I Worry Too Much...

Does anyone else hate interviews? I know I do. I've got another one today that I think is for an even better job than last week's was. Does it have it's own issues? Of course, but I think it would be better for me long term.

But to come to the point: I worry about it. I chalk it up to the fact that I think too much. Whenever something comes up, I always analyze it, try and figure out possible outcomes and how it could affect how I live my life, those around me, what have you. And, as is possibly inevitable, those scenarios are usually decently grim.

I try and be a positive person. I let the bad things roll off my shoulders whenever possible. But when I'm coming up to a big decision point - like a job interview - all I'm able to do is think and ponder and worry about it.

And that really, really bites.

Yesterday, I posted Proverbs 12:25 on my Facebook page: "Worry weighs a person down; an encouraging word cheers a person up." Two days before, I posted a very similar passage from Luke 12. You'd think that, with all the Bible has to say about worry - in a word: don't - I'd be able to move past it. And I'm trying to, I really am.

But for now, all I can do is pray that what should be will be, and try and turn my mind off for a while. So glad that I have absolutely no downtime at my current job... wait a minute... ;)

Time to work on some more Tau lists...

Putting Words in Your Mouth

So, I'm trying to get back to doing videos for my local gaming store, the Foundry. I did them for a long while this past fall (you can find them here) pertaining to gaming news across multiple gaming systems, such as Warhammer, Malifaux, and Flames of War, but due to work issues I stopped doing them.

When you work at 4 AM, staying up late to film a video doesn't really become high on your priority list.

But now that I'm mostly settled in, I'm trying to get back to it because I really enjoyed it. Rather than the biweekly pace I did before (when I was unemployed), I plan on doing bi-monthly videos instead so I can hopefully keep on track rather than slipping behind. However, I'm only going to do one news broadcast because, lets face it, unless I cover absolutely every company invovled in tabletop gaming, I'm not going to have enough info for a broadcast twice monthly. And since I'm doing this for a local scene, I'd rather cover what we care about rather than just adding info no one will care about.

So, to take up the slack, I'm going to start covering the finer points of tactics as taught by the masters. By masters, I don't mean top players, I'm going straight to the source: Sun-Tzu, Clauswitz, etc. While they talk about warfare on usually a much larger scale than these games are able to cover, the principles they teach are still incredibly useful.

It looks to be a lot of fun, and for this first one I'll be talking about flexibility and multi-role capability, both on the strategic and tactical scales. Got the script mostly written last night (just needs some tuning), and I hope to have it filmed and online by next Monday. Now, to figure out who to use to voice the video...

343rd RRC: My Tau Army in Pictures

Better late than never, right? Sorry it's taken so long, but I finally got the pictures done and uploaded, and so here we are. I know I'm no master painter, and my army definitely isn't Golden Daemon worthy, but for what it's worth here we are: the 343rd Rapid Response Cadre, such as it currently stands.

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Fire Warrior squad A with their Devilfish

Shas'ui Yos'srin with his Dreadnought trophy

Close up on the Devilfish for squad A

Fire Warrior squad B with their own Devilfish

Squad B's Devilfish

Shas'ui Guid'vel with his Land Speeder trophy

Fire Warrior squad C with Devilfish

Squad C's Devilfish; slightly different camo colors

Fire Warrior squad D with Devilfish

Squad D's Devilfish is still in someone else's paint scheme :S

Fire Warrior squad E; these last two do have Devilfish,
but they're unpainted still

...and Fire Warrior squad F. Yes, there are 60 of the dudes.
And I have 12 more I could still paint!

Pathfinder Team 1; 10 man with 3 rail rifles

Pathfinder Team 2; 8 man

My XV15 stealth suits; have 3 more unpainted.

XV25 stealth suits; prefer the 15's, so these are all I have of them

Hammerhead 'Mjolnir' with two weapon options

Hammerhead 'Amo-no-nuboko' with two weapon options

and the Hammerhead 'Excalibur' with just the Rail Cannon,
though I have another Ion Cannon I can still build

My collection of painted XV8 Crisis suits; a few more lurk in my bits I could use

Close up of my XV8 commander; the shield has the unit colors and
the text reads '343 Recon', the old unit name

My four XV88 Broadsides; one still in someone else's paint scheme

Close up of my most heavily converted; still haven't finished the paintwork

Shas'O R'myr from Forge World; using it as my Crisis Commander

and last but not least, the Ethereal Aun'Shi

Fiction Fridays: Tau

So here we come to another Fiction Friday! Again, we're on our Tau kick this week, so we'll keep with the theme and let's try and make some background for my Tau army, shall we?

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The 343rd Rapid Response Cadre served along the forefront of the Third Sphere expansion of the Tau Empire. Hailing from the Sa'cea sept worlds and bringing the martial tradition of their world to the new colonies, the members of this Cadre have fought in numerous engagements across numerous worlds.

Several times the cadre engaged against the forces of the Imperium's Space Marines, from numerous chapters as they sought to stop the Tau's expansion. Several warriors distinguished themselves in these engagements, such as Shas'la Guid'vel who managed to intercept and destroy a Land Speeder which was making its attack run on another squad of Fire Warriors despite the rest of his squad having been scattered by an incoming hail of bolter fire. Another, Shas'la Yos'srin, had his unit charged by one of the Astartes battlesuits called Dreadnoughts. Maneuvering behind it in the heat of battle, he was able to place a precisely aimed pulse round in its reactor core and destroyed it. Both were promoted for their heroism.

Their Shas'el, Commander Darksight, distinguished himself against the Dark Eldar. Attempting to defend a resupply post being struck by a corsair raid, Darksight found himself and his bodyguard attacked by numerous eldar upon skyboards. One, later determined to be the enemy commander, came towards Darksight in the blink of an eye, and so he was forced to fight at short range. The honorless enemy was utilizing chemical enhancements to boost his already considerable combat prowess, and seeing an opportunity Darksight ripped the control mechanism from the enemy's body. Possibly by blind luck, the drugs began to cascade into the eldar's body, killing him instantly. Their leader dead, the remainder of the Eldar vanished back into the night from whence they came.

When the Tau took control of the Imperial-held world of Taros, the 343rd served proudly, rushing from engagement to engagement as needed. Their most notable battle was against the Elysian Drop Troops attempting to take control of the capitol's water supply, coming in at the forefront of that attack. Despite heavy casualties, it was the 343rd that finished off the ill-advised attack.

After a layover on Sa'cea itself for rebuilding and retraining, a new Shas'el took over command of the Cadre, known as Commander Longstride. Favoring manouvre and rapid strike tactics even moreso than most Fire Caste do, he removed some of the more static elements of the force and retasked others, relying on his Hammerhead Gunships and Razorshark Fighters for anti-armour fighting, while his few remaining Broadsides took over as anti-air. He was also assigned one of the new XV-104 Riptide suits, and assigned it to one of his most senior pilots.

So far the rebuilt 343rd remains untested. However, while the 3rd Sphere Expansion may have halted temporarily, rest assured that it will start up again soon, and the 343rd will be there at the forefront. Whether at a new world, or in the defense of old holdings, they will do their duty.

Thankful Thursday: Opportunity Knockin'

First off, an editor's note: I had every intention of doing a post with army pictures yesterday, but was unable to do so due to other commitments and the need to actually be rested before a job interview today. So many apologies, but I shall get that post completed this afternoon if all goes well.

So, speaking of that job interview we come to my weekly Thankful Thursday, where today it's gotta be Opportunity. Y'see, I work in the television industry. You may think "Oh, wow, you're on TV? That must be so awesome and give you a great paycheck!"

You'd be wrong. Very wrong.

I work on the production side, doing the morning shift at a local tv station. So what I get instead are long hours, odd hours, stressful moments of sheer terror when things don't quite go as planned, and a dismal paycheck as a reward. But television is something I've always wanted to do, something that I enjoy. I find it rewarding to put a production together, and when it comes together successfully.

I've volunteered with the television ministry at local churches wherever I've been since I was in middle school, and that's where I picked up the bug. Being a part of something like that is an amazing thing, being able to send the service out across the air to wherever it may need to go, to whomever needs to hear it. And to be honest, media ministry is where my heart lies, but working in tv news is great training, discovering what it takes to make a truly exceptional broadcast day in and day out.

Now, because of that dismal paycheck, I wouldn't be able to do this if I was living on my own. But my wife is an amazing woman as I've already discussed, and we make do like we are now. I don't know how we do it, but she's keeping the books in order and making sure we don't starve. I know it's stressful on her, and I don't thank her enough for it, but she's letting me pursue my dreams, and so I really need to thank her again when I get home.

But now I've got an interview for another job here at the station, one that's full time, pays more, gives me benefits, the works. The hours still bite, and it's still not an amazing paycheck, but it's something. Hopefully it's a stepping stone onto something else, or maybe the Lord has something better in mind for later. But for now, I'm simply thankful for the opportunity to try, and for everything He's done to make it happen.

Release Week!

So, I know many of my readers aren't Warhammer players. And to you, I'm sorry; I'm so, so sorry.

Because as I kinda mentioned last week, one of my favorite armies, the Tau Empire, release this week. And man, am I excited.

The previous book was released in 2006 (I started playing the next year) at a time when the codicies were mostly just the army lists, a few pages of pictures and maybe a couple pages of fluff, or storyline. So while the Tau race is always described as an energetic and vibrant young species in contrast to the elder human Imperium and the ancient Eldar, comparatively little is known about the Tau culture.

Modern codices, on the other hand, are over a hundred pages, about half of which is fluff. While I expect a decent amount of story that we've already seen in the previous book, I'm looking forward to finally getting to know a little more about the Empire. From what I've heard, there is a large dose of Imperial China and Japan in how they operate, which pleases me to no end.

One key difference, however, is how they fight. While most cultures favor short range, hand-to-hand combat as the more honorable and more dignified, the Tau turn that on its head. They see hand-to-hand as something bestial, a form of combat practiced by animals and those who are more like them. Ranged combat is the preferred method, the method practiced by civilized societies and by honorable men (if you'll forgive the general use of the term).

So like I said, I'm really excited to get the new fluff, in addition to the new rules. Tomorrow, I think I'll take some pictures of my Tau army as it stands now, and post them for you to see. Stay tuned! You'll get to see my painting skills next.

Tactical Concepts

So currently I'm playing my Alpha Legion army for a 40k campaign, though I plan on taking it to tournaments as well. The cornerstone of my army is the special character Huron Blackheart, though I'm personally re-visualizing him as Alpharius, the leader of my warband rather than using the background supplied in the book. But that's not really relevant here.

A lot of people frown on using special characters, and for the most part I would agree. Much of what they do can be done just as well and cheaper by a regular HQ choice. Huron really isn't that great in combat and could be replaced on that score by a Khorne Lord and be cheaper and better. And while some may look at his familiar and the ability to get access to the Divination school of psychic powers as a boon, it's far too random to be useful. Instead, there is a single ability that makes me take him every time.

He comes with the Master of Deception warlord trait standard rather than rolling for it.

Now, there are some really rather decent warlord traits available to Chaos generals, but for my money this has got to be one of the best. At the beginning of each game, I get to designate d3 infantry units as Infiltrators. Now, for an infantry heavy army, d3 may not sound like much, but it's the fact that I get to pick them at the start of the game rather than during listbuilding that makes this so incredible. I offer a quote:

"To know the enemy but not yourself is only halfway to victory. To know yourself but not the enemy is only halfway to victory. To know the enemy and yourself but not the terrain is only halfway to victory. One who knows these things shall not be endangered in a thousand engagements."

By letting me designate my infiltrators after I've seen the enemy and the terrain, I give myself a tactical advantage. Is he bringing heavy tanks? I can designate my Obliterators and site them appropriately. Infantry hordes? I can bring my flamers to bear quickly. Is he running Ravenwing and looking to shove his bikes in my face turn 1? I can put a sacrificial unit forward to buy time to respond.

And then, of course, there are the implications of infiltrate itself, just letting me deploy those units after my opponent finishes his deployment, even if I went first. Did he deploy a major threat in my weak side? I can deploy to strengthen that side and stop his ambitions. Did he deploy forward, hoping to capitalize on a mistake I made? I can try and correct that.

When most people look at infiltrate, they see the rules for how far forward they can place their men. And to be honest, I did too at first, and lost a couple games because of it. Now, while I'm far from being able to really embody the quote above from Sun Tzu, I think that using Huron like this will definitely give me an edge against most opponents, and should make my games a lot closer than they used to be.

Though what I'm going to do against a Necron Air Force I still have no clue.