show sprues but I did find an unboxing here:

http://itslikewatchingpaintdry.blogspot.com/2011/12/skullvane-manse-unboxing.html

Some comments.

1. Its all big 'chunky' sprues to minimise the number of pieces. This can be good as the building looks sturdy, but it also makes cuato9misation a bitch.

2. There are skulls everywhere, while that was to be expected there would be many and some of them big, however almost everything is decorated by skulls. This makes removing them a problem.

3. The large rosette of skulls on the tower itself is molded on. In fact the second storey of the tower is molded onto the first, the toweerr being made of verticle panels. There is no way to deskull the tower without a major conversion job. The blockled up windows of skulls can be hollowed out, however the rosette will leave ugly skull shaped marks. Anyone thinking of de-skulling will need to stucco the upper storey.

4. On the up side the model is sturdy tall and yet narrow so that it will not interfere much with play.


I love ramshackle Gothic buildings and they are rarely seen outside a Harry Potter film. I want to like this piece but there are too many skulls. Gothic and skulls goes together, but you could have had the odd skull above a doorway to do that. We get those too, but...

Tempted but no.

I love it, I don't play fantasy but I still bought it haha still I think it needs more skulls.

... and no I am no 13 year old.

I wish, I fecking wish, they would make the Empire terrain look like it did in Warhammer Online. Some of that stuff was crazy (the ship on stilts inn, the wizard's college etc) but none of it was covered in skulls.

I really love the original sketch for this building. I love the building underneath all the skulls.

But covering it in all that crap makes it look like a He-Man toy or a fish tank decoration (in very poor taste).

Lookit.

MGS: that's beautiful, man! Slann-themed GW terrain, yes?