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!

A Campaign Commentary (And a Sneak Preview!)

Why isn't GW doing something like this?

Privateer Press is doing a series of linked campaigns... and supporting it with rules!  As you can see in the picture, I have a campaign tracker, a booklet to document my progress and upgrades, and a campaign card to augment my army with.  The winner gets a nifty coin but all the participants will get a badge.  The badges link with other campaign badges to form a larger emblem...

...and doesn't that appeal to the ruthless collector in all of us?

The Master Manipulator (every store needs one) ordered this set for us at Privateer Press.  It cost our FLGS owner a bit of out of pocket money, but he made that up when we all kicked forward our $10 bucks to participate.  We're going to have a month of gaming followed by a tournament... *trademark infringement alert* and there can be only one!

What's not to like?

Now yes, I'm aware GW has done campaigns in the past, but haven't those been huge, sprawling, world-wide affairs?  Yes, I'm aware they've released supplements where you can create maps to fight over, and that's all to the good...

...so why am I so excited about this?  Why do I feel like it's different?

You tell me.

Brent

PS:  As an aside, this is Strictly Average's 450th post.  Not bad for a personality-centered hobby blog, huh?  

PPS:  I've decided to do a contest or drawing of some kind when I hit 300 Google Followers.  Details to come - this is just a sneak preview type of thing!

Editorial: Evil Homer and the IT Army

Evil Homer is my nemesis.  (Hey, check out this article!)

I've mentioned that before, right?

Point being, of all the local characters - most of whom are pretty top flight competition when they want to roll out their best army - I play ol' Homer the most.

I've given it some thought in the past and I believe it's because we have a pretty similar skill set, so all our games tend to be close affairs.

More than that though, he's always - always - pushing the envelope of competitive play.  He sits down to win.  He's a thinker, in the game and out.

Sometimes I think these obsessive traits bite him in the *SELF-EDIT* some.  Whereas most of us can let something go, I'm not sure he really can.  He's never satisfied.

I doubt he ever will be.

Warmachine Tournament: Game I

I'm taking my Menoth, Amon Ad-Raza list against Gauthic's Striker Cygnar.  It's fair to say this game went entirely may way... until it didn't.

Setup...

Top Tip: Basing on the Go!

Bigger Barrera's Custom Sculpts

Little Barrera's brother, Bigger Barrera (who isn't, really) brought his sculpting tools to last Saturday's Warmachine Tournament.

Amon Ad-Raza

I don't claim to be an expert in Warmachine.  In my area we've only recently started playing it.  Still, I have a Warcaster I'm really fond of so I thought I'd share.

Amon Ad-Raza is a 'Jack-Caster', meaning his spells, abilities, and Feat work best with plenty of Warjacks to take advantage of it.  That's not necessarily standard, either, since loading up on infantry and solos are viable strategies.

Nothing hits harder than a Warjack though, so anything which allows you to get these monsters into combat is very useful.  Amon's spell Mobility gives all the Warjacks in his Battlegroup +2 Spd and Pathfinder, so even Menoth's heavy Warjacks who have a standard speed of 4, can suddenly start tiptoeing through the tulips like infantry!

Team Tournament Round III: Finally!

So, here we are... finally!  I'm not sure why it took me so long to get around to writing this game up.  Part of it was time, because these reports take longer to do than any other article type... and maybe part of it was due to Not Brent's Coup of 2011.

Don't say his name three times in front of a mirror.  (Try it!)  Maybe I shouldn't have even put that out there... you won't actually summon Bloody Mary (...Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?) but instead will summon Not Brent, who will serve you a Bloody Mary with way too much tabasco.

Moving on, (...probably a good idea) I'm playing Cory-who-is-not-Cody, aka OverCaffeinated, and his buddy who shall not be named...

Not Brent Presents: Not GW and Not Warmachine, III

So we've come to Confrontation.  Or at least a few Confrontation miniatures.  He's got more, but I can't be bothered to take pictures of them, so you'll have to wait.


You can click on the picture, if you've a mind.

Not Brent Presents: Not GW and Not Warmachine, II

Here we go again.  This time we're looking at some of the miniatures Brent uses in the D&D games he runs.  As an aside, Brent's article on painting Amon Ad-Raza was posted on the Blood Angels: by Jawaballs this morning.  


I guess two years of near-constant Stalking Jawaballs (since 2009) worked out of for ol' Brent.  He's probably giddy, the poor sap.


Still, I'll save my pity for his wife, Jennifer - she's long suffering, poor lady.  If only I wasn't trapped in this digital landscape...


Lord but I'm already bored.  So these were painted several years ago - you can tell by the lack of washes.  Has anything changed painting quite so much?

Not Brent Presents: Not GW and Not Warmachine

Okay, for something a bit different I'm bringing you three days of pictures from Brent's collection that AREN'T GW and Warmachine models.


'Cause frankly, I'm sick of it.  I don't know about you, but I needed something a bit different.

Top Tip: Evil Homer Edition

I got this idea from Evil Homer; if he's got a speciality in the hobby world, it's organizing his tools and trading his miniatures.  Regarding the last, the less said the better - I'm only now vaguely on board with the possibility he's not completely crazy.  Regarding the former... there's a lot to learn.  I got this idea from him.

Two Warmachine Games!

No mystery here - I've been loving me some Warmachine and have been playing every chance I get.  Amon Ad-Raza is my current favorite, replacing Feora in my heart... at least for the moment!  The two will make up my force in the next tournament.

For you 40K'ers, Warmachine uses a sideboard, so you can choose which of two armies will face your opponent.  There's a ton of strategy in this, which of course I love.  Moving on...

I was struggling with an opening setup for awhile... and this ain't it!  Sure, the 'Jacks have to gain some space right out the gate, but Amon has to cast Mobility first and the Choir have to run in Round 1 in order to be in position in the following rounds.  I've since corrected this.

Little Barrera's Warmachine Mercs...

Protectorate of Menoth, 25Pt. List (and other pics)

Just a couple of random pictures to share today.

My current 25pt army.  I'm extremely satisfied with it: it has defensive and offensive weapons, great synergy, and a nifty Feat turn.  

As I've mentioned, we're all new to Warmachine, so any experienced player out there, feel free to critique.

Team Tournament: Game Two

In game two Whit and I played... the Mighty Mighty Carlos and the Professor.

Yup.  We drove two hours to play dudes we play all the time.  It was basically Game 4 of the practice series.  It sucked, frankly.

What sucked worse is it was a random draw!  The TO wasn't doing a Swiss but was randomizing the games between rounds.  There's a reason that system isn't used... *foreshadowing*

The game was Kill Points and Objectives.  We got the half we wanted and our deployment couldn't have worked out better.  We divided our army: here's the left flank.