Bugman's XXXXXX

If he were to issue you a challenge, you'd thank him for the privilege.

His Inspiring Presence affects all units, everywhere.

He can contest table quarters he's never even been to.

He is, The Most Interesting Man in the Old World.

I don't always drink Bugman's, but when I do, I prefer Seis Equis.

Stay bloodthirsty, my friend.

Mechanical Hamster blog

For those who haven't checked it out yet, I highly recommend reading Mechanical Hamster, Gav Thorpe's weblog. He has a lot of great posts with insightful comments on gaming and on writing. A recent post, entitled The Gaming Contract, has some well-reasoned thoughts on the spectrum of gaming styles, from competitive to casual. It's a good read, and I agree with a lot of his comments, especially that people need to be open with themselves and others about what kind of gaming experience they are after.

For me personally, I think I mostly enjoy the hobby for the great narrative aspects, and the chance to tell a story that unfolds as you play the game, or between games even. I like building on the background of my armies and adding to the storylines of the armies or characters I'm playing. On the other hand, during a game, I definitely enjoy the tactical challenge of trying to defeat the enemy or achieve the objectives in different situations.

However, I could never treat wargaming as being completely competitive. First of all, because it mostly comes down to luck anyway. Second, I wouldn't be interested in always playing a "standard" mission where both sides set up exactly the same to make it "fair", and have the same objectives. I also have no interest in using the same exact army list with all the "optimal" units every game. I'd get bored with those games pretty quickly, which is part of the reason I think Warhammer Fantasy doesn't hold my interest as well as 40K does.

I also am perfectly happy to make up missions, special rules, etc, if I think it will make for a fun game. Some people don't want to do anything that deviates from the official rules, as if they're afraid the rules police will come after them for not playing the game correctly. Certainly different people have a different definitely of what they think is fun. For me, when it comes right down to it, I've never had a fun game that was a complete blowout. Even the competitive part of me that enjoys the tactical challenge doesn't find anything fun about a game that wasn't close. The very best games are those that come right down to the wire, where you don't know who is going to win until the very end of the game. I also don't have much fun when there is no story behind the battle taking place. When there is a background story, or the characters in the game have a background story, I have much more fun, even when losing.

I'd be interested in hearing from other people where they fall in that gaming style spectrum. Are you in it for the tactical challenge, and treat it as a competitive hobby? Are you more interested in a narrative and want you battle to tell a fun story? Do you just care about the spectacle of really nicely painted miniatures doing battle on a table full of great terrain? Something in between?

Old Tyranid Warriors

I just finished painting up an old unit of Tyranid Warriors. A really old unit, in fact. Actually, these were the very first Warhammer 40,000 miniatures I ever purchased. This was right after the Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition boxed game came out. I didn't even have the game yet, but I did get a box of plastic miniatures that included these Tyranid Warriors, some plastic Genestealers which I still use, some really awful plastic Space Marine Temrinators, and some plastic Space Marine scouts, all with mohawks, as was the style back then.

Tyranid Trygon/Mawloc

After magnetizing all my Tyranid Warrior weapon options and seeing how well that turned out, I've started thinking about magnetizing other things. When I put together my new Trygon, I decided I might as well use some magnets. There aren't really different options that can be switched out, aside from the different tail variants and different sized arms. You can't switch between a Trygon and Mawloc, but I thought that magnetizing the arms and tails would give me more variety. Also, magnetizing the two body sections together, and also the head, would make it much easier to store and transport.

Shrine of The Aquila

I have assembled my Warhammer 40,000 Shrine of The Aquila terrain kit. I think it turned out pretty well. After assembling it I attached it to a base. You'll want to make sure the pieces are sitting on a completely flat surface when you glue them together, otherwise they'll end up crooked and not sit flat on the base. I glued some leftover pieces, cut up sprue, and small ballast to the base as rubble.

I basecoated the whole thing in black, and then sprayed a coat of grey, trying not to completely cover everything so that a little of the black showed through. This gives it a bit of a textured look. Here are some pictures.

Having never painted a building before, I'm now realizing that I have no idea of how to go about it. Does anyone out there have any suggestions? Should I get a really big brush and a bigthing of light grey paint and give the whole thing a dry brush? Should I make all the beams, rivets, and floor pieces a metallic color, or leave them grey? I'll do the details like the lamps and tubing at the end, but I'm not sure where to begin.

Painting Tyranid Warriors

This is a step by step guide to how I painted my Tyranid Warriors.

Warhammer 40,000 Battle Report: Lost Company on Planet 18-D93

The Setup
This was another game played at the Battle Bunker using my Tyranid army, this time against a friend's Imperial Guard at 1750 points. It would be a continuation of my previous several battles, following the exploits of my Tyranids as they continue to devour Planet 18-D93. We decided this battle would take place on the continent already conquered by the Tyranids, and involve a small Imperial Guard force that had been left behind and somehow survived the scouring of the doomed continent.

We decided to play a Battle Mission, selected randomly from the Tyranid and Imperial Guard missions as normal. However, we agreed that regardless of the mission rolled, we would again treat all area terrain as dangerous, representing the fact that the continent is breaking apart and spewing up hot gasses, magma, jagged rocks, etc. The mission we rolled was a Tyranid one, called, ironically, First Contact.