The Weekly Top X - Happy Endings

Pssst! Hey you - yea, you! I can hear you breathing. I can see you typing...

...what, you weren’t using your webcam anyway! Forget all that right now, we gotta do this quick before Lauby sees us!

You know what’s never happened on Top X? Me nominating me.

C’mon! It’s a genius idea! Granted, since Top X is really meant to focus on the little guy (he says, whilst picking a ‘not little’ blog this week in Musings of a Metal Mind...), I imagine Lauby will yet again put a stop to my sinister machinations.

Not sure why he does that, but this may be a one-time deal. Given that, I’m going to do a Best and Worst of the Average... and much like the Official Strictly Average Criticizer Da Warboss Stalin... it’ll be on the bottom!

Hey everyone!  And welcome to the Weekly Top X!  Little does Brent know that I can read green text at almost the same level as I can all other colors.  I'm well aware of his plan.  However, in the name of "seeing where it all goes", I've decided to allow his micro-rebellion.  Unfortunately, this kindness is not without a price.  Little does Brent know that the nosebleed and headache he just suffered was caused by my psychic theft of one of his memories.

Dastardly mind powers aside, this Top X is in the same style as last week's:  I pick 3, Brent picks 3 and then we try and figure out why.  I know, I know...  trying to codify Brent's thoughts may seem risky.  But that's just the kind of thing I do to keep the HoP running.

Gaming on a Budget: Using your Scraps or Pet Cemetary

Almost forgot to make a dated music reference in the title, oh no.

Anyhow, due to the recent demolition of my game room and scramble to find gainful employment, I haven't gotten a chance to take final pictures of the gaming table I've been building- they'll be done by next week; I promise.  This does, however give me pause to talk about something semi-related, however.

User Content Wednesday - 40k Theory: It's All About The Numbers

Nikephoros has absolutely been blowing people's faces clean off with math over on Bringer of Victory lately.  Many of you have probably already seen some of this, but clearly not enough of you.  The dude deserves more than the 93 followers he has at the moment.  So check the inaugural post of the 40k Metrics series out, then go to Bringer of Victory and see some actual science.

Actually, between this and Monday's calendar essay, I think I could have done another theme week... 

Note to GMort:  Create time machine and then go back in time to tell yourself to write a post on some math related topic. 

What is ballistic skill?

I mean, what does it really mean in terms of winning and losing on the table top?

Absolutely nothing. Quantity of fire in Warhammer 40k is usually far superior to quality. At very least it's equal. So what am I getting at? There is no correlation between winning and ballistic skill. The army with the superior average ballistic skill shouldn’t (assuming the game is properly balanced) have any advantage over one with a lower average ballistic skill.

This is the inherent problem I've been wrestling with mentally. When players compare units/armies/lists they are, generally speaking, comparing irrelevant metrics. So what that Khorne Berserkers have 3 attacks each? So do Orks, and you can get 4 Orks for the same price as one Berserker.

Not a single stat on the units' stat lines give you the faintest hint of if it will make your army win or lose more games by using it. Even when you factor in points, it's mostly irrelevant. As I said in the moneyball article, none of the "stats" in a unit's stat line are correlated with wins on the tabletop. So we really can't use those stats as a metric for measuring a unit's effectiveness.

Warning: numbers ahead

40K SAVED MY LIFE !

Hey folks, SinSynn here, and this post is dedicated to Brent, from Strictly Average....just because.

By way of an 'introduction piece,' which I probably should have written prior to my first post (heh), I thought I'd share the story of how I ended up playing this silly game we all love so much, and why it's such an important part of my life.

In truth, not many people know what I'm about to share, and some people may find it a drag.....but it's the truth, and in a way I feel like I kinda NEED to write it out, for some reason.
Some kinda weird catharsis, I suppose.

Bear with me a sec, if you don't mind- it takes a minute to get there, maybe, but there's a point....
You cool with that?
Ok, here we go.....

A Money Saving Guide to 6th edition 40K.

There's been much talk across the internet lately about the imminent (or not) arrival of 6th Edition 40K with the usual varying opinions on the accuracy of the rumours and whether it will be a good thing (or not) based on those self same bunch of rumours.

Instead of 5th edition Ver 5.01 that people were expecting it seems were instead going to get a major overhaul.....because obviously that worked so well with Fantasy......

Rather than give my opinion on those rumours I'm going to instead show you how with a few simple steps 6th edition 40K can save you a fortune...

New Member Monday - HoP Idol and SinSynn

Hello and welcome to another week on the internet.  Wargames Con finished up on Sunday so we should be getting some good content spawning from that in the near future.  I expect to start seeing some posts as soon as the hangovers wear off and as soon as people catch up on their sleep.  In the meantime, there are some moderate to big things happening at the House of Paincakes.

HoP Idol
We kicked off a contest last week for a coveted spot in the HoP author pool.  We've gotten a few entries so far, but we'd really like to see more.  Be sure to check out the details here:  HoP Idol

Just a bit of clarification - if you end up as the lucky winner of this fantabulous test of skill (which may or may not involve traveling back in time to have a dream date with the star of your choice at the time of your choice), you'll be producing an original series for us - not reposting something you already do.  Just wanted to make that clear.

Oh, and I've watched enough youtube clips to be fully up to speed on the whole Randy "dawg" thing now.  So... dawg.. I guess.

Speaking of new authors...

Apply to HoP Idol Today!

The first applications for Season 1 of HoP Idol have started trickling in and man is there some good stuff to be read.  There is going to be some stiff competition in this contest, I can tell you that.  Don't forget to submit your application today so you don't miss out on the action. 

Remember, the deadline for getting in on this life-changing contest and to chance to land a record deal become a HoP weekly author is 7/21/11. 

If you were too busy checking out all the Wargamescon coverage this weekend or working on your lawn or hanging out at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and have no idea what Hop Idol is, you may wish to refer to this previous post for all the juicy details.