Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Adelphos: Philos or Fratricide?

I also like to get in a game of any type with my brother when I can. These are leisurely affairs that often devolve into rules-research sessions and strategy discussions. Beer-drinkers and hell-raisers, we are. However, he has agreed to shift gears and push me to speed up my game. This will be helpful, since a non-mech army will have a higher model count and more close combat than I am used to.

I also plan to use these smaller games to test out some ideas I have for battle-reporting. I have the feeling that this type of writing hasn't quite matured. Some battle reports grip me, others lose me mid-battle. With the possibility of video, audio, revolving slides, animations, roll-over pop-ups, and more, I feel like there is room for improvement in this genre. If anyone has format suggestions or consistently good sites to recommend, I am very interested.

I hope I can succesfully command my force AND report on its exploits simultaneously. If not, my brother will gladly dispatch the dispatcher. So stay tuned!

Out of the Gate...

...let me set the bar comfortably low: I'm currently modeling a piece of terrain. It's a rock. For anyone wondering how to model a rock, I suggest first finding a rock. Oh, alright, so I didn't even do that--it's a chunk of asphalt. And no, I can't be bothered to photograph it. Not yet anyway. Maybe later, after I coat it in glue, spray-paint my black rock blacker and then dry-brush some texture back onto it. I just hope it's big enough to hide a Wraithlord.

In the grim darkness of the far future, birds of peace are marinated in soot, baked in the fire of battle, and ground--bones, feathers and all--between the teeth of warmongers. Actually, most of my miniature warmongers look like they have been rubbed in soot as well, and a few even look like they may have been chewed on. Perhaps I was indiscriminate in some of my early E-bay purchases. I may not be much of a collector, modeler, or painter, but then, I don't aspire to be. (Yet?) I also may not be much of a general yet either, but that I am interesting in becoming. Thus, the 'Ard Boyz tournament is my current interest. I'm not into 40k for the hobby; I'm in it for the kill.

Sadly, it's a battle just to make time for the game. So I have a very simple goal. One serious game per month. 2500 points, 2.5 hours playing a list with real tournament potential against a competitive opponent. Hopefully that is not too ambitious. This should leave me with an entire month to nurse my wounds, derive my lessons, and post my findings here.
And now for the challenge: I'll be field-testing a static Eldar army. I realize that current conventional wisdom is that mobility trumps all, and even my "perfect" Eldar army list ended up being basically a Saim-Hann list, but I'm just not convinced that a non-mech Eldar army won't be competitive. As always, list-writing will be important, and in 5th edition, deployment has gained importance. The factor that will require more attention now that I am eschewing speed is objective placement. I actually expect this to become the linchpin of my future success. I can see it now: I'm either going to surprise some people, or I am going to suffer a long string of ass-whoopings.