Brilliant Business Strategy

Despite the strong showing at this years Adepticon and its continued strong fanbase despite the total lack of support. Warhammer Historical has now had its last throes and is dead. I wont bother too much with jumping in on the  public flogging over  the epic stupidity of no longer officially supporting WAB, The post title says it all..(.I just wish I had a font that bled sarcasm.)  Needless to say, Warlord Games certainly thanks you. I guess its cool we move all the Historical events  at Adepticon over the Hail Caesar rules since The rule system is in print and well supported. That just makes good business sense.

LPL 6 Concludes!!

Round 10 and the contest has concluded over  at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 6.  (link is the final standings)


What a ride, I ended up coming in 14th place out of 46th..I did'nt meet my goal of the top ten but close enough. Above is my final entry. "The Capture of the Griffon"  which lost by 30 or so votes. leaving me with a 6-4 Record. I would have to have won this one, one of the others I lost and figured out how to get at least half of 20 bonus I couldn't take advantage of..to make the top ten. Pretty big jump...so it wasn't really doable even if I won Round 10.

Couple on interesting notes. 1. I called the winner in round 3 after he beat me in round 2, and I saw his round 3 entry. He ended up going 10-0 (which I think is a first) anyway this guy can always find side work as studio painter if he wants it (a bunch of these guys could, some might be, not sure).
2. Getting max bonus points and winning every round is a huge accomplishment, every entry you put in really needs to be jaw dropping. Otherwise your subject to losing to any oddball entry that strikes peoples fancy for whatever reason not just the painting. Whether that be, naked ladies, comedic dioramas, or just damn creative entries These things will beat a better painted, less attention craving entry 9 times out of 10, so you need to be that one of ten, that still can trump those occasional match ups to consistently win.  3. Your Photography needs to be good. If you cannot consistently take excellent pictures of your stuff, dont waste your time here. Good photos make all the difference. I let a shoddy photo slide in round 2, and it cost me, and I am usually quite happy with my photos but I must say during this process, I learned a couple tricks to make them better, so it was a fair trade off.

A fantastic contest, quirky with a great scoring system and a incredible of amount of awesome eye candy, If you are miniatures enthusiast and are not particularity interested or married to GW this contest is certainly for you.  Hat's off to Dr Mathias for winning this and going 10-0. The top 4 guys this year all undoubtedly paint at Studio professional level, the majority of the top 25 are all, serious painters with long term hobby skills...or guys that would routinely win best appearance awards in public events, if you will. Hell of a contest...I know some guys who read here, who should definitely think about this  just for the experience, and they're all LotR players so you guys know I am talking to you!.

In other news we "finally" play Kings of War this Tuesday, after talking about it forever. The first time our WFB models are going to use for more than just myself in over a year.  looking forward to see how the game plays and if it puts the fun back in large scale Fantasy gaming for us.

I reached the light at the end of tunnel on the personal front with my real life work debacle, that I  have mentioned here. Things have sorted them out for the best, its all good and life is moving on. I am actually going to have pretty easy summer, on the work front, so I look forward to a vacation
and digging in to finish a couple of large hobby projects I've been secretly talking about.

LPL 6 - Round 10- Maritime Bonus Round

Round 10, The final round has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 6.


Above is my round 9 entry "Crew of the Atramentous" which your Privateer Press fans should be familiar with. This guys squeaked out a victory over some nicely painted Dwarves.  My round 10 entry "Capture of the Griffon"  is somewhat old hat around here...you've seen these models alot with my Legends of the High Seas stuff. I did spend some time getting a good photo to meet all the bonus criteria. Except "newly painted" which I could honestly try to claim.  I was very confident going into the last round unless I got paired up with one of the top 10 or so, or I thought..My entry is currently losing by a close margin, (but close enough to beat me in this thing) to a very ool 15 mm river scene that makes up for what its lacking in paint department in a really great idea. That's one of the things about this contest I am discovering- is that paint will not always get your thru..its combination of things not least of which is the whims of the voter on what's fresh or immediately eye catching, and unfortunately Pirates are seemingly a bit long in the tooth this round. So I could really use your vote, if you think my entry deserves it.  Overall its been a great first time LPL, I was shooting for a top 10 finish..but dont think I can pull it off without winning this last round...

HMGS Midwest- Little Wars 2012

 I made a quick afternoon trip out to Little Wars in St Charles, IL yesterday. Never having been before I was interested purely as a spectator in on a couple fronts, mainly to see how one of these events operates from Historical gaming side of the aisle and also to (what else?, shop Historical miniatures!) Couple weird things going on, 1) this event has a cross pollination of some of gaming you see at Adepticon. being a week after Adepticon this is very odd. In fact the scheduled WFB tournament had ZERO registrants (we saw Rob the organizer there) there was also a Privateer Press event run by my pal, Felix who never ceases to get the bodies there, Adepticon just last week or not. I stopped by the table and he had probably a dozen players.  And # 2) for the size room they had there where alot of empty tables there, while we arrived late in the day, so it possible alot of there events where completed but for Saturday afternoon I was looking for a bit more in the tables and terrain department, I was a little let down there.

Our main goal (since we weren't signed up for any events) was to check out the vendor hall. unlike Adepticon where vendor space is very limited. and probably less than 10% of the total floor space Here it takes up probably 40% of the event including the flea market room. This was pretty awesome. I because of way vendors bring the ton of stuff there alot just in bags..I could have literally spent all day in the vendor hall rummaging thru various things. Out initial hunt was for various Historical miniatures that you just cant get a good feel for from the various websites or just arent pictured. We saw alot of usual suspects, we were both kind of looking for some classical antiquity 15mm Historicals as the subject has come up for our next Hail Ceasar campaign. However we totally struck out there. I did find alot of metal Crusader blisters (which you cant get in the US anymore, you know have to order overseas)  at good  prices however it wasnt enough to get me to invest because I couldn't find two of the same blister of anything I wanted (as in enough to make a unit) Hank from Gorgon was out with a great display showing Gorgon's fantastic stuff. I am eyeing a bunch of different Gorgon's 28's depending on what period we settle on next but since he's local it's not tough to get.

 ( awesome skirmish table , no idea what they where playing but love the table)


Then we stumbled up the Iron Wind metals both who currently does Battletech but also has all the old Ral Partha molds and still casts and sell them..It was a Fantasy/ Sci-fi- / Pirates geeks- miniatures paradise- thousands and thousands of loose pewter models in buckets going for $2 an ounce. Some  seriously great stuff in there, Once Chris and I got a load of that..we were finished and we spent the rest of time there scouring stuff...I found some kick ass. Orc's from probably late 80'early 90's. I think these are Bob Olley sculpts as they look very similar to my Reaper Orcs..anyway I got 14 of them for $20. Chris picked a mix of Pirates and Fantasy Figs...we spaced out on the flee market room and by the time we got there they where packing up..bummer as it looked like there was alot of cool stuff  there. Next year I am making this a priority to get out there the first. if its not right on top of Adepticon or we dont get a Hail Caesar tourney to make the Adepticon cut next year..this might be the thing to do.

 As an aside, I was speaking to the Iron Wind gent a bit about this insane amount of figures and the amount of molds there must be..he tells me alot of the stuff 75% of it isnt even on the website..where they might so 5 poses of something but really there are 20..I did some digging and found this interesting article on Iron Wind . HERE. Battletech is currently experiencing some growth I've seen so expect these guys around for awhile which is cool with the old Ral Partha coming along for the ride.

Finally I wanted to show this awesome 15mm game I saw.  We've been taking about 15mm for size consideration and expense when jumping around to different periods with Historicals. I quickly realize the trap. Yeah figs are cheaper..but once you get the bug..you just start expanding the game size as the scale get smaller. Currently in Hail Caesar we run three divisions of 300 points. We've been talking going 4 division or 400 points.. because it removes the 3 division triangle where games can implode quickly due to bad event (like strong flank push with multiple sweeping advances) with 4 Divisions these quirky game enders based on bad luck are minimized so for a more balanced game we've talking about 4 Divisions. Due to excessive model counts four divisions at 28mm maxes out an 8 foot table really quick, I say its basically playable but too crowded, if you really want to use alot of Cavalry and use them effectively. SO-  15mm solves that problem. BUT The new problem, as perfectly illustrated above is once you go 15mm, if you are like us the next thing you know, you are saying " hey well instead of 4 divisions a side", lets do 6, then 8, or even 10....Arghh...something to seriously consider.

LPL 6- Round 9 Zombie Pirates

Round 9 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 6.


Yay- my above entry "The Hunt for Rex Eleven"  won this time out by a pretty good margin against another excellent entry. Its disappointing I had to re-run it...but as its lost to the LPL "painting assassin"
(meaning you draw him , you lose as he looking at 9-0 so far) first time around and it was Adepticon week, I didn't have much choice by to re-run. For week 9. I reach into my very shallow Privateer Press shelf and pull out some select figures from my Revenant Crew and Blackbanes Ghost Raiders for my entry "Crew of the Atramentous"  This one is going to be another squeaker I am in the lead currently but its really close. so please go vote. Next week is final round..being its the Maritime bonus round I have something special planned as long as I can take the photos to do it justice.

Adepticon 2012- Straight, No Chaser

 As you might have noticed, my Adepticon coverage this year was basically non-existent until now considering my past coverages of the event. You'd think for the 10 year anniversary I'd have been more excited but the combination of personal work related issues forcing me to cancel my LotHS event and some general hobby malaise kept me from really being that overly excited.

My main interest was the 2012 Lord of the Rings Championships, where I brought my re-tooled Cirith Ungol / Mordor army from last years Bilbo's Birthday Bash, back for another go using Games Workshop new Warbands rules. I'll cut right to the punch line. I won the Best Overall "Lord of Middle Earth" Award of the Tournament. No one was more surprised than me, because I rarely win more than 1 game at LotR tournament, and when I won all three games, I figured I'd be up there due to my always high soft scores. I haven't seen the scores yet, but whatever  they were they were high enough that my battle points beat out my paint score, and that has never happened.

I am humbled to be a part of such great community of local players. Games are always fun no drama affairs. When this tournament found itself in the awkward situation of the new books coming out after it was announced but still far enough in advance to create an issue..the organizers decided to allow use of both LoME and the new Warbands books at this event. Even though LoME lists have a distinct competitive advantage over Warbands..every single one of my opponents was running a Warbands lists. I played three awesome guys, and had a good time, So playing in this event was enough for me, winning it, is just a validation that dont always have to go to these things ready to chew nails and shred your rulebook. I am going to write up my games later this week but they were very close affairs and luck was just really on my side.

On Saturday I also did some paint judging and took a whole bunch of photos of the LotR Team Tourney which I am going to run again in separate post. It was also great to see that couple of first time players from the whom I know twin cities who are former WFB tourney players  won the team tourney. Here in the midwest, anyway LotR is alive and well.

I also ran some demos for Warlord Games Hail Caesar on Saturday evening we had a great group of players again more disgruntled WFB'ers in attendance and definitely picked a few more players at least locally as a result. All in all a very productive Adepticon for spending my personal shortest amount of time there ever and as well as spending the least amount of money.

 As for the rest of grand spectacle that is now Adepticon, I dont have much really to say.  There were two big low-lights. Thursday night check in was a disaster because of this stupid Battlefoam bag give away... so people were 750 deep at 5pm to get the free $30 bag they were also still selling in the vendor hall with the same patch you got in the swag bag regardless. As a result of the word FREE (so it might as well have been a free bowl of soup as a man bag for your miniatures) There were a ton of people there before 5pm and it took hours to check in (if actually you waited in line) and the hotel was horribly behind in setting up rooms so everything Thursday as far as I could tell was off schedule..it was pretty much a mess. Since I am of the "waiting in line is for suckers" mentality..I waited until like 9pm when it took 10 mins to check in and got my normal swag bag, which was its usual chock full of great stuff. (Hordes plastic starter, bunch of miniatures, paints, etc)

The Hotel also had the idiotic idea to schedule a wedding in what was last years Flames of War ballroom, in the middle of Saturday Night, This created a weird scene of  Gamers mingled in with a suburban Chicago wedding of cigar smoking sports fans with a bunch of very attractive, dressed to nines, young women (never a bad thing) but the gamers milling around the outside of the ballroom gawking was obvious. I can only imagine whomever paid for that wedding having some choice words for the hotel after that..It wasn't particularly great for Adepticon either as it was just weird.
and ate up valuable gaming space, and clearly made Wedding guests as well as some Adepticon attendees I am sure uncomfortable. It's not like Adepticon doesnt make the Lombard Weston a hell of alot of money every year..they really needed to squeak out the extra dough at the expense of bruised feelings of everyone who is giving you their money?.

Corporate stupidity of the Westin and crass commercialism of Battlefoam aside, our local hobby tournament is now big business. 40K, WFB,, Warmahordes, and the Crystal Brush, where all hugely popular and drawing people in like flies on a popsicle- but the coolest thing , for me anyway is all the other little stuff that goes on there. A lot of little start up vendors there, especially in the demo hall who stayed open late when the main vendor hall inexplicably seemed to close earlier than ever. Tons of demos, board games, old games , new games, games I never heard of going on, in halls and almost every nook and cranny in the place. I applaud all the folks running for all their hardwork and making it whats it become. You cant make all the cool little events happen without the big stuff to pay for it all. So any minor irritants aside, I still look forward to what next year is going to bring,  plus I am the 2012 "Lord of Middle Earth", who else is going to say that, thanks Adepticon!

LPL Season 6, Rnd 8 Redux

Round 8 has begun over at the LAF for Lead Painters League Season 6.


Above is my entry for last round, *Green Magic* which somehow pulled out of vote by vote dead heat to squeak out winning by ONE vote...a margin of 1-5 votes is a draw and I finished 6 votes ahead. Due to Adepticon, I had to re-run my round 2 Entry "The Hunt for Rex Eleven" one of my better entries
it lost to the fellow who is going to win the whole thing probably going 10-0. so I wanted to re run it at some point. I got a very solid draw this week from a very good painter and "Rex" is cruising with a comfortable lead, let that not discourage your voting however as there is still alot of great new stuff posted. Still shooting for finishing in the top ten in this thing...and I just might be able to do it, as lady luck has smiled on me of late as I will talk about in my next post!