Paint your Toys:Two years later.

Whoooo Hooooo!!!

If you don't want listen to me wax moronic skip down to the....

What can be said? March 11th, Two year ago, I started this blog. I missed last year's anniversary; I fell off the wagon for about 4 months or so.... Besides that little hiccup. Since June of last year, I've made it a point to blog and here we are.

Fun Fact: I've been playing Toy Soldiers for almost 25 years, but this whole "Warhammer/Internet" deal is still new to me. Heck, I didn't start reading the "Forums" till around late 07'.

No, I'm not a Luddite; I'm just Lazy and too busy painting my toys.

Why did I start this Blog?

Well honesty, it was just for three of my gaming buddies in three different locations. They wanted to see what I'd been painting and this was the easiest method to do so. Anybody else? Really, I wasn't expecting anyone to take much of an interest, but it looked like fun.

That's it.

No Dreams of Internet Stardom.
No Delusions of Grandeur.

Just Paint.

I'm glad everyone likes the blog. I must offer a sincere and most grateful Thank you to everybody who's taken the time to read/join my blog and who's commented on my stuff. (Google Analytics tells me everything.) I may not have hundreds of readers, but I have the best. They keep my little blog quite lively. I'm very appreciative of this fact. I'm still baffled by the number of people read it.

I know it doesn't mean much, but I do try to comment on at least one blog everyday just show folks somebody's listening. It's my only way of giving back and supporting my other bloggers. I like comments, so I figures, other folks do too. The the best advice I can give on blogging is to be active.

What do I enjoy the most? The "community" that happens to be slowly building as we network across the inter-webs. Some of these guys around the Blog-Sphere do some amazing work that really inspires me. No matter what, I'm very pleased to be part of this experience.

The pictures are all my gaming shelves (pardon the dust) because I couldn't think of anything else to photograph for this post. For the most part, this is all my painted stuff... without the new Dark Eldar. EDIT: I went back and took a few more pictures and added them to the spam post.

One last note: Zealot and I have decided to join forces to better promote the awesomeness that is the all "painted game" experience. Now you can look forward to seeing all his work here in the near future. Plus he loaded up his older content, so make sure to check it all out.

You join blog? Why Not?

Thanks again for reading and stop being lame.
Paint something!

Warhammer Whining

Let’s see... the pictures of the Orky War-machines turned out rather poorly. So, I’m going to give it a second try latter on today.  Instead, I will use the Internet for it’s most divine and true purpose... to complain. Here’s my list for Warhammer the 8th Edition.

Where’s the “news” on the new starter set?

It may be my memory failing once again, but I swear, we had more concrete info when 40k was switching over.  We have all sorts of rumors, but  GW. is still holding out! Is there even a release date for the box? Where are my pictures of cool new minis?

As it stands, my two present armies are curse words in certain circles. I’d like to start a third one, so I can play a game with-out getting flack. Here's to hoping, that one of factions will be opponent friendly.

Where are my leaked rules?
This is what’s going to hurt 8th the most by chasing away old players. It is my opinion, that the leaked PDF for 40k 5th edition, gave everyone a long adjustment period to the new system. This time let everyone get comfortable with the new changes and kept the general interest during  the transition.

This time, all we have is rumors... solid ones, but the past few months of uncertainty  hurts the game. We should all be playing 7.5 right now, and trumpeting up momentum for the new edition.

Karl Franz doesn’t like waffles?!?!
I don't know if that is true or not, but it's fun to say.

That’s all I got. I’m looking  forward to the new edition, but I really do believe that they could have gone about it in a better fashion. If they want to copy the success of 40k? Games Workshop should  follow the same pattern that helped the game succeed.

It's okay to lose a game of 40k. pt. 2

"Over the line, Smokey! I'm sorry.
That's a foul."

I got a yellow card from Mr. Ron for my few choice words in my last instalment, so out respect for the B. Sphere... no swears today. Inspired by own grumpiness, I've decided to turn my rant into a little mini series of posts. The intent is merely to show what to "do" when everything goes wrong and still have fun at the same time. The number one rule of Warhammer 40,000 is.....

It's "grim dark" around here.

I played a game last week against Mr. Z and his cog-boys. He had the first turn, and unleashed a unforgiving amount of firepower upon my orks. When the smoke cleared, the large mob of Storm-boyz fled the table along with my only unit of Lootas.


"Poof" and a third of my points had vanished.

Was I upset?

Sure, who wouldn't be? I just took the models of the board and changed my battle plan. There was no way I was going to win, but I wasn't about to roll over. After a second of brooding, it was time to move on and play the game.

It was the mission where each army has a objective in it's deployment zone. As I sweeping off the models, my thoughts turned to how every time I play this one, its a draw. Why should this time be any different? I pick a scoring unit to sit on the objective and pushed the entire horde onwards.


My reward for not giving up and playing to the end? The Wyrd-Boy had a great game, zapping everything in sight. While I had the pleasure of watching, Mr. Z figure out how he was going kill the other 70+ Orks.

In the end, the most awful start... a draw.

On a side note. This was the much better game for the mob of rokkit boys. The one before that, I completely forgot about 'em till the 3rd turn of the game. They were still on the shelf.

Head on over to "I am a Forge World" in the right hand column, to see more of Zealot's Machine Priests.

It's okay to lose a game 40k...

I mean really it's needs to be said...kids. After all the doom and gloom around the blog-sphere about the wolves and the gurd. All this crazy talk about my 'dex is lame or out of date. This W.A.C.K.Y-ness has me a bit frazzled.

                         "Forget it, Donny.  You're out of 
                                                                                      your element."

First of all I don't any experience at tournaments... none, zilch, zero.

Sorry, Walter... I am Hobby Gamer. Ya know like it says on the sides of boxes! Plain and simple. For me... it's the spectacle and massive production that is war gaming. How the many aspects of the hobby boil down into enjoyable "game" experience. That is what kept my attention for over 20 of playing with toy soldiers. Not GW.'s newest codex or latest rule system.

This is all just a bit of opinion so take it for what it is. It's just my perspective.

                        "I see you rolled your way into the 
                                             semis.  Deos mio, man.  Seamus and 
                                                 me, we're gonna fuck you up."

Myth #1. Playing in a tournament means your good at Warhammer 40k.

False. Most formats, you play 6 games or so against a pool of 40-60 other players. At best you test your skills against 10-15% of any given set of players. Sounds more like the state lottery, then a test of skill. What happens if all the best players, no matter the armies, end up drawing each others numbers? They all end up with a 50% or so win ratio. While some average player wins it all, because he got lucky and drew 6 other players who didn't have a clue.

I understand the winner play the winners...yadda yadda... but it's only 6 games. Something tells me, that it comes down to luck of the draw in the early rounds that decides the overall winner. Let alone what happens, if you have terrible first game?

Myth #2 Playing big points games means your good at Warhammer 40k.

False. It not real hard to figure out that 40k in a state of transition. If your did not know, you do now. The system is caught between 2 different design concepts. If your book is under the 4th Ed. it's more restricted. The new books design is simply, everything gets cheaper. So how do you balance-out such an uneven battle Field? Teh suck old vrs. the new shinny unstoppable dex.

Play less points. The funny thing about this hobby is that sometimes less is more. This idea comes up time and time again in my experience with 40k. A smaller points value creates a whole new scene. Say over here in the states, ya'll played 1,000 instead of 1,850 or 2,000. What's gonna happen to all the dreaded Net lists?

See-ya, bye-bye now!

With less, the players are would have to think more then spamming (insert most hated unit here) or oversight of each book. Perhaps with less, you guys could play more games and really figure out who's the bestest at 40k. Big point games have no more depth then the little ones. It just means more toys.

Myth #3 Winning a tournament means your good at warhammer 40k.

False again. It just means you won the door prize. Good job. Thumbs up! Chances are you never even tested your mettle against a tough opponent. If your fretting over what to do in next year 'ard boys garbage? I think you missing the the whole point of hobby gaming. Round after round of half assembled models with no paint. Really? This something for me to get excited about? Sorry bub, no dice. Count me out. I want to play against others who take the hobby to the next level. Not some guy, who get his self-esteem from playing a dice game.

"what do mean, dude?"

War gaming is gentle men's agreement. Always has been. Always will be. I'm not going to explain what that means. It's one of those things in life you understand or you don't. From all the belly aching about air-tight rules and timely Faq's. Most of you do not. So, I'm going to stop now or I'll start ranting about what these tournaments call a terrain set up or some the other dumb stuff I've read lately.

"Fuck it dude... lets go bowling"

All picture and quotes belong to the film The Big Lebowski. When ever the Internet tough guys are out and bout. They always make me think of Walter.

This editorial was written by Larry. He's a 30 something gamer who has been in the hobby for almost 23 years. He has not been to a 40k tournament since he was 15. "It was lame then, and appears even lamer now." Larry will still be playing and painting his toy soldiers for a long, long time. Despite his complete lack of involvement with any Tourney circuit.

What's this all about?

I'm not the best model maker.
I'm not the best painter.
I don't win every game.

What I am is one guy with one paint brush and a prolific amount of enthusiasm for the hobby.
What does that translate into?
Some the sexiest looking games on the inter-webs. 

That's my mission. Plenty of guys want to talk about toy soldiers but nobody wants to paint them. Two fully painted armies and modeled table used to be the standard in war-gaming. Now those days seem long gone...



Image shamelessly stolen from Wiki-something or other.