Dethtron's Imperial Armour 8 Elysian Codex Reivew- Dedicated Transport

This is where the Elysians really come into their own as an army. You only get one dedicated transport option and it's the Valkyrie.

User Content Friday - Treating Your Army Like A Business Part 3: Project Management

Kennedy from 40k for the New Professional has slowly but surely been writing a top-notch series on a unique and very cool approach to army building.  Essentially, he's directly porting best business practices to virtually every aspect of building and playing an army.  While his focus is on 40k, the tennants of the 4 parts he's written so far apply to everything.  Today we're posting part 3 since it's my favorite as it totally saved my life or some shit.  Well, that's quite a bit of hyperbole, but it did give me a lot of help in dealing with my own mass of unpainted space doodz.  Be sure to check out Kennedy's other stuff as well as parts one, two and four of the series.

So, Project Management... What the hell is that? Well, I know that it can mean a lot of different thing in different contexts, but for me and for the purposes of this article, I'm talking about juggling the different tasks that are involved in moving towards a larger goal. Vague enough?

Ok, let's go to an example. Let's say you've split your army building into several stages of 500 points each so that you can get stuff assembled and painted for an escalation league or something. You've got some stuff done, some stuff is on the painting table, some stuff is still being assembled and some stuff is stiff on the sprue in a sealed box. Another example would be if you're building a Warmachine army, a 40k army and a Warhammer Fantasy army at the same time. The question, of course, becomes how do you manage a couple of different tasks at once?

Dethtron's Imperial Armour 8 Elysian Codex Review- Troops

Now we're off to the meat of the list, the troops section. This list trims a lot of the fat- yes, I'm looking in your direction Conscrubs and Penile Legionnaires.

Where in the World is Lantz - Lantzcaping

Lantz is not the zany funster we all thought he was.  Not by a long shot.  He has just a bit more Professor Moriarty in him than our rigorous and exhaustive background checks were able to uncover.

It turns out that all his showboating, self portraits and wacky antics had a purpose.  His mad plan was to infiltrate our blog network and then sneak in a plug about one of his own projects.

Lantz, you are one insidious beast. Why you felt the need to lay two-months of groundwork to sneak your plug onto a blog devoted to plugging its members is beyond me.

Fortunately, that's the kind of thing we like around here.  That and scatological humor.  Poop fart shit. Hehe.

Lantz sez: A Shameless Self-Plug. And My Nose.

The Weekly Top X - Quality Over Quantity

This week we’ve only got an x that equals 3, but this allows Brent and I to go a bit more in depth in our commentary. Instead of blasting your faces clean off with the sheer number of posts we’ve selected, we’ve squeezed the blogosphere’s finest mind-grapes to bring you a mere three glasses of juice. But its damn fine juice.

You like-a de juice, eh?

1) Double 0 Sven - Secret Agent: How to create atmospheric photos of your wargames table
John: This one was suggested for the Top X by Dethtron. And by ‘suggested’, I mean ‘forcibly included’. Which is all good and well, because with 110+ blogs on the rolls these days, it’s really easy for quality stuff to fall through the cracks. So, with this weeks theme of quality over quantity in mind, Dethtron made a fantastic catch (he also did some of the work for us too. HIYO!).
Brent: I’m not sure what Dethtron thinks he’s doing giving us ‘suggestions.’ Well, I ain’t gonna do it.
John: Dood. You gotta! This is the only time I think the Double O Sven guy has given us anything close to context.
Brent: What? Well, that’s different then. The blog and the post are both originals and well worth taking a look at.
John: Exactly. A great alternate take on properly displaying your miniatures from one of the single most unique miniature blogs I’ve ever seen. If you’re looking to add a little zazz into showing off your work, you can’t go wrong with this advice.

2) 3++ is the New Black - Point & Click - The Myth
Brent: Kirby’s blog is (and don’t tell him I said this) one of the best things going. He’s put together a quality team and they crank out quality work. That said, sometimes he tackles a subject or hits a point that goes above and beyond even Kirby’s high standards, and this article is certainly one of those.
John: Hell yes, Brent. Hell yes.  There’s a lot going on here beyond the much needed debunking of some common bullshit. One of 3++’s biggest draws is how even handed and accessible the information is. This piece is no exception. This is the exact kind of thing that has something to offer players of every skill level. Food for thought.
Brent: Now you’ve gone and made me hungry... just read the article, people!
John:  Read all of the articles!

3) Hidden in the Warp - Being Gamist: I'm WAAC and Proud of it!
Brent: Here’s something a bit different, wouldn’t you say, Lauby?
John: To the extent that he embraces the insult as a way to diffuse its power. However, I think this is really a continuation of a much bigger trend that’s been a going on for a while now. There’s always been this kind of latent collection of what are now being termed ‘competitive 40k gamers’ that have always felt that a game that requires a $500+ investment to play is a damn sight more than a ‘beer and pretzels’ affair. Its really the idea that WAAC gamers are a red herring in the big scheme of things and that tough lists can be played against tough opponents while still maintaining that ‘night out with the lads’ feel.
Brent: I agree with the sentiment; what’s interesting is how other folks look at it. It’s not really fashionable to admit you want to win a game, that you want to do well... I’m not sure why though.

Dethtron's Imperial Armour 8 Elysian Codex Review- Elites

Next up in my review we have the L33T units to deal with. Veteran guard players all know that traditionally, you need to take the word "elite" with a grain of salt here, as this slot has been a place to stick all your bullshit that has no home elsewhere- Ogryn, Ratlings, Techpriests, 4th ed bad Vets, and Storm Troopers (to some degree). The 5th ed IG codex has made some steps to improve this somewhat, giving us the amazing Psyker Battle Squad and improved, if slightly over-costed, Storm Troopers.  The FW Elysian Codex, though, trims out most of the fat and gives us some great choices, with a new spin on an old Fast Attack stand-by.

The Mondy Update: Ocho Con Carne

For those of you who don't habla the Español, the title is Spanish for Eight Con Carne.  True story.

Nothing too exciting this week - no new technology tweaks, no fancy-schmancy milestones.  The HoP dynamo is humming along nicely as we enter the Holiday season.  Though, I will say that the new comment system seems like it's here to stay.  Lots of you are using it even if it was only to complain at first.

We have this many new members.

With that out of the way, its a whopper of a New Member Monday

Hidden in the Warp

D6 Gaming

Funderhammer

Death Korps of Krieg

Without Which Not

Can't Paint Won't Paint

Meandering the Dune Sea

Sons of Sanguinius

Another meaty bunch of bloggy goodness.  Um...  that's all for now.  But be sure to check out last week's Lantz/contest while you fritter away another perfectly good Monday reading blogs.

[Weekly Whimsy] Brutal Beauty

[Welcome to Weekly Whimsy! You know, I had an alliterative intro, a serious article and all kinds of cool shenanigans up my sleeve until earlier today when a real-life situation alerted me to the necessity of some levity. I'll possibly throw down some crazy words you've never heard of in the midst of all my silly hijinx, so get a thesaurus just in case.Also, just to cover my self... the opinions herein are expressly mine, and HOP does not endorse them in any way.]

" Just like flying a cab" - Corbin Dallas, The Fifth Element

So all of the webbernetz is in a roar over the Stormraven. You know, this thing:



The general consensus of the masses is that the thing's a glorified garbage hauler- only uglier.

I say: Yer all crazy. It's flippin perfect.