For my first one out I wanted to start out strong to get the ball rolling.  When I was thinking about it I quickly came to the realization that in all of the 40K Community there is one unsung hero everywhere.  This is the person that no one ever thinks about, few people if any talk about, and everyone just sort of generally ignores until they need them.  Who is this person you might be wondering?  It’s the employees and owners of the local gameshops and clubs that we all play at.  These people tire endlessly to give us our models, cut us good deals on our supplies, and make sure that we have a place to play and tournaments with great prizes.  Yet no one really stops to consider that they are there.

I got a chance to sit down and talk with Chris, the owner of the local game shop Knightfall Games, where I spend most of my time when I’m not working, at school, or doing stuff for the site.  Heck, most of my videos are even filmed at his site.  Chris runs a great shop that I highly advise anyone in the Portland area to come by and check out and maybe bring your army along.  He has several really nice tables in the shop, open gaming almost every day of the week, a large amount of terrain that he has either made and assembled himself or gone to great lengths to procure.  Always an interesting guy to talk to, and makes spending time at the shop really enjoyable. I found it to definitely be a learning experience to do this interview.

The fact that he took time out of running around the shop getting his todo list done to sit down and answer questions alone shows that he does care about his players and always makes time for his customers.  So if you ever have time I would suggest swinging by, no matter if your just getting started, have questions about this game or any others, looking for a new game to play, or just looking for a great place to hang out.   Now if he would just get my Rockstar Punch flavored crack in stock…

Points: 1500

Date: 02/15/10

Location: Knightfall Games

Comments: There is a tournament coming up at KFG here in a couple of weeks so a lot of people are scrambling about trying to get their lists done, get tactics in line, and finish painting their armies.  As Ben is one of the toughest opponents I generally face he is a good choice for some practice against.  I actually managed to tie him this time through a combination of more defensive playing and some changes to my list.

Also I wanted to let everyone know to check out a couple of videos that Chris the owner over at Knightfall just put up in the last day or two.  The first one is here, this one has the music that he asked me to make for his videos.  For my first time back at creating a track in two or three years I thought it turned out really well.   The second one is here.  This is a video that he made testing out his new camera featuring some of the models from my Chaos army and some really nice stop motion photography.  Definitely check them out.

Thought I would give a sneak peak of some of the things that are to come.  First off, more videos.  As you may have noticed there was a flood of new posts all with battle reports in them.  I was originally going to make a page and just slap them on there but that is to static, doesn’t send out notices to any of you people that actually care to subscribe, and a few other things.  This way you can also leave comments on them either here or on youtube.  Huzzah!

Next up is I plan on starting some videos in several different series.  Things like painting, converting, assembly, playing, explaining the rules, etc. are going to be the biggest ones.  I also plan on doing a question and answer series as well as possibly a series of articles and maybe accompanying videos on tactica. One of the big things that I want to do but I need to work out some of the details with people is videos of unboxing of some of the new swag and goodies that come out either before they are released or as soon as they hit shelves.  Give all you gibbering fanatics a chance to see what is in the box before you buy it, that sort of thing.

So if you guys have any ideas for videos, things you want to see, suggestions you want to make, or questions that you want answered send them in!  All feedback is more than welcome, and I promise not to make fun of anyone for anything they send in (unless you just want me to). Just drop them in the comments, send me a message or email, or use the contact form on here to send in your ideas/suggestions/questions/concerns/tips/tricks/lessons learned on the best way to hide dead hookers/whatever!

Points: 2500

Date: 02/13/10

Location: Knightfall Games

Comments: Our second battle that day. Ben is a really good player and have sort of a grudge match going on. I’m slowly getting to where I can almost tie him.

Points: 1500

Date: 02/13/10

Location: Knightfall Games

Comments: First game of the day against Ben and his Space Marines. He is a really good player with a solid list.

Points: 2000

Date: 02/06/10

Location: Knightfall Games

Comments: My first time playing against Necrons and I got royally stomped.

Points: 1500

Date: 02/06/10

Location: Knightfall Games

Comments: I had just played this person against their normal Space Marine list and destroyed him, however, I forgot to tape it. For the rematch he brought his Nurgle CSM list out and throunced me.

With that in mind I have added a gallery where I will be putting the pictures that I take of my miniatures, various other peoples miniatures, you when you are in your room and think no one is watching (oh, I’m watching.  Don’t worry), things like that.  I have also added a section for battle reports .  This is where you will find the gripping video capturing of my games of Warhammer 40K and other peoples down at Knightfall Games (or on the rare occasion I go somewhere else those videos too), and occasionally other peoples battles if they look to be more interesting than me loosing.

I also plan to start posting more as is probably obvious by two whole posts already this year.  I will be doing articles on painting, modeling, and playing what else but Warhammer 40K (and maybe other stuff to if I get bored).  I am still slowly trying to redesign the layout of the site but I suck at making the pretty.  Damn it Jim, I’m a programmer not some mouth breathing mac user in the colored pencil department.

So for those of you I haven’t offended yet, check back again later.  I’m sure at some point I will manage it.  For those of you that I have, it’s okay.  We all knew eventually you would find a dictionary and look up what all those big angry letters mean.  It had to happen sooner or later.

If your interested I also have a companion video to this guide up on Youtube that is a good place to start. It gives a quick and brief synopsis of the major salient points.  I also want to take a quick second and thank everyone who watched and commented on the video and everyone that comes here and reads and leaves comments.  I will be making more videos and trying to update this blog with more information and articles as much as possible.  Unfortunately between work and school it doesn’t always leave me much time.  Anyway, on to the reason why you came here.

Necessary Tools

These are the tools that you really need and can’t live without.  I will try to provide prices for them where possible as well and give a brief description of it and why you need it.

• Hobby Knife: ($5 – $10) You will find a veritable plethora of uses for this.  From trimming flashing on your pieces, cutting up models to convert them, cutting out transfers, to stabbing your opponent when they kill your HQ on turn 1 before you even get to move him.  Like I said, the uses are endless.
• Clippers: ($8 – $15) Also known as sprue cutters.  As the name implies they well, they clip things.  Useful for cleaning up metal mini’s or clipping the pieces off of the sprue when you buy a box of miniatures.
• Super Glue: (Approx $8) You will need this for gluing your mini’s together. Also mainly used to glue your fingers to your other fingers, to the model, to your hand, to your pants, and especially to the table. You will generally glue your fingers together more than the model.
• Brushes: ($2 – $20 each) The stuff you put the paint on with.  As a general rule you don’t want to buy the packs of brushes that go for around $10 – $20 for a set.  They are good for things like dry brushes, applying  glue and varnish, etc.  That is about it though as they fall apart to quickly.  Get Sable or Kolinsky brushes.  You will need at least one set, though I recomend two.  One for normal paints, one for metallics.  You will need a range of sizes.  I suggest pointed round or detail round brushes: 10/0, 5/0, 0, 1, 2, 4 and flat brushes: 2, 4, & 6.
• Paint: ($3 – $5 per color) These tend to come in 12 to 17 ml bottle or pots and are generally sold individually.  You can buy them in sets.  I suggest Vallejo or Citadel paints. This is what your gonna cover your hands and hopefully with enough practice, the models with. They tend to last for a good while.  Get acrylics. NEVER GET ENAMEL! It is the tool of the devil and used only by right wing fundamentalist psychos for painting poorly speeled signs proclaiming that Jebus hates democrats.  Also get a can of flat black or white ACRYLIC spray paint or primer.  This will be the base coat for all of your models.  You can buy a can from Wal-Marx for like $1.  Do it.  Starving children in Africa will thank you for it.
• Water Pot: (Free) A glass, a cup, a bowl, your dog.  It doesn’t matter as long as it can hold water and you can wash out your brushes in them.

So that is really all of the necessary tools that you will need to get started with.  In a later article I will go into more detail on some of the optional items you can buy if you are ready to stop having a girlfriend and start being serious about mini war gaming.  For now though this is enough to get you started.