Games Day 2010

So last year I swore off Games Day after attending and being disappointed by 2 US Games Days in the same year. While both had high-points, I was overall very disappointed and disgruntled by how they went. I have been going to Games Day yearly (missing only 1 year) for the past 7 years and the 3 years previous to this have gotten progressively worse each year. GW reduced the multiple North American Games Days into 1 event this year, located in Baltimore. I decided to give GD one more chance, but was expecting additional failure due to my recent experiences with local stores and what not. I am happy to say I was pleasantly surprised and offer my heartfelt compliments and thanks to Games Workshop for a return to the glorious Games Days I remember.

I will say that it is the minor details about games-day that make it so memorable. This year there was multiple True Size Space Marine statues, a Giant Space Marine blow-up (see below), and incredible props through-out the hall. All the events appeared well organized, the tables were incredible, and the competitions were great. My wife and I spent the day walking around and enjoying ourselves.

The lead in picture for this article is a little of what I mean. The replica Eldar Scopion helmet was fantastic, and I was jazzed to see it. To add to that, here is a picture of the Giant space marine with my wife standingin front for comparison.

As for my overall games day experience, it was great. Funny enough, I spent most of the day walking around and chatting with numerous friends (both online and RL) who I ran into. I think that the combination of my recent involvement in local groups, along with the podcast and blog, added to my involvement with the NOVA Open have made me a fair amount more visible than previously. I am by no means an "Interwebz Star" but the minor notoriety I seem to have gained definitely made the day more fun.

Here are some great pictures of the day.

Waagh Teek Stompa:

and a closeup of the welding grot:

A nice Farseer from the Golden Daemon competition:

And for those looking for Spoilers, Forgeworld had the greatest spoiler of the day. Apparently while they have been working on the new Eldar Imperial Armor books to come in the future, they also had a stealth project ongoing. Thats right, all those new suits of Marine armor are for Books 1 and 2 of the Badab War. My friend Jay is in 7th heaven waiting to go broke buying the new stuff coming! According to the guys at the Forgeworld booth, both of these are expected out before the end of the year.

I do have to admit that the Huron model is much nicer (in my opinion) than the GW model currently out.

I know this has not been the most exciting post ever, but I wanted to give a quick update to all you readers. Its been a tough couple weeks as summer is drawing to a close. I did have a complete computer crash 2 weeks ago and just got my machine back on Monday of this week. I then found out my back-up software had gone on vacation back in March, so I lost about 5 months of data. Its a fun week trying to recover and figure out whats still missing.

I should be back on a normal schedule however, so look forward to more frequent posts. I have been doing a fair amount of work on my models, although the new Malifaux stuff is staying heavily in my hobby highlights. I do have my airbrush working and was able to knock out 5 solid pieces of terrain to table top quality in prep for working on my titan and tanks. The Titan base is nicely put together and primed, so thats next on the table. I also just recieved an Eldar Phoenix that is adding to the painting queue. I need to make a base for that as well, but the base will take more work than I was expecting.

Chicago Gamesday 2009 - Golden Daemon

I have been torn as I try to figure out how to do this post. I have 37 images (after I cleaned up my pictures) from the Golden Daemon in Chicago. I realize a couple things:

1. I have not explained my methods for picking what I take pictures of at Golden Daemon
2. 37 pictures is a heavy load for the blog and a long post
3. I have a number of long posts to put up after my Chicago trip

So, I am going to approach things this way. First let me explain my method when I am snapping pictures at the Golden Daemon contests. First, I realize that everyone will be able to go online or look in White Dwarf to see the winners of the contest. In addition, those pictures will be far better than the ones I take (I would hope!). Second, typically the areas I am taking pictures in are from the line, clouded by the scratched and smudged screens, and crowded with multiple models. Toward this end, I walk through the line and try to take the best pictures I can of the models I like. This means I will very rarely have pictures of Nurgle models (I really do not like them) and will have more pictures (usually) of Eldar, as I like those models. Basically, this is a profile of what caught my eye.

Now, I am also thinking of not putting all my pictures up on the blog. Based on the second two points above, I am going to post a couple that really stuck out for me, and then post a link to my Flickr slide show. This slide show is all the pictures from Games Day Chicago, not just Golden Daemon. I think my intelligent readers will not be disappointed.

So, here we go. The following are some of the entries that really stuck out to me. For my full picture coverage please look here.


* I met Gobbo while I was in Chicago, he had travelled from Denver for the DLT picnic and Games Day. This was a great model and when I was in line I heard this comment from the guys behind me: "Man, that guy took the term single 40K model to the extreme!"


* I liked this Farseer model. I tried to convince the people behind the table to turn on the static ball, but they wouldn't.


* This was just incredible. I took several pictures and have them cleaned up as much as possible in my slide show.


* and this just made me say WOW! The artist painted up a complete canopy of trees, shaded them, then placed this Wood Elf in the canopy. Great model.

I liked all the models I took pictures of, and I strongly recommend you check out my Flickr Slide Show.

Baltimore Gamesday 2009 - Post 3 (GD 2009 review)

Games Day 2009 Review

I suppose the best way to start this thread is to explain some of my background, both directly and my thoughts on Games Day prior to this years Games Day. I have been attending Games Day in Baltimore since 2002. I missed 1 year due to a friends wedding.

I attended my first Gamesday with friends as their way to introduce me to the hobby. Holy Crap, I was hooked. I got a “Runtherder pass” to enter for free and was shocked by the show. Golden Daemon was incredible, the 8 foot tall Marine, the freaking rhino at the big game, the noise, the open gaming. Wow, just wow.

After leaving the show that day, I knew 2 things:
1. I was hooked and needed to figure out what army I wanted to play
2. Gamesday would be on my calendar every year

I will admit that each year I was excited as Gamesday drew close. I started attending seminars to hear the rumors of what was coming up. I anxiously watched the website to see what the Games Day mini was going to be. To be fair, I only bought tickets on those years I liked the mini, and used the free Runtherder pass the years I did not want the mini. I brought my kids, I brought my wife, I spent money and bought models or T-shirts most years.

That’s the background. Suffice it to say I am/was a Games Workshop fanboy, and a Devotee of Games Day. However, GD 2007 and GD 2008 were each decreasingly enjoyable and seemed to also be of lower quality than the years before. The spectacle that was games day was shrinking, specifically around the “dressing” in the hall and the quality of the “big games”. GD 2008 had a table full of baneblades as the big-game (not as exciting as thousands of mini’s on the table) and Golden Daemon seemed to have far less submissions that past years. The incredible sales on 25th anniversary boxes and other goodies were great though! Thus we arrive at Baltimore Games Day 2009.

Like any other year, I was answering a resounding “YES” when asked if I would be attending Games Day this year. As GD drew closer, I began to reconsider this answer as GD drew closer. The first doubt that gnawed at me was the very strong rumor that runtherder passes without an accompanying paid ticket would be strictly forbidden. Now, I looked at the decreased ticket price with no model (I did not want this years model) and was willing to consider buying a ticket. I was not convinced that the show (based on the last 2 years) would be worth the $25, but I figured what the hell.

The next was club support and GD advertising. This year was supposed to be focused on Club support, as the GD tourney was not happening. The club I joined this year (IFL) was running a number of events and I was excited that GW would be supporting these GD events through press (White Dwarf? Website?) and really pushing involvement. I found as GD grew closer that I could not find information on what club events were happening. In fact, it was only 2 weeks before GD that GW finally posted something on their website. Not something easily found, but something none-the-less. This really struck me as disingenuous of GW and their “club focused approach” and pushed me to deciding not to attend this year.

At the last minute (about 1 week before the show) I changed my mind and ordered a ticket through direct order. I decided that at worst, this would be my last GD, and at best I would see a re-emergence of the spectacle that got me hooked on this hobby. I wanted to give GW the benefit of the doubt. I mean, perhaps I was being unfair about their 2 week window for announcements. I was truly hoping that at a minimum, I would get some good pictures from Armies on Parade, Golden Daemon, some pre-release “Sneak Peak” pictures, and get to look at the Planet Strike book & terrain. I was also hoping that GW would do more deals this year and I could get some discounts.

At the end of the day, I was more disappointed in GD this year than I have been in the past. Even with that start on the negative side, let me list the things I saw that were good:
Highlights & Upside of GD 2009
• Black Library sale on many books – excellent
• Sale table for discontinued models in back of store – good
• Duff from Ace of Cakes – Squig Cake – excellent!!!
• IFL 40K Rapid Fire Tournament – excellent
• Giant Minas Tirith Castle (forget the store who built it) – excellent
• Armies on Parade – good
• Golden Daemon increased participation – good
• Big Game for all 3 systems (WHFB, 40K, WotR) – good (mixed)

Let me also say that I walked past the Golden Daemon lounge and this looked interesting. I wish I had known about it prior to showing up at games day, as I would have brought some of my models for some advice. As it was, I did not see many people there either time I walked past.

Now for the negative:
• Hour wait for registration (all tickets, even if you pre-ordered your ticket) – Fail
• Line at Forgeworld (rumored to be ~2 hours long) – Fail
• Line at registers for the GD Store, 30 minutes when I went through – Fail
• Mob at the sale table, and the small space for discounts – Fail
• Not enough markings on what was where – Fail
• Same Scenery for Scenery make and take – fail
• Scenery Make and Take ran out of scenery by 1pm – Fail
• Same models for Conversion Contest – Fail
• Conversion Contest ran low on sprues by 1pm – Fail
• Dirty plastic covers for Golden Daemon and Armies on Parade – Fail
• Lack of Spectacle – Fail, Fail, Fail
• No open gaming – Fail

Ok, let me discuss a couple things here to provide a bit more insight. When I showed up at 10:05am the registration line went out the door and half way down the block. This ended up being at least an hour wait even if you ordered your tickets. I jumped ahead (what a dick) and was able to skip most of the line (I only waited 5 min), but this was not a common occurrence. People who were buying their tickets at the door were still directed back to the end of the registration line to wait.

Now, lets talk about forgeworld. I know from past years that the forgeworld line is long. I have rarely jumped into that line, as I am not that interested in purchasing FW at the show. I spoke with a few people who stood in line and on average, the line appears to be about 2 hours of a wait. The process made this worse. The process (as reported not experienced by me) was to wait in line (2 hours), get your invoice for the item you want to buy, get in the pay line for the store (30 minutes), and then go back to FW to pick up your item. Are you kidding me?

Regarding Scenery make and take and the conversion contest. I saw these when I first walked in and they were filling up fast. I expect this, as it is the same every year. I walked around and took some pictures. I chatted with my friends at the IFL tables. I walked through the store and bought some items. Then, around 1pm I went back to the tables. Both tables looked like hungry vultures had been eating at a carcass for almost a week. There was so little left by 1pm that it was pointless to sit down. Come on GW, this should not be a surprise. Either better policing at these tables needs to be done, or there needs to be better support for the full day. I recommend better support for the full day.

On Dirty protective screens. This seems to be a no-brainer to me and it actually offends me on behalf of the Golden Daemon entries and the Armies on Parade entries that this happened. The Plastic screens that are put on the tables to protect the models were filthy. There were streaks and water/dust spots all over them. It was very difficult to get anything close to a good picture of the models without asking for the model to be removed from behind the screen.

Lastly is the lack of spectacle. In the early games days I attended I saw an 8 foot tall space marine mock-up (its at the Baltimore Bunker now), a Chimera, a Rhino, Amazing boards with cool scenery, hordes of GW models painted and set-out for big-games. For the past 3 years, there has been none of this. In fact, the spectacle has steadily declined each year. This is disappointing, as it really indicates a lack of interest to me on GW’s part.

Overall, I am very unlikely to attend GD next year. I am very disappointed and would rather spend my money (both my spending money I bring to GD along with the fees) to fund a trip to Adepticon next year. Adepticon (based on reports) just seems to be done better, be a better investment in money = fun, and at the end of the day, it sounds like what GD used to be.

I strongly urge everyone reading this to also check out the Adept’s Forge blog. Jeff has some excellent insight and also a well-written review of GD 2009.

Would love to hear comments or feedback.

Baltimore Gamesday 2009 - Post 2 (Armies on Parade & Golden Daemon)

I did grab some pictures of other events at Gamesday 2009. Armies on Parade, Golden Daemon, and then general game boards as I walked around. Below are some of the highlights:

Armies on Parade

I saw some great looking armies here, and enjoyed talking with the army creators/owners. Drew Carrington has some great freehand painting on his Landraider for his Crimson Fist army. If I grasped the story correctly, he painted this by firelight while camping out. I had to give the obligatory bow to his skill when he told me this.



I grabbed some pictures of some excellent looking Eldar models. The overall army pictures did not come out due to dirty over-shield on the tables. I grabbed some pictures simple because I liked the display boards and will eventually need to craft something for my own army.



There was a great looking Baneblade with a really nice Mechanicum sigil on the front. (edit: by BrassScorpion from BoLS)



And then there was Jay and his armies on parade. I think he should have labeled them "Chaos Marines: Alpha Legion".


Golden Daemon

Overall Golden Daemon was better this year than last. I snapped a bunch of pictures, but only a limited amount came out. I need to do more work with the camera to improve my photography skills. Here are a couple highlights:

Tau on Bike (this looked much better in person than in the picture)



Incredible fine painting on an Eldar Grav-Tank



Yes, I was drawn to the Eldar models. To be fair there were a good number of them as well. This Wraithlord looked incredible:






I will do another Gamesday post, likely later today. I want to share some of my thoughts and take advantage of my own virtual soap-box to talk about my feelings regarding Gamesday.

Baltimore Gamesday 2009 - Post 1 (Ace of Cakes, Previews)

For those of you who watch the Food Network, you will recognize the following face (Duff from Ace of Cakes)! Duff came to Games Day this year to make a Squig Cake for Mythic Entertainment. I have to say that as I am home thinking through the day, this has to be the largest register of cool points I saw!



Now, along with meeting Duff and getting a picture of that incredible cake, I also snapped a whole load of other pictures. For the first post, I will start with some of the "sneak peaks" that were on display. Nothing really new here, but take a look anyway.

First we have a close-up of the new Space Marine character - Vulkan - who is expected out with Planetstrike.


And a look at what is supposed to be Kosorro Khan.


I do love the iron-clad dreadnought model.




And here is something for those Ork lovers out there. This is a work in progress Forge World Supa-Kannon to mount on a battlewagon. I imagine this would work for a Kill-Kannon as well.


We got to look at some new Galadhirm swordsmen on foot




And some of the new Galadhirm cavalry. I did not realize I had snapped a picture of the command unit until I was editing my pictures tonight, so I missed a shot of the banner.












And with the Perry's, some other models (not sure which are new and which old). Overall there looks to be some empire stuff below. My snaps of the new Empire Swordsmen were blurred, so not posted.






Overall I did not see anything here that I had not seen before. Most of this has already been announced on GW's own email announcements with pictures. I also was unable to locate the planet-strike book so could not take a look or get any pictures.

That's all for tonight. I will get some more pictures up in the following posts and also give a recap of my thoughts on Gamesday 2009.

Baltimore Games Day - WHFB Dark Elf Preview

So Gamesday Baltimore 2008 was not as good as past years. Even with that being said, we had a great time and I got to look at the new Dark Elf models and some of the rules. I even got some great pictures of "tactical notes" and an army list. The tactical notes detail some of the new Dark Elf rules, and the army list is a 2K list with points for the units.

First, the Notes and Army list.





I have to say that the Supreme Sorceress model is my favorite model so far from the new range. This is a great model.




I really liked the Dreadlord model.




The new assassin.




This is Lokhir, a new character model. I believe he is a Corsair character, but I do not understand the Squid Face!




When I saw the previews of the army box, I did not like the look of the Hydra. I have to admit I was very wrong. The War Hydra looks incredible. These are 2 different Hydra's that were out.






Here are the new Dark Elf Corsairs. These look great and the paint job was fantastic! The top two are of the banner bearer from 2 different angles.









Dark Elf Cold One Knights. I think these look great but not as heavy as the current models. I am very torn on which I like better and I actually think that both models would look great in a Dark Elf Army.






I am also updating my photo album for the Golden Demon 2008. I got some good pictures, before I ran out of room on the camera. The link is here, I will be updating it as I crop the pictures.

Golden Demon 2008