Thought Provoking Tuesday....Wednesday?!?!

As mentioned earlier, I am trying to cram all of my potential content in the next few days into a day of rapid typing.  As such, I have held off TPT until Wednesday. 

This week's TPT first brings us a series of tournament report articles from Kirby.  He attended Event Horizon with his GK army and won almost! No really, he did very well.  I am linking his coverage to this point.  Stay tuned for more tourney madness! army list and analysis, game 1, tournament results

And what"s this? A truly thought provoking article by Auretius Taak.  He takes a look at Logan Grimnar's High King rule and comes to a very interesting (though I think illegal or at least worthy of a swift punch to the gonads) conclusion.  It's worth a look and the discussion is very robust.

Is it inappropriate to say that I have a blog crush on Ron of FTW?  I love his work and his articles are always detailed and exhaustive.  The guy is a hardcore modeler.  I love it.  Check out this step by step look at how he created an Adeptus Custodes model.

Well, that should be enough to chew on for the time being.  Again, I hope to have TPT back to it's regularly scheduled Tuesday timeslot next week, but exhaustion and baby care needs may win out.  Thanks for reading.

Thought Provoking Tuesday

This week's TPT is shorter than normal, but the articles and reading are no less thought provoking.  I Hope you enjoy them. 

GT Win...My Colonial Wrap Up by Dameon Green- What can I say, I am a sucker for well written tournament reports.  Dameon has written a more indepth report early for his Colonial win, but I like this in particular as he summarizes his list, his opponents' lists and the main points.  On top of this, he links another tournament report he did early.  Lots of good tactical insight to be had here check it out.

How To: Blend Highlighting- It isn't odd to see a good painting tutorial out there, but from Kirby??  I'm just joking.  Apparently, he is a true renaissance man.  Not only does he give great tactical advice, but he isn't too shabby as a painter. Check out this tutorial on an easy way to help your models stand out on the tabletop.

Thank You GW for getting rid of metal by Jawaballs.  Jawaballs writes from an interesting perspective on the anticipation of the new GW resin models.  It brings up a lot of interesting points that are in favor of the new resin finecast models.  Take a look.

Thought Provoking Tuesday

1) This week's TPT starts out with the don'ts of working out probability.  GDMNW writes a great article on it in Probably a Hammer: Part 2.

2) So, not exactly thought provoking, more like anger provoking, comes the knowledge that GW is moving all models to resin and charging more for it!  On top of that, they are establishing an embargo of sorts on European independent retailers to the rest of the world.  GW is dumb.  Check out Kirby's letter to GW from 3++.

3) Because #2 pissed me off, I look for less stressful material and Ron at FTW always delivers.  Check out his quick study on painting glowing eyes.

And honestly, with a super pregnant wife and school winding down soon, I am spent, so this will be a lazy TPT week.  I hope you enjoy it. 

Thought Provoking Tuesday

This week will start with a look at some of the, now, more fleshed out articles about Grey Knights. 

Our #1 and #2 both come from Kirby as he is just writing the most meaty stuff on GK right now. 

1) Army Comparison: Blood Angel Jumpers and Grey Knights- Kirby serves up a great article comparing two armies that are seen as effective and how they compare, the Blood Angel Jumper list and its variants and Grey Knights. 

2) Armies in 5th: Grey Knights Part 2: Nemesis Force Weapons- Kirby switches gears from psycannons and psybolt ammo to the Nemesis force weapon.  He goes in depth as to why GK are still not a combat army despite these wonderful toys. 

#3 and #4 show two sides to a debate/discussion/whatever that has been occurring all over the interwebs of late, optimization of army lists.

3) Tactica: Redundancy vs Utility- Spaguatyrine takes an interesting look at redundancy and I think he hits on something important about the true meaning of it. 

4) Repetition and Redundancy- Brother Loring proposes further clarification and a response to Spaguatyrine's artcle.  I think these two articles along with a few others are quickly becoming a foundation that could shift the focus of the 40k community and how it educates new players.  Exciting stuff!

5) With all of the weighty material presented above, I have found it is nice to end with something hobby related.  Thus, we have Ron's most recent review Secret Weapon washes: a critical review. He takes a look at Secret Weapon's series of washes and compares them to GW's standard and also shows how they can be used.  Man this guy is terribly patient in putting together his posts.  You could probably learn a thing or two just by taking a look at his posting structure. 

That's it, I hope your brain is weightier than it was before.

Thought Provoking Tuesday

Psybolt Ammunition: Yay or Nay?- Kirby produces a great article addressing the uses of psybolt ammo.  Most people are passing it out like candy right now.  Kirby encourages players to take a look at cost efficiency.

Paint Comparison- GW vs. Vallejo vs. P3 vs Reaper Master Series- Loquacious writes a great article doing a basic comparison of the 4 biggest model paint producers.  He gives some really interesting insight to value versus quality and coverage.  If you aren't happy with your current brand of paint, take a look at this introductory post as it will help give you a starting point for deciding amongst these big names.

P.S. I love Reaper Master Series.  They rock.

Meta Gaming: Now We Play the Endgame- Wow...can I just say that Von at Game Over wrote a super thought provoking  article about what the Endgame is and when you are actually there.

The Definitive Guide to Building and Magnetizing a Space Marine Drop Pod- Ron puts together yet another wonderful tutorial for those of you hobbyists who want to make the most of your minis.  Check out this step-by-step guide to building one of the more annoying models out there.

How Important is the Army List?- Hallelujah GMort.  I totally love this article.  Could it be that "optimized lists" aren't the defining quality of win?  Could it be that experience and tactical knowledge help or, heaven forbid, win games?  Check out this article.

Thought Provoking Tuesday

1) Better Playtesting:Tournament Prep- Nikephoros has a very interesting article about how to prep for tournaments by applying the concepts of deliberate and technical play to your playtesting.

2) 2 For 1 Special- Nyhil writes an article over at Blood of Kittens about modeling correctly to not take advantage of LoS and other factors in 40k.  He sites SinSynn's similar article over at Best Overall about competitive modelling.  Check these two out as they make a lot of sense and provoke a lot of thought for those of us who enjoy painting and converting.

3) Notional-Tourney Hammer vs. Store Hammer- Mike Brandt talks about how reliability plays stronger in a GT setting that min/maxing.  Very interesting thoughts.  Does this mean we are seeing a trend to the "mundane" in list building for tournaments?

4) Back to Basics: Beyond what the Internet says lies the Truth- fester at 3++ writes a great article about going against the interweb grain and settling on playing the game your way, with your style, with your army.  This is a great article that I wholeheartedly agree with.  I am sure the comments will explode with some interesting debate as well.

5) What does our choice of army say about us?- GMort writes up an interesting article about how personality, fluff, and playstyle among other things affect the armies we choose to play.  Very interesting.  Take a look. 

Thought Provoking Tuesday

This week for Thought Provoking Tuesday, we have a smattering of articles covering game, philosophy, hobby tutorials, and character education.  Take a look.

What's Wrong with 5th Edition Anyway?- GMort speaks about his likes and dislikes of 5th edition in face of speculation as to when 6th Ed. 40k might come.  I generally agree with his BIG issues, though I think better variety and balance in scenarios would be nice as well.  I don't think it would be wrong to have both a kill point mission and a victory point mission in a new BRB. I would also like to see a bit more variety in deployment schemes.  Diagonal deployment comes to mind. 

GK Terminators and Techmarines- Kirby postulates his way through a GK list that is terminator heavy and includes techmarines, both models that I love.  Techmarines really bring some interesting possibilities to the table for GK and Terminators as core is a dream come true to me.  I personally think MSU terminators work really well in a GK list, though.

Space Marine Librarian- Ron builds and paints another stunning model with a great tutorial on lightning traced power weapons.  I really like the use of washes to help fill out the blade.

Sun Tzu and the Art of Stupid- Sandwyrm (quickly become a Gone to Ground favorite) puts together a hilarious article about how ancient tactical manuals and 40k don't mix. 

Vices and Virtues: Flexibility- Kennedy over at 40k for the New Professional writes the beginning article for a series based upon character traits and 40k.  What?! Real life and 40k have some relationship?  Hmm... interesting conclusions.

Thought Provoking Tuesday

I have decided to try out a weekly update type post.  The Thought Provoking Tuesday post will be a way for me to share blog posts that I thought were really interesting either from a game perspective or a hobby perspective.  They have given reason to pause and think about how I model, paint, or play.  This week's 5 thought provoking blog posts are:

Mind War FTW- Missile Spam and Codex Creep by The_King_Elessar.  This is a great article about comparing the strengths of codexes through the medium of missile spam to determine if there is any codex creep truly happening.  I would love to see if Elessar will write additional articles that seek to derive conclusions using other measures. 

3++ is the New Black- Abuse Puppy laments the Grey Knights' effect on the Tyranid codex. I don't know if his perspective is a bit too pessimistic or not, but he has some great points.  I perceive his arguments to be true initially, but eventually I think that Grey Knights will normalize like every other codex and there won't be so many players out there as new, shiny codexes come out.  I also think there is a correlation between new codexes and the number of inexperienced player using them.  I think a canny Nid general could outplay many less experienced players who are using the GK codex.  Of course, in tournament play, trends do seems to develop quickly. 

Miniature Wargames Conversions- Lantz from the Magnet Pro gives a wonderful tutorial on how to make resin molds. I, for one, have always been leary about trying resin molding, but Lantz really spells it out in a wonderfully written tutorial. 

Tentakel- David Stillberg works on a stunning conversion for a Blood Angel Chaplain.  Again, the resin casting and sculpting included in the model make me think that I need to start working on those skills for myself.

3++ is the New Black- Kirby talks about Karamazov and his uses in a Grey Knight army.  I love the fact that Kirby considers this lesser talked about and used model.  He definitely brings up some nice options.