New Podcast: Life After the Cover Save

A couple of guys in my area started up a podcast called Life After the Cover Save. It's pretty entertaining! So far there's only two episodes, and I've only listened to the first but it was enjoyable. They talk about how they got into the hobby and the stories they tell are pretty funny, and somewhat similar to how I got in. Later they cover some tactics choices in a "what would you do" type format.

I was listening to it while working on the Ravenwing. So I was listening to Warhammer while building Warhammer. I'm a nerd.

Anyway you can find it on iTunes or listen to it on the website linked above. Be aware that they cuss a few swears now and again.

Ravenwing Landspeeders

Here's my latest work. It's been a while since I posted painting or modeling content. These are part of a commission.

The weapons are all fully magnetic as are the bases. I'm trying to make each one individualized, yet simple at the same time.

Blog Chain Giveaway Continues!

****EDIT 6/22****
Deadline extended.
********

The Blog Chain Giveaway thing rolls on! I won a Zoanthrope and Lictor from Hive Zero. Now I must continue.

What is the Super Blog Chain Giveaway?
The fellows over at Santa Cruz Warhammer got the ball rolling in an effort to foster folks in our community reaching out and seeing what other blogs have to offer as well extending a helping hand to fellow gamers.

Want to participate?
If you want to win a prize of your own and join this Give-Away, go comment on this blog. The rules of the give-away are as follows:

you must have a blog.

you must have something worthwhile to offer up to give away for free.

if you win, you must hold your own blogsite giveaway using the same rules to pay it forward.

you must contact us with a link to your give away so we can send bloggers to your site.

you may only enter once per give away.

To Enter:
leave a comment to this post as follows.
1st sentence, why you need the prize.
2nd sentence what you will give away on your blog to pay it forward.
I will choose the winner based on how convincing they are and what they offer to the next winner.

What’s in it for you?
The winner will receive an old school Screamer Killer. This is a classic model and hard to find. it isn't new (it's been out of print for many years) but unassembled and unpainted. I will ship it free of charge along with a 60mm round base (or a 40mm if you want it for a Tyranid Prime). Tell me the reason why you want it and how you plan to put it to use. I will choose a winner based on a combination of what you are offering and how convincing you were on Monday, June 28, 2010.

I got the Screamer-Killer a while ago and wanted to use it as a Tyranid Prime. But I just couldn't bring myself to convert it as I wanted to use the model in its normal form. So since I can't decide what to do with it I'm going to pass it on to someone who needs it.

New Blog Format

Google released some new formatting options and I'm playing around with them right now so the blog may look a little weird.

On Pronunciation

A recent thread on the BOLS Lounge made me think of this topic. Different communities seem to have their own way of pronouncing words in the 40k universe. Here's some common ones:

Lasgun- According to Graham McNeill, it's LAS-gun with the A as in apple. I have heard people insist that it is LAYS-gun, as in laser. I actually used to think that they were right because of the laser pronunciation, but I always pronounced it LAS because LAYS just sounds silly.

Tzeentch- I haven't heard this one mispronounced very frequently but apparently some people start the word with an X sound. It's simple to pronounce, really. Say the word "pizza" and take the sound from the double z (in Italian double z is pronounced like a "tz" and some times like a "dz"). I believe Chinese and Japanese both have similar sounds.

Slaanesh- I always pronounce it SLAAN-esh with the A as in apple. However, I've heard a couple of times people saying Slaan-EESH which doesn't seem right to me. I figure that the doubled vowel indicates stress.

Tyranids- I've heard people pronounce the Tyr as in Tyrant so they become TIE-ra-nids. I say TEER-a-nids and I think the majority agrees with me on that one.

Nobs- I've always pronounced it as in knob, but some new guys in my group say "nohb" as in noble. That makes sense actually as an Ork nob is simply short for Noble, but Lexicanum disagrees and says that it is knob.

C'Tan- K-tan. It's a hard "cuh" sound. I've heard of people saying see-tan but Graham McNeill disagrees. Think of Cthulhu. But not for too long lest ye go mad.

Any that I missed?

Edit: Be sure to check out the comments, there's some good information there.

Look At What I Found: Some Rarities

A few months ago I put up a post about a game store where I used to live which kind of died out. Well, the store is still there but their Warhammer community died out (link to post). They still have quite a selection of ancient Warhammer goodies. Every time I visit my parents I make a point to see what they have.

If their community died out, then why do I bother going each time to see what they have new? Well, half the store used to be a "normal games" half and the other was the "nerd" half. The store always seemed embarrassed of its geeky clientele and so they erected a large barrier in the middle of the store so you couldn't see the nerd half of the establishment from the main area, like some kind of smoking section or unsavory media store. Anyway, I moved away and the community died out for reasons I suspect but don't know for sure, but their Warhammer stock remained.

Anyway, they turned the nerd room into the stock room. Every time I go there they have rearranged it and there's newfound goodies like some archaeological dig. This time I found some ancient models and sets.

Chaos Dwarfs!
I love how it says, "White Metal!" I'm really not sure what kind of selling point that is.
In case you can't see it clearly, that's the third edition boxed set. They had several of these.

Sometimes their prices are ancient too. You can get some things for a lot cheaper, but other things have a pricing fail- they had the old metal War Walker for $35 while the newer, better looking one was $30. I bought a biovore a few months ago for $15 which is half retail now.

I also found many, many cans of Blood Red spray paint. As you know, they don't make that anymore so I bought a few for when I get around to starting up that Blood Angels army.

I couldn't get to certain areas and there were stacks and stacks of things I hadn't seen on my last visit so I guess I'll just be surprised next time. It irks me that this stuff just sits here gathering dust. They should just offer massive discounts to let the gamers clear this stuff out.

Balancing Space Hulk

So I know Space Hulk is old news, but I've brought it with me on vacation and I'm remembering how difficult the first mission is. To win, the Genestealer player needs to flood in as many stealers as possible in the northeast corner, since there's a big LOS block at the corner. The Marine player has to survive either a lot of close range shooting or brutal close combat.

What I've discovered to make the mission easier for first-time players is to simply remove the starting two blips. That gives the Marine player a bit of an edge getting into position at the corner, and though the mission still isn't easy it's more balanced.