Deadline for Crimson Fists....

All set for the Easter egg hunt!

My self imposed deadline to get my Fists painted up and table ready is fast approaching. It doesn't help that life got real busy also. Easter, looking for a new job, and my cousin passing away, has made for short painting sessions.

Here is a list of what I got done even with the distractions........ My Ironclad dreadnought is done! Predator number 2 is painted up and done also. My sternguard are also finished. Hopefully I can get some pictures up tomorrow or Saturday ( LOL, I got some quick shots and added to the end. Enjoy). I am very happy with how these came out.

My whole army is now at the prepaint assembled stage!! This means everything has been put together so that it can be painted.

On the home stretch? Left to paint is 3 razorbacks, drop pod, terminators, predator #3, and my librarian. seems like alot but the vehicles paint up really fast. I can do about one a day if it is just painting. The drop pod may take longer as I am waffling on how to do the inside.




This dude rocks! Finished Ironclad dreadnought.




I loved the back2basic bases. They turned out brill.




Finished sternguard!




Yeah, I hate white. 2 meltas, 2 combi meltas, and sargent with lightning claw.



Predators 1&2, finished and ready!! Woot.



More shots of predators 1&2.




Razors in various stages. Assembled, primed, and first coat paint.




Love the fordgeworld doors. Used the fronts for Preds and sides for razors.




Librarian ready for painting.




Predator #3 ready for priming. Sponsons will be painted seperately.




Terminator and librarian bases, done and ready.




Speeders for my 2000 pt list. Speeder 1 done, speeder 2 waiting on crew.




In the primer box!



Not shown is the awesome post it board I bought at officemax in Omaha. I'm going to do another display board. This one will be a little more fancy as the board has a really nice cherry wood frame. Watch for a WIP post before June on it.

Thats all for now. I have to be a chaperone for my daughters field trip tomorrow!

This week's hobby time...

Here are a few pictures of stuff I worked on today and what I hope to paint tomorrow.

5th Edition, Does your list have the tools to win?

I recently played a Kill points tournament with my Sister's of Battle. I took pretty much my normal mech list with a small change. While this list preformed pretty close to my win ratio for kill point matches in general, 33%, it gave me incite to my Fists list I'm building . Specificaly it highlighted what units or unit abilities you need to win kill point missions in 5th.

My first match was vs BA with the Sanguinator, stormraven, 2 landraiders, assualt marines, and sternguard. What I learned from this matchup was, sternguard are good. Looking back at the matchup, I can see the lesson I learned in games 2 and 3, but reversed. I deployed on the board and he reserved just about everything. He was worried about loosing his transports right away. I took the middle and positioned my melta for when he came on. And like I planned, it so happened. Of coarse one dreadnought with bloodtalons almost cost me the game, but over all my plan was solid.

Game 2 I faced a necron army. He ran Nightbringer, monolith, destroyer lord, 5 heavy destroyers, and 3 reguluar destroyers. The rest didn't matter for the fight. I got to choose sides and deploy first. I set up hopping to make him reserve some, and deployed in a string across my side (rookie move by me). He then deployed everything and stole the initiative. /sad face me. He knocked out 2 rhinos, destroyed an exorcist, and two units were pinned. More importantly looking back was the turboboosting necron lord coming for me and the Nightbringer at mid field. These 2 units can kill my whole army, and I'm guessing he had been doing that to his past opponents. It took 2 turns for me to deal with those 2. Meanwhile his monolith took mid field and thus my chances for any win. He slowly racked up kill points and it was close till I had to try and drive past the monolith. That thing glanced my armour to death. I learned I needed some way to get across the board in addition to mech. Mech is ok till you face a shooty army that stays on thier board edge. Kill point missions allow them to "turkey shoot". In objective missions, the objectives are usually only midfield or slightly further. That extra 12 inches is pretty huge.

Thats why I had an advantage in game one. He had to come at me because he did not have the tools he needed. One drop podding dreadnought would have changed that whole battle. I would not have been able to focus on the transports due to having to deal with a drop pod. Outflanking would have helped also, and maybe given him another option.

Game three was dawn of war vs Tau. I got off a turn one assualt but he ran. I didn't catch him and my units were murdered the next turn. The rest of the game can be summed up by him popping my transports and slowly killing my footsloggers. I also rolled really bad but, I don't think it would have helped. I simply did not have the tools to get to him.

Ding!

Ok so what did I learn? Well, I learned I only win about 1/3 of my kill point games. Wait I aready knew that. I learned WHY I loose 2/3 of my kill point games. I used to think it was having too many kill points. Having lots of units is acually an advantage not a disadvantage. I learned it was my list not having the tools to deal with shooty armies in kill point missions. Not having a unit that can infiltrate, deepstrike, or outflank is huge in 5th.

5th edition is not about mech like everyone says. 5th is about being able to move. It is about being able to be where you need to be,when you need to be there. Watching the greyknights do it with 30 inch teleporting opened my eyes to what my army needed. I think the grand master will be huge for GK. The ability to give units the usr they need is huge.

So my tournament finished right where I thought it would. 1 win, 2 losses in a kill point tournament. Looking back and playing the battle over in my head with my Fists instead of my SoB, I can see so many more options. There are so many more ways the new list would deal with those shooty lists.

Well that's my 2 cents.




Inquisitor_Dunn



I love it when a plan comes together!

"I love it when a plan comes together."

Ever have one of those days when everything just kind of falls into place for ya? That was my day. It really started last night with a message I got on Dakka asking if I was coming up for the tournament at Tower Games.

Rewind to Tuesday. I was sitting there trying to decide if I would do the Ard Boyz this weekend. I got my VC out and wrote up a 3000 point list. Organized the army on the table and checked what models I needed to play. I talked to the wife about going to Sioux Falls and she was cool with it since she was working. Now my thinking was I would need to be home at a reasonable time to pick the kiddos up from a grandma's or something (our normal procedure for her working weekends).

Fast forward up to today, when I learned the kiddos are off to grandma's, and then off to Omaha to help Holly move. Wheels start turning and DING! Hell, why don't I go play the game I like to play. So I called Tower to see if there were any spots and yes there are. So tomorrow I'm off to....

I'm not ready to bust out the Fists, so the Sister's of the Ebon Chalice are getting another showing. I could run the DE but I might just sell them. I have a 1850 list I really wanted to try out, so maybe a tweak added to it will be fun. I'm going to take the camera up and try a couple different ways of logging a battle report. I want to find one I like, and the practice of doing both will be interesting.

So nothing new tomorrow but maybe Sunday or Monday look for battle reports and a few shots of the trip.

Bugeater plans and coverage.

June is getting closer and I'm running out of time for painting. I still have a good amount of time but I want to finish before may 14th. There is a rtt I would like to take the Fists to and get some games in before June.

Also on the agenda is what I'm doing Friday night of the GT. I like Mordheim but it is better as a campaign. Bloodbowl is ok. Maybe get a 40k game in? Definitely a party night! I'll have to grab something special maybe.

I hope to do pictures of all the armies there. I'll have to see what kind of time we have. I want to do some short interviews too. My camera does really good short videos so I want to give it a work out. Heck maybe I can get down to Omaha before the GT and get an interview with Tim. Look for that in the future!

I plan to do battle reports in picture or video format. I'll have to see what works while playing. Not sure if I will do live updates or just wait till I get back. I might leave the live blogging to Tim, he tends to do it.

Also looking for a robe and flip flops.  This clip will explain all.........

http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/04/adepticon-video-highlights-and-lowlifes.html


Anywho..... More to come on the Bugeater GT. Maybe terrain pictures??

What is your play style?

Greatest show ever!

I'm sitting in the man cave looking at my shelf that holds my 40k armies. As I sit here, a little light pops on in my head. My play style was staring me in the face. I have been thinking over the last couple days on what type or "style" army is right for me. Most armies fall into one or two categories, shooty or assault. My play style was neither. For good or bad, my style has been and looks like will be, a hybrid of the two.

Looking at my Salamanders, Sister's of Battle, and Dark Eldar arranged on the shelves, I could see they all had a common theme or style. They all were about 75-80% shooty with a unit or two of assualtyness. I guess I never could buy into the 100% all shooty. I always like having that ace unit or reserve unit to throw into the fray. Why is this even important? Well, I'm currently in the process of building my Crimson Fists army. My current list is mostly shooty with guess what... a couple assault units. My list has a unit of assault terminators and an ironclad dreadnought. While this is not the best use of points, it fits my play style. I don't suggest anyone go out and copy it, but instead to look at what you like playing. Don't choose the latest internet list just because. Pick what plays to your heart and play the hell out of it.

But thats just my 2 cents.

Possible train terrain?

So I keep coming back to how cool this game looks thanks to Terrain Specialties Cotton Gulch. I watched a couple westerns and started having an idea for table terrain. I have always wanted to do a train for 40k, and now maybe a "wild west" train would be easier and satisfy my "itch".

I came across a post by someone on some random site and I think I found my Moby Dick! It was the right style and the price is so right. I have never found trains in the right scale to be anything affordable, so this was a surprise. From these pictures it looks like the scale will work and the train can be primed and painted. Check it out and tell me what ya think. Also look for a WIP on this if it pans out. Otherwise maybe I'll have a shot of my son with his new train...lol

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index...ductId=3312417

Everyone wants to win an army, right?

Everyone wants to win a free army. Oh, and its painted by some of the best painters too, score! Donate to help Doctors without Borders and get chances at four 3000pt armies. I have purchased some and will be ebaying some old models in the future. The money raised will be put towards this. So follow the link and read all about it.

http://heroesofarmageddon.blogspot.com/

The second golden age of 40K?

As I sat listening to the IP Character's Ustream of the adepticon finals today, I just felt like we are entering a second golden age of 40k. Not since the first golden age of 40k tournaments has there been so much available for everyone. First off, I better explain what I think was the first golden age. Then I will go into why I think we are entering a second golden age and what the future holds.



The "roaring" 20's was see as one of the most prosperous times in America.

I'm not sure when the first golden age of 40k and GW started. I remember my hobby started in the local FLGS and I pretty much went there every weekend. They had great "mega" events and several leagues but tournaments were not around yet.

Then I remember the first tournament the store had. They ran a fantasy tournament and it was fun. Later that year they ran a 40k one and I won best sportsmanship. This award was a color paper certificate from GW. I still have it from December of 2000. It predates the Rogue trader tournaments, but not by much.


Then GW made the Rogue Trader Series of tournaments. You would pay a fee to register your tournament with GW and they would send you t-shirts, paper awards, scenarios, and list your tournament in the White Dwarf. Tournaments exploded on the scene. Every game store was running them.

GT's in major cities were being expanded. They went from Seattle, Chicago, and Baltimore, later adding LA, Minneapolis, and Dallas. Coverage in the White Dwarf of these events was always a couple pages. They even made a ranking system later on the GW website.

They also ran summer events like Hunt for the Fallen, Armageddon, and later the Eye of Chaos. I remember playing in RTTs and having to enter in results for the summer campaign.

Baltimore Gamesday seemed to be a bigger event to me back them. I never went but always considered it the pinnacle event of 40k to attend. There was also a major RTT there. Outriders all went to work and I heard cool stories about it. Outriders, now there is another thing that I loved back then. One got me into the hobby and I always wanted to join. I never got around to it and then they were gone.




Soup lines in the Great Depression.

Then it all went away. GW stopped supporting the RTT system. The player rankings were gone. GT's all but shrivelled up and died as GW pulled funding and support. The Outrider program was over. Like the great depression in America it just seemed to crash. And my hobby time also fell to an all time low. I let my WD subscription run out. Stopped going to tournaments, although looking back, I think they were fewer and farther between. The time period was pretty much 4th edition, give or take. There were always other events. Con of the North, and Magecon still held their tournaments, but it just felt like less with the collapse of the RTT system.

Then I think technology changed the hobby. Forums started and connected people. From forums then to blogs. BoLS took off, and with other sites like Dakka Dakka, Warseer, and Bolter Chainsword, the internet made the hobby less flgs related and a more open place to connect to like minded people. Then came the personal blog explosion, and podcasting. It seems like everyone has a blog and there are a ton of really good ones. I have about 20 on my favorites list and of coarse your reading mine. 40k radio and others opened up podcasting to the hobby and now I listen to 6 different ones. Of coarse there are many more than 6, but now I have so many options to pick the ones I enjoy the most.

Tournaments have made a comeback in my opinion since 5th edition. Their seems to be more local tournaments and the Indy GT circuit has put tournaments back in the national spotlight. Adepticon is exploding in popularity with interest. With several podcasts and Rankings HQ TV broadcasting there, you don't even have to go to get a taste of it. I sat at home and watched the championship match with 180 other people.

I think the biggest change lately is the "big" GT's popping up again. Adepticon like numbers being pulled in at Nova and Wargames Con (BoLS) are very impressive. Also the number of 60-100 person GT's is on the rise. It feels like the good old days of the GT circuit.

My biggest question is can these events survive without GW, or is this second golden age inspite of GW?

What do you think, are we in a second golden age or is the first still happening?