Stylin' and Profilin' WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

A nod or two to the Naitch, Ric Flair. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

So I've been nominated as a Stylish Blogger by my pal Lefteris (AKA, the Anti-Pope) over at 122nd Cadian.

Lefteris/Antipope,


σας ευχαριστούμε!

Thank you so much for the fabulous honor, and for being ever-so-generous to me and my blog. I am especially grateful for your assistance with my MOST POPULAR post ever, "Show Some Skin". Your kindness and willingness to share your lovely tats was most appreciated by yours truly. Your blog is a true asset to the Greek community. I've found some great articles, fabulous writers, fun models and really interesting lists over your way, and learned some more Greek. I'm truly honored to be so well regarded by such a treasure.

This award is a way for us bloggers to show appreciation for each others' work and efforts in the community- something I can really get behind. 

Here are the rules:

-- Thank and link back to the person giving you the award (see above)
-- Share seven things about yourself
-- Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award
-- Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

Seven things...


1- I've spoken on the phone to over 1000 people in 60 different countries and 10 different time zones. 


2- As a result of #1, I can speak roughly 10 phrases in about 20 languages. I can also read basic phrases in most Romance and Germanic languages, and infer or deduce content in many others. 


3- I am a certified Francophile.


4- I love serial killer fiction, facts, films, novels and much more. I especially love to read how they are CAUGHT. 


5- I am a terrible housekeeper, but TheDude married me anyway.


6- I can bake anything except pie. 
7- I've already admitted this several times, but I love professional wrestling. I'll totally admit to marking out! (At the moment, not watching, as the writing truly stinks.)

Now it's time to return the favor!  Let's plug the community. My community is a little larger and a little more diverse than just 40K, so I've got some real treats for you. 




http://netherwerks.blogspot.com/  A lovely couple, who produce some mind-blowing, non-traditional work. 


http://unknownzine.blogspot.com/ I'd be hard pressed to find a more generous, creative, innovative and WOD digging dude. 

http://www.implausiblenature.net/laeroths-blog.html Has had a large hand in my ability to actually win games with my Black Templar in 40K.

http://lauby.blogspot.com/ A guy who gets the call of roleplaying, miniatures, and the community in general.

http://craftworldkahos.blogspot.com/ I pushed him to start his own blog, and he's doing a grand job with it. I'm especially fond of his rants.

http://dicerolla.blogspot.com/ Thanks for stopping in, and your blog is always a treasure.

http://digital-waaagh.blogspot.com/ Has done a ton for Orks, and 'Old Skool' 40K.


http://kennedy40k.blogspot.com/ The Resident Professional! With all kinds of shiny advice and fantastic goodies.

http://creativetwilight.com/  Thor is the man, with some of the best information for a new player available- he totally puts my "40K for Beginners" to shame and I love it.

http://touchedbygreatness.blogspot.com/ Stormy has a ridiculous sense of humor and a great army. His blog is a trove of information and fun for those on the other side of the ocean.

http://thefallenprinces.blogspot.com/ Who else is doing the Badab Project? Who else has the Eldar Dictionary? How cool is this blog?

http://defendinghumanity.blogspot.com/ I really love this IG oriented blog, and I'm still hunting for the beer he showcased during his live tournament blogging. 

http://von-gameover.blogspot.com/  Von's another voice with a blend of RPG, miniatures, and other obscura. I find his wealth and depth of knowledge, intuition and experience a genuine pleasure to read. 

http://jrients.blogspot.com/ Simply, the best OSR RPG blogger. Great wit, wonderful insanity, and genuinely nice guy.

http://gopherdave.blogspot.com/  I might be a little prejudiced, but the man wears a tie every day. How much more stylin' can you get?

So there you have it, a list of some very styling blogs and a big huge thank you!

Be Well,

'Lo

[RPG] Who We Want

Inspired in part by Christian's post, "I Need To Recruit These People", I started thinking about the social aspect of games. I was really struck by certain facts: I'm not actively in an RPG at the moment, and it's a pretty deliberate choice.

I want to have a good time when I play a game- and I want a truly social experience. I've discovered that there are a lot of people I want to TALK to, but not near as many that I want to game with. I deliberately try to play with people that have an idea of what "cinematic" and "thematic" visions are, and aren't afraid to share their creative genius (but do so without hogging the spotlight). I try to play with people that have some manners, respect for others, and a sense of irreverent frivolity as much as an ability to carry a serious scene.

There are some people who have all these abilities in spades, but I don't play with them. A good example: The Dude. He's a brilliant roleplayer, fantastic and dynamic, understands a meaty plothook as well as a goofy spinoff or tangent, and can pull heady sexuality, morbid or terrifying equally well. I'd forgotten until we played in TheJoe's HS6E together how hard it is for me to game with him. I find myself falling into a "follower" position very quickly and easily, because I'm generally his supporter in real life- it's just easy. I don't really LIKE this particular behavior and it's usually not appropriate for the character I am trying to play- and it's hard to admit that as much as I respect and admire him, I can't play with him and have a good time. I'm constantly battling myself- which I don't enjoy; even a little bit.

I was recently offered a chance to play in a different HS6E game, and I passed on it. Between logistics and knowing I'd be playing with TheDude, I knew it would be a struggle. I don't want to struggle with the real life aspects. I want any struggle I deal with to be game oriented.

I know who I'd like to play with, and I'll just wait until those opportunities are available, rather than playing "just because" and maybe not having a good time.  Maybe a little selfish, but I'm tired of struggling.

[40K] Rescued pictures

So I scheduled this last night after I spent some time figuring out why my pictures wouldn't upload from my camera (let's call it operator error and leave it at that, shall we?) and thought you'd enjoy a look at some of the fun things I saw.

First off, the conversion bug has hit a couple of the guys at 40K night HARD. There's an incredible Chaos/Dreadknight conversion, and now this guy- a Defiler/Dreadknight kitbash.

I love the arms on this guy!

Next up, we have my Terminator squad- yeah, the one that ran off the board. It was such a rare occurrence, I just had to take a picture. This particular one is from earlier in the evening, before they chickened out.

Last but NOT least, Tom's Eldar flying beauties.

I just love his use of color and "light". I'm also very fond of his thick black lines between sections. It's a real trick to get even lines without any bleedover, and his models always look nice and clean.

Thanks for stopping in!

[40K] Eldar/IG vs BT/GK

This was the last week of league, with my partner and I scheduled to face the Eldar/Star Wars IG army.

My good friend Tom came with his Eldar, but his partner of the "Ballerina Darth Vader" had to work. Tom got partnered with a different IG player, who brought TONS of mech. My partner brought Justicar Tharn, some Terminators to back him up, a Dreadnaught, a Rhino with some guys in it, and a small squad of elite guys.  I went with a "silly" list suggested by a friend, full of nothing but Terminators and a small CCW Squad of Initiates.

I got stuck at the counter for a bit with customers, so deciding first turn (them), deployment (standard), mission (seize ground)  and even setup was pretty much all done when I finally arrived. I got my doodz out of the bag and promptly rolled to seize. It worked!

On our first turn, we blow up a Vendetta and an artillery piece, which was pretty important to prevent template death. (That was pretty fun!)  Our opponents shot at us with a metric crapton of guns. That was pretty fun, too. Watching all those dice hit the table is always a good time. It does stink when your guys get blown up, though.

Turn two, I moved my Initiates across the board from cover towards another area of cover and shot some more. I refused some shooting by those Xenos and Heretical scum with my CMLS (yay), and got blown up by template weapons (boo).

Turn three was the GK show, with all kinds of shooting and IG death-dealing going on over the opponent's corner. A Demo squad got eaten up some, and then they shot at us.My contribution was support, along with deep striking the ThunderHammer/Storm Shield/Lightning Claws Terminators in close to their objective.

Turn four, my little CCW squad was headed towards the objective (a two-pronged assault on the area, wow!) when they got SHOT UP. Of course, this made my guys run the other way (towards the enemy), and put them pretty close to hand-to-hand range. They wound up taking on WarWalkers and having a little snack, but the big news was that my squad of Terminators at the back of the board (sporting CMLs) was shot up and they FAILED THEIR LEADERSHIP CHECK. (They have a 10! It's pretty hard to do on 2D6!) Then, I rolled 11" for fall back, and they ran right off the board. UGH. This was of course, good news for the other guys.

Turn five was pretty grim looking over all: We were down to the GK Terminators holding our objective and a few of my Assault Termies.Tom had a ton of Eldar troop doodz and was shooting the ever-loving bejezzus outta me with them. He shot them off the objective, which made me kinda sad, but my partner saved the day by staying put with his guys on ours, and when Tom rolled to end the game, we were up by 1 objective.

What I learned: Maybe I should be playing GK. Those guys kick serious butt. I pretty laughingly said that my job all league was to die so my partner didn't. But it was true. His guys were there to kick rear, take names and chew some bubble gum- and they were all outta bubble gum.

What I can improve on: I can really work on being a better distraction (heh). Maybe paint my guys pink or something (serious joke.)


About my opponents: Tom is a class act, a ton of fun, and has the loveliest models I have ever laid eyes on in person. His partner was very effective with his army but not so much fun.

I was all set to show you Tom's magnificently pretty Eldar, but my camera is acting up and I can't upload pictures. BUMMER.

The game moved very quickly, which was pretty interesting to me. I've been really catching on the rules and doing better, but I caught a couple mistakes and a few moments where I didn't know what was going on.