Sunday, December 16, 2012

Primaris Psyker with Force Axe

The 40k bug has been nibbling at my toes lately. Got in a couple of games yesterday with my Inquisition with allied Guard list. First game was against a straight CSM list - the spiky marines got tabled. Next game against the Sisters of Battle - let's just say the nuns with guns got revenge for their sisters' blood spilt by the Grey Knights!

A direct repercussion of these great games is a fully painted Primaris psyker (missing highlights but done enough). Although not much of a star in these two games he does tend to anchor a twenty man guard platoon pretty effectively. This Primaris is a mix of parts from various kits: legs and torso are Cadian, arms, axe, and head from WFB Empire Militia kit, a Necromunda laspistol, and the haft from the power maul on a Dark Angels upgrade sprue.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Squats are the new Grey Knights!

With the general interest in Grey Knights somewhat waning (hi, CronAir and Flamer Bomb), I have decided to dust off some minis and blow the cobwebs out of an idea that I've had since the GK codex dropped. A fair number of the OOP metal Squat miniatures came strapped with a boltgun and since GK acolytes can take boltguns I started playing with the notion of a Xenos inquisitor at the helm of a crew of squats. I really like the old squat minis and the fact that they come with different load-outs and different poses make them a good candidate for the motley crew that is a henchmen squad.

More to come on the squat miniatures - the subject of this post is the removal of squats from the original 40k universe (and only now having been slightly re-introduced into the background of 6th edition). In searching for more information on the squats, I came across Jervis' original post explaining their removal from the universe. While this has been widely re-posted across forums and blogs, I decided that I wanted a copy locally on 23lines.

Originally Posted by Jervis johnson 
I know I shouldn't get drawn on this... but... can't... resist 
Seriously, a couple of points just so you can have an informed debate based on the real reasons that Squats are no longer available. Be warned, it is going to be hard reading for people that like the Squat background. 
First of all, Squats were *not* dropped because they were not selling well. There were then, and are now, plenty of other figure ranges that sell in the sort of % quantaties that the Squats pulled down, especially when you look across all of the ranges produced by GW rather than just those for 40K. 
No, the reason that the Squats were dropped was because the creatives in the Studio (people like me, Rick, Andy C, Gav etc) felt that we had failed to do the Dwarf 'archetype' justice in its 40K incarnation. From the name of the race (Squats - what *were* we thinking?!?!) through to the short bikers motif, we had managed to turn what was a proud and noble race in Warhammer and the other literary forms where the archetype exists, into a joke race in 40K. We only fully realised what we had done when we were working on the 2nd edition of 40K. Try as we might, we just couldn't work up much enthusiasm for the Squats. The mistake we made then (deeply regreted since) was to leave them in the background and the 'get you by' army list book that appeared. With hindsight, we should have dropped the Squats back then, and saved ourselves a lot of grief later on. 
Anyway, the Squats made it into 2nd edition, and since we were doing army books for each of the races, we started to try and figure out what to do with them. Unfortunately we just couldn't figure out a way to update them and get them to work that we felt was good enough. The 'art' of working on an army as a designer is to find the thing that you think is cool and exciting about an army, and work it up into a strong theme. This 'muse' didn't strike any of us, and so, rather than bring out a second-rate product simply re-hashing the old background, we kept doing other army books instead, with stuff we did feel inspired by. 
Now, while this was all going on for 40K, we were actually doing some rather good stuff for the Squats in Epic. On this scale there was a natural tendancy to focus on the big 'hand-made' war machines the Squat artisans produced, and this created an army with a feel that was very different to the biker hordes in 40K. However, this tended to reinforce the problems we saw in the Squat background rather than alleviate them, underlining what we *should* have done with the Squats in 40K.  
In the end (and it took years to really get to the roots of the problem) this led to a realisation that we were going to have to drop the Squats in their 'Squat' form from the 40K background. There was little point having a major race that we weren't willing to make an army book for, and their inclusion in the background meant that people kept asking us when we'd do a Squat Codex. Instead we decided that we'd write the Squats out of the background by saying that their Homworlds had been devoured by a Tyranid Hivefleet. This would give us the option in the future to return to making a race based on the Squat archetype for 40K. This race was given the name of Demiurg, and a certain amount of preliminary work was done to get a 'feel' for what the race would be like. At present the only hint of the Demiurg in 40K is the Demiurg spaceship for BFG. However, we do have this race 'in our back pocket' as a possible new race for 40K, or an interesting character model in Inquisitor, or whatever. So far the Demiurg have lost out to other projects, and it may be that their time never actually comes, as they will have to win through on their merits, not simply because we once made some Squat models in the past. At present, I have to say that it is more lilely that they *don't* make the cut than do, as there is a certain predudice these days to simply taking races from Warhammer and cross them over to 40K like we did in the early days, so it may be that the Squats/Demiurg end up remaining a footnote in the history of the 40K galaxy. Only time will tell... 
I'll finish off by saying that whatever we decide to do 'officially', there is nothing stopping players with Squat armies from using them, either in Epic or 40k for that matter. There is no GW 'rule' against using old Citadel Miniatures, as long as you use them with exisiting army lists and in a way that won't cause confusion for other players. I recommend taking a positive stand by saying "Have you seen these cool old models? They're called the Squats and GW used to make them back in the late eighties/early nineties. I love 'em, so I count them as Imperial Guard and use them with the current rules..." Put like this I can't imagine that anyone would stop you from using your army. 
Best regards,
Jervis Johnson
Head Fanatic

Friday, September 7, 2012

40k FAQs - Its a Rules Lockdown!

Just one week after NOVA and GW has decided to release a fairly major overhaul to their core rules. As a NOVA staffer I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I didn't have to ramp up on new FAQs in the wee hours prior to the start of NOVA. On the other hand, these FAQs actually answer a lot of questions and put paid to some of the gamier "tactics" that I saw at NOVA. Nonetheless, the updates are in and I figured I would post just a few thoughts on impacts to my favorite armies.

Look Out Sir - By requiring you to assign wounds to the model closest to the character who passed the LOS roll, GW designers have effectively nixed the wound allocation nonsense that has been so prevalent in nearly every game I have seen. This coupled with the change in status for Paladins (characters no longer) and Nobz (characters only when leading another group) will speed up gameplay immensely and frankly make for a more enjoyable experience (at least for me). When I first read the 6e rulebook, one of the changes I proposed for NOVA was requiring the removal of whole models from LOS rolls where possible to avoid this scenario. I think GW's solution is much more elegant than that I am quite happy with the new deal.

Leman Russ Tanks - Wow, major update to these guys. The Lumbering Behemoth rule is no more and Russes are officially classified as Heavy vehicles. The major downside is that they can move no more than 6" per turn and no Flat Out move. However, they always count as stationary when firing their weapons. The real loser in all of this is the base Leman Russ battle tank (LRBT), when firing Ordnance battle cannon reduces all other weapons to Snap Shots regardless if the vehicle moved or not. Probably not a big deal to most guard players as the base LRBT with heavy flamer is still a great option as a backup tank. The real winners here are the Exterminator, Executioner, and Punisher. I am going to ignore the Punisher as its just not something I run - if you love it feel free to post in the comments.

The Executioner fully stocked with plasma cannons however becomes an awesome mobile AP2 nightmare. I know that the plasma cannons will generate 2 overheats over the course of a six turn game but that is a risk I am willing to take. The Exterminator is a ridiculous generator of fire - heavy bolter sponsons and hull mount with a heavy stubber thrown in for good measure is a move and fire tank that puts down sixteen shots per turn - it should be called the Dakkanator! Honestly not a bad choice to throw at a lightly armed flyer if you don't have anything else to shoot at.

Disruption Pods and Target Locks - These last two are somewhat minor but Tau still hold a special place in my heart so I found them worth measuring. Unless I am missing something, a D-Pod Devilfish that moves now has a 3+ cover save from anything firing outside of 12". The Tau FAQ states that D-pods now give Shrouding, which increases any cover save by 2 points and as skimmers, Tau get a 5+ Jink cove save just for moving. By my math, that adds up to a 3+ save for just adding a 5 point upgrade to a Tau vehicle. A D-poded piranha can move flat-out (total move 30"), get a 2+ cover save, and still be able to launch seeker missiles (by virtue of markerlights).

Target locks were removed from the Infantry Armory but are back now. Always helpful to have on a broadside team and can even be useful for a markerlight equipped Shas'Ui in a firewarrior squad to be able to light up another target.

I know there is a lot more across all the codicies and main rulebook to note. These were just a few that I found interesting. Feel free to comment below on some of your favorite (or otherwise) rules updates.

Monday, September 3, 2012

2012 NOVA Open

Whew, NOVA 2012 is over and there is nothing left except picking up the pieces. Sounds like our attendees had a great time. Certainly everyone who gamed had a great time! The hotel was fabulous as always and the staff seemed to think we were genuinely well behaved. Hope everyone enjoyed the extraneous and additional vendor action - we did a LOT more stuff this year: we sold some digital art, we had a cash raffle, we had a silent auction, we sold meal deals, and we sold lots of NOVA-branded gear (T-shirts, bases, mouse pads, bumper stickers, etc.).

IIRC the NOVA store will continue selling gear long after the convention closes so check back in case you missed a chance to grab some goodies. Mo' money and all that jazz...

Recovery always takes a few days for me. Good thing we have Labor Day this year. Today was essentially spent on the couch, passed out in front of the AMC Clint Eastwood marathon. Made one run out to the local Indian place for a lunch buffet then back to my recumbent status.

A big thanks to all the 40k judges who supported the event. You guys rocked like nobodies business and were really the unspoken heroes of the main event. We literally couldn't have pulled off the NOVA Open Grand Tournament without you. Keeping it real with almost two hundred (200) players is no mean feat and you studs pulled it off graciously and with aplomb!

Speaking of heroes, I couldn't help but be impressed by the immense effort put forward specifically by staffers to create those amazing monuments. In addition to the madness of the scheduled builds and the insanity of 1 million terrain pieces, NOVA folks ripped out some killer monuments. I have to give a shout out to Sam for her amazing wiring and feats of electrical engineering. All of the lighting effects were due to her diligent and tireless efforts to make sure that the 40k Narrative was represented by the best and the brightest of our terrain efforts.

My amazing wife Kelli  took a ton of great photos. Here is a link to the album and below is a slideshow:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116082905946197793161/NOVA2012?authuser=0&feat=directlink

I also posted a few Infinity specific pics over here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/116082905946197793161/NOVA2012?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Thursday, June 28, 2012

_______ is the Best Army in 6e 40k

There are quite a few blog posts rolling around espousing the virtues of this army or that in 6e 40k - even though the majority have no firm grasp on the new rule set. Never one to miss a bandwagon opportunity, 23lines has decided to jump on board and tell everyone why all the armies are the best of the best - okay, maybe just one or two armies are the best of the best... well clearly the ones that I play are anyway.

Imperial Guard: With all blasts doing full strength against vehicles, IG clearly comes out ahead in the sheer volume of large, ordnance blasts that they can throw. Add to that the Vendetta which is, arguably, the best flyer currently in the game (AV 12, 3 TL Lascannons, and transport) and the guard come strapped with superior air power as well as ground support.

In response to those same flyers, a pure guard list has the best tools to taken down those Zooming monkeys. The hydra flak cannon and the aforementioned Vendetta are the obvious choices, but don't forget that guard orders let you easily twin link autocannon teams. With the new snap fire rules, these teams can even move and fire, hitting at the same BS required to hit a Zooming flyer anyway.

Guard also have a cheap, durable sniper team that can pick off high value targets with the new 'roll a 6, clip a sarge' special rule. 10 Ratlings at 10 points each hiding in cover are a great distraction unit that can be tough to shift. Plus if your opponent doesn't deal with them, you have a good chance of clipping a sanguinary priest or putting paid to the last wound on an independent character.

Oddly enough, the guard even have a ready-made 6e psyker. Although the Pskyer Battle Squad doesn't get a psychic boost in 6e (like they need it), the Primaris psyker get a much needed helping hand. At 70 points and some lackluster standard powers, this guy is a blank canvas upon which a general can paint using choices from something like four different psychic palettes (okay, that analogy got stretched a bit thin - apologies).

I am sure there are many, many, many good points that I am missing about why Imperial Guard are the best of the best of the best (Sir!) in 6e but you get the idea!

Coming soon... why the Tau are the best of the best of the best (Sir!) in 6e...

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

40k Sixth Edition - Allied Guard Cheat **DOUBLE REDACTED**

Final Edit: GW has apparently wised up to the non-HQ HQ trick. This blog entry has been rendered completely invalid now that the new IG FAQ has stated that priests and enginseers can't be taken as the mandatory HQ choice. I would argue that also applies to the HQ choice required to ally in guard to a primary list. Honestly, I am surprised that they left this loophole in the game for so long. I suppose it really only becomes relevant in the scenario outlined below because in a 'pure' guard list the other HQs are a lot more beneficial.


Oh well, I will leave this article up as a sign of my hubris and getting put in my place by 'The Man'. Also, it's still a little bit of a funny read!

So you want to bring some allied guard to the table, do ya?! Maybe you want some Vendetta action or some Hydra ground support to help swat pesky flyers out of the air. Maybe you just need some cheap melta infantry to deal with the plethora of land raiders that are soon to enter the game. But you really want that guard support without having to sacrifice a valuable HQ slot in your primary army. I mean what would Draigowing look like with Coteaz holding up the bridal gown train?! How do I max crisis suits if I only have one Shas'el in my list? Where's the love for the 2 lash princes that I need in all of my Chaos Marine lists?!

Well, wonder no more. The guard 'dex provides a convenient little loophole in the form of priests and enginseers... those nebulous little HQ choices that don't take up a slot on the force org:

"Priests/Enginseers do not use up any Force Organization chart selections, but are otherwise treated as separate HQ units."

So far I have found nothing in the 6e rulebook that requires an allied HQ to "use up any Force Organization chart selections" only that you must take 1 HQ choice from an allied army. Priests and enginseers are "treated as separate HQ units" and thus meet the criteria. So now you can have your plasma cake and eat it too!

In fact with the new bodyguard style rule (assuming that it can be used in close combat), the ministorum priest becomes an IC to be reckoned with. Or take that enginseer to support the inevitable allying of a battery of hydra flak cannons - keep those guns blasting away all game!

Of course, GW is likely to FAQ away this little loophole as it seems to fly in the face of their intention around the ally restrictions... but given their alacrity with FAQ turn times you should be able to get a good year out of this playstyle. Enjoy!

Edit: Alright I'll take a big erase on this blog entry. From the look of things the allied force org represents an entirely additional force org to your primary:
Assuming I am reading the above chart correctly, with an allied force you can now have a total of 3 HQ choices, 4 Elites, 8 Troops, 4 Fast Attack, and 4 Heavy Support. No need to play games with the non-HQ HQ selection from the guard codex... and here I thought I was being so clever!

In fact this makes allies even crazier. Now I can field a full complement of guard heavy support AND add in some Tau Broadsides just for grins. Or three manticores AND a squad of long fangs strapped with lascannons just because I feel like it! Or how about 9 leman russ battle tanks and a teleporting dreadknight for back-up?! Ok so that last combo alone is 1550 pts. But its still workable with a guard company command squad, an inquistor, a mounted melta vet squad, a penal legion squad, and a minimum GKSS squad with psycannon at 2000 points.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Conspicuous Absence - 40k Rulebook Pulled from GW Site

As has been widely reported, GW retailers have been instructed to pull the 40k 5e rulebook this week and that appears to have taken effect on the GW web store as well. At approximately 01:00 May 28, 2012 UTC, Games Workshop officially pulled the 5th edition Warhammer 40,000 from all international sites thus signaling the death knell of the edition that brought us true line of sight, wound allocation wonders, and occupying buildings as if they were vehicles (oh wait, no one ever played that last one so forget about it).

Of course, blogs and forums and the such have been aflame (and atwitter and afacebook) with rampant and tawdry rules rumors, wishlisting, grumblings, and fornications (ok, given the community the last may strictly speaking not be true - but one never can know really). So in the spirit of all of the above, I will add my own meanderings on the subject.

Anything that puts paid to gridlock 40k cannot be a bad thing. I am tired of vehicles exploding catastrophically only to have a bunch of muscly rambo types emerge virtually unscathed and completely unphased in order to wreak havoc with their melta-nonsense. And this assumes that the vehicle didn't take umpteen shots that managed to simply stun it until the one lucky die roll turned it to rubble.

Granted the rumors about random pieces of terrain able to take psychic tests to force me to play with an army two tables down doesn't exactly leave me with a warm fuzzy. I do take some offense at the notion of a rock-paper-scissors test to resolve the single champions close combat although this would give my platoon commander a chance against Marneus Calgar. Or what about the universal special rule - Spiky Bits... any model with a spike on their codpiece grants a 1+ weapon skill?! At any rate, my firewarriors have already begun sporting attachments worthy of Tetsuo the Ironman!

Regardless, 6e should be a lot of fun. I mean clearly Games Workshop is looking to provide a more streamlined set of rules to alleviate much of the confusion that currently reigns at tournaments. To me this is no more evidenced than by their ardent and undying support for the officially sanctioned tournament scene.

I do feel some anguish for all those rhinos and chimeras that will soon languish in foam whilst their speedier (and more expensive) flier brethren flit about the battlefield mincing anything that dares pop its head out of some psychically active piece of random terrain that just magically appeared from my wargamers backpack...

Monday, May 7, 2012

40k 6e Rumor Source Has Been Outed!

I figured that is was about time for 23Lines to jump on the rumor spec-ulation bandwagon. But rather than posting my own wishl... er secret source I figured I would post something dredged up by my man Lo Pan over at the SomethingAwful forums. Big thanks to Beer4TheBeerGod for this creatively formatted set of rumors:
So given all these rumors I figured it was finally time that I reveal the rumors that MY source has given me. The guy's totally trustworthy and has an inside line into the GW design studio. He said that given all the misinformation out there it was time to clarify what was going on with 6th edition. Now some of this stuff might be slightly off in order to protect my source's sources, but he's always been right in the past.
  • A lot of the devs have been saying that 6th Edition will be a "throwback" edition, with a lot of elements from 2nd edition merged with some modern gameplay elements that we've seen from the last two decades of development.
  • Now the phases are Movement, Action, and Recovery. Assaults and shooting will be done simultaneously in the action phase. Recovery phase is for doing morale checks.
  • Units moving in the Movement phase have a standard value (no die rolling). Difficult terrain cuts your movement in half, but only for the portion of your movement that goes through that terrain.
  • So the Action Phase is where the majority of the game takes place. The active player gets to allow each unit to perform a single action, like shoot or charge or use a psychic power. 
  • Every unit affected by a given action will have a chance to respond to that action if they pass an initiative test. For example a unit being shot at could choose to return fire or take cover. A unit being assaulted could counter-charge, stand and shoot, or retreat to try and get out of assault range.
  • Xeno and other armies will have a bonus to certain reactions. For example orks have terrible initiative and will routinely fail to stand and shoot or take cover, but have a bonus to initiative checks to do things like return fire or counter-assault. Different Space Marine chapters have bonuses and penalties. Good luck getting Black Templar to take cover!
  • There is a major change with regards to armor and invulnerable saves. Armor save modifiers are back! Cover provides either a +1 or +2 bonus based on hard or soft cover (hello 2nd edition!) but can be ignored by template weapons like flamers. Weapons have modifiers based on strength and other factors. 
  • Randomness has been incorporated into assault moves, but it's not that bad. Charge range is base movement + 1d6 to represent running at the enemy. 
  • Another big change in assault: Fearless wounds are gone! Instead the opposing side gets a free attack for every point the fearless side lost by.
  • Casualties are now handled differently. Wound allocation shenanigans are gone! Whole models must be removed as much as possible. Normally players dictate what models are removed except for certain circumstances like a Vindicare or other special effects. Wound balances are carried within the unit as opposed to a specific model, so no hiding a wound on a Nob and then conveniently forgetting about it later.
  • To mitigate the effect of things like hidden power fists Independent characters can attack specific models in CC. 
  • Units have another reason to fear flamers; assault weapons can now be fired from a vehicle regardless of how far they moved. This makes the Land Raider Redeemer pretty devastating.
  • Some of the biggest changes have been to the philosophy being applied to this edition. GW is really trying to appeal to both the casual and competitive gamer. For the tournament player the rules set is really tight and streamlined. The mantra we've been hearing is "simple rules, complex gameplay." For the casual player GW put a LOT of effort into making an AWESOME campaign system with an amazing mission generator. Things like allies and purchasing strategic elements are part of the campaign system.
So yeah, that's what my exclusive insider GW source has told me. What have you guys heard from YOUR sources?
Most of this is just regurgitated pap from the "leaked" PDF playtest rulebook. However, if you look closely you will find an easter egg depicting the actual source of EVERY 40k 6e rumor floating around on the web right now! Post in the comments if you suss it out...

Monday, April 23, 2012

Adeption 2012 - A Great Finish

Another successful Adepticon convention! My thanks and congrats to all the organizers and volunteers who pulled off a great event. This year I ended up attending the 40k Championships, the Necromunda by Night, and the 40k Gladiator which brings me to the gist of this post - what will I be doing at Adepticon next year?

I am definitely attending next year but will change a few things about my personal gaming itinerary. First off, only one 40k event for me - three was just too many. The championships are fun but the tournament culture at this point really means that my foot guard suffer a bit and I am too stubborn to crack open my old Daemonhunters given the plethora of Grey Knight armies out there. There may be a new power game 'dex next year but I have a feeling the Knights are going to be a top tier book for a while. Perhaps my biggest frustration with the Adepticon champs format was the fact that all three mission objectives were weighted equally and three out of the four missions had kill points as one of the objectives. My guard army had 22 kill points! My first game was against a Draigowing list that had all of ten killpoints.

Having said that, the missions themselves aren't the reason I am taking a future pass on the 40k champs. At this point, 4 games of 40k in a row does not make for a fun day for me. After game three, I was seriously tired and serious tempted to leave. I grabbed a little food, restored my energy levels, and had a great game four against a younger Necron player - all's well that ends well... but it was still a bit much for me. Which brings me to the event in which I will continue to participate - the Adepticon 40k Gladiator!

Gladiator is a three game tourney that is just about pure fun. And this year I added to that fun by creating a personal "scrapyard challenge". In a nutshell, on Saturday (Gladiator is Sunday), after scrounging through various scrap vehicles at the con bits sellers I found an unpainted, untracked Griffon heavy mortar. After finding some tracks and a hull mounted flamer, I decided to get this guy painted up before Sunday and added to one of the two Gladiator sidebars. Much props to Lo Pan for a clever use of staples to mount the vinyl tracks to my griffon - super glue does not work on vinyl.

So for next year, I am formalizing my own Scrapyard Challenge. Basically it means bringing my paints and modelling supplies, scrounging through the amazing selection of bits, and painting up a vehicle or squad for inclusion in the Gladiator on the following day. Gladiator allows two 500 point sidebars, so I will keep one of my sidebars available for whatever I put together for the scrapyard challenge.

Once again, a great convention. Lessons learned: play one 40k event, take classes, and scrounge up a vehicle or squad for the challenge.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Adepticon Championships Kick-Off

The Champs this year have a 9am check-in with the first game starting at 10:30am. Presumably this is to give time for paint judging and gives me some time to take pics and blog.

First off, my humble guard army. No where near best painted but I do have a number of conversions I am proud of:
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Next up is a fellow NOVAnite, Kevin Comer with a gorgeous Vostroyan army:
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Doug McNaron's chaos marine army is always a crowd pleaser with LED lights and a smoking skull volcano to strike fear in the hearts of his opponents:
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Finally we have Tony Kopach's champs winning Space Wolf army. He took this tourney last year... Can he make it a twofer?
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Made it to Adepticon!

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Group pic from the final rest stop. We managed to meet up with Andrew, Mark, Mike, and Tony's bus. We are about 2 hours out at this point.

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And here we are at Giordano's enjoying a classic Chicago deep dish. The camera is actually in focus but the people of buzzing so fast due to all the excitement in the air!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

The Madness Within... The Adepticon Roadtrip!


Currently listening to the 40k audio drama The Madness Within as we trek through the wilds of Ohio. Gorgeous countryside, fields streaking by, so flat horizon only broken by copse of trees blossoming in the early Spring. There is a kind of quantifiable metric to this flatness betrayed by the height of water towers and the distance between them. Multiple stories high, gravity working unseen to irrigate the surrounding fields and farms.
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Live Blogging: Somewhere in Ohio

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So we are somewhere in Ohio at this point. The general tenor of the trip is accurately represented in the photo above. 

Just finished rocking out to the D! Next up... Wugazi

Live blogging: New Stanton on the Penn Turnpike



3 hours in and still rock and roll. So far we've espoused the virtues of the NOVA format, reviewed GWs failings as a rules company, and extolled the virtues of Infinity...

Good times ahead!
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Prose before hos

Ode to the road
The car, a full load.
Three gamers, insane
With dice on the brain.
Coffee and gas,
Big trucks to pass.
On to Chicago,
For the weekend.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Ode to the Accelerant

And now on a very special episode of 23lines.... we are very proud to present the literary styling of a giant in our community... I present to you 'Ode to the Accelerant'


The apothecary of modeling, am I
Accelerator be my inspiration, and cyanoacrylite my muse
Be my acrylics and solvents ever within reach, 
and deftly honed blades forever mine to use
Nay, shall I not want for a styrene accouterments, 
nor resin accents, 
nor acrylic rod 
nor photo-etched details
Shall I be beholden to the immutable stain of enamel?
Nay! For mine is the access to alcohol, terpentine and napthol, 
against which all discolrants shall fall.

What care have I for the challenge of the hobby?  
None... as naught but a challenge beneath my contempt;
For have I such tremendous amounts of varied shit around mine house 
That no obstacle cannot be overcome!
-Kevin the Kovarcik

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

40k 6e PDF is a Fake!


I have no actual knowledge as to why this may be the case but if its posted on the internet then it must be so!

Fake, fake, fake, fake....

But really fun to read regardless. I think it really speaks to a dearth of 40k subject matter that this garners so much attention.

I do like certain things about it (specifically hull breach and the move actions) and that tiny part of me that still believes in Santa Claus insists that this is a playtest version.

Edit: This entry was posted as a playful response to someone who supposedly had confirmation that the PDF is a fake. When no confirmation was forthcoming, I decided to self-confirm the fakery hence the blog post!

I actually like the leaked rules quite a bit and definitely hope some of these make the final cut for 6th edition.