Gamesday 2012 in Chicago

What a weekend!

Mike Cho and myself flew out to Chicago for Gamesday and met up with Fritz who drove (With his wife.)  There is nothing like seeing good people and having good times.

Mephiston in a pool of red angels.


Here was me with a girl from the plane. Her name is Michelle, and she made the first cut for American Idol I think and was excited to be going to the next round. I figured why not grab a pic with some one soon to be mega famous! I will be watching for her in January.



Lets start with the negative and get it out of the way.  It seems Games Workshop is setting a new standard for doing the lest amount of work as possible and still get away with calling it a Games Workshop event.  This was the smallest Gamesday I have attended.  The numbers are down, a lot. Who knows why... probably because it is in Chicago and traveling to Chicago sucks.

But worse, it seems that Games Workshop seemed eerily not in attendance!  What I am saying is that gone was the eye candy. The goods. Case after case of beautiful eye candy and displays. There was nothing.  Well I won't say nothing. They did have a massive big game that was chock full of models, and they had a big tank game full of bane blades.  But Gamesday to me used to be about looking at beautiful stuff and interesting stuff on display, and there was none of that.


There was even a lack of the club tables that had become a huge part of Gamesday.  There was only five, with the most notable being my friends at Snake Eyes who created an epic Ship Boarding engagement scenario between Space Wolves and Chaos.  They won Best Community Table, and well deserved.

There was a lot going on, but I don't know, it just seemed flat. Perhaps others who attended can help me elaborate.

On with the good.

All the great times!

First, on Friday Night, Fritz, Cho and Myself went out to the GW Battle Bunker to try to get some games.  Sadly though, it seemed no one was interested in playing! There were a lot of people, but aside from the sales dudes trying to push Chaos Demons on us, almost all of them were heavily invested in playing big 3v3 or more games.  The only guy interested in playing at all was a dude teaching another dude how to play 5th edition.

So Fritz and I grabbed a table and started playing!  I learned a big lesson. Never play a game vs Fritz on a table that perfectly matches his army.


He nearly tabled me.  Batrep to follow.

Here is some eye candy from the bunker.

Beautiful hand painting on that raider!

Saturday morning came and I found myself sitting in line with all the rest of the people. This was my first year in half a decade going to Gamesday as a normal person. Waiting in line sucks.  Then I found out that they were letting in the Golden Demon entries an hour early.  Score.

I decided to pull out some models from my transport and enter them!




I threw in my priest and my scouts. Both of whom made FIRST CUT!  I take that as an honored compliment considering the amazing competition and the fact that these models, while painted for competition, were not painted for Demons.  It inspired me to actually try for next year.  My first attempt to win a Demon was thwarted by a douche who entered a Dark Angels squad purchased from and painted by a famous artist who has won herself many demons. I spoke to the staff that year and they told me that I missed the bronze by just a hair, edged out by that squad.  Drat.  Oh well. I only brought these models to play on the open tables, so a first cut is more than I ever expected.  I do believe that my Sanguinor had a chance to at least make final cut, but when I pulled him out he had a big chip in his paint on his chest.  These models were painted to play with, and they take damage.  Oh well.

So any way, I was in. Fritz and Cho were still waiting outside and I was free to roam the show.  I was among the first into the retail area, and I was one of the very few to score a coveted limited edition print of the cover art for the new Horus Heresy book by James Swallow!  He was in attendance signing autographs, so I had him sign the book and print for me.

Thanks Mr. Swallow!

My banner was a huge hit. Once I got it assembled with the help of Brian Niro, and I send a HUGE thanks out to him for his help, I could not get 10 feet without stopping for pictures with fans!  Here are some shots.


















I entered my banner in the competition, and in the toughest contest I have faced so far, won my fourth.  A guy with a Chaos banner had a particularly loud group of friends out there and I fear that the masses were polarized against Ultramarines thus hurting my response.  But the Jawafans came through and I owned the day, barely.  :)  Next year I am planning a Lamenters banner.  

Fritz and I got to play against some fans from the blogs. First up was a youngling Chris and his dad.  I teamed with Chris and Fritz with his dad.  It was a great game with the Eldar just edging Warmaster Chris and myself commanding our Wolves and Angels.  


Then Fritz and I teamed up against two young guys Michael and Spencer. Michael was playing an awful iffy 500 point list including Mephiston and two mostly full assault squads in pods and Spencer was playing a contingent of Ultramarines.


There would be no mercy.  Fritz and I unleashed the might of our forces, first cutting down Michael's angels, with Mephiston going down to Pathfinder fire, and then cutting down the Smurfs in a stubborn but futile close combat.  Spencer's captain earned his name in battle though, before his head fell to my Librarians' feet.  I asked Spencer if the valiant captain had a name, having none, I  named him Aurelious Maximus, and Spencer informed me that the Tactical Sergeant locked in combat with Fritz's eldar was the Captains son.  So my Librarian jumped over there and added his head to the pile.  Jr. did not put up as much as a fight as his dad.  

It was all in good fun folks. It is called building a narrative. The boys had a great time and we had some joking fun.  Michaels's mother thanks us for playing with them. It was our pleasure!

That is about all I have for pictures from Gamesday. Like I said, there was little eye candy worth taking pics of.  Plus the day goes by so fast... But Fritz got plenty of pics too.  

Here are a couple more. 

A brilliant painter named Mike snapped a shot of his Armies on Parade entry with his Silver Demon

One final pic!

So on to dinner!

Perhaps more so than Gamesday, I have been dreaming about this steak for a year. Last year we went to an awesome steak house at the hotel next to the con.  This year, John Steining and his wife joined us. I ordered a 28 ounce pepper crusted porterhouse. I named it Gone. As in, it was about to be!



All dressed up.

Fritz got a 7 ounce steak. Wimp.


The five of us. 

We drunkenly made a pact. Uh oh.  I think it is written some place to beware drunken pacts... Any way, our pact was for all five of us to enter a Lord of the Rings Golden Demon model next year. Oh man.  :)

Gone lived up to his name.

So that is it for pictures.  We had an outstanding day. I got to talk gaming with dozens of people and answered a lot of questions about lists and armies.  I got to sign a lot of autographs and meet a lot of young fans.  That is what it is all about.  

So here is to next year!  I will be doing a Lamenters banner, and entering the Golden Demon contest in earnest, probably with some of the Lamenters models I will be painting this year, and one Lord of the Rings entry..

I have selected this guy.




Now to get the model and start painting! 

I did get some nice info out of the Forgeworld guys. They plan on releasing codex books for Pre Heresy armies from the Horus Heresy!  WOW!!!  A codex book for the Blood Angels complete with Sangiunius!  Too sweet. When I asked them if Sanguinius would be one of the first, he just sort of looked up at the ceiling with a smile.  Too cool.  It is going to be a fun year indeed.

More to come!

Jawaballs.





Gamesday Rocks!

And I'm off!  Chicago here I come.

The question is... why?

Isn't Gamesday just a day full of nonsense where GW crams all of their full priced stuff down your throat? (sure)

You know what?
(i don't care)

Gamesday is definitely about GW pushing their product. But it is more than that.

It is about positive engery.



It is about walking the space with dudes who love their hobby.

It is about all of those huge eyes on 9 year old kids sharing something fun with their dad.



It is about nerdgasm.



It is about seeing dudes like Dave Taylor and Brian Niro I have not seen in a year and having a beer.

It is about fun.

Speed Painting.

Build and Take.

Club Tables.

Banner Contest.



Sneak Peaks.

Golden Demon.

Limited Edition Models



Playing a game with a complete stranger on the open tables for nothing more than the fun of it.

Good stuff.

I have never gone to Gamesday and left thinking "Man I had a sucky time."  I cannot say the same for GTs.  It is a chance to go and enjoy myself with four thousand other dudes, and three chicks dressed up like dark elf sluts. It is a chance to have fun.



Perhaps one of the shining moments of my life happened last year at Gamesday when an 8 year old kid came up to me, and timidly asked for my autograph on his Blood Angels codex, then light up like Time Square when I did then started asking him about his army.  I was proud, he was excited and his mother was thankful. We all won.

That is what Gamesday is all about and I cannot wait until little Jawa is old enough to come with.

So, if you are going to be there, look for the fat guy with the Ultramarines banner. I would love to get in a game or two with some one new. Bring your 2k list and lets throw down!

See you in Chicago!

Lots of pics and video to follow.

Jawaballs


(I borrowed lots of pics from the internets. If I used your image, simply ask and I will take it down.  Oh, and I suggest you take it off the internets.)

The 2012 Gamesday Chicago Jawabanner!

Here is my entry for the 2012 Chicago Gamesday Banner Contest!


I am shipping this off today to my friend in Chicago who is making me the banner pole.  I went with the Ultramarines Chapter banner because when I looked through the codex for this years entry, I was most drawn to this one. I thought it was really intricate, and I liked the fade in the back ground, which I did with my airbrush.

So wish me luck!  If you are at Gamesday this year, look for me and say hi, and scream your heads off for the banner!

Jawaballs

Here is some video.

Smurf is broadcasting LIVE now!

Hey folks, sorry for putting this up late, but I wanted to let you all know that Smurf is broadcasting a live game of Gnomewars from Historicon RIGHT NOW! Go to WarTV and check it out.

This Saturday, you can catch Fritz and Myself doing a live game of 40k at 3pm EST, and then at 7pm more Smurf from Historicon.  So tune in to catch a live 40k game with a special giveaway, and then stick around for the second half of the show by watching Smurf do another Gnomewars expo.

More to come!

Jawaballs

More WIP and WarTV!

Lots of pics this time.  So I mostly finished my test Lamenter.  After reading up on them, it seems the current form of Lamenter is more of a mustard than a yellow.  But I'm cool with my more yellow color.  There are a few minor details to finish, like the silly BAAL scroll on the fist.  It annoys me that they used a relief word on that bit.  WHY!  The scroll is pretty huge. Give guys something to try... four letters are not that hard!  Any way, on with the pics.












I'm pretty excited with how the model came out.  It was a lot of work, but I believe I can streamline it down to do a whole army.  Now on with some Tau!  Here are some pathfinders.  I used the new GW colors on these too. I forget which ones, but will go over that when I do an article on them.









And finally, here is my Gamesday Banner!  I picked up a little projector which helped me lay out the image. Much quicker. However, I still had to go over it for a while and make it look good. It was a bit hard to see. 

So this banner is the Ultramarines Chapter Banner. Why Ultramarines? I liked this one the best when I was looking at the book and trying to select which one I wanted to do.  But it was not a simple matter of reproducing the image. First of all, it was not accurate! This banner is supposed to be a commemoration of the Ultramarines victory over Hive Fleet Behemoth. But the problem is that the genestealer in the image was kinda purple. But HFB nids have blue armor and red skin.  So I had to do some color substitution. 


Then I had the issue of the banner not being straight. My seamstress sewed this one so that it was a bit skinny in some parts and fatter at others. Also, she left a line across the bottom, and it was crooked, which threw off the rest of the image, forcing me to try this several times.

So any way, it is mostly done. The hard painting is over and I just have to do the detailing.

Any way, if you are going to be at Gamesday, look me up!  I will be the fat guy with this banner.  I will have my army, and I will not be preoccupied with an awesome charity project, so I can play on the open tables.  Be sure to tune in and scream yourself horse when it is time for the competition!

Finally, WarTV is going live tonight and Saturday.  First of all, Smurf is going to be shooting whatever footage he can from Historicon. We will try to get some schedule posted up once I hear from him.  But also, on Saturday, don't miss Fritz and myself playing a 6th ed game live!  We will hopefully have a couple of special guests arriving, and we will be giving away a bit of loot.  Today it is my mission to get my Tau allies assembled and base coated at least to be table ready.  Wish me luck!

Jawaballs