valourunbound

I'm in a pickle. I like the list that I brought to OFCC, but I feel like I need more spells, especially ones I can use while engaged in combat. If I get a big magic phase and I'm in combat, I might only be able to use two, and I don't like throwing 5 dice at spells. To that end, I moved some points around and picked up a Rod of Battle. However, I've also thought about Lightning Vambraces or dropping the Rakachit entirely for another Patriarch, who would have two spells and a Flail. I'l probably stick with Rod of Battle for this tournament at least, unless someone has a convincing argument otherwise. Also, I dropped the Stalker's Standard on the Brotherhood for the Flaming Standard. I hate Trolls. The Vermin Swarm 725 - Plague Patriarch, General, Occultism, Wizard Adept, Plague Flail, Plague Pendulum, Light Armor, Book of Arcane Mastery 355 - Chief, BSB, Heavy Armor, Shield, Basalt Infusion, Hero's Heart, Vermin Hulk Bodyguard 275 - Rakachit Machinist, Ratlock Pistols, Crown of the Wizard King, Rod of Battle 120 - 10 Footpads 120 - 10 Footpads 140 - 20 Giant Rats 300 - 20 Plague Brotherhood, FC, Flaming Standard 459 - 38 Rats-at-Arms, FC, Spears, Banner of the Endless Swarm 150 - Meat Grinder 238 - 12 Plague Disciples 90 - 2 Rat Swarms 485 - 4 Thunder Hulks, Champion, Globe Launcher 305 - Dreadmill 150 - 4 Jezails 150 - 4 Jezails 170 - Plague Catapult 265 - Lightning Cannon Unfortunately, I don't have any Abomination models, so I can't theme it up for the Zoo.

You're committing to this for Zoo right?

Ben and I are practicing this weekend 🙂 I'm free every weekend until Zoo, so let me know. 5 is all I need 😎

Reiters with brace of pistols are always good fun. The repeater handgun looks counter productive to me, being Unwieldy and all. Then again they saw use in 7th, so maybe it does work.

A kind reminder :) Nevermind that we are banished to the archives.

Are these, perchance, the same ID models that @Andrewgeddon was blogging about a while back?

I guess I had poor link placement. Putting it at the beginning when nobody is going to click it probably was not wise. Oh man that was a long time ago. Oh gosh was this with 10+ units of skirmishers? I can picture this madness. It brings me pain.

I always wait for someone else to start thanking, and this year is no different. Thank you Ben for running a great event, with 100% attendance growth over last year. According to the trend, we will have 112 players in 2022. Everybody knows that graphs don't lie.

As is the tradition, I have more work tonight than I can complete. I got the VH painted, but I also decided to flock the remaining 6 movement trays and create a new display board. Alas, the display board will have to wait until next year.

Using steel shingles from Home Depot, I use snips to get a straight cut, then a ball peen hammer to flatten out the crinkles (typically on the flat shelf of a vice). Prime the whole tray black, no problem. My movement trays have plenty of issues, but wrinkled metal is not one of them. Fun fact, the shingles are 5" wide, so for all of us normal size armies, you only have to cut one dimension. This really helps with the straight lines. Was this the one at WOW? I recall Plague Monks vs Saurus Warriors... Or another... I have a long history of disastrous 2v2s. This is what I used for all my rats. I went through two phases: hot glue and epoxy. You have two problems with using neodymium magnets. The first is that you have to use small ones so you can, you know, remove your models. This means there will be a gap if you super glue it to the bottom of the base. The second is the strength of the magnets breaking things off. I used hot glue at first because it solved the first problem by acting as a spacer. However, after my first tournament I probably had 40 magnets (out of 200+ models) stacked up on my tray that had fallen off. At first I would just glue them back on. Hot glue is cheap after all. After a few years I got fed up with hot glue and started researching other solutions. I came across the plastic epoxy that I linked before. It is thick enough to space the magnet off the base and allow for better contact with the metal, and it is strong enough to not break off after a single use. I still have to repair a few models before each tournament, but the numbers are way down from before. Most of the broken ones end up being hot glue that I never replaced. For example, this week I glued six magnets. Two never had them, two were old hot glue and the last two were epoxy. One suggestion that I've seen but never followed is to scratch up the magnet before gluing it. The theory is that this will help the epoxy to bond to the magnet better. I have had plenty of success without this. Unfortunately all of my metal scratching tools are.. metal... and the magnets are small. I try not to cut my fingers as much as possible, so I skipped that step. Last comment on the epoxy: it is decently expensive, but I have managed to do about 80% of my 300+ model army (as they break) and I've only used two tubes. The trick is to do as many models at once as possible so that you minimize the amount that dries on your mixing surface. Hmm. Looks like the 5"x8" steel shingles I get are galvanized. Maybe they have non-galvanized ones...

I didn't see the free parking post until after the event last year, so I'm making sure to pay attention this time!

Well, I have a real list now. Paint Vermin Hulk Bodyguard. Does black count as a color?... I know your pain 😞 My Tin Bitz is long gone, with Chainmail just barely holding on. I've tried the new stuff but it just isn't the same.

By soon you mean Saturday, right?

Dust off models Dust off brain ??? Profit

Once upon a time my dad helped me out by making some wooden trays with a router. He had a jig setup so he got 99% of the material out and then you used a knife to nick out the corners. 10 years later they have held up pretty well, though some have warped a bit. I got a router so I could try this out again but have yet to get around to it. I have also used Ben's method a couple times and was pretty happy with it. It definitely takes fewer tools than other methods so it's easier to get started.

My list so far: 3 Dreadmills 4 Meat Grinders Chaff One opponent down, 13 to go.

Crap, I hate playing against VS. They are always cheating at everything!

We're going for "more than last year" I believe we had 6 after last minute drops.

This shows that we have the hall at 9, presumably for registration and setup. I'd be surprised if the first round does not start at 10.

Let me look through my pile of rats here... Yeah, I'm going to have to go with Vermin Swarm.

Don't forget the disadvantage of driving: parking a car in SF. What about lodging?

Do you remember the dates for that? I could only find the dates for 2018.

Wow. I did not know that I could park across the street. That makes me 40% more likely to go to GG for something. Normally I wouldn't go unless I was walking in the area... (pretty rarely, but not never). Also, the water bottle policy is strange. I can't bring my own water? Or I have to leave it with the bartender... I understand the rule but I've never seen one like it before. I also don't get out much.

Maybe a couple weeks before require payment to hold a spot? Although that didn't stop people from dropping last minute from OFCC...

I demand #0.