The End of an Era

Not an accurate depiction of how much I get paid, but the first check still felt that way!

So... funny story... I haven't had a full-time job in all my 4+ years of playing tabletop games... until now. I've been working for a factory running an injection moulding machine (non-gaming related... unfortunately...) since April 1st, and boy was having a goodly sized paycheck a cool thing. The first gaming purchase I made with the new source of income was a secondhand Landraider Crusader, a Secondhand Dreadnought (with dual autocannons and everything!) and an Arjac Rockfist (who is freaking awesome, despite the obvious casting flaws and bubbles... I'm still on the fence if it's bad enough to complain to GW about it...)

That aside, I also took the time to go out to Evolution Games in Lansing again to watch the Test of Khaine. I was planning to play in the tournament, but I was under the impression that they were holding to Adepticon's painting requirements (turns out they weren't!), and thus excluding any kind of 1850 list I would care to try to take. I have about half of my new(ish) Dark Angel army painted, but I just didn't have enough to make 1850, so I decided to just watch (which, if you haven't done it, it is actually a really interesting experience) everybody else play.

I carpooled with Yancy Small (again... I've never been to Evolution without having ridden in with Yancy... huh...), who did in fact participate in the Tournament, bringing his Farsight Enclave, and did moderately well. He had a rough go of his second round facing off against a Monstrous-Creatures-'R-Us Tyranids list, but did pretty well in his other rounds (The first versus non-Farsight Tau, the third against Orks.) I got to wander about and observe all the multitudes of lists and matchups that were being played out... some stood out, some were just kind of meh...

There was a Space Wolf player (ended up placing... 4th? I think) who ended up facing off against Nurgle Daemons one round (and forgot Runic Weapons wound on a 2+ against Daemons.) There was also a guy who brought a Triple Landraider (Two being Crusaders with Bolterbanner support) list that did fairly well for himself, but nothing fancy. I feel that his list was a bit too top-heavy for 1850, with not enough scoring potential... the reason this one stands out is that it was similar to the list I hoped to bring. Bill Kim was there with his Chaos Daemons, and surprisingly enough didn't take first place... I'm still not sure exactly how that happened...

Bill Kim is the Asian gentleman on the left hand side... he's the local "If he shows up, the best you can do is place 2nd..."

All told, I had a great time, and took some pictures while I was meandering.

This is the Tyranid list I mentioned earlier...

Another shot of the Big Bugz.

Orks will Loot anything!

I really liked this guy's take on the Aegis line...

The Triple Landraiders.

Yancy's Farsight Bomb.

I really like the muted paint scheme on these...

This one is more hi-techie.

Interestingly, all three of the last pictures are from the same army.

Another shot of Random Guy's* Tau.

*I've introduced myself to him twice now, and for the life of me I can't remember his name!

I approve of this paint scheme, and I *really* hate the GW ones.

Pinned Grey Hunters are Pinned... so sad.

So gross... which is a very good thing for Nurgle models!

In true Black-Knight fashion, Justicar Thrawn was missing his arm... but it was only a flesh wound!

Orky infighting!

More Orky infighting.

The Orks that Yancy faced off against in round three... which makes up the rest of the pictures.

Vaya con Dios,
Timothy