The Weekly Top X: the Dark Depths of Our Souls

Lauby here, bringing you another installment of the only blog series I've been able to keep running in my entire career as a shoddy journalist.  Its the Wednesday and its the Weekly Top X!

One of the big challenges of this series is to keep it fresh and interesting.  If not for you, then at least for the writers!  So, every week, Brent and I put our heads together and come up with some new ideas for the angles, themes and literary devices we're gonna make use of.  It keeps it fun for us and it keeps the series from becoming as repetitive as the entirety of cracked.com's archive of list based comedy articles.

Brent: Okay folks, we have ourselves something a bit different today, as I’m sure Lauby has explained in the introduction. Basically, I pick three, he picks three, and we have at the other’s choice. Now, I know I picked my three choices with a ‘grand theme’ in mind... it wasn’t just, “Hey, this is nifty!” The three of mine are linked in a rather obvious way - maybe too obvious? Point is, I can’t help but think of Lauby’s choice in the same way, so I’m going to examine them one by one then take a stab at guessing why Lauby picked the three he did.

1)  The Trading Post - Tavern Talk: 8th Edition, How Has it Changed Your Army?
Brent: This is a pretty great idea, and one I think The House of Paincakes needs to steal... immediately. The dude asks a question and the members respond - but all the best ideas are simple! Instant theme! Well done, Trading Post dude, whomever you may be, well done.

2) Defending Humanity - Manticore, The Competitive Option
Brent: What’s not to like? A simple, well-constructed tank with an effective paint job. It’s the type of model that’s deceptively easy looking to do, but from my experience it’s never quite as easy to pull off. The last picture is the gem; because the missiles are magnetized they can be used as counters. How many shots do you have left, Bob asks? You can count to four, right, Jim replies?


3) Crew Shaken, Not Stirred - IHoP Response: Drinking a Man's Drink #1
Brent: Ah, the blog with the best theme this year, no doubt. Who doesn’t love booze, Brent asks semi-sarcastically, since many of the readers haven’t discovered the simple pleasure of hair down there. This post defines masculine, no girls or Unicorns allowed, common drinks. And a good job, too. I was a bartender at a major nightclub when I went through school the first time, so here’s two things to pass on. 1) “Let’s go back to my place,” works better than, “Wanna get a coffee?” The chick already knows if she’s taking someone home; if she ain’t, don’t waste your time. 2) Bartenders take care of the guys who order real drinks; it’s stereotyping, yes, but a dude who knows how to get his drink on knows the value of tipping. Ultimately, their money will go farther than the dude who orders a foo-foo drink.


So what’s it all mean?
Brent: I think Lauby picked these three because all of them have put serious effort in the presentation of their product. The blogs look great. Am I close, Lauby?

John: In hindsight, you are correct, Brent. All three of these things are well crafted, well presented and deceptively simple. I actually picked all three of these with no theme in mind. Except the theme of excellence. Largely, it was a trick to make you look foolish. Though I will now take credit from here on out for your much better explanation as my way of saying 'sorry'. Now the pressure is on to be as insightful and clever as you were. I should have made you go first. If only the various programs I used in the creation of this post had the ability to move large blocks of text around! Perhaps some kind of ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ arrangement...


1) Defending Humanity - Ogre Circus: Send in the Clowns
John: Bonus points to Defending Humanity for making the Top X twice in one day!  Wonder how that slipped by the editor?  But, man, if this isn’t modeling for advantage, I don’t know what is. We’ve all heard of low profile poses, big protrusions to hide behind and the like. But actively trying to instill crippling, debilitating fear into the human being across the table? You fiend! With that out of the way, this is a truly inspired project. I can’t wait to see some paint on these guys.

2) Skavenblight - Skaven Magic. Ruin, Plague and the Dreaded 13th
John: By all accounts, Fantasy has gotten huge since the 8th edition book. Sadly, for those of us still on the fence, not enough people are actually blogging about the game itself yet. Oh sure, there are lots of opinions about the game and how it might be played, but detailed and useful analyses are few and far between. I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that the game is so fundamentally different than it was. Thankfully, people like Kavzar are starting to fill the gap and prove to the world that Fantasy has the depth necessary to make it a great game and support the kind of higher thinking that we would all eat for breakfast if we could.

3) Combat Tactics - The Painting Continues...
John: This post has the sweet smell of progress about it. Which is usually enough to make any man/unicorn happy. Its always a good feeling when you can take a look at unit of nearly identical guys and say “man, glad I don’t have to paint these anymore.” I mean, “these look great! Jim wont know what hit ‘em!”

So what’s it all mean?
John: It took me a bit to figure this one out. Each one of the posts was linked to one of the others, but a shared theme or idea just didn’t seem to be there. Then I took a look at the various authors’ archives and it hit me. All of these guys blogs still have that new-car smell.  So enjoy the extra attention, guys!  Especially you, Defending Humanity.

Bonus: An-Almost-Ran!
X) Eldar Addict
Brent: So, why did I want to pick something from this blog and why, in the end, couldn’t I?
John: Ah ha! Another attempt at sneakery, Brent. Knowing what I know about you, its either the crystal meth or the fact that none of the posts fit into this weeks date range to be considered. To be honest, this is some great stuff and I hope your plan to get him to post more by shining the spotlight on him works.

Nothing too pithy to end the top X with this week.  So stay beautiful, HoP readers and see you next week! - Lauby