[The Von Report] At Last, We Face Something In Power Armour

So, I've had my Necrons a while, and since they've continued to serve me well since I bought back into the army just before Christmas 2011, I've decided to focus on them for the club league rather than buy into a new army. Admittedly, it helps that I have quite a few unpainted Egyptian-style death-robots cluttering up the place and a hobby budget best described as 'negligible' for the first four months of 2013. I just prefer to think of it as a reward for their faithful service and continued failure to be absolute tosh.

Here's a photo of the new stuff, with which the unfortunate readers of GAME OVER may be familiar.

Put this all together and it's at least nudging the 1500 points we've been tasked to paint... so I just paint that over four months and I'm sorted, right? Wrong. Unfortunately, the collection only holds 12 Troops models, and that might be satisfactory if they were super-tough Deathwing Terminators or similar, but alas, they are comparatively squishy Necron Warriors who cower in fear of the ubiquitous autocannon or even the laughing- stock heavy bolter.

The plan, therefore, is to paint up this 1500 points of stuff to qualify for the painting points, but to actually field the new units on some sort of in-and-out cycle, with the Warriors (and possibly Lords) already in my collection to top up some lists that won't just implode the second a Hydra or Rifleman Dreadnought looks at them funny. I'll still have 1500 points of new toys painted up to show for it at the end of the four months, but I'll be pulling odds and sods from the complete collection in order to build some lists that aren't a complete embarrassment.

That said, I might be able to get away with using only the new models for the first month, with a list that looks a bit like this:

• Vargard Koschei - Necron Overlord - warscythe, sempiternal weave
• Catacomb Command Barge - tesla cannon
• Royal Court - 4 Crypteks - all Harbingers of Destruction
• 6 Necron Warriors
• 6 Necron Warriors
• Ghost Ark

My general plan is for the Crypteks to boot the Warriors out of their Ghost Ark and hijack it for use as a gunboat, drifting around unleashing two infantry squads' worth of firepower while they snipe at tanks or heavy infantry off the back. The Warriors shelter beside the Ark and receive some help with reanimating while they cower on whatever objectives they can reach, and Koschei swoops magnificently around trying to hit as many things as possible with his warscythe before he's inevitably pulled off the back of the Barge and killed.

To see whether that plan survives contact with the Enemy, click the button! To spare your eyes the full majesty of my word hoard (even a 600 point game runs to a 1500 word report, you see), I've presented some edited highlights for your viewing pleasure, with a link to the club forum where you'll find the blow-by-blow. If people would rather have the full reports here, I can start doing that next week...

[Musings of a Game Store Owner] Well the holidays didn't kill me...

Being a game store owner during the holidays is somewhat like playing whack-a-mole blindfolded with a chainsaw. There's tons of messes and destruction, and when it's all over you have to clean it up-

but this is all a good thing in the long run.

We've gotten through Christmas, which is always a challenge- balancing orders with distributors and their holiday schedules, as well as the general uptick in demand for special orders and "fixture games" ( Ticket to Ride, Cataan, etc). It's a lot to balance and doing it well is pretty important.

But our busy season is just beginning. At the end of January, we have our annual local game convention. We go every year, and it's always insanely busy. This year, we're adding insanity to the mix, on purpose.

This year, TheDude is going to be running events at the con instead of running the booth. The convention turns 40 this year, and TheDude LOVES to run roleplaying games. He's decided to showcase his homebrew system and is going to use it for all four events he is running at the con.

That's not all! Oh no, we don't go halfway. We're all in! In addition to TheDude going to be as far away from the booth as possible, we're also running a M:tG Pre-release event at the convention. We're doing it overnight between Friday and Saturday, and we're hoping to host 128 people all at once. We normally hold several waves of 44 or so at a time.

I have 5 total staff to run the con and this event with, and planning and logistics are my purview. So, suffice it to say, I'm looking for volunteers and planning on a whole lot of no sleep.

My focus for the next month is going to be planning and getting ready- so I'd love to take on questions you might have about the FLGS industry or what it's like to run one. Please hit me up in the comments, and we'll see what next week brings!

New Year New Member Monday + Contest

Hey folks and welcome to a new year here at the House of Paincakes!  Now that the writing staff have made it past the holiday season and, presumably, survived - we should be slowly but surely getting back up to more than one article a week.

Special thanks to SinSynn for keeping the lights on while he tried to wrap his alien brain around all this holiday cheer and figure out just who this 'Christopher' person is.

Right. First post of the new year.   The fact that it's a New Member Monday would be perfect if it were actually Monday.

But we have a new Member anyway and here it is:

Shades Of Chaos
Keywords: Wargaming, painting, gaming, reviews, battlereports, vornucopia of games, commerce

But wait!  There's more!  It turns out that these fine folks are running a little contest to kick off the new year. So if you fancy your chances of winning a plastic Chaos Lord on a super sweet Manticore and are capable of liking things on Facebook, then you should probably check out this link:

WIN A CHAOS LORD ON MANTICORE!!!!

Holiday Chaos and the Writhing Tentacle Fiends

Hey, folks. SinSynn here.

So the holiday season is wrapping up, and things are quiet here at the House of Paincakes. All of my fellow authors are out and about, leaving me alone here in the office.
The least they could've done is turned off the electric fence.
After all, I did promise not to, uh...have another 'accident,' and I'm pretty sure Lauby has our insurance all squared away, but whatevs. I'd rather be trapped here with no one but the Hamster That Lives In My Head as company than to be at home.
Y'see, shortly after Halloween the Crazy Lady's sister arrived, and she has stayed as our guest throughout this holiday season. Their cousin arrived just before Thanksgiving, turning our apartment into the world's smallest bed and breakfast.
In a couple of days, we'll usher in a New Year, and the Crazy Lady's sister and cousin will return to their respective tombs...errr, I mean homes.

*Next year I steep the mat in garlic. That'll keep 'em out*