I think we all probably feel like we could use more practice with our armies, or more test games to help tune your list. Practice makes perfect after all.

But I have a question for all those guys out there in my similar situation. You have work or school, family, or whatever other thing that is more important than your hobby of little plastic toys. How do you find the time to get in practice with your army? How do you play test it enough to know that you have a good list going? How do you know your new tactic ideas are worthwhile or not?

I have read about how some people play games out in their mind. I'm not entirely sure that is valid, but if it works for someone else, then by all means. I have heard about Vassal as well, and being able to play online vs. other people. I have never tried it personally, but I think there would be some loss in translation from table top to computer monitor. Maybe I'm wrong.

There is one idea I haven't ever read about, and maybe because I am looking in the wrong places, but does anyone ever play test against themselves? I'm wondering if this is a viable way to play test an army. Maybe this sounds like craziness, maybe not, but hear me out on the subject.

First off, I would say the majority of players at my LGS are not super competitive. They are all good guys, and make for friendly games. They like to win and all, but it doesn't show in their lists. Read through my battle reports and you will see what I mean. Playing weak lists doesn't help improve my game. Granted it is the only real playtime I get, so I really enjoy it, but it doesn't up my game much. I don't get to see where my lists weaknesses are. I feel like I mostly roll over the people I play. I'm not trying to say I am a great player, and I never lose and so on, I am speaking of the general lack of competition I seem to face. Mech just beats up on foot slogging lists, it is mostly a fact.

Second, one game a week at best, and once a month at worst, does not help with list building skills and playing your best. It just doesn't cut it if you want to tune a list to be tough. It doesn't allow you the chance to hone your tactics with your list either. More games are necessary to really improve yourself.

So what are my options then? My super cool wife would play with me, but only about up to 1000 points. And she wouldn't want to play competitively against me, let alone learn all the intricacies of the game to do so. She is smart enough to stay away from my competitive nature, lol. I can't take off and leave the fam a couple nights a week and be a poor parent, and neither do I want to. I have been thinking these things over and have decided to play games against myself and see how it goes.

I know there are those with disposable income who have multiple armies, sometimes across different game systems, but I'm not one of them, nor will I ever be I'm pretty sure. I do have some extra Tau models knocking about my house and they will soon be recruited into games vs. my Blood Angels, as well as my extra marines that are gathering dust. I will have to do some proxying and "counts as" all along the way, but I'm ok with that. I will have to look at the current winning lists, be they good or bad, and start going up against them. Play as hard as I can for each side, and see how things go.

Has anyone ever tried this before? How did it go? Anyone have any better ideas? I'd love to hear all about it, so please let me know how you all would go about this process. I need the help, so let's hear it!

So we all know the advanced orders are up. It was one of the best Mondays I have had in awhile :)

I have yet to see the codex in person,and it is killing me, lol. I need to see if the FLGS has their black box yet, and get in to see it. I am way excited about it though.

I am stoked to get into the book and start list building. It will start with all the fluffy, super-cool units and characters. I will have a few dreadnoughts in there, most likely at least one librarian dread. I will think I have the uber list, and I am sure I won't. It will be a process to get my list refined and tuned so be as deadly as possible. But the journey with a list is most of the fun.

Who knows what the dominant list type will be? There are a few archetypes that have been floating around in my head and the internet. Not that the two coincide, but here are some of my ideas.

1. Mephiston centered lists. This guy looks to be a CC beast. I will make and play a list with him for sure, and other will do so as well. If the non-IC thing is real, then delivery modes will be hard to come by. He won't warrant his own LR. He can't join in with other squads in Rhino/Razorbacks, and won't join footslogging units to hide him from fire. He will have to be bubble wrapped to prevent him from dying while crossing the board. And marines don't have any cheap bubble wrap, unless you are inducting IG. Who knows where this list will go.

2. Stormraven spam armies. I don't know the points cost for this guy, but again, I want to spam it. Don't know if it is a dedicated transport or a heavy choice, so I don't know how many will fit into a list. But the lists will appear and be played, despite the lack of a model. I know I'll be proxying Rhinos to start.

3. Dante deepstrike lists. I love to deepstrike, even though it is less than optimal in most cases. I just like the variability of it. When you stick the landing in the perfect spot it makes for a really fun game. It is too unreliable most of the time, but Dante fixes that. Apparently he doesn't scatter on a deepstrike. Granted you still have to rely on reserve rolls to get him in play, but most of the danger of the deepstrike is mitigated by his rule. Just imagine him droppping down with 30 death company, wherever he wants. Its ridiculous. With a model footprint that large, just imagine the amount of multicharges you could get. Upgrade the unit with Lemartes, and add in a Librarian for an added cover save from the incoming shooting you will get. It's gotta be a points sink, but loads of fun in my opinion.

4. Land Raider deepstrike. I don't imagine this will fare too well in the melta heavy environment that is 5th ed, but who doesn't at least want to try this out? Who doesn't want to drop some Land Raider Redeemers into enemy lines and melt faces? Don't forget you can still fire one weapon because of Power of the Machine Spirit after landing. Use the multi-melta to pop that Leman Russ, or chew up some Orks with your hurricane bolters or assault cannon. Or you could pop smoke to prevent some of the incoming damage from shooting. Then disgorge your termies or whatever other assault unit packed inside to chew up everything around it. Sounds like win to me!

5. My last entry is an all jump-pack army. I don't see the real merits of this incarnation, but I'm sure I will see it on the gaming board or on the interwebs. I've read that lots of people enjoy jump troops, but you will have a hard time convincing me it is as effective as a mechanized army. AP2 blasts will ruin your day, along with any AP3 or less weapons. This guy will show up, but I don't think it will last very long.

That's all I have for now. Granted those are really open-ended ideas with some wriggle room, but I'm sure you all get my point. Some other things you may see are triple flamestorm Baals, 8+ dreadnought builds, and librarian heavy builds. With the preponderance of cover saves in 5th, fast moving predators with Marine killing flamers are very attractive. Add in the sponson heavy flamers and you have some serious face melting going on. Who doesn't love armor 13 furioso dreads? Only the people being stomped on by them is all. Expect to see them in full force. I'm not sold entirely on the psychic powers, but I just need to see them in person to wrap my head around them all the way.

I'll start posting some more concrete list ideas when I have a tangible codex in hand and the points values. Until then, I'll just be dreaming in Blood Red each night . . .

Ok, this post has nothing to do with business, but whenever I hear the word ethics it makes me think of Billy Madison . . . what a great movie.

Anyways on to the topic. I played in a local tournament and did reasonably well for my first time. I lost one game to a 20 year 40k veteran. He was playing Space Wolves and had a tough army list with all the options you can throw on there. He knew I was a relative newb at 40k, and he deliberately took advantage of that.

So, to start it all off, my list was in limbo right up until it was time to deploy the first game almost. I had the 2 razorback list, but at the last minute I figured I'd drop the TL lascannons and go for more Rhinos for my combat squaded tac squads. Come to find out, that is illegal. Only one transport per squad, even though you are dividing them up. I didn't know that, and my opponent pointed it out kindly to me. I felt mostly retarded, but then he said, "That's fine, don't worry about it." I told him I could change my list easy enough, but he said again not to worry about it. So I didn't. We played on, and he won solidly, but only because he was cheating. I don't know who would have won in the end had it been a legitimate game, he could have still wiped the floor with me, but I don't think that would have been the case.

He had Logan Grimnar in his list who can give one of a few USR's to the squad he has joined. Fearless, preferred enemy, relentless, and another I can't remember. Strong ability right? Well it's even stronger when you call out the ability you want mid-turn rather than at the beginning of the turn like the rule states. Now you might think, who cares. But he was into combat before he tells me that he wants preferred enemy. Then I shoot up Logan's squad and force a Ld check, and here is what could have turned the game around, Logan failed his check. He starts to roll the fallback distance and then declares, "I'll make him fearless this round." I didn't know he was cheating, but he did. He had to call that at the start of my turn, not after I force the check and he fails.

Secondly, he was cheating with his wolf claws. He would roll to hit me, and if was a terrible roll then he would call re-rolls to hit. If it went well, then it was re-rolls to wound. He had to call that before he started making rolls at all. It pisses me off.

And this is the kicker, mid-game he was trying to get his rune priest free line-of-sight on one of my dreads, and makes an illegal move. He moved right next to my tank, well within an inch, and I called him on it. So he moved his character slightly, and then was in coherency with another of his units, so he had to join. So I told him that, and he said, "Come on, you are playing with an illegal list, and you are trying to call me on this?" And I said, "You know what, you are right, its not that big of a deal, I don't want to be that guy." I let it slide, because it didn't affect the game much, his living lightning failed to hurt my dread and no big deal. But he tried to hang his supposedly wonderful sportsmanship over my head to guilt me into allowing him to bend/break the rules. Had I known he was pulling the BS with Logan and his wolf claw termies, who knows what would have happened. And he was the one that insisted I keep my list the way it was, and not revert to my legal version.

So what's the point of my rant? That's a good question, and I'm not sure I know the answer. I'm not going to confront the guy over it. If it happened again, I would call him on the rule at that time. I had an "illegal" list to begin with, but he was fine with that. If you all were in a similar situation where your opponent gave you a favorable call, do you then allow them to walk over you with their rules violations? I'm not going to let it happen again, that is for sure.

To top it all off, he was a nice guy after the game. He is apparently a Blood Angels fan, and showed me his list and how he runs it. He talked tactics with me after the game, and told me all the things I already knew, but just didn't do in deployment. I don't dislike the guy in the end, I would play him again. I just need to make sure I know the codex well enough of each of the armies to know when they aren't following it.

Chime in with your thoughts, ideas, etc. I'd really like to know how others feel about this.

And on a personal note, I passed part 2 of my national licensing exam for my Optometric License!!! WOOT WOOT! I am so stoked. Just 4 more months and one more exam to go and I will finally have some disposable income for this hobby! :)

Let the judging begin!

So the entries are in and the judging has started according to Jawa

I'm all kinds of nervous for the results, although the first model he put up as a "taste of things to come" has me feeling a bit deflated about my own painting skill. Oh well, I did the best I could I think, so its all up to Jawa at this point.

On a side note, reading his latest post about his Blood Angels army got me all excited about my own BA's. The furioso dreads, Baal pred's, they all are so fun, and unique. They were my first 40k army, and I love the uniqueness about them, while still being marines. Contrary to how most people think, I enjoy the marines. I have always tended to gravitate towards the "good" armies, WoW, LotR ttg, and others.

I was into my Tau most recently, modeling and painting them up, but now I want to get back into the men in red. I have some tanks to do, LR, Baal pred, rhinos, and some free hand work that Jawa inspired me to do on my DC rhino.

I'll never have an all painted army I think, between work, school, wife, kids, other armies, other hobbies, I just don't have the time. Call me ADD, but I can't seem to stay on just one hobby at a time, much to my wife's enjoyment ;)

That's all for now, stay tuned to see how I did with my model.

I'm excited