Adepticon 2014 - There and Back Again, a Burnout's Tale

Just...try to relax...

As some of you might be aware, a handful of members have had associations of some sort or another with Adepticon since about 2006.  It started with the Team Tournament, sprinkled in a few rounds of Combat Patrol, and the last two years have been dedicated to the 40k Friendly Tournament.

Discussions about the Team Tournament could take several blog posts to cover.  I'll spare you that, or you could just look back through the archives.  Suffice it to say that it takes luck to even get in to this very popular event, and a great deal of money and time to not embarrass yourself when you see the titans of industry who will inevitably win.  These are the teams who have spent thousands of dollars and man hours to put together truly masterful works of art.  Average participants?  Don't hold your breath.  This event truly rewards those who go above and beyond.  It's actually worth coming to the event, just to see the display bases the teams put together.

Combat patrol has never really been my thing, but others have enjoyed it.  I have trouble making a 1000 point 40k army, so 400 points really is an exercise in futility for me.  To each his own, I'm glad some of the other members have had fun with it.

This will be the third year for the 40k Friendly Tournament.  I had some friends participate in '12, and they gushed about how awesome it was.  Laid back, thematic lists, a complete lack of douchebaggery, it received rave reviews.  I did not bring Team Snake Eyes to the Team Tournament in '13 because I was a little burned out from that hectic experience and wanted something a little more relaxed.  The Friendly was my choice. Three of us came up last year (myself, Chambers, & Grenn Dal) and although I came in dead-ass-last place (it's a real thing, look it up) it was a good time.  After hearing the staff repeatedly say they would disallow hard lists, I was a little shocked at some of the things we saw last year "What do you mean my drop Wolves list with four Rune Priests with Jaws isn't friendly?" Chambers and I are a little worried about what we'll see this year.

Vulkan and the lads take the field once more

Sorry for the poor quality of the pics, but I've been having technical issues.  My list, which I feel is true to the "friendly" theme is as follows: Vulkan, (5) TH/SS Assault Terminators, (2) Tactical Squads with flamers, multi-meltas, combi-flamers, & TLLC Razorbacks, a Storm Talon w/typhoon ML, (3) Centurion Devastators w/Grav Cannons & Hurricane Bolters, a Thunderfire Cannon, and finally an Aegis Defense Line w/Quad Gun.  It's got a moderate amount of shooting with a counter assault/harassing unit in the terminators.

Chambers assured me his army was ready to go...

 Chambers army looks pretty cool too.  He's got a Dark Mechanicus army that has ties to Nurgle and Slaanesh using the Chaos Marine Codex: A Chaos Lord in Terminator Armor, (5) Chaos Terminators with combi-meltas, a squad of 12 Noise Marines with Icon of Excess, 7 sonic blasters and 2 blast masters, (2) squads of 6 Noise Marines with 2 sonic blasters and 1 blast master each, a Helldrake with Hades Autocannon (yes kids, Chambers can beat you without the bale flamer), 2 awesomely converted Obliterators, and finally a Bastion that has the Imperial iconography defaced and replaced with sacrifices and icons of the dark powers.  We'll add an army pic when he's ready for me to take it.  :)

Random Pics from the game room on Thursday:

This thing is about 5' high and is likely someone's display board.  These people do not mess around...

Iron Hands charity raffle army, there are better pics out there on the internet, and they are worth seeing.

Sisters of Battle display chapel/board.

This close-up of the floor detail proves once and for all that
you can never have too much awesome in your life.

Stay tuned, more tomorrow!

What's New Today?

Apparently we are.  Or, more specifically, Aerion & CVinton are.  This gorgeous tank that was converted by CVinton and painted by Aerion has a brief mention on Games Workshop's Blog.  While they may not be shameless self promoters, I am certainly the proud owner of their excellent collaboration.  Good show lads.  Good show.

Adepticon 2012: I Think I Found My Style

Normally I would have posted something about Team Snake Eyes' 2012 Team Tournament results sooner, but several things conspired against me.  Fist, we got our collective asses kicked.  That stings a bit.  :-)  Second, my photo taking/retrieving process has a few flaws in it.  Considering just about everything that went on this year in Chicago was flawed for us, it should come as no surprise that we can't post a timely blog on the subject.

Well lets pull this band-aid off shall we?  In 2010 we finished 92nd out of 110 teams.  In 2011 we stepped it up a bit and finished 37th out of 106 teams.  This year we finished 99th out of 116.  We managed 0 wins, 2 draws, and 6 magnificent losses.  Awesome.  Here's our breakdown:

184 total points (out of 444)
59 Battle Points (out of 240)
15 Sportsmanship Points (out of 16)
17 Commander's Heads (out of 32)
14 Commander's Tokens (out of 32)
45 Theme Points (out of 60)
39 Painting Points (out of 60)
6 Spirit Points (unspecified)
10 Quiz Points (out of 10)

Not only did we set new record lows for our team performance, we also managed to score lower on both our theme (which was unchanged from last year) and painting (where we specifically included better looking models than those we fielded last year), so we've got that going for us at least.

Our matchups were as follows:

Round #1 = The Midwest Fringe (Orks) - finished 61st

These guys were a great team to play, with an awesome looking Ork army.  This round had weird, random "secret missions" that neither of our armies were prepared to accomplish.  My coalition drew, while the other got tabled.  I didn't mind the poor performance here since they were an outstanding group of guys.

Bray'arth did well this game accounting for a Bike Warboss, War Bikers,
and a squad of boyz.  His lost both is arms and "his Milkshake brought
all the boyz to the yard."

This was what my other coalition's table looked like.  It was not pretty (for us).

Round #2 = Baal to the Bone (Blood Angels) - finished 106th

There were three cool guys on this team and one gigantic tool.  I'm a laid back, low-maintenance guy and I almost walked away from the table twice.  I lost my composure a few times, and I regret every moment I spent at that table.

Although his terminators are gone by the time we took this pic, and Vulkan was drug
down and beaten like a stray dog, they accounted for a great deal of Sanguinius' Sons.

Not sure what happened on the other table.  Things were a obscured by a maddening rage.

Round #3 = Fuster Cluck (Necrons) - finished 79th

This team restored my faith in humanity.  After the second round, I knew that nothing I or my team did would salvage my weekend.  We were going to lose, lose horribly, and no one would weep at our destruction.  These guys not only had a gorgeous necron army, with outstanding Wraith conversions, but before we even got to the first turn, pulled out some beers and gave us some.  It seems a simple gesture, but at that moment, it was the best thing that could have happened to me.  We lost those games, but I had as good a time as I could with those guys.  Top notch Fuster Cluckians, I really enjoyed meeting you guys.

Bray'arth, again, accounted well for himself.  He never died in all four games
despite repeated, determined, attempts to do so.  He may not have "earned back
his points" in all games, but he was fun to play.

Sweet conversion no?

Round #4 = Da Boyz Wolfpack (Space Wolves) - finished 46th

I actually played one of these guys back in 2010...it was a wolf team back then, and they were an awesome opponent then, and they're still an awesome group of guys.  We didn't really get beat by them, we got our faces kicked in.  But they too gave us beer, and they were (for the most part) under the influence themselves.  It says a lot when you can clobber another team while sloppy drunk, but at this point I really didn't care.  I wanted the pain to end, and was laughing and joking with them as everything we tried failed and everything they did turned to gold.  Good times.

This was a mission where kill points could only be earned by one half of a
coalition.  This, entirely ignorant, style of mission supports a perverse incentive
whereby half a an army hides like a little girl and a mini game of slap fighting is played.
In our case, the Space Wolves that hid also had Rune Priests with unlimited range
shooting attacks, so...yeah.

PBR with a smile?  Yeah, it was that kind of day.

Another neat fact?  Of the 17 teams that finished lower than Team Snake Eyes in the rankings, 11 of them had higher Battle Points than we did.  Team Death Star actually dropped out of the competition and finished with more battle points than we did.  Bleh.

5 and a Wake-up

Bray'arth Ashmantle, aka. "Fat Albert"

It's that time of year again.  Team Snake Eyes is headed to Adepticon in Chicago, IL for their team tournament on Saturday the 21st.  There's all sorts of stuff going on up there, and I highly recommend you make the trip if you ever get a chance.  You'll meet some fantastic gamers, and see some ridiculously talented artists put their hearts and souls into their craft for our enjoyment.  We all have a richer gaming experience because of it.  If you see us up there, don't hesitate to stop by and say hello, we'd love to meet you guys.  Some of the team will be heading up on Thursday, but the majority of us will arrive on Friday with everyone leaving at some point on Sunday.  So, without further ado, here's a tribute to my artist of choice, our very own Chaplain Aerion.  He's been the creative powerhouse behind my Salamanders army from the very beginning.  While I do a lot of work on this army, none of it matches the skill and quality that we see from Aerion.  From our very first "test marine" to what you see here today, Aerion has put more time and effort into this ongoing project of mine than I ever imagined possible, and that Mrs. Aerion would likely have wished went into other pursuits.  In that regard, I offer my warmest thanks to them both.

Left side: I'm loving the mural here: Bray'arth as a young lad
giving the Genestealers what for...before getting his face
eaten off and then stuffed inside a Dreadnought sarcophagus
for the rest of his days...

Right side: I love what he did with his DCCWs.

You think he needs to duck coming out of that Lucius
Drop Pod?  I don't, but I'll let you tell him if you do.

I love his power plant, and the heraldry that Aerion
was able to put onto the banner.

Forge World Lucius Pod, aka "Mystery Machine".  Apparently FW resin is as
much a pain in the ass to work with as you might have expected.

Venerable Dreadnought, left side.

Venerable Dreadnought

Venerable Dreadnought: I like this alternate power plant
as well.  On the other hand, I like Dreadnoughts, so
it's never really a tough sell in my book.

 These are a few of our Salamanders we'll be putting on the board this year.  Hope to see you there!

Ignis Rex

I have written and deleted a half dozen witty blog posts about this Land Raider but, in retrospect, none of the them have been sufficient.  I'll stop stumbling through my futile attempts at prose, and let the pictures speak for themselves.  Before I go, however, there are three things you need to know about it:

1) This tank was built & converted by CVinton (look here and here) at Dark Future Games.
2) This tank was painted by Team Snake Eyes' very own Chaplain Aerion.
3) This tank is ridiculously awesome.  I am in awe of the artistic ability on display by the two individuals above. Enjoy.

Photoshop compilation of "before" photos.  This is how we received the tank from CVinton.

Photshop was used to make "color tests" before putting paint to model.

Photoshop "color test" of right side.

Crewman photo:  Forgeworld Salamander shoulder  pad and close up of CVinton's sculpting work.

Front Grill.  Yes, the eyes ARE  following you...Heretic!

Front Profile

Left Profile.  All hatches are fully magnetized.  Not pictured are the Flamestorm Cannons
that can turn this Crusader into the Redeemer variant. 

Left Side Sculpting

Right Profile.  If you don't love the dragon mouths on the Hurricane Bolters, you're
either not alive or not human.  True story.

Right Side Sculpting.  "Ignis Rex" is likely horrible latin for "King of Fire" or "Fire King".
We were also pleasantly surprised that CVinton sculpted a fire imp or some such
into the flames at the bottom of the tank behind the Smith figure.

As you might have deduced, there is more to come.  While we did manage to acquire CVinton's beautifully converted Ironcland Dreadnought (Seriously?  It's crushing a traitor guardsman in it's claw, how cool is that?) alas, we are not taking that to Adepticon this year, so it's not a priority right now.  I did manage to get my scaly claws on Bray'arth Ashmantle (that wasn't a shipping mistake CVinton, the Emperor was trying to tell you something...) and he will be serving as my personal HQ choice at Adepticon's 2012 Team Tournament.  Stop by our table this year in Chicago for a closer look.

Road to Adepticon: Motivational

It's 2012, the last year on Earth. Before the next Presidential election the zombie hordes are due to destroy life as we know it. But before THAT, a completely different horde of strange and wonderful individuals will descend upon unsuspecting Chicago-land for a weekend of combat with plastic and white metal warriors.

This will be Team Snake Eyes third straight Team Tourney. We are currently toiling, brush and Exacto knife in hand, to bring some new additions to our Salamander force. We are excited about these reinforcements and hopefully they will meet or surpass the standards we have set for ourselves in previous years.

I had wanted to do something for my brothers-in-arms for the holidays, but, as often happens, the holiday hecticness made me put it off until now. So, lads, here is a late but heartfelt look back at where we've been in an attempt to energize us for the sprint toward April.

I give you the first ever Team Snake Eyes Motivational. Enjoy!

Aerion's New Army

Well, maybe a LITTLE bit.

If by "new" you mean "purchased mostly when the army was released in Spring of 2011 and just now getting some love with the build and brush", that is.

Last year at Adepticon my long months of artistic guidance over the Salamander project was rewarded by a generous gift of some new models that had, just that very weekend in fact, been scattered Primarch-like across the globe by Games Workshop. As the imposing stack of Grey Knight kits was shoveled into my grateful arms I was both humbled and exhilarated. My humbleness has never waned, but my exuberance had to take a back seat to things like school, life, and various other projects.

This year another gift gave me a much needed impetus to see the Grey Knight project launched into the seas of possibility. My beloved wife, Lady Boxcars, signed me up for a Freeboota membership. For those who aren't aware (and honestly, if you're in the hobby and not, you're missing out), the lads at 40K Radio (link here) have a members only forum community collectively known as the "Freebootas". Membership has its privileges, but one big one is the friendly and supportive environment for lovers of our game.

Pursuant to that environment, the gang host an annual "Motivational Challenge". Basically they designate a goal for each month of the year for participants to accomplish. For example, January's goal was troops or "'Boota'z Choice" (i.e. whatever you want as long as it's something 40K related and you don't start it until the 1st of the month). If you complete your goal by the 15th you get a gold badge for your tracking bar. Complete it by the 30th and you get a silver. Get it done eventually and you get a bronze. As the year progresses you will ideally find that your chosen projects will be vacating your "to-do" shelf and ending up on the table.

I wanted to make my mark as a contributing member of the community so I dove in. I didn't want to start with troops (though, considering I actually had a smidgeon of free time between the holidays and the relaunch of school, I probably should have), so instead I took the "Boota'z Choice" option and got this guy out of the bitz box and prepped. On January 1 I primed him, and by the afternoon of January 4 I had this:

"Of course they have armor cleaning stations in the warp. Why do you ask?"

So that makes two complete models for my Grey Knight army. I have an HQ and I have a Heavy (Dreadknight). That gives me about 1000 points, so I'm halfway there. Woot!

Road to Adepticon 2012, Part 1: Getting the Band Back Together

If you are reading this blog, chances are pretty good that you’ve heard of Adepticon, and their team tournament.  As you might imagine, the Team Snake Eyes blog was created to document the process of preparing for that august event.  Over the course of the next few weeks I’ll be throwing up some posts documenting our efforts in that regard over the years, but most importantly, for the upcoming 2012 tournament.

Broken down to its simplest components, to play in the Team Tourney you need 4000 points of models, and 4 guys willing to play them.  Today I’m going to be talking about the “team” aspect of this event.

Depending upon who you know, or where you live, it can sometimes be a challenge to find 4 players willing to take this journey together.  Do they all have the financial means?  I would love to work out how much money I’ve spent on this tournament over the years (essentially my entire Salamanders army + other sundry bits), but if my wife ever saw those figures I’d likely get heavily ‘sanctioned’.  Do they have the actual time to work on pre-tournament preparations or to actually make the trip?  Many of my 40k friends are shift workers or full time students.  Sometimes they can’t arrange the vacation, or have other priorities that prevent them from participation.  My crew is also heavily involved in Paizo’s Pathfinder game or other role-playing platforms.  Married gamers know that there is often a limit to the number of events one can attend or afford.  Can anyone paint or lose without throwing a tantrum?  Say what you will about soft scores, but this team tournament has them.  Your army needs to look like it belongs together and you won’t get far if you score well in battle points but go all “West Side Story” on your opponents or team mates.
 

So, as you can imagine, there are a lot of things to consider in picking your team.  I have seen good friends not get chosen because they were too competitive.  I’ve been “fired” from teams before we even completed planning because of personality differences.  Better to sort it out early than not have an enjoyable time in Chicago. 

So, that brings me to the most boring part of this piece, introducing you to the Team Snake Eyes contingent for Adepticon 2012:

That prime rib BEGGED me to eat it.

Chosen1 (Team Captain, army owner, and spiritual leader) – To put it bluntly, I’m awesomely amazing at everything I do.  Any failures in my life can be safely attributed to those around me interfering with my aura of greatness.  I’ve been around the world 31 times, visited every semi autonomous nation state within the Mid-west, and received honorary awards such as “Most Magnificent Man of the Last Five Minutes”, “Creator of the Twinkie”, and who could forget the “Most Cherry Coke Zeroes Drank in a Night” award.  Yeah, it looks intimidating doesn’t it?  Shhh, shhh, shhhhh.  Hush now, don’t be scared.  It’s just better this way.  You’ll know it too; you just have to be one of the lucky few that make it past my entourage.

He's so far beyond you all spiritually, it defies reason.

Chaplain Aerion (Art Director) – Aerion is one of my oldest friends.  Not precisely on his merits, but his wife pays me a healthy stipend to say that publicly from time to time.  Known fondly as “the cabbage boy” by the roughnecks he grew up with, he has an amazing knack for feng shui, competition napping, and interpretive dance.  Additionally, I like to refer to him as the “dice whisperer” for his uncanny ability to accurately state the outcome of every throw of dice he’s ever made.  It’s brilliant, you should see it.  I’ve leaned heavily on Aerion’s talents over the years and that may be why we’ve never finished higher in the standings than we have.

Do NOT ask to pet the elephant.

Zephyr  (Rules Guy & Strongest Player) – Zephyr is both a charity case, and living proof that there is life after a career of brutal Burmese pit fighting.  Raised by feral cats and captured early by mercenaries, he was forced into blood sport at an early age.  Recently recovered on one of my many humanitarian missions, I set his vicious mind at ease by making him play with toy soldiers.  His keen warrior’s mind and my masterful tutelage granted him quick grasp of the game and he longs for the day he can take revenge on his former masters by returning to Burma and challenging the mercenary leader to a game of 40k Apocalypse.  Zephyr enjoys butterflies, coconut milk smoothies, funny hats and Pokémon when not yearning for the settlement of blood fueds.

That look means he's hungry

Da Goffer  – (Chapter Menial) Da Goffer’s mom pleaded that I take him out of her basement and give him something productive to do.  She’s such a sweet lady; I had no defense against her desperate pleas.  Turns out, he’s not that bad to have around.  He carries things quite well with his stunted frame, and with supervision manages not to break too many models.  He has a strange love of fungus, often yells incoherently for no good reason, and loves to smash stuff to pieces and then rebuild them into something less suitable than the original.  I have found him to have quite a temper, and I must encourage any of his opponents to just: “let the wookie win”.  It’ll be better for all of us if you do.

His hair is simply average.

Chambers (self proclaimed Dice Monkey & strategist, our “5^th man”) – Chambers has spent his life in other’s shadows.  After failing to get into command school due to low test scores on warp drive theory and a certain indiscretion with a Klingon Commandant’s daughter, he was relegated to a Red Shirt for his perennial “so-so” performance reviews and total lack of meaningful achievements.  What is such a master of mediocrity doing on TSE?  Simply put, we needed someone to get us coffee and snacks.  Chambers fit the bill…sort of.  He’ll likely not survive his first mission anyway.  Lazy bum couldn’t even get me a picture when I asked him to.





EDIT: Chambers finally responded to the picture request.  It seems he has "obligations" that take up his valuable time.  Although I did get a pic, it was only of his remedial arithmetic homework.  Because you all still won't know his face, Aerion believes we can use him as an enforcer at Adepticon.  If any of you run afoul of TSE up in Chi-town...watch out, we know a guy.

Now you can all see for yourselves what sort of "priorities" our Redshirt has

Adepticon 2012: T.S.E. is on the march!

I signed up the team at 5:15 pm CST and I was the 25th person in line to do so.  As of 7:30 pm CST, there were 61 of 110 slots filled.  You want a chance to kick the crap out of us or witness some spectacularly bad tactics/dice rolling?  You better get a move on folks.

Flesh is Weak!

I know I haven't been Mr. Johny on the Spot when it comes to updating this blog, but I would like to take this time to introduce a new Team Snake Eyes Member.  "Bannus" and I played a game at Castle Perilous in Carbondale, IL.  He has since moved up north and continued building his collection of Iron Hands.  Welcome to the team Bannus!