Facing The Grey Tide Podcast - Episode 78: So ManBeardPainting Stumbles In......

What is up Everyone? In this episode, Chandler sits down with Zach Bowles of ManBeardPainting fame and lore.  We sit down to talk about his origin story into 40k (Dawn of War is a gateway drug people), his love of Orks, some of the craziest commission stories he has, and of course about shenanigans that happen both on and off the table.  We talk about his painting on Twitch, for his hobby, and his commission work and get an insight if anyone is looking for a great painter to help get your army to the table.  We also talk about our thoughts on 3 color armies, and really just sit down to tell stories.

Don't fear the Beard; Embrace and love the Beard!

Review: Predator, Prey - The Beast Arises Book 2

With the release of the third book in the Beast Arises series last weekend, it's about time I finished my review of the second installment in the Beast Arises series from Black Library, Predator, Prey. This will be my second time writing this post as the first was eaten by the warp, though I also didn't like the direction it went. As with part 1 of the review, SPOILER ALERT.

Review: I Am Slaughter - The Beast Arises Book 1

This fall, the Black Library announced a new mini-series of books in the 40k Universe's history; the Beast Arises, a 12-part series set two millenia after the Horus Heresy. Being a sucker for series and the 40k universe as a whole, I subscribed to the series, meaning I will get each book at it is released each month. With the first book having been out a month, and the next impending, let's dive into a review of Book 1, I Am Slaughter. As with my Horus Heresy reviews (which I haven't done in ages), SPOILER ALERT.

DreadTober

I was recently volunteered to participate in Dreadtober by friends of the blog, Todd of SincaiN40k and Greg of Feed Your Nerd. In turn, I conscripted Chandler to help/create an entry of his own. The concept is simple - take a month and have fun with assembling and painting up some variant of Ork Dread/Kan, and share and show off the results.

Bat Rep: The Battle of Piscina IV

Last week, Will was down to wrap up his Masters defense (congrats to Will) and we got in a few turns of a fun, fluffy game using the scenario from White Dwarf 73 - The Battle of Piscina IV. The scenario is based on Warboss Nazdreg's field test of his Tellyporta technology on the world of Piscina IV, which was defended by the Dark Angels. We settled on 2,025 points give or take 5 points and got to it.

Torrent of Fire Article: 7th Edition Codices

My newest Torrent of Fire Article is up. For this article, I used the new Since Date function in the Torrent of Fire Ultimate Weapon and compared army results for before and after their codex was released. I looked at army popularity and performance.

Check out the full article and let me know what you think. Next time I'm going to look at how armies holding out with 6th edition codices have fared with each new release.

Green Tide Rising

After hearing some recent tourney success (and honestly finally starting to understand it) I decided to look into building a tournament style Ork list. When the book dropped last year, I'll be honest, I was pretty disappointed in my first look, though I liked the Waaagh! Ghazghkull supplement at first glance. Mostly, I had no idea how to make a list that felt Orky while also being fun and viable on the table. Generally speaking, Orks are resoundlingly meh, so it was hard to pick out units or combos that might be effective when half the point of Orks is that they're not effective - they need numbers to accomplish anything.

FTGT 2014 In Review

As we begin 2015, I thought I would take a quick look back at 2014 for the blog, which was a very impressive and humbling one for the blog. The blog hit 40,000 views on Halloween in 2013 and began 2014 just under 67,000 views. In 2014 we had well over 200,000 views. I am constantly humbled and amazed that this project of mine has taken off as it has. Thank you to all the readers, whether you participate and comment regularly, stop in from time to time, or read just once. Thank you.

Hobby Resolutions for 2014 and 2015

With just over two months left in the year, I thought I would take a look back at my resolutions to begin the year as well as some likely resolutions for 2015, particularly those taking advantage of my excel model trackers. First, let's look at if I've accomplished my goals for this year.

White Dwarf #29 - Grey Knights

This week's White Dwarf has arrived, and it features the somewhat surprise codex release of Grey Knights. For August at least, Games Workshop is ramping up the already frantic rules release schedule, giving us a second codex this month.

In the teaser blurb, it is hinted that the mysterious past of the Grey Knights will be at least partially revealed as tying back to their founding during the Horus Heresy. The promise of possibly linking up with the Garro series has me at least intrigued from a fluff perspective.

White Dwarf # 24 - Stormclaw

This week's White Dwarf features the new "starter" set for 40k, Stormclaw.

As has been leaked all over this week, the box features two new characters to lead the collected forces in the box, with Orks and Space Wolves facing off. While there are only two new models in the set, it still checks in as a great deal, with $175 of minis not counting the two new sculpts and the mini rulebook and campaign book.

Waaagh! Ghazghkull First Look

Ok, it's a little later than most of our "First Looks," but with the holiday weekend and fantastic weather, I wasn't hanging out with my computer much. Anyway, let's take a look at the supplement about the most famous Ork Warboss of all.

White Dwarf #23 - Planetstrike

While we wait on Waaagh! Ghazghkull to be available for download, we'll take a quick look at this week's White Dwarf, introducing the first installment of the Sanctus Reach Campaign - Red Waaagh!, which includes rules for Planetary Assault campaigns and games.

Early Ork List Buidling: 1,850 points

Ok, despite a general "meh" feeling I got at first, I couldn't help but get to work building some lists. For this first list I picked a bunch of stuff I liked the sound of, so it's probably not very cohesive, though I think it could be a little intimidating.

Codex Orks First Look

The first 7th Edition Codex is now officially out (more or less, still seemed a little early). We've been getting leaks since last week, but as always I tended to be skeptical. Anyway, let's dive in.

The first thing I noticed is that the format of the book is different. Granted, I am looking at the digital edition, but past digital codices have closely mirrored the physical books. The "Forces of the Orks" section says that each unit has a datasheet, which detail Army List Entries or formations. No more do we see the split of detailed rules and fluff and the army list entry. These datasheet entries look exactly like the ones we've seen for the units released in White Dwarf, like the Mek Guns.

White Dwarf #21 - Orks, with a Codex!

Well, the White Dwarf with the Ork Codex is finally here. Preorders going up today, it looks like the Limited Edition Codex got an overhaul this time, and comes with a little more than just a slip cover.

White Dwarf #20 - More Orks, Still no Codex

A third week of Ork releases is featured and still no sign of the Codex. This week's releases are the new Mek Gun, which is a multi-part kit for any of the big guns, including a bunch of new weapons, the new Shokk Attack Gun, the 40k Librarium (all the 6th edition codices plus the rules), and some other Black Library releases.

White Dwarf #19 Review - Flash Gitz

As the cover suggests, the issue focuses on the new, very nice Flash Gitz kit and a little bit of background about just what Flash Gitz are. Essentially, they are Orks, obsessed with their fancy, souped up gun, and their showing off of said weapon leads to their banishment from the standard Ork society, where they join Freebooterz clans and sell their services to the highest bidder.

First Look - White Dwarf #18 - WAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

As was widely leaked this week, the Orks are on their way, lead by the army's new big kit, the Gork/Morkanaut. The behmoth looks to be on a Knight base, and while reportedly the height of Riptide, it's definitely a wide one.

Mini Game Reactions

After a successful gaming weekend, I think that it would be fun for Ron, Evan, and I to talk about the Quick Mini Games we played, watched, and just give an overall impression of the setup.

First I would like to say that these games took right around 45 minutes to an hour to get through.  With only a 3' x 3' setup, the shooting started almost immediately and with the squads starting on opposite sides firing lanes were not an issue.  The D3 + 1 pieces of terrain rule also kept it fun and interesting since it forced both armies to move towards each other while having open lines of sight.  The last rule was that of the Armies to play.  I feel if we had more armies to roll that it could have been even better.