See You At WargamesCon

I am desperately trying to finish real life business before I (my wife) packs me up to leave tomorrow. This week has been rediculous work wise, thank goodness most of the work was done on my angels.

When you take a tour around the room, look for my Angels of Perdition (picture to the left) and myself and say "Hi!". I will be taking lots of photographs and what not. I am the split scheme black/bone army, and this fellow will be at the front of the board.

Hope to play you at the GT on Saturday!

And GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN!

Dark Eldar Art Sneak Peak?

I saw this today while looking at the Memphis Battle Bunker face book page. It was ducked in their picture section and titled "Dark Eldar Sneak Peak"

I may be crazy, but I think this may be the first new art we've seen for the codex. It's on a gw site.

Anyway, I like it! I hope they look this awesome, and if so, I could see myself buying them.

This is the first thing that has made me think "screw waiting on necrons, I'll get these guys, and also... insane clowns together!"

Here is hoping!

I already have thoughts regarding my airbrush if I make an army of them.

Edit: Someone at warseer said they thought it was fan-art... but if so, I can't find the image anywhere else on the internet. If you have seen it before, let me know, thanks.

Angels of Perdition - Background

Look to the Safety of the Imperium first,

And your own honor second.

Ecanus, Master of 8^th Company of Angels of Perdition

Registered officially as a member of the 20^th founding, the Angels of Perdition are an enigma. The file on them has been growing for several thousand years now when their official seal was broken by Inquisitor Mandate IM-01-X5-4519190394 by Inquisitor Conrad Guot, who recognize a disconnect from history, and their obvious methods. His personal notes reflect use of equipment from dating back to the Horus Heresy, and even reported seeing a unit of marines riding jet bikes during the Casgadian Descent. Even more odd is that much of their basic pieces of equipment do not much Munitorium records, or standard marks. Even their Battle Honors and Banners bear the marks of battles fought through the length and breadth of the Imperium and at times for which they did not even officially exist. The most odd thing however is their Chapter Charter itself, as it was signed personally by Sebastian Thor, along with five other marine chapters at the end of the Age of Apostocy.

Their official history notes that the Angels of Perdition have been on Crusade from their founding till the end of M38, traveling from Segmentium Pacificus toward their goal of Ultramar. During that time they fought besides the Black Templars for over five hundred years, adopting some of their ways, and modifying their reserve companies to Crusade Companies. In late M38 the Angels of Perdition finally arrived at Ultramar before leaving once again to participate in the Dark Star Crusade that involved the entire chapter for over a century. At the close of the crusade, Warmaster Davidian gave unto the Chapter a boon, of anything within his power. For their gift, they took the ruined and broken forgeworld of Agrathus IV, and rechristened it Caliban Secundus. Representatives from both the Cult Mechanicus and the Departmento Munitorium voiced viergous complaint the Warmaster, but his will would not be undone. The Angels of Perdition had earned themselves a homeworld, one they bought in blood. Directly at the crux of both the Dark Star Anomalies they took up the thankless job of overseeng the entrance to the Two Sectors retaken during the Dark Star Crusade. Since that time a thousand years have passed and the Angels of Perdition have slowly worked the rock that saw complete extermination of it’s primary hives and infastructure, back to the beginnings of a green new world. Great fortresses dot the landscape and forest have crept back into the world under the careful hand of the Angels. A penance they gladly pay, as it is at their hand that the entire world was scoured of life.

Each of the Battle Companies Companies occupy one of the five citadels of Caliban Secundus that oversee the world. The Second Company are the Lords of the Wastes, where their additional rapid response training gives them free rains across the ash wastes, and broken ruins of the Hive Cities. The Third company lie in the valleys of the deep woods of Traunton Pale, where their the last weirwood of the planet was saved inside their citadel. From that one tree the great forests slowly take back the valleys as each marine upon rotation, plans another. The Fourth company occupies the black plains of Aexerath, where the limitless grasses used to roam the world. Only recently have the first tuffs of grass sprouted amongst the broken wilderness of rock and stone. The Fifth company occupies the the Alsarian Mountains, at the divide between the two continents of Caliban Secundus, their wind catchers and planetshapers slowly pulling the radiation from the world, and their Apothecaries releasing birds back into the planet. Lastly, sixth companies lies at the center of the Brokerian Gulf, where over a thousand years and the rising of the waters again on the planet, their citadel now reaches deep into the ocean.

Amongst the ruin and death of the planet during the Dark Star Crusade few survivide. Blasted and runined, those that did turned to the powers that lead them to their downfall. Mutants and heretics. Only pitiful bands of those free of taint survivied in the great underground manufactories of the earth. These the Angels of Perdition found waging a losing war when they took feudal right to the planet. The angels could have swept the heritics aside in a day, but did not. Instead they took off their great armor, and bore the robes of their orders and went amongst those still loyal. As the Lion said, save a man today, and he will need saving tomorrow. Teach a man to save himself, and you have saved him for eternity. Combat tactics, drill, hand to hand fighting, all of this was taught to the survivors, and over a hundred years of conflict finally saw the last of the mutant forces obliterated, when the Angels finally took the field, landing amongst the ruins of t Hive Faerthian as a company, one hundred drop pods screaming down to crush the resistance. Since that time, the men and women of Caliban Secundas have risen to the challenge, mixing their training with traditional weapons of war. Great Orders of lesser men that pay homage to the Masters of the Companies all swear fealty through a feudal structure, sending their best each year to seek admittance to the Angelic Host of the Angels of Perdition.

Their world stands at the intersection of the systems of the Dark Star crusade, daring those that live in darkness to try again if they feel so bold. And amongst the cold night of their world they guard their secrets and speak to none of the events that transpired at their beginning, of the Horus Heresy, the Scouring, the Nova Terra Interregnum, and the buried file, deep in the records, the order that made the Angels of Perdition Excommunicate Traitorum.

Wargames Con - T-Minus 14 Days

So last week the wife was out of town. A blessed time for my hobby, a boring time for me personally.

But I had a weekend for my friends to come down, and I broke out the airbrush. Several years ago I received a wonderful airbrush and air compressor for my birthday. I used it a bit on an old army or two, but haven't fully embraced it.

That was a mistake.

This weekend that little device did the following

base coated 30 terminators
painted (start to finish) 11 guard vehicles
base coated about 8 blood angel vehicles.

Not bad.

I think when I get around to doing Necrons, I may airbrush the entire army.

I still need to master the equipment a bit more, but it's coming along!

on the personal front the battle board is about finished, a few coats of drybrush should do it.

I have the following at about 33%
10 terminators
1 dreadnought
1 techmarine
2 landspeeders

I expect to finish them all off in the next week and a half or so.

Wargames Con - T-Minus 18 Days

The weekend is over and a lot of work was done. At this point, you know what time it is?

It's time to submit your stupid list already! I know... I know... you have 35 points that you aren't sure what to do with, what if you change your mind??!?!?

Well, like my dad says, the most important decisions in life are based on insufficient facts. Just put them in, and let it ride.

I had a fit of (I could change XXX) last night, but thanks to my friend Ryar I realized I was just having last minute jitters.

Technically you have three days in, but why dither, you know what your taking, just submit it. Look, here is a handy link wh40klist@gmail.com.

Tomorrow I will be talking about battle boards, and how to build them (and how NOT too). I should have mine finished tonight, so there will be pictures (be sure to tune in).

I know... I know you don't get points for them. But if you don't have one, don't complain when some of your Glorious Models, are stomped on the floor. Also, boards are styling.

Also, and I will put this up each time I post about Wargames Con, if you see me or my army, say "hi!" I'll post pictures of the complete painted army up here before the tournament.... and I guess a decent picture of myself.

See you at Wargames.

Preping Your Friends

This weekend is what I call "get everyone finished and ready for the tournament" weekend. I've been doing one of these for years for my friends.

They all come down, or I go see them, and we spend a weekend playing 40K, building battle boards, and bringing the slow painters up to speed. I think I have about 9 vehicles to airbrush and one of them has been working 24/7 for two months, and his logan wing needs some hefty work.

It's gotten to the point that my wife knows that it is coming, and even tells me "this weekend looks good, your going to need to go up there and get that done."

It's a pain in the ass, and completely worth it. That's what friends do for each other, and that is what makes this hobby worth doing at all. Think how boring it would be if you didn't have friends to complain to about bad beats, bad dice, bad opponents, or the glorious moments that come along that you remember for years (Shrike vs. The Wraithlord comes to mind from Adepticon 2007).

There are always going to be different levels of preparadness for tournaments. Those of you that are more prepared, now is the time to lend your friends a hand. They need a battle board, build it for them, need help finishing models, pick up a paint brush. The more prepared they are, the more fun you all will have.

See you at Wargames Com in Austin.

Complaints

I am not quite as irritated as my little man seems to be (although I like his outfit, since I look like that most days)

But recently I have had some complaints regarding the way Tournaments both local and regional seem to be going. I realize that I am going to be a voice in the darkness, but that doesn't bother me.

I read a lot of posts against certain aspects of the hobby, and listen to the same on Podcasts. In addition I look at tournament organization and how points are done as well before I start my complaint.

Now, first off, I'm no fluffy bunny. I don't believe in Comp, I believe you should bring whatever list you want, and you shouldn't get dinged for anything like that. I think all comp is generally arbitrary.

Saying that, it appears that the anger against comp has bled out into other areas, as more and more support is drummed up to make the Overall winner at events the same thing as Best General. I see more and more tournaments giving less (or no) points for painting/modeling/converting. I have a real problem with this. I think that Overall encompass all aspects of the hobby, it's OVERALL after all, not best general. If all you are really judging is battle points anyway, then let's call a spade a spade, it's a battle points tournament. I understand that there are battle point purists that want some type of hyper competitive environment, but I'm not one of them. If Overall is going to be the same as Best General (and thus get all the best prize support) shouldn't we switch best general over to best hobbyies and it be combination of other events?

40K and Fantasy are more then us pushing unpainted pieces of plastic around the table. I will play with unpainted models, even proxies, but when I go to tournament, I want to see a lovingly crafted army that someone put their heart and soul into, not something someone dumps on the table.

My fear is that as we make painting and hobby less and less a part of the tournament scene, people will do it less and less, and we will end up with gray armies against gray armies. One of the reasons I painted my first army completely was because I knew I had to be able to win local tournaments. The other players were good, and I needed to make sure that I scraped in every point I could add together to get the job done. I think that is something we should encourage. I don't care if I fight four different leafblower lists in a row, as long as each one has some soul with it. Are you playing Steel Legion fresh from Armageddon? Death Korps that have brand new flat grey vehicles heading for an assault? How many people would show up to tournaments with unpainted models if they could... I would say at least 50%.

Last week I did a break down of the Wargames Con points, and effectively, there is little difference between Best General and Overall. The painting between a 3 color model army and a master-crafted army is 5 pts of their total out of 400 total points(that is 1%). Where is the reward or encouragement to really paint a high end army, to go all out? Is this what the hobby wants, is this what we want as players? Also, there is no award for best army, so why bother with a display base, flags, individual soul for your models... there is no reason. I don't care, but invest some spirit with them, make them yours, and I think that should be rewarded in the points department... not much... but more then 1%. Maybe up to 5% max on the points?

Now, saying all that, I want to say that it's their tournament (as it is for each organizer who throws one). I have thrown tournaments and run large events before and generally you can't make anyone happy, any of the time. For each thing those poor individuals do and decide someone will complain. Perhaps this is just coming from someone that grew up in the GW Tournament scene where presentation and interesting list building was part of the points total. I certainly have no desire for any comp, but shouldn't we reward the conversion/entire army painting?

Just some thoughts to chew on.

Back Home

Today I move back into my home. For those of you that don't know (or didn't care) I moved back to Mississippi from San Francisco in the last eight months or so.

While I lived in San Francisco my home was rented, and so for the last eight months I have been... between homes. Staying as rentors/living with mom's etc...

Well, I'm back in my 2400 square food house with my wife and things are about to get interesting. I've opened my own law office in Hattiesburg, MS, and so I will be doing most of the renovation to my home, myself.

One of things I will be doing is having a complete room to play 40K in... because... I want it really, and we have the space. When the kids come one day I'm sure this will be the room that is converted, but for now it will be my 40K room. I'll be posting pictures of it, and the work that is done on it as time goes. My painting table will actually be in another room, and this will be just for playing 40K.

The table in the photo is from probably one of the best table building articles that I have seen, thanks to the Drunken Dwarves. Here is a link.

I'll be building a table for myself, and really delving into some great painted terrain. My goal is for my table to look as good as a White Dwarf table. We'll see how it goes!

Wargames Con - T-Minus 29 Days

So you have your list (I'll talk about this another day) that is the end all and be all. You may have pulled it off the internet, you may have playtested something that you think gives you a an edge in the metagame, or perhaps are just fielding every bad news unit your codex has to offer. At any rate you know approximately 90-95% of what you will be playing (except that damn pesky 45 points!). What now? I have the list, and I've been playing the army for (hopefully at least six months).


Locking In

Stop playing all that other stuff that confuses you first. No more Warhammer Fantasy (I don't care they get a new edition! This Is 40k!), no more Kill Team, no more Apocalypse, no more Spearhead, Cityfight Planetstrike or whatever brand of offside you enjoy on the side. I like it too, it's ok to like it, but you are trying to get ready for a cut-throat tournament.

Play your list, play it against as many opponents as you can, as often as you can. Try NOT to play your good buddy and beat him every week. This is not making you a better player, or helping you learn any new tactics. No list that you can make is perfect, it's all about you being good with it. As Jay said in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, "That's it boy, put the dick down. You gotta go from the heart, yo. No little perv-bullshit's gonna work for this one. Be smooth. Be Don Juan de la Nooch."

For instance, I fought against a friend's 60 blood angels with feel no pain/5+ invulnerable. I shot them with the thunderfire cannon that makes jump troops move through dangerous terrain. Ever watched someone make 60 dangerous terrain checks? Your list has nuance and things that it can do that you may not even know, explore them, it will make you a better player.

...

You get my point... right?

You need to learn the unusual ways to play your list, because if you have one way of play, and that it is it, you are going to run up against that list/mission that puts you into a horrible position. I played a mission last weekend that used a table full of terrain and 4th edition "all area blocks LOS" against a HTH tyranid army. I ended up pulling a minor victory (and would have pulled a bigger one if I had thought straight in round 5). However it was a rough mission for me.

Missions

Don't play stuff out of the games workshop book.... any of them. All their missions can be fun, but they aren't tournament quality. Also, don't play missions that your friend made from down the street. If you want to try some missions, try the ones from Adepticon 40K tournament. Play the missions from last year's BoLS con. If you want to make your own (which is a good idea) I suggest that you download Dice Like Thunder (link to the left of here under websites) missions book. They have a tournament mission creator that I think works quite well for making balanced, three tier missions to really test your list.

The Enemy

You have played all of your friend's lists, and you think you are ready, but have you played against the Netlists that may be 20% of the tournament? Go out and download the Leafblower, Goatboy's Wolf list from Adepticon (but make the fixes that he mentions about more missiles and less heavy bolters), and a solid Blood Angels Assaultback (Assault cannons w/razorbacks) army with Baals/Predators/vindicators. If you want to stretch out a bit, play against Fatecrusher build, Stelek's Tau list, Dark Eldar Lance span, Mech Eldar, Frtiz Style Null Deployment (Eldar and Nid). Don't just have your friend's play the lists, YOU play the lists against their tournament armies. See the weaknesses that they have.

How You Play

I play fundamentally differently in non-competitive games, then I do in competitive ones. From the last battle report I posted, I didn't let my opponent take back firing all his smoke on round one, even though my entire army was in normal reserves. In a casual game, I would have. If, when you are prepping for tournament, you let your friends, or yourself, get away with this, you are hurting yourself and them. Use every rule, learn even the small things. Your opponent will most likely not let you go back and change things once a turn is done, and he shouldn't. Forgot to move your tau suits in the assault move back, and didn't realize it till he is already half way through his movement phase? Ouch, that will hurt. Forgot to make fleet/run moves onto an objective?

My friends and I are still prepping, and we haven't done everything that I am suggesting, but by the time that I get there, you bet I will. Will you be ready?