So this past weekend I decided too hit up the Battleground Games and Hobbies LLC doubles tourney for 40k. It was um....well... GREAT!!!!!! Tournies like this on are as they honestly should be for rogue traders, great terrain, great people, and lots of both, ooh ya a little fun too I dare say:)_! Years ago when I lived in Tacoma/ Seattle I went too rogue traders every month and some of those were great fun because they had a great organizer by the name of Rob McKitrick. Saddly over the years he faded away from that scene and the rogues when too crap honestly, and when I came too mass I hit a few but none really matched up. That is honestly until yesterday when my team mate and I went there with no expectations too win any games just have fun.
I am sad too announce Sam and I did win our final game and we were rather disapointed as damn it we thought we could go for broke. I did however manage too walk out with $90 store credit for having the best painted army and best single painted mini! I promptly used it too get a friend some models I owed him so hey I was a happy camper but more I was happy because of the basic regonition of the judges and several people who noticed the work I put into it. I didn't care if I won anything as I was having fun but it was awsome too win and I promptley thanked the academy for my award and my director... wait wrong speech! Anyways looking around I did see several well done armies but more two fellow classmates of my painting mentor Mr. Mathieu Fontaine. These two fellas were brothers who had taken his classes on different ends of the country but were now back in Mass together and let me just say this. Once those two finish there armies, they are about 90% done I would think by looking at them, there will be some seriously stiff painting comp at rogues in the New England Area. These guys wowed me which doesn't happen alot but I can and will gladly admit when I am beaten and I think these two are forcing me too up my game even more.
More too the point I had three great games, and Sam and I had a clast and I for once have utterly no critiques. All around just a blast of a tourney and I look forward too more in the future there honestly and I do hope that Battleground branches into small indy GT's because I think they could handle it and run a good show.
-alex
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Monday, October 24, 2011
The Da Boyz GT review
Greetings fellow bloggers and readers; as the title says this is my review from the Da Boyz indy GT that I returned from last late last night. Normally I would sit down and show you all a bunch of pictures of some cool armies and ideas that I saw while I was there, and then talk about the winners etc, but saddly this post won't be that kind of one as this was disapointingly the worst event I have ever been too. Here is the break down that lead too that determination.
Venue: The event was held in "The Armoury" in Rochester NY and the location though large and open but did not live up to the hype that the organizer lead us to believe about it. My friend and I were both told that the venue had a restaurant attached too it. What this apparently meant was the piss poor bar, that was overpriced and had nothing but well drinks and cheap beer, was grilling burgers and fries and selling to us. We ended up at wendys and don't get me started into the service on that place. Another major problem with the venue was that due to the size of the location it was either too hot or too cold. There was no comfortable medium and this really made for a misserable time alone.
Organization: Normally if you put out a shedule you stick by it and that works for me. The Fantasy side was on the nose but saddly I was playing 40k and this lead too tons of problems. We were told too arrive at 830am on both days and we would be rolling dice by 930am.....never happened on both days and all this did was fling us into further confusion when it came too grabbing meals etc. The organizers would tell us we would start our next round at 1 even though we just ended at 1230. Ok so I know we have no time too run out and get food, so the problem with this is that would wouldn't start till 1:45pm because they couldn't get there software that did the pairings too work, or the person inputing the data was too slow. Furthermore we ended up playing 4 games on the first day and two on the second. The problem with this is technically that is 10hours on the first day, and that would have been fine if we started early but adding in the breaks etc we didn't get out of there till after 10pm and we were told we had too be there the next morning at 8am.
Judges: This was my biggest problem for the event because these guys were just awfull. For starters my games 5 was against a 15 year old kid. Now I am a mentor too teenagers and have no issues with children, teens whatever playing and often go into it with a little more give to the game as I know a lot of players are more pricks about it. During the game there was blatant cheating and I started calling my opponent on it, but one of the judges who knew the kid was a local, came up and started calling against me ever step of the way. For example: I took down one of his vehicles with my stormraven, I then used the machine spirit, as the rules clearly state, and choose too fire at a different target. The judge would not allow me too do this stating "you can't split fire it's all at once". IT"S IN THE RULES YOU TWIT!!!!!!! This was only the beginning of many such calls like it. I don't get angry during games but on this one I just got to the "whatever point". Other times during the event I would ask simple questions about time, location, minor rules on the scenarios and the judges would either start talking and walk away, say they have no clue, or tell me to figure it out for myself because they didn't care. Judges are there too help run a event but when I see them having no clue it begs too wonder what the hell they are doing.
Scenarios: This is the second worst part as the designer tried too add some flair....fail. The judges couldn't even answer questions on the scenarios, and before every game they would have too call the 40k side over too them too try and explain typos. The objectives were unclear and favored the locals who know the ways too play the game objectives.
Comp: This is a contraversal issue for many, and I personally have no issue with comp at a tourney... if it's done right. Initially we had a rubric we had too go off of that was out of 80, I personally score 70 pts (I took a untooled pure close combat falchions gk army). After this initially submitted rubric that we knew what our score would be the judges would grant up too an additional 30 points of comp. The problem was this was a blind comp decision and they refused too even state how they graded it. I personally recieved an additional 10 points, while another grey knight player took 30 for a full 110pts. He was a local....hrmmmmm but when I asked one of the judges he argued with me saying no GK player recieved max comp. I offered to show him on the list they posted but he refused to look and keep telling me I was wrong. The judges also refused when asked to at least explain to us how they graded the blind comp portion. This pissed a lot of players off and there was many grumbles.
Event prizes: Now when you go to a GT you go because it is something far bigger and grander then a local rogue trader. A weekend will often come in around 1k in overall costs too get out there, build your army etc etc so that is why you want it too be a cut above the rest in prizes and tropheys. Well the event had tons of prizes but almost zero trophies. More too the point they ran out of there certificates too the people who had won as one of my friends won best table and he got a few cheap scenery pieces. If I wanted to compete for product I would have saved my money and gone too Battleground Games as they put on some amazing rogue traders where you can win hundreds in product, but GTs we are paying for tropheys or plaques but namely something more then just product.
Overall review: I appriciate you all reading this long winded post but saddly there was no way to make it any shorter. If there was one issue I would chalk that too just bad luck..it happens heck even two I would but when I can find major problems in each aspect of the tourney then there is honestly something majorly wrong. I for one will not ever be returning too this event and that disapoints me as it was 5 years since I did a 40k singles GT and I was stoked for it. I went out of my way too sculpt and cast a purity seal for my army list, build a army full of major conversions and go balls too the wall to go all out. I didn't care if I won anything I just wanted too have a blast. Saddly for the first time I feel like I wasted my time, and money and honestly am really lacking the desire too even play anymore because events like this just destroys your desire for the game. Even several of my friends told me this event made them just want too sell off there GW because it just wasn't fun. So I am sure this negative post will cause some controversy and it sucks because I have tons of pictures I wanted too show and going into it I was really excited but now I don't even know if I care anymore about 40k GT's. Adepticon is a blast but I usually play WAB there so that is out of the question.
Venue: The event was held in "The Armoury" in Rochester NY and the location though large and open but did not live up to the hype that the organizer lead us to believe about it. My friend and I were both told that the venue had a restaurant attached too it. What this apparently meant was the piss poor bar, that was overpriced and had nothing but well drinks and cheap beer, was grilling burgers and fries and selling to us. We ended up at wendys and don't get me started into the service on that place. Another major problem with the venue was that due to the size of the location it was either too hot or too cold. There was no comfortable medium and this really made for a misserable time alone.
Organization: Normally if you put out a shedule you stick by it and that works for me. The Fantasy side was on the nose but saddly I was playing 40k and this lead too tons of problems. We were told too arrive at 830am on both days and we would be rolling dice by 930am.....never happened on both days and all this did was fling us into further confusion when it came too grabbing meals etc. The organizers would tell us we would start our next round at 1 even though we just ended at 1230. Ok so I know we have no time too run out and get food, so the problem with this is that would wouldn't start till 1:45pm because they couldn't get there software that did the pairings too work, or the person inputing the data was too slow. Furthermore we ended up playing 4 games on the first day and two on the second. The problem with this is technically that is 10hours on the first day, and that would have been fine if we started early but adding in the breaks etc we didn't get out of there till after 10pm and we were told we had too be there the next morning at 8am.
Judges: This was my biggest problem for the event because these guys were just awfull. For starters my games 5 was against a 15 year old kid. Now I am a mentor too teenagers and have no issues with children, teens whatever playing and often go into it with a little more give to the game as I know a lot of players are more pricks about it. During the game there was blatant cheating and I started calling my opponent on it, but one of the judges who knew the kid was a local, came up and started calling against me ever step of the way. For example: I took down one of his vehicles with my stormraven, I then used the machine spirit, as the rules clearly state, and choose too fire at a different target. The judge would not allow me too do this stating "you can't split fire it's all at once". IT"S IN THE RULES YOU TWIT!!!!!!! This was only the beginning of many such calls like it. I don't get angry during games but on this one I just got to the "whatever point". Other times during the event I would ask simple questions about time, location, minor rules on the scenarios and the judges would either start talking and walk away, say they have no clue, or tell me to figure it out for myself because they didn't care. Judges are there too help run a event but when I see them having no clue it begs too wonder what the hell they are doing.
Scenarios: This is the second worst part as the designer tried too add some flair....fail. The judges couldn't even answer questions on the scenarios, and before every game they would have too call the 40k side over too them too try and explain typos. The objectives were unclear and favored the locals who know the ways too play the game objectives.
Comp: This is a contraversal issue for many, and I personally have no issue with comp at a tourney... if it's done right. Initially we had a rubric we had too go off of that was out of 80, I personally score 70 pts (I took a untooled pure close combat falchions gk army). After this initially submitted rubric that we knew what our score would be the judges would grant up too an additional 30 points of comp. The problem was this was a blind comp decision and they refused too even state how they graded it. I personally recieved an additional 10 points, while another grey knight player took 30 for a full 110pts. He was a local....hrmmmmm but when I asked one of the judges he argued with me saying no GK player recieved max comp. I offered to show him on the list they posted but he refused to look and keep telling me I was wrong. The judges also refused when asked to at least explain to us how they graded the blind comp portion. This pissed a lot of players off and there was many grumbles.
Event prizes: Now when you go to a GT you go because it is something far bigger and grander then a local rogue trader. A weekend will often come in around 1k in overall costs too get out there, build your army etc etc so that is why you want it too be a cut above the rest in prizes and tropheys. Well the event had tons of prizes but almost zero trophies. More too the point they ran out of there certificates too the people who had won as one of my friends won best table and he got a few cheap scenery pieces. If I wanted to compete for product I would have saved my money and gone too Battleground Games as they put on some amazing rogue traders where you can win hundreds in product, but GTs we are paying for tropheys or plaques but namely something more then just product.
Overall review: I appriciate you all reading this long winded post but saddly there was no way to make it any shorter. If there was one issue I would chalk that too just bad luck..it happens heck even two I would but when I can find major problems in each aspect of the tourney then there is honestly something majorly wrong. I for one will not ever be returning too this event and that disapoints me as it was 5 years since I did a 40k singles GT and I was stoked for it. I went out of my way too sculpt and cast a purity seal for my army list, build a army full of major conversions and go balls too the wall to go all out. I didn't care if I won anything I just wanted too have a blast. Saddly for the first time I feel like I wasted my time, and money and honestly am really lacking the desire too even play anymore because events like this just destroys your desire for the game. Even several of my friends told me this event made them just want too sell off there GW because it just wasn't fun. So I am sure this negative post will cause some controversy and it sucks because I have tons of pictures I wanted too show and going into it I was really excited but now I don't even know if I care anymore about 40k GT's. Adepticon is a blast but I usually play WAB there so that is out of the question.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
DA Boyz GT is only a few days away!
Granted I do not have my usual strand of strong anticipation as I do for Adepticon (I mean who wouldn't for adepticon) but I am still rather nervous as this is the first indy 40k GT I have actually done since 2006!!!!!! I was signed up for one two years ago at adepticon but I fell horribly ill and ended up catching the early flight home. In the words of my friend Joe Orteza " I looked like Nurgles rot!". Anyways I have been plowing away at the army, display board, and army list....wait army list? For those who will face off against me they will recieve my list as a purity seal that I sculpted on a 60mm round real quick and attached some parchment too. I felt it addes a little bit of fun to the whole deal and to thank my caster (who is also my ride to the event) I sculpted him one too for his nurgle.
Here's a little overview show of the army as it stands. I am working on the squad to the lower front right and the brotherhood champion and should be finished tues night. In the mean time I also will have too paint the xboard that I sanded down and put all of the hex stones ( and other stuff) on as it is too mimic the dragonforge bases of the lost empires. Jeff Wilhelm being the amazing friend he is made me a master mould too create the hexes from and from there my casting mate did up around 340. Jeff believed it would take 500 and I thought he was right..Had I covered every inch in it well maybe but I didn't because it is a ruined temple. I can use this for my Dark Eldar, and Macedonians as it all fits very easily!
The brotherhood Champion was a fairly easy conversion/ kit bash. I thought about sculpting it and so forth further too really set him apart but time is not on my side.
A little side shot of "La Fontaine" or the land raider for those of you not in the know I guess.
Here's my best friend Hans riding my wife...ya I did it people!
The final squad (now several layers in on paint). This is my only mixed squad in terms of weapons as I needed the points for other things. Well there you have it people. I will get some final shots of everything (seals and all) on Thurday at the hotel but until then I hope you enjoyed the post and as always keep painting.
-Alex
-Alex
Friday, August 26, 2011
The Road too Da Boyz GT
Allllll righty then, well another few weeks and a few more models painted for the Da Boyz GT that will be at the end of Oct. As such I have been somewhat hard at work on these grey knights. Overall the work on them is easy and requires very little challenge on my part but if you get too see them in person they are far better then the pictures honestly. The lighter colors and lack of heavy contrast does not play well for photography but in person these are a delight and hopefully will do well in scoring at the DA Boyz for painting. After the GK's I am going too break my rule again (of not painting armies) and start work on a heavily converted Dark Eldar army for the Saint Valentines day Massacre in Media Penn. From there it's Macedonians for Adepticon then onto the demon progects for next year. In between stuff here and there but overall that's the shedule. Anyways onto the pics. First off we have the converted Librarian who is teh HQ for the army. Not a ton down sculpting wise minus I replaces parts of his arms and threw on some Dragonforge coils. All in all fun model:
Next up we have the first squad. Now I know they have no backpacks but for my own sanity I always do those at the very end of the army. So I will be doing 18 back packs at once upon completion of everything else.
A couple Singles Shots
Yes I know his barrel drillings off line.
Yes the eyes are suppossed too look a litte spilled over as when you see it up close it gives a radiating light source look. Next up the first four termies:
The one with the read swords in the squads is always the squad leader since he is master crafted. It was a easy way of setting him apart. Finally a rear shot of one of the termies.
Well there you have it for now. Still on the list for the army is two troop squads like the one up top, a landraider reedeemer, and a dreadknight. I hope you all enjoy this sneak peaks and just wait as even these models aren't done. BTW if anyone is wondering the bases are from Dragonforge.com so go check them out. I garuntee you won't be disapointed!
Until then keep painting people and have a great weekend.
-Alex
Until then keep painting people and have a great weekend.
-Alex
Sunday, August 14, 2011
ARD' BOYS!!!!
So let me start off by saying that this was the first ever ard'boys event that I ever played in. In the past I have always looked at this event with distaste and annoyance as it was so counter productive I felt too the hobby. I had always felt that a event solely based off battlepoint and not theme,sports, or painting was a bad idea. After seeing some negative gamers in my past I pictured these too be the type of people who would come out with the most disgusting lists and be other pricks. Let me just say that this blogger was very wrong!
I went with the sole plan to learn the GK's as facing off against people you normally wouldn't is a great way too really learn how too play an army. I planned (or more honestly figured) that I would loose all three games because I knew little about the grey knights play style or really the confidence at playing the army. My first game was against a Demons army...WOOT!!!!..ya not so much. Was his a tooled army as I had always thought I would face in Ard'boys, not in the least. Honestly he had a great play on the lists and was extremely well balanced. The individual was nice and we helped each other through the game and just had a good ole fashioned time. In the end "0" points as I was massacred but hey I learned a lot. Next up I got too play against a dark eldar army. I stole the initiave and surely this guy would be the dick I had envisioned, nope. He had a fun army lots of flying vehicle goodnew (probably close too $600 buck worth if not more) and was a very nice guy. I picked up some info on the dark eldar (something I have been drooling over painting for years) and walked out with...you guessed it "0" points but a tons more knowledge.
Finally I faced off against a terminator grey knights army..here's the dick right? No, not in the least in fact the game was only 45minutes but was jokes and laughs and just good gaming fun. Just as similiar as my second game I had a great first turn then fell apart. In the end I walked out with "1" point...drat!!!! Damn point modifiers stated if your opponent didn't have a fast attack choice you won the battle point no matter what. This meant I did not reach my goal of "0" points in a tourney. Granted I wasn't actually shooting for that but I knew I wasn't going too win the thing or even place after round two so why not go for broke. So what's the whole point of this as oppossed too showing you all some of my recent painting work well simple, don't ever place a sterotypes on something because you never know what will happen. It was a blast honestly and I look forward too next years (though this time I play too win :)_ ). It was a great store, great people and a great day.
I went with the sole plan to learn the GK's as facing off against people you normally wouldn't is a great way too really learn how too play an army. I planned (or more honestly figured) that I would loose all three games because I knew little about the grey knights play style or really the confidence at playing the army. My first game was against a Demons army...WOOT!!!!..ya not so much. Was his a tooled army as I had always thought I would face in Ard'boys, not in the least. Honestly he had a great play on the lists and was extremely well balanced. The individual was nice and we helped each other through the game and just had a good ole fashioned time. In the end "0" points as I was massacred but hey I learned a lot. Next up I got too play against a dark eldar army. I stole the initiave and surely this guy would be the dick I had envisioned, nope. He had a fun army lots of flying vehicle goodnew (probably close too $600 buck worth if not more) and was a very nice guy. I picked up some info on the dark eldar (something I have been drooling over painting for years) and walked out with...you guessed it "0" points but a tons more knowledge.
Finally I faced off against a terminator grey knights army..here's the dick right? No, not in the least in fact the game was only 45minutes but was jokes and laughs and just good gaming fun. Just as similiar as my second game I had a great first turn then fell apart. In the end I walked out with "1" point...drat!!!! Damn point modifiers stated if your opponent didn't have a fast attack choice you won the battle point no matter what. This meant I did not reach my goal of "0" points in a tourney. Granted I wasn't actually shooting for that but I knew I wasn't going too win the thing or even place after round two so why not go for broke. So what's the whole point of this as oppossed too showing you all some of my recent painting work well simple, don't ever place a sterotypes on something because you never know what will happen. It was a blast honestly and I look forward too next years (though this time I play too win :)_ ). It was a great store, great people and a great day.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Grey Knights on the Horizon!!!!!
Greetings one and all and welcome back too my blog!!! Now I read something on FTW a while back that says I should never apologize for not posting as we all have real lives and damn it I agree. Things have been nuts with Battleroad fixing some MAJOR mistakes of now FORMER!!!!!! employees. Saddly this has pulled all of my attention and due too the significant losses one person caused my company has forced me too look for a more perminate IT job again. In the past I was doing well with this company bringing it up too 250k a year business (95% off ebay bits sales so that tells you how much work I have been doing). Saddly my business will no longer be focused solely on ebay as I am branching out quite a bit more. As we speak the first sets of my bits heads are being sculpted and in the next few months you will begin too see TONS of conversion bits comming out directly from Battleroad Games. I am very excited and think all of you will enjoy the final product. Jeff Wilhelm from Dragonforge is too be blamed for this as he convinced me it was a better way too steer my conpany. Now without further adu onward too the grey knights :)_.
So their are a few armies that I utterly love and will always play when it comes too GW. The first is hands down Slaanesh anything, the second is Ogres ( I just love them beyond belief), the third and forth are grey knights and dark eldar (and skaven but don't tell anyone). Now the reason I love this assortment is first and foremost the backrounds and second their close combat abilities. When it comes too my games I love too get in the thick of the fighting quickly and these are some great armies too. As such though I have been collecting some grey knights and will have a 2500pts army built soon for the ard boys though most likely won't be completed painting wise for another week or two after. All told I usually spend between 40-60 hours on an army as an airbrush is a wonderfull thing people!!! Anyways for now I have the first of my razorbacks too show you all today and sticking with my tradition I have named it after one of my friends. The Carasas is named after a former mate of mine from my GW days (hooray redshirts!!!) and he really helped me through some tought times. As such I thought it only right too name this model after him.
Now I know some of you are probably thinking "WTF it's not Silver!!!", and nor will any of my models ever be for the grey knights. I love true metallics but after a couple of practice models just couldn't get it how I wanted. So knowing I loved this color it seemed a good choice. Now this model was painted then I found I didn't like how I did it so I stripped it and laid down a grey that I would use for the battle damage. A little bit (or a lot) of the arbeitlung (or something of that name) liquid mask and then too the airbrush. The outcome I actually liked which for me never happens.
A closer shot.
The other side
And the front!! Now origonally I was going too have the turret be a burgundy red as the color would have offet nicely... it didn't lets leave it at that. I need too work a little more on my freehand but the weathering is set too the army. I thought about using some of my powders from secret weapons but decided too save them for other things as I am just looking for a overall nice army. Anyways I will have the pics of the squad up either later this week or next, then onto the dreadknight and back too squads. Until then keep painting and too Jordon "You ma boy blue...you ma boy!!!". BTW the dreadknight will be named Le'Fontaine.
So their are a few armies that I utterly love and will always play when it comes too GW. The first is hands down Slaanesh anything, the second is Ogres ( I just love them beyond belief), the third and forth are grey knights and dark eldar (and skaven but don't tell anyone). Now the reason I love this assortment is first and foremost the backrounds and second their close combat abilities. When it comes too my games I love too get in the thick of the fighting quickly and these are some great armies too. As such though I have been collecting some grey knights and will have a 2500pts army built soon for the ard boys though most likely won't be completed painting wise for another week or two after. All told I usually spend between 40-60 hours on an army as an airbrush is a wonderfull thing people!!! Anyways for now I have the first of my razorbacks too show you all today and sticking with my tradition I have named it after one of my friends. The Carasas is named after a former mate of mine from my GW days (hooray redshirts!!!) and he really helped me through some tought times. As such I thought it only right too name this model after him.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Boston Brawlcon 2011 Winners!!!!
Alrighty so it has been a while since the last post but I thought I would kick off a few more posts over the next few days with pictures from the Boston Brawlcon 2011. This was one of the closest tournies I have honestly ever run and being that I have done well over 50 events that says a lot. Well with that onto the winners pictures!!!
This was our Best Sports army Tom Greene. Really nice guy and a well deserved trophey as he always had a smile on his face during the whole weekend.
Here's his winners picture with the trophey!!!
On the Right we have our overall winner Ben Molie. Ben won no less then $2000 in prizes to include a plane ticket to Chicago for Adepticon 2012 to compete there and to go with it a 2000pts army to match. This was just the prize support from Battleroad Games and Hobbies, and Ben gets even more via Games Workshop...wow is all I can say. Not to mention that Ben is also the Captain of Team America and will be competing at worlds later on in Switzerland!!!!! On the left we have our 2nd place winner, and Best General to include our first ever Volunteer of the year award. He goes by the name Ragnar Arneson and let me just say he is one top notch player and person to boot. Earlier last month he won best Chaos Space Marine General at the Throne of Skulls held by GW in Vegas! Literally the overall and second place was decided by 1 point and came from a last minute favorite players vote. Ben being a gentlemen to of note is sharing some of his winnings with Ragnar and that too me says a lot:).
Next up we have Bill Souza for players choice. Let me just say this fella has one HELL of a converted demon army and it was no suprise that he secured the players choice with no less then 15 votes!!! I am only too sad that some of the pictures of his army didn't come out so well in the end but what I do have I know will put you all in awww. Bill also took a Silver in our Open format painting comp for a lovely changling. I look forward to seeing what bill presents next year for the brawl as I know it will be something to take notice.
Here's the only picture I could get to work so if anyone has others of his lovely army please pm me!
Here we have Simon Leen and let me just say his army was one too take notice. He had tons of lovely well done free hand over his whole sisters of battle army and it really helped catapult him to the top in the end. I had 4 armies that we in my favorites and in the end it was the averages between the two judges that settled who the winner was.
Well I will post more in the comming days and hopefully I will get off my ass and post more. With that keep painting and thank you too all of the players this year for a great Boston Brawl.
-alex
-alex
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