Hello Students

I'm lazy so I showed you my blog in class. There's a warning here - I'm not G rated, and this is my personal blog. As much as I try to hold my voice in class, this is me on paper. Most of these entries are not drafted for much longer than about the time that I give you to do a homework assignment (maybe 10-20 minutes on the long end) so they're ugly, but they're me.

I can not warn you enough about the stupidity of my brain, and I can throw just about whatever I want on here because this is my personal blog.

Yes, I do random things, but I also talk about subjects without any worry about editing my thoughts or making them school approved. If you're reading this, you're making the very adult decision to realize that I am an adult that is writing whatever is on his mind. I'm not throwing things up here that are things that you need to show ID for, but compared to the cookie cutter LDSBC standards that I have to teach by, this is not that.

Impossible To Fail

With the grading that I've done, and the comments that I've gotten back from my administration, I have learned that as long as students participate and show up to class, it is impossible for them to fail the course that I teach. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's what I'm stuck with for now.


In other news, to put it into context, here's how small these guys are. Scale is always needed.

To be perfectly clear, that is a normal stick of chapstick, not some crazy huge thing that makes ratios look wrong. That's a standard, Walmart bought stick, and it is directly next to some chaos space marines for scale.

In other news, my test sample finally got a buddy last night! I'm thinking I'm just going to do color blending and then metal on each piece first then move onto the next piece, then do the entire unit's edge highlights at the same time. It'll be one big nerdy blast.

Teacher's Are Not Professional - My American Life

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/115/first-day

As much as you thought that your teachers knew what was going on in the world, I can tell you, that my first day as a professor, and every first day that I have while being a professor is a giant act. I get paid to lie about the knowledge and experience that I have in he field that I teach.

Let's get this straight, I have a masters degree, and I do have the education.

What I don't have is the knowledge of what in the world is going to be taught next month, what the assignments are going to look like while doing all of that, and most of the time I don't even know what I'm going to be talking about in class in the next class that I'm going to be teaching.

The first semester was/is the worst.

Every single day that I walked into the class I prayed that none of my students would ask me about what was due in two weeks, or the reading assignments that we were working on because I hadn't even read them yet. There's nothing quite like a student coming up to you and telling you that they're going to be absent in a few weeks and that they wanted to know what assignments that they're going to miss out on. The number one answer that I want to give them is, "I don't know! I don't even know what I'm going to be doing by the end of the week." but that isn't exactly what a student wants to hear from their professor.

With talking to other professors about this deal they all say that it's par for the course, that each of them went through something like this. Each one says that they had to go through the trial by fire and that it was the sink or swim type of mentality with teaching, and I didn't understand it.

Let's be clear, this is educators talking about education, and instead of educating each other and helping each other learn about how to be an educator, they drop new members of the group on their head and essentially say, "Good luck! I hope you don't fall on your face!" The worst part about it is that even if I'm screwing up, even if I'm doing everything wrong as an educator, I have no way of knowing if I'm screwing anything up. As long as my students don't go and complain to administration, there's never a single time that my administration will actually sit in my class. Out of all of the time that I've been a professor, there's been one time and only one time, that my adviser has actually sit down in my class. It's a rough go as a first time teacher, and there's no one there trying to give me any support through the process. It's like my first day every single time I walk into the classroom, for an entire semester.

Uhhhh. . . - My American Life

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/114/last-words

My last words are going to suck.

As I've already talked about, I'm going to die with Alhziemers. I'm loosing my brain, I'm not remembering anything, and my life is going to go out in a sad forgetful whimper, and with that being said, my last words are going to suck.

The irony behind all of this is that I like to think that I master my own words. My entire job is about words and how to put them together. Somehow I'm supposed to be the master of words. I'm supposed to know something about just the right words to say in just the right moments, but the thing that people don't seem to understand with all of that knowledge is that I don't do it on the fly. My creation of the words that I create is not on the fly. In the moment, I'm stupid. Without revisions, drafts, edits, and lots of time, my words fall flat. That means that even on my best days, even on those days that I am proud to know what is happening within sentences and paragraphs, I could never create something in the moment assuming that I knew that I was going to die in the next few minutes.

That's the worst part about it, I know when and how I'm going to die. I'm going to be dead somewhere in my 70's or maybe my 80's, I'm going to most likely be in my bed, and I've known that for a while. Even with that information, I still don't know what I'm going to say. I've got nothing.

I can put words into the mouths of characters. I can create worlds. I can put an entire discussion into the mouth of people that doesn't exist, but dying me seems to be significantly lacking in any words to say.

What in the world would I say to those people around me as they watch me loose my mind? There's nothing that I can think of that I want to say to those people.

There's nothing that I could consider in one sentence that would wrap up my entire world. I'm such a messed up world of everything that to find one final sentence to put it all together is impossible. How do I wrap up the facts of my life that seem to disagree with each other, or at least don't sit at the same lunch table. Then the kicker to all of this is that in the few decades that I do have between now and death, I'm sure that I'm only going to get even crazier. Those people that are around my death bed (yes the actual bed) aren't going to get any summary that I put out for my life, because unless they spend a lot of time with coherent me, they're not going to get it.

I'm guessing that my final words are going to be something mundane, something stupid, and something that goes exactly opposite of all of my playing around with words my entire life. I'm putting my money on "That pudding was awful," with a second runner up being, "Who are you?"

Money - My American Life

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/113/windfall

There are a lot of people out there that think that money would ruin them. I am one of those people. A massive amount of money, anything over a million dollars, would really start to mess with me. However, I could honestly say that I magically fell into the windfall of anything in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, I could use in a heart beat.

That's the worst part about money right now. I have it, but I'm in debt up to my ears thanks to college and trying to own a home. The worst part about all of that would be the fact of if I did get that much money, it would only be to pay off debts. No more house payments, no more student loans, and no more credit card payments. I'm sure I'd also take Alicia out on vacation of Sweden for a week or two just to enjoy the money, but the strong majority of that money would be spent on paying everything off. If it was closer to the bigger numbers I might think about buying a new car that can start in the morning without a very intricate ritual of key shaking and fiddling with the knobs of my ac, but that'd only be a bigger check.

As much as I'd like to think that the money would ruin me, it'd need to be a lot of money before anything would be ruined. I'd still want to teach, I'd still want to write, and there's not a chance in the world that I'd want to move or buy anything elaborate, so I'd stay where I am with what I have.

Let's assume that I got a huge windfall from a place that I wouldn't expect (because I don't gamble, I don't play the lotto, and there's no money in any near-dead relatives) and what would happen from that. Alicia would quit her job (wow big change), we'd go on a vacation to the two places we want to visit (or maybe even three) of Hawaii, Sweden, (and then maybe New York/DC). After that splurge, I don't know what else we would do. Maybe we would do some remodeling of our house that we've been looking into, but for the most part I'd be a strong supporter of just throwing the money into the bank and keep living my life.

As much as I complain about my life, I don't want it to change by much. I like my job, I like my house, I like what I do. It'd be nice to have a bit more financial freedom during those vacation days to do what I want, but other than that, money hopefully won't change me (assuming that I write the next great American novel and make millions). 

Test Model

I decided to work on a test model tonight instead of working on lesson plans or grading, and here's what came out.

It's a tzeentch chaos space marine.

Or at least that's the story that I'm sticking with. I'm not sure how I'm going to spin it, but it's what I've got. I just enjoy the flame/sun setting on the armor. What that has to do with anything is a mystery, but it's what I've got.

Unfortunately, now I get to do that on all of the models! Note for those people playing at home, that guy is shorter than a pen cap.

I'm not quite sure what's going on, all of those pictures look super grainy, but whatever, it gives you the right idea.

Sunset Or Fire, Not Quite Sure

I've been playing around with the pain scheme on these guys, but I'm thinking I'm getting a little bit closer with what I want to do.

The ones in front are obviously the ones that I've been playing around with. The plan is to color blend on everything that is red. Every place you see red paint it's going to be like the shoulder pads on the far right marine where you can see it fade from yellow down to red. That blend is on all major armor pieces (shoulder pads and leg pieces) and then also on backpacks, and all horns. All metal is going to be a blue metal. It's not obvious that it's blue, the guy on the far left is rocking the blue metal, but hopefully with enough contrast it'll somewhat show up in the paining, otherwise, it's just a cool little thing that it's a slightly blue tinted metal.

That's the GENERAL idea. From there, details details details.

I've base coated a few places that I'm going to try to do a color blend, but it'll be interesting to see how it turns out, because how do you do a color blend on a piece of a gun that is super tiny. It'll be interesting to see how that goes.

The plan for painting is as follows -
base everything that I don't have
color blend
metal
edge highlights on base blue armor
edge highlights on color blend
any extra details that want to hurt my brain

That should keep me busy for a while.

Today In Primary We're Going To Learn How To Wash Our Hands - My American Life

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/112/ladies-and-germs

While growing up I was a messy kid. I was a boy, I had a normal back yard, and then a back, back yard that was nothing but desert and it was all mine. I played in the dirt, in the mud, and took a concious effort to drive through as many puddles that I could find whenever I could find them on my bike.

One Sunday, in the middle of primary we had a the new member of the ward come in and teach us all how to wash our hands.

That's right, a stranger, who couldn't even say something about why she was talking to us, like she was a nurse, or doctor or anything like that, gave us a strict how to guide on how to scrub and push all bacteria away from our bodies. She spent time to demonstrate how we should wash both sides of our hands, which soap we should use, and even crazy information that you'd never expect to use like how to turn off the water with your wrist. For a kid that was in grade school and would go home and within the week be in as much dirt as possible, it was ridiculous . . . until I meet Janette.


Janette was two years younger than me (or maybe three, I can't remember exact ages) and she was fighting a crazy fight against childhood leukemia. Her immune system was shot, and she was just getting to the point where her doctors were brave enough to allow her out into social situations with other sticky, dirty, kids.

When it came to Janette, even after a bone marrow transplant, missing hair, and finally remission, cleanliness was always involved. A school bus would drive by us as we walked to school and she would duck her head into her shirt, and try to cover any exhaust from coming into her mouth because thanks to the cancer her lung functions were shot.


My friendship with Janette aside, because I will openly consider her a friend of mine while in grade school, dealing with her was certainly not helpful with my morbidity. I was already a messed up kid with only two living grandparents, and knowing that death was just a step in the process of life, but then my friend that I'd spend playground time with just sitting around and talking (because running was out of the question) had an estimate of how long she was going to live from multiple doctors.

Most people can say that doctors have an estimate of their death from doctors, but that's typically measured in multiple decades. Janette's date was measured in single digits, and maybe a decade if they were really going for a stretch. Any year past eighteen was a flat out medical marvel, and the fact that she's still alive, kicking, and taking names is down right impossible according to the doctors that she had at the time. I knew from a start that my friend at school at any point could catch a cold and die.

Washing my hands, cleaning up, and trying to fight germs and all forms of diseases wasn't just a 'fad' it was a way for me to keep the person I considered a friend alive.

Because I'm Lame

Because I'm lame, I'm using this blog like a cloud drive. I can access it all over the place, but so can you.

What you need to know about the marines -

10 marines.

5 of them are bolt pistols with a close combat weapon.
Out of those five, one of them is the standard bearer (I know it doesn't matter in 40k, but it's what we've got), and one of them is the champion with a power fist.

There are three that have bolt guns (I'm not sure that they're all modeled as bolt guns, I think one might be a plasma gun? Or at least that's what the guy I was playing against said).

Then there is one flamer.

Finally one heavy bolter.

Let's not forget that EVERYONE in the unit has soul blaze thanks to the banner, 3+ armor, and 6+ ward (or whatever it's called).


Things that also must not be forgotten is the leader gets a mutation.

Veterans of long war - hatred (space marines) AND +1 Ld.

To remind myself, here we go

x5 - bolt pistols - 12", S4, AP 5 - wound to soul blaze
x3 - bolt guns - 12", S4, AP 5 - Rapid fire (under 12" double shot, double range for single)
x1 - flamer - template - S4, AP 5 - Assult 1 - use the template
x1 - heavy bolter - 36" S5, AP 4 - Heavy 3 (three shots, move = snap shot (one shot 6+), if shot no charge)

ALL OF THOSE (minus flamer) SOUL BLAZE
You have to wound first, once you wound - 
1-3 -  flame goes out
4+ - 1d3 S4 AP5
AT THE END OF EACH TURN UNTIL IT GOES OUT

That's all of the rules that I know that I'm going to be following - time to double check points.

75 base, +5 units (65), 5 with close combat (10), flamer (5), heavy bolter (10), champion with power fist (25), gift of mutation (10), mark of tzeentch (20), icon of flame (15), veterans of long war (10).

That equals out to 245 points.

Half of My Class Is Failing

I have a class of 16 students.

There are 5 major deliverables over the course of two sememsters. Two of those major deliverables were due on Monday. If they didn't turn it in, they couldn't get a grade on it, and if they don' get a grade on the assignment, they automatically fail the course.

Only eight of them turned in a paper.

I have no clue what I'm going to do. I don't want to fail half of my class because that is just rediculous. How in the world am I supposed to talk to my administration and tell them that half of my class didn't turn in a paper that we've been working on since the start of school in September? It just doesn't make sense to me how that would ever be an option, and the worst part about the entire thing is that even though only eight students turned in a paper, there were more than eight students in class that day.

I do not understand how a person could show up to class knowing that two major papers are due that day, and calmly sit through an entire lecture as if there wasn't a problem in the world. I had students that were freaking out because they thought they were a few minutes late, but at the same time I had students just chilling out in the back row like i wasn't a problem at all that they were about to fail the class. It is beyond confusing to me.

RIP bell curve.

Grades Are In Time To Plan

Grades are in, and TAL was down last time I checked so I can't listen to anything so time to plan.

I like the look of this, but I want to see just how much I can do on the idea of fading together colors and playing with that. I'm thinking a dull blue/purple as the base, and then everything that I want to pop out (shoulder pads, random chunks of armor, whatever else) is going to be a fire fade. Not a harsh yellow orange like the pictures here, but going back to what I've been trying to learn and doing that whole color blend from yellow to a dark red (fire) on everything. I'm thinking that because of that I'm going to stick with more of a silver/gun metal on all of the metal chunks and then work from there with details.

Reference pages for the idea is going to be these ones, but I'm going to try for more color blending, less of a goopy look, and then of course, just details details details everywhere I can get it. Also, I'm not a fan of that harsh of a blue so I'm thinking I want to go with something darker as my base so that the flame color really pops off of it. Any excuse to use that dark color I've been going with on VC's, right? I have a chance to do an entire 2k points without having to do the same exact model twice, so I'm going to try to love every single crazy little detail that I can find. Who cares if I win a game, I'm going to look awesome while doing it.

Horn Tooter

If I may toot my own horn for a few seconds - wow does my army look good compared to what else it out there. I got to see a bit more of what else other people are fielding, and I'm proud of what I have. To me, in my eyes, what I've got looks good.

Too bad that I have to grade papers. That's stupid.

I guess the sooner that I'm get them all graded the sooner I can get back to painting and playing.

Stupid having a job.

My list for tomorrow, with no Mannfred

Playing with vamps (2000pts)

Vampire Counts - Army Book (2013-4) -V8.8.1. (End Times) (2000pts)

• (No Category)

  • - Army Size

    Army (0-2999 points)
    

• Lords (479pts)

  • Vampire Lord (479pts)

    Fear Incarnate (20pts), Heavy Armour (6pts), Lore of the Vampires, Quickblood (30pts), Red Fury (50pts), Shield (3pts), The General of Undeath, Wizard Level 3 (70pts)
    
    Fear Incarnate, Quickblood, Red Fury, The General of Undeath, The Hunger, Undead, Vampiric

    • Magic Items (80pts)

      AB - Nightshroud (40pts), BRB - Ogre Blade (40pts)
      

    Name	Saving Throw modifier	Special Rules	Ref
    Heavy Armour	5+		BRB p43
    Nightshroud	-1	Enemy models in base contact with the wearer lose all Strength bonuses conferred from normal and magical weapons, and have the Always Strikes Last special rule.	AB p62
    Shield	-1	Parry Save (BRB-88)	BRB p43

    Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	ArmourSave	WardSave	MR	Type	Ref
    Vampire Lord	6	7	5	5	5	3	7	5	10				Infantry	AB p27

    Name	Range	Strength	Special Rules	Ref
    Hand Weapon	Combat	As User	None	BRB p88
    Ogre Blade	Combat	'+2		BRB p501

• Heroes (424pts)

  • Necromancer (145pts)

    Lore of the Vampires, Master of the Dead (20pts), Wizard Level 2 (35pts)
    
    Master of the Dead, Undead

    • Magic Items (25pts)

      BRB - Dispel Scroll (25pts)
      

    Name	Magic Property	Ref
    Dispel Scroll	One use only. Dispel spell if no IF.	BRB p504

    Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	ArmourSave	WardSave	MR	Type	Ref
    Necromancer	4	3	3	3	3	2	3	1	7				Infantry	AB p28

    Name	Range	Strength	Special Rules	Ref
    Hand Weapon	Combat	As User	None	BRB p88

  • Necromancer (115pts)

    Lore of the Vampires, Wizard Level 1
    
    Undead

    • Magic Items (50pts)

      AB - Book of Arkhan (25pts), BRB - Ruby Ring of Ruin (25pts)
      

    Name	Magic Property	Ref
    Book of Arkhan	Bound Spell (Power Level 3). This item casts the Vanhel's Danse Macabre spell.	AB p63
    Ruby Ring of Ruin	Bound Spell: Power Level 3. Fireball spell (BRB-492)	BRB p505

    Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	ArmourSave	WardSave	MR	Type	Ref
    Necromancer	4	3	3	3	3	2	3	1	7				Infantry	AB p28

    Name	Range	Strength	Special Rules	Ref
    Hand Weapon	Combat	As User	None	BRB p88

  • Wight King (164pts)

    Magic Items, Shield (4pts)
    
    Killing Blow, Undead

    • Battle Standard Bearer (75pts)

      BRB - Wailing Banner (50pts)
      
      Vampire Counts Battle Standards

    Name	Saving Throw modifier	Special Rules	Ref
    Heavy Armour	5+		BRB p43
    Shield	-1	Parry Save (BRB-88)	BRB p43

    Name	Magical Emination	Ref
    Wailing Banner	Terror (BRB-78)	BRB p503

    Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	ArmourSave	WardSave	MR	Type	Ref
    Wight King	4	4	0	4	5	3	4	3	9				Infantry	AB p29

    Name	Range	Strength	Special Rules	Ref
    Hand Weapon	Combat	As User	None	BRB p88

• Core (630pts)

  • Crypt Ghouls (360pts)

    Champion (10pts), 35x Crypt Ghoul (350pts)
    
    Poisoned Attacks, Undead

    Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	ArmourSave	WardSave	MR	Type	Ref
    Crypt Ghast	4	3	0	3	4	1	3	3	5				Infantry	AB p33
    Crypt Ghoul	4	3	0	3	4	1	3	2	5				Infantry	AB p33

  • Dire Wolves (40pts)

    5x Dire Wolf (40pts)
    
    Slavering Charge, Swiftstride, Undead, Vanguard (FAQ'ed)

    Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	ArmourSave	WardSave	MR	Type	Ref
    Dire Wolf	9	3	0	3	3	1	3	1	3				War Beast	AB p36

  • Skeleton Warriors (130pts)

    Champion (10pts), Musician (10pts), 20x Skeleton Warrior (100pts), Standard Bearer (10pts)
    
    Undead

    Name	Saving Throw modifier	Special Rules	Ref
    Light Armour	6+		BRB p43
    Shield	-1	Parry Save (BRB-88)	BRB p43

    Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	ArmourSave	WardSave	MR	Type	Ref
    Skeleton Champion	4	2	2	3	3	1	2	2	3				Infantry	AB p35
    Skeleton Warrior	4	2	2	3	3	1	2	1	3				Infantry	AB p35

    Name	Range	Strength	Special Rules	Ref
    Hand Weapon	Combat	As User	None	BRB p88

  • Zombies (100pts)

    Musician (5pts), Standard Bearer (5pts), 30x Zombie (90pts)
    
    Always Strikes Last, The Newly Dead, Undead

    Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	ArmourSave	WardSave	MR	Type	Ref
    Zombie	4	1	0	3	3	1	1	1	2				Infantry	AB p34

• Rare (195pts)

  • Black Coach (195pts)

    Crew
    
    Chill Grasp, Evocation of Death, Impact Hits (D6) (FAQ'ed), Swiftstride, Terror, Undead, Vampiric, Ward Save (*)

    • Steeds

      Nightmare
      
      Swiftstride, Undead

    • Steeds

      Nightmare
      
      Swiftstride, Undead

    Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	ArmourSave	WardSave	MR	Type	Ref
    Black Coach	-	-	-	5	6	4	-	-	-	3+	4+		Chariot	AB p46
    Carin Wraith	-	3	0	3	-	-	2	3	5				-	AB p46
    Nightmare	8	3	0	4	4	1	2	1	3	-1			War Beast	AB p50

    Name	Range	Strength	Special Rules	Ref
    Great Weapon	Combat	'+2	Requires Two Hands (BRB-75), Always Strikes Last (BRB-66)	BRB p90

• Special (272pts)

  • Grave Guard (272pts)

    Champion (10pts), Musician (10pts), Standard Bearer (10pts)
    
    Killing Blow, Undead

    • 22x Grave Guard (242pts)

      22x Shield
      

    Name	Saving Throw modifier	Special Rules	Ref
    Heavy Armour	5+		BRB p43
    Shield	-1	Parry Save (BRB-88)	BRB p43

    Name	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	LD	ArmourSave	WardSave	MR	Type	Ref
    Grave Guard	4	3	0	4	4	1	3	1	6				Infantry	AB p38
    Seneschal	4	3	0	4	4	1	3	2	6				Infantry	AB p38

    Name	Range	Strength	Special Rules	Ref
    Hand Weapon	Combat	As User	None	BRB p88

Selection Rules

Always Strikes Last: . (BRB p66)
Chill Grasp: . (AB p30)
Evocation of Death: . (AB p46)
Fear Incarnate: Fear tests caused by the Vampire (or his unit) that have been passed by the enemy must be re-rolled. If a Battle Standard Bearer is conferring it's Hold Your Ground ability to the testing unit, the two rules cancel each other out. (AB p61)
Impact Hits (D6) (FAQ'ed): ERRATA:
Change "[...]this rule has no effect." to "[...]no Impact Hits
are inflicted."

Add the following sentence to the end of the third paragraph:
'"Look Out Sir!" rolls cannot be taken against Impact Hits.' (BRB p71)
Killing Blow: . (BRB p72)
Master of the Dead: . (AB p28)
Poisoned Attacks: . (BRB p73)
Quickblood: The Vampire has the Always Strikes First special rule. (AB p61)
Red Fury: For each unsaved Wound that the Vampire causes in close comabt, it can immediately make a further Attack. These additional Attacks do not benifit from Red Fury. An Attack that automatically kills an enemy counts as having done an amount of Wounds equal to the number of Wounds that model had remaining. (AB p61)
Slavering Charge: . (AB p36)
Swiftstride: . (BRB p76)
Terror: . (BRB p78)
The General of Undeath: . (AB p26)
The Hunger: . (AB p27)
The Newly Dead: . (AB p34)
Undead: . (AB p26)
Vampire Counts Battle Standards: . (AB p26)
Vampiric: . (AB p26)
Vanguard (FAQ'ed): ERRATA:
Change "[...]make a 12" move[...]" to "[...]make a move of
up to 12"[...]". (BRB p79)
Ward Save (*): . (BRB p44)

Created with BattleScribe

Created with BattleScribe (http://www.battlescribe.net)

Tournament

Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but I'm thinking about 40k.

Fantasy is dead and dying around these parts, but there is a 40k tournament that is being thrown together. I might crash and burn, but hey, it'll get me out and playing games which is what I want to do, so yay for that.

Even better news was that there was a Chaos group for sell on CL and I inherited them, so time for me to sit down and figure out what in the world I have so that I know what in the world I can field. By the way, seriously, 40k has WAYYYYY too many options. Even entire units don't have to match weapons or things. It's really frustrating trying to sort this all out because I know that I'm going to get it wrong.

But, I'm sitting down with the codex now, and I'm going to try to figure out what in the world I have.

Helldrake with baleflamer - yup, got me one of them. Luckily there's not much that I can screw up with that model. 170 points.

Hellbrute (but missing the head/face in the middle, so I'm going to kit bash it with something from fantasy) - 105 points. It's looking like it's just the normal one without any of the upgrades, but I'm just guessing at this point, I'm still trying to sort things out to be able to understand what in the world is going on.

Maulerfiend - 125 points, but it's looking like it has lasher tendrils, so yay! extra 10 pts there to bring it up to a total of 135.

Crimson Slaughter Chaos Lord - starts at 65, but from the looks of things, I'm thinking that he's doing the whole terminator armour, power weapon and combi-bolter because sure, why not, and I'm thinking that's a spare 40 points that I get to add on top of that. From there, we can also dump in terminator weapons, chaos rewards, special issue wargear and/or chaos artefacts (let's go give those a look to see what stupidity I could throw on the table. Starting with the terminator weapons, I'm thinking I'm going to keep what I have. With chaos rewards, so many options! ONE OF EACH! Ummm. . . for now, let's just stick to ichor blood (5), gift of mutation (10), aura of dark glory (15), combat familiar (15) and let's throw in a spell familiar just for kicks as well (15). I was originally joking about what I would possibly throw on this guy and do one of each, but well, I can throw all of them on him, and all of them sound really helpful, so I'm going to do it. That covers rewards, and brings me up to a total of 165 points, now onto special issue wargear to get even more points! It looks like he might have a jump pack but with my totally unknowing knowledge about the whole deal, I'm going to count it. Give the man a jump pack! (15) Now I don't know how bonuses work, but I'm going to assume they're okay to stack so I start getting stupid high invulnerable saves, because everyone loves saves, so let's throw on a sigil of corruption for another (25). This brings this one guy up to 205 points. Finally, let's give a look at artefacts to see what they've got. Yeah, he's got a sword, so he needs to make it the murder sword for a token (35) more. That brings this one guy up to a total cost of 240 points, and shows just why I love chaos. DUMP ALL THE POINTS INTO ONE PERSON!

Just to be clear, that's four models, and I'm already sitting at an easy 650 points. Given, in fantasy Mannfred is the same 650 points, and only one model, but unlike Mannfred's hordes of zombies that come at dirt cheap, all of the other stuff that's about to get thrown on the field is no where close to the cheap that zombies and skeletons run in my vampires.

Unit of Chosen - that starts out at 90, and then we explode from there. First things first, we're adding a guy. The unit leader could possibly be statted out to be someone else holding a power weapon that's a mace or something like that, but for now, we're going to just keep things simple and make it a unit of six guys for a cost of an extra (18). From there on out, HOLY COW are there a ton of options. I don't get what ANY of this means, so I'm going to just nod my head and think that I know what's going on. All I know is that I'm also going to strap the unit into the Chaos Rhino that I have for a cost of (35). That brings this unit together with transport to 143, but I KNOW that I can mess with this more and add a lot of points into this thing that I didn't even want to imagine. Just from the looks of things on my models, I'm thinking that at least one of my models has double lightning claws (30 points), my champion has a power weapon, so that's (15), one of my regular guys has a power axe, so that's another (15) and it's looking like another has a power fist (25). The ranged weapons are significantly harder to sort out, so I'm not going to try to do that. With this six man party, I could throw a mark on them for a bonus (12) for my personal favorite chaos deity of Tzeentch. As for the icon, I'm thinking icon of vengence for (25). Let's go full ham and throw on a veterans of long war for another (12). Then happy days, we can trick out the Rhino as well, so let's throw on warpflame gargoyles, extra armour, and a havoc launcher for (27).

There we go, that's a good guess into what those six guys can do, so the grand total comes out to be - 304 points.

If we include the transport that they took to be so amazing as a 7th model, that roughly translates to about 43 points per model. Oh chaos, don't you ever go changing your ways. Always let me do stupid things like this so I don't have to field 100 zombies.

That brings the total up to 954 - almost the same as Zacharias on his zombie dragon.

Let's see if we can get it to the golden number of 1,500 which is where the tournament size caps out at.

Next unit up for the slaughter! I've got 6 Terminator models, the question is if I want to split them into two groups of three, or just have them stay together in a pile of death and wreck face as a huge unit. I'm most likely going to break them up so I can get more points out of it. Never mind, checked models and one of them is a chaos sorcerer, he just had all of the pointy bits that the terminators had, so I thought he was a terminator. Let's take the sorcerer first because it's awesome.

Sorcerer - 60 points starting. Oh, I just looked at some of these points, and we're about to blow a whole lot of points on this guy. First, two more levels of mastery (50). He's going in terminator armour, so that's another (25). Let's cover the easy ones from there - mark of Tzeentch (15), veteran of long war (5), and then we get to deal with terminator weapons, chaos rewards, special issue wargear and chaos artefacts, and we're already up to 155. Dimensional Key (25) and black mace (45) will be the artefacts. Sigil of corruption for (25). With the rewards, let's clean house and get all of them again, ichor blood (5), gift of mutation (10), aura of dark glory (15), combat familiar (15) and a spell familiar (15). There we go! Another big point value model down, and he comes to the cost of - 310 points.

We're up to 1264!

Back to those terminators.

Unit of three terminators start at 95, but I'm adding two more for 31 a piece for an additional (62). Now time to sort out the weapons. I've got at least a power fist (7), and a chain fist (12). With there being five models they've also got a heavy flamer (10). Let's also go with a gift of mutation (10) and we're going mark of Tzeentch for the unit (25) and an icon of vengeance (35). Because it's awesome we'll also have long war (15). Total - 271.

1,535! Oh no! I'm going to have to start cutting things because I'm not even into my major units. Stupid chaos eating up points like candy.

Warptalons - five models at 160 starting, two gifts of mutation for leader (20), makr of Tzeentch for the unit (30) and long war (15) for a total of - 225.

Cultists - starting 50 points for 10 models. Add another six (24). I'm not sure how many went from pistol to gun, so I'm going to guess on it and say (4), one flamer (5), shotgun for champ (2) and Tzeentch for everyone! (16). That brings the total for them to - 101.

Chaos Space Marines - Unit of 5 starting at 75. 5 close combat weapons (10), champion with power fist (25), gift of mutation (10), melta bombs (5), icon of vengeance (25), mark of tzeentch (10), and long war (5). Total - 160.

Chaos Space Marines - #2 (which potentially would be better as one giant unit, but I'll split it for now) start at 75. plasma piston (15), aspiring with combi-melta (10), gift of mutation (10), melta bombs (5), icon of vengeance (25), mark of tzeentch (10) and long war (5). Total - 155

That means that if I keep everything at full point sucking crazy mode, I'd have a total army of about 2,176 points. Not too bad considering I could drop the cultists to bring it down to a lot closer to 2,000, and then I'd have an entire army of 2k points with only 32 models. That comes down to on average each unit costing about 64 points per model, and that is just crazy. I don't expect them to last too long, and I'm sure there's better things out there, but it's only 32 models.


Compared to the skeletons that I just finished, it's two less models, but 1,900 points more.

Now I just have to figure out the color palate that I'm going to stick with throughout the 32 units to make them all work together so that I can paint once I get done grading. Speaking of which, enough slacking, I have to go grade.

They're FINISHED - Warhammer

The big block of skeletons are finally finished!

 And that means that with those 14 done (and those are the 14 that I decided to get super masochistic with and do color blending as well as edge highlighting on all of them) they get to join the rest of their friends!

There we have it, all 34 of my skeletons. I just have to re-paint the bases black, and they'll be 100% finished (for now).  The sad part about it, is that it's 34 models, and it's a hardly a fraction of the total army. That huge block of stuff, it's only a grand total of 170 points.