Weekly Finds

Tutorial for Quick High Elf Display Base by Roman from Massive Voodoo - This base layout would be great for models on bigger bases such as Terminators or even the yet to be released Knight Titans. Great way to add more height to an already imposing miniature.

Why So Serious by Jeff Vader from - I love following the work of Jeff Vader. It is a pleasure to see how his mind works. From his initial kit-bashes to the final miniature and then warband. This latest miniature is no different. Despite being a minion of Nurgle there is still colour and movement in the miniature. Would look great leading a horde of Plauge Cultists.

Meat for Meta: GW's Trojan Horse by Tasty Taste from Blood of Kittens - Tasty Taste has been a ducking jerk in the paste and present. Creating interwebz feuds with other Interwebz celebrities. But this, this right here. For as long as I've been apart of this tiny interwebz community there have been those voicing their desires for odd ball rules such as Legion of the Damned. Games Workshop is now doing it... but not everybody is happy about it. The Knight Titans will create a very distinctive divide within this community. And the divide will be weighed heavily in Games Workshops favour.

Weekly Finds

Games Workshop: What to Do? by Nykona from Apocalypse 40K - Our little corner of the interwebz is going into over-drive after Games Workshops released their most recent financial report. Just take a look at some of the most popular forums and blogs. There is no denying that the report shows things went badly for Games Workshop. But they weren't alone with Samsung, Nintendo and even McDonalds suffering to some degree or another. So although some of the opinions are based on economic, business and/or marketing degrees most are those of over-opinionated consumers.

Knee-Jerk Reactions and Missing the Point by GMort from House of Paincakes - A reminder to the Games Workshop haterz that our little corner of the interwebz and hobby stores will likely die a slow, horrible death if Games Workshop goes under. There is a possibility that they will be able to survive. The landscape will likely change drastically with some blogs and forums disappearing alongside Games Workshop. Others are likely to re-brand themselves to covering a range of games and miniature ranges. Something that BoLS is already in the process of doing with the addition of GameWire.

Cape Tutorial by Brother-Chaplain Kage from the Bolter & Chainsword - And to avoid this week becoming rather bland and boring here is a brilliant approach to creating capes, cloaks and hoods. Everybody else has already given their thoughts on the financial report...

Reality Aploding

Over the last year this hobby has exploded with activity from the Design Studio. We have updates on codices, new supplements and expansions, and now the formations and dataslates. And don't forget flyers and changes to the force organisation chart with allies. This increased activity has set our very tiny corner of the interwebz into a frenzy.

John Steining's stunning collection is now Tournament legal

The views of tournament organisers and vocal competitive players are great at driving the opinions of our community. As are Store Owners. Regardless of how good or bad something is, they can help set the intwerbz into a frenzy of nerd raging idiotz or something a little less crazy. Because, even though they may deny it, people do like to drink somebody else's kool aid.

Sigur's Lord of Skulls, coming to a tabletop near you

But how does that relate to Games Workshop's latest releases? After all there have been dozens of releases that haven't set the interwebz on fire like this in the past. Do you remember the gnashing of teeth True Line of Sight and Wound Allocation in 5th Ed result in? Now they doesn't seem so bad. My not so humble opinion is that the online rumours planted seeds of fear and it just grew out of control from there. Tournament organizers helped add flames to the fire in a way I've never seen since becoming apart of the online community. There was an innocent knee-jerk reaction to the sudden changes Games Workshop introduced.

According to the interwebz, TEN's R'Varna is just one of the growing problems plaguing tournaments

Fortunately the knee-jerk reactions are slowly being brought under control with some discussions taking place. There are some suggesting we keep on going the way we always have by ignoring the supplements, expansion and the dataslates. After all how many tournaments can you say that use the mysterious terrain, battlefield debris or mysterious objectives found in the rule book? So the precedence is there for tournament organisers to just pick what is and isn't used. There are even those who suggest we ignore the ally table all together.

Cagn's army is proof that Eldar Jetbikes don't have to be ridden by Seers & Warlocks

Possibly the most promising discussion is the one suggesting that careful mission design can have the desired results without introducing restrictions and bans. This approach interests me the most as it doesn't directly stop players from using their own toys while at the same time potentially addressing the over abundance of Taudar, Screamstar, Draigowing, Leafblower or whatever may be the next 'must play' netlist. These changes will shake up what it takes to win games of 40K.

Garfy's stunning collection is now also Tournament legal

Regardless of the approach to our perceived problems, the answers aren't going to come from Games Workshop. If we think they will then we're deluding ourselves. They care about this hobby just as much as we do. However, their actions suggest that this hobby is not meant to be played in a serious competitive way.

The Weekly Top X... and MoD

I stumbled across this while taking a casual look at my blogger stats I'm not the only one that does it. It is flattering to know that I'm lost but not forgotten... maybe one day I'll go to the effort of letting everybody know that the url to le blog has changed.

Music Monday - Don't be a Dick

This song reminds of the saying about ass holes and opinions. Also reminds me of this scene from Team America. Great movie...

Weekly Finds #46

University still has my life upside down and holding my hobby prisoner. So won't be heading to the Tin Soldier today. And I still haven't had the opportunity to touch my miniatures. But I have collected some articles for this week...

How to do basic zenithal highlighting by Ron from FTW - A great look at some of the theory behind this process. For those curious Grey Death, from TPC, also looks at basic zenithal highlighting. He focuses on using an airbrush to lay down the foundations. The black looks fantastic on his Terminators. Roman, from Massive Voodoo, also has a tutorial on the topic. And here is a tutorial that looks at priming, which shows how to achieve the effect pictures below...

Hitler dusts off his Daemonhunters...

This is an awesome discovery that wouldn't have been possible without Old School Terminator and GreatGunz...

... this will become one of my default links whenever I see some self-edit bitching about the latest GW release getting sand in his mangina.

Weekly Finds #25

It is almost Easter, and I've already begun to enjoy the delicious taste of Bakers Delight hot cross buns. Also on clinical placement at the moment which is cutting into my hobby time. But I'm still going to play some games tonight...

Stupid Human Tricks (Part 1) by Danny Internets from Bald & Screaming - Danny has been missing in action for awhile now... too long to be honest. But he has returned to us with an offering. Much like in this article, he is aiming to educate players of all levels of skill. The next post in the series should be good...

Community Announcement: Imperial Life Sucks...

After being featured in the last Friday Night Internet Fight, it is hard to imagine anything could top it. But something did, and it is all thanks to Herald of Nurgle and his comment on Dick Move...

Friday Night Internet Fight: Round 2.5 (feat. MoD)

Yes that is right my beloved imaginary friends, boys and girls, Unicorns and children of all ages! I have been immortalised in a Friday Night Internet Fight. I may not win this round, but at least Dethtron spelt my name correctly...

Count As...

... it is one of those words that can conjure up extreme emotions of Emo Nerd Rage in people. While in others it is the breeding grounds of extremely cool looking armies like this, this and this and even this. There are even those that have well written background blurbs to explain their count-as army.

However, the comments in Kirby's recent reach out has helped me realise my feelings. I have channelled these feelings into a simple message...

Pull Your Head Out and Grow Up.

State Election

Not everyone is fortunate enough to live in Ozlandus, let alone NSW, but I figured out how to make this post interesting for some of my imaginary friends who are less fortunate than myself and Kirby and Marshal Wilhelm...

You lucky self-edit Fuckers don't have to vote... you don't even have to register. You don't have to figure out where the most convenient pre-voting poll is because you work on a Saturday. You don't even have to keep up with politics so that your vote is informed. You can even rest assured that some people that probably shouldn't vote don't bother voting... lucky bastards. Unless your government also requires you to vote, because it is your democratic right and if you don't than they fine you.

Also, it was Earth Hour tonight. Not sure how it went since most people would have been on youtube or facebook... possibly keeping up with Labor losing a self-edit load of seats across the State. Turned out to be better than last year...

The Stupidz

Do you hear that? It is the sound of someone with Emo Rage Syndrome. The best cure is locking them in a room with a neo-feminist or an interwebz troll.

Casey Heynes...

... is a great example of how Australians have evolved to survive everything from red belly black snakes to heat seeking sting rays to even the under developed bully.

Note: this is completely off topic from the gaming side of the hobby... but I'm sure there are hundreds of gamers who have been victims of bullying.

Reality Asplodes...

... from a Golden Daemon winner educating a bunch of idiots on how to play the game. That is right boys and girls a jaw dropping good painter is schooling some self-edit. For those who can't fathom this being possible here is the thread, and more importantly here is DV8's blog.

Edit - looks like DasPanzerIstUber decide to remove all of DV8's posts... at least the idiot Slipp had all of his dribble wiped clean as well.

I R Stupidz...

... because I went onto BoLS and other reasons. Now not all BoLS contributors are of equal stupidity. It is more like a spectrum. On one end you have Spacecurves and on the other you have Brent we love you. But this is one of those special articles that makes me want to eat my hands to escape the keyboard. It has opinionated opinions, generalisations, hyperbole and stupid comments from the unclean masses.

I now find myself at a multi-cross road. I can simply ignore this article, snowmobile the crap out of it, or join the unclean masses and stick my opinions down some throats in the hopes of being in next weeks FNIF.

White Dwarf 372 December 2010

Inside this month's issue:

Trial of Champions - Not one, not two but three battle reports. The White Dwarf team take on the Games Developers in War of the Ring, Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 battles to see who comes out on top Necrons beat Imperial Guard in a wacky scenario.

Dark Eldar Kabals - Phil Kelly shows us some brand new background on the Kabals of the Dark Eldar, providing you with new inspiration and paint scheme ideas.

Tactica Spearhead - Official New Rules - Jervis puts pen to paper on two new Spearhead formations - the Skystorm and Destroyer Spearheads - while Andy Hall provides some tactical insight to give you the winning edge is Spearhead games.

Battle in the Deep - Adam Troke recounts one of the bitterest battles in Middle-earth history; the Dwarves against the Moria Goblins. Not only does he provide us with some exciting ideas for recreating underground battles but he also presents a new War of the Ring scenario for you to play.

Standard Bearer - Inside this month's issue Jervis talks about the nature of change and narrative campaigns. 

Battlefield Challenges: Tower of Sorcery - Jervis creates a Warhammer scenario that is designed to be played with Witchfate Tor. 

Modelling Workshop: Realms of Battle: For our Trial of Champions mega battle report we had three new terrain sets specifically built and painted by the Studio hobbyists Chad Mierzwa. Adam Troke talks to our one-man scenery machine to find out more. 

Citadel: Battlefield Terrain - After getting some pretty pictures and little blurbs on how to achieve the look, we then get hit with some more advertising on Games Workshop terrain. 

Army Masters: Matthew Hutson's High Elves - Fresh from the trials of our online edition of 'A Tale of Four Games', our Matt has spent the former half of 2010 painting up a rather good High Elf warhost. Being anything but shy, he was more than happy to feature it on these very pages. 

Some Kind of Monster -  In this article, Adam explains how you can play a competitive game and still have fun. There are dozens of these sorts of articles all over the interwebz. Just take a look at The Pinktastic blog with its host of writers who have shared their thoughts on the topic. The difference is that this is by an employee of Games Workshop sharing his thoughts in a Games Workshop publication. It challenges some strongly held beliefs that being competitive is bad for the hobby and that all competitive gamers are 'powergamers', 'cheesy', 'beardy' or my favourite 'WAAC'.

Citadel: Hall of Fame -  A look back at some of the miniatures that have been inducted as well as the latest addition.

You'll also find full details of all the latest releases and news, a directory featuring all of the hobby activities in your local area.

Reality aplodes

I think that the equation is switched. Codexes become popular, then they become powerful. Not the other way around. With more minds blogging, posting, and playing games, the lists that win come out more. So If more players like Wolves, Guard, and BAngels, they will have a higher publicity. Then, people copy the lists.

- Dobie Gillis from this discussion on YTTH

The above quote hasn't been included because I agree with it... I actually disagree. Mainly because of the terms used and interwebz quality of writing. But, it hits on something that I do agree with. The three most powerful codices may not be as unbalanced as perceived by the majority. In reality their consistent placing in tournaments may also reflect the skills of the participants AND the consistent attendance of certain lists.

Edit - An interesting forum discussion that also discusses Codex Creep...

Waste of Bandwidth

... is what this is. There is a single picture and it doesn't even show what is being talked about. It is a filler, not a useful tactica. The competitive elite of the interwebz could learn a thing or two from Spacecurves who has actually been showing basic concepts that will help the vast majority of players.

Confuzzled...

I don't get how what is being said here has anything to do with what happened here... Mifepristone (RU 486) has some adverse side effects, including fallopian tube rupturing in ectopic pregnancies, which means a qualified physician has to prescribe the drug.