Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish all my fellow Americans and anyone else who wants to celebrate a Happy Thanksgiving Day. I hope you are enjoying a day with family and friends and most important of all GREAT FOOD!

Friday Projects Update: Sister of Battle/Eldar

I didn't get a whole lot of painting this week as I played a few games and have been getting ready to go on Thanksgiving Vacation starting this weekend.

I did manage to finish off two more Sisters of Battle. These two are armed with Heavy Bolters and get me a little closer to having all my sisters finished.

The other 40K project I finished this week was my Eldar Vyper Jetbikes. After reading an  Tactica article Fritz, of Way of Saim-Hann, Posted on BOLS. Fritz talked about way to use Vypers and some loadouts he used. When I read about using Multi-Laser mount with an upgraded Shuriken Cannon underneath, I knew this was exactly what my Ulthwe themed army needed. So I got to converting some Shuriken Cannons and then painted up the squadron below.

These little guys give my Ulthwe some much needed firepower. I get 12 36" Str 6 AP 6 shots as well as 9 24" Str 6 AP 5 shots. This will be enough to help widdle down just about any unit.

That's all I got this week. I am not sure how much posting I will be doing as I visit the family next week, but I will be back as soon as vacation is over.

-BJ

When did the 40K hobby become a competitive sport?

I have been wanting to write the post since early last week, but I decided to not post while I was irritated. I have had some time to contemplate what exactly I wanted to say, so I decided to go for it and post today. Before I go into my rant I just wanted to say this is not directed at anyone in particular and it is just me being frustrated with some of the things I see happening in 40K.

As my title suggests I am trying to figure out when 40K became so competitive. When I first got into playing 40K I was already a Fantasy Battle player. I started 40K because I honestly loved the back story and since I was already into the Hobby with fantasy it was easy to cross over to 40K. I am a D&D player at heart so I enjoy the story of the game as much as playing it. Last week I got very frustrated while reading some posts on other blogs and forums. There are a few trends I have seen in posts that have just gotten under my skin.

This is a Hobby not a competitive sport: Over and over I keep seeing people argue about 40K tournaments and why there shouldn't be soft scores in tournaments. I am not debating this as there are some valid reasons out there that I completely understand. What irritates me is all the people that use competitive sports as a comparison to make their points. First this is a Hobby War-game, not a competitive sport. The comparison makes no sense to me as you often have 2 different armies which have different rule sets to follow. In competitive sports you have two teams that must follow the same set of rules. Even people who compare 40K to chess are not making valid arguments as in chess both players have identical "armies" with identical rules and rely on their skill to play. 40K has different rules for different armies and relies on players skill as well as unpredictable dice rolls. So no matter what you think GW should do you will never have the same type of competition as you see in sports or chess for that matter.

Is the internet to blame: I love the internet, I spend too much of my free time on it. Does it have an impact on power gaming in 40K, hell yes! I blogged earlier about my issues with what I call "Cookie Cutter" armies. Pretty soon every Ork list has Nob Bikers, Every Eldar list has a Jetbike Seer Council. The list goes on and on. Then someone will post an alternative list and the power gamers jump on them... "This list sux, you got no Nob Bikers... noob! I love going through the book and reading about each unit and deciding how I can make them work together, but it seems this is a dying art as players just wait for the power gamers to post their killer list then they copy them.

Is the Hobby aspect of 40K dying: I sure hope not as I feel if it does then 40K itself will die. I worry when I read post that want every hobby aspect of tournament scoring removed. I understand some of the points on removing soft scores, but this is a hobby and some of us players enjoy building a fluffy list, as well as painting our miniatures and for me comp scores and painting scores help support the whole hobby. I can see a problem with the Sportsmanship score, but I also feel that power gamers brought this problem about. The idea that you do whatever you need to do to increase your chance of winning fostered the idea of screwing your opponent with a bad score. Do I think it should be removed? Most definitely because it is just another tool for power gamers to abuse.

Another issue I have seen creeping up is requests for GW to make pre-painted models. I understand that players can be apprehensive about painting but it is part of the hobby. I sucked at painting when I first started but I took the time to learn and practice. I am no Eavy Metal class painter but I am proud of what I paint and it helps make my army mine. I love playing other armies that are painted and converted, it makes the game more fun and immersive. I understand that not everyone is great at this aspect but it only takes asking for advice from the community to get you started.

The last thing I want to gripe about is the attitude that 40K can't be fun unless you are trying to win. I have actually been called a liar on forums when I say I have had just as much fun losing games as I do winning them. I don't know if it is because I got into gaming through RPGs like D&D, but the idea of playing a hobby game like 40K is first for fun, then for the narrative, and lastly hanging out with and making friends. I like to win but in the end it doesn't matter to me as long as I am having fun.

I often do moves in games that might not make the best tactical sense but it is how I feel my army would play in a situation. Recently I was playing a tough Guard list with my Black Templars. He was blowing up my Rhinos like nothing and most of my army was on foot by the end of turn 2. I had my Emperor's Champion lead his squad through insane fire in an attempt to get into the guards line. In the end I lost the game but seeing my Champion (the lone survivor of a 15 man squad) make it to the guard line and wreak havoc made the game both exciting and fun. I played my army fluffy, I lost, but I had fun and have a good story to tell when my buddies and I are talking about gaming.

I am going to bring this to a close as the post is starting to get long winded. I am just voicing some frustrations I have with trends I see in 40K. I by no means think my opinion is correct but I do want to open this up for discussion to see what you all think. I hope no one is offended, and by all means take this opportunity to voice your opinions on the matter, I would love to read them.

-BJ

Snow-Tex: Add good looking snow to your models!

Well with Space Wolves just being released and fresh in everyone's minds I thought I would review the product I use to add snow to my miniatures. The product is DecoArt's Snow-Tex. This stuff is easily found in most hobby/craft stores this time of year, but can also be easily ordered off the web all year long.

When I first purchased my Beastmen army for Fantasy I wanted to give them snow bases. I bought some of the GW snow flock and personally I couldn't stand it. It doesn't look right to me no matter how I mix it. I then bought another company's (I forget the name) snow product and while it did look cool at first, after clear coating and a few days had passed the snow began to get a yellow tone to it. I was not happy with the effect and decided to shelf my beastmen army until a later time.

Then, 2 years ago, my buddy Brandon asked me to paint his Space Wolves. He wanted snow bases and I cringed, but I was determined that I could make this work. It was the Christmas season and my wife wanted to go to Hobby Lobby to look for some decorations, while she was looking I decided to check out their paints. I was looking through the stuff when I noticed a bottle labeled Snow-Tex, the Jar was under $5.00 so I decided to buy it and give it a try.

Not only was I pleasantly surprised, but I was blown away. The stuff was already textured and had a very white appearance to it. I starting applying it to a few of the Space Wolf miniatures and the outcome was amazing. I still had my reservations, though because I had luck with the product that turned yellow, so I sprayed on a clear coat and then set the models aside for a few days. When I came back to look at them the snow was just as white as the day I painted them.

Here we are two years later when Brandon asked me to paint him some more Space Wolves in anticipation of the new codex. I asked him to send me a few that I had painted so I could make them match up. When the models got here the snow was still just as white as the day applied it to the models.

Needless to say I am sold on this product. It can be applied by brush, sponge or palette knife. It dries to a hard finish with little (if any) shrinkage from how you originally place it on the model. It can be thinned with water and can be tinted using other acrylics, so those of you who want a bluish tint for icy snow, it can easily be achieved.

This product has many other uses than just snow, you can tint the color and make it look like stucco for building walls, or it really makes a great mud when tinted or painted up with browns. I have used it to give bases some texture or small mounds and it is much cheaper than using green stuff to accomplish this.

Throught this article you can see some of the ways I used Snow-Tex on Brandon's Wolves, and below you can see how I used it to make textured rolling ground for some objective markers. I hope you find this review useful and if you decide to give Snow-Tex a try feel free to post here and let me know what you thought.

Friday Projects Update - Sisters of Battle

Well it was a slow week on the painting table for me this week. I have a few other miniatures almost done but they won't make the blog post this week.

I did manage to finish off the last of my Sisters with bolters. This gets me ever so closer to having my Witch Hunters/Sisters of Battle completely painted. I am down to about 27 figures and 5 vehicles. I should be able to have the army completed by the end of November. My goal is to have 4/5 of my partially painted armies complete by the end of the year. Right now I am 1/5 (Black Templars) but very close on 3 other armies.

Well I am keeping this one short tonight so that I may get back to painting. As always any comments are welcome.

-BJ