Unicorns Love Positive Comments!

So often my Comments Come Lately series has focused on the negative - trolling and such.  Here's a much more positive example...

In Tuesdays article I referenced the Unicorns backstory, which many of you know came about from my conversations with Jenn from Next Jenn - not to be confused with Jenn my wife Jenn, of course!

On Unicorns and the Holidays  ...if you're interested in the full story.

It's what ianlogsdon is referencing, his concern that the comments would include bigoted trolling.  I'm happy to report that didn't happen, which doesn't surprise me.

I think our community does inclusion really well.  I'm proud of you folks for that.

Then there's Cavalier, proof that adults can work out conflict and misunderstandings; when I pointed out where I was coming from he was man enough to admit his mistake.  I have mad respect for that, because we can all of us screw up but it takes a stud to recognize it!

Earning a License - the Stress is Lifted

How much should real life intrude on the pleasant fantasy of the Blogosphere?

Not so much.  This is my hobby, so I work hard not to drag the stresses of my stressful job onto the pages of this blog.  I love my job, but man do I need a break at the end of the day!

I've been working in the MHMR industry for most of my adult life; mostly for the later half but now for the former.  I work on the acute unit of a forensic hospital...

...so I see some very ill people - and I don't get to meet them at their best.  If I'm lucky, and I bust my butt, maybe I can do my part in aiding in someone's recovery.

I love my job.  I love what I do.

But I've been under a great deal of additional stress for the last few months.  I took a semester off graduate school to take the position of which I just spoke, but it hinged on my passing a licensing test.  I was confident I would pass, but honestly I wasn't invested in the same way I am now... I figured, "Hey, if I fail I'll just move on, right?"

But I didn't want to, nor is it that easy.

In my profession about 1 in 5 people fail the licensing exam.  You get 3 tries, after which you can't qualify to take it again without years of extra effort.

I didn't have the option of a repeat - if I failed I was going to be fired.  It doesn't matter how well-prepared one is, that's stress on a whole other level!

Bottom line, I passed.  I did well, in fact, but that's secondary to getting it all behind me!

It's a huge weight lifted.  Here's hoping I get my free time back...

Adepticon Championships, Game 4

So, here we are, Game 4 - my worry at this point was making sure I didn't choke.  Seriously.  Because otherwise it would have been a long ride home!

My opponent in this game had a beautiful Kharn-lead Berzerkers army.  It was the most optimized version of this army, in my opinion, and given my the dude was an experienced tournament player I figured he knew how to use it!

Still, I'll admit I was satisfied with the draw, because this is the type of army mine is designed to play, a straight-forward Meq powerhouse.

We're playing for Objectives, Kill Points, and... something else.  He deploys in a tight formation, protecting his Defilers from shooting.

Adepticon Championships, Game 3 (Tyranids!)

Let's get back to the blind luck of a 256-person national tournament.  Here's Game 3 of the Adepticon Championships.

Let's interrupt the blind luck of a 256-person national tournament.  I just wanted to point out some interesting conversations happening in the Blogosphere right now.  The Back 40K has an interesting piece on Orks which interestingly I both agree and disagree with, but it's informative and the tone is open to a dialogue.  I always dig that!  Next is Whiskey and 40K, where Mike draws a comparison between two army lists; I like this one because I've been pushing my Competitive is Consistent mantra lately and Mike's theme touches on mine some.  Carry on!

On the Way to a FNIF, I Wrote This. News and Daemons at 11.

Caption Contest or What?

This may be the strangest article to come out of my (divided) digital mind to date.  I was trying to write a Friday Night Internet Fight, since Dethtron has a paper that's due, but I just ended up writing a long opinion piece.  I'm back to the drawing board, but you get to suffer through the scraps.

There's a lot being said online about Daemons right now.  Some of it I can understand, even if I don't necessarily agree.  Some of it's just ignorant; here's my favorite!

I'm pretty sure I'm drawing the intended conclusion.  Namely, that the Daemon Codex (or Necrons, or Orks, or...) is so poor that any success with it automatically renders that success suspect.  That the gap between Daemons and the competitive Codexes is so great that only poor event format, poorly skilled opponents, or blind luck can account for any success, even in the hands of a skilled player.

Lordy, but that's genius ego on a whole new level!  I literally laughed 'till I cried.  Still, as much as I thought some of the comments were ignorant (and written by Yes-Men), the same can be true on any major blog or forum... except my articles, of course!  Here's the original article on Yes the Truth Hurts, which is worth a quick once over:

Adepticon Championships, Game 2 (Mech Guard!)

This was a tough match up - a very tough match up.  While this isn't the Guard army I would build, it's still a great build... but worse, from my point of view, it seemed custom made to beat me.

He had three units of two Hydras with Heavy Bolters and Heavy Stubbers: Str6 Twin-Linked, Str5, Str4... and separated across each third of the board.  Most of the game they pivoted and fired, pivoted and fired.  And that's just a portion of the army - you can see the rest in the picture.

Comments Come Lately: Did Brent Misspeak?

Here's another episode of everyone's favorite recycled comments!  Fresh from Brent's Bell of Lost Soul's article comes this gem... did Brent misspeak?  First, Captain VonKillenstein comments and Lord Sandwich responds:

Captain VonKillenstein doesn't give up so easily!  He replies, and Brent finally gets involved.

Daemons Adepticon, Addendum

This article is an addendum to my Bell of Lost Souls Tuesday post.  If it seems incomplete, it kinda is!  Go check it out and leave a comment or three. :)

A Philosophy

In order to write this article, I had to accept I'd have to share some of my army design strategies and philosophies.  I don't have an issue sharing, because anything worthwhile isn't lost through spreading it around... so why haven't I done it before?

I have, here and there, but anyone who's read my articles over the last few years knows I don't generally write 'competitive' articles talking about what's 'best.'  I don't have a problem with writing contentious material, my issue is there are numerous routes to enjoyment of this hobby.  For some, that means playing a well-painted, fluffy army in a friendly atmosphere; for others, it's more about squeezing a list until it's trimmed of everything nice then throwing it into the deep end of tournament play.

I'm definitely with Conan on this one: there's a dude who knew what was best in life!

So I like competitive play; even so, I roll my eyes when someone says, "This army is the best," and, "that army is unplayable."  While there's no arguing some armies are better than others, usually that's because they have the most options.

Any army is capable of winning if you're willing to put in the effort.  The best players on the tournament scene do one thing, over and over again...

Practice.  So when people say they were surprised I took Daemons to the 6th seed in the Top 16, I realize those are the folks who don't realize I've done nothing but play Daemons for the last few years, perfecting my game.

That kind of effort always rewards.  Adepticon wasn't the only top result I've pulled in with my Daemons list, just the biggest!

Bugs! Update: Tervibug with Magus

I've been working on tomorrow's Bell article, which deals with my Adepticon Daemons army, so this is just a quick Bugs! update.

Adepticon Championships, Game 1

I have a lot to say about the games I played at the Adepticon, both from a generalist and army specific standpoint... I just don't have time to say it all right now!  To that end, I'm going to quickly cover Game 1 and we'll use it as a starting point to the the rest of the conversation.

My opponent was a true gentleman, a very nice dude and sportsman.  This is always good, since I'm usually a wreck for the first round of any event.  (It's a combination of nerves and a bad leg.)

300 Followers!

The last few days I've been fighting a losing battle with my ISP, trying to convince them that, "No, my expensive wireless router isn't at fault, Mr. Big ISP, your ancient modem is a piece of crap."

Me being here today isn't evidence that I won, just that occasionally I can get the damn thing to work.

Still, it was a nice surprise to log on and find out I've hit the 300 Google Follower mark - for an obsessive digital headache like moi, such is the things great days are made of!

Much thanks to all of you, many of whom I know use Google Reader, or similar devices, to get your (used to be daily) dose of my warped personality-driven blog.  Sincerely, my enjoyment of this hobby increased manyfold (not to be confused with manifold, 'cause who knows if we're a string of universes occasionally hitting one another).

Thanks!

Just, thanks!

Brent (and company)

PS: for those of you who are interested, another milestone is right around the corner - I'm a few weeks away from the 500 Post mark, and that's on Strictly Average alone!

Bugs! Harpy Conversions

So there's no Harpy model but I want to use 'em - what's a Strictly Average hobbyist to do?

So I want to justify the insane resources I spent on 2nd and 3rd Edition metal Nids models - what's a Strictly Average hobbyist to do?

So I wanted to get metal shavings all over the living room floor so my long-suffering wife can step on them - what's a Strictly Average hobbyist to do?

So I want you to hurry this thing along - what's a Green With Envy Digital Ego to do?

GW's Summer Supplement: Storm of Magic

I don't normally do these 'here's what GW is doing on the horizon' fanboi posts, but this one strikes me as interesting.  You can read 'interesting' as 'whose idea was this, anyway?'

Reason?  Does anyone actually think magic ISN'T strong enough?  What, we need a supplement in order to see the Winds of Magic devastate a battlefield?

Adepticon Interview: The Independent Characters

Well, really only one of the above.  My interview is with Karl (it is with a 'k' right?) prior to the Championship Rounds of the 40K tournament.

Basically, this shows off the rig these dudes used to capture the finals in all its ugly glory!



(NOTE:  This is something of a preview, as this will ultimately end up on Bell.)

Adepticon: So When Do I Recover, Exactly? (and Pics!)

It's Friday and I've been home for days now.  I managed to make it to work on the Tuesday following our epic drive home - despite only adding a few hours sleep to the not-so-glorious total for the weekend.

I had to save the world, after all!  (Although, strangely, everything was okay when I got back...)

I'm still exhausted.  I've had the extra sleep, but I still wake up just as tired as when I laid my head down.  Seriously, a weekend format like that takes it out of you.  I was tired on Saturday - by Sunday I was exhausted!

Those of you in the states may know we had a wind storm blow through the midwest.  Yea, me and JWolf piloted a 15-passenger van through that.  I have callouses.

Adepticon Armies

Adepticon: On People and Forthcoming Material

Well folks, I'm exhausted.

(Click HERE to see the leaked Tomb Kings pics.  I was really worried they'd replace all my stuff - like Chariots and Skeletons; you know, the basics - but it seems I'll just have to invest in the new unit types.  I'm so there!)

I went to work today despite an overwhelming lack of sleep.  Saturday I got two hours, and only about four on Sunday.  Yesterday I got home late after traveling all day from Chicago...

I had a front-row seat for the finals!  Seriously, the place soon filled up, but the Independent Characters Podcast let me help out with analysis of the game.  Interestingly, I called it fairly early - I'm not sure if they aired that or not though.

Adepticon Road Trip

For those of you who haven't seen it on Bell yet...

Keep the kids away from this one.

I guess I'll drop some photos...

Adepticon 2011 Update

I came up wondering if I was going to get a chance to play in any event at all.  I knew I had a reasonable chance of participating in the Gladiator... but be careful what you wish for!

I was referred by Greg Sparks to fill a vacancy in his Team Tournament team, then this morning I found out I was a sure thing for the Gladiator.  So how could I be disappointed - after all, the only one I was missing out on was the primary 40K event...

...but I was.  I wanted in - so careful what you wish for, right?  My name was pulled to join in, with only about 5 minutes to prepare.

Yea, that happened.  I'll fill you in on all the ugly details later.  

Day 1 was today - wanna know how I did?

Attention Adepticon: Dethtron's Concert!

The Short (Party) Bus arrived safely in Chicago!  I took some video that should be going up on Bell sometime soon.  FWI, I'm looking forward to meeting as many folks as I can, so if you happen to catch me out and about feel free to introduce yourself.