Upcoming Events and What I've Been Up To (Fantasy, Warmachine, 40k, etc.)

Howdy, folks! Today I made a tough decision. As you well know, Warhammer 40k is my primary game, and I travel all around the place in order to get smacked around by my betters. It's a fun game (usually), though as you may or may not have noticed, I've become somewhat disillusioned by GW and their silly (i.e. atrocious) business practices, particularly in how they treat their customer. And, as you must also know, 7th edition has struck recently, only 2 years after the most recent edition.

As you may also have known, the Bugeater GT is coming up in a couple weekends. The new edition has not been around for a month yet, and as such, Tim has (wisely) chosen to stick with 6th edition. This has given me a lot of thinking to do on how exactly I want to experience the Bugeater.

Tournament Report: Adam Tricola's BeastStar vs. the LVO (lots of pictures!)

Howdy, folks! Best get settled in for this one - I've got my full battle report from the 2014 LVO here, complete with what computer says is 80 pictures to aid me in my story telling.

I'll give a little background first. My initial goal for tournament season of 2014 was to get a Marine list up and working, which I would be able to unabashedly take to big tournaments and not entirely embarrass myself.

However, there was an RTT at my LGS which I could actually attend, and I had nothing approaching the required models for the current iteration of my Marines, so I decided to be silly and take my old Dark Eldar with a couple Eldar units as allies. I had so much fun, I decided to try to make Dark Eldar work. 5 or 6 games later, my list had morphed drastically, from an old-style MSU Dark Eldar list to a ridiculous BeastStar, taking Eldar as primary.

I felt as if I had betrayed the Dark Eldar. Depression had set in. But I had a list, and after a ton of effort painting, and playtesting about 5 games total (which is a TON of practice for me), I was packed up and ready for the LVO.

Adam Tricola takes BeastStar to LVO: Game 7 vs. Eric Hoergar's White Scars!!

Howdy, folks! I am taking far too long in to write my full tournament report, but would like to start getting a little bit of content out there nonetheless (I've already written quite a few reports, but need to delay writing the final ones for a bit). I am therefore going to try something I've never done - splitting my tournament report into several different game-sized posts.

I will then eventually combine all of the reports into one "large" report for your later reading convenience :)

I'll give a little background first. My initial goal for tournament season of 2014 was to get a Marine list up and working, which I would be able to unabashedly take to big tournaments and not entirely embarrass myself.

However, there was an RTT at my LGS which I could actually attend, and I had nothing approaching the required models for the current iteration of my Marines, so I decided to be silly and take my old Dark Eldar with a couple Eldar units as allies. I had so much fun, I decided to try to make Dark Eldar work. 5 or 6 games later, my list had morphed drastically, from an old-style MSU Dark Eldar list to a ridiculous BeastStar, taking Eldar as primary.

I felt as if I had betrayed the Dark Eldar. Depression had set in. But I had a list, and after a ton of effort painting, and playtesting about 5 games total (which is a TON of practice for me), I was packed up and ready for the LVO.

Adam Tricola takes BeastStar to LVO: Game 6 vs. 9 Thud Guns!!

Howdy, folks! I am taking far too long in to write my full tournament report, but would like to start getting a little bit of content out there nonetheless (I've already written quite a few reports, but need to delay writing the final ones for a bit). I am therefore going to try something I've never done - splitting my tournament report into several different game-sized posts.

I will then eventually combine all of the reports into one "large" report for your later reading convenience :)

I'll give a little background first. My initial goal for tournament season of 2014 was to get a Marine list up and working, which I would be able to unabashedly take to big tournaments and not entirely embarrass myself.

However, there was an RTT at my LGS which I could actually attend, and I had nothing approaching the required models for the current iteration of my Marines, so I decided to be silly and take my old Dark Eldar with a couple Eldar units as allies. I had so much fun, I decided to try to make Dark Eldar work. 5 or 6 games later, my list had morphed drastically, from an old-style MSU Dark Eldar list to a ridiculous BeastStar, taking Eldar as primary.

I felt as if I had betrayed the Dark Eldar. Depression had set in. But I had a list, and after a ton of effort painting, and playtesting about 5 games total (which is a TON of practice for me), I was packed up and ready for the LVO.

Adam Tricola takes BeastStar to LVO: Game 5 vs. White Scar Bikers w/ Tau Allies!

Howdy, folks! I am taking far too long in to write my full tournament report, but would like to start getting a little bit of content out there nonetheless (I've already written quite a few reports, but need to delay writing the final ones for a bit). I am therefore going to try something I've never done - splitting my tournament report into several different game-sized posts.

I will then eventually combine all of the reports into one "large" report for your later reading convenience :)

I'll give a little background first. My initial goal for tournament season of 2014 was to get a Marine list up and working, which I would be able to unabashedly take to big tournaments and not entirely embarrass myself.

However, there was an RTT at my LGS which I could actually attend, and I had nothing approaching the required models for the current iteration of my Marines, so I decided to be silly and take my old Dark Eldar with a couple Eldar units as allies. I had so much fun, I decided to try to make Dark Eldar work. 5 or 6 games later, my list had morphed drastically, from an old-style MSU Dark Eldar list to a ridiculous BeastStar, taking Eldar as primary.

I felt as if I had betrayed the Dark Eldar. Depression had set in. But I had a list, and after a ton of effort painting, and playtesting about 5 games total (which is a TON of practice for me), I was packed up and ready for the LVO.

Adam Tricola takes BeastStar to LVO: Game 4 vs. Quad-Land Raider

Howdy, folks! I am taking far too long in to write my full tournament report, but would like to start getting a little bit of content out there nonetheless (I've already written quite a few reports, but need to delay writing the final ones for a bit). I am therefore going to try something I've never done - splitting my tournament report into several different game-sized posts.

I will then eventually combine all of the reports into one "large" report for your later reading convenience :)

I'll give a little background first. My initial goal for tournament season of 2014 was to get a Marine list up and working, which I would be able to unabashedly take to big tournaments and not entirely embarrass myself.

However, there was an RTT at my LGS which I could actually attend, and I had nothing approaching the required models for the current iteration of my Marines, so I decided to be silly and take my old Dark Eldar with a couple Eldar units as allies. I had so much fun, I decided to try to make Dark Eldar work. 5 or 6 games later, my list had morphed drastically, from an old-style MSU Dark Eldar list to a ridiculous BeastStar, taking Eldar as primary.

I felt as if I had betrayed the Dark Eldar. Depression had set in. But I had a list, and after a ton of effort painting, and playtesting about 5 games total (which is a TON of practice for me), I was packed up and ready for the LVO.

Adam Tricola takes the BeastStar to LVO: Game 3 vs. Alan Pajamapants (lots of pictures!)

Howdy, folks! I am taking far too long in to write my full tournament report, but would like to start getting a little bit of content out there nonetheless (I've already written quite a few reports, but need to delay writing the final ones for a bit). I am therefore going to try something I've never done - splitting my tournament report into several different game-sized posts.

I will then eventually combine all of the reports into one "large" report for your later reading convenience :)

I'll give a little background first. My initial goal for tournament season of 2014 was to get a Marine list up and working, which I would be able to unabashedly take to big tournaments and not entirely embarrass myself.

However, there was an RTT at my LGS which I could actually attend, and I had nothing approaching the required models for the current iteration of my Marines, so I decided to be silly and take my old Dark Eldar with a couple Eldar units as allies. I had so much fun, I decided to try to make Dark Eldar work. 5 or 6 games later, my list had morphed drastically, from an old-style MSU Dark Eldar list to a ridiculous BeastStar, taking Eldar as primary.

I felt as if I had betrayed the Dark Eldar. Depression had set in. But I had a list, and after a ton of effort painting, and playtesting about 5 games total (which is a TON of practice for me), I was packed up and ready for the LVO.

Adam Tricola takes the BeastStar to LVO: Game 2 (lots of pictures!)

Howdy, folks! I am taking far too long in to write my full tournament report, but would like to start getting a little bit of content out there nonetheless (I've already written quite a few reports, but need to delay writing the final ones for a bit). I am therefore going to try something I've never done - splitting my tournament report into several different game-sized posts.

I will then eventually combine all of the reports into one "large" report for your later reading convenience :)

I'll give a little background first. My initial goal for tournament season of 2014 was to get a Marine list up and working, which I would be able to unabashedly take to big tournaments and not entirely embarrass myself.

However, there was an RTT at my LGS which I could actually attend, and I had nothing approaching the required models for the current iteration of my Marines, so I decided to be silly and take my old Dark Eldar with a couple Eldar units as allies. I had so much fun, I decided to try to make Dark Eldar work. 5 or 6 games later, my list had morphed drastically, from an old-style MSU Dark Eldar list to a ridiculous BeastStar, taking Eldar as primary.

I felt as if I had betrayed the Dark Eldar. Depression had set in. But I had a list, and after a ton of effort painting, and playtesting about 5 games total (which is a TON of practice for me), I was packed up and ready for the LVO.

Adam Tricola takes the BeastStar to LVO: Game 1 (lots of pictures!)

Howdy, folks! I am taking far too long in to write my full tournament report, but would like to start getting a little bit of content out there nonetheless (I've already written quite a few reports, but need to delay writing the final ones for a bit). I am therefore going to try something I've never done - splitting my tournament report into several different game-sized posts.

I will then eventually combine all of the reports into one "large" report for your later reading convenience :)

I'll give a little background first. My initial goal for tournament season of 2014 was to get a Marine list up and working, which I would be able to unabashedly take to big tournaments and not entirely embarrass myself.

However, there was an RTT at my LGS which I could actually attend, and I had nothing approaching the required models for the current iteration of my Marines, so I decided to be silly and take my old Dark Eldar with a couple Eldar units as allies. I had so much fun, I decided to try to make Dark Eldar work. 5 or 6 games later, my list had morphed drastically, from an old-style MSU Dark Eldar list to a ridiculous BeastStar, taking Eldar as primary.

I felt as if I had betrayed the Dark Eldar. Depression had set in. But I had a list, and after a ton of effort painting, and playtesting about 5 games total (which is a TON of practice for me), I was packed up and ready for the LVO.

Depression Sets In #5: Battle Report vs. Tau + Tau

So, I've been feeling sorry for myself because I get to spend the whole weekend (Friday + Saturday) in class, because people with jobs who want their Masters "get" to take weekend classes :) It's depressing. 

BUT

After being in class for a good long (late) time, I finally got out and had the chance to play my slowly developing BeastStar against my friend Donald, who is getting better and better at 40k. Last time we played it was close, but I pulled off a squeaker. This time, his list was much more optimized, and his overall experience as a player had increased.

The thing that made me want to play him before the LVO (besides being a fun guy to play) is that he has a killer Tau + Tau army ("Triptide"), which is a list I dread to face at LVO. This game was further made interesting by me not rolling Fortune with either of my Jetseers, and having to play the dreaded Hammer and Anvil against an army I am extremely outclassed by when it comes to shooting.

Depression Sets In #4: Battle Report vs. Eldar (lots of pictures!)

Hey, what's up folks! I've been painting and playing a ton of 40k lately in an attempt to get ready for the LVO. I've been playing my BeastStar, which has been really fun! It has been an exercise in frustration to try to make my Dark Eldar work, as I continue to remove Dark Eldar units from the list in favor of Eldar. At this point, the list is nearly entirely Eldar, though the Beast element is really the essence of the list.

I finally got a game in against a good Eldar list - I've played one other before this against a good opponent, though the list was a little on the "meh" side - even my opponent didn't really like it. This time, he decided to take a better list with lots of the units I may end up seeing at LVO. The best part: he's a top-tier player who recently moved here, and is one of the few (3) individuals out there who has a winning record (with two or more games played total) against me.

Here's a fun fact I learned during this game: Dire Avengers have counter attack, randomly.

Depression Sets In #3: Battle Report vs. Marines + Tau

Howdy folks! After about three weeks without playing, I finally got a game in last weekend with the current iteration of my list! I took lots of pictures, and will be happy to describe what happened in detail after the break!

For those of you who don't know - I have been trying to find a way to make my Dark Eldar work in 6th, and have (against all my inclinations) slowly been dragged into playing as Eldar. It's depressing not to be able to make Dark Eldar work the way I want them to, hence the title of this series of posts.


Bah.

Depression Sets In #2: Final List Nearly Set for LVO

My progress on the Eldar contingent thus far!

Howdy, folks! Just a quick one today with my nearly-completed list for LVO. I've been pretty busy lately, with an addition to my family in the form of my first son, Perrin. We're pretty happy, but have our hands full with a baby - a situation we've never really had to deal with before!

At any rate, I have been dithering over the details of my list for a while now, and have decided that with the LVO in literally less than 20 days, I needed to actually order models. So, this is what I came up with. I like to think of it as a "One of Everything" list. You'll see why.

Depression Sets In #1: 1750 Eldar/DE vs. Eldar Battle Report (with pictures!)

Howdy folks! If you have been following my blog of late, you know that my march toward the Las Vegas Open (LVO) and my pursuit of a competitive army has been anything but intuitive for me. I started out trying to bludgeon my Salamanders into working, and randomly discovered that Dark Eldar are a ton of fun to play at a local RTT.

Since then, I've taken more and more Eldar in my lists, though for some reason I can't quite explain, I have resisted playing Eldar as my primary force - likely because 'everyone' is playing Eldar as primary these days, and I hate doing what 'everyone' is doing.

This should then explain my blog title - I have finally done that which I have resisted for so long, and taken the plunge into the awesome primary army that is Eldar. It's depressing, but damn it feels good to have good troops for once! Fear not, this list is by no means spammy, and relies heavily on Dark Eldar allies. I actually think I'll end up putting even more Dark Eldar into my list after the battle you're about to witness. List is finally coming together though :)

Battle Report: Dark Eldar vs. Tau 1750 w/ Pictures

Howdy, folks! Today I've got a fun one: I've been waiting anxiously for the birth of my son (as of this writing he's already 3 days late!) and as such have been either at work or at home. As the group of guys I normally play against live in Wyoming (I know, random, right?), I haven't gotten many games in, even though it's break. My friend Don agreed to drive down to play a game against me and my potential Dark Eldar list. This is exciting, due to the fact that he is pretty much the only Tau player I know in the area (I know, also random, right?). He's only been in the hobby a little less than a year, but he's gotten better and better, to the point that he's been beating up on my other pals in Wyoming consistently. As we're both going to the Las Vegas Open (LVO) and he had only played against Dark Eldar a couple times, he wanted a competitive player's take on Dark Eldar. I was happy to oblige :)

(wow, that sounded cocky)

1500 Point RTT Tournament Report - Dark Eldar are back!

Don't worry - this is an old picture of my army, not the one I brought!

Hey, what's up folks! This past weekend I went to a local RTT, and was at first quite disinterested in the notion of bringing my out-of-date Grey Knights + Tau Allies to another tournament. Still, it was the only army I had painted, and I wanted to get out of the house to play some games. So, I printed out my list with 3x Dreadknights and some Broadsides, got everything all packed up the night before, and went to bed early.

However, in the morning, a magical thought occurred to me: I could play Dark Eldar. I hadn't played Dark Eldar yet this edition, and have wanted to for a while, though they have some serious problems when trying to deal with Flyers and Wave Serpents. Still, the idea excited me enough that I wrote a list out with Army Builder, and decided that if I included a Farseer to the list, I could at least Guide and Prescience two Ravagers to shoot at Flyers/Serpents.

With this shaky conviction, I set about the arduous task of digging out models who hadn't seen the light of day for months - possibly even years. Still, I must say, they've been my favorite army for forever - love the play style, aesthetics, and (dare I say?) even the fluff!

I was suddenly extremely excited to head down to the tournament!

Here's my list:

NOVA Battle Reports - Grey Knights/Tau Rock the Open and Invitational (pictures too!)

Howdy, folks! I went to the Nova a couple weekends back, in order to compete in both the Open and Invitational. I took pictures in the order I played my games, which means that this report will actually be a bit convoluted, as the Invitational games were spread out around the Open games.
My list was kind of a hodge-podge thing, taking as many points of Tau Allies as I had in my Primary Grey Knights. I'll tell you more about it after the brea

Bugeater GT 2013 Tournament Report w/ Pictures!

Howdy, folks! Long one here for you today, as I delve into the six games that I played last weekend at the Bugeater GT in Omaha, Nebraska! I took my Grey Knights once again, with the goal of winning the tournament, but also to explore the strengths and weaknesses of Storm Ravens. You can see my post detailing exactly why I decided to test this instead of taking IG allies right here.

That said, I still very much wanted to win the tournament, and have actually come close a couple other times. Those times are chronicled elsewhere on this blog, and I'll link you to them after the jump.

Dark Eldar in 6th: Not What "General Knowledge" Suggests

My Dark Eldar, who are sitting on a shelf right now.

Today let's talk about something everyone seems to 'know' but has no real solution to: namely, that Dark Eldar suck in 6th, and don't belong in a competitive setting as anything other than a "spoiler army."

I'm actually of the opinion that Dark Eldar have been *buffed* in many ways this edition, with the exception of one fatal weakness: Fliers. With the advent of the new Eldar book coming out in the next couple days, we might just see a return to power for the DEldar. :)