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Off the Beaten Track

Today it all came together. I am composing a vid of it. There were three games going on all at once in the main room. It was great. Productivity is in the toilet. But the games had to be played.

First off, I got Julie and Tasha behind the wheel of the studio Imperial Fists army (didn’t know about that one did you?) and they took me to the cleaners. Of course, I was playing against myself since I was heavily advising them. I am truly a … Formidable Opponent.

More on that later.

I took my two sons out this morning to get a few of their favorite type of toys just for kicks, then for pancakes at a local restaurant. It was a moment of magic with lots of leftovers. Unfortunately, I forgot the boxes on the top of the van and drove off, so there are blueberry pancakes all over the street somewhere.

I also headed to Toys R Us for raw materials for the starport. I got a bunch of stuff for that. The plan is to have the equipment that might be needed at a starport, like unloading equipment, fueling tanks, generators, defense towers and so forth. We’ll see how it turns out.

But all that has to go on hold, even unfortunately the terrain-making. I am dedicating the next two days to catching up on work and emails.

About the studio Imperial Fists army. This is a decent-looking force I picked up on eBay, refurbished, and added some units to round it up to 2000+ pts.

1x Crusader
1x Predator
1x unit cc Termies
20x Tactical Marines
10x Sternguard
1x Lysander
1x Terminator Hero
1x Chaplain
5x Assault Marines
1x Ironclad Dreadnought

Tyranid Musings

The Mesa Nids are not the brightest gaunts in the swarm. They deploy badly. They spawn the wrong creatures. But they are learning…

In the Tyranid book there are three types of creatures: small, medium and large. The monstrous creatures cannot get cover saves from the others generally, so they are in a class apart. The medium creatures can get cover saves from the smaller gribblies.

Small
Termagants
Hormagaunts
Gargoyles
Parasite of Mortrex

The Parasite is jump infantry, not necessarily even on a 40mm base. I’m thinking more of a jump-packer-sized thing.

Synapse Creatures
Anything in HQ
Tyranid Warriors
Shrikes
Zoanthropes
Trygon Prime

These two things have to match up. The Parasite can run with Hormagaunts and keep up with them, which is a nice feature. I’m going to try this once and let you know how it goes. Actually, you will probably see it in a video batrep.

I am currently a huge fan of Hormagaunts. They are the same cost as Gargoyles. I’m not trying to say one is better than the other. I just think they serve the role of shock troops better. On the net, their total movement is only about 1-2″ less. They can move through terrain better, getting cover saves. The big drawback of Gargoyles is that they have to take difficult terrain tests, or be out in the open. After all, who is going to screen them.

I see Gargoyles as being more of a troubleshooter unit. I plan on trying out a unit of 10 and seeing if they can cause some damage. That’s only 60 points after all. They can do something that Hormagaunts cannot: get up to higher levels of terrain easily. I see them more as a unit to lurk around the edges and pounce on pesky units.

An interesting list to try out would be all Mycetic Spores. I wonder how a conga line of those things would affect the battlefield. If you’ve seen the models I’m using for these, we can create a painted one for you for $110 (or two for $180) or you can just get the model for $50 (four for $180).

The trick with Tyranids has to be the synergy of units. How do two units work together. Example: Parasite of Mortrex can run with Hormagaunts, giving it protection while the gaunts get some extra hitting power. But the Parasite is pretty spendy for it’s relatively tame hitting power, that is a problem. I mean, it costs as much as a Carnifex for pity’s sake.

Speaking of Carnifexes, I’m just not seeing it. I do plan on running a pod to see how they do. I would really like to (just once) run nine of those boys across the table. Strength 9 is their big item. And bio-plasma, don’t forget they can turn into a close range plasma cannon.

Back to synergy. Small and medium creatures are the two great tastes that taste great together. The gribblies give cover saves while the large creatures add hitting power. I see Shrikes working well here as they can hop about out of sight (the best defense against shooting is to simply be unseen completely). They have the enormous downside (Gargoyles too) of dangerous terrain tests. There is a ton of difficult terrain on the typical 40K board. But I don’t see that as a big downside.

Starting to love the Shrikes. Want to try them out. I’m thinking a brood of five. Or maybe just three to keep their profile slim while still keeping spread out.

Three medium creatures on 40mm bases, spaced 2″ apart can only have one member of the brood hit by a large blast template at a time. That ain’t bad.

I’m really worried about the trenchworks board. That thing is a deathtrap for Tyranids: gribblies forced into a tight pack down in the trenches means the cover save is not so useful. A pair of flamers and it’s roasty time.

The thing I love about the Tyranid codex is that it is full of mono-purpose creatures which means that they can handle almost any situation. If the swarm is large enough.

Trenchworks

Voyager

At least one of us is having a good time…

Disclaimer

It’s been a while since I made my usual disclaimer. Though it may not seem so, I’m a bit sheepish when I post my thoughts on politics or religion. I know that’s taboo in our culture. I just can’t keep it bottled up.

I make no claim of special righteousness. In fact, I think that if I got anything good in my life it’s a testament to God’s goodness and grace. I don’t think I’m particularly deserving of the heavenly life I have. I’ve got the same sorts of challenges as humanity in general.

Pastry Chef and a Sniper

Today it was ultra-focus on terrain. The goal is to have it all ready to paint tomorrow, and on the board by Thursday.

We are working on the following major sets for the studio:
Starport
Trenchworks
Ork Shantytown
Stalingrad-esque Cities of Death in Winter

We are working on the following display boards:
Tyranids
Orks
Bretonnians

I am wiped out. Terrain-making is pretty taxing work.

I’ve also got some prep work done on a new round of Mesa Nids:
60x Hormagaunts
10x Genestealers
5x Raveners

Mesa Nids in the City

Got to play a game today, 1000 pts vs Joseph’s Space Marines. A very short Notrep is going up for that.

As usual I hosed myself down from the get-go, deploying a Tervigon and two units of Hormagaunts both on opposite sides of the board. Joseph seized the initiative and hosed down one unit making it flee. Why did I not keep in synapse range?

I spawned seven Termagants on turn 01 with a roll of 3+2+2 so that was pathetic. The Trygon Prime popped up and got shot down in one turn, so he did nothing. Nine snipers hit eight times and did four rends. I am surprised so far at how easily T6 W6 creatures just bite the dust. They get vaporized.

It can’t be the codex. Tyranids are more awesome than ever. I’m just not orchestrating this incredibly complex army properly.

I ran two swarms each of twenty Hormagaunts. I am really liking them. They are savage little insects and a huge unit can really take a beating. They can also make it across the board quite handily. They have Move Through Cover (3d6 for difficult terrain) and Bounding Leap (best of 3d6 for Fleet) which give them a 10-11″ move even through cover. It’s quite astounding.

I think the strength of the list lay with masses of gribblies combined with the medium-sized creatures. Venomthropes I think are the way to go. I haven’t tried Tyranid Warriors or Shrikes.

Children of Heaven

If you hold your thumbnail up to an empty patch of night sky, you are covering up thousands of galaxies. It’s called the ultra deep field. A galaxy might have a billion stars. There are more stars than there ever were or are humans on this planet. There is an Almighty God who is the Creator of all this.

If you look up at the night sky and see a blank and cold place where man is alone in a vast dark sea, you really have no reason to read any further. Or perhaps you have a desperate need to do so When I look up at the night sky, I see a place of stunning beauty, full of worlds made perfect, full of harmonious human civilization. The cosmos is inhabited; the Society of God Himself. There are layers to it. There is no shortage of material resources. God is the God of Abundance. And there are laws on which the universe revolves. Some of them are counter-intuitive. For example: if you give you will get back more than you gave.

Here’s another one: 38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

This means that if you do this supra-human thing (do something nice for someone who has done something terrible to you) you will tap into a deeper law. Being a “child of your Father in Heaven” means that you are acting like Him, punching through human judgment and into the cosmos itself. I have heard erroneously before that someone who gave up on revenge/justice was being weak; that this was a law designed for someone to lose their power. The opposite is true. There is a distance between an evil deed done to me and the good thing that I do back, on the one hand a scale going into negative numbers for the despicableness of the deed and into the positive numbers for the reaction to that deed. The difference between the two is the spiritual power that I receive. It can be a small thing: a man cuts you off on the freeway, and you say “God bless you brother!” All the way up to abuse of police power.

I am reminded of a quote from the movie Ghandi: “I am asking you to fight! To fight against their anger, not to provoke it. We will not strike a blow, but we will receive them. And through our pain we will make them see their injustice, and it will hurt — as all fighting hurts. But we cannot lose. We cannot. They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me. Then, they will have my dead body — not my obedience.”

Here is a rather large audio file with the whole speech (note this is from a movie!)

While this principle applies generally as to the appropriate response when someone screws you over, I have found it especially helpful in working out the injustice done to my workers through the income tax.

There are only two places in the Gospels, to my knowledge, where there is reference to taxes. The first is well-known:
Matthew 22
17 Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?

Matthew 17

It is tempting for a mortal to take up the swift sword of Justice and give a man what he’s got coming to him. But oh so rarely does a mortal have the full facts of the matter. The sword is just way too sharp to start waving it around. You don’t know who might get cut. I call this “stray bullets”.

On the other hand, the importance might be in the struggle, the reaction, rather than actually righting a wrong. Does it strengthen the soul?

If this life is all there is, then any injustice must be met with extreme response. The clock is ticking to set it right. But I say that this life is the smaller portion, a mere knot in the string of eternity. Each human in this world was sired in the galactic core by the Supreme Creator, and held as an infant child in the loving arms of celestial parents on a world with twenty suns. This is the pre-existence.

And after this life, after a short eighty year life-span, there is an interim journey through a deeper world. It is a world where the justices and injustices of earth life are sorted out. That’s a whole lot of therapy! I’ve spoken on this topic in a previous post.

And that’s why I pay my taxes. With a smile on my face.

Hearty Meal

As readers of this Blog well know, I consider radio and TV to be poor sources for information on politics and economics. These are mass IVs for the masses, to keep them sedated and create only the illusion of debate. It’s like eating only doughnuts for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Want a real meal? Read a book! Read multiple books including those with views you find uncomfortable. Be omnivorous.

The great thing about a book is that the author has you for ten hours to really expound his or her viewpoint thoroughly.

I have recently just finished “The Shock Doctrine” by Naomi Klein. While I do not think her conclusions are completely right, I have a profound human respect for this author. I have a sense that I have concluded course 104. I have read, carefully and multiple times in some cases, at least a stack three feet thick of books on society, economics, monetary policy, and foreign policy.

Here is a list of books, that if you read them all, I would consider you well-versed. Some of these titles may make you uncomfortable. Good.

Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Meltdown by Tom Woods
The Revolution by Ron Paul (and End the Fed)
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
Leave Us Alone by Grover Norquist

And if you’re up for a really depressing read: Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano.

I don’t necessarily agree with all of these viewpoints. I am just saying they give a better understanding. They each give a greater and deeper context for the other.

Ron Paul Fix

Warning! This turns into a quite a shambling ramble!

Who benefits? With constitutionally-minded men who want to limit the power of the government in power the common man wins. Giant corporations lose– they cannot maintain their power without the strong arm of the Federal Government to back them. Monopolies cannot be maintained without Federal level laws to drive out competition in all fifty states. The States win– smaller groups of people gain greater influence over their own affairs.

People don’t like being meddled with. Taking a man’s money, even for Utopian visions, even for his own good, is still taking his life. You don’t have a say in how 20% of your life force is expended. Your employer quietly funnels it to a distant capital. Those that claim to be wiser get to decide how it’s spent.

A man has a right to self-determination. In short, a right to his life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. It is an inalienable right. It can’t be taken away. Any government that says “at my will I can take away your life and liberty” is no less than a King-Tyrant who is no more fit to govern a Free People than was King George! It is the old chafing yoke under a new name.

I delight in the idea of State’s Rights. It means that a group of like-minded people can voluntarily create their own Utopia and not have it forced upon them. One size does not fit all. And with fifty states, why that’s like fifty little countries to choose from. Which one do you like best? I don’t hate the Federal Government. I think it is mostly useless, mostly pathetic and the States are much more suited to securing the liberty and happiness of its citizens. I want the Feds to stick to a few basic functions and leave the rest to the States or even better to the Individual.

I live in a close-knit Mormon community where everyone knows everyone else in a two-block radius. It’s called a “ward”. There are 110 families. About 80 of those families are actively involved. It is a voluntary association of like-minded individuals. A group this size can handle almost every emergency. I believe that if even half of our federal taxes where left in our own community that we could even handle big stuff like brain surgery and paving the roads. We have a Bishop (like a pastor or village elder) who maintains a storehouse of goods for use by the community if one should falter. The assistance is immediate, local, responsive and is limited to the exact amount needed. It works, I know it works, I am living it. Freedom works. When left to themselves people can voluntarily create useful societies that take care of practical needs. It doesn’t need to be a huge central government doing it.

If a huge central government has the power to create Utopia, then it also has the power to create a Monster.

Old wrinkly so-called Republicans cry out “You’re splitting the Party! We’ll lose power!” No, it is you traitor that must hang (metaphorically speaking). It is you who split from your foundation and now you must sink in the rot of your own mire. We will tear you from your horse, like peasants with sharpened pitchforks, and we will put up just and principled men in your place. Men who will obey and honor the spirit of the Constitution of the United States!

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
–The Declaration of Independence

I thank God Almighty that He has provided a foundation to which we can look, and a peaceful manner in which we can change our affairs without the shedding of blood. See you at the ballot boxes in 2010!

And don’t forget to get principled and fiscally conservative men and women on the ballot in your state’s Primary!

Final note: I am a believer in people. I like people. I think that the Creator of Mankind looks down on His children with delight and loves them. He has given us our freedom to choose for ourselves. What a wonderful thing! Left to themselves I think that people are generally very peaceful and it takes extraordinary means to make us war with each other and abuse one another. God looks on us with paternal regard and loving-kindness. He interferes the minimum amount needed, gently, humbly and without a lot of fanfare. He notices the individual.

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