Daemons and Marines Vs Blood Angels...

... a Team Game Battle Report!  Please note, I'm formatting the report in a way I hope organizes the action; let me know if it helps.

Today's Battle Report is the followup game from yesterday's Video Battle Report... and while you won't have cause to regret listening to the Professor's antics, I find I must warn you ahead of time that one of these pictures is so shocking, so outrageous...

...that I'll never look at my poor Horror in the same way again.  Click the 'read more' button to continue.

Video Battle Report: Team Game Practice

It's been awhile since I've dropped a video battle report on an unsuspecting audience.  We're practicing for a team tournament at the Comic Asylum, a new favorite venue in the Metroplex after the last trip Whit and I made.  Anyway, it's me and Big Whit Vs the Mighty Mighty Carlos and the Professor.



The Professor made my job difficult, no doubt... he was extra chatty and constantly interrupted the video.  Some of you will find it funny and some of you annoying.  You've been warned. :)

Warmachine! Again!

I'm loving me some Warmachine.  I really am.

***

HALT THE PRESS!  The one (sometimes I wonder...) and only Messanger of Death dropped me a line to shoot the bull about Davy Taylor's Steel Legion competition!  He's entering, I'm entering, the King is entering... why aren't you entering?  *key peer pressure*  Give it a try!  Dave Taylor is a one-of-a-kind hobby icon, so any prize he gives the winner will inevitably be worth it!

***

It's been ages since I've liked a game so much right out of the gate, and games they have come and gone in the local scene...

Random Week's Pics

Here are some random images; the first two models are from the Mighty Mighty Carlos' collection, while the last are left over from the last few days.

The Gun Shy Storm Raven... (just 'cause)

For better or worse, here's the updated Storm Raven.

A New Pattern Strictly Average Storm Raven?

Okay folks, I've finished the first major overhaul of my Storm Raven...

...I think I'll call it the Gun Shy Pattern Stormbuster, because after the Internet destroyed my first humble effort, I find I'm a bit worried about the reaction to this one.

On Unicorns and the Holidays

'Boys and girls, Unicorns and children of all ages...'

Here it is, my Bell of Lost Souls intro and one of those things those who love to hate me love to hate.

I dig it!  It makes me happy to tweak the nose of the easily annoyed - but what does it mean?

Some of you know, but I'm very sure the vast majority don't.  Even if you were reading Strictly Average way back then, it's one of those inside jokes that's easy to miss.  Here's the secret history of the Unicorn.

The Secret History of the Unicorn

(Sorry.)

I've been Stalking Jawaballs Since 2009, but sometime last year he started using the term Unicorn to describe female gamers.  As I recall, it was around the time of the infamous, stomach-turning article, Anatomy of a Girl Gamer...

Nothing But Love for a Bell Author!

Today's post is a bit of a rant... and I thought long and hard about writing it, for a variety of reasons.

Brent's We Need a List, List: the Strictly Average Edition

1)  It's not entirely positive.  I always strive to stay positive and avoid the tar pit of negativity.  I stopped writing gossip posts ages ago and never regretted it.

(So, in a way, this is all about me.)

2)  Writing this will solve nothing.  Those folks willing to take a cheap shot will always take a cheap shot.

(And aren't there a million bad jokes to top that line with, such as, "*SELF-EDIT*?"  I know, that was bad.)

Top Tip: Stripping Miniatures

I think hobbyists are divided into two broad groups: those who've stripped paint off of old miniatures and those who haven't.

It's possible to save big bucks on minis by purchasing them on Ebay, but usually you're going to have to work on them some to get value back out of them.  Don't just paint over someone else's crappy base coats and bad prime job!

The Empty Digital Headache

The logo for Strictly Average, from the very beginning, is the Empty Digital Headache.  The site has a number of mottos, the two most notable being, 'Because 6-inches is All You Get' and 'Stalking Jawaballs Since 2009' but the most subtle (and probably the most accurate) is...

This is the 2nd Generation Empty Digital Headache.  I did it on Photoshop and am actually pretty proud of it.  It's cropped from a larger image, and the idea is the Avatar is raising itself out of the digital stream.

Real Life Happens

I spent yesterday in the car, driving across Texas to arrive in El Paso.  One of my closest friends lost his father in a pretty horrible accident, so I'm here for whatever little support I may be able to provide.

I've got nothing profound to say.  Pain is part of the human experience and loss is inevitable; it doesn't make it any less tragic.

I had three primary running buddies in high school in England.  Three of us live in the states and the fourth is living his rock star dreams back in Europe, filling in as a lead singer in a killer cover band.  We all of us are still in touch and get together every decade or so.  Time falls away when you're hanging out with someone who knows you, and there are very few people who know me quite so well.

I managed to hold on to some of my stuff from the original Space Crusade run.

Games were a big part of our entertainment back then, including (on the rare occasions we were forced indoors) D&D and Space Crusade... and the last, of course, hooked me in a big way.  That said, games are never more than an excuse to hang out with people.

It's why I'll always prefer social games to computer games - playing with yourself isn't the same experience, is it?

Yea, I went there.

Point is, people are what's important.  We will always define ourselves through our ties with others, because man is a social creature.

It's why a hermit is strange.

I hope your friendships are grounded on something important.

Brotherhood Update: Bjorn the Fell-Claw

As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of the old stuff - it doesn't hold a candle to the new but it has tons of character.  This is the old Chaos Dreadnought, RTB-1 era.

Naturally it was purchased and set aside for my Brotherhood project!  I'm going to use it as a Counts-As Bjorn, complete with Plasma Cannon and a bad attitude.

Warmachine!

I've recently started playing Warmachine, a game I hated in Mark I and am loving in Mark II.  I'm collecting Menoth; here's what I've painted so far.

Daemons Vs Imperial Guard... Again!

So, we're down to the final game in the Comics Asylum tournament that was held a few weeks back.  My opponent is a well-traveled tournament player, whom I met first at Wargames Con.  Let me say up front that he is truly one of the nicest players I've run across, very friendly and outgoing.  I don't want to mention his name, since he was very careful not to appear in pictures (though all three of my opponents gave me permission to take and use the game pics) so I've got to assume he wants to remain private.

I got my preferred wave, and Fiends set up across the board in charge positions for Turn 2.  One unit drifted too far left, but it is what it is.

Daemons Vs Imperial Guard

So, Game 2 was Daemons Vs Mech Guard.  I've stated on a number of occasions that my army does well against Mech Guard, but I'll have to admit this army had me worried.  It had two Hydras, Russ Executioners, and Vendettas, as well as the standard Melta-Vet Chimeras.  To top it off, it made use of two Auto Cannon Heavy Weapons Teams and...

...and Inquisitor with Mystics!  Every Deep Strike was an additional challenge!

Da Boyz Winning List, Footdar!

I was going over some Google Analytics reports and noticed that in the month of November I got a huge influx of traffic looking for the words 'Footdar' 'Da Boyz GT' and 'winning Footdar.'

Obviously there is some interest in seeing Greg Sparks winning army, so here's a pic.

The battle report is already done, scheduled for my regular article slot of midnight Tuesday, on Bell of Lost Souls.

I've uploaded the pics I took from the event; here's the album link.

Da Boyz 2010

A Bit of Nothing Funny

I got a huge kick out of this.  I've recently upgraded my Google Storage so I can continue to bring you fine folks pictures you'll only look at once.  I've gone from 1 gig to 20, so I've started uploading some old tournament photos to create an archive.

One of the things I discovered is iPhoto won't batch upload to the Google picture service, Picasso.  I like iPhoto quite well, but I'm not uploading thousands of pics 1 by 1.  I was quick to download Picasso for Mac.

Anyway, it has a face recognition software which kicked in automatically... and lo and behold!  Slaaneshi-themed Eldar/Daemonettes made the grade!

Genius.  Just genius.

Tips And Tricks: Extra Material

I wrote an article on Bell of Lost Souls today, collecting the Top Tips I've written in 2010... for a followup, here's a few more tips and tricks.

Pictures, Blogger, and Memory

I've been held up this past week by lack of storage space, since I've used up the gig Blogger gives you free of charge.  A gig is a bunch of pics but Strictly Average has always been a media-heavy blog.

There's a tip for you budding Bloggers out there: give your audience something to look at!  As time has gone on, I've moved from free-hand Cybershot pictures to using a light studio setup.

I've struggled over what to do.  After all, if I delete pictures from the Picasso web albums, where all Blogger pictures are stored, it affects old posts.  If I'm being honest, nobody looks over those old posts - meaning it isn't an immediate problem.  Still, I intend to archive the better stuff at some point in the future  and I don't want to make it harder on myself when the time comes.

Comic Asylum Tournament, Game 1

Game 1: Daemons Vs. Eldar

Left Flank.  Dawn of War, 4 Objectives.  He set up his Pathfinders and brought the rest of his army on Turn 1, except his outflanking War Walkers.

Recap: Competitive Daemons

I'm struggling to fix the storage issue for pictures here on Strictly Average.  As most of you know, I'm a big believer in always giving the audience something to look at, so practically all of my almost 400 posts have had pics.

Big pics.  I also like giving you the option of clicking on them and zooming in!

Anyway, this post will take advantage of pics I already have on the server, plus I was inspired to write after reading GMort's comments on Yes, The Truth Hurts.

Here are the links in question:

GMort's Blog - it's in the links, of course.
Yes The Truth Hurts - was in the links; I had to update it.
The Daemons Forum at YTTH

Milestones

Strictly Average just hit 200 Followers; this is the 397th post.  I don't like sharing Google Analytic numbers, since RSS Readers are so prevalent now, but I'll go ahead and tell you, just this once...

...there was *SELF-EDIT* unique readers yesterday.

Not bad, right?

Okay, I'll admit the reason I've never used a counter is because I'm an obsessive personality.  I can't make it about artificial measures of success, because truth is I've never thought it was that important.  I've got folks who dig my stuff.

That's plenty.

Thanks to all of you - I'll see you at the next milestone.  No, not the 400th post!

Sincerely, 

Brent

PS: I've got an important job interview next week, working in the trenches of mental health.  Wish me luck!

PPS: I've had issues with uploading pictures.  I've used up my 1Gig Blogger limit, so I'm working on the Strictly Average website, turning it into an FTP resource for this site.  I beg your patience!

Top Tip, Blogging Edition: Page Break

This post won't be that useful to you hobbyists out there, but it may help a fellow Blogger or two.  I usually won't use the page-break on a new article, preferring to leave the whole thing on the front page to make for an easy read.  The problem with that is long articles clogging up the page-space.

My solution is a bit of housecleaning every few days.

Sneek Peek! Chapterhouse Studios Doom of Malantai

I talked to Nick from Chapterhouse Studios at the Comic Asylum on Saturday; we played in the same tournament.  While I didn't have the opportunity to play him and revenge my loss from two years back, I did manage to snag his Doom of Malantai miniature and snap a few pics.  The upgrade pieces should be available soon, so keep an eye out for it!

Tournament Day Trip (Plus: Call Ahead!)

Big Whit and I traveled to the DFW metroplex yesterday to participate in a 3-round tournament at the Comic Asylum.

Here's the link... and I'd like to thank the owner's for a well-run, glorious little day's entertainment!  It's fair to say they didn't expect the turnout, and while they originally capped the event at 16 people, due to space, they put their heads together and figured out how to add 4 more spots.  I think that says a lot, since I've been to places where the proprietors wouldn't have bothered, despite some folks not only calling ahead up traveling quite a ways to attend.

My winnings plus a few extra bucks earned me three Raiders, the first of numerous purchases to come.

One Box Shopping

Today is a bit of a nothing post.  As I write this, I'm sitting in my Neuropharmacology class, 2.25 hours away from home, dreading the upcoming hour since I only really showed up for the test. Which is over.

This is a special kind of torment.

EDIT:  Okay, obviously I didn't finish this post, which I started on Tuesday evening.  I can't afford to miss anything from that class, which is particularly information-dense.  Moving on, here's the pictures - more talkie-talk at the end.

The Old Space Marine Painting Guide

Here's a picture of the old Space Marine Painting Guide, which I acquired at some point in the early 90's.  It is, without doubt, the most inspiring and thumbed-through Games Workshop supplement I've ever owned.  I love this thing.

It featured the old RTB1, Beakie-Marines, which feature in my Homage army...

...speaking of, it's currently being reworked, thanks in part to some additions from BSMoove of A Gentleman's Ones!  Keep an eye out in the future.

And yes, it does mean I'm working on 3 Marine variants at once.  I'll narrow it down as time goes on and end up finishing one before the others.

But I digress.  Point is I've read this book cover to cover thousands of times and it's high time I pay it its due.  My faux Storm Wardens - and what the heck should I call them? - will be painted with heraldry and such from this guide.

Top Tip: Test Models

I'm a big fan of test models, which I'll use to sort out an army's paint scheme as well as just fiddle with a technique.

Yes, you have to be careful when you're fiddlin' - you could go blind.

It's also fun just to paint something different to break the monotony of whatever you're working on.  My rule is I never spend more than an hour on a test model... and I usually spend much less.  I'm a fan of speed-painting techniques; I'd rather have an army that's painted to a decent standard than 10 great models in a primer-tastic army.

I hit a stall when painting my Codex Chapter, the Silver Skulls, so I took one and repurposed it.  I loved the Storm Wardens project a bunch of internet notables were involved in, but frankly I always thought the silver should be on the inside to draw the eye in.  So, as you can see, I reversed it.  This test model is different from most, in that I'll actually be finishing an army based on it...

Top Tip: Simple Flocking

I recently chatted with a hobbyist whose army's appearance suffered as the bases weren't touched.  He was a good painter, but I think he thought flocking some great mystery.

I was surprised, since flocking a miniature is the work of moments - it's the simplest thing in the world to do.  I've based entire armies in the half-hour before a tournament.

A few times, actually: back in the day it was fashionable to pull all-nighters to finish painting an army before an RTT.  Nowadays I need my sleep.  I'll finish an army no later than the week before.

Here's a simple flocking technique.  Let's not pretend you need instructions!  The pictures tell all.

I'm Thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sam-I-Am and I played a Fun-N-Fluffy game earlier this week, where I took an Eldar Warhost against his Chaos Space Marines.  Frankly, it was nice to play a game where the result didn't matter.  

Da Boyz, Game V

So, here we are, final game of the weekend!  Feel free to scroll through and check out the others, all except the loss in Round III - which I'll get to in due course.

As you'll see, I was paired with fellow Bell of Lost Souls writer Rob Baer, otherwise known as Man Boy Genius.  I reintroduced myself, whereupon he got a quizzical look on his face.  "I've met you before, man."  "Yup," I said, "except at Wargames Con you were feeling no pain!  I wasn't sure you'd remember."

A semi-legendary story!  Here's a dude that placed at an event even though he missed the early part of day two due to... well, you get the idea!  His army is well-known, but I assure you it's even better in person.

I won't spend too much time on this game, since it was fairly straightforward.  We have an objective each, and the first HQ to die will drop an objective.  My plan was to hold mine and sack a Herald, then hold that.  It would be enough to win the Primary.  The Secondary was Kill Points... and I wasn't confident I'd do well there.  It depended on his Hydra Battery.

A Generic Example

Here are some example, generic pics illustrating the scenario in today's Bell of Lost Souls article.  I made the decision to use the actual example from my game at Da Boyz because I thought it illustrated the emotional impact something like this could actually have.

Top of 2: Opponent shoots and charges, destroying the Daemon and the 'Bearers.

After combat is resolved, it becomes apparent he intended to launch the Thunder...hoof at the 2nd Daemon.

I intended for the 2nd picture to be ambiguous, like it was in the game.  I have no idea if the unit was in or out - and I still maintain that's not the point.  Assume in the picture above that it's close.

I took these shots this morning to replace the pics in the Bell article.  After talking with Larry, we determined it might do more harm than good.  Suffice it to say, I never for a moment had reason to doubt my opponent's motivation and sportsmanship.

Da Boyz GT, Game IV (And a Bit of Controversy)

"What?" I hear you say.  "Where is Game III?  Did I miss something?"

Nope.  It's just Game III was my devastating loss to the ultimate event winner, Greg Sparks.  That game is so loaded with lessons it's worth giving it its proper due.

Anyway, my game was against a Space Wolves player, a fine fellow whose name I can't remember.  I thought it was printed on his army list, but no dice.  I just checked.  A few things happened in this game which soured an otherwise hard-fought affair... we'll get to them in due course.  I didn't say this at the time, but I actually greatly admired his bearing and continued cheerfulness, even though I know he wasn't happy after the game.

Game II: Brother Captain James

Okay, here's the Battle Report for Game II of the Da Boyz GT in Rochester, New York.

As an aside, I got an email from Kris, the Blood Angels player from Game I.  I'm going to reply more specifically in a blog post, probably tomorrow, but I wanted to mention one thing.  I referred twice to his inexperience but I wasn't more specific than that.  I alluded to it, but here it is straight out: I meant his inexperience playing in GT's.  The dude knew how to rock his army, but nobody I know does as well as they want in their first major Indy.  It's a different scene.

I got both my preferred drop and my preferred turn choice.  Here's BCJ's setup, and on Turn 1 he shoots across the board, spreading out his army to make the drops difficult for me.  The Mission is Lost Artifact, so we had to locate the objective before fighting over it.

Here I am playing Brother Captain James from the Battle for Salvation.  I wanted to ask him Jawaballs-specific questions, but there wasn't much time...

Da Boyz GT, Game 1

So, it's time to get to Da Boyz content... more specifically, the content most of you are interested in: the Battle Reports.

Lucky for you, I ALWAYS take my camera!

I went 2nd, but I didn't get my preferred drop, which was definitely the stronger of the two.  My plan changed at that point from 'attack' to 'hold him off.'  What was most important was the Horror unit with the Icon - I HAD to have that Icon, since the mission required your units to move to the opponent's deployment zone for the win.  Kris' zone is the left edge of the table, so you'll see later in the game my units shift left. 

Game 1 was against a new tournament player... my notes aren't here but unless I'm mistaken his name is Kris.  Obviously he's playing Blood Angels.  He's got a Furioso in a Pod, a Tac in Pod, two Tacs in Rhinos, a Predator, and a Land Raider Crusader with a Terminator Squad including a Reclusiarch and a Sanguinary Priest.  It's a fairly balanced rock to the head, but I like it a lot better than most Blood Angels armies out there.  He played it well but I think his inexperience played against him.

Da Boyz GT, Army Pics Part II

Here are more pictures from Da Boyz - as always, click to enlarge. Enjoy.

Da Boyz, Video and Final Results

Some Da Boyz material...

Da Boyz... Random Army Pics

I'm actually sitting in class, waiting for my neurobiology teacher to show up and drop some knowledge on me, but I thought I would take a few minutes to update the old blog.

For the astute - heck, for the dense - it's obvious I wasn't able to update the way I wanted over the weekend.  Reason?  No internet.  El sucko, I tell you!  So I'm a bit behind, but have no fear 'cause I've got a lot to say and I'm ready to say it!

Just not right now.

Da Boyz GT Update

Okay, this is a quick one.  I'm sitting in the first floor of the hotel, banging away on some ancient keyboard attached to a steam-powered computer... this is what they call the professional office.

They advertised it.  Lame.  Also, the internet is either slow or nonexistent - either way, it made bringing my laptop so I could write and post updates from the event pointless.

So you'll just have to wait!  I'll get to writing... and there is a lot to talk about.

Since you're curious, I'll go ahead and tell you I won all but one of my games, and the loss I took was to the eventual tournament winner.

Who played Footdar.  It was a clinic, and probably the worst beating I've taken in 5 years.

You'll hear all about it you will.

Brent

PS: I didn't get to meet Chumby.  I'm bitterly disappointed.

Video: Daemons Vs Space Wolves

Well, I'm leaving for Da Boyz tomorrow (Friday), so wish me luck. I'm taking the laptop and camera, so tune in for updates. Until then, here's the last test game...

A Conversation...

...with the Mighty Mighty Carlos.  How many toys does one person need?

Pictures, For No Apparent Reason

These are from the Mighty Mighty Carlos' vast collection of Imperial Fist.  Obviously these aren't finished, but this picture is from an RTT ages ago - 4 years, maybe - and he won something for it.

Da Boyz Daemons!

Da Boyz!  Daemons!  I'm already getting excited.  Here they are.  Not like you don't already know.

Da Boyz Daemons!

Old, Old School Dreadnoughts

I've got Space Crusade and my old Homage army on the mind, for reasons which shall soon be obvious!

I've got some lead-up Da Boyz material coming up tomorrow, then I guess I'd better have something in the pipe in case I can't blog from the event this weekend.  Except you know I'm going to blog from the event this weekend!

Anyway, I painted these forever ago for my Harbingers Space Marines.  They've since gone away, and these will too.  Into the bath!

Sharing the Pain: Tactica

Having the actual Dark Eldar Codex makes it much easier to read than the...

...er, um... other option.

The... er, um... 'other option' I've had access to for weeks now.  Which I unwittingly failed to share with the locals, assuming in one case that I'd sent it and in others that they had it already.

I faced an icy reception at the FLGS on Friday!

I figured it out when I asked Gauthic, the resident Dark Eldar player, why he was acting like he'd never read the rules before.  Well, because he hadn't.

Uh, oh.  In my defense, I'm thoughtless, not mean.

Anyway, getting a good read-through today allowed me to solidify the build I'm planning - a Urien Rakarth Wrack and Grotesque build, if you're curious - but it also clued me in to some dirty tricks we should expect to see.

For example, the Share the Pain rule.  Basically, an IC joins a unit and they pool the pain tokens.  If both have one, then the combined unit has two.

Feel No Pain and Furious Charge are nothing to sniff at.

If the IC leaves, the pain tokens are split as evenly as possible, with the odd tokens going to the unit the Dark Eldar player chooses.  Obviously, this has it's uses.

An IC can steal Pain Tokens outright.

You're smart: you see the potential, don't you?

A Warrior Unit has a Token; the IC joins in one round and takes off in another, with the Token.

A Warrior Unit has two Tokens; the IC joins in one round and takes of with one Token in the next.  It has to be split evenly.

A Warrior Unit has two Tokens; an IC with one joins the unit in one round and takes the extra Token in the next, leaving the Warrior Unit with one token but making off with two to Join a group of Incubi.

It goes on and on.  Why would you make use of this?  Two reasons I can think of.

1)  The unit with the extra Token can't make best use of it.  For example, it's a dedicated shooting unit so the 2nd 'Furious Charge' Pain Token is wasted.
2)  The unit is almost destroyed, so the Dark Eldar plays the double-knuckle shuffle (heh) to safeguard the valuable Pain Token.

Advanced Uses

An IC with a Token joins a unit with none, leaving it behind in the next round to 'borrow' the Pain Token of another unit.  The reasoning here is the IC divests himself of the Pain Token first, freeing himself to steal the second unit's Token... otherwise he'd leave with an equal split.

A unit with an IC has 3 Pain Tokens.  The IC leaves with one prior to a suicidal, softening-up combat, so the unit won't be Fearless.  If the unit does well, it will probably stick around; if not, fleeing combat might preserve it for use later.

In Closing

There are only so many rounds in a game and there are only so many Independent Characters available to utilize these tricks.  They are tactics, not strategies.  Even accomplishing this tactic once or twice in a game could prove useful.

I see this happening more often in Haemonculus-lead armies, simply because of the number of IC's.

I'm planning on building that... coincidence?

Lastly, I haven't seen Sharing the Pain discussed elsewhere in this fashion, but there are a lot of sharp talking-heads out there, so it may well have been.  I say this because I rarely choose to write Tactics articles since inevitably someone has done it before, or because most people pay lip service to improving their game but rarely do so.

And no, the pictures aren't Dark Eldar, but I hate posting without giving you something to look at!

Video: Daemons Vs Space Marines

This is Brent Vs the Mighty Mighty Carlos, Daemons Vs Imperial Fist in the Lost Artifact scenario of Da Boyz.



Enjoy!

Brotherhood Update... Again

Ah, Friday!  How I adore me some Fridays.

Here's a work-in-progress shot of my latest Brotherhood model.  For some reason I've been enjoying painting them individually; hopefully I'll come to my senses and batch paint them soon.

For the record, these are table-top quality models, and as has been pointed out previously, I use an underutilized technique.  That is, I dip my models in chocolate and roll them in poo.  You've been warned!

I've found that taking pictures and giving them a go-over is a good way of finding faults you're missing at the painting station.  I wasn't quite done with this model anyway, but I can already tell I need to blend the purplish-pink horns better.

The skull on the horn needs a dividing tone of some sort.  The horns become more obvious.  Most of all, the face around the nose is no good at all.  I can see a few random paint smears to clean up.  All in all, not too much to do.

I've got the video battle report with the Mighty Mighty Carlos coming up later today.  Fun stuff!

A Few Odds and Ends...

 I had the game against the Mighty Mighty Carlos last night and it was as epic as I'd hoped.  Today is school, so I'll just show you a collection of pics I shot.  They speak for themselves, but I love the Vulcan and the Pimp-Mobile.

Video Battle Report: Daemons Vs Necrons

I'm pretty excited about this Video Battle Report, though I'll admit I'm concerned about it's length.  I got it under 10 minutes, but there wasn't much else I could cut to get it there.

Oh, yea - go check out my article on Bell of Lost Souls: An Argument for Kill Points.



In other battle report news, I've got a game against the Mighty Mighty Carlos and his amazing Imperial Fists tonight... it may be the best video I'll do, I'm that stoked!  Both armies are painted, is to a very high standard.  You'll dig it.

AND I still have two more videos to work!  That's content, baby!

Top Tip: Pin Your Model

Here's my Daemon Prince of Nurgle... and no, I don't typically use him!  Do you see the problem?

There are magnets on his shoulders for the wings - I know it's a strange look without the wings in place, but that's not it.

Top Tip: Write Your Recipe!

I'm in a state of shock right now.  I happily took a break from Neurobiology classwork to slap some paint on my Brotherhood Wolf Guard models... only to realize halfway through Step 3 that I couldn't remember the washes to use!

EDIT:  I'm thread-jacking this thing to let you know my article dropped over on the House of Paincakes: check it out.

I ended up having to experiment to recreate it, and luckily I ended up remembering it was a combination of washes in a specific order.  Still, I'd already base-washed 3 models, so I'm hoping I can correct it without issue.  WRITE YOUR RECIPE!

EDIT:  The Master Manipulator (every store needs one) just mentioned in a comment that he keeps a small, black composition book next to his painting desk to write his recipes down in.  I decided to edit this post and add that, since it's a great suggestion.  I commonly keep a digital recorder handy to document ideas (stories, articles, Off Topical jokes - that kind of thing) but it never occurred to me to keep track of recipes with it.  Worth a try though.

EDIT EDIT:  It turns out Dethtron has already posted about his painting journal - obviously the Master Manipulator (every store needs one) is a big idea thief!  Plus, the thinks I dip my models in poo.

My Brotherhood Dreadnought, Bjorn the Claw-Handed.  What can I say?  I love the model, so Ebay'd it!

My mess.  That's a Root Beer, the only real substitute for Shiner Bock before noon.  No, I don't actually drink as much as I imply.  I'm a beer a day dude, unless I'm on vacation.

My mess, again.  I need to clean my station but that takes time away from painting.

Brotherhood models sharing space with Chaos Space Marines.  Maybe they're sharing spikey bitz.