The Weekly Top X - Snark Sandwhich

Brent: My Bell of Lost Souls article on Tuesday highlighted the work of an average game club; then, being the Internet Personality I am, I asked others to dropped examples of their work in the comment’s section.

Feel free to do the same here. As a blogger, you should feel free to whore your work whenever possible!

The reason I bring it up is there were a number of comments pointing out how to increase traffic to your blog. Why, look, I just happen to have a quote!

Rebel Grot: “According to the stats of mine almost all the traffic comes from the blogrolls of BoLS, FTW and HoP. The service they provide to keep us bloggers 'in the loop' is excellent so go for it.”

This is simply the truth. Blog Rolls like the House of Paincakes are the primary jumping point for readers. If you’re not signed up already, it’s very easy. In fact, drop a line in the comments and Lauby will make sure to help walk you through it. (let me save you some time, read the Join Us page)

Lauby and I, as True Artists, flew as the muse directed... and this week the muse (me) directed us to a Caption Contest Style post! Read on, McMuff.

1) Prometheus at War - The Case for Anval Thawn
Lauby: After reading this, I think 75 points is a small price to pay for the amount of fun Thawn brings to the table. If you’re still not convinced, it may help to think if it as an investment in not being the worst kind of person.
Brent: “One man, unkillable, that can score...” Elvis hasn’t left the building just yet, now has he?

I'm not the only one, right?

Gaming on a Budget: In the Flat Fields

Sorry kids, I can never resist the urge to drop a Bauhaus reference on you...

Today, moving along with the budget gaming table project, we'll be looking modelling fields.  This is entirely appropriate since I'm building a table based on the Villers-Bocage area of Northern France.  The area, along with most of the Northeastern bits around Normandy, are heavy agricultural communities, producing mostly cattle, fruits, and a few grains.  The pastures between hedgerows are perfect for creating grazing areas for cattle and planting various types of crops.

The final table will have some open pastures between the hedgerows, but to create a nice, visually appealing table with lots of cover, it will also be heavily planted.  With fields being among the cheapest and easiest types of terrain to create, we're going to be making a lot of board coverage for next to nothing, giving us more money within our $200 budget to work with for other things.

User Content Wednesday - How To Make Razorwire

A while back a blogger whose name I now forget applied to join the House of Paincakes.  A fairly normal occurrence to be sure.  However, he had this neat little tutorial on wrapping wires to make a substitute for guitar string.  Its turns out that his trick gave you a section of 'tubing' that was signifigantly easier to work with than the guitar string.  I'm sad to say that I did some light scoffing.  Luckily, I was properly rebuffed.  But I always felt a little bad about it.  I was looking for that very post for today's User Content Wednesday.  Totally couldn't find it.  So if anyone out there knows what the hell I'm talking about, hit me up!  

In any case, I found another great tutorial on a different kind of wire shenanigans that fits in nicely with what's been going on with Gaming on a Budget.  Basically, it's a dirt cheap way to recreate the GW razor wire without spending $10 on a bag of bullshit you can make yourself.  I'll let Faolain from Awakening Ynnead take it from here:

Ok, now it's time to put some razorwire on those sprue barricades we made in a previous post.

First off, cut yourself a length of very fine wire. For these I used 22 gauge wire that I got for cheap at Lowe's. There are plenty of ways to get free wire, but I wanted to be spared the hassle. Keep in mind that every foot of wire is going to equal slightly more than 1" of razorwire, so 6' of wire would be a bit more than 6" of wire. Since our sections are 6" long, 6' is a perfect length.

Arrogance and Laziness...

I'm pretty damn good at 40K,

I normally win something like 95% of my games, my list building skills are sound and I understand the rules of the game and how to use them to my benefit in ways that may occasionally border on (but not cross into, I hasten to add) the realms of WAAC.

However recently a change has occurred...

Gaming on a Budget: Making a Gaming Surface Part 2

Sorry about disappearing like that folks: I had wanted to finish the gaming surface series in one go, but as I was writing the last one, I realized that I was almost late for pseudo-work, so had to leave.  Then I had a show the next day and got unexpectedly sick, the next, so haven't really had the time to wrap this up until today. 

As you will recall from the last few episodes, I'm currently hard at work building a series of 2'x2' tiles out of foam to make a modular gaming surface that can be placed on a table or the floor.  The table will be made to represent western French areas like Villers-Bocage in 15mm, but will be designed to accomodate other systems such as 40k and WFB as well.  I'll be putting the whole thing together, terrain and all!, for right around $200 all said and done and should be completely finished by this coming Saturday.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Forum

The great and powerful Tordeck and a group of people I can only assume are his minions, started up a new Dark Eldar forum.  Having dabbled in forum creation before, I can tell you that getting that crucial critical mass of commenting members can be rough.  So maybe you should all head over there and check it out in an unprecedented show of HOP solidarity.  And if anything FNIF worthy crops up, be sure to tell Dethtron.

The Dark City

New Member Monday - I Decided Against a Tasteless Memorial Day Joke

Speaking of Memorial day, it sure would be nice if, in addition to remembering our fallen service men, I could remember to respond to our new blog requests faster.  Sorry guys, we've been dropping the ball.  Derping it, even.  We'll be better next time around.  Promise.

In addition, enjoy this hilarious video as part 2 of the apology:

[Musings of a Game Store Owner] What Makes a FLGS?

What is a FLGS? What should it have or offer to be the place you want to shop? What elements makes a store truly excellent?

I’d like to explore that with you for a week or two, and let you express your expectations and the successes of the stores you frequent.

What are the key elements to making your local store great, or groan-worthy? I’m very interested in hearing specifics. How important is knowledge of the product (and which specific products), stock levels, special order policy, play space, cleanliness, and more.

If a discount is important to you- please tell me what level of discount you expect and on what products. Across the board, just specific lines, with a “membership club” or “punch card” – how would a discount work?