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The Satirical Simulacrum, The Bullet AoS Lore Dodged The following is a topic I've ruminated on my the precarious mechanics of 40k' as satire, but some Reddit bickering about female space marines crystalized my thoughts. While I like all of GW's IPs, 40k has always been my least favourite. Part of this is just preferring swords to guns, but I'm also put off by the fascist, racist, sexist (grimdark is wall-to-wall 'ist') Imperium of Man, the seeming 'protagonists', compared to the conflicted but humanist world of AoS. I don't think there's anything 'wrong' with stories featuring undesirable protagonists (The Shield, Breaking Bad, even sitcoms like Peep Show and Always Sunny accomplish this). However, a common refrain when the discussion turns to, say, increasing gender representation in 40k is that this would diminish the satire. And 40k is satire, right? Well, let's talk about that. Early 40k art tends to embody a more absurdist tone. To very briefly touch upon the Female Space Marine argument, it's easy to see how the debate becomes more complicated. I'm usually unsympathetic to outrage about 'forced diversity' in mediums where verisimilitude or fostering audience identification is important, but I can grant 40k as a somewhat special case. The Imperium is a horror of Fascist eugenics and so I understand why people who argue that retconning in women SMs would diminish the oppressiveness (not gonna get into the whole genetic science argument, suffice to say that misogynist eugenics fits the theme of fascism). On the other hand, Dan Olson would call this the 'Thermian Argument' (basically, justifying problematic things with an in-universe explanation), which ignores the purpose and meaning of artistic decisions within a text. It's a bullet AoS has deftly dodged, with GW's focus on representation yielding diverse Stormcast, Aelves, Ghosts and Chaos worshippers. If we're talking about the organizing idea of the tex, we're back to notions of 'satire. What is the evidence for 40k's satirical cred? 40k arrives in the late 80s. It was a product of Thatcher's Britain, part of the same counter-cultural wave as 2000 AD or Alan Moore. 40k was punk. So, is 40k a satire of the fascism it depicts? This is a joke, obviously. But here’s the crux of my *actual* point: 40k as a milieu is not inherently sexist or Fascist, but it is a testament to the impossibility of a ‘satire’ surviving the incentives of consumer capital. THE MODEL OF CONSUMPTION This is not a unique problem to TT games (look at the Robocop or Starship Trooper sequels. Actually, DON’T), BUT it’s especially hard to pull off here. Indeed, the term ‘late capitalism’ can be accurately applied to GW IP. If we accept the world of AoS and 40k as an ‘art text’ (insofar as it is a composite of many different bits of narrative), we might question how the requirement to constantly sell, expand and not to ‘complete’ the story impacts its 'punk' satire. Here, consumption is the enemy of transgression. Imagine the film Network as a decades-long Soap Opera and you see my point. The 40k IP isn’t story with a narrative structure where textual ‘meaning’ can be summated, but a staggeringly huge UNIVERSE by countless authors. This cuts both ways. We cannot go further than calling the Imperium fascist by claiming THE GAME ITSELF fascist as this would be unverifiable. The presence of a thing does not necessarily equate to the text supporting or idealising of that thing, even if it gets co-opted (and, to be clear, most satires get co-opted by someone). But we can’t pretend that making the lore more accessible, deeper and BETTER does not compromise its ‘polemic’. Superficial elements of parody do persist somewhat (the Imperium and Orks perhaps most of all), but have mostly been supplanted for a tone of greater verisimilitude. And losing some of that satirical edge doesn’t make the lore weaker. On the contrary, adding nuance and depth (good things for a game world) is antithetical to the precise, utilitarian story structure of satire. Satire, whether it is Dr Strangelove, Oh! What a Lovely War, Catch 22 or V for Vendetta, functions through the purposeful, dialectical approach to ideology and meaning within a text. POSTMODERNISM AND THE GRIMDARK All of this suggests that 40k is at the very least 'bad' satire (i.e. unsuccessful in deconstructing its target for criticism or parody), but bad satire is still satire. But what if it has crossed the threshold, to the extent that it can barely be called satirical at all? 40K really should be the ideal set text for a university course teaching postmodernism. And I’m not talking simply about having pop-culture references. Fredic Jamesons' critique of the post-modern move from parody to 'Pastiche' echoes some of my earlier points, and even his criticism of Postmodern architecture summarizes a lot of what I LIKE about the 40k aesthetic, that it "cannibalizes all the architectural styles of the past and combines them in overstimulating ensembles". But it is perhaps Jean Baudrillard's idea of the 'simulacrum' which is most appropriate. I used to describe 40k's shift as akin to ‘going from Alan Moore’s Watchmen to Zach Snyder’s’, inasmuch as the satirical edge has been buried beneath non-reflective aestheticism. But, really, this is too neat a process, and it implies a kind of pure 'Ur-40k' which can be excavated. But this imposes a sort of hierarchy which does not in fact exist. As Baudrillard says: “Today, abstraction is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror, or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: A hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor does it survive it. It is nevertheless the map that precedes the territory - precession of simulacra - that engenders the territory.” As the elements of anarchic pastiche were slowly extracted from 40k lore to make the world feel more accessible to consumers, we are left with a monolithic simulacrum: a copy of a copy of a copy (and so on). It is hyperreal; it is Grimdark. All of these are issues which the AoS lore has sidestepped from conception. On the one hand, it simply cannot be (and isn't) as subversive as 80s 40k (it is a financially-motivated relaunch by the now-large GW corporation), but this frees from the complexity of representation. The lore's text is one which BEGAN as perhaps a little unsatisfyingly 'weightless' (goodie golden paladins fighting bloodthirsty Khorne bros). Since then, AoS has moved into more nuanced territory, whether by problematizing the idea of 'Order' as 'good (Idoenth, Khaine and even recent Stormcast lore reinforce a moral ambiguity), as well as introducing relatable nuances to 'evil' factions like the servants of Nagash or Nurgle (for which Josh Reynolds deserves most props). Free of the complication of satire, AoS is freer to explore the facets of its lore without the pressure for deconstruction. Overall, I think that while 40k's lore is pleasingly iconic, its roots in satire will create problems as it ages. The truth is, while satire can exist in all artistic mediums including games (Spec Ops: The Line or Papers Please), tabletop wargames are uniquely ill-suited to follow through. There's the business model of perpetual consumption as well as a mechanical obstacle. The player is required to identify with their army insofar as they are using it to win, but to actively connect the toy-soliders to in-universe characters is optional self-work rather than anything reinforced in mechanics. This is not to say that you couldn't make a satirical board game (not the same thing as being funny: Bloodbowl is funny but not really satirical). I don't have an extensive board game knowledge so I'm sure there are examples of games which utilize player gameplay to make some satirical point. But Warhammer ain't it. And that's fine: as I've mentioned, the polemic of satire is antithetical to personalizable and expansive scope of GW IP. Ask a diehard Kaiju fan if Toho's decade-spanning Godzilla franchise preserves the satirical intent of Godzilla (1954), they'll admit "no". But you won't get them to say the franchise was a mistake. 40k has lost its satire but grown its appeal. This has been a cunnin' fink-piece by Lorecritmork (yes, I was tempted to make more of that bit, but it's not like a mini-essay on postmodernism isn't alienating enough). -
Disaster Relief for Gamers in California
Thanquol&Louise posted a topic in Age of Sigmar Discussions
I had the upmost respect for our AOS lore champion Doug on the 2+ Tough channel after his recent message about helping out those who lost everything in the California fires, including all of their gaming materials. Please, we want to make these peoples' day. Below is a link to the site that is spearheading a project to reunite models with our fellow gamers. Whether its donating directly models you own, purchasing desired models from a wishlist, or donating money directly to other charitable organizations, please check out the link below. http://theindependentcharacters.com/blog/?page_id=4122 I may not seem much, but we game for a great many a reason and these folks might just find some reprieve from their feeling of complete loss of their homes and sources of joy. Enabling these folks to game again, to escape, find fun and joy, is the least we can do. In addition check out Doug's original message for the full rundown. -
Thursdays Show Link!:
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So as anyone who knows me will know I often hop between projects a lot ans I'm awful and getting painting finished. But I'm trying to change that. My golden horde topic over on painting and modelling shows some of my more recent conversions which I need to get painted up, along with my daughters of khaine melusai. Though recently I've mostly been working on my dark eldar for 40k and pretty happy with my archon. I think my skills are really improving!!
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I know it’s stupid and probably easily disproved but wouldn’t it be cool if the mortal realms were just a feral world in the grim darkness of the future (feral worlds are world that the imperium just forgets about and leaves it’s populas behind as they have de, evolved. We get explain races easily squats= dwarfs eldar= elves humans = the empire space marines= storm cast who are confused between the emperor and sigmar most of chaos is easily explained but skaven, beast men and other beasts would still be native Now because this is easily disproved let’s look at what else could be evidence
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I am wanting to buy some bits, and after hearing: reading bad reviews on bitsandkits I’ve put my search here: magnus the reds: belt scimitar, in hand scimitar and his eye belt buckle Slimux: just interested in buying Mulch, or Mulch’s shell to be exact
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Last night marked the last show of the year for Brynley and Ryan. Join them as they do a cast like none done before, a special edition with one hell of a bomb shell for next year! review the year gone, go over news and events and generally talk ****** and thanks all of you who make this possible, our viewers and friends! Vote for AusHammer! https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HBJDDQM Gav Thorpe: https://twitter.com/GavThorpeCreate https://www.blacklibrary.com/authors/gav-thorpe Irresistible Force: https://www.facebook.com/irresistibleforce.gaming/ Warrior Lodge: https://www.facebook.com/www.warriorlodge.com.au/ Doom & Darkness: https://www.facebook.com/Doomanddarkness/ https://www.youtube.com/user/michaelbeven1 Paul Conti: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_oEqG92hAmSV8uP7wPr1yA https://twitter.com/PMCMathHammer MC1Gamer: https://www.youtube.com/user/mc1csmo Heralds of War: http://heraldsofwar.com/ https://www.facebook.com/Heraldsofwar/
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Event Title: Da Boyz GT Event Author: gjnoronh Calendar: Events USA Event Date: 11/17/2017 07:00 AM to 11/19/2017 04:00 PM We are excited to announce registration is now open for the 2017 Da Boyz Grand Tournament and Gaming Weekend. Da Boyz will be held on the weekend of November 17th-19th at the RIT Inn and Conference Center in Rochester New York. This three-day gaming extravaganza features multiple gaming systems and formats. This year we will be hosting multiple events in the Warhammer 40K, Age of Sigmar, WFB 8th Edition, Blood Bowl, and the 9th Age systems. We will host a Friday Blood and Plunder demonstration event as well. We are working to add additional systems as well. We were the first US GT to offer Age of Sigmar and the event has grown by leaps and bounds each year. Please note players will be able to provide a table's worth of scenery to compete for our Best Table contest. If you would like to compete in this contest please email us to let us know. Registration and information on specific events are available at www.daboyzgt.com Venue Information: We are now located at the RIT Inn and Conference center in Rochester NY. A full service hotel with on site restaurants, and bar the Inn is located within a few miles of a wide range of eating and shopping options. Please register under the Da Boyz block. Please note the RIT Inn is NOT at the RIT college campus please be smart when programming your GPS! https://www.rit.edu/ritinn/ Questions – contact us at: daboyzrocgt@gmail.com Important note on Email: In the subject line please indicate if you are writing about 40K/9th Age/AoS etc and Singles/Doubles and then your question/concern. In past years we had over 200 army lists and a similar number of questions sent to a shared email address. It wasn’t easy to keep track of it all. Help us out by titling carefully! Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Da-Boyz-Gt/106293642839491?fref=ts Twitter hashtag #DaBoyzGT @Khornelord
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Hey guys. Myself and my god friend Brynley have been doing AusHammer for a little while now. We have been lucky enough to make some great friends in the community including the WW Team, Paul Conti, MC1, Doom & Darkness and many others along the way. We are having a blast putting as much content out to the community as possible with the aim of promoting the hobby as much as possible here in Australia and connecting it to the greater community around the world. It would be great to know we had the support of the TGA community, a community I have been a part of myself for quite some time now. So next time your hobbying, please stop by our channel and take a peek. Like and Subscribe to make sure you keep up to date with what is a huge and very busy scene here in Australia and help us connect the "down under" with the greater world community even more! here is a link to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMaOkRYmI81_L5uJFzjNCFg/videos
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AUSHAMMER have released 2 new Tutorials for the beginner/intermediate hobbyist. How to make a cheap and long lasting WET PALETTE and how to paint the awesome Stormcast Eternals JUDICATOR. Like what you see? The LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to always know when we release new content and support your hobby community!
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Tonight Ryan and Brynley go over current and future events, show off some of you, the communities, most recent hobby achievements and go over how life as a new Tournament Organizer can be and some of the troubles and positive experiences you can expect as a T.O entering the scene. Like what you see? The LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to always know when we release new content and support your hobby community! https://www.facebook.com/AushammerCast/ https://twitter.com/AusHammerCast
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Join us tonight as we discuss all you need to know about competing in a tournament. The tournament scene in Australia and around the world has really amped up with Age of Sigmar so now is a great time to get in the know! Want to see more? SUBSCRIBE and LIKE our channel to always be kept up to date with our latest content! Mentions: http://www.thatsnomoon.info/blog/aos-... https://www.facebook.com/groups/www.w... https://www.facebook.com/events/26746...
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Tonight We talk news and whats on before getting into how to best prepare yourself for a tournament or grand tournament. Got a GT coming up? Then have a listen! Like what you see/hear? Then LIKE and SUBSCRIBE to get updates the moment we go live or release new content! Help support the community!
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Crossroads GT - 2017 http://www.crossroads-gt.com/ Date: September 29-30 and October 1, 2017 Location: Holiday Inn Express- Horseheads 2666 Corning Rd., Horseheads, NY 14845 We will be running multiple events at the Crossroads Fall GT to give players an option to play their preferred gaming system while at the same time keeping this community in the Northeast together and in the same place so we can continue to see familiar faces and get together for a good weekend of gaming. Registration will open on April 8th for all events. The cost for the event is $45 and that entry fee will allow you to participate in any of the game systems. Events: We will be running events for the following game systems: Kings of War Warhammer 40K Age of Sigmar Bloodbowl
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#Hard6 #Hard6AP6 Hard6 is a Warhammer AoS and Blood Bowl focused podcast with two very heavily addicted toy addicts Jay Hopkinson and Adam Cunis. AP6 is 40k focused and Jay is joined by 40k Jonny for these episodes. Both formats feature tournament reviews, new releases in the AoS, 40k and Blood Bowl world, book reviews, tactics and gaming tips, hobby tips and tricks and a few exciting and original features, Gryph-Hound Racing, Hero versus Monster and Warscroll of the week. We love doing it have been for many years, recording live in London. HARD6 We run monthly competitions on both shows with excellent prize support from our sponsors and to enter its just use one of the following hash tags and enter your relevant miniatures: #hard6 #hard6ap6 Feedback is always welcome guys and we want to get people in the community involved with the show so feel free to tweet us and ask us questions. Twitter: @hard_6 Instagram: @hard6jay Email: hard6podcast@gmail.com Website: www.hard6.co.uk PODCAST FEED
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I haven't moved on from the Skaven Kharadron experiments, but I've become distracted by 40k Orks. Here's the progress so far on my first one. If it'S not obvious, he's sad because his teddy lost its ear. Oh, the ravages of war!
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Linking to the tournament posting to make sure folks don't miss it. This is my event I run. We aim for a fun low key environment with loads of hanging out and special events outside of the main tournament weekend
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I haven't moved on from the Skaven Kharadron experiments, but I've become distracted by 40k Orks. Here's the progress so far on my first one. If it'S not obvious, he's sad because his teddy lost its ear. Oh, the ravages of war!
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I've played Warhammer 40k for about 10 years, but I ended up falling out of the hobby after the release of 7th edition- the meta had become so toxic and competitive (at least in my area) that I stopped enjoying gameplay. A couple years later I found this community, and I was inspired to start an Age of Sigmar army. The community here is so laid-back and hobby-oriented, it feels like a breath of fresh air compared to 40k. Anyway, I invested in a Freeguild army about two months ago, and I'm about 10% of the way through painting it. I guess I just had bad timing though- shortly after I got into Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop announced 8th Edition for Warhammer 40k, and the 40k community is already feeling very different! I feel like I really want to get back to 40k (my old true calling I guess), but it feels like a waste having started a Freeguild army. So I feel a little split between the two, and my hobby is losing momentum because of it. Is anyone else feeling the same way?
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We've all been bombarded with the 40k hype for weeks. With all the similarities to AoS, it seems like they are trying to get everyone on board with this the new edition of 40k. I find myself looking at the awesome new releases, and its hard not to get drawn in. Many of us, for one reason or another, choose to focus only on AoS. A lot of the reasons against this are seemingly going away; there is no reason to debate rules for hours, and (hopefully) you can be more competitive with fun lists rather than having to copy netlists and stack the most powerful models only, having to ignore 90% of the model range. But already I can see, its not without its problems. Instead of giving you a free set of core rules, you have to buy the $60 tome. Instead of having the model rules free online or in an app, you have to buy them in $25 books. Most likely the just know that they have a big enough fan base and they can get money out of it, so why throw away some profits? Because they have already set the precedent, that's why. Going from a $0 price of entry to a $85 between game systems makes me feel like this "new" games workshop is relapsing back to their old ways. The big new thing they did was to put the rulebook in the box set. Giving us a "free" rule book - how awesome, right? Well, most people don't care about buying the books - because its 2017. You can borrow a friends book to learn the rules. Or you can take it a step further and take ultra HQ pics on your smartphone, then organize them into a PDF. Or, of course, you can simply get them from someone else who did that. Even so, you can buy a discount version for your phone/tablet which is just as convenient for most people today. So when you add all that up, you get poor book sales. Now, if you want to split the box online to sell to people who obviously only want one side of the box, you are stuck with this $60 value book you cant sell, and therefore you are likely to lose money. Seems GW is looking for ways to kill the eBay market. Now you have books essentially worth nothing and so the $50 value half-box goes up to $80 value half boxes. Its still an awesome deal but its really sticking a fork in the super discount entry to the game. At AoS launch I bought all the stormcast for $50. This is why almost every AoS player has some stormcast or Bloodbound, and it really drives the hobby. Same thing with Skaven, I got my 120 slaves for under $60 thanks to IoB. Now I have like 8k points of skaven and a very large stormcast collection with most of everything they released. Its a great entry point, not sure why they want to mess with this. Next, most people are going to have to solve complex math equations in order to put their lists together. At first glance it seems simple, of course you have to add on the cost of that extra plasma gun upgrade you give to one of your models. But do you really have to add up the cost of a blight drone by adding its base cost with the cost of its mandatory and unique 2x Plagesplitters and Plague Probe? Yes .... you do. Making lists is a lengthy endeavor, so be prepared to take out your note book and calculator and clear your Saturday schedule. They will likely come out with tools to solve this problem, but it really was a problem that they could have easily just not created when designing this new edition. Next we have point balance. I haven't gone looking around a lot, so its scary what I'm finding at first glance. For example, a Lord of Contagion is (don't forget to pay for his mandatory unique Plaguereaper!) 184 points. Typhus, who has the same exact profile - including all of the same keywords and special abilities -164 points. 20 points cheaper with the same profile. Plus 2D6 super pistol shots. +1S on his weapon. Plus he boosts poxwalkers. plus hes a level 2 psyker.... So either there is a typo in the book, or there is basically no reason ever to take a Lord of Contagion over Typhus. Considering that the Lord of Contagion model is the main thing drawing me into 40k, this is really killing my mojo. Meanwhile Typhus is out of stock... There is some silver lining here. The game seems pretty fun and the shooting rules are strict enough that it is unlikely some Skkyfire or Kurnoth Hunter equivalent is going to start vomiting all over the meta. Though it seems pretty inevitable that something will, but maybe there will be a good amount of time until somone finds it, or maybe GW will actually make FAQs and errata to get rid of nonsese (something we are still waiting on for AoS) A lot of people, including myself honestly, like the additional complexity. 8 pages of rules seems more appropriate than 4 pages of rules when we are talking about an all-consuming hobby like warhammer. So should I get the models? For sure, they are gorgeous models and you can get them for dirt cheap (until online vendors realize they are sitting on a stack of books that nobody is going to buy). But am I going to get into 40k? That is a hard sell right now. I'm not likely going to go buying boxes beyond the cheap starter models. Personally I would rather hold out for AoS hype in the form of GH2, new skeletons, new elves, or whatever comes next. When I think about all this hype I've gotten drawn into, it makes me think about all the time and focus I could have put into working on cool AoS models. So how does the community feel? Are most people ready to dive in without looking back, or are there a lot of you feeling hesitation, or even overall disinterest? Are most AoS exclusives going to merge into dual-system hybrids? Is becoming an AoS player exclusively going to be a thing of the past, or is this just a fad hype that will die down in the coming months? Will the GH2 make the AoS fans forget about 40k, or is AoS going to take a big hit as large numbers of our ranks take up bolters and sink our wallets into pricey new Sci-Fi armies?
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So after a slight delay due to life, we'r back, a Khorgaroth has been almost completed, a squad of Knights are being finalized and a Blood Warrior is making progress. As well as a health amount of undead robots. The Khorgaroth has been lots of fun, so many different effects and textures, I've grown massively as a painter from working on him (i see this in my later works). I've used my mobile for these shots, so they're not great. as always and C and Cs would be greatly appreciated -
Event Title: Capital City Bloodbath! Event Author: CanHammer-darren Calendar: Events Canada Event Date: 08/18/2017 12:00 AM to 08/20/2017 12:00 AM CanHammer presents Capital city Bloodbath 2017! It's one of Canada's biggest tabletop gaming events. We feature Warhammer 40k and AOS singles and doubles, along with Batman Miniatures Game, X-wing, Warmachine and more! This 3-day event also features the Gamer Garage, an opportunity to buy or sell used gaming equipment and models for super cheap! Lunches included in registration too! Event takes place in Ottawa Canada, right near the airport! August 18-20. See CapitalCityBloodbath.com for details. Hope to see you there! Capital City Bloodbath!
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untilCanHammer presents Capital city Bloodbath 2017! It's one of Canada's biggest tabletop gaming events. We feature Warhammer 40k and AOS singles and doubles, along with Batman Miniatures Game, X-wing, Warmachine and more! This 3-day event also features the Gamer Garage, an opportunity to buy or sell used gaming equipment and models for super cheap! Lunches included in registration too! Event takes place in Ottawa Canada, right near the airport! August 18-20. See CapitalCityBloodbath.com for details. Hope to see you there!
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untilSave the Date!Da Boyz GT in Rochester NY will be November 17-19 2017. http://Www.daboyzgt.com. New location this year in Rochester itself. We lose the great scenery but add access to a lot of great food and drinking options in the area.40K, AoS, WFB 8thed, Bloodbowl, 9th Age, likely also Warmachine and other great systems. For 8th ed Fantasy we will have Storm of Magic and other non tournament events as well as an escalation tournament. For 40K we will use 8th Edition more rules to come when we know it. Registration is not yet open but mark your calendars and get your hotel reservation in now.Questions? email Gary No daboyzrocgt AT gmail dot com
