Beef and Wing Brawl Preparation

This year marks the inaugural Beef and Wing Brawl held in Buffalo New York.  True to the nature of the club, the event has a strong emphasis on painting and sportsmanship with the games themselves following a narrative style campaign (30/30/40 breakdown).  I am not sure if spaces are still available, but it looks to be an awesome event - if you have a chance to make it down I would recommend doing so. (link to their site http://www.beefandwing.com/ )

Beef and Winger in their natural environment

Keeping the soft scores in mind - and the two hour open bar after the first round of the tournament - I need an army that will be fun, competitive, painted and does well with respect to composition/sportsmanship rules.

Et tu Brute?

It might be the change in weather, or it might be that I started running/hitting the gym again but Spring has somehow resulted in more motivation to paint, build army lists and generally be more productive.  The past two weeks, I took the time to work on one of the 3 Helbrutes that I need completed as part of the list I plan to bring with me to the next Millennium tournament.

I have a few new elements in this list - and I have found these incremental changes really help a lot when it comes to pushing me to complete painting projects.

Quick Daemon Thoughts

I had the chance to grab a game this weekend at the local Millennium tournament and being there whet my appetite to get back into playing some more 40k games.  I am going to try to get out at least one or two nights before next month's tournament to practice/relax a bit.  Somehow, it seems like Spring leaves me with more energy than Winter when it comes to around the house and 40k.

The tournament at Millennium though is unique - and requires some more painting - in that it is 2000 points and up to 3 Forge World units with no Super Heavies, Gargantuans or D Weapons allowed.

Balance of Power - 1 Casual, 1 Tournament List

This week the world's eyes - well the Warhammer 40k world's eyes - was on Adepticon.  It was great to see a few Daemons among the top finishers for the tournament.  It was sad to see that none of the lists were particularly inspired.  For the most part they took minimum troops, maximum flying monstrous creatures.  Before discussing army lists, a quick observation.

The most interesting 'innovation' of the tournament for a Daemon player was the inclusion of 9x Fiends by Bill Kim.  Kim is a veteran Daemon player, and it makes sense that he would bring them to both quash psychic powers with -1 ld within 12" of each Fiend and eliminate the Hit and Run shenanigans that so many armies seem to rely on.  I started taking a similar load out for Fiends in December - I had experimented with 2 smaller units, but the truth is you need the whole grouping of 9 to be effective.  I have also started running a Slaanesh herald on Seeker mount to get them into those backfield psykers through outflanking.  Grabbing a lesser gift also enable the Witstealer sword - which pairs well with the Fiends initiative reduction.

Balance of Power

The last few months for 40k have been transformative and they just so happen to correspond with me taking a short break from the hobby.  I say the hobby because since December - actually early January - I have not painted, played, made lists or really browsed the new rumors or releases.  My motivation was two-fold.  Coming of of Da Boyz and the intense painting schedule to get ready I was pretty tired and had neglected some other obligations.  Second, I had a chance to play a casual game for the first time in months in early January.  The pickup pitted myself allied with a Space Marine player against Grey Knights and Imperial Guard.

That game inspired me to take a break from playing.

DaBoyz GT T - 12 Weeks

So it begins!  Well, it kinda already has... but my personal count down starts 12 weeks out which is today!  DaBoyz GT 2013 is coming quickly and I have a pretty good start, but I also have an 19 month old running around and sucking the energy out of me.  So, finishing everything will still be a challenge.

Da Boyz GT List and Painting Updates

Although it seems like a far way off, the Da Boyz GT has a way of sneaking up on me each year. Normally that has the affect of my army being partially incomplete by the time the tournament rolls along.  Recently it has the added bonus of me partially neglecting my wife and daughter while I frantically paint to get to a point where my army is partially incomplete.  Speaking of painting, I neglected to post updated painting progress with the last two weeks of posts.  Here is my most recent Chaos Space Marine.