Extra-Life Fundraiser!

So this event isn't even until October and the organization and fundraising has already begun!

 

Extra Life

Extra Life started as an effort by video-gamers to raise money for kids.  The charity organization raises money specifically for children's hospitals across the world and each participant gets to choose where there money goes.  Over the last couple years (although the site still says video games) it has really incorporated gaming of all sorts, Warhammer included.  Most people have no reason to feel attached to giving other than the human willingness to share in hopes to better those who need the help.

Many people however including myself have stories of those in our lives who have been helped by the wonderful people and facilities available at the children's hospitals included in the network.  My nephew was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma a few years ago.  He spent a crazy amount of time in and out of the hospital receiving chemotherapy and medicine as well as the years of check-ups that are to follow it and ensure that the remission sticks.  Thankfully it was caught early and he is fine today, but just as important as the treatment was the fact that we have a great children's hospital here in our hometown of Springfield, IL.  St. Johns Children's Hospital.

If this is something your even remotely interested in you should definitely check it out.  You can organize whole teams of people.  This year I've joined Team Cranky which is a grouping thus far of Warhmmer Players and Podcasters.  I'm proud to try and do my part to help heal kids.

If you'd like to support me please follow the link below:
Support Joe Flesch and Extra Life

We'll talk more about Extra Life as the months continue and we hopefully get some more organization and perhaps set up some kind of event to participate in for the gaming.  So keep an eye out on the Twitter and the Blog and we hope that you choose to participate in your own way, be it donating or gaming yourself.

The Empire Project

So for those who have listened to the show in the past you'll have occasionally heard me discuss an Empire army that I had been working on.  It is what one might call a "side project" of sorts.  A buddy of mine had an Empire army he had acquired years ago.  Parts of it were eBay piecemeal and some of it was his paintjobs, but the point is they were all pretty bad looking.  You can see in the pictures above what I'll be working with.  Well, most of what I'll be working with.  The two pictures on the right are purely the original paint and basing jobs.  If you look on the left most picture you'll see the Spearman unit and some of the Handgunners that I've already began refinishing.

Now that my Skaven army is finally complete I have the ability to finally focus on this project and get it to a completed point.  That and I don't have the kind of money to fund a different army that I'd have to start purchasing from scratch.  Due to the age of the army it will be nearly impossible to add to it as the newer Empire models don't match the 5th edition ones.  They were smaller in stature and had puffy sleeves and pants.  Luckily most of the models int he army were metal.  The only real plastic models were the horses, spears and handguns.  Due to the old plastic (and its near impossibility to strip without destroying the models) I chose to go with the original theme of the army which was the Stirland River Patrol.  I have no plans of making this army nearly the quality of paintjobs of my Skaven or Dwarfs.  Particularly since I'm basically preserving the old scheme on the plastics, but also because thats going to be 54 models I don't have to paint.

What I've done to the Spears and am doing to the Handgunners is touching up the Green/White, recoloring the brown and skin and then washing the models in Devlan, Badab, Thraka to give some depth to otherwise overly bland models.  I'm going to have to strip a lot of the metals.  Flagellants, Knights, Pistoliers, Gryphon, etc...  The Greatswords were bare to start with (small favor) and I stripped the cannons a long time ago.  I'm actually pretty excited to get this project moving and on all four wheels just so I have something new to play around with.  In that effort Ryan G. who participated in the Tale of Four Gamers set of articles we did a while back will be doing some work with me this time as well, although on a much less strenuous schedule.

We'll be playing at least 1 game a month at a 500 point escalation starting in May.  His goal is to have at least 1 unit or character painted per month to show off and continue his progress on his Ogre army.  My goal is to try and get the initial 500 points painted as well as whatever I need each month to escalate the list upward in points.  Hopefully this will result in my Empire army being ready before October.  While there is no tournament deadline for me to attend to I would just like to have it completed by then for self worth.  So if your interested keep an eye on the blog as I'll be posting updates along the way.

Thanks!
Joe F.

Adepticon 2012 Wrap-up Report: Joe F.

So now that Adepticon is done and over with its time to put together all the coverage I managed to get hold of while I was there.  I've got some pictures (not many) which I'll have jammed throughout this post.  I'll have some video of some awards ceremonies at the end of the post and at the very bottom for those who want to download it I'll have the recordings that I managed to get while I was there.  As the show was shut down I wasn't nearly as diligent about getting content as I was last year, but as an excuse I was also 3 sheets to the wind most of the time I was there as well.  Still, here's what I have and I hope you all enjoy the read/watch/listen of it. 

Thursday Night:
I arrived late Thursday night hoping against hope that I might manage to snag one of the 500 free Battlefoam bags.  Alas apparently 9pm was too late of an arrival time for this to happen.  I did however meet up with Andy, Jake and Mark from Ohiohammer and go out for Sushi.  We then went back to the room where we proceeded to drink and basically just while the hours away talking hobby, podcasting, and everything under the sun until around 1:30am.  I think we recorded a little bit too.  As I haven't edited the recordings at the time of typing this I guess we'll all find out later when we get to that point. 

Friday:
On Friday I participated in both of the Fantasy 1,000 point 'It's How You Use It' events.  There is a morning and evening event for which you must play different armies.  You also don't have to play both but as I was going to be playing Blood Bowl on Saturday and Sunday I thought I ought to so that I could say I played a ton of Fantasy, which I did. 

Morning Event:
For the morning event I played with my Dwarfs.  I'll go over a quick rundown of the list and then hit up some small battle reports. 

List: 
Runesmith - Master Rune of Challenge, Rune of Brotherhood, Rune of Spellbreaking
Thane - BSB, Master Rune of Gromril, Rune of Brotherhood
38 Warriors - Full Command, Rangers, Great Weapons, Shields, Throwing Axes
Bolt Thrower
Bolt Thrower - Engineer, Rune of Burning
Organ Gun
Total:999 Points 


Round 1:Skaven

Game went well, I feel I outplayed him. The Dwarf list I had was a 1 trick pony that scouts a 40 man Warrior unit in your face. Then when you think, "well at least I'll get one round of shooting" I pull the Master Rune of Challenge on you. The Skaven were not prepared for it, and with a big deep unit containing his Lord he couldn't flee so he charged. This kept his shooting off of me.  After the Stormvermin with Lord crumbled I overran into his Plague Censer Bearers, WLC, Jezzails. My 2 Bolt Throwers and Organ Gun smashed his Slave unit with BSB apart and he conceded at the bottom of 3. Win.



Round 2:Warriors of Chaos

I felt I should have had this game. He set up really bad for going against my list. A unit of 18 Tzeench Warriors on far left, 18 Khorne in middle and his Sorcerer on a Disc far right. I stepped up to the Sorcerer as this was B&G (Kill him then I only need to knock off 1 unit to win). Challenge Rune went off he charged because odds were clearly against him staying on table if he fled. I sadly did not kill him, won combat he fled, stayed on table I did not catch. My turn 1 I charge him, he flee's, stays on table and I still do not catch. Had he died in combat I would've probably won as I'd have been able to reform. Instead on his turn 2 his Khorn made a 16" charge into my flank and the Sorcerer rallied. The Warriors proceeded to eat me and the game was over. Loss.



Round 3:Dark Elves

Another game that I felt I should have won. I started with his Sorcerer and RPX Crossbows fleeing from the Challenge. My shooting killed his army except the Hydra. I literally had everything going for me until turn 4 when with his remaining Sorcerer and 2 Crossbows who managed to double 1 stay on the board
threw 10 dice at Purple Sun and destroyed my General, BSB and about 19 of the 30 remaining warriors. The Hydra then got into me and murdered 6 of the remaining 11. I called it at this point. Loss.


Afternoon Event:
Again I'll go over the list and then some reports.

List: 
Greyseer
Chieftan - BSB
Warlock Engineer - Doomrocket
5 Giant Rats - 1 Pack Master
5 Giant Rats - 1 Pack Master
40 Slaves - Musician, Shields
35 Clanrats - Musican, Banner, Shields
5 Gutter Runners - Slings, Poison
Hellpit Abomination
Total:997.5 Points



Round 1:Vampire Counts

Tanya Scheibe drew me and while she's a great player I took a dirty filthy rat list with a Greyseer and an Abomination. She could not contend. The Abomination carried this game far and away and basically did all the dirty work. Damn thing is crazy. Win.



Round 2:Dark Elves

My opponent was plagued by some seriously bad die rolls. 10 Poison shots from my Gutters took out 4 of his 5 Cold One Knights. The Abomination scarfed all the Corsairs and Dark Elf Warriors and then him and the Hydra met. I won but with only a single wound remaining. The Doom Rocket blew up his Sorcerers with Crossbows and when they fled the Gutters shot them down. Win.

Round 3:Demons

Its a fact that when Skaven fail, they fail hard. My dice that had been pretty hot abandoned me this game. Worst of all is I was on Table 3. I could literally see the winners circle. Doomrocket missed. Couldn't get a spell off to save my life and he had 2 units of Flamers which completely smoked the Abomination.
The Gutters took 3 rounds of shooting at a lone Herald of Tzeench and it always seems like Demon players never fail a ward save. I played it out but it was a lost cause when the Bloodletters got to me and KB'd all my characters. Loss.

Overall:
A great set of tournaments. I'm disappointed in the Dwarf list. I knew it was a match-up dependent win but I felt the 2nd game should've been mine and thus would have likely had a different 3rd round opponent. The Skaven just fell apart which thy are want to do so I can't really complain. I got to table 3 which was way higher than I expected to make it at an Adepticon event.

Saturday and Sunday:
I played in the Stuporbowl V (Blood Bowl) event.  I took the Dwarf Team again this year same as last, but with the tournament you get to pick Skill Packs so that you have some players who have different abilities to try and work a strategy of some kind.  Last year I took mostly Guard on them so that I would have a stout reliable team; which the Dwarfs start as anyway, but Guard makes it even harder.  Last year I lucked my way into the 'Most Casualties Inflicted' award and this year (planning on not winning overall as I'm not that great) I built the team to for that award specifically.  The team consisted of 6 Lineman (1 with Guard), 2 Blitzers, 2 Trollslayers (all with Mighty Blow), 1 Runner and a Star Player (Flint Churnblade) who has a Chainsaw to cut through armor.

Saturday:
Round 1:Skaven

The Skaven are the fastest team without question in the game.  They start with players who can run 9, and when you add 'Go For It' they can often make 2 turn touchdowns, or 1 turn if they are a skilled player.  No matter how fast they score though, they cannot win a game when they are only able to put 5 men on the field and after inflicting so many casualties, I won 3-2.

Round 2:Dwarfs

Another Dwarf team, but built for sturdiness, not casualties. A 1-1 draw seemed immanent until my dice went on fire and I took 5 Dwarfs out in string during the second half with all my Mighty Blow and the Chainsaw. Win 2-1.

Round3:Dark Elves

Top table for the day I played a Dark Elf. I managed only 2 casualties here. He is an extremely good player and quite frankly far better at the game then me. We both played our best and in the end I managed to hold him to a 1-1 draw.

Day 1 End:
The BBowl tournament has single day as well as 2 day awards. I didn't get anything on the Day 1 side. Someone else fought a Goblin team and inflicted casualties on most of their opponents guys netting them the Day 1 casualty award and pushing me to have to try hard for the day 2.

Sunday:
Round 1:Wood Elves
This is the friend of the guy I played in Round 3 on day 1. Again, a much better player than myself playing a team renowned as being the absolute best team int he game. He played better than me, no question. I managed to hold him to a 2-1 loss which I had to content myself with.

Round 2:Dwarfs

You'll see a theme here... This player was the same as the other I faced, having built for sturdiness, but also fielding a very good star player. Dwarfs is always a rough match-up because its the old 'Immovable object - Unstoppable force' issue. Dwarf armor is high and hard to break. I had to again content
myself with a 1-1 draw.

Round 3:Chaos Dwarfs
A shocking turn of events and one of the reasons I love Blood Bowl is that you can make things with Draws. I managed to make the top tables in the play offs which are the top tournament points leaders after 5 games. The Wood Elf and Dark Elf guys I both played earlier were playing for 1st and 2nd while I played Chaos Dwarfs for 3rd and 4th. See above about immovable and unstoppable. Yet another 1-1 draw was in the works here, I did however manage to kill his Minotaur with a chainsaw which was a moral victory for me.



Overall:
With a record of 2-1-3 W-L-D and the massive amount of casualties I inflicted (19 over the course of 6 games) giving me bonus tournament points I managed to get 3rd overall. Prizes awaited me and I got a great looking Beastmen team made of Rhino's, Elephants, Hippo's, Bison, etc... about a $70 team from an alternate manufacturer in Europe. I also won the Most Casulaties Inflicted award which was my goal and I'm super happy that I achieved it. Nothing makes you feel some self satisfaction like getting what you go for. The tournament was super fun and while I don't plan on doing it next year in favor of getting back into the Champs or the TT I may still do 1 of the two days. We'll have to wait and see.

Aftermath:
Having completed all my miniature gaming for the weekend I went to the D6G Board Game night which runs alongside the ACon Poker Tournament and After Con Mixer. I played board games from about 6pm - 2am. I won 2 board games in some contests they were having (probably about 80$ worth and had a blast. I then drove about halfway home before pulling into a rest stop to sleep for 3-4 hours and then driving the rest of the way. I then immediately went to bed and passed out. Acon was a blast. Thanks to all my opponents (who though probably aren't on this board) were great. I had a lot of fun and can't wait for next year.

Photo's:
Finally, here's some other photo's I took.  Frankly I'm disappointed I didn't take more, but the weekend just seemed to go by so fast and it seemed like I never had the time to.  Even when I had time it seemed like I was always running somewhere to get something; be that dinner, models, vendor halls, etc...

 

Video's:

    

Audio Recording:
*Please note, that there is swearing in this recording so it may not be child friendly.  Also it ends rather abruptly.  Just a warning.
          Length : 36 Minutes 17 Seconds 

Listen Here:
or Download Directly below:
Adepticon 2012 Audio Recording Coverage

The Waaaghcast! Cup - End Week 10

 

Week 10 has ended, and now there will be a small break for Adepticon!  I'll be playing a Dwarf team while there in the Blood Bowl event.  Speak of which I'm quite busy packing as I leave this evening so I'll leave ou with the week 10 newsletter.  Enjoy!

Check it all out in the: Week 10 Newsletter

Adepti-Bound

So in a mere couple of hours I shall be Adepticon bound.  For those of you heading that way I hope to see you there and good luck in all your tournaments as well as safe travels.

I should be arriving around 8-9 o'clock tonight.  I'll tweet when I hit the ground and hopefully I'll still be able to manage some pick ups or some recording for the show.  Speaking of which, keep your eyes on the blog for the week or so after Adepticon as I'll be posting reports, video's, recordings, etc...

Good luck all!

Ryan G.: Adepticon Prep is Done!

With Adepticon quickly approaching, I have managed to finish everything that I need yesterday. This will be my first year at Adepitcon, so I kept my schedule pretty light, so I can have a chance to walk around and take it all in. I'm playing in the 1,000 point "How You Use It" on Friday night with my Ogres that I have been painting up and posting on the site. I am happy with how the army has turned out, but I'm glad I didn't do the championships, because I don't think I would have gotten enough points painted for that.

Saturday, I will be doing the Stuper Bowl! Ladies and gentlemen, meet your soon to be beloved Talabheim City Chiefs!

I love Blood Bowl, and decided to finally paint up my Human team so that I can play something a little different than what I'm used to. The other two teams that I regularly play are Orcs and Halflings, and I like the Humans for the passing and quick scoring aspect. I have greatly enjoyed playing in the Waaaghcast! on-line league and I'm super stoked for this tournament.

That is pretty much all I have to throw up at the moment, but I'm really looking forward to Adepticon, and hopefully hanging out with all the people that I have been playing blood bowl with on-line, and have seen in passing at other tournaments. Good luck to everyone going, and I'll see ya'll there.

Cheers,
Ryan G

The Waaaghcast! Cup - End Week 9

 

This is it folks, the half-way point has finally been reached and starting with week 10 we enter the final half of the competitive season for The Waaaghcast! Cup!  How exciting.  Sadly this sees the 2nd week of continued computer problems with one of our players resulting in yet the 2nd forfeit in our league thus far.  It is unfortunate and hopefully we'll be back to full capacity for number 10.  We hope.  :)

You can read it all here!

Check it all out in the: Week 9 Newsletter

Adepticon, oh Adepticon...

Shhh…  Adepticon is coming.  I know it’s really not a secret that Adepticon is the biggest tournament in the US, one of the largest in the world and definitely the biggest gaming event I drag myself to ever year.  However that said, lots of people don’t go!  I know, its hard to believe.  If you troll forums and listen to podcasts then you’re undoubtedly hearing a lot of Adepticon chatter right now, especially with it being only 15 days away.  Many of us as such are in prep mode and have been for well over a month.  Also if you listen to podcasts (including if you listened to mine in the past) you’ve already heard your fill of reasons that you SHOULD attend and you’ve also likely heard the reasons you’re a fool if you don’t.

As such I’m not going to cover the myriad of reasons you should be going but I thought I’d take this opportunity to go over my schedule.  I have a couple of reasons for this.  One is to show you all how busy this weekend is for many of us gamers who do attend.  Another is so that anyone who by chance may be looking for me over the course of the weekend should have a vague idea of where to find me and finally so that I can let you know what to expect to be playing with me if we get to game together.  Let me assure you, it will be a packed weekend.  Of course every night will be a late night, but bed time is always up in the air based upon drink consumed.

Thursday:
I plan on leaving Thursday night from home which should have me hitting the hotel about 7p.m.  The hope here is that I’ll be in early enough for one of the free Battlefoam Bags that are being given away to the first 500 sign-ins, even though my many friends that are involved with the convention have told me they believe that will be far too late to get one.  So after arriving and signing in I plan on meeting up with Andrew and the guys from Ohiohammer to maybe play games, but likely shoot the shit and perhaps record some for the podcasts.  It will likely be a late night of course, between possible

Warhammer, recording and definitely board games.

 

Friday:

Oh dear…  Friday is going to be insane.  First it’s up and shower and breakfast, but starting at 10:30 I’ll be in the Fantasy hall the rest of the day it seems.  I’m playing in both of the 1,000 point How You Use It tournaments on Friday.  I’ll be running both my Dwarfs and Skaven although I can’t remember which I’m doing for which session.  The point is the schedule for 6 rounds of games is so long and tight that I don’t see myself getting away until literally after everything is done at 10:00pm or later.  At which point I’m sure I’ll be both starving and ready to play some more board games and likely get some more recording done.

Saturday:

My schedule lightens up quite a bit on Saturday and Sunday.  I’m participating in (for the 2^nd time) The Stupor Bowl Blood Bowl tournament.  I did this last year, and I really liked how the tournament ends both days at 5pm.  This leaves me a lot of open time to get back into the Vendor Hall and try to get interviews done with people from Black Library, Battlefield, Mantic, etc…  Also with more open time in the evening I should be able to get more pick up games not to mention I plan on running games of Warhammer Quest for those wanting to participate on Saturday night.  That and of course more board games.

Sunday:

Blood Bowl takes my 2^nd day up as well, but again ends at 5 o’clock.  However, at this point the convention is at its heart done for.  Lots of cleaning up, and last minute socializing will be had of course, but the best part of wrap-up night is the Board Game event.  Last year was the 1^st year for this event which ran alongside the end of con poker tournament.  Now last year there were probably about 50+ people sitting in one of the smaller ball rooms just playing board games and there were a lot of contests and free games being given away.  This year I’ve hard there will actually be representatives from Fantasy Flight Games there, which could mean some really good giveaways and swag to be had.  It will remain to be seen though.  I’ll run Quest here again if people have interest but otherwise I’ll be trying to get some of my lesser played games to the table or playing anything new that FFG drags out.

I’ll have my phone running around with me all day so if you want to get hold of me or want to find out if I’m doing something specific at any time just check out the Twitter feed.   I’ll be tweeting where I’m at and what I’m doing as long as I’m not playing a tournament at the time, so pretty much the evenings.  I’ll have both my full Skaven/Dwarf armies with me and will be willing to play pick up games given the chance and times.  Of course I’ll also have a small pile of board games with me.  I’m excited and so ready to get up there and get some serious gaming in.  To the rest of you who are heading up, see you there!

April Fools!

So for any of you who read the post yesterday and didn't immediately realize that it was April 1st and conversely April Fools Day.  April Fools!  We are not restarting the podcast.  At least not as a whole.  I do plan on getting some recording done at Adepticon.  Hopefully with the same likes as last year.  Really looking forward to it too!  So keep your eyes/ears open for Adepticon coverage.

20 Days!!!!!!

The Waaaghcast! Cup - End Week 8

 

Week 8 ends on a literal whimper.  A player lost his PC for and the league suffered its first forfeiture.  A sad day.  Still, we will persevere!  We are at the 1/2 way point with week 9 and chugging along nicely!  Check it out.

You can read it all here!

Check it all out in the: Week 8 Newsletter

We're Coming Back!

After a whopping 8 months off I couldn't hold it out any longer.  My fickle nature go the best of me and I decided that, we're coming back!  I just couldn't stand it.  It seems like when we shut the show down there were a glut of other podcasts, then inexplicably like we were the lynch-pin we shut down and so did like 5 others!  Just dropped out off the face of the planet either not recording or slimming their schedules down to like 1 show in 3-4 month periods.  Crazy.

The fact is I decided that I'm just too opinionated to not have my thoughts out there and since I hate trolling forums its easier just to start the show back up.  The first episode (take two) should be out in the next couple of days, it will just be me as I'll have to get some new equipment for Chuck since I sold all our old stuff but saved a single microphone which is what I'll be using.

Thanks to all those who've e-mailed me their support when we closed down and between then and now for following the blog and our Twitter feeds.

Listen soon!!!!!