Monthly Update: Painting Points

The month of June was total weak sauce for painting points. Based on my standards for completion, I finished one model in June. Since we are now at the 1/2 point for the year, that means I am 51 points shy of my goal.



Last Month's Total: 23 Points
Points Earned in June: 1 Points
Total Points in 2009: 24 Points

If you would like to see the original post about Painting Points, check out the following link.

Special Thanks to Lone Pilgrim for introducing such a fun idea to the 40K blogsphere.

Imperial Guard Platoon

Based on the results of last week’s tournament, I am pondering the addition of a platoon that provides me with some much needed punch for dealing with vehicles. The core idea with this unit is to take the one troop choice and break it into three roles. The first role is to provide a squad that can swing up onto vehicles and terminators and drop them. The second role is to provide a unit that can just sit on an objective and provide the weight of numbers to keep it. The third role is to bring a solid amount of ranged fire that can deal with most types of vehicles.

Platoon command squad w/ 4 meltaguns and chimera (hb/hb) 125 pts
Infantry squad w/ commissar and vox. 90 pts
2 x Infantry squad 100 pts (50 pts each)
3 x Heavy weapons team w/ missile launchers 270 pts (90 pts)
Total 585 pts

I’ll be honest; I didn’t really like the idea of platoon units because of the amount of models that are required to just field one troop choice. After the weekend though, my opinion has changed as I explored the troop choice more and became comfortable with the realization that it can be a very multi-faceted choice. I now see this troop choice as being a strong foundation to my army, though I do fear that it blurs the theme.

As a reader of this blog, what do you think?

Aftermath: Rockhead's Tournament

As I write my entry about the tournament at Rockhead’s, I am conflicted on how honest and blunt I should be about the event. To begin with, I went 1-2 for the day with my IG/DH combo list. After I recap my games, I think I will write my thoughts about the event and the general atmosphere of it.

My first game on Saturday was against a wonderful guy named John (Jonathan). He was a WFB player at heart who was picking up 40k. The game started with some awesome casual conversation about the game and our views on tournaments. For people taking notes, this is how to start off a game in a tournament when you don’t know the other person. John was truly a nice guy that was there to have a fun time and become comfortable with the rules.

The game was the two objectives mission with a Dawn of War set-up. John was playing a nicely balanced Tau list with some fun to see units like kroot and an ethereal. The board was very heavy on terrain, which meant that getting to the opponent’s objective was going to be difficult. I began the game with my grey knights, melta squad veterans and primaris on the board. I placed the LR, callidus, and Marbo in reserves, and everything else prepped for the first round hotfoot into position. The first two rounds of the game were very evenly matched.

The tide didn’t change until the third round when my russ rolled onto the board. With all of the terrain, there were not a lot of lanes for long range weapons. I would have written off the russ except that I got really lucky on the third turn with the position of John’s ethereal/firewarrior unit. They were making a bee line to defend their objective and were in the process of crossing the street when I deployed the tank. The luck was even more stacked in my favor as I rolled the scatter dice. A hit! I proceeded to wipe out the squad with the exception of the ethereal and a pair of firewarriors. Again, I am stacking this hit to luck on many fronts and not some great tactical genius on my part. With the squad decimated, it allowed my advancing units and assassin to focus on what was remaining around the objective.

After the game, we talked some more about WFB and various tactics we like to use in the game. I really hated that the game was decided by such a lucky strike as John really was a fun guy to play and get to know. Hopefully him and I can hook up for a couple casual games sometime in the future.

With regards to the second game, I am going to be blunt and just state that I felt like it was a waste of my time. I am pretty casual, but I do have a few things that can really set me off and quickly drain the fun from a game. As a practice, don’t touch other people’s stuff unless you ask if it okay. I don’t care if the model is painted or not, common courtesy is to ask before touching. Plain and simple. Second, I made a few rules mistakes, which I am happy to correct and admit, but there is a proper way to handle such situations. Sarcasm and attitude are not the proper method. Finally, be respectful of your opponent. This guy broke all three of my rules within the first few minutes of the game.

The game was a kill point mission with the 12” deployment deal. My opponent was fielding a daemon prince with lash, a chaos lord with a lash, two minimum size squads of marines in rhinos and three units of obliterators. The game can really be summarized as him hiding the two rhino units and deep striking the obliterators and HQ choices. After three turns, I had my fill of my opponent and told him that I was not having any fun and that he can have the win. The guy was clearly there to win, so I figured I would rather use the time to chat with friends than continue a game with a stranger.

The third game was against another opponent playing tau. His army was two hammerheads, two crisis suits with plasma and missiles, and two firewarrior squads in devilfish. The game was the multiple objectives in a spearhead deployment. This game was another wash for me. I could feel myself still annoyed from the second game, so I shamefully admit that I brought that attitude with me to the last game. I was more interested in wrapping up the game and going to dinner with my family than actually playing. To this end, by the fourth turn I felt like it was too much of a long shot to win and called it.

With the third game over, I called it a day and headed for the door. The organizer stopped me on the way out to get my contact information for future events. I gave him a flyer for my blog, so hopefully he saw the site and email address in the flyer.

Like I said at the start of this blog, I am going to be blunt about the event. Overall, I had fun at the event, but this is because of my first opponent and the fact that Ernie and I got to hangout. When it comes to all the negatives, I should start with myself as that is only right. I brought three armies that day. The unpainted IG/DH and the painted necrons and painted chaos daemons. My intention was to play the IG/Dh unless painting was going to be scored, in which case I was going to play the army that was the least represented of the two. Upon reflection, I wish I would have played with a painted army. There was no advantage in the tournament for playing one, but I felt like I wasn’t representing myself properly by not fielding one. I guess that makes me a snob, but if I am going to walk into a room of mostly strangers, I should make a good first impression.

The second mistake that I made was setting the wrong expectations for the tournament. I was really expecting a lot of guys who were going to be thinking like me (i.e. casual armies, slow play, more conversation, less drama). My army had its spots of cheese, but I certainly would not have called it optimized. In comparison to what I saw being brought by a lot of players, I would call my army soft. It never dawned on me that a free tournament with no prize support was going to bring out the hardcore armies like it did. I was really expecting this tournament to be a lot like the N.I.M.G.C. tournament from a few months back in terms of atmosphere and players.

I think the problem I had with the tournament was the atmosphere of it. There were some really nice guys like my first opponent, but in general, it felt like the majority of players were attending purely to win. There were two monolith armies, land raider spam, obliterator spam, and a lot of the other most common hardcore armies. While I am not opposed to any individual fielding such an army, when the room has an abundance of them, I think it does hurt the atmosphere.

I really think the root cause of this problem was the general promotion of the event. As best as I can tell, the event was pretty much plugged with very little information or detail. I am sure that it was this lack of detail that caused most players to build their armies off the word tournament. Again, I read 1000 points with no painting as meaning that this would be a casual afternoon of fun and interesting list design. Guess I don’t know how to read.

The lack of detail in the original advertising of the event also made me dislike some of the things that the TO did during the event. The missions for each round were pulled straight from the book and rolled by the TO at the start of the round. I hate this approach for a couple of reasons. First, with nothing in writing, if you were not close to the TO when he announced the mission, it was a bit confusing at the start of each tournament round. It may seem minor, but the paper helps players get started in a noisy room. Second, it makes for a boring game and promotes players bringing lists that are optimized for the missions.

Along the line of the missions, all that counted was who won the game and whether it was a slaughter. Scenarios are fun and interesting. They help to lighten the tension of a tournament by making it more than three faceless games. The way this event was scored, if you lost the first game, there was really no reason to continue playing with regards to the tournament. As I write this, I wonder if the intention of this tournament was to be a primer for the ’ard Boyz tournament being held there in a couple of weeks. It almost seemed that way. Still though, I should have asked before signing up, so I can’t blame the TO without also blaming myself. TOs that want to run this style of format should make it clear. They should also set up the event so that once players are eliminated; they are free to match-up against whomever the want. If done this way, it makes less work for the TO and gives more options to the players.

The next change that happened was the TO decided that a fourth round was going to be done. When I talked with the owner, the tournament was supposed to be three rounds. This may be fine for the true local guys that don’t have anywhere else to be, but guys like myself that have families need to schedule things. Getting out early is great, as it usually means brownie points with the wife and the likelihood that I will get to attend another tournament. Dropping a fourth round on people in the middle of the tournament just makes people look like jerks for having to leave on time.

I really wish there had been a painting requirement of some sort, or at least a contest. I wouldn’t have won either way, Ernie’s stuff is amazing, but I do believe that requiring painted armies changes the atmosphere and general makes for a better time. Again, I cannot point a finger without first pointing at myself, but still, it is nice to see painted armies, especially in smaller point tournaments.

In conclusion, I had a good time, but I feel that there is a need for some improvements before I will attend another 40K tournament at Rockhead’s. The TO seemed like a decent guy and I fully support him running the events the way he likes. My only real suggestion would be to organize and communicate the event better so players can make a more informed decision on whether or not they want to attend.

Equinox

Note: If anyone that attended would like to reach out to me for feedback, information sharing, or to set-up a game, please send me an email at equinox999equinox@yahoo.com or feel free to post a comment in the blog.

Weekly Online Contest Round-up

The Aspect Portal Present's:

Competition Time!

The competition is to come up with a special character for a space marine chapter that doesn't already have one (Like the Sabol swords, Fire lords that type of thing) and write rules, fluff and set a points limit for you're character.
The deadline to get you're entires in is the 10th July and then voting will last a fortnight. The voting is not based on having the most overpowered character within reason, it is to make one with a great backround and rules to back it up and is of a reasnable point cost.

The Realms of Equinox Present's
Planetstrike

1. Models MUST be Games Workshop. They may be heavily converted, but it must be clear that they are primarily composed of GW models/bitz. FW models may be used.
2. Entries must be an elite choice from any current codex.
3. You must be a follower of “The Realms of Equinox” prior to submitting an entry.
4. Entries must be painted between July 4, 2009 – August 14th, 2009. Proof of work will be required as part of the submission process (see below).
5. Submissions will be accepted between July 4, 2009 – August 14th, 2009. This gives you plenty of time to build/paint your entry. Minimum of 2 Photos will be required of your entry: Work in Progress showing the unpainted model(s) on the new planetstrike book or the packaging for one of the new terrain kits, and a picture of the completed work. The completed picture file can contain multiple pictures, but only one picture file will be posted per entry. The deadline for submissions will be Aug 14th, 2009 11:59 PM CST. To submit your photos, please email them to: equinox999equinox@yahoo.com
6. All completed submissions may not appear on any other site or blog before August 31st, 2009. Works in progress may be posted on other sites and blogs before August 31st, 2009. (This is to encourage people to talk about their creations and build excitement around the contest) Any entries found to be violating this rule will be banned from the contest.
7. Voting will be done by the readers of “The Realms of Equinox”. Photos will be placed on the blog and each follower will get to vote for their favorite entry. Voting will take place between August 17th, 2009 – August 28th, 2009.
8. The winner will be announced on August 31st, 2009. The winner will receive a gift certificate for the Warstore. (Please note that the Warstore is not sponsoring this event, I am simply using them as they are a preferred vendor and very reliable.)
9. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments section of this blog entry.

Black Matt's Black Legion Present's
Obliterator Conversion Giveaway

This post is to announce that I will be giving away these three oblits. The only thing you have to do is sign up as a black legion disciple,(to follow my blog,) with an avatar over on the right, sit back and wait to win. Dont worry if you have already signed up in the past, the drawing will come from all disciples signed up, (with an avatar,) by June 27th. If you are already signed up to follow with no avatar, get one up to be eligible to win. I will pull all eligible screen names in a hat and randomly draw. I will post it the following week and YOU will be responsible for contacting me with your real name and shipping address. Thats it!

Pit of on Oni
Another Year Older, Another Year Wiser

Submit to me via email: Your name, your website if you have one and the special character you’re going to be submitting. I will be accepting entries up until July 6th, after that all entries will be turned away. I will then post all entrants and the character chosen to be submited to the contest. After one (1) week all entrants will be required to submit a photo of their progress which in tern will be posted. After one (1) more week all entrants will need to submit their final photo of their model and voting will commence. Finally after one (1) last week of voting a victor will be determined.

Bay Hammer
Chaos Tyranids

The Rules
1. Can be any current or past Tyranid model except ripper swarms, though if doing a scene piece they can be included
2.must feature Chaos Iconography of some kind and or mutation
3.must be in Chaos Colors it doesn't matter which chaos god you pick so run wild
4.Models do not have to be on a scenic/flocked base, though feel free to do so.
5.you must submit at least 2 progress photos along with the final product
6.All entry's must be submitted by August 1st

Submit all entry's to BayHammer@gmail.com

The Planetstrike Boycott

The guys over at Dice Like Thunder are calling for a boycott of the new Planetstrike book. Upon reading it, I have to admit that MiggidyMack makes some interesting points as to why people should boycott the book.

1) We aren't going to support new books until they support old ones.
Planetstrike doesn't support all the armies equally, leaving two completely out,
the Inquisition. Even Chaos Daemons only gets a passing mention. If Inquisition
players have the same treatment to look forward to as Apocalypse then this
product needs to ignored.
2) It doesn't actually have anything new. It gives
rules for something players have already been doing. The entirety of the rules
can be summed up in 3 bullet points, all that you are missing are the assets,
which have several redundancies from previous books and 3 codex's given short
(if any) attention.
3) The state of the FAQ's and Codex's is down right
insulting and planetstrike is only going to make that worse. The fact that some
players are having to wait over a decade to see their army supported by GW is a
travesty. GW is wasting a release this year on a book that has nothing new
rather than supporting codex's desperately in need of it such as Necrons and
Dark Eldar. Rather than address the problem with simple online web updates and
giving someone who really needs it a new codex they release planetstrike.
4)GW doesn't believe that veteran gamers can affect their bottom line. It's time
to show them that if they aren't going to support us it will hurt them. Players
quickly graduate to "veteran" status and find themselves wishing for more
responsive support. Putting a dent in their profits on one product shows them
the real long term risk. We can flex our muscle here and GW might just start
taking players who want a balanced and updated game seriously.

Considering that I am supporting the release of Planetstrike with a painting contest, I am on the fence with this boycott. I also understand that my readers may also be participating in the boycott but still want to enter into the contest I am hosting in July. Along these lines, I am making a simple change to the entry requirements that should allow folks on both sides of the topic the ability to participate.

5. Work in Progress showing the unpainted model(s) on the new planetstrike book or the packaging for one of the new terrain kits, and a picture of the completed work.


The above change means that people can use the book or any of the new terrain to show that the models were painted during the defined period. If anyone has any questions about the boycott, post them here or head over to the DLT forums to discuss.

Rockhead's Tournament Tactica Part One

As preparation for the tournament on Saturday, I am going to break down my intended tactics for each type of mission in the rulebook. In yesterday’s post, I revealed the army for the tournament. It was a mix of everything with a few subtle elements that are meant to keep my opponents on their toes.

HQ
Primaris Psyker 70 pts
Ordo Maellus Inquisitor Lord w/ 2 familiars, 1 sage, PW, bolt pistol, and Emperor's Tarot 98 pts
Elites
Ratlings 30 pts
Guardsman Marbo 65 pts
Callidus Assassin 120 pts
Troops
Veteran Squad w/ Harker, 3 snipers, vox, and heavy bolter team 155 pts
Veteran Squad w/ heavy flamer and 2 meltaguns 110 pts
5 Grey Knights w/ incinerator 160 pts
Heavy Support
Leman Russ Battle Tank w/ lascannon and heavy bolter sponsons 185 pts

Today’s post is going to look at the annihilation mission. In an annihilation mission, the goal of the game is to earn more kill points then your opponent. Kill points are earned for each enemy unit that is destroyed. If we look at my list, it is worth a maximum of 9 kill points. Since I can only guess at how many kill points each of my opponents’ armies will be worth, I am going to write this tactica based on a mix of opponents with higher and lower kill point totals.

Many of the top tier players have been quoted as saying that 5th edition is about going second. Along these lines, I have come packing a deck of the emperor’s tarot to help with controlling who goes first. I don’t expect this to win me games, but I do believe that it can help me with controlling the flow of the game in the beginning. With that being the logic, I will lean towards wanting to go second in most cases.

When it comes to deployment, the impact of the deployment type will be less important to me than the army being fielded by my opponent. In the cause of a pitched battle, if the opposing army is a stationary type, I will likely deploy a little forward and try to establish my sniper units such that they can capture the army in crossfire. If the army is fast moving, the base plan will be to pull back into one corner and allow for my units to cover each other more against the enemy.

In a spearhead deployment, the goal is still to earn more kill points than my opponent, so I don’t believe that taking more ground at the start of the game will be a solid strategy. In this case, I’ll still want to keep some distance and use the snipers, tank, and assassin combo to earn my points.

Of the three types, dawn of war seems to change my deployment strategy the most. Since each player can only post 1 HQ and 2 Troop choices, I am thinking that I will want to deploy the primaris psyker with the veteran squad packing flamers/melta weapons and the grey knights. When placing them on the board, I want to target the section of my opponent’s army that seems to be the easiest target for the two units. The nice thing in this case is that both units have built in abilities that will help to reduce my opponent’s ability to shoot them, so I am more willing to move them up when starting against a similar size force.

Once the game starts, my tactics are going to be based on the difference in kill points. If facing an opponent that has a low kill point count, I am playing for the wipeout. Kill a unit and move to the next. This is especially true if the player is fielding 5 or less kill points. In this scenario, I expect the callidus and marbo to each earn a kill point before giving up one. This should mean that I have seven kill points focused on three or less.

When faced with an opponent that has an equal or higher count, I am thinking that I will need to play more of a snail game and try and delay stronger units while targeting softer ones. I really don’t expect to face this kind of army, but it is possible, especially with armies like orks and imperial guard.

When it comes to specific armies, like orks and imperial guard, there are some things that I need to consider for each type.

The biggest threats that any of the space marine variants can bring in this kind of mission are land raiders and terminators. A dark angel army could in theory be Belial, 2 terminator squads, a dreadnought and a land raider. A space marine spam army could also be a threat, as I lack the firepower to deal with a lot of 3+ saves. Considering these points, I would expect myself to keep my distance and try to restrict my enemy’s points of attack.

In comparison, against an ork army, the threat is going to be the much maligned nob bikers. These guys combine speed with a powerful save. This means that they can close the gap quickly and should have little problem dealing damage in close combat. In this situation, I am thinking I will likely spread my forces out and make my opponent choose which side of the board they will attack. Hopefully the combination of distance and shooting will protect some of my points.

While the eldar can mirror the speed of the orks, I do believe that my shooting and hth ability is better suited to dealing with them. I believe the challenge with eldar will be army builds that focus on keeping range while shooting down my units. This is the army type that could make marbo and the callidus not as useful when compared to other armies.

Overrated & Underrated

This is the email I recently submitted to Richard at Dice Like Thunder. If you have not checked out their podcast, you need to learn how to use the internet better.

Since my approach to the hobby does not really focus on tactics, I thought I would write a different kind of overrated/underrated. For this essay, my overrated is tournament size, while my underrated is atmosphere.

I recently had a discussion with some fellow tournament organizers, and the general consensus by them was that continued growth and the general size of an event were important to defining the quality of that event. Some of the reasons for this were that the size of the event makes it more prestigious and that the pool of players will be more diverse. While I cannot argue that either point is invalid, I do feel that the general concept is not nearly as important to defining the quality of the event as others would imply. The biggest events in my experience are usually the least enjoyable. The focus on size lends itself to other concessions being made that may detract from the quality of the event if numbers are not your unit of measurement.

With regards to my underrated, I feel that the atmosphere of an event is often overlooked. More specifically, I feel that the atmosphere of a tournament is one of the keys to defining whether or not an event was good and that not enough focus is placed on it. A lot of times I believe when people think atmosphere, they write it off as something that is driven by the people that attend the event. I would argue that atmosphere begins with how the event is set-up and promoted. Examples of this would be army size versus the amount of available time to run the event. Another would be the number of tables that can be set-up with the event still being comfortable for the average gamer. One last example would be how the event promotes itself. If an event calls itself the biggest, loudest, toughest event in 69 states, does it understand the message it is communicating?

Just my thoughts on what I consider over & under.

Equinox

Rockhead's 1000 Point Army List

As it stands now, my wife is going to the shower with my daughter, so I am going to be free next Saturday. This means that I am planning on going to the tournament at Rockheads. Based on the votes I got from my survey last week, I am going to be playing a daemonhunters style army.

Upon reviewing what I had available for daemonhunters, I realized that I lacked the number of grey knights in power armour to make two full squads, so I decided that they will be the allied portion of my army. I also did a review of what I had assembled for witchhunters and came to a similar conclusion when it came to sisters. The conclusion was I was going to breakout the imperial guard for their first time on the field and support them with some daemonhunters.

HQ
Primaris Psyker 70 pts
Ordo Maellus Inquisitor Lord w/ 2 familiars, 1 sage, PW, bolt pistol, and Emperor's Tarot 98 pts

Elites
Ratlings 30 pts
Guardsman Marbo 65 pts
Callidus Assassin 120 pts

Troops
Veteran Squad w/ Harker, 3 snipers, vox, and heavy bolter team 155 pts
Veteran Squad w/ heavy flamer and 2 meltaguns 110 pts
5 Grey Knights w/ incinerator 160 pts

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Battle Tank w/ lascannon and heavy bolter sponsons 185 pts

The general strategy with this army is to use the ratling squad and Harker squad to slow units and keep them pinned down. The heavy flamer squad, primaris psyker and leman russ are going to be the section of the army that advances and claims distant objectives. The grey knight squad and inquisitor will be a combination unit, either moving with the advance section of my army or sitting back with the snipers to guard a close objective.

This leaves me with Marbo and the callidus assassin. These two are the secret sauce of the army. The combination is scary as each can appear anywhere and should earn their point cost when they initially appear.

Next Time: Scenario specific strategies

Weekly Online Contest Roundup

The Aspect Portal Present's:

Competition Time!

The competition is to come up with a special character for a space marine chapter that doesn't already have one (Like the Sabol swords, Fire lords that type of thing) and write rules, fluff and set a points limit for you're character.
The deadline to get you're entires in is the 10th July and then voting will last a fortnight. The voting is not based on having the most overpowered character within reason, it is to make one with a great backround and rules to back it up and is of a reasnable point cost.

The Realms of Equinox Present's
Planetstrike

1. Models MUST be Games Workshop. They may be heavily converted, but it must be clear that they are primarily composed of GW models/bitz. FW models may be used.
2. Entries must be an elite choice from any current codex.
3. You must be a follower of “The Realms of Equinox” prior to submitting an entry.
4. Entries must be painted between July 4, 2009 – August 14th, 2009. Proof of work will be required as part of the submission process (see below).
5. Submissions will be accepted between July 4, 2009 – August 14th, 2009. This gives you plenty of time to build/paint your entry. Minimum of 2 Photos will be required of your entry: Work in Progress showing the unpainted model(s) on the new planetstrike book or the packaging for one of the new terrain kits, and a picture of the completed work. The completed picture file can contain multiple pictures, but only one picture file will be posted per entry. The deadline for submissions will be Aug 14th, 2009 11:59 PM CST. To submit your photos, please email them to: equinox999equinox@yahoo.com
6. All completed submissions may not appear on any other site or blog before August 31st, 2009. Works in progress may be posted on other sites and blogs before August 31st, 2009. (This is to encourage people to talk about their creations and build excitement around the contest) Any entries found to be violating this rule will be banned from the contest.
7. Voting will be done by the readers of “The Realms of Equinox”. Photos will be placed on the blog and each follower will get to vote for their favorite entry. Voting will take place between August 17th, 2009 – August 28th, 2009.
8. The winner will be announced on August 31st, 2009. The winner will receive a gift certificate for the Warstore. (Please note that the Warstore is not sponsoring this event, I am simply using them as they are a preferred vendor and very reliable.)
9. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments section of this blog entry.

Black Matt's Black Legion Present's
Obliterator Conversion Giveaway

This post is to announce that I will be giving away these three oblits. The only thing you have to do is sign up as a black legion disciple,(to follow my blog,) with an avatar over on the right, sit back and wait to win. Dont worry if you have already signed up in the past, the drawing will come from all disciples signed up, (with an avatar,) by June 27th. If you are already signed up to follow with no avatar, get one up to be eligible to win. I will pull all eligible screen names in a hat and randomly draw. I will post it the following week and YOU will be responsible for contacting me with your real name and shipping address. Thats it!

Pit of on Oni
Another Year Older, Another Year Wiser

Submit to me via email: Your name, your website if you have one and the special character you’re going to be submitting. I will be accepting entries up until July 6th, after that all entries will be turned away. I will then post all entrants and the character chosen to be submited to the contest. After one (1) week all entrants will be required to submit a photo of their progress which in tern will be posted. After one (1) more week all entrants will need to submit their final photo of their model and voting will commence. Finally after one (1) last week of voting a victor will be determined.

Bay Hammer
Chaos Tyranids

1. Can be any current or past Tyranid model except ripper swarms, though if doing a scene piece they can be included
2.must feature Chaos Iconography of some kind and or mutation
3.must be in Chaos Colors it doesn't matter which chaos god you pick so run wild
4.Models do not have to be on a scenic/flocked base, though feel free to do so.
5.you must submit at least 2 progress photos along with the final product
6.All entry's must be submitted by August 1st

Submit all entry's to BayHammer@gmail.com

TRoE Presents: Planetstrike

A new style of warfare arrives in July with Planetstrike. If you have been following the rumors, Planetstrike is going to allow the player who is the attacker to take up to six elite choices in their army. To celebrate the release of this exciting new way of playing Warhammer 40K, The Realms of Equinox is hosting another painting contest. This time, the contest is to paint the best elite choice.

The Rules

1. Models MUST be Games Workshop. They may be heavily converted, but it must be clear that they are primarily composed of GW models/bitz. FW models may be used.
2. Entries must be an elite choice from any current codex.

3. You must be a follower of “The Realms of Equinox” prior to submitting an entry.
4. Entries must be painted between July 4, 2009 – August 14th, 2009. Proof of work will be required as part of the submission process (see below).
5. Submissions will be accepted between July 4, 2009 – August 14th, 2009. This gives you plenty of time to build/paint your entry. Minimum of 2 Photos will be required of your entry: Work in Progress showing the unpainted model(s) on the new planetstrike book or the packaging for one of the new terrain kits, and a picture of the completed work. The completed picture file can contain multiple pictures, but only one picture file will be posted per entry. The deadline for submissions will be Aug 14th, 2009 11:59 PM CST. To submit your photos, please email them to: equinox999equinox@yahoo.com
6. All completed submissions may not appear on any other site or blog before August 31st, 2009. Works in progress may be posted on other sites and blogs before August 31st, 2009. (This is to encourage people to talk about their creations and build excitement around the contest) Any entries found to be violating this rule will be banned from the contest.
7. Voting will be done by the readers of “The Realms of Equinox”. Photos will be placed on the blog and each follower will get to vote for their favorite entry. Voting will take place between August 17th, 2009 – August 28th, 2009.
8. The winner will be announced on August 31st, 2009. The winner will receive a gift certificate for the Warstore. (Please note that the Warstore is not sponsoring this event, I am simply using them as they are a preferred vendor and very reliable.)
9. If you have any questions, please post them in the comments section of this blog entry.

Rockheads 1000 Point Tournament - June 27th, 2009

On Saturday, June 27, Rockheads in Kenosha, Wisconsin will be hosting a 1000 point 40k tournament. If this was any other year, I would not be able to attend since it is my wedding anniversary. This year however, my wife needs to attend a baby shower for her cousin’s daughter and she is planning on taking our peanut with her, so I am looking at an afternoon of fun and nerd excitement.

The rules for the tournament are very basic; 1000 points using the standard force structure. Painting is not required, but models must be WYSIWYG. I didn’t ask about missions, but I would suspect that they are of the standard type with little variations.

Since painting is not a requirement, I am basically looking at all of my available armies and trying to decide what I want to play. I suspect that the majority of armies will be marines since they seem to be pretty common with the local player base, so I am thinking I want to come with something less common.

I am thinking that the following would be the most interesting armies to bring, since I feel comfortable in believing noone else will be fielding them:

Daemonhunters w/ Witchhunter allies
Necrons
Chaos Daemons

All three would be fun for me to play, so I guess it is a matter of which army do I feel would be the most interesting for my opponent to oppose. The necrons would be very assaulty, with a strong possibility of a C’tan. The DH/WH combo would be a mix of medium range firepower and assault units. The chaos daemons would also be of the assault variety with a splash of Tzeentch firepower.

So as readers of my blog, which of the following armies would you find most interesting to play against? I’ll open a poll, but I would love to read comments and suggestions. Assuming that I can attend, I will likely go with the army chosen by my readers.

If anyone is interested in playing in the tournament, call Rockheads and ask for Allen.
Rockheads
2225 63rd Street
Kenosha, WI 53143
262-657-5655

On the Bench: Imperial Guard Veteran Squad

This week's On the Bench will look at the first five models in one of the veteran squads I was considering back in May.

In the original post I was considering a veteran squad using Gunnery Sergeant Harker. The squad would be based primarily on cadian models, so Gunnery Sergeant Harker would be a “count as” cadian version of the character/model.

Veteran Squad w/ Gunnery Sergeant Harker, 3 Sniper Rifles, 1 Heavy Bolter and the Forward Sentries Doctrine (180 pts)

Since that post, I have been able to get a better idea of how I want the unit to look. One of things I want to imply with the unit is that it is not as formal as units back at the main base. Along those lines, I decided to utilize bitz from the catachan command squad.

Next Time: Green Stuff

TRoE Presents: Attention Winner

The results are in and a winner has been decided by the readers.

Congrats to David C (Itkovians).



Check back on June 20th for the next exciting contest!

On the Bench: Ratling Snipers

I am amazed at how much time it took to paint one little 10 point sniper. I don't feel like I nitpicked over the details of the model, but when finished, it seemed like it took all month. The funny thing is that it really didn't take any longer than any other standard size model.

With the model complete, I for once find myself very happy with the end result. Typically there is something that I will catch that I don't like about a finished piece, but in this case, I am quite content. (Note: I am not bragging like my painting is all that, I just have a very relaxed feeling about the finished product.)





I believe that with this fellow complete, that I will continue to work on ratling snipers until I have a unit of 5 completed. I plan on also building a "scenic" display base for the unit. This is partly the reason that the model does not have anything on the base, as I expect him to go into a place on the display base that will make the base not visible. (Or I could just be making excuses for being lazy.)

So at this point, if we excluded any daemonhunter or witchhunter models, this is what my imperial guard models look like when together.

Paint or Die 2 – Equinox’s Thoughts

I want to start out by saying that I am a fan of the site hosting this contest. The group of guys that are the core of the site are very friendly and provide a lot of thoughtful discussion and feedback on the hobby. It is for this reason that I like to promote what is happening on their site and participate in any kind of events they may be hosting.

If you recall some of my prior blog entries or have visited their site, the prior PoD contest was about painting up a 1000 point army in about 7 weeks. I tried to participate, but truthfully, I didn’t get far past the starting line. Regardless of how I did, I was glad to help out the site by paying the entry fee and at least trying to participate.

Now Rites of War has announced the next PoD contest, and I must admit that upon reflecting over the rules, I am not a fan of them. I know I am being critical of a free event, but I feel like I should comment a little as the rules are not sitting well with me.

At this point, I need to put in a disclaimer for this entry as I don’t want anyone to get the wrong impression. The proceeding comments are not intended to sway anyone from participating in the contest or insult the cool guys over at RoW. My intention is to simply share how I feel regarding the event and how I will approach it.

Upon posting the announcement here, I received a comment regarding the wording of the rules. There was some confusion about which systems were eligible for the contest as the wording seemed focused to WFB. My original comment back was that later in the rules it spells out the models allowed by stating which base sizes could be used. While I feel my feedback was accurate, I now feel that Cawshis Clay was onto something with these rules.

As I read them, I find that the requirements/restrictions don’t work well. Take for example the regiment rules. The typical minimum model count for most core units (20mm/25mm) in WFB is 10 models. So the contest rules make sense if we are talking purely WFB. Once the rules are also applied to 40K, the minimum model count for 25mm round bases seems a bit high to me. I feel the same holds true regarding the rules and the larger base sizes.

I think the problem is that the rules don’t account for the fundamental differences between the two systems. In general, WFB calls for more models than 40K. Yes there are exceptions, but I think my prior statement generally holds true. In the case of the contest, I believe that a better rule would have been to require each entry to simply conform to the minimum number of models needed for that unit to be legal.

The reason I feel this would be a better ruling for the contest is that it would allow for a bit more flexibility in terms of what participants can do within that month. Let’s take myself for example. I am currently working on ratling snipers. The minimum squad size is 3 with a maximum of 10 models. My current plan is to field a unit of 5 of them in my army. In order to participate in the contest, I must either add more models than I want to the unit or start a whole other unit and put my current project aside.

So you may be asking yourself, “Why is he bringing up this point? The contest is set and no one is forcing him to participate”. My response to that statement would be, “I totally agree!” The thing that drives me to write this entry is that I really want to participate this time and I want my participation to not be hollow.
When I say I don’t want my participation to be hollow, I mean that I want to make the finish line and don’t want to just throw something together.

The finish line is x number of painted models that meet a standard that I am comfortable with at the conclusion of the contest. Knowing what is the finish line for the contest, am I capable of entering the race? That is really the fundamental question of this diatribe.

I am currently staring at three projects: The Emerald Eye (Chaos Daemons), The Amethyst Veil (Vampire Counts), and Imperial Guard. Since my approach is to usually work on what grabs me at the moment, I am finding it hard to find something that I want to do that fits the requirements of the contest. The avatar of the Emerald Eye is out. The ratlings are out. The first unit of guardsmen is an option. Another squad of bloodletters or horrors could also be an option. Everything else at this point seems to require more time and effort than what I can invest towards the contest while still meeting my personal hobby goals.

The good news is that I have a week remaining before I must decide on whether or not I want to participate. During that time, I think I will continue to work on my current projects and declare my final decision after I have made a little more progress. If any readers of my blog have any thoughts about the contest or my thoughts regarding the contest, I hope you will post them here and we can discuss.

Black Sun Games Summer Cup Tournament

The following tournament is being hosted by Black Sun Games in Chicago, IL.

Summer Cup Tournament
July 8th – August 2009
Rules
1500 point armies
Following Codices Allowed
-Black Templar
-Blood Angels
-Chaos Daemons
-Chaos Space Marines
-Dark Angels
-Dark Eldar
-Daemon Hunters
-Eldar
-Imperial Guard
-Necrons
-Orks
-Space Marines
-Space Wovles
-Tau Empire
-Tyranids
-Witch Hunters

The Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition rules will be used

What you see is what you get (WYSIWYG) is in effect. All models should represent the weapon/wargear choices taken

Format
Players will be placed in groups of 4-6 players and play 3 qualifying games vs their group from July 8th – August 5th.
The top 2 players from each group and an undetermined number of wildcards will move onto the single elimination bracket.
Battles will be scored with Primary, Secondary and Tertiary objectives for a total of 45 points. In the event of a tie during the single elimination bracket, victory points will be used to determine the winner.
Entry Fee - $10 per person
Prizes – The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place individuals will be given a gift certificate to Black Sun Games in the amount of 50/30/20% respectively of the entry fee total.

Note – Army lists and entry fees are due no later than July 3rd . Army lists can be sent via email to the contact information below or a typed copy can be handed in with your entry fee. All lists will be checked for accuracy. Scenarios will be available with the event information packet July 8th at Black Sun Games and available on the website forums Any questions please contact me on this thread, personal message or at VirusSD1@gmail.com

I'd just like to go on record and say that I really applaud the idea of this tournament. I am hoping others will find it as appealing in concept as I do. The guys that I have met at Blacksun Games are true hobbyist and very friendly. Just be warned that the neighborhood is not the best.

On the Bench: Ratling Snipers

Very brief update today.

The barrel of the gun used the following steps:
Vallejo Black Grey (70862)(3:1, paint:thinner)
Black GW WashBlack Grey (4:1, pain:thinner)
Black Grey/Vallejo London Grey (836) (2:1:1:1, black grey:london grey:thinner:glaze)
Black Grey/London Grey (1:2:1:1, black grey:london grey:thinner:glaze)
Black Grey/London Grey (1:3:1:1, black grey:london grey:thinner:glaze)
London Grey (4:1:1, london grey:thinner:glaze)
London Grey/Light Grey (70990) (4:1:1:1, london grey:light grey:thinner:glaze)



Next Time: The Finished Model...

On the Bench: Ratling Snipers

The process of completing the leather was a bit of hit or miss in terms of process. The final scheme as I post it is based on my playing a little bit with the model till I got a result that I liked.

Vallejo bestial brown (4:1, paint:thinner)
Vallejo bestial brown/cobra leather (4:1:1, bestial brown:cobra leather:thinner)
Vallejo cobra leather (4:1, paint:thinner)



The grey sleeping bag/cloak was also a case of exploring the paint scheme until I hit on a completed job that I liked.

Vallejo London grey
GW badab wash (1:2 badab wash:thinner)
GW badab wash (straight)
Vallejo London grey
Vallejo London grey/Vallejo light grey (4:1:1, London grey: light grey: thinner)
Vallejo London grey/Vallejo light grey (3:1:1, London grey: light grey: thinner)
Vallejo London grey/Vallejo light grey (2:2:1, London grey: light grey: thinner)
Vallejo London grey/Vallejo light grey (1:3:1, London grey: light grey: thinner)


Using the process that I decided on while painting the guardsman, I completed the “gold” sections.
Reaper Chestnut Gold (09073) (4:1, paint:thinner)
GW Sepia Wash
Palomino Gold (4:1, paint:thinner)
Buckskin Pale (4:1, paint:thinner)





Next Time: Arming Little People

On the Bench: Ratling Snipers

In yesterday’s entry, I reviewed the painting of the skin on the ratling. Before I proceed with today’s entry, which will be posted later today, I wanted to provide another overview of the process I used for the skin as I have some better pictures to share.

This is an example of the Vallejo tan layer (4:1, paint:thinner)


This is an example of the paint scheme after completing the following layers:
Vallejo tan
GW Ogryn Wash
Vallejo tan (4:1, dwarf skin:thinner)
Vallejo tan/Vallejo dwarf skin (4:1:1, tan:dwarf skin:thinner)


This is an example of the paint scheme after completing the following layers:
Vallejo tan/Vallejo dwarf skin (2:2:1, tan:dwarf skin:thinner)
Vallejo dwarf skin (4:1, dwarf skin:thinner)


This is an example of the paint scheme after completing the following layers:
Vallejo dwarf skin (4:1, dwarf skin:thinner)
Vallejo dwarf skin/elf skin (4:1:1, dwarf skin:elf skin:thinner)
Vallejo dwarf skin/elf skin (2:2:1, dwarf skin:elf skin:thinner)


After the last photo, I added a layer of Vallejo dwarf skin/elf skin (1:4:1, dwarf skin:elf skin:thinner) and a very extreme highlight of Vallejo elf skin (4:1, elf skin:thinner).

Later Today: Even More Fun with Little People

On the Bench: Ratling Snipers

The color scheme for the skin on the ratlings is based on the one I used for some ogres I painted back in 2005. I liked the depth of the scheme and thought it would translate well into these little guys.

The base coat of the skin is Vallejo tan (4:1, paint:thinner). Once it dried, I used GW ogryn wash (straight) on the deepest sections and along the edges between skin and clothes. When I did this before the introduction of GW washes, I had used a glaze of dark flesh (3:1, paint:glaze medium) to get the same effect.



The next three layers of paint were moving the palette range from Vallejo tan to Vallejo dwarf skin. The first layer is Vallejo tan (4:1, paint:thinner). The next layer is Vallejo tan/Vallejo dwarf skin (2:2:1, tan:dwarf skin:tinner). The final layer of the triad is Vallejo dwarf skin (4:1, paint:thinner).



The next set of layers are the main color and highlights. I start with a layer of Vallejo dwarf skin/Vallejo elf flesh (8:1:2, dwarf skin:elf flesh:thinner). This layer covers about 85% of the areas that were covered by the layer of straight dwarf skin. I next apply another layer of Vallejo dwarf skin/Vallejo elf flesh (4:1:1, dwarf skin:elf flesh:thinner). This layer is more of a true highlight layer and covers only the raised areas and focal points on the skin. Another layer of Vallejo dwarf skin/Vallejo elf flesh (2:2:1, dwarf skin:elf flesh:thinner) is applied as a further highlight, again only covering the edges of the raised areas. The final layer is a straight layer of Vallejo elf flesh (4:1, paint:thinner).



With the skin completed, I apply a soft wash of GW sepia to the hair. This is followed by a careful layer of Vallejo cobra leather (4:1, paint:thinner) to each strand of hair. The next layer is a mix of cobra leather and Reaper palomino gold applied to the out portion of each strand. The last layer is a straight shot of palomino gold to the tip of each strand.

The eyes were completed using a layer of Vallejo black, followed by a layer of Vallejo skull white, then completed with a careful dot of Vallejo black.



Next Time: More Fun with Little People

Reminder: Vote for Attention!

Only a few more days left to vote on your favorite choice for the contest.


Entry A
Entry B

On the Bench: Ratling Snipers

As Ernie and I explore the creation of our Imperial Guard armies, I find myself making some changes to the original ideas I had for the army. Basically I have made a personal decision to work with what I own and with the exception of a few bitz, want to not purchase anything else for the army till I exhaust the models I currently own. What this translates into is an army that has alot fewer tanks and more veteran squads with snipers and a platoon. I figure when it comes to the actual list, I will post it once I am further along with the painting of models.

The first step is to clean and base the model. Like all of my projects, I use George Bases. Before basing them, I clean away the flash and give the models a quick wash in soapy warm water. I also remove a little bit of the scenic portions on the models as I didn't feel they were appropriate to how I want the army to look when finished.




Along with the two ratlings, I base another one, this time not adding and gravel to the base. With this ratling, I also drill a pin into the arm so that I can add the arm holding the telescope once the model is painted. Once compete, I prime all the models using my last can of GW's old white primer.



Similar to what I did with the imperial guardsman, I will attempt to base coat the model before working on any highlights or shading. Excluding the base, it appears to me that the deepest sections of the model will be blue, so I begin base coating those sections with Vallejo dark blue (4:1, pain:thinner).



Once the paint is dry, I give the blue sections a healthy wash of GW asurmen blue (straight).



Next, I base coat the sections of the model that will be “metallic”. I use Vallejo black grey (4:1, paint:thinner). Once the paint is dry, I give the sections a decent wash of GW badab black (straight).




Once the wash is complete, I apply a mix of scorched brown and bestial brown (3:2:2, bestial brown, scorched brown, thinner) to the “leather” sections of the model. During this step, I thinned the paint more than I intended, so the coverage is not the best. I apply an additional coat and decided that I will address the white that is bleeding through during the detailing process. Having said that however, I also apply a diluted wash of Vallejo brown ink (3:1, ink:thinner) followed by gentle wash of GW badab black into the deepest sections of the “leather” sections.



The last base coats applied are Vallejo tan (4:1, paint:thinner) to the skin, Vallejo cobra leather to the bandages/wrappings/hair (4:1, paint:thinner), and Vallejo London grey (4:1, paint:thinner) to the sleeping bag.



Next Time: Skinning a dwarf

Rites of War Presents: Paint or Die 2!

PoD 2!
Subject: Regiment
Entries Due: Wednesday, June 17th
Begins: Friday, June 19th
Ends: Friday, July 17th
Voting Begins: Sunday, July 19th
Voting Ends: Sunday, July 26th

Picture of the winner for the first Paint or Die!

Entry Fee: FREE.
Prizes will be Awarded based on number of entries, and as follows:
5 or less:
- 1st Prize: Special Prize
6-10:
- 1st Prize: Special Prize
- 2nd Prize: 1 $25 or less GW Product of Choice.*
11-20:
- 1st Prize: Special Prize
- 2nd Prize: 1 $50 or less GW Product of Choice.*
- 3rd Prize: 1 $25 or less GW Product of Choice.*
21+:
- 1st Prize: Special Prize
- 2nd Prize: 1 $100 or less GW Product of Choice.*
- 3rd Prize: 1 $50 or less GW Product of Choice.*
- 4th Prize: 1 $25 or less GW Product of Choice.*

*: No Direct Only Items or Collectors Range.

Rules for entries.

Regiment:
- Regiment is defined as any unit of models which may include: Infantry, Cavalry, Monsters or Chariots so long as they are in unit formations. Vehicle Squadrons which are comprised of Tanks are not considered Regiments though none tanks are considered such as Ork Buggies or Eldar Warwalkers.
- Entries on 20mm or 25mm Square or Small Round Bases must be at least minimum unit size per their respective Armybook or Codex; or 10+ models whichever is more.
- Entries on 25x50mm & 40mm Square or Medium Round Bases must be at least minimum unit size per their respective Armybook or Codex; or 5+ Models whichever is more.
- Entries on 50mm Square and large or Large Round Bases must be at least minimum unit size per their respective Armybook or Codex; or 3+ Models whichever is more.

Lets Get the word out on this one guys! I would be glad to have to fork out almost 200 bucks for prizes if it meant a good amount of competition!

On the Bench: The Emerald Eye

The Emerald Eye is Awakening

The new daemon prince of Khorne model by Forgeworld grabbed my attention from the moment I first saw it online. I knew I had to have the model and that it must be painted as soon as I received it. The temptation was so strong that I pre-ordered the model within a few minutes of it being available on the Forgeworld site.

Jump ahead a few weeks to a stormy day in May. I arrive at home to find a box wrapped within a plastic bag hanging from my mailbox. I knew instantly that my daemon prince had arrived. Once inside, I tore open the box with the excitement of a small child opening presents on Christmas. This model was going to take command of the Emerald Eye was the thought driving me as I opened the package.



With the package opened, I gently removed each piece from the ziplock bag. I liked that the bag was wrapped in bubble wrap. More so, the main body of the prince was also wrapped. This was something I really could appreciate, as I have seen what can happen to models that are not packaged properly for shipping.

As I inspect the pieces, I find some of them are going to require a hot water dip to carefully bend them back into shape. I have to admit that this is the part of the process that troubles me. If you dip the part for to long, it will melt. If you don’t dip it long enough, you may end up cracking it.



Another observation I make is that the bloodletter is going to need a lot of cleaning and flash removed. One of the things I notice about GW/FW models is that if you get a model when it is first released, the flash and mold lines seem to be worse than if you get the same model after it has been released for a decent period of time (~6+ months).



One last observation about the kit, the instructions that came with it are barely more than a picture of each model assembled. It is not like I expect a step-by-step work instruction, but a little more guidance would have been helpful for a ~$70.00 kit. With that said, this is not my first FW kit, so I am not surprised by the lack of any real instructions.



Next Time: Bathe Him and Bring Him to Me!

TRoE Presents: Attention! Entries

It is my honor and privilege to reveal the entries for the The Realms of Equinox contest. Voting opens today and all readers have until June 12, 2009 to vote for their favorite choice. Once the voting is closed, the results will be tallied and the winner will be contacted by email before being announced here on the site.

Entry A
Entry B