31 August 2010

Game Week Pt 2

4. Coach Boom
I think I have more faith in the Texas D-Coordinator than anything else on the field. He has proved an insane ability to coach up talent, mold good players into great leaders and even more, concoct down right nasty defenses. Another year wiser, and it is truly a great thing to watch him coach on the sidelines. He's one of the reasons I love seeing the game live.

30 August 2010

It's Game Week Kids

After 9 months of bitter taste in your mouth and hearing so much "could have been"... It is on. Football is back. And namely...

TEXAS FOOTBALL

As the week goes on, I'm going to break down my top 5 reasons why I'm excited for this year and what lies ahead.

5. New Beginning, but not really
10 years ago my father said to me "we need to be one of those places like Forida State... where they don't rebuild, they reload." Well Dad, it is truly here. We have a stout team, with a defense that might just be the best either of have seen. The "run-first" offense is a measured reaction to what beat Texas in the title game: if everyone is geared to defend the spread, smash mouth football should dominate. And so, with a new quarterback, and a new attitude, but many of the same pieces, we have a new season. Sure we lost Colt and Jordan. They will be missed. But Gilbert and his boys are here, and they hold all the promise in the world. Texas reloaded, and it didn't take too long to do it, and from the recruiting classes we've seen, it doesn't look like they are going to drop off any time soon.

Hook 'em... thoughts?

22 August 2010

Nix the Trolls and 8th Ed

So after playing a few games of Menoth I decided that I didn't want to split my hobby more than I already have. I need to focus to improve, and that means all faith to Menoth.

Painting them starts this week... I've finally got time now that work has abated a bit.

On another note, I dipped my toes into the pool of 8th Ed. I've had Chaos Warriors lieing around a while, and in 7th they weren't too hot. But now, it seems they are stout. Going to play some more this week at The Lair. Should be fun.

10 August 2010

Trolls and Painting Menoth...

I've wanted to get into Hordes as a way to compliment my Warmachine Menoth army, but I've been having trouble deciding. One thing I'm sure of, I really don't want to play Everblight, as they are just dripping with evil and really not my style.


I won Favored Opponent at WARGames Con for the Warmachine tournament, and I'm going to take my winnings and get that Hordes faction started. With the new rulebook out and each of the faction books throttling down the pipe, it seems like as good a time as any. 


Deciding which to play has been frustrating. I really like the look of a lot of the Circle and Skorne mini's, but the fluff is not really want I want to play. I play an uncompromising bad-ish guy in Warmachine, and I don't really want to play the manipulative douch-y-ness that is Circle or the Nihlistic Skorne. Then I read the Troll Blood fluff in the main rule book. Maybe it was the fact that Scotland the Brave was playing on my Zune... maybe it was the fact that I recently found out that my heritage traces all the way back to Robert The Bruce... but man... something about the Troll Blood fluff hooked me.


Yeah, their army isn't the most varied in terms of design. That, however, presents me with a challenge: make the Troll army I want to make, but give it a distinct aesthetic that I like to look at every time I sit down to play.


That same idea lead me to my color choice for my Menoth army: Burnt Orange, White and Slate Grey. Yeah, I know it is a bit on the nose given my prescription for fanatically following University of Texas Sports, but given that the army is full of fanatical wak-jobs, I find it oddly fitting.


So I'm going to start up a Troll Blood army. I think a slow burn on that would be best, so that I can also take the time now to paint my Menoth. 


One other sad note... RIP BFG... you were epic and a mecca for all of us. Good luck with what you do in the future guys, you will be greatly missed.


Anyone got any thoughts on Trolls, Menoth Paint or BFG?

01 August 2010

Ring the Bell...

Holy crap... best weekend of gaming ever. I've been cramming for over a month to get the Ork Mob ready for this, and now... with BoLS... ahem... WAR Games Con finally here, all that work paid off.

I played like crap on Friday in the Warmachine tournament, making every bad decision I could have. Had a great time tho, and caught each mistake too late to fix the error, so at least I learned. Turns out my fun was obvious and it infected my opponents. They voted me Best Opponent for the Warmachine group, which was a great honor (and will be a great prize too lol)

The Narrative Track was AWESOME. Saturday and Sunday left me exhausted, but man was it a blast. I got to play with some great people, including Dave Taylor, conversion God. Our opponents Jason, Dan and Eric (brilliant gentlemen as well) all agreed with me that Game 3 on Saturday night was probably the most epic game of 40k we'd ever been a part of. The choice I made of a Big Mek Stompa was the right one. The model is getting renamed MVP... holding a Land Raider in lock down with the Lifta Droppa arm was probably the most consistent thing I was able to do all weekend. But that isn't why... shot after shot after shot of the Deff Cannon ripped things apart and the SuperRockets destroyed a few things... but that still isn't why.

MVP earned his name because of a simple score sheet... Gaze of Mork 2, Reaver Titans 0. After considerable effort to get the shields down and start the damage, with a simple throw away cannon on the head of the Stompa I was able to blow that Reaver Titan right the heck up. It Apocolypticaly exploded and took the majority of the enemy board with it. (They still won, but only because we were to crammed to get an effective defense of the objective mustered). Sunday MVP got the last shot in on the same Titan, wrecking it. 650 points well spent I'd say.

I'm already thinking up conversion ideas for next year... Russian Egg Stompa anyone?

As promised... pictures. Thanks to all who paid the compliments for my army. I was totally humbled by how many people had great things to say about my Orks. While I sat before we started with they army next to me, having hoards of people walk up and take pictures of it made me get all GARSH and blush. Just felt like all the work I had put in was appreciated. It was truly humbling, thank you to everyone who expressed their thoughts.

Great weekend. JWolf, BigRed and everyone involved ran a hell of an event and everyone I talked to walked away having had a blast. Visit BoLS, it is the premiere gaming blog on the net and home of The Girl. The Crowbar writes for them as well.

Hell of a weekend playing with plastic toy soldiers!