Miniature Tim Launches!

As I had stated in my earlier post, I decided to move forward with my hobby life and with that comes a relaunching of this blog. Well, not this blog. As I also mentioned, I'm going forward with a fresh start, and with that comes a new blog.

miniaturetim.blogspot.com

I have exported most of Tim's Mini's posts over to there as well so that once you relink over to my new home, you can stay there and the archives will be there too. Not that there was much to start with, but still.

This also means that I'll be much more involved in an online sense, and you should be seeing me through the Warseer forums, BoLS Lounge, Dakka, Work in Progress and Bolter and Chainsword. Not to mention the bevy of blogs that ware out there for all of us to peruse and drink in.

Head on over to Miniature Tim and check out the first official post!

I hope to see everyone at my new blog, and across the interwebs!

The Ressurection Begins...

Well it's been nearly a year since I posted anything of worth.  My life has changed quite as bit since June of 2010 with a bevy of illness plaguing myself,  my son being in therapy, surgery starting off this year... it's been a ride, let me tell you.

The good news is that I'll be resurrecting my own little corner of our hobby world with a new Blog.  After everything that's happened, I'm starting fresh and hitting the ground running.  Here's hoping some of you still remember me, and will be interested in seeing what I have in the works.  I'm actually writing ahead to create a log, JUST in case something crops up.. gee with me, that can't happen, right?  Right.  And GW won't raise their prices this year.

Wait, that already happened.  You get my point.

I've set new goals for myself.  Achievable ones.  Both in this hobby I love, and even my health and life.  I'm starting fresh, and I can't wait to take you along for the ride.  Check back as I'll have the launch of the new come Monday, May 30th!

Tim

My health apologizes...

Hey everyone!

I wanted to give a quick shout to anyone still paying attention to my little corner of our hobby world. I literally have two new posts written, and just need to edit some pictures to go along with them for some basics of sculpting tutorials and discussions. My problem? I just got out of the ICU with a severe case of pneumonia in both my lungs. I've actually been fairly sick this past month or so and well, the virus won for a bit apparently.

So everyone has my apologies for the inactivity and i hope you stick around for what I've got planned in the future.

Tim

Manticore, mythical creature, or kick-ass kit?

So this past weekend, I had the pleasure of grabbing the new Manticore kit from my local shop. Now, unfortunately my wife was out of town all weekend, so that meant very, VERY little hobby work done, but i did get to dissect this awesome new kit from GW.

Suffice It to say, if you haven't figured out that I'm in love with this kit, please take note:

I'm in love with this kit.

From the fact that this uses the new and improved Chimera kit (which is no surprise), to the amazing add-on front hull piece that has a new hatch, not to mention the launching racks for either the rockets, or the death strike, this is a highly detailed kit that any guard player will love to have as a part of their armored force.

Needless to say, this will play a very fun part in the makings of my new army.

New army you say? Why yes, Tim is putting together the makings and preliminary work of a new army that hopefully will do you all proud. Everyone knows what Knight Titan is, yes? Y'all read Mechanicus? Go read it. Maybe you played Epic back in the day?

Either way, know it or not, a Knight Titan is a single-crewed walker the equivalent of a tank. Well, maybe a little more involved than that, but you get the point. Currently, my working list has 7 Knights in it. They will count as 3 Leman Russ tanks, 3 Hydras and yes, 1 Manticore! Then there will be 3 sentinels, 1 Vendetta, 2 infantry platoons and the company command.

I'll be scratch building the legs, torsos and much of the hulls, sentinel cockpits will provide the 'heads', and various parts form leman russ kits aegis defense lines and the manticore kit will give me main weapons, etc.

I'll keep everyone apprised and i swear, pictures will be coming soon!

A new, magic way to Blog

So here we are, me wanting to try and keep up with my blog, and hopefully a few of you checking back here every so often. Well, yet another week gone by without a new post, much less a pic or two of current projects. To my credit, my wife just had surgery, mother's day weekend was just this past weekend, and so on... Life's been a bit busy. That also means that the hobby has gotten zero attention this past week, and so has the blog, sadly.

However, all that should begin to change! Tim's gotten himself a new, magical way to keep up with the blog!

That's right, I got an iPad.

The good news is that I enjoy using it so far very much and it's a welcome break from being on the computer all day at work, and then not wanting to get on the computer when I get home. It's scary-simple to sync with photos and edit shots, photobucket has an app... Heck, it's just plain fun.

Long story short, keep coming back, folks. More regular posts of at least 1-2 times a week should being to come back. With actual hobby thoughts, articles and pictures!

...tell you what. Here's a topic for you... New IG and Eldar vehicles. Love? Hate? Love/Hate? Toss your thoughts up and we'll discuss :)

Weekend Tournament and other Tournament Topics

Hmm.. so another post with nothing associated with new Miniature progress or items. I need to fix that. I'll take some shots of my Ordo Xenos Inquisitor and post him up. He still needs some finishing touches, but I love people's opinions, so maybe I can make some other changes too.

I played in a local 40k tournament this past weekend. 1850 points and we had about 18 people show up. Was a nice turnout I think and I got to see some folks I haven't seen in a while :) I ended up losing my first game to a Tau Piranha flying circus, but won my second two versus Tyranids and then Tau. And I took home the Best Painted Category :) Overall I was pleased with how the list played and am getting a better handle on some ways to move my toys on the tabletop. Gee, practice helps, go figure.

I had a rather interesting comment on my last post about soft-scores in tournaments, and thought I'd address that here in context of the local stage, the national one, and then a tournament like Ard Boyz (which I think is it's own beast). I'll address a "Comp" score after everything else.

Local Example:
While there was a Best Painted and a Sportsmanship award both at the local tournament I played in, which I'm MOST happy about in both regards, they didn't play into the overall scoring for First, Second and Third Place. They did and do encourage people to actually paint their stuff, as well as be a decent person to play so I can't and won't really knock 'em, though I do wish that they would have had a part in the overall scoring. Maybe it'll help you be a good opponent rather than ONLY worry about scoring the most kill points you can or that you're measuring down to the 16th of an inch to the objective to contest it.

I'm not saying don't play to win if that's what you want to do, but be good about it. Maybe missing out on first place because you weren't a nice guy will make you think and act a little different next time. a couple points maybe... or even if you just want to use the sportsmanship score as a tie-breaker. Something to make players more conscience of the person across the table is all. It doesn't have to be huge... it's a local tourney after all.

National Tournament: (Using Adepticon as my example)
Adepticon, in my opinion, NEEDS soft-scoring, AND HAS IT. I'm extremely happy to say that the sportsmanship and painting scores factor overall into your score. They have a great system of measuring sportsmanship, and I highly suggest that anyone who hasn't seen it, email the Adepticon Staff and ask for it. Their Judges go around to every army and have a specific way of scoring painting and appearance, as well as the Sportsmanship scoring is on a 1-12 point check-off system per round that asks things from "Did your opponent show up on time to the game?" to "Would you play this person again voluntarily?". Kudos guys, awesome way to measure these things.

Ard Boyz:
This answer's short and sweet. Ard Boyz was made by GW for those folks who just want to play and win. A Painted Army is not required to play in this, so painting scores are a moot point. And as I've never played in an Ard Boyz tournament, I don't know if Sportsmanship is scored or not, so I won't speculate. And while I'm of the opinion that it SHOULD BE (sportsmanship) a scoring factor, I wouldn't go into it expecting one. Heck, look at the name of the tournament folks :P :)

Now this is said about Ard Boyz, with me having played last years Champion at Adepticon and loving every minute of the game cause Darkwynn was just a great guy to play. (HINT... play nice.)

Whew. That was a bit of a play-by-play wasn't it? On to Composition scores:

Unfortunately.... while I wish there was some perfect formula to measure an army's composition, I haven't seen one yet. Not for 40K or Fantasy. The best 40K comp scoring question I've seen is "Does their number of troop slots filled number more than their Elite choices? Their Heavy Choices?" But even that's a bit arbitrary. Playing Steel Legion Guard? It's Fluffy for their entire army to be encased in armor and have a lot of tanks. How are you going to score that? I wish I knew :(

I'll close this by tentatively rescinding my wish for a comp score in tournament scoring, but reinforcing my wish for the painting and appearance, as well as the Sportsmanship award have a place in some way shape or form in all tournaments.

Gaming, Tournaments and Scoring, Oh My!

All this talk abotu Tournament Scoring, Balanced Lists versus Min-Maxed Lists, and whatnot has been an interesting topic... Since this is a Blog, I've got some thoughts to share, let me know what you think :)

I like to separate my gaming. I LOVE a good, narrative campaign, with rules for tracking your soldiers from beginning to end, with more emphasis on story and fluff than who beat who. At the same time, I enjoy the tournament atmosphere. This gives me the opportunity to take a break from both scenes as I need to.

Now, while I don't specifically attempt to tailor lists towards the goal of being at the top tables, I appreciate those folks at the top tables for their ability to play a tactical game. Tactics including what units to take as well as how to use them. However, I see a NEED for "soft" scoring to play a large part in tournaments. Your Painting, Composition (bring this score back please, organizers) and Sportsmanship SHOULD PLAY A PART IN OVERALL SCORING. This will help encourage people to actually care about those things. And to be honest, while I may appreciate a player or a list at the top tables, I RESPECT a player at a top table who's a good guy, and even if he's tabled me made sure we still BOTH had fun while we played.

My main point is that you can have a good game with the guy or gal across from you, in any environment, with any list played by either person, so long as you each keep in mind the fact that you're playing a game, and the goal for everyone is to have fun in any way. If for you that's taking home Best General in a Tournament, than great! But do so with the dual goal of trying to earn Best Sportsman at the same time.