From the Ashes........

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, my hobby has returned!

New Job = Less Gaming....

Wow this site has been dead. It has been on the back burner for me for good reason though. I recently started a new career as a 911 Dispatcher and there is alot to learn. 

Two weeks ago I made an awesome trip up to Minneapolis to game with some old buddies. It was a super fun time of playing a huge battle of Epic. That night we played Inquisitor and it was a great story run by my friend Matt. The Inquisitor game finished up with part 2 to the story the next night and was a highlight of the trip for me. We also played a 2nd edition game of 40k and I got to see how different that was. It was a really fun trip and I'm really glade I got it in before starting the new job!

What does this mean for future gaming? Long term it will be good. It pays very well, and as a county employee, I'll have more time off for holidays and such. Short term it means I need to focus on the job and that will cost me in gaming time. So I apologise for the next month if it is really slow on here, but once my training period is over, I will actually have more time to blog.

Road Trip!!

This weekend I am taking a road trip up to Minneapolis/Saint Paul for some casual gaming. What convention or tournament is going on you ask?.... Nothing but a weekend of games at a buddies house. We should almost call this trip Origins or something cool like that, as I'm going up to play at the house of the Dude that got me started in this hobby. This is almost a pilgrimage of sorts. My trip to the holy land, or more correctly, the Alpha Site!

This trip has been talked about for the 12 past years but has never materialized, until now. This weekend will see games of all kinds played. Mostly games from the past like Inquisitor, 2nd ed 40k, and a massive multi player game of Epic on Saturday! Zach will be making the trip up with me, and I must thank him as he was a driving force this weekend got planned and was followed through on. Thanks Zach!

Next week I hope to get tons of pictures, some video, and maybe a battle report or after action summary. Till then, remember the first time you played a miniature wargame. I will be, as I get to play games with some of the best guys in the hobby!

6th Edition; First Thoughs

First off, I want to say I'm not an expert on 40k. I am not the best player, nor do I know all the tricks and best lists to use. I have been playing since 1998-99 right after 3rd edition came out. I do not remember the "Rogue Trader Days" but I do remember people saying the sky is falling after 3rd came out.

I remember when 3.5 was adapted. It was the trial assault rules and the vehicle fire points. 4th edition came and made them official. It also brought with it the entanglement rules for destroyed vehicles. gunlines were king, and Drop pod armies were pretty good. 5th edition came and brought the rise of cheap transports.

Through it all, my armies adapted, and changed. One thing you can count on during a new edition is the new rules made new troops or vehicles better that were maybe lacking in the last edition. 6th is no different. So after 4 games of 6th, it's time to put some thoughts to paper so to speak.

6th Edition Plans: My Armies

It has been pretty quite around here lately. Work, home, and hobby have been stupid busy though. Then 6th edition 40k hit and , yeah, not much blogging done. After a couple 6th ed games in yesterday, and the start of moving stuff into my new game room, I am finally taking the time to get caught up here.

Happy Fourth of July!!

Have a great Fourth of July!

On Vacation....

They're Back!!!!

6th edition is around the corner and I'm very excited! So many new changes but one of the most anticipated for me is the allies are returning. Finally my Redemptionists will be playable again! I will take them as IG and run them as conscripts or blob squads. My 60 redemptionists haven't seen the table since we lost them after Chapter Approved rules were replaced by witch hunters.

I'm happy now.....

Bugeater Army shots and other Pictures!

Today I have some shots of a few of the fantastic armies I got to see at this year's Bugeater GT. Also is a bunch of shots from my game 1 with Alex Ferrell. I played him last year, and got to play him again this year. It was a great game and he is a great person to play.

Bugeater GT 2012 Terrain shots!

Not much of an article today. I just thought I would post up pictures of Terrain from the Bugeater. Overall the terrain was awesome. There were tables that were too packed and some that were too sparse. But overall they were very good.  Terrain grade this year is a solid A-. Still room to improve but really no serious complaints.

The Bugeater GT 2012 Report

The Bugeater has come and gone. I have finally recovered from an awesome weekend of 40k and friends! So it is finally time to put something to paper. This is the second time typing this up. Thanks to Blogger, the first draft is lost in the warp!

Home From The Bugeater GT!!!

I about crapped my pants when they called my name for this award! I really had no clue I was even in the running. I went 3-3 for the weekend, with 3 really bad beats. Thank you to all my opponents, and still, I'm blown away by this honor!

Thank you Tim for running another great GT. Thank you to all that helped him. Looks like they raised over $4000 for their debate team too! Thank you to Norm from the Game Shoppe for the prize support, and all the others like Universal Bits and Games, KR Multicase, Bitzbox.co.uk, and Black Library! (also any others that I can not remember)

So much more to post, but I'm beat from this weekend and need to sleep...

Let the Games Begin!!

We are down to the last minute packing before the guys get here and we leave. Off to Omaha we be going for the 2nd Annual Bugeater GT! The army is tucked away in it's new KR Multicase, a sponsor of the BGT. The thing is simply awesome and I'm definately sold on the system.

I'm also bringing down some odds and ends models to sell on friday. They are haveing a "bits" trade and sell day tonight. I hope to unload my Kador Juggies, my Menoth, some daemons, and odds and ends.I'm hoping to pick up a couple of those new fliers too! My 11th company t-shirt also came in the mail, so hopefully it brings me luck on Saturday. Just need to get an Independent Characters one!

Looks like the Railhead Rumble is also this weekend, so good luck to anyone going to either of these two awesome events! And say hi if you are at the Bugeater.

OMG rumour for 6th!

Close combat looks to be changing in 6th edition! Looks like the rise of the terminator and plasma pistols will go on sale! This rumour paired with the rumour of you getting all your saves is interesting. TH/SS terminators with a 2+/3++ will be tough to kill if pw are ap 3. Heck even regular termies will be bad ass with a 2+/5++.

http://natfka.blogspot.com/2012/05/6th-edition-close-combat-weapon-ap.html?showComment=1338488946302#c7750262863165061347

The Bugeater is coming!

The Bugeater GT is this weekend. Preperations are almost all done. All that is left to do is enjoy the ride! See you there, and if you are not going, you can check out pictures and interviews here starting Monday!

Catching up......

Ok, I have been away from my blog for too long. Alot has happened this week from a massive wind storm that took out 20+ trees in our town, including one in my front yard,  to playing some Dust and 40k. Fliers are coming out next week, and 6th is around the bend! Not to mention I still have a dreadnought and 4 scouts to paint for the Bugeater GT! Well let's tackle some of these topics and get my thoughts out there on them....

New Arrivals!

Thank you Amazon.com! Now I have some new books to work on.

Battle of the Fang- Space Wolves vs Thousandsons

Fall of Damnos- Ultramarines vs Necrons

Purging of Kadillus- Dark Angels vs Orks

I'm expecting to want to build these armies after reading these...lol

BOGO! WIP Wednesday and Dust Warfare thoughts!

Ok, I have been neglecting my blog a bit lately. On a good note, I have not been neglecting my hobby. I have been playing alot of games recently. So on to this BOGO of articles!

Bugeater Practice

Looks like I will get some practice games in today. I'm hoping to try a modified list. I'm thinking of running Lysander and Vulcan in my 1850.

Post MageCon RTT Report

As Mage Con Spring comes to a close last weekend, I have a moment to look back at all the fun had, and to look forward to some very cool upcoming events. Gaming is exploding in this area with new stores, new players coming out of the woodwork, and new tournament road trips to be had. Read on for my Mage Con report and whats coming up.

WIP Wednesday; Adepticon Blues, MageCon painting!

Well I missed getting this up on Wednesday. I was too busy trying to finish my command squad and get them ready for MageCon this weekend. I am glad I can say mission accomplished! It's been a while since I have completed a unit or vehicle and I'm pretty happy with this one. Unfortunately it has lead to me having some free time today to see all the pictures of Adepticon rolling in.......

Mage Con Lists and Bugeater GT Decisions!

This week is full of painting again, but not the project I was working on. This weekend I'm off to MageCon Spring in Sioux City for a 2000 RTT on Saturday and a Apoc game of 40k I'm running on Sunday. For the RTT, I have decided to play Crimson Fists and my Vulcan "counts as" list. I have also decided that the 5000 points of Fists is not enough and I need to paint up a command squad! We all like to torture ourselves don't we.... So read on and check out my list thoughts, I also had to make a big decision regarding Bugeater too.....

Spring Con GT Info

Here is a copy of the info I got on Spring Con going on in May in Saint Paul. Looks like another 2 day, 5 game event in the Midwest!!

WIP Wednesday; Yes there was painting!

Ok Wednesday is here and I have beaten the painting blues! I only have a couple minutes to write this up as I'm working on SOB and need to make significant progress before May 11th. May 11th is the deadline for army lists for the Bugeater GT and when I have to decide if I can finish the Sisters of Battle of go to backup plan B and play my Crimson Fists.

Mage Con Mega Battle!

Hey everyone, hope you had a good Easter! Been pretty hecktic around here with painting, gaming, and family stuffs going on. Next event up for the ol Inquisitor is Mage Con April 20th-22nd.

Beating the painting blues!

So lately I have hit a "painting block" so to speak. I like painting and have a large project to finish before June. I even have a good routine of painting to podcasts. But what do you do when it still doesn't work, when you don't feel the "mojo"?

WIP Wednesday: Rhinos, Bases, and Display Board planning.

Ok this week was kind of slow for hobby progress. Blake and I drove out to Vermillion on friday to play Zach in a cities of death game, and I spent this weekend enjoying the nice weather with the kiddos and wifie. I did go see Hunger Games on Sunday too. So on to what I did do.....

Sister's Of Battle List Building

As I have been focusing more on my SoB and getting them repainted, I have also been toying in my head with different builds. Now there are not alot of options for Sisters, but there are a few I think are getting over looked.

WIP Monday? Project SoB Rebirth!

Ok I apologize for it being pretty quite around here this week. Model wise, it has been pretty busy! This week I kicked into high gear my Sisters of Battle repaint. I also started a terrain project to use on my new board. So on to the pictures of what I have been up too!

The Battle for Saint Marcus Cathedral; 40k Apocalypse Game

the table is set.

Saturday was my day off, and we decided to do a massive apocalypse game. We wanted a fun, I don't care what happens. type of game. My buddies also wanted to use alot of their models so we decided on 3000 points a person. Unfortunately one of them had to work, so it was on me to play 4000 points of Crimson Fists and 2000 points of "Green" Templars! So with some story writing during the week at work, we were set for an epic battle!

WIP: MORE TERRAIN!

Started work on the Pegasus Hobbies large building kit tonight. I also took some more pictures of the cathedral as I received a bunch of requests for info on them.

WIP; terrain day

Earlier this week I received the 2 out of 3 Pegasus Hobbies Gothic small buildings kits, I had ordered. Now my plan was to work on SoB on my day off yesterday, but with new shiny toys sitting right there, I just could not resist. I combined both kits to make on large cathedral. I know it is rather large, but I wanted a center piece for my table and my SoB. I will be getting more of these kits, as I'm leaning towards a Shrine World themed table. Although I will keep the rest of the buildings smaller in scale. I hoped to get more pictures up but my camera went dead on me, so here is a taste for now...

I used these two kits to make that building.



Small Gothic buildings 1 and 2.





Love me some UPS!

Just in time! 2 of the 3 sets of Pegasus Hobby kits I ordered, arrived today! I also have an email saying my 2 packages from Amazon are in town at the PO office. Perfect timing too, as we are playing Apocalypse this Saturday and these will be a nice addition to the table!



So much for working on SoB on my day off tomorrow!

Does 40k need to be Balanced?

People are always stating that 40k is not balanced. I have been thinking about this statement all day while I was at work. Yeah it was a boring day. The real question should not be whether it is or is not balanced, but whether we really want it to be balanced at all. Are any wargames really balanced?

Winning and Losing, How do you handle it?

Recently I have played a couple games where my list and tactics was simply crushing my opponent. I wasn't being a dick about it, and there wasn't any rules disagreements. It was simply, I had better units in a better position and they were doing what they do, crush the enemy. As turn 2 or 3 went on, and the game was clearly swinging in my favor, my opponents were not having fun and were beginning to become hostile to my army. The word "broken" and OP was spoken. When did regular Space Marines become cheesy?

Independent Characters go to CotN!

Episode 48 – Imperial Armour 3: The Taros Campaign is out for the Independent Characters, and I highly recommend you check them out! Not only was there reports of DundraCon, but of our group's trip to Sioux Falls, and Zach's experience at Con of the North! Oh and they go through Imperial Armour 3 too!

I love the walk through of the Imperial Armour books since I will probably never buy one (though I'm very tempted after listening) and it "fills in" the holes in my hobby knowledge. Another entertaining show making them my favorite podcast.

I managed to assemble all 11 DCA and 6 crusaders while listening to the show. I also popped off the doors on my old SoB rhinos. I plan on casting new doors or stenciling them. Looking back, I'm amazed at how much hobby work I have finished due to podcasts. Not only does it give me something to listen to, but also a schedule. Every time a new show comes out, I want to paint! So for that reason alone, I'm a huge fan boy of podcasts.

Check out their forums and please LIKE them on facebook. It makes Carl smile!

Con of the North RTT report!

My Crimson Fist at CotN 2012.

Con of the North provided us yet another awesome RTT last Sunday. With 2 players short of a full 32 spots, 2 guys partied and over slept, it made for a large a diverse field. Of note was the missing IG and SW armies! Necrons definitely made their appearance and several others like Nids and Deathwing did too.

Below I will write up a brief of all three of my games and throw up pictures of most of the armies. I took pictures of every one's but some of them would not transfer over to Picasa.

Con of the North 2012; The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

Wow, this weekend flew by! I guess that's what happens when you are playing on some of the coolest tables ever built. This weekend my family, a buddy, and I drove the 4 hours up to Con of the North in Saint Paul, MN. It was an epic weekend of gaming with old and new friends! This was also one of the fewest RTTs I have played in where every game was "the best game ever!" In the end it could all be summed up as The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Con of the North bound!

Last of the painting is getting done in a few minutes, and all that is left to do is pack some laundry that's in the dryer. This weekend is my annual pilgrimage to the land of snow and ice, Minneapolis, MN. This looks to be the first snow free year since I started going up there, knock on wood....... Anyway, we are ready to leave first thing in the am as soon as Zach (of the Independent Characters podcast) gets to my house.

Look for updates from the con and battle reports and pictures galore next week. I'm also going to see if I can get some video shot too!

The season of Faith and Fire is here!

Change is always happening, and this blog is no exception. For the last year and a half, I have focused on my Crimson Fists. I have documented most of the painting of the army and several lists and tournaments they have played in. This weekends Con of the North RTT will mark the last unit I need to paint for them and one of the last tournaments I will be playing them in for awhile.

This also means the begining of the repainting of my Sisters of Battle Order and a new chapter in tactics and articles for this blog. These are exciting times as I believe the Sisters are a very good army, and I hope to prove it. So with 70 models to strip and repaint, 4 rhino chasis to build, and 9 vehicles to touch up, this is a big project to finish by June 1st.

So grab a seat, get the popcorn ready, and hang on! Change is good right?

First hand report from the Dark Star GT!

Bonus coverage today of the Dark Star GT that happened this last weekend! Sledge MgGee went and was nice enought to write it all up for us. Heck, he even took some pictures too! Many thanks to him for the info and hopefully we can get him to do this again some time.

Inquisitor Dunn

The Dark Star GT

Hello!

Sledge MgGee here of the Frozen North gaming club in Saint Paul, MN with some coverage of the Dark Star GT in place of Inquisitor Dunn.  The event was awesome and met all my expectations.  If you guys are interested for next year get signed up early as I’m sure it will sell out quick in 2013!  The terrain was beautiful and they had a fair amount of LOS blocking stuff as well as area terrain.  The tables may have been a little short of 25%, but not by much.   Each mission had 3 objectives.  In order to win, a player had to win 2 of the 3 objectives.  Ties were settled using the usual victory point rules from the 5^th edition rule book.

Saturday Roadtrip!

We are off to Sioux Falls for a day of gaming at UBG (Universal Bits and Games). I'm trying out my Vulcan Crimson Fists list for the Con of the North RTT and hopefully will love it. I have the camera in had and it looks to be a fun day.

Now if we can get Zach to do so B-boxing on the way up for entertainment....LOL (listen to the end of episode 47 of the Independent Characters podcast).

Narrative Gaming

Lately I have been thinking of narrative gaming and how to bring it into 40k. It really all started with The Independent Character's episode 47 podcast. When I lived in Minneapolis, the group there did all kinds of cool events. One thing stands out looking back was they always had some kind of story for the event. Even if it was a one off event. Maybe I'm getting old, or just longing for the old days, but I would like to try to get some of that fluffiness back in my gaming.

WIP Wednesday; Bases and Sargents

This week saw me getting some good work done on my Crimson Fists for Con of the North. With less than 2 weeks before we head to the great white north of Saint Paul, MN, The list is shrinking what remains to be painted......

Darkstar GT and Rumours of future GT's

The Dark Star GT is coming up fast! Although I will not be attending, as I will be at Con of the North the following weekend. I will be trying to get what pictures and reports from people I know are going. I think it is very important to support the GT's we do have in the area, so they do not drive off into the sunset.

WIP Wednesday: Crimson Fist Paintathon!

WIP Wednesday is back! The holidays and a store remodel at work killed my free time and a fried computer didn't help either. This week I made great progress towards my Con of the North Crimson fists list. I'm also soaking 14ish sisters of battle in simple green.

So onward to the WIP pictures and a review of this week...