Rigging tourney's for the win!

< rant >

So, evidently, Tye and I can rig a local tourney to guarantee a win.  :)  There's been some discussion on the back end for our beating face last weekend at the doubles tournament.  "Did you know that not only are we bad ass at 40k, but we also have the ability to rig tourneys so we win. Cause, that was the only way we were able to stomp face so well...That's why the prizes were so big."

I was talking about this with Corey - and he referenced the South Park episode with Gnomes attempting to steal underwear for profit.  See screen cap here modified to be the following:

• Step 1: set up tournament, "manipulate" players to play at $10 a head.
• Step 2: ???
• Step 3: take all the winnings

His final bit was "There's a crucial flaw in the plan unless a) you had rigged scenarios b) you have an 'uber-broken' army list or c) you have microwaved dice."    Now - rigged scenarios?  You betcha!  Rolled randomly from the big rulebook - definitely rigged... you check the fine print where it says "Trent and Tye always win"?  "'uber-broken' army list"?  Well - you know we did have 2 HQ, 2 Elite, 6 Troops, and 2 Heavy's in 2000 points... so I guess so.  Microwaved dice?  Nah... we play old school - each of my dice are hand-drilled to roll only 5's - great for orks shooting and armour saves - less helpful for the leadership checks. Now Tye's dice - his are hand crafted by specially trained Peruvian screech monkey's to have all seven sides of his D6's roll 3's.

Or, from Tye...

Now it's my understanding that there were feelings that the tourney was "rigged" and Trent and I were going to win all along.  That being the case, I figured I would enlighten you with our master plans.  Following these easy steps you too can rig any tourney you play in.

• Step 1: Make sure that you and your partner have a combined total of over 25 YEARS playing the game.
• Step 2: Plan, Prepare, and Design a solid list that compliments each other well.  Make sure that you have a strong list that is able to handle anything thrown at it.
• Step 3: Make sure that you and your partner have time to talk strategy and different possibilities.
• Step 4: Make sure your armies are painted and you are good sportsmen so that you don't loose points on dumb things.
• Step 5: Play 3 good games against tough lists and decent players.  And beat them soundly.

By following these simple steps, you too can win every tourney you play in.

< /rant >

It's been a long days night.

So, at the end of three good games, team BFG (Beardy Fat Gits), went 3-0 to win overall.

Tye was on team short bus on game 1, only managing to kill one wounded bloodcrusher with his exploding Damocles. MVP was Wazdakka with his sniper dakkacannon, took a leman russ out on the first turn.

Game 2 was fun. Necrons and Ultramarines... Calgar was a tough nut to crack. Wazdakka hurt himself a lot while trying to Dukes of Hazard over a hill...

Game 3 was odd. Fun game.

It was good to get some games in. Tye and I walked away with some in store credit.

End of Game 3.

Win! After turn 5, our opponents had like 7 Thousand Sons left on the board. Rollin', rollin', rollin. :)

Game 2, win!

Necrons and Calgar marines... Didn't end well for Calgar. :)

Game 1 - win!

9 kill point to 2. Each of the teams earned one HQ kill, so no one got the secondary.

Are we too mean?

1000 pts of (forgeworld marines - Damocles, 2 prometheus, 5 man scout, 5 man tac, and two vindicators) with wazdakka, 4 squads of bikerz, and 6 deff koptas...

Let the fun begin. :)

Pesky Humans...

Finally got a game in with the new Slaan team yesterday.  Played against a Human team.  At 1m, I have to keep the team "light" - so it was 8 Linemen, 3 Bllitzers, and 1 Catcher.  He had 4 Blitzers, 2 Catcher, 1 Thrower, 1 Ogre, and 3 Lineman. 

He was definitely going for a "plan B" mentality (that would be B for Beating).  I was able to score early in the first half and then he got away from me at the end of the half and scored.  During the second half I was able to score twice on him. 

Can't wait till these guys get all painted and I can get a few more games in with them... :)

More Gaspez-Arts goodness

First up, here's a screen cap of the model in question (blatantly stolen from their website here: http://www.gaspez-arts.com/?go=store&id=48&pgs=5&pag=5)

 
First of all, the model is beautiful.  It was a dream to go together.  The body is one piece.   Then there's a head (one of two to choose from), the hands, the tail, and the dangly bits on the forearms.  What makes it *really* nice to put together is the hands.  See the things it's holding on to?  Here, I'll give you a close up of mine after building it, see if you can see it:

The forearm and armour is one piece (attached to the body).  The hand, *and strap* is one piece.  There's a little notch on the ends of the strap that fit into divots on the armour bit, effectively locking it in place.  It means the glue can connect the hand bit on three sides - no need to pin a hand down.

Anyway, I just have to say I really am liking their stuff more and more for Bloodbowl... *ahem*, excuse me - "Fantasy Football"  :).  This model took a little bit longer to get here than the other stuff, but they also threw in a "Elfo Selvaggio di linea 1" (Google translates that to "Wild Elf line 1" - which looks a lot to me like a Wood Elf Lineman...).

Anyway.  After next weekend (my fourth anniversary and semi-annual trip into the barren lands of Southern Oregon) my weekends should start to relax a little on the "planned events".  That means I should be able to get some games in, and the wife should be able to start putting some color down on these Frogs.  Pictures will follow, I promise.

What a long strange trip it's been...

Or, how I spent most of my summer:  Famliy stuff.  :)

I did get to play in the OFCC tournament, went 3-2... had a blast.  Started plotting new armies and can't quite get my head wrapped around it to actually do something.. not sure why.  My friend RC thinks it's boredom.  I dunno...

So, to that I decided I was going to do a new Blood Bowl team.  I've been looking at the gaspez-arts "Frogmen" team for a while, and I finally decided to just do it.  I ordered them on August 30th, and they showed up 8 days later - which is not bad, especially since they were coming from Europe and there was a 3-day weekend holiday in there.

My daughter has decided that she needs to open up the package.

The package was well packed, and all pieces came in one plastic container.

After some sorting, here's what it looks like:

The bases are very much like GW's slotta bases... only brown.

The models themselves?  At first glance they're some nice clean models.  They were quite a bit bigger than I was expecting though.  Here's a size comparison with a GW Bloodbowl model:

Most of the pieces are one piece, there's a few who have legs (mmmmm, frog legs) and arms as separate bitz.  The fit seems to be pretty good - I'll get some pictures after I get them washed and built.  One of the models I picked up was the coach - I was hoping it would have been a bit bigger so I could use it as a Kroxigor if I wanted to.... nope, it's the same "size" as the other frogs

So, overall.  The models look much gooder than I was expecting.  The shipping wasn't unreasonable for cost - and it was fast (I've had ebay auctions from across the state take longer to ship to me).  And, they sent me a football and a freebie mini:

I can do a necro team, right?

Game 5 - Jay from 'Wild Stallion'

Got a little over zealous with my shooting and almost cost myself the game.

Game 4 - Dan from 'Crazy Canucks'

Dark Eldar don't like hydras...
Stealing the initiative is good. :)

End of day 1...

One win and two losses. Two good games. So far the death if me has been the AP5... Game 2 being all night fight didn't help much either... :)

Game 2 - Mark from 'Guardian Games 3'

Blood Angel beat down.... Nothing more to say.

Game 1 - Ian from 'Borderlands'

Guard v Daemons.

Remembered to concentrate fire on the ouchy bits. Pulled a win out.

It has begun!

Finishing up with basing and squad markings...

So, since I'm taking the "renegade guard" to OFCC in two weeks, I figured I probably should get around to basing them and putting squad markings on 'em.  Most of the units don't need anything, they're different enough (1 unit of these, 1 unit of those).  The problem comes in with the 4 units of Penal Legion and the Infantry Platoon (with Special Weapons Squads).  So, what I did was give all the 'legion prison tats on their right arms, and then the infantry platoon got squad markings (roman numerals I and II for the squads, diagonal slashes for the special weapons squad and a + for the command squad.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do for the bases.  I think I just may cheat and use sand, paint, and static grass...  but really, it's because I can't think of anything else.

Mission: Accomplished!

Game 6... So frakked

Games 1 and 2

Lesson learned...

TSA gets confused by Screamers of Tzeentch. And chain mail dice bags.

Geek Weekend.... T-minus 18 hours (or so)

Leaving for Geek Weekend tomorrow morning at 6:50am.  I'll do some cell phone posts during the weekend.

How I spent my last month...

Wife, kids, house, you know - the usual stuff.

I got a few games of Bloodbowl in with my Dwarf team (we're doing a 1.1M resurrection "tournament").  Game one was a grind against another Dwarf team.  Ended up as a 1-1 tie.  Game two was a win against a Vampire Count, 2-0.  He just couldn't catch a break...

Built a Deathstrike..... mmmmm, Deathstrike.

Other than that - not a lot of gaming stuff going on this month.  Second annual Geek Weekend is coming up - so that'll be fun...

OT: Lesson Learned

Did you know that apple ear-bud headphones will survive a trip through the washing machine and the dryer... and still function?

Yeah, neither did I.

Got some games in yesterday.

Got a 2000 point and a 1500 point game in yesterday at the FnsLGS.  2000 points of "logan-wing" against an infantry heavy guard (squats!) list.  A full half of the units at one point ran.  WTF?  :)   Two objective, 12" deployment.  The game went to 7 turns and ended with me snatching a tie back at the very end of the 7th turn.

I then got a 1500 point game against an actual Deathwing.  I died.  Horribly.  Something to do with rolling too many 1's.

All and all, it was a fun list to play.  It's defiantly more of a "cool idea" list vs. a "beat your face in" - but I'm ok with that... I actually planned that.

Fall from grace...

Right.  So the week after Kubla was spent recovering (and dealing with the munchkins recovering).  Sunday, I got the option to head out to Tri-Cities to play, but since they were doing a Fantasy tournament (practicing for OFCC Fantasy) I decided not to go.  Cora and I got up and went to breakfast (a plan we usually do on Saturday), giving Darby and Lili some time to get going.  After breakfast we went to the park (till the rain started) and then came home and cleaned the house.  Darby powered through the upstairs, Cora and I powered through the downstairs. 

After dinner and bedtime routine, I sat down to build and organize the "Logan Wing" Chaos terminators.  I finished building the third squad, marked the bases for all the built ones, and figured out the legs for the last two squads. 

At this rate, this army should be built by the end of the week.  

Waiting for the shuttle...

Another Kubla down.... And I'm.... Beat.

Only 11 games played this year, but 11 good games. And I'll take quality over quantity any day. Friday night was the ever popular BBCS - we had 10 players for the first two rounds, and then down to 6 (Friday night flea market).
Lesson learned - start earlier.

Saturday was Prisonhamm... errr, Battleground. 8 players played 3 rounds.
Lessons learned - thoughts to de-complicate the campaign-a-ment 

Saturday evening was some quality wife time in the human soup pot (hot tub), and then off to assist the Rez event. I got to play the zombies. I also was able to help the mini's coordinator to play a game of bloodbowl using one of the BBCS pitches and rules.

Sunday was the 40k event. It was more popular than expected and we were told it wasn't wacky enough.
 Lesson learned - more wackyness.

Sunday night was a pickup game of BSG. I played Cain, cylon from the beginning, I was able to blind jump, and was airlocked for it. :).
Lesson learned - I still love that game.

Monday was cleanup, pack up, etc.

I think the wife and children will pass out in the airplane on the way home tonite.

40k wackyness (tm)

40k event went off well. We had 10 people show up and fun wackyness was had by all. I tabled Manny with little losses, tabled Scott to some losses, and completed the mission before Corey did to "win" - only to to have the Astartes strike cruiser take me down. :)

If a tree falls on a guardsman...

Saturday...

Here's Manny playing the zombie outbreak mission from Rezolution.  Earlier today we did our Battleground Campaign-a-ment. I tied for the  "win" with two wins and a tie... Them Lizards are mean.

BB beatdowns - Friday night gaming...

BBCS 2010 went off with out a hitch last night. We had 10 people show up for wacky BB mayham. My Dark Elves beat up  on some lizards in the Bloodweiser Cup, failed to run around Chaos Dwarf's (Dwarves?) in Hurricane Bowl, and out scored a Necro team in the Thunder Bowl...

Finished the evening at about 2:30am, and got the 6:30 alarm call of my two year old.  Sleep dep going into Saturday - oh yeah, Its Kubla time.

Friday's picture of sillyness at Kubla.

Kubla bound!

And miles to go before.... wait, what?

Nine days before the departure for KublaCon, let's see where we stand, shall we?

2000pt Imperial Guard Army - Done.  I need to do something for the squad markings on the Penal Legions - cause right now, only the bottom of the bases are differentiated and I can't tell you which one's the Custodian.

Custom Blood Bowl pitches have been re-re-redone (again), and are at the print shop to be printed.

Rezolution Crew is still in it's AT tray.

Battleground "army" is in it's holder.

Corey's Chimera's are done, painted, and in his possession.... they're not quite right on the color scheme, but that happens when you're trying to match paint from a picture.  It can be fixed post Kubla.

Corey's Vendetta's are built - I'm still wrapping my brain around the bases and flight stands for them - but they're playable. 


I will try and get some "family photos" of the army up this week.  Depends on how the munchkins' are doing.

Oye, where does the time go...

My good friend Manny posted this about his day: http://adventuresofacrosscountrygamer.blogspot.com/2010/05/day-in-life-of-slacker.html yesterday.  To which my friend Corey (all the "deleted responses" to Manny's posts...) spent a good hour or so this morning chiding me over IM.  It included the following nugget:

Trenty-poo, you can have whatever you want... ;)  I wouldn't want to hurt your delicate sensibilities and drive you to another whiny blog, so my fuzzy-wuzz-wookieman can whatever he likes...

Corey - consider this the whiny blog post.  :)

Right.  All my tanks are done excecpt for about the back half of the repaint for the demolisher.  What, it was already painted?  I know, it just didn't match the final paint job on the rest of the army, so it had to go in for a respray.

Corey's tanks are built, primed, base-coated and detail started (thank you to the wife).  And his Vendetta #1 is 95% built, and #2 is about 20% built.

Life is adjusting to two rugrats running around.  #2 sleeps (like, I think she slept more in the first two days than #1 slept in the first week)... #1's jealousy issues have just started to surface - for the first two weeks it was very much "I wanna hold baby sister."  We'll work through that.  I think I'm going to take a run to tri-cities tomorrow with #1 in the afternoon (assuming the boss okay's it).  Give mama a little quiet time and maybe, just maybe she'll decide she needs a nap again (going on two weeks now without naps).  Sorry, gaming blog.

I picked up a set of the pre-cut trays from battlefoam for the guard army.  I'm still not 100% sure they're... good (no, not the right word).  The first order from battlefoam was a custom piece I had them do sometime last year (before they started offering their own bags).  It was supposed to be for Sabol's Army Transport - it was about 1/4" too wide on the long side and 1/2" too wide on the short ends.  The foam was nice, don't get me wrong, it still fit in the bag fine - just had to compress it a little - I just think for a "precision laser cut foam insert" the tolerances could have been a little tighter.  And yes, I know, they would have done it again if it was wrong.  These new trays are the precut sabol trays for infantry, that hold 40.  For $10 that's a decent deal.  The holes are nice for guardsmen, not sure marines would have really fit in there (they do make one with larger pre-cuts that will hold 27 I think)... but the tray size was again, a little off.

I think the next trays I'm going to get for my sabol cases will be the precut sabol trays.  Same price as the pull and pluck, hold 36 infantry and 2" thick so I can stand the guys up.

OT: Incoming!

For those of you that read this blog and not the baby one.  I'm sitting in the hospital waiting for the wife to hurry up and deliver the #2 tax deduction.  I'll be quite for a while on this one.  If you wish to get baby updates - http://round-anew.blogspot.com

First Hydra built...

I sat down last night and built the first Hydra last night.  The quad guns were easy - Aegis Defense Lines Quad Guns.  The base it sits on fits perfectly on the turret ring of the Chimera.  Here's the test fit.

This last weekend I was using the quad guns on a "normal" Chimera.  But I wanted to shove the guns back a little bit.  Two friends of mine, RabidChild and Rain have both built these (for Inquisitorial Armies, IIRC) several years ago, for their command Chimera's.   When I asked both of them if they still had pictures (armies are long gone), RabidChild responded with this link to theback40k.  Which added some juice to the brain puree to make it.

I did it a little differently than he did though.  Here are some pictures of it in progress.

This is the section of top hatch that needed to be cut - basically the back section is right about where the angled bit comes up on the back of the Chimera.  I used the two nubbins as a guide for razor saw.  With the back end of the Chimera covered, I then took the rest of the top plate and figured "about" where it needed to be - using those rivets as the guide for that side.

As you can see from the roughed in green stuff - that makes the angled bits slide in nicely with the back.  I glued the two pieces together using sprue and the plate that comes with the kit when you build a basalik/griffon out of it.  All the raised bits were trimmed off the back plate - the lasgun portals, rivets, and raised lip for the top hatch.  Greenstuff was then added to the holes for filler.

I had to then fill in the hole left from where the angled top plate hits the chassis.  More bits of griffon plate (for the rivits) and a support strut (bit of the "missing" top plate - aka garbage) to hold it in place.

Here's the "complete" model.

Since these pictures were taken, I've done some sanding and cleaning on the greenstuff and seam line.  The top plate still isn't glued in (waiting till I'm happy with the seam.  The flak cannon bit sits on the turret ring nicely, but I think I'm going to magnetize it just so it won't fall off too often.

First game in...

and it was good.

Got a 1750 game in (basically what I had "done" today vs. a Grots of Battle (Sisters of Battle) army.  We played the "Prepared Assault"mission from the new "Battle Missions" book.   Great fun was had by all.  Not a lot left on the board when done - on either side.

I really need to get a better handle on the synergy of the army.  Stacking the Psyker Battle Squad better with the Ratlings - that type of thing.  I'll get it.

Right, onto pictures!

One special weapons squad.  They died - they did kill the Callidus before being cut down by heavy bolters.

One Ogyrn with Ripper Gun.  They did a little parody of a three-year old playing soccer, before contributing their mass to wiping out the last two Sisters sitting on an objective to bring the tie back (at that point - I had no Troops left).

One of the 4 Penal Legion Squads.  Two of them had the assault 2 lasguns, and the other 2 were Psychopaths.  The mission didn't allow Reserves - so I didn't get to outflank with them... Most of the 40 died to heavy flamer... one squad did whither his combined Infantry Squad down to 1 guy before the last remaining squad came in to clean up.  That squad then caught fire on the next turn.  All of them.

Primarus Psyker.  Got swept up with the Ogyrns, and then the "remaining squad" (see above) before dying.  Did some fun stuff.  But need to get a better grasp on his use.

The (not pictured) Leman Russ Demolisher distracted my opponent for a few turns before catching a meltagun up close and personal like.   It had a lovely shot with the Demolisher Cannon and one Plasma Cannon - putting 12 wounds on to a 10-"man" squad.  He rolled a "10" for the act of faith to make his Power Armor save Inv.  Only 2 died.  Grrrr....

With the eminent birth of the second spaw.... errr, child. I'm not sure if I'm going to get another game in with this army before Kubla.  Oh well, learn by doing.  :)

OT: "The world's oldest profession"

You know its a funny news story when you damn near spit soda out your nose because of a quote.  The quote goes like this:

"If the Louisiana Republican Party is uncomfortable with a Republican challenger who has a history of selling sex, I would suggest they reconsider standing by an incumbent with a history of paying for it,"

It's a response to a story about an adult film actress (look ma, no quotes!) contemplating running in a primary race against an incumbent Senator.  The full story is here at the Boston Herald.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled gaming blog.

Have I mentioned that my wife rocks?

She's currently sitting behind me... 6 days shy of her due date for our second kid, sick with a crappy cold, hasn't really slept in days (ok, months... years maybe)...  painting the last Penal Legion Squad.  That squad should be done tonite.  That just leaves the Rough Riders for me to finish building (and then her paint).

She finished the pre-dip work for the Infantry Platoon last night, which allowed me to dip them last night and then seal them this afternoon.  I'll try and get a picture of the done army this weekend..   (edit)  Fine.  Pictures for the masses... not the greatest, they're from the phone, at night, in the man tower.

Infantry Platoon paint job.

One meltagunner for the special weapons squad of my Infantry Platoon.  The platoon should be done by tomorrow night.  That's going to leave a few vehicles, one Penal Legion squad and the Rough Riders.   I'm still at a slight mental empass for the Rough Riders.

The issue is as follows.  The "original" idea for this army a Tzeentch "flavored" prison break.  So, lots of Penal Legions, mutants and scum all in squads of 9, that sort of thing.  The Rough Riders were supposed to be riding Screamers.  I've got the Screamers - I just need the riders.  The original plan was to use Cadians (to match the Infantry Platoon) with some "chaos-ifying" from the Maruaders (my base for the Penal Legion).  Here's the problem - I don't have any more Cadians - and the arms from Marauders don't fit (Cadian chests are narrower).  So, I'm thinking picking up a box of Catachans - they should match....   But then, why buy something new, I've got enough Marauders to make it work - I could just "de-chaosify" them a little bit... less "desperado" more "wild bunch"....

Sigh.  The choices.  :)

...and miles to go before I sleep.

Right.  No pictures on this one - sorry.  Here's where I sit with 6 weeks left before Kublacon.

Events I'm planning on participating in and where I sit for the things.

Bloodbowl Championship Series - I'm halfway through the redo of the pitches.  I've gone with 40mm square "super-sized" pitches.  Team is painted, sealed, and good to go.

Civil War in Hawkshold - Still need to figure out which army I'm going to bring.  Since it's Battleground... cake.

Zombie Bash! - Rezolution.  My crew's not painted... and honestly, I'm not worried about it.  I only get to play this game at Kubla...

Macharian Heresy - This would be what the Guard Army is for.  The army is all built except for 3 of the tanks (waiting for the kits) and the rough riders (about half built).  About half of the army is fully painted (thanks to the wife) - the HQ is done.  Elites are done.  Troops are just shy of half done.  Infantry Platoon is base coated, 2 of the Penal Legions are done, 1 is about an hour from done, and the 4th is primed.  Fast Attack is the Rough Riders, and Heavy Support is the Demolisher and 2 Hydras.  Demolisher is done, Hydra's haven't even started.

I'll get some more pictures up this weekend (or, will try at least - no guarantee's... the wife may pop at any moment.  :)

More pictures

First up, a Penal Legion Trooper.

Next up, one Ogryn

Then we have the Priest

Then finally - the Primaris Psyker

Here in about 30 minutes, the final of the Penal Legions will be built.  I've solved the bitz issue for the Infantry Platoon.  Those should be done here real soon like.  Vehicles had a slight shipping delay...

Better pictures...

Liberated a camera from work last weekend.  This is what the pictures should look like using the lightbox.  :)

I need to get more pictures done - I've got to get pictures of other stuff that's done.  The Primarus Psyker, Priest, and Ogryns are all done.  Two of the Penal Legion squads are built and primed (one of which is on it's way to being done already).  I'm still trying to find bitz for the Infantry Platoon.  After the Penal Legions, that's going to leave the tanks and the Rough Riders to build.