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.

It's a Love Affair...Mainly Tyranids, and my Hotrod.

I was waxing nostalgic the other day when looking for some 40k pics on my computer and stumbled across these.  This is my old Tyranid army as it was during a tournament in 2006. 

Tyranids were my first army, and I started playing them in 2nd edition, shortly after the Codex came out.  At the time, most people didn't know how to play against Tyranids and even as a new player, I would destroy most opponents.

The large piece in the back is an old Armorcast Malefactor.  For those who don't know, Armorcast used to have a license to make Epic models in 40k scale.  The most common places I see these is at Adepticon, with people bringing their old Warhound, Reaver, and Phantom titans.  The Malefactor is a Tyranid transport creature.  It was a monstrous creature that could carry up to 12 wounds worth of Tyranids and was a beast, which at the time meant that it moved 9" in the movement and assault phases.  A full squad of Genestealers charging out of a 6 wound creature sounds kinda broken under current standards.  It was broken then too :)

Once Apocalypse came out, I started the task of replacing all my 2nd ed models with the newer, more current versions.  With the new codex punching the Tyranid army below the exoskeleton, this project has taken a bit of a back seat to others.

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.

A Gaming Tragedy - Help Big Jim

I listen to a lot of podcasts.  Big Jim has made a name for himself lately by making his rounds on almost all of the 40k-related podcats on the internet, talking about Spec Ops Killzone, his fan-based skirmish rules for 40k.  This led me to his blog, Galaxy In Flames, where I found a plethora of inspirational pictures and tutorials for his awesome fan-codex Chaos Marines, the Soul Reapers.

Recently, Jim's car was broken into, and his army was stolen.  Magilla Gurilla at Table Top War, along with several podcast personalities, is organizing a collection to help Jim recoup some of his losses.  If you can spare a few models for this guy, please consider doing so.  If you are not able to donate anything, please keep an eye out at your local store and sites like eBay for someone trying to sell this army.  It took a great deal of time and love to put this army together, and I think everyone would like to see it returned to its rightful owner.

The 40k community at large has shown itself to be more than able to rally and help one of its own in a time of need.

Hobby update

I've not been posting much about what  I've been up to in the hobby lately.  Fresh off the team tournament, I decided to start a new IG army designed to be part of a team army.  You can see the test models above.  I wanted to go with a techno-cult theme, not quite Adeptus Mechanicus, not quite Traitor Guard, but something that would fit along-side an Iron Warriors CSM army.  The bodies are from the WFB Empire Flagellants.  The heads are from Pig Iron Production's Kolony Ferals.  The arms are from the Cadian and Catachan IG sprues that I had lying around.  I will be using Forge Worlds' Traitor Guard weapon arms in the final version.

Also, I've taken on my first commission work.  I'm painting up my friend's Sisters of Battle army.  You can see the test models here.

Team Tournament Game 3 Battle Report vs. Space Wolves & Necrons

 

Our third and final game in the team tournament was against a father/son team playing Space Wolves and Necrons.  The son was new to the game, and the father normally plays Apocalypse and hadn't played a tournament-sized game since 3rd Ed.  

Their lists were as follows:

Team Tournament Game 2 Battle Report vs Dual Fateweavers

Game 2 matched us against a combined Daemon army with 2 Fateweavers, 2 squads of Bloodcrushers, 2 squads of Horrors with Changelings, another unit of Horrors, a unit of Plaguebearers, a unit of Fiends, and 2 units of Screamers. I knew this game would be rough.

Team Tournament Game 1 Results vs Blood Angels & Eldar

This is the first of 3 reports of the games from the Team Tournament that I played with Caanaan at Games 2D4.

Our first game was against GraveMind, who was playing his new Blood Angels army.  At the last minute, GraveMind's team-mate bailed on him, and he was paired with Mike, who was playing Eldar.  The mission was Anhillation with Pitched Battle deployment.

Their army was as follows:

Tournament on October 17th!

I just wanted to promote a local tournament that was just announced.

On Oct. 17th, there will be a 1500 point tournament at Saltire Games, on the east side of Indy.

11723 Pendleton Pike
Indianapolis, Indiana
46236

For more information, check out the link.

Team Tournament Results

Caanaan and I played in a team tournament this weekend ran by the Hive Fleet Indy crew.  CaulynDarr ran the event by himself, and did a fine job considering.

The tournament was scored according to your win/loss record, with the two teams that went 3/0 splitting the top prize, and the 2/1 team with the most victory points receiving 3rd place.  There were 14 teams in total.  The final scores haven't been posted, so I'm not sure where we fell within the group, but we won 2 games and lost 1, and scored around 2800 victory points over 3 games.  This being my first team tournament, I thought we did pretty good.

The list we ran was split up as follows:

Emperor's Champion
14-man Crusader Squad in a Land Raider Crusader
2 5-man Crusader Squads with lascannons, one with a Rhino
Vindicator

Inquisitor Lord Karamazov
Callidus Assassin
2 6-man Inquisitorial Storm Trooper Squads
Priest
2 squadrons of 3 Penitent Engines

We ran into some trouble when Farmpunk pointed out that Karamzov could only be fielded in armies of 1500 points or more.  Caanaan had overlooked this restriction, so we scrambled at the last minute to rearrange his half of the army and wound up including an Inquisitor Lord with bolter/crossbow combi-weapon and excruciators with a multi-melta gun servitor and 2 warriors with plasma guns.

I'll post battle reports of the games later, but I wanted to talk about what the tournament did right and what left room for improvement.

I really liked the team format.  New tactics were needed to face different combos, and it was neat to see the combinations that people came up with.  If this type of tournament became more frequent, I think it would be cool to see more people making themed team armies.  I would like to see one or two of this type of tournament every year in addition to our normal tournaments.

There were a few things that could be improved upon, but overall I had a great time.  I wanted to make sure I stressed that none of the things I took issue with diminished my having a good time, and my criticisms are intended to make a better event in the future.

Prior to the event, I would have liked to have seen a statement that clearly spelled out how the tournament was scored, and what the schedule was going to look like so that I as a player know what to expect.  CaulynDarr took over as TO only a few days prior, but it would have been nice to know how long each game would last, and what time to show up.  The posting on the website said to be there at 11:00, but the first game was supposed to start at 11:00.  There could have been some time scheduled to register each army, and figure out pairings prior to the starting time.  Inevitably, some gamers will wait until the last minute to show up, and it usually makes the entire tournament start late.

Each game was given 2 hours to complete, which I felt was not enough time.  At 2000 points, most games were not getting finished.  I don't know if that is a result of most of us being used to playing games at 1750 points, but I think 2.5 hours was needed.

I would have liked to have seen printed mission sheets to give each player a reminder of the victory conditions as well.  At the beginning of the tournament, it was explained that victory points would be used as a tie-breaker between the 3-0 teams to determine a winner, and the 2-1 team with the highest victory points would take 3rd place.  I don't remember hearing that victory points would be used as a tie-breaker in the games, and that there would be no draw results.  There were several people who, at the end of game 2, were surprised to find this out.  A printed mission sheet could have resolved this issue.

The terrain was themed by table, and looked very nice.  The problem with this was that the terrain was very inconsistent from table to table.  The first table I played on had only impassible terrain, with no area terrain.  The last table I played on had only ruins, which were in the 4 corners of the table with nothing but some hedges in the center of the board.  I prefer to see a little bit of each type of terrain on each table, so as not to benefit one type of army over another too much.

I want to say again that I had a great time, and I look forward to the next event by Hive Fleet Indy.  They have a 1750 point tournament scheduled for November 6th.  I hope to see some of you there.

Tournament this weekend

As I said before, caanaan and I are going to a doubles tournament this weekend.  I have been told that there is one more slot available, so if there is another pair out there that would like to attend, please contact Spaguatyrine at:
aaronaleong -at- yahoo -dot-com

The tournament will be at Games 2 Die 4, and will consist of two 1000 point forces per team.  Registration is $20 per team.  There are no soft scores.


Caanaan and I are taking Black Templars and Witch Hunters.  Both armies are close-quarter fighters and are ready to bring the pain.  They also both suffer from old codices, and could be outclassed by a good player with a newer book.  We'll have to rely on wits and shenanigans to prevail.  Here's what I'm looking out for:

• Spaguatyrine has stepped down as TO to play in the tournament with his son.  I'm expecting to see a combination of his IG and Thunderwolf Space Wolf armies.  Spaguatyrine is a good player, and this army combo could be really tough.
• Scottydont has won multiple tournaments with his Daemons and Vulkan Salamanders.  These two armies paired together could be quite nasty.  Scottydont's son has started playing his Daemons, with some good results (he nearly tabled me at the last Hive Fleet Indy tournament I played in).
• SandWyrm and Farmpunk would pose a threat with their IG and Witch Hunters duo.  This army would create quite a gun-line, and would act as the paper to our rock.
• There are several other good players in the area that, if paired together correctly, could be quite fearsome.

In the end, I don't know if we will face any of these match-ups, or if they even exist.  We'll come to the tournament in our usual fashion; ready to have a good time and give other players a challenging game.  I hope to see some of you there.

What is a GT to you?

I've been asked to help organize a GT-level tournament in the Indianapolis area.  The group consists of guys from The Back 40k, Too Competitive Hurts!, as well as other local TOs.

I used to play in GWs Grand Tournaments quite a bit from around 1999-2004.  I've never been a particularly competitive player, but I enjoy the competitive atmosphere of a tournament.  My philosophy has been to try and master the list I have, and figure out how to play against the so-called "tourmanent lists."

There has been much discussion in the last year in our local area regarding tournaments and soft scores.  Some claim that soft scores have no place in a tournament setting, that only battle points should be considered.  After all, Warhammer is a game.  If I play the game better than you, I should place higher than you, right?  Others claim that Warhammer is a hobby, and includes other aspects like painting, sportsmanship, and (dare I say it?) composition.

I have played in both types of tournaments, and have had a lot of fun in both.  My question to all of you is this:  In a GT-level event with upwards of 100 players, do you think that all aspects of the hobby should be represented in the scoring, or should battle points be the determining factor of a player's ranking?

If you think soft scores should be included, how much weight do you give them compared to the battle points?  Should battle points be 33% of a player's overall score?  50%?  75%?

If you were to travel to another city for a large event, how would you like to see the scoring break down?

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

Bloomington tournament results and pictures

I attended a tournament at the Game Preserve in Bloomington (home of Indiana University for the non-hoosier readers) this past weekend.  There were only around 13 players, and nearly half of those were from the Muncie area (home of Ball State University).  Among them were members of the Rites of Battle blog.

The Greatcoats are here!

After some unfortunate shipping issues with their Chinese distributor, Wargames Factory has shipped out their Greatcoat Troopers.

These models look really cool, and would look great in any IG army.  The feel of the models is very similar to the Death Corps of Krieg, although the detail of these models is nowhere near that of Forge World.  Although, you get 18 troops in the box for only $19.99.  A gamer who wants a different look to his army without spending a ton of money will be happy to add these models to their collection.

Wargames Factory has plans on expanding the Shock Troops line of models, although there is no word as to what exactly we can expect in the future.

I was a little disappointed by the level of detail on these models, but I think it's because I've been spoiled all these years by GW models and have pretty high standards.  Still, the models look great and will add a lot to any sci-fi game table, 40k or otherwise.  I painted one of these models up for fun.  I had imagined these guys to be like a Vostroyan Storm Trooper, and that is what dictated my color scheme.

Hive Fleet Indy Couples Tournament!

Hive Fleet Indy has announced a couples tournament on September 26th.

After missing the last tournament due to family obligations, I was pretty excited to hear this news.  Caanaan and I will be in attendance, combining the power of the Black Templars and Witch Hunters into a holy crusade the likes of which have never been seen!

Neither caanaan nor myself have particularly competitive armies, but we are fairly competent players.  I'm expecting to see quite a few good players there as well.  Most of the guys from The Back 40K have pledged to be there, and Hive Fleet Indy has it's fair share of tough players.

If you will be in Indianapolis on September 26th, stop on by and play some games, it should be fun.

Here's some of the details:

-Sunday, September 26th at Games 2 Die 4
-2000 points per team (no more than 1000 points per player)
-No soft scores (due to popular demand)

Tutorial - Heralds of Ultramar

The Heralds of Ultramar use the following GW colors:

Tutorial - Angels of Vengeance

The Angels of Vengeance will use the following GW colors:

Project Space Marine Breakdown pt.5: Cursed Renegade Squad

For those of you reading the blog for the first time, Project Space Marine is an army that I'm working on consisting of 151 Space Marines, each one from a different chapter.

The story behind the force is that it is an arm of the Ordo Xenos, a sort of Deathwatch-in-training force.  It will be led by an Inquisitor with a Librarian as the 2nd HQ.  I enjoy painting single models that don't necessarily belong to any army that I have, and I wanted a way to have an army of random single models.

All 17 Force Organization slots will be filled with infantry.  The chapters that I have found particularly interesting or inspiring will be placed in the more elite squads or hold a higher rank in the tactical squads.

Project Space Marine Breakdown pt.4: Troops

For those of you reading the blog for the first time, Project Space Marine is an army that I'm working on consisting of 151 Space Marines, each one from a different chapter.

The story behind the force is that it is an arm of the Ordo Xenos, a sort of Deathwatch-in-training force.  It will be led by an Inquisitor with a Librarian as the 2nd HQ.  I enjoy painting single models that don't necessarily belong to any army that I have, and I wanted a way to have an army of random single models.

All 17 Force Organization slots will be filled with infantry.  The chapters that I have found particularly interesting or inspiring will be placed in the more elite squads or hold a higher rank in the tactical squads.



The first 4 Tactical Squads will be made up of the following chapters:

Tutorial - Praetors of Orpheus

The Praetors of Orpheus use the following GW colors:

Project Space Marine Breakdown pt.3: Heavy Support

For those of you reading the blog for the first time, Project Space Marine is an army that I'm working on consisting of 151 Space Marines, each one from a different chapter.

The story behind the force is that it is an arm of the Ordo Xenos, a sort of Deathwatch-in-training force.  It will be led by an Inquisitor with a Librarian as the 2nd HQ.  I enjoy painting single models that don't necessarily belong to any army that I have, and I wanted a way to have an army of random single models.

All 17 Force Organization slots will be filled with infantry.  The chapters that I have found particularly interesting or inspiring will be placed in the more elite squads or hold a higher rank in the tactical squads.

Project Space Marine Breakdown pt.2: Fast Attack

For those of you reading the blog for the first time, Project Space Marine is an army that I'm working on consisting of 151 Space Marines, each one from a different chapter.

The story behind the force is that it is an arm of the Ordo Xenos, a sort of Deathwatch-in-training force.  It will be led by an Inquisitor with a Librarian as the 2nd HQ.  I enjoy painting single models that don't necessarily belong to any army that I have, and I wanted a way to have an army of random single models.

All 17 Force Organization slots will be filled with infantry.  The chapters that I have found particularly interesting or inspiring will be placed in the more elite squads or hold a higher rank in the tactical squads.

Project Space Marine Breakdown: HQ & Elites

I thought I'd talk a bit about Project Space Marine and how I plan on organizing such a force.

For those of you reading the blog for the first time, Project Space Marine is an army that I'm working on consisting of 151 Space Marines, each one from a different chapter.

July - monthly review

This month saw several new tutorials for Project Space Marine.  This was my first time making tutorials, and the earlier ones are a little rough, but I've found a format that I'm happy with.  Hopefully people can find some useful hobby tips or inspiration there.

Tutorial - White Templars

The White Templars use the following GW colors:

Tutorial - Dark Sons

The Dark Sons use the following GW paints:

Chapter Badges, ho!

I've been working on the chapter badges for the Imperial Castellans and Angels Porphyr marines for Project Space Marine.  They're a little shiny now, but once I hit them with some matte sealer they should look just fine.

I also updated the Project Space Marine page with some thumbnail pictures, and I'll update the tutorials once I get the pictures edited of how I did the chapter badges.

Tutorial - Imperial Castellans

The Imperial Castellans use the following GW colors:

Badab Black
Mordian Blue
Enchanted Blue
Skull White
Asurmen Blue
Charadon Granite
Dheneb Stone
Devlan Mud
Blood Red
Fortress Gray
Bleached Bone

Begin with a white-primed model, then give a thin coat of Badab Black to the entire model.

Tutorial - Angels Porphyr

The Angels Porphyr use the following GW colors:

Badab Black
Mordian Blue
Enchanted Blue
Skull White
Asurmen Blue
Iyanden Darksun
Charadon Granite
Dheneb Stone
Devlan Mud
Blood Red
Fortress Gray
Bleached Bone

Begin with a white-primed model, then give a thin coat of Badab Black to the entire model.

Project Space Marine progresses

 

I'm currently painting some resin bases for my marines.  In between steps, I've started two new chapters:  the Dark Sons and the Praetors of Orpheus.

June - monthly review

Not a lot of progress this month hobby-wise.  I was quite busy preparing for our tournament.  The event went very smoothly, and I learned a lot about what it takes to run a tournament successfully.  I'm currently planning another event for early November, so anyone near Indianapolis should keep an eye out for that.

I finished a Howling Griffons Sergeant for Project Space Marine.  I'm currently painting some resin bases for the models that I have finished, and should have some tutorials up early next week.

My Tournament Game vs. Tyranids

At last weekend's tournament, myself and jRock brought along an army in case there was an odd number of people that showed up.  JRock brought his Chaos Marines and I brought my Deathwing, which had not seen any play in quite a while.  It turned out that we had an odd number of people show up, and our armies had a chance to shake off the dust webs that had gathered and battle it out on the table.

I only played one game with my army, which was game 4 against Curt and his Tyranids (the army that won the Player's Choice Appearance award).

South Indy 40k Tournament Results

Last weekend I hosted my first tournament.  I had volunteered to take over for the guy that normally runs tournaments on this side of town, and had some big shoes to fill.  There is a fairly prolific tournament scene in Indianapolis, with at least one event going on each month  at one of the stores in the city.  Caanaan, jRock, and myself had been putting in a lot of prep work building terrain and writing missions, hoping to make the tournament run as smoothly as possible.

Four games were played at 1500.  Each game started on time, and in the end, we had our champion:

Howling Griffons finished

 

A small hobby update today.  I've been working feverishly on terrain for the tournament this weekend, and had to take a break last night.  I got this guy finished.  I've got to say, I had a great time painting this scheme.  It was very challenging, but I think he turned out pretty well.  I had to go back and re-touch the areas where the red and yellow meet at least a dozen times throughout the process.  The base is from Secret Weapon Miniatures.  Any questions or comments are welcome.

Hobby and tournament updates

I've been very busy preparing for our tournament this weekend, and haven't gotten a lot of hobby time.  There has been a little progress made in Project Space Marine, as you can see from the above picture.

I've been working on tutorials for the two chapters that I have finished, as well as a tutorial on the above-pictured Howling Griffons.

There are 16 people that have signed up for the tournament on Saturday (June 19th).  The armies signed up so far are as follows:

Tyranids (x3)
Chaos Marines (x2)
Eldar (x2)
Sisters of Battle
Imperial Guard
Orks
Blood Angels
Space Marines

There is a good amount of variety here, and I'm looking forward to the turnout.  Expect to see some updates about the tournament next week.  Hopefully, I can get some hobby updates out there sooner than that.

May - monthly review

May started off with a tournament (a great way to start a month).  I placed 4th overall with my Crimson Fists, and had a great time - meeting some terrific new players and reconnecting with veteran players from past tournaments.

The Indy Blog section has doubled in size since last month.  Check out these blogs in the column on the left to see what's going on all around Indianapolis.  Through this blog list, I discovered 2 new games stores in the metro Indianapolis area, bringing the total to 8 that I know of.  That's a lot of stores for a city as small as Indy.

I began a project that I am hoping will become a staple here on indy40k;  one that I'm calling Project Space Marine.  It's a crusade-style Space Marine force where each marine will be from a different chapter, around 150 chapters in total!  It seems crazy, but interesting to me.  Expect updates on that soon.

I also announced that I will be running my first tournament.  The local tournament organizer has taken some time off to focus on school, and I took the opportunity to try my hand at it.  I have been spending a lot of time planning for the event and building terrain, and have gotten very little painting time recently.   The tournament will be on Saturday, June 19th.  11 people have pre-registered for the event, leaving 9 slots open.  5 people have responded stating that they will be there, so if you would like to attend, your best bet would be to pre-register as soon as possible.  Click on the link on the top left to see more information and to pre-register.

Project Space Marine continues

I got some hobby time in last night, and did a little work on these two.  Continuing on from the last post, I've put down the base colors on all the little bits.  Charadon Granite was used for the metal bits, Mechrite Red was used for the red bits, Iyanden Darksun for the yellow, and Dheneb Stone for the skulls and purity seals.

wtf of the week

So the latest project that I've decided to take on was inspired by Les at AwesomePaintJob.com.  I am going to paint an army of Space Marines where every single marine is from a different chapter.  If that's not crazy enough, I plan on maxing out every slot (HQ, Elites, Troops, Fast Attack, and Heavy Support) with infantry.  That's around 150 marines.  I've not made a list up yet, but I estimate the army to come in around 4000-5000 points when I'm finished.  I'll be painting these marines in between other projects, so keep an eye out for some variety.

I separated the chapters by their primary colors, and started there.  The first two chapters I'll be doing share the same color scheme, just organized in different ways.  Here are the Imperial Castellans and the Angels Porphyr:

I've primed each model grey, then re-primed white from about 6 inches above and away from the model (to simulate the light source).  Each model has had a coat of Mordian Blue put on in the appropriate places.

Tournament of Championships

I've been plugging our upcoming local tournament on this site as of late, and I wanted to open up a discussion with the gaming community at large regarding tournaments.

As this is my first time running such an event, it is important to me to "fix" some of the issues that I have had with other local tournaments.  The primary things that I wanted to address are:

• Starting on time, and staying on time - A tournament can last quite a while, it shouldn't take up more of my time than advertised that it would.
• Having a transparent scoring system - I want to know how my army and my games will be scored before I get to the event.  Will the event be more hobby-based, or competitive in nature?  The scene here in Indy is largely competitive, and many people tailor their lists to meet the comp requirements of the event they are attending.  I'd like to know going into the event what type of crowd I'm going against.
• Having good prize support - Having a 20-man event and only handing out the standard prize support that GW provides your store feels cheap.  I'm all for stores making money off of the events that they run, but some effort should be made to spread some of that love around.  The recent event at Games 2 Die 4 had great prize support, and I'd love to try to emulate that spirit of giving.
• Encouraging fun, gentlemanly play - I hate that the guy who wins best sportsmanship is always the person who comes in last.  The prize given to this guy speaks worlds about how much importance is placed on sportsmanship (usually a dice cube).

What are some other things that you have been disappointed with in your local tournaments?  Am I missing something here that would prevent you from having a good time at an event?  What would you like to see in a local, or even a national event?