Viva Las Vegas GT

Games Workshop's fall Grand Tournament Circuit began 2008 with the Las Vegas GT. With all respect to Chicago and Baltimore, both of which are venues of longstanding tradition for GW--I cannot imagine a setting more fun than the ballroom of the Treasure Island hotel and casino, right on the Vegas strip. The Las Vegas GT hosted 130 Warhammer 40K players, 100 Warhammer Fantasy Battles players and two dozen players of the Lord of the Rings strategy game. It was also the first tournament for Fifth Edition Warhammer 40,000 and for the new Dark Elves army book for Fantasy, and featured a three-round Doubles Tournament on Friday for interested WHFB and 40K players and a Challenge of Heroes (won unsurprisingly by mighty Glorfindal) for LotR. It was nevertheless a smooth and largely crisis-free event, highlighted by a Treasure Island buffet lunch for participants on Saturday.

The real highlight of any miniatures event, of course, is the parade of exceptionally painted armies. Unlike GamesDays, the GTs do not feature separate painting contests, ala Golden Daemon; the models on display at GTs are part of in-play armies. That so many could be painted to such an extraordinarily high standard for use, rather then display only, has always especially impressed me--and did so again at Vegas. Many, especially those which took home Best Appearance and Players Choice Awards, can be seen in GW's coverage of the GT on their website.

This year's Grand Tournament rules package deserves particular commendation: moreso than in recent years, the Army Appearance and Sportsmanship scoring portions were both comprehensively revamped and clarified for participants. GW now has their 'pure generalship' tournament in the Ard Boyz circuit; it is nice, therefore, to see scoring for the GTs re-embrace the many aspects of the hobby which amplify that tabletop experience--and to do so with clear, fair, balanced and comprehensive rules. Credit for the new GT rules package goes to Chris Gohlinghorst and Nicole Shewchuk...both of whom are quick to credit, in turn, the efforts of the hobby community, which has raised the bar for such expectations through independent events.

Army Appearance and Sportsmanship scores in a GT reflect that the hobby does not exist in a pure 'results on the tabletop' vacuum: how a player's army looks while winning or losing makes a big difference in the 'enjoyment of the experience' factor...and how the player and his opponent comport themselves probably makes an even bigger difference in whether or not the game, for both, is fun. Whether that matters to an individual player or not (and I will deal with the 'social contract' implicit in tabletop wargaming at some future point, which I guarantee will draw readers with vehement disagreement :), it is essential to the health and growth of the hobby, and it is good to see it take a complementary but significant place in GT scoring again (along with pretty clear guidelines tp players about how such scoring should be applied).

Ultimately, of course--it *is* still a tournament. Unlike a community event or storytelling-oriented gathering like a Campaign Weekend, the outcome really does matter more than the experience (or at least as much!). And when one general proves unbeatable through five rounds-- and not just unbeatable but unapproachable, taking on contender after contender on the top table and earning maximum-points victories--'who won the most' will still determine the GT's Overall champion. Congratulations to Marc Parker and his Ork horde: he has proved what many hobbyists already suspected--that with a terrific new Ork codex and a great starter force provided by 'Assault On Black Reach,' the orks are going to force players who consider themselves GT contenders to build something more flexible than the pure 'MEQ Killer'* armies which have predominated for some time. That is a good thing for the hobby.

A GT is not for every hobbyist...but every hobbyist should try at least one, someday. They dwarf the biggest Rogue Trader Tournament experiences, and as good as some of the Independent 'GT' equvalents are on the circuit (and some, like the Lone Wolf and Alamo GTs, the Adepticon and Quake City weekends, and especially the Astronomi-con circuit, are very, very good indeed)--there is something about an official GW-run GT that is unique. Its scope, elaborateness and sense of hobby spectacle are something every hobbyist should eventually try, and many will come to love.

Especially in Vegas.

*--'MEQ Killer:' An army list designed for competitive play which maximizes the unit and weapons choices available for defeating a particular kind of opponent--a space marine army, characterized by high armour saves and Toughness, but compensatorily low model-count, often called a 'Marine EQuivalent' because it can include Chaos Space Marines, Necrons and outre variants from other codices, as well. Extremely good at eliminating such army types, many variants of this construct are woefully inequipped to deal with high model-count armies, often called 'Hordes.' +++

Starting An IG Army

"Everyone seems to play either Space Marines or aliens of some sort in 40K, and I understand the appeal, I started in the hobby with Space Marines, too. But I want to play the Imperial Guard. Unfortunately, the IG codex is a little more complicated to put together a starting army from...at least, it seems so to me. Any guidance, for a beginner commissar?"

Though I began as a Space Marine player just like you, and many hobbyists--they really are the icons of the forty-first millennium, so I think we can be forgiven that :)--I too find the gothic soldiery of the Imperial Guard appealing, and have fielded a small force. In my case I've used them exclusively with my Daemonhunters, as inducted Guard. Frankly, that is actually the path I recommend to players new to the IG: assembling a force is much more straightforward than the IGdex's Platoon structure, and while there are some limitations to what you can use, the core forces are available. Take a look at either Codex: Daemonhunters or Codex: Witch Hunters; you will find their 'choose a leader (HQ) and fill out your Force Organization Chart with individual units' methodology very similar to what you've used as a Space Marines player (and the various options for Inquisitors, Imperial Assassins and Operatives over and above the Guard options are extremely colourful, besides).

If, however, you are less an adventurist than a militarist; if you prefer reading Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts novels to his Eisenhorn or Ravenor series; if you want to start from scratch building a pure Imperial Guard army, codex-legal--it isn't difficult so much as it is simply different. And that difference is both fun, and a big part of what gives the Imperial Guard its essential nature. Far be it from me to dissuade you from such a pursuit; rather, I present the thoughts of one of the hobby's premier Imperial Guard commanders, Mike Major, to actively encourage it! Currently of Winnipeg, Canada and one of the two primary driving forces (along with Christian Augst) of the best event series in the 40K hobby, the Astronomi-Cons (http://www.Astronomi-con.com ), Mike is also a highly successful competitive player, including a Chicago Grand Tournament championship. His Colonel Arcturan Senekal is one of the best known figures in the sub-hobby of '40K fan fiction'--probably *the* best known IG personality. This is what Mike had to say, about assembling a starter army from the current Imperial Guard codex (the bracketed interpolations are mine, for clarity); having your Codex: Imperial Guard handy to reference the many things he refers to is recommended:

"I'd recommend [filling the requisite 1 HQ and 2 Troops choices with] a Command HQ unit, a 25 man Platoon and an Armoured Fist Squad. This keeps the cost and points down while you learn the army. There are a lot of routes to go with the HQ unit, but I think one of the best for a starter player is an officer with a power fist and possibly a commissar with him also with a 'fist. This gives you some solid countercharge punch at a relatively small point and monetary cost. Going heroic senior officer is best for this and I'd add both a trademark item to the officer and/or a standard. Best special weapons for this team would be a couple of flamers or a melta and a flamer. I'd stay away from the vox at first.

The first Troops choice is your Platoon, which consists of a Platoon Command unit and two or more Platoon squads. Platoon Command can either be similarly equipped [to the HQ Command unit] or set up for shooting. I prefer the latter myself as a one Wound Independent Character with a 'fist all too often doesn't ever get to swing. If you go the HtH [hand-to-hand combat-oriented] route, a PF [power fist] is still better than a PW [power weapon] as the LT [lieutenant, or junior officer commanding the Platoon Command unit] is probably still going to be swinging last anyway. May as well hit hard. If you go HtH for the Platoon Command, consider a second commissar with 'fist for them, too.

Platoon tacs [squads] are your shooting support. Give the squads a heavy weapon of some kind. In a small platoon I'd go with either a LC [lascannon] and a HB [heavy bolter] or 2 ML [missile launchers]. Basically you need flexibility. You can always swap out for another LC later as the army grows - or another HB or AC [autocannon] if you've gone heavy AT [anti-tank] in your Platoon Command.

AF [Armoured Fist] squads are fun, maneuverable but fragile. I like them with flamers or grenade launchers and generally give them a heavy [weapon] and a veteran sergeant to keep them flexible and in the fight. The basic weapons load out on the Chimera [their APC, or armoured personnel carrier; the vehicle the squad rides in] is a good one. Give it a heavy stubber or pintlemounted storm bolter and a smoke launcher. Searchlights are good too."

Follow Mike's instructions and you will have an HQ designed to heroically mix it up in fist fighting with the vastly stronger/faster/mightier superbeings, aliens and monsters of the 40K universe--achieving legendary status every time these underdogs win against the odds--and two Troops choices designed to provide a withering firebase, one of them mounted in a nice, inexpensive armoured vehicle to get around on the table top and snatch objectives with. I would reconsider giving the Armoured Fist squad a heavy weapon precisely because my style is to move, that is how I would use this unit--and if they are moving, they aren't shooting--and would definitely endorse the missile launchers as heavy weapons of choice for the Platoon squads: they are flexible, able to fire either anti-tank or anti-personnel, and template weapons in general have gotten better in the newest edition of the game. I am also fonder of power weapons than Mike, as I just hate to hit last. But that is one of the joys of the Imperial Guard--there are so many elements of it, you really can customize it to be the army you want it to be (or, if you follow my first recommendation, *armies*--as a Daemon- or Witch Hunter army plays very differently than straight Guard, with relatively few changes in models).

And when you've built the basic starter Imperial Guard force Mike outlines above--it is time to reward yourself, by making the next addition something special. With Guard, that can be an elite unit, such as storm troopers or Ogryn...but for most players drawn to the Imperial Guard, what it likeliest means is, it is time to add a tank. Not an APC...though the Chimera is a good looking and underrated specimen of one...but a full-on, battlefield-dominating, thunder-belching and fire-spitting monster. For Guardsmen, that means a Leman Russ Battle Tank. There are a great number of variants--not just those available at retail from GW, like the very impressive Demolisher, but the multitude cast in resin from subsidy specialty caster Forge World ( http://www.forgeworld.co.uk )--but your best first choice is the standard Leman Russ, complete with battle cannon primary armament (see above comment about the effectiveness of template weapons in the new edition of the game). Build a Leman Russ, to back up your heroes, firebase and APC. When you've done that, you will be not only an Imperial Guard player, a special enough breed in the Warhammer 40,000 community, but an official and duly sworn member of the treadhead society, as well.

That's when the fun really begins.

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Background Music Comes Forefront

Every year, the Dallas, Texas-area Metropolitan Wind Symphony fills the sonorous Morten H Meyerson Symphony Center with movie music. If you are a fan of genre films, including television, their annual film music concert takes on special significance--not just because some of the most memorable and enduring film scoring has been done for science fiction and fantasy cinema, but because the Metropolitan Winds, and their conductor, Randal Bass, enjoy a special relationship with the pre-eminent practitioner of the art, John Williams.

Full disclosure: I am a film music geek. I use the term affectionately--but specifically: 'geeks' are most readily identifiable by their devotion to even the most absolutely minute of details about their fixations, and while I am not exclusively a film music geek (this is, after all, a miniatures wargaming-centric blog, I've already written about GIJoe conventions, and getting me started on comic books is downright dangerous, as I am certain will become evident in time, just for starters)--I am *devotedly* a film music geek. Mess with the objects of my affection at your peril. I warn about this in advance because it is necessary to understand why there were parts of the Winds' concert that I enjoyed rapturously, and parts that inevitably disturbed me...and so that readers will know that *they* might well feel precisely the opposite about both things, depending on whether they, too, are subject to taking their film music overly seriously :)

John Williams is an illustrative place to start. For many people, John Williams is synonymous with film scoring. He has the Oscars, blockbuster motion pictures and endless string of memorable themes to prove it. For many--arguably, most--people interested in a film music concert, pulling more than half your programming from Maestro Williams' repertoire would be perfectly logical and satisfying.

Find a film music geek and you will be hard-pressed not to find John Williams' influence on that love in evidence--and I am absolutely such a specimen: much as the household I grew up in was filled with classical, sacred and orchestral music from the time of my first memories, everything crystallized for me in 1977, with the double-album release of John Williams' score for "Star Wars." I love his entire ouvre, from the most well-known Raiders and Imperial Marches to the least-heard choral Glorias. But find a film music geek--this one included--and you will also likely find other personal favorite composers whose work has, over time, come to speak as personally as Williams'--and it inevitably chafes to hear lesser compositions from the Williams canon given live performances when geniuses like Erich Wolfgang Korngold or Jerry Goldsmith rate only a single work each. So we get grumpy over programming--and that probably won't bother most concertgoers at all.

Conversely--if they are going to tackle John Williams, it is nice to see an organization like the Winds do significant compositions beyond just the staples. At this year's concert, the Winds climaxed the first act with a dizzying medley of his two "Lost in Space" television themes (bad as that show became, it was scored from beginning to end by masters, and listening to the complex, explosive main titles Williams composed in light of what music scoring for television has become makes one mourn for the state of the art); then in the concert's second half, delivered the terrific-but-almost-never-heard-because-it-is-so-darkly-named "March of the Slave Children" from the second Indiana Jones film, "Temple of Doom," and beautifully executed both the mournful, Americana-midwest-defining "Leaving Home" from Williams' 1978 masterpiece "Superman" and a really-nicely arranged suite of Krypton/Fortress of Solitude music from the same film. Film geeks know every bar of this music, and positively revel in hearing it given a rare live performance...but more voices around me than one, after the completion of the "Superman" selections, bemoaned the lack of its signature theme, instead.

For the Winds, one person's 'lesser composition' is another's rarely-performed gem. Catch-22 :).

End of the day, the Metropolitan Winds obviously enjoy a great relationship with the composer, something their listeners are the ultimate beneficiaries of. Much as I might have wanted more Goldsmith or Korngold (or Elfman or Bernstein or Barry or...), I cannot fault them their programming choice.

(though I do have this quibble with their selection sequence: heavily advertising the concert as geared toward such music, it would reward those most eager to hear it not to hold all of it until the second act: my youngest hums the Raiders March as the personal soundtrack to his life these days, and had grown frankly frustrated with the programming of unfamiliar music he had to sit through until nearly concert's end to properly enjoy "Raiders" when it was finally played...whereas he might well have found interest in the exposure to some of that music had it followed hard on a early performance of a selection or two he'd come wanting to hear...)

Highly regarded movie critic Gary Cogill hosted the concert, as he has done for some years, providing running commentary between selections. Here again I absent myself from fairly commenting on the value of such a thing, because I'm such a purist about it: I want music, not talking, and if there must be talking I want it ontopic rather than working toward comic effect and I want it dead-on accurate instead of close-enough...and I recognize that's an intensity of experience most people do not share. I have been lucky enough to deal with Mr. Cogill a time or two personally and have found him as cordial 'off-stage' as on, and his enthusiasm for the Winds' music never flagged. I could do without spoofing a composer's name for a cheap laugh (there is no 'von' in Korngold)...but in fairness, the fact that bothered me probably says far more negative about me than it does him, really :).

Ultimately, genuine geek or casual listener, what counts is the performance. The Metropolitan Winds is a 501C charitable organization, and an all-volunteer orchestra, which performs a calendar of a half-dozen or so concerts annually; that is a big reason ticket prices to their film music concerts are so family-friendly (admission this year was twenty dollars for adults, half that for children, an extraordinary value for an evening at a venue like the Meyerson). The only thing 'amateur' about their performances is the fact the participant musicians do not do it for pay. The Meyerson is such an acoustically-glorious facility that it would be difficult for any outfit not to sound its best there; and the Winds' reading of their various concert pieces was extraordinarily bright and rich, with a particularly deep and resonant colour in their lower brass (the bass trombones were most notably 'on' that evening, and the Winds' supporting percussion were exceptional, especially handling all the special effects in a Goldsmith 'Wind and the Lion' suite). There were sections which were stronger than others, of course, and the truth that film music can be complex and difficult occasionally tested musicians to their limits. One does not go to hear Goldsmith or, indeed, Williams and not expect to hear horns and tuba and oboe taxed...but the Winds performers in each of these areas answered the composers' considerable challenges. The sound was pleasing throughout, and powerful when asked by Conductor Bass. If it is criticism to say that the only real negative I left the concert with was a desire to have heard the symphony perform *more* music (see 'film music geek' above), I suspect that is a criticism the fine talents of the Metropolitan Winds can live with :).

The Metropolitan Wind Symphony's 2008-2009 concert calendar can be found at http://www.metropolitanwinds.org and their signature concert of movie music at the Meyerson is already scheduled for June 28, 2009. Those of us who live our lives with music in our heads, whether it be while pushing model armies across tables in our own theater-in-miniature, or simply because we don't know how else to pass the minutes of the day, are encouraged to be there for it.

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GI Joe was there...and so were we!

I loaded my two sons into the family all-terrain-transport (read: minivan) for Frisco, Texas--and the final day of JoeCon, the 2008 National GIJoe Collector's Convention.

The hobby of GIJoe collecting subdivides along very specific lines: the primary arbiter is one's preference for 12" 'classic' figures versus 3 3/4" 'star wars era' figures (there is also a new 'inbetween' Sigma scale, where the figures are about 8" tall, but that line doesn't yet have a noticeable fan/collector base). The 3 3/4" scale figures were just starting to dominate collecting when the lady wife and I went to the 1998 Convention on a nostalgic whim (and because it was in San Antonio, and there is never a bad excuse to visit San Antonio, and the Alamo); ten years later (and with a big-budget Hollywood movie coming out in 2009 based entirely on the 3 3/4" mythos), I found the 2008 con heavily geared toward the smaller line. Though that scale of figure and all of its attendant Cobra/Dreadnok/'Yo Joe!' mythos postdated my childhood, it had an advantage for my boys, and younger enthusiasts in general: the smaller scale figures and accessories are sufficiently inexpensive that a *lot* of them were given away as door and event prizes (kudos Hasbro and RadioDisney!), so both boys came home with such figures of their own.

I do not consider myself a collector. While I probably have enough action figures to qualify, most were bought for who or what they represented (I have Joes of many figures of historical interest, from Teddy Roosevelt to Ulysses S. Grant to George Patton, for example, and commemoratives of Tuskegee Airmen and NASA events as well as the Sea Wolf-class submarine launch) rather than specifically because they were Joes; moreover, I don't know nearly enough about the hobby. 12" Joes *were* the toy of choice in my youth, however...and I belong to a 'subera' within the 12" classic collector base, the Adventure Team, that didn't get much love a decade ago--but seems to be flourishing now, even dominating the (admittedly diminished) 12" market at the convention. This year's 'convention exclusive' figure pack was a 12" Adventure Team set, the 'Search for the Sasquatch,' which we had to have (and I can say 'we' legitimately, because the boys and I took it out of its packaging and set it up for play as soon as we got home)...and I noticed several such exclusives from recent conventions, including deep sea and polar bear themed sets, had decided 'AT' qualities about them, as well. I suspect the traditionalist Joe collector, whose interests are 12" scale and authentic military reproduction equipment, probably despairs of seeing the smaller scale overtake the hobby generally, and the more lightly-regarded Adventure Team era dominating classic scale--but it was a quite pleasant blast of nostalgia, for me: memories of my (admittedly hard-haired and hard-handed classic) Joe leading my brothers' and neighbor's life-like-haired and kung-fu-gripped Joes on day-long adventures through the cattle pastures and watering ponds of my rural youth (and later across the artificial dirt mountains of construction sites, as it became less rural) with all the great Adventure Team equipment of the era--led by the greatest classic toy I ever owned, the ATII Mobile Support Vehicle (thanks Mom and Dad :)--flooded back to me, as I walked the aisles with my own sons.

Any confluence of subcultures always fascinates me, at events like this: though I did not encounter the local 40K hobbyist who has built a small space marine force fully converted to represent the GIJoe villains Cobra, as I half-expected, one of the first people I bumped into in the hall was Mike Y'Barbo, former Warhammer 40,000 Grand Tournament Winner and a regular opponent of mine in the early tournament days of 40K third edition, toting a bunch of Cobra figures and models out to the parking garage (Mike, a Chaos and Dark Eldar player, and first innovator of what became a GT-dominating army theme for a time, the 'all dark lance all the time' mobile DE force, obviously has a villainous streak in him somewhere). Most pleasant surprise, however, was discovering artist Dave Dorman was a convention guest: Dave is one of my favorite talents, and among his many beautiful licensed paintings for various superhero, Star Wars and other GIJoe products, Dave also did the gorgeous box art for the Sasquatch con exclusive and con Tshirt, which he was happy to sign (you probably know Dave's genre art from somewhere, as his luminous style is very distinctive: Check him out at http://www.davedorman.com or his original science fiction work at http://www.wastedlands.com.

Kudos to longtime organizer Brian Savage and all of his con crew (check out the sponsoring GI Joe Collectors Club at http://www.GIJoeClub.com for subscriptions to the club newsletter/magazine, which also provides access to exclusive premiums like the Sasquatch set and first word, once it becomes available, about the 2009 JoeCon). I was particularly impressed with how much effort was made to insure kids--like the two I brought in tow--got fully caught up in the excitement: at noon, two score 3 3/4" Joes with functioning parachutes were dropped from a remote-controlled helicopter for the kids to chase, there was a 'GIJoe Boot Camp' where kids could earn merit badges for various thematic tasks like sharpshooting (with water guns), knot-tying, and team-boot-polishing; and a portable rock wall was set up in the parking lot (which my five-year-old at least attempted, and my nine-year-old triumphantly conquered). Inside, there was a 'play pit' with a handsome variety of vehicles, figures and clothing/equipment from all eras for kids to get hands-on with, and an obstacle course with 12" scale remote-controlled Stuart tanks that my sons could have stayed and played with for hours. Uniformed scouts (and, I believe, active-duty military personnel) were also welcomed to the event with free admission. All in all, a first-rate effort to make a collector's event, an adult-oriented con by definition, into something thoroughly family-friendly.

The 2000s are a different era to grow up in than the 1970s were. There are many, many more diversions in terms of toys alone to occupy a boy's interest, to say nothing of electronic games, ownable and rentable movies and hundreds of television channels (instead of five). And there aren't many places where a handful of boys can run off for hours unsupervised and turn an empty dog house into Adventure Team HQ, complete with tanks, all-terrain vehicles, helicopters and jet-packs parked outside to soar off in ever direction in, with only your kitted-out 12" Joe and your imagination to define your day. My boys have a couple of 12" Joes--and now some 3 3/4"s, courtesy of the con, as well--and when they choose to unpack them to play with, a great time is had...but in their 'toy hierarchy,' I don't suspect GIJoe will ever have the kind of supremacy for them he had for me, at the same age. I didn't have Star Wars figures and MegaBloks Dragons and Heroclix superheroes and, for my boys probably most paramount, Warhammer 40K to compete for my attentions. But it is nice that 'America's Moveable Fighting Man' (and his international co-conspirator, Action Man, who was also much in evidence at the con) is still out there, when he *is* called upon. It is nice that there is an event like the annual JoeCon which celebrates so enduring and positive a bit of subculture. And it is especially nice that they do it so well.

I re-joined the Club, before I left the convention. I look forward to receiving the newsletter again, especially as next year's movie ramps up. And if a JoeCon another year happens to be close, or happens to coincide with a family-vacation-worthy destination, I will look forward to going back. And I can guarantee I won't be the only one in this household now eager to return.
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Whither the Eldar?

One of the interesting phenomena of fourth-edition Warhammer 40K has been the relatively thin embrace of the Eldar amongst hobbyists, since their new Codex.

When it came out, I genuinely thought their popularity would increase significantly—or rather, would again begin to approach its old levels. You see, the Eldar were the power army of V2 40K, a designed-Space Marine-killer race that had the necessary tools to beat almost every other faction at the time at their own game, as well. The Eldar kind of hung on to that reputation in the transition to V3 (especially with the original third-edition black book Wraithlord sporting a Toughness 9!), then steadily lost their pride-of-place as a power army of choice once their codices began coming out. They were still powerful—the Wraithlord remained (and remains) one of the best bang-for-its-points units in the game, the Craftworld supplemental codex essentially allowed Eldar to become the only army who could cherry-pick Elite units and make them core Troops choices (something the new Codex elegantly still allows with a few more game-balance-oriented controls), and then the codex supplement which gave us the Eldar Seer 'Jedi Council' created one of the most infamous army compositions for tournament play in post-V2 history—but they were already moving in a direction this most recent codex carried them completely to: the ultimate 40K combined arms force. The Eldar have almost no jack-of-all-trades type units, which can forgive their player a deployment or movement blunder by simply hanging in until he gets a chance to correct it: the Eldar general has to use each unit he chooses for his army to its best advantage, to excel. They are very unforgiving, if misplayed (or even casually played). And as there really aren't as many genuinely tactically gifted players out there as the trashtalking in an average game hall would suggest, many hobbyists in this edition have encountered Eldar armies they've been able to make short work of...and assumed the army plays like that under every hand. It doesn't. Once you've met an Eldar army in competition played by a truly skilled general, you will be wary of them ever after—perhaps most of all because when an Eldar general beats you, there aren't many 'codex' excuses to blame, or lucky die rolls to finger. The Eldar reward skill.*

I still admire the current edition codex very much. With the possible competition of the most recent Orkdex, I think it is the best of the 'new generation' codices.** I have come to realize its very complexity in use will probably mitigate against it ever becoming as popular as I expected it initially to be...but I also suspect that it will appeal to more and more hobbyists who reach a point where they want more complexity, more challenge, less 'obviousness' from their chosen tabletop army. And I think that combination—of veteran, experienced gamer and army list full of highly specialized but outrageously-effective-if-used-right tools—will bring more and more Eldar armies to the table in the near future which will need to be reckoned with.

Of course, they are still prancing, arrogant, pointy-eared xenos scum who nearly destroyed the universe once—and may yet still—through their utter inability to control their basest, most debauched urges. Whatever compliments I may direct toward their codex as the hobby's most currently challenging—that always needs be said of them, too.

* Though I have faced a number of genuinely nasty Eldar armies in Independent, Rogue Trader and Grand Tournaments over the years (including several of those aforementioned Seer Councils), for sheer 'Jedi Mastery' of the Eldar on the tabletop, credit in my personal experience goes to a gamer from Winnipeg, Canada named Dave Violago, a regular attendee of what I consider hands-down the finest hobby experience 40K has to offer, Canada's Astronomi-Con circuit, who left me feeling exactly like most 'monkeigh' feel around Eldar in the game's background fiction (about three steps behind them)—except that he was a gracious sport all the while he elegantly outmaneuvered my Daemonhunters all over the city ruins, and generally schooled me in all aspects of gameplay. If you ever get a chance, play him: you will never underestimate the Eldar again.

** Both the current-edition Codex: Eldar and Codex: Orks were written by Phil Kelly. Both rulesets are both competitive and marvelously evocative (the Orkdex has the distinction of being the only rulebook I recall which made me laugh out loud while reading it. Repeatedly.) and are a credit to the game system. I recommend them highly.

The Outrider
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The Outrider: Special Character

(a wholly-unofficial, 'by-opponent's-permission-only' special character for Warhammer 40,000; by Christopher Allen)

Points Cost: 100
Force Org Slot: Fast Attack
Unit Type: Jet Bike

WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv
4	4	4	4 (5)	1	4	1	10	3+ (4+ Inv)

Individual: An army can only include one Outrider

Wargear: Jet Bike (armed with a Plasma Cannon and Twin-linked Storm Bolter), Power Armour, Bolt Pistol, Power Weapon, Frag Grenades, Krak Grenades

Special Rules: Fearless, Veteran Space Marine, Legion of the Damned

Veteran Space Marine: The Outrider is possessed of the experience of a Veteran Space Marine; as such, he may have either the 'Furious Charge' or the 'Tank Hunter' skill (but not both), chosen by the player before each battle.

Legion of the Damned: The Outrider appears from nowhere, in the midst of combat, at the moment of the Imperium's most dire need; the Outrider may be taken as a Fast Attack choice by any Imperial army (Space Marine, Imperial Guard, Inquisition, etc), and is ALWAYS held in Reserve, regardless of any mission-specific rules of deployment.

History

The Outrider exists on the periphery of organized, documentable experience, in the universe of the 41st millennium. Most authorities dismiss reports of his existence as aberrant; if he ever existed, they say, he is no more. His reputation has been sullied by the heaping on of gross exaggerations to any substance of truth his story may once have contained. Now he is a thing of 'might have been' or 'once was,' if he is even acknowledged at all, and the powers that be would just as soon the Imperium forgot him.

However, out on the front, in the field, where what is said matters infinitely less than what is done, the tales of the Outrider persist; and those who claim his experience and strong sword arm appeared at their moment of greatest need, to guide them safely through the perils of the 41st millennium, will swear both to his reality, and his nobility of purpose.

Documented reports of the Outrider's appearance conflict: many sightings describe his gear, equipment and general appearance as consistent with the black armour and skull-and-flame motif of the mysterious 'Legion of the Damned' (cf 'Fire Hawks'), and certainly the instances of commonality of reported battlefield appearances by both the Legion and the Outrider suggest some sort of link (if one is to believe either exists, at all); however, a minority of reports describe the Outrider appearing in the midst of combat clad not in the livery of the Legion, but rather in the trappings and colours of the very Space Marine chapters he reportedly appeared to aid.

Of the reports which cannot be definitively dismissed as fictitious, certain consistencies stand out: the Outrider never appears until the actual battle is joined; the Outrider rarely—if ever—communicates, once on scene (there are numerous anecdotal reports of him speaking to individual space marines, Guard soldiers, Inquisitional storm troopers or battle sisters, but he appears to assiduously avoid their more organized chains-of-command) ; the Outrider appears to be possessed of the most experienced of battlefield skills, rivaling the most veteran space marines, whether he appears to reinforce a gun line or lead a counter charge; and the Outrider always appears skimming onto the battlefield on an ancient Bulloch-pattern Imperial jet bike, of the sort which has largely fallen into disfavor across the Imperium as a tainted, 'xenos' technology. Curiously, there are instances of the Outrider appearing in the battle livery of recently-founded space marine chapters, as described above—chapters far too new to the Imperium to have ever boasted such jet bikes in their arsenals, to begin with.

Much like the Legion of the Damned to which he is putatively linked, the very suggestion of some supernatural quality to the existence of the Outrider makes him suspect and anathema, to Imperial authorities- -no matter how many noble deeds are attributed to him, in unconfirmed and unconfirmable after-action reports. If he does exist, the forces of the Imperium will continue to deny him and to try, with as much vigor as mankind's alien and daemonic enemies, to wipe him from the face of Imperial history. Until they do, he will likely continue to appear across the galactic frontier, driven by his own internal motivations, where those who have faith in him need him most.

If he even exists...

The Outrider
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