The Infamous Gaming Drought

 Hi everyone, welcome back. Today I want to discuss the serious effects of not properly hydrating yourself with an adequate amount of gaming, yes that's right, gaming drought. As I am currently going through a gaming drought, this makes me an expert on the subject.

Definition: Gaming Drought(GD)- increased period of time for a war-gamer to go without war-gaming resulting in negative effects, including paralysis and even death( just kidding).

Symptoms:
Detailed Theory Hammer: Most people know Theory Hammer is useful in list building, but is otherwise useless. Gamers experiencing drought tend to attempt to play 40k completely in there head, trying to fulfill there need completely mentally, worse than a 12-year old who just discovered boobs. This symptom greatly hinders a gamers actual competitive ability.

Don't mistake constipation for concentration!

Spontaneous Dice Rolling: "Oh, look! 3 random dice!" ...3 hours later...." where am I? What was I doing?" Sound familiar? Spontaneous Dice rolling happens to many GD sufferers. The luck ones have wives to yell at them to tell them they are making too much noise, but others roll dice constantly, not even knowing why or what they are rolling for. They just know this action brings joy somehow, but can't seem to get it to work this time.

Model Selling Syndrome(MSS)- People with MSS often find themselves thinking things like " Why do I need 8- 40k armies?" or " I never play Fantasy anymore, why do I need this High Elves army?" or " These Flashgits and Stompa are doing nothing for me here on my shelf." or "I'm never gonna play or paint with all of this." While absolutely every one of the above statements is probably true,....well... that's not the point. The point is you bought everything you got because you wanted it. And selling models sucks( look forward to a future post entitled: "Why I Hate Selling Models!!"). You don't get near the value out of them that you put into them, and it turns you off to the idea of playing the army, or even that game in the future. MSS is one of the worst symptoms of GD. Of course MSS is also caused by MGS, Married Gamer Sydrome, but that's a different article.

"All I need now is my Titan Legion and I'll be set! No, my third mortgage should about cover it!

Lack of Painting Motivation: Nothing gets you motivated to paint like going to a big tournament. Likewise, a month without gaming will completely take your motivation to paint. Why paint it?

Other Symptoms. Moodiness, Irritability, Lack of Sleep,Nausea, Indigestion, Depression, Thoughts of Suicide, Heart-failure,inability to have a 'you-know', Oily Discharge, Heartburn, Sunburn, Spontaneous Combustion, Random detaching of limbs, and wax-like discharge from ears, and NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST!!!!



You sure you can't fit a game in?


Causes: Life mostly: Moving, School, Graduating, Finding a Job, Spending time with family, Lack of Money, Childern being born (congrats Randel!!!)  I'm a firm believer that little plastic men come last in life, but one must take time to enjoy little things in life as well.

What about the war-gaming hobby makes it so addicting? Why do we just feel we have to get a game in?There are many great things about the hobby, and I think that all of them comprise the answer. The answer is that the hobby is so engrossing.  From painting, to playing, when immersed in the hobby, we think of little else. Not the wife, school, family, job, or whatever. This gives us a break from the everyday grind. We mere humans need breaks like these in order to feel refreshed so we can approach the rest of our lives focused and ready to do well. So take it from me, take the the time, and go play!
What are some good ways ya'll find to squeeze a game in?

Anti- Grey Knight Tatica: Quick and Dirty!!!



Don't let its looks fool you, THAT BABY IS MEAN!!!

 Hi everyone!!! Welcome back! Today I'm going to do a little short and sweet GK tactica. I plan on doing some more articles for army specific tactica. Many of you may not know this, but during my hiatus I actually bought some GK models and planned on playing for a long time to come. Sadly, the GW price hikes put a sour taste in my mouth and I simply had to let them go. It really is a shame. I loved the codex the army. They play really well. I say this just to let you know, I've done my homework on them and even played a few games. Without further ado:

The Good News: I think most marine armies are going to have trouble with them. Why? Because Gk troops shoot like hell and still have power weapons to boot. Generally GK troops can put other power armored troops to shame. Ya they are more expensive, but having troops that can actually do something is a plus. (Unless you’re grots, then it's ok). Of course to us xenos folk, they are still marines, and that is where we beat them.
Strengths:
Tons and Tons of Anti-Infantry firepower, I mean seriously LOTS!!!
Generally you’re looking at the entire army having S5, power weapon attacks that often hit at I6. Gross.
HQ can carry rad grenades that reduce your toughness and even cause your own models to attack themselves.
Entire army has force weapons
Every unit has great psychic powers that can potentially win them the game
Warp Quake: I don't call broken, often. Never in fact. But this is.
Things that absolutely rape daemons and psykers

Weaknesses:
Expensive, very very expensive
Relatively low weapon skills, with 4 on most and 5 only on the uber expensive
Low number of attacks, most only have one with the best only having two
Difficulty with heavy armor. Most Gk armies will struggle with AV 13 or 14
Most guns in army 24" range

General Advice:
Look for Holes:  Building Balanced GK army is tough. It is very easy to take too many shiny toys and that leaves GK armies underperforming in one area or the other. Find the weakness and take advantage of it.

Psychic Limitations: Most Grey knight squads can only cast one psychic phase per turn and activating force weapons counts as using a psychic power. This means while GK have many tools at their disposal, they can only use one at a time. During an assault, most if not all power must be cast before ANY blows are struck, including yours.  Plan for this during game play to truly gage a squad’s capability

Assault Them, Especially in numbers: Gk may look scary in assault but due to their WS4 and low number of attacks they are often underwhelming in assault. However they are much scarier at range. Assaulting them keeps you safe from taking 20 X S5, or 4 X S6 flamers to the face. That’s a good thing.

Find the HQ and the RAD grenades: Having an HQ attach to a squad greatly bolsters a squads ability to do damage in assault, allot due to fact that it allows the squad to effectively cast two powers a phase, since the squad can 'piggy-back' on an HQ hammer hand. Couple this with Rad Grenades and you can very well fine which squad your opponent is planning on getting into combat.

Over-extension and counter attack:  They vehicles that GK can move and assault out of are Stormravens and Land Raiders. What does this mean? Well they want a nasty assault unit they need a nasty squad, with a nasty HQ, with a nasty transport, that usually all totals around 600 to 700 pts. This usually means there is never more than one and the most assault support said squad is going to get is a Dreadknight. With that many points in a unit, it can't just sit back. It will very often over extend itself. Many players are turning to the Modarak squad for in-your-face-ness, but I still feel this is often and overextension. Be pre-pared and be able to bring down the weight of your army if it over extends.

Death stars: Take a Deathstar, something mean, something quick. Now, don't try to take out his death star, Cuz you'll probably lose that fight. Try to put it into the rest of his army. This will take out his fire base which is very important if you are troop based like nids or orks.

Plan for the Dreadknight: I know it's gotten some crap because of the model, but competitive players who are looking to add speed, firepower, and assault capabilities in a durable package simply won't be able to pass it up. Have something in your list that can handle it.

Plan for the Shunt: Dreadknights and Interceptors have the ability to move 30" once per game.  Plan ahead and don't forget about it.

Don't Deepstrike Anything!!!: Seriously. Nothing. Warp quake has absoutlely ruined the concept of deepstriking. If you can't, not deepstrike it, take it outta the list.

Well there you have it. What are some ways not discussed here that you are finding to take these shiny marines down? Tune in next time as I attempt the monumental task of writing a very hard article: Anti-GK tactica: Tyranids!!!