The future of my Corsair army

As I promised I'm gonna talk about the future of my Corsair army. To put a twist on the widely known 40k slogan: In the grim darkness of the far future, there may be some lonesome corsairs left.

I started wargaming back in ed2, codex Eldar was the first 40k book I bought and I loved it. Didn't had the money to collect them back then and when I gave third Ed a try years later I recycled my marine models from Space crusade, since I was mainly a Pen&Paper RPG-Geek back then and spend my cash on stuff like Shadowrun or World of Darkness books.I skipped most of ed4, only played some games with borrowed models from a friend of mine and decided to wait for ed5 to come out.

Since Eldar were quite popular back in ed4, I didn't want end up playing just another craftworld army and DE were not an option with their fugly models. So I settled for a eldar corsair army led by a Corsair Prince or even Yriel himself (thanks god I kept my 2ed Eldar codex) and bought myself some WHF black ark corsair boxes. The project suffered from a lack of (painting) motivation and the minor detail that black ark corsair models don't mesh that well with DA and guardian bits, unless you torture the dragon cloaks with knives, files or even a dremel. Eldar weren't getting better with every new 5ed codex hitting the streets and boosting tons of skimmer tanks out of reserve unto objectives got boring quite fast too.

Then GW revamped the whole Dark Eldar model line, miraculously with a design that was interchangeable with Eldar plastic bits. Oh joy! Lovely models and a codex that can kill stuff dead instead of playing "boost and contest", with the option to play most of the converted infantry with either codex.  Sadly owning even more models didn't really increase my painting motivation and then Games Workshop somehow managed to take the fun out of the game for me.

For a lot of disgruntled WHF players 8. edition was the final nail in the coffin. For me that nail was the combination of codex Grey Knights, some shady FAQs rulings that just blatantly screwed lovers of skimmer models and the Finecast debacle together with yet another annual price increase. I stopped following the tons of 40k related blogs and boards I used to read on a daily basis up until then. I haven't played a single game of 40k since fall 2010. I haven't even assembled a single Dark Eldar model, I only clipped them out of their sprues and sorted them meticulously into plastic tool boxes. I own enough brand new Dark Eldar bits for something lose to 3,5k and all they do is collecting dust in my shelf.

Over the course of the last months I started collecting Warmachine from Privateer Press and Dystopian Wars from Spartan Games. Sure, both systems/companies aren't perfect. Both suffer from supply shortages. Dystopian Wars for example is in dire need for some streamlining (the rules for tiny flyer tokes are cumbersome at best) and I wouldn't say the balancing is that good either. But at least the models are lovely and you don't need to spend tons of money to have fun. Both 40k and WM/H have some models with an absurd price tag. 80$ for a unit of 10 undead guys in heavy armor? 28$ for their 2 guys unit attachment? That's just gross...esp. given the fact that we are paying 140$ instead of 108$ for unit+attachment here in Europe. So PP isn't beating GW hands down like some people love to tell you. It still is a nice game with a rule system far more elegant and superior than 40k. That's my personal opinion...

But let's get back to the original topic, the future of my combined eldar&dark eldar corsair army. 


I've lost the motivation to play ed5 and my financial situation isn't that rosy that I could afford holding unto tons of models, hoping that GW managed to sell me again on their system with ed6. The notebook I bought 6 years ago is slowly but inevitably moving towards his end. The battery charge went down from 120  to something close to 20 minutes, using multiple browser tabs beyond the number of 3 is a royal pain. On top of that the call/disconnect keys on my mobile phone are only working in closed slider mode, which turns simple tasks like placing a call, typing an SMS or setting a time for a wake-up call into a frustrating adventure. Right now I have my eyes on a small tablet like the 7" galaxy tab 1000, but for that I need some money that I don't have on my bank account right now.

That means I'm trying to sell every Eldar model except for some Guardian and Dark Avenger bits. Sure, they are hard to sell right now, but nobody can tell me if it won't get worth with either sixth edition itself or the next Eldar codex, whenever it may hit the street.

I'm not sure if I want to sell my whole Dark Eldar army too on top of that. I do know that neither ravagers, nor raiders (and not to mention the razorwing) fit into the backpack I bought recently. So even if I'm not selling everything, I will definitely trying to get rid of my 6 ravager/raider hulls and the lone razorwing I bought. Selling off bigger parts would solve my personal financial crisis, but also means saying good-bye to the system I started wargaming with. But its kind of a last resort approach if selling other stuff doesn't work out as I've expected it to do.

In either case you won't see any progress on my 40k armies in the "near future". But I do intend to use this blog to keep track on the progress of my Warmachine/Hordes and Dystopian Wars armies, write some battle reports for those system and use some space on the upcoming Thirty Years War project the local wargaming club is starting in 2012.

Cheers, Karnstein