Goodbye 2013...

2013 is just about over and what a year it has been. GW has surprised us all by churning out codices, army books, supplements, and new models with a frequency uncharacteristic of their business model. Where will all of this takes us in 2014 is unknown but you can be sure it will be one hell of a ride. Since everyone and their brother is posting articles on what this means for the future of war gaming and tournaments I am not going to bother adding my opinions in this article. Instead I just plan on riding this out and focus on what I have planned in the upcoming year. So grab a beer and join me as we take a look at what has transpired over the past year and what the authors of the Mandulian Chapel have planned for 2014.

Slaanesh Themed Beasts of Nurgle

The original inspiration for my Daemons army was a pure Slaaensh force.  I enjoyed playing the army, but as  my Sisters began to fade into obscurity - and near uselessness - I made Daemons my primary force.  On the old codex there were just too many limitations to a pure Slaanesh force.  For most of my games it hit transports on 6's, it tends to be fragile and it leaves you wanting to play with more of the neat entries in the Daemons codex.

Don't Give Up

Catchy title eh?  Have some T&A and pertinent music along with your read.  An interesting effect of blogging is that now matter how shallow or deep you make your content, you will develop followers who will experience your 40k and life journey along with you.  Even the most stoic and focused bloggers will leave clues to their journey and struggles in their articles if you can read between the lines.

Tis the season...

That's right... it's Christmas eve and ol' Santa Grubnards is feeling festive. Up here in Western NY the snow is falling, the temperature is below freezing and the forecast calls for the temps to fall to the lower teens tonight. Fear not, I have a bottle of whiskey, my family, and Christmas cheer to keep me warm and happy. Since I am feeling the spirit of Christmas I figured I would share some of my hobby updates that I've been working on between wrapping gifts and chowing down on delicious treats. Seeing as this is also the time of giving I've included some templates for you to download of some Eldar/Tau aegis defense lines and a portaglyph for you to print out and use as you wish.

Calypso2ts @ The Millenium Invitational

At the end of every year Millennium Games holds its annual Invitational Tournament, composed of the top 1st and 2nd (not yet qualified) finishers from each month's  tournaments.  I qualified earlier this year in the team tournament I played with Crispy using Tyranids.  I look forward to this event because it is a nice followup to all that hard work painting to prepare for Da Boyz GT - and it is a free tournament with a ton of prize support from the owner of Millennium.  This year Millennium actually doubled its normal support - which is why I travel 100 miles each month to play in events at Millenium Games.

As usual, I decided to take my Daemons, but I wanted to do so with a slight twist.  In light of the Nova proposed composition changes I wanted to build a list that was compliant with those guidelines and that did not use Fateweaver.  That is right, a Daemons list without Fateweaver or  Grimoire of True Names or a Flying Monstrous Creatures.

Calypso2ts @ Da Boyz GT - 6 of 6

Justin and I seem to always meet at Da Boyz.  I narrowly won our first game with my Sisters against his Necron destroyer list in 2010.  In 2012 I played his Tyranids with Daemons and he beat me pretty handily.  This is a great chance for redemption.  I also found out he has had a great year at GT's this year.

Justin is bringing Tau and I wish we had a bit more Line of Sight blocking on the board.  Unfortunately, there is not a lot I can do about that.  His wife had also come with him to the GT - but she was stuck inside a bit due to the snow storm raging that day.

Calypso2ts @ Da Boyz GT - 5 of 6

In 5th edition I had really struggled with Daemons against Dark Eldar.  They were the perfect combination to tear apart Daemon armies with poison shots mounted on fast vehicles that would almost always require 6's to hit in combat.  I occasionally beat these armies, and I am really familiar with how they play.  More importantly, the changes to vehicles with Hull Points and close combat has made taking down these swarms a little easier.

For this game I was playing on an imperial cathedral battlefield.  Here is a picture pre-setup of the terrain.

The really cool part about this board is all the roofs are magnetized, so it is easy to pop them off and move models around the buildings.

Grubnards at the Millennium Invitational

The Millennium Invitational was held this past weekend at Millennium Games in Rochester NY. Every year the store holds a monthly 40k tournament on the 2nd Saturday of each month and in December, those who placed in either 1st or 2nd place in one of the previous months, gets invited to to play in the December Invitational. However, due to bad weather and some people's work schedules, not all of the invitees were able to attend. In all, 14 people showed, including 5 of the blog authors Crimanth, Calypso2ts, Crispy, DaCock, and myself (Hyv3 had to bow out due to his work schedule.) So let's get onto the reports of my games.

I am back!

Tournaments

I finally have a chance to play some games this weekend.  In particular, I have a chance to play some one on one games.  Sure at the DaBoyz GT I played in the team event but I do not count those because Aaron (hyv3mynd) was holding my hand through every game.  He was also making most the tactical decisions.  I am sure if he was not there I would have lost at least one game - possibly more. But that is for a different blog post.

The End is Near...

Ok, I'm are not talking the end of the world or the end of 40k, (although with all of the recent releases and changes GW has added some may think that), rather I am addressing the end of 2013 and what that means to me in regards to the hobby. There is one more tournament that I will be attending this weekend to round out the 2013 season plus I have a few modeling projects that I want to knock out before 2014 rolls around. So now that I am somewhat refreshed after taking off some time last week I figured I would run through what I am currently working on and then talk about the Millennium Games Invitational. So let's take a look at what I've been working on over the past couple of weeks.

hyv3mynd @ DaBoyz GT ~ Game #1

After much drinking and many shenanigans the evening following the team event, I went to bed reasonably early and mostly sober.  This was my one big event of the year and I didn't want to compromise my grey matter for the GT.  The picture above was the view from the main gaming hall on Saturday morning before round #1.  One entire wall was floor-to-ceiling glass doors so half of the room had this view all weekend.  A snowy view, a fire in the fireplace, hardwood floors, antler chandeliers overhead, it was quite the rustic venue.  Also a note on pictures:  You'll notice a bright white glare back-lighting the photos.  There was actually a blizzard raging outside that dropped a couple inches of snow.  All the big windows and a bright blizzard washed out these pics so apologies they weren't better.

* A note on my battle reports * I realize and accept that fact that not everyone designs optimized competitive lists.  I realize not everyone plays a tactically perfect game.  The main purpose of my reports is self reflection and improvement based on the situations at hand.  Out of respect to my opponents, I prefer comments to be based on my own list or performance and avoid overly critical comments on my opponent.  This will be a standard disclaimer for every game *

Calypso2ts @ Da Boyz GT - 4 of 6

This will be the last game of Day 1 for the GT.  The previous three games have been written up Game 1, Game 2, and Game 3.  I had the chance to play on the board that won the players vote for best board - this thing lights up and really looks great.  On top of that I had a chance to play against the army that had the highest, or one of the highest painting scores.

It is hard to tell here, but Francois's army is beautiful and chock full of cool conversions and Kit Bashes.

hyv3mynd @ DaBoyz GT ~ Recaps and Spoilers

Well after three grueling days of gaming and four days to recoup, I'm finally starting to feel rested and back to normal.  DaBoyz GT 2013 was the best and most fun I've attended in my four years.  I'm sure by now you've read enough glowing reviews of the venue, staff, and other players that I don't need to cover it again.

This post will be a quick (long) recap of my nine games and results.  Individual battle reports will follow in the coming weeks.