Blog Wars 5 - Abdicating the Throne

It's true.. Blog Wars 5 is rolling around the corner and I am going to have to skip it.

After attending the first FOUR tournaments and WINNING ALL FOUR of them I will have to walk away with my head bowed in shame...

I am also depriving someone the opportunity to take my Crown, to sit upon the Iron Throne after rightfully smashing the shit out of all opponents in their way!

But I will be back, I will want my Blog Wars Crown back, I will want to retake the Iron Throne (there is no Iron Throne at Blog Wars.. I'm kinda just throwing around 'king of the mountain' imagery...)

Blog Wars 5 will be an amazing event and from the look of it, it will be the biggest yet in terms of participation - it s up in Stockport at the Gaming Centre there and for me, that's just too far to drive from Cambridge for a one day event.

I am disappointed not to be going, but I will be back on the trail for Blog Wars glory in the Fall, after being blooded and gaining more experience at the ETC in Serbia - having represented my country at toy soldiers - I'll be eager to reclaim my Crown!

There are still some tickets left for BW5 in Stockport on the 22nd June

Check out the LINKIE here (well, left of 'here'...preceding 'here'? However you want to say it..)


Oh and Alex... I want an actual BW Crown for the prize in Fall/Winter please mate.
I'm being a diva and not coming back unless there is one!
Or an AXE!
Or a sword... hammer...mace.. shield?...dagger? pencil sharpener?

England ETC Announced - Ven gets a spot!

That's right peeps - I've got a spot on the England ETC team.
After a very good, if sparse, tournament season last year and a solid start to 6th ed with a tournament win at Brighton and consistent high placings at events like Caledonian Uprising... I've gotten a spot on the team.

This means that this blog hosts not 1 but 2 England ETC players - Alex and I.. Killswitch and Venerable Brother. 

Now, this is amazing and is a real culmination of some hard work by me to demonstrate consistent play..but it does mean a few changes.

I will now NOT be talking about tactics for certain armies or playtesting results from forces that we are fancying..

This does NOT mean that you won't be getting quality content or interesting reading. The blog will continue to evolve and increase the depth of its tactical and hobby content. But for me.. I will simply be focussing on winning with armies that perhaps you may not expect ..

For me then - Tau, Eldar and Space Marines will be my focus here. Tau - after building my Barracuda a few weeks back, I desperately want to work on them.. so this weekend I'll be mainly celebrating my mothers 60th Birthday, catching up on the Super Bowl (which I, of course, failed to avoid related news items...:( ) and repairing and air brushing my Tau and finishing the airbrushing on the Ravenwing.. 

Thanks for your support and I promise to make the 5 minutes a day you spend when we have new content..worthwhile. Thanks! 

Maelstrom Goes Down..Wow. Official

Wow.
Heard these rumours for some time and now it's official..
Man, am I glad I didn't go for the last ditch "moving warehouse" sale - fraud? Or a genuine attempt at covering debt?
Shocking business practice really... as a teacher of Business and Economics, I cannot fathom how this overtrading was allowed by the supplier, nor how Maelstrom management made this poor, poor decision.

Oh and Wayland? Great move. Force a competitor out at a cost of £100k? Why the hell not.
Question- if Wayland lose significantly more than £100k in sales per year to Maelstrom, is it not better to force them out of business and pick up the pieces - i.e. you and I shop at Wayland now.. creating greater overall revenue and therefore, hopefully, profit?
Answer - Fuck yes. Growth is good.. although as we can see, too rapid growth is not good!

Read all about it at Frontline Gamer (click the link) who has an excellent Editorial on the matter....and of course read the statement on the Maelstrom Games site. Fascinating... painful if you have outstanding orders...Overall, good for Wayland, potentially bad for the consumer as supply is distributed across one less company..less competitive market, higher price for us.. 

Whilst I was sleeping? New Necrons!! FINALLY!!

Brothers, I am excited!! My Destoyer army may see the tabletop again...but with lots of new friends...then again..I may have to buy a whole new army :(

Left you can see a Necron Overlord...

I like his head design, the high neck and the overall larger, more sturdy looking build...2+ save?

It's just cool... can anyone say band wagon? Is it a bandwagon when you already have the army fully painted but the codex was shit?

These dudes look cool, but question is Storm Shield or Dispersion Shield...whats going to be the best damn mobile protection of the Grim Dark? And of course it raises the question...what the chuff is a Hyperphase sword? Same as the old 'no saves of any kind' warscythe technology...I hope so

More pics after break

SoS does Ghana? WTF?

'Sup guys.
You read the title right.
Your intrepid hero Venerable is off on an adventure to conquer lands for the Emperor! The 213th Expedition....fuck that. Whatever.

I'm leading a group of school kids on a cultural exchange trip to rural Ghana (in Africa for those that only are aware of the location of Holy Terra, the Eye of Terror and Craftworld Yme-Loc or other such geek themed nonsense...get out more)  and as result several things may happen: