Taking the Short (Party) Bus to Adepticon!

Okay folks, I'm packing up Not Brent and the both of us are hitching a ride to this year's Adepticon!

Yea, I'm excited.

Am I flying?  No.  Am I driving.  Some.

Am I hitching a ride on the Short (Party) Bus being driven up from Austin by a baker's dozen or so Flylords?  Hell yea!

How many Texans can fit in a rental vehicle?  Guess we'll find out!

Killzone Missions

Here's the continuation of the Killzone article I had on Bell today.  Check out the article: HERE.

Brian has always been a great sport, and I appreciated the opportunity to showcase his talent yet again... seriously, just how incredible should one dude be?  I have to work twice as hard at being mediocre as this dude does at being great.  What can you do?

Brian on Killzone Missions for Adepticon

Brian:  The most recent release of Special Operations: Killzone includes an additional download with 18 individual Missions designed to add a dramatic flair to your standard games. Each of these Missions present an often quirky agenda designed to redirect your resources and challenge your capacity as a Team Leader. Naturally, this seemed an ideal starting point for thinking about how the tables would work.

Tervi-Bug Update: Hybrids

Miss Emerald Rose said:  


"There is no belly filled with termies, no womb or anything that looks like it is carrying the gaunts that are going to be "birthed" into battle."


...


Who said anything about Gaunts?  :)

Bugs! Tervi-Bug Conversion

Well, I finished my Tervi-Bug conversion.  Yea, some armies might call it a Tervigon - what's your point?  Anyway, I've got to clean this model up and get a base coat on it, but I wanted to drop it here before I head off to work.  Thoughts?

Bugs! (Tyranids): First Thoughts Part Two

(A nifty Tervigon Conversion.)

Okay, so I had a chance to play the Bugs as opposed to just read about them online and Theory Hammer out a strategy.  Here's my updated initial thoughts...

...and I'm glad I'm getting to a point where I can at least speak intelligently about the book.  Frankly, I think you have to play an army to know an army, but that's a story for another time.

Bug Prime:  I'll take two please.  Thanks!

I've been FNIF'd... Again!

Ah, Dethtron, he who is co-proprietor of the House of Paincakes and originator of the original anti-establishment blog Dick Move... what's up with THIS?

THIS being the week's Friday Night Internet Fights, that most glorious of long-standing Blogosphere traditions...

...and no, it doesn't take much to be long-standing; things move fast online.

Point being, when someone said, "Hey, did you know you were on Friday Night Internet Fights?" last night, I admit I was scared.

Does that make me less of a man?  (Yup.)

40K Video: Eldar Vs Blood Angels

Here's another Battle Report between me and the Mighty Mighty Carlos. Keep in mind, the purpose of these games is to test Carlos' Blood Angels builds. As of this posting, we've played Game III, where I took him on with the forces of the Chaos Space Marines!



Yea, I'm aware it says 'Daemons' on the YouTube video - that's what I'm used to typing, I guess...

Comments Come Lately

Here's a few fun little blurbs that were missed by the general public the first time around...

On Punctuation and Food Poisoning

Mondays are always busy, between work and writing I always have a full day.  At work we're obliged to meet clinically with each patient, which can make for a long day.  Of course, Monday is also the day I write my weekly offering for Bell of Lost Souls.

It was a good one this week: check it out.

Anyway, yesterday the doctor was behind a bit so we were obliged to work through lunch.  I left to grab a quick bite at *edited so as not to get sued* and ate it at my desk.  "You ready, Doc?" says I, your favorite Empty Blue Digital Headache... at which point I felt a stab of pain deep in my guts.

It's often called food poisoning - it should be called Lord take me now!   Yup, it sucks harder than getting smacked around on a regular basis by Da Warboss Stalin, the Official Strictly Average Criticizer (the O-SAC).

The Tower of Aren't-You-Hard-To-Please

(The locals are hard to please.)  Behold yonder tower, sitting upon a table of ugliest green; be it ugly or be it awesome?

Turdlets of Random 40K Wisdom, Part 1

From Strictly Average: The Blog

In an attempt to improve upon a New Media offering, our hero takes the first steps in developing a new form of video blogging.

You'll no doubt hate it.

Featured here are the Mighty Mighty Carlos and Brent himself, lifted from various videos and interpreted by Elle-drag, the infamously and not-really-that-famous Slanneshi-themed Farseer and obvious Eldrad ripoff.

Enjoy or Not, your option.

Eldar Vs Chaos Space Marines, 2500pts

This one is pretty picture intensive; let's get started.

The board.

Bug Help From Hive Mind Synaps3

Hello again boys and girls, children and Unicorns of all ages, I have a special treat for you today!  Being a completely ego-free Empty Blue Digital Headache myself, I'm quite prepared to beg ask for help when I deem it necessary, so I shot an email to a successful Tyranid tournament player and blogger, hyv3mynd.  What follows is the response he wrote on his site synaps3.  

Brent from Strictly Average and Bell of Lost Souls honored me with an email today:

House of Paincakes Competition

So you know, my Empty Digital Headache peeks into the House of Paincakes on a daily basis - and not just to check out the specials!  (Ever notice the motto changes every time you reload the page?  That's special!  I think they stole the idea from my scrolling marquee, but that's just me - I'm bitter and green!)

The House of Paincakes is a super-cool and mega-awesome blog, as evidenced by its place in my Big Boys Blog Roll, but honestly it's primarily a place for blogs to congregate and rub shoulders.  At the HoP foul language has the Parental Stamp of Approval, so sign up already you consenting adults out there.

So why am I whoring my not inconsiderable services passing along this digital reach around?  Because Lauby and Dethtron, the mad geniuses behind the House of Paincakes, are putting on a competition - and YOU could win!

Details can be found HERE.  <--------  No, there!

Bottom line?  The HoP is big enough to support FOUR blog rolls... so what's going to replace Original and Extra Crispy?

You decide!

Brent (Not Brent)

PS:  I want to thank hyv3mynd  for his response to my begging and pleading request for help.  I've asked permission to repost the article here but I can't help but drop a link for those who just can't wait.

Check it OUT.  <--------  No, there!   His blog is in its new home in my Read Up to Keep Up Blog Roll, so visit often!

Color Theory and Light Sources

Yesterday I posted a Dark Eldar Archon I've been working on.  Here were my general guidelines:

He lost his base in an almost Not Brent fit of focused chicanery... or some such nonsense!

The model has red armor and a cloak with purple lining and a light tan exterior.  He's standing under a neon light.  

Dark Eldar Archon, Now With Imaginary Light Source!

Something 'happened' to my Dark Eldar Archon. I 'dropped' the model and it (conveniently) snapped right at the base without damaging the rest of the model broke.  Now you'll have to imagine a light source!

Anyway, the MM(esno), the Mighty Mighty Carlos, James Gang the Younger, and Lauby Himself all commented on the first go around and requested pictures without a flash.  You'd think I know better.  (You do.)  Here goes.

Dark Eldar Archon, Light Effects using Wet Palette

The Master Manipulator (every store needs one) is the first in our area to embrace the wet palette; in fact, he's gone through several variations until he's arrived at the custom model he now uses.

I went and bought one, but you see I've got a lot to learn.  He's always said he doesn't feel I stretch myself enough, so when I got one a few weeks back I decided to take my time on a model instead of knocking one out.

You'll have to be the judge of whether it was worth the extra effort.

As always, you can click on the picture to zoom in.

Tyranids in My Future... What's Up With That?

Okay, I'm stepping on myself a bit with this post, but I need some direction.  As I mentioned last night, we're doing a build project in our local area again, meaning all of us are starting or (picking up again from scratch, in some cases) new armies.  Last time we did this it was random, and I rolled Daemons - this time it's a personal choice.

Here's my acquisition - bagged up like drugs!

A Few Words, a Few Pics

Probably the most important event I've been a part of was the army build project of 09-2010, where the Master Manipulator (every store needs one), Evil Homer, and I were sitting around and got a crazy idea to roll random armies to build.  The madness swept the store and the lot of us built Hard Boyz armies - from 750 points all the way up to 2500.

Big Whit's Mess!

Some of you may know how addicted I am to pictures of other people's mess!  Every so often, I take pictures of my own man cave (thanks Jenn... 'cause we all know a man cave is located in a woman's house...) and drop them on Strictly Average.

Even though it usually doesn't draw a lot of comments, it gets a metric ton of hits.  And according to Analytics, people stick around.  That's when I realized folks like playing Where's Waldo with another dude's toys!  With that in mind, here's Big Whit's recently renovated game space.

The discerning reader will notice the beginnings of the A-Team...

Real Life Hits Japan

I was up this morning at 4:00am Central Time, feeling sorry for myself because my bad leg was hurting.



That's just a crap-ton of perspective right there.

I ran across this and watched it like a dream; at some point it sunk in that this was happening right now.  I turned on Fox News...

"...right-of-center ideologues but more personally palatable usually than the left-of-center ideologues on the other channels," he says, aware of the irony as he posts an Aljazeera video.  (I read everything; can't trust just one source.)

I got the following information:  7th worst in history, 8.9 shock.  The tsunami will affect 20 countries and people are being woken in the middle of the night and told to run.  Hundreds of aftershocks; 40 alone greater than 5.0.

There are fires burning atop these great inland waves, just sweeping along.  Unfortunately very real life.

Strictly Average is a hobby blog, and in my mind a hobby is for fun, for relaxing.  I don't spend bandwidth on the real - people get plenty of that already.

This is an obvious exception.  Hawaii at 3am, California at 10am.

I guess there's not much more to say.

Grey Knights Dread Knight... Only $500!

Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration of course, but the just check out the GW website for the new prices.

$66 Stormraven
$62 Landraider
$50 Grey Knight Terminators
$33 Grey Knights
$20 Librarian

It's probably a good thing the Grey Knights will be a small, elite army - the price of an army will be up there.

I spent some time with the PDF a few days back, working out a list or three for fun... and is it a coincidence that everything on my shortlist is among the most expensive options?

Moving on...

Fixin' Grammar!

Okay, I had a bit too much fun here!

Let me say in advance that I don't generally advocate proper English in Internet comments.  Normally, I find correcting someone's language the height of pompous.

Pompous is good sometimes, too!

A Picture is Worth How Many Words?

I just finished my Bell article, and on a good week that takes the evening to write.  I was too beat for much more.

Of this I have no doubt: Carlos will be back.  He's learning a new army, and baby steps can be rough.  He'll stick it out.  I hope I do the same - I've finally decided my new build.  More on that later.

The Angels couldn't get a beachhead... and it didn't help the Terminators kept putting off coming in!

Daemons Vs Blood Angels, 2500pts

EDIT:  It was pointed out to me via YouTube that one can't choose to reroll the Descent rule if it passes, which Carlos was trying to do.   I checked the wording and it's clear: you can only reroll failed attempts.

I'll pass that on to the Mighty Mighty Carlos.  Now back to the regularly scheduled program...

Turkey Burgers and Grey Gray Nights

This is what's called a blurb.

Yes, I wasn't kidding about the turkey burger.  Fat free cheese and mayo, wheat bread, grilled pineapple, teriyaki sauce, and TURKEY. 

It's Never-Ending... Hard Boyz, Daemons: Part I

As I sit here waiting for my turkey burger with grilled pineapples (my wife's handiwork), I decided I had time to write a quick post.

I'll have to take my faux burger on the road, 'cause I'm heading over to play the Mighty Mighty Carlos' Descent of Decent Angels in a 2500 point Hard Boyz test game.  Here's what I'm taking.

No, I don't like Grinders.  No, it isn't optimized.  Piss on all that!  I know what my best list is... which is why I need to keep messing with the formula.  I'm testing Soul Grinders and a beat-stick Nurgle Daemon Prince in place of my tried and true Tzeentchian Gun-Bunnies.

The rest of the list is tight.  Even the Troops - know why?  'Cause it works, that's why!  It's better than 6 5-man 'Bearer units because it has options they don't.

Now I'm late - time to take my food on the road!

Pics to follow...

Quarantine Zone

"Where, oh where, have you been Brent?" cries Ye Ol' Blogosphere, bereft of Brent-related comfort since last Friday's Friday Night Internet Fights.

And last Wednesday's Top X.

And last Wednesday's Bell article... and last Tuesday's.

Even when I'm sick I perform!

I'm on the mend, and I'm off to work, so expect content forthwith.

Oh, and I'm playing the year's first practice Hard Boyz game tomorrow: it'll be my 2500 point Daemons Vs. the Mighty Mighty Carlos' Descent of Decent Flesh Tearers.

Oh joy!