A big thanks to Scott from Army Dice!


I wanted to take a moment to thank Scott from Army Dice. He provided me with a nice set of Blood Dice, with a Blood Drop instead of a 6 to use in this tournament. You can find his website here. He offers cool dice to match different armies in the GW world. I must apologize that during some of my vids in the tournament, I was referring to him as gamedice.com. He is NOT game dice, he is Army Dice! I am a big fat idiot. So go check out his dice and support my sponsor!

Ok, SO MUCH to post... Battle for Salvation Tournament 2009




Where to begin??? I am uploading videos now, so be looking for them. But Over all, I had a great day with a completely unexpected finally. I came to the tournament with very low expectations for my performance, and in game one drew one of the toughest opponents there. We drew, and I only gained 10 points. So I thought that was going to be the end for me, but after my last two games, I realized I was in position to maybe score in the top three. I will write about those games seperately. When Bobby was announcing the final three, my name did not come up in 3rd or 2nd, so I figured some one tanked me on Sportsmanship... and almost fell over when my name was called for winning the entire thing! After a first round draw left me at the very bottom of the upper tier of players, (every one below me on the list lost game one) I came back to win Best Overall! Oh, and I added a nice trophy to my loot collection, along with some sweet store credit at Thewarstore.

It came down to several factors:

Army List
Tactics
Painting
Sportsmanship

If you want to win major tournaments, you have to have a firm grasp of all 4 of those subjects. That is for another post as well, but I will say that it was my sportsmanship and painting that won the day for me! So allow me to write up some batreps and do some uploading, I have 4 gigs of video to process.

Some interesting results:

40k in the 5th dimension scored again Jwolf!
I won best overall
Fritz won 3rd overall.

Black Matt won (deservedly) best painted with his Imperial Fist Terminators

A fellow blogger who came to the tournament after reading Fritz's blog won Best General and the Bishop Slayer sword!

Another blog reader who made the trip down, a younblood, won 40 bucks of bases from my store and a free painting video download! I donated some stuff to the BFS as prizes.

Dan Matulich, probably one of the smartest and best players at BFS, won 2nd overall. I thought he had a lock on 1st but I think a disgruntled opponent tanked him on sportsmanship points, which is bull crap because he is the nicest guy you will ever play against. He is also a very sound technical painter. His models look fantastic and he is a better highlighter then me. But I think I have the edge on the artistic side of painting which made the difference overall because of my hand painting.

Ok, well, more to come. As always, I will add some video to this post once it uploads. Jawaballs!

BoLScon 2009 Here we come!




So today I booked the hotel room for BoLScon 2009 and registered for the 40k tournament! So there you go guys, August 21-24 I will be in Austin, Texas. Fritz is coming as well, and we will be at the open gaming tables on Friday where I plan on getting my hands on Jwolf and showing him what for. Looking forward to seeing you all there!

I just noticed that the point total is 2k points for the tournament though... this worries me. I have not had a chance to playtest much 2k armies, and I feel that the extra 250 points will vastly change the dynamic of the game from how I play... Any suggestions? I think I will be using my same list, and just adding a jacked out Honor Guard to go with Dante, with the chapter banner. The one I entered in Golden Daemon. Gona be a great weekend! JB

Zombie Apocalypse: The First Hour


The first hour of the Zombie Apocalypse would be the most crucial and difficult to survive. Picture this... You are laying in bed taking a nap at 3 in the after noon. Then you are startled awake by a loud noise... your bed room door slamming open. Standing in the open portal is your mom, or girlfriend, or wife, or insert any loved one. In the shuttered darkness, you don't notice any thing different, until a sliver of sun shines on their sunken and blood thirsty face... then the walking corpse lunges for you...

What the heck do you do? I would have to say that 9 out of 10 times, the average Joe would bite it right here. That one percent is more lucky then smart. Maybe he wriggled away at the last minute... who knows. But just about all of us are going to rush to see what is the problem with our loved one, and find deaths embrace in that situation. I sure would. But would I? I mean, seriously, I have written this... Perhaps I would be amongst the 1 percent that stops for a split second to think "Is my pregnant girlfriend a zombie?" Oh god... Imagine the horror!!! Hell, even if you managed to survive that initial encounter... would you be able to go on? Every one of needs to do a little soul searching for that answer. But I will assume for the rest of this post, that the reader is amongst the 1%.

So, the first our of the rest of oblivion is upon you. One way or another, you know that zombies are real and ravaging your town. You may or may not have encountered loved ones in your house that have gone over. You may or may not have encountered co workers. You may be at work when you find out. Wherever you are, you need to have a plan.

If you read my first post, you should have at least two ready bags. One in your house, one in your car. This will eliminate the need for you to get to either. Cars are no good now except in rare circumstances that will be obvious. Definitely no good in a city or large town. Most obviously why is other cars. You will not be the only one trying to escape in a car. All you will be doing is joining a big long buffet line in which YOU are the General's Chicken.

In that first hour... get out. If you are in a safe place, get dressed. Put on comfortable athletic shoes, cargo pants, a heavy long sleeve shirt and get out. If you have even better stuff to put on, do so now. If you are not in a secure place, grab your ready bag, and get out. But do NOT run out into the open street! Hopefully before this time has come, you have taken a few moments to go out and size up your neighborhood. Here is what you need to have done and why:

You are escaping on foot, and escaping from a creature that does not tire, and may or may not be faster then you. If you are an average human, you can probably run 100 meters in 15 to 20 seconds. After which time you are spent. A fast human can run 100 meters in 12 to 15 seconds. A male sprinter on a track team can run it in 9 to 12 seconds. (Just so you know.) 100 meters is the length of a foot ball field, or roughly two city blocks. Your life is now measured in meters. You need to sprint from cover to cover. Do not run across open space if you do not need to. Run to an area of cover, like behind a shed, and plan out your next "Jump" while you recover from your sprint. From your area of safety, run to the next area of safety, that is roughly 50 meters away. If you are sprinting for that area of cover that is 50 meters away, and are spotted by a zombie, you will have about 50 more meters before your body grows fatigued, and you can no longer sprint. From there, your run becomes a jog, and you will probably be unable to sprint again any time soon.

Thems the numbers. Of course a lot of you are in great shape, and can maintain your sprint for hundreds of meters. You have an advantage. However, you should still only run 50m at a time and re-assess your route of escape every stop. You never know what may be around the next corner! You do not want to be spotted.

Using this "Hide and Sprint" technique, you should be able to get to a relatively safe and hidden spot where you can wait for darkness.

Oh, and if you encounter other people trying to escape, they will probably try to join you because you will obviously appear to be more prepared then they. If they are a stranger, size them up. They are either a potential partner, or potential meat. A partner is some one in the same, or better physical condition then you, and willing to take orders. No, a cute blonde does not auto qualify as a partner. You will have opportunities to assess your companion as you escape. If this person is up to the task, great! Otherwise, he is meat. Consider him a 1up. Do not hesitate to leave him behind to distract the zombies away from you. Darwinsism is now the rule of the land. Survival of the fittest. Any one that will increase your chances of death, should be discarded.

What if that person is your girlfriend/mother/sister? How many movies have you ever seen sibling or related couples survive in? Usually the more "fit" one dies first, trying to bail the weaker out of trouble. Leaving the weaker to shriek and cower while the zombies descend upon her any way. Lol. As I type this I think about my girlfriend... Pregnant, slow, and panicky. Crap... I'm screwed.

Zombie Apocalypse: Setting the rules.



So, as has already been pointed out, many people have many theories... Some published, some just lurking. In the end, I want to point out that I am writing this stuff for fun. I am not trying to compete with, contest or rewrite any books already published on the matter... Just having fun! So I don't really care for what some other author has written. I have not read the books and this stuff is purely the product of drunken ramblings that have been bouncing around my friends since the 80s with The Return of the Living Dead.

That said I have a few things to discuss. First of all, I never said that a Sledge Hammer would be an ideal weapon. It is a very UNideal weapon, except in a very few unique circumstances. I will take this opportunity to reaffirm my opinion that bladed weapons are NOT great weapons for fighting zombies. Yes, a machete is capable of hacking through an arm. But I believe that a machete has just as much chance of getting lodged in a thick upper arm bone as cleaving through it. Also, what if your swing lands in the shoulder, cleaving into and getting caught in the collar bones. A machete or any similar weapon can be good, but has just as much chance of sucking really bad, so in my previous post, I discussed what I believed ideal weapons for the casual guy trying to survive a zombie disaster.

Some guys brought up the fact that simply breaking zombie legs will not do the trick because zombies will continue to come after you. You are right about that... simply taking out a zombies legs will reduce it to a hungry crawling mewling bag of death... but that's fine! Let it drag its body after you. The point is that you are NOT fighting zombies. Hacking them apart piece by piece with a machete will not do. You have limited endurance, zombies do not. Put them down on the ground, and get away. They will no follow you once you are out of their range. Knock em down with a good solid pipe, or bat to the shin and move on. Or here is where that sledge hammer comes in... or the Axe, though I am not a huge fan of them. Some one with the light weapon takes out the legs, and his buddy follows up with a sledge to the head when you absolutely need to finish the job. Or hell, a sledge to the shoulder... It is probably an easier shot, you dont need to hack off the arm.. just destroy it.

Bottom line. Put em down, get away.

For the rest of this, I feel it is important to set up ground rules in MY zombie world. You have 3 types of zombies. The Original Dawn of the Dead, the remake Dawn of the Dead, and the 28 Days Later type. I include the last because they are zombie like, and fit the scenario, though have their very own set of rules.

So DoD orginal vs DoDr. Slow shambling things, vs dead old ladies running like olympic sprinters. In my world, zombies are some where in between. They are not super fast, though they will be as fast as the body was before it died. A 300 pound woman is NOT going to get up and do a 9.9 hundred meter and run down varsity high school football players. They are limited by flesh and bone. An arm full of broken bones cannot extend. Rotten as they may be, an arm with severed muscles cannot extend.

We will simply say that the muscles worked as they did before death, however, they do not build up lactic acid, or become exhausted, therefore a zombie can maintain its maximum speed indefinitely.

Zombies hearts do not pump, so zombies do not spurt blood. Though coagulated blood may ooze from open zombie wounds.

One can have sexual relations with a Zombie... but why would you?

Zombie bites pass on whatever it is that turns one into a zombie. The mutagen is treated as a virus. It has no cure or antidote, and will spread thruoghout the body, killing it. Do not get bitten. If you are bitten, hacking off the affected area before the blood spreads can stop you from becoming a zombie. So, if you are bitten in the forearm, you have a heartbeat or two to hack off your own arm at the elbow.

Zombies do not think or problem solve. They will not turn a door knob, but will attempt to bash the door down.

Zombies are motivated by an irrational and unnecessary desire to feed. Zombies do not need nourishment. Feeding on living human tissue satiates this need, and is the only source of "comfort" a zombie feels, but this only happens while the zombie is actually feeding. In other words, a zombie will stop to eat a victim and leave other living people alone. Once the zombie is finished consuming the living tissue, it will again go on the hunt for more tissue. A zombie will only eat said tissue while the tissue still alive. As we know, human tissues will continue living after the "death" of the human for only a few minutes. Cells will continue to live until they run out of Oxygen then die off. (This is a loose application of the laws of nature here guys, we can all just agree that flesh will continue to live until it runs out of Oxygen, at which point it dies. No need to get into arguments about how long various types of flesh can live.)

Zombies eyes work as they did before death. Zombies do not see life force. Blind zombies cannot see. Zombies will have just as hard a time spotting an Army Sniper skulking in a grassy field as a living person. Other zombie senses also work as they did before. Zombies can smell your Body Odor. They can smell your perfume. They can smell your farts. Unless the person had extreme senses, a zombie cannot track by sense. That means you can lose them pretty easily.

Zombies do not have long term memory. They exist on very short term, residual memory. If they see you, they will chase you to the best of their ability. If you turn a corner, they will follow you. If they see you go through a door, they will attempt to follow you through the door. How ever long the zombie remembers why it is trying to get through the door varies, but at some point, the zombie will have no clue why it was trying to do so. It will either continue to bash the door out of spite, pick it's nose, chase some other poor sole who happens by, or just shamble off aimlessly. They will NOT forever attempt to get into a door, or stand outside a place that they "Know" some one went into waiting for you to come out.

Do zombies retain residual "instincts" such as the mall dwellers in DoD? Sure, I can grant that. Zombies may or may not congregate in malls because that is what they used to do. It is possible that a zombie, who in life went to work every day for 30 years at the same place, attempts to go there.

Zombies do not rot. The "Virus" that causes the zombie state stops that process. Just think of it as magic. They reach a state of decay, then that process stops. A zombie standing in a field will still be a zombie standing in a field 300 years from now. However, erosion, weather, wind and all such naturally occuring decomposing elements do take effect. A zombie standing in a field will not last 300 years because the wind will buffet the flesh with sand and dirt and blah blah. You get the point.

Removing a zombies head will kill it. Shooting it in the head will kill it. Freezing a zombies 'dead' brain will kill it. Yes, the brain is dead, but still vital for zombie survival for some reason.

Zombies will freeze in the winter. If a zombies head freezes through, it will cease to be a zombie, and turn into a corpse. When it thaws, it will not reanimate. A nearly frozen zombie can thaw, and still be a zombie, going about making more zombies. Since the act of zombie movement does generate energy, and heat, then it is very hard to actually completely kill a zombie through freezing, though it is possible. But freezing will greatly reduce their ability to move. So, northern climates are ideal for surviving zombies.

Gota go, more to come.

The first Jawaballs Commission! Check out new WIP blog.


I have accepted my first commission and the customer gave me permission to display the work in progress online! Check out The Jawaballs Commission to follow the progress. If you are interested in placing an order for a Blood Angels army feel free to email me and lets start talking! I will also accept single model commissions on a limited basis.

If you are thinking about commissioning an army, I understand it is a large investment. Understand that most affordable painters will streamline their work to turn it around as quick as possible, and give you level 2 or 3 out of 5 models. In every army I paint, every model will be level 4 or 5 guaranteed. I will simply not paint a commissioned model that I would not count on to win Best Painted for myself. I might charge a lot, but I will not put a model in your hands that I am not proud of. Plus I have a reputation to uphold! :) Enjoy! Jawaballs

Gamesday Baltimore 2009 Banner Contest: Jawaballs For The Win!



My favorite part was the little nurgling posing with the banner after! This is why I love this game. :)

Warhammer 40k Gamesday Baltimore Footage

Here is the first of some videos showing Gamesday Baltimoer 2009 footage. Enjoy!

Rules Question! Tanks shooting out of area terrain.



Ok, here is a rules question up for grabs! When a tank is in a piece of area terrain, and is shooting through more then 2 inches of it, does the target get a cover save?

The terrain piece in question is 12x12". It is a piece of foamboard (clearly defined edge) that has been covered with modeling sand, and has a small ruin set in the middle. The tank is on the left edge of the terrain, shooting at a squad that is in the open about 18 inches away. The barrel of the gun, in this case a Baal Preds assault cannon, is 4" away from the edge of the terrain piece. How are LoS and Cover Saves determined in this case? Looking down the barrel of the gun, you can see 100% of the target, unobstructed. There is no question about that.

See page 22. Does this apply to tanks? Can any one point out rules for how to resolve this with tanks? The tank will not get a cover save for being in the area terrain, (unless it is shot at from the extreme right where there is a small ruin.) why should it grant one?

If you give answers, please reply with information at least partially supported with page numbers and rules! Jawaballs

Are you ready for the Zombie Apocalypse? Be prepared.



In my first post I talked about having your ready bag. I got a lot of response from a lot of people and thats great! To respond to a few things... first of all... having a gun in your ready bag is unreasonable. For most people, having a gun at all is unreasonable. I will keep these posts to what is reasonable and realistic. For example, some one wrote that you should master a martial art. Lol. The advice is sound, but for the average person... that is not going to happen. Time constraints, and money are two reasons. Martial arts are expensive. Plus, a lot of martial arts are based on using things like pressure points, pain and the fear of pain against your opponent. Who is to say that a maneuver that may work against some guy who is afraid of having his wrist broken will work against a zombie? It is more reasonable that you seek out a friend who does take some martial arts and have him teach you a few hold breaks. Or at best, take a local self defense class at the Y. That is the sort of approach I am taking. Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse for the average joe!

So back to my post. Be prepared! After the ready bag and lip balm. There are a few realistic things you can do to be prepared. A life changing diet is not reasonable. Of course it is healthy and smart, but preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse is not motivation enough to get us to stop eating yellow Zingers for breakfast. God those are good! Here are some things you can do on your own though that are reasonable.

Weapons training:
There are gun clubs in all areas. Take a saturday and seek one out. Pay for a day and fire some guns! The real world is very unlike Halo. Hitting a target through the scope of a 30/30 is a lot harder then you would think. Blasting away with two .45 caliber pistols like Neo is probably not going to land you many hits. Instead, fire a shotgun at some traveling targets. Ask some one to help you. More often then not you will find lots of guys willing to share their knowledge. Fire some hand guns. Both revolvers and automatics. Fire a rifle. Learn how they all work and where each are appropriate. All three have different jobs. The one you want to focus on is the Shot Gun. At the end of the day, you will have a lot more knowledge then the average joe, have some decent experience with a fire arm, and feel pretty darn content. Its theraputic! This will come in handy later.

More weapons training:
Now it is time for training with hand weapons. You are not a swordsman. You are not Conan. You probably do not own a sword. If you did own a sword, it is probably not useful as a weapon. In other words, forget the image of Butch from Pulp Fiction with the Samurai sword. Useless. And odds are you will more likely slice off your own nose before severing any Zombie heads. I have seen sites offering any number of cool and oddly shaped zombie fighting blades. Dont bother. To see why, take an Axe, an item designed to cut wood, and go out to a forest. Try chopping a tree. Notice how it gets stuck and requires force to pull it out? Well, imagine that happening to your super cool zombie killing slayer sword while there is another zombie coming from behind the first...

I suggest two types of weapons that are easily procured, probably from the neighbors garage. First of all, a simple club. Get your self a good, heavy aluminum bat. Probably even better still is a length of strong pipe. In case you did not know, a length of good pipe is more structurally sound then an equal length of solid metal rod. Lighter too. So get your self a beat stick. In a pinch, a wooden bat will do, or a piece of 2x4 if you have nothing else until you find better. Go out to some woods, set up a target dummy... you can make it out of posts, old clothes, hay bails whatever you can get your hands on. Practice swinging at the head to see if you can hit it. Better yet, sprint 30 yards, then practice swinging at the head. Even better still, have a buddy hold the dummy up for you on a stick. Run 30 yards, then try to hit the head of a dummy that your buddy is moving up and down. That is a skill you can master in a shorter time, and will take you a lot further then becoming a black belt. (Which you probably will not do any way.)

Oh and a word on targeting Zombies with your pimp stick. The head may seem like the natural target. However, I am not entirely sure that is the case. Zombies cannot be knocked out. They are zombies. It is my opinion that hitting them in the shin and arms will be a more valuable use of your time. Shatter those bones! A zombie, though still a ravenous soul hungry eating machine, cannot walk on shattered legs. It cannot grab you with shattered arms. Remember, survival depends on getting away, not slaying zombies. Knock em down. Move on. Sweep the legs!

The other handy weapon will be the garage variety timber axe. The kind most dads buy, use 3 times then hang on a wall in the tool shed. Even dull it is a formidable weapon. It usually had a flat edge on the back of the head that can double as a pimp stick, though the shape of the handle may hinder that. If you do end up in a situation where you or a friend has immobilized a zombie, now is the time to lop off its head with your choppa. Oh, and it is useful to cut wood too.

If you are really feeling manly, grab the sledge hammer! But I suggest this only if you have a partner. The bat or pipe is quicker, but there is nothing like a sledge hammer to bring a satisfying crackle and shatter to a couple of shin bones.

So, you got your weapons training. You can hit a moving target with a shot gun. You have fired a pistol and a rifle. You can take a zombies legs out from under it after running a block. You are now one step closer to surviving the 1st hour of The Zombie Apocalypse!

Oh, by the way, the guy in the picture skewering a zombie with an IV pole... forget it. There is no way he is going to push the blunt end of that pole through the rib cage organs and back of the ribcage of a moving zombie.

Jawaballs

Jawa-Loot!





So, this year at Gamesday 2009 I scored some more Jawa-Loot to add to the collection. I got a cool trophy for winning the Banner Contest, and a sweet pin for being a finalist in the Golden Daemon competition! Those along with my score at Brothers Grim last week and I am having a good month! Pictured are the pin, trophy and golden squig from Brothers grim. (trophy for winning the entire tournament out of 36 guys.)

I love that loot! :)

Jawaballs

Baltimore Gamesday 2009!

Where to begin!!!

So Fritz and I decided to host a club table at the 2009 Baltimore Gamesday. We billed it as a all comers Q and A sort of thing where we welcomed beginners to come ask questions about painting and or tactics. We set up some painting stations and a game table. Also, readers and subscribers were welcome to come meet us and challenge us to a game. It was fantastic meeting so many of you! The best compliment I got all day was from a younger guy who came up with his parents and they all shook my hand. He thanked me for selling him the How to Paint Ultramarine video set and said how much it helped him with his army, and his parents said "This is the guy who made that video!?" Then they thanked me for helping him as well saying that I really turned the hobby around for him. That it was worth every penny and then some. Made me feel good. I got comments like that all day long so I want to thank you all for your support and saying such nice things.

So back to gamesday. I placed my entries in the Golden Daemon. My honor guard and my baal pred. The Pred failed to make first cut, buy my Honor guard was selected as a finalist and may even make White Dwarf! :) That made me pretty proud.

Also, I entered a couple of hand painted banners into the banner competition. One was the imperium banner I painted for our Apocalypse game, the other was my Blood Angels 2nd company banner. The audience shouted their votes, and I won! I made video of that so I will be posting it soon. I got a cool little trophy.

My only criticism of Gamesday? It was a GW event barely by name. They had a large area devoted to selling product, but when it came to offering interesting content, they completely dropped the ball. Almost ALL of the available content at the convention was offered by Club Tables. Even the Golden Daemon awards were glossed over at the end... I believe the worst was that they did not have ANY open gaming tables. How can GW run a Gamesday and not give players a place to play???? With no open tables, guys who came hoping to get in some games were forced to try to get in some action on some of the few tables like ours that offered a chance. I can deal with the club thing... but not setting up tables for guys to play... You dropped the ball GW. It is not that they lacked space... there was plenty of it. Was it profit??? I know it is not cheap to run a convention, but if the line at Forgeworld was any indicator, I cant imagine they failed to make profit. They could have and should have set up rows and rows of tables for people to play games on. After all, there was no tournament this year. Doh, kids coming in, I have to get to work. I will continue this in a lil while. Jawaballs

Battle Report: Blood Angels vs Imperial Guard Deep Strike army


I went to the Glen Burnie battle bunker after Gamesday to try to get a chance to take on any one who may want to come play. A reader was supposed to, but sadly Ryan fell asleep and failed to make it. But luckily there was a guy there willing to play! Doug had also traveled down to the area for Gamesday. He had an IG army made using the older codex and asked me if I cared that he use that one. I did not and we started rolling.

1750
Blood Angels standard Jawaballs mech list
Imperial Guard 2 basilisks, inquisitor and retinue, calidus assassin, and a LOT of deep striking infantry bristling with melta and plasma guns.

3 loot counters
12" deployment zone



My opponent had some Inquisitor fun that allowed him a +1 to win the die roll to go first. He used it and won the roll. In his triumph, he claimed the honor of going first. (Which I would have given to him any way.) My standard procedure for a deep strike army is to take second turn and reserve every thing. He deployed his 2 basilisks and inquisitor/retinue and I reserved it all much to his chagrin. The 3 loot counters were in easy range for my rhinos and troops to get to.

Turn 1:
Nothing happens. Every thing was in reserves.

Turn 2:
A good portion of his infantry deep strike into the center of the table. He then runs them into a large terrain piece in the center. Right around here he confidently announced that he has not lost a game in over 2 years...

On my turn, only Dante and a Baal come in. Again, my legendary ability to roll 1s. So, the pred lights up a squad causing them to fall back, and Dante jumps in to assault a squad, killing it.

Turn 3:
A lot more of his stuff came in. Dante found himself surrounded by at least a planets worth of Guardsmen. The Baal exploded to melta fire from some veterans, and Dante would go down in a hail of Las and Plas shots. The remaining troops that did not fire, ran to spread out and receive my charge. His assassin came in and simply deployed in the center. He also lost a squad that deep striked to close to Dante and then failed on the mishap table.

On my turn, about half of my remaining forces came in. I spread out my Rhinos to get into position to take objectives, and rammed my Death company and corbs right down the middle. They moved in and finished off some squads and the Baal preds cut down droves.

Turn 4:
All of his forces came in. He began to see my plans, and started to make moves to prevent them... It was at this point that he realized that unless he got extremely lucky, I was probably going to take the win. He shot up my Death Company, then using direct fire from this Basilisks, destroyed a rhino and a Baal. Thats ok, I have more. :)

On my turn, the rest of my stuff was in play and the game was on. I put my tanks in position to move fast on turn 5 and take objectives. I cut down a lot of guardsmen trying to hold objectives on my side and made shored up my troops to withstand Basilisk shots on turn 5 by spreading them out and arranging the rhinos to block plasma fire.

Turn 5:
He mad his move to claim objectives and took two. But it was too late. On my turn, I simply tank shocked the crap out of him, losing one rhino, but successfully rolling over and pushing away 4 squads from my path towards the objectives. One rhino, that I was using to hold an objective, stormed away 18" to actually claim another one, while an assault squad who lost their rhino moved over to claim the first. I used a rhino to skillfully push him off the last objective. At the end of turn 5, I held all three objectives and there was little he could do to stop it. I rolled the die to end the game... and of course... a 1 popped up. Game ends... Jawaballs wins!

He had a sick army. He was sort of sharking me... He knew what he had, and had a chance to see my army before agreeing to play. Every squad was decked out with maximum plasma and melta shots. He thought he was going to roll over me and had I deployed my army like he was expecting, I would have been run off the table turn 3. However, he was a perfect example of a good player being "Behind the 5th edition curve". He was trying to play 4th edition tactics with a 4th edition army. The game is NOT about overwhelming fire power, which he definitely had. A lot of players are slow to change with the times, and their old stand byes no longer work. This guy who had been crushing people with this army for 2 years finally came up against some one who thinks in the 3rd dimension (credit to Fritz for coining that term) and epic failed. I feel badly for him because his army was strong and nice looking. But now it is totally illegal. He is going to have to rebuild the entire thing according to the new codex, and hopefully got a taste of what it means to play 5th edition. Video to come soon.

Holy Emails Batman!

Hey Guys, I just got home from Gamesday and finally had a chance to start going through some emails and almost fell over when I was greeted with over 800 comments and questions. Thank you all for you support and questions but sadly I will not get to respond to them all. I will work my way through as many as I can, but if I do not answer them, it is probably because I already answered it in a different post or in my youtube video comments. I know, that means you will have to read through hundreds of comments, but I have found myself answering some of the same questions over and over and simply cant do that when I have 800 to dig through! I have 6 gigs of content to sort through from gamesday and will be posting battle reports and videos this week, so check back often for new stuff!

For those who are curious, I made final cut with my Honor Guard but not with my Predator. I got a nice little pin and hopefully will get pictures of my squad up on the GW site or in White Dwarf!

I also won Best Banner for my Blood Angels 2nd company banner. A cool little trophy and I will post that too.

The highlight of the weekend was going to the Glen Burnie battle bunker and playing a guy there. After the game began... he announced to me "Oh, by the way, I have not lost a game in two years." I simply snickered and thought to myself that he has never played Jawaballs... That batrep soon! :)

More to come. Jawaballs!

Glen Burnie battle Bunker! Come play against me.

Thats right! I will be at the Glen Burnie Battle Bunker today. If you live in the Baltimore area and want to throw down against me, come on out. Fritz and Brother Captain James will be there too. Come out and play! Jawaballs

The Baltimore 2009 Gamesday is here.

And I am leaving tomorrow! I have finally finished... well... for now... my honor guard and Baal Pred. Now I can work on some other projects again.. finally! I will be posting up a lot of pics of them soon. I have no dillusions of my chances for victory, but I am proud of what I have done and am happy I managed to complete them. Once it loads, I will embed a youtube vid showing them off and that will have to hold you over for now.

In the future:

I have accepted my first commission! I am painting a Blood Angels army for a customer. It is upon this army that I will judge my painting commission prices thereafter.

I am working out a new Blood Angels build. It will have many similar elements to my current list, but will focus on a Land Raider Crusader and its passengers.

I am building a new Tau army.

I am continueing to work on my Imperial Guard and Iyanden Eldar armies.

How to Paint space marine and warhammer 40k or Warhammer FB! I will be doing several new video sets:
Tau Fire Warrior
Black Templar Neophyte
Iyanden Wraitguard
Iyanden Gardian
Harlequin
Detailing and finishing
Khorne Berzerker
Other Chaos
Daemons
Grey Knight

In no particular order...

Fritz and I are working on several ideas. Be on the watch for those as we intend to raise the production value of our stuff to new levels.

Important dates:

May 30th Battle For Salvation 40k tournament in White Plains NY. This is gonna be a good one. 40 guys will be playing and it was already maxed out over a month before the date. I suspect this will be one of the stiffest competitions of the year in the greater New York City area. Some of the best players around will be there!

June 30th, Brothers Grim. They have a tournament every other month. And I love going there. The guys there are great and the tournament is always fun. Dave, the guy who runs their tournaments, will be participating in the BFS tournament in may. Looking forward to getting you in front of my Baals man! :)

I will run my first Painting Conmpetition in July. I don't know just what I will do yet, but I can tell you it will be somehow Blood Angels related... so practice up your red! At any rate, the entries will have to be painted for the competition... sorry, no reaching into your box of models and pulling out some old dusty thing.

More Zombies! My little post on the Zombie Apocalypse was a huge hit. I will make that a regular series on my blog. A lot of guys sent me links or offered to give me that zombie book... Thanks for the tips and offers... but I have to say I want to wait on reading that. I have a lot of stuff in my head, and I want to put it to word before it gets influenced by some other authors work. I'm sure a lot of it will already be written in the book, but that is the fun in it! We will have to see how spot on my ramblings are to this guys book. So please, dont quote the book here. Feel free to offer up your own ideas though. I want to try to keep my writing as pure as possible. Look for more of those coming up in the next few days after Gamesday since I am now free from the Golden Daemo competition.

More Battle Reports! I intend to add greater production to my batreps. I have been kicking some serious butt lately and feel my Bloods deserve a lot more attention then I have been giving them.

Huge Success!!! My giveaway is a HUGE success. I want to thank and welcome all of my new subscribers. You guys are the reason I do this blog so I am glad you are here and hope most of you will stick around and become frequent readers. Bookmark me and come back often!

Ok, thats about it for now. Once the vid uploads, I will embed it here. Maybe I will do a post on Saturday night giving you a little Gamesday sneak peak. Enjoy!

Are you ready for the Zombie Apocalypse? I sure am.


So last night, I finished my Baal Predator Golden Daemon entry ... well almost... :) And forced myself to drop the brush and go to bed at about midnight... I get up at 6am for work so I have only been giving myself 4 or 5 hours of sleep the last two weeks because I tend to lie in bed thinking about... things. Lately, it has been my GD entries. I visualize how they will look, how to change them, what I have time to do etc. Basicly, I am painting them in my mind!

But I need a break once in a while. Last night, I turned off the TV and forced my mind to switch gears. What do I think about then? Well, the Zombie Apocalypse of course! The impending encroachment of lifeless, brain eating undead is a popular diversion for me and my old friends. We spent many a night around our campfire coming up with The Zombie Contingency and putting it to written document form. Every one should have one... However, the problem is that now I live a good 6 hours from most of my friends. I am seperated... divided... away. Last night, I began reorganizing my personal Zombie Contingency. And this is the first post in that series.

I know, there have been books written about this stuff, but I have not read them.

So, where shall I begin? With step one of course! Survival in the first hour of a Zombie Apocalypse. Well no, actually that will be step two. Step one is Be Prepared. In the event of a Zombie Apocalypse, you need to be prepared. That will make the difference between you and the 'meat'. Perhaps the most important thing you can have, besides a plan, is a Ready Bag. I have three. No kidding! One in my apartment, one in my car, and one in my class room. Your ready bag does not need to be extravagant or expensive. Here is what you need.

A backpack. This can be a small cheap one.
Bottled Water.
Trail Mix, two kinds, the one with all the dried fruit, and the one with the MnMs.
Extra Underwear
Mini first aid kit.
cotton and wool socks
a pair of Light Shoes. I keep some old Converse All-stars or Adidas Gazelles in mine.
Lip Balm
Science lab safety glasses
Multi Tool
matches
flash light
rubber gloves
cargo shorts
belt
tee shirt
toilet paper

Now, your ready kit is NOT intended to be your survival pack. In the event of a Zombie apocalypse, the world will go to shit and you will be able to get that stuff pretty easily. More on that later. Plus it is impractical to keep a survival pack on hand at all times. A small back pack in your trunk is reasponable.

So, extra underwear are a must. Change them often... we dont want you getting Swamp Ass while walking miles in the summer heat. Cotton and wool socks serve the same purpose. Change your socks, keep them dry. Your feet are your most valuable commodity and you will need them to be tip top!

Why shoes? Ever see Die Hard? John McClain running through broken glass bare foot? 28 Days Later? Jim walking through London in hospital booties? You never know might may happen, but you may find yourself with no shoes on when the zombies strike. It takes way to long to stop and put them on. That is why you just grab your ready bag and run. When you find a safe spot, take a moment to put on your socks and shoes! If you need to, put on your cargo shorts and tee shirt and belt. You may have been in bed, naked or taking a dump... now is a good time to use that TP. :)

Mini First Aid kit... in your initial flight, you may be barefoot and suffer some minor scratches. Here is where you use the mini first aid kit. Disinfect and clean your feet. You cannot have infection! Cover any open cuts now. You dont want accidental contact with zombie blood getting into open sores. The MFAK is not intended to be a triage or life saving device. It is intended to help you survive the first hour of the Zombie Apocalypse.

Lip balm? I have about 48 active chap sticks scattered about. It is good for your lips, but also, most of us are out of shape, and after hours of prolonged exertion we may start chafing in certain areas... for example, our nipples on the inside of our shirts or our elbows. Lip balm can help this... Just rub it on the chaffed areas and continue on your way to survival.

The safety glasses and rubber gloves are precautionary. You may be put in a situation where it is necessary to get mid-evil and blood starts flying. You dont want zombie blood flying into your eyes! Also the gloves will protect your hands. It would not hurt to get yourself one of those white paper Sars masks to keep it out of your mouth. If you want to survive the first hour of The Zombie Apocalypse, put them all on. In a pinch, ski goggles, sun glasses etc may also work and add some nondorky style to boot. They will also protect your eyes if you are forced to run through woods. Have you ever run through over grown woods? It is not like in Friday the 13th. There are a million little branches, saplings and other assorted hazards that love to poke you in the eye. The glasses will be invaluable in giving you the edge. Remember, you dont need to be the fastest runner to survive the first hour of the Zombie Apocalypse, just be faster then the guy...er... meat next to you. While he is being slowed down from being hit in the eyes by underbrush... you are cruizing right through it with your ventilated science glasses.

Multi tool is always useful. I keep one in my car, my desk at work, my desk at home, and in my ready packs. A cheap Coleman one from wal-mart will do for now.

You can never discount the little flashlight too, the one that comes in a belt holster. When you get time, put them both on your belt.

The rest of the stuff is obvious. matches and or a lighter are good to have along with some lighter fluid. Mostly, to start distraction fires to lure the zombies away from where you are trying to go.

Im sure there are many more items that should be in the ready pack, but these are the things I feel are most necessary to get you through Step One: Surviving the First Hour of the Zombie Apocalypse, which will be my next post. More to come!

Announcing: The First Ever Jawa-Giveaway!



Yup, here you go. This is the first ever Jawa-Giveaway! In heart felt thanks to the community, Jawaballs Productions, is teaming up with Rogue-Market.com to bring you a sweet give away. First of all, you will be able to pick one of the models in the above picture as your prize from www.jawaballsproductions.com which were hand painted by Jawaballs! Most of the figures in the picture were the actual model painted in all of the How to Paint videos by Jawaballs. The winner will get his choice of one! In addition, my friends over at Rogue-market.com are offering up a matching infantry box set of your choice. You read right! Pick the Deathwing Terminator, and you get a squad of Terminators to go with it! The loot is entirely up to you.

SO, how do you win???? Simple. You need not paint a single thing. You don't have to be good at any thing at all! You need only do a couple of simple registrations.

First:

Register for my blog as a follower. The link is to the top left on my blog. Click the "Follow" button and sign up. It should take you 1 minute and most of you should already be followers already.

Second:

Go to www.rogue-market.com and become a registered subscriber on their boards as well. That should take you another minute.

Third:

Having subscribed to both of the sites, you need to post on them. Begin here by commenting on this post. In your comment simply write your jawaballs blog name, and your Rogue Market name, as well as which model and box set you desire. Then go back to www.rogue-market.com and find my give away thread over there and do the same thing! Make a comment and write your jawaballs blog name, and your rogue market name, as well as the loot you desire.


Thats it! The lucky winner will be ONE person, who has completed all three tasks. The winner will be decided at the end of May.


Whats the catch? NONE! I am simply trying to endorse a site I believe in beside my own and would like to see my readership go up. Oh, and give a little back to the community. :) So while you are signing up for both sites, hopefully you will stop to look around and see all of the great stuff that is going on.

So there you have it! I will be adding video soon.

Jawaballs

The prizes are as follows:

1 Jawaballs painted miniature of your choice from the following list:

Dire Avenger
Deathwing Terminator
Imperial Fist Terminator
Blood Angels Assault Veteran with power sword
Tau Fire Warrior
Kroot guy
Salamander with meltagun
Crimson fist tactical
Dark Angels tactical
Ultramarines sgt with power axe and bolter
Space wolf tactical
Ork Nob
Cadian Guard

1 Infantry box set of your choice up to 35.00 value.

1 Free download of your choice of any "How to Paint" set from www.jawaballsproductions.com


Copy and paste this into your post and use it on both my blog and on Rogue Market. Use this format on BOTH websites.

The Jawaballs painted miniature I would like is: _____________
The Infantry Box Set I would ike is: ____________

My Jawaballs Blog name is: _____________
My Rogue Market name is: ______________




Phew, I disabled comment moderation for now. That was getting tedious! :)



Now Accepting commissions!



Yup. I have decided to actually take on a few painting jobs. For a limited time, I am taking commissions for Blood Angels armies. You have seen plenty of pictures of my work, but take a look at the picture in this post. That is the base quality you will receive. I am basing my pricing roughly on what Blue Table Painting charges for these first attempts. Since I am new to the painting service world. After that I will adjust my pricing accordingly. No, they won't be cheap, but If you got the cash, and are interested... send me an email! I am already negotiating one army, and will only take one job at a time. So get in line quick!

Eventually, if I do well with these armies, I will branch out into other chapters and races. Please for the time being keep your requests to just Blood Angels. I have never even painted a Chaos figure before, and would not know where to begin with an army.

After looking at the picture up close, I must admit that my highlighting has improved since I painted it. Use that picture to get an idea of the look of the marines only. They will be painted with crisper highlights in a cleaner, more extreme style.