My response to 6th Edition

Saturday Potpourri

Some people have asked me how I feel about the new edition. 5 words:
I CAN THROW GRENADES AGAIN.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Ok, so maybe that's technically 6 words... but still.... I've been complaining about not being able to throw grenades since 2nd edition went the way of the dodo. Everyone who has ever met me while playing 40k has heard my rant. Jervis Johnson, Rick Priestly, Graham McNeill and even Uve Boll (wacky night) have all heard me bitch about it (after parties are fun!). It's a stupid little point, but it is still a major point of contention for me.

Sooooooooo I'm excited for a new edition, but will reserve my final judgement until after I've played a few games. Til then I'm optimistic and am back to painting 40k models for the first time in 3 years.
 Speaking of which....

TEST MODEL!

Till next time,
Keep the paint out of your ferrule.
Bean out~

Prime directive

Thursday Theories

Set phasers to PUN

'Allo all, welcome back. Today I wanted to talk about a couple products I use... specifically Primer Spray.
Now I'm sure many of you have used primer sprays before (if not... You should, hand priming is miserable.) and have your favorite brands. I, of course, am one of those who has a few favorites, and I wanted to explain why I prefer them.

To preface this pseudo-review I'd like to point out that I have tried many many different types of primers, from Auto primers available at the local DIY store to very expensive, high end model-specific, $30/can primer sprays. I'd also like to say I havn't tried everything out there, so if anyone out there has any specific brand or type they use, please comment below and let me know. I'd love to try something new and see how it works for me. I'm a huge fan of experimentation (Insert dirty comment here).
Personally I work on a best of 3 system.
To explain that term, I generally buy a product 2-3 times in a row and note if it proves to be consistent in quality over multiple purchases (which can spread over years or days depending on what I'm doing). This is pretty much standard for me. If a product is absolutely TERRIBLE the first use... and I'm talking model ruining, repainting my model all over again, pants shittingly awful. I'll still try it again. Because sometimes you just get a bad batch. Every company messes up once in a while.
If it's just as bad the second time... Then the product is ass, I'll tell my friends, I'll complain to the hobby store I bought it at, and I'll generally let everyone I come across know how ass the product is. Let's face it, much of these products are expensive, and no-one likes to waste their hard earned cash.

ON TO THE THE NITTY GRITTY:
What sprays I'm a fan of.

Classical Literature

Tutorial Tuesday

Once upon a time I ran a Dungeons and Dragons game. It was Awesome. I spent hours and hours coming up with evil villains to fight, fantastical locations to plunder, and devious puzzles to solve. I drew map after map, developed governmental systems, and created realistic ecosystems for the flora and fauna. For weeks and months I worked on this campaign, devoted myself to it, all for the enjoyment of my players. With unbridled excitement I brought it to the gaming table....and it fell apart. The players pulled it apart, piece by piece, shat on my maps and wiped their mouths with its tears (I admit that's not entirely true. They drank it's tears).
I was gutted.
I was absolutely shattered. All that work for nothing. Months of my life gone to waste... And it was for a stupid stupid reason.

Frontline Gamer: Time for my last Birthday prize draw!!!

Pimpin is getting easier.

Frontline Gamer: Time for my last Birthday prize draw!!!:       

You should all know the drill by now. So hop to it!
JOIN! COMMENT! WIN!


Bean (and Frontline Gamer) out~

Ariadna Complete.... Till I buy more

Saturday Potpourri

So I have finally finished my Ariadna force for Infinity. Next step is to paint my Pan-O forces... right up until I buy more Ariadna (Bean wants him some of those sweet sweet Tank-hunters, Irmandinos, Dozers and MOAR MODELS!).

Here's what I have finished to date:

Line Khazaks

A Cateran Sniper and a Khazak Doctor

Veteran Khazaks

Margot (Mirage Team 5) and a Chasseur

Duroc (Mirage Team 5)

That's it for now. Back to the painting station!
Bean out~

Hobbyside Thunderdome: GW vs.P3

Thursday Theory

Two Paints Enter...

WHO RULES BARTER TOWN??! WHO RULES???!!!
That's right... MASTA BLASTA!!!!

wait... oops. sorry, got caught up in the moment.

Anyways, Welcome to the Thunderdome! Today I want to discuss the pro's and con's of a pair of major paint distributors paint lines: Games Workshop's seminal paint line, Citadel Paints and Privateer Press's P3 paint line.

So gather round Boils and Ghouls, it's time now for THUNDERDOME!

Weathering Forcast

Tutorial Tuesday

So I bought some weathering powders from Vallejo recently. I've been eyeing them for a while now and during my last visit to my FLGS I thought to meself "Meself... Time to shit or get off the pot". Well after I got out of the bathroom I finally plunked down and bought a few of them. I purchased:

1. Green Earth
2. Carbon Black
3. Dark Slate Grey
4. Burnt Sienna
5. Natural Sienna
6. Light Sienna

 As well as the Vallejo Winter Weathering Set (as it said weathering on the cover, showed a tank and looked neat).
WARNING: THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS NO PIGMENTS. I'm just stupid and was all "BUYBUYBUY". On the plus side it does have Sandy Paste, which is awesome fun, and assorted useful paints... So it was not a waste.
In addition I purchased some assorted other products of a "ooh shiny" status that I had never used before but wanted to try out :

• Liquid masque
• Micro set and Micro Sol
• Army Painter battlefields tufts, razorwire, meadow flowers (!), ivy, Grass Green Flock

As well as a few other sundry items of a hobbyist nature (Plastic Card, Knife Blades, Green stuff, Paints, etc.)

I shall endeavor to tell you all how all of these things have gone for me, possibly in review style. For now...
The WEATHING POWDERS.

When is too much, TOO much?

Saturday Potpurri

No time for love Dr.Jones

I realized something awful this morning. Something mind-blowingly awful that has seriously floored me in it's obscenity. Allow me to show you something:

GW Retail site: Canada

Above is a screen cap (edited to make it smaller... no need to paste up a 1920x1080p web page) from the Games Workshop Canada web store.

Forge World

Above this is a screen cap (again edited so as not to put up a big damn picture) from the Forge World website.

Do you notice anything? Anything... oddly similar?

MOAR contests from Frontline Gamer

Pimpin ain't Easy

Once more Frontline Gamer is running a rather swell contest over on his Blog: $100 worth of credit from Dragon Forge designs (purveyors of fine Resin bases and win)!

I firmly believe that many (read: ALL) of you should go and have a looky-loo at his contest and give yourselves a chance to win.

HURRY UP! GET TO THE CHOPPA CONTEST!

Come on...DO IT! DO IT NOW!!!

Theme: How do you game?

Thursday Theories

Confusion

Hey all, Welcome back.
Today I want to talk a little about the concept of Theme in Roleplaying, or more accurately the role of theme as a defining and confining factor in roleplaying settings, for both the player and the GM.

First of all, What does Theme mean? For the sake of the article, theme is defined (by Dictionary.com):

theme [theem] (abbr.)

noun

1. a subject of discourse, discussion, meditation, or composition; topic: The need for world peace was the theme of the meeting.

2. a unifying or dominant idea, motif, etc., as in a work of art.

How to make a Wet Palette for next to nothing

Tuesday Tutorials

Word to the wise: Don't google-image search the word WET with safe search off.... Or do.

HIYO!

SO, today I've decided to do you all a solid and teach you how to make a Wet Palette for dirt cheap. Like I'm talking "Oh my god, I already have all of this stuff!!" cheap. It's something I learned from a wonderful chap named Mathieu Fontaine. You may recognize that name as coming from a guy who's won dozens upon dozens of awards for his painting... Golden Daemons, Euro Opens, the works. Great Guy, super nice, and an excellent teacher, especially if you want to learn to blend better.

ANYWAYS, this really is an incredibly simple process and it'll only take up a couple minutes of your time...
Wait...
What's that?
You don't know what a Wet Palette is?

FOR SHAME!!!

Spock is unimpressed.

Why hello thar H.O.P.itties

Welcome

So apparently I've been accepted into the House of Paincakes Blog roll. YAY!
To all the new visitors, please look around, make yourself at home, comment, etc. etc.
And to all the ol' regulors, FOR GODS SAKES COMMENT YOU SLOUCHES lovely wonderful people.

Regular posting will resume tomorrow.

Bean out~

Fresh off the Workbench

Saturday Potpurri

Kirk is dubious about my merits....

So I know I've talked about being a painter, and how to run demo games and about wargaming in general, But I'm relatively sure that I havn't spoken at all about what games I actually (currently) play.

Well, the answer of course, is way too much.

Keeping Track

Thursday Theories

List Building

Many people I know in the wargaming community make hundreds upon hundreds of army lists. We build them in our spare time creating the "perfect" list to kick ass, chew bubblegum, eat our cake and smite our foes. Hours upon hours are spent honing the list to a razors edge, sharpening our list building skills using mathhammer, past experiences and straight-up assumption of our foes. We plan secret attacks, build up battle plans in our minds and create devious combos to lay our enemies low...
and then toss the list in the trash after our first game with them.

What a waste.
Today I propose a change in tactics.

Over the past few years I have been keeping ALL of my army lists that I have tried out on the battlefield. I keep an exercise book filled with each and every list, along with annotations and remarks I've made post battle with the list, with concepts and ideas on how to improve said lists. THIS HAS, WITHOUT A DOUBT, IMPROVED MY WARGAMING SKILL BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS.

Why? (Oh Mr. Strawman, how I love you're perfectly timed questions...)

I have +10 in my Demo lesson skill...

Tuesday Tutorials

Listen up!

So Once upon a time I wrote a little post about Demo games and how to keep them simple. Now I'm going to put my money where my mouth (typing fingers?) is and give you a little tutorial on how to run a demo game. Now teaching a new game is like taking a test with a hangover.  You know what to cover (dice, models, rules, opponent), but OH MY GOD HOW DO I DO IT?? (*Vomit noises*)

Follow the leader and we'll get you there safe and sound.


First order of the day. What not to do:

Now, one major mistake people often make is jumping in with both barrels blazing, spouting advanced rules left and right, with no concern given to the newbie player. THIS DOES NOT WORK. The newbie player is like a baby, they can learn how to play, but it takes perseverance and practice, and above all, patience to teach them the ropes. While advance rules like alternate ammo types, TO Camouflage (TO Camo), Scouting moves, Outflanking maneuvers and Aerial Deployment (AD) are awesome, trying to throw those rules into your demo games of 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Infinity (or whatever) is just asking for trouble. You need to teach the newbie how to move before they can outflank, which end of the gun fires worry about what kind of ammo does what (other than make their opponent dead).
In essence, they need to get a strong idea of the basic rules (movement, shooting, assault, Orders, AROs, short and long orders) before they can even begin to worry about all the cool stuff.

Hey mister... How do i roll the dices??

The other major mistake players often make is playing "tough" against newbies.  This is a huge no no. The newbie could very well get turned off as they get their butts stomped into the ground and just give up then and there. Don't Club the baby seals. It's just bad form.

And now for something completely different

Pimping Ain't Easy

So, Now that I'm back online I find myself zipping about hither and thither (is that even a real word?) and catching up on missed Blogs and such. To my ever loving joy I found a special nugget of neatness tucked away on one of the Blogs I regularly read: Frontline Gamer
It seems he's on a Contributor push (you know, people who comment and participate in a blogs comment section *cough cough*) and is looking to increase his following. Now being as this is a Blog I've pushed on all my friends, I'm also now going to push this on you lovely folks. GO READ IT.

Now the blog focuses on Wargaming in general so it should be right up you lovely peoples alleyways, and his coverage of Infinity is about 70% responsible for why I began that game. So go and give it a check out.

Oh, what's that you say?
You need more reasons because you are a greedy Strawman?
Well then...

How about this?
OR THIS??

That's Right, He's currently running a couple of contests to give away FREE SWAG. Absolutely free in the money department.. Like... not a cent paid on your behalf kind of free...
All for the low low cost of following his blog.

So my suggestion: Follow.

Anyways, That's enough form me today. Time to get back to writing some of those Tutorials I promised all of you .

Bean out~

WHAT's going ON???

Clean up

Ok so many of you may (or may not...) have noticed that some articles have disappeared from the blog and some have moved around. Let me Explain:

When I was having Internet Issues (the issues deserve capital letters) I was using the Blogger App on my iPhone to update. This was a bad idea.
Whilst it allows one to publish written articles, it does not allow one to publish articles written on a past date on the current date. Meaning, since I write most of my articles on Saturdays (to bulk up my post count and have them ready in the case of sickness or out of town-ness), the Blogger App will then retro-post those articles on the day they were written.... even if it's weeks or months ago. Thus you'll notice that some of the intended posts for say... a Thursday theories, would be posted on a Saturday a couple weeks back, as opposed to the Thursday that I meant to post it.
So I've taken the offending posts down, and I will be RE-POSTING them in upcoming weeks.

Yes this means you'll see a little rehash (one or two articles), but odds are you didn't even notice it when I posted it because it would have shown up a week or more in the past.

So, I hope that explains what's been going on. Sorry for the Issues.
I'm going to try to figure this Blogger App out and see how I can effect the post date (I'm sure it's just user issues as opposed to a problem with the app, I have never claimed to be a genius), but until then, This is the way it's just gotta be!


Anyways, There shouldn't be any interruptions in the forsee-able future (knock on wood), so things should be back to normal right quick.

And who knows, maybe I'll apply to House of Paincakes and the From the Warp Blog rolls.
What do you guys think?

To tell me if this is a good idea!

What would you like to see?

Saturday Potpourri

huh?

So I have a simple Question for you all. What would you like to see on this Blog?
Painting Tutorials?
Battle Reports?
Armies?
Product Reviews?

I'm genuinely curious as to what the (500+) viewers of my blog actually want to read about. Keep in mind that I currently only have access to my Cellphone in regards to a Camera, so pictures and video are a bit of a rough spot (for the time being).

So WHAT DO YOU WANT TO SEE?

It's BAAAAAAAAAaaaaaack!

Well, after weeks of no internet service I finally have it back. SO I shall once more attempt to bring you decent articles on time and with far fewer issues... I HOPE!

So as of tomorrow I'll be back to the ol' posting schedule (yes it'll be a recycled article, but since the damn thing didn't publish right anyways, I'm sure most of you didn't even notice.... And if you did WHY DIDN'T YOU COMMENT???!!!)

Regular posting will resume Tuesday. Until then, keep on rolling those dice!