Saturday of "Gaming"

Today was a mixed day. 

I had a last minute opportunity to slip away from the house and go to a gaming store about 45 minutes away.  I was pretty stoked about seeing the new GK stuff and getting some games in.  I've been to the store several times before and it's normally pretty active so I figured that at a minimum there would be a few people around to play or "talk shop" with.  However, when I walked in, it was completely deserted.  It was like 11:30, so I just figured it was still early.  I bought the GK codex, two Smallworld expansions for my wife (we both love that game), a drink, and sat down to read through the codex and wait for more people to show up.  Two problems quickly became apparent: no one else showed up, and the GK codex had a lot less fluff than I was hoping for.

It could simply be a perception thing, but I felt like the GK codex is severly lacking in the fluff department.  Whenever a new dex comes out, I always buy it both to learn about my future enemies but to also read through the fluff.  Generally reading through the fluff can occupy me for quite a while and with the 5th Edition books, I have always felt like there was plenty to read.  However, the GK book left me wondering "where's the rest of the book?"  So the GK dex has about twenty pages of background and fluff before getting into the army rules, which seemed a little low to me.  I went back and compared that number to other codexes I am familiar with.  The SM dex has about fifty pages of fluff dedicated to the Ultrasmurfs and other chapters while the Nids have thirty or so for the different Hive Fleets. At this point I am thinking "Man... why don't the GKs have more fluff pages?"  I attributed the problem purely to the amount of space dedicated to fluff in the GK codex.  However, when I looked at the IG, SW, and BA books I found all of them had approximately twenty pages of fluff too, but somehow had all left me feeling "satisfied".  My completely arbitrary and unscientific conclusion:  Ward screwed the pooch.  I am not even talking about the common complaints about the Dreadknight, Draigo, or the Sisters incident.  I am just talking about overall impression and general lack of "completeness."  I would have loved to have read about more battles, campaigns, etc.  Why was there only a small blurb about the First Armageddon?  What about something about all the GMs besides Draigo?  Why not more about the Inquisition?  Overall, I just felt very let down.

While the book was mildly disappointing and I was unable to find anyone to play a game with, I was able to look at all the new models.  I was completely blown away... the new plastic GKTs make the metal ones (which are some of my favorite models) look like AOBR models.  The Dreadknight looked very, very cool and not nearly as stretched out and spindly-looking as it appears in all the GW pictures.  The PAGKs are very solid sculpts but the GKTs and DKs are just flat amazing IMO.  I know a lot of people hate the DK aesthetics, but I'm personally a fan, especially after seeing them in person.  I may have to change up my list to take advantage of both of these sculpts (not to mention the Stormraven).

So I came away disappointed about not getting in a game, but I am definitely excited about building a GK army.  I am going to finalize my list sometime this week and get my order in so I can get cracking.