May in Indy - A Monthly Review

This month started out with a trio of interesting articles regarding list optimization.  Spaguatyrine's post talked about using units with similar function rather than spamming the exact same unit to optimize your army's utility.  Sandywyrm's post followed this up talking about learning the basics of army optimization before figuring out which of these rules a player should break in order to create an army that is unique to your playing style.  CaulynDarr capped off the discussion talking about finding balance between redundancy and utility

Sandwyrm brings up a potential tournament issue with Justicar Thawn from the new Grey Knights Codex.
Anonymous Foodie weighs in with his thoughts on Thawn here.

Farmpunk gives his thoughts about the Grey Knights after using them in a NOVA-format tournament.

TheGraveMind revises his thoughts on the Tyranid Elite section.

Spaguatyrine talks about playing against Daemons with Grey Knights.

Heretic expresses his frustrations about starting a Tau army in the face of the current metagame.

TheGraveMind shows off a new Tyranid Alpha Warrior.

NitroKitty has a good article about distractionary units.

Spaguatyrine gives some tips about deployment.

CaulynDarr acts as a voice of reason in light of the recent price increases from GW, and talks about confirmation bias.

Sandwyrm does a kind of hobby outreach with a Tau player and gives a battle report here.

this week on the blogs

Old School Terminator has completed his awesome Tervigon conversion.

Master Darksol gives us a tutorial for painting Grey Knights.

Jawaballs has some nice-looking WIP shots of the Blood Angels Land Raider he is contributing for the Heroes of Armageddon charity project.

Ron shows off a Black Templars Chaplain conversion based off of artwork from the Codex.

Dave_G shows us how to add a poll to our blogs.

Max (aka The Maxican) shows us a very cool Keltic Warrior done in an almost monochromatic color scheme.

Raffa created some great art inspired by the recent disaster in Japan.

Upcoming Indy Event - 1850 point 40k tournament - Kokomo

What:  1850 point 40k tournament

When:  June 25th, 2011

Where:  Gamer DMZ LLC
               1233 W. Jackson St. Ste. A
               Kokomo, IN. 46901
               (765) 868-8330
More Info:

Cost:  $15 entry fee.
Time:  Open at 10:30.  Sign up from 10:30-11:30. First game starts promptly at 11:45.

If you are late (Hartley! lol) then we will not allow you to play.  Sorry guys, hope you understand, this was an issue the last time, and all the players were incredibly nice about it, but we have to do it this way. 
 
Points:  1850,
3 rounds at 2 hours and 15 minutes, WYSIWYG. modified W/L system (to be posted later)
1st:  $80.  2nd. $40.  3rd. $30
best painted army: $30.  Best painted miniature:  $15.  Wooden spoon award:  $15.  and guys i promise we will have close to the same amount of prize support for you that we did the last time, just give me a few weeks to figure it out.  lol.  We are also going to be providing free lunch again, and this time, (looking at the person who ate more than 2 pieces of pizza), i will have a marine stationed to guard the pizza.  hehe

So thats about it, any questions feel free to direct them towards me or to Gamer DMZ.

this week on the blogs

I'm sure you've seen the hullaballoo around in interwebs about the GW price increase and embargo on Australia.  Many bloggers have posted protest letters and forwarded them to GW in hopes of eliciting a change in their pricing policies.  Sandwyrm went one further and looked up the various companies that are the majority shareholders of GW stock.  Their contact information can be found here.  Perhaps if we contact the people to whom GW has to answer, we can see change.

Loquacious highlights an awesome defiler converted using the new Dreadknight kit.

Ron gives us some tips on how to map out freehand designs.

Desartfox shows off a gret-looking Treeman for his Blood Bowl team.

Upcoming Indy Event - 2000 point 40k tournament - Greenwood

What: 2000 point 40k tournament (1st of 3 events)

When:  June 11th, 2011

Where:  Game Preserve - South
              1551 East Stop 12 Road
              Indianapolis, IN 46227
              (317) 881-4263

More Info:

Our first annual Game Preserve Civil War will be taking place this June at our Greenwood store! This unique event pits players from teams representing the North and the Southside stores against each other in three separate events covering Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40K, and Warmachine/Hordes. As this is an unusual event and the first we’ve run of its kind, let me break down the rules for you…

Three separate tournaments will take place: Warhammer Fantasy (June 25th), Warmachine/Hordes (June 18th), and Warhammer 40k (June 11th).

Players will have to sign up at the store they wish to represent beforehand. Example: If Joe Smith signs up at our Greenwood store (southside) he will represent the South when he comes to play.

Players will only ever be matched up against players from the opposing store (Northside players will only ever play against Southside players).

After each event the top six players will earn points for their side. Once all three events have been concluded then the scores will be totaled up to determine which store won the overall event.

Players can participate in as many or as few of the events as they would like. Joe Smith can play in just Warhammer Fantasy’s event or, if he is particularly hardcore, all three events.

Army size for the events are as follows: Warmachine/Hordes: 35 points. Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K: 2000 points.

Each event will consist of three 120 minute rounds.

Be at the store at 10:00 AM, play will begin shortly after.

There is a $10 fee due at sign up per event.

Each store will only have room for eight players per team per event.

In addition to a trophy that will reside at the victorious store until next year, there will be over $150 in prizes given away at each event, including gift cards, custom dice and t-shirts. The clock is ticking so be sure to sign up soon!

Tournament Gallery

Here are some pics from the tournament that I went to last weekend at Games 2 Die 4.  Above is the Tyranid army that I took.

Click the images for a larger view.

this week on the blogs

Ron concludes his series of articles showing how to paint a Space Marine Drop Pod.  Here's part 1, here's part 2.

Mr. Justin shows off a Command Chimera he's contributing to the Heroes of Armageddon project.  He also posted a video showing how to create blood and gore effects in conjunction with his new bone fields bases.

On Bolter & Chainsword, a Grey Knights FAQ was posted, allegedly authored by GW Australia.

Lamenter shows off an art-scale Alpha Legion Terminator.

Roman shows some WIP pics of a cool Ultramarines/Tyranids diorama.

Hobby Update

So the updates have been less than frequent as of late. My wife had a baby a few weeks ago, and I've been rather preoccupied with daddy duties. What hobby time I've been able to get usually comes in 15-30 minute chunks before I'm called away. Here are some pictures of what I've been working on lately:

I'm working on a commission for a Sisters of Battle army. One squad is finished, and I'm about 50% on two other squads.

I've started painting an Assault on Black Reach force for my local store. The Warboss is almost finished, and the first squad of Boyz have only their green flesh painted.

Project Space Marine is still underway. When my computer crashed last year, I lost all my WIP pictures for the marines that I had started. I'm almost finished with all the white marines (the ones who will be carrying only bolters).

Here's a group shot of the marines that I have finished thus far. Do you think they look enough like a cohesive force? I'm thinking of putting some sort of icon on one of their kneepads affiliating them with the Inquisition. Do you think that's enough, or should I do something more?

this week on the blogs

The last of the Postapocalypticar Contest submissions were displayed this week.  Entries 23-25, 25-29.  Here is a link to the gallery where you can check out all 29 entries.

The boys at Massive Voodoo seem to have all completed their current projects at the same time.  Raffa shows off a nice-looking Grey Knight as well as some other great showpieces.  Roman has a very nice Gladiator.    Baphomet has a very lovely Zombie diorama as well as a nice-looking minotaur.

Lantz has three very helpful product reviews up on Miniature Wargames Conversions;  the first is of the Dragonforge Power Cables.  The second is of a very nice lightbox available on eBay.  Lastly, he reviews the Power Generator from Quantum Gothic.

Marcus and Martin continue their analysis of the Grey Knights Codex by looking at the Heavy Support choices.


Painting Mum has a fantastic Tzeentch Sorcerer for us to drool over.

Dark Side gives us a high-res map of the 40k Galaxy.

Drathmere shows off an expanding Henchman squad with the inclusion of some Daemonhosts.

Ron gives us a great guide on how to build a Drop Pod.  This would have been nice to have before I put mine together (shakes fist in frustration)! :)

a note on the Game 2 Die 4 tournament on May 14th

I just registered for the tournament at Games 2 Die 4 yesterday, and there were 3 or 4 slots left open.  So far, 30 people have signed up, so if you're planning on trying to make it, stop in and sign up or call the store at 317-271-4234.

See you there!

April in Indy - a monthly review

Happy Easter!

Adepticon was this month, so there has been a cornucopia of gaming as of late (not by me, of course).  I did a special "best of Adepticon" post that you can check out here.  Lots of good stuff there, largely thanks to SandWyrm's efforts.


Archfiend inventories his Ork collection.  It's quite impressive.

CaulynDarr has a nicely coverted Dread Knight using Marneus Calgar.  Later, he looks at the current meta, and postulates whether all-mech is still the way to go.

Loki takes a look at the Space Marine Codex, and how it is beginning to show it's age.

SandWyrm rags on Kirby, and why he's bringing GW down.

Spaguatyrine guarantees that you'll win if you follow is easy 3-step Grey Knight program (it's not a Ponzi scheme, I promise).

There were a few battle reports posted this month, here's the run-down:

• Spaguatyrine's Grey Knights vs. TheGraveMind's Blood Angels
• Spaguatyrine's Space Wolves vs. TheGraveMind's Blood Angels
• Uberdark's Orks vs. CaulynDarr's Grey Knights and ScottyDon't's Salamanders

Uberdark showcases the tournament that he ran up in Kokomo.  He mentions another tournament in June, which I'm looking forward to attending.

Lastly, the Game Preserve North has changed their 40k night to Mondays.  I don't know what this will do to the scene at this store, but I may be able to make it up there on occasion.  I hear the 40k scene is pretty nice there, hopefully this will not disrupt that.