Regular scheduled programming resumes...

Hey folks,

Summer is over, and I am now sitting in my blogging position of choice, my classroom at school.  So it is time to get back to blog business! Once I get settled into my new Apt., I moved last night, I will work on uploading more content from both Gamesday and Nova.

What do I have planned for you this year?  Well I am currently working on the first of a series of posts over on BOLS about the elements and principles of art and how they relate to gaming and the hobby. Most of you won't find much value in it, but I'm sure some of you will!  Look for that soon.

My 2k point army is done for Nova, and frankly I don't plan on changing the list much for the fall GT season.  It is not the strongest list, but damn it took a lot out of me over the summer to paint it.  Besides, I like the challenge of figuring out how to win with a list that is not designed to.  I did manage to win four games at The Nova Open though!  You can follow my thoughts and tactics as they evolve with the list.

What this means is that it is time for new projects.  Firstly I am going to finish a Black Templars army commission that has been sitting on my desk for a year now.  The customer diligently paid a little at a time and now it is time to finish it up and get it out to him.

Then I have several other projects I plan on getting done.

A demon lord commission
A Tau army
Grey Knights (my new competitive army)
I plan on painting an army of Knights in the same style I used for the weapons of my Nova army.
Complete site revamp for Jawaballs Productions
Completely new and vastly improved tutorial videos
The Jawaballs Guide to Codex Blood Angels PDF (It was at about 30 pages last time I worked on it.)
Relaunch of the Jawa-Forge!  I will be launching a bunch of new resin base lines and am working on things like Rhino Doors and other cool resin products.

Oh and then there was The Nova.  What a weekend!  I ended up 4-4 on the tables, but that was not why I went.  When I got there I quickly realized that competition for painting honors would be stiff and fierce. Right out of the gates there were some beautifully converted IG armies using Skaven, a sick IG army that looked like Cobra from GI Joe,  a very cool space marine army with hand painted sun images, and dozens of other armies equally gorgeous.  Honestly I had little hope for my chances to place.

SO, I was surprised to find out at the end of the Nova that I had been selected as a finalist in both Best Army and Best Single Miniature!  I mean, I knew my army would be in the top ten, but it was an honor to see it up there for the best.  And Single Mini???  The Sanguinor was chosen as one of the top 5 models in the room.  Holy Crap!  Of the literally thousands of models to choose from, the model was standing there next to a small handful of truly perfect paint jobs.  Bob Evers had a fantastic Land Raider with a beautiful dragon painted on it and I thought for sure he would win.  He truly impressed me with his skill.  Pics to come.

I was blown away when my name was called as Best Single Mini winner.  It was a humbling honor.  While my ultimate goal of Best Army stopped just short, I have nothing but congrats in my heart for the winner. His Cobra Command army was one of the most unique armies I have ever seen.  And as per the rubric, he crushed me on conversions.  Two other armies were selected as finalists, Joe Johnson's Salmon/Skittle marines and Sandwyrm's Gorgeous IG!  I'm not sure if there was a 5th.

Oh and Myself, Stout Smurf and Brother Captain James, who filled in for Fritz who had to deal with private concerns, won Best Team Presentation!  That was something that we knew we could take, and we went for it hard.  Our three piece display board was awesome and our armies worked well as a whole, VISUALLY.  On the tables we got thumped hard.  I was the only one of us to win a singles game which I did by crushing an Ork army, and Smurf and BCJ were the only combo to win a duos game.

Speaking of crushing, my list managed to brutalize some folks. It was deadly efficient at making armies disappear when the right circumstances presented themselves.  The terrain at The Nova helped.  Three times, vs orks, IG and Deathwing, I set up my massive assault, then unleashed it on turn 3.  Leaving behind nothing bot vaporized boot heels, exploded vehicles and gallons of gore. The Ork player admitted that he has never quite taken a beating like that.  I held him at bay for 2 turns by keeping Mephiston behind cover in the center of the table and positioning the rest of my troops, then launched a coordinated assault.  True that his mek Shields failed, but such is fate.  The orks were wiped to a man.

Then I got some Deathwing terminators on the table played by a fun and cool dude.  He bravely charged ahead, but kept them all clustered where I could multi assault.  One minute he had 25 or so terminaters, a land raider crusader and belial, and the next turn they were dead.

One of the funnest games of the weekend for me was game 4 vs IG blob.  Having earned some experience on how to deal with blog guard in hard boys, I did not take this army likely. (I'm sure the player was used to unsuspecting marine players charging his ranks and getting ganked.)  So I took my time, played the terrain, and lined him up for my biggest assault yet.  I think the body count was well over 65 to my zero wounds suffered in return.  The highlight of the game though was my scouts going toe to toe with 4 Sentinals and emerging victorious.  That power fist was glowing! This was also the only game that I did not score perfect sportsmanship in.  There were three choices filled out by the opponent.  Basicly Bad, Average and Excellent. Most of the games should have fallen within the Average category. But in all of my Trios games, and my first three I was excellent. My game four opponent even admitted that we had an excellent game, but circled average! Guess he didn't appreciate watching his entire army evaporate. ;)

I also took my share of licks. I was pretty much tabled by Nids and Dark Eldar, had a tough loss vs Space Wolves and a fun loss vs IG in my last game.  More on that later.



I did take pics of the painting finalists. I will do a post tomorrow for them all, as well as a Nova recap.

Until then, thanks go out to Mike Brandt for such a great event.

Oh and Grats to Nick Nanavati on winning the invitational!  While my prediction of a 50% GK showing in the invitational did not come true, (I believe it was more like 25%)  Or did I predict 25%? I forget.  No matter. I also predicted a GK win, and fore warned that Nick would be a force to reckon with.  His list was brutal and he knew how to use it.  Grats to you Nick for the win!

Jawaballs