There have been a couple things on my mind the past couple days that are starting to bother me. Several are within my control, others are not. Regardless, putting them out there will ease my mind. Read More after the cut.
The first is something that is relatively simple to fix: more battle reports on my end. Its a troubling trend that has begun. I'm taking way too much time actually playing the game, play-testing my lists, and having fun. I could easily take notes and pictures of the games I play (pictures would depend on a functioning camera, but I plan on purchasing one soon). Not that I need to prove my competence with my chosen army, the Black Templars, but it would be insightful for other BT players to see how I go about playing them. Some things are incredibly difficult to teach, and pictures/battle reports go a long way to bridging that gap.
The second big thing is my lack of tournaments the past year or so. That is a problem to me. I have a decently active 40k community where I live, with several stores supporting the game and putting on regular tournaments. My store of preference is Misty Mountain Games, as its the closest one to me. The staff there is always friendly and helpful, and I've yet to have a bad experience there. Because of this, I try to take my business there whenever possible. Its always good to support your brick and mortar! Anyway, they do RTT bi-monthly at the store. Sometimes the turnout is huge, other times it is quite small, numbering only 8 players (normally in the 18-24 range). Unfortunately, with my work schedule, Saturdays (the day the tournaments are held) are difficult to take off and thus, exceedingly difficult to attend. I was quite annoyed when this past month's tournament was rescheduled, as I had managed to get the day off, only to find out it was postponed to a day I didn't have off. I was looking forward to getting my name around to some of the locals who have been nay-saying the Black Templars. Granted, these tournaments aren't exactly prime-competitive events. But they have started listening to blogs such as YTTH and are getting better at catering to the competitive player. Still, I shouldn't complain, as having a store running tournaments is better than not having one. I was also quite disappointed that I couldn't manage to pull off getting down to Washington DC for Nova Con. I will DEFINITELY be making it next year, and maybe by then I'll have a new codex to show off. If not, I'll manage. ;)
I also want to finish painting my Black Templars army. It is difficult to motivate myself to paint them more than a couple days at a time. Truthfully, painting black really sucks. It takes so much more time to embellish black, than to say, paint red on a marine. You cannot layer or blend black, which is sufficient to make other colors look excellent on a miniature. Plus, the use of white on the shoulder pads is a huge pain. I've finally sorted out my final paint scheme, but I really need to find some way to drive me to paint large swathes of my army. Part of the problem is that I change army lists frequently as I tweak them for effectiveness. Fortunately, most of my lists are starting to get to the point where further optimizing will be detrimental to their playability. I just need to find that thing that pushes me into picking up my brushes and painting up my army, as I'm dying to field them painted on the battlefield. The vision I have for them in my head just makes me super excited to see it fulfilled, but alas, we'll see when that comes to fruition.
The next one isn't really a problem, per-say. As many of you know, the Dark Eldar come out in November. It hasn't been officially announced yet, but I'd be willing to put big money down on this being the month of release. As such, I'll be restarting my DE army that I began last summer as early readers will remember. I've since decided to remove the DE parts of Implausible Nature and build a separate website for them. This way, no one could get confused on the material found here. Now, I want to be clear, the Black Templars are and will always be my first love. But everyone needs a 2nd army and mine is being re-released. That means money if I want all the new toys and gadgets. Which isn't exactly free flowing in today's economy. So either I make some sacrifices finishing some off-shoot army builds for my Black Templars, work significantly more, or I sell off significant portions of my "Black Templars" army to pay for it. When I say I'll sell off part of my BT army, I mean the old-style metal models from back in the day (2nd-3rd edition) and all my C:SM style miniatures that I don't currently use. Back before the Black Templars were released in 2000, I actually had started an Ultramarines army and I have quite a few tactical squads, assault troops, and old terminators laying around (some squads painted). I've also got several rare ultramarine HQ models, but I'll probably hang on to those for painting purposes. Moral of the story, I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do, as I might find use for the plastic unpainted tactical/assault marine miniatures I have laying around. Who knows.
Lastly, I'm becoming distressed by the trend on several forums I frequent (Dakka, B&C, Tau Online, Warseer, etc) of ignoring player's requests for comment or neglecting to answer their questions regarding the Black Templars. I created Implausible Nature to be a central place of learning for BT players, but I don't claim everything here as perfect or the end-all, be-all. Still, it exists and that is a far cry better than what some people are willing to put into these players. I'm far from ignorant in the ways of Warhammer 40k. I generally know what I'm talking about when it comes to rules (both the codex and rulebook), tactics, and list building for the Black Templars. But I know I'm not the only one out there. It is not difficult to answer someone who is asking for help. Give them your opinion. Toss a quick comment their way. I promise you, they will appreciate it. Sure we might discuss your comments or suggestions, but that debate is good for a healthy community! Hell, if you want, just direct them to this website. But saying nothing at all doesn't help our community grow and will only cast a negative shadow over us. That's not something I want.
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