A Return to Form

It's been a while since I've posted here and to be honest I've toyed with the idea of either deleting/archiving this blog and starting a new one, or just continuing on. If you're reading this, you do randomly read these posts and I appreciate it greatly so I'll stick with it for now. This is going to be the biggest update post I've made in some time so if you're interested, read on after the break!

The Death of a Gaming Store

On April 25th, my local game store Shieldbreakers Games closed its doors permanently. We were only given a week and a half's notice, but we managed to re-claim our terrain again and keep our community together via our facebook group. This unexpected "homelessness" has us scrambling to find games at other stores and at each other's houses, and thankfully that's not going too badly. But why did this happen? What does this mean for our hobby club?

Six tips to becoming a better 40k player

Here's a simple guide on how to become a better 40k player, and while I'll focus on 40k for the purposes of this article, this can actually apply to any game you play. If you're content with just getting a single fun, casual game in once in while, then by all means keep having fun! This article is aimed at those players who may be struggling with how to win more games without becoming the dreaded "WAAC" (Win At All Costs) player. So grab a pen, some paper, and get ready for some education!

2013 New Year's Gaming Resolutions

Here's a list of my 2013 New Year's gaming resolutions:

A New Year of Gaming?

Merry Christmas and have a happy New Year! I've been extremely lucky this year and have been able to provide for my family and put on a decent Christmas, and in return I got a few nice toys of my own! I've got a lot of projects ahead of me and I'm looking forward to building a ton of new models! Here's what I have planned for the next few weeks:

40k Gaming Etiquette

Many other blogs and forums have made similar posts, but I'm here with Dave's edition of HOW TO 40K CORRECTLY!

Another Chance

So now that I've completed my first two days of work, I have a better idea of what things are going to be like.

Change is coming...

So in the last few months I have witnessed and gone through a myriad of changes in my social, personal, and gaming lives. I was working on continuing the unit reviews but in addition to me underestimating how ridiculously large the HQ section is in the Blood Angels codex, I have just overall been horribly swamped with other things. I apologize for not making this post sooner, but I thought I'd just fill you all in on what was going on.

Updates

Yes, this is one of those "post just to post" posts. I haven't been able to get a whole lot of painting/building/hobbying done lately due to real life stuff (two kids, wife, job stuff, etc), but I'm going to lay out the projects I'm working on and their progress so far. This also lets me know where I stand (and it's a quick-reference I can check on my phone lol, as my blog is enabled for web browsing now).

Blood Angels:
I started work on a 2,000 point list via my club's 40k Escalation League, and I believe I posted the contents a few months ago. There's 4 Las/Plas Razorbacks, 4 Predators, and a Stormraven in it. Sure, the list is not original, unique, or inspiring, but it surely is competitive and has won me many games (including scoring a SUPER CLOSE draw against the guy who won my store's Feast of Blades tournament). At the moment I have three Razorbacks and 15 Assault Marines primed bright red, and I've started painting black on the details of one of the Marines as a test model. Unfortunately, I still need roughly 8 Plasmaguns so I can convert the turret of the Razorbacks, and I need to do a LOT of work on my regular Predators as the sponsons have broken off tons of times over the years. Also, when I primed my Razorbacks red, there was a bit of shrinking and wrinkling of the paint in certain areas, apparently due to a chemical reaction between this new Army Painter primer and some old GW red primer. Isn't that awesome? Now I have to sand off that garbage and re-prime the spots. I'll post WIP pics later.

Tyranids:
I was in the process of painting up my bugs for Tacticon and GenghisCon, and since then my bugs have been horribly mistreated. I've played a TON of games with them, and unfortunately I don't have foam to store them in so they bounce around in cardboard trays and a tackle-box. Someday I'll purchase a shit-ton of foam from Battlefoam to store them in, and it'll be sweet. Until then I think I'm just going to have to be super-careful with them. Anyways, as I said a few posts back I've been really interested in using alternate units including Lictors, so I think I might work on building (and painting) a 2,000 point Tyranid list that doesn't really include the normal copy-paste stuff. I think I'll have a LOT more fun with it, and hey, if I win some games with them then that's even better. :)

Dark Elves:
They are still in-progress, don't worry! I have 40 Corsairs, 24 Crossbowmen, 10 Black Guard, a Hydra, a Supreme Sorceress, a Dreadlord, a Master, and a sorceress built. All I have left to do is roughly 30 more Corsairs, 12 more Crossbowmen (though I'm going to have 6 of them made as unit fillers because I actually don't have 6 more), 10 more Black Guard, another Hydra, and a Cauldron of Blood. I'm easily over half-way there, and my wife is making things WAY easier by cleaning everything ahead of time by de-spruing the models and bits and shaving off the plastic and metal flash. Fairly soon, I'll have 3k of Dark Elves fully built and ready for some kick-ass battles.

Cygnar:
Unfortunately my FLGS hasn't got in ANY of my preliminary Cygnar stuff (tokens, faction deck, etc), so I'm kind of stalled-out on them. Once the job situation gets figured out, I'll be able to start picking up little things here and there from other stores, but for now I'm waiting to use my store credit on the stuff I ordered, if it ever comes in. :(

So, stay tuned, I'll have pics of my WIP models up soon. Life is kickin me in the ass right now, and time is a very valuable asset at the moment.

My FLGS has a website!

Finally, my FLGS has started to work on their website! I happen to frequent a store called Attactix in Aurora, Colorado, and for several years their website had been down, until now! (note that it is under construction, however)

www.attactix.com

They also have a facebook page up and running too!

www.facebook.com/attactix

Check 'em out!

More Tools

Yesterday I picked up the Dremel Stylus to aid in my Monstrous Creature magnetization project. The tool cost $69.99 at Home Depot and comes with its own accessory kit. After trying it out on a Carnifex I had already glued together, I am very impressed with how powerful and capable this little tool is. Within minutes I had bored out 6 holes in my Carnifex's torso and was able to also open the model back up in preparation of green stuff and magnets. I got the idea from Miniwargaming.com's YouTube video (found here) and I am definitely a fan.

Along with the Dremel, I purchased some rare earth magnets from K & J Magnetics that are the size the video suggested. Today I will be magnetizing almost all of my Carnifexes as this is a project I've been wanting to do since I started Tyranids back in early 2009. Also, today I should be getting in some Balrog wings that I ordered from Games Workshop so those will also get magnetized for my Hive Tyrants (which also will be magnetized as all of the Monstrous Creatures can have several different weapon variants).

So, long story not short enough, if you are on the fence about whether to purchase a tool like this I must say it is totally worth it. It has already let me accomplish in minutes what would have taken all night otherwise.