The Warstore Weekend

The Warstore Weekend was a fun-filled, fantastic weekend.  There were plenty of great inspiring games and loads of challenging tournament action.  There were tournaments for 40K, FOW, and Warmachine and the dice were rolling the entire weekend.

I met a lot of great people and got in a number of games.  The 40K tournament was a blast to run and the players were excellent sports and brought all manner of challenging armies. 

The winners of the tournament were:

Overall Champion - Dmitry Fetisov (Blood Angels)
2nd Place - Joe Biasco (Imperial Guard)
3rd Place - Sean Nayden (Salamanders Dreadnought Drop)
Best Sport - Sean Nayden (Salamanders Dreadnought Drop)
Best Appearance - Daniel Oppedisano (Imperial Guard Traitors)
Player's Choice - Daniel Oppedisano (Imperial Guard Traitors

More pictures of Dan's army can be seen on his blog found here: http://teninchtemplate.blogspot.com/.  There were a number of great looking armies and not a single unpainted model could be found in the tournament.  I look forward to next year's tournament. 

For those that didn't make it, I'd recommend to begin making plans now to attend the Warstore Weekend next year.   You won't regret a weekend of gaming with great people!

Warhammer Forge - Forge World style debut

Hot off the presses from the German Games Day comes a series of photographs of Warhammer Forge products. These products are made by the same chaps at Forge World but reside in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle background.

Marienburg Land Ship

In the photos found here you'll find photos of a Chaos Dwarf Siege Train, Nurgle Ogres, Nurgle Trolls, Chaos Dwarfs, Nurgle Rotbeasts, Chaos Spawn, a Carmine Dragon, and all kinds of great new Empire stuff.

While I'm not sure when this products will be released, you can be sure it will be pretty soon, otherwise you wouldn't be seeing them now.

I wonder if the Marienburg Land Ship will work like a steam tank, the old war altar, or a bit of both. 

Either way, WFB will be even more fun with these new toys!

Fishing!

I've been pretty quiet on the blogosphere front as I have been consumed by many projects that all seemed to be due at once.  Thankfully, those projects are behind me and I've been able to take some time and go fishing for a bit.  Here's a photo of a solid days work on the river and the combined catch.  I caught this nice sized Chinook 'King' salmon after a good fight in Northern Michigan. It was about 44" and 18 lbs.  We used to regularly catch fish way over 20 lbs but there's a lot of competition in Lake Michigan for food, so we are regularly seeing smaller fish. But this jack put up a good fight and I'm sure he'll taste good.

 

 

The river is always enjoyable regardless of the weather and the solitude is gratifying and soothing to the soul.  Spending some time out here always focuses my mind and helps reset the priorities in life. 

I'll be back to regular updates this week with a few fun things in store.

The Warstore Weekend

The Warstore Weekend is shaping up to get a great weekend of some fantastic gaming covering all manner of games. Its primarily focused on miniatures, but I'm sure you might see some board games there too!   The Warstore Crew is planning on a couple of big Apocalypse games, and there are a number of great games lined up to suit any taste - ancients, WWII, historicals, GW 40K and WFB, Flames of War, Warmachine, and more.  Additionally, you'll be able to try out a variety of demo games, hobby seminars, and some of the greatest hobby shopping in the USA.

You can find more details here: The Warstore Weekend 

I'm planning to bring my copy of Junta for some evening fun as this truly is one of the greatest games ever made. Google it and check it out. Its a very robust game built around lots of table talk, conniving, backstabbing, loyal alliances and ticked off air force officers and navy admirals.  Its a game that you sit back in some comfy chairs, drink some brews, and fill your Swiss bank accounts.

My friend Tim said he'd bring up his super Axis and Allies game. This game is so big that Hasbro decided (marketed) to break it into two distinct games, Pacific and Europe.  A few weeks ago, Tim stopped by for a wargaming weekend visit which included an awesome game of Twilight Imperium, and we capped the weekend with the full game of Axis and Allies.   

Here's a picture of the game right after it was set-up. My table is 9 feet long by 42 inched wide and the game took up the entire space.  We barely had room for our drinks.

 It was quite a dynamic game, and Tim was winning the game with the Axis when we called it late into the night.   The most useless power in the game is................France! Did you think otherwise?  We felt this was a well designed game and because it takes quite a long time to play, its worth setting a day aside for it to get full value from the game.  We intend to play it at least twice a year.

If you have that weekend free and are looking for something fun to do, then the Warstore Weekend is the event for you!  See you there.

Remembering 9/11

Nine years ago today a great tragedy befell the USA.   I remember it as if it was just yesterday and it still continues to break my heart, likely a wound that will never heal. 

Please take the time to remember the fallen this day. Some have tried to hijack this day as the National Day of Service and they are wrong.  It is a day of remembrance, prayer, and reflection.



All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing - Edmund Burke


Liberty and freedom take vast amounts of dedication and sacrifice to secure, and even more to preserve it.  It is hard, thankless work, but those of us who do, I salute you.

Chuck the Blood Angel and Games Day 2010

Meet Chuck the Blood Angel Space Marine.   Years ago, GW had a set of Space Marines create to be 'life-size' and this Blood Angel was one of them that was sent over here to the good old US of A.  He didn't have a name and the Promotions Department named him Chuck.  He's been to more shows than I can remember, and I enjoyed the chance to catch up with him.  I'd gotten the chance to play Artificier with Chuck years ago and patched him up for battle. 

In the grand tradition of Games Day wackiness, here's a photo of a life-size Empire Cannon.  Why anyone would want to be a crew member of a device that will explode in your face 16% of the time is beyond me, but my Empire Cannon crew never complain to me about the explosions.

These big wacky things always made Games Day quite a bit of fun. For the 1999 Games Day, I build a large 40K Bunker for the Big Game, and I can't remember the year that I built the life-size Chimera.  That one blew people away (sometimes when they had to pick it up and move it around).  I'd really like to have some photos of that Chimera so if you see any, let me know!

I had a lot of fun at Games Day this year and got to see old friends again.  Sadly, this will be the last Games Day in Baltimore for who knows how long, but we'll get together again for some East Coast events.

Death Company and flowers

I painted this a few months back to win an online painting contest and thought I should share it.  Its a Blood Angel Death Company Marine who's subject to a moment of clarity during the madness and has taken the time to admire some natural beauty.   Too bad for the Chaos Marine but that's the price they pay when the turn from the light.

The flower was sculpted onto a length of paperclip.   The leaves from the flower are simply strips of painted paper bent to have a nice curve, then affixed in place with a drop of super glue.  The roots were added by placing a drop of super glue at the root bottom and dipping it in static grass.  When the glue was dry I just painted the roots brown.