What Makes the Green Grass Grow

Still Alive

2012-01-03T18:54:00.000-08:00

Haven't touched WH40k since a short painting binge over the summer and selling off my terrain. Unfortunately, it will still be some time before I get into it again. The trouble with the game is, its so damn expensive! I also find it hard to make time for it these days with being a full time student, having a social life and being in a foriegn country.... There's only two people I know that speak english that I can play against, and well, I don't care too much for playing with them normally... Maybe after I get german down a bit better I'll make it out to my local GW and throw some dice.

In the mean time, I've gotten back into Halo again. Doing my old forging routine. You can follow my map creation (and drama) over at schnitzelmaps.blogspot.com as well as forgehub.com.

Cheers.

Wargame Terrain; Messe Complex

2011-07-13T07:25:00.000-07:00

Roughly a year and some change ago I bought a whole table's worth of LoS blocking terrain as my local game store lacked solid terrain choices. Unfortunately for me, the terrain did not arrive until it was time for me to EAS from the Marine Corps and move across the pond to Austria for college. As a result, I have all this terrain just sitting at my fathers house unused and looking for a new home.

As you can see, thats a lot of terrain. I'm willing to part with the whole lot at a bargain price so long as its going to a good home. I wish I could take it with me to Austria, but I simply don't have the time to game like I used to... And I'm unfortunately in need of the spare cash as the GI Bill doesn't provide enough. :(

Comment if interested.
Thanks.

Halo: Reach Map Vids

2011-01-11T10:10:00.000-08:00

Hey every one! Just throwing up a quick post to keep this blog alive as well as show you what I've been working on during my spare time. Here we have two of my latest map creations in Halo Reach, Amalgam and Cold Snap. Amalgam is currently in consideration for the MLG (Major League Gaming) Playlist. Wish me the best of luck in getting it accepted. The video's were edited and posted by my good friend Jeff, aka Bleuprint. He's got some wicked tracks (the songs are his creations) and a good eye for the camera. Thanks a ton man!

The second map, Cold Snap, is a symmetrical re-imagination of Halo: CE's Chill Out. It was co-forged by Bleuprint, Mac xL and myself.

Reaching Forward Launched

2010-12-11T06:23:00.000-08:00

Well, as this is a WH40k blog after all I've finally made the commitment to launch a new one for my Halo Reach posts. You will not longer find any of my Halo content being posted here from now on. ;)

Today marks the start of a whole month free of any commitment by the way. No school or work to bog me down so I'm hoping to get in some games of 40k at some point with some local friends who play. Expect an updated with pics at some point.

Reaching Foward: Amalgam

2010-11-30T05:04:00.000-08:00

My latest WIP on the Halo Reach Forge scene is a combination of features from a handful of popular maps throughout the Halo franchise. The predominant maps that influenced this were Assembly (H3 Mythic Map Pack) and Guardian, with the centerpeice being inspired by Derlict (H:CE). This map is also considered by some of the testers to be remiscent of Foundation (H2) and Warlock.

This is a Asymetrical map that is currently in it's Beta Phase. I'm currently working on fine tuning the spawn system and setting the map up for ballanced competitve play. The main gametype that shines on this map (aside from TS obviously) is Team Ball. As of so far its been a fun experience to both make and play. If you would like to get involved in playtesting, send me a FR. GT: ProxiSchnitzel.

Gold base, featured above, draws its inspiration from both the bases on Assembly as well as Gold 2 from Guardian.

The center piece (below and above) was inspired by Derelict. The drop down is a feature from Assembly, however there is not a jump pad underneath for easy access to the top.
Blue Room (top) is another feature from Guardian. As you might suspect/hope, there is also a green (shotty) hall underneath with a drop down between the two.

Purple side (above) is a lovely amalgam (combination) of aspects from Guardian, Assembly and Foundation. And the left side you have an "Elbow" that leads to Purple Tower (or Rocket Tower), which also has a lift from bottom floor to P3. The right side is based off Foundations exterior walkways, however this has been rounded out. This section is also where the oddball spawns.

And finally we have Red Car (above). This was inspired by the car side of Assembly where you would find the Regen Equipment normally. Here we now have the Evade Armor ability.

As of so far this map has played very well and fairly ballanced. I'm hoping to have it ready for release by friday.

Perseverance

2010-11-28T08:53:00.000-08:00

Reaching Foward; Perseverance

2010-11-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

My latest map endevour for Halo Reach, a Narrows inspired bridge map. Preview pics below. ;)

Reaching Forward: U-Bahn

2010-11-11T17:07:00.000-08:00

My latest map and first truly original work by me. It's based off of the Underground Station a few blocks away from where I live. It's a large symetrical map that is also capable of playing CTF.

Map Overview.

Side street. Needlers are found here as well as a side enterance to Green Perch.

Red spawn. The building is the train station terminal.

Red spawn leading to Red Snipe Street. You can see the sniper justting out by the far building.

Inside the train terminal.

Green perch. Ideal for sniping the city street and base spawns.

City Street. You find a evade Armor Ability here.

Canal Street. Under the ramps are shotguns.

Blue Spawn.

Having just out DMR'd a Blue, this Red sprints to a Medpack and safety...

Green Perch is relatively easy to grenade from below... But its just as easy to dive to safe... Or is it?

Green Perch isn't always the best place to be... If you don't keep your head on a swivel, some one might sneak up and gank you.

One of the many hectic flag attempts along River Street...

When playing CTF, River Street is the ideal way to run the flag (granted you can control it). Here three Reds make a run after a beautiful steal.

Newly added to the Terminal, a derailed train. Here a Red sprints to safety having found the rockets missing and some one lurking nearby...

And there you have it.
The map should play similar to The Pit.

Reaching Foward; Yosemite

2010-11-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

Halo Reach gives us an amazing and powerful new version of Forge. First introduced in Halo 3, Forge has now been revamped to be more user friendly and is full of limiteless posibilites. However, despite all of its amazing features, Forge is severely limitted by a bland palette of building blocks and colors. Furthermore, there is a lack of "natural" blocks aside from rocks. This has resulted in what I consider a "sea of gray". Most all maps are very drab and full of the same gray building blocks... Few have natural aesthetics, and none so far are composed of only the natural aspect. I've taken it upon myself to design a map that is 100% building free, composed completely of the natural aesthetics already available on the map and on the forge palette. The result is Yosemite, a symetrical(ish) small map built outdoors on the Montano peninsula. It is a small map intended for 4v4 competitive play and MLG. As of right now its in its final stages of developement, needing only to be cleaned up and ballanced properly followed shortly by play testing.

Below is a general over-view of the map. The red box is where the red team initially spawns, while the blue spawn (underneath the blue box) on the mirrored side of the map. The two black boxes indicate elevated perches ideal for sniping (or DMRing) from. The green boxes are teleporter nodes that connect the backfield of the map.

The rock bridge in the center is where the power weapon will spawn. At the moment it is a Sniper Rifle with only one spare clip. Below it is a Rocket Launcher with no spare clips. DMRs will be placed throughout the map.

There are multiple avenues of approach to all key positions on the map. The rocky cliff face is climbable and acts as a back door to the snipe perch and central plateau. There is also ample cover throughout the map.

The snipe rocks have a strong advantage point over the mid to back field of the map, however they are are vulnerable as well to balance out their strength.

This map was inspired by Beaver Creek and MLG maps such as Onslaught and Amplified. Top control will play a large part in this map, however it should not be over powered given the openness and easy navigability of the map.

Roll Call! Fall In! Attention!

2010-10-28T11:10:00.000-07:00

Standing at attention in my other room are some 100 or so traitorous Space Marine scum. From renegades to full blown Chaos worshipping fanatics, they've come together for one purpose... To make ME happy! :p

Okay, really, to plunder and pillage Vienna till there's nothing left to plunder anymore. And collect skulls... Yes, lots of skulls.

Anyhow, my army finally arrived. Sweetness. And surprisingly, very little damage was sustained by the troops. The battle foam trays got a little warped, but I had stuffed A LOT in my 1520 box.... Lawl.

Unfortunately, no pictures as my camera is still lacking a memory card and I'm still to poor to spare the cash for one. Oh the shame.

Reaching for the Past 2

2010-10-26T12:41:00.000-07:00

After I finished up Electrified v1 a few days ago I took what I learned from it and applied that to remaking Onslaught from H3 as well. Unfortunately Electrified was slightly too small, but this new Onslaught I spaced out much better and I believe is a near perfect port of the original.

I present to you Blitzkrieg!

Reaching for the Past; Halo 3 and MLG

2010-10-23T16:18:00.000-07:00

The more I play Halo Reach, the more it grows on me. Over all I'd have to say its an enjoyable game thats fairly well ballanced, yet strikingly casual to play. Gone are the days of the be-all-end-all BR, and we live in the holycon era of the DRM. Yes it's a precision weapon all the same, but the shot spread of the weapon does a great deal in balancing the skill differences between players... Where once the obvious better play would own the lesser in a BR duel, there's an air of uncertainty that keeps both on edge. I love it. With this in mind, the MLG game type is more attractive than ever for me.
I'm not a fan of the "perk" system Reach brough to the table. I was stoked about it when I saw the trailers leading up to the game, but upon the advent of the Beta I lost all love for the concept. The only ability I ever choose to take is sprint, however I'd much rather play a game without any of these options. MLG fortunately has none of them. A more ballanced game with no goofy armor abilities? Sounds perfect to me.
So there are a couple of classic MLG maps from Halo 3 that I love to death. Team Slayer on Amplified and 5 Flag CTF on Onslaught are my favorites. Sadly, these two maps are not on Reach and no one has made a port of them up to my standards... Fortunately though, Forge is AMAZING! That said, I've taken it upon myself to learn how to Forge and behold! My first map which has already managed to garner much attention within 24 hours of release... Electrified; a remake of Amplified.

Above: Blue Team's Spawn.
Below: Gold Side

Above: Pink Side
Below: Red Team Spawn

Below: Overview of the entire map

One issue I had with porting this highly competive map over was that there are no blocks that actually match up to the size of the ones in Halo 3's Forge. Most forgers attempting to port older maps look past this and just make the maps larger in response to Reach's larger blocks... This however throws off the various jumps that are found on each map and can completely ruin the gameplay. I attempted to the best of my abilities to find a suitable match in size to the original, and have succeeded to some extent. While that map has all the jumps and is proportional to the original, it comes off as a little small. For a 4v4 game as it's intended, it's slightly cramped... It works beautifully for 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 though.
I'm fairly confident that I can tweak and finetune it by exchanging some blocks for larger variants to make this work. This a good number of hours I still have left to put into it, but as of so far I think I've made excellent progress.
Not bad for a first timer. ;)

Conform! Conform! Conform!

2010-10-21T14:54:00.000-07:00

I've spent the majority of my young life fighting comformity. Its one of the few things I truely despise. Something about every one being the same... It irritates me to no end. I've always been a bit of a rebel with a cause, a James Dean if you will, and my play style and army lists I try to craft to reflect this.
This is more or less a rant about the internet and what the people at BoLS and YTTH claim. There are varying factions between the two, but the point is that the all conform to a certain ideal of what is a competitive list. Everything is either Good or FAIL, with the former being a minortiy in unit options. No matter what codex you use, no matter how versatille it is, there are only a few "builds" these people consider good. They've got list building down like its some science.
Now here's where they loose me... What reason do they have to claim X unit is awesome but W, Y, and Z all suck. Why is it this unit such a fail choice? Does everything really have to be stream lined to kill and last the entire game? What about expendable units? Effective point sinks? I understand some Math Hammer and that some units really do suck while others shine, but I believe there are many shades of grey between the two! This is a very dynamic game we play that is also heavily influenced by "randomness" (statistics) and luck. I'm positive there are more workable builds and useful units than what the high horses at BoLS and YTTH claim.
Essentially, what I'm saying is we should all strive for our own unique builds. We shouldn't confrom that only X units can win a game because So-n-So claim it to be. Let us unlearn what the internet has tried to shove down our throats and build our armies as we, the individuals, see best.

Annoyed...

2010-10-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

Been here in Vienna for two and half months now... Lord knows how many boxes I've recieved that my father has mailed over, yet none are one of the first things I asked for... My plastic crack!
With every shipment I tell him I seriously want this one specific box. It's not hard to find either, its a giant Battle Foam case. Its green! Its sitting in a room of cardboard boxes. Come on, it freaking stands out!
But still, it sits back in Ohio... And I'm left with cravings for this awful addiction. I want to cut, hack, slash and glue together little bits of plastic! I want to paint! I want to kill hours of free time working on getting just the right pose!
I suppose maybe my father doesn't support this hobby of mine... He doesn't even know the expenses involved, but I think he's against it because its "childish" and crap like that. Grown men shouldn't have "toy soldiers". Bah! What a lame.

Reach(ing) for it!

2010-10-11T11:38:00.000-07:00

Well, its been a couple days since I first posted about Halo Reach. As of so far, my oppinion stays predominantly the same as I believe it was a botched, half-assed game that Bungie threw out for the sake of milking the cash cow a little bit more. I'm not going to talk about that today though. I'm gonna zone in on some positive aspects of it.

Revamped Match Making system. Gone are the days of going into Team Slayer with a party of four and getting the misfortune of being paired against a bunch of Lv 50 Restart accounts. Match Making now seems fairly competant in matching players of comarative skill levels. There are still gimmicks to it, but its vastly improved from Halo 3.

Rank Structure. No longer skill based! That alone is made of win. This tones down the competitive aspect of the game and makes it something easier to kick back, relax and play. Rank is earned in time and can't be lost. The benefits of rank is more armor options. Win or loose, you're gonna gain points towards your rank. Very friendly system.

Maps. Great selection of maps. Plenty of classics ported to the current as well. Also Forge appears to be capable of making some very true to the original ports. Love it.

Lobby Chatter, AKA Trash Talk. Virtually gone. No more little children screaming in my ears. No more angsty teens talking shit. Its much cleaner. I love it.

Sprint and Hologram. The only two powers I care for. Holo is cool as when used right, will throw off just about any player. That one to two second advantage can win you a DMR duel. And Sprint is great. Makes evasion real easy. Yeah, it takes a little longer to get to the tops of maps or across bridgy distances, but you're less likely to get shot down sprinting as you are when jet packing. :P

Voting on Gametype/Maps. Soooo much better than the Veto system. 'Nuff said.

There's a few other cool tidbits that I like as well. All minor things that don't really need to be listed...
As a whole, Halo Reach is a relatively fun and relaxing game to play. While it lacks the competitive factor of Halo 2, I think its a much more ballanced and enjoyable game than Halo 3.

Halo: Reach

2010-10-07T16:56:00.000-07:00

Months ago while I was still state side I had participated in the public Beta for Halo Reach. My impression of the game back then was anything but good. It was flakey, glitchy, and weapons/grenades were unballanced... And thats just the tip of the iceberg.

Well here we are some while later after the game has been released. I decided to pick it up and give it a spin. Campaign was very dry, typical cut and paste Halo Campaign. Nothing special. But then again, its the multiplayer that makes Halo sell so well. Today I decided to give that a spin.
Honestly, Bungy did a hell of a job cleaning the game up since the Beta... Just not good enough. :/
Sprint + Double Beatdown? WTF is that shit? Non-registering shots with the DMR? Alright... Flakey playlists? Eh.... Rank based armor permeations? Lame. And movement seems a bit gimmicky in close quarters... But that could be because I'm several months removed from being a gamer, and it does not come naturally for me at all.
You might say I should cut Bungy some slack... I say otherwise. For having such a popular game that is treated as a competitive venue, Bungy has a commitment to its customer/fan base to make this the best damn product it can be. I feel that this was really a cut and dry project. Its a game they made with primarily the money in mind... They already knew it would sell well. Hell, they probably know they could package a bag of shit, lable it Halo and still make record sales. Fortunately, Bungy has some moral commitment of some sort...

All in all, my first impression of Reach is not good. Its rather disapointing. I'm hoping that over the coming months Bungy will release patches and updates to improve the game to the level their fans deserve.

What I Would Love...

2010-09-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

Aside from reliable internet with a decent connection that is... Forge World Goodies!
Particularly, the beautiful Mk III Power Armor Variant...

Oh yeaaah, thats a beauty. I'm dying for at least a squad of these bad boys to mid into my army... However, aside from the $32 price tag, they don't come with assault arms! They're supposedly intended for close combat boarding operations, yet only come with bolters and special weapons? Seriously? Come on FW, where are my chain swords and bolt pistols!?

Regardless, these are some beautifully sculpted models that I hope to own some day... Painted in Alpha Legion regalia no less.

Great News!

2010-09-16T12:39:00.000-07:00

After a month and a half of living in Vienna, my father is finally shipping my possesions over here for me! What does this include? Well, aside from some cold winter cloths (hopefully), my TV and Xbox 360 (power converter still needed...), a big green box... What is this big green box?

BATTLE FOAM ARMY CASE!

And inside?

A MASSIVE HORDE OF CHAOS LEGIONNAIRES!
My old Chaos army, my Blood Angles / Chaos kitbash Army, 5 Dreads, a full motor pool, two drop pods and three Storm Ravens. Mmmmm, smexy.
Can't wait to get back to work on my Winged Berserkers.
Also, I'm dying to get my hands on the new Daemon Prince model and convert it into a count-as Gabriel Seth. Give him a nasty scratch built chain sword, a 40mm base, and lots of sweet doodads and he'll make a fun fluffy inclussion for my forces.

Of course, being in Vienna I have a limited pool of players to game with. Language barrior. Also, as the game scene here is more casual fun than competition, I'm gonna need to tweak my lists to drop them down a notch... If all you do is stomp on people, pretty soon no one will want to play you. :(

Sadly, I won't be buying any models any time soon.... Kind of in a financial bind at the moment. Waiting for funds from the Veteran Affairs to pay for University and Housing. Also looking for a job... Hello English bar tending... Dun dun dun...

And that sums up todays blurt. Time to enjoy the night.

Staying Frosty

2010-08-27T07:25:00.000-07:00

Nothing much new to report on my end here... Started University and am enjoying it thoroughly. Living the life of a bachelor... Pretty boring stuff really. Nothing on the hobby end as of the moment, however a friennd from the Embassy here has volunteered his mailing address (American Address so cheap shipping), so that my father can mail my house hold possesions over. What does the first shipment entail? My army case with my entire Blood Angels and Chaos armies! Also a 32" HDTV and XBox 360... Unfortunately, the latter two will be useless until I get a proper 120v to 220v power converter.
Hopefully by time I post again I'll have received my army... Dunno how gaming will go when I don't speak the local language though. :O

MOVED!

2010-08-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

Oops, another trivial post intended to keep the blog alive while I'm away from the hobby. :O

Successfully moved to Austria finally. Been here for two days now, living off of a extremely frugal allowance and little to no possesions. Everything I own is scattered around the globe, from boxes in Oman to the wasteland that is Ohio. All I have with me here are clothes and some assorted comforts... 'Tis a sad sad life, but enjoyable none the less... After the month things should pick up, I'll be a bit busy and have an actual income again. Plus I'll start getting my possesions shipped over! I shall return to 40k before you know it!

Just a Quickie

2010-07-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Back from my short (20 day) vacation home to Ohio! Great time, partied a lot but did nothing hobby related... Well, I did one thing hobby related. I accidentally brought my army along with me, which I then set in my little brothers room to have trunk space for beer and a beer pong table. Lawl.

Went to my FLGS Tuesday night for my last night there. Didn't have my army, but I brought my new terrain I got in the mail for the other gamers to use. Unfortunately it was a low turn out night and no one got to break the terrain in. Got a lot of comments on it though. Positive feed back. I'd post pics of it, but my camera was also left in Ohio. :O

I finish up my tour with the Marine Corps in four days. Monday I take off on Terminal Leave and return to Ohio to visit family and friends. Then come August I'm off for Wien, Austria to kick off college and the rest of my life. This unfortunately means there will be a long hiatus from posting here. Occasionally I might drop a few lines to leave updates on my life, but until my gaming good get shipped off there will be nothing hobby related.

Until then, I wish every one the best.

Only a Few Game Nights State-side Remain...

2010-06-17T17:06:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night was possibly my last night playing at one of my FLGS, and sadly I originally didn't plan on playing. My intention was to show up just to return some Drop Pods I borrowed from fellow gamers for semis, however another Marine was there and asked me to play a 2000pt game against his IG list. I accepted and quickly got to work scratching up a list.

Game turns out to be 5 objectives, the majority of which we placed on the left side of the board. Big mistake for my opponent, great for me. Unfortunately he won first turn. He gets to deploying in a turtled up tank fashion in his two corners with some Scout Sentinels and junk in the center. I reserve everything, which made him a very sad panda.

Turn 1O: He sits back and sulks that there's nothing to shoot.

Turn 1M: Drop pod with Furioso Libby comes down, Libby pops two Manticores. Yay!

Turn 2O: He immobilizes and shakes Libby Dread, fails to kill it. It can't shoot next turn though. Bummer.

Turn 2M: Dante and Honor Guard toting meltas come in by his Russ'... They fail to do anything aside from immobilize one of them. Death Co StormRaven also comes in and boosts 24" across the board, fails at melta-ing a Russ.

Turn 3O: He shoots a crap ton at the Stormraven, lots of misses and cover saves are made. I survive the onslaught. He shoots up Honor Guard and kills one.

Turn 3M: Stormraven moves 12" and drops a Death Dread. Dread and Stormraven shoot up Sentinels, killing one or two. Dante and Honor Guard hop behind a Drop Pod for some TLoS cover and attempt to pop a Russ to no avail. A Rhino also came on and shot 18" across the board, popping smoke.

Turn 4O: He tries to pop the Rhino to no avail. Tries to pop the Raven and succeeds. One Death Co Marine is lost to ensuing firestorm.

Turn 4M: Another Rhino comes on and mimics the first ones move. The first one moves up 12" to be within range for Assault on T5 along with an objective grab. Death Co move out of crater towards a Russ. Libby Dread pops said Russ. Dante and HG pop other Russ and Death Dread makes a mess of IG Vets.

Turn5 O: He tries to pop the first Rhino and succeeds in forcing an emergency disembarkation. Fails to pop the second. Shoots up half the Assault Marines from Rhino One, they make Leadership tests and prepare for Assault next turn. Another HG Marine and a Death Co Marine fall to gunfire.

Turn 5M: Last Rhino comes on, we forget about it. Not like it was needed though. Dante and HG move into position to rape. Assault squad do their job and rape a Guard Mob, claiming the only objective close enough to my opponent. Rhino 2 Claims a second objective. Didn't get to roll the assault for Dante and HG as my opponent had to leave.

Over all, very good game for me. It kind of stunk that my opponent didn't do too hot, however it turns out he's only been playing 6 months. I also have been playing for about the same time, playing properly that is. (I don't count my time in Europe as we didn't really know the rules yet).

It wasn't until I was leaving the store that I realized this could be my last time seeing the crowd there. I felt fairly down about it and choose to have a drink at a bar before going back to my barracks.

'Ard Boyz Stumble

2010-06-13T12:09:00.000-07:00

Played in the semi's yesterday. Had an amazing time and played quiet well... however my body did not take to kindly to the day. As I am still recovering from a broken leg, have caught some upper respritory crud and am fried (nasty sunburn) from washing cars all day Friday, my body just shut down on me. Maybe if the store wasn't blistering hot and muggy... But what do you expect in a small crowded place full of grown men? Of course it was going to be nasty.
So I played in two games. The first game went amazing well in my favor. I gave up maybe 400 VPs total and claimed a Major Victory againt my 'Villa Space Marines opponent. He was a very polite and well mannered player despite how brutal a beating he was taking. Major props to him for not letting the game drag him down.
Not much to say on the game, I went second and weathered the storm of gunfire he threw at me and from then on it was assaulting and steam rolling....

Game two was another great game with a top notch opponent. My BA Stormraven build vs a fairly well ballanced JP/Mech BA build. The game was leaning in my favor till the top of 4.... A risky move on my part to kill a Vindicator (it succeeded) cost me my Stormraven that help my 10 man Assault Squad that I needed to pull a Major Victory. At this point I considered playing for a Minor Victory or Minor Loss, but that would kill both of our chances at Top 3 so I changed my game plan to allow a slightly better outcome for one of us... Needless to say, my opponent was very pleased with the game results.

Over all I had a great time. The crowd was very friendly and well mannered. The store was well organized and the staff were very helpful and curtious at all times. The only real downsides is my sucumbing to ailment and the blasted AC being too weak.

The three and a half hour drive home sucked too... Trying to smoke a black and mild while fighting some upper respritory infection is not smart.... Cough attacks all the way back. Ugh.

Yes The Truth Hates

2010-06-10T07:06:00.000-07:00

Some may have heard of this "gem" of gaming advice and tactica, the aptly named 'Yes the Truth Hurts'. For those of you who don't know, its a website that focus' on one aspect of the hobby; competitive play. Overall its not a bad place, however it is full of pretty closed minded people if you ask me.

Now I'm not hating on them for saying my recently submitted 'Ard Boyz lists sucked, as I knew it had obvious flaws that I am not willing to change. I'm hating on them for expecting me to change it into something more commonly accepted such as Razerback spam. Can you say ewwwww?

I understand that the general consensus out there is that DC lists suck, Stormravens aren't worth the points (however my store claims they're broken), and Dread Spam belongs only in Dread lists. To have the three come together is absolute unfocused rubbish! Yet I fail to see how running 3 Storm Ravens, 2 DC and 5 Dreads is an unfocused mash-up of ideas. It's rather obvious that they come together as a fast moving brick to the face.

Now such a "tactic" is flawed. It's very flawed. My list lacks scoring power as it only has 2 scoring units... 3 if I combat squad the larger Assault Squad. Also, if I don't go first or some how get shot down early game, a large wrench is thrown into my gears. I actually like this. That's the beauty of playing a heavy aggro style. If things work out you absolutely wreck, if not then it's a hard time with much wrecking still taking place.

Away from OT ranting in defense of my bashed list and back to YTTH.... The people there tend to be very closed minded and of conformist nature. They assume to know what can and can't work in all possible builds, and if you're ideas fall outside the box it's passed aside as "improper" or "too flawed". These are folks who don't like risks, don't like taking chances, and will never take a leap of fate.

Basically, while I too know where the boundaries of what works and doesn't lay, I find it boring to run with the flock and stay with in the fence. I like to break free, stand out and do something different. I like ingenuity and originality. YTTH lacks these things, and for that I'm disappointed.

For any Zomby's reading this, don't hate. Take a chance, do something different. Break away from the mold and enjoy something new. You might not win with a different list, its a risky venture, but if you do it will feel great! Taking something that is 100% you're own creation, uninfluenced by any of the 'Nets input, and winning is one of the best feeling you can have wargaming. Try it.

The Endtimes Near...

2010-06-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

Alright, well not really.. But I am going to be doing a whole lot less blogging in the coming months...

See, I finish my contract with the Marine Corps n August 20th and currently have over 60 days of leave (vacation) to spend... I'm moving to Europe in August as well, so I want to spend a lot of time with family and friends before I go....

We also have to take into account where wargaming falls in my list of pass-time priorities....

Party
Drink
Girls
Sports
Poker (Drinking)
Nerdtime

With vacationing and living in europe as a recently freed man, its easy to see in which direction my life with gravitate.

I do love my plastic crack, and I will post some new stuff from time to time. But this will sadly fade away to a once a month sort of deal for me...