Domination Release Event - Battle Reports

This weekend I went down to San Antonio with a few other austinites for a Domination release event. Actually ended up being a lot of people from austin, but I did get to play some new opponents as well. it was an interesting tournament, using one scenario all day and cramming in as many rounds as possible during the day. you got points for playing, more points for winning, with bonus points for playing against new factions and players. and then there was a whole list of other bonuses you could get once per tournament. so in the end winning the games wasn't worth a whole lot compared to all the other points you could get, which made things interesting (in a good way).

I'm reconstructing my rounds from memory, some bits might be missing. Warning, this is going to be a rather large post, so if you're not really interested in a bunch of random battle reports, you might want to just skip over this one. I enjoy writing reports, though, as it helps me process my games and think about what went well and what I need work on.

Who Would Win? - Warmachine edition

NOTE! a slight change to the post below, voting will remain open for a faction until they participate in their first round. as of right now, there are still 10 factions left to choose from! after a faction has played, I'll mark them off in this thread, in case you didn't track down the latest round before voting...

It seems like a lot of blogs out there have been running random contests. A lot of them are really interesting. there was one in particular that I thought was a really neat idea. the writer at A Plague Spreads ran a contest last year for 40K that was designed to pick out the "best" unit in 40k. "best" of course being a relative and not all-too-scientific. but it made for a very cool contest.

I figured that something like that could be really fun for the other game I play. So, I am here to announce the first warmachine/hordes "who would win?" contest. I have gone through each faction in the game (except for four star syndicate, they made the bracket not work), and selected one unit to participate. these units aren't necessarily the best unit in the faction. these are the frontline troopers of each faction. the grunts, the meatshields, the real hard workers of an army. every army in the game (well almost) has a unit that falls into the same bucket of cheap frontline infantry in the same price range.

read on for details

Skorne Tactics - Domination

Domination has been out for a few months now. even though most of the models haven't been released yet (and probably won't be out for a while), we have been playing with proxies for a number of the new models. In my opinion, domination was a very mixed bag. some new releases really stand out as soon-to-be powerhouses (I know my wife is very excited about the Gallows Grove dropping next month) along with some really "meh" choices.

Of all of the Hordes factions, however, I feel like Skorne really came out in the black. I will probably be collecting every one of the skorne releases. there's nothing in there that I look at and don't want to try out. I haven't put all of these models to the test just yet. but while domination is still relatively fresh, and with a few games under my belt with new models, I wanted to give my first impressions of Domination. Like some other blogs have done, I will look at the new casters first, and do a follow-up post with some thoughts on other models.

Crack the WIP, 1/16

Happy Monday everyone!

I'm trying out a new segment today, as part of my plans to expand my use of the blogosphere. In the last week or so I have suddenly found myself in a burst of motivation to paint models. Brought on no doubt by the looming deadline of Adepticon.

Yes, Adepticon isn't until April. Yes, last year I built, converted, painted and based an entire 2000 point army in this same time frame for Adepticon (and wrote a blog about it!). So it's a more comfortable deadline than last year. But if I don't start now, I'll regret it later.

I wanted to start some sort of painting progress piece for my blog. I went back and forth on a few names, and finally settled on this one. it made me laugh, and if it makes one person chuckle on a Monday, my mission will be a success. I don't claim to be a great painter, but I enjoy painting. if you're looking for amazing, awe-inspiring paint jobs, go look at Coolminiornot.

Friday the 13th Edition: the luck factor

I've been wanting to do a post on luck and strategy for a while now. But like a lot of my ideas, haven't gotten around to it yet. Today is a new day, in a new year! And it being Friday the 13th gave me as good a reason as any to pull out this article.

Wargames in general walk a fine line. you want a game that takes strategy and thought, but at the same time we desire randomness and chance. if you didn't want a game with luck or chance involved, you would play chess. Some people really like chess. but it doesn't give you the same kind of game as one where a perfect plan can turn into a terrible loss with a single roll of a die.

On the other hand, there needs to be strategy involved. otherwise, why would all of us be blogging about it, or reading blogs about it? if you don't want a game with strategy and want all randomness, go play Uno Attack (seriously, that game messes with you). so today I'm going to write a little bit about the strategy of mitigating risks that are inherent in a tabletop game, be it warhammer, warmachine, or any other game involving plastic dudes and dice.

A New Year, a New Blog...

It's been a while since my last post. As in months. I could make some excuses, like being too busy with real life, but no one really cares to hear excuses. I'm pretty sure no one would be reading my excuses anyways. but here I am, drawn back to the keyboard by the lure of the idea that someone out there might eventually read my posts and get something out of it. if nothing else, it gives me something to do while waiting for the database admins at work to get their act together and let us actually do work.

So we've made it to 2012. possibly the end of the world, if you're one of those people. For me it just means that all the annual events I enjoy are coming right back around the bend. Adepticon is in 3 months! wargamescon already has pre-registration! maybe I'll go to some of the other GTs in the area this year. The Broncos are in the playoffs! (yeah, that will probably change this weekend, but a guy can dream. we made it further than the Cowpokes at least).

Where has the month gone?

Somehow, this last month has just gotten away from me. Sometimes real life sucks. For several months, I had a really nice schedule that let me spend the time I wanted to spend on my hobby (or plastic crack addiction...). Recently, I haven't had that time anymore, and I think I'm having withdrawals.

Suddenly, my schedule has filled itself to the brim. the normal gaming nights for our club have filled with other things, leaving only one night a week to maybe play wargames. My lack of playing time has manifested itself on this blog as well. the less time I play 40K, the less time I spend blogging about it.

My life right now...