Monday, July 19, 2010

A Train (Wreck) of Thought

One of the interesting side effects of this whole blog thing is the fact that I get a lot of practice writing. Which is great for me, professionally speaking. I feel like I've gotten to be a better of a writer due my practice here. Another bonus of posting a lot is that people tend to recognize that you're busting your hump trying to get articles out and will cut you a little slack on your editing and train of thought.

On to the meanderings:

My fluffy bunny side is constantly at odds with my competitive side. Despite my cribbing of army lists from YTTH, Mind War and the like, there's always this part of my brain that wants to put plasma pistols on Space Marine sergeants and field Marneus Calgar with a full honor guard. Luckily the part of my brain that actually likes to win games has gotten better at heading off my crazy ideas at the pass before they manifest in the 'real' world.

Those sites I mentioned have been real god-sends in terms of making 40k gel for me. Dethtron and I were talking about this - sometimes you really just need someone to hand you a tool so you can go about the business of learning the game. Dethtron (so am I) is befuddled by 8th edition fantasy and I had problems with 40k. The lists I got from YTTH were/are extremely helpful in just getting the game to click for me.

But there's just one catch - while I don't want the fluff bunny side of me to waste all my damn time and money, I don't want to give up that side of my completely. Rarely does Stelek do anything with what would typically called a 'fluff perspective'. And that's totally fine. He has his focus and he pursues it and while he acknowledges all of the other types of gamers and mentalities out there, he isn't all that interested in it. If you ask him for list advice - its always going to be filtered through his particular view point on competitive play.

But for me, not every game has to be played with the high level of seriousness that Stelek has that manifests itself in his lists. Yes I want to win and I want to play a tighter game - but as good as things like the Maximum Overdrive list are, they just don't grab me.

Despite my new found eye toward the competitive, I'm still drawn do things that tickle me in some way - like lots of grav tanks, or things with an element of the ridiculous in them. I want to focus on the ridiculous for a bit. You see, not every game has to be optimized. I don't mind playing games with a gimmicky army or even a wildly unbalanced one. Knowing what I know now, I can go into these kinds of games and just have fun with the business of pushing something weird around the table. Sometimes it doesn't matter if I win, just so long as I have fun doing it.

Some examples:

- The Stegadon herd (RIP): I know in my heart of hearts that there would be many games where I would be straight screwed. But, who cares. No matter what, I'd get to push around 7 large monsters. Ridiculous.

- This crazy fast Daemon list: I know the post title has the word 'competitive' in it, but lets face facts - as cool as Daemons are, their weird collection of rules and shortcomings make them pretty unreliable in a lot of ways. My Vassal experience with this list made it pretty clear that while this list is still full of incredibly random, no shooting daemons, it was hella fun.

- SandyDuncanWyrms Emo-wing: And here we are - the real reason I started this post. For whatever reason, there's just something compelling about a bunch of sad hawk-men. This is the exact kind of list I would push around. This is the kind of thematic craziness that really gets me going. It won't win every game, but it'll have fun doing whatever it does. Chumby had a good one as well, but just doesn't have quite the same level of insanity that SandWrm's has - but it's close. The Emo-wing has more special characters, more nipples and then the Deathmask speeders on top of all that. Sorry Chumbles.

But as a consolation prize, Chumby, I got you a Star Sapphire. Now just because
this is for Chumby doesn't mean we can't all add this to our slide-shows.


This list isn't by any means the ultimate list but its still pretty optimized. Or as optimized as the permise will allow. SandyWyrm even admits that its not perfect. He just wants to push some Sanguinary Guard around the table as best as they can be. And I fully support that. This is the exact kind of list I was talking about earlier.

Bonus points for this being cheap as hell. Assuming a 20% discount on applicable models, I figure this whole thing could be made (including the metal guys) for less than $300. That's a pretty rare feat these days.

Fun, crazy and cheap. The emo-wing is officially on my 'to steal' list. Bravo, good sir.

12 comments:

  1. I've not actually seen it before - cheers for sending me that way. It really is too cool for school.

    Re: Daemons, I don't know if you've seen my list, but I play a slightly modified army that Stelek made for me last year sometime.

    In its 2500 form, it has three squads of Khornedogs, which are simply fun.

    Anyway, what I wanted to say is that I've stopped defending Daemons because nobody listens, but I'm not sure Deep Strike is burden. It usually helps me rather than screws me.

    I've won or placed in most of the tournaments I've entered with it this year. I think I placed 1st in half of them. Daemons can rock.

    Still, that Emo Wing is rad...

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  2. Well, Brent, you are awesome. My Daemons rarely lose too, mostly because I know how the army works and take plenty of redundancies to minimize the effect of poor scatters/reserving.

    I will gladly accept my consolation prize, SandWyrm's done an outstanding job so far and I'm sure the painting will be even better.

    I'm so with you on the premise of using armies for the awesomeness. I play Skaven, Orks, Bloodwing, Daemons and Loganwing. If it isn't an elite army, it's lolsorandum and just plain fun to use.

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  3. LOL! Agreed on all points!

    Credit has to go to stjohn for coming up with the initial idea.

    http://www.threeplussave.com/2010/05/budget-scissors.html

    It's cheapness was what attracted me to doing it in the first place. Well that and it's being pretty much the exact opposite of my Mech IG army. :)

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  4. Hmph, I started the Bloodwing thang back in March. Trailblazer, right here.

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  5. I invented the entire concept of Sanguinary Guard. I went to Matt Ward in a dream, totally unlike a film I plan to see on Friday, and I whispered gently in his ear about men with metal nipples, emo masks, and pauldrons. Oh, and feathery wings.

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  6. I was trying to figure out how sarcastic Chumby was being with the 'you are awesome' comment...

    ...and I'm still now sure...

    ...when I got to the King's comment - can you say, shocked laugh?

    Still, I've always suspected. Is that what you were doing for six months, TKE?

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  7. TKE: does this mean you are also responsible for the bat nipples?

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  8. No sarcasm here, Brent is awesome.

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  9. I AM the Batman.

    I own the night.

    I like armoured nipples.

    I am also responsible for Enron.

    Take from that what you will.

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  10. He's also responsible for Carrot Top and Pluto Nash.

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  11. I think he might also be responsible for hiding people's keys, and stealing single socks out of the dryer.

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  12. Man, I must be waaayyyy ahead in this week's Project...wait, nearly forgot the first rule! :O

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