Was missing for a bit, my little laptop was dying and after messing with it for a bit, then dealing with a weekend visit by my sister that turned into one a bit longer, instead of disassembling and reassembling it again I decided to go ahead and buy a new one.  I'd long ago decided that I was going to get out of Microsoft's hair when they canned XP while it was still the best selling (and best written and best performing, etc.) OS they had.  After all Vista was a bomb, the only thing you can say about Win7 is that is better than Vista, ditto Win8 vs Win7 and all three will light up honest spybot/virus software as obvious malware from all the scanning and reporting they do.

So, I've made the jump over to Linux, specifically Ubuntu.  Lots of fun, easy to transition and although there is some learning curve, it isn't very steep

...40k?  Was it really just over the Black Templar nerfing/smurfing?  I mean seriously Algesan, I know they got the Black Templars now and the Sisters a while back, but the first 40k models you did buy were Necrons and they are doing a pretty good job of kicking arse.  They are competitive enough for anyone and still fun to play, so why quit over a little GW raping of fluff and making the Templars compliant? 

I've been asked these and similar questions recently.  Short answer: No, it isn't the only reason.  Instead it is a group of ongoing issues, some with GW, but others with players.

From Frontline Gaming.    Helbrecht.     Grimaldus.

While the guys at Frontline are somewhat clueless on what Black Templar were (i.e. - they think Black Tide is "the" Templar build from fluff), I pretty much agree with them.  Both have nifty stuff, but for what are supposed to be combat characters they are underwhelming and not worth the points.  Frankly, I could make a better case for the old codex versions being included in lists than the new ones.  Both suffer from GW passive aggressive nerfing...."Look, we made it better, stronger than it was", while not quite giving it the upgrade contemporary units got....you know, the ones with new models GW would like to sell for a higher price.  I think we've panned the EC enough over on Implausible Nature and he's right in line...over priced and under powered.

Welcome to the Really Deep Dark Blue Templars....

Little flaw in my plan to generate interest.  If the store doesn't carry it, then there isn't so much interest, but if there isn't much interest, then why should the store carry it.  Unfortunately, I contributed to a bit of the wariness a couple of years ago when I was getting bored with 40k and playing the same list over and over, so, I'd load up my bit of Dust Tactics and take in it along with my Deep Strike List, then when another player arrived, I'd "extort" a quick game of DT out of them before we pulled out 40k.  Which caused a little buzz, which tempted the owner of the FLGS to get some core starter sets, which didn't sell for crap because about the time he got them, I wasn't bothering bringing in DT anymore.

Anyway, I talked to the owner and I'll know more later.  Pretty much, drop DZC for the near term since I'd have to buy lots of units for multiple factions, several of which I'm not even interested in.  Dust Tactics, maybe, but since the owner would want to promote an event a bit, we would be running into the expected Robotech RPG Tactics release and the owner is most definitely going to pick up a lot of Robotech stuff...I think like me, plenty of people would buy it for the models.  Soooo....we'll see.

Anyway, I'm having fun putting together my DZC PHR starter set and playing around with the modelling some.  I've been patching up some of my DT models that had taken some damage and trying to source some tools to fix the bad pose on some of the models.  Finally, just going through the boxes I set aside as half full on my iniial sort and condensing it down.  Otherwis, nothing else new.

It still proceeds apace.  Almost all of the Dust  stuff is off the shelf, replaced by 40k boxes.  The 40k stacks are taller...

Now I'm pretty much down to one box a day sorting as I go to put it on the shelf.  I've split some time off to start converting foam blanks I had already cut for my Plano gun case mini boxes to Dust ready ones.  I had to get the next size up copper coupler (30mm bases, heroes and maybe IA3 needing 40mm), then sharpen one end, and I had forgotten what a pain that was.  Now they are glued and drying, but after fixing the technical issues from my first attempt, I've ran into another, my homemade foam trays have gone from perfect fit for 3 per case to probably just a bit too tight for 3.  I should be ready to take DT to the FLGS on Saturday.  Especially since I'm not planning on anything more ambitious than the original core set units for playing, although I'm going to take some of the newer models along for display.

Heh, the reason for all this goes to the wife.  I was looking at my NOVA buy one-get one free coupon for KR Multicase and noticing that Dust foam is rather cheap, so she pointed out that I could put the extra stuff in the gun cases rather than just stacking gun cases full of 40k up on a shelf. 

Having looked over the physical aspects of the changes to the Black Templars, I'd have to say that the units came out about like I expected, which was a bit short of what should have happened.  Mainly, ignoring the fluff aspects, it was to the good as far as cost of units, wargear options, etc. 

1) It surprised me how many people on the Internet, even non-Black Templar players, agreed that rerolls to hit in CC should have been have been standard for all Black Templar models.
2) Expected fail on GW's part to correct the cost of the plasma pistol.  Seriously, it was pegged at 15 points back when you could use it in CC (and it would be darn well worth it) for its S/AP.  For the last two editions, it should have been dropped down to a more reasonable 10 points at the very least.
3) Keeping the ability to have a special & heavy weapon in a 5-man squad was a little surprise, the plasmagun going up to 15 points was not.  The increase in PW/PF costs was also expected. 
4)  I think Marshal Laeroth is correct.  By RAW, if you upgrade one Initiate to Sword Brother, then you can only have 9 Neophytes from the phrasing.  I don't think that is the intention, but there it is.
5)  As expected, no price break on the LRC, but the LRR does get a little break.  The LRC should have shared that break, and I would have called it down to 225 each for base costs.  GW missed the boat on not giving Black Templars a benefit to being the discoverers/inventors of the LRC by giving Crusader squads (+ICs) that total 16 models a serious price break on the LRC, say down to 175.  "Oh you can take LRCs in your troop choices, that rocks soooo hard.", just doesn't cut it when it is still the same price as anyone else pays.  Pretty much any Marine group can take some LRCs and shove troops into them by giving up HS choices.  Sure, they lose HS slots, but at those prices who can afford much other HS for those slots or need more than 2-3 anyway?
6) Sword Brethren units becoming equivalent to Sternguard/Vanguard was expected and not a bad thing if GW had intended to be honest about upgrading the Templars while saving some effort by placing them in the same book.
7)  The EC pretty much...stinks.  Not bad, but overpriced.

Given the changes to fluff, the spurious "chapter tactics" and the fact that the above, where it is good, is all the good there is...GW drives yet another person away.  I was chatting with my FLGS manager yesterday and after he thought about it, the few "serious" players they have left drop about $500 with each codex release, plus a bit from others who have that army.  The owner (manager of the second store) is already discussing what to replace their GW product wall with because of declining sales overall.  So the manager was happy to talk about me filling an empty game table on 40k game days with something else that others might want to start buying.

First things first, a common error among 40k players comes from their ignorance of the English language.  So, many of them see "heresy" and think that it means religion.  Although religious heresy is the subject of the primary definition of the word "heresy", it is not the only one.  So, when Space Marines, including Black Templar, speak of "heresy", it does not automatically mean that they consider the Emperor to be deity.  So both the priest of the Imperial Creed (who mean the religious type) and Space Marines can speak of "heresy" and not have the same import.  Why?  The other (and possibly original) definition of heresy:

a :  dissent or deviation from a dominant theory, opinion, or practice
b :  an opinion, doctrine, or practice contrary to the truth or to generally accepted beliefs or standards

So, you can have a "scientific heresy", "political heresy", "social heresy", or even "40k list building heresy".  It does not require acceptance of the Emperor as deity.

On the subject of the recent retcon, a number of people flinched and said they could "see that" BT might venerate those who had "touched the Emperor" (sanctioned psykers).  I thought about agreeing, it kinda, sorta sounded reasonable, but something kept stopping me from doing so, even though I remember arguing that since the Emperor had sanctioned Navigators and Astropaths, the Black Templar would accept them, so it wasn't that big a deal, right?  I found the answer in some of my recreational reading.  It goes a bit, you have been warned.

Nothing much, more opening of boxes, sorting out the empty and populated sprue, clipping off parts of sprue that still have a couple of bits on them for the "unclipped bits" boxes, etc.  I've gone through almost all the big boxes and got them stacked (big as in length & width, don't care about height) on the shelf.  I've got a couple more that are just vehicles or WIP that I'm going to box and pad a bit with stray foam to put on top of the rest.

Found a DZC blog off the Hawk Wargames forums that has some nice posts with the nickel version of the differences between the four factions. 

In minor sad news, it seems my FLGS has been seduced by the TwitMyFace cult and is shutting down its forums in favor of TwitMyFace operations.  Gee, look Mom, it's quicker and easier and nicer and funner and loads up your computer with spyware and brings offensive items from foafs onto your computer and all automatically unless you fight like heck to deny access.  Yes, I just had to spend time cleaning some computer hard drive space, not mine, but...

Okay, all of the DT stuff is off the shelf, my two black Army Transport bags are packed to the gills, the shrink wrapped GW boxes are up on the shelf and I've run down some of the stray DT items that weren't where they were supposed to be.  The gun case idea kinda works, the bases for DT are a bit bigger (30mm) so I cannot use the egg crate foam for now.  I'll have to find my other foam I used to cut spots for 40mm bases and get something closer to 30mm to use as a cutter.  Considering I don't need all of the units at first, I can probably just use the cases where I have the original foam and just lay the guys into the egg crate for now.  Or just take the big Dust box with all the minis in it. 

Now it is just sorting through and condensing all the boxes.  I'm beginning to choke at all the minis I'm finding stashed in boxes.  Except for Neophytes, I think I could field six full Crusader squads (weapon options might be limited), plus some Sword Brethren and probably a squad of Assault Marines , maybe two.  And the sprue, the massive amounts of sprue.  Actually, this is good, I've test build one small piece and it works fairly quickly once you get past the boring bits of cutting it up.  You make "bricks" out of the sprue, then just plastic glue them together into a wall.  Easy building build.

BTW, what's up with you guys.  Dead, dead, dead on traffic for a while, now

I hate life blogging, but I understand it.  Not going to fill the page with prose, but sorting through my table, trays, containers and such, finding bags of  bits, stray minis that were set aside for later work, partly finished projects, most amusingly my poor partial squad of Sisters conversions, I do okay, mainly because the small size doesn't make it obvious, but I'm not really a titty sculptor.  My wife made a couple of comments about "lopsided" and when I pointed out that all women are "lopsided", she riposted with "not that much they aren't".  Heh.

Getting near the end now after a couple of hours.  Going to take a couple more, but that is finishing the storage solution transition between DT & 40k as I swap minis in and out.  Amazing how much of what used to be fun packs away, nice and neat in their own little bags.  The best part about little toy soldiers, like Pooh, they will wait patiently on your shelf for the next time you need them and be just as happy to see you then as they were when you played with them everyday.

Oh GAD!  Do I have enough boxes for all these vehicles....

Do not tap at a post like this while still working on the subject.  I forgot about these, where did I get them....Ebay.  Lowballing.  Imperial Fists Rhino/Razorbacks and another pair of Immolators.  Ack, I think there is an Exorcist floating around loose in these boxes....I think I have everything I need for that mech list I never fielded.  Or a couple ofLater.