Eldar Pictures, and 100th post nonsense

And so, after just about 4 full months, I've reached the arbitrary '100 posts' mile stone. Funny, we talked about milestones in Contract Management today...so it goes.

For your entertainment/edification/what-have-you (and my Eldar-oriented readers) I have proof that I have not abandoned the pointy-eared
old arrogant guys (or gals). I took the plunge and painted up the Howling Banshee squad I'd acquired some time ago from Xardian.

They started white, got hit with warlock purple + wash o' Leviathan Purple. Then add ice blue to the cloth bits and jewels, Asurmen blue for the cloth, and white + bleached bone + Devlan Mud to the white and gold bits. Weapons are red + Baal Red wash. The basing is Xard's GS basing, and I think I'm going to just carry that through the rest of the army.

The next exhibit is my Princess Yriel(ette?) conversion. Banshee body with arm switches, and a scratch-made cloak. In part this is a test of whether or not I'll be using these cloaks on my Deathwing conversions, but I'm liking it thus far.

That Promised Musing

Looking back, I think I'm pretty prolific. Then again, I've been unemployed since I started this blog. Make no mistake, I like the spare time, but...amusingly enough, I'm pretty much out of stuff to paint.

Ok, technically, I've stripped some of my Eldar and have plans to re-work them, but my ability to purchase things has...dropped. There's that whole 'no money' thing. Kind of amusing, but also kind of annoying. (Well, not 'kind of', I'd really like to get a damn job and get on with life rather than just stay in school a bit longer).

Even when I do get a job and my 40k time wanes, I intend to keep on updating this. I feel, in part, if I've a mission/talent? Contribute clearly-written, well-reasoned articles. I like to think I'm usually responsive to comments, and will entertain alternative viewpoints. Most any tactical article I toss up here gets some revision, and I try to write 'em up and send them to From The Warp because some of their army sections are just woefully incomplete.

I feel like I'm competitive, but for me, part of the fun is trying to win. Figure out how the army works, what compnents are good, how to form them into a good list, and then how to wield them properly. I feel like I've progressed with the Eldar (but not perfected them), and I think there's plenty of Tau learning to do. I'm going to try to do a bit less in the way of little list tweaks, just to figure out the full impact of it. Ideally, I'll lock it down to a few lists and streamline my collection.

Am I against fluff? ...fluff got me into the game, thanks. I've a hefty shelf of 40k novels. The hobby? I think that's also important; that's why I've been trying to work on Daemons and also the Deathwing. While winning's fun and the tactical game is fun, I also feel like I've emphasized trying to have a neat-looking army.

Competitive vs. 'fun'? Bull. Competitive AND Hobby

I think when you get down to it, there's this strange misconception that you're either having fun, OR winning. There's some mutual exclusivity.

I won't lie; I think some of us are playing different versions of 40k. There's competition, and there's hobby. I have nothing against either; I think the Deathwing and any Daemon list I come up with might have some 'hard' components, but I think they're more fun. I think the Tau list I'll end up using is more killy, but I think you can still get a theme on.

At the end, I have no animosity against 'hobby' folks. I think I do a bit of both, though my strengths lie more towards coming up with and trying to explain tactics/blowing up the other guy.

I do think, though, that both extremes of the continuum can acknowledge each other, admit there's a difference, and just get on with life. I suppose the most recent example is the BoLS-Con. I admit, I'm scratching my head at the winning list. I think there's a good lesson here about learning your army; you can pull internet tactics all you want (and learn from them), but there's still practice.

(as an aside? I am totally envious of the skill/time/effort put into that Tyranid army).

Getting back to it, the tournament was run differently than others, to my understanding. The pace, and all that were different.

My ultimate take on this? Always put news in context; this is no exception. We're people, we're stuck with bounded rationality. I don't care whatever your classes have taught you about people. We're lazy. We don't always do our homework, and sometimes we'll just flat-out ignore inconvenient facts. Don't be that. Do your homework, and be honest with yourself.

That's me, at least, and maybe I'm a stickler for it because of some scientific method training.

Anyway, enough aimless pondering for the day. Give yourself a cookie if you wandered through this last section in depth.*

*I learned the hard way not to promise cookies. I still owe Xardian one for a gutsy deep strike. Never seen anyone pull off so many risky deep-strikes. LUCK OF THE DEVIL.