Forgeworld Friday the First

It's just another Forgeworld Friday... (oh oh oh)
Yeah, this is my day (oh oh)
To spend more mon-ey (oh oh oh)

All of us who are involved in this absurd hobby have some experience with Forgeworld. I thought it might be fun to start a series of posts about my personal experiences with Forgeworld. Unlike Workbench Wednesdays, I don't think I've got enough material to make Forgeworld Friday a weekly thing... though you never know. Between my stories, posts where I shamefully admit to having made yet another order and tell my faithful reader(s) what I'm getting, pics of arriving packages, and the occasional product review or post about a new release or tease or leak, maybe I'll have enough material to do a Forgeworld Friday every week, or most weeks?

We'll all find out together.

For now, I want to write about the very first box I ever got from Forgeworld...

It was back in 2014. I had just survived a terrible year at an awful school, and I'd run so far away that I'd actually ended up getting ready to work in a different district. I decided that it was time to treat myself, so I dipped a little bit into some investments my grandfather had left me and made my first Forgeworld order.

Well, actually, it was my second. But my first - a couple of tetras, back when I still played Tau - was so long ago that I can barely remember the circumstances, and I was so spooked by the shipping that I actually had them shipped to a friend of mine who was living in the UK and then waited until the holidays so she could deliver them to me by hand... ah, I am both entertained and ashamed by my own innocence.

Anyway, my first Forgeworld order that I can actually remember, for an army I actually still play, of models that I actually still own, consisted of a contemptor dreadnought and two close combat arms, a legion glaive, and some Inquisitorial brass etch. The contemptor dreadnought is still one of the models I'm most proud of. The glaive got as far as having the turret painted and the main body... mostly painted before I decided that I actually wanted to play 30k, stripped it all down, and started it up again in green instead of red. The brass etch... well, it's been useful, but I think that only a single model with any of that brass etch attached to it has ever been finished.

Ah... that's life in the hobby for you!

From those early experiences, I learned that Forgeworld's shipping was actually quite reasonable and not nearly as slow as I'd feared. I also got bit by the resin bug - my Knights of Blood contemptor is still the pride and joy of that army. Most importantly, having lost my Forgeworld virginity, I realized that placing an order with the big FW wasn't really anything to be afraid of.

And then, a little more than a year later... I started playing Horus Heresy. It's been down (up?) hill from there!

Selling Shit

You know what I regret?

Warmachine.

Don't get me wrong, at the very beginning, the game looked awesome. I mean, what's not to love? It's got a great steampunk/dungeonpunk aesthetic, huge stompy robots, and the game is dripping with awesome wizard characters. Warmachine (and its sister game, Hordes) has the distinction of being pretty much the only game where the better I got at it, the less I liked it.

Why? Honestly, it was that far too much of the game was seated in list-building. It's not a matter of how you play - it's a matter of whether or not you get off the combo in your list. Assuming that nobody makes an error, the "best" (or rock-to-scissors) combo will win.

And that's about it.

So, I've been getting out of Warmachine, gradually, and (this is why this is apropos of this hobby) hopefully turning it into more Horus Heresy resin. When I want to get rid of an army, where do I go?

Bartertown is a great resource for trading and selling, with an integrated reputation system to make sure that a potential trading partner is on the up-and-up. I have bought, sold, and traded quite a lot on Bartertown, and I love it. The only problem with Bartertown is that the system that prevents spam is wildly out of step with the rate at which shit actually happens there. If your thread doesn't get any attention within 24 to 48 hours, it's not going to happen. However, the website makes you wait a full week before you can post again with, say, a reduced price. This can sometimes really, really suck when you are (like I am) impatient.

My second favorite place to go to get rid of shit is The Barter Bucket. It's a Facebook group, so you'll have to join, but the real name and face (ish) nature of Facebook makes it a pretty comfortable place to buy and sell. I don't know anyone who's gotten screwed on the Barter Bucket. For some reason, I've encountered more flakes on the Barter Bucket than anywhere else, but that's just a little bit frustrating rather than being a dealbreaker. Nobody has ever flaked on paying me, so it's all good in the end.

Finally, the elephant in the room is eBay. Goddamnit, but I fucking hate eBay. I have only once sold anything on eBay, and not for a satisfactory price. More often, the shit I'm trying to sell just fucking sits there, mocking me. If you've had more luck with eBay, I'm extremely eager to hear your thoughts.

All of this is particularly relevant for me because I'm trying to sell my fucking Khador army so I can get more resin. So if Warmachine is - for some reason - your jam, drop me a line and let's see if we can make a deal.

The Window Opens!

The Black Library submission window has opened!

This rare event signals Black Library's willingness to accept submissions from us mere mortals hoping for a chance at glory. Much like worship of the Ruinous Powers, success means power and immortality whereas failure means that you'll be turned into a Chaos Spawn.

Well, probably not.

I'm not going to insult you by repeating everything on Black Library's site here. You can follow the link and read it for yourself. I know that I will be reading it very carefully in preparation for my own submission.

I'm also going to decide that this is clearly an auspicious beginning for my blog. Yes, it's all about me.

The window opens... dare you look beyond?