In the Finest Hour Podcast

Ep18: Analyzing Mission Series #2- ETC

With Sean on vacation, it's a struggle between Good and Evil as Josh and Shaylynn take over things for a week with a very special episode. Ridvan (aka Skari of SkaredCast) is on with our special guest in the next installment of the Analyzing Missions series as he talks to us about the European Team Championship format at length. Skari was vice-captain of the Canadian ETC team in 2018 and has been a consistent attendee in previous years, doing his nation proud, and with some help from Josh (who has attended as a freelancer for various teams) the three of them dig into the ins and outs of what is so unique about ETC. Being a team format, there naturally are a lot of differences from the usual style of play- indeed, ETC has developed a meta all its own and one that canny teams have learned to exploit, whether by dictating positions on the team, knowing the terrain, playing to the unusual style of missions that are used for it, or simply by having prior experience with all of these things firsthand. If you're curious about the ETC and what it means for the game as a whole, or are attending a similar event (like ATC or CTC) yourself, you'll want to check this episode out!

Skari's Stuff: SkaredCast

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Episode Music: Dankmus
Icon Artist: Rylan Woodrow
Sponsored by: Mindtaker Miniatures
Our Patreon: In the Finest Hour
Website: https://www.inthefinesthour.com/
Directed by: Sean Morgan
Edited by: Shaylynn Allen

Ep: 17.5 Adepticon Hottake 2019

Joshua does the boots on the ground and Shaylynn provides some air-support while Sean is busy getting lost in the webway. 

That's how we do Adepticon Hottakes! Josh shares the latest in 40k gossip as well as setting descriptions so you can have the most informed convention experience should you choose to go at a later date!

Episode Music: Dankmus
Icon Artist: Rylan Woodrow
Sponsored by: Mindtaker Miniatures
Our Patreon: In the Finest Hour
Website: https://www.inthefinesthour.com/
Directed by: Shaylynn Allen
Edited by: Shaylynn Allen

Ep17: Tempo Part 2

A subject too big to cover just once! This week we revisit tempo and really dig into the subject further- what is tempo, and what does it represent in the game? How do you tell it apart from other gameplay mechanics? Why is it so important to winning? We pick apart the big and the small parts of it and break them down into digestible chunks. We talk about how tempo happens in each of the major phases of the game, starting with your own and proceeding to your opponent's- plus, we talk about negative tempo, how to avoid it, and how to deny your opponent tempo.

 Episode Music: Dankmus
Icon Artist: Rylan Woodrow
Sponsored by: Mindtaker Miniatures
Our Patreon: In the Finest Hour
Website: https://www.inthefinesthour.com/
Directed by: Sean Morgan
Edited by: Shaylynn Allen

Ep16: Summoning

Sometimes we like to talk about broad, general subjects- but sometimes, we like to get down to the nitty-gritty. This week on In the Finest Hour, we discuss summoning; coming off the back of an LVO top 8 finish, Josh obviously has a lot to say on the subject, so we dig in deep to the Daemonic Ritual ability and look at it in detail. What the ability does, stratagems that interact with it, units that enhance it, and of course the many units you may want to bring in using it. We talk about why summoning is useful, and what kinds of lists can take advantage of it as well as the things you need to make it work and some of the common pitfalls involved with players who try to incorporate summoning.

Of course, if you're coming from the other side of things, we also talk about the limitations of summoning and ways that you can beat armies that use it as well as how a summoning-focused list can fall apart and common archetypes that give it trouble.

If you haven't yet, also check out our new sponsor, Mindtake Miniatures- the owners are good personal friends of the show and if you're looking to pick up an army on the cheap or have some old minis that you're never going to find a use for, they can help you out with both sales and consignments.

Episode Music: Dankmus
Icon Artist: Rylan Woodrow
Sponsored by: Mindtaker Miniatures
Our Patreon: In the Finest Hour
Website: https://www.inthefinesthour.com/
Directed by: Sean Morgan
Edited by: Shaylynn Allen

Ep15: Get on a Team!

What's the number-one most important thing to improving your 40K game quickly? No, it's not studying lists, or learning target priority, or move-blocking, or any other game skills- it's getting your sad little self on a team! In this episode, we talk about teams- from tiny little two-person teams that you form to travel to tournaments to the big teams that dominate the ATC and ITC circuts, it's no surprise that all of the very best players in the game are on one. Teams give you access to a wealth of resources that you can't find by yourself, and for the truly competitive player they are an absolute must.

Whether it's about list help, travel plans, forewarnings of meta shifts, practice partners, borrowhammer, or just plain old-fashioned camaraderie, the benefits of a team are many- but we don't just talk about why you'd want to be on a team, we also go into how to get on a team, and if there isn't one in your area, why not form one? Two heads is better than one and three is better than two, so get your act together and get yourself a team.

Episode Music: Dankmus
Icon Artist: Rylan Woodrow
Sponsored by: Mindtaker Miniatures
Our Patreon: In the Finest Hour
Website: https://www.inthefinesthour.com/
Directed by: Sean Morgan
Edited by: Shaylynn Allen

Ep14: Ladies' Night

What happens when you accidentally knock two-thirds of the show's hosts into the warp? Aside from assorted cursing in tongues older than mankind itself, you get a 40K Ladies' Night!

Shaylynn Allen, Lady of Titan and The Good Host, takes over the center chair this week and is joined by Eleanor Byler (of Team Doll Wars) and Jessica Bowman (of Team Warhammered ) in a very special episode of In the Finest Hour. All three Ladies delve straight into the social contract- a critical component of the competitive experience that is perhaps the most important thing in keeping players coming back. The three of them get into the details of why such a simple thing can get so complex to deal with, and how it intersects with players' emotions and assumptions as well as how to untangle those connections. The ladies also talk about how to address conflict within your gaming experiences so that everyone can walk away from the table content with the experience and ready for another game.

The second part of the episode shifts gears as the three of them lay out the good, bad, and ugly realities of being a woman wargamer. A vast majority of the time, things are fine and fun- but when the go south they can reach depths both grim and dark. The hosts also give tips for how to better interact with, and better attract, female wargamers to your own community as well as some do's and don'ts of being around them. (Hint: asking whose girlfriend they are right off the bat is not a good start.)

As promised, the mentioned events and links:
Jessica's RTT- Command Zone Games & Hobbies Warhammer 40K Tournament (link)
Eleanor's GT- Clash Of The Titans 40K (link)

Episode Music: Dankmus

Icon Artist: Rylan Woodrow

Sponsored by: Vreda Forge

Website: https://www.inthefinesthour.com/

Directed by: Sean Morgan and Shaylynn Allen

Edited by: Shaylynn Allen

Ep13: Sacrificial Units

Ask not what your army can do for you, but what you can do for your army. In every game we inevitably end up losing some of our units, but in a lot of cases that's not such a bad thing- and in this episode, we look at the roles that sacrificial units can play in your army and how best to make use of them. We talk about how to get yourself in the right frame of mind so as not to be upset about those losses, ways and reasons to sacrifice something, and the most dreaded and worthless of all phrases: "m a k i n g  y o u r  p o i n t s  b a c k".

From speedbumps to tempo, from objective-holders to shields, and from board control to assassination runs, we cover all of the ways you can make your little spacemans die heroically for you in battle. "Your life is the currency of the Emperor- spend it well."

Episode Music: Dankmus
Icon Artist: Rylan Woodrow
Sponsored by: Vreda Forge
Our Patreon: In the Finest Hour
Website: https://www.inthefinesthour.com/
Directed by: Sean Morgan
Edited by: Shaylynn Allen

Ep12: The Command Re-Roll

The simplest stratagem in the game, and arguably the most important as well. This time around, we dedicate an entire episode to the humblest of strats in the game and one that everyone has access to. Although it may not seem like much, especially if you haven't played earlier editions of the game, the Command Reroll strat is incredibly important and can be a matter of win-or-lose in innumerable situations. In this episode, we talk about those many uses, how it existence changes the game, and why you need to be thinking about how our when you use this critical stratagem.

 

We also talk about when not to use it, the math of what portion of an attack sequence you should use it on, how it affects other stratagems, and much more.

12 LVO 2019 Hottake

Sean and Shaylynn talk LVO 2019. Josh sensibly decided to sleep instead.

Ep11: Target Priority

Remember when I said I'd kill you last? I lied.

This episode is all about choosing your targets- what you can afford to ignore and what you can't, what needs to die and what can wait until next turn. While the movement phase might be the phase that can win you the game, that's hard to do unless you're getting rid of the units in the enemy army that can prevent you from winning. And since you can't kill every unit in their army simultaneously (since it's not 7th Ed anymore), that means picking and choosing your targets carefully to get rid of the ones that can do you the most harm.

Over the course of the episode, we talk about getting rid of threats to your threats vs. getting rid of threats to your victory conditions, how your target priority should change over the course of a game, and when you should shift priorities based on bad rolls. We discuss how to deal with reactive stratagems and abilities that your opponent can use against you and how to get around them as well as advice on how to choose the order in which you activate your units, both of which can be critically important in destroying targets effectively. Plus, we cap it all off with a short lesson on knowing your math and overcommitting versus undercommitting- and if you'd rather not do that math yourself, you're in luck, because we have a couple of links created put up by helpful individuals that can do the math for you!

http://www.dice-hammer.com/#!/damage

My preferred calculator for quick-and-dirty stuff. There's some features it's missing (like "rending" style effects), but if you're just running some raw math on things it's handy. This is probably your best bet for comparing options, since it lets you set up multiple "armies" to contrast them.

http://mathhammer.thefieldsofblood.com/

Doesn't let you compare, but provides more in-depth stats on a single unit or weapon. Provides not just the average, but also the distribution on things, which is great for understanding your chances of getting different results.

Episode Music: Dankmus
Icon Artist: Rylan Woodrow
Sponsored by: Vreda Forge
Our Patreon: In the Finest Hour
Website: https://www.inthefinesthour.com/
Directed by: Sean Morgan
Edited by: Shaylynn Allen