Friday, May 20, 2011

Citadel Finecast and a Neruda poem.

Hey everyone,

Today I went into the Cambridge GW and chatted with the staff there since I'm going to be living here for a month and need to get some game time in with the Deathwing before I head to Bratislava and possibly have a dearth of players. The guys working there were very cool and nice to talk to. They didn't try to sell me anything, were interested in my models and happy to chat about a bunch of different stuff.

However, when it came to Citadel Finecast, they clammed up hard. They've been told firmly from higher up that if they say too much they will be fired for it. The big reveal will be next Monday and despite me asking questions in a dozen different ways and them really wanting to tell me things, they didn't. What I gleamed was (take this with as much salt as you wish):

- They've been reading the blogs etc and 80% of it is wrong. They think people will be surprised at how wrong they are.
- Finecasting is a fundamentally new technique (they would neither confirm nor deny if it was resin)
- The detail of the models is a serious step up and makes Forge World look merely OK.
- No other game company will be able to afford to invest and make this technique happen. GW has been working on it for a while.
- While they didn't say exactly, it seems like the models will be receiving new sculpts and so on. They hinted that those expecting an exact recast in resin were wrong.



What they didn't comment on:

- Are old metal blisters going to be phased out and replaced by finecast? Will there be a sale? Are they just going to be melted down?
- Are all metal kits going to be moved to finecast, including big ones like Greater Daemons and metal warmachines?



All in all the two blueshirts were really nice guys. They invited me to their gaming night, didn't push sales, listened to my expressing the current upset with GW and responded fairly. Summed up:
- Finecast misunderstood
- Price rise is annual and expected. GW profits aren't that high because of reinvestment into model kits etc. It's not the big cash cow some people think
- FAQ writing was slow but seems to be better now. Also game designers work 2 years or more out on things so it's hard for them to predict rules conflicts and devote their time to FAQing new issues since they have moved on to later products
- The ban on online retailers shipping to Oz is not their speciality, but they speculated that GW may open a moulding plant over there, as the did in the states and prices can be brought in line.



All in all, good guys and I'm looking forward to seeing the Finecast models. I hope to be truly surprised and impressed at GW's work. But, it has to be said I have some scepticism. I can't see how much more detailing they can add to models so we will have to see.

I couldn't decide between the following animal pics so you get both ;-)








Now for something completely different. Thanks to someone I used to be in good contact with who showed me their favourite poem (Tonight I can Write), I found and fell in love with the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Here is a poem called unity that I read this morning and liked. Enjoy :-)


There is something dense, united, settled in the depths,
repeating its number, its identical sign.
How it is noted that stones have touched time,
in their refined matter there is an odor of age,
of water brought by the sea, from salt and sleep.

I'm encircled by a single thing, a single movement:
a mineral weight, a honeyed light
cling to the sound of the word "noche":
the tint of wheat, of ivory, of tears,
things of leather, of wood, of wool,
archaic, faded, uniform,
collect around me like walls.

I work quietly, wheeling over myself,
a crow over death, a crow in mourning.
I mediate, isolated in the spread of seasons,
centric, encircled by a silent geometry:
a partial temperature drifts down from the sky,
a distant empire of confused unities
reunites encircling me.

6 comments:

  1. *like*

    Good to hear something not just bashing GW or someone just quitting the game.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Tyler,

    I will admit that I had a bit of a strop on my last post and I will probably be looking to other games to fulfil much of my future gaming desires but I will give GW the benefit of the doubt on this one as far as the Finecast models go. I'm curious to see them.

    I think now that my major issue with them has come down to the cost of getting a new army off the ground. Even with discount online retailers in the EU, it comes to several hundred pounds, particularly if you want a vehicle-heavy force. Their lack of interaction with the player base can be frustrating too but, as I saw today, they have some great people working there and I still get enjoyment from their settings and games.

    I'm going to use this as a time to explore new gaming options and keep my mind open to good things GW may bring to the table from now on.

    Pete

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the interesting post, Pete. I am actually pretty excited about finecast now. As long as it isn't FW resin, and something far greater which your conversions seemed to reveal, I'm sure the models are going to be top-notch. Like you said, that doesn't fix the problems that most people are unhappy with, cost and a disconnected game-design team.

    Finecast, I predict, is going to be superb. I've seen leaked pics of the new Haemoculous and its gorgeous. Still doesn't convince me to keep playing.only a new Tau codex will do that, and one that is done well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey OSH.

    Yeah I'm interested to see what GW will pull of with Finecast. I think what's most annoying is the old trick of announcing that there will be an announcement. I'd have much preferred them to not tell us anything, then drop the pics on us so we can get truly excited. If they had put up even a single pic at the first announcement I think it would have given them good feedback from the fans.

    I didn't realise that pics had leaked of the Haemonculus. It does look like a nice model, though doesn't totally blow me away. Admittedly it's a relatively low-res picture so I'm looking forward to their official studio pics tomorrow.

    As you say though, Finecast looks like a great model design/production too but doesn't fix the GW issues. Their plastics are great too, but that's not enough. Pricing is my big problem at the moment, especially given the increasing size of armies.

    Pete

    ReplyDelete
  5. check out the GW blog...I was wrong. GW finecast looks very similar to FW resin...I even spotted some airbubbles. They also call it durable? HA! Resin is anything but durable.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What did you see the bubbles on?

    I think the quality is good but first I want to see a video of BOLS etc smacking these things around a bit to see how durable they really are. Perhaps there can be a comparison test with Forge World stuff. If it's like plastic, great, if it's brittle like other resin, I will pass on it.

    ReplyDelete