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So today was the Arundel Mills GW store anniversary and as a part of the event, they were hosting a painting competition. Each game(Fantasy, 40k and LotR) had three entry categories: Hero, Monster/War Machine or Unit. Being very excited about having won the skaven painting competition the week before, I spent the last week working on a unit of Daemonettes and finishing up a massive treeman conversion I've been working on for some time now. I submitted both as well as a HE Lord on a Star Dragon for the competition and spent my Saturday in the store to take part in the fantasy battle and the be there for the judging.
There were a good number of entries for all categories except for LotR, which had a minimal showing (one model for hero and monster, with only two for unit) but for the rest of the categories there were at least 5 entries per slot. I was feeling really good when I won both best fantasy monster and best fantasy unit.
However, at the end of the day the store manager suddenly decided that he didn't think there were enough entries to warrant any prizes so all we were given were 'bragging rights' and our pieces would be displayed in the showcase (literally free advertising for them). I expressed my disappointment to the manager and his reaction was to pull a passive aggressive stance and offer to remove my models from the case.
Needless to say, unless there are clear rules for any further competitions, I find I have no reason to take part in any store competitions going forward. I spent a lot of time and hard work on getting those entries completed and into the store in advance. I have no idea what sort of level of participation might be necessary for prize sponsorship or if this sort of arbitrary decision making is common in other stores, but I certainly am left feeling really badly burned over this.
Has anyone else had this sort of experience in the past? Is this commonplace or is the local manager just being a tool?Current Mood:  discontent |
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Book Fifty-seven
Wheel of Time 03: The Dragon Reborn
Think about this for a moment: imagine there was someone in history who was truly terrible. The stories about him tell that he was personally responsible for destroying civilization as they knew it at the time. Thanks to him, men who could wield immense power went mad and broke the world. He brought down an Age of Legends in a catastrophe from which, three thousand years later, humanity has still not fully recovered. Mothers tell their children stories about him to make them grow up right. He is known as the Dragon, the Kinslayer, and the world fears the day on which, the Prophecies say, he will return. For that will signal the End of the World and the final battle with the Shadow.
Next to this guy, Hitler is a minor-league bully.
How would you feel if you found out that you were, in fact, him? In a world where reincarnation is a certainty, it's possible to find out that you are an ancient hero reborn. Or perhaps a king, or a queen. Or maybe just Joe Peasant, who gets another ride on the Wheel. However it works out, you've discovered that you've pulled the unluckiest card in the reincarnation deck, and your future is to be hated and feared, and eventually to die in battle against the greatest evil humankind has ever known.
You might go a bit nuts. Rand al'Thor certainly does.
Not the inevitable madness of being a man who can channel, thank the Light, just the understandable mental breakdown that comes with knowing that you're the doomed reincarnation of one of history's greatest monsters. Rand is off to the great city of Tear, on the southern coast. In the great, power-wrought fortress that sits at its center, there is Callandor, the Sword That Is Not A Sword, and an object of great power for any male channeler who holds it. What's more, only the Dragon Reborn can remove it from its suspension inside the Stone of Tear. By taking Callandor, Rand will finally prove to himself and the world that he is the Dragon Reborn.
His friends, in the meantime, think this is a mad plan. No army has ever broken the Stone of Tear, and the city itself hates and despises channelers. Moiraine knows that Rand could get himself killed in Tear, thus dooming the world. So, with Lan, Loial and Perrin, she chases after Rand to try and ensure that he fulfills his true destiny.
So it's not for nothing that we don't see a lot of Rand al'Thor in this book, despite him being the title character. In fact, except for occasional brief interludes, we don't get a chapter from Rand's point of view until chapter 55, just in time for the climactic final battle. I'm of two minds on this decision by Jordan. On the one hand, it frees up a lot of pages for the other characters in the book - Perrin gets a lot of time to shine, and Mat's healing in the White Tower lets us get to know him a little better and get a better view of the White Tower and Tar Valon. We spend much more time with Egwene, Nynaeve and Elayne as they head down to Tear to chase down the Black Ajah, and get a good look at the Aiel, who will become much more important in the subsequent books.
On the other hand, however, we lose sight of Rand during what is a very important point in his character development - coming to terms with and accepting not only his identity as the Dragon Reborn but the horrible destiny that comes with it. In those brief interludes, we see that he's being hunted by the Shadow, and has to remain on guard against its agents at all times. If we had followed him on this journey, much of what comes after would have made more sense. As it is, by letting him off on his own, Rand's character suffers a great deal, and the reader's ability to empathize with him is irrevocably harmed.
But on the third hand, maybe that was the whole point. No one can understand the Dragon Reborn - not Moiraine, not his best friends, not even the reader. From this book on, Rand will always be harder to understand than the other characters in the series, which may have been Jordan's goal all along.
Another option, of course, is that Jordan wrote several thousand words of Rand's journey to Tear and realized that just following this one guy all by himself as he tries to keep from going nuts wasn't as interesting as we might have thought.
So there's that.
A word, then, on a topic that is central to this series, and I figure it's better to look at it earlier rather than later - women.
As a genre, fantasy doesn't have a very good reputation when it comes to female characters. More often than not, women are either objects of the male protagonist's quest, or they are hindrances to him. Fantasy remains a very male-dominated genre, and for female readers there are slim pickings when it comes to whom you can imagine yourself being. While Wheel of Time is still an andro-centric story, the roles and responsibilities given to female characters are enormous, and Jordan has created a world in which the status of women is far higher than in most fantasy worlds. It is a world where men and women are different, but equal, and neither is presumed to be superior to the other. This is neatly illustrated in the nature of the True Source, the energy that turns the Wheel of Time and thus is the engine of all creation.
The Source is divided into female and male, saidar and saidin. While saidin was horribly corrupted by the Dark One, it is repeatedly made clear that neither is stronger than the other, and that the greatest works of the Age of Legends always came when men and women worked together. Even on a non-magical scale, it is shown that the roles of men and women in this world are distinctly different, but occupying a certain stable balance that allows the world to work. In personal relationships too, there is no relationship I can recall where either the man or the woman can be said to be "in charge" (except in cases like Lan and Moiraine, where one has specifically sworn to obey the other). One of my favorite examples: Egwene, Elayne and Nynaeve have gone to Tear to hunt the Black Ajah. Far away, in Caemlyn, Mat learns that their lives are in danger from the Shadow's assassins, and promises right there that he's going to save them. Classic male reaction to a Damsel in Distress.
Once he finds them, however, they have pretty much saved themselves - another five minutes or so and they would have done it. Mat's entire involvement in their rescue from the unbreakable Stone of Tear and the horrifying Black Ajah was to unlock a door. He risked life and limb on a quest to rescue these women, only to discover that they don't need rescuing. And in classic male fashion, he spends the next few books sulking about how they didn't thank him for unlocking that pesky door. Well, not all the time, of course, but it certainly comes up again.
It's not feminist lit by any means - Jordan tends to resort to behavioral cliches more with his female characters then male; women glare or sniff or tug their braids as a kind of neon sign that says, "THIS CHARACTER IS ANGRY NOW." But I imagine that female readers of this series will have less trouble finding a character to identify with than they would with, say, Lord of the Rings, which has only one female character of any note (Eowyn - Arwen is barely in the books at all). And there's a lot of "I guess I'll just never understand women" talk from a lot of the male characters, while the female characters tend to hold themselves in slightly higher esteem. But for all that, I imagine there were plenty of female readers who saw themselves in these books, and who spent more than a little time wondering which Ajah they would choose, if only they could be Aes Sedai.
Of course, I am a man, so I could be completely wrong.
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"Men fight when they should run, and fools fight when they should run. But I had no need to say it twice."
- Zarine, The Dragon Reborn
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http://alienlovespredator.com/2009/11/13/bleeding-is-fundamental/ http://alienlovespredator.com/?p=1416 
Friday update what
The Mythbusters claimed they busted the myth that you can get electrocuted by peeing on the third rail of a subway. But they didn’t use a real human subject in their methods so I’m still keeping the torch lit. The Straight Dope couldn’t really bust it either. There’s still hope.
Reminder: Follow me on Twitter, become a fan at the aLp page on Facebook, hang out on the official aLp forums. |
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I'm working on my Scout Company and was thinking about HQ choices. I'm not a fan of a Libratian, Chaplain or Master of the Forge leading a Scout company so I settles on a Captain. After thinking about that for a while, I grew to hate the idea of my Captain running around in power armor. It both makes sense and doesn't at the same time.
The short of it is that I plan to run a Master of the Recruits in Scout armor as a Captain (100 points) with some changes. I'm borrowing heavily from Telion and some other sources.
Save reduced to 4+ and wearing carapace armor.
No access to artificer armor or terminator armor.
No access to jump pack.
Add Move Through Cover, Scout, Stealth and Infiltrate to special rules
Change the rule about SM Bike units to Scout Bike units meaning that if he is riding a bike then Scout Bike units can be taken as Troops.
Add Rights of Battle to special rules.
If Master of the Recruits is chosen, one Scout Squad may be upgraded to Scout Command with the following options:
(I'd be open to suggestion on how to handle this.)
Moving on to the Imperial Fists, a discussion of Apocalyptic datasheets, the Idea of a bunch of THSS termies marching across the battlefield. I want to cook up a datasheet that involves Lysander and 3+ 10 man squads of THSS termies but do not knwo what kind of fuity rules to give it. Reroll failed saves as long as all members are in base contact with the squad? Give a bonus cover save to friendly models behind them (like a 3+ cover save)? I'm at a loss but all taht yellow would be pretty.
What do you think? |
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So i was coaxed into a PS campeign last night and it went pretty well. I used Chaos Marines and I managed a win and a tie. Out of the map both sides managed to claim 3 territories from each other so it was technically a stalemate. Many ppl made a joke that we will most likely end up on opposite ends of the map when it is done and over with.
The first battle was against GreyKnights and i was the attacker. My Obliterators definately won the day, killing a whole unit of Grey Knights and a whole unit of his GreyKnight Terminators with Plasma Cannons. It took 4 turns for one of my CSM units to sufficently damage a Land Raider that was sitting on the objective and it was my Lord and his unit of Terminators that had to finish it off with my Aspiring Champions Chainfist to claim victory. At the end of the bought he had just his Inquisitor w/ Retinue in a bunker, which was just moments from being assaulted.
My Second Fight was against Black Templars... as the Defender... It was tough. The fact that I managed a tie was just out of shear bruteness from both sides. If it wasn't for the fact that his Chaplain and his largest unit came in a turn late then the rest of his army and teleported away from the whole fight it would have been a different story. He took one objective completely at the start of second turn but the fact that he had to constantly charge the nearest enemy unit after getting shot got his Commander into combat with my Lord and was carved in half by the daemon weapon. 4 wounds (after taking 1 previous by a powerfist in taking the objective) and i then fell back my whole army to make room for the Chaplain and his monster sized unit of 20+ (10 neophytes, 3 Servitors, and 10 Initates all built for cc). When he bunched up to take the first objective i laid into him with everything I had but it wasn't enough to coax him out of cover to hit him with my unit of Terminators so we settled at the end game for a tie (he had 1 objective i had 1).
I must say, Daemon Weapons are very risky to deal with. But, I've had nothing but great luck with the Tzeentch Daemon Weapon. That weapon alone in the shooting phase has done some rediculous pain on foes, especially space marines (24" D6 Str4 Ap3 shots). Between that and the chainfist on the Aspiring Champion in the unit, as well as the 2 Reaper Autocannons, they are the workhorses to an otherwise pointy but highly effective unit. Most armies bend around the presence of 10 Nurgle Terminators, and by that standard alone tactically they are worth every point. |
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This week we have "Shutting Out the Sun" by Michael Zielenziger (whose name I repeatedly mess up, my apologies Mr. Z) about social withdrawal in Japan. And if that doesn't just get your fires burning, then I don't know what will....
As a reminder, I'm on Twitter as @lablib and am currently only a scant 2 million followers (give or take) short of Oprah-level fame. So get on that, people.
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Now for some warriors. Too bad the Battalion box didn't come with enough shields. I'm done with the Dark Elves for a bit. Next week is the week to work on my Lizards.
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http://alienlovespredator.com/2009/11/10/ok-ill-pedal/ http://alienlovespredator.com/?p=1413 
I’m gonna see if I can do these quicker, get on with this crazy storyline, and dare I say it, update more. Starting with another new comic on FRIDAY. SEE YOU BACK HERE THEN.
Reminder: Follow me on Twitter, become a fan at the aLp page on Facebook, hang out on the official aLp forums. |
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Oath...that is all.
Actually, yeah, how are you all doing on this? I've seen a few completions, a few in-progress...I'm wrapping up one troop choice and getting ready to do another this weekend.
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Since I'm cooped up at home sick, I was thinking to myself (always a dangerous proposition, even without meds in my system) and inspired by snot, thought I'd see if there was any interest out there in a fully painted Chaos/Nurgle army? I've got one I did up for an oath a while back that's fully painted and comes with a pair of Sabol Platoon cases. It occurred to me that I have over 35 armies around here between Hordes, WarMachine, 40K and WFB and I could probably stand to part with one or two if it'll help fund the future ones. So I've put up some pictures for reference - mostly just putting out feelers as I've not yet really settled on a price (includes Forge World stuff and some one-off conversions). Figure if there's interest, I'll actually get the list together and come up with a price. I'd rather work through fellow gamers here than chance eBay if I can help it (got massively burned on the Orks :( Good deals for buyers, but not so much for me). If anyone's interested, or knows of someone who might be (hey, why not give the gift of Nurgle for Christmas?), let me know and I'll get the whole shebang together.
( Pics )
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Here is my Assassin
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My boy Vulkan (Also known as Nemoy) makes all TH count as master-crafted meaning that you get one reroll to hit. If I were to take 5 Termies with THs, how would I roll this? Rolling for each termie one at a time would be too damned slow. Gettin 5 rerolls aint exactly fair. |
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I decided it was time for my son to embrace his heritage as a gamer. I dug out my old first edition copy of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay to introduce him to roleplaying games. After all, I started gaming at about his age and it will require less miniatures and less confusing rules for him to start out this way. (As GM the rules will be my problem. Also, I've only got one fantasy army -- Orcs and Gobbos -- although I do have enough miniatures to make up skirmishers from other races.) When I told him this he got excited for a few minutes until he realized I was talking about the roleplaying game and not the tabletop game (I don't have the money to purchase the latest edition and the rules I have for it are scattered and buried in boxes). He turned to me and said "this isn't like Dungeons and Dragons, is it? I hate that game.
I'm crushed.
I convinced him that I would definately use miniatures for the battles, they'll just be smaller scale fights than he was interested in and that seemed to placate him.
In tangentally related news -- I'm thinking about selling my copies of Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness and Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned. Both are in pretty good shape, although not perfect. I was just wondering if there is still demand for these books. They're way more interesting than the current line of Army books and have much more detail for WFRP, WFB, and W40K. |
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Disclaimer: I am no great painter. I play horde armies, and I go for speed. Prime, basecoat, ink, drybrush highlight, then a few details. I think my main strength is as a converter. So, I'm not claiming that these look great or anything, merely that they're about as done as I'm going to make them. I'm open to suggestion, especially easy one.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44488911@N02/
The above is a link to my Flickr. The 20 horms, 16 spinegaunts, hive tyrant, 2 winged fexes and 2 regular fexes were all painted since the oath began. I've included my hierodule (which I'll use as a Trygon if it's in the new book), my harridan, my mech stompa, my fateweaver, and my WIP bloodcrushers.
I'm probably going to work on some more tyranids since the book is due out soon, but this should cover me as far as the oath is concerned.
Peace outCurrent Mood: sleepy Current Music: News on the TV |
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Nov. 9th, 2009 @ 05:20 pm
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With my week off I decided to hunker down and get some things painted using the GW Spray Gun. I set out 70+ Marauders and the leftovers of my Beastman army to finish. I had a table outside in the beautiful weather. I had my air in a can locked and loaded and all I had to do was put the paint in the pot.
Right... the paint... -sigh-. Two bottles of Scorched Brown and what do you get? Two near Empty pots of Scorched Brown. I managed to spray 10 beastman until the paint ran out. Rather dissapointing considering the nearest GW is closed on Mondays AND Tuesdays and it is going to Rain on Wed. From the looks of the weather outside I have no doubt that'll be kicked up a notch for tomorrow, but luckily the rest of the week will remain the same as it was earlier today, sunny and beautiful.
So right now i have a decision to make. Is it worth going almost an hour+change out of my way to get 2 bottles of scorched brown (and two new cans of air just be on the safe side) OR do I wait till Wed to pick it up locally so i can work on it (hopefully) by Thursday?
BLAH!! |
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Below the cut are pics of a termie Chaplain that I did long ago but had no pics of, my Vulkan conversion, a SM Captain with LC and removable JP, the second termie sergeant from the last post and Chaplain Cassius that has been converted for my Blood Angels. The codex says that I have to rename him to use him in a non UM army so I was thinking "Chaplain Fuckass" like outta Boondock Saints.
( Read more... ) |
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This weekend we will be having our next event; ASSAULT III: THE AGE OF HERESY at Brother's Grim Games and Collectibles in Selden, NY. This event will feature 4 Heresy themed scenarios, our forth annual painting competition, a coloring competition for children under 10 years old and lunch will be supplied. We hope to see you all there!
( Assault III Flyer ) |
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Nov. 9th, 2009 @ 07:31 am
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I deployed again, this time with 4 other players in my unit.
And I end up at a seperate base from the rest.
So, I'm working on WH40K through email, via power point. It's scary, cause it just might work. |
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I started these guys a few days before the Oath started. There are 10 termies with 2 special weapon guys that are magnetized for HF/AC,CML, a sergeant, and 1 or 2 guys that have chainfists magnetized. The plastic transport case is also housing all the termie bits for my 1st company. They are a mix of AOBR, regular and Space Hulk terminators.
Also finished but not pictured are my Vulkan conversion and an magnetized terminator sergeant.
( Lots of pics under cut. ) |
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I got my first regiment of my Dark Elves done.
Dark Elf Corsairs :)
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