Source of Inspiration

We've all got something that "does the trick" for us when it comes to inspiration. Do I love Patton? Yes, as a matter of fact I do. Do I love sweet riffs on the electric guitar? My years of camo pants & flannel shirt grunge support in the late eighties/early nineties can attest to that. Patton playing a sweet riff on an electric guitar? Some things are just too awesome to speak of in polite company. This weekend K-Boy is running a Pathfinder game to test the challenge rating of the Asmodeus Mirage scenario. Aparently some folks ran through it in Cape Girardeau and ran screaming from the table. This is, of course, my kind of challenge. For those who may not know, I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 27 years. That statement is not a boast of my abilities, rather its a testament to just how much I love the game. The only habits I have participated in for longer are eating and breathing. Both the game and my play style have evolved over the years, running down the long line of traditional stereotypes. I have been a role-player (no larping, that's just not my bag). I have been a roll-player. I always like to "win" the challenge, however, regardless of what that challenge happens to be. So when I hear about something being "hard" or "impossible" or "written only to drive the players before them and hear the lamentation of their women" I am instantly intrigued. The guantlet has been dropped, and I have answered the call. I will enter the fray this weekend playing a non-standard bard, and I expect to have a fantastic time telling all those naysayers how I succeeded where they didn't...and oh yeah, I did it with a bard named Babba Ganoush. ;)

Oh, Larry and I will likely work on our Warhammer 40k project since we're already behind...

Edit (12/15/09): Our party did remarkably well in the Pathfinder scenario. There has been another scenario that caused a stir recently (DM'd by my buddy Partho no less) that routed a group of players. Of course, I must now play it to see for myself, if the scenario was poorly written or if the players were ill prepared. Oh yeah, we didn't get anything done on our Adepticon army, but I have four days until my semester is over...

And we're off!

The team registration has been purchased, so Team Snake Eyes is officially attending Adepticon 2010! We've got our team, we just need to get our army. No problem right? Riiight. I made my order for Chapterhouse studio bits for our shoulder pads and some vehicles, and our resin bases are coming from Dark Arts Studios. If I wasn't such a lazy mook, I'd have links to those places over on the right hand column. I'll be doing good to get the army done, let alone properly advertise where we got our stuff from. Speaking of stuff, our minis will be coming from Miniature Market (again with the links) in St. Louis. These guys are fantastic to work with, have an excellent online and physical store and offer what is now the industry standard 20% discount. We're hoping our large order will yield some extra cheddar, but we'll see how the negotiations turn out. Our armies are little changed from the previous post (errors, however, have been fixed), and here's who's taking what:

Da Goffer = Army #1
Chosen 1 = Army #2
Aerion = Army #3
Blowtorch = Army #4

The Crusade has begun. Stay tuned.

EDIT: No longer as lazy a mook as I once was.

Adepticon Army Lists - 1st Draft

I've just finished my Adepticon lists for our Salamanders Team. They've not been vetted by the rest of the lads on the team yet, but documenting this process will be interesting as time goes by. First of all, I went to Adepticon back in 2006. We had four different space marine chapters arranged on a Crux Terminatus board. We finished 31st out of 76 teams (Emperor's Forgotten Sons) and had a pretty good time. We would have done considerably better if the Flying Douchebags (Flying Hellfish) didn't zero out our sportsmanship scores after we beat them in our second game. Oh well, that sort of stuff happens. Regardless of that, I realized at that tournament that no matter my preparation, I do not have the time/ability/money to truly compete at the level of some of the better participants. I'm okay with that. My goal is to show up, do my best, and take pictures of some truly fantastic looking armies and live vicariously through them. Earlier this year, a buddy of mine from my 2006 team contacted me and asked if I was willing to compete again this year. After agreeing and a few days of wrangling we had the old team back together. That lasted about two weeks. After discussions about army choice and theme broke down, two of the old members backed out. I assume they'll go with another team, and if they do - watch out. Those guys play hard. I was, however, still interested in going and my remaining teamate and I started to cobble together a new coalition. This too lasted about two weeks. The discussions again broke down and my last remaining teamate from 2006 walked away. I had a completely new team. While I am really excited about the progress "Team Snake Eyes" has made for the 2010 event, I can't help but notice that I was the only common denominator for the other three guys walking out. I feel I wasn't unreasonable in my suggestions, but I am more of a hobbyist and the others are more competitive. Oh well. In any event, all of my old teamates would look at these lists with scorn, but I am trying to create a theme of Vulkan attempting to recover some lost secret of his primarch and getting together a balanced force to do so. The choices include units I like the look of and want to see played. I understand Battle Points make up a large percentage of the total points available at the Team Tournament but we'll just have to see how the list evolves after playtesting. I also have some kickass conversions that will be fielded (Vulkan by Ron over at ++From The Warp++, and Master of the Forge w/conversion beamer by Ian over at The Sky Full of Stars...Don't worry gents, you'll both be getting pictures of your work when they are painted).

Army #1
190 Vulkan He'Stan
205 Tactical Squad with Multi-Melta, Flamer & Rhino
205 Tactical Squad with Multi-Melta, Flamer & Rhino
175 (5) Tactical Squad with Combi-Melta & TL Lascannon Razorback
105 Dreadnought with Multi-Melta & Heavy Flamer
120 Vindicator with Dozer Blade
1000

Army #2
120 Master of the Forge with Conversion Beamer
205 Tactical Squad with Multi-Melta, Flamer & Rhino
205 Tactical Squad with Multi-Melta, Flamer & Rhino
140 Scout Squad with Sniper Rifles
105 Dreadnought with Multi-Melta
140 (2) Land Speeders with Multi-Melta & Heavy Flamer
85 Predator Destructor
1000

Army #3
130 Space Marine Chaplain with Terminator Armor
205 Tactical Squad with Multi-Melta, Flamer & Rhino
205 Tactical Squad with Multi-Melta, Flamer & Rhino
200 (5) TH/SS Terminators
260 Land Raider Crusader with Muti-Melta
1000

Army #4
100 Space Marine Librarian
225 Tactical Squad with Lascannon, Flamer, Combi-Melta & Rhino
225 Tactical Squad with Lascannon, Flamer, Combi-Melta & Rhino
180 (5) Tactical Squad with Combi-Melta, Melta Bombs & TL Lascannon Razorback
100 Thunderfire Cannon
85 Predator Destructor
85 Predator Destructor
1000

Comments?

Adepticon: March 26 - 28, 2010

I may have been conned into returning to the upcoming Adepticon. I don't have the time, I don't have the models, and I'm not entirely convinced my wife (who was not present during the work-up last time I went) will be pleased with the whole process. Thankfully, we don't care about the Gladiator, but we don't yet have a full team, let alone a team concept. It will likely deal with Space Marines and may have a Pre-Heresy slant to it, but that's about as far as we've taken it. I need to come up with a clever name as "Stupid bastards who always wait till the last minute" doesn't roll off the tongue as well as I'd like it to. I will, of course, post progress reports as things develop.

Blog Down! Blog Down!

Anyone with an ounce of "blogger-sense" know why the frick my right hand column is way the hell down at the bottom of my page? I hate being ignorant.

I'm not dead yet!

I must say that rumors of my passing have been greatly exaggerated. I have, however, been a tad busy (getting married, too much work during the day for too little pay, tough-ass semester in grad school, abject laziness...you know how it is) lately. I do have some gaming announcements though, so pay attention. :)

Brewfest 2009: It's at Buckner's Brewery in Cape Girardeau Missouri (October 9 -11), and I must say that its one of the best convention experiences I've ever had the pleasure to experience. There's a variety of games, its not too large, its not too small, the venue serves great food (and booze, its at a brewery...hey-oh!). While we usually have a tournament (RTT or team tourney) and a big-ass Apocalypse event, I won't be partaking of the 40k events this year. I still have my IG army, although not tweaked for 5th edition yet, and my Salamanders are in their infancy; I just don't "feel it" at the moment.

Pathfinder RPG: I dabbled with 4th edition D&D, and while its an interesting game, its just not to my tastes. Pathfinder, however, fits me very well. I'll be playing Pathfinder's organized play events for most of the Con and a few slots of some homebrew. Not much time for gaming with school now, but the fellas have a Pathfinder home game I'd like to get in, but alas...

Pre-Heresy Awesomeness: While wandering the Internet while "working on homework" one evening, I happened upon an awesome blog that detailed pre-heresy World Eaters. Try a search for "Eater of Worlds" if you're interested...or you can wait for my lazy ass to upload the link to the TSE blog page. Anyway, its always been a dream of mine to be able to pull of the whole "Yeah, I can paint white and not make it look like crap" attitude so I would love to get to work on some of those guys at some point. That and having an army that could double as a CSM, SM, BT, & BA army would be a godsend. That might take care of SOME of my army ADD and the Mrs. would enjoy only having to look at one army in the house.

Hell, I don't have time to finish my IG or start my Salamanders (even with the sweet conversions I commissioned for my MotF & Vulkan models) let alone get a mini-project of Pre-Heresy World Eaters going. :) In a perfect world, I'd get the IG and Salamanders done and sold off on feEbay and then I could get some World Eater action going...I like the newer models though, so some purists might look down on me.

later all,

EDIT: Looks like Brewfest occurs during Homecoming weekend for Southeast Missouri State University. That means parades, traffic horrors, & drunk co-eds. Two out of those three will ruin your day, while the other could haunt you for a long time. :) Plan accordingly in all cases.

Army A.D.D.

We all know that Genoside has a problem with Games Workshop products...he frickin owns them all. I'm here to say that my name is Chad and I have Army Attention Deficit Disorder. (Hi Chad...) I will, however, refuse to speak my latest crazy idea out loud for fear that I might actually start working on it. I really need help.