'Ard boyz Woes.

 By Archfiend of Dezdemon

Well it looks like the biggest problem I am going to have at the Semi-finals is the one thing ork armies have always had. Anything that is armor 14 all around. Hopefully I can hope for my opponents not having that kind of vehicle layout. Playing against a fellow semi-finalist today in a practice game made me realize how vulnerable my army is to this kind of vehicle spam.

Ear to the Wall - Latest Dark Eldar Rumors

by Anonymous Foodie

So it seems that more "solid" information is dripping out of GW's ever-clutching paws. Tastytaste from Bell of Lost Souls (and his own blog, I suppose) has brought a few more tidbits to the table.

Overall, a very alpha-strike-centric army.
This has always been true; the Hit Hard, Hit Fast idea was built in from the beginning... it's just that with newer armies getting tougher and stronger themselves, our efforts have been... erm... a bit lacking lately. Not to say I can't put up a fight, but I know what armies give me more trouble. In any case, it seems that the all-offense playstyle is still in full gear.

My projects thrice

By The Grave Mind

So a few weeks into the summer and I'm already tired. I've been working full weeks, at two jobs, with random schedules. Some days I start work at 10am, others I end around 4am. I've averaged around 2-5 hours of sleep a night. On top of that, I have three 40k projects I'm currently working on. As you can see, the picture below is my first one. It's my gaming table. Now it is probably going to be another year or so before I actually have a table, but I have a 6x4 play-mat, and some terrain. The hills are from the South Game Preserve, since they were getting rid of them and replacing with new stuff. The black ones are my own creation, Tyranid terrain, that I will someday get around to painting.

My New Grot Arrived!

by SandWyrm

Benjamin Michael Goreham was born today. He weighs 7 Lbs., 9 oz. and is 20.5 inches long. All fingers and toes are accounted for, and there were no marks of Chaos upon him. :)

Going Above and Beyond - Dark Eldar in Planetstrike

by Anonymous Foodie

Planetstrike is both interesting and entertaining... at least, I think it is. In my (granted somewhat limited) experience, the battles tend to be quick, dirty, and bloody. But hey, what can you expect when the attacker gets a bombardment that IG would be jealous of at the beginning of the game?

While this can sometimes be demoralizing (watching your entrenched forces dissipate in a hailstorm of death and shrapnel can be difficult), it tends to allow for larger games, in terms of points, to be played in a smaller time frame... something that can potentially be an important factor when it comes to balancing hobbies against real life.

Tournament of Championships

 by Wienas

I've been plugging our upcoming local tournament on my blog as of late, and I wanted to open up a discussion with the gaming community at large regarding tournaments.

As this is my first time running such an event, it is important to me to "fix" some of the issues that I have had with other local tournaments.  The primary things that I wanted to address are:

The 30 Ways That People Win 40K Games

by SandWyrm

I'm reading a very good book right now called Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace, by Edward N. Luttwak. It's military focused for the most part, but there's lots of good insights in it for anyone that's in a competitive relationship with another person or group. It's going to provide fodder for a lot of future posts, that's for sure. :)

While reading it, I started to wonder... If one were to list all of the competencies that go into making someone a good 40K player, what would they be?

How I Won A Battle Without Killing Anything

by SandWyrm

I had a pretty interesting game on Sunday versus BlueMoon, who took 2nd Place last week at the South Store's 'Ard Boyz Prelims with his Chaos Marines. He had a new Daemonhunters-based 'Ard Boyz list to try out, so we rolled up a mission from the preliminary round and went at it. The game however, did not go as well as he'd hoped.

'ard Boyz - farmpunk's Games

by: farmpunk

Ahh. 'ard Boyz. and I forgot the Camera. I had a good day otherwise. 64pts, I got 1st at GP North.

 Here's a rundown of my 'ard Boyz day:

'Ard Boyz - SandWyrm's Games

by SandWyrm

Here's the rundown of how I got 3rd place at 'Ard Boyz.

All your mans are belong to us

by Anonymous Foodie

Just a quickie here before I sneak off for a pre-raid nap...

I have plans for a bit of a specialty game tonight, a bit of a revamp of the Slave Raid scenario... just simpler. The goal? I try to slave your HQ('s). Yours? Keep them alive.

More 'Ard Boyz Fail From GW

by SandWyrm

Well, GW has done it again.

Maybe you've heard by now that the crappy 'Ard Boyz missions were actually written the night before they were released (un-tested) by a Virginia GW store employee (not a designer, a red shirt). Maybe you also heard that he competed in the tourney using an army that was, um, optimized for the rules he had written. Rules that would, especially in the 3rd mission, screw over mechanized opponents for his Ork Hoard.

How farmpunk got into 40K

by: farmpunk

How did I get started with playing with pushing little metal dollies around the table and rolling dice?
Chambers made me do it.
It all started back on '05 (I think). Chambers and I knew each other through Church groups, and he told me about his favorite game, Warhammer40K.

St. Louis 'Ard Boyz Overview

By Chambers

As Promised here is a wrap up of my experience at 'Ard Boyz in the greater St. Louis area.

'Ard Boyz - Protem's Games

by Protem

SandWyrm:

Here's Protem's summary of his 'Ard Boyz games at Saltire. Including how he killed 5 Land Raiders with a Foot-Marine list.

'Ard Boyz Results At The GP-South

by SandWyrm

Courtesy of TheGraveMind:

First Place: Evil Ted's Green Tide
Second Place: BlueMoon's Nurgle Marines
Third Place: Brandon Shipp's Space Wolves

'Ard Boyz - St. Louis Style Results

By Chambers

First Place - 61 BP - Chambers with CSM list posted

Second Place - 45 BP - Mech Space wolves

Third Place - 38 BP - Nob spectacular Orks

*names left out as I lack the creativity to come up with creative handles and I did not ask for permission to post their names.

Details to follow, but at the start of round three only four points separated 1st and 2nd, while 3rd/4th only trailed first by 10 points.

'Ard Boyz Results At Saltire

by SandWyrm

Courtesy of Steve (Protem):

First Place: Protem's Foot Marines
Second Place: Luke Tansy's Blood Angels
Third Place: Andrew Dick's IG

We still need results for G2D4 & GP-South. If anybody knows who won in Brownsburg or Anderson we'll post those too.

'Ard Boyz Results At The GP-North

by SandWyrm

First Place: Farmpunk's =][= Mashup
Second Place: Ben's (Mostly Foot) Orks
Third Place: SandWyrm's Mech IG

Details to come after we sleep. :)

my 'ard boyz list

by: farmpunk

since SandWyrm and Chambers have put up lists, I thought I should. Now that I finalized last night at 10pm or so, after wrestling with it for a while. I went back and forth about putting the Russ and Vets in, and perhaps just using Lascannon Heavy Weapon squads instead.

needless to say, this is what I'm bringing. It's not an extreme beat-face, but should put up a good fight. very similar to what I played at 2d4.

My 'Ard Boyz Army

By Chambers

I got paroled, the wife is allowing me to be gone all day Saturday so that I can participate in a local 'Ard Boyz event down here in St. Louis.

Going above and beyond - Dark Eldar Apocalypse

by Anonymous Foodie

Thought I'd take a bit to muse on the various additions to 40k, and how the Dark Eldar army interacts with them. Overall, the addition of Strategems and various other rules are a boon to the army. While we don't have much to our name, what we have fits in as well as I could have hoped for with the style of the army and in general just helps us do what we do best.

May Warpstone Flux Army List Challenge: Kill team edition

by: farmpunk

It's that time of the month again, time for the May Warpstone Flux ArmyList Challenge. SandWyrm and I have done pretty well this year, and this time, it's Kill Teams. Like in the Battle Missions book.

My 'Ard Boyz Army

by SandWyrm

Having finally decided on a list for 'Ard Boyz and tweaked it slightly for the missions, I thought I'd post a picture of my Chimera Hoard. I could post a list but... nah

It gives me warm fuzzies to think that I only have 3 tanks and 12 infantry to go before this entire force is painted. :)

How AnonymousFoodie got into 40k

by: AnonymousFoodie

The quick and dirty of how I got into 40k is that I had a few friends that played, and being the typical dork that I am, was easily seduced by the flavorful game that we all know and love.

Most of you know me as the resident Dark Eldar guy. But, as it turns out, things were not always thus. My first army, you ask? Well...

A Little Color Theory - Part III

by SandWyrm

You may not have realized it, but visual artists have been deliberately manipulating your emotions and perceptions with color for at least 500 years now, and in an undisciplined way for many thousands of years before that. We do this using color harmonies mixed with specific value ranges to evoke exactly the mood we want you to feel.

In this post, I'll show you how it's done.

How SandWyrm Got Into 40K

by SandWyrm

Guess which house was mine. :)

Long long ago... (in 1989), in a school district far, far, away (Jefferson Country, Kentucky)...

How The Grave Mind started in 40k; A legacy in the making.

by TheGraveMind

For me it all started in what seems so long ago highs chool. It was my junior year, and my friend who was a year older was having his graduation party. We were all hanging out in his basement, and somehow the topic of his 40k collection came up. I had never heard of it before then, but like many of the guys there, I was a huge fan of strategy war games. I've always enjoyed games like Starcraft, Age of empires, even Chess, though I'm not that good at them they are fun to me.

After some convincing, my friend pulled out his Space marines, and we set up a demo game. We decided on a Tactical squad each, and myself and one other guy had at it on a small table. Our friend told us the rules, and went on with his party, checking on us from time to time. Looking back, 10 marines versus 10 marines running at each other from 4ft away is not that amazing, but back then it was an epic clash that was as much fun as could be imagined.

South Indy 40k Tournament Signup Has Begun!

by Wienas

I'll be running my first tournament on June 19th.  If you will be in the Indianapolis area, and would like to get a day full of gaming in, sign up and bring your army.  There are 20 slots available, and we have a fairly large local gaming group, so sign up now!

Converting Set-Back Chimeras - Part III

by SandWyrm

Wow! Has it really been a month since I last wrote a major post? Sheesh! You can blame (over)work for the hiatus. For a good month I didn't have time to play 40K or paint, much less blog about it.

Now that the project I was working on is over, and I'm relatively well rested, I've once again dived into finishing the models I need for 'Ard Boyz on the 15th.  Which means finishing the new set-back chimeras that I'll need for my Stormtroopers.

Tournament results - aka "You got rolled by a kid?!"

 by: Wienas

The tournament yesterday was a lot of fun.  Games 2 Die 4 is a really cool store with a focus on Flames of War and Warhammer Fantasy.  What impressed me the most was their selection of paints and supplies.  They carry an extensive selection of paints from Vallejo (Game Color, Model Color, AND Model Air), GW,  P3, and Army Painter.

As far as the tournament went, there were 15 players of which I finished 4th overall.  Farmpunk came in 3rd just above me.  The top 2 spots went to regular players from the local club.

My best moment was my embarrassing loss in game 1 to a  Daemon player.  He's around 13,  plays very well, and utterly destroyed my army.  What makes this funnier is that he forgot to bring on a unit of Fiends, who ended up staying in reserve the entire game.  I'll post some battle reports soon.