Thanks to Warhammer 39,999 for inspiring this and gogo Australia for being ahead of everyone in terms of time :P. March the 2nd comes early here! lol As most of you have seen a bunch of articles from other sites have been re-published by their owners or with their owners permission. Very nice of them. There's still more to come from Chumby (who is that guy) but this post is going to send you to a bunch of different places (mainly 3++...) but gives some shout outs to our favourite blogging buddies and some of their better posts. Let's start with the 3++ links.
VT2 - Forumitis: I only play for fun
VT2 doesn't mince words and whilst you sometimes have to wade through a bunch of whining and raging in his articles, the pointy end of the article is often good enough to ignore his whining :P. In this article VT2 certainly does his share of the above but also looks at a point a lot of us dislike on forums. Namely, people get upset and yell at you when you look at our hobbies from a competitive side and use the term 'playing for fun' as an excuse for bad armies. A very mixed response form viewers but also a very thought provoking article.
fester - Tactics: Destroyed by a horde, now what do I do?
fester didn't come to 3++ with the intention of bamboozling us with his amazing tactical prowess. In fact, on my occasions I've heard him lament his average Joe playing ability (and there's nothing wrong with that). What we do expect from fester is amazing conversions and hobby ideas (and we've gotten those) but this is a real gem of a tactical article. 3++ maintains foot hordes are very unwieldy armies and don't offer much competition to appropriately constructed balanced lists, particularly those from 5th edition. However, a lot of people still seem to struggle against horde armies simply because you will never have the firepower to drop so many bodies at once. This article looks at some over-arching concepts and tactics on how to defeat such hordes and received a very positive review.
Kirby - Advanced Blocking: Tri-Rhino, How To: Providing self-cover to vehicles and units, How To: Hybrid Tau Applied & How To: Suppression Fire
Lots from me, what can I say. My Suppression Fire article was one of the first I did which looked at some of the more intermediate concepts of 40k and was well-received for that. Since then this has become a basic building block in a lot of lists related to 3++ and one of the easier concepts to teach to newer players due to its simplicity and ease of application.
Tau is frowned upon a lot in 40k 5th edition when they really shouldn't be. Using Stelek's Hybrid Tau as a basic building block on which to operate, the How To: Hybrid Tau Applied article looks at running these type of lists on the battlefield in general over-arching concepts. By identifying the roles of units and how they can be best utilised on the battlefield, this article can really helped players understand how to use this very particular list and generated a greater understanding of Tau on the tabletop.
Both the Advanced Blocking and Providing self-cover articles were visual representations of gaining the most from your mechanised units. Whilst there are still a lot more concepts which have been and need to be outlined around this basic army construct, these two articles are excellent learning tools to effectively use your transport and general tanks on the tabletop. The Advanced Blocking article in particular was well-received with over 25 likes before the like system was changed to Pinks (please get it back to that number...please?).
AbusePuppy - Playing Competitively: The vaguest of How To's
Puppy has a lot of great articles on this site and has generated a lot of discussion such as his Ork analysis (Part 1 & Part 2), his slapping of the Internet myth regarding codex power as well as the fallacy of unique playstyles. All of these articles generated a lot of mixed opinions and some great discussion and we haven't even mentioned the Swedish comp articles... Even his Tyranid Codex Review is outstanding and gets a lot of references elsewhere. However, the post highlighted looks at something rather different: how to be a better player. No matter how good you think you are or your friends tell you you are, this article has something which you need to take to heart or just remind yourself at some point. Even if all you get out of it is a bit of humility, Puppy really hammers home some excellent points which everyone should remember.
GWvsJohn - Guide to Space Marines
Well all remember GWvsJohn don't we? We sure do miss him too and hope he's enjoying his medical career! This article is a codex review in essentially a single page. Whilst VT2's analysis looks at all the units separately and in more detail, GWvsJohn gives a quick run down of the whole book and some basic combinations and no go areas. You could digest this whole article in your lunch break and have increased your Space Marine knowledge many times over. It was even well received on Warseer and that's saying something. A special mention has to go out to GWvsJohn for also setting the pre-cursor for Thunderbubble with his look at Space Marine combat ability here.
That's it for the 3++ stuff so let's take a look at some other blogs and posts.
Blackjack & Hookers (Chumbalaya) - Chaos Daemons Codex Review
Chumby likes to think he's the best Daemons player around and whilst we will giggle silently at that, his review is certainly in-depth, critical and thought provoking. Try as I might I couldn't get him to bring it over here so you have to go to a place full of fake hookers (disappointing). Chaos Daemons may find themselves on the back foot and with significant issues in the current 40k ruleset but are certainly a powerful army in the right hands and if not treated appropriately, can run right over your army with nary a thought.
The Back 40k (Sandwyrm) - A Little Color Theory - Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3
I've never really considered my colors that much. I generally take pots of paint and look at them next to each other or take inspiration from those and the world around me. I do some test models and away I go. Sandwyrm takes this many dimensions further and makes most of us look like uncolorcultured in the process whilst enlightening us to everything we've been missing. If you're having trouble picking color schemes for your army or just want to take your army to the next level, these posts are an amazing place to start and finish.
Strictly Average (Brent) - "I can't say yours is great....but it's certainly not better."
Brent is one of my favourite online peeps and it was really hard for me to find an article that I think really needed a shout-out. There were tons so I took what I think is one of his best hobby accomplishments: his Stormraven. A lot of people don't like the GW Stormraven. A lot of people don't like a lot of the conversions out there. A lot of people may not like this. I do. The conversion and scratch building is amazing and the paintjob (particularly on the models) makes it eye-popping. Brent, keep doing what you do and speak to the masses and unicorns!
Best Overall (Purgatus aka PurgyWurgy) - Tournament Structure Deep Dive Part 1: What makes a Great Tourney?
Purg is another favourite (sorry guys...) whom I believe thinks a lot like me in terms of how we view the hobby. I mean, he coined the term Competitive Hobbyist and I think this post (with the awesome graphic) really helps highlight what he means by that concept and what a lot of us as gamers and hobbyists want from tournaments like NOVA and Centurion.
Dick Move (Dethtron) - Friday Night Internet Fights - Round X, Round 40 & Round 49
I only linked these because I won them but FNIF rocks. It's amusing, witty and without being downright arsine, it's fun. There were some I should of won but the poll was rigged against me (I.e. not included!) so they aren't included and Dethtron gets 0/5 for sports.
Warhammer 39,999 (Warhammer 39,999) - Old Stuff Day
I mean I have to link this right? He started it!
Hulksmash's Homeplace (Hulksmash) - Can Tyranids compete? - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 & Part 4
A lot of people crap on Tyranids and whilst a lot of us defend them as well, they certainly do have their limitations. Hulksmash's series on Tyranids and being able to compete is an excellent and balanced view on Tyranids which takes their codex at face value and analyses their competitive layout. It highlights the weaknesses the codex has overall but also highlights the strengths as well and ways not only to minimise the weaknesses but to gain the most from the book. Being a successful player and sounding like he knows what he's talking about, we should listen!
Whiskey & 40k (MVBrandt) - The "Three Levels" of 40k Game Play ... Getting Out of the Probability Kiddie Pool
This is a really good article relating to the gameplay levels of 40k. Unfortunately I remember nothing about it as the last picture as erased all memory of the actual article. I think it was good...
Farewell...
I hope you all enjoyed these awesome articles (and commented on them). I know I didn't get to everyone's blog or all the awesome posts out there but these ones jumped to my attention as I was trawling along through the blogosphere or were sent back to me by the other other authors here. You can also check out some articles by MVBrandt, Archnomad, SirBiscuit and Chumbalaya recently posted on 3++. I hope everyone is enjoying their Old Stuff Day in the other time zones and see you next year :P.
