You must be joking

Today a FedEx driver dropped off some packages at our building. He asked if we were Federal employees and, upon learning that we were, asked us about a new quarter he had received as change recently. It was like one of the newly designed state quarters, only this one was for Puerto Rico. Do these guys pay taxes? Are they a state? Now before we get too crazy on our nation's new political leadership, it takes a bit of time to get a coin into production, and I imagine it was under "W"s watch that this was approved. I can't wait for the U.S. Virgin Islands quarter, that'll be a real hoot. Strange times indeed.

Resource Expansion...

If any of you that read this (all two of you) have some spots you like to go on the internet for tactical or hobby advice on your armies, send me the link and I'll add it to the blog. We've got some team members new to their codex/edition and one is brand new to the game (looking at you veteran Ork & Eldar players here) and I'd like to do what I can to reduce their learning curve.

EDIT: If you see some poor schmuck who's listed on the team roster as "some-X-guy" please inquire as to their prefered internet name. Larry and I reserve the right to veto any dumb names. We have a "no douche names" clause on the Team's by-laws. :)

Apoc Game at Miniature Market 04/11/09

Saturday Partho (orks), Aerion (black templars) & myself (imperial guard) headed up to Miniature Market in St. Louis for an Apoc game. I believe the final tally was 20k points on each side and we managed to get in a 5 turn game in a very reasonable amount of time. It was a traditional split between Imperial Forces (2 IG, Black Templars, 2 Blood Angels, 1 Dark Angel & maybe some codex marines) and Xenos forces (Eldar, Tyranids, Undivided Chaos, 2 Orks, Necrons). It was supposed to be 2,000 points per player with an optional 2k points, but the organizer had us throw in everything we brought. After seeing some of the Eldar war machines on the table I know why...

While we had minor issues with the table set-up, Miniature Market's tables are primarily designed for tournaments and they don't really have the capability to make larger surface areas. While the Imperial side managed a solid victory due to objectives, the Xenos side really made us pay for our gains. Apoc rules aside, here's what we had to play on:

Here are some of Partho's Boyz in the mix:

A true battle report would be hard to come by because the long narrow table meant that you had to focus on your immediate surroundings or get overwhelmed (or tired running back and forth). All in all, I was please with the crowd. Everyone was cool, and the level of painted armies (except, oddly, the game organizer) was superior to the last time I was there. Aerion and myself as got the "your stuff looks good on the table" complement from the resident Golden Daemon winner. I'm a painting technician (as opposed to the artists like Aerion & some-Slaaneshi-guy) and that's about the coolest thing that could ever be said about one of my armies.

What were our take home lessons? 1) Never underestimate the psychological impact of playing against a titan. At the start of the game, I had two eldar titans (Revenant & some Knight thing) staring me down and it was demoralizing to say the least. Firing my entire army (less the mighty lasgun obviously) for four turns took them out, but their stinking Xenos engines blew me apart as they died. 2) If you are organizing a game, don't play. Too many things come up during the course of a game that require too much attention to just ignore things and play. 3) Think carefully about setting up a 40,000 point game across a few 1,500 point game tables.

In any event, they should be having a few more of these Apoc games since we were supposed to keep track of story points (similar to the Lucky 13's campaign I hear?) that will have an impact on subsequent games.

I hate it when heroes die...

Another hero was called home yesterday:

Dave Arneson: 10/01/1947 - 04/07/2009

Along with last year's passing of:

Gary Gygax: 07/27/1938 - 03/04/2008

Rest in peace gentlemen. You two literally created the foundation upon which my childhood was built. There will never exist a way for me to adequately express my gratitude.

with the utmost respect and admiration,
Chad

Little Egypt Wars

With the slackjawed morons (apologies to those morons out there without the slack jaws) on the Egyptian Campaign Committee dropping the ball on E-Con 2009, Scott Thorne of Castle Perilous in Carbondale, IL has agreed to put on a temporary measure called Little Egypt Wars. He is also planning to put on the next generation of E-Con in 2010, but there may or may not be legal issues with the name of the thing. Lets give three cheers to the no-account shitheads in the Strategic Gamers Society (SGS) of SIUC for jacking up yet another project. Granted, E-Con has been dying a slow and painful death for a number of years, but this latest debacle was truly mind boggling. Scott's latest efforts can be followed over at:

http://castleperilous.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=103&osCsid=c527a7ed4b4520f4c6291932064906e1

EDIT: The link above blows chunks...take this one to Castle P's website and navigate around there. I suggest the forums since they don't really have an alternative set up for the event itself:

http://www.castleperilous.com/

How's that for progress?

So I made my first post the other day...and I screwed it up. Well, I didn't exactly screw up the post, but I did get my dates wrong. This Saturday the 11th is an Apoc game at Miniature Market in St. Louis. The Cape Girardeau Comic Con is the weekend of the 24th-26th. This Saturday's event is run by a great guy at a fantastic store, so I'm really looking forward to it. Its 2000 points with the option of bringing up to another 2000 points to round out the sides if needed. My list is mostly complete, I'm just putting the finishing touches on the final 500 points of the 3500 I'll be bringing up there this weekend:

2000 pts
Inquisitor Lord w/ Psychic Hood, Psycannon, (2) Mystics & Multi-Melta Gun Servitor
Inquisitor Lord w/ Psychic Hood, Psycannon, (2) Mystics & Multi-Melta Gun Servitor
Basilisk w/ Indirect Fire
Basilisk w/ Indirect Fire
Leman Russ w/ (3) Heavy Bolters
Leman Russ w/ (3) Heavy Bolters
Leman Russ w/ (3) Heavy Bolters
Junior Officer w/ Plasma Pistol, Krak Grenades & (4) Guardsmen w/ Grenade Launchers
Anti-Tank Team w/ (3) Lascannons
Anti-Tank Team w/ (3) Lascannons
(5) Hardened Veterans w/ (3) Meltaguns
(5) Hardened Veterans w/ (3) Meltaguns
(5) Hardened Veterans w/ (3) Meltaguns
Junior Officer w/ (4) Guardsmen w/ Plasmaguns
Infantry Squad w/ Missile Launcher & Plasmagun
Infantry Squad w/ Missile Launcher & Plasmagun
Junior Officer w/ (4) Guardsmen w/ Plasmaguns
Infantry Squad w/ Missile Launcher & Plasmagun
Infantry Squad w/ Missile Launcher & Plasmagun

500 extra points bundle #1
Baneblade Superheavy Tank

500 extra points bundle #2
Chimera for HQ Command Squad
Hellhound
Inquisitorial Land Raider
Cadian Pattern Sentinel

500 extra points bundle #3
(2) Cadian Sentinels
(2) (5) Man Remnant Squads with Flamer for the 2 Platoons
(2) Special Weapon Squads with Demolition Charge and (2) Flamers
Sharpshooters for the Anti-Tank Teams & Grenadier HQ Squad
Cameoline on all Guard Infantry
Heavy Stubber on the Chimera

Inaugural Post

I got sick of looking at a blank blog page, so this is my "mercy-post" to make the place look not quite so pathetic. I don't expect to update the place as often as some of the pros I like to read, but eventually this will be a place to view the armies/battle reports of the local guys I play with as well as highlight some of the events in the area. As an example, this upcoming weekend is Cape Girardeau's Comic Con. While there will be all manner of gaming available, your humble correspondent will be judging/enabling the 40k crowd. We should have open gaming on Friday, a multi-table Apoc game on Saturday and a "hard" tournament on Sunday. Due to other commitments (I don't recommend working full time while going to graduate school) I haven't been able to put as much time into this tournament as some of the others I've been involved with, but if I get enough homework done (loose enough sleep) I'll put in some heroic last ditch stuff to get everything done. I will post a report and pictures of the weekend's festivities as soon as I figure some more of this blog thing out.