Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween Events at the local Games Workshop

Here in Games Workshop Deer Grove in Palatine we celebrated Halloween with tons of candy and little fun events that are still putting a smile on my face. Although we didn't have any carved pumpkins the spirit was definitely there and that's what mattered to us as a community. Also, the turnout was pretty good, which added to the atmosphere. Here are some of the fun events that happened throughout the day:



#1 - Bobbin' for Paint: Since bobbing for apples is now illegal in many states, we decided to do it without apples. Instead we added a little Games Workshop twist to it. We used paints! Everyone had a primed "demo" Space Marine and was given a brush at random (some were fine detail, some were dry brushes). Then we each grabbed 3 paints at random and had 15 minutes to paint our models. Now, I first decided to grab 3 paints and wait for everyone else to go through.. I closed my eyes and grabbed two paint pots. What do you think I got?
Tin Bitz aaaaaaaaand... Chainmail. Yes, I am for real. Two metallic paints? Good thing someone was willing to trade me a dry brush.. Then I closed my eyes again... and got.... Yes.. yes. You guessed it already, didn't you? Bolt Gun Metal!!! What was I supposed to do? Three metallic colors.. on power armour? Well, I had experience with Ork Trukkz so I quickly started to dry brush Tin Bitz over the model, which actually gave me an advantage because it allowed for a very fast and okay looking base coat. Then a medium dry brushed coat of Bolt Gun over pretty much the whole model and some Chainmail to highlight the details. I guess I was going for a Plague Marine with a very, very... veeeery rust armor.  Then it hit me! I had a brownish color (Tin Bitz) and realized that if I water it down it would be a nice wash which would bring all the colors together. A minute later and my shiny Devlan Mud was all over the model.. Not only that but it also dried pretty fast, so I could go over some of the details with more Bolt Gun and Chainmail..

And guess what? My crappy, rusty demo Marine won! For my achievement I received a cool red Games Workshop metal bottle thingy with a key chain. My painted model I gave to a younger Ultramarines player who wanted to have an "award-winning model" in his army. I told him that if he fielded it against me as a Captain or a Sergeant I would allow him to get the Feel No Pain USR. ;P

#2 40k and Fantasy-themed "Zombie Survival" Games - They were a lot of fun, although I missed the 40k one because I was playing my friend Vince for his Planetstrike Campaign. More about my second defense against a Blood Angels army and how cunning won me the game even when my army was dying left and right like dogs later..

#3 Balloon Animals and Swords - Alright, alright. I know it's pretty childish and not very GW-related.. but Paul's wife was making tons of balloon animals and swords throughout the day. Balloons are always fun, no matter that age you are. ;P

#4 Costumes - My friend John dressed up as Elan from The Order of the Stick, someone dressed up in Scottish garb (kilt and what not), two kids were Ultramarines with Iron Man masks painted blue..I wore my Russian black GP5 gas mask (like the one in the picture, but the lenses are tinted black). On top I wore an old commissar hat from the German Democratic Republic. I guess I was going for a Death Korps of Krieg commissar or something and I think it looked pretty darn cool. I was even rewarded "Space Wolf: The Second Omnibus" for my costume. Now I only need to find the first Omnibus..



#5 CANDY AND PIZZA - The pinnacle of American culture.. ;P Tons of candy for everyone!

Team Razoback Spam has been registered for Adepticon 2011!

Can you smell what the Wolves are cookin'?

Our Space Wolves team has finally registered for the Adepticon 2011 Warhammer 40k Team Tournament! After a lot of time spent trying to come up with a funny, fluffy and punny name we finally decided to do something more simplistic and direct. Thus, Team Razorback Spam. Despite the dozens of names that had to do with wolves and other plays of words we just thought it would be funny... We are also listed under Team #42.. which happens to be the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything.... ;)


Now can you guess how many Space Wolf Razorback we are bringing to Adepticon 2011? As in, all four of us. Combined. How many?


Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A Productive Hobby Tuesday

Me and Average "Frozencore" Joe recently started a nice and cozy hobby and hang-out tradition that will hopefully be occurring on most Tuesdays. It's a lot of fun, actually - a nice way to exchange ideas about the hobby (conversions, painting tips) and about tips and tricks on the tabletop. We usually open up a few sodas and work on small and fun projects while watching TV or listening to music. Then my mom cooks for us and brings the whole "Hobby Tuesday" to a whole different level. I'm pretty sure my mom sees is as a "Let's See What Bulgarian Dish I Cook For Poor Malnourished Joe Tuesday".. This Tuesday we saw Machete!

Machete: Counts as a Blood Claw with Mark of the Wulfen
The real Garfrost. Ain't he a cutie?
I finally started putting my Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf, aka Skarvald the Troll-faced. He is equipped with a Frost Axe, Belt of Russ, Saga of the Beastslayer, Runic Armour and of course Garfrost, his loyal Thunderwolf. I actually really enjoyed deciding what to use for my Wolf Lord. I mean, he has to be the main peace of my 1,000 point list. I used the ornate Space Wolf chest piece and picked the coolest Chaos Marauder Horseman head. For the Frost Axe I used the mysterious Orc Choppa, later identified to be from the Orc Warboss on Wyvern set. I pinned the top of the axe head on top of a Space Wolf Thunder hammer and for the other arm I used a rune-covered power sword. I know it's not 100% WYSIWYG, but Skarvald never shoots..

 
Unfortunately there are no WIP photos yet, but I will take some tomor- er.. today. Will include also pictures of Garfrost with the few gubbinz I added on him. Skarvald just needs a quick green stuff job around his waist to cover some imperfections and the back pack will be added after I finish and pin my Deathwolf Standard. Some other cosmetic surgeries were done on the rest of my Thunderwolves and they are now almost ready to be primed!

The next few days I'm dedicating to my girlfriend, because she deserves it. I'm going to spend some time with her, away from the tabletop or my hobby space at home. God knows I've played (and WON) enough games for this week and I feel out of mojo.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

The Terror from the Deep... in MY case?

Amongst my friends I am known for my hatred of spiders. It is not necessarily a phobia, but if I am aware of the existence of a spider near me I just don't feel safe. So yeah, I find spiders scary... and what happened to me a few minutes ago will not give me rest unless I share it with you. I was reading a book (R. A. Salvatore's "The Pirate King) and I noticed one of my Citadel Figure Cases that I hadn't opened in months. It was my Ork case with my Kommandos, Nobz and other metal models. And when I opened it I saw this:

CAUTION: SPIDERS LIVE IN YOUR FIGURE CASES!!!

Notice the little hole on the bottom right of the case. See it? See this weird white stuff inside? At first I thought it was a dust bunny or even some old paint that got in there.. somehow. BUT.. it wasn't. Yes, ladies and gentlemen.. it was a spider web. And there was something inside it. Yep. It was a god damned spider.
I poked inside with a pen to get it out, because it was bothering me and the little bugger crawled out of it and started to walk all over my case... until my power pen killed it. It was the size of my pinky and completely white. Oh, well. Yet another weird story to tell about the hobby.

Check your cases from time to time. You never know when a spider or some other terrible creature will decide to nest inside it, making a mockery of the miniatures inside.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Raider Rush and Jetbikes Revisited.

The new Dark Eldar codex is only a few weeks away, so I figured I would post a basic tactic using and army based around Raiders. For those of you who don't know Raiders are the basic transport for Dark Eldar. While they are very fragile, they are also very good at their job; getting units around quickly. Being open topped not only allows the units inside them to disembark and assault in the same turn, but also allow every model inside to fire. This combination of abilities means that Raider can quite effectively give you the ability to hit your opponent hard before they can hit you. The downside to the raider is that they are extremely fragile, so hitting your opponent first is not only a benefit, but a necessity.

They technique starts in the deployment phase. If you go first (like the game in the example) try to spread your units up into three even sections. On your left and right sides evenly distribute your assault units and shooting units in Raiders. This allows you to maneuver to either side equally well, and makes your intentions harder to read. In the center (if you can) you will place your mobile firebase, either Ravagers in my case, or whatever you prefer. I like disintegrators on Ravagers because they can shoot quite far to support either side of the board. Always place your vehicles in cover, even if you are deploying first, you never know when someone will steal the initiative. If you are going second you have an easier time of deploying, you can see your opponents formations and counter them. Just be sure to deploy out of line of sight where possible.


It is now up to you to assess your situation and decide where to attack. Since you are evenly distributed in your deployment zone you should be able to attack anywhere on their side of the board. In this game I saw that my opponent had a Devastator squad in the building to the left, and I wanted to have cover saves against it as long as possible. I also saw that there was a dreadnought on the other side, and I figured I could easily punch through the armor and leave an opening on that side of the board for my Raiders to safely occupy. The cover was also more advantageous for me to go to the right, as there was a lot in the way of those Devastators. Just look at every unit your opponent has and imagine what I like to call their "threat radius," or how far they can attack. Sometimes you want to head toward the units with the longest range because that means their advantage will be lessened, and sometimes this also leaves the short range units too far away to stop you. Move your Raiders on the side your attacking 12" out, if you think you don't need the extra speed or if you really need to fire the dark lances. The other side should make a full 24" move if possible to try and meet the rest of the army. The center firebase should try and soften up units that either can hurt your Raiders or that your units will be attacking next turn. The idea is that on turn two your entire army hits at the same time. This leaves your opponent with nothing to attack you with in the nearby area, so you are only left with a handful of attacks against your fragile units.

Nightshields gave me great protection this turn, and they have really helped in most of my games with the old codex. Flickerfields are an interesting choice in the new book that gives your vehicles a 5+ invulnerable save, but your should really be using cover to your advantage wherever possible (it's free and a 4+). Notice how the only Raiders that are not using cover are the ones that are facing almost all s4 shooting.

Turn 2 is when almost all your units should be hitting. Move your combat unit transports the full 12" hop out your 3" and get ready. Your Raiders with warriors should try and move only 6" if they can get into rapid-fire range and try and take down small targets or ones with low armor. Fleet and Assault if nessisary for your combat units making sure to pick appropriate targets for each. In this case my Incubi went for the terminators and Captain, while my Wyches attacked a regular tactical squad. My warriors shot down and killed a combat squad with help from a Ravager, and all the raiders combined to finish off the Dreadnought.

After both close combats I tried to consolidate into cover. This is especially important for the Wyches as they only have a 6+ armor save and are real powerhouses as long as you can keep them alive. Some fire will inevitably take down some of your units, but if you are lucky and pulled off the initial move correctly, they should not be much left in range (or in general).

That leaves you turn 3 to either finish up combats or sweep out whatever is left of your opponent. Move your units back into their transports if they are still alive and repeat.

Just be sure that every step of the way to try and keep your Raiders in cover. With only armor 10 they go down even to bolter fire so having that 4+ save helps immensely. Nightshields are your best friend, especially on Ravagers, who can then outshoot heavy bolters safely.

I hope this can get starting Dark Eldar players on their way to victory, as those first few games can sometimes be rough. More advanced tactical guides will follow in the next few days, but despite this being rather basic it works very effectively in most of the games you will probably play. Be sneaky, Dark Eldar don't win by brute strength, always try to outsmart your opponent, and know more about their army then they do. Knowledge is power!


Speaking of knowledge I played a game using the new codex just so I could see how the reworked Reaver Jetbikes perform. After taking them for a spin I am still rather torn. The game was against Tau, and while the swoop attack was great against Kroot who were out in the open because they thought they were far enough away (spearhead deployment) I have a feeling they I won't be facing a squad of Kroot out in the open in every game I play in the future. I ran with a unit of 7, in fact I pretty much just rewrote my old list so the bikes had blasters and a unit leader with an agonizer (no more s5 punisher...). My basic assessment is that they need to be turbo boosting every round to survive. I did everything with them; swooped, shot, and assaulted. Everything was lackluster except for the fly-by swoop attack. I can't see blasters for tank popping being too effective considering the 5+ armor. With blasters being a 1 per 3 jetbike choice it means your unit has to be fairly large to guarantee the vehicle kill, and that becomes cost prohibitive really quickly. In my next game I will try a completely bare 6 man unit with no upgrades whatsoever. Hopefully this will keep their cost down, and make sure they have a set focus of "just being annoying." My plan is to use them to harass small units, soften up targets that I plan to shoot or assault, and to use the 36" turbo-boost to park next to enemy units that are falling back. I can also see them being helpful in a Two-Wave game plan when having all your Raider units hit at once isn't possible.

As the Dark Eldar are closing the distance..

.. their followers are slowly but surely starting to pop up again, eager to savor the pain and suffering of their victims. One of them is Average "Frozencore" Joe - the writer of the Wargamer to the Core blog.

One of Joe's Eldar Jetbikes!
Joe was one of the two people who got me into the hobby. It was him who ran me through my first demo game of Warhammer 40,000 back when he was part of Games Workshop. It was him who showed me the sheer brutality and awesomeness of the Orkz. It was him who taught me how to assemble my models, how to prime and paint AND he also inspired me to paint my plastic toys. The man is both a fantastic painter and an amazing  tactician when it comes to his Eldar, Dark Eldar, Sisters of Battle and even Orkz. This is my way of thanking him.


Check out his blog. It is still prepping its jet engines for a turbo boost in the blogosphere but Frozencore will surely be updating his blog about his experiences with the Dark Goth Chaos Space Elf Perverts.

Space Wolves Progress: I am almost done painting my converted Rune Priest! Decided to treat myself by painting him while Joe was working on his converted Dark Eldar Wyches and Vince was painting some jump pack Librarian and a Chaplain for his Blood Angels. I am still learning the fine details of painting power armor - things like proper highlighting and black-lining.  I also tried some fancier fur paint schemes with him which worked out for me, even though the guide was meant for less fine fur with more detail. It can be found in the White Dwarf celebrating the new release of the Space Wolves, but I'll make sure to post the gist of it when I'm able to take a picture of my Rune Priest. Tomorrow I'll hopefully be able to use my friend's spray gun to spray all my infantry marines with Shadow Grey!

I'm still trying to think of a name for my Rune Priest. Any suggestions?

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Planetstrike with Space Wolves: Bark at the Moon!

Our store recently started its second attempt to run a Planetstrike campaign, since the first one began when school started and people didn't show up. It is a nice "good vs. evil" mash and I'm fielding my Space Wolves on the "good team" - my other teammates are Space Wolves, Tau and Eldar and we are against Tyranids, two Blood Angel traitors and Chaos Space Marines. The whole set-up is a legal 2,000 pt. list with the option to have a 1,500 pt. core and then add 500 pts. of units depending on whether you are attacking or defending. The whole event is meant to be fun and is focused on writing an interesting narrative at the end.


My list for my first game was pretty straightforward with just a small change to my usual 2,000 pt. list that I field. The only difference is that the Rhinos are gone (I put my guys in the FREE Bastions) and instead I field a second x5 Missile Launcher Long Fang squad.
Planetstrike Space Wolves: DEFENSE
Skarvald the Troll-faced - Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf Mount with a Frost Axe, Belt of Russ, Saga of the Beastslayer, Runic Armor                                                                                    Rune Priest with Living Lightning and Murderous Hurricane
Rune Priest with Living Lightning and Jaws of the World Wolf
Two units x9 Grey Hunters (Melta gun, Mark of the Wulfen, Standard) led by a Wolf Guard with combi-melta and power fist.
Two units x8 Grey Hunters (Melta gun, Mark of the Wulfen, Standard) led by a Wolf Guard with combi-melta and power fist. (Rune Priests go here)

5 Thunderwolf Cavalry (CCW/Bolt gun, Bolter, Meltabomb, Storm Shield, Thunder Hammer) for maximum wound allocation.

Vindicator

6 Long Fangs (Sergeant, x5 Missile Launchers) with a Wolf Guard in Terminator Armor with a Cyclone Missile Launcher
6 Long Fangs (Sergeant, x5 Missile Launchers)
  While the Space Wolves codex lacks a lot of units that can take advantage of the whole "You can Assault the turn you Deep Strike if you have the DP special rule already" our units are GREAT at defending objectives. When you get to put your Grey Hunters in what is essentially an immobilized Land Raider for free AND you get to set up the terrain to bottleneck your opponent and be able to redirect your forces where your units need help.. well... It's awesome! If you play your cards well you won't even need half of your army!

I was playing against a Blood Angels player who was fielding "shooty" terminators kitted out with Chain Fists, two crazy Dreadnoughts, Death Company in a Rhino, Death Company with Astaroth the Grim in a Land Raider and Sternguard Veterants in a Drop Pod. A pretty elite and hard-hitting list... but it was not a challenge for my wolves.

Especially since I definitely went overboard while placing the terrain. All of the bastions were close to each other with building in between that would prevent Deep Striking or easy assaults. Automated Quad-guns and Lascannons were all over the place and so were the many craters and trench networks. And one of the bastions that I fielded was deemed "the beardiest thing I've ever seen". Why? Well, because it had a Void Shield on it. And it was behind the Shrine of the Aquila which gave it a cover save.

The Emperor Protects!

After 14 (!!!) Firestorms one of my bastions was damaged and left without any weapons and my Vindicator was wrecked. Oh and I lost a few Long Fangs. The Emperor's bastion was immune to the orbital bombardment because of its void shield and not even a single shot was fired at it during the whole game. The Grey Hunters inside were pretty bored.. 

His turn he only deep struck his Terminators which didn't do anything to my Bastion. Instead my Thunderwolves came from reserve (mmm delicious re-rollable 3+) and on the side I wanted them to be, which mean an easy assault against his Terminators. Woot! Since his Terminators were pretty much out of line of sight I just charged them and killed everything but the Sanguinary Priest who resisted and remained in play. Good! It meant that my wolves were safe during his turn from any shenanigans that he had up his sleeve.


Next turn he brought two Dreadnought, his LR.... and pretty much everythign else. His Sternguards DP'd between two of my bastions which meant that they were now isolated from the rest of his army. Two bastions were destroyed that turn - one by a Dreadnought (the other one died to one of my Stratagems) who got immobilized by a Quad-gun which shot his rear armor. My Grey Hunters used an Escape Hatch and disembarked inside a conveniently placed bunker. The other bastion fell to the Sternguard. Whatever - now they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. In the assault phase the Sanguinary Priest died to my Wolf Lord on the brave riders consolidated towards Astaroth's Land Raider.
Long Fangs turned around and shot the rear armor of the immobilized Death Company Dreadnought making it explode. A lascannon from one of the bastions exploded the Death Company's rhino and 2 of them died from the explosion. 4 more died to krak missiles. One squad of Grey Hunters fired rapidly their bolters and meltas at the Sternies and my disembarked squad shot their pistols, some Murderous Hurricane and charged.
My Thunderwolves charged the Land Raider but failed to do anything. ; (

It's Ozzy singing "Bark at the Moon"
In His turn he only had a Death Company squad and his Death Star - Astaroth the Grim with a bunch of Death Company chumps in a Land Raider Redeemer. However he got greedy and deep struck his Land Raider really far way from my bastions which meant that even if he dealt with MY Death star he would be useless in the long run. Because he would have had to run for a long time. Hehe. Some meltas, AP3 Flamers and relentless rapid fire pretty much wiped my Thunderwolves. Well, sort of. The charge was what got them - Astaroth's tons of S6 power weapon attacks killed the rest of them, which mean that my Thunder Lord Skarvald the Troll-faced was left alone against the might of the Death Company. The Lord managed to kill SIX Death Company marines actually winning the combat and the Thunder Hammer guy who tried to hit him missed with all of his attacks.

His Death Company assaulted my Long Fangs on top of the building on the far left flank and actually failed to kill anyone. The battle was a tie. Skarvald the Troll-faced directed his attacks towards Astaroth, hitting with 5 and wounding with 4. Astaroth managed to wound him with two attacks and Skarvald lost a wound after having to reroll his 4+ invulnerable save. However, Astaroth suffered 3 unsaved wounds and died a heroic death.

And that was pretty much the end of the game. I was controlling all 4 objectives but we pretty much agreed that the game (save for his Land Raider) was going to end in a tabling in my favor.

Here's a song for all of you Space Wolves enthusiasts!

Man, Ozzy totally looks like Astaroth the Grim! Hahahahaha!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Dark Eldar Spark

Well, Dark Eldar are on the horizon, and to say that I am excited would be a massive understatement.

I have been playing Dark Eldar for about as year and a half now, as a break from my Jetbike Eldar list. I must say that even for an old book, the army is really fun. Dark Eldar was the army that got me into Warhammer 40k, along with the Witch Hunters, so seeing them get a new book is awesome. Way back in the day I only played Fantasy, and I considered 40k to be a "lesser game." That all changed when I read an article in a White Dwarf where someone described the in-depth tactics and strategies on how to play Dark Eldar. I saw much more complexity in this game than I ever knew existed, and I was hooked.

I waited, and I waited for a new book with better models, because I just couldn't shell out the cash for those old hideous units. Last spring I got tired of waiting, so I started converting and working on my own models.

With the advent of a new Dark Eldary era upon us my efforts for converting have waned, because the new models are just spectacular.

All in all my raider-heavy list built for speed hasn't changed much at all except for the strength through pain special rule that will make my wyches and incubi much more resilient. The reworked units (pretty much everything else in the army) seem like they are in general much better and more viable and the new stuff looks cool too so hopefully there will be all sorts of different armies cropping up.

That isn't to say that everything is great, the book is an improvement to be sure, but there are some changes that I really question.

First off dark eldar jetbikes, no longer give +1 strength or a 4+ save, and HQs no longer get the option to be mounted on them. This one is a biggy, there is a HUGE drop in their battle effectiveness for the ability to turbo-boost 36" and do a weak flyby attack. I would expect a larger points drop for what they lost...pretty much the ability to kill things and not die when sneezed on. Turbo boosting that far is cool and all, but a 3+ cover can only get you so far, and I really don't see this unit being able to kill anything in close combat or shooting without dieing instantly.

The splinter rifle is still rapid fire, and warriors are still mediocre. Enough said here really, not a huge problem, as the army has plenty other ways to deal damage, but it would have been nice to give the basic warrior the option to be a light assault unit for fun. I will try new weapon loadouts on my warriors to see if I can get them to be more effective. Overall warriors continue to be pretty sub-par as a core unit compared to everything else in the game.

Hellions can pull independent characters out of units when they hit an run. This rule is pure fun, but I just don't see it being something that I would want to do every game. Since it is used as part of a hit-and-run move it just isn't that tactically sound. All I can see it being used for is to separate characters from a unit that gives them buffs or vice versa (like pulling a Weirdboy to lower his leadership from mob rule so he can't pass psychic tests).

Incubi squads can't have warriors in them anymore. Right now, I wound allocate on my Archon bodyguard like crazy, it really makes them the only unit in the book who can take a beating. Armor ignoring wounds can go to the warriors who have crap armor anyway, keeping those Incubi alive and kicking. Feel no Pain won't help this much, so it seems like Incubi will be less resilient in the new book for against people who really want them dead (which is everybody).'

Those are the big ones that rub me the wrong way, but overall I must say that new is good for the Dark Eldar.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Getting there!

Our Space Wolves Adepticon 2011 army is slowly unfolding. Pretty much everything has been built -
Last night I help one of my team mates to build his 10 Grey Hunters. He still needs to build his only Rhino and then he has to fix his warped Space Wolves Rhino doors. Vince has already built his Rhinos and will also need to put the doors on his two Rhinos. Other than that all Thunderwolves have been built... except my Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf.

Yesterday I finished building the 2 remaining Long Fang members with Missile Launchers. I had just enough actual missile launchers but was missing the supporting hands that hold the weapon in place. Instead I used bolter hands and put a small missile in each as if they were loading the missile launcher. Looks pretty good! I also drilled the muzzles of all of my bolt guns and bolt pistols. That was like 40 drilled miniatures and some of them had a bolter and a bolt pistol, tee hee! And then I primed them. That took a while. I'm a perfectionist when it comes down to priming my models and I revisit every miniature to make sure that it has been properly sprayed. I must have primed around 60 models that day (I am responsible for assembling and painting two out of the four 1,000 pt. armies). And those were just the infantry models. I will prime the Thunderwolves and vehicles later - maybe when we are done painting the Grey Hunters and Long Fangs.

I still need to build one more Rune Priest and add some jib-jabs to my Rhinos and my Vindicator. We should start spraying Shadow Grey on the models pretty soon. 

Friday, October 1, 2010

A Warhammer 40k joke!

Progression has been really slow these few days. I have a part-time job helping a friend out with his franchise.
The Adepticon team is supposedly finally going to start meeting and we're going to try and finish our armies... well... at least assemble them. Then we'll start trying out the test paint scheme that I suggested, we'll come up with a team name and I'll draw some sketches of our display board and hopefully share them with you. Not trying to be secretive, I just have all of these ideas in my head but me and my teammates will have to talk first.
Until then, here's a slightly paraphrased and changed joke that my friend John shared with me:

An Imperial Guard platoon is defending an important bastion from an incoming Ork Waagh! The fight has been going for months with both sides losing numbers, but the Orkz are prevailing and on top of that the Guardsmen are running out of ammo and chargers. Luckily the Commissar responsible for the platoon has an idea.
"Alright, men! Listen! The greenskins are stupid. They are really, really dumb and superstitious. All you have to do is point at them and yell "DAKKA! DAKKA!" and they'll fall on the ground dead simply because they'll think they are dead". The Guardsmen of course don't believe him so to prove his point the Commissar stands up above the sandbags, points a finger at an ork and says "DAKKA!". The ork looks at him surprised, grabbing his chest. "DAKKA!", repeats the Commissar and the second shot finds the ork dead on the ground. 
Of course all the Guardsmen start yelling and pointing fingers all over the place and sure enough the horde of greenskins is decreasing slowly but surely. After a few hours only a single ork remains.
The Commissar smiles and starts walking slowly towards the xeno, who is charging towards him completely unarmed. The man slowly points his finger, aiming for the ork's head and yells "DAKKA!"
Nothing happens. The ork is getting closer.
"DAKKA!" he repeats, this time louder. 
Nothing. The Ork Boy is almost next to him..
"DAKKA! DAKKA!" 
Nothing. This time his fellow Guardsmen are supporting his suppressing fire with even more "DAKKA!"
The ork is just a few metres away from the man and now he notices that the creature is mumbling something to himself. 
And then the Commissar gets crushed to death by an invisible force. A millisecond before his death he finally hears what the Ork has been saying all this time.
"I'M A STOMPA! I'M A STOMPA! I'M A STOMPA!"

Help Dave Taylor's Cause!

Dave Taylor's Legio Custodes

 You have probably read about this in some of the bigger blogs in the blogosphere, but here I am, trying to spread the word.
Dave Taylor is selling some armies on eBay to try and help two of his friends who desperately need all the support they can get. You can learn more about the situation from this post. It is a very noble cause in which he hopefully succeeds. We all know in one way or another how hard it is to give away something that you spent so much time working on, but we also know that life is cruel and unexpected and horrible things happen for no reason to good people.

Dave just started an auction for his Legio Custodes army (lost of pics here) on eBay. The auction could be found here! Check it out and if you cannot afford to bid maybe you could help Dave by spreading the word on your blogs, websites or among your friends.

Good luck, Dave!