We Interrupt Our (Ir)Regularly Scheduled Programming...

I felt that bracketed part in the title was too accurate to leave out, despite perhaps stealing a bit of focus from the post with humour that I'm the only person who really enjoys...

I know I haven't replied to the comments below on other posts, and I meant to...I've just been so hard at work trying to finish my BA to at least the minimum for this Saturday, or avoiding my own blog to try and feel like the procrastination time I spend online is somehow more valuable making dozens of little comments (or, smallish essays as on Hulksmash's blog leading to this...)



Basically, I'm sitting on an article series I want to start (but will suddenly and without warning drop, like so many before it...) called Internet Wisdom (or Pulling Internet Wisdom Teeth Right Out of The Fucking Face Of The Community Trollface Clusterfuck, but that lacks punch...) I want an article as posited by Captain Kellen from his pleasantly insightful corner, discussing how some proposed 6e changes would make the game worse despite fucktards assuring us otherwise [am I swearing more than usual?  I blame the lateness of the hour.  Apparently I'm taking a leaf from the good Mr. Von and writing in the early anti-meridians now too...It's hardly unheard of for me, but I promised myself and early night, I have serious stuffs to do on the morrow...]

I've forgotten the third one I tell myself I'm working on, but haven't even got a draft of...Hopefully it will come to me, like how to finish my Totally Fluffy; Iron Hands article I have on paper, or the mini-series {that would actually have reached a natural conclusion and good place to stop or at least pause} on Blood Bowl that I typed into a Word Processor and promptly forgot and...misplaced...

As I type this, I think of little snippets for those, such as a comparative article of the 4e Codexes that had to endure a sometimes brutal transition to 5th, and what we can expect for the same shift this time, though without having seen a copy of 6e that becomes so much harder to predict accurately.

For now, though, my focus must remain on preparation for this Saturday's Tournament at Arkham Gamin...oh, yeah.  That.  See, Arkham has shut its doors since the last time we spoke, and will not now be hosting the event this weekend.  Fuck.

See, despite the announcement the other day that its time was drawing to a close (diminishing, and going to the West, no doubt) I fully expected, until today, that it would be available for the event arranged months ago to be held within it's confines.  It's a few hours (12, I think?) since I found out, and I'm no longer angry just disappointed.  All the same...unpleasant surprise is unpleasant.  A substitute venue has been found and the event rescued, to the delight and relief of all who've been looking forward to seeing if I could actually meet the challenge of building a 5th Edition Codex army in time to compete in one of the last available 5th Edition Tournaments on the island.

As we get closer to the event, I will post the complete army list, but for now we have a tiny smidgen of BatRep for your delectation...please forgive the grey, it's WIP, and please forgive the lack of terrain relative to what many would consider the ideal standard: I tried to strike a balance between the less-than-optimal state of typical tournament tables I've ever seen (NOTE: I don't merely mean in real life here, but at pretty much every event bar NOVA and BFS I can recall seeing pics of [I missed most of the IndyOpen coverage, pretty much all if I'm honest, I had busy IRL stuff and by the time I felt I had the time to look it was weeks later, and meh...] although as some of you know, my ideal for terrain set-up is pretty far from what a lot of people are content with...) and the much greater coverage and level of LOS block I would love to see identical on every table.

Quick note on that, actually - the only real thing I can think of that MVB and I really disagree with vis-a-vis terrain is height of LOS blocking terrain, not even depth or width [no homo?] - I am of the opinion that LOS blocking terrain should exclude, ideally, the vehicles that fall into the AV14 class, and raised Skimmers.  He does not have any qualms about having a building that totally screens a Land Raider, unless I misunderstand him.  Obviously for balance reasons I have a part of my mind inclined to agree - I am not a fan of LRs (if you haven't noticed...;) ) but I get that they could do with this small boost in theory. [Not saying he means to boost them, or even thinks of it as such...]


I, however, think that a certain penalty needs to be in place to counter the relative worth of such things (Raiders, Russes) when defending themselves against enemy fire from distance.  I wouldn't even shoot Railguns at AV14 unless I had nothing better to shoot/serious need to slow or stop them/multiple shot platforms to increase the odds of a decent result, opposed to single-shots like a Hammerhead {PS - Hammerheads are awful...}  I also feel that Vendettas and their ilk should never be granted a Cover Save by terrain, merely by speed (Flyers, hello!) or intervening models, and that no ruin should ever have more than 2 stories and a ground floor, because Beasts/Cav already get the short end of the stick in that regard, and Assault is weak enough (THAT was the other article! Duh...) without crippling units' ability to reach the enemy completely...

Bunkers (ie, garrisonable Buildings) Roads and Rivers should also never be used, because they favour specific armies/build types too much, and terrain that knowingly changes the balance of the game through it's presence on some tables and not others unbalances the event by making it a key determining factor in gameplay when some games are palyed on the table, yet irrelevant to others despite being theoretically the same [Example - if a Road is present when Eldar play Necrons, it has no effect.  If Blood Angels play the next round against Draigowing on the same board, the extra 6" of movement for one army is akin to the TO pulling down the pants to let the advantaged player...well - hyperbole is fun, but I don't want to labour the point.  Irrespective of desire, the appearance of fairness is paramount, and these terrain types countermand that.  Please note I'm referring only to the three in named in this paragraph, in this paragraph.

 - Joe Seized.

 - Shield of Sanguinius one...

 - And again Perils, seconds later.  Oh dear...

 - Karma strikes his Veterans...

 - And Demolisher Shell hits my guys...

 - Librarian, 4" away, fails to Melta (no shock) but also fails Difficult distance, despite MTC.  Oh, shit...

Oh, and I know full well this table (as I already said above) doesn't meet the ideal I'd like.  I'm making do with what I have available, because that's what I do.  Doesn't make it right, or good - but it is what it is, and what it is is Not Ideal, But Tolerable, because the terrain I use at Slayers is for friendly games, not tournaments.  Different aims, different level of caring by me.