It's Friday...

...and I SO don't want to be here.

It's 75, sunny, not humid, perfect. Not a cloud in the sky. Gentle breeze.

Found a cool website for my Warhammer 40,ooo RPG needs:
http://www.scholaprogenium.com/schola.html

Good stuff!

Another is: http://belloflostsouls.blogspot.com/
Fantastic blog with all kinds of cool ideas for Pre-Heresy 40k play!

Now I just want to get through the day and get home. I could sleep for a week!

If I were interviewing...

...say...Dan Abnett, or Matt Forbeck, Robin Williams or Billy Crystal...what would I talk about? What would I ask?

I'd ask about Warhammer!

Do you play Warhammer Fantasy? 40k? Battlefleet Gothic? Inquisitor?

If so, what do you play?

How long have you been playing?

Do you get to play often?

What kind of player are you? A goof off, a generally friendly player, total competitive bastard?

Do you read the Black library fiction? Which do you like/ dislike?

Are you in to the minis-painting part of the hobby?

Etc...

Iron Snakes Chapter, 1750 Points

WiP photos under the link:http://picasaweb.google.com/OrdoHereticus/IronSnakes

This is my new list for the League. I'm generally a friendly player. The League however is quite competitive. For me the important thing is keeping it true to the Chapter fluff, specifically Brothers of the Snake, by Dan Abnett.

I'm up against largely infantry and possibly Daemons. No mech players in this league (though there are on occasion a rhino, predator, Defiler and the like, but they are few. No Land Raiders.)

Enjoy!

1750 Pts - Space Marines - Iron Snakes Chapter 1750 v4

HQ: Codicier (1#, 137 Pts)
Diogenes
Force Weapon; Bolt Pistol (x1); Psychic Hood; Veil of Time
Psychic Hood []
Terminator Honors [], Frags


Elite: Venerable Dreadnought (1#, 133 Pts)
Stelios
Walker; Dreadnought CCW; Storm Bolter; Assault Cannon; Venerable: Extra Armor; Smoke Launchers

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 221 Pts)
Tactical Squad Lycurgis
Boltgun (x7); Plasmagun (x1); Heavy Bolter (x1)
Brother Sergeant Ajax Power Weapon (x1); Boltgun; Terminator Honors, Combat Shield [], Frags
+Apothecary, w/ Narthecum & Reductor.

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 221 Pts)
Tactical Squad Lysander
Boltgun (x7); Plasmagun (x1); Heavy Bolter (x1)
Brother Sergeant Xanthus []
Power Weapon (x1); Boltgun; Terminator Honors
Combat Shield [], Frags
+Apothecary, w/ Narthecum & Reductor.

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 256 Pts)
Tactical Squad Cleomenes
Boltgun (x7); Meltagun (x1); Missile Launcher (x1)
Brother Sergeant Ptolemy []
Power Weapon (x1); Boltgun; Terminator Honors
Combat Shield [], Frags
+Apothecary, w/ Narthecum & Reductor.

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 257 Pts)
Tactical Squad Damocles
Boltgun (x7); Flamer (x1); Missile Launcher (x1)
Brother Sergeant Priad []
Lightning Claw (x1); Boltgun; Terminator Honors
Combat Shield [], Frags
+Apothecary, w/ Narthecum & Reductor.

Fast Attack: Assault Squad (10#, 270 Pts)
Assault Squad Pelleas
Deep Strike ; Frag Grenades; Bolt Pistol (x9); Close Combat Weapon (x9)
Brother Sergeant Antoni []
Power Fist (x2); Purity Seals; Terminator Honors,Frags

Fast Attack: Assault Squad (10#, 255 Pts)
Assault Squad Parthus
Deep Strike ; Frag Grenades; Bolt Pistol (x9); Close Combat Weapon (x9)
Brother Sergeant Goront []
Power Weapon (x1); Purity Seals; Terminator Honors
Combat Shield [] Frags

Advantage: Purity Above All
Advantage: Trust Your Battle-Brothers
Disadvantage: Flesh Over Steel

Total Cost: 1750

http://picasaweb.google.com/OrdoHereticus/IronSnakes

My new DiY CSM Legion/ Chapter

A splinter of the Thousand Sons legion, I'd like to introduce you to the Sons of Magnus

I'm Back!

The 'ague has passed and I'm back at work. Hopefully any reprocussions for my absence will be minor (playing catch-up on emails, and the like).

The past few days have been spent at home, doing nothing. Well...almost nothing: I did strip all my "extra" Space Marines (the ones not already in my Blood Ravens army list) and primed and basecoated them. The shoulder pads have been coated in a foundation color as close to white as possible, so the white going over the top of it should be flawless.

The next league match on the Thursday after next should be a suprise as I unveil the Iron Snakes Chapter. I have 4 tactical squads of 10 Astartes, 2 Assault Squads of 10, and a Venerable Dread and a Librarian leading the expedition. Every Squad, Brother Sergeant, The Librarian and the Dread are named appropriately. So far the unit is looking sharp!

I've got the 'ague.

A nurgling must have passed by because I'm coming down with the creeping crud. Feels like the flu. I hate getting sick in the summertime. Maybe being home I'll get some artwork done.

Gen Con and More!

So Gen Con was a blast. I was very frugal and purchased nothing (though eating out was spendy enough). It was tough as there was so much cool stuff, but I restrained myself and remembered that i have a car about to go tits up, so I needed to save as much money as possible.

Got to see friends and hang out a lot. Played some SR4 and Talisman.

Photos here:
Gallery

Finished Brothers of The Snake. I'm going to strip my space marines and make up Iron Snakes! What a story!

7.5 Hours till VACATION!

That's right true believers...seven and a half hours till I'm on vacation. Off to GenCon Indy for a few days of fun, games and drunken debauchery.

Tears of Pure Powergamer Rage...

...are flowing the world over in regards to the new Chaos Space Marine Codex. I can't help but laugh.

I think they did a good job in balancing the CSM codex, maybe a bit overboard even...even to the point of making things "generic". Now Daemonettes, Nurglings, Bloodletters, Horrors, Furies, etc...all the same thing. You can still use the models allright...but the statlines are the same: Lesser Daemons.

Same goes for Greater Daemons. Bloodthirsters, Lord of Change, etc...all the same.

Meh.

You can still use your models and they are just fine, just toned down.

Weird thing is that Plague Marines, Berserkers, Thousand Sons and Noise Marines are available as troop choices for every army. Strange. So you can easily do an undivided force with a little of everything which doesn't seem very fluffy. Meh. Whatever.

Slaanesh got a big boost and the uber weapon and power.

Thousand Sons now have Bolters with AP3, and a 4+ invul save.

Nurgle is more or less the same, still solid.

Word Bearers are proper-fucked.

Black Legion is more or less the same, just gets the same toning down everyone does.

World Eaters are fine, and they get more Heavy and FA options.

Making "Legion" armies is going to be a matter of painting them up that way versus taking all the super over the top powered SC and tooled up daemons.


"And there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth"

GenCon or Bust!

So Wednesday morning at 4:30 we'll be on the road for GenCon Indy.

We'll be helping set up and tear down for The Last Square (our local FLGS).

If anyone needs to get a hold of us...

Katie's Cell: 608-957-6381
Jeff's Cell: 608-239-0829

We'll be there Wednesday thru Sunday, so if anyone wants to get together, get grub, game, drink, or otherwise hangout, give us a call. We're staying at the Embassy Suites with bull, caine_hazen, darykk etc.

Cheers!

Sorting out...

Well, after a couple posts, things have sorted themselves out. Everyone is all right, water under the bridge and we're counting this as a "re-do".

I'm glad for it. I certainly didn't want to lose friends in the deal.

So last night...

...was 40k League night, and I gt to play Paul. Paul is a very experienced 40k player. He's good. He plays Death Guard, and he also is the guy who runs the League.

So we're playing in a swamp, and the end result was a Solid Victory for the Death Guard. No complaints, it was a good game, Paul was great. I played smart this time, and the die rolls were almost entirely in my favor (man...Paul got new dice and rolled unbelievably bad). End result, good game.

I had a good time.

Nobody brought up the flap from the forums and I was fine with that. I figured I'd just leave it alone. Let it go.

After the game, on the way home, I was thinking "maybe my concerns are unfounded."

My biggest concern; really what it all boils down to is that I worry about Katie playing these guys. Specifically Cole and Seth, but Josh and Tom are a concern as well. They aren't bad guys. Quite the contrary. I think they are great! It's just that in the game, they are total competitive bastards, and really, they'll likely crush Katie with no chance of her doing anything...and their conscience wouldn't bother them a bit. "Learn the game and get better" they'd say.

Thing is, I know Katie, and like a lot of newbies, if you crush them regularly, they'll give up and go do something else because they simply have no chance.

This isn't about me. Not at all.
I play knowing I'll lose. I don't care. No biggie, I'm still having fun. Katie isn't like that...and I'm protective.

So on the way home I'm thinking that maybe my worries are unfounded. Maybe it's alright. Maybe Seth and Cole are going to be cool and maybe not necessarily crush Katie. Maybe Josh would help her and recommend courses of action. Maybe Tom would be patient as she makes mistakes.

I went to bed with a positive outlook, and hope that maybe I was wrong.

This morning I got up and got an email saying that on the "Super Secret Forum" they were complaining about my post(s). I post too much and they don't want to hear my ideas.

I DO post a lot. I come up with a lot of ideas to toss around for discussion. I like group discussion and collaboration. I like tossing out ideas. Apparently some people take offense at that.

So much for that happy, warm fuzzy feeling.

Now I know people talk about me behind my back.

Some "friends" huh?

Warhammer: Competitive versus Friendly Games

Yesterday was a day of overwhelming frustration. I got pissed off. Probably more pissed off than I should have. I think part of the reason for this is due to a feeling of betrayal. Maybe partly for feeling like a fool, or simply misjudging people.

Let me lay down the scene.

I'm playing in the Last Square, Wayward Star, Warhammer 40,000 League. This was explained to me by others as a friendly league where cool guys come and play 40k, newbies and old-timers alike are welcome. I know a lot of the guys in the league because I played in the last iteration of it.

Now, while I'm fairly inexperienced in this version of 40k, I have played since it was Rogue Trader, and I'm basically familiar with the material. I'm not a competitive player. I'm a collector, painter, and 40k Fiction buff...and occasional player.

When the league started, I decided not to play because what I prefer to play: friendly games instead of competitive tournaments. A number of my other Friendly Player friends (Robin, Katz) jumped on board, so I figured, it would be safe to play.

Now in the previous league, we had a number of really good, experienced, competitive players: Seth (Black legion), Cole(World Eaters), Nate (Word Bearers), Josh (Eldar)and Paul( who filled in when necessary with either Space Marines or Chaos). These guys were pretty much unstoppable when they played. Josh in particular was undefeated, and I think Nate was as well. Mike is a friendly player and pretty good as well. Damon I think is a friendly player(Daemonhunters).

Last league I was slaughtered in every game (Blood Ravens).I had a crappy list I spent five minutes on because I didn't intend to play in the league, just a pick-up game...and i couldn't change the list. Sucktastic. Either way, it was still mostly fun. No complaints really.

This League we have the same, except that Paul is playing his Chaos full-time, and we added Eric (Death Guard)[awesome player], Levi (who has really improved with his unstoppable Lost and the Damned, with the Bloodthirster)...and a number of newer players and Friendly players: Robin(Crimson Fists), Katz(Blood Angels), Mike(Dark Angels), me (Blood Ravens) and Damon (Daemonhunters). Josh is playing his undefeated system of Eldar only in Cityfights again. Tom is playing his Ork Mob in cities with the same Ammo Dump strategem. Ted...well...Ted is Ted.

Again, the Forces of Chaos are unstoppable. Josh is untouchable when he's in a city, and absent when not.

So the other day I made a recommendation to the league for the next iteration of the league:

I'd like to see a greater emphasis on sportsmanship and fair play. I explained that I don't want it to seem like a damnation of the players that they are not sportsmanlike, or that there is no fair play, but that there is always room for improvement and I'd like to see it move in a specific direction. I tried to be diplomatic, tactful and fair in my request. It seemed reasonable, though I understand if it wasn't necessarily clear to all.

For example, when playing new players, inexperienced players, friendly players, it's not necessary to steamroll them. Play nice. Maybe give em a break. Maybe play to their disadvantage a little. I mean, realistically, they are going to curb-stomp these poor folks anyhow, does it really matter if it is a victorious slaughter or a solid victory?

The main purpose in this is because we have a mix of friendly players playing in the same campaign as competitive players, and as usual, the competitive players are riding roughshod over the friendly players. Also, at the end of last league it was "The Plan" that my wife would play in this league. She likes 40k and wanted to play. She's woefully inexperienced, and really if she's just going to get owned every single game, with absolutely no chance of making a dent on her opponent, she (like many other newer or friendly players) will simply drop out and lose interest. being my wife and all, I don't want to see that happen.

Here's where the problem falls:

My assumption, what I believed, and what I hoped, is that the guys, who I considered friends, would play nice. Give the new guys and friendly players a break, and maybe kill them a little less efficiently. Maybe just be cool about it (Nate's example is at the bottom)

Nope.

Actually, the part that caused the anger was that I was told that they shouldn't have to be penalized for playing better. They earned their right to kick the crap out of people and too bad, so sad.

I was stunned.

My own thought is that friendly players and competitive players shouldn't play together.

I believe that the focus is on GAME as in it's to be FUN*. That means fun for both sides. I think it behooves us as friends to have at least a bit of concern that our opponents are having fun as well. That's what friends do.

[*I realize this isn't universally true for everyone]

What I found out is that the game is focused on competition: winning and losing, and based also on constant evolution of the ultimate efficient killing army list and usage of game strategies and tactics to go for the almighty WIN!

My own thought on that is, "where is the challenge in beating up on someone who has almost no chance to even come to a draw with you?". It's like beating up the retarded kid at school. It's not about a challenge, it's about getting to catharsis: get that overwhelming Victorious Slaughter!

I went in to this League to have a good time, expecting to lose every single battle because my lists aren't as competitive and I'm just looking to have some fun moving around little toy soldiers and rolling dice. Hang out with friends. I want my opponents to have a good time as well as myself.

What I found out is that the people I considered as "friends" have no concern or consideration for my fun. They just want the win, and really don't give a shit about whether I enjoy myself or not or more importantly whether the other Friendly Players and Newbies have fun or not. The Newbies in the league...they're getting owned. The friendly players...getting owned. (except Damon, he's pretty darn good).

I dunno.

The only responses have been pretty much: "They earned their bones, and they've earned the right to thug the newer players and friendly players all they want. Tough shit. Get better and more competitive or shut the hell up" (I'm paraphrasing a lot and exaggerating some as well.)

It wouldn't be so bad if someone...anyone chimed in and supported me in this. Instead, I'm the lone stranger, only guy and a whiner.

Am I simply unrealistic? Am I high? Am I asking something unfair?
Is it too much to ask to have the guys who want to play competitively, play each other...and if/ when they play the guys who really have no chance...give em a break and slaughter them a little less efficiently?

Since I'm apparently the odd man out, I'm not bringing it up anymore.

IMORTANT NOTE:
I would like to mention that it's entirely possible to thug someone and make them still have a good time. Nate was a prime example of that. Nate, arguably the best player in the league and I played last turn. Victorious Slaughter of course. I was wiped out to a man, and he still had three full units unscathed, as well as most of this other units (I did kill the Greater Daemon and the Dark Apostle and a number of marines from various units). While I did get thoroughly nuked, and I believe he would have done the same without his Daemons, it was a blast of a game, and Nate was very cool about how he played. It's like he handed me a shit sandwich, I ate it, and somehow he got me to like it.

THAT, is what I'd like to see. I don't mean that he has to drop his britches and let me drill for gold...just make sure the opponent has a good time too...or at least try.

My fear in this, is that new players, and friendly players will get tired of getting steamrolled, and stop playing...which means I have fewer people to play that I really WANT to play...leaving only the Competitive Guys.