Magazine

Volume 1 - Issue 1 - Version 2.0

In this issue

Progress Report Games Day USA Coverage Blood in the Machine Review The State of the Hobby AND MUCH MORE!

On The Bench
Its a great time to be a Freeboota! 6th edition is a year old! Ithas brought us an almost new take on the Warhammer 40,000 universe on the tabletop. With the new release of Apocalypse 2.0, we are poised for a similar revolution - Larger scale battles now get to share deeper in the new world of 6th edition, complete with a similar amount of conflict and controversy. Lets not forget how Games Day USA has become more personal... And it still brings out the best painters and gamers to celebrate the artistic and competitive sides of 40K and the rest of the products Games Workshop produces. Thinking even more locally to our own community, DuelCon 2 is creeping up on the horizon as well as the next CottageCon in the UK. These events, even with the narrowing of the lens, still strive to bring out the best each person has to offer, wether it be their artistic creativity, or their cold and calculating tactics on the tabletop. So, with much hope, (as well as the proper rites performed by the appropriate Techpriests and forum Inquisitors) the webzine team and I hope you all enjoy this reboot of the webzine, and you will continue to help us send it in the right direction. Enjoy! - Gabriel

Freebootaz
Gabriel Darksheer BigBadBull Griffsnog Brother Grimm MickeyP2K

Editor-in-Chief Editorial Board:

THE

Table of Contents
Progress Report Page 2 Blood In The Machine Page 9 ' I m A Freeboota Page 10 State of the Hobby Page 11 Games Day Experience Page 12 A Bootaz Tale Page 19

The Freebootaz Webzine is a First Amendment Publication. All articles contained within are the opinions of the writers, and not of Games Workshop or Battlefoam. All references to Games Workshop products, including items produced by Forge World, and published by Black Library, are meant to inform our readers and share within the community of enthusiasts of these products. We utilize images of thee products to illustrate the creative endeavors of our community. Any references to these products is for journalistic intent. We are actively striving to not violate copyright law. All photographs are copyright of the provider and are used for illustrative purposes only.

On The Cover :

Ask not wha t your webzine can do for you, but wha t you can do for your webzine!
Contact us on the forums! Contact us via e-mail:

webzine@thefreebootaz.com
Fine Art Photograph courtesy of Chris Morring Gabriel

http://www.chrismorring.com
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Spotlighting the best the Freebootaz Forum Has to Offer

by Loopy

Progr ess Report

Welcome the Progress Report. This is your quarterly focus on projects within the Freeboota Community. It is by no means an exhaustive review of everything thats been going on, but it should shine light on the work of Freebootaz from which you can take inspiration for your own projects. 2013 has been quite a busy time for Warhammer 40,000 hobbyists. You cant throw a proverbial stone without hitting someone whose collection has been affected by all the activity coming out of Games Workshop. So many wonderful models have emerged from the minds of Nottingham which have demanded immediate attention from glue and brush alike. In addition, new interest has been awakened in some older sculpts and its been quite fascinating to see modern schemes and techniques applied to them.

ManOwarrioR's Chaos

Images courtesy of ManOwarrioR

One of the not so modern sculpts which have seen a great deal more use in recent times are the Soul Grinder and Defiler. Weve seen these start popping up at our local game stores and sometimes with new paint schemes. ManOwarrioR has take advantage of some of the recent changes to this unit in the Daemons codex and painted up some truly filthy examples for his Nurgle forces. Hes also included a Forge World Plague Hulk to go along with them which he could make use of in the new Apocalypse release, or simply play as a Defiler or Grinder if he so wishes. And speaking of Apocalypse, you cant miss his deliciously foul Great Unclean One. Hes really captured the living rot and

filth of Nurgle with green flesh stretched over warm, yet diseased colors for the interior surfaces of his models. The rest of his amazing contributions to the message boards over the past few months have also shown similar talent. For example, hes captured the eerie almost-glow of a proper Nurgle tank on his Vindicator along with the customary pustules on the hull. In addition, ManOwarrioR also put together one of the new models; an absolutely stunning Mauler Fiend. This model is a true inspiration to look at with many neat conversions using bitz from the Chaos Spawn kit and Liquid Nails! Gotta love that Nurgle. ManOwarrioR admits that the beautiful greens he uses for his vehicles are

partly due to serendipity! Funny story on the Green color, he says I didnt pick it. I bought the original models in this army off eBay about 6 years ago because it was such a good deal. I didnt really have a desire to play Nurgle either I just thought it was so nicely painted for the price that I said what the heck. However it happened, its a treat to look at and Im sure your regular opponents all agree! Be sure to click on ManOwarrioRs profile and look at his other started threads because hes got a lot more you will not want to miss. ManOwarrioR isnt the only one whos been inspired by Apocalypse.

Skip'S Iron Saint

Images courtesy of Skip

Our very own Skip has finally built and painted The Iron Saint to accompany his Grey Knights. This model was a true labor of love in so far that it was inspired completely by peer pressure. Skip explains I would look at the model on the painting desk and thinkman this is an awesome model Im so happy that Loopy and Brother Grimm convinced me to get it. Then I would start painting rivets- hating the model and the people that convinced me to purchase such a thing. Of course, Skips ire was short-lived, because surely the gratification of being featured in White Dwarf Daily for the second time must have healed any perceived wrongs committed by such stand-up members of the Freeboota community as Brother Grimm and Yours Truly. Clearly, Skips work is legend on the boards and I need not detail his hobby

exploits here. Needless to say, you should check out his thread entitled Grey Knights 7th Brotherhood and

when you feel like killing an hour by looking at some truly inspired (and slightly masochistic) work.

Nick is all "junk," Son...

Images courtesy of Nick is All Junk Son

Nick All Is Junk Son has an interesting screen name because his paint brush only produces junk on purpose. His Ork vehicles are alive with real weight and character. In his progress thread, he insists that his tanks are still in-progress, but I had to include a picture of one because you can really feel the grit and character here. Nick, I know I speak for the whole community when I say that we want to see more completed photos of your wonderful work.

Kymmerus Going Buggy

Of course, one of the coolest miniatures Ive seen over the past two of three months has got to be Kymmerus Parasite of Mortrex. It is disturbing and vicious in the extreme and quite an inspiration for any aspiring Hive Fleet out there. Kymmerus also gets bonus points for using the phrase flying ovipositor of chest-bursting doom. ChaosReborn said, You should see his entire Nid army. The colours are amazing and the realism scares the crap out of my tau. His Tervigons (gaunt poopers) are amazingly done. I tend to agree. Ive seen Kymmerus army on a few occasions at Adepticon and I must say that it gives me the heebie-jeebies!

Images courtesy of Kymmerus

ChubbySweede's Heresy

Anyone whos visited ChubbySwedes thread of Heresy World Eaters already knows what a delight the miniatures featured there are. They are a contrast in both color and theme which makes for a very complex hobby life indeed. ChubbySwede is succeeding in spades. His Contemptor Dreadnoughts eyes glow with malice. The traditional white and blue colors on his Marines are broken by well-placed, realistic blood effects which do not overwhelm the models, but instead tell you all you need to know about this brutal traitor legion.

Images courtesy of ChubbySweede

Innicas Plague Marines

Innicas has put together an ancient group of Plague Marines who really leave the impression that they have been at this for quite some time. Theyve got quite a nice rusty, dusty appearance. He explains in his thread, So after nearly 2 years of playing this game (and enjoying the hobby side too) Ive finally actually finished something. Well, this is a great start, Innicas. Keep it coming!

Image courtesy of Innicas

GuildMaster's Orks

Images courtesy of Guildmaster

Guildmasters Orks never disappoint. His Grot Oilers thread is a little old at this point, but it deserved a quick mention because of the sheer character that these models communicate and the skill required to do it. Well done, Guildmaster. We look forward to more from you.

Deadshot shared with us his Imperial Fists for Astronomi-con. I can appreciate anyone brave enough to take on a yellow army. Also, seeing a full army list painted up and ready to go into battle is quite gratifying. Put the two together and you have something special. I hope they did some real work for the Emperor at the con.

Deadshot's Imperial Fists

Images courtesy of Deadshot

Veez Terrain Rocks!

Image courtesy of Veez

Veez really gives us something to look at with his large piece of industrial terrain, as a ships engine, a pump in a promethium processing center, or on the floor of a hive factory complex. Well, whatever he uses it for, Im sure the dudesmen will find it quite helpful for the purpose of dodging some bullets. 7

Nara vus Brass Scorpion

Of course, Naravus Brass Scorpion drew quite a bit of interest from the community. He executed the paint scheme with precision and skill. This isnt a surprise, of course. If you check out the started threads on his profile, youll find hes a painting machine.

Image courtesy of Naravus

Thats it for this issue! If you want to nominate someones work to be featured in the Progress Report, please dont hesitate to PM Loopy with a link! The Freebootaz Forum is a big place with a lot of talented people, so we hope you can help him root out some amazing projects to share here in the future!

Nomina te Bootaz To The Progress Report

Take a listen to an audio drama from Black Library

by Sonofcorax
Las fire snaps, shells explode, and chainswords rev and churn Ork flesh to gobbits of stinking meat. Bolters snap with the distinctive sound we all know so well, and the massive footfalls of the Titan shake your speakers at it walks. The sounds in this audio drama are fantastic, Black Library/Heavy Entertainment have definitely raised the bar on their sound effects on these newer ones. The voice actors chosen for this Audio drama are top notch as well, you hear Seths simmering rage in every line he speaks, the cold contempt of inquisitor Nerissa, and the haughtiness of the Blood Angles. Even the Titan Princeps whom is only given a few lines really makes you feel like he is used to commanding one of the Omnissiahs god machines. Cold, Detached, and with an undercurrent of arrogance of someone who wields such power. Captain Iago of the 89th regiment of the Armageddon Steel Legion is in a bad way his troops are being slaughtered and his prospect of seeing the day out seems highly unlikely, hive Volcanus will fall. Until a trooper rushes up to him and tells him that angels have been sighted and hands him the magnocluars. 300 meters out he sees them and the Saw Blade chapter symbol on their pauldrons. The switch from dejection to elation is immediate and it is nice to get the perspective of how a guardsman would react to being delivered from certain death to having a fighting chance, and if not for the Sanguinary Guard his day may have been a lot brighter. We are then brought to the field of battle where Chapter Master Gabriel Seth and his Command Squad are teaching the lesson of who has a better grasp of the term Bestial Fury to the endless numbers of Orks. In the middle of the fight, a squad of Sanguinary Guard drops amongst them and informs them they need to extract at once and report to Captain Erasmus Tycho. Seth is understandable less than pleased with this and some bad blood is born before he relents, even though he knows the Guardsmen are doomed if he leaves. But Duty first and he has made oaths to Dante. Aboard Tychos ship Seth expresses his displeasure with the Blood Angels captain, much to the chagrin to one of the Sanguinary Guard who makes to chastise the Chapter Master to which he responds I have had enough of your kind today, cherub. Tycho orders everyone out of the room and shows Seth he has not softened since he was put in command of the Blood Angels force on Armageddon. The plot thickens as Inquisitor Nerissa enters and details the new mission to Seth.

Blood in the Machine

We are Vengeance We are Fury We are Wrath

An archenemy Imperator class Titan is believed to be lying dormant under a mine and she needs to reach it, Seth rages that the guardsmen will be slaughtered and refuses to go, until Tycho tells him he will bolster Seths forces at hive Volcanus with his own 3rd company. Seth relents but only takes himself and his honor guard on the mission but assures the Inquisitor that they will be more than enough. Aboard a Thunderhawk gunship, they are informed that they will be embarking upon the Imperator Titan Validus that is stationed at Sreya ridge with the eleventh armored division and will walk across the seabed to the mine. They will reach the Titan under cover of an air wing rerouted to their location to make sure the Orks are too busy to shoot them down. Seth again feels the fury boil over at the thought of what will happen to the eleventh armored without the Validus to lend them its firepower, and what troops are more than likely dead now that the fighter wings were commandeered to cover the partys approach to the Titan. Seth: The lives of the Emperors Servants are not yours to waste. Nerissa: They are! That is what it means to be of the Ordo. I would sacrifice every man, woman and child in this sector to do the Emperors work. It is a shame you do not share the same clarity of purpose, Flesh Tearer. Alas not much more I can say without massive spoilers but please, do yourself a favor and check this Fantastic Audio drama out. You will not be disappointed. My only small issue with this was that in a couple places it is a bit choppy, I am sure it is due to Black Librarys strict word count and time limits on the drama. I had no interest in the Flesh Tearers at all and neither did my son, but after finishing this we started making plans for an allied force of this chapter for our armies and we ordered Gabriel Seth the same day. A solid 8/10 from me, would be a 9 if it was about 2 hours longer

by Chaotic Necros

I'm a (New) Freeboota!!

That simple sentence Im a Freeboota. I never realized at first what it meant. Or what it has come to represent! Probably like others, I listen to the ramblings of Kyle, Rick and Romeo on the 40KRadio podcast, and really enjoyed them. I heard them speak of their cohorts and friends of the Freebootaz with a casual familiarity and by extension we came to know them ourselves Or did we? Like most people, I found myself on the wrong side of the credit crunch/recession. As a result, things like hobbies and socializing were secondary to paying bills and ensuring my young son was fed and watered, clothed. We have tried to not let family concerns affect his upbringing or impact on his life. But for me, there was still 40k, I still had a group of friends to play with, we always seemed to manage to get games in and between us. We only bought what was necessary to the table to still play a game. The days before where I owned every codex was long gone. At this time I only bought Space Wolves, Necrons and Chaos Space Marines. This was back at the tail end of 4th edition, 5th edition, and into the start into 6th edition. After a few years it was time to change my fortunes, I found a new job where my wages was comparable to where they were before the credit crunch, so I now had a larger pot of disposable income. The family still comes first and we now have a happier home life, but the real change for me has been my 40k hobby. One of the first things I did was join the Freebootaz Forum, after paying the subscription, the first thing I said to myself, the classic line: I am now a Freeboota. I can participate in the 40k Radio podcast. I can hopefully (with my wifes blessing) go to the conventions and meet this other guys that are also into this hobby like me! Unlike my local GW store, where I feel the odd one out for probably being twice the average age of everyone else around me! We Bootaz can hang out, have a few

Chaotic Necros reflects on how that simple step of becoming a Freeboota can transform you, as well as your 40K activities.
beers and throw a few dice playing 40k Just like I used to in the golden days! This act in itself has been an incentive for my hobby progress, checking the forum seeing what others have posted, checking what has been replied to my comments, trying to act gracious whilst in discussion and giving/receiving praise where it merited. Progress? My armies have grown over time, my unfinished projects with them, seriously not joking. It took around 15 years to assemble & paint the 1st release Im going to attempt magnetizing them). This has been the most intensive amount of work I have carried out in the hobby since I started. (Inspired?) The problem now faced isnt so much how and where to post my progress, but more to the point of getting the time to post it. Looking around the forum and coming to see the support the Bootaz have for each other, the commitment, advice and camaraderie. Im not scared of how my work will be received, there is always constructive criticism and praise, but everyone shares the appreciation of your time and effort on your army. I am currently working on my Chaos Space Marines to make them ready for Bootacon 2013, after that Well I havent decided. Maybe my Space Wolves or possibly back to the Necrons. Im a Freeboota! Well, what does it really mean now? Well the global success of 40k and by token the personal question What is it to be a Freeboota? Will be by definition; mean different things for different people. To me, personally: The atmosphere of the forum, the community at large is extremely supportive, tolerant, and friendly. Sometimes there is a comment/paragraph that has been a diamond in the rough... Its all of these things and more, still a lot more. I still feel that I am always striving to answer that question. To me its a supportive community that is almost a family within itself; its the new friendships and inspiration to strive to improve yourself and others around you within the 40k environment. Its a macrocosm of what I feel the 40k community should be! Im a Freeboota, and very proud to be associated with the forum!

That Simple Sentence... Im a Freeboota. I never realized at first what it meant. Or what it has come to represent!
Space Wolf figures (the metal Grey Hunters, Blood Claws, Long Fangs, Wolf Guard and Dreadnought - Bjorn Fell Handed). It isnt all bad I still managed to purchase a full army of Chaos Space Marines and Necrons... but again even though these were assembled, they were only under coated at best. Since becoming a Freeboota, my progress? Well the last 6 weeks - I have assembled and painted: 2 full squads of Chaos Space Marines, 1 squad of metal Raptors, squad of Havocs, Abaddon, a chaos lord in terminator armour, a sorcerer in terminator armour, the old metal daemon prince, a squad of Pink Horrors. I have assembled: Sky shield landing pad, Aegis Defence line, monolith, annihilation barge, Necron command barge, Heldrake, 2 Night Scythes, defiler, chaos vindicator, The Changeling, Chaos Herald on a disc, a squad of Deathmarks, a squad of immortals, Canis Wolfborn and partially assembled a Doomsday ark, whilst in slow time I am taking my time in assembling my Wraithguard, (and directly due to inspiration received on the forum

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The State of The Hobby

This just might be the Golden Age of Warhammer 40,000 and Games Workshop
there are some of you out there that wax nostalgic for the days of all metal models... To this, my retort is: build me a hybrid Land Raider Crusader. It is so much easier to convert and kit bash with all the new plastic kits and from all signs it is only going to get better! Next up is model quality. Now I am not going to lie there have been some stinkers (looking at you Mutilators) but for the most part I believe GW is heading in the right direction. Highly detailed kits, lots of bits, grim dark - And in many cases over the top! I love it! I cant wait to see what is in store in the future. Next up is the rules... This seems to be the most contentious aspect of the hobby. Right now I am very happy where the rules are at. I know some people would like the rules to be a bit tighter and tournament oriented but that is just not GWs cup of tea. I appreciate their honesty in that regard. I find the game to be the most fun it has ever been. There seem to be a ton more rules now, but these new rules make sense. The quickness that the codex and army books are being released is unprecedented! I hope they are able to keep it up and actually get out all the codexes during the life cycle of 6th edition. When I first got into 40K, I found myself in love with background along with the models and game. I read the rulebook cover to cover along with all the various codexes. I could not get enough of the background. Slowly Black Library started to release more and more books. Then they gave us what many of us wanted... the Horus Heresy series. Now we have Forge World releasing Imperial Armor and Horus Heresy books. They has never been a better time for us fluff bunnies. I hope in the future we will see books that will focus on more on the Xenos that many of you play. I hope that we can all sit back for a second and see how far the hobby has come. It is able to offer us time to get away from the stress in our life and hopefully a little enjoyment. Thanks for listening guys and I am always open to feedback Especially from you Kronk!

image courtesy of Rik

The biggest difference is all the plastic. I love it! Plastic, plastic and MORE PLASTIC!
by Rik
I got into war gaming in the winter of 2002. To some of you out there I am a FNG, to others I am a salty vet. In the last 11 years I have seen the Games Workshop (GW) take some amazing strides forward, and I have also seen them make a few mistakes as well. I look at what GW has been able to release in the last year and I am blown away. We are living in the golden age of the hobby. Models are bigger, better (for the most part), and more highly detailed than ever before. There are times that I look back and miss being new in the hobby. Learning something new and cool every time I went into a GW store or cracked open a White Dwarf. Mostly, I look at the direction things are going, and I get excited for the future of our hobby. The biggest change I have seen in the hobby the last decade is the quantity as well as quality of models being produced. The biggest difference is all of the plastic. I love it! Plastic, plastic, and MORE PLASTIC! I look forward to the day when the entire range including characters is in plastic. I know

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(Kind of like the Girlfriend Experience but more expensive and it was not a former porn star)
by BigBadBull
Games Day Memphis was bemoaned and kicked to the curb by many on the Internet as soon as it was announced. Its not in <Fill in the Blank> or Its in the Deep South... Stupid rednecks! Or Its in a very dangerous city. I for one, was very happy it was someplace else that did not have a major hobbling convention (LA, Chicago, Indy). Ive already been to them before, and not that they are not excellent cons, just that I wanted to hit something closer to home than Dragoncon in Atlanta, with its minimal 40k presence. Memphis is a leisurely 3-hour drive from my hometown, so an extended vacation was not needed from work. I saw the location that GW announced for the new Games Day being the Cook County Convention Center. I have been there before for a con back in 2009 called the Big WAAAAAAAAAAgh!, So, I knew right where it was, what there was to do nearby, and were most of the hotels were. I tried to see if there was any more interest in going from other Bootaz. Yet due to location, time of year, or the cost of $50 for a one-day ticket, just about every one passed. Although a few brave souls that would be rewarded for their travels The convention was limited to 1000 tickets. In the past, Games Days had allowed many more attendees. In the case of GD UK somewhere between 7-10k people. GW decided to make things more intimate. The 1000 tickets sold out in very short order. There were some which wanted tickets, but were unable to get them, since the tickets went up for sale Adeption weekend. The first indication that something special was up was when the ticket showed up at my door. It was monogrammed heavy paper weight stationary thanking me for buying a ticket and hand signed by, whom I believe to be the head of marketing at GW. The stationary had an Aquilla inlaid in the paper. The envelope was sealed with a green wax Dark Angels seal. I also had the ticket for my vote in the Armies on Parade and a ticket holder for a lanyard, but no lanyard. About a month before the event a second package arrived, in it a Dark Angels lanyard, new ticket holder, Memphis travel guide, and a welcome BBQ invitation for the night before the event. I called up Kyle, and we decided to split a hotel near by the World of Battle AKA GW North America, AKA former Memphis Battle bunker AKA the GW warehouse. So, the nearest hotels were outlying the Memphis Airport. Ive stayed down town before, and I think next year I will try to do so again. Most of Memphis attractions are downtown or near Beale St. If you want to Party Like its 1999, you dont have to worry about finding a way back to your hotel. The drive up for me was through Mississippi, and took about 3 hours on highway 78, soon to be I-22. Not bad scenery. Lots of rolling hills and trees. There are more places to stop for food and/or gas the closer you get to the Tennessee-Mississippi border. The World of Battle is located not far over the state line, and is basically in a business park. There are tons of big warehouses and distribution centers,

The Games day Experience

Guss Famous Fried chicken BBQ Make and Takes UK design studio talks

Must dos

FW line Sizing of T-shirts Hotel by the Airport Not enough time to do everything

Not so good

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Marco Columbo? WTF?

The Odd

not much to speak of for hotels and food around the WoB. Lots of big trucks LOTS. Having been to the UK, and actually driven to Nottingham to play at Warhammer World, I get the same vibe off of the building and the surrounding area. Once in the parking lot, the faades of both buildings are similar. There is also the Mandatory Space Marine Statue in the parking lot! Its lording over all the WHFB, LotR, and heck even the Xenos players - Reminding them this is the company, you get a codex when there is not a Space Marine codex in the wings (Yeah... I went there). Inside, you find what is normal for a USA GW store, except that there are several staffers. The retail size wise is on par with the recently opened South-Eastern one-man stores, but with more display cases. Clean, very well stocked, including WoB-only items, and even a decent selection of Black library books. Off the store front there is a mediumto-large sized gaming hall. Id say there are about 24-30 tables. The tables are set up in rows, and usually there are 3-4 of the now familiar Realm of Battle metal tables that are hooked together. James Bell, the Manager of the store, is gradually building up some showcase style tables. These are to be like the ones pictured at Games Day, in White Dwarf, or at Warhammer World. All these tables are based (loosely in some cases) off of Realm of Battle Board tiles, or the frames which support them. Their recently finished City of Death, which takes three full 4x6 tables, is quite literally breathtaking. I took 50-100 pictures of just this table alone, since Matt, Kyle, and I were constantly finding new little details that we had missed. Allegedly, there were 90+ Cities of Death, Apocalypse, and Planetstrike sprues used to construct it. The WHFB graveyard table was equally impressive. The gaming hall also has display cases of employees armies and well as some

For 40K Radio Host, Kyle Kinghorn, the Unicorns, Rainbows, shooting stars and Leprechauns start to set in thanks to a wonderful mean at Guss Famous Chicken.

Image courtesy of BigBadBull

props from the old Maryland HQ, like the Striking Scorpions life-sized helmet and Shuriken gun, as well as a pair of lifesized Blood Angels Tactical Marines. In the very back of the gaming hall, there are restrooms along with a few display cases that have some of the classic, originally boxed Rogue Trader era game systems. Personally, it was worth the trip by itself with how close it is. During this time, while being tourists and gawking at everything, we met Local Boota Heavens Eagle. We also asked James Bell for food recommendations. He directed us Guss Famous Chicken, but told us to watch out for the Unicorns, Rainbows, shooting stars and Leprechauns on the way back. It was a bit of a drive, and looking back at it, we were in Olive Branch Mississippi but OH MY STARS AND GARTERS! Having lived in the deep south for well over 15 years now, I can with 100% certainty say BEST HOT FRIED CHICKEN EVER! It has a little bit of natural spice to it, aka heat. Its a must go to next year again. I think everyone that went agreed. And yes I did see the Unicorns, Rainbows, shooting stars and Leprechauns on the way back to the bunker. The Welcome to Games Day BBQ dinner was a catered affair. The food was kind of lackluster for most southerners that eat BBQ. The Banana pudding was

the best part of the meal. There were a ton of tables with cover tents and large fans set up beside the warehouse part of the building. So far this summer the southeast has been unseasonable cool and rainy, thankfully it was not too hot out - Perhaps in the low 80s. The table seating was a free-for-all scramble, so like the Goth kids in high school the Freebootaz ended up in the back corner. This was OK, since we had some catching up to do, and talked shop at our own table. We also had a great view of all the UK guests coming in for dinner, as well as the shipping trucks coming in and out of the warehouse with Brother Grimms next Forge World haul ;). If you got iced tea or sweet tea, there were giving out black or tan plastic tumblers with Games Day 2013 and a Dark Angels logo printed in the back ground. Being what most Nerds are, there was a bit of a game to see who could get the biggest stack of cups. I think Foda Bett and his dad ended up with a 12-packs worth. Sadly, I only got one of each. Games Workshop also sprung for a shaved ice truck to be there all night, free of charge, for all guests.

A bit later, GW started to do a trivia contest and had some silly games where they gave out GW swag for the winners. There were White Dwarf subscription cards, Aquilla flags, dice cups. These items are mainly the type stuff given away at new store openings or store birthdays. That night, due the crowd at the WoB, there was a Combat Patrol tournament, run buy one of the local clubs based out of the WoB. There was no room for free gaming. The store looked like it had been looted. Pretty much anything 40k had been bought, and some entire lines had been sold out of every model they had in stock (Grey Knights, Dark Angels, and most of the new Eldar). The World of Battle tankards, shot glasses and normal sized T-shirts and hats were all also sold out by the end of the night as well. In one of the funniest scenes of the weekend, Kyle like many others, including myself, try to buy something from any game store we go to, as a way to support them. Kyle is very good friends with James Bell and had asked if they had any Gamer sized shirts left because most of the WoB stock was sold out. Please keep in mind that Gamer

Image courtesy of BigBadBull

The Forge World line became massive shortly after opening.

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Sized refers to XXL and up. James said Yes I have some Ive been saving just for you with a wink. Instead of getting Kyle one shirt, He got 3, and 3 hats and 3 key chains and 3 of anything else and rang him up. Kyle only wanted one, so James kept piling even more stuff in the bag and continued to add it to the bill. I lost count of all the swag Kyle ended up getting, but it was not cheap. There are two or three hotels connected by a series of skywalks. Ideally, these are where you would want to stay, even though a bit pricey The other decent location quasi-nearby is off Beale Street. There are tons of hotels near by the FedEx Forum and the mall attached. They also make good spots if you

are in to the recreational drinking thing. There are a fair amount of Restaurants there as well. The hotels in this area are a bit cheaper than the ones by the convention center, but not by much, since you have to pay for parking at most. The next morning after a trip to Waffle House for breakfast we went down town to the Cook County Convention Center. I did not have much trouble finding parking, but it was a bit expensive at $10 and not an attached lot to the center. The Convention center was PACKED with gamers waiting to get in, and this was 30-45 minutes before opening. Games Day was located on the top floor of a three level building. There are a ton of reconfigurable halls. The center is in a central location down town right on the

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Mississippi river, with the streetcar line right out front. Once 10am local time hit, the roll up doors opened and the line in started moving like an overstuffed python up the hallway and then up stairs. The setup is a bit different than in the past. They took some knowledge from the previous GD UKs that were super stuffed and tried to make the FW and regular store lines as efficient as possible. The retail stuff was to the left side of the hall, while the game play areas were to the front right of the hall. I have included the picture map that GW had on the back of the event programs. The actual layout differed a little in the area next to the seminar corridor area and stage. The stage was huge versus the map, and the UK studio guests are was almost attached to the seminar area, and very small. The Space hulk play area was approximately 3-fold-up card tables long next to the stage. The Golden Demon and Armies on Parade finals areas were much larger, as well as the conversion contest area. Finally in the back of the hall you had the Make and Take areas, yet with some new twists this year. There was a small food vendor set up by the convention hall (prices were absolutely. Insanely high). There was the shipping area and the bag check area as well. Having been to Games Days in the past, and knowing how they usually work, the FW line was absolutely nuts when the con first opened up. I would say easily 80% of the people waiting out front to get in went directly to the FW line. The others, like me, made a B-line to the Limited edition BL books and GD only stuff. The LE T-shirts, of which they had roughly 500, but only like 50 were XL, XXL, XXXL, or barn-sized, and it was buy as many as you could carry. The Back Library had tons of everything limited edition, except a few of the pre-release audio books like Vulcan Lives and Honor for the Dead. The lines at the cash registers, which all of the different stores funneled in to, were very long at the start. The two main hold ups were firstly a ton of credit cards and debit cards were getting flagged as fraudulent. This would require the person to call the bank in question on their cell phone, and wade through the whole ordeal, then check out.

Image courtesy of BigBadBull

This Necron display board is an example of the Armies on Parade entries.

For Kyle this was over an hour and 2-3 different calls. The other issue was that all the Prerelease stuff and LE show only stuff was not either bar coded or the bar code was not in the database. The people working the cash registers had to go off a print out double-sided price guide with very bad product descriptions on them. There were like 20+ registers, so after the first hour to two hours there was no wait at all. Also, due to the super great pick of Marco Columbo as the show only mini, there were enough for GW to clog up the local landfill with at the end of the day. At $30 they were not selling well at all. Even if they were free, not many would have been picked up. While everyone was waiting in line for FW, this was a great time to get in some of the Make and Takes which were a bit different than normal this year. For WHFB and 40K they had a designated model that was worth about $25-30 for everyone.

There were a limited number of seats in the build areas so they had Sessions at set times that you could queue for to build. The 40k one was an Ork Warbiker. The WHFB one was Bretonnian Pegasus Knight. There was a reason why both these models were picked. Each had a game you could use your freshly built model in. The 40k game was Wazdakkas Deff Race, which played like a 40k version of Super Mario Kart. The WHFB one was called Defend the Arden, which played like the classic video game Joust! Both tables were immaculate and just awesome to look at. Everyone seemed to be having a really fun time playing. Also in this area, was the Make and Take terrain station. This was not a free-for-all as well, but rather had sessions at set times. There were plenty of sprues provided for each session, so everyone had an equal shot at building whatever their

hearts content was. The queue lines for this and Wazdakka Deff Race got very long. After so many people queued up a GW staffer would come up and basically say people from this point on wont make the next session. If you have an interest in either of these events at future Games Days, I would do them early while everyone is in the FW line. A new event to all Games Days was the How to paint the Realm of Battle Gameboard clinic. You could buy one tile for $50 or an entire RoBB for $290. The Studio paint team from the UK was on hand to teach you how to paint and spruce up the boards. On the single tiles they would assist, but on the full tables they would actually paint them for you. They had the full paint lines, primer, and the GW hand flamer airbrushes hooked up to Airbrush compressors, water effects and tons of other ter-

15

The Design Studio Team are busily working towards completing another Realm of Battle Board.

Image courtesy of BigBadBull

rain type stuff. The Compressors were high to medium end ones, costing probably 5x the price of the Hand flamers... I had a good laugh at that. So the question is why would you do this at Games Day? GW had a great deal where they had their own mini shipping department on sight. You could ship anything worldwide for $15. Also, if the cost of everything purchased at the convention was over $200, it shipped for free, including the RoBB (which Ive shipped before and due to the weight and box size is well over $35 just in the USA with the USPS, not 3 day/ ground FedEx like GW was using). The fact that the studio team was

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painting them was also very cool too, and they had some of the RoBBs on display that they had finished as examples for people to get ideas from on how they wanted them painted. In the back left corner of the hall were the ship-to-home areas a well as bag check, and the concessions. In the bag check area, you could securely check any bags you had or items you bought. Also at the bag check you got your swag bag. Everyone that bought a ticket to attend got a small drawstring type gym bag that had GOLDEN DEMON 13 on it and inside it was stuffed with another one of the cups from the night before BBQ, a Games Day water bottle, a GW ball point pen, and 3 Dark Angels themed buttons

The Concessions stand was run by the convention center and was pretty much a rip off. $2 for a warm 12oz can of coke pretty much sums it up. Ive already explained about the shipping area, which was an awesome deal. James Bell speculated that similar pricing at all of the world-wide Games Days this year. On the opposite side of the all from the bag and shipping tables was the Seminar and Trivia area. It was a curtained off space with roughly 50 seats in it. They had 4 seminars in this area and one trivia session at lunch time. Two of the seminars were Black Library (one was Mike Lee and Anthony Reynolds the second was Dan Abnett by himself). The other seminars were Eavy Metal Masterclass with Simon Adams (of recent tau codex Suit fame) and Chris Peach Army Painting Techniques (he is the GW guru on painting massive armies at high levels in a day or twos time). The lines formed early and many people were turned away when there were no seats. This did not deter anyone though. They would simply just wait till the seminar had started and the GW people had walked away to do something else. Then they or a friend would lift the curtain up and they would go in under it and stand in the back. I will say there were a few issues with the set up. Frequently some on would have to hold a microphone for the Design studio person if they were trying to multitask anything other than walking and talking (aka painting). The space was very limited, and finally, there was no Forge World Seminar (boo hiss!). Right next to the Seminar are was the UK Studio guests area. This was a very small area. And I think many people never knew it was even there. There were only 5 round card tables with say 2-3 chairs for each table. Next to each table was a banner with the name of the UK Design studios. In the middle there were 2 glass display cases. Jeremy Vetock (Tau, Dark Angels, Lizardmen codex lead writer), Chris Peach (massive army painting guru), Matt Holland (Sculptor of new Tau and Lizardmen among tons of others), Simon Adams ( Eavy Metal painter of Tau, Dark Angels, Chaos Demons, Lizardmen), and FW had a representative there (Ive lost his name). The FW representative also really did not want to be there at all. He gave

Kyle reminds us that Space Marines need a hug now and then.

Images courtesy of BigBadBull

very terse answers. Kyle even asked him about his recently finished Fire Raptor model and he could not answer the very basic questions without pulling out a 3x5 index card with notes on what weapons it had. All the other guests were just plain Awesome! I had both my Limited edition Dark Angels and Tau codes with me and got Jeremy to sign both (Squee!!). He was a genuinely down to earth guy that just loves the hobby. He had never seen the LE Dark Angles codex, and offered to buy it from me since he is a bit of a collector. No dibs! The digital camo tau models in the

new codex were painted by him and are his personal Tau army. He had a few there for people to touch and hold and look at. I questioned which 40k codex he has liked the most working on: answer Tau, They got all the cool shit, gear and equipment wise. The best conversation of the day was Matt Holland, sculptor for GW. He did much of the new Lizardmen line and had the 3-ups and most of the plastic sprues (a week or 2 early) for everyone to peruse. Once Kyle broke the ice, it was a 45min-hour long conversation that easily could have gone on for another hour. He was very open about the whole process

from concept to the actual machines used to make the models. The whole back-scene politicking was also described on what gets made and why. This set up was very cool because it was hands on time with the design crew. I really dont understand why more people were not visiting this area, but I could have spent the whole day just talking with these guys, mainly because they loved the hobby and their jobs in the hobby. The Golden Demon, Armies on Parade, and Conversion Contests were all set up per normal for a Games Day. A ring of tables with a snot shield in-between you and the models. Each table represented one category, and at the end there was a nice glass and metal display case for the different round winners. GW had the entire WD team there to photograph every model and display entered in to any of the contests. They had the ability to take 360-degree photos and display them live and in super HD resolution. Some of the models were very hard to see in the Golden Demon contest, mainly due to mouth-breathers that refused to move on and follow the flow of people trying to view them. This is normal for golden demon viewing, They think its their very own personal art gallery and you are invading their space. To me, the Armies on Parade was more impressive. Instead of spending up to a year on one model that may or may not ever see a game table, you have an actual playable army on a Realm of Battle sized display board. Some of these armies and display boards had more work put in to them than some high placing GD winners in a much faster time frame and they had to win their local stores completion just to show up at Games Day. It was also a much faster flowing line and every one was cordial. Full Control and FFG both had their own displays a well. Full control showing a beta build of the recently released Space Hulk video game, and FFG with the V2.0 rule set for Rogue Trader RPG series. Both were playable there at the con. The representatives for both companies were happy to do walk through and demos for any that asked. Just about any question was answered too. With so much to do and so little time to do it, I wish I could have spent some more time at both stands even though I got to do

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play throughs on both. The play tables were set up near the entrance. Each game type had several different set play missions. You would go to the game master and he would hand you a TV dinner tray with a fully painted army. There were special missions for all the different tables. Each table was several RoBBs end to end. There was tons of custom GW terrain made for each table too. If you were not familiar with the armies rules there were cheat sheets and full codexes were all available for use. There was also a 28mm savage skies game. Basically an AI Aeronautica game played on a 30x30 roped out area on the floor. Dark Angels vs I think Eldar. The models were placed on stands that put them at eye height Standing up. Over all it was a very similar Games Day as the ones from the past, but much more focused for the true hobbyists versus the casual gamers. From what I overheard, several GW contacts have said they were very pleased with the turnout and the enthusiasm of every one. They might add 2-300 more tickets for next year but the total numbers of tickets will less than 1500. Will I go back? Yes. Id love to see more Bootaz next year so that we could do more together and along with just hang out. The trip for me was not too expensive, but I was able to drive to and from. Flying out I could see that it would be questionable due to the cost of the plane ticket. If you have not gone to one Id recommend going to it since Memphis is much cheaper than some of the other big city conventions. I cant wait till Duelcon 2!

No trip in the south would be complete without a healthy serving of BBQ.

Image courtesy of BigBadBull

Up next is DuelCon 2! How will you help set The Deuce Loose?
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Outside of the World of Battle in Memphis, an attendee gets ideas on how to weather Space Marines from the statue standing watch over the facilities in Memphis.
Image courtesy of BigBadBull

Reminiscing over the DuelCon evolution may just help us get ready for the premier Freeboota event
by James DISCIPLE Crawford
Hello to all of my Boota Brother and Sisters, I am James (DISCIPLE); today I come to you to discuss DuelCon. I am one of the few that have gone every single year, and have enjoyed every year I have gone! Some of you might think that this has only happened once, but there was time before it was called DuelCon Early 2012, the first year that I went, I was a bit nervous to go; this was to be my first convention, first tournament, and first time meeting the Battlefoam crew. A week before the trip, I finally convinced my little brother to join me. We spent that week painting up 1000 points of Space Marines into a makeshift Salamanders army! That was a great time for my brother and I, as we rarely got to get together, and never had the chance to model together. We put the finishing touches on the models 10 minutes before heading out the door! Talk about cutting it close! We were off for our seven hour drive to Phoenix. When we finally got arrived, there was a bit of confusion going on. It seems that the task of putting on this convention was new to the Battlefoam crew, and they were still scrambling to get things together. It took a bit, but they soon got everything under control and we were registered! The team tournament was a blast! My brother and I teamed up and proceeded to lose almost every game! This was a bummer, but I had so much fun with my little brother it didnt matter. This was also my brothers first game, and for never playing the game before, he did awesome! The team tournament probably had one of my most memorable experiences throughout my 40k time, playing Speepy and his son in the Team Tournament! It was such a blast, we laughed and made fun of each other all game (we actually won that one ^_^). After that awesome day, we started the individual tournament. I didnt have any aspirations that I was going to even come close to winning, but I came to play 40k! My brother on the other hand, didnt have enough points to participate, so he hung out with me and played small tutorial type games with Shortfuse. I had such a blast in the individual tournament! I won some games. Others I didnt. All of my opponents were awesome people, with good attitudes, and a desire to play for fun. All in all it was awesome, players were great, Battlefoam did a great job running things, the couple of Bootaz there were amazing, and the atmosphere was laid back and easy going. A Great Time!!! Due to a change in the date for the convention the next one happened nine months later, in September 2012. Under the new name DuelCon, this tournament started with a bang! The crew from Frontline Gaming stepped up to help out Battlefoam by running the tournament. The guys did an amazing job. Unlike the previous year, the rounds started on time. Everything just felt more organized and fluid. It seemed like this left Romeo and the crew to tackling other issues, and not having to worry about the tournament as much. The team tournament was a blast! My brother was unable to come this year, so I teamed up with Speepy and we proceeded to laughingly get through every game! We lost every single game we played, but who cares anyway! We almost got worst army there, but for some odd reason we got a theme point giving us one point above the other worst army! It was great, we still laugh about it! I also played in the individual tourney, which I did about as well as I did the year before - I think my record was 2-2-0. I just had fun playing 40k, not worrying about placing in a tournament. The competitors attitudes changed a little bit. I think was in part because of Frontline Gaming taking over. It seemed to bring out the netlists a bit more. It is to be expected that the better the prizes are, people will play anything to win. The tournament atmosphere was still pleasant, no one was a jerk, but it is just not my style of play. It was fun watching HoldFast play his Necron Bakery against the other Necron Bakery! It was like a giant game of chess,

DuelCon: A Bootaz Tale

watching the two very good players maneuvering their fliers! Regardless of the types of lists played, the Tournament was fun, and well managed. Big shout out to Frontline Gaming for the awesome job! Best part of the entire weekend, hanging out pool side with Booze, Bootaz, Battlefoam, and Frontline Gaming! Odin brought some awesome homemade mead. HoldFast brought some Bacardi 151. Romeo brought down some beer! A fun time had by all, swapping stories and laughing into the night. For anyone on the fence about going, if you have the time and money, do yourself a favor and go! I am doing everything I can to go this year, and cant wait to meet the other Bootaz joining us this year! I know that I am very excited for this years Duel Con. I got so much going on to try and get ready for the event, most of which is getting my army all painted up. Make sure that you book the hotel, or hop on the forum and find a Boota going that wants to split the hotel room costs. If you are going to hang out with the Bootaz at the Boota-only event, be sure and send Kyle the entry fee! When all is said and done remember that we are Bootaz, let us be the example that drives the community to be the best we can be!

Top 10 Things Needed For The Deuce

10. Booze! 9. Painted Army 8. Money to Kyle for Boota Event! 7. Hotel Reservations 6. Booze! 5. Transportation 4. Razor to Shave your Neckbeard! 3. Deodorant!!!! 2. Gift for DISCIPLE because he likes gifts! (Booze is acceptable) 1. Booze! (I sense a theme going on here.) 19