Road to Adepticon, Part Three

Here we have my completed squads of Howling Banshees, Fire Dragons, Warp Spiders, and Striking Scorpions. I have yet to finish the bases.

Road to Adepticon, Part Two

Here is my completed Fire Prism, which I am actually still debating using in Adepticon this year...

Road to Adepticon, Part One

I was finally able to take and upload some pictures. The first few I will be posting are of things in my Eldar army that I have already completed for this years Adepticon. I hope you enjoy!

So, I give you Farseer Elthniar, commander of my army (sorry for the low quality pictures):

The mandatory "About Me" post

Okay, let's get this over with. I will make it short.

My internet name is Elthniar. I am a student currently enrolled at Illinois State University in Normal, IL. I am majoring in Physics Teacher Education, and would very much like to become a high school physics teacher in the next couple of years.

I have been involved with the Games Workshop hobby for over 8 years now. I was first drawn in at the age of 12 by The Lord of the Rings game produced by them. I played this game exclusively for about 2 years, and have played only very rarely since then. I enjoy the game system, and would certainly have no problems getting back into it, but I simply do not want to put the effort into paining up a new army and finding people to play against. At the onset of my freshman year of high school, in August of 2003, I met a group of people who also played LOTR. We played together for about a semester before they finally talked me into trying a game of Warhammer 40,000. I was instantly hooked. I initially had a lot of trouble deciding on an army. After buying a squad of Imperial Guard and a Leman Russ and painting them, I decided to move on to something else. I then tampered with Orks for a couple months, but could never really get into them. It was at that moment that I, shamefully, started my first true Warhammer 40,000 army: the Space Marines.

Yes, 90% of all new players to WH40K start out with Space Marines, and I was one of them. I decided upon the Blood Angels chapter, and I amassed roughly 3,500 points worth of them over about a year and a half period. They were a decently fun army to play, and I still may come back to them someday (which would require new paint jobs, of course). However, I soon discovered that they were not for me. It was at this point that I stumbled upon the Eldar...

I now classify myself as an avid Eldar player. I have been playing them for the better part of five years, and they are my main and most complete army. I have acquired more than 12,000 points worth of them since starting them in 2006, shortly before the most recent Codex was published. The point of pride in my army is my Forge World collection, which consists of a Revenant Titan, a Scorpion super-heavy, a Phoenix flyer, a Nightwing flyer, and the Forge World version of the Avatar.

I have always enjoyed playing the game of WH40K competitively, but I always keep things in perspective and my number one goal is to have fun. That being said, I entered the tournament scene in July of 2008 at the Chicago Games Day tournament. I do not remember the exact army I fielded, but I placed 15th out of 34 players, so I was right in the middle of the pack. Due to the limited funding that comes with being a student, I was unable to participate in any other tournaments that year.

I continued to build my tournament experience at the 2009 Adepticon event. I was initially only going to participate in the Gladiator and 40K Championships events, but at the last minute I saw a post on the Adeptus Windy City forums for a team needing a ringer for the National Team Tournament event. I happily agreed to this, as it would give me something to do on the Saturday of Adepticon. As it turned out, this was the most fun Warhammer related event I have ever participated in, and all three of my teammates were wonderful people whom I hope to see at many future tournaments. Doc was the man who recruited me, and he has some very nice work on his project page.

Anyways, I was happiest with my performance in the Gladiator, a 2250 point tournament which allows you to field one super-heavy vehicle or gargantuan creature. I ran a list using my Scorpion super-heavy grav tank, and it did quite well. I went 3-1 on the day, and ended up finishing 18th out of 106 players. The Reaver Titan was the popular option in this tournament, and I am proud to say that in the one game I played against one, I took it down on Turn 3 with my Avatar (after weakening it with the Scorpion, of course).

The Team Tournament, like I said, was a ton of fun, though we did not finish very high in the standings. I am certain our team was heavily penalized in the theme category, as I was a ringer playing Eldar with the other three playing Inquisition. We ended up finishing 64th out of 80. Next year I plan on coming with a team of my own and presenting a good army with a realistic theme.

I must admit, I was disappointed in my performance in the 40K Championships. I am pretty certain the wear and tear of the weekend (waking up around 6am, driving to Adepticon, not leaving until nearly midnight, driving home, and going to bed at 2am for two days in a row) took its toll on me on the third and final day of Adepticon. I made some very silly tactical blunders that cost me my first game, and in a three game tournament with 148 players, you need to not only win all three games, but dominate them. As such, I ended up finishing 93rd, which was also a result of me deciding to see how effective Ramming other tanks could be in my third game (it was quite a lot of fun though). Next year, even though I live about 45 minutes away, I will be staying at the hotel where Adepticon is held, and hopefully that will allow me to get some more sleep!

The final tournament I have participated in was this summer's 40K 'Ard Boyz tournament, which comprised of three rounds, nationwide. I played my first round at the Dragon's Gate in Columbia, MO, as I was on vacation at nearby Lake Ozark. I ended up taking 3rd place here, and as the top 3 finishers from all the first round locations made it to the next round, I was officially a Semi-Final qualifier. I played my Semi-Final round in Springfield, IL, at Capitol City Games. The first game I was straight up outplayed by a Slaanesh daemon army, and my hopes of qualifying for the Finals were pretty much shot. I then got a terrible draw against another Chaos Daemon army in a mission which was entirely night-fight. Needless to say, a shooting army vs. an assault army in a night-fight situation did not bode well for my Eldar. My hopes were then totally bashed. I did end up winning my third game against Tau, and overall it was a very good learning experience: it is a good thing to get your butt kicked sometimes!

Well, that turned out to be quite long, but that is pretty much my history with Warhammer in a nutshell. I hope you enjoy the posts to come: which will include pictures!

First Post

Hello No-one (as I am assuming no-one will ever read this...)

This is officially the first post on what I hope will be a semi-frequently updated blog which will chronicle my most passionate hobby: Warhammer.

I plan on using this as a tool to both showcase my armies and motivate myself to keep on a somewhat tight painting schedule.

Over time, I will be sharing with the world wide web pictures of my recent projects, tales of my tournament exploits, and other various Warhammer-related material which I deem fitting.

I hope you enjoy.