Some Odds, Ends, and Mercer's Model

So, some odds and ends…

My little blog that could can now boast that it had its very own mini-flame war! It was soooo cute, like a newborn walking!

So as always, some pictures... This is a Brass Scorpion conversion from Lubbock TX. It's also pretty reliably the first one ever done, right after the Defiler kit came out. It made the rounds of the tournament scene and was copied pretty quickly. As always, the pictures don't do justice to a very cool model.

Another view.

Mark Mercer's model, which I love. I think I'm going to have to steal this idea...

Last post I took a moment to try and fairly represent the comments made here about good-old Green Blowfly. Basically, a few months ago he was referenced in regards to controversial tournament games, specifically the one he had with Adam Trike that got some traction on the blogs and forums a few months back. GBF ended up playing my buddy Bruce in the last game of Hard Boyz, so, given what had gone before, I took the opportunity to highlight the positive feedback Bruce gave when I quizzed him.

Got all that?

It gets even better and more fluffy-fun! Adam stopped by and, after an exchange or three, everybody seems to have moved on: going on to get along… my heart overfloweth!

*sigh*

Then Bruce said he considers it a possibility that Green Blowfly was medicated during the game.

*head hits desk*

No good deed goes unpunished! I guess I should have left well enough alone. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it’s that large a deal: GBF doesn’t strike me as the type of dude that carries stuff like that around. The funny thing is, I actually get where Bruce was coming from.

Most of us, if we’ve done this for any length of time, have had a game or two that was less than sterling, where we acted the asshole or something. For me, my most recent gem was actually against Bruce. I got pissed because he didn’t want to play another round in a tournament game, so started bitching at him about it. He threw up his hands in disgust and we went ahead, but obviously the mood was pretty sour by then. So… was this the exact same issue I had in Round Two of Hard Boyz, against the guy who (may or may not, I go back and forth) have been slow-playing me? Well, yea… the irony isn’t lost on me, but how we got there was completely different. Bruce wasn’t trying to strategically use time to his advantage, but was legitimately concerned that time wouldn’t allow for his turn. Also, the game was close and the next round wouldn’t definitively seal the deal for either side, nor was I pushing hard throughout the game to get to that turn, so that sense of expectation wasn’t there in the same way. That said, playing the next round did end up netting me the win and ultimately 3rd place in the tournament, but it wasn’t worth the stress. I shook the sand out of my vag and apologized, splitting my price support with him.

Like Bruce said in the comments, he invited a dude outside over a game: as a general rule, it’s never a good idea to beat someone up over a game of man-dolls. Bruce was in the wrong; he manned up and is determined never to be that guy again.

The point is, get a group of guys together doing anything and you’re going to get bad behavior from time to time. Face it gents, we’re basically shitheads.

Hell, I don’t know how many people actually read the entirety of my rambling posts, but no worries; it’s basically a dead issue. Bruce’s comment is more understandable when you consider 1) he thought GBF had a cold and 2) I actually take potent medication for a nerve disease. Ill-advised: maybe; earthshaking: hardly.

So what about 40K?

At the FLGS the other night, a bunch of us were going back and forth about competitive lists, building armies, learning how to use them – that kind of thing. I talked a bit about my little exercise in critical thinking which generated some interesting observations I’ll share in the future. Point is, we had a cool-aid moment and all decided to create new tournament armies rolled at random.

The Master Manipulator (every store needs one) jotted down every army on a scratch sheet of paper, then crossed off Necrons, ‘cause nobody wants to get stuck with that. We all got to pick two armies we had or didn’t want to build again, and then we rolled a d20 to determine our fate.

I rolled Chaos. That’s fate for you – I’m going to have to put my money where my mouth is and build my Chaos MSU’s list.

So we have to build 750 by 12/1/09, 1000 by 1/1/10, and so on, incrementally building and playing games against each other, until we’ve reached 2500 and the next season of Hard Boyz.

Obviously I’m going to document all this, my effort and theirs.

For the record, I’m not going to build the army I posted here, largely because I built it as an improvement over my Hard Boyz 2009 list, using certain guidelines, but I’m certainly going to include some of what I consider are the best ideas. I’m itching to see how my ‘auto-cannon Havoc pillbox’ squad will do, for example. If it doesn’t work, we’ll find out long before I’m trying to make the shit work in Chicago!

Of course, I’m pretty much relying on feedback from gamers out there. JWolf indicated MSU was viable, but I needed more troops – he also said holding back was for pussies, so maybe I won’t go the dedicated gunline route. Adam told me to take a look at Kharne, so I’ll have a look. And so on, and so on, until hopefully I’ve got something worthy that I know how to play.

I’ve got some ideas for how to model and paint the army. I’ve been playing a ton of Fallout 3 lately, if that gives you a hint. Think Rogue Trader era and ad hock armor.

Take care - Brent