Vegas

I will be in Las Vegas all week for work. While some may find this a delight, I am not one of them. Vegas pisses me off 'cause it has games with dice. Obviously I am prone to such games, as is so often covered in this blog. Furthermore, the Vegas games with dice cost money. And not the kind of money that results in jammed shelves full of crap that you may or may not use before your wife needs room and you have to Ebay it for 20% of retail. No, no, these games you give them money, they give you chips, and then they take those too.

Because I am prone to this vice, I don't gamble when I am there. Furthermore, I have taken a bit of the hiatus from drinking 'cause it is awesome, and I like its awesome. I like it so much I don't want to get to the point where I "need" its awesome. The countless dollars wasted on pewter and plastic men tipped me off long ago to my addictive tendencies within my personality. Therefore I feel an annual compulsion, sometimes bi-annual, to assert my own will over myself. Oddly enough it is always around Lent. Even though I am not Catholic, apparently the need for self-imposed suffering is an airborne contaminant. So basically I am going to Vegas to not gamble, not drink, and work...I am pretty sure that was on of the punishments in Hades for like Sisyphus or some shit.

Thanks for reading,
T

A Long Time Comin'

Almost four years ago, during the first Privateer Press Invitational Weekend, they held a Hardcore Tournament. In the third round I was up against none other than Matt Wilson himself. He gave some cool compliments on my dwarves, we were both pretty tossed at that point, and then he preceded to kick my ass soundly with Seige.

Nonetheless, during the course of the battle, I drunkenly cajoled and harangued Matt about how Rhulic forces need a mechanic solo. He said something to the effect of, "Oh yeah, maybe..." And Rob Stoddard, who was playing at the table next to us said, "It will never happen. I am pretty sure that is in the notebook." He elaborated that the notebook was a collection of ideas that were deemed unfit for the Warmachine.

A year later Thor Steinhammer was released. Now, I know a few folks who worked for PP who have all assured me that Thor had been "on the books" long before I said anything. However, at the time, it felt pretty cool. It felt like PP was a company that was willing listen to a drunk fat guy from Idaho who had a good idea. Even though the reality of Thor not coming from that game with Matt harshed on my buzz later on, Thor has always had a special place in my heart. The one that I finally painted was handed to me at the second invite, by Matt Wilson while giving me a shit eating grin.

From Stuff I Have Painted

From Stuff I Have Painted

From Stuff I Have Painted

I tried to make him look like he was wearing coveralls, but it kinda failed. In all, I am stoked with him, and stoked to have him painted finally since he has appeared in damn near every Rhulic list I have made.

Thanks for reading,
T

Juggling

My cold came back with a vengeance yesterday, leaving me feeling pretty shitty by the time I got home from work yesterday. I didn't feel a lot like painting, but I really didn't feel a lot like doing anything. Topping it all off was the fact that my mother-in-law was headed over for dinner so, although I just wanted to crawl into bed, I sucked it up and sat at my painting table.

I am not sure if it was the anti-histamine or what, but I was having an 'eff of a time focusing. I tried to get my fire warriors done, but it seemed after every color I was "done with that". Fortunately I had Thor Steinhammer sitting there, so whenever I got pissed at my fire warriors I just grabbed him and started blocking in color.

There is a guy around the Post Falls/Couer d' Alene area named Bennett Hobson that used you paint down at the game store I spent a lot of time in a few years back. Guy is an amazing painter, and crazy fast at it. I always remember that he would be working on like five things at once. I could never figure out how he got anything done, though he always did, as there was no perceivable rhyme or reason to what he was doing.

But in cold medicine induced haze, I may have tapped into something of his. As I worked last night I found places to pick up Thor and work on something while other things with the fire warriors were happening. Like after blocking in the Knarloc Green for their armor, I didn't feel like shifting gears to washing, so I did some blocking on Thor as well. Then while the washes on Thor's base were drying, I started laying down the gold on the fire warriors. I sort of bounced back and forth between the two models and found my self not getting over exasperated at either project.

I fought off the drowsiness from the cold medicine for as long as I could, as I knew my brush was moving at a pretty good clip. A bit later I was falling asleep at the wheel, and looking at what I had done for the evening I was surprised:

From Mars Project Blog

Got all the color blocked in on these guys as well as two of them got washed for shading.

From Mars Project Blog

Thor got all his color blocked in and his base finished.

I am not sure that I would subscribe to this random method just yet. However going forward I may always make sure there is something else that needs some kind of paint at the table. It was nice to just pick up something else entirely when the fire warriors were getting too repetitive.

Thanks for reading,
T

Goal Met, Tourney Played In

Yesterday saw my dwarves marching out, albeit slowly, for their first Mk. 2 tournament. I was going on a 0-6 run and expected to just get it handed to me all day. The format was Mangled Metal/Tooth& Claw at 35 points. It was a lot of friggin' 'jacks and warbeasts. Let me just say, real quick, that a lot of people enjoyed and commented on the novelty of the format. To me, this format is annoying. I run 'jack heavy lists all the time so it is not novel. Instead is makes an already focus starved Rhulic mercenary battle group worse. Despite the annoyance the event was enjoyable.

I ended up taking 3rd over all, going 2-1. I beat Epic Irusk and Goreshade in the second turn by using my feat to lower defense and move the casters to where the rest of the battle group could kill them. The games were so short that I asked my opponents if they wanted to play another game to pass time in the round. By the time the last round rolled around it was gonna be my fifth game, it was against the coven, and I was matched up with a guy who was 1-1 so I knew I wasn't at the "winners table". A victory by me and a draw by them, and other various planetary alignments, would have resulted in a win over all blah blah blah, but I digress.

Eric, the guy who was playing the Coven, is a great player, and high focus casters are the bane of the way I play Gorten, so pretty much it was his battle to lose, which he didn't. That being said, I boxed his entire battle group but the Stalker who killed me. And death by Stalker is pretty cool in my book. It was a great game, and I realize I need to read more on how the Coven is activated and damaged. My one attempt at assassination was completely botched. It's cool, though, it was weak sauce anyway.

The tournament itself was all Assassination. It ran smooth, though I was unclear on how one aspect worked. It was like the VP equivalent, and if you killed the caster you got their battlegroup. But then there was some talk of like 'jack points and counting or not counting. I didn't really get it, so I just asked my opponents what size their list was and wrote that down as my VP's.

Oh yeah, and I was fully painted:

From Stuff I Have Painted

From Stuff I Have Painted

From Stuff I Have Painted

The Basher was a lot of fun to paint. The only thing I did differently than the driller was used yellow to bring up the darker brown instead of white. I like it a lot better. It makes the highlight warmer and fits in better with the khaki.

Thanks for reading,
T