Our First Video Batrep!!

Necron Progress

Here are a couple pictures of the latest bit of progress. Things are coming along nicely. Sorry the pics aren't great, just learning to take photos with my phone.

Shots from the Rulebook!!!

SO CLOSE I CAN TASTE IT

Source: http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showpost.php?p=209533&postcount=76

6th Sneak Peak!!! from the WD

Keeping an open mind

Last night was another booming gaming night for us at Sector 420, with a handful of games being played all evening and a good time being had by all.

As is the case during many a battle, the beer begins flowing and the conversation comes along with it. Soon we were talking about the prospective changes of the soon to be release 6^th edition rulebook. As we continued griping over what could be, or perhaps should be… it dawned on me why I love 5^th edition so much... because I accepted it whole-heartedly.

You see our group began playing 40k again about a year or so ago, or at least that’s when we switched from Blood Bowl to 40k officially. Now many of us have been playing wargames for years, and those who were veteran 40k players are back from the 2^nd edition and early 3^rd edition rules. So, we had about ten years and two rules iterations to skip. We were able to clearly look at the 5^th edition rules (which admittedly have flaws) with completely open minds and open eyes. We loved it even before we knew much about it.

My point here is this. As avid gamers, like most of us are, we tend to form our own opinions and rational as to why a rule needs to exist and exactly how it should function. Whether right or wrong we all believe we have it figured out, but when our group first approached 5^th edition we went into it with a mindset of “let’s play 40k” – not “let’s see how bad these rules suck, and misrepresent everything about this game I love” – which is how I feel the internet audience is viewing the upcoming release.

With all the impending changes or at least “confirmed” rumors… we have a lot to deal with in the next few weeks. Unlearning old rules and relearning our favorite game. As we do this, let’s all take a minute and think about how much we care about our hobby. The thousands of dollars we sink into it, the hundreds of hours spent pouring over the codexs and rulebooks to ensure our combos and builds are the tightest and finest they can be, and of course there are the extreme players who are the people who derive some type of income or financial gain from our hobby (kudos to you!). We all love this game to some effect… so let’s choose to continue loving it.

Could 6^th edition bring doom to 40k? Could it end the game as we know it and ruin GW for the future… sure. Is that likely… NO WAY! Now psychic cards and random charge ranges and all that stuff cannot prevent me from the joy I feel when my little space elves are zooming around the table or when my scarab swarms rip apart a vehicle. This game is awesome. It will continue to be awesome, it just may be different from what we know right now. Different isn’t always bad. We need to look at these rules with new eyes and open minds. Enbracing changes and differences between 6^th and previous editions. Do not compare directly to 5^th or any other edition. Similaritys are just that, similar… this is a new game. Let’s learn it like one.

In any event, I hope this new edition of 40K continues to feed this budding blossom of fans and community we have built over the last few years. Let’s hope it bring a new balance to the game and shakes up the game enough to feel new, but yet still feel like that old friend we have known since we were flying Space Hulks or becoming Rogue Traders.

Game On!

- The Overlord

The Winds of Chaos

The Winds of Chaos have once again struck the world of wargaming, or at least here in the world of Sector 420. Since my last post we have expanded our player base to a whopping 10 players, all whom are active or soon to be active players of Warhammer 40,000. This is terrific!!

The coming few weeks should prove to be exciting ones as a good amount of our group finishes up their classes for this semester and we begin the summer of gaming!

There are a few other big releases that we know are churning in the midst:

Summer of Fliers? is this for real? Marines? Orks? Necrons?

6th Edition release ? July? a real 8th edition fantasy /2nd edition 40k mix says the rumor-mill!

Chaos Legions?? Before 6? after 6th? who knows? but it's coming!

Dark Angels?? White Dwarf Binding? Next Codex!? WHO KNOWS!

The point is with this reinvigorated spirit of gaming buzzing around Sector 420 and the robust gaming community, this could pan out to be one of the greatest gaming summers in history! lol Seriously though, this should pan out to be great fun.

Let's not forget we have some exciting news on the Warhammer Fantasy front, as we now have several players, and we're hoping to continue to expand that player base as well. Some exciting buzz happening around our gaming tables these past few weeks and these upcoming months! Including additional playing tables and an ever expanding terrain collection!

Until next time...

-The Overlord

40k: Beer & Pretzels or WAAC - is this the same game?

After tearing through the forums for the last 6 months I have come to this conclusion. There seems to be two crowds forming in the Warhammer 40,000 playing community.

The first crowd, let's call them the Beer & Pretzel players, or "BP". Now BPs are the type who tend to play the game for pure entertainment. They couldn't care less about winning or losing, but instead want to get together with some friends, throw together an army list, and roll some dice. This is usually how all of us begin our career as players of this fine game.

There is a second crowd, who need to Win At All Costs, so we'll call them "WAAC". These are the kind of people who would never throw a list together, but instead carefully design lists and most often only take the most optimized choices from each codex. These players must win, they are not concerned with having a good time or making friends. Their good time hinges on victory and victory alone.

I, personally, am somewhere in between, walking the line. I love to play Warhammer 40,000. Period. I love everything about the hobby, the fluff, the collecting, the painting (though I don't do enough of it), the bitching, and most importantly playing of the game itself. Now, I also have an analytical mind, I enjoy pouring over the codexs, discovering new tidbits and combinations. I also deeply enjoy competition of any sort. I hate losing, but I am a good sport (or I try to be) and give credit where credit is due, when I lose. I always try to find the reason I lost and devise a good way to counter it for the next battle.

Having said this I have discovered that this disparity can be evident even in the smallest of gaming groups. Sector 420 is host to several players, all of which fall into one of these two categories. This isn't a problem, the problem as I see it, is when two people from the opposite spectrum of enjoyment come together to play a game.

You see, when you agree to play against someone, you agree to have a competition, a match between yourselves and the forces which you've created, to see who can take the day. 40K, much like any other dice based game, has a tremendous amount of chance involved, so it is really an "any given sunday" kind of mentality. You can only prepare so much. You can only pour over lists so much. You can only submit your lists to the online community (read: WAAC - for the most part) for review for so long, and then you actually have to play the game... and this is where things fall apart.

Now, without going crazy with detail, I think we all know how this plays out, one guy is way more serious and then suddenly there is a rules debate and our friendly gaming night turns into defusing arguments and preventing debates from escalating into a verbal conflict.

My point is this... We are all wargamers, 40k Players to be more specific, but wargamers is a much better tag for us. We know how these games go, we know that the dice gods are truly in control of any fight, but somewhere we lose this. Maybe it is the hundreds of dollars we spend collecting and assembling and painting, before we even field these dudes, who knows, but we need to band together again. We need to ensure that when you are lining up your next bout that you and your opponent understand what is expected. Making sure that each player is having fun.

In the end who wants to spend hours and hours of their time and piles and piles of their money to play a game, or involve themselves in a hobby which brings nothing but anger and frustration? No one. So do like we try to do here at Sector 420 and keep the lines of communication open. If I am testing a hardcore tournament list and I plan on taking out some of the aggression from my week on my friends army, well as long as he knows he'll be removing a lot of dudes due to your firepower, then it's all good! lol

Game On!!!

-The Overlord