Update

Been forever since I've updated this thing....so a few ramblings. This picture has nothing to do with gaming - but I found it hilarious. An old buddy of mine - I used to work on a farm with him back when I was in High School and College in North Dakota. In a fit of brilliance he has buried one of the biggest monster John Deere tractors to the axle in the mud. UFF DA! Yah - YOU BETCHA! Ok - back to gaming.....

Charity Tournament: Ok - I totally hosed up on this. Had nothing but the best and noblest of intentions - followed up by the worst execution possible. I have lots of excuses around work having me travel a lot over the summer, kids and family things, etc - but they are just excuses - not good reasons. I failed on this one. At some point I may try something like this again - but in all personal honesty I doubt that this is one of my core competencies.

Club Challenge Tournament: Something that has been discussed a lot on the Wrecking Crew forums and I've been working with a couple of local gaming stores to host. The idea is a format almost identical to the ETC format (only up the total to 2K and allow special characters) and have it between the clubs in the US. Timing and exact venue are still being worked - but sounds like Chattanooga TN. Clubs that I've contacted and have expressed a lot of interest are 'da Boyz, Wrecking Crew, Battle for Salvation, Blade and Bolter, Club Toledo (Sparks/Mutch), BOLS, the Canadian guys who won Adepticon Team Tourney - and hopefully many others. This has the potential to be one of the best events ever for those of us who like competing at this hobby.

The overall tournament circuit: I'm pretty burned out on all the drama around tournaments - although it does bring a certain entertainment value. Nova had to be the most hyped and discussed tournament ever. But ever the "Most Competitive Tournament EVER!" still had the same type issue - winning list was over points. It seems that almost every tournament this year has had either Cheating, points over winning lists, best painting being won by someone who didn't paint their own army, etc, etc. It's got me longing for the old days of GW GT's - with all their flaws and pageantry. Really looking forward to Adepticon and hope that their changes don't diminish the event. I'm on the fence with using the "Nova" type format and making the Nationals one of the premier events for the tournament. To me - Adepticon has been known for the Team Tournament (the premier event there as far as I'm concerned) and the Gladiator (the only place you can play all the big crap that you never play otherwise). They were two tournaments that you really could only find at Adepticon. The Nationals were fun - but just a bigger RTT - something that there are lots of around. Now Nationals is basically replacing the Gladiator as one of the premier events. Will see how it goes this year.

Armies: I'm on a quest. I'm selling off the armies that I bought on compulsion over the years and have seldom played - along with all my Fantasy, Confrontation, and Warmachine stuff. Most will be up on ebay over the next few weeks. If anyone has any interest in big Grey Knights, Chaos Demons, Blood Angels (on the fence to sell or keep these), High Elves, Undead, Confrontation (Wolfen and the human guys), Warmachine (Cygnar, Menoth (very well painted army here), Khador, and a HUGE Cryx army) - let me know via email. I'm using the proceeds to fund having my remaining armies painted - and have several in the works or planned. At the end of the day I'll have Marines (Ultramarines, Wolves, Dark Angels), Eldar Biel-Tann, and Chaos Marines (Nurgle, Khorne, Night Lords) - with most everything painted and good to go. Over the years I've accumulated a closet full of mini's - most still in the box and unassembled. Sanity is trying to set in and tell me that it's foolish to have all this stuff sitting around. Especially when I could use the money better elsewhere. So going to have to fight the bug with the new codex's coming soon.

All for now - will try and update on a more frequent basis......