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.

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.

March in Indy - a monthly review

Anonymous Foodie gives us a tutorial converting the Dark Eldar Raider.

Spaguatyrine shows off his finished Thunderwolf Cavalry conversions.

Ishmael talks a bit about GW's tournament philosophy.  In the second post, he compares GW's tournament policies with that of Privateer Press.

TheGraveMind plays in a tournament in Lafayette and gives his report here.

Spaguatyrine and Uberdark meet for a game and give us a battle report.

Sandwyrm takes his Tallarn army against a Shrike Terminator list in this battle report.

TheGraveMind talks about the Tyranid army here.

Speaking of Tyranids, I win a tournament with mine, and give a report here.

Sandwyrm made some craters that we can print out and use for destroyed vehicle markers.

I have added a new feature to the blog.  The Events In Indy section is to promote upcoming tournaments, painting contests, or whatever else I find interesting that is within a reasonable drive from Indianapolis.  If anyone is running or knows of a local event, let me know so I can get it on the page.  Thanks!

December in Indy - a monthly review

So, another month has gone by and my computer is still not fixed.  The year has come to an end, and I wanted to thank all of the readers who have stopped by my little corner of the internet.

The Back 40k turns 2 years old this month.  I was asked to be a contributor to their blog in March, and will add my 2 cents to the discussions from time to time (not so much recently).  Congratulations to them.

This month in Indy, there has been a lot of discussion regarding tournaments, and the benefits of the win/loss format of scoring.  This entire first section is all about tournaments and competitive play.  If these things are not your cup of tea, feel free to move further down the page and check out some of the other offerings from this month.

Sandwyrm started off this discussion with an article on why battle points encourage Win At All Cost (WAAC) behavior.  He follows this up with an article on diffrentiating between competitive behavior and WAAC behavior.  After some confusion about his position, Sandwyrm clarifies his points here.
He then offers up some of the common misconceptions about win/loss tournaments in a 3-part series. part 1, part 2, part 3.



Onto some hobby!!  TheGraveMind has blue baals (and a drop pod, and a land raider).  He then presents us with a 2-part article showing us how he built his own Storm Raven.  part 1, part 2. A battle report showing it in action completes the picture.

The Ultramarines movie was released this month.  Sandwyrm gives us his review, while Chambers offers some advice for those who purchased the movie and are experiencing problems getting it to play.

Heretic explores new avenues of his Eldar army with a pair of articles.  part 1, part 2

Sandwyrm talks a bit about line highlighting, and his advice on using the technique appropriately.  He then answers a readers e-mail about a color scheme for an Dark Eldar army.

Sandwyrm finishes the month (this guy has been really busy this month!) with a post posing the question, "Should GW open-source their rules?"  I've had a very similar conversation with my gaming circle, and it brings up some interesting points about the game and the marketing that GW employs.  Feel free to leave a comment.

I hope everyone had a good holiday.  The tournament season is quickly approaching, and I'm trying hard to stay focused on getting a new army ready in time.  My goal for 2011 is to finish my 2 armies, make a worthy display board for the Crimson Fists, and finish the commission army that I'm also currently working on.  Anyone else have any hobby resolutions?

November in Indy - a monthly review

This month saw 2 tournaments and a new addition to our little family over at The Back 40k.  Spaguatyrine is a very competitive player and winner of multiple local tournaments.  His point of view on competitive gaming has stirred several interesting conversations prior to his joining the blog, and now he'll have a larger audience with which to interact.

My favorite post of the month goes to SandWyrm's post about the future of 40k, and how it would be beneficial to the game (and GW as a company) to kill off the Emperor in the fluff.  The topic is interesting, but the avatars and comments added by SandWyrm are hilarious.  If you haven't yet read this, please do so.

Loki from Rites of Battle has posted a great series of articles dissecting the Black Templars Codex.  He dips into the fluff a bit, and then offers his opinions each unit and how it is used within the army. 
Army Special Rules, HQ, Elites, Troops, Fast Attack & Dedicated Transports.  At some point in the conversation, I had to school Loki on how to use his own army.  My sage advice must have paid off, because he came in first place at the tournament I played in at the Bloomington Game Preserve.  Congratulations and you're welcome :P

Hive Fleet Indy put on a tournament on the west side this month as well.  Spaguatyrine gives his impressions of the event here and details about the games here.  TheHiveMind offers his rundown of his games here.  SandWyrm shares his gallery of the armies at the event (mine is the second one down).

The Space Wolves get some love from Heretic, and Spaguatyrine discusses why the Space Wolves have the best psykers.

Spaguatyrine's first post on The Back 40k gives some tips on battling Daemons.

TheHiveMind gives some tips on using HQ units in your Tyranid force.

Uberdark weighs the pros and cons of using "Death Star" units in your force.

Lastly, SandWyrm strokes his own ego by showing off some of the newest version of his great-looking IG force.

I have been notably absent from posting this month.  The day after the Hive Fleet Indy tournament, my PC died.  I'm working on getting it fixed, but I don't have access to my photo-editing software, and my wife's laptop is usually occupied in the evenings.  I do have several articles started, including two new Project Space Marine tutorials.  These will hopefully be posted soon.  Thanks for stopping by.

October In Indy - a monthly review

Here's another installment of what's been going on around Indy this last month or so.

First, let me congratulate The Back 40k on getting its 200th follower.  This blog (to which I am an infrequent contributor), is made up of competitively-minded gamers with a real passion for upping the level of play in 40k.  There are also some of the best hobby and painting articles that I've come across on the internet.  SandWyrm's articles on color theory and tutorials on his set-back Chimeras are some that every hobby-ist should check out.  Here's a small selection of articles that I particularly enjoyed:

painting Tau Battle Suits, color theory part 1, part 2, part 3,  converting the Chimera part 1, part 2

Now that I've got that out of the way, on with the recap!!

• SandWyrm hits us with some MathHammer, telling us why Vendettas are either awesome or terrible (depending on which side of the table you're on). 
• SandWyrm plays against JB's Orks.  The pictorial has some great shots of great-looking models.
• Archfiend of Dezdemon comes out of hiding and is starting a Blood Bowl league.  Maybe it's time to dust off my Snotling team...
• I played in my first team tournament with Caanaan.  CaulynDarr gives his recap of the event here.  We finished respectably, with a 2-1 record.  Here's my recap of the event where I also talk about battle scoring in tournaments.
• SandWyrm followed this up with further discussion about why GW's old model of battle points encourages douchebaggery.
• TheGraveMind played a game against Spaguatyrine's Space Wolves.  Many pictures were taken.
• Farmpunk talks about his Necromunda itch.  I'm a huge Necromunda fan, and have 4 gangs collecting dust on the shelf.  GW's Specialist Games are, for the most part, really solid games.  The rules are usually well-balanced (believe it or not), and the models are really different from what you're used to.
• Our friends up in Muncie take some time off from class to talk about Dreadnoughts.
• Spaguatyrine played in an impromptu tournament late in the month on the east side of town.  He recounts the event here.  No pictures, but he details his lessons learned.  Good read for anyone.
• SandWyrm vigorously rubs his lamp and wishes for change in the future of 40k 6th ed.
• Loki breaks down the benefits and weaknesses of the Rhino vs. the Razorback.
• TheGraveMind is coming back with his Tyranids!  Here, he MathHammers the differences between the Tervigon and a brood of Warriors.

I've not been terribly busy this month.  Work has been crazy, and I haven't gotten much decent hobby time to myself.  I'm continuing work on both the tech-cult guard and SOB commission, and I hope to have some new pics of those up shortly.

August in Indy - a monthly review

This month, I thought I'd do something a little different.  Instead of highlighting what I've been up to this month, I wanted to highlight what the Indy blog circle has been up to this month.

If you have a blog and are tied to Indianapolis (from here, living here, etc.), drop me a line and I'll be happy to add you to the blogroll.

-Games 2 Die 4 had a tournament at the beginning of the month.  I was unable to attend, but SandWyrm and Farmpunk have some good articles covering the event.

-CaulynDarr, inspired by the tournament, built a display board for his already impressive-looking Eldar army.

-SandWyrm answers a painting question from a Tyranid player.  SandWyrm has a background in art, and his painting advice always draws on color theory and inspires me to paint more.  Here and here are another conversation with some Tau players about their color choices.

-SandWyrm has been working on his Sanguinary Guard army.  He posts a battle report here against Spaguatyrine's Space Wolves.  Here he shows off his test model for the army - very nice.

-Support By Fire adds some Crimson Fists to his Black Templars for a Declates Crusade force.  Since I play a Crimson Fists crusade force using the Black Templar rules, this post has a special place in my heart :)

-I added 5 new tutorials to the Project Space Marine page:  White Templars, Praetors of Orpheus, Angels of Vengeance, Heralds of Ultramar, and Iron Lords.

-I also got my shipment of Greatcoat Troopers from Wargames Factory.  You can see my review of the models, as well as a painted example, here.


-I got in a tournament at the end of the month-and won!


Let me know how you like this new format of monthly review.  I enjoy highlighting what's going on in Indy besides what I am up to.  Again, if you have a blog related to Indy, send me an e-mail at: indy40k@gmail.com