Control: Death of the Death Guard…
Simplification.
Efficiency.
Development.
I’m progressing in my writing and my hobbying. I’m improving at both — writing a better book and blog and putting together better strategy gaming results. These personal goals are happening — slowly. They aren’t immediate, and they’re not easy, but I’m working hard at improving my life, and everything is progressing as planned.
I, Dalton Lewis, fired the Death Guard wargaming miniatures. They represent the fat, ugly guys who spread disease and plague. I’m a fat, ugly guy so I thought that they would be a reasonable group for me to use in the game. I didn’t think about the strategies involved very much: they are very defensive and don’t do a lot of damage. They’re a bunch of minis that are used for the Warhammer 40k game. I was 1–5 with them and wasn’t getting better. I lost five games in a row. I didn’t play well with the slow-moving melee units — they didn’t do enough damage to the enemy.
At the tournament I was 0–3 with them. The second game of the tournament was particularly bad. I only killed two units. Against a space marine player in a casual game on Saturday I killed two dreadnoughts and a tank — maybe a third of his army. He decimated all of mine.
The other players hanging out Saturday tried to tell me what strategies and tactics to use to be effective with Death Guard. I probably should have listened to them, but the strategies and tactics seemed very complex and difficult to process. I found something simpler.
Chaos Knights.
They are simpler.
I have eight units. Eight models. I only have eight guys to deal with. That’s a lot easier to deal with than fifty to sixty Death Guard models running around the battlefield. I’m switching to a shooting army, too — I cut out all the melee units from my army. I just want to shoot at my opponent. I want to get my war dogs into the middle of the board and shoot at my opponent and I want my Tyrant behind them, shooting at the enemy.
What do they represent, thematically? They are huge war machines that stride along the battlefield, shooting huge guns at the enemy. I suppose that they represent the martial might of the mind creating engineering responses instead of powers. I can love that.
I know. I should get a lot better at writing and strategy gaming. It’s in the works. I’m getting better, slowly and carefully. It’s a process. For now — what’s better for 40k is Chaos Knights. It’s eight guys whose rules I know more effectively. It’s eight guys that shoot. It isn’t any psychic or melee. It’s an easier list to use.
At writing?
I’ve simplified that, too. I don’t have several point of view characters anymore. I don’t have as many storylines as in books previous. I have one main storyline with one main idea. I do have the characters wandering around America, but I don’t have them meeting too many people that the story becomes confusing. I have a limited cast, interesting people, and a story that follows from scene to scene.
Getting better at writing is a process. I’ve restarted reading 50 pages a day before bed. It’s helping me to write more effectively. It’s a gradual improvement, not a situation in which I suddenly beat Shakespeare. (I picture myself battering Shakespeare with a Nerf bat with glee.) It just means realizing, slowly, what works and what doesn’t. The gradual understanding of the audience’s honest reaction to my stories is a process which leads to a higher quality of story — to the development of a true work of art. In the meantime — blog entries and Chaos Knights.
Simplification.
Efficiency.
Development.
Thanks, and take care, friends.
