Gotten, and this time it isn't the players, it is the company. So it is time to put my money where my mouth is. Post Adepticon, I will be posting a screed of my thought processes.
They just haven't been releasing anything I'm even remotely interested lately. The Crusade of fire book was my last purchase from them, and it's completely useless to me.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Well, I still buy BL books I guess, Baneblade is a good read so far.
Brian is still tired, annoyed, and generally recovering from over a month of working for other people. Any rant/vent will be delayed until after he gets more sleep. More. Sleep.
As some know, I suffer from Depression. And, starting at the beginning of the year, I lost my job, my girlfriend (unrelated), and my general life focus. Unfortunately, a side effect of depression is that you do not want to communicate with people. You just fall down the rabbit hole, and there's no wild LSD-fuelled adventure and giant hats. No, there is just...more depression. Which leads to a lovely death spiral.
I am only just now pulling out of this whole mess, and I barely finished everything needed for Adepticon. So, in rough calendar order, here is my trip to Adepticon 2013.
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I spent a feverish week painting and finishing the army. I had managed to assemble, convert, and basecoat (red) everything I needed. An internet search found the stained glass panels I needed, which fit nearly perfectly when printed out in 4x6 photo mode on my color inkjet. Win!
I managed to get everything done (but not done incredibly well) a few days before leaving. I was able to pack everything 24 hours prior to my departure. I finished work, re-booked my hotel to save me $70 (something which I will regret, and benefit from, later), and put all my travel documents, tickets. etc in one place.
Have I mentioned that Boston was bombed, and they were starting to lock down the city?
I arrive early at South Station, expecting there to be all sorts of extra bonus screening, etc. My luggage has some electronics AND four sections of PVC pipe. I was ready to explain everything. However, aside from some extra police and bomb sniffing dogs, there was not a lot of security. My bags were wiped for explosives, and I was allowed on the train. We left on time.
Thanks to massive amounts of track work, we arrived in Chicago two hours late. The gentlemen at the Hertz counter were very polite, very helpful. But to get the toll pass I wanted, I was forced to upgrade to a more expensive car. A car I disliked driving, as it was like driving a 1970's era Chevrolet Land Yacht.
As a note, I am semi-employed, and had a tight budget this year. Remember the hotel swap? Well, this cost me the $70 I had saved. And. AND! I discovered that the toll transpoder was an EZ-Pass! Had I done my research, I would have found out that I could have BROUGHT MINE WITH ME. *sigh*
I arrive at my hotel a little after noon, and I am informed that no rooms are ready for check in. I'm already late for the first event I paid for, but I'm able to convince the front desk that I just want the key, and won't actually be entering the room until much later. I get a key, and head off to the Westin.
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Side rant, #1:
The Team Tournament being expanded to two days has really ruined Adepticon for me. Before, on a day was tied up in gaming. This left plenty of time for classes, events, socializing, demos, shopping. By moving to two days, they make the tournament more relaxed, and if that's all you're going to AC for, you're fine...and probably very happy! Not so much for us more casual players, who want to experience all of Adepticon.
This also means I have to wake up at oh-dark-thirty both Saturday AND Sunday morning. Which means, being old, I have to go to bed early, so I can be a useful member of the team (ha, ha). So that puts the kibosh on socializing both Friday AND Saturday nights! No poker, no Dakka meetups, etc. etc. etc.
This sucks.
---------------------
So, I bail on the event as I'm already way late, and get lunch with some of my team mates. Then I check in, and get my swag bag. Frankly speaking, I paid for VIG this year, and I just don't feel like it was worth it. Yes, I got a guaranteed full swag bag, but the other main benefits (first in line on Thursday, first into the Dealer's room, etc) really only kicks in if you're going to be there all four days.
So then I take a look at the Dealer's Room. Which is now crammed into a tiny room, down the back hall. I notice that the demos have been split between the main room and the back hall. I notice that there is less of an indie presence. Infinity and Malifaux have a single, small table in the back hall. PP have a couple of their 2x2 demo tables out in front of the main hall, there's no FoW demos visible, and so on. I find some of the people I wanted to check out and support (Catalyst, Wreck-Age) in the main hall, and they have some banners up, but that's about it. Really, I just get the feeling that Adepticon is losing its status as supporting all tabletop gaming, and becoming more of a tournament-centric event. Which is fine if that is what they want, but it is not what *I* want.
After mucking about for a few hours, I head up to Victoria Lamb's class on sculpting. PROTIP: If you walk into a class, they usually don't check that you're supposed to be there. Just, you know, in future. This was a great class, very enjoyable. Once again, I learned a lot. And this is why I hate the Team Tournament being two days. I don't get to take classes.
We get the news that we can set up early for Judging, so I rush out of class, and grab my Adeptus Mechanicus Suitcase. I dole out the shirts, pins, etc to team members, and we set up!
Only to be informed that, no, we would NOT be judged tonight.
This should have been a big giant red flag. But, we re-pack and head out. After a bit more socializing, I return to my hotel room to get a full night's sleep, since we all now have to be back in at 7am.
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I arrive around the same time as the rest of the teams. We re-set up the display, and prepare to be JUDGED. The text-your-table function is...sporadic. New technology, should have been tested more.
This is where things go...awry. Because of last night's feth-up, the paint and theme judges have to run around like idiots, trying to cram everything in. Not ONLY are we blown off (the painting judges walk away from us in the middle of our explanation, and they don't even look up close at our models, ask to pick anything up, etc. They run down a checklist, and WALK AWAY without even saying thank you, or anything. Just...kthxbye.)...not only are we blown off, but one of the judges was hammered! Seven in the morning, and they're drunk off their ass!
So we're judged poorly, and our display is not selected for the Armies on Display portion of the show.
I will be putting up a battle report for AC, but let me give you the tl;dr here:
First game, great.
Second game, my dice luck disappears, and will not return the rest of the weekend. Our opponents are also unfun, being rules lawyers with poorly painted armies and no theme.
For the rest of the weekend, I will be unable to roll higher than a '3', with my average being '2'. My opponents will make 70-80% of their saves, including almost all 4++ and 5++ saves. This is crushing. I mean, I normally roll very average. I design my armies around this notion. But to spend all weekend long unable to actually AFFECT the game? I'm sorry, but YOU go through 15 hours of gaming failing all your saves, being unable to wound, roll high on the vehicle pen chart AND when you do managed to slip something by, have it negated most of the time by a 4++ or 5++ save. Seriously.
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Side Rant #2:
PROTIP: Do not tell someone who is having a horrific streak of dice luck "It happens". No. Buy them a drink. Buy them a beer. Take an effort to be a god-damn human being, and use your empathy skills. Get them out of their funk, tell them a joke, buy them some waffle fries. Hand-waving off someone's mental frame of mind with empty phrases DOES NOT HELP. It makes you a JERK. This is not aimed at anyone in specific, it is just how I was handled during the weekend, with a few exceptions.
---------------------
Game three sees us slide down the path, and another game where my tactics are sound, and everything is undone by dice luck. I try to talk to the Judges about the paint and theme scoring situation.
After hearing that others were treated shabbily during paint judging, I went to go speak to the Judges about it. I was informed that I had to speak to someone named "Chris", and that he was dealing with a messy issue. I waited. About 15 minutes later, I was told that Chris was dealing with said messy situation, but I had not been forgotten about. I waited. Chris blew through the Judging area, and headed over to the Armies on Parade area...and didn't come back, instead, started to look at all the displays and talk with everyone there.
I had been forgotten about.
I look to the first Judge I spoke to, and pointed out that I had been blown off. I explain that I was in a bad mood, hungry, and had low blood sugar....and was now blown off again. I left, to avoid making a scene.
We went to dinner, it was a good dinner. We socialized, I felt better...and then I had to go back to my hotel room, because we had to be back into the tournament hall at 8:00 in the morning.
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Side Rant #3:
Warhammer 40K is about dice luck. More than any other game I have played. "Tactics" consists entirely of army design and set-up. Once the game is on, it is about luck. Other games, luck can be mitigated by good gameplay, and solid tactics. But not Warhammer 40K. And this is why I'm done with it. I want a tabletop game that is less reliant on luck, and favors TACTICS and GAMEPLAY.
Additionally, while the base rules are good and solid, probably the best set of 40K rules in the history of the game, the fact that GW refuses to rebalance points costs, older Codexii, and so forth means the game is BROKEN and unbalanced. Want proof? Look at all those NECRON LISTS. A codex whose dedicated transport is a super-flyer with a vicious gun and whose embarked squad can't be harmed in any way, shape, or form? and since all codexii do not have Anti-Air capacity, most people stand no chance of shooting them down? AHAHAHAHAHAHA! Suckers.
Necrons are the most egregious of the lot, but there's plenty of other examples.
Why am I playing a game where you HAVE to play one of the most recent codexii to stand a chance of a FAIR game?
This death-cycle is why I'm quitting 40K. Yes, Codex Creep has ALWAYS been a problem. But it has gotten totally out of hand. Add in the ludicrous prices, the Failcast disaster, the withdrawal of all GW support, the immoral assault on web-based business, their stick-their-head-in-the-sand 19th century approach to dealing with the internet, and how they are now treating the local retailers?
Done.
And so should you be.
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Sunday.
I slept like crap. I woke up with a massive leg cramp. My hotel charged me double for my weekend stay. I am now broke. I seriously consider giving my army to my team mates, and walking out.
This is where I thank Solar_Lion, aka Pat Turner, for helping me out. I owe him a repayment AND something very nice. I'm pondering what that nice is, and an idea just came to me. Yes. Brilliant.
I take a deep breath, have a nice McD's breakfast, and gird my loins for the day.
Game Four shows that I'm still fethed. I actually have to walk away from the table, twice, to calm the feth down. I have never experienced this level of dice karma before, and on top of everything else...I just can't handle it. My zen is shot, my reserves are shot, my tolerance is shot. I apologize profusely to our opponents, who were really nice guys.
Game five comes around, and I'm just cringing. Thank God they were a group of nice people, cheery, chatty, full of good humor and warmth. My dice luck edges up to being only "sub-par", but I'm able to break the strain, and help them learn about 40K. I have thanked my partner Andrew (Ramos) profusely, and I will thank him again for letting me stop the game, and show our opponents what was about to happen to them. This was one of the best games of 40K I have had, because it was about four people playing a game, joking around, fully painted armies, etc. etc. etc.
To Megan and John, I thank you for putting a good cap on a horrible weekend.
We pack up, clear the displays, and I head off with Gits (Art) and Solar (Pat) for Greek and Hummus in Skokie. I then return my car (without incident) and get on the train.
The train would be two hours late getting me home.
Here ends my Terrible, Horrible, No-Good Very Bad Weekend. I want my $500 back.
I'm going to write a very polite letter to the Adepticon Staff, explaining my displeasure with the Paint/theme Judging, as well as how moving the TT to two days affects the people who want the full Adepticon Experience. I have some suggestions.
I am going to consider not going in 2014.
I am going to speak about how the Team Tournament was once where four people got together to put four armies up with incredible paint jobs, a solid theme, background, whatever. And how it is now nothing special, with people fielding WAAC armies without theme, poor displays, and low-on-the-totem-pole paint jobs. I mean, seriously. Barely three colors? Come *ON* people.
I am going to put my money where my mouth is. I'm going to purge 40K down to my Imperial Guard, maybe my Minotaurs. Maybe. I am going to build the Boston Skirmish Gamers Group. I am going to explore other tabletop wargames. I will educate people on their options, and ask them to consider playing other games. I will demo it for them, and show how they could be gaming for half the price (or more!) of 40K.
I may continue to work with GW models, but they will be pure modelling projects, and I will buy used. I enjoy restoring discarded models, and bringing them back to life. I enjoy building characterful tanks and vehicles.
I will promote other game systems such as Brushfire, Wreck Age, Leviathans, Battletech, Infinity, and so forth.
I am going to think about how incredibly under served the majority of the gaming community is, and how all the public events are brutal tournaments, with no support for the 80-90% of the rest of the world.
Righteous Rage indeed! If you'll be at GenCon again this year, I'll buy you a beer and toast your mental and hobby health!
Besides, you sound miserable, this is supposed to be FUN remember?
Join those of us who model for the sake of modeling, we are legion, and you are always welcome!
That sounds like a real drag of a weekend. It's really unfortunate to happen to someone especially when they produce such beautiful characterful armies as yours. Adepticon is meant to be the highlight of the wargaming/hobby year.
I really enjoy reading your blog even though I haven't posted before. I look forward to your future hobby endeavours!
I'm sorry you had such a bad time. I was amazed being able to see these things in person and it was honestly one of the highlights of my trip! I hadn't been on dakka for a few weeks and didn't see you were going, and then I just walked up and saw your display board.
I didn't know you were having such a bad time or I would have offered you a beer.
This was my first adepticon and was amazed on how smoothly everything was run from what I saw (although I only took classes and hung out with people).
I've been thinking of making a team for next year but with all the BS you experienced I don't know.
I do apologize for my role in making it a shoddy weekend. I was tired and in quite a bit of pain (I wouldn't have gone had the rest of the team not been relying on me to be there). I actually didn't have any folks across from me that I didn't get along with, even the double cron air. I would have liked more time though, my only thing played that wasn't TT was my Brushfire demo and then full game. If you do make it next year, I'd love to get a game of BF in with you!
This is the report of the five battles I took part in, during the Adepticon Team Tournament. I will write a mixed In-Character/Tac report.
I can summarize my experience, thusly: My tactics were solid, my team mates were great, my dice luck fell into "Statistical Aberration" territory. I simply could not roll higher than a '2' on any important roll, and my opponents gained the benefit of making 70% of their saves, or more, including 4++ and 5++ saves.
Needless to say, this was incredibly discouraging, and when added on top of everything else that went wrong (major and minor), plus the TT being moved to two days, it made AC2013 a fairly miserable experience.
I also have to continue to train myself to be more Zen, and remember to take pictures, even when losing.
Some notes on the missions:
All missions used Slay the Warlord, First Blood, and Linebreaker. We would consistently get First Blood, rarely get Slay the Warlord, and never get Linebreaker.
All missions used "Twist of Fate", which would allows a re-roll for Mysterious Terrain, Size the Initiative, and mission-specific abilities. We never used them.
All missions used some form of Mysterious Terrain, or Objectives. We rarely remembered to roll these. Additionally, the "Mysterious Terrain" was always "Firest"...and we never saw a lick of forest after the first table.
All missions used Night Fighting. It was dark once. I used the flashlight on my Rhino...once.
Terrain placement was BRUTALLY CRITICAL. We had a slight advantage due to the Fortress, but the sheer size sometimes made placing all six large terrain pieces difficult. Also, any mission with a variable number of objectives very much favors whomever gets to place the greater number of markers.
Warlord Traits were pretty much utterly useless, except in the last battle.
My Army:
HQ: Chaos Sorceror on Nurgle Palanquin, Force Axe, L1 Psyker, Sigil of Corruption.
TR1: 5 Chaos Marines, Force Axe, Plasma Gun, Rhino w/searchlight, smoke
TR2: 10 Cultists w/flamer
TR3: 10 Cultists w/flamer
EL1: Giant Chaos Spawn
HS1: Forgefiend
FORT: Fortress of Redemption w/Krakstorm upgrade
I expected them to come, but not in such strength.
All of the Forge Points are under assault. While the support of the so-called Emperor has arrived, my enemies are arrayed in overwhelming numbers. There is even evidence of a small Tyranid infestation in the northern regions. Thankfull, the upgrade of the Forgepoint missile systems have been completed across the board. This process took 12.0583% longer than expected, with a projected loss of 213 additional servitors. Notify all Techmarines and aspirants to gather any humanoid genetic material for processing.
Five Forgepoints are currently under threat:
Forgepoint Meridian, located in the temperate zone, near the ruins of Danicus Meridian.
Forgepoint Servitus, located in the arctic zone, along a Promethium pipeline.
Forgepoint Titanicus, located in the orbital bombardment rad zone, in the ruins of Nova Secundus, destroyed from orbit aeons ago.
Forgepoint Mechanicus, also located in an orbital bombardment rad zone, along a Promethium pipeline.
Forgepoint Auroran, located in the antarctic zone, along a Promethium pipeline.
Little to no aerial support is available. Years of fighting in the Maelstrom have depleted our erstwhile "allies". Only a handful of units have been issued the new "Flakk" missiles, from the STC recently decalculated. My own anti-air defenses are limited to a handful of Imperial Sentinel Robots and the Forgepoint defenses.
This may be unpleasant.
++++++++++++++
Round One - 9:15am - Versus a bunch of great, somewhat drunk, guys from Wisconsin.
This was a GREAT game, very close. We were both at the TT to have a good time, and play Warhammer 40K. The Ork player was a last minute sub, and new to Orks (but not to 40K), and we helped him marshal his forces. The mission was Objectives and Victory Points. The deployment was Hammer and Anvil. "Twist of Fate" allowed you to give a unit Skyfire but NOT Interceptor. Our opponents had no flyers, we declined to Twist. Due to the nature of the deployment, my partner of this round, our Team Captain Whalemusic sat on the other side of the board. It pretty much broke down into WM fighting the Dark Eldar, and myself handling the Orks. We rolled four objectives. Two in the ruins, one in the center, and one in front of the Fortress.
The battle plan was to sit back and shoot the heck out of our opponents as they came across the table. Our opponents were an Ork Mob with a looted wagon, and a Dark Eldar force of a ravager, some venoms, some bikes, and an Incubus-based HQ light deathstar.
+++ // In death, there is forgiveness
The only warning Forgepoint Meridian received was the crashing of a meteor. The enemy had picked an excellent assault time, perhaps guided by the foul sorceries of their Dark Eldar allies. Or was it the raiders from Commoragh who were using the Orks? Either way, it did not matter. Out of the rocky canyons to the west, a massive green tide erupted forth, perhaps from a landed Rok. On their flank, a host of Dark Eldar backed up by a very cranky-sounding battletank. It was just a matter of time before they started fighting amoungst themselves, but for now their focus was upon the Forgepoint and its defenders...
+++
My partner held the ruins to the north (top) of the board, while I dropped the Fortress in the corner. I chose NOT to put any objectives in the corner, instead using it to store dice and paper. I had learned in the practice battle that 3+/4++ is still incredibly fragile, made only worse with my general dice luck. I would try to protect it with the CSM squad during the tournament, or behind the two robots.
Turn one saw the Orks and Eldar do a general forward push. A trio of blasts from the ravager downed my forgefiend early. I was sad. One of WM's razorback immobilized, but his troops held the ruins for cover saves, and to pour firepower down.
Turn two continues the general push. Firepower streams down into the enemy. Clustered up, the Krakstorm never fails to find targets, although I whiff on trying to drop the ravager. The Dark Eldar player is very aggressive, but moves up in small groups, allowing WM to focus heavy firepower on individual units.
BURN!!!
Turn three sees my HQ and giant Chaos Spawn get 'stuck in', and a solid Ork Waaagh declared. Sadly, we only get a lackluster response from the crowd. Boo-hiss. This is where I realize how bad things are going to be, as I cannot roll more than 2-3 attacks for my spawn. Still, I have effectively stopped the Ork advance, after burning down an entire Ork Mob. My Rhino has parked tiself to block the center passage, and will proceed to fire two twin-linked comb-bolters for the rest of the game. Dakka. Dakka. Dakka. Whalemusic pushes his mobile AssCan'Back forward to shoot up bikes, Venoms. Dark Eldar start having to walk. The looted wagon eats fortress firepower and explodes, messily.
Waaaagh? WAAAAAAAAAAGH!
Turn four? Sure!
The Dark Eldar, annoyed at having to walk, proceed to eviscerate the Razorback, Librarian, and anything else that bothers them, and head for the Terminators. We manage to drop the ravager, more venoms, and force the bikes and the center mob of Orks off of the table. The Orks, meanwhile, bash the crap out of my magos and his robot friend.
Turn five, the Eldar deal death to the Terminators, and the Orks push past my defenders. I am left with my Fortress, which they rightfully ignore.
The game ends on six, if I recall correctly.
Hero of the Game: The Dark Eldar Incubi/HQ Squad, who just march march march their way through WM's army.
Primary [Objectives]: WIN. We held two, they held one.
Primary [Victory Points]: DRAW. This was amusing, as both sides managed the exact same numbers. We killed 5 Ork units and 6 DE units. They killed 5 of my units and six of WM's.
Secondary: We got bupkiss. They got Slay the Warlord, First Blood, and Linebreaker.
Result: Victory
This put us into the pack of winners, which suited our first round opponents just fine, because they wanted to lose. I do not blame them, in hindsight.
Lunchtime. The Hotel has a great buffet laid out, all sorts of burgers, mac and cheese, salads, sammiches. And, to be honest, the prices are not that bad, for not having to leave the premises.
++++++++++++++
In the wintry depths, above the Arctic circle, a group of Dark Angles move against the Forgepoint. Communication is refused, not unexpected given their secretive nature. Given the sheer number of vehicles, my cognitators determine that they are in need of fuel, and are attacking to take control of a segment of the worldwide pipeline. given our position and firepower, we will remove their need for fuel by removing their vehicles. Sesnors show some form of archaeotech fields emanating from two of the Razorbacks, we must collect them for study. Clearly, once again, the Dark Angels are hiding Dark Age technology from us, the rightful maintainers and techno-archivists. I dispatch a Techmarine and his squad to salvage what they can from the battlefield, aggressively if necessary.
Round Two - 1:15pm - Versus some rules lawyers.
Ugh. Seriously, these guys were just there to win, and this was an unpleasant game. They were even being pushy when they were clearly winning. We should have marked them down on Sportsmanship, but I had gotten upset at their shenanigans, and tried to "be fair". Their army was also barely painted, and difficult to determine who owned what. Black-washed dark green with silver highlights and black-washed dark silver with green highlights. Wheeee!
Opponents: Double Dark Angel parking lot, using the (now FAQ'd) measure-the-powerfield-from-the-vehicle-hull 4++ save. This is where my dice luck went into the hole. They made every 4++ save. All of 'em.
My partner was Andrew (Ramos Asura) and his Marines Errant. Andrew, being smarter than the rest of us, actually brought a flyer.
Deployment was Vanguard, the mission was Allied Table Quarters and Victory Points. Our opponents Twist a pair of units to score without their matching allied force, and then combat patrol everything. We do NOT Twist, thinking we can pop their mobility, and eliminate combat squads with focused firepower. Ha-ha, joke's on us.
Turn one, we castle in a corner, with a pair of vehicles in a table quarter. I make a mistake, and do not screen my HQ well enough, should have led with the Forgefiend. We open up with everything. We have a superior firing position, we can see everything. We manage to drop their Predators, but we can't pop open a Razorback to save our lives. Even if we get through the 4++ save, we can't roll higher than a 2-3 on the pen chart.
Turns two through five is a repeat of Turn one. We just can't kill anything, and they whittle us down, while pushing into table quarters. There is even a moment where they change how they stop, mid-game, marking which vehicles have occupants, and suddenly there's a razorback loaded with a squad in our table quarter, to contest. I am convinced that this razorback had bailed out, but by this time I just don't care. We fail a last-round push to get Linebreaker. The last round in Night fighting, and my Rhino illuminates a Razorback. Moral victory!
The bitter end, Andrew's Razorback makes a mad dash to try and get Linebreaker. He'll be about an inch short.
Hero of the Game: Andrew's Nephlim fighter, which manages to stay alive, and on the board, for the entire game. Just one big, fast-moving circle. Wheeeeeeee!
Bonus moment: I got to roll on the Chaos Boon table! I got poisoned weapon. Less than useful. :(
Primary [Allied Table Quarters]: LOSS. We held one, they contested one and held two.
Primary [Victory Points]: LOSS. Again, couldn't actually kill anything. Not a major loss, but they edged us by two.
Secondary: We got First Blood, they got Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker.
Result: Major Loss.
++++++++++++++
Forgepoint Titanicus, located in the orbital bombardment rad zone, in the ruins of Nova Secundus, destroyed from orbit aeons ago...
A combined force of Chaos and corrupted Orks have used high mobility to enter the ruins of the city, risking death by exposure in an attempt to take a key which will allow them access to the underground facilities. More marines have joined the defenses amoungst the craters and bombed out city ruins. If we can take the key quickly and fall back, we should be able to withstand any assault behind the Forgepoint's sturdy walls...
Round Three - 5:00pm - A reasonably nice team, Orks and Chaos.
It was Saturday, April 20th. We were working the third round of Adepticon's team Tournament. The deployment was Dawn of War, and the missions were The Relic and Victory Points. Twist of Fate was to gain Adamantium Will. No one took it. My partner's Cliff (Yellowbeard). My name's Brian, and I'm a Magos.
There's a Chaos juggernaut and spawn, mobs of Orks, Trukks, 5-man CSM in Rhinos, and a 450 point Ork Nobs on Bikes Death Star. We go first, so I grab the relic, in the hopes that I can use the terrain to just trash vehicles, creating blocks and difficult terrain, enabling me to fall back. I throw the HQ and robots against the Ork Deathstar, feeling fairly confident that I can hold them off. But, thanks to another round of cover and FNP saves (plus not being able to roll higher than a 2), my dice luck enables me to kill one of them. One.
Here's the initial setup. I will note that our opponents fires one round of Chaos Havoks, and then forgot about them. PROTIP: Do not put your people in cover that camouflages them FROM YOURSELF.
After two turns, you can see the scrum. The tactical plan has worked. We have the relic, and a clear path back to the fortress. We've dropped the two ORk Trukks, and have put a has of difficult terrain in the way. this is where everything falls apart. They get through the ruins and difficult terrain, and multi-charge. They take out most of Cliff's army, and he has to jump his assault squad in to help. I whiff against the Orks, and take out a couple more, in exchange for the loss of my Forgefiend, HQ, and Spawn.
SCRUM.
We DO manage to intercept-and-kill a Hellturkey. Moral Victory!
And here's the end. Clfff got some of the Orks to fall back, but my fortress failed to pop the remaining Chaos Rhinos, and it is just cleanup time. We were tabled, save for the fortress. I am now convinced that my dice luck is also affecting my partners. This suspicion would be bourne out by the fact that whomever formed the other half of our team rolled JUST FINE.
Hero of the Game: The little Chaos Squad that could, who rushed forward and managed to hold the Relic for three whole turns, before being gunned down by meltas.
Primary [The Relic]: DRAW. On the plus side, no one scored this.
Primary [Victory Points]: LOSS. Tabled.
Secondary: We got First Blood, they got Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker.
Result: Major Loss.
We went to dinner. It was a good dinner at Omega. I went back to my hotel room, hoping that a good night's sleep would break whatever was going on. I didn't get a good night's sleep.
++++++++++++++
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!
So, having slept like crap, woken up with a major leg cramp, and been double-billed by my hotel, thing's were looking up!
+++ // Only the Bolter knows true redemption.
Forgepoint Mechanicus. Located in a desolate, rad-laden zone mortalis. Only a few rocky hills mark the savage wilderness. A section of the worldwide promethium pipeline network emerges here for maintenance purposes. Another group of Dark Angels, this time almost entirely bikes, arrives. Clearly, their armies are running out of fuel, and they are desperate. This group is led by a marine command on a gravitic jetbike, another lost piece of technology the craven, tainted marines refuse to turn over to us. We will take it from them. I program the robots with a single purpose.
Destroy.
Round Four (the round that cares) - 8:30am - Two Dark Angels Players, nice guys.
The deployment is Vanguard, the mission is Marked for Death and Objectives. Twist of Fate is outflank, none of us take it. We place terrain and objectives to build a killing zone, with one on the flank to draw some of their forces out;. One group is all bikes, a Shroud, and Sammy, the other is Belial, Termies, a squad of bikes, a Hyperios Whirlwind, and a Neph. We mark the terminator player, as the Hyperios and Neph are soft targets, along with the bike squad and the inevitable Attack Bike being split off.
I'm paired up with Cliff again. We castle and prepare to counter-assault.
We start out okay. We drop the shroud, and bait the majority of the army to the left. But I can't drop the pie plate down to save my life, and the Cultists manning the Icarus Lascannon apparently need two rounds to load and fire. Who knew? Lazy bastiches. Terminators drop in. I /ALMOST/ take out Belial with a precision lascannon interceptor shot. But I roll a 1 to wound. Sigh. Cliff proceeds to have to use his entire army to wipe out the Terminators and Belial, but it works. +2 VP! Unfortunately, the firepower of my forgefiend, lascannon, HQ and Spawn will utterly fail to do anything against the other terminators, and will be tied up for the rest of the game, instead of being able to incinerate bikes.
My Chaos marines in the Rhino peel off, and go chasing after the lone attack bike. This bike will survive several rounds of plasma and lascannon fire. their Neph arrives, but does not do much. We run out of time, and determine that we would, again, be tabled save for the Fort. The bright part is that we had pretty much eliminated THEIR army as well.
Hero of the Game: The invulnerable attack bike, who drew off three rounds of critical fire and movement.
Primary [Marked for Death]: LOSS, but not by much.
Primary [Objectives]: LOSS. We held one, they held three and could have taken the fourth.
Secondary: We got First Blood, they got Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker.
Result: Major Loss.
As you can guess, I am solidly pissed off. I actually had to walk away from the table, twice, just to calm the hell down. Between the Curse of the Number Two, and none of my scatter dice rolls coming up a 'hit', I'm seriously tired of Warhammer 40K.
++++++++++++++
South Pole, Auroral Forgepoint Monitoring Station.
An unholy alliance. A group of Chaos led by someone that looks suspiciously like Lugft Huron has unleashed a brood of Tyranids, in an attempt to breach the defenses around the promethium pipeline and processing facility. If they take this location, they will have enough fuel to sustain assaults across the planet. We have the support of the Marines Errant, and we will draw them in and break them against our walls.
My partner for this last game is Andrew (Ramos) and our opponents are some folcking folks from Nashville, Megan and John. Megan usually plays Orks, but was drafted to take 'nids. This is, oddly a semi-repeat of the first game. This game turns out to be wonderful, and I thank Andrew for letting me stop playing for a bit, and go into teacher mode. We would lose this game, but it felt right to help the folks across the table play a better game of 40K. My dice luck would be average this game.
The deployment is Dawn of War, the Mission is Uber Objectives, with each one being worth 5 points. No twist of fate, but Elites (and their dedicated transports (!) are scoring. They place three, we place two. Our only choice is to bait them off of their objectives, and hold ours. They have too many units to allow us to break through their lines. The nids have a Trigon Prime, a spawning Trigon, stealers, gargoyles. The chaos has Lugft, some autocannon havoks, cultists, and marines, and a unit of deepstriking Termies.
This is the only mission where our Warlord trait mattered. My Warlord is scoring.
I castle an objective for the first time ever. We put two scoring units hiding behind hills on another objective. We start the firepower dance. As expected, they start screaming across the table. My rhino and forces are placed to prevent any outflanking or deep striking on the castled objective.
The first turn is a shuffle, we eliminate the Havoks for First Blood, and put more shots downrange trying to kill the Trygon. A combo of underpowered lascannons and the paired cover/FNP saved enables it to live most of the game. Megan will fail to roll doubles for spawning nids the entire game. Pink dice. PINK DICE. Pink dice are what you should use to spawn gaunts.
This is where we pause, so I can make it a better game for them. They turn around, and start moving cultists and spawns back toward their objectives. I will bomb them the rest of the game to no effect. My forgefiend really does nothing the rest of the game, because of placement, and their entire army doing a refused flank. Oh well. I do manage to get off a Burning Brand/Nurgle's Rot combo, taking out handfuls of nids. Not enough, but it felt good.
Hold the line, mighty robot!
I would show you a picture of the beautiful Trygon Prime, but we killed it so fast, it went away. We also destroyed a unit of Zoeanthropes whose pod was destroyed by my Cultists who remembered to load BOTH barrels this time. The fact that everyone gets out of the pod THEN the pod is shot really bothers me. I leave the left-hand objective to try and stop the hordes. I figure I should be able to kill enough with the HQ or Spawn to then consolidate back to the objective.
I would be MISTAKEN. Ha-ha, silly human. Think of your dice luck all weekend long!
One gaunt holds us back. Good gaunt. Gooooooood gaunt.
Hero of the Game: Gaunts. GAUNTS! GAAAAUUUNNNTTTTSSSSSSS!
Primary [Uber Objectives]: LOSS. They hold FOUR, we held ONE.
Secondary: We got First Blood, they got Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker.
Result: Major Loss.
In spite of it being a major loss, I felt REALLY GOOD about this game. It is what Warhammer 40K should be. At least the disaster ended on a high note. Megan and John were excellent opponents, funny, witty, and charming.
++++++++++++++
Welp, there you have it. W-L-D: 1-4-0. Yay-Meh-Suck: 2-2-1 And we were totally snubbed by theme and paint judges.
C'est la vie.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
whalemusic360 wrote: I do apologize for my role in making it a shoddy weekend. I was tired and in quite a bit of pain (I wouldn't have gone had the rest of the team not been relying on me to be there). I actually didn't have any folks across from me that I didn't get along with, even the double cron air. I would have liked more time though, my only thing played that wasn't TT was my Brushfire demo and then full game. If you do make it next year, I'd love to get a game of BF in with you!
Whale, I assure you, you had NO ROLE in my weekend being crap. You are ACES, compadre.
Buddy, I am filled with rage for you. On the depression side of things, as my old prof said, It's the curse of those of us who are very smart. Also, I would buy you beer, even your rubbish American stuff Play saga. It's freaking awesome. Pm me your email, I'll send you a bunch of stuff.
I'm in the same boat with GW stuff at the moment, I love the models well maybe not some of the new ones that look like toys but the game itself has put me off.
I've decided to move into just the painting and modelling side and open myself up to other games and miniatures.
I've been eyeing up Infinity they have some amazing models, as Graven said Saga seems to be getting very popular although its not my thing I prefer Ancients if I went that route.
Looking forward to seeing which direction you go in.
I wish I had more of a "other game" environment in my area. If it's not geedub, I'm driving an hour to play. I've prolly got 50+ infinity, similar brushfire, as well as dark potential and some other goodies. I blame the lazy store owner.
I don't really know what to say to be honest except here have a six pack, nothing worse than looking forward to an event and turns out to be turd in a punch bowl.
The thing I find worst of all is the piss poor actions of the organisers, ok there might be issues and problems but treat people with respect after all they payed for this.
I am so glad I just model make and don't play this would have had me fuming, I hope you manage to find a gaming system you enjoy and don't loose faith all together that would be a loss to us all.
Hey, Brian, sorry that you had such a rubbish weekend, and I hope I didn't contribute to it.
On the positive side, that is a really nice battle/tourney report! I have to say, two of the highpoints of the tourney were when you shot down the hellturkey and then throwing everything (and by everything", I mean a Razorback, a 5-man Tac squad, a 10-man Assault squad, a Bike squad, a Ravenwing Command squad, and my Librarian) at Belial and cronies. Man those guys are tough, but that was a fun turn! Thanks for posting it!
Sorry that some pretty crappy stuff happened for you over the weekend, especially the seemingly lackluster attempt at paint judging. I did Team Tournament paint judging for two years and with the number of armies, you have to use a checklist, but I always made time to talk to the teams and ask what was cool in their army.
PROTIP: Do not tell someone who is having a horrific streak of dice luck "It happens". No. Buy them a drink. Buy them a beer. Take an effort to be a god-damn human being, and use your empathy skills. Get them out of their funk, tell them a joke, buy them some waffle fries. Hand-waving off someone's mental frame of mind with empty phrases DOES NOT HELP. It makes you a JERK. This is not aimed at anyone in specific, it is just how I was handled during the weekend, with a few exceptions.
Wow, you sound like a spoiled child. Your day isn't going great, so you expect your opponent to buy you something? Sorry, that's a total dill weed attitude. "It happens" is a perfectly acceptable way for someone on the other side of the table to attempt to commiserate with you, and no one is obligated to buy you beer or fries just because your dice crapped out. If anyone is a jerk in this situation, it's you for having this expectation.
Damn dude..you act like you've never had a crappy day where everything seems to be against you. Good for you! I'm glad your life is perfect and you are unaffected by emotion. -Cut Bri some slack, he's a good guy.
Redbeard wrote:
Wow, you sound like a spoiled child. Your day isn't going great, so you expect your opponent to buy you something? Sorry, that's a total dill weed attitude. "It happens" is a perfectly acceptable way for someone on the other side of the table to attempt to commiserate with you, and no one is obligated to buy you beer or fries just because your dice crapped out. If anyone is a jerk in this situation, it's you for having this expectation.
dsteingass wrote:Damn dude..you act like you've never had a crappy day where everything seems to be against you. Good for you! I'm glad your life is perfect and you are unaffected by emotion. -Cut Bri some slack, he's a good guy.
Redbeard, you have missed the point, the situation is far more nuanced that you have picked up on.
Dave, that's Redbeard's opinion, and it is not wrong or right. It is his opinion, and he's welcome to it.
I'm not going to argue the point, here. I have already vented, and moved on.
dsteingass wrote: Damn dude..you act like you've never had a crappy day where everything seems to be against you. Good for you! I'm glad your life is perfect and you are unaffected by emotion. -Cut Bri some slack, he's a good guy.
It has nothing to do with having a great life or not. We've all had dice-suck days and we've all had opponents whose dice have crapped on them. I've bought people a drink if it seemed like they were down, but I've never felt so entitled to be bought a drink that I needed to post on the internet and rant about how that's what should happen.
I'm sure Brian is a good guy who had a bad weekend. And if his opponent had gloated over him then sure, maybe then he has a call to complain about their attitude. But, having been on both sides of this issue in the past, it's not much more fun for the guy who is playing someone whose dice went to hell than it is to be the guy whose dice went to hell, and simple verbal acknowledgement of the crappee's bad day should be sufficient to be considered human.
So, let's put this thread back on the rails, and move to a more positive outlook.
Here is my current workspace. It is a disaster.
This is what I have to work on, before I can do anything. I'm not overly happy with a lot of things, especially how my paints are stored (in those plastic drawer stacks). So, it is cleanup and re-org time, and time to buy/make some paint shelves!
I'm also in desperate need of Army Storage. I think I am going to look into the KR multicase line. I believe that the one made of sturdy cardboard. I like the notion of being able to label the trays with Sharpie.
Agreed!
I can highly recommend these Bamboo spice rack shelves from Wal-Mart ($5 each) for paint organization
Problem is, I've run out of flat spaces to put them What's up with the two blenders? For margarita emergencies?
Well, you know, I kinda need a lot of alcohol to get through the day, DAVE.
No, I picked up a beater blender in order to convert plastic sprues into piles of sprue bricks. It works in theory, but not as well as I'd hoped. The second blender was given to me for the project. You have to cut the sprues up a lot for the blender to really be able to hack apart the sprues...and the process is VERY noisy, as one might suspect! Earplugs are mandatory.
Thanks for shelf idea! A run to Wally World is on the to-do list!
Being bamboo, they shouldn't succumb to warping from moisture/humidity either. I've found having all my colors visible is a huge help, since my biggest problem is always color selection.
Hi Brian! Hope all is well, love the new army that giant missile artillery is quite the centerpiece! Don't worry bout the disaster of a workplace, I can't keep mine clean for 2 minutes. I dunno how stein works with such order:p
Yes, my workspace looked like that a few weeks ago now its covered in projects started a long time ago that were never finished no surprise there though.
I need some kind of paint stands I was thinking of making some of my own, although the spice rack idea aint a bad idea.
As for the sprue mangler idea I have an old butchers mincer, that does not work that great either
I suspect a coffee grinder would not handle the volume I wanted to try for. But, I'm ramping that down. I'm going to hack up the last of my sprues, keep the blender I haven't abused, and trash the one that is now gunked up with toxic, cancer-causing plastic dust. Mmmmmmmm, tooxxiiicccc.
Folks, expect a general announcement soon, but I have completed a handshake agreement to assist my friend in unloading his Games Workshop product. He acquired this product well over a decade ago from a Norwegian store that closed out. It is now sitting in a basement here in Massachusetts.
We have a MASSIVE collection of OOP product, including a still shrink-wrapped original copy of Space Hulk, and such long lost figures as "Chaos Renegades on Horseback".
Seriously.
We're going to offer this stuff direct, first, as I would rather not deal with eBay.
Briancj wrote: This is where I thank Solar_Lion, aka Pat Turner, for helping me out. I owe him a repayment AND something very nice. I'm pondering what that nice is, and an idea just came to me. Yes. Brilliant.
Brother.. no worries.. repayment when ever.. get you house in order You can even wait till next year Adepticon if you go. . As for something nice.. I'm blessed with great teammates. I need nothing more. And certainly my wife agrees~!
I hope I didn't contribute to your dilemma and I think you did great for all the crap you been dealing with.
dsteingass wrote: Agreed!
I can highly recommend these Bamboo spice rack shelves from Wal-Mart ($5 each) for paint organization
Problem is, I've run out of flat spaces to put them What's up with the two blenders? For margarita emergencies?
Sorry you had such a bad time at AC. I always wanted to go, but with experiences like that, who knows now.
I feel like I am in a similar position as you when it comes to 40k (and GW as a whole). I haven't played in awhile because it just isn't fun anymore.
And god forbid people at our store try something new (only 1 other person will try a game other than 40k it seems). I wish we had more people with the same attitude as you there. Your blog is why I got leviathans. I hope you inspire me to some other games too!
I just picked up a similar lamp (2 actually) and it makes like 1000 times better to see. Had been rocking a single 100 watt before. Need to get something like that for paints, though I need an exact measurement, as my organization grid is kinda limiting.
For painting, you want an OTT Light, get the best one you can afford at Michael's, print a coupon! Totally changed my painting world for real!
The shelves are 10.5" wide
8.5" deep
and each shelf is 1" high
With Specialist Games being put six feet into the ground, and me not having money to go on a mad buying spree, here endeth the last parts of GW I could continue to support. It also means a lot less guilt for abandoning a company that's been a part of my life since 1987.
On the plus side, it means I can yank a few games off my 'list of things to support in the skirmish games group'.
Note: Yes, in theory, I could support these games, using the rules and other miniatures, or what have you. But I feel that I should be supporting new companies, with active product lines and support. Not the corpse of a company being kept alive by a golden throne.
You can still enjoy Necromunda and Mordheim etc., since you already own rules and minis, technically, you're not supporting them anymore, but I agree about not buying anything new. Unless they release some cool new Guard stuff, I'm not sure I'll be able to resist then.
On the topic of "trusted companies"- Did you know that the LEGO group is the most trusted company in North America? -Not a defense contractor, not an oil company. or even an American company, a Danish toy company!
Yeah, people got sick of American cars after the crap of the 80s-2000s, Ford is making a comeback now.
Me? I can only afford a Korean Kia, but I love it.
I cannot, in all good faith, promote Necromunda and so forth, because of my dislike for the company. I also do not enjoy saying things like "Well, the game isn't supported anymore, but you can find the rules on the internet!" I understand this is my own logic, and using the net-supported rules for Necro, BFG and so on is perfectly possible.
But my goal is to divert money into the hands of companies other than GW, and these games are (still) gateways to Fantasy and 40K.
time for Lego version of necromunda. Let there be "legomunda". Not really. Bad idea as you can build and rebuild your own terrain. No measuring sticks needed as you can count the dots. There's even Lego dice.
There are a lot of game systems/rules for wargaming with minifigs. My modular city will have the dual purpose of Train layout/zombie apoc game one day.
Alllrighty then! First, we have to clean the apartment. This is step one. Everything's a g*d damn disaster, and I'm sleeping on the couch.
Note: I have a VERY comfortable couch.
Today, we baked bread, made a Mediterranean lamb stew, ate pizza, and cleaned the entire apartment. There's still more to do, but the dishes are done, cat box is cleaned, bathroom mopped, trash and recycling ready to go out, paperwork stacked to be sorted through, and all the floors have been vacuumed. The cats have gotten their weekly heavy brushing, and some shelves have been re-arranged.
I really need to figure out how to store my miniatures. I'm debating a bulk order of foam trays, since my Adepticon Battlefoam Bag has enough space to carry multiple skirmish armies.
Anyways, have some apartment work-in-progress pictures. Maybe these will motivate you!
We're getting a little better, here.
And now everything's been stored under the table. I have to attack this entire area, but now everything is THERE to be dealt with.
You can see Excalibur, my mighty vacuum.
Finally, here's a design I've been playing with for a bit. It uses a cardboard magazine holder, and cardboard tubes from toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls. The ones in back are full-height, then a paper towel roll cut in half, then toilet paper rolls. This is designed to hold bits and pieces of plastruct/evergreen product that have been cut down from their original length, with full-length sections being stored in the way back. As I clean up, I'll be sorting stuff into this, and I'll let you know how it works out.
May I recommend these cheap wooden Scrapbooking drawers?
And YES Vik..I own some fething Marines They aren't much good for transporting them, but they keep them safe at home
The old 5 1/4" floppy disk drawers are good for blister packs
I store my minis that don't live in my KR multicase bag in box's with steel paper on the bottom and then I put magnetic sheet on the bottom of my bases.
They stay in place really well I even transport them to tournaments like it. I wouldn't try it with metal minis though as they are a bit too heavy and will come unattached mid transport.
Its also really useful at tournaments if you carry round a metal cooking tray as they don't come off that even if you turn it upside down, and yes I've tested that
Reason #Idon'tevenknow why you should stop buying and playing GW:
A ban on bitz.
"Ha-ha, long tail veterans, now you cannot convert and/or make new and unusual creations! ALL MUST CONFORM TOGW STANDARDS. And you thought that by pulling out of the convention/event circuit, we'd lose control? HA-HA."
The bitz thing is part of the new North American Trade Agreement that states that people that get their GW product from distributors cannot part out the models and pieces in a box. So you can't take Dark Vengeance and sell the marines separate from the chaos. This also means you can't sell broken down boxes of GW kits...
In the most recent 'terms of servitude' to all stores carrying GW product, ONE of the MANY disturbing things was a ban on the resale of GW product, inlcuindg breaking up boxed product to sell as bitz.
What this means is that if GW finds out you're selling bitz, they'll cut you off.
Bitz have been the basis of 'making cool gak' since the dawn of time. GW dropped their own bitz service, and now they are blocking retailers from the (lucrative) bitz business.
GW certainly don't like the gaming veterans heh? My main GW purchases over the last couple of years have been bitz via ebay... Just hope that the likes of Anvil Industries and Zinge Industries can keep away from those C&Ds that GW throw around like confetti...
Its an interesting point if they went into a GW and wanted to purchase all of their 40k stock would they stop them and say sorry we dont want your money?
I find the bits thing funny because the blachitsu and kit bash articles in WD are more or less promoting doing such things. Apparently they want you to buy the whole box of witches to get that one set of legs.
I think the retailer thing is about business accounts not personal shopping. So they can still walk in but they'll be paying retail not wholesale so missing out on 30%+ discounts they may already have..
Man, these sprues are just COVERED in mould release. Filled the sink with soapy water, and washed them down. Haven't had to do THAT in awhile (even tho' I should for every model kit).
Oooh, now this is interesting. I'm a fan of this kit but only when it's been converted into a bigger flyer. Your double width and extended sides hint towards a Thunderhawk Gunship ??
As for washing sprues, I always do this with GW now, especially those purchased off eBay that are covered in cigarette smoke !!
Okay, so I just trekked through all 65 pages of this thread, and I've gotta say, from the Ordinatus, to the Kitchen-Chimera, to the horrible Adepticon experience, this thread has been a real treat.
It is somewhat hard for me to do tutorials, because all of my work is very 'hand made'. I cut pieces to fit, and do not make templates I can give out, yanno?
I do not have a plan, per-se. i have 20 pictures from the forgeworld site, including images of the epic scale version, which has different angles. The pictures are about half scale.
though useful in general, useless if they can't kill anything. Funny how the Movie imitates the Game play against the Nids in 40K.. shoot & kill very little, get swarmed, everybody dies! Hummmm
Man, tried to be cute and use the floor of a Chibi hawk, ended up having to make all sorts of cuts and corners. Note to self, DON'T DO THIS. Thank you.
Going to have to clean up a lot of mess with gribbles. The nose is fine, everything else is gak.
Ah well. Onto the mid/spine, and aft. Then, gotta build me some wings.
You need a photographic "set" that looks like an imperial construction facility... perhaps a pic of the inside of a Boeing manufacturing plant or something.
Just a thought, instead of trying to make it "just like a T-Hawk", how about the freedom of a newly discovered STC design? You already own a Fabricator General, just have him approve the design as "Holy"?
Gitsplitta wrote: You need a photographic "set" that looks like an imperial construction facility... perhaps a pic of the inside of a Boeing manufacturing plant or something.
There must be a way to work some screen shots of the Space Marine game into the background:
There was a guy at a local toy show that had a broken Flagg for $25 a few years ago. I would have bought it if I had space for it.
I finally sold my General because I just didn't have space for it. Even though it would made a totally awesome ordnatus.
Broken down would even be worth it, because there are lots of parts out there from other broken down, well-loved FLAGGs They call it the "Holy Grail" for a reason
Some progress, working on the aft end. Messed up my structural bracing a couple of times, brought in a clamp to seal the deal.
Here, due to the nose shape, I had to trim the card down. I screwed this up the first time, and angled in the wrong edge of the plasticard rectangle.
Here, you can see the internal bracing. The aft-end is much simpler than the nose, since I really do not have to extend down. Wings are going to be a stone cold
It looks like the bracings are off, but they're level, I promise.
I explain this, to show people that it is okay to screw up, and try again. It is the only way to gain experience!
Automatically Appended Next Post: And for those of you who have not done the math:
For reference/scale, this is about twenty inches (20') from nose to stern. Mine will certainly be a lot less pretty than the FW version, but also costs about $500 LESS (at today's exchange rate) So, you know.
A shot of the interior box frame and supports. Details will go inside here, but nothing 'amazing'.
Exterior, length shot. Play 'spot the trapezoidal warp'!
Three-quarters establishing shot. Use the land raider and rhino chassii for scale.
Going to put the other side on, then it is onto the main wings. Which, let me assure you, are going to be the devil's britches.
--Brian
Yes, I have already flown it around, going neeeeeerrrrrrroooowwwwdakkadakkdakkdakkadakka.
Not a lot of work done, today. Got stumped on the rear engines for a bit. I wanted them longer, but I only had two Chibihawk engines left. And I really want to keep this build sub-$100.
Thankfully, I had some LED flash lights from a previous project. No, I did not build them to light up. Considered it, but really didn't want to put the effort in. I know. LAZY. But this build is taking long enough, and I want to finish it and move on. Bad enough that I'm going to have to paint the damn thing. Maybe I'll give it to Solar Lion.
You can also see the start of the main wing support structure. This is a box built from card and 1/4" H-Beams. Sturdy! I will be building some major reinforcement on the bottom, but I did a test fit of the second set of Chibihawk wings, and it gives me a wing length that is "good enough", so I don't need to fight with an extension on the outboard side of the engine pods. I do, however, have to figure out where to stick the second set of heavy bolter turrets, since the traditional wingtip mount points will be occupied by MORE LIFT ENGINES. Because my STC is superior.
Aside from Real Life (where I picked up four new clients), I have been working feverishly for the past 24 hours on a birthday present. It is someone's cosplay, converted into an (in)action figure.
We start here:
With an end goal of here:
Now, obviously, I cannot match exactly, without a LOT MORE WORK. Especially as the Birthday Party is Saturday. But I can get DARN CLOSE.
Let's ride.
(I will note that this series is labelled "World of Warcraft Action Figures". There isn't a single point of articulation. Zero. Nada. None. I have an urge to buy ALL the GI Joes of my youth. All of them. Action figures my ass.)
First, we take the figure down to the basic structure.
Spoiler:
Then, to better match the subject's height, we remove a quarter inch of torso (easy) and 3/8th of an inch of leg (much harder). I need a jeweler's/coping saw. Additionally, while recovering from the first of many hand cramps, we work up a test label for the original packaging. I also turn the figure from a C Cup to an A Cup.
Spoiler:
Now, we greenstuff the legs. We're building a satyr, so this is actually great, as I don't have to do anything but put a nice, even coat of 'stuff on, and then put in fur texture. Good practice, let me tell you. This process added four more hand cramps to the tally, as I let the 'stuff set too long, and I really needed to build a better handle for my sculpting tool.
Spoiler:
Hair. I've removed the larger horns (later to be replaced with smaller ones in a different location), but now I have to re-sculpt the missing hair, and add a pony tail due to the way the 'costume' in back worked with the existing hair. Fun, huh? At this point, I also fill in some holes left by removing neck tentacles. Yeah. Go team Blizzard. I've also changed the hemline of the shirt in front and back.
Spoiler:
So, we re-assemble the full figure, in preparation for a light priming session. The figure will dry overnight, to let the greenstuff set, then bam with the Krylon. Yes, I remembered to fill in the giant hole in her back, and her hands are ready to go as well (had to remove the GIANT FINGERNAILS).
Spoiler:
And there you have it. From WoW Draenei to Satyr in...29 easy steps!
I got my jeweler's saw from Micro-Mark, it's definitely worth the investment! The ultra-fine blades are almost too fine, cuts soo clean you hardly need to sand/file.. get an assortment of blades.
Hasbro packaged some really crappily-articulated t-crotch excuses for figures in the Retalliation vehicles to keep the price point and make parents think they were getting a deal. They are so bad they make G1 Star Wars figures look articulated. I read at JoeCon that Hasbro realized this was a mistake and promised to NEVER do it again.
inmygravenimage wrote:That's absolutely cracking work mate. Nice one.
Apostle Pat wrote:Absolutely amazing work, keep them pictures coming!
Thanks! Today is prime, paint, and package.
dsteingass wrote:Why must you taunt me with Action Figure customs? LOL, that's really an awesome job Brian!
Oh my GOD, Dave. I had no idea how deep the rabbit hole went. I did some research for this project, and ran, screaming, when I started seeing all of the creepy custom celebrity heads.
Yellowbeard wrote:Very nicely done, Brian! Will you have time to add some pan pipes?
In theory. Since the packaging doesn't really have space for the lute I wanted to include, I'm looking at other options, as well as a belt and pouches.
Gitsplitta wrote:Wow Brian... I didn't know you had that kind of ability. You're muse certainly has you on this one!
Yes, not only can I build massive war machines, but I can also customize inaction figures. Maybe in a few weeks, I'll buy some canvas and paint some landscapes to REALLY throw everyone off.
dsteingass wrote:I got my jeweler's saw from Micro-Mark, it's definitely worth the investment! The ultra-fine blades are almost too fine, cuts soo clean you hardly need to sand/file.. get an assortment of blades.
Hasbro packaged some really crappily-articulated t-crotch excuses for figures in the Retalliation vehicles to keep the price point and make parents think they were getting a deal. They are so bad they make G1 Star Wars figures look articulated. I read at JoeCon that Hasbro realized this was a mistake and promised to NEVER do it again.
My hacksaw did the job, but it got stuck, frequently, as I was deep-cutting, and the material like to heat up, rapidly. Ah well. Job done!
My advice, if you're going to buy a jewler's saw, get it from a jewelry supply company, not a gaming or hobby company. Same price, far better product. Also get a bench pin while you're at it.
@Brian -back to the quitting GW sub-topic, what are your thoughts then on Building Gothic vehicles and terrain..will you miss it? Do you think the Gothic look and 40K are indistinguishable in sci-fi?
I believe that the 'add more skulls' mentality is being done on purpose to try and prevent 40K terrain from being re-purposed for other game systems.
Having said that, a ruined city is a ruined city is a ruined city. As long as it isn't covered in skulls, you can get away with using it for Bolt Action or other such games. Heck, a ruined cathedral is usable back to the Dark Ages, yanno?
Present delivered, I utterly crushed any competition, including the quite nice wooden recurve shortbow she was given. In addition, and I quote, "I like it more than Nick." Nick is her boyfriend...who was standing five feet away. I apologized to him.
I will note that this was delivered/shown off to a decent crowd of people, some single, others with good social networks/connections, along with delicious CSA meat and freshly made (by me) strawberry shortcake, which also blew people's minds. So the notion of "Look what this guy can do, AND he's single" is now 'out there'.
They should have them, imo, but as freebees to get folks to look through the rest of their digital products. But 2 bucks for 7 pages (one of which is the cover) is a bit insane.
Briancj wrote: Her Facebook page, describing the new Chaos toy thingy.
It looks like this:
sorry all I see is red nail polish and a 13 year old girl with dazzel / sparke beads leftover after beading her phone, purse and hairbrush.. Aghhhhhhhhh. Horrible as a terrifing and grimdark engine of chaos!
yes - I know they are skulls. Sorry all I see is taria of sparkels
However the new Necron Super heavy ( in the WD ) is absolutly stunning.
On a side note... can anyone tell me if there is a GW terrain kit that is roughly 6 by 9 inches in a foot print? Possibly no more than 7 inches tall? I need to build one for an upcoming 40k campaign as an HQ
You could build anything that shape, but the standard size that all GWCoD panels have multiples of is a 2"x3"- with 3" being the standard storey/floor size since the Necromunda bulkheads were released. You could easily build any of the CoD terrain kits with a top railing and be at 7" tall.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I am looking for volunteers to help me play test a new tabletop wargaming system. You can use your existing miniatures and terrain.
This 4th of July, I embarked on a new long-term project. It is my intent to design a set of tabletop wargaming rules that can handle a "Fast, Furious, Fun" playstyle, where you can field a variety of armies, and have a good time blowing the crap out of each other.
I have an odd pedigree for game design. My Uncle worked for SPI in the 70's, and I played my first hex-and-counter game when I was 15. I've been playing various tabletop rulesets since the late 80's, and have played (as an example) every variation of Warhammer 40K, back to Rogue Trader, and up to a few of the fan-made 40K 'kill team' style games.
I understand that my game system will be, at best, niche. But don't let anyone tell you not to chase your dreams. Unless your dream is 'being eaten by a shark'. Then, you know, you should not chase your dream.
---
First session:
Working with my friend Greg, I hashed through the best start of any project, "givens and drithers", or "What do I have to work with" and "what do I want to do".
Givens:
A 4x6 playfield. This is what game stores have, this is what players own.
Dice will be d6 or d10, as this is what is easily, commercially available in bulk at most game stores.
Standard infantry figure is on a 1" base.
The game system needs to be flexible enough to handle scaling up or down.
The game system needs to handle both ranged and melee combat.
Druthers:
The ability to handle any 'theme', such as sci-fi, fantasy, modern; sci-fi will be 'first'.
Fog of war. Players do not have 'perfect information'.
Scale the basic battlefield better. Range and movement is based on the available playspace.
Fast. Rolling 'buckets of dice' slows the game down.
Fast. Moving 200 miniatures slows the game down.
Fast. Having to roll dice three or four times to resolve a situation slows the game down.
Alternating Activation. The game's tactical situation should ebb and flow.
Interrupt. A player should be able to tactically interrupt their opponent.
Battlefield control. A player should move to control the battlefield.
Orders. A player should have to plan in advance.
Leaders matter.
Herohammer sucks.
Off-Board assets. Artillery, airstrikes, reserve deployment.
A difference between 'attacking to kill' and 'attacking to suppress'.
Annihilation is NOT an acceptable mission goal.
Mission goals should be unknown to the other player.
A battlefield covered in tokens is confusing.
Platoon-level combat is standard. Some guys, some vehicles.
No flyers. Skimmers, helicopters, sure.
All armies are balanced, and no rules will be introduced with an army codex.
Playtest, playtest, playtest.
"Templates" aren't necessarily needed.
No cheescake.
There's others, but the above should get you an idea of what we're chasing, here.
---
In three days, we hashed out the basic wargame. We know how to setup, how the turn works, how orders work, how activations work. We know how to deploy an army, and how reserves work. We know how to shoot, how to melee, and how to resolve the basic "Morale" rule, which is a "Command Check". We have defined the three most basic units, which we amusingly refer to as cavepeeps, since we've got sticks to hit and rocks to throw.
We have run one playtest session, which revealed that, due to mis-communication, we were playing two separate games.
We have yet to actually kill a miniature.
---
My goal is that, once the cavepeeps learn to fight, then additional options can be added, playtested, and costed out. We have yet to determine how many units you can field, how to buy units, etc. Our armies are identical, consisting of one unit of each type. Once we're comfortable with the very basic rules, then we can use that foundation to build upon.
---
Wanna help develop Strikepoint? RSVP here, please. All you need are some D10's and some miniatures. We're not even using terrain, yet! (Yes, this is important.)
This reminds me to some degree of several games I have the rules for. trend is games that do not play like 40k the old 'I go/You go" method is tired and having unit green then unit red go is becoming a feature of so many of the newer games which is more fluid and life like, hate having to have units just sit there like targets dummies.
Alien Wars?
Tomorrow's Wars
the old Ground strike
old Warzone
Dust
Infinity
and others seem to adopt the similar concepts you have described, thus it should be well received.
Commanders making a difference, but not being the focus of the army like Hero hammer flyers can be confusing, but skimmers/hoverers and helos should be safe.
Briancj wrote: Ladies and Gentlemen, I am looking for volunteers to help me play test a new tabletop wargaming system. You can use your existing miniatures and terrain.
Pipe up.
--B.
I'd be interested in helping with the rules. My opportunity to play test is limited but I have time to read.
I have friends in Ayer, Sparky, and I'm in Arlington, about 40 minutes away from you. Welcome!
I'm writing up the details of the competition now. I have a VERY specific goal in mind, and the possibility of a string of engagements. I also have to put together prize packages.
dsteingass wrote: btw, Brian. Are you planning on keeping that treasure trove, or parting/selling some?
If you're interested in the Vampire set, which is 230 miniatures, retail is about 400+ dollars, but you should be able to find something on eBay for like 350 or so.
The ORIGINAL Nuka Cola machine that started the =]L[=.
A giant bag of bits and stuff. Seriously. Epic. Even I don't know what'll be in it. But I'm stripping down my collection to focus on Minotaurs and IG.
Way OOPGW Posters!
The contest theme:
Discarded treasure. I am on a major recycling kick in my life. Recycling, freecyling, upcycling. Reduce and reuse. And it drives me insane when I throw away what should be perfectly good materials!
The rules:
You must create a piece of terrain the size of a CD/DVD. The terrain must utilize leftover modelling supplies. Examples of this are paint pots, plastic sprues, discarded packaging, and leftover plasticard. The debris of completed projects, normally placed into the dustbin. The terrain must be usable in a game of Warhammer 40K, but there are bonus points for making items usable in more than one game system. Multiple terrain pieces ARE allowed, as long as, collectively, they are the size of a CD/DVD. They should also maintain a similar theme (IE: You've taken four 40mm bases and built 4 jungle-themed objective markers). There is no required terrain type, the goal is to show people how to recycle things they would normally throw away into usable game terrain.
Scoring:
A maximum score of 100 is possible. Ties will be broken by the judges. If the judges are deadlocked, I will call upon readers of this plog to vote. If THAT deadlocks, I'll declare a tie, and divide up the prizes appropriately.
Competition requirements:
These are not cumulative. A few bitz used to enhance the terrain does not count toward percentage, but loading up your entry with bitz (instead of recycled parts) will not score high. Imagine you're a new modeler, and you have a few leftovers from your initial purchases.
Entry is 25% recycled materials or less - 0 points
Entry is around 50% recycled materials - 10 points
Entry is around 75% recycled materials - 25 points
Entry is around 100% recycled materials - 40 points
Modeling:
These points ARE cumulative. A focus on techniques and designs that are easy to copy/emulate will score more points, here. You're helping the masses make terrain. A unique entry might be something that makes the judges go 'ah-ha, that's a GREAT idea'. This is where you can score points for originality of design and making a cool scene or mini-diorama.
Entry is easy for a newbie to duplicate - 10 points
Entry shows a unique idea - 10 points
Entry is visually interesting - 10 points
Entry is usable for more than just Warhammer 40K - 10 points
Painting:
Points are not cumulative. Minimum three colors. Washes and highlights to qualify as well painted, at a minimum. Amazingly well painted is something that wows the judges.
Entry is painted - 10 points
Entry is well painted - 15 points
Entry is amazingly well painted - 20 points
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Weight will be given to people who come up with UNIQUE, creative uses for things most people throw away. Things thrown away: bits of dried putty, paint pots, dried paint, sprues, packaging materials, chopped up plasticard.
You may not use existing terrain or other creations, as with all League competitions, show your work. Deadline for entries is August 8th, 2013. Judging will occur a few days later, over the weekend. There will be no extensions allowed, as this is not a complex 'theme'.
Submit your "WiP" photograph ASAP. With your completed photograph, submit an explanation of what you've built, and what materials you used, as if you were writing a short tutorial.
Well the league contest is till Oct. From my POV, it's more that I'll be away on holiday for the next couple of weeks, so am unlikely to be building. Also my head space is distracted by boob guns.
I'm in, though it should be pointed out I have not completed a competition yet....in my life....in anything . I think it might be a remake of something I already built, but his time I'll go for 100% recycled .
Dave where were you this morning when I was at Wally World? Well, I forgot to get bread, so I guess another trip is warranted.
now its covered in projects started a long time ago that were never finished no surprise there though.
time for Lego version of necromunda. Let there be "legomunda". Not really. Bad idea as you can build and rebuild your own terrain. No measuring sticks needed as you can count the dots. There's even Lego dice.
