If I was GW CEO: Part 1, SWOT

Well, a while back I promised to do a series on GW business practices titled "If I were GW CEO,"  Now I am doing it.  Essentially I want to look at this as if I was just asked to take over at the company. I want to take this from the business perspective, not just a player perspective.  We all know that it is hard to take out the consumer, but Ill try.  Anyhow, onward and upward.

Feast of Blades goes coast to coast!

Many of you will know that I am the TO for Feast of Blades, an annual GT/ Con that happens each year in the fall at Denver, CO.  Well, I am proud to announce that it has officially grown from a one state event, to a truly national event.

Custodes Dread Knight

Hey everyone, Today I am bringing something to you that I haven't done in a while... wait for it... a painting log!  I know, I know, I gave you the best christmas/Kwanzaa present ever but don't tell your wife "Awww, this  watch is nice honey but Duke wrote a painting log article and this Rolex just doesn't stack up." Trust me your groin won't feel pretty for about 4-170 days.  Anyhow, enough with the delusions of grandeur (and groin kicking). Lets get on with the show.

List of the week: Orks 2000pts

Well, It is Monday and that can only mean one thing: You're back to work and wish you weren't.  Well, I can't help with the overbearing boss or the secretary who keeps making fun of your shirts, but I can help with the Monday Boredom (Maybe)... It's list of the week time!

Aquila News: Tom Kirby Steps down as GW Chairman

AQUILA NEWS!

Today the Gaming world was shaken to its squishy core when Mr. Tom Kirby, GW Chairman of the Board and ex-CEO stepped down from his position at the miniatures manufacturer.

Place your bets!!! (Necron FAQ: we answer)

" A new player with the Necron codex is allot like a mule with a spinning wheel!"

That's right folks its time to step up and throw down, cuz were gonna go "all in" with predictions about the new dex FAQ.



Now that its standard practice for GW to make rules so ambiguous that they will no doubt have to release a FAQ we can wager our Internet standings against what we think the outcome might be. So throw caution to the wind with me today, lets put our put our bets down and see what comes of it in a week to six months when we get some answers.

First up Scarabs!

1. Can they go over starting/max squad size?

I say yes, because if not whats the point.


2. Can they conga line dance?

No, I cant see this one.


3. Entropic Strike, does it work as stated and "immediately" take armor down, then allow for the strength attacks?

Yes, yes and yes please.



While were on it lets just talk about the force weapon thing.

4. Will force weapons take entire bases out even when they are put on the unit before the roll to activate has been made?

Sorry for this one but no. Wait before your head explodes, I'm not saying its right or wrong, I'm taking the Carnifex defence on this one. Lets say a unit of like carnifex's gets into a fight with one GK Libby, the Libby hits and wounds 3 times(on the charge) before the Fex can attack. What happens, in game terms nothing is different to the Libby if its 3 like bases of Scarabs or MC's. So if GW makes the call against Scarabs they will make it for everything, even my Nob Bikers. So 4 wounds on a unit of non-complex models, 4 guys dead! I just don't think the GK need the extra boost to their ability's. (Duke disagrees on this one)


But these are units that can be complex you say, well Obliterators for CMS are rumored to have a squad size of 4 in the next book. So the same would apply to them with no chance of being complex, 4 hits/wounds and one test now your entire unit is gone. I hope it doesn't come to this.

Next-Writhing Worldscape.

5. Does it work with Orikan's Temporal Snares?

I vote yes, because like I said before if not whats the point.

6. Does it work with the Tremor Stave?

Yes. (see previous answer)

OK, os that's just a few of the things that need FAQ help, do you dare make a stand and gamble with you Net-utation? (That's Internet reputation)

Its easy for me because I believe popularity is a social disease.
How about you?

From square bases to round bases: Iron Wolves army build project

In the Company of Iron Wolves - Part 1

What army to play?

My first foray into the gaming world of round bases has been a long and time-consuming process.  First, I had to determine which force I wanted to model, paint and play.  For me this is a decision that has a lot of factors associated with it.

List of the week: Imperial Guard 2000 pts.

So by now, you know the rules behind "List of the week," so here we go.  This week we bring you a list I saw at Feast of Blades.  As with all lists of the week, provide some feedback about what you like and what you don't like, also what are bad match ups and who will they just roll over?

Interview: Kenny Boucher, daemons (second place 2011 Feast of Blades)

\

Hey everyone, today we have a very cool interview with an outstanding player/painter and good buddy of mine: Kenny Boucher.  Kenny is a long standing member of the Wrecking Crew and has many laurels in his hat including: Second at the Feast of Blades Invitational 2011, 2 consecutive years of qualifying for the Invitational, 1st place at ATC team Championships, 1st place at the Adepticon Team Tournament.  Without further ado, here is the interview, I hope you enjoy it!

Tactica: How to play against Grey Knights: Sacrifice

Continuing my series of articles on how to play against Grey Knights we come to "Sacrifice."  This is a very important tool in your belt if you want to play against GK deathstars.  Put simply not much can go toe-toe with the 10 man Paladin Deathstar with 4 mc psycannons, so you will have to learn how to slow them and sacrifice.  Most of the examples are given from games I played where the opponent did well or messed up completely and I noted it.  Well, lets just jump right in.

GW Business discussion: Good Army Boxes, huh???

If you have read this blog for any amount of time then you know that I will often include GW business discussions in my article line up.  Usually I try to stay as neutral as possible and take of my gamer hat, sometimes I fail miserably.  

Well, today Im bringing to you a bit of (old) news about box sets that GW recently put together to sell.  You would think they just hired a genius for a day or two to work for them.

Necron "Quicksand",List of the week.

Hello all, Swags here with the next list of the week.


This time I'm dreaming of Necrons and how their little tricks might add to big tricks on the table. So lets get to it, I give you Necron list "Quicksand!".





First things first we need to know that the Necrons are not as "point and click" as other forces so I will explain how it comes together after the list. Also I want to point out this is a bit of a theme list as I picked units and wargear that push the idea of slowing down the enemy, hence the name.

Necron Quicksand 2000 Points.

HQ1 -Orikan the Diviner
HQ2-Overlord/Warscyth/Tachyon Arrow (joins HQ1)

Court

Cryptek/Eldritch Lance/Solar Pulse (joins HQ1)

Cryptek/Tremorstave/Seismic Crucible (joins HQ1)

Cryptek/Tremorstave (joins Troop1)

Cryptek/Tremorstave (joins Troop2)

Cryptek/Tremorstave (joins Troop3)

E1-C'Tan/Writhing Worldscape/Grand Illusion

E2-Triarch Stalker/T-link Gauss Cannon

E3-Triarch Stalker/T-link Gause Cannon

T1-Warriors x 10

T2-Warriors x 10

T3-Warriors x 10

F1-Heavy Destroyers x 3

F2-Heavy Destroyers x 3

F3-Heavy Destroyers x 3

And no heavy support so don't even bring up Scarabs and Spyders and farming.

How it works.
This list is meant to keep the enemy at bay using wargear to slow them and long range high power shooting to put the hurt on. Also using the grand illusion to increase distance from my opponent and line up early shooting.

HQ-This unit is the two HQs and two Crypteks in a 4 man unit that will move behind cover of other units and terrain to line up critical lance and tremor shooting as well as being able to split the HQs off to counter charge in a last ditch effort. I can also step away with the lord and bust a Tach Arrow to split fire if he has a chance of being save for the following round. Such as the night cover provided by the Pulse.

Troops- Each one gets a Cryptek, they form the body of the force with the stave's pushed forward to get maximum range if needed. On the move they can drop the Tremor blast with a 40" range while wrapping behind the walkers for cover.

Elites-The C'Tan and his ability are key to working this list. He will remain in the back acting as a counter unit and using his powers making it extremely hard for skimmers, jump infantry and bikes. In addition to the devastating Dawn of War problem vehicles have when he is on the table combined with the Temporal Snares.

Fast-Basic spam of T5 jump infantry carrying assault lascanons is all! (possibly twin-linked)

That's about it. I like the range in this list,36" or more in each unit, and the chance for twin-linking priority targets is a good boost to the limited number of shots. Manipulating things like movement, terrain checks, assaults(don't forget one of the Crypteks has Seismic Crucible) and night fighting can be overwhelming for some lists or even players not ready for such a game.

Whats this with scarabs?

Recently the internets have been set ablaze with discussions on the Necrons  Evidence.  Well, today I wanted to talk about Scarabs and how they aren't everything.

List of the Week: Grey Knights 2000 pts

This week we are continuing the "list of the week," series with a 2000 point Grey Knight list.  here is what you do:

1. What things do you think are strengths of the list
2. What are weaknesses?
3. Who are bad match ups for this list?
4. How would you make changes to this list to make it better?

there are no wrong answers...go!

Feast of Blades is looking for state/area reps.

This next year (2012) Feast of Blades is going national!  We are going to have qualifiers from coast to coast.  As such we are looking for a few good men and women to be our state and area reps.  

Areas we are looking for:

New York

Chicago/ IL

Virginia

Missouri

S. California

Central California (SF, Sac, Fresno)

Vegas / NV

Phoenix /Arizona

Seattle and Portland

*If we didn't mention your area and there are enough gamers to warrant it give us an email and we can talk about having one in your area.

What does a state rep do, you ask? 

1. Works with Chandler do determine which stores in an area are the best places to host events (Who has terrain, local groups and supports the players) 

2. Talks with players and host stores to get them excited about having a qualifier at their store (pom-poms not included) 

3. Answers any questions stores and players may have.

4. When lacking a qualifier TO this person will act as TO for qualifiers.

Benefits:

- This year all state reps will receive free entry into the event(s) of their choice.  One friend of a state rep will also receive a 50% discount on entry.  State reps must also qualify naturally for the invitational.

- When you get here we will be organizing a state rep dinner on Sat night with some internet celeb types.

- Free "Staff," shirt (who doesn't like shirts)

- being a part of a national event.

Qualifications:

- We prefer that you are older than 21 but it isn't a requirement.

- We also are looking for someone who is excited about helping and will steal the initiative on getting people together.

- You should also have experience in running small RTT's just in case you have to run a few.

If your interested send an email to Feastofblades@Gmail.com

Honor your chapter,

Chandler

Feast of Blades TO

Interview with the Feast of Blades Champion: Nick Rose

So, now that you are the new Feast of Blades Champion I wanted to do an interview with you... Simple Q and A

Beaky Con Review Part 1

Beaky Con kicks off with a great start!!!

If you were in Florida and looking for more than a one day, end of the month tourney you were probably at Beaky Con. I was, and it was a great time.

Forge World Chaos Spawn

When I first started painting and playing Warhammer I never thought I would even get the chance to work on things like Forge World models. But like anything the longer you do something the more chances you have to find your way into the remote areas of said thing your doing.



As such I recently got the opportunity to paint up a few of the Forge World Daemons, so I thought why not grab the camera and follow these guys through the warp.

Like the majority of models I work on, I started with the ever trusty Dupli-Color automotive primer.


I quit using any and all primers after I found this product. It has never failed me due to humidity, or rough coating, or anything of the like. I always take my time and do several light coats to build up the surface and reach into the recesses.

When its good and dry I grab the airbrush and do a base coat of Createx red.

Then a low light of transparent orange and high light of opaque yellow.

Bellow you can see some side by side pics with and without the flash.

Once that is done its inside to the regular brushes for a combo of dry brushing (Foundation Tausept Ochre), and a 50/50 mix of chestnut ink and water.

I like using black ink to fill the recesses and "spots" all over this guy.

After the ink the various high and low lights from the airbrush blend to perfection, at least as far as what I wanted.

The tongue and veins were mixes of white/purple/white/purple ink/white&purple...

I think he turned out just about as good as I could have planned for the time I spent working on him.

Thanks for looking, hope you never get jumped by this guy on the field of battle...Or do I?

-Swags

Army list of the week 11-15: Blood Angels 2000 pts

Well, I had to take a week off after Feast of Blades, but now we are back on to our regularly scheduled (horrible) programming!

We are starting a new thing, once each week we will be providing a single army list for your viewing pleasure.  We might get these lists from opponents or people we meet at tournaments, lists we bring to tournaments, or even from the dark abyss that is our brains, but no matter what, most of these will be tournament level lists (Just how good is up to you.) To protect the innocent we aren't going to say who's list this is or how well it did in the events we found it at (if it came from an event at all.)

Here is what I would like to see:

- Discuss: Strengths of this list.  I.e. if you were playing it what things do you think are your keystones?
- Discuss: Weaknesses of this list. I.e. If you were the opponent what is the weak link you could push... - What armies would present a bad matchup?
- Discuss: Improvements/ changes.

With that, here is the first list:

Feast of Blades Standings (Invitational)

1. Nick Rose: Black Templar (Tournament Champion)

2. Kenny Boucher: Chaos Daemons (Second to one)

3. Thomas Reidy: Grey Knights

4. Eric Swanson: Imperial Guard

5. C.J. Young: Grey Knights

6. Dean Heckel: Tau

7. Ted Michalakes: Imperial Guard

8. Damien Garcia (Bracket 2 ace)

9. Stetson Wellborn

10. John Connelly

11. Richard Johnson

12. Brian Phinney

13. Chris Carslile

14. Philip Beightol

15. Rain Coleman

16.Thomas Oakley (Bracket 3 ace)

17. Mike Tester Sr.

18. Alex Hill

19. Brent Crihfield

20. Clayton Campbell

21. Mike Haspil

22. Reggie Carlisle

23. Chris Berry

24. Adam Tricolca (Bracket 4 ace)

25. Kevin Rose

26. Shane Billingsly

27. Andy Shellenberger

28. Gavin Sullivan

29. Andrew Fenner

30. David Johansen

31. Patrick Murphy

32. Brandon Sullivan (Bracket 5 ace)

33. Brandon Hershey

34. Brain Waltman

35. Mike Tester jr.

36. Jeff Lowe

37. Chris Busey

38. Imagine Rigney

39. Wes Hall

40.Matt Wyatt (Bracket 6 ace)

41. Sid Stallings

42. Brain Busey

43. Manny Cordova

44. Logan Lybbert

45. Jennifer Hill

46. Neal Quigley

47. Andrew King

48. Jeremy Grove (Bracket 7 ace)

49. Dan McDowel

50. Chad Brown

51. Kenton Young

52. Tyrel Carlson

*If you dropped before day two or DQ'd you are not in the standings.

Feast of blades Ustream feed

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/feast-of-blades-top-table

FEAST OF BLADES TOMORROW!

Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war!

Tomorrow, Feast of Blades kicks off!  Registration begins at 7am and dice are rolling for the team tournament at 10am.  For questions email Feastofblades(at)gmail(dot)com. Honor Your Chapter!


   "...He which hath no stomach to this fight,
   Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
    And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
    We would not die in that man's company
    That fears his fellowship to die with us.
    This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
    He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
    Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd...
    Then will he strip his sleeve and show his   
    scars, And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.' 
    ...Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
    But he'll remember, with advantages,
    What feats he did that day... And gentlemen 

    in England now-a-bed  Shall think themselves 

    accurs'd they were not here,
    And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day."

                                           - Henry V

Tactica: How to play vs GK pt 1 "A tale of two hoods,"

All over the internet, and very often the topic of our Wed night gaming sessions is talk about how tough the current GK codex is.  I have covered before how some people are just outright refusing to play against them and some are going as far as denouncing tournaments just because GK are fairly common right now in the tourney scene.  Well, I wanted to write this article as a GK player and tell you how to play against Grey Knights.

Chaos Greater Damon Part 2

Hi everyone, I'm back to finnish my recent article on the Giant Greater Daemon.
No real tricks with this one, just a fun little glamor shoot with the big man.

Having fun at tournaments while losing? (Feast of Blades Feats of Strength)

   
   The Feats of Strength

     As you know, the writers on this blog each have (or had) a hand in helping Duke birth of the Feast of Blades. My contribution to this process is this series of Video game style acheivements. If a player accomplishes one of the tasks I have set out for them sometime during the course of
the convention, they will earn a hand-made Purity seal, denoting thier awesomeness. For those of you reading with the intent to attend the Feast, and attempt to complete the feats,  you should know that these cannot be acheived at the open gaming tables, only in sanctioned events that are being run by con staff. Also, even if you acheive a feat multiple times, you will receive only one purity seal. Perhaps next year, we will have some sort of device to denote multiples of an acheivement.

  So without further ado, here are the Feats of Strength!

Chaos Greater Daemon Part 1

Well Its almost fall time again and that always makes everyone think Halloween.

Since you cant have Halloween without Daemons I thought I would continue with some inside looks of one of my favorites.

Was the lack of News From GW getting you down?

Was the lack of news and rumors about the Necron codex getting you down on the whole release?  Or are you intrigued by the silence?

Here is my $.02... And GW business discussion!

Bag Man Pt 2 - Solutions!

Not long ago I did a little article on the bag man, some of you might remember him.

It was a bit of a rant with some truth on the side and a helping of humor for desert. But now its time to get serious and "put up or shut up as it" were.

TOGP: The Eye of the Tiger?

      In the Spring, I dedicated this year to getting the Old Guard back in the picture. It's not proven as easy as I had hoped. This article deals with some of the "what's the point" that those who have lost something go through to regain it. Myself included:

Feast Of Blades Trophy Update

Time for project updates.

Today I'm going over my part in the trophy department.

Feast of Blades Invitational Terrain Complete!

Feast of Blades Terrain Day: Part II
by Immortal

Well… after great toil and trouble from the minions of the Fabricator General (Damien), the BRAND NEW terrain for the 40K invitational is done!. 32 tables worth of terrain including 3 hills, 2 bases of trees, and one master-crafted ruin big enough to hide a Land Raider in per table have been built, based, sanded, flocked, painted, dry-brushed, and air-brushed. They have passed inspection from the highest scrutiny of the Adepts of Mars and are ready for play!

I for one wish that I didn’t have to judge this tournament, as it looks like it’s going to be a blast! Missions have been posted on www.feastofblades.com  as well as 3++ (http://kirbysblog-ic.blogspot.com/) and look like a lot of fun (and are, we’ve been play testing them thoroughly).

This weekend we finished the great terrain project as I wrote about last week (here). We focused on finishing the hills and ruins as well as putting bases on the trees.

Blog Discussion: What will 6th edition bring?

Today is just going to be a short post, as I am hoping to simply generate discussion as opposed to have you just listen to my thoughts.

What Changes do you think are coming in 6th ed (It is ok to wish list)?

Put it in the following format:  "What I think we will see and What we will most likely see and will 6th be a change for good?"

Here is my thoughts