Monday, June 14, 2021

In the blink of an eye...8 years passed.

 It has been eight years since my last 40k blog post.

What have I been doing?  Well, not playing 40k.

There is no tragic backstory to this; 40k became unsustainable to me as a competitive player.

In the past three weeks I have played five games of ninth edition 40k. (This is more games than I played of 6th, 7th, and 8th editions combined).

I walked into a 120 player 40k tournament last month...and knew exactly zero people.

I don't know if I'm back.  I don't know who is still around, if anyone, from the old days.

Stay tuned...or wait eight more years.

-SaintOmerville



Thursday, February 21, 2013

Inventory 3: Chaos Space Marines: Alpha Legion

For the final Tier 3 army I am getting rid of, I present, the Alpha Legion.

[All of the power armor marines have a Metal Alpha Legion Shoulderpad]
[I have extra shoulder pads]
-Chaos Lord in Terminator Armor (assembled, arms magnetized.)
-Chaos Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (assembled, arms magnetized)
-15 Plastic Chaos Terminators on GW "Ruins" bases (mostly assembled, I have all of the bits)
  • 2 Dual Lighting Claws
  • 3 Chainfist, Heavy Flamer
  • 4 Combi-Melta
  • 4 Combi-Flamer
  • 2 Powerfist
-4 Rhinos (assembled, two have Forgeworld Alpha Legion side doors)
-2 Chaos Predators w/Autocannon, Lascannon Sponsons, Forgeworld Alpha Legion Front Plate
-2 Forgeworld "Black Legion" Dreadnoughts with Autocannon and missile launcher [unassembled, not pictured]
51 Chaos Space Marines (all w/Alpha Legion Metal Shoulderpad)
  • Standard Bearer
  • 3 Plasma Guns
  • 1 Converted Autocannon
  • 4 Meltaguns
  • 1 Flamer
  • 2 Powerfists
Pics below



These are all new kits and pricey ones, with Forgeworld modifications.
$400 for the lot (Its estimated value is around $640)

If interested, hit me up.

This is the last in the series of the "Tier 3" armies I have.

-Saint Omerville

Inventory 2: Grey Knights

Now for part two, Grey Knights.
{Note: most of the models I have are the older metal versions with Halberds}

-Brother-Captain Stern (metal, assembled)
-Lord Kaldor Draigo (metal, unassembled)
-Inquisitor w/Plasma Pistol + Power Sword (metal, primed)
-Forgeworld Grey Knights Dreadnought (Resin, no arm weapon, unassembled)

-Terminators (all Metal, weapons are either Sword or Halberd plus Storm Bolter unless otherwise indicated)
  • 5 w/Psycannon
  • 4 w/Incinerator
  • 1 Daemonhammer
  • 18 Others
-Power Armor (all metal, most have Halberds and Storm Bolter; some have Sword and Storm Bolter)  There are many missing backpacks, but these can be gotten from GW rather cheaply.
  • 45 regular (Sword or Halberd )
  • 2 Psycannons
  • 7 Incinerators
  • 3 Plastic With Daemonhammer (some converted)
In addition, I purchased new plastic kits for the following.

Terminators(box of 5 plastic): Everything is here except the Apothecary bits and one power sword.
Grey Knights(box of 5 plastic): There is only one model left the rest were used used to make the Daemonhammers.

There are lot of models included, but they need a good bit of work, as you can see from the pics below.








I will tag this lot at $150.
Contact me if interested!

-Saint Omerville

Inventory 1: Chaos Daemons

As promised (promised?), I completed a self-inventory of all the models I own for my aforementioned "Tier 3" armies.

First up, the Daemons

The Daemons
-OOP Greater Daemon of Tzeentch (metal, two-heads)
-OOP Keeper of Secrets (metal, primed black)
-Metal Bloodthirster (needs a little repair)
-2 Partially converted Heralds of Tzeentch on "Chariot" (Currently, a Chariot base, Screamer, and Fantasy Tzeentch Lord on Disc)
-Partially converted Herald of Khorne on Chariot (There is currently a Metal Juggernaught and a base)
-Epidemius
-40 Pink Horros (10 Plastic, assembled) (30 Metal; 10 basecoated, 10 assembled, 10 unassembled)
-10 Plastic Bloodletters (assembled)
-10 Metal Plaguebearers (assembled)
-5 Metal Nurgling Bases (assembled)
-6 Metal Fiends of Slaanesh (assembled, primed, one is base-coated an awful yellow)
-8 Metal Flamers of Tzeentch (assembled, most have arms pinned)
-6 Metal Screamers (unassembled)
-3 Metal OOP Daemon Princes (1 assembled, one painted, one unassembled)

Pics Below.




I have no idea how much this would be worth in current monetary terms.  Let's say $200 for everything.
If interested, contact me.

-Saint Omerville

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Thinning the Horde

In whole or in part, I own the following 40k armies.  By armies, I mean enough to field one or more 2000 point lists without allies.  I own 2-3 "allied" detachments, which I will be keeping, since they are easy

-Imperial Guard
-Blood Angels
-Sisters of Battle
-Eldar
-Chaos Space Marines
-Chaos Daemons
-Grey Knights

If I divide this list into tiers based on the amount of each I own, it would look like the following:

Tier 1: (Own the most of)
-Blood Angels
-Imperial Guard

Tier 2:
-Eldar
-Sisters of Battle

Tier 3: (Own the least of)
-Chaos Space Marines
-Chaos Daemons
-Grey Knights

The purpose of this is to rationalize to myself which of these I want to keep.  Since I am on hiatus from playing competitive 40k, I have little use for seven full armies.  I am trying to decide which of these armies I will be keeping.  I am currently leaning towards keeping one Tier 1 and one Tier 2 army, but I have not decided upon which ones I will be keeping.

The first decision is an easy one,  every Tier 3 army will be liquidated and turned (hopefully) into cash.  I am under no delusions in terms of selling GW models.  I am certain that I will not be making back what I put into my "investment".  In actuality, I am not certain that I will be able to sell these things at all.  I will be "testing the waters" so to speak with the Tier 3 armies to see if it is even practical to sell the other ones.  I am not too certain right now of the state of GW and 40k in my area.  Very few people near me are playing 40k; There are no local stores near me; and there seems to be a general "mass exodus" away from GW in general.  (Like this author, lol)

Now that I have determined that I am selling the Chaos Space Marines, Chaos Daemons, and Grey Knights I need to find a place to sell them.  I have heard mixed reviews about Ebay and it being difficult for sellers.  There have been complaints about "Fees" and Ebay being "buyer-favorable" in terms of disputes.
I guess I will start with local forums, that seems like the smart thing to do.

Tonight, I will take an inventory of the things I own for each of these armies and see where that leads me.

-Saint Omerville

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Trip to GW store ends in elation!

I have not really been keeping up on my reading.  I just finished the "newest" Horus Heresy book, "Shadows of Treachery" and decided to go to my local GW store (The Battle Bunker located in Bowie, MD) to pick up the new book in the line titled "Angel Exterminatus".

After the barrage of "greeting" from the sales-staff, I find my way over to the books section and pick up the newest installment.  Long story short, the book has doubled in physical size and price, but there are about the same number of pages as others in the series.  I ma then gleefully informed that there is a special hardback edition that is only on sale at GW stores, released before Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, et al. get their hands on a copy!!!!fortheemperor!!

All I have to cough up is $30...?  I just kind of stood there for a few moments trying to contemplate why a company would do this.  The sales-clerk then asked if I had been to any 40k tournaments recently, in my haste to respond I quietly uttered "I fucking hate this game".  It turns out that they left me alone after that.  I suppose I did say respond a little hastily to his "tournament" inquiries.

A quick search on Amazon shows me that I can order their books new for a discount of around 38%.  I just realized that I never have to set foot in a GW store ever again.

I am elated at that realization.

-Saint Omerville

Monday, February 11, 2013

Judges v Ref's and Non-Random Thoughts:

It really has been six months since my last blog post.  I use google reader to get updates on all of the blogs that I follow and/or subscribe to.  In the eight months since 6th edition hit, more than half have fallen completely silent.

Does this trend indicate some sort of mass exodus from 40k among players?  Personally, my local group has done almost nothing 40k related as a group since the time we sat down and first read through the rules of 6th edition.

However, the competitive groups seem to be doing just fine.  The internet presence is still strong and new lists are being developed all of the time.

Since the release of 6th, two codices have been released by GW.  These two books mark the first time since third edition that I have not purchased the current codex release by GW.  Unless the price on new codices drops significantly, I will not ever be purchasing a codex from Games Workshop ever again.

For the $50 price tag and sub-par product, they can go fuck themselves.

Now for the brighter news.  I have been asked (and have accepted) to be the head judge for the 40k portion of the NOVA Open this year.  So, naturally I need to learn the rules and play more games of 40k.
I don't actually hate playing 40k, but I have no desire to invest anything needed to be "good" at the game.

Nevertheless I thought it would be a good exercise to discuss the difference between a rules judge and a referee.  As a rules judge, I will not actively interact with ongoing games.  If I happen to walk by and notice someone doing something that is against games rules, I will not intervene in the game, unless prompted by one of players in that game.

The stance that I take is born out of an issue of fairness.  I cannot referee every game, so in fairness to everyone, I will not referee any game. (Unless I am refereeing invitational games, where every table has a ref, of course)

As a follow-on, I will be very hard pressed to change something that both players have agreed upon.  I have seen games where players will agree to something at the beginning of the game only to have a judge rule that "no, X is not Y" and affect the outcome of the game.  As a judge, I do not want to affect the outcome of any game.  If I can make it through the NOVA Open 2013 without affecting any game, I will be very pleased.

The best example of a judge ruling affecting a game is the "do we have time for another turn?" question.  This is a big one, and actually one of the biggest problems in competitive 40k.  I have certainly had my fair share of games where I know how much time is left and either I, or my opponent intends to use ALL of it in order to make the game end when he or I desire.  Anytime I rule on something like this, it appears that I am playing favorites.  This subject could easily encompass an entire blogpost, so I will shelve this articular nuance.

One thing I have noticed recently (on the internet) is the subject of cheating with loaded dice.  If you really believe that your opponent is using fixed or loaded dice at the NOVA Open I want you to do two things.  First, convince yourself that the person is actually using "fixed" or "loaded" dice in your game.  If you really, really, really believe that they are, and not that they just rolled three sixes to blow up your Stormraven with a Hunter-Killer missile, then consult the NOVA guide and ask to use their dice for your rolls as well.  If they refuse, then call me over.

I have a 40k game scheduled for Wednesday evening where I will continue to playtest missions from the NOVA packet.  I also have a few more judge-related posts to make in the coming weeks/months.

Until next time,
Saint Omerville