Close combat is a thing of the past.  A dying breed of army, inferior to the gun-toting variety.  "What?  Are you smoking something?"  I can feel the critics now.  Burning holes in my plastic Space Marines.  Doesn't matter, you cannot fight this fact.  A great many will deny what is truth, but perhaps one day, they'll see the light.

The process has begun.  I know that 6th Edition could be out by next year, but that is still a long time out.  I'll deal with updating the guide to that edition once its in my hands.  Until that point, I have to continue to provide as quality a resource as I can for newer players.  That means taking some of your suggestions and implementing them.  The BT 101 guide has been extremely successful and beneficial to the community, but there is a lot that can be done to improve it.  So lets get to work!  :D

The Reader Satisfaction Survey has been a great help in this regard.  In the past, I was able to sent at least a personalized thank you note to everyone for taking the time to fill it out.  Now, with the huge volume of emails that I get, I simply cannot get to all of the questions/comments listed in these.  I apologize.  I read every single last one of them and I have not forgotten the fact that you sent them in.  While I may not be able to reply directly to those of you that sent in your feedback or questions via the survey, I try to address them in my blog or other articles here on Implausible Nature.  I'm constantly trying to improve the service I provide here and will continue doing so in the future.

If you find the BT 101 guide randomly gone one day, don't worry.  Its just me making changes and I'll re-publish it when I'm done doing whatever I'm doing.  Just remember, this is a process and the changes won't be made overnight.  Feel free to pop in any suggestions during this time.  Might remind me to do something, clarify things, or even give me good feedback on something I need to do.  ;)

This post is more of a personal nature.  So feel free to ignore it if you want, nothing really tactical in this one.  ;)

Basically, I felt the need to celebrate the fact that I found a gaming store here.  It was hidden and didn't exist the last time I lived in the area, so I hadn't realized it opened up.  Its a smaller store (from what I learned from their Facebook/website), with not a whole lot of extra room for tournaments and such, but they seem to focus more on the MTG crowd than the tabletop stuff.  It doesn't matter.  A store exists that carries Warhammer 40k stuff.  I know there are players up here, so if I'm able to get a few of them here for some games, I'll be a happy camper.  I'll check the place out tomorrow and see what's up.  I'm pretty excited.  :D

It is a question that several newer BT players present to their peers on various mediums.  What is the best squad sizes for my units?  Some of these questions are simply answered in absolutes and are accepted as correct.  Are they really correct?  Its hard to say, but giving players tools to decide for themselves with numbers and analysis will help people make the decision that is right for them.

Its hit me once more, so I'm going to take advantage of it while I have the chance.  With as many models as I have left to paint, I cannot afford to waste valuable motivation!  Just rolling with a few of my Initiates at the moment, so I can get back in to the flow of things.  Discovered I left a few of my good brushes back at my old place (I recently moved), so I'll have to get myself some more Floquil brushes soon.

Finally purged myself of all of the Citadel paints, so now I have the much superior Vallejo line to work with.  The exception is the Citadel washes, as they are simply the best on the market.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to replicate the shading that I produced on some of my previous miniatures, but time will tell.  The Crusader squad initiates definitely won't be super well painted, as they are basic troops, but I do have a certain standard that I'm trying to live up to.  Unfortunately, this is a little difficult on the models I'm painting currently, as they have their weapons attached already and that makes the painting process much more difficult.

Nevertheless, crunch time is upon me.  I need to start cracking if I'm going to get my shit painted in time for Nova Open.  The list itself is pretty much done, with some minor tweaks possibly coming (i.e. plasmaguns or flamers).  :)

A lot of my marines for my gunline army are still in pieces to allow for easier painting.  Thus, they won't be put together until they have their paint jobs done.  I do want to put together my Terminator squad though, as I can still get to all of the areas of the armor when they are assembled.  I still need to put searchlights on the Predators/Razorbacks though.  What do I need to purchase yet to make my list WYSIWYG?

• 1x Terminator squad, plus the bits for another CML.
• 3x Land Speeder Typhoons

Not too bad actually.  All of the rest of the stuff I have.  Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, its long overdue to take an inventory of my models.  I need to off-load a bunch of the stuff I don't use anymore.  Perhaps I'll even make enough extra cash to finish buying my Dark Eldar army.  There are a lot of things such as an old school Predator Annihilator, Land Raider, and Dakka Predator that I don't use anymore because I have magnetized versions now.  I also have a lot of metal miniatures from 2nd/3rd Edition that I don't like using because I prefer the newer models.  Anyway, I'll take a look at putting that all down on paper and may

As you may have noticed, Part One made great efforts to examine what we could do as a codex to improve our chances at creating a good CC-oriented army.  What I came up with was a PotMS-based MSU list, that relies on small units to mop up the mess left behind after the Typhoons and Vindicators had their fun.  The original article didn't prompt much discussion, but I did see lots of players designing their own versions of the PotMS list.  My first list was okay.  I still think it'll work, but it has some problems.  It won several games, but it also lost horribly against the new GK Purifier spam.  So its going to change a little bit.  Besides, those that did reply suggested changes too.