Today we begin our interview with Zach Walter, co-host of The Independent Characters podcast. Zach is often brought in via Skype, since he does not live in The Golden State.
It seems like from
listening to the podcast you live in the middle of nowhere. Has it been tough
continuing your hobby without a FLGS close to keep you going?
I do indeed live in the
middle of nowhere. My friend Greg jokes that I moved to Fenris. Lots of snow,
tall Nordic types abound, but (thankfully) no kraken or thunderwolves stalking
me at the supermarket. The downside of living beyond the reach of the
God-Emperor is, of course, that its hard to get regular games in and my skills
are getting rusty from disuse. I’m pretty soon Carl or Geoff is gonna beat me
one of these days.
On the upside, whereas
when I lived in California I could spend too much time gaming (and not
painting), so here in the outer rim colonies I have much more time to hobby.
I’ve compensated somewhat also building a pretty nice game room with lots of
new terrain and such so that when the few guys I do know around here come to
play I’ve made it worth their drive.
Very recently a new
game store opened up in Sioux Falls, which is about an hour from where I live
(Fenrisian storms permitting) so there is a FRGS (Friendly REGIONAL Game Store)
at least. It’s a little bit of a commute in the deep of winter but if I’m just
pleased there is a more reasonable option than flying back to Carl’s house in
California when I get the jones to game.
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| Zach's realm of battle board with added slip protection |
What armies do
you play, have you played? What armies are you looking at in the future?
Well, as Carl and Geoff
love to poke fun about being an old timer, I’ve been playing 40k since the
hoary old days of Rogue Trader. Back then most people had one army (especially
poor students) and they identified themselves as “Marine” or “Ork” or “Squat”
players. The thing of owning a ton of armies seems to be a newer phenomenon—a
fun if expensive one at that. I bought my first clear-plastic box of
metal as an adolescent, and from 1st to 4th edition I was
primarily an “Eldar player” with largely the same list of footdar that I run up
into early 5th. I started adding Tau in 3rd when they
were released, but I’m not a ‘gun-line’ kinda player so I kept the force small
until a few years ago.
These days I rotate
between my Dark Eldar, Khorne Demons, Orks, Tau, Eldar, and ‘counts as’ Blood
Angels and/or marines. They’re not equally painted or complete, but I’m always
working on something. I tend to enjoy small model count armies, as there is
less to paint, and I feel that we’ve been living in the MEQ Age for the
last few years, what with all of the power armor codices so I’ve spent the last
few years rolling 3+…
And of course, I’ve
also got my Squats. I’ve got a pretty extensive collection of the stunties…
which I can and have run as Greyknights, Space Wolves, Imperial Guard and Orks,
depending on which models I’d like to play with and which codex best fits the
original GW models lines.
In the future I’d love
to flesh out my Dark Eldar from the 1000 points I’ve been working on for the
team tourney at Adepticon, as well as finally picking a color scheme for my
‘nids so I can set about proving that they’re a viable army.
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| Ridiculousness |
Can you tell us
about the Grey Squats you're doing?
I’ve been hoarding the
old Citadel space dwarf models since 2nd edition, though it wasn’t until
they were “deleted” from the game in 3rd that I really started
collecting them in earnest. I always had Epic-scale Squats and over time just
fell more and more infatuated with them and their retro-ness and the “good-old”
pre-corporate days of GW that I feel they embody well.
I don’t want that piece
of history of the game to pass away, and the underlying foundation of 40k as
basically fantasy races in space…and how can you have fantasy without little
surly, fat dudes, with bushy beards and beer bellies? (Editor's note: so many players these days seem to think that 40k is GRIMDARK SCI-FI - but really it is fantasy in spaaaaaaaaace!) So, I committed to keep
them alive and my bank account has consistently taken a hit for it (especially
once eBay showed up!). Now, I have all of the unreleased 2nd edition
squats and most of the official Iron Claw and Citadel product lines. I love the
fact that when I bring the army out to play so many newer players get to see
the models for the first time and old timers get a touch of nostalgia.
For the IC’s hobby
progress challenge I decided I would finally paint up some of my rarer models
and scratch-build 40k scale versions of some epic Squat models so that I’d have
a truly unique, fun, and weird army to bring to events (I’m scratch-building a
Overlord Armored Airship and a Iron Eagle Gyrocopter at present). I opted to
use the Grey Knights codex because the great variety of units allows for the
nearest ‘counts-as’ possibilities for using the surprisingly varied Squat model
line. I’m not thrilled that many people view the codex as over-powered as
that’s not why I chose it—I had used the old demonhunters codex for the Squats
previously and the new codex offers even more opportunities to represent some
of the more obscure models.
Have you been
doing a lot of magnetizing? This editor finds it very difficult to manage all
the magnets - I get extremely irritated with the parts moving and falling off
etc.
Funnily enough, I was
an early convert to the faith of magnets – playing Tau and Eldar in early 3rd
and discovering “rare-earth” magnets was like finding a lost testament. I was
living Ann Arbor, Mich. at the time and playing a lot of 40k, and I kept trying
to sell the magnet thing to the players there, but it took a while for the idea
to take off. More than once I heard, “shut up about those #$%&*! magnets!”
Now it’s pretty standard to magnetize armies, so I feel fairly vindicated for
my earlier enthusiasm. Nowadays, I don’t go overboard with them on most models,
but weapon swaps or extra bits are much easier with them than without them. I
think the key is to use the correct size of magnet and to not unnecessarily
magnetize parts that don’t need to be swapped out. I don’t think EVERY frag
grenade needs to be magnetized to each space marine…unless you’re playing
Draigowing with 8 models or something.
What other games
do you play besides 40k? Do you enjoy the video games? Would you consider
starting a new system? (Fantasy, Warmachine, etc)
Some of my earliest
memories are of gaming. My hippy-dippy Berkeley, CA grade school introduced me
to D&D in the first grade (as an actual class) and I’ve been playing games
ever since. Over time I’ve tried most mediums, though as I get older, busier
and more interested in hobby-ing I’ve find myself gravitating more and more
towards miniature war and board game.
Among the I.C. hosts,
Geoff and I seem to be more interested in wargaming in general, rather than
just remaining exclusive to 40k. Carl is the GW loyalist, even though he claims
the ruinous powers. I love the world of Warhammer 40,000, though the rules have
always left me somewhat cold at the outdated-ness of them, so I love trying out
different rule-sets. However, I always seem to return to GW’s loving, if
expensive, embrace. It’s got great background, the best aesthetics, and the
most players of any system, so I resigned myself years ago to the fact that
while many really good wargames come and go, if you’re a miniature hobbyist,
Warhammer 40k ends up being the girl next door you know you’re gonna end up
married to.
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| Dust Tacits does seem to have a certain appeal to it. |
Recently, I’ve been
playing Dust Tactics and I’m looking forward to the Dust Warfare rule-set that
should be arriving intermittently (Damn you, FFG!). I’ve played Zombiesmith’s
Quar games and Malifaux within the last few years, and enjoyed both of those
games quite a bit. I always toy with the idea of getting back into WHFB as the
models have gotten simply amazing, but I just can’t commit to painting that
many damned more models.
Only within the last
three of four years have I found my way into console games. They suck up
a lot of hobby time, so I try to keep them under control (press ‘X’ to make
your evening disappear), but I played the heck out of Space Marine – who could
pass up a game where a Tactical space marine actually kick’s ass?!? Am I right,
Geoff?
What do you think GW could do to fix
Tyranids?
The Tyranids need fixing?!? They’re the only army
I’ve lost to in 1v1 play since 2009! Ha! But seriously, there is a three fold
issue with the Tyranids which I believe has led to the perception of their
weakness, though I’m on the fence as to how underpowered they actually are.
They are certainly not played as much as previously so I guess that, at least,
demands some fixes.
I play them, in a limited capacity (as I don’t
have time to paint up so many models at the moment with other projects) and
have really good success with them. I feel the new codex represents a pretty
dynamic, interesting army choice in the current landscape. It is however, an
army that plays very differently than the prior codex and relies upon strong
generalship and synergy to win against the hardier builds out there. That might
be more of an investment than most people want to make or the actual experience
of playing them isn’t worth it.
I agree with what Carl and Geoff had to say on the
issue, and the elite slot is a problem, in that too many of the good units
vying for attention, but I also feel that one of the main reasons Tyranids are
showing up less and less on the tabletop is that G.W., for whatever reason,
never got the models out to keep players interested. Dark Eldar, Greyknights,
Necrons are all too big of attractions to keep bug player’s attention without
shiny (or slimy) new tervigons, harpies, etc.
It also hasn’t helped that most competitive
players (and the Interwebz) very quickly abandoned the Tyranid codex. Losing
eternal warrior and no Inv. saves are both big issues, but the codex gained a
lot in exchange. Many players tend to focus on what is lost between updates,
which I think is not an ideal way to approach change. When I peruse a new book,
I always look for new possibilities and I was bowled-over when that ‘dex came
out at the possibilities for the bugs. If I had to say something, the lack of
offensive grenades in most units that need them is a pretty big issue that I
would address for a CC army that relies on initiative and numbers to win
combats.
So the big three reasons, at least from my
perspective, for what’s hurting the ‘Nids are: complex style of play, lack of
necessary models, and under-representation in the competitive environment.
Personally, when I read through the ‘nid codex, I get terrified at what a
general could do with it…
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