This is my Nerd Hole

[Warthingy] WARMACHINE: Colossals Preview

2012-02-06T18:52:00.000+10:00

Holy Children of the Motherland, Batman. I want two. I keep saying I want two, but I can't really afford two. I'll be lucky to afford one.Lets give it an easy overview assuming it'll have the same base rules as battle Engines.

No penalty or restrictions for being Engaged.
No rerolls against friendly models while the target is engaged.
You can always see it.
Volume is 5" tall on a 120mm circular base
Can't be pushed, pulled, slammed, or thrown. CAN be placed.
Weapons allocated on L and R can only attack within their half of the front arc (90*), whereas weapons marked with "-" can fire in either.

As for New Rules

Power Attacks!
- Stomp: make an attack with one weapon against all models in 2" of that arc.
- Swat: Target is slammed d6+2" away
Works like a Warjacks,so can be allocated focus for additional attacks and boosts.
Has TWO damage grids.
Has a Weapons Platform-esque rule, where it can fire ranged weapons regardless of whether it's engaged or already made it's melee attacks

Now for speculations.

It very obviously has Man-o-War kovniks for fists. So it'll be a P+S 20 weapon master. Probably more.
The main turret shoots Devastators, so when they land it's POW 18 within 1" of the target and POW 9 within another 3 after that. So... AOE 8?
The turrets can fire Manhunters or Doomreavers, depending on how harsh you're feeling.
It can deploy Berserker Warjacks at will. Place within 1" of the base and let it roam free.
Avalanches can be summoned and will simply remove your opponents models from the field.

You'll have to excuse me. I'm getting flustered.

#JenCon2012 - Dates posted!

2012-02-03T10:54:00.004+10:00

Jenny is coming. 27th May, Sunday morning she arrives, for a Fortnight. I even put a countdown timer on the bloggery here! So I thought I'd bring back an old post of suggestions of what to do in Brisneyland!

Ben C: Fortitude Valley on a Saturday Night

Space Lizard: Straya Zoo (Australia for those at home). Also Currumbin Sanctuary also goes off like a Fish sandwich with US Tourists.

Greg W: A trip on the city Cat is a nice way to show off the city. And it would be remiss of me to not promote the Planetarium as well.

Doc Y: Probably some sort of local sporting event too depending what season it is.
Which worked out with a later post:
Erin: How bout experiencing a Netball game? Do they have that in the US? You can come watch me fall over!

Doc Y: Mt Cootha, Goldie Beaches, Straddie, Glass House Mtns, Tamborine/Springbook, Pub Crawl, Mt Glorious, Wivenhoe and back through Moko Country.

GirlClumsy: Ooh, well if she's here 29 Sept-1 Oct we have an impro festival. Nov/Dec is How To Be A Man. Lots of things 2nd half of Year!
Might ask for what's playing at the new dates, GC!

Birmo: Overnighter to North Coast. Noosa, if the beach is back. Maybe a visit to Hughsey's Farm, I'll drive. Dinner and Drinks at Claret House. Riverfront walk around to Powerhouse for some Fkn Cultcher.

Erin: Games and Nerd Love at the Mana Bar!

Del: Go Kart Track! Ripley's! Mt Tamborine! WEEEEEE!

Gaz: Take Jen up to Binna Burra or O'reilys in the Gold Coast Hinterland. Scenic views etc. Tree top walkway at O'reilys.

I even got a couple of free passes into a few of the theme parks down on the Goldie for Xmas last year (Thanks again Humph), and I plan on getting everyone to rock up to a pub in the middle weekend (2-3rd June) and have dinner, maybe go out on the town afterwards!

Any more suggestions?!

[Game Warning] You got Achievables!

2012-01-31T19:10:00.003+10:00

When I play a game, the first thing I do is play through the campaign. I want the story, i want the feel of the game, I want the challenges offered by the designers of said game. From killing Snarling Gnarlbeasts of Gorflax, to Armies of Hyper Militarised Alien Humanoids. I don't put too much effort into doing things like scouring the area for secret collectables or areas containing cool items, because I'm more concerned with shooting stuff and/or solving puzzles.

This year, I want to collect those achievements that I've missed. It's my attempt at saving money. Yes there are games I want, and yes there are games that I am making effort to save money over the year for (first that comes to mind is Borderlands 2) but still. Last year I think I said about finishing projects which I didn't really get around to doing. Actually, I'm still determined to do my Legs Eleven List. (Which will cost me another $80 and some skillz) (and when I'm done, I'll have a post about it with an Achievables Unlocked joke thing)

[Warthingy] Unit Upgrades?

2012-01-24T19:21:00.001+10:00

Today's release on the Privateer Press loadout is a Unit Upgrade for the Ironfang Pikemen, the Black Dragons, containing a new Standard for the Bearer, alternate shields for them to use which replaces the Khadoran Anvil with a Dragon, and a new card with a few different rules, particularly a different Mini-feat, a new Tactics ability and a reason to keep the standard alive for as long as possible. (According to Battle College)

It makes me wonder about other "Upgrade kits" other factions units would get. Temple Flameguard, Bane Thralls and Stormblades are the first that come to mind, but I have no idea what the second would be. I would hope Man-O-War, but that's just because I'm willing to expand my Man-O-War army to ridiculous levels. I already have 30+ models. (Add another 7 when I pick up the Battle Mechaniks and UA, yes I'm going to count them)

[Game Warning] Console PC's

2012-01-24T18:42:00.001+10:00

Not too long ago I did some fantasizing, and when i was done with that I thought about Nerd Hold and kinda veered off into case mods for computers, thinking about what I would have in some sort of classy studio apartment for a private club house of sorts.

But that's a place that will never happen, sadly. And I doubt I'll be getting into making a computer tower inside a Wooden Case any time soon. But in the mean time, I'll gawk and drool over things like the Alienware X51.

When I first heard about this the article said "Most consoles are like computers. So Alienware made a computer to look like consoles". That's not an exact quote, but you get the idea. I was interested straight off because you can get computers small enough to emulate a console, so you would think it happens more often!

So they made this little beast, at about US$700. Well, it's not really little. It's still bigger than the Xbox Mothership, but still smaller than most Computer towers, not to mention very slick. Though I do like some of the crazy stuff.

I've put that on my 2015 Xmas list, because I'm realistic and reckon that by that time Jenny will be here living with me and I'd have saved enough money for that.

Another thing I was told about was Steam's "Big Picture" mode, designed for people who play their Steam games through Televisions, providing Gamepad controller support along with certain titles that provide controller support. Honestly, I hope that it provides it to some of the older games, such as those in the ID Super Pack. I had fun playing Doom on my Xbox 360, and I would love to play Heretic and Hexen, and especially any of the Quakes, using a controller.

But I can't find any details on what games the Gamepad support will be provided to, or what blanket rule it'll have. Or even what controllers it'll work with. I would assume the Xbox 360 Controller, but one cannot be too sure.

So now that we have a console PC and Steam going to the Big Monitor (So to speak), what games would I want to play as such?!

[Game Warning] My Top Games of 2011

2012-01-17T19:29:00.002+10:00

I recently read a blog post about what they considered their top games of 2011. So I figured I'd have a crack at it based on the few games I bought/Received that were released the same year. And because there were so few games, I figured I'd go with my top Seven. Cos there were only Seven games I bought.

Number 7: Halo Anniversary [360]

Halo Anniversary is pretty much what I remember it to be, except prettier. And I like that. My favourite level has always been The Silent Cartographer and remains to be, just now it's prettier. I would have liked to have seen an option to implement the modern system into the old halo levels, see how different the game would play as such, but you can't get everything. Still, Skulls and Achievements are a nice bonus.

Number 6: Skylanders [PS3]

It's a fun game, great for playing with kids, but I wouldn't say it was a ground breaking game in regards to Graphics or Storyline, but the Gimmick is really cool. The downside to the Gimmick? Well I've run out of batteries twice now since I've gotten it, so if they had given it a USB power source in addition to the batteries, I would've been much happier.

Number 5: Crysis 2 [PS3]

I liked Crysis 1, even if it was a little long. The Alien invasion idea is a great concept, and continuing on the story had a lot of appeal to me. to find out what is happening in other parts of the world as the whole place gets dug up from underneath makes me curious. But the game execution focuses better on Stealth and Assassination than alternating options. Not to mention, using a Pistol makes it a little too easy.

Number 4: Sonic Generations [PS3]

I may have mentioned that I am a massive fan of Sonic. Sonic is my childhood hero. So positioning may be a little biased. But I wanted to pick up Sonic Generations. And my only disappointment? The PS3 version has a controller lag. Everything about the game being a mad rush to get to the end without losing all your rings? It's all there, just the way I remember. If not a little quicker.

Number 3: Deus Ex: Human Revolution [360]

This, funny enough, came at the right time. I had a hankering for a scifi stealth RPG game and, with little idea what Deus Ex was going to be like except that I'd be running around as a Neo cosplayer, I got what I wanted. I had that urge saited. It was impressively tricky, well written and fun. I agree that the bosses, aside from the final boss, are a little disappointing, but cool none the less.

Number 2: Tactics Ogre - Let us Cling Together [PSP]

I have been really getting into this game again recently and I found that the story line becomes significantly different depending on the choices you make. Massive changes to what encounters your characters do, and what happens in the world itself. The story is significantly huge and I am astounded at how impressive it is.

Number 1: Gears of War 3 [360]

Favourite game by far. A little biased because the first two games are fantastic by themselves and the story is magnificent, but goddamn. Gameplay wise, it's still the same game it was in 2006 but for a few new features, weapons and a small changes (Such as the hammerburst reload) but the gameplay is much more hectic and playing campaign with more than 1 friend is fantastic. And getting into Horde is that much more fun.

Two A Score in one hand, A Dozen in the other

2012-01-10T19:26:00.002+10:00

So the last two weeks I've had off from work since the whole office closes up in that time period, from Xmas to about a week after NY's. It was good knocking off at 3 to go to Kel and Tash's place and playing with Alex before heading off to play Chrononauts, where we Assassinated and Saved Hitler at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games about a dozen times each, and one time caused the entire universe to collapse in on itself.

Lets see, then Xmas came around. The Elder sisters were keeping to themselves, mostly because of a silly debacle in 2010, so that left Mum, Younger Sister and I to drink wine and have bacon and egg breakfast. I'm sure there was a lunch as well, but buggered if I know what it was now. Younger Sister got some sort of present, again I can't remember, and I got a Tin of Baked Beans after an idea from a friend *Cough*AlbionLoveDen*Cough* since Mum had already given me my Xmas present early and there had to be something for me to unwrap. I got her a three pack of Ferrero Rochers.

Next was the day before Mum's Bday. With Mum getting me Skylanders as an Early Xmas Present, she invited the 10yo Nephew over to play with me. He'd bring over his Figures and we'd go nuts. So we did that for the better part of the two days he was here. We also played Castle Crashers for a little while. Got to the Alien Mothership before we decided to put it down and go to bed.

Mums Birthday rocked up and the entire Clan turned up (Eldest sister + 3, Second Eldest Sister + 2, Little Sister) with a Freddo Ice Cream cake. Laughs were had, and one child told off for being a bit too big for his boots (he asked Grandma something and when Mummy answered he shot back with a "I wasn't talking to you").

New Years was uneventful. Time ran down, we watched the Telly for the Fireworks at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, wished each other a Happy New Year, then flicked it over to a different channel to watch something more interesting before I went outside to call Jenny since I have trouble hearing her over the Telly.

Have I mentioned how much I love Jenny? Not to mention love hearing her voice? And how much I want her to come around? Because I think the cheeky bastards on Twitter are making all attempts to discourage her.

Y'see, one day she sents me a message asking how big our Lizards are. To which i reply "They're no Komodo Dragons, but they get to about 3-4 feet long". This is when I discovered that she has a thing about Lizards. She was watching House Hunters International with her parents, and the couple were looking at houses in Costa Rica, and one of them opened the bathroom door and a large lizard bolted out into the garden. Jennys Mum asked "Does that happen in Australia?"

Well no, not unless you live out in the sticks and have your windows open with no fly screen. And even then it's unlikely. Though Greybeard did get a Goanna nearby when he went to lunch with his wife one day. To which he took a photo and showed Jenny. Giggles were had, except by Jenny who was tempted to faint at the very thought of a lizard being so close.

Now she's getting regular stories about Children being strangled by a Python in far North Qld, and Crocs sleeping in peoples kitchens in the NT. Just wait until I start telling her about the Sea Creatures. I think I've only mentioned the Bullsharks.

What else did I do? I played a fair few games, that's for sure. I wanted to play Gears of War 3 with the boys, but the internet stopped me from doing that. It keeps cutting out the Cable TV signal, which Mum is usually watching.

I got into FF13 though, after holding onto it for so long without actually picking it up. I finally sat myself down and said "Right, lets play." I've gotten up to disc 3, and I'm not entirely fussed with it. It's pretty and all, and it has it's perks... But I'm just not that into it. I'm still going to try and finish it.

I'm back into Tactics Ogre, playing through the variant stories now, making a dozen (Maybe not a dozen) different saves, and checking out how different the stories become in the different chapters and moral choices. It apparently branches out to about 6 very different storylines at chapter 3, then they all fold into chapter 4 over some big event that I haven't quite reached yet. Actually, I haven't quite reached chapter 3 yet, but I'm working on it.

I've almost finished painting my Blood Bowl team. They don't look schmick or anything, but they're colour coordinated. Green Skin, Red Shirts, black Sunglasses, red tongues, metallic shoulder pads, brown pants. Yadda yadda yadda. If I wanted them painted well, I'm sure I can pay someone to strip them and paint them again. I'm going to work on some Ogre models I've had for... donkeys years actually... and get them painted up for D&D. We're facing Ogres a LOT lately.

I got my Xmas present from Jenny, the sneaky buggar. She said she was going to buy a present for her 10yo cousin, so she was probing me for what cool Lego stuff she could get him. But No, her cousin didn't actually get anything. I copped a massive Lego Alien Mothership, which is just short of 20" in diameter. THEN you spin around the ring, and it triggers a sound box! How cool is THAT!

But after telling mum not to get me anything at the beginning of the month, I would've thought Jenny would have done the same. Cheeky buggar.

So what to do for a New Years Resolution? Well I might bump it up to 1080i *badum tish*. But seriously, I think I'll start reviewing games that I play throughout this coming year. Figure out a formula for reviews, tben post them up and see what kind of reaction they get. Good, Bad, Constructive, whatever. Otherwise, Paint more and get ready for Jenny to come over this year!

Xmas Period

2011-12-21T19:11:00.002+10:00

What to do during my Xmas Period, hey? There's a fair few options.

Paint my Legs Eleven army. I had it painted up mixed between the standard Red scheme and a Greyscale Scheme, which was Nice and all, but now I want to change it all to the White Colour Scheme with some Red Symbols. I've already coloured my Classic Destroyer and Juggernaut in that scheme and it looks pretty cool. The colours stand out and any markings I put on there come out really well. The only thing I'm really missing is a Bombardiers Card, the second Behemoth Bombard Cannon (Keep forgetting to order it), the 2010 Sculpt Butcher of Khardov so that I can see about doing the Man-O-War-Butcher conversion, and a Box of Battle Mechaniks + Officer.

Also paint my FSA. I have a bunch of stuff and I haven't painted them yet. Mind you, I haven't got an idea of what colour I want to paint them. Though I did pick up some odd blue/green colour somewhere along the line, thinking "Yeah, I'll paint it that colour". I'm sure I have that stocked away with my other paints.

Finish my Video Games. I've picked up a few video games that I just haven't finished, mostly my PSOne Classic games. Metal Gear Solid; Final Fantasy 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9; I've borrowed FF13 from Scott so I'll finish that one off too; I could play Deathspank, but I don't particularly like the game; Penny Arcades "On the Rainslick Precipice of Darkness" Ep 1 and 2 are still sitting there and haven't been played in a while. Oh and Crysis 1. And FF Tactics and Tactics Ogre. Patapon as well.

I was considering playing World of Warcraft, because I'm feeling a bit wistful about it. One of my friends has gotten back into it because she finished Uni and now she has plenty of time, and is just poor enough to have her account active. She's also having trouble getting through it by herself.

Oh and mum picked me up Skylanders as well, after I explicitly told her not to get me anything for Xmas. But no, i made it clear that i was interested in the game, so she picked it up. Ugh, generous mothers.

I've also been looking into Mordheim, because a few friends have mentioned it and I've been like "yeah, that sounds pretty cool." So I've gone ahead and looked into the rules for that, particularly Orc Warbands. And their story is they're the official fan club of my Blood Bowl team, and they fight for Ticket Money, riding around in their fainting Squiggoth.

That's another thing, I should finish painting my Blood Bowl team. They haven't done much lately, so they're definitely up for some fresh paint to cover those bits I just haven't done.

[Game Warning] Skylanders

2011-12-20T19:17:00.001+10:00

Okay, so when I'm asked "How old does your mother think you are?" I'm pretty sure I don't care. Because a few weeks ago, my nephew had his 10th Birthday and he got Skylanders. So for most of the night, I was trying to steal it from him because I've been interested in the game for a little while.

It's a fun little concept, and will probably rake in a buttload of money for Activision (if it hasn't already). You have your figurines which are at about 4 inches tall including the base, and you place them onto a Portal, a small wireless platform which you keep next to you so you may change your characters in the middle of play.

That's right, it's video game that "brings your statues to life". It's a pretty cool gimmick, I reckon. And they've thought of a lot of features about it.

For example, if you have been playing for a while and gotten your character to level 5 on your PS3, gotten some cool hats, and you want to go to a mates place who has the same game but on Wii, No worries. All your toon data is saved ON THE FIGURINE. And no matter what console you have, THEY ARE ENTIRELY COMPATIBLE. You could even use the same Portal Device thingy to plug it into an Xbox or Wii with the little Wireless USB that they provide. The only thing you need is the Game Disc and Bob's your Uncle. So anyone planning to pick up some Skylanders Gear, be sure to note what Figures are yours!

Sidenote: It is really hard to say Portal when your first thought is Aperture Science.

Now the data information I imagine works much the same as a GOCard, the figure contains a chip that reacts on radio waves provided from the Portal device. So as you're playing, your details are constantly being updated. Money, Levels, Abilities. Everything.

Each character is very individual, but is also assigned to one of Eight Elements. Earth, Fire, Water, Air, Life, Magic, Tech and Undead. The last two surprised me for a kids thing, but Tech could make for some cool stuff, and every kid loves an adorable skeleton and the insatiable desire to kill spiders gives even more incentive to play the levels.

But as is the norm for games these days, there are collectables to find, and some areas are restricted to who can go where by their Element. So while you may not be inclined to pick up all 32+ characters, you're still slightly pushed to go and grab at least another 5 of your corresponding missing Elements.

The PS3 version I received started with Spyro (Magic), Trigger Happy (Tech) and Gill Grunt (Water), and I've gotten through most of the game quite happily, just missing out on certain hats and items due to Element Gates.

So the downside? Well the cost of the new figures is a big one. They're AU$20 a pop if you get them individually, cheaper if you look around, and somewhat cheaper again if you get a triple pack. And there's 32 individual characters, with a few with Special Edition versions. The game itself comes with 3 figures, the Portal and the game for just short of AU$90.

So it starts off cheap, but can add up as you collect more and more. I'm already up to 5 at the moment because Mum keeps buying me more figures, and my aforementioned nephew is getting a double of Stump Smash so he's going to give that one to me to make it six.

Future expansions and/or DLC? I'm hoping they'll be free and Activision will recoup with what they spend on figure sales. They'll be required to bring out new figures as well, most data of which will be provided from the DLC or the figures. Though I have my doubts about all that.

But yes, I've had quite a bit of fun with it. And as much fun as I am having, which I appreciate, I'm still pissed at my Mum for getting me presents after I explicitly said "Don't get me anything".

De Offishul Damaskus Skarboyz Fan Klub

2011-12-19T19:27:00.001+10:00

I have a Blood Bowl team, called the Damaskus Skarboyz. They're not a great team by any length, but there's always gotta be some sort of fan club. A group of fanatics that have their own Fantasy Blood Bowl team and have at least three players from their favourite team, and are always trying to get tickets to go to every game they can.

These are "De Offishul Skarboyz Fan Klub". They're Hooligans by trade, and they fight for stuff so that they can buy tickets to the Skarboyz Game.

Da Boss is a gentleman by the name of Skarbum. He swore dedication to the Skarboyz team when he saw, and slightly misread, the source of their teamname , and got his name changed by De Pol, which is a pole he carrys with him to smack anyone who calls him his old name.

His two Big 'uns are Docker and Packer, both used to work at their hometown Harbour until the Boss decided to play around with their orders making them move one lot of crates between five different spots on the Dock. Once the two caught on, they went off to have a piece of him, and saved the rest for lunch tomorrow.

Shparky is a Professional Wizard who went to the Guild of Professional Wizards. Shparky picked up his nickname after blowing himself into a wall from a fireball spell that fell short, and losing a few teeth that help pronounce the S sound in the process. Now any time he casts a spell that goes the way he wants it to, it's followed by a whistling Success.

Though Shparky is regularly hired for Blood Bowl games, the fee of 150,000 crowns is not given to him as he is not a Self Employed Contractor. He does not make any profit from being hired except for receiving free tickets for himself and the club, and free food which he spreads amongst the attendees. This caused competition within the club to go pick up the food, as everyone knew that whoever went to pick it up would only come back with half.

The four met up after the crowd came onto the field and went back to back with a few of the Team Members and, with a bit of rough business dealings, formed De Offishul Damaskus Skarboyz Fan Klub, a growing fan base that follows their favourite Blood Bowl team on a Squiggoth, who suffers from Myotonia Congenita and has warning signs of "Dun Skare da Skwiggoff or Yooz'll Regretz it" and "Keep Klear Fainting Skwiggoff" hanging from it.

Though they are quite a fan of Ork Band, they try not to listen to them while on the road. It scares the Squiggoth too much.

Limericks are fun!

2011-12-14T00:00:00.003+10:00

Some people think that love has a Summit
If there was for us, there is a massive plummet
Because two years have gone
We're totally still going strong
And I'm still getting told that it's amazing we've done it.

This is nothing like a Mensiversary
This is actually an Anniversary
So in this limerick today
I would like to say
That I Love and Adore my Beautiful Jenny.

[Game Warning] Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary Edition (Expanded)

2011-12-13T18:13:00.001+10:00

I'll just start off to say... It's not the Halo I quite remember. It could just be the Graphics Throwing me off, it could be that it's been so long since I last played it, or it could be that I'm trying to find the flaws that whatever . But the game doesn't feel comfortable, I'm still thrown off for some reason and it's starting to bug me.

I feel there could be improvements, but then again, the original Halo could have had improvements too. Less repetitive and winding corridors mainly. Any further improvements were left to later Halo Games because they had more of a direction of what they want out of their games.

What they've done is very nice indeed. The game is very pretty, and the new skins for the enemies and friends are very cool. It definitely makes it want to feel like a new game. The AI remains to be as docile as it was in the day, leaving you to do most of the dirty work, seeming really sluggish as you circle around hunters to score that one pistol shot in his arse. And the Warthog feels so heavy and sluggish it's almost not funny.

It feels like the old game, but prettier.

Then you roll it over to the Classic Mode using the "< Back" button. The screen blacks out for a moment and everything rolls back to what is supposedly what Halo looked like back in 2001. That's something that I'm quite sure is not quite right. It doesn't seem to change it to what it did look like, but rather to a version of the game still being half made. Tiles textures, and hardly any actual detail. the original halo had plenty of detail.

I'm going to give it a go again tonight, maybe leave it on Classic Mode for a little bit to see if the graphics are actually loading or not.

Okay, so I had a look at it again last night and ran through until I got past the Library level. I even spent a better part of a level in classic mode to see if I was actually correct in my assumptions, and I think it was a case of what level I was looking at. The first time I loaded up the classic level, it was right at the beginning when Master Chief was taken out of Cryo stasis. That was a rather piss poor example to look at it, really.

And occasionally I'd flick it over to see the difference between the two, and the graphical difference is significant. Croist, the overall layouts may be the same, but you don't feel so lost. I went through the Library level and it was exactly the same level, with those son of a bitch flood coming out of the wood works, and Guilty Spark leaving you in a closed room which gets Flooded (See what I did there?) and you're always panicking because your shotgun is trying to get reloaded and you're getting shot at and whipped at the same time, and etc etc etc.

It was a time like this that I wish that the Flood were as easy to kill as they were in Halo 2 and 3, where a Melee Attack will, at worst, knock them down.

As for my weird feeling, I think it's just the three suggestions I made. The Time since I last played, The Searching for Flaws, and The Refreshing new graphics. Everything else is pretty much the same as it has ever been. When i said you don't feel lost before, it's mostly because the new graphics compensated for that. Each different segment you go through, there are large symbols on the walls at the ends of corridors so you know you're in a different section. Doesn't mean anything else has changed, but hey.

I do like the extended scenes though. The Master Chief talking between Cortana and Guilty Spark was really fulfilling. That's one flaw I was sure on, Cortana's animation. Seemed a little dodgy at first, but thought it was just me. Then it happened a second time. And then the third time, I was sure. It was clunky and didn't really sync very well. Or at all.

Anyway. Playing through the game, on Normal difficulty because I'm more curious on the changes than the challenge at the moment, the levels look wonderful, the skins on the enemies are distinct and interesting, and the visuals for each level are vastly improved and more impressive.

There's always a wonder though of how different the game would be if it used the same system as Halo Reach? The better AI and controls would be a nice change, such as the less sluggish Warthog mounted by dopey AI friendlies, and the Scorpion Tank mounted with 2-4 marines with Sniper rifles... that could be ridiculous actually.

And poppers reviving knocked down flood? And transforming the dead bodies!? The Library would get as dangerous as it would easier! You blow apart bodies with melee attacks and shotguns, but they get back up from the BILLIONS (That may be exagerrated) of poppers that crop up.

Mr Zurkon wishes you a Happy Kill Day, Scott and Gavin

2011-12-12T18:41:00.002+10:00

Scotts Birthday Weekend just passed and it was exhausting. The entire premise of the weekend was for Scotts 25th, we'd go to his place and just play various games to suit the moods. Naturally, we hit some snags.

It all started Friday Night. I got home after work, had a shave because my beard was getting wild, a shower, and then made sure I had everything packed while I wait for Aaron to come pick me up so we could go to Scotts and we'd just stay the weekend.

So we hit our first snag. It got to about 8pm and Aaron hadn't turned up. Aaron expected to be at Scotts and prepared by 8pm, so we were getting worried. Turns out, Aaron was first on the scene to a Car accident at the end of his street. So he was held up and said he may not worry about coming around tonight.

Scotty organised with his parents to come pick me up, which was really nice of them to go a out of their way for me and Scotty. We packed up my stuff and off we went to his place to set up my stuff which included:

Xbox 360
Monitor
Wargaming Miniatures, including Warmachine and Dystopian Wars
Clothes
A greenbag of Games and Gadgets
Castle Ravenloft D&D Board Game

Soon as we got to Scotts place, we began assembling my Xbox Array to play. It started off really well, playing Gears of War 3 Horde Mode with Richard who joined us from Xbox Live in Townsville, and levelling up our skills. Richard and I hadn't played Horde 2.0 before, so the only thing we could do was build Caltrops. Scott got us to do that while he saved his money and got a Turret. We got to about Wave 15 before a wipe, I think.

That was when we traded players. Richard went off to bed, and Aaron arrived with Mcdonalds in hand. We talked for a little while about the car crash as he set up his Xbox and TV/Monitor so we could play Halo Multiplayer.

Snag 2. Just that afternoon, I had picked up a copy of Halo Anniversary so that I could play Halo Reach Multiplayer with everyone. I knew we would play it at least once during the weekend, because Halo is Scotts favourite game EVER, and Halo Anniversary Multiplayer is supposed to be compatible with Halo Reach Multiplayer, as they both use the same system. It's designed to be that way.

But that's not entirely the case. If you are playing Halo Anniversary and your friend has Halo Reach, you can only play multiplayer with each other if A: Your friend has the Anniversary Map Pack for Halo Reach, so that you can play on the limited list of Anniversary Maps, or B: The player with Anniversary BUYS Halo Reach. An option available is for download at a price of just under $100.

That's a big snag. We tried a couple of different things, such as Installing Halo Reach to the console, swapping games between consoles, etc etc etc, and we got nowhere.

The other problem we had was Xbox Live Logins. At any one time, between three consoles, two Xbox Live accounts were logged in, which caused no end of frustration. Eventually we gave up and left it for Gavin to figure out, since he's the one who basically set up the Network within Scotts house. Turns out it was actually a router problem and Gavin solved it. The only thing he was worried about was lag, which I think I was the only person to actually experience it.

So I moved over to Aaron's console and we would just do splitscreen. Three Xbox Live Accounts were logged in, but it was just 2 consoles so it got through without hassle... if it weren't for the Matchmaking. We sat there for about a half hour getting three other people, then one, then none, then five, then none. No idea what was happening, but we gave up to play Ratchet and Clank All 4 One. Scott was apprehensive only because he thought the game was Splitscreen. That is not the case, I told him. It's a single camera that players all interact on.

So Scotty unwrapped the unplayed game, as he had been waiting to play it with someone (i.e. Me) and slid the game in. We waited until it finished installing, preparing trophies, loading the game, and then had a wonderful hour or two of Ratchet (Scott), President Captain Copernicus Qwark (Me), and Doctor Nefarious (Aaron) running around throwing out wonderful lines such as

"Ammo. Stuff to kill stuff with." - Qwark

And

"The Doctor is in... AND HE HATES YOU" - Doctor Nefarious

Twas a hilarious time fighting for Bolts and trying to shoot each other across chasms, and eventually we retired to the mattresses left on the floor.

Come Saturday Morning, Aaron and I started off the day by driving down to his place and looking for his copy of Gears of War 3. It took us about 45-60 minutes each way between his place and Scotts, then we spent a half hour looking around the upstairs of his house searching for the game only to come downstairs and find it there.

When we got back, Scott Aaron and I began playing a Dystopian Wars game. Three way game, 1500 points each, Federated States of America (me) versus Prussian Empire (Aaron) versus Covenant of Antarctica (Scott). With the positioning, and our poor starting locations on a 6x4 ft table, Scott felt compelled to fight Aaron first. Aaron approached him very quickly as the closest target, sending off only a handful of things my way which took a bit longer to kill than they should.

I spread my forces out a little, having one Enterprise Dreadnought and the Independance Battleship head straight up the guts towards the middle of the Islands, firing off at whatever was in range. The other Enterprise Dreadnought came up around the other side to flank Scott. The proble with that plan is that they're very slow. 6" across a 6ft board takes time, even if I'm only aiming to get halfway across it, and there's only a handful of ways to increase it's speed.

So we started on Saturday Morning and ended Sunday afternoon. Scott came out best thanks to his really good rolls. The cheeky son of a bitch complained about my own rolls after seeing I had a really impressive attack roll against his Dreadnought, a critical hit. Which he turned around and rolled shields against it, and ended up negating the entire attack.

At the start of our final turn, I declared a forfeit. Scott had a rather badly beaten up Prometheus Dreadnought after what seemed like a lifetime of turns, much longer than I really wish it was since he was Squaring off against my Enterprise Dreadnought, and a Submerged (Not sunk) Battleship which had gotten in the way of the reversing Enterprise Dreadnought, who sunk after the collision and dealt 1 point of damage to the battleship leaving him on 1.

What I had remaining was a highly damaged dreadnought on the far side of the map (4/10 health left) and an untouched battleship. But with Scotts rolls, and the amount of dice that Scott was pulling out of his arse, I wasn't going to bother. I kinda wanted it to end. Aaron had already left with a bitter taste in his mouth after his Blucher Dreadnought killed 1 Frigate in the entire game. That's fair.

Back to Saturday, Gavin got the Router Fixed and we began our games of Halo Reach, six of us including Myself, Scott, Aaron, Gavin, Richard and Chase, until we eventually tired and moved back to Gears of War again. Because there were six of us and Horde 2.0 only allows 5 players, I stepped out because I was feeling a bit drained and my back was kiling me from leaning against my Warmachine/Hordes bag on top of the mattresses. It's not good back support.

Skipping back through to the next day, we finished off the Dystopian Wars game, and had afternoon tea which we elected as Red Rooster. Something different from Pizza or Mcdonalds. We won't be going to the Red Rooster at Strathpine again. They have the worst prepared Burgers and Rooster Rolls I have ever seen. I was lucky to get a Wrap.

Lastly, before we ended the night and Aaron dropped me off to pick up Caryl from the Airport, we played another hour of Ratchet and Clank.

That was my weekend at Scotts. Happy Birthday Scott and Gavin (They're 4 years apart, but born the same day).

[Warthingy] Welcome to last week

2011-12-07T19:37:00.002+10:00

Huh. Epic Vlad II, huh? That's a very Epic sort of picture.

See, I like Vlad. He has had a very cool life written out for him within the Warmachine Expansion books. He had a fkn ridiculous fight ahead of him last I saw in Legends, where he, Drago and a large contingent of the Ironfangs were trying to hold off the Llaelese resistance who were being assisted by the Protectorate.

But I've never liked the idea of playing Vlad, and that's because I keep hearing "Oh he's Sooo Good, you'd smear vegemite all over him and have him for breakfast."

Maybe not in those words, but you get the point.

So I steered away from him and kept with casters that I saw more appeal in, like Irusk and more recently Brian Blessed.

Though with the image above of E2 Vlad, I'm tempted to give the E1 Vlad model a go since I've never actually played him, so getting an idea of where he really stands as a Warcaster is something different for me to do.

I'm still yet to play Strakhov or Zerkova yet, since I've only just assembled them over the weekend, and I know I will play with them eventually, but this just adds to the list of Casters I want to play.

And if I wanted to do a theme list, it's really simple to get all the bonuses.

Blood of Kings
Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion
- Berserker
- Drago
- War Dog
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Ironfang Pikemen (Max)
- Officer and Standard
Ironfang Uhlans (Min)
Kovnik Markov

Seriously, that's 35 Points at Tier 4. Kinda easy, really.

So now, lets talk about Vlad3. Lets extrapolate the man your man could Warcast like.

The most promenant thing that I've already made a joke about is that he's on a Horse. A Big Horse. I'm not sure if it's the same breed as the Man-O-War Drakhun's Horse, but it's still a biggun. It makes him the second Cavalry Warcaster in the game, the first being Jeremiah Kraye from Cygnar.

The second thing I notice is his weapons. His first incarnation had two Swords, a Longsword and a Shortsword, both family heirlooms which he has used for many battles. His second incarnation had these two weapons smithed together under the direction of Zevanna Agha, a guide of the motherland and to the Royal Family of Khador, turned the pair into a Greatsword.

Now he has a Flail and Spear. So I'm curious what story will lead to Vlad's new weapons.

After that... well that's all I really take from the image so far. I'm curious where it will lead!

[Warthingy] COR, BLIMEY

2011-12-07T07:31:00.004+10:00

HE'S FKN AWESOME

[Game Warning] Video Game Junk

2011-11-29T19:29:00.000+10:00

The other day I was trying to get music onto my Xbox by trying to find blank discs to burn the music on to copy them onto the HDD (Which didn't work out, you have to rip them from an Audio Disc, not MP3 Disc) but as I was searching around, I found an old Playstation disc. I had a look at the front of it and saw the title "The Hunter" on it.

There was only one game I could think of that this could be. It was a shitty little game that my friends and I played back when we were Teens. We found the game at the local Video 2000, hired it and played it until we could understand the game. Then we put it back and somewhere along the line, probably a year or two later, I found it again and picked it up permenantly.

I don't know why though. By a shitty game, I mean it's cheap and nasty. You play a Relic Hunter, who runs around a randomly generated Grid filled with 3 other Relic Hunters and boxes and flags. Then you're dealt cards from a stack of about 100 cards which provide one of a few bonuses when used, such as a Movement Bonus, an Attack Bonus, A defence bonus, offer a trap, or whatever.

Then you try and find one particular Relic which you've been hired to grab, and then you run for the exit. Which can be difficult because your movement is determined by a D6 and your movement bonus. You determine that by points you allocate when you make your character and each time you level up.

That's all it is. Oh, and if you run out of cards in the deck, the Dungeon Monster comes out and tries to kill you.

If I could turn it into a board game, I probably would, but for now I think I'll leave it for my Playstation.

[Warthingy] Infantry-machine

2011-11-29T18:37:00.002+10:00

Regularly on a Sunday, I head down to an LGS and have a casual social day with some of the newer players. Yesterday was a very successful day and I had three games with three different people* and had some really fun matches, playing 3 games using Harkevich. I'm really getting into Harkevich. I think he's my second choice Warcaster in Khador, hands down.

* - Personal rule is that if there's multiple people at an event, play different people each game. Exception is only if there is a game that was far too quick. Eg: I was playing against Stryker one day, he cast Earthquake and drew line of sight to my Warcaster and killed him at the top of second turn.

So First game was against Aiden, AKA Callum. I say AKA because I have been calling him Callum for weeks now, months even. It hasn't bothered him, but it's still that bit embarrassing that I can't remember his name.

Anyway, he was playing the following 35pt list.

Karchev the Terrible
- Berserker
- Berserker
- Juggernaut
- Devastator
Battle Mechaniks (max)
Man-O-War Shocktroopers

It's a nice little list that intimidates most players. But I was playing a hardy list that was able to take him on.

Kommander Harkevich, the Iron Wolf
- Black Ivan
- Destroyer
- Destroyer
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Graylord Ternion (AKA: The Gaylords that make everyone go POOF! **)
Koldun Lord
** - You're welcome Kel.

It was going really quite well. He had everything he wanted going where he wanted them to go, and killing what he wanted them to kill. Unfortunately, he left Karchev a little too far open.

We had an open playing field, using the 40k Crater Terrain and some of the Ork-style Linear Obstacles. We agreed to the craters being cover while completely within the circles, and just rough terrain otherwise. That didn't quite slow him down very much, except for his Shocktroopers and Battle Mechaniks. Tow did pretty much the rest of the job. I just lobbed out Bombard Attacks left right and centre at Shocktroopers and Battle Mechaniks.

Sidenote: As I was searching for the Crater Templates, I found This rather adorable picture.

But when he had finally moved into charge range of my models, he had left Karchev a little open to attack. So I charged him with some Great Bears, two of whom barely reached him so the last charged the Shocktroopers nearby. They didn't kill him, but they did a good job tearing him up. Otherwise, I think I put a few dents into the rest of his army by popping my feat, firing off at Karchev before charging into whatever. I think Black Ivan charged into Karchev, but simply grazed the paint off with this Claw.

Aiden was panicking a little bit, though. He had ARM 23 Warjacks in his face, and had a large dent put into Karchev. So he tore apart Black Ivan using Sunder, his POW 19 Reach weapon, and I think he killed a Great Bear as well. Shocktroopers tried their best to take down a couple of Great Bears, but Tough rolls kept at least two alive.

Otherwise, he tried his Darndest to tie up my other Destroyers with his Warjacks. The Devastator tied up my White Destroyer, while the Red MK1 Destroyer was facing off a MK2 Juggernaut.

My turn was the final straw and I had a couple of options to kill Karchev. The First was with Great Bears. I worked out the maths, and figured they would put a dent into him, but wouldn't kill him unless I had some good rolls. The other option was the Red Destroyer. He was tied up with the Juggernaut, but that could be easily sorted out by making him stationary with Ice Cage. My unit of Graylords had just enough movement to get two into melee with the Juggernaut, and one standing back who would suffer a -4 to hit a model who is in Melee, but his chances to hit would increase with each Ice Cage, which lowers a models DEF Cumulatively.

So all I needed to hit with the first two attacks were 3+, on 2d6. So I jinxed myself and got Snake Eyes, an Automatic Miss. The other two hit, even the one with a penalty, but I lost hope for a moment. Then I realised the Koldun Lord has the same spell, so he unloaded onto the Juggernaut and made him Stationary.

That guaranteed Big Red's freedom to kill Karchev. But to see what luck I have, I got the Great Bears to make their attacks. Three attacks later, Karchev was Destroyed.

Aidens Moral of the story: Great Bears Rock.

I'll skip the second game, only because I have an interesting thought process to go with it, so that'll come after I tell tale of my Third game.

The third game was a long awaited game against Liam, Aidens older brother. He's just picked up Dr Arkadius and has been hankering a game with a multitude of Warhogs in his list. He also picked up Sturm 'n Drang as well. Since it was later in the day, and he'd been playing Arkadius all day, we had a go at Sturm 'n Drang at 35pts.

Sturm 'n Drang
- War Hog
- War Hog
- Graymeat (War Hog that I nickname so because he's like a Zombie)
Bone Grinder (Min)
Brigands (Max)
Slaughterhousers

It was a hard fought match. I'm getting rather annoyed with Dig In in general because with fielding the same list as I did before, I can't guarantee something will be destroyed by stray AOE's unless I targetted something in particular.

Well I got a few lucky shots onto the bastards, and a couple shots into a close War Hog, while I approached his wall of Bacon. I wasn't sure which way the fight would go, whether his War Hogs would kick several shades of shit out of me (Which is likely) or he would crumble like a piece of paper.

Turns out I was the paper and he was the Scissors, but somehow my paper mache skills turned it all into a rock. Everyone was in the fray with each other, Graymeat was a handspan away from Harkevich himself, Great Bears in between after running as best they could to prepare to charge next, and then everything everywhere else. Each War hog had faced off against a Destroyer jack of any kind, maxing out their Fury stat to kill said Destroyers, leaving only Black Ivan on half health, and Graymeat was the only one who was left on only 1 fury.

So i thought about it for a moment. What could I do? The only way I could win is if I assassinated Sturm 'n Drang right then and there. I had to think. And think I did. I examined the positionings, my models abilities, his models stats, worked out the maths and the conclusion was: I had to play like I had a pair.

Graylords would use the magical shotguns to clear out some enemies. Particularly a Bone Grinder who was sitting nearby Sturm 'n Drang. Clear out one or two others and I would have a fairly clear line, and I get bonus points for being so awesome and clearing out his infantry except for about 2 models.

Unfortunately... I didn't succeed in killing that Bone Grinder. I did succeed in killing a single Slaughterhouser, after three Magical Spray Attacks. Disappointing, but it was only a bonus. The main thing was Harkevich. He would charge Graymeat and use his Beat-back ability to push Graymeat out of the way of the Greatbears. Why? Because then they can charge Sturm 'n Drang. So I kept all my focus, and used them all for Additional Attacks.

Beat Back: If this model successfully hits a target, the target is pushed 1" directly away from this model. This model may then advance 1".

Six out of seven attacks hit, and the last 1" move was to get out of the way for the Great Bears to Charge Sturm 'n Drang.

Now he had two fury for Transfers, which he planned because he was understandably a little paranoid something will happen. He hadn't seen how I'd murdered Karchev, but he didn't know what kind of luck he'll have. So I charged in with the great bears, and he took the first hit of 8 damage. The second hit was successful, but I rolled a pair of 1's and a two. Don't even think I dented his armour.

The third attack was a little funny. It was a good roll, but he said he was going to transfer to someone other than Graymeat, which I told him he couldn't because the other two War Hogs were on Full Fury, so he couldn't. So it went on to Graymeat, who was already well tenderized from Harkevich's Mechano-mace and a Great Bear the turn before. With a transfer, it killed Graymeat and left Sturm 'n Drang on 3 HP. With one last attack, the final blow was struck and I was surprised to find that Sturm 'n Drang don't have tough. And neither do Bone Grinders.

All in all, it was a fun game with a surprisingly bullshit assassination.

Lastly, we revert back a match to my game with Glenn. Now Glenn hasn't been playing for very long. I met him though Monsterpocalypse, and since that hasn't made a massive revival in recent times, he is slowly moving into Warmachine through a Retribution list using Lord Arcanist Ossyan. I was somewhat excited since I haven't really played against many Retribution Armies before.

The Slightly odd thing was that he didn't have any Warjacks. He was designing the list based on Ossyan's theme, so he had gotten a few of his Themed lists stuff, but the Warjacks he had ordered hadn't come through so he played with what he had at 25pts.

Lord Arcanist Ossyan
Houseguard Halberdiers (max)
Houseguard Riflemen (Max)
- Officer and Standard
Houseguard Riflemen (Max)
- Officer and Standard

I had to adjust my list appropriately, and it took me a little while to really figure out what I wanted. Though I was disappointed to find I'm one point short of having a Behemoth in the list, I made do and got myself comfortable.

Kommander Harkevich
- Black Ivan
- Destroyer
- Destroyer
Koldun Lord

Just like the first game, we played amongst the Craters and walls, using Aiden as the Third Party Terrain Lord, and we adjusted the rules so that the Craters weren't rough terrain any more, but it was still required that you must be completely within to gain Cover.

It didn't come into much use, though. Two units of Riflemen with CRA are easily going to shoot a large chunk out of Harkevich. Which they did. Twice. And killled him.

It made me think of the days of Infantry-machine, where a Warjack heavy list would have a hard time against an Infantry list. Is that still true now? Not really. I'd taken out a large chunk of his Halberdiers with AOE's that actually hit, and some good dice rolls on my Blast Damage, but that was about it. I'm not sure why i was so focused on the Halberdiers when the Riflemen were the more dangerous of the lot, both with CRA +11. It's a pretty hard hit, especially with his rather good dice rolls, plus Ossyans feat which gives an addtional damage die on Ranged Damage Rolls.

But is Infantry-machine still promenant in Warmachine and Hordes? Hordes are obliged to put Warbeasts in, or else they won't have a spell pool. But there's nothing like that in Warmachine. Warjacks are an option, not a necessity, so you can go right on ahead and play with a bucketload of Winterguard if you want. Whether it'll be effective as a list, who knows.

I don't field armies without Warjacks simply because I like Warjacks. They're what brought me into the game. But I could field a Warjack-less army if I wanted. The question just remains is "Do I even want to try?"

Consolidating Blog Rolls

2011-11-18T19:01:00.001+10:00

So I got tired of having three different blogrolls, one for my Wargaming Stuff, one for my Monpoc Stuff (Which is all but dead) and my normal one here, so I figured I'd import the 115 posts from the other two into here, make some modifications and publish them. There'll be a LOT more Game Warning Posts.

Apologies in advance if I'm on your RSS feed or Google Reader Feed that says "Hey, you got a bucketload of posts you haven't read." They probably won't interest you anyway, unless you're one of my nerdy friends.

Word Verification: Gaign

[Warthingy] Uniqueness

2011-11-17T12:27:00.004+10:00

One of the cool things about Warmachine and Hordes is that there is a flavour to the game that takes the game to new Levels. You have unique units, and solos, and unique themes that some units follow by. Then on top of that, you can get Characters who may follow a theme, but have a uniqueness to themselves. Warjacks come in all different shapes and sizes. Few are to a particular theme, but as a general rule they are all unique.

Character Warjacks started off simply emphasizing a particular Warjack. Beast-09 is a character Juggernaut, for example. Drago is a character Berserker. Lately, the character Warjacks started getting more unique layouts. Black Ivan is a character Destroyer, however rather than the Executioner Axe, he has a special set of claws. Torch is a character Decimator, but replace the cannon with a flamethrower-mounted Open Fist with a spike.

The rules are all very cool and all, there is no denying how awesome it is to have a Warjack in melee with a Torch to catch a few guys up the back. Same thing with Black Ivan, it's awesome to have a Warjack that has a base Defence of 12. No seriously, it's awesome.

The models themselves are where I actually have a problem. Beast-09 and Drago received unique Models. Every feature about those models screams "I am who I am and you better remember that". They dominate the field leaving everyone feeling they have been struck by gods.

If you turn to the Warjacks next to them, Black Ivan and Torch... and you get two Basic Warjacks with some unique features. Replaced arms, bobs stuck on their shoulders, and a head to match. They don't have things hanging around their neck, or writing over their cowling. They don't even have the Khadoran Anvil over the engine

Business wise, I know that the expenses of making an entirely unique warjack would be phenomenal with having to create moulds which only last a certain number of times and cost an arm and a leg to make, and then no guarantee of sale makes it difficult. Whereas the plastic kits are cheaply made, and then smaller pieces are made of metal and slot on to the figures.

What does Black Ivan look like though? Does he look as plain as a normal Destroyer? Or does he actually have inscriptions across the bulk of his body that point from what regiment of the Khadoran army he was brought up from under the guidance of Harkevich?

What about Torch? Is he really a Juggernaut with a Buzzsaw and a Flamethrower? Or is he an Assault Kommando with armour tempered to withstand Fire and Acid, and able to throw smoke grenades to disrupt enemy attack?

It makes me wonder how different these impressive Warjacks would be if they were just a little more... Unique.

[Warthingy] Of Trolls and Talismans

2011-11-16T19:27:00.003+10:00

Talisman: The Magical Quest Game, is a Board Game that many a nerd who has played it GROANS at the very mention of it. "It takes so long!" They cry, "It will take us late into the night!" Which is a lie, we started at 6:30 or 7pm and the three of us finished at 9! We being Scotty, Corey, Paul and I.

Last week we pulled out Talisman to play. I'm not sure what edition it is, but I imagine its old since the dust on the cover of the box is so thick that you need to chisel it off. We followed one house rule which was that players chose a random character. The character cards were shuffled and they draw from a random spot, or it's just drawn from the top of the deck.

Last week we drew random cards and came up thusly.

Medway - Assassin
Paul - Prophetess
Corey - Sorceress
Scott - Priest

I had absolutely horrible luck, with my stuff being stolen by bandits, and being kicked seven ways from sunday from the least likely of all things, the Wild Boar, the Weakest monster in the game. The worst part is that it happened twice. It's more humiliating than Corey who had his arse kicked by the Farmer every time he landed on the Tavern. Every. Time.

This week, we all ran through the character cards and as soon as I saw him, I had to play him. The Troll. He's the strongest character, but he's about as bright as those glow in the dark constellation stickers you put on your ceiling (or want to, if you haven't done so already). Actually, that might be giving him a little bit of credit.

The other special feature of him is that he is always safe in the Crags. Normally, you can get lost or you can fight a terrible spirit that found you, or you can gain a Strength when a Barbarian leads you out, and any of these can happen depending on what you roll on a d6. But not the Troll!

So he's a very VERY straight forward character. Later revisions allowed him to gain a Life if he rolls a 6, but that's unlikely since he isn't interested in anything except "bashing sum wun wiff his stikk".

Which he did. He bashed quite a few things that most others wouldn't have normally bashed, and benefitted from it. The poor fella did draw a Craft 10 Demon, which is impossible for him to beat with his Craft 1... But I had a cross. "So I'z got da kross and smished da demon." Then I immediately doubled my craft.

"I have now found that the reason the apple fell on my head is because the tree is actually attacking me."

I picked up a few different things, one of the biggest things that brought me some of the POWER I held was the Amulet, which meant I couldn't cast spells but I couldn't be targetted by them.

Except for a Witch. Who cursed me and turned me into a Toad. Goddamn witch. So that meant I dropped all my items, including the Amulet, the Cross and the Flask of Water, and all my Gold (I think i was on like 5 at that point) and then I just hopped about just like a toad does. There was a font of Wisdom, luckily, and so I doubled my craft again. A Toad with a Craft of 2 is pretty impressive. Especially when it goes up against a Craft 4 Monster and Ties with it. But when I turned back into a Troll the extra craft didn't roll over, so didn't quadruple my Craft, sadly.

Sidenote - To fight someone, you get the relative stat (Strength or Craft) and roll a d6. If you equal, you tie. If you roll higher, they suffer lose a Life. If you roll lower, you lose a Life.

Now as I mentioned, when you get turned into a Toad you drop all your Gold and Objects on the spot that you get turned into a Toad. So that means it's available for other players to pick up stuff. So during the 3 turns that I am a Toad, my stuff is up for grabs. I'm also easily killable, but nobody was in the habit of trying to kill anyone.

Except me. And I had incentive too. Paul, who was playing the Elf, found a way to sneak over and pick up my stuff by telepoting through Woods Spaces. And when he got there, he convinced the fucking Witch to Pay him to take my stuff of her hands, the greedy bastard . But luckily for me, he hadn't had a good run. He was down to 1 Life, so all I needed to do was conk him on the noggin and that's the end of that. So as a vengeful Troll with about 8 or 9 Strength to his name, he hunted down that Fucking Elf and got back his Objects, his Gold plus Interest (Paul had a significant amount of luck with regards to Gold) and then trundled off satisfied with himself that there was one more squished Elf in the world.

After that, I was a train of havoc going all the way up to the Crown of Command to "Kill da little peeple". It was funny though, I drew the Hermit just before I went into the inner level, and conveniently enough he was on the tile I landed on and he gave me a Talisman to let me get to the Crown of Command.

"Choo Choo! Take Dat, Dwarf! Take Dat, Warrior! I got da Powah!"

[Game Warning] Sonic Generations

2011-11-15T19:10:00.005+10:00

I think I may have mentioned that I'm a fan of Sonic. He has been a childhood hero and remains to be. I think I have a photo somewhere that has me in my favourite Sonic Hoodie, and one of my various Sonic Shirts at the Mana Bar while playing Sonic on the Wii.

The only disappointing era's of Sonic games was really the 2006 Self-titled version. Anything after the Mega Drive until that point, I haven't had the chance to play, so to be fair I'm not going to say bad things about them. I have Sonic Adventure now on my PS3 since they made a port for it, but I just haven't put the effort into playing it yet.

Instead, I've been playing Sonic 4 which I have yet to really complete. It's difficult, and the controls are noticably different than the traditional games that I've played, though the system is meant to be much the same. What's closer to the classic is Sonic Fan Remix. And what else is likable about it is that it's got a different, but more appealing art style, really detailed and different than Sonic 4.

But I'm not really here to talk about those versions of Sonic the Hedgehog. I want to talk about Sonic Generations.

The Idea behind Sonic Generations is a combination of older and newer formats of the Sonic Platformers, the classic 2D and the newer 3D format. In turn, they follow the theme of various different levels from those same generations, picking Zones from the various games and then giving both a 2D and a 3D version of the levels with Original layouts.

One of the funny gimmicks of the game is that both generations of Sonic are able to meet each other. Old Sonic was a blue hedgehog with black pupils and no iris, and didn't really speak much. Or at all. New Sonic, after he defeated one of the Robotniks in the Archie Comics, changed to have Green Iris and Gold Buckles on his shoes, and he's taller.

I picked it up yesterday and I plugged it into the PS3 and invited mum to watch it with me. And to boot, we flicked it over to 3D to see what it would be like with the effects. What we did know of the game was that it was a bit... quick off the mark. If you performed the Spin Dash technique, you would have missed a portion of the level due to the speed he was travelling. Classic Sonic was quick, but this is ridiculous.

The 3D just made it more intense, with the detailed levels and the various colours and speeds, it was just driving Mum and I nuts. I don't think I'm going to load up the 3D again except for a special event when i want to show someone.

The Gameplay system they use is very reminiscent of the classic Sonic that I played many moons ago, with various different additions, such as Skill sets for Sonic to apply to himself (First two of which were to land on his feet whenever he gets damaged, and to have the rings stay around for 10 seconds), and challenge modes for the different levels. So there's plenty to unlock since the game encapsulates the better part of the entire franchise, and also includes special feature such as Art, Music and Videos.

I'm very excited to get into this game. It's my favourite character, with elements from all generations, and... well yeah. That's about it, really.

Manning Up

2011-11-14T19:10:00.003+10:00

Every so often I actually go out. Not go to a mates place to play games, but actually out to do something Normal. Like go out to a play. Which is what I did on Saturday night, to see the World Premiere of the final Felafel play: How To Be A Man. I put on a nice shirt, my glasses so I could see, and made the trek from Roma Street Station where I stepped off the Bus.

Now, I get a little nervous around crowds. It's just the way I am. So just before I went to the Theatre I stopped off at the Alfie Hotel (aka: Hotel LA; aka: Lord Alfred Hotel) and grabbed a cider and sculled that down to ease the nerves. Then I wandered up to the theatre to collect my ticket.

As I waited for the lovely girl to print my ticket, as I left mine at work on friday, I was approached by an unfamiliar face who had approached me knowing full well who I am. Turns out it was Abe, one of the Burgers who had turned up for the same play as I did! He introduced himself and offered me a drink, which I happily accepted because I'm an alcoholic and still a little nervous.

It was annoying that I had so many nerves that night. I got hand fed from Greg and met Dan from Smart Enough 2 Know Better and even though I listen to his shrill garbling and Gregs Barotone (at least I reckon he has the deeper voice) and I should know that he's a very casual sort of guy, I got too nervous and ended up making a bit of an arse of myself in front of him. Insert Facepalm Image of your choice here. Actually, use this.

Anyway, I had a nice chat with many of the Burgers, and even the Burger King himself, until everyone had to clamber into the Theatre itself wearing a fake Moustache that Simon Bedak was handing out like lollies. I was i seat A9, front row centre aisle. It was a good seat, I thought. It would give me a wonderful view of the play. I could see things without having to squint at the little details. The small entertaining things that can really make a play better.

Now after saying that to myself, had a wonderful introduction to the city of "Bong Kok". If you go see the play, you'll understand very early on what I'm talking about.

The stage itself was amazing. set in the back yard of a shoddy old sharehouse that even had the family safe (One of the panels made from a cut up Beer Carton), it had all the feel of a scungy house full of rats, cockroaches and nests of feral possums living in the tall grass. And the traditional Sharehouse Couch sat amongst it.

The entire play was magnificent. I can't say anything bad about it. Even Bong Kok. It was a massive shock to the system, but it was still hilarious. Girl Clumsy directed a masterpiece, scripted by Simon Bedak, and written by John Birmingham and Dirk Flinthart.

But the main thing that the show taught me was how to Man Up (funny that). And pretty much all of the Burgers suggested and agreed with starting a donation run to get Jenny to Australia. A JenCon Oz Fund. Everyone wanted to put forward for her to come here, whether it means she'll be spending lots of money here, or even just using the contributions to keep her here longer (Which is probably a better use of the contributions, actually).

I'm currently in discussions with Jenny about organising it, so we'll let everyone know when it's all ready. I'm thinking a Paypal thing?

[Game Warning] Campaigning for fun

2011-11-12T18:58:00.004+10:00

Now a month or two ago, I said about how I was going to play Gears of War 3 with my friends, playing through the wonderful campaign as a Four-player Cooperative rather than running around by myself. It's a lot more fun, especially if we all start off at the same point, then we all experience the same thing, achieve the same goals, save the same damsels, etcetera etcetera etcetera.

When I got my new Xbox and downloaded my Gamer profile, I found that I'm missing achievements for certain games, like Halo 3 and Gears of War 2. I ran through Gears of War 2 again alone because I didn't think of inviting anyone. But it wasn't as fun as with a friend. Not to say it wasn't a fun game, it was still as awesome as I remember it the first time, but I know it's better when you have someone playing with you, whether it's through the internet or sitting next to you laughing their heads off as you decapitate a couple of people with a hydraulic powered crossbow.

So in preparation to playing through the Halo 3 Campaign, I've asked my friends to gauge who would be interested in playing the Halo 3 Campaign with me. I've asked Scott and his only apprehension is the control scheme being so different to the Halo Reach scheme. It's rather different, but I'm thinking of adjusting my own settings to use the Green Thumb control scheme for all Halos upward of Halo 3.

Other games that I want to play Coop are Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One. I want to get that game and play with Scotty. I know he's waiting for me, but it's just a matter of picking up the game so we can start. Also, Portal 2 has an update for it's Cooperative Campaign, so we're going to get in on that at some point when I mention it to Scotty.

Next year, when Borderlands 2 comes out, we're going to dive into that one as well through the Xbox. Scotty was planning on getting it for PC, however it was put down to general consensus that we would all play on the Xbox. Which brings me to the subject of Cross-Platform gaming, but that's another blogpost that I've drafted away and haven't bothered to type in since I started it.

I was thinking of making a Blog for our escapades through whatever games together, somewhere we could organise times to play and such, but that seems a bit much. Though we could apply it as well for our Wargaming as well, if we decided to use as such if we were doing a campaign amongst ourselves. That would actually be really cool if we were, but we're not.

Actually I thought about running the old campaigns for Warmachine amongst friends, but haven't sat down with a copy of Escalation or Apotheosis and worked it out for MKII Settings. I don't know if there are any very good conversions out there, or even if there's one released from PPress, but I'm going to give it a crack. I'm really wanting to go with "Point Cost / 2, Rounded up" to determine Victory Points.

So wondering about whether or not I should do the blog or not. It wouldn't be interesting, I think it would mostly have notices for what and when we're next playing, unless we do a battle report for each of our campaign games, but I dunno about that.

Now I've completely lost track of what I was talking about.

Irrational is a wonderful prefix isn't it?

2011-11-10T09:34:00.002+10:00

It gets you away from any explanation or reasoning that there ever could be. However, it doesn't really get away from the embarrassment that ensues, like what happened to me last night.

Now I have a couple of irrational fears. One of which is heights, and I'm mostly getting used to it now. I can get on top of a building and look over the edge and see everyone down the way. I don't know how I'd go on the roof of a skyscraper, but I don't see it being very good (he says as the warms trickles down his leg). Stupid Acrophobia. I don't know where it came from, because I've always had it since I was little, but I've slowly grown out of it, though occasionally the fight/flight will kick in and I'll just refuse to go any higher.

Mum even tried to help me get over my fear by sending me to awkward places that were much too high, or sending me out with family friends to go out to places of elevation. One time we went out rockclimbing and I just refused to climb. Wouldn't do it. Couldn't do it. He went through all the safety instructions and everything, and assured me over and over that it was perfectly safe. I even watched my sister do it, climb up and take her time and everything, but NOPE. Not budging. I at least did something at an Indoor Rockclimbing centre. But I got little more than halfway and I got stuck until I was told I could come down.

Another time we went out to the glass house mountains for a bushwalk up the mountain. There was a part with a fairly steep climb up a smooth rock. I got halfway, but I couldn't get a grip on my shoes. So I got stuck and decided to go back down and waited there for the others to go all the way to the top and back down again. I sat there for a few hours feeling a bit embarrassed, but adamant that I couldn't do it. When I got home, mum was pissed that I didn't get anywhere with it, but I never asked for her help with my fear of heights. She should've discussed it with me instead of sending me off without even asking whether i wanted to go.

I think that was my angst period too, where I just didn't have any choice of what I wanted to do, I just got told "You're doing this, that's final" regardless of whether I had a massive problem with it or not.

Anyway, I have a case of Acrophobia and occasionally my legs will turn to cement and I'll get stuck.

My other irrational fear is Glass Elevators. And I just mean Glass Elevators, where the walls have windows out into open areas, or you can see the floors going up in front of you in the door. Elevators with Windows. Display cases on a wire. This is another one from my childhood. Mum and dad had me at the Myer Centre and we were about to take the escalators going up, and I started bawling my eyes out and carrying on getting upset at the escalators to the point that Mum said "Alright, lets try the elevators." No good. I got in there and I was worse. Just stepping in there and I just went off like someone was trying to kill me.

And that one has really stuck through to today. I've taken glass elevators only a few times after that, using the small part of metallic wall as a set of blinders while feeling the rock in my stomach sink down into my feet as the buttons highlighted the floor we were on. They move so quickly those elevators, so the inertia really just makes me sink.

When I have the chance now, I just take the escalators. It's much easier for me to peel the bandaid than rip it off.

Last night however wasn't one of my bravest days. I got offered to go see Immortals for free because a friend got given 20 free double passes at the Myer Centre. I was offered to join in and I said yes, because a free movie is the best kind of movie.

We all met up at Hungry Jacks and had some dinner before taking a very long way around to the Cinema, going up Queen Street rather than going down Albert Street, but eventually we got to the right set of lifts, and that's where everyone got on the lift and I just kept on walking away and down the stairs and up Albert street to King George Square Bus Station and Jumped on a Bus and let it take me home. Didn't tell anyone. Just bolted. Like the Massive Pussy I am.

See, what had happened, is that I completely forgot that the Myer Centre has Glass Elevators. And tou know that fight or flight mechanism? That self explanatory thing in your brain? Yeah, for some reason it just had a big red sign that said "FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT." Even the idea of escalators didn't turn me back. Scotty suggested "Look straight ahead"
Nope: "I don't have tunnel vision Scott, I can still see the way down and I have a fear of heights." Scotty even called me later after the movie to see if I was alright and I just explained that to him, that for some reason I just flipped out and had to go.

The only thing now is that when I see my friend again, I'm going to get ridiculed. Probably quite a lot.

*Shrug* It's the price you pay, I guess.

A different sort of Tron

2011-11-08T19:04:00.000+10:00

Back in the day, when I were a wee lad, probably about 5 or 6 years of age, I was given some Lego sets as presents and, over time, I have lost the various pieces until it has pretty much completely disappeared. Whether it's a few pieces dropped off at a friends place, or just disappeared into the ether, I don't have a single piece of it now. Though I still have a memory of it.

What I really remembered of it was that it was Red, and it had these massive wheels for bush bashing across a barren planet like Mars. That was all. And I'm sure I had an absolute ball with it while I was young, and with the little Pirate Set I have at work, I want to expand it out to more. Something bigger, but not big enough to cover my desk.

So I did some Google searches. "Mars Lego Vehicle" was the first through Image searches and it came up with nothing except random lego sets from something else entirely. I looked at the wheels and just found everything wrong, wrong and wrong. None of them matched.

I looked up Wikipedia to see where that would take me, and what I found was that there are various different Themes of Lego. Now I already knew this, since I could still see Medieval and space and modern and etc etc etc all around the Lego Aisles in the shops. But series of a theme would only last for a few years at a time, so I figured that the set I was looking for would probably be best found on Fleabay.

Eventually I found it. The M-Tron Series Celestial Forager/Astro Wrecker.

I searched more on it too and I found out that it is also part of a super set called the "Secret Space Voyager", which has me curious and I want to build it. Too bad I don't have any money.

[Warthingy] What's Black, White and Red all over? Two Destroyers and an Ivan

2011-11-07T11:05:00.004+10:00

Every Sunday I head to Spring Hill to play games at the LGS there. At least I try to. Yesterday I made it there and had a couple of really enjoyable games with Kommander Brian Blessed. I mean, Kommander Izak Harkevich.

Now, I originally thought he was an awkward caster. He has a heap of spells that are really interesting, but he's just hard to really get off the ground. But this yesterday was different. They were significantly better than the last couple of games I had using him, where he'd be overloaded with Warjacks (I had a Behemoth and two destroyers I think) and I would hope for the best out of their ranged attacks.

This time, I got a fantastic result out of the two games i had with him. The first game was 50pts against Kara Sloan. I technically lost, but got a wonderful moral victory out of it.

The lists were as follows.

Kommander Izak Harkevich
- Black Ivan
- White Destroyer
- Red Destroyer
- War Dog
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Greylord Ternion
Widowmakers
Winterguard Infantry (Max)
- Officer and Standard
- Rocketeer (1)
Koldun Lord
Kovnik Jozef Grigorivich

Captain Kara Sloan (*6pts)
- Cyclone (9pts)
- Defender (9pts)
- Stormclad (10pts)
- Squire (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Storm Tower (2pts)
Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
- Stormblade Infantry Officer & Standard (3pts)
Sword Knights (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Trencher Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
Captain Arlan Strangewayes (2pts)

He started off with a list of things he hadn't used, and some reliable fellas. I pulled out mostly reliable stuff, and designed Harkevich's battlegroup to include three warjacks. So Black Ivan, and two Destroyers. I love Destroyers and I only wish they were P+S 18 still, rather than 17.

One thing I was happy about was using the Koldun Lord. I've rarely used him, but he came into great use. My second turn, everyone was in range to shoot, so the Koldun Lord gave a point of Focus to Black Ivan to Boost Damage since Ivan's affinity offers automatically boosted attack rolls. Then the other two Destroyers would boost to hit using focus from Harkevich.

With Harkevich's four focus, he upkeeps Escort from last turn and put the remaining three to use for Broadsides. Out of the 6 AOEs thrown out there and and slightly beyond the Stormclad I caught a couple of Stormblades and one AOE caught Kara who she copped a boosted damage roll for either 4 or 7 damage.

Next turn, I got my chance to charge into his Stormclad and Cyclone. With the Escort up and his Feat popped, Black Ivan and Red Destroyer charged in and tore a good chunk off the buggers. Harkevich gave them two focus each as well, I think, and White Destroyer was left guarding Harkevich's Flank from a Defender that was creeping around.

Russ's turn was spent either missing half the attacks on Black Ivan, or slowly Grinding at the Red Destroyer. That +3 armour to my Khador Warjacks? Holy **** biscuits on a **** platter does it make a difference. I sat there and took so little damage. It helped that I crippled the Stormblade's Sword Arm, but CRIMENY.

Oh and it was rather funny when the Cyclone who couldn't shoot any more and hold up my Winterguard from Advancing, sat there and tried to double handed throw Black Ivan. Twice he tried this turn and the next, and with both Strength Test Rolls we equalled on the dice. Which means I win since I have 1 more Strength than he does. I had to laugh because the chances of rolling higher than 2d6 with only 1d6 is very improbable.

Fourth turn, the last before I was shot to oblivion, I surprised him with some Winterguard Fun. Grape Shot plus "For The Motherland" makes for an infantry killing turn. Which I did to his trenchers and the better part of his remaining Stormblades. I think there were two left, including the officer who had taken about 3 points of damage, one after the other, through the game.

The Greylords, who were mostly putting clouds on the Warjacks to defend Old Mate, had charged in last turn and one tried to kill a Trencher but failed to hit. One kept back to surprise them from the side, so the other two were basically sacrificed to hold up the trenchers. At the fourth turn, the remaining Greylord was suddenly surrounded by Running Sword Knights, and luckily three of them were in a line. So off he fired the Magical Shotgun and away went two Sword Knights, the last two taken out by Harkevich's Hand Cannon and White Destroyers Executioner Axe.

That was when Kara moved up and got a bead on Harkevich with her Rifle and the Defenders Cannon. Two shots, and he was down and out. As you'd expect from a Boosted Weapon Master POW 12 and a Boosted POW 15.

Before I forget though, the Great Bears of Gallowswood made up their points value, I reckon, by stopping the Black 13th from doing anything significant. Granted, he didn't lose a single model and I lost all three Great Bears, but you know what? If the Black 13th were more in the fray than taking the long way around the flank, it would have been a very different game. I probably would've lost more Winterguard much earlier in the game.

Russ conceded the moral victory to me for BUTCHERING his army and pulling off a "Bullshit Assassination". Which wasn't quite bullshit, it's the way I would expect a dirty Cygnaran player to Assassinate me.

Second game was against Aiden's Karchev the Terrible. This was a massive grinding match, pitting Khador versus Khador. But it was really fun at the 35pt Level with the following lists.

Kommander Harkevich, the Iron Wolf (*5pts)
* Black Ivan (10pts)
* Destroyer (9pts)
* Destroyer (9pts)
* War dog (1pts)
Great Bears of Gallowswood (5pts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts) (4pts)
Koldun Lord (2pts)

Karchev the Terrible (*5pts)
* Berserker (6pts)
* Berserker (6pts)
* Decimator (9pts)
* Juggernaut (7pts)
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)

This game was fun, but could've worked out a bit better if he changed up one thing. We threw each others Warjacks against each other, and I mean threw them. Mine charged first during the feat turn and he had Towed most of his warjacks into the Fray. There was only one Warjack that missed out in getting into the fray which was one of his Berserkers. He fell a little way behind the rest of the Party.

The mistake that was made was that a poor Berserker had gotten ahead as well, and copped the better part of about 6 Bombard Attacks, and a Charging Black Ivan. He was quickly torn apart. Afterwards, Karchev got into the Grinding melee with his own Axe versus my Feated Warjacks.

The better option, which he agreed with, was to have Karchev move a little way out of melee and use the ranged attack to Knock down everything in front of his own Warjacks. Oh and to get his Berserker up the front a bit quicker, maybe taking the place of where Karchev was. That way, Karchev wouldn't have been punched into Oblivion by Black Ivan with Fortune cast on him.

One thing that was Frustrating? Black Ivan has Critical: Brutal Damage. Out of the 6-8 attacks I made against Karchev, do you think I made a SINGLE Critical hit? NO! Everything else in my army got Criticals Galore! But could Black Ivan do it? No, the spiteful bugger decided to extend Karchev's death.

So overall, I had a good weekend with some great games. I can't wait for next week!

[Game Warning] You take away my single player, I get angry

2011-11-05T19:41:00.001+10:00

Disclaimer: This is aimed at the whingers. Not those who actually like having more hours worth into their solo play.

You Bastards.

I'm in the same pool as the author of the above post, where I can get a better sense of accomplishment playing the single player campaign. In my case, I will admit that I'm absolute crap in Multiplayer and I don't want to hear, to quote @TheWah, "Fourteen year old american children questioning my sexuality".

So now they're going to take away from me a small part of my pleasure in a franchise I actually like? That's some super bastardery right there.

I like long campaigns. I heard in the same podcast, where the quote above is from, that console games aren't entirely worth it, which is somewhat true for someone of my standing. $90 for one game and you play for 24 hours, or $90 for 45 games on your Gadget and you play forever.

So to have my gameplay time drop by a third, I feel like I've been ripped off by the wrong people. All because of a bit of whinging about "Oh it's TOO LOOONG".

Tell you what. Have a cup of cement for breakfast. Maybe that'll harden you the fuck up.

[Game Warning] Of Nerds and Birthdays

2011-11-04T18:58:00.007+10:00

I think I've mentioned how much of a geek Scott is. He always has a list of Preorder Receipts as long as his arm from the local EBGames store near his work. He has a back log of games he hasn't played due to being distracted with certain other games.

So when his birthday comes around in a month time we're going to celebrate his birthday by, you guessed it, playing Video Games. We bring our own TVs/Monitors and our consoles (maybe computers) and we network up to enjoy some good old fashioned LAN Gaming.

Halo, Gears of War, etc etc etc. All good games for a good time, all for Scottys Birthday. Then we're going to play Dystopian Wars and Warmachine/Hordes over the entirety of the weekend of the 11th and 12th.

Which makes me think of my own birthday next year. Now Scotts place has plenty of room to work around. We can set up three/four consoles around a couple of tables in his downstairs room or even the garage.

I reminisced about going to The Bunker many years ago as part of my own birthday. And with the talking about "Nerd Hold", the Man-Cave/Club-House, it made me think about Mums Shed in the Back Yard.

The shed was built many years ago, back when I was young (Not that long ago for some of my readers - :P ) due to the old shed being... well a wreck. It was a few sheets of corrugated iron stuck together by rusty nails, cobwebs and Hope. Maybe a few dead bodies as well. Not people, just things like Spiders, rats, snakes, cockroaches, and the dead, dried out spirits of Skin Mags.

That was torn down and the new shed was built, along with a Pagola that mum asked for. The Pagola is pretty good too, with a very large tree over the top, and one of the best breezes that runs through it on a summers day. The Old Boy chucked all of his tools in there onto shelves he built into the walls, and then everything just sat there. Back came the Creepy Crawlies, but the spirits of the Skin Mags didn't come back. I think.

Now back to the subject at hand, my train of thought was going towards using the shed for a LAN party next year. This isn't likely, because of a few things.

The place is filled to the brim with crap from my sister and bro-in-law. They moved house earlier this year and just filled it to the fkn brim.

The creepy crawlies. They've probably nested in there, so it'll take some time to get rid of them and making sure the place is secure for people to stay in there for more than 5 minutes.

The rotting wood. I'm sure that the place is rotting on the inside, particularly those shelves that were built into the wall. So I will have to look into tearing those down.

The Wiring. Now, the Old Boy isn't an electrician. In fact, I think the only electrician we know is Aaron, and we didn't know he existed until I repeated Grade 12 at Aspley. So all the power going through to the Flourescent lights? They're from a power socket in Mums laundry which connects to an extension cord leading out to the Pagola and into a large array of other various extension cords. We're likely to blow the power out.

So there's a few things to sort out if I want to use the place for a small gaming space for a day or two. We could grab a couple of cheap couches and small entertainment units from the St Vinnies, chuck them in the middle of the place and hook up the systems for a good time. And in the Pagola, we'll have our table-top games or even some board games, and a BBQ is there which just needs a clean, and I can pull out my desk speakers and pick up some random music from Dee.

Sounds awesome to me. Heck, if I actually did go through with it and had the money/Time, I would build my Sonic Arcade Cabinet. That would be pretty awesome.

[Game Warning] Board games and Pandora's Box

2011-11-02T19:21:00.001+10:00

I've been getting more and more into board games and of a Tuesday I've been indulging in board games with a couple of the other regulars. Last week was "Wrath of Ashardalon", a D&D board game which worked out pretty well to play, and then last night was "The Order of the Stick Adventure Game".

The Order of the Stick is a parody of the classical Dungeons and Dragons game, following a mismatch band of player characters. The Board game follows one of the first dungeons that the party run through to fight the Boss at the end.

Now you follow through the dungeon and it's pretty cruisy. You explore rooms and attack the monsters that appear, grab the subsequent loot, and then move on. As you go deeper, you fight more monsters per room, based on the floor you're on. So floor 1 is 1 monster. Floor 2 is 2 monsters, etc etc.

Then occasionally there'll be a Leader monster which will increase the size of the monster fight. So instead of one monster, you get 2. Larger fights with bigger pay offs, but more risk. You're only rolling D12's and your friends can either be nice or they can be a complete bastard. I copped that once or twice from Cory.

There's also Support abilities, where if you have a monster of a type listed on the monster card somewhere on the same floor, they gain a special rule or bonus. Such as +2 to defence and attack. Or the Horde Ability.

Horde means that for each monster of the same type on the same floor, you add another monster. So if you have a Goblin Warlock with Horde, and you draw three goblins, you have to add another 3 monsters. And if they're more goblins, you have to draw more monsters per goblin.

We came against the fight for Lord Xykon, who has Horde for Goblins and Undead in his army, and we opened up Pandoras Box. We drew the Kobold King and two of the Goblin Characters, who also have Horde. We also drew about 5 Demon Roaches, who count towards Kobolds, Goblins and Undead. Basically, the battle Exponentialized until we got to 23 and said "Nope. That's it. We're leaving it at that."

After we got through the fight, I sat down and did the calculations. I ran out of cards after taking them from the top of the Battle Deck, and Recycling the discarded battle deck cards.

At least it was Fun! I got to put my Great Cleavage to good Use.

Fk me I can ramble [Boring Nerd Shit Ahead]

2011-10-25T18:51:00.001+10:00

I read an article just before about the state of PC Gaming and standardising systems. I found it was an interesting article and got me thinking about two things. One is building my own PC, something I had a friend do a few years ago with my current PC (Which has a wonderful time dancing through games like Crysis which is a system hungry game) and PC Games themselves, and the quality thereof.

When I got my current computer built all those years ago, probably about 3-4 years now, I gathered up a bunch of money and said "Take this and build me a slightly above average PC for the time. It was a good PC and outperformed his own (A small shot to his pride I believe, though he did make it... I liked taht he called it Beast-09)

The thing he was irked about was the case. He was adamant that I would need a new Case for my PC. However, I refused. I already had a computer tower and I just wanted it gutted and filled back up because for one, I wasn't going to fork out another $200 for a fancy box, and two, the case that I owned had a very comfortable handle on the top. So if I had to move it around, it was very easy. And three, even if I could get a new case that fulfilled the such needless desire of point 2, I still didn't want to fork out $200+ for a new case.

I was happy with this.

So I had him build it and did it for about $800 with almost the entirety of the internal hardware being refurbished. It was wonderful and it still is. I use it to play the PC games that I do have, and if I purchased any recently I would probably still be able to play it, though chances are that I may need to tone down some details.

Actually I haven't bought a PC game in a few years, so I'm not too sure on that, but I'll be sure to let someone know.

I've been thinking about case mods over the past few months though. I was originally thinking along the lines of my consoles, the Xbox260 and the PS3, but after surfing for ideas I couldn't really get any ideas on what I would want to do to either of my consoles. I'd want something unique so that it's MY console. Not anyone elses. Mine.

I also looked at computer Case Mods too, and there are some really nice ones out there. Some themed around computer games, some hilarious, and some you just laugh at because you're aware what it's a joke of.

A little while before I started searching case mods, I was also thinking about my "Nerd Hold", the game cave I had thought about at the time. How I wanted game tables and a small lounge in front of a projector or large TV. That sort of thing.

But what I didn't really think about was the Decor of Nerd Hold. In my mind, I kept thinking of something that didn't have much effort put into it. Like a large corner studio apartment with a support pole in the middle of the room, sitting a couple of stories up from the inner city street below visible through the slat windows that went from waist high to the ceiling.

In one corner is the kitchen on a raised level, with oven and a centre table, and either cupboards all around with corner steps leading to each other section. In the opposite corner are the lounges with the TV or top quality projector which is connected to the PC and consoles (naturally). In the windowed corner, a Wargaming table and painting desk, and I forgot what I was going to put opposite that. I think it was a Pool Table.

And apart from the kitchen, the entire thing is cement floor with rugs over them.

But that doesn't sound like a nice place. Sure, it's good enough for Nerds, but what's wrong with doing something nicer? Like I could go for class, and have polished wood floors, desks with leather trims, coffee tables that hide the PC's and consoles and display onto a wood framed television, or a theatre screen flanked by burgundy curtains, and just close enough for the 120* of vision. The kitchen would be as mentioned before, but put it level with the floor. and the inner corner is a Bar. I'd debate taps.

I'd match the Pool table to the theatre with Burgundy felt, and a flourescent light over the top with a wooden cover (rather than the usual metal one finds these days. The Wargame tables would have to be custom made, but something like the pool table without pockets. Like The Sultan.

Grain walls and polished floors, I wouldn't be able to get away with it unless I were rich or knew how to build it all myself. Which I don't.

But going back to the subject of Case mods, I had seen several Wooden Case mods which gave me the idea of the room just mentioned, and they were really nice. They could be used as really nice couch side tables.

There's always the idea of using the actual table though as the Computers Case. Given a bit of thought into the internal structure, and some space for air and such, and you'll have a really nice computer blended in with the scenery. Quiet too, as the wood absorbs fan noise and vibration very well.

That's one thing I like about PC's. Though they take up a large amount of space, you can make them look really nice. Alternatively, you can get them as small as a laptop. And while it won't be as powerful as a desktop (debatable), it's still the ability to have something that will do the job and cover as little area as possible.

I can't even remember what day it is

2011-10-20T19:00:00.004+10:00

I was meant to write here a lot more over the past three weeks. "At least once a week I will put up a post to let everyone know that I am alive, and that Jenny hadn't put me in an ice bath and replaced my kidneys with a potato and some cool looking stitches" I said to myself. But, to misuse a word and include a suffix, I was suffering a bad case of Distractedness by a beautiful and wonderful woman that I want to spend the rest of my life with.

But so everyone knows, I didn't have an ice bath and gain cool scars and have my kidneys replaced with Potatoes. I DID however stub my toe on my suitcase one night as I was drunk stumbling to bed (details later). Bloody thing swelled up, turned black and now it still kinda hurts but only when I force it to do something, or drop something on it.

The last three weeks were fantastic and, because my Jewish powers of money calculating failed me, I ended up overspending my money. But then again I didn't leave with much in the first place. And LAX hit me fkn hard too. Three double Rum and Cokes and a breakfast burrito cost me $47. And that's BEFORE Tip! But I'm glad I had those drinks, I had a Fkn sore neck from the Bris-2-LA flight and that just really loosened me up.

The first week was probably the least pleasant, because of the weather. It was a little miserable and I had picked up a cold, or a bad case of jetlag, but I was coughing and sneezing and trying not to choke on my own mucus while staying in bed and keeping warm while waiting for Jenny to get back from Work. She'd taken the first week as half days because her Holiday hours weren't quite enough to cover the three weeks, not to mention she has to save some time for when she comes to Brisbane.

We started off a little late getting into photos (I think?), because it was about a half week in and Jenny turns to me to say "Have we taken any photos?"
"Uhh, I don't think we have yet."
Suddenly, like a magician performing a card trick, her phone appeared and started taking happy snaps of us and Taz in bed, smiling and kissing and generally being really fkn cute. Except Taz. He just looks like that all the time.

Now, I want to place this disclaimer that the following events are all true, but are completely out of chronological order. My memory is like one of those shoddy motorcycles that needs about 8 kick starts. Or in my case, A Photo!

This photo starts me off on the second last day Ii was there. Well, the Last Night I was there. I hadn't cooked anything for Jenny for all of the three weeks, though I meant to do some stuffed potatoes for her because they're good and really satisfying. But we never actually got around to it because we were doing something else, or I just couldn't be arsed.

But Jenny says to me as we watched Outrageous Fortune (details on that later) "I'm hungry, but I don't want to eat potato chips for the rest of the night."
"You're right," I replied. "We need something that will satisfy our hungers. Something that we can really enjoy. Something that I can actually cook."
That's when she reminded me we got stuff for Spaghetti Bog, like the sauce to which I remembered something about Marinara sauce and Bolognaise sauce and how they're different, or the same, or something or other, and ran with that. I even looked at the ingredients of the Marinara Sauce (Tomato, Tomato, Tomato, wine) and was happy with what was in it. So I took the risk and through blind luck, it was really good!

As I was cooking, and getting worried that I hadn't cooked the meat enough though I couldn't tell because of the sauce making it look like a freshly killed animal, Jenny wanted to get a video of me and so she recorded "A Womans Ultimate Dream", where a man is cooking in the kitchen and singing Madonna.

Now I was singing Madonna not because I like the song "Beautiful Stranger", but because I have a weird habit of singing it in a funny accent. I like to think it's South African, but listening to the recording the accent kinda ran to the frozen wastelands to sound very "Comrade" about halfway through the song. But now it's up and available for my friends to see and now I think there's going to be a few good laughs tomorrow night at the Lads Night Out about my 15 minutes of Singing Stardom.

Most dinners we had though throughout the weeks weren't at home. We spent many many nights going out for dinner and enjoying ourselves, because I think I explained myself before about where I stand with making dinner. One of the best dinners we had was at Old Chicago, a franchise restaurant that does Chicago Style Pizzas.

I ordered an individual serving of a normal pizza, because I didn't know what to expect and I didn't know how to ask for the Pizza that looks like a friggin cheesecake. It was the nicest pizza I have ever had. A wonderful crust, and the sausage and pepperoni and the sauce... I'm salivating right now just by thinking about it.

That night was with Jennys workmate David, his wife Jessica (I think that's right?) and their youngin, Jonathan. One of the cutest babies you'll come across, and he really plays up the attention. He even turned up to Jennys Birthday for a little bit and everyone was like "Aww, look at him". And the little poser kept posing for Jennys Mum as she took photos! Cheeky bugger.

Side Note: This was going to be a group photo of Jennys Friends, but I didn't feel comfortable with it so I've given you a Squirrel that Jenny and I saw at Notre Dame. We felt we had to take a photo because I've never seen a Squirrel before.

Jenny was really happy on her Birthday party, the saturday after her actual birthday. So many of her friends turned up, and even her Grandmother and Aunt Colleen made an appearance! Not to mention Jenny was given lots of drinks. I think there were 3x Dirty Girl Scouts, 1x B-52, a Flaming Red Head (I don't think it was set on fire though) and like 3-4x Long Island Iced Teas. She was absolutely tanked. I'm so proud of her. That was the night I stubbed my toe, too. Bastard suitcase.

Naturally, the next day we sat at home and recuperated. "Oh I won't be having drinks for a LONG time after this". Which is fair enough, though like a week or two later she was complaining that her Pepsi didn't have enough alcohol. Which is when I solved her problem with Bacardi 151 (That's the proof btw) which we bought at the start of the holiday and we still haven't finished the 2 litre bottle.

I laughed too when she said "Oh my god, fourty bucks? That's expensive!"

Luckily that was all after we went to Notre Dame, the University down along the northern border of Indiana to the north of a place called "South Bend". Aside from the little bit of irony that South Bend is to the north of a state, I was quite surprised at how close Indiana is. An hour and a half drive I think it was.

Side Note: Jenny wore her Felafel Shirt this day!

From what I have been told, Notre Dame is one of the more prestigious schools across the US, with a large Gridiron following across the country. There's even a movie about it! We watched some of it on Recuperating Sunday and Jenny pointed out where we'd stood in the movie, like the Grotto and the Park and the Lake.

I was surprised at the size of the campus. It's the size of a friggin suburb, and it's just... pretty. Picturesque trees across covered parks; long lines of old dorms with green strips straight down the middle where people played with frisbees across the zig zagging footpaths; the Golden Dome of the Basilica with a statue watching over the people driving up the main drag into the Campus.

Everything about it was really nice. The Grotto was impressive too, with people walking in to light a candle and pray for loved ones and such. And the gate to the stadium? Well you can see the photo above. It kinda looms above you.

Though the most surprising thing about the campus was walking between two of the Dorms to look up and see a Bike Riding a Tree... Or a Tree attempting to ride a bike... Whatever it was, it wasn't working.

I kinda pity the poor sod who has lost his bike.

It was a nice walk around the campus, and there were a lot of people because it was the day before a game, and Jenny kinda hoped that Regis Philbin because he apparently walks around on that day since he's such a big fan. But if he was there, we missed him. I reckon he may have been in the Throng of people that were at the "Bookstore". It's a big store, and it doesn't just have books, it's got clothes and a coffee place, and novelty stuff, and it seemed like there was no heating because it was bloody hot. I was afraid Jenny was going to faint.

Mum wanted me to get a flask for when she goes to the Ice Rink for my Niece. But all the ones that she's gotten here have either fallen apart or just haven't kept her coffee cold. So thinking that because in Kalamazoo they get such serious winters, they must have a decent way of keeping coffee warm in their flasks. I'll get results within the next few weeks.

The other present was a stubbie cooler for my manager. She likes getting Stubbie Coolers from various places so that was easy except for the choice of a normal stubbie cooler, or a jersey one.

When Jenny moves to Australia, I'm going to have to find out what channels the NFL is on so Jenny can watch the Packers and the Notre Dame games. We may even have to set something up for every Saturday/Sunday where we get a few people over and watch the game over lunch.

Y'see, just about every Sunday, Jenny and her family go to a pub called Shakespeares to watch the Green Bay Packers play. Now I don't know if there's a pub or restaurant here that play the NFL games, though I'll probably have a look around, but the alternative is to get some other fans over and watch it at home. Though the only other NFL fan I know is one of my workmates who lives at the Gold Coast. To boot, he's a Chicago Bears fan, so there'll be a fun rivalry there, especially when both teams play each other.

One of the most amazing things that we did was just a few days before her actual birthday. Her parents and a few others had hired out a house along the beach of Lake Michigan, and it was one of the nicest houses I'd ever seen. I'd been to a few houses since we went to a Parade of Homes, Where you get a ticket and walk through a couple of houses in the area that have been recently built, remodelled, or were made by certain designers.

Now the house at the lake, it was designed in the likeness of a ship. Not to say it had a galley and there were hammocks everywhere (though that would've been cool), but the general shape was like a ship. Pointed towards the bow (and a garage extended out), and widens at the aft. Inside was three storeys and a basement. The top floor, which lead up a square spiral staircase, was a single room that looked out onto the lake, with a balcony as well. The view was fantastic.

Getting to the beach was intimidating though. It was a long climb down the stairs and the stairs were mostly rotten and slanted, so I just didn't want to take the risk going down the 100+ precarious steps so I could get some sand between my toes. Jenny agreed so we went and sat down at the firepit which had several chairs placed around it. There was no fire going, but that's okay. The whole house was amazing.

For the Parade of homes, Jenny and I visited 3 houses, two of which were like small mansions and the last a cosy little home in the outer suburbs. The first house was really nice, and i was quite taken back by the enormous basement and the really nice Bar in the middle of it. The other really impressive thing was the long bathroom they had. Jacuzzi and shower with granite tables which looked out into a forested yard. It was a pretty awesome.

The second house was cosy, but a bit disappointing. It was small and had some nice views, but it was already lived in, so it wasn't quite as fun as browsing the brand spanking new house we saw before. I can't remember what quirky thing we found about it though.

The last house was my favourite of the three. It looked out onto a lake (as in one you could see the other side of) which didn't seem too safe to swim in, but it was nice to look at. The house was like two houses put on top of each other, and just melding in at the middle. Sub-letting downstairs wouldn't be hard at all, if it weren't for the view from the basement, my favourite part. The windows looked right out onto the back yard, and was open and just had plenty of potential for an entertainment area. I really liked it and wished I could afford to buy the place, though half the house we wouldn't know what to do with ourselves.

And I'd have photos of it here, but we weren't allowed. Which sucked, because the view out the window on the top floor was pretty awesome.

One of the first outings we had was the Walk for Altzeimers. Jennys friend was part of the Event Team and invited us along many months ago. It was a simple 3k walk, so we figured it'd be nice and we brought Taz the Shit-zu (yes I know that's not how you spell it) so that he could go out on a nice long walk, and because Jenny was Dog-sitting for her Brothers Girlfriend, we brought along Whiskey the Jack Russell.

Now we were expecting Taz to act out like crazy, because he acts like a brat at home by bothering us when we're trying to do something. For example, Jenny will open her laptop and Taz will grab his favourite toy (I think he favours the colour Green) and put it on her lap. And when she doesn't do anything, he'll climb further onto her to get her attention, and usually trying to drop it onto her lap.

Same thing with me, but I'm usually lying down so he'll drop it on my chest, and eventually shove it in my face. But then as you go to grab it, he'll bite down onto it, sometimes he'll catch you fingers, and just try and fight you for it.

But strangely, Whiskey was the annoying one. People had food all over the place and he was obviously hungry. Jumping up onto his hind legs, and having me pull him back all the time from people. the walk was easier, but he was enjoying all the smells and sights and sounds. He just couldn't keep still. It was funny, but made wrangling him a challenge.

Another walking-with-Taz moment was not long before I left, we went out to a park a little way away from Jennys parents place, and as we walked around the park we walked under a particularly cool looking tree. And what do I find?

We didn't take it home, but it was a random thing to find in the middle of a park while walking a dog of his namesake.

Strange toys were apparent at Kalamazoo too. Jenny had a funny idea of taking funny photos of a toy that I'd brought along. I don't have many stuffed toys, and recently I had received a Blastoise from my friends Aaron and Caryl. So I took him.

The family was a little confused that I had brought it with me to Jennys family dinner at Fletchers Pub. "What is it? What's it from? Is that a native Australian Animal?" Yes, that was an actual question from Jennys Grandmother, the lovely lady. It was fun seeing her at Jennys Birthday and I swear she was putting the moves onto me. "I'm sorry, but your granddaughter has already scooped up my heart." I dunno if I said that to her, but it would've been a great line.

Not to say that Jenny is an Organ harvester. Though she has been watching a lot of Dexter, so she may have learnt a thing or two...

As for TV Shows, Jenny has been engrossed in watching Outrageous Fortune. We watched as much of it as possible so that she was able to understand most of the terms that come along, and because she's gotten used to the accent she likes to have the two of us count to ten in Kiwi Accent. She loves it so much and hopes to get her mum into the show too. I'm waiting to see what her mum says.

One thing Jennys family and I didn't do last time I was there was try Vegemite. Now, it's something that had to be done because I got them interested in this anomoly, this Black Tar that smells so gross, but is eaten with toast by Australians.

So Jenny and I trekked to World Market and had a search for it, because I hadn't brought my own jar along. Which is a shame because I spent $9 on a Small Jar of the delicious beer by-product. Ridiculous! While I was there, I showed Jenny where to find the Tim Tams (which are just packaged as "Arnotts Originals"). Jenny likes Tim Tams, thanks to Girl Clumsy, who happily sent her gifts which included said Tim Tams.

But the Vegemite, when tested, got a few funny looks but no looks of absolute disgust. "It's a little salty, but doesn't taste like anything in particular". Which is fair enough, but I think I just didn't spread enough on there. Jenny was really scared to try it because it stank so much. One time I kissed her after having a slice of toast and Vegemite and she's like "OMG EWW EWW EWW BRUSH YOUR TEETH EWW EWW EWW".

Now there's a few things in America that Jenny and I did that we don't have here in Australia. For one: Halloween. Now I know it isn't impossible to do over here, but it's just that it doesn't have a big following, because it's an American Holiday and all.

So Jenny took up the chance to go Pumpkin Hunting and Carving. So we went to Gene's Pumpkin Patch. Gene has a farm a little way out of town, and his farm really gets into the theme of Pumpkins by having just about everything painted Orange. He even wears an Orange Shirt and Orange Hat.

We had a quick browse around the farm, and found ourselves a couple of pumpkins that looked good (According to Jenny, I saw Orange and just didn't know what to do with myself) and took em home for some carving. And with a little knife I dug into that bastard only to find out how bloody stinky these pumpkins are. There's stringy bits and bucketloads of seeds and you gotta scrape em all out with this curved plate and it's gross and stinky, but FUN! Like playing with mud. Only it's pumpkin.

We carved out some pretty good ones, if I do say so myself.

The other thing that I can think of (because I forgot the second thing I was going to say (I think it was something to do with Squirrels)) that they do that we don't do is DRIVE THROUGH BANK TELLERS. I don't mean ATMs that you can drive up to and push a few buttons and wait for the BEEP BOOP BOOP to say that your money is out and you can take your receipt and whatever, I mean PNEUMATIC TUBES AND A PERSON AT THE OTHER END OF A RADIO TO SERVE YOU! MADNESS! I sat there in the passengers seat looking through the sunroof and watching the capsule with Jennys Bank Details fly up into the ceiling and come back down with a receipt for her to sign and to send back up the tube to come back down with an envelope with cash and another receipt and her bank card!

MADNESS!

Now there's more that I've missed because in the flowing rant that I have here it just hasn't come up, but it has been a fucking fantastic 3 weeks with Jenny. It was really hard having to leave, because she's just so wonderful to be around and that hole that one feels when they're alone? She fills it perfectly. I came home only to be happy that I'm off a fucking plane (Sore neck again) and I went to bed feeling unnatural because I couldn't cuddle her again.

But, fingers crossed that something terrible doesn't happen, Jenny can come here to Brisbane in March and we can cruise around like we're on top of the world, even though it's not quite the arse end of the world (but you can see Logan from a safe distance *Badumtish*).

This is my favourite photo of her. I Love Her. And I miss her already.

Day 1 and 2. Or maybe 3?

2011-09-25T14:39:00.001+10:00

It's 0639 in the morning and the sleep deprivation is getting to me. When I got home yesterday from work, I finished up all the packing that I needed to do, particularly my clothes, of which most were on the clothes line, and finding most of the gadgets I wanted to take over. Naturally, as the sitation would have, I was not entirely prepared. I spent most of the night half paying attention to Tom Baker while searching the entirety of the house for my digital camera.

Boxes of unpacked things were searched over and over, back and forth I paced through Mums house, going from my room through the loungeroom to the computer room, back through the loungeroom, back to my room. I just couldn't find it. All because I didn't look up. See, my camera was in a green bag which mum had put high in the computer room. so when I looked up, and remembered that I actually had that greenbag, I gave it a search and Voila: Digital Camera and charger are now in my suitcase.

Mum had come home by that time, and we finished off watching the recorded Dr Who episodes, to which left the Doctor receiving the call from Gallefrey and having to abandon Sarah at some unexplained place in London.

That finished up at around 10:30/11pm. With having to wake up about 5:30 in the morning, that didn't leave me much time to get some sleep, but I guess that was my fault for not having found my camera days before and putting it in a place where people could nick it, because putting something in a safe place is stupid. You can never find the friggin things when you want them, because they're Safe.

---

It's 0819 now and I've gotten my boarding pass and my ticket and gone through security, and had my supposedly "random selection test" and now I'm just waiting outside my gate to fly out. There's kids everywhere, so I'm a little worried. And I've given Jenny a call to say that I'm okay.

According to the girl at the counter, one or both of my Delta flights are overbooked, so when I get there I won't be in the same seat as I was meant to be on. So I may get a better seat, or I may get a worse seat. I don't think I'll get a worse seat, but that's because I thought I had ordered cattle class. I haven't always been correct about everything before today so I'll understand it when I get my Delta Tickets in LA.

That's one thing I don't want to have to deal with. The street people. I don't want to talk to them, I just want to walk past and get to my flights. It's all I want. I don't want your preachy books about self help or finding your way to God, and I definitely don't want you to stalk me to the counter where I get my tickets trying to offer me a book about Life Improvements through Crystals because it'll help some starving kids. Not interested, so get the fuck away from me.

---

It's 0117 am in Australia. But it's like 0817 here in LA. The main difference is that it's still Friday here. You can call me Doc Brown, now, for I have TRAVELLED BACK IN TIME!

So the flight wasn't too shabby. A lovely lady was next to me with her daughter, and she mostly kept to herself. But the food? Well I had a Pumpkin Ravioli for one of the courses, and pancakes for breakfast this morning (with Orange Juice, Yogurt and something else that was really yummy) but at one stage they gave me a chicken roll. I Dunno what was wrong with it, but it's probably the worst single bite of anything I've ever had. I felt ill for the rest of the flight.

The worst part? I missed the garbage run, so I had to keep it on me for the better part of the flight. Sitting there and STINKING. Ugh. It was the worst part of the trip next to my neck. I planned on playing my PSP for most of the flight, but I had to stop every half hour or something because my neck just ached and I got a headache. Now, my neck is so far out I feel like a Tasmanian before their operation.

I also lost my pillow! How fucking shit is that! I put it under my feet for a minute, and when I look for it again IT WAS GONE! Bastards.

But I have two more flights to go. This was just the long run. And I definitely can't wait to get these flights over. I fucking stink.

---

It's 1436 in Australia time, which makes it 1236 in Australia. I have just spent a wonderful saturday with my girlfriend and... well it has been a wonderful catch up.

I don't really need to say much more. Though I would like to say that we found Barcardi 151. The 151 is the proof. Cheesits Crepes, does Jen go red on alcohol. Brighter than a beetroot. Which in actual fact, it isn't hard to do because beetroot is pretty hard.

But you can't beet a root.

Damnit. I think I was trying to keep away from that allusion.

Brown Chicken Brown Cow

2011-09-25T02:00:00.000+10:00

I had Kalama-Snu-Snu.

I learnt a new word, Jenny

2011-09-14T09:14:00.001+10:00

A week and a half. A week and a fucking half. FUCK a week and a half. Not even a week and a half, I get to see her in... well actually yeah, a week and a half. Midday Saturday, East Aus time, I'll be-wait no, it'll probably be closer to 1pm. I think that's right. Whatever, it's in around that area. And I'll be turning up to Jennys place, stinky as heck because of constant flying, no shower (Unless you count wet wipes) and being stuck between what will total to about 6 people in 3 different cattle class flights doesn't help the case, and boy will I adore that shower when I get there, fresh, scalding water and then crawling into bed next to Jenny and probably passing out like a switch because it's been so many hours since I would've had a decent hours sleep, which can be absolutely horrific on the system because frankly I get rather dumb and unenthused of a morning because I am by far NOT a morning person, I repeat NOT a morning person, unless I get an excessive amount of sleep, and I'm going to need it after double digits of flights into LA plus flights to Minneapolis then into K-zoo itself, and I know that terrorists won't take my flights because there's really no point, I don't quite see someone taking over my flight just to ram it into Shakespeares Pub, because it's a nice pub and I had my first quesadilla there and they should enjoy it too because I have a wonderful story about quesadilla that actually caused me to swear in front of Jennys Grandmother, who was quite surprised at my potty mouth but she knew that I wasn't swearing at her because she heard the whole of my wonderful story about Jenny going to an Australian Themed Pub which offered Quesadilla which I hadn't heard of before that day, but it turns out it's just some stuff with cheese in the middle of a soft tortilla shell and then put into a sandwich press or something like that, I'm not actually sure how they make it but thats me making up recipes again because I'm not sure and hazarding a guess can be pretty fun, unless you're a kid making a coffee and translate being told that because there's no teaspoons you should use a tablespoon and forget to adjust for how much coffee can be taken in a tablespoon so when you gave the coffee to your parents guest they received a rather chunky drink with 5 coffee's in it and 2 sugar in one of your dads ridicuous enamel cups that are massive but have the tiniest handle that you can only put two fingers through and have to put as much pressure from your thumb onto the handle so that it doesn't tip over and spill or burn you fucking fingers since it kept heat in the cup like electricity through water, which makes me think of the game I've been playing recently, Deus Ex, which is set in a futuristic Detroit and it subtly talks about the debate between being human and being part robotic, and then the point where the robotic parts are acquired like Noserings and tattoos, but rather than go down to the corner where your mate does it for cheap, you actually go in for it and get yourself "Enhanced", and then people just argue on and on about how "oh you were beautiful before you did that" and "You got some totes sick accessories there, bro" but if it were really Detroit it would probably be a bit more menacing if they were pretending to be proper Detroitians which I've never met because the only time I've been in Detroit is when I last went to see Jenny which I didn't have to roll into bed to snooze away, though I did, and my time in Detroit was actually really quick because the airport is set on the outskirts of town and we just went in and went out and I unpacked and we chatted and stuff and I can't wait to do that again which is in A FUCKING WEEK AND A HALF HOLY CRAP A WEEK AND A HALF and I've pretty much got all the little things I want to take over there ready and put away in a corner, such as books I've been meaning to give her, and the DVD's of Outrageous Fortune which I know she would really like even though she may not understand the slang or maybe even the accent because it's really quite thick and I think there was one or two cases where I rewinded the DVD to have them repeat it, but overall it's good and Jenny is going to love it along with the Plushie Blastoise that Aaron got me, and Jenny and I are going to use him to make funny pictures like the size perspective ones and get some sort of monument and put Blastard (which is what I'm naming him) up next to it and say "This is Blastard and he is not happy with your customer service, Walmart" and if I had talent I'd get the photo of a pair of hoses going off and then photoshop the water coming out to be from the guns in Blastard's shell, and some person of Walmart will look like they're about to get drenched which could go one of two ways because you may drench a chick who would look good for a wet t-shirt competition, or you could drown a dude that looks like a chick in a tiny dress and I'm going to stop there because that may just put me off the pie that I'm having for breakfast cos I eat the breakfast of champions with a 5 tablespoon coffee and a meat pie, but actually instead of a coffee, because that tastes terrible, I have a small can of mother which I shouldn't be having because I was off the energy drinks for quite a while, and I'd place a fiver to say that right now you're thinking "So that explains the writing style" to which you're WRONG! WRONG SO EVERLOVINGLY WRONG ABOUT THE THEME OF THIS POST because I'd actually read "Rik Mayall: Bigger than Hitler, Better than Christ" recently and finished it and it was a pretty fun book but it kinda dragged along in the middle until he had his meeting with God after smacking his head in that Quad-bike accident (The Nonce - who goes biking in the fucking rain?) and there was a chapter in there where he just went on and on and on and on and on and on and just didn't stop until he felt satisfied that he had completed what he was talking about, but I'm not going to be like that when I go see Jenny because I'm not the best conversationalist but I'll be getting her laughing where I can and making her happy because that's what I aim to do, especially on a day like today which is our 21st Mensiversary which doesn't mean anything about being manly, but that's apparently the proper word for celebrating something monthly on the same date, like our mensiversary which happens on the 14th of every month which is something I accounted when I planned my flights to go see Jenny because while I'm going to be there for her Birthday on the 3rd of October, I'm also going to be there for our 22nd Mensiversary and I'm thinking of taking her out to dinner or something nice like that, I haven't thought that far ahead and I'll discuss it with Jenny because I'll still be in K-zoo, a land of wonder and excitement and I'm not sure where to go or what to do so this will be a very fun holiday for the 3-4 weeks that I'm there and I just can't wait for ANOTHER WEEK AND A FUCKING HALF! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Happy Mensiversary, Jenny

A Productive and Rewarding Weekend

2011-09-12T18:22:00.001+10:00

Of recent weekends, this one has been rather successful.

Friday night after a long, slightly stressful day with only slightly disappointing results but optimism of weekend results for monday morn, I arrived at Kels place to enjoy some time with little Alex, the wonderful cooking skills and conversation with Tash, and gaming with a Kel in dire need of a good Scotch. Of his collection of 3, I have had 2: The 12yo and the 15yo. I can't remember which one is which, but there's a Glenmorangie and a Lefraige (Lefroy? - I know I have those spelt incorrectly). This time it was a 10yo that had the reputation of tasting like Liquid Smoke.

Yes. Yes it did. And it's probably my favourite out of the three.

On top of that, I picked up a few purchases I made a few months ago and hadn't been able to pick up. Kel had them at his place because the last chance I had to pick them up I forgot to set my alarm so I slept in until 12. So I left it too late to head over there and do the other stuff I had planned that day. But Kel had my Dystopian Wars stuff, a Dreadnought, Escorts and Destroyers.

I gotta say, the FSA Dreadnought is a lot bigger than I thought. I knew it was going to be bigger than a Battleship, but the image doesn't do it justice. I'm glad too, because the other Dreadnoughts are massive (The Kingdom of Brittania one is just FAT) and I was a little worried about having a little Structural Envy when my models got in hand. Now I'm not so worried. I have my giant Paddle-ship, and I am pleased.

But for the Lads night, we played Battletech. It's a beer and pretzels game, but with a turn out of about 11 people, it made for a bloody party map. I got stuck in the middle and figured I was screwed because I was practically surrounded by about 4/5 mechs. But they in turn were closer to other mechs, so I got in the clear pretty easily.

Saturday was wrought with organising for my trip. There's less than two weeks to go before I head and I need to make sure I have everything ready to get packed. Laptop, Camera, DVD's (Outrageous Fortune to be specific), and books that I've been meaning to send her. They've all got to get packed alongside my clothes to wear. I do have to pack warm because it's started to get cold according to Jenny, so better safe than sorry.

That was until eventually Aaron turned up, much earlier than usual, to head to D&D. D&D was a... completion of an encounter. We arrived at Scottys after picking up stuff from Pizza Hut to find Scotty and Family expecting us to be there and help them with a new water tank. We didn't know they wanted the help, and would've gladly helped if they waited, but all well.

Aaron discovered that certain enemies aren't appropriate against certain players. Particularly regenerative, weakening characters against a very lonesome Scott. I also discovered that my temporary character, Rye Po'sté the Half-Orc Rogue (I fell a little flat with the character name), doesn't have the same impact as Skarburn, the Orc Barbarian. But I have made my choice, so I will stick with it. Though I think I would've preferred to make a Warlord.

But before we all left, Scott Put forward his possible suggestion for his Birthday. His Birthday isn't until the 8th December, but he wanted to make plans for it anyway. His plan was to have a LAN party, of sorts. But rather than go to something like the Bunker, he wanted to go to just do it at his place, everyone brings over a TV/Monitor and their Xbox's, and we'd all go nuts for the day playing Coop and Multiplayer games.

The problem is that my Xbox currently is dead. It copped the Red Ring of Doom^TM and so I haven't been able to finish off Borderlands "Secret Armoury of General Knoxx" and "Claptrap's New Robot Revolution". Which frustrated me at the time, mostly because it is distantly out of the Extended Warranty that consoles received when it first came out, so if I got it fixed it would cost just about as much as getting a new console. So I've left it and focused on my PS3, and for Scottys Bday I would share with Aaron or Scott, so I wouldn't be left out.

Sunday was the first time I went out to the movies with Mum in a loooong time. I owed it to her, and I had the chance to do it so we went for it. We rocked up to Chermside and found that Harry Potter 7.2 was the only thing we really wanted to see from what was available. (Sorry Jenny, but The Help wasn't on at the time we wanted to see it)

The flick felt a little confusing, but I think that's because the last time I saw Harry Potter, it was a LOOONG time ago. So I've forgotten most of it and just came in at the end of it. So that's why I felt it was a bit of a piss poor effort by both parties.

Afterwards we had a wander and I mentioned to Mum about Scotts Bday party, and that I wanted to do some quick price hunting after the movie to see what I would be looking at to buy it. The worst deal we found was at Target, who were selling the 4gb model at AU$450. The best deal we found was at Game Traders who were selling the 250gb model at AU$380, on the condition of buying a game with it. Then Mum bought it for me, on the condition of paying her back.

Now I'd like to put this out there: I did NOT ask her to buy it for me. I may be a bit of a brat, but I only wanted to go price hunting. So I'm lucky she knows I'm good for a loan, but damn it's pleasantly unexpected. And I bought with it Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a Scifi Action RPG. I've heard nothing but good about it.

With all the time Mum and I spent watching Harry Potter, or Happy Potter as my phone continues to type, I tried to plan to go to Good Games and pick up my Models in the afternoon. Y'see, Thursday afternoon, I knocked off work at about 1pm to go to the Immigration Department and to drop a few Battleboxes off at Good Games for Sunday.

Now for some reason, I expected the Immigration Department to be more Personal than what it was. Like an open office with desks, possibly amongst cubicles, for people to sit down at and discuss things. Nope, it looks the same as the Licensing Department. You line up, grab a ticket and wait your turn.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as helpful as I hoped it would be. I don't quite understand the options for getting Jenny over here from the Website. I understand most points, but it would help me understand better if someone sat down with me and answered some questions about what we would have to do, what we could provide, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, the guy at the counter couldn't really explain much and gave me a Spouse Sponsorship Visa and recommended that I go to an Immigration Agent.

After a little bit of rant on Twitter, I got a few things explained from friends of ours who have been through similar processes. So now I've got a direction and am going to beat a path right to it's door and bust it down like the Hulk on Police Duty. I don't know why I thought of that, but the Hulk in a Police Hat sounds funny.

Anyway, I beat tracks after that towards Good Games in Spring Hill to drop my Battleboxes off for Liam to play on Sunday. Due to the afforementioned plans with Mum, I couldn't attend. But Liam was bringing some mates who were just wanting to start, so instead of having them sit down and twiddle their thumbs, I left them with my Battlebox models. I got word back from Liam saying they had the best day and the next Sunday he's going to bring a few more mates to play. I'll make an appearance and give them demos myself.

So that's been my weekend. It's been Productive and Rewarding. Bring on the week.

Gears of War 3 [Game Warning]

2011-09-07T11:39:00.002+10:00

I'm a fan of Gears of War, a game series that has one of the most intriguing semi-apocalyptic settings I've come across (Which aren't many, but still). And the game has worked its way up to it's third game, along with a small set of novels and graphic novels.

The games show primarily the story of two Gears (Soldiers), Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago, childhood friends fighting in the war for the Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) against the Locust, humanoid creatures that began a genocide campaign against human life.

The Locust come in a variety of forms, from Simple drones, to Boomers, to Kantus, to Berserkers. Aptly named due to their short temper. On top of that, they have severe myopia, stronger than any Locust of it's size category, and to top it off: It's the Locust Female.

Yes. I know what you're thinking. And yes. Yes they do.

Anyway, I've been following the story as much as I can. I've picked up two of the novels which are brilliant reads, and I own at least one of the Gears of War games (pretty sure I only have #2, but I'll pick up #1 eventually). The downside is that my Xbox 360 is dead, so I can't exactly go back and reminisce about the good ol' days of Gears of war.

What else I like about the game is that it's control system hasn't changed in it's two iterations of the game and I don't think it will in the third. It's a good system and I'm glad the only changes that have been made have been to refine it.

The third game comes out on the 20th September. Three days before I head off to the US. So because my Xbox 360 has died in the arse, and I haven't bothered to get it fixed because it'll cost an arm and a leg since it's out of warranty, I also haven't bothered to pre-order the game.

Scotty, however, is a man who has a backlog of pre-ordered games that stretches past his arm, so naturally he has a pre-order of Gears of War 3. So after work, the day it comes out on the 20th, I'm going to go to Scottys place, sit down and log into my Xbox-Live account, and play the 4-player campaign with Aaron and possibly Richard. If not, it'll be Gavin, Scotts Brother.

But that's my mission. Only a few hours at a time (because we all have work in the mornings) and only a few days before I leave. So the weekend before, I'm going to pack all my clothes and all my gear for the trip to Jenny. And then that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons/nights, I'm going to play my little heart out with Scotty and Co. Until I get kicked out of his house, of course.

Goddamn this is going to be awesome.

[Game Warning] Gridlock

2011-09-07T09:24:00.004+10:00

Last night we played a hilarious Monsterpocalypse game made up by rules on the spot. The new guy we have playing wanted to play a Four Player game, as there were enough of us playing that night.

So we started making up rules. Monsters only with no units, to start. We figured it would be too easy to play a game where we could just access each other. So we said we had to choose a map littered with buildings. But we also figured there was a problem with figures being able to jump over buildings and get to each other quicker than others.

Doesn't seem particularly fair. So we figured you couldn't move through buildings. They were infinitely high, and infinitely deep and you couldn't jump off or climb them.

Then I piped up with "All Buildings Have NO FLY ZONE". Which does exactly what we wanted. Choosing the map was surprisingly easy.

Earlier on we were talking about a particular map that scotty and I disliked using. He doesn't like it because people could easily disrupt his power base, and he could easily disrupt his opponents. But I remember looking at it ages ago and realised that there's no easy way to move a monster that doesn't have any skills that allow him to move around buildings across the map. So we played Killer Canals.

For those who aren't in the know: The squares with Yellow and Green borders are where you place your buildings. The dotted red and blue borders are where monsters are placed. The rest isn't important. Those are for units.

As an added silliness, we included Mega Armodax into the mix who has a ranged attack which will randomly shoot someone and shunt figures into nearby fires and buildings. we had a few reasons why he was present, my favourite was that he was strapped to an orbiting satellite and he's roaring down angrily at everyone on the map.

We also put the Privateer Press Building in the middle of the map covering 9 squares instead of 4 because the map is an odd number of sides. Since it's indestructable, and that Armodax strapped to a satellite was a bit too silly (pfft, whatever) we put Armodax on top of the building. And we can stop him from attacking next turn by attacking the PP Building. But in turn, for each building that was destroyed outside of his turn, he gained a Power Die. That was probably a bit excessive, but it was funny none the less. It added Tactics, according to Scotty.

So we had a Lord of Cthul, a Planet eater, a Guard Robot and a Shadow Sun Syndicate Ninja, being shot at by an angry Anklosaurus on a building. I think out of the large number of foundations we had, there was 1 building left not including the PP Building.

It was a good game and we may play it again.

Monsterpocalypse: Gridlock [Game warning]

2011-09-07T09:24:00.002+10:00

[Game Warning] Calamari Throne

2011-09-05T14:19:00.004+10:00

Lately I've been really getting into my Nerdistry and working on my models. Inso much as to have mostly assembled my Behemoth, mostly re-assembled my Karchev, and begun painting my Blood Bowl team.

I even went out to get some spray paint and basing sand so that I could undercoat them. $41 later from a Games Workshop, I had these two items. Never again. $26 for a can of spray paint? I may as well go to Supercheap Auto. It's the wrong kind of spray paint, but damnit it'll be cheaper, surely. And $15 for 100g of sand? Yeah, I'm going to make these last a bloody long time, and next time I'm going to the beach.

Still, I've gotten into my models and started cleaning off flash and supergluing my fingers together in hopes to put the rest of them together. Luckily, I did! The downside? My Khador Behemoth looks goofy. He's in the proper stance that's advertised on the box, with one leg up... but I don't like that pose.

So I'm going to look for a Rock which will fit underneath the Behemoths foot. I could chase after some greenstuff, but a rock will add that little bit of stability this monstrous pewter figure will need. Probably should've thought about that when I first bought him a year ago.

Which reminds me, I do have to email PP-Frontdesk about a missing Bombard Cannon.

Alongside him is Karchev, the Terrible. Now I tried putting his legs together a long time ago, and eventually wrecked them to a poin that I just got a pair of new legs on order and now I'm using those which have glued together VERy nicely.

Then I had a look at a Plastic Battlebox that I picked up ages ago. I picked it up last year thinking "Yeah, I'll get two more Warjack kits out of it and have a Sorscha to have battlebox games with." When I opened it, I was under the presumption that I'd used one of the Warjack Kits, but I was lucky enough to have two. So I assembled a Marauder, and half assembled the Soon-To-Be Black Ivan which I have waiting for me.

I'm also going to go for a different paint scheme for my Khador. Black Ivan will be the same, and I think I'll paint Torch in the same Scheme, but the others I'm going to try and go for something like this:

Oh look, that's a MERCS Behemoth. You know what would look very similar if it got a rock under it's foot? The Khador Behemoth.

Funny that.

After all these guys, I'm going to paint up my FSA Dystopian Wars Fleet. I've got my battleboxes on hand, and my Dreadnought, Escorts and Destroyers are over at Kelvins since I slept in way too late to dash over there myself to pick them up on Saturday (damn you sleepy times and your voracious ways) so I asked him for the biggest favour of picking them up for me. Owe him a drink, that's for sure.

On Wednesday last week, I received an email asking if I wanted to have a game on Saturday. Liam, a guy I demo'd in January, was going to bring his brother and a few of his mates along. His brother knows how to play, but his mates don't and they wanted to have a demo game to learn.

Legion and Menoth? Easy done. I can borrow from Scotty and I have my own (Unpainted) Menoth Battlebox. Along with that, I have a Khador Battlebox (Naturally), a Cygnar Battlebox, a Cryx Battlebox which I bought for $20 second hand from Fastbreak, and a Trollblood Battlebox. And if I do some digging and Assembling, I can pull out a Skorne Battlebox. And I'm not sure if a Farrow Battlebox is sanctioned, but that's what I'm going to use anyway.

I really should get some generic tokens though.

Actually, that's something that kinda Irks me. Hordes Battleboxes are, as a general rule, 1 Large Warbeast, 2 of the same Light Warbeast. The Legion box is the exception because it has 4 of the same lesser warbeasts. Whereas Warmachine has 1 Large Warjack, then 2 different Light Warjacks, Khador with 2 different heavy Warjacks and Cryx have 1 Heavy and 3 lights, but 1 different from the other.

The point is that Warmachine has that little bit of diversity. More options. So while I have the official battleboxes for Hordes, I'm thinking of swapping out double figures with something of equal points, or theme. So for Skorne, change out a Cyclops Savage for a Basilisk Drake or Krea. Or even for a Cyclops Brute. Or swap out a Trollblood Impaler for a Bouncer. An argus for a Gorax. And one or two Shredders for Stingers or Harriers.

Things like that. /Ramble

Sunday day was a really good day though, and While Liams Brother and mates didn't turn up I still had a good couple of games against Liam. The game came out 2-1 in his favour. The first game was a ferocious assassination of Karchev, with Lord Carver walking around a corner with his feat active and plenty of fury. Karchev was left on 2 damage points (his movement) until a Farrow Brigand came up and tried his luck. He rolled JUST enough to destroy Karchev.

Second game was Epic Irusk versus the same Carver list. I'd all but massacred most of his unit of Brigands, and the Behemoth tore apart one Warhog in melee (WOO!), while he was slowly whittling away at my unit of Winterguard. Then he put Carver a little too far forward, due to his determination of eliminating my Winterguard, and made an easy access for my Great Bears of Gallowswood to charge him. Well, one. The other two were engaged with a Warhog (whom they promptly left very sorry).

Sadly, that didn't kill Carver. Irusk charged with 6 Focus. Not enough to kill him. Kovnik Joe charged him. Knocked him on his arse because he passed a tough roll. 3 Winterguard Figures shot into his face. Two passed Tough rolls and the Standard Bearer had to finish it off. So Win to me.

Last game we swapped factions. I used his pigs, and he used my Khador. Made up his own list, I'd help him with points, and game on. He used the old Witch and out came her Feat turn. I couldn't charge, I couldn't run, and any time I ended my movement within 14 inches of her, I stuffered a severe damage roll.

Carver, with the addition of his speed enhancing spell, walked up and attempted to kill her. She was left on about 7 health of 17 after some abysmal rolls. Then I realised I forgot to use my feat, which grants me extra damage dice. So out of curiosity, I rolled 2 dice to represent the missing damage dice from the two successful hits. The great Opposers, 6 and 1, rolled up. Exactly what I needed to destroy the Old Witch of Khador.

Then on his turn, the Old Witch did what was expected: She moved in with her twin claws, and smacked the living shit out of Carver. And when my first tough roll came up, I failed. Win: Liam.

But all though the game we talked about the next Hordes Expansion: Domination. To which comes the entire point of the post name:

Yeah, the Legion are looking a little Cthulian. But that's cool.

[Game Warning] Consolidating my Projects

2011-09-02T08:24:00.001+10:00

So I come to realise I have a lot of projects going on. And I should probably get my finger out and organise them or something. So I'm going to do it here, and once I know all my Project Ideas are ready I'll put them into a page on the side that I'll change when appropriate.

Active Projects

X-Con '12: A series of lists made for CanCon and GenCon Indy. They include a 50pt Warmachine List, a Monsterpocalypse List, A MERCS Minis list, and a Dystopian Wars list. I should write a post about this.

Blood Bowl Team: My Orc Blood Bowl Team that I really need to get painted.

Semi-active Projects

It's a Wonder Campaign: A 4e D&D Campaign based and expanded around certain Wonder Boy games.

Inactive Projects

Imperial: My Characterful Extreme Destroyer Warjack

“WAAAGH IF YA HORNY”: The Blood Bowl Touring Squiggoth and Promotional Kopta.

Foot-the-ball: A Human Blood Bowl Team based on the Wizards of Unseen University. I may call them “Inconspicuous Institution”.

Project Remix: Making the cover of Prime Remix into a diorama using a Plastic Cryx Battlebox and an Extreme Juggernaut.

Monpoc Irk

2011-08-24T18:55:00.000+10:00

Monday morning I get a call from my LGS asking me to come in Tuesday Night for a Demo Game of Monsterpocalypse. Sounds good, I say. I haven't played Monpoc in quite a long time, but I'm keen to start up again. Just not against Scott.

So I rocked up there, and met the bloke. He was keen to learn and he was happy to have many things taught to him, such as explaining how rules fully interact, and I was prepared to give him that.

Now I'm a lazy person. I also have a large collection of Monpoc Stuff. So the idea of having to carry my stuff to work and then to the LGS is a trustrating one. There's at least two green bags involved in the delivery going to the only place I play it at.

So I put up the suggestion to the owner a long time ago, “Can I leave my Monpoc here? In return you can use it for the Free For All games days that I can't attend.” “Sure thing” he said. We all win, really. I don't have to cart about all my Monpoc stuff and he gets a chance to introduce more people to it.

The other day however, the store was shifted about. Stuff that he didn't need was thrown away. But the owner made sure that what didn't belong to him, namely my Monpoc, was stored away so that it could be found. The Owner isn't a dull lad, he knows his responsibilities.

But come last night, I pull out my Monpoc stuff and even tip it out of the Greenbag and look at it before thinking “... I'm missing something.”

I looked out across the vast field of green, purple, grey and tan plastic monstrosities, only to find I'm missing something just as crucial as the monsters: Units. A small white box, with the Privateer Press Stamp on the front, filled almost to the Brim with Monsterpocalypse Units. Of Tentacled Slugs, of Drill-nosed Brawlers, of Subterran Tanks and Lovecraft-ian Flyers.

Nowhere to be found.

And it's been irking me ever since. Not at the LGS owner, he was looking after them as best he can which was leaving them where they were and putting them in a safe place when he had to move them. He was extremely apologetic as well and offered to replace everything once I figure out how much it all cost, and I'm going to try and work something out with him regarding his Monpoc Stock as well.

No, what I'm annoyed at is that it's gone. All that collecting is just gone. Now, when I wanted to get back into Monpoc, I can't play using my units. I have everything else, but I just don't have any units.

On top of that, my Voltron Box is gone too. Though I think I may have that at home. I'm going to have to check on that one.

Still. Annoying. Especially when it's possible that someone may have tossed it thinking it was something else, or someone may have thought they deserved a five finger discount. I'll give em five fingers alright.

[Game Warning] “He did it” “No, he did it”

2011-08-24T10:30:00.002+10:00

Much like the Two Headed Ogre of Warcraft II, Sturm and Drang enter the annals of Hordes with two conflicting heads and a thirst for war. And what a thirst for war they have.

In my mind, I see this guy much like Kromac, the Ravenous. Two forms that change all through the game. The difference is that Sturm 'n Drang are two completely different characters. They just inhabit the same body. So each round, they alternate the dominant Mind. No changing between during activations, just alternating between rounds.

Now in Warmachine and Hordes, there's two extremes: Spellcaster and Warrior. Yes, there are sneaky and ranged fellas here and there, but if you're going to have two extremes in one then you've got your Spellcaster and your Warrior.

In just their two stat-blocks, they show that as well. While the Warrior, who I assume is Drang, has two heavy hitting fists that can toss someone away without a care in the world, Sturm has a Magical ranged attack called “Brain Burn” which in my mind is everyone within a short range suddenly getting a massive headache while he thinks on things.

The interesting thing though is that through a PPInsider post, a spoiler was provided for everyone to salivate over. Apparently there's two spell lists for each ego. So while Drang can't upkeep any spells, he may be able to cast upkeep spells for Sturm to upkeep. Otherwise, they'll just have massively different spell lists, such as one providing massive battlegroup benefits while the other gives unit and one time benefits.

It's all an interesting gear up and I'm quite excited to check out this guy once he's released.

[Game Warning] Blood Bowl Advert

2011-08-15T14:53:00.001+10:00

Yep. I approve.

Enjoy Medway Comeback Tour - 23rd Sept, 17 October

2011-08-14T00:01:00.001+10:00

Six weeks from now I'm headed back to the US to see my lovely darling, Jennifer. It's been well over a year since I last saw her and it's about fucking time we saw each other again. It's been a hard fucking year because I know what I'm missing out on now.

Last year I had such an amazing time. I met her family in a lunch time barbeque (intimidating meeting the better part of the family in one go); we toured around Kalamazoo having dinner at restaurants and such; we even had half a day at the beach. It was the best time of my life. Even when she was sick, and we just sat down on the couch watching movies.

This year was meant to be her turn to take the Plunge to Australia. But due to circumstances, she had to push it back. I played it cool at first because I understood, her job is tighter than a Flys arsehole and what she does save has had big chunks taken out to go towards emergencies.

But after a bad day and a weeks worth of terrible sleep patterns, my cranky pants were giving me a wedgie. It wasn't her fault, but the poor girl copped some of the flak and I expressed how I wasn't happy with her knocking back her trip to March '12.

I had been mulling over it though. Not my knotted knickers, but the pushback. She wanted to be here for her Birthday. *I* wanted her here for her Birthday. So much fun was planned to have. But now to wait another 6 months? I was starting to lose my mind. I had offered her money, but she refused to accept it. So after having my tantrum I decided I'll go visit her again.

Now I think I said somewhere that I was going to go for Xmas this year. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. I can't afford the $3000+ for an Xmas Trip. My own finances aren't that awesome. But after getting my tax return after only 2 weeks (maybe less), money from my savings and the USD I had put into my bank account, I figured I might be pretty well set.

Well, at first I wasn't right. I gave V-Australia a call, because they're the same mob I went with last time. Last time, with a stop over at Indianapolis for GenCon, the flight cost me about $1,200-1,400 AUD. I could definitely afford that. But after being on hold to V-Australia for about 10-15 minutes, I finally got a quote at $2,400.

Okay, I'll have to borrow a little bit from Mum. That's fair enough, it's not a substantial amount, just about $400. No drams. Easy peasy, hand-on-squeegie. Surely nothing can go wrong here! Well Open Mouth, Enter Foot. All of my money is in my Savings Account, an account linked to my Primary account and, basically, makes it hard for me to take my money out.

So I requested the account to transfer it to my primary account. Did that on Thursday, when I got the quote. Money didn't come through until Sunday (A strange day for it to finalise) but I used the money to Bpay Mums Credit card.

My mistake though was calling V-Australia on Monday. I thought they didn't have trading hours over the weekend. I was wrong. So my last booking Auto-Cancelled. Not cool, but hopefully I'd make a new booking and get the same quote. It was better than expected! Instead of AU$2,395 I was offered AU$2,020! So a better quote! The change? Go through Minneapolis rather than through Detroit to get to K-zoo. So I locked it in and requested an extension to Thursday in case my finances didn't come through properly.

On the same day, I called up two other places to see if I could get a better quote. Hervey World Travel came up, at best, AU$1,855 for a one way trip just to Detroit. Right, no chance of getting something better there. So I called up Travel Centre. I gave her my details and she said she'd look up a good quote for me and would call me back

Come Wednesday, I have about 32 hours before my V-Australia Booking Automatically Cancels. I hadn't heard from Travel Centre. And the money to Mums account is still “Pending”. So I'm starting to get worried I'll miss my awesome flight deal with V-Australia. I even called up my bank to see what happened and they said "Yeah yeah, it's gone through. Give it another day, and if it hasn't give us a call back and we'll discuss a Dispute and get your money back".

That's all well and good, but what about my Fucking Ticket?! For FUCK sake, I only had so much time, I couldn't extend the booking again, and trying to get a definite answer from any form of bank? Well I may as well wish to shit gold bricks and send it to Richard Branson himself. The Virgin Blue Head Office is just a train ride away.

To get my mind off of things I focused on other things about the travel. Clothes will have to be getting to the warm side, because it's creeping through Autumn while I'm there; Camera and Charger will have to get packed; As much as I hate to use it, I'll pack my PSP for the flight over because its really fucking boring in Cattle Class being stuck between two strangers, one of whom will always want to chat about something (which I have little to no interest in doing).

The annoying thing is that the battery only lasts for a handful of hours constantly playing games. Not even a handful, it's like 4 hours tops. So I need a charger. Not just any old charger, I have one that plugs into the walls here at home, and the planes don't have one of them. I need a USB Charger. So I looked up on Ebay and got one for $2.50. Should be here soon. Then I worked out my spare dosh last week and downloaded Tactics Ogre for the PSP. It'll hopefully be a long game and I'll be able to take my time with it. Earphones on, USB Charger plugged into the armrest and I'm off to the land of whatchamacallit for some medieval fighting.

Then when I get there, I'll put away the bugger of a thing and just leave it be. I doubt I'll need it again over the next 3-4 weeks. Jenny is coming up with many plans for us to do and I'm all for them. Doing a Charity Walk for Alzheimers, going to a beachhouse with her family, her Birthday which will be awesome, dinner at Main Street Pub, celebrate our 22nd month being together, and even more on top of that. So it's going to be a very awesome 3-4 weeks.

Come Thursday, the big day. The last day I have to buy Tickets to the US of Awesome-Girlfriend-istan. (That's a weird name when you think about it) What do you think happens? That's right. Fucking nothing. Mum's account hasn't gotten the money, money that I sent as a Bpay payment on a Sunday and should've gone through Wednesday at the Latest. But No, now I've made my claim and just have to wait 10-14 working days to get my money back.

Luckily, Mum came to the rescue and did the simple thing of increasing her credit limit. I really owe Mum on this. But don't tell her that. It'll go to her head and she'll just topple over.

Now everything is slowly on the up and up. Everything is slotting into place very nicely. I can't wait to get these 6 weeks over and done with so that I can be there. Wait, no. It's 5 weeks. Because our 22nd Month is 8 weeks from the date of this posting. Happy 20th Month Jenny. I love you and I will see you very soon.

[Game Warning] Home Pitch

2011-08-03T12:35:00.002+10:00

Y'know, i'm going to have to start designing my Bloodbowl table because I want it to look cool. The pitch, the Dugouts, a parking spot for the Squiggoth, a Dice Tower... It'll be a pretty awesome table because I damn well want it to be.

We have to get down the basics, such as the pitch itself. Kel has his own pitch that he made, using a 60x90cm board, then gotten a GW Grass Mat and laid it over. Then he marked out the lines, drill on a handle and Bob Biffords your Uncle: he has a portable table.

Now I like that idea, it's simple and it works out well. If I want a Blood Bowl Game, I can just whip out that baby and Game On. Nice and Cheap. Not to mention reliable.

But for the one day that I get to make my Nerd Hold, I will want a couple of tables that are permanent looking. So one of which will be the Blood Bowl table, because nothing changes on that table except the models that play on it.

So I'm going to think about the Skarboyz Home Field. How would I build it? W hat would I put on it? What would be cool to have in it?

Well I'll need dugouts. That should be easy enough. When I do the main table, cut out some squares in the board and cut the grass out after that. The get some Tack Nails and some glue and secure it underneath with a thinner board.

There's a parking spot for the Touring Squiggoth “Skarboyz Biggest Fan”. He'll want to see the game, so he'll need a front on view. I may put him at the Away Teams end, so that they feel a little threatened when they go to make a touchdown.

The Enemy of my Friend gets Eaten – The touring squiggoth is well aware that he shouldn't eat enemy players. However, occasionally he just gets so mad he can't help himself. After an enemy player makes a successful touchdown, the squiggoth rolls a D6. On a roll of a 1, the squiggoth eats the player that just made a touchdown. The player is not dead, however it cannot be retrieved unti the end of the half. The player has -2 to anything to do with the ball (intercept, catch, pass, pickup) as their hands are slippery, and they gain the Foul Appearance mutation until the end of the match.

I also want to make a Dice Tower. I've had a look at a couple of different internal designs for dice towers (the standard 3 ramps; the entropy tower where there's loads of sticks in the way of the tunnel; spiral tower) and I think they're all very cool, and different which is the best part.

But there's the problem of outer design because I don't know what to do with it. I could cover it in Blood Bowl Adverts; I could put on a rockin stage for the Skarboyz Cheerleading Band; I could make a commentators box for Bob Bifford and Jim Johnson. Those are three (rather cool) options. And this will be up the Home Team end so that it's not in the way of players.

Then I'll have to have grandstands. And the only image in my head for the grandstands is a bunch of cartoon fantasy characters jumping and cheering on a long strip of paper which is stuck onto a set of paddlepop seats.

I dunno. May as well figure out what to do with the first set, though before I head anywhere.

[Game Warning] A Band of Orcs

2011-08-01T14:43:00.001+10:00

Okay. This is very cool. This is what I call a Blood Bowl "Cheerleader" Band.

I could make a stage for them on top of the Touring Squiggoth's Tusks. Nah, that'd be stupid.

http://abandoforcs.com

[Game Warning] Board Games

2011-07-26T08:13:00.002+10:00

Collaborating with other Companies is not unfamiliar for Game Developers. Tokens and Measuring tapes are very popular. Games Cases are magnificent things to pick up, and the case I have for my Warmachine stuff is the best investment that I never made (Friend bought it for me). I'm even considering getting an expansion bay to pack some of my other games.

While browsing the Mercs Minis forums, the developers announced products for their game. A game Bag developed by Battle Foam, the same guys who made the Warmachine/Hordes Case, and Tokens and 2D game maps by Gale Force 9. Made of Super Durable, Wet Erasable, Full Color Vinyl, the single sided maps look absolutely fantastic.

I had an Epiphany though.

I thought back to board games, which had thick cardboard with similar Vinyl stuck on over the top. Then the cardboard would fold over a few times in a particular pattern very nicely to fit back into the box without a complaint.

I've seen it happen a few times, not just into halves, but into Quarters. And I bet, if done right, one could fold them up into sixths. Which would be convenient for Mercs because their boards are 2x3 feet. Easy to pack, and you can make it double sided so instead of selling two individual maps you can sell one map with individual sides.

That's one thing one could say that Monsterpocalypse got right. They got double sided maps, with different maps each side, but they aren't cardboard. I think they're probably the same material as the Mercs Maps.

But that's just my opinion though. Packaged like a Board Game would be cool and would make travelling a little easier.

Kinda is but isn't a Game Warning? But it's in THREE DEEEEEEEEEEEE

2011-07-14T10:03:00.009+10:00

Mum doesn't skimp out when she goes to get something. I think I've mentioned that before about Mums new TV. How it was about a grand and a half and she got two Tellys for herself? Yeah, I forgot a few details. Particularly on Mums 42” telly and how it was 3D.

Y'see, I asked mum if she was watching anything in particular last night. Luckily not, so I asked if I could hog the TV for the night and finish off Killzone 3 since I was borrowing it from a mate, and I've had it for long enough that I should probably give it back.

While I was playing, I voiced a thought:

“I wonder if this tv is 3D capable...”
“Yes it is!”
“What?”

So I checked out the settings and plugged it into 3D mode. And call me a little sick, but it was hilarious watching Sevchecko run up to a Helghast Grunt, grab him on both sides of the helmet, then force both thumbs through the helmet lenses.

I'm sure there's a name for that execution move

When I first heard about Three-Dee-Tee-Vee I originally thought that it was a Nothing thing. Something that could be entertaining on the odd occasion, but not something that I'd do all the time. Three-Dee at the Cinema doesn't change much for me most times, and I get kinda annoyed by having to wear two pair of glasses (Myopia, y'see). So it's fun when you want a cinema experience at home.

There I was though, giggling my head off as an LMG and just MOWING through the Helghast and approaching the MAWLR so that we can stop it from making it's approach to Earth.

Designer 3D glasses

But a little while ago, I remember my mate Kel talking about something he saw on the News a little while ago. A few troops out on the field recorded a battle scenario from a camera stuck on their helmet, and then uploaded it to the net. I can't remember the ordeal on the News about it (possibly the shock and horror of having a soldier upload videos in the first place), but Kel was shocked at how glaringly similar it was to a video game.

I remember seeing the video not long after and agreed, it was rather scary. I could play Call of Duty, or Battlefield and get a similar experience because you play a very similar role. And the conditions are much the same, give or take. Though if you shoot someone in the thigh, they'll still be running around shooting the shit out of you until you riddle them with enough holes that they fall over and phase out.

That's not the same as in real life, but the fact of the matter is that First Person Shooters are exactly that: First Person. You're seeing through the eyes of a character, experiencing their story. Adding in visual depth enhances that effect. Your brain is telling you “He's 12 metres away, you can still clock him with your LMG.”

Scary? I'm not sure. But is it right to make a game that draws from Real-Life aspects MORE realistic?

[Warthingy] “You're Big. Fought Bigger.”

2011-07-06T11:04:00.002+10:00

So up for a couple of big games in the next coming months. First and Foremost: Warmachine.

Unbound Rules have long been released and I'm running over them now. Though I'm kinda surprised at how much, or how little, you can activate in your turn. In turn, it also means that designing a list could be finnickey.

The trick is that when you activate a Warcaster or Warlock, you activate their entire battlegroup. Then after that, you can activate up to 4 Units, 4 Solos, 2 Battle Engines and 2 independent Warjacks or Wild Warbeasts. That can work out to be a fairly large portion of your army. Though I suppose if the player wants, they could just not activate that much and save them for later turns.

But trying out the Unbound rules sounds fun none the less.

Next is Dystopian Wars. The other day, I saw someone playing the Naval and Ground forces in one game across a large table. I'll have a dabble in that, thank you, because I have both those Battle Groups, and when the Aerial Battle Group comes out I'll chuck that in for size. I think that works out to be about a 2200 point game?

Lastly, when I eventually invest into a Megacon, I want to play Mercs. Better yet, I invest in two Megacon and play them as a team game, Six Models a squad, 12 models a player. Makes for a massive game, considering the size of a standard game.

Robots Kicking the Shit out of each other 3 (Spoilers)

2011-07-05T18:53:00.001+10:00

Before anyone moves on to read the rest of this, there's spoilers. So just in case you didn't get the idea...

THAR BE SPOILERS

So at this rate, every year a Transformers movie comes out on my birthday. And last year, I screwed up by buying tickets for everyone. I bought a bucketload of tickets, cos that's what I do. Instead, I decided to leave it and do NOTHING and save myself from embarrassment and poverty.

On top of that, last years Transformers left a nasty taste in my mouth, probably caused by Michael Bays raging boner for the Military which he shoved down to the back of my throat and fired his fucking Railgun. Just like he did to Devastator, right into his arse.

I may be regressing, but that was a extremely disappointing appearance of the gargantuan Decepticon.

But I powered on through and pushed it into the back of my mind. I wanted to see the Third iteration because of completion, and the small hope that Mr Bay would be kind and not repeat his previous mistakes.

And now I have very small complaints. It was a pretty fun movie. I still left my brain at the door, but it snuck in and watched what it could and nit picked on only a few things to get a headache about. The first was Wikipedia's* attitude. He acted like a petulant child. Made me want to get a bigger boot to kick him with.

"I saved your lives twice. Make me mean something."

The only person who wanted to give him a job was John Malkovich, who had an awesome photo of him doing kung fu to a camera.

_{* - Okay, I don't remember how to spell his name.}

The other was significantly later into the movie. Now, Optimus Prime. Leader of the Autobots. Kick arse Cybertronian warrior, and he shows it. He slaughters dozens (or maybe just 1 dozen) of Decepticons...

And he's foiled by Steel Cabling.

Cybertronians, Decepticons and Autobots alike, cause Indiscriminate destruction. They even blatantly display it when Ironhide gives the boot a couple of Decepticons into a nearby diner for pretty much no reason. He'd already incapacitated the bloody things and could've just coup de graced it with some fistwork. But no, he decides to give him the boot into some poor sap's diner.

What kind of short circuit does Optimus have to have to get tangled in a bunch of steel cables? He could just shoot where the cables are holding onto and then jump off! Because he didn't do this, he was taken from the fight for about 20 minutes.

To which he comes back and tears apart 7 Decepticons in quick succession. But he could've done that earlier, couldn't he. If he'd gotten out of the Steel Cabling.

Lastly there's Starscream, Aarons favourite character. He's vicious, he's conniving, he's got lips designed to kiss arse. He's also a giant Robot. Granted, a robot with some sort of nervous system, but when it comes right down to it, he's a Robot.

So when he gets one of his eyes hit with a fancy grapping hook, which clamps around something its been shot at, then it isn't likely that he'll feel it. He'll just know that he has lost an eye. He won't flail around the place like a little kit with a scraped knee. He'll use his remaining eye to crush Whip O'licorice* with his boot.

_{* - Still no idea}

The girl... well the writers just snapped the entire thing. All the lovey dovey crap in the second movie with Megan Fox in the second flick? Gone. Flushed down the Dunny. She dumped him before he received a medal of honour. Probably because he was being an Arse.

To which he moved onto the new girl, whose only fault is that someone got a bike pump and overloaded the PSI on those lips.

Positives!

Funny enough, I kinda liked the plot. Megatron made a long term investment in the 60s and now he was seeking to reap the benefits. Laserbeak sowed the seeds of Deception, and so he now claims the rewards by sewing new seeds into the Autobots tempting them into getting to the Ark on the Dark Side of the Moon. In turn the last Prime who was on the Ark was revived by the ever faithful Optimus, to which he turned about and revealed his intentions as being Aligned with Megatron.

Where it faultered was the "Superweapon". Now the Sun-killing device in Transformers 2 was what would call a Superweapon. A mass teleporting device is not quite what I would call a Superweapon, though it was put to good use I'll admit. Teleporting a large number of Decepticons to a planet which can't defend itself from such an invasion is what I would call a good use.

New characters? Well Shockwave was awesome. A Cyclops with a mass of Giant Mechanical Boring Worms is extremely cool. I don't know why, but I was in awe at such a cool weapon of destruction led by a one eyed, Malicious, Killing Robot!

The Worms defeat? It was constricting a half bent skyscraper when Optimus finally got freed from the cabling, by the Irish and Scottish Comedic Relief, and started his spree.

Shockwave's defeat? This was very cool. And it has to do with the Military! The Military were PROPERLY represented! They weren't relentlessly excessive this time! It was COOL.

Their first real scene was an action scene with these Gliders that I don't know the name of and haven't got the internet turned on. But they were like flying Possoms, streaking across the sky high above roads and even through buildings, dodging the majority of enemy flier attacks, and even taking out one of them!

Then returning back to Shockwaves defeat, they organise a rather cool ambush. Snipers up about a dozen storeys; demo crews on the ground. Snipers take out their eyes, blinding them, and then the demo crew run up, park some explosives on their feet, and BAM! Destroyed Decepticon. Done.

Actually, I'm not sure if that was how Shockwave was defeated. But it happened. And I liked it.

The smaller comedic relief, Wheelie and Brains, have a few good lines half of which were swearwords, the good ones cinematically cut off before they're finished. But one of the cooler lines which I realised later in the movie was "Oh I seen this episode, it's the one where Spock Goes Nuts".

The funny part is that Sentinel Prime, the previous Autobot leader turned very cranky bad guy, is voiced by, the one and only, Leonard Nimoy. Scott got so excited when he leaned over to say "IT'S SPOCK!"

I think that just about sums up my opinion on the flick.

Edit: OH! AND DUTCH! WOO! He's fkn HILARIOUS! He starts off as your little efficient gay assistant, and then he occasionally brings out "his old self" which is what I assume is a Killing Machine. The look of regret when he goes too far is perfect!

[Warthingy] Unbound Mercenaries in a Dystopian War

2011-07-04T18:42:00.003+10:00

Y'know, for a weekend that wasn't particularly busy, it felt really long.

We'll start friday night. I usually go and play games with the Lads. That night I didn't plan on drinking, I'd been doing it a fair bit lately (nothing excessive, maybe a glass of rum and lemonade a night) so I thought I'd best give it a rest for a bit. It doesn't help that I'm sick still too, with a cough that was worse than when I had the friggin Cold.

But that plan went out the window when Gregg brought about an 18 year old Dalmore, direct from Scotland. And because I've been getting into drinking with a bit of Kulcha after the last few weeks of nice Scotch's, I wasn't going to miss out on the chance to try some more.

The night seemed to drag a bit though, and I think it was because I was tired. Some late nights this week were catching up with me, so I was drifting off slowly as the night was coming to a close at something close to midnight.

Saturday morning I set my alarm for 6:30 so I could get in early to get to Blind Pig down at Mount Gravatt. This is the far side of town to me at Bracken Ridge, y'see. And using the internet planner, I found that I could take two busses and I'm there.

However, I don't know any landmarks around there. I'd been to the new Blind Pig venue once before and the only thing I could remember was that it was near a School on Cavendish Road.. So when I saw a school, I got off the bus and looked around.

No hall. Fair enough. I might have the wrong place. I found a nearby street and used the maps program on my phone.Shit.

Well that's about a 4-5km walk right there. And when I thought of taking a bus, the bastard drove straight past as I thought it, didn't it.

So I trudged along, and all the while I thought to myself “SHIT! I hope I'm there in time for the Sausages!” Bec, the Club Owner of the Blind Pig, cooks up some sausages and onion, pulls up some loaves of bread and a bucket of cheese, and for 2 bucks a pop we get a good feed. And I don't know why, and I won't ask why, but they're fkn good.

By the time I got there, I was invigorated. Exhausted, but Invigorated. I'd walked for about a half hour going up and down hills with a bag that was surprisingly heavy, but I got there. And with plenty of time for sausages inna bun.

Now going to somewhere called the Blind Pig was not just for playing games. I also wanted to pick up a couple of books. Particularly the Dystopian Wars rulebook so that I have one rather than taking the word of fellow players, and the MERCS Mini's Rulebook so that I could have an indepth look into the game.

I did plan on playing a game of Dystopian Wars, but John was in battle with another guy (who I didn't catch the name of) and playing a rather epic game involving both the land and navy starter boxes. The table looked pretty awesome and they were having great fun. I'll have to give that a go next time I head there.

Next model investment though I think should be towards a Mercs squad, though. I found out Dr D has invested in it, so I'll have a guaranteed opponent when I want to play so long as I give him a heads up. Bec has made some amazing tables, so I imagine we'll be able to grab one that's cluttered with stuff and give it a go. Worst case scenario, we have some cool models for a Sci fi game.

I did get a laugh out of Roy though. His daughter is learning French and she was showing a translation sheet to one of the other youngins there. I had a look and started saying all the words that were in french.

"Lemme guess, you're french."
"No no, I learnt all my french from Peter Sellers."

That night, I passed out early at about 7 or 8pm. Went to bed and just knocked out, and next morning I got myself ready to see Transformers 3 with Scotty. Now I have another spoiler filled blogpost ready for Transformers 3 to come so I won't ramble on about it here. But overall, my opinion of the flick is that it was actually rather fun. Better than number 2, but not quite better than number one.

Scott and I finished up with a bit of window shopping before we went home and tested “Portal 2 Cooperative Play”.

I discovered that Scott kinda slows down here. He's not a quick thinker. While I was looking at the Puzzle and going “BAM! Here's how to solve it” he was sitting about thinking about how it works. It surprised me because while he does a similar thing with his Wargames, these puzzles are a lot simpler to figure out. Or so I believe when it comes down to looking at it for a few moments and figuring it out in that time.

But we had fun, I used Scott as a Slingshot and killed him a few times. With each murd-DEATH! Death I mean to say... my maniacal laughter got louder. Oh it was very entertaining. And I will do it more and more. Because he's expendable. Mwahahaha.

Oh and on top of that, I finally got the Unbound rules for Warmachine. So I'm thinking one Blind Pig I'll organise a 150point game against someone. Organisation is key to this one, because gotta get the rules set down and understood between us before it starts.

I'm also thinking of getting a set of Coins to use as “Activation Counters”. I have trouble remembering most things, so trying to track what I've activated out of a large force (And I mean a large force) means I'm liable to activate something twice. So must have a look about for two faced coins to use as activation counters. Something about the size of a 5c piece would do, I think. Heck, I could just use 5c pieces. I've got enough of em.

[Game Warning] Close enough is good enough: The Battle Mechanik Officer

2011-06-29T18:30:00.002+10:00

So I've been waiting for this for quite a while. I didn't expect much, just a cool Man-O-War model. Well, technically, he's not a Man-O-War. He just looks like one.

As for stats, I was right. Same as a Demo Corp model, less MAT and RAT, but no Iron Sentinel and no Warjack Drive either.

What does have is Lash.

When a model is in base to base with this model, it cannot be knocked down.

That was unexpected. Fair enough. It has its uses, like if you have a Man-O-War or two you don't want falling on their arses. Same thing for Warjacks, which he can repair by the way, but there's always the threat that the Warjack will get slammed and it won't get the benefit of Lash unless it falls short and remains in base to base.

But the interesting thing is that he offers one other rule:

Granted: Man-O-War Mechanik - While this model is in play, models in its unit can make a Repair special action to attempt to repair damaged Man-O-War models as if they were warjacks. Models in this modelʼs unit with Assist Repair can make an Assist Repair special action to assist in the repair of Man-O-War models.

That was expected. The only disappointment is that it's a “Granted” ability, so as soon as he is destroyed, the ability is gone.

That was all I expected from him. He may double the points cost of a Base Battle Mechanik Unit, and he doesn't count as a Man-O-War, but damnit close enough is good enough. I'm getting two for the MoW Army.

ITZ MA BIRFDAY

2011-06-27T18:50:00.000+10:00

And what a day it was. I did exactly what I wanted and everyone else did what I wanted.

And what I wanted was to do practically nothing, talk to my girlfriend, and get showered with well wishes, and everyone else have a cracker of a daythemselves. AND IT ALL HAPPENED!

I had a lovely morning with my girlfriend, who wrote a wonderful blogpost, I spent most of the day watching TV with mum, I even played “Sonic 4” and “Sonic Generations” in celebration for Sonic's 20th Anniversary the other day (Dad's been hogging the tv and disappeared on Sunday to a mates place), and then at the end I turned on Fox Classics to watch James Bond movies (“Dr. No” and “From Russia With Love”) before giving Jenny one last call and going to bed.

The best parts were the food. Late Breakfast was Bacon, Eggs, Mexican Beef Steak and Baked Beans, and then for dinner we had Pork in some sort of Cranberry and something Marinade, served with Mashed Potato and Veges. Then for dessert, the lovely and wonderful Tash baked a cake, and it was a very goooood cake.

That was not the only celebration, though. The Friday before was spent playing Bloodbowl with the lads and having a drink of a 15 year old Dalwhinnie. It's quite a nice Scotch, very smooth. The week before was a 12 year old Glenmorangie, another rather nice Scotch, while playing Settlers of Catan.

That was a night of new experiences for me. For one, I hadn't really drunk Scotch like that before. The only other Scotch I'd drunk was Chivas Regal with coke on a whimsical night. And it was also the first time I had played Settlers of Catan. That was really fun.

So far it has been a pretty awesome birthday. I'm disappointed I couldn't go to the Mana Bar for the Sonic 20th Anniversary thing they did. Could've won something awesome!

[Warthingy] Squad-machine?

2011-06-17T11:00:00.002+10:00

Warmachine and Hordes are well known as a Skirmish Game, where small or large armies gather to contest on the field of battle. The said field can be anything, from streets of a city, to a plateau made of a titan, to a valley of concentrated evil.

It's a wonderful game and shows it. The varying points levels can change the game significantly too. And the larger it gets, the more intense the game. They even had to offer a different system for the larger battle games.

But what about scaling in the other direction?

Lately I have been looking at different scaled games, such as squads, to battallions to space fleets, etc etc. But after looking at Mercs, a squad based game, the thought occurred to me what it would be like to have Warmachine/Hordes scaled down to a handful of Solo models?

They pretty much already have a method for it made from Dungeons and Dragons rules. However, I don't think it's very good for, say, a monthly tournament. Five characters to each player, and the organiser would have to check each character sheet for errors or anything fishy going on in there, and the elaborate rules posted and applied, etc etc etc.

So make it a little easier and specific rules to X Models. Like what they've done with Warmachine/Hordes. The difference is that they've balanced out the game according to the format, which is Skirmish battle.

And it's noticeable in it's own way. Models can die in an instant from a stray bullet in this game, which is not wanted in a game so small. A game should endure, give a player a glimmer of hope before the chances get the better of them and steal that hope away and crush it under the sole of it's foot.

Or something like that.

I probed a friend of mine the other night about it, and he said he was absolutely interested in it and we came to the same conclusion: that the damage system is the only problem. His suggestion was to scale the armour and damage accordingly. The rest of the system was fine.

But while my friend and I work out a way to play the format (We may even attempt the Mercs method for a bit), I'm sure Privateer Press will surprise us with something along these lines one day.
Or something like that.

I probed a friend of mine the other night about it, and he said he was absolutely interested in it and we came to the same conclusion: that the damage system is the only problem. His suggestion was to scale the armour and damage accordingly. The rest of the system was fine.

But while my friend and I work out a way to play the format (We may even attempt the Mercs method for a bit), I'm sure Privateer Press will surprise us with something along these lines one day.

What a week

2011-06-15T09:03:00.002+10:00

So this week has been full of ups and downs.

Started off Wednesday night last week. Friend of mine called up bawling her eyes out because her partner had broken up with her out of the blue. That wasn't a nice end to the night, especially since it was one of those irrational breakups which was sorted out the next night.

Then Thursday morning, I get a random Facebook message.

"hay matt just wanted to let you know that nanny is in the prince charles hospital with cancer and it dosnt look like she has to long left"

I contacted Mum and Taleah and let them know, who tried to work out a time to go up and visit Nanny, the closest thing we have to a Grandmother. We couldn't do it that night, and we ended up planning to go up Monday because Mum wanted to go as a family and Taleah was working all that weekend.

Come Friday afternoon, Kel, Tash and Alex were sick so I didn't want to be a bother for them so I went home instead, and came home to a rather grumpy mother.

”Your father's back in town.”

Surprising. Apparently he was down to sign whatever documents for his Superannuation. Good timing considering Nannys condition, though more could be said about him.

So that's all pretty much the downhill side of it. The upside was finally getting a chance to play Dystopian Wars with Aaron. He's been wanting to play Dystopian Wars for a while and has been “Ants in his Pants” excited. It was funny though, he had the entire advantage over me with his Battleship, a couple of Frigates and a Sky Fortress standing over my slightly damaged Double-Decker Carrier and Battleship, along with a couple of Tiny Flyers.

Then a squadron of 5 Fighter Planes flew in and, for a fairly accurate comparison, went all Luke Skywalker on the Hindenberg.

The best part of the weekend was that it was the weekend before Mine and Jenny's 18 month! I love Jenny and I'm very lucky to have her with me. It was good having her to talk to, especially with the recent news with Nanny.

Come Monday morning, the very morning everyone planned on going to the hospital, news came that Nanny had passed the night before.

I was disappointed that I didn't get to see her before she passed on. I haven't seen her in far too many years. Mostly because I'm a lazy shit. So I feel really bad about that.

But I feel pissed off too. How do we find out about Nannys condition so late? Shouldn't we have been told more than a week ago? I don't think even Mum knew that Nanny had cancer! And Mum usually keeps in contact with everyone!

And of all people, I heard it from her (biological) Granddaughter who lives in Rockhampton! Nannys was living with her daughter up in Caboolture/Morayfield last I knew, and I would've thought they would contact me or Taleah in the same fashion sooner.

Okay, so I'm not as easy to find since I don't go by my actual name on Facebook, but I was still found and strangely the first to be contacted. So I don't get that.

But things are looking up. Her funeral is on Friday, so I'm going to wear the suit Poppy gave me. Hopefully it isn't rotten or anything. I took it to the drycleaners long ago and kept it in the plastic since. Handmade suit, really nice (if a little itchy).

I also have some other news, but I gotta wait until probably late next week until I find out the results.

[Game Warning] Dreams do come true

2011-06-14T15:30:00.001+10:00

WOO! BOMBARDIERS ARE HERE!

But mine are better.
Okay, not really. But hey, I prefer these guys weapons anyway. They're massive and strong. What those guys have over mine is that they have little Grenade Bombs on their shoulder and in the actual weapon. But I don't like that the leader doesn't have an open faceplate!

*Sigh*

I'm still going to pick up a box...

Game Warning - Wii U - the Wii 2

2011-06-10T20:04:00.004+10:00

Okay, so I was skeptical at first about the next Nintendo Console. It was cool with the controller and all, which turns out to be massive after all with a screen three times the size of a DS (That's pretty big).

But this video from Kotaku was pretty cool. It could be the three ciders I drank before i watched it, but I reckon it's pretty sweet.

[Link]

[Game Warning] Lets make the Quantum Leap

2011-06-08T12:26:00.001+10:00

So it's almost been a year and I've been pretty slack here. But keeping with a (mostly) Fiendish theme, and pretty much nothing happening with Monsterpocalyse until recently, I just haven't had anything to blather on about until now.

What I assume, to catch up with the times they're releasing Quantum Figures! One of whom is our very own Poster Child: Cthugrosh. I would have left this article until there was a Quantum Mechathugrosh, but I don't know how long I'd be waiting for it. And I'd have to think of a vaguely disturbing title too.

Now the way Quantum figures work is interesting. Along your stat bar you have stats highlighted in Red. This doesn't mean that the stat is shared to figures adjacent to you - Can you Imagine a Spitter with 7*1 Brawl attack? - What it does mean is that you increase those stats by your Hyper Cost.

That's pretty sweet. You get a bonus to whatever stats are highlighted and you can take names AND chew bubblegum! Cos with stats like these, who would stop you? Quantum Cthugrosh has a stat bar that is almost completely Red. Sweet! 6 Move is pretty good; 5 Defence is not too bad considering he still has 6 health; 7*2 Brawl? An extra Boost die certainly doesn't hurt at all; Same goes for his 5*1 Blast Attack, and his 6*2 Power Attack.

Now his Range is a special case. He starts off at Short range, so 2-3 spaces away from him. That's a pretty short attack. But any long time player of the Lords of Cthul will know that there should always be an Elite Spitter nearby. Or any general player will know to field a Radar Array. So that'll extend it to long range, making it 2-5 spaces away. Quantum then extends the range by the number of spaces equal to the Hyper Stat! Sweet!

So pretty much, his stat line does not change from his Alpha form. Now lets look at his hyper stat! Drum Roll please, Trumpets, streamers and confetti cascade around a small podium with a Khadoran Anvil with a number in the middle, and that number is... 1! Woo! We're Number One! We're Number One! We're Number...

Wait a minute. One? Okay, okay. So the stat increases aren't significant, except in the case of boost die. Any Boost Die are good Boost Die, as I always say. But there's one other condition that I haven't mentioned yet. And that's how to keep the Quantum Effect Active.

You would think that if you had stats that were increased by the hyper stat, you would just make it a permanent thing, and just get rid of these Red highlights. No, the purpose of the Red Highlights is that you gain the benefits to X Stat on the condition that you have more than 5 Power Dice in your pool.

So while it's not a significant effect the Quantum is applying, it can still change the way you play when you're at full P-die whether it's to conserve your P-die by using that extra B-die or A-die to your attacks, or to make a massive attack. But in saying that, a cost of 1 for going into hyper? It's unheard of!

Speaking of attacks, lets see what Quantum Cthugrosh has on offer ability-wise. He has his regular features for a hyper form, Flight and Terrify. Not bad abilities, with their own drawbacks. Though I don't think Terrify has a drawback. Flight certainly does, because factions like GUARD have a massive prejudice against Figures with Flight. So that's probably why his other forms have Jump, because he learnt his lesson before. Hmm...

His last skill is Reach, the ability to attack something 2 squares away. Experience with this ability has never failed me. There have been moments I put myself adjacent to a figure, but the options that Reach presents can change the game. The best part though? It's Blue.

So all figures in your army gain the ability to not only attack something from 2 spaces away, but also figures with Flight. So while Spitters don't have any use for it, figures like the Task master, the Tanglix, the Snatcher, even the Mollok Brutes and Berserkers, can take advantage of it. The number of times I've been one space away from being within range sometimes frustrates me. So now I get to Frustrate my opponent by being that one space within Reach.

Back to the Principal of Fiend High, we look at his Attacks. So Alpha Cthugrosh has a habit of multiplying his units. He'd just spend an action die and place a unit next to himself. It was a great Army producer and given a few turns, you'd outnumber your opponent in no time.

His Blast Attack would help too. Fling targets a unit and chucks it 5 squares into another figure. That makes for a potential range of about 10 squares for a Blast Attack.

That's better than Mogroth! Funny that.

But Quantum Cthugrosh deviates from the Norm. He still remains a Blastard, but he doesn't Fling anyone. He definitely doesn't make anyone Overload. He has taken lessons in Evolution at the Tower of Corruption College, and learnt Transmutation.

Now I've talked about Transmutation before with the Tower of Corruption. You shoot an enemy unit and replace it with one of your own units so long as it can legally be placed there. It takes up the Summon action from Alpha Cthugrosh and combines it with his Blast Attack!

That's not enough though. Alpha Cthugrosh usually Summons and makes an attack, two actions in one turn. That sort of thing should not be abolished, else the figure would be unappealing. So that's why the lucky bugger has Blitz.

Blitz: Once each turn, advance this figure up to 2 spaces even if it has advanced this turn. You can roll another attack of the same type against a different target with Dice in play.

So two attacks, both of which Transmutate enemy units into friendly units.

So double the Firepower. Double the Unit Generation. And then add another third to his Movement. This guy is working all on the up and up. So where does he faulter? Well, aside from the downside of having the same stat line as Alpha Cthugrosh until he gets more than 5 P-die, he doesn't do much else. His 5 skills and triggers are all he has. No Actions, No Reactions, No Advantages. That's all she wrote.

Gameplay wise, he's still as good as Alpha Cthugrosh. He moves, he blasts, he brings out a new unit, and then uses his second attack to either Shoot a Monster, or Transmutate another unit. As the old saying goes, “The More the Merrier!”

My 202nd post!

2011-06-06T19:49:00.000+10:00

Game Warning: The year is 1870. The World is at War.

2011-06-06T18:42:00.002+10:00

Who's that ugly bastard in the beanie?

Saturday started off way too early. It was 6am and I began pressing the sleep button my phone. Eventually by 6:30 I had gotten up and toddled off to the Bus Stop so I could make my way to Kels. The plan didn't go quite as I'd hoped. Got to the second bus stop that should have taken me to Kels, but I had to wait 40 minutes before it turned up. With having to get to Kels by 8am, and the bus arriving 10 minutes before 8, I decided to take a taxi.

So I crossed the road and called up B&W Cabs to pick me up from the Caltex on Beams Road, Carseldine. Twenty Minutes later, no Taxi. Another call ordered in the next cab, making sure it was going to my Caltex since there was another one in the same suburb on Gympie Road. Fifteen minutes later, still no driver. A third call confirmed it was just down the road, and then I was off to Kels to go play Dystopian Wars at Blind Pig.

Dystopian Wars is a Steampunk Wargame that covers sea, land and air (not necessarily at the same time, fighting with a large arsenal of vehicles from battleships and double decker Aircraft Carriers, to Tanks and Giant Robot Walkers, to Air Fortresses and Blimps with Aircraft Decks. These examples are just from one faction, the Federated States of America.

It's a fun game and I spent the better part of the day playing it on the weekend. It was a battlebox based game, with full upgrades and no plane tokens. That's fair enough. My Federated States of America should have a fun time KICKING ARSE!

Sadly, I thought I was prepared. I remembered my models. I remembered my dice. I was not prepared. I did not remember to cut out my templates. I did not remember to bring a tape measure.

So for the better part of the day, I was shared tape measures and templates. Aside from such asshattery, it was a pretty awesome day. I tore apart my first opponent, my second gunned the crap out of my Battleship (Yes, he sunk my Battleship alright), and my third opponent just ripped shreds off me.

Overall it was a fun day though. And I got myself some more toys as well. I picked up the Aircraft Carrier, which is a Fkn huge model; and I picked up a battlebox of Land Forces, containing tanks and an Amphibious Landship.

Luckily I got the box for free because when John, the event Organiser, gave a random draw prize with $50 give cards for Phoenix Forge, a small company that comes down to Blind Pig every month and sets up a stall, and if there's an event he supports he'll provide gift vouchers.

Now I have about another dozen models for my Dystopian Wars army and I'm liking it. Aaron was even convinced to play because after jumping into Firestorm Armada with an Army for Aesthetics, and feeling quite Impotent against Scott with his model choices, Aaron had interrogated me about Dystopian Wars and what Army would be best suited for himself.

I may have convinced him to play a Prussian Empire Force. And hopefully we'll play a small game sometime during the week.

What I like about Dystopian Wars is that it's a nice Dice Rolling game. While Warmachine has all these various stats that count towards various attacks that add up and everything. Dystopian Wars only requires you to turn up particular faces, and then count those faces. The only numbers you have to follow by are the volume of dice you're allowed to roll and what range band you're at which adjusts that volume of dice.

A very fun day had by all. Especially Luke from Phoenix Forge, who couldn't tell who I was at first and had to ask me to make sure he was right. Oh how we laughed.

The Horror

2011-06-01T22:26:00.002+10:00

I've seen things man. Things you wouldn't have dreamt. Things that haunt them and make you wake up in a cold sweat wondering where the fuck you are.

Actually, it was a lifetimes worth of Dust. And a Mouse Skeleton.

Mum asked me a few weeks ago to have the day off today to help with the carpet. Well, that worked out to be quite the interesting venture, didn't it. We had sorted out the majority of the rooms, so we thought, but really it was no place for the guy to work. So we had to clear out the entire rooms. Mums room the only exception due to her Bed because it is far too big to put out into the hallway.

So we cleared out as much room as possible and shoved whatever we could into various other rooms. And lo and behold, the dust is blanketted so thick that if you sweep it off your hands won't be dirty, but you'll have a nice thick piece of 'wool' to pick up and toss into the bin.

Though we did find some pieces of treasure here and there. When mum had the Divider torn down, we found some newspapers underneath dated from 11 December 1977. I don't know if Mum has kept them, but it was pretty amazing to see a very impressive Barbeque set for $139.

Then there's a few old photos that mum found tucked away under my sisters bed. The photos varies over the many many years, and I had to send a photo of me and my sister standing in front of the tree out front for my first day of school. I knew she'd like how cute I was, and how tight my shorts were. Even I'm amazed I was able to fit into them.

Overall, it was a pretty successful day aside from the almost destroyed computer desk of mums. It's an Ikea one, and the guy yanked it out the wrong way and it all tore apart. Mum, my sister Penny and I were stuck for about an hour trying to put it back together. After banging my head on a corner a few too many times, and some really confusing teamwork, we finally got it back together.

The day ended with all but one bedroom and a sliver of the loungeroom untouched. That'll get sorted out tomorrow, which will be good because I would rather not have to sleep on the couch for more than one night.

Mums old knitting machine.

2011-06-01T11:29:00.001+10:00

This happens when your mothers house of 40 years is up ended. Now to deal with the dust fallout.

Game Warning: Respawning in the Platform Wars

2011-05-25T19:27:00.000+10:00

There is a Time and Place for Video Games. But occasionally there's a Video Game that is simply timeless. Games that are just so fun that you would play through them again years down the track.

Take the “ID Super Pack” deal on Steam for example. It has several different games, including respective expansions, which range to about 20 years ago. That's longer than some of my workmates have been alive.

But I found a problem before I clicked on the super-freakin-awesome deal. I don't want to play them on my PC. No, I want to play them on my Console. So that put me in an awkward situation because I really like these games, and some I haven't had the chance to play yet.

I know what it's like to play some of these games on a Console. I already own Doom and Doom II on my Xbox360, and I've had loads of fun playing them. But I always wanted to finish playing Hexen and Heretic, and I adore the first two Quake games.

So would it be too much to ask for a Console port of these games? Probably. I wouldn't imagine it to be easy Porting a game to console, regardless of how similar a Console is to a PC. And the time spent would have to turn a profit in the end. So my optimism of these ports coming to reality isn't very high.

But hey I got my other wish of PSP games playable on the PS3, so why not throw it out there?

Game Warning: Playstation HD Remastering

2011-05-23T18:54:00.001+10:00

Playstation have been on a binge of Remastering games for the PS3, so that when played on a HDTV they don't look extremely pixellated. Which is fair enough. I know some people get irked if they happen to see an awkward pixel on their Helvetica

Personally it doesn't matter to me. I couldn't care if it's the same quality as a Gameboy* on a 60inch TV, if it's still a good game. It's why I still play certain PSOne games. It's also why I still own Gran Turismo 2. I love that game and I will get back to it when I can find time.

* - B&W, 160 × 144 Pixel Resolution

So even though I don't care about the resolution of a game, I still care about the games themselves. There are some games I just can't get access to, or if I can I don't want to grab it because it's for the wrong system.

Last year they released HD Remasters of selected games as compilation discs, which I find to convenient. I picked up the God of War compilation and got stuck on the Atlus Puzzle and haven't picked it up since, but I still had lots of fun getting through it. And I never had the games before, so it was fun to have a new game to play.

Same goes with other upcoming releases, such as the Splinter Cell Trilogy and the Team ICO set. I adore Splinter Cell. It's the coolest stealth game I've played, though I haven't touched Assassins Creed yet. And the Team Ico games, “ICO” and “Shadows of the Colossus”, while I own the latter of the two it would be nice to see it in better view. It's a very artistic game (though that's apparently up to debate) and I'm more than willing to trade in my PS2 copy for the PS3 version coupled with “ICO”.

I hope for other PS2 compilation games such as Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2, and maybe even the Final Fantasy Games (X, X-2 and XII), heck a remastering of Killzone 1 would be cool. But I don't hold any high hopes.

But just the other day, they announced they're re-releasing selected PSP games for HDTV. As in to have PSP games for the PS3. [Link]

This is cool, but not exactly what I always wished for. I thought about something similar at one stage, of converting the PSP games into PSP Minis, which the PS3 can play, and I would've been pretty happy with that. But this is a bit better because those people who just can't stand a large pixel can be happy.

All well. Made do with what you've got. Now to see what they plan on bringing out.

Game Warning: Digital Librarian

2011-05-20T15:39:00.005+10:00

One thing I can really appreciate about walking through Aisles of Books of varying subjects and ages is the Custodian of these hallowed halls. A professional woman, with luscious hair braided and wrapped into a bun pierced with chopsticks (possibly actual chopsticks), a white blouse and grey skirt to cover her sensual body and long elegant legs, which approach you with elegance in every stride.

Sadly I don't think there's anything like that for Digital Libraries. Yet. These computer programs don't have a simple feature such as this, possibly out of fear of Clippy Syndrome. Or worse.

Granted, you can have your own personal Librarian from your partner. Dress them up appropriately and then ask them the subject matter of what you want to read. They'll scan the shelves, starting from the top and making their way down each shelf to find a matching title, then reach for the cover slowly and run their fingers down the spine, before sliding it out and reaching it over to you.

Then you probably attempt to have sex instead of reading the book, because you feel like a teenager with a crush on the hot Librarian, and you're both in the Staff only back room of the Library.

I like to doubt that this would ever happen, but I've heard of people getting off using Car Exhausts so anything is possible with the number of ports a computer tower has.

This is what bugs me, though. You have access to these books and games, but there's no guide to walk you through them all before you get distracted. Sure you could have your partner scroll through, and seeing those crossed legs always gives me a thrill, but obviously it isn't the same.

There's no scene of wrinkled spines and plastic cases, no scent of aging pages to waft up as you open a book, or clatter as you open the box of your game of choice. It's all a scrolling list of beautiful box art, with the same atmosphere you conceived when last a game was played.

The selection of activity is a sacred ritual that should be taken with a hardy respect, and enthusiastically exercised for long hours to leave one in a sweaty satisfaction.

The convenience of having a Digital Library is that of having dozens, maybe even hundreds, of games not cluttering up your home. It's there, in your system and you don't have to worry about damaging a disc, or tearing apart the pages of the book.

And this will be the world in time to come. Future Generation of devices, and even devices today, will be part of the Digital Distribution. Physical copies will start the decline into becoming collectable memorabilia.

So what will happen to this sacred ritual? Will it evolve with the coming times? What will be the Avatar of this ritual, the Librarian to the your Search Engine? Or will the entire idea simply dissolve into time?

[Game Warning] Gears of War Board game

2011-05-19T12:17:00.001+10:00

[link]

I like Gears of War. The game is fun, and the story is fantastic. And to have a Board Game based on it is just too cool.

There's about 30 figures in the set, so that's a bunch of Locust and a handful of player characters. I hope there's a Carmine in there. Then again, he'll die so quickly.

If I got Aaron into playing it, then he'll run up to every enemy and try to chainsaw them in half.

Judging from the setup, I'm imagining that the game plays much like the D&D Board Games. You have a set of square tiles with various designs on them which the players pull out and place at random to create your ever growing map. With each tile placed, place down Locust determined by a deck of monster cards. As you kill each locust you gain a reward based on the rewards deck of cards.

Then depending on the scenario, particularly designed tiles are set within the randomly organised pile. So you will reach your destination, but at a randomly determined time. With each character having their own special abilities, it can either extend or reduce the time it takes, or change how easily they kill something, or how the enemy can retaliate.

It looks fun and I'm pretty excited about it. Though I still need to play the D&D board games with the fellas...

So don't go there?

2011-05-19T09:09:00.002+10:00

I'm getting sick of some people whinging about the local restaurant here. I keep hearing “Oh they're so expensive, they're so ridiculous, you would've thought that because we're regulars that they'd give us cheap shit.”

Okay, so they're not cheap. However, the point of a business is to make money. To make money, you have to develop a profit. To develop a profit, you have to raise costs. They're a small business who also like to have something new and interesting in every so often to get customers in. A Gimmick, if you will.

But when you ask for 1 slice of toast, nothing else, don't complain about the price when you could bloody well go to the bakery, get an entire loaf for $3, maybe less, and use the friggin toaster in the kitchen.

“Oh but I like it thick like they have there.” So do what they do: get a bread knife and cut it.

“Oh but I only wanted one slice.” So put the rest in the freezer so you can use it next time you're needing some fibre.

And just because “Oh Matts a Regular there” doesn't mean I know what the friggin price is of a single slice of toast.

If you don't like it, pack up and go elsewhere.

For someone's sake

2011-05-11T16:59:00.001+10:00

I just witnessed a waste of time. A lady was crossing through thick traffic lined up from the lights. The only clear lane of this three lane road is the turn off into the shopping complex. She was running along me a lady driving down the empty lane more than 50 metres away slowed down to let the lady pass, of whom went to a jog to give more room to let the driver continue without having to slow down much.

You would think that, in the role of the driver, you would just keep going as if nothing had happened.

No, this lady felt obligated to stop her car, toot the horn of her small car, and start yelling at this poor pedestrian from the drivers seat. She didn't wind down her windows mind you, so the only comprehensible of this lady was that she liked waving her arms above her head.

Then she drove on, the pedestrian ignoring her while i viewed the ordeal from the cold shade of the bus stop, where i came to the conclusion that some people fight for the sake of fighting.

[Game Warning] Large Scale Warmachine

2011-05-10T09:43:00.001+10:00

Privateer Press are introducing an alternate system for their Warmachine/Hordes games called Unbound. As far as I know, the system changes to instead of having “My turn, your turn”, it goes to an alternating group activation.

Reminiscing back to when I played a 2000 point MK1 game with Scotty, it was long and tedious. It took the better part of an hour just to get my own turn done. And Scott decimated my entire Army in one turn which was a little depressing.

So the alternating activations sounds like a good change. Rather than sitting down for the better part of and hour doing nothing but bookkeeping, you're shortening that to only a few minutes between turns. And by the end of the round, the game has changed significantly for both armies, rather than leaning towards one side who had a rather good turn, though that may still happen in Unbound, but the other side at least has a moment to change the game before they're completely overrun.

I've not had much experience with this style of turn taking, which is limited to Dystopian Wars. I'm having fun with that, but it's only got a small number of models. The points costs may reach up to 2000, but the model count isn't as significant. You'll always want units in your Warmachine list, so you'll want to cater to that which will bring your model count up significantly.

But the point is it gives me an idea of what the system is like. Turn after turn, taking out units before they even activate. It just seems like a good way to change a high point game, making it more involved than a waiting game.

Game Warning: Cheapening the Re-experience

2011-05-09T19:13:00.002+10:00

So when playing games, you want to keep it entertaining. And entertainment comes in difficulty, challenges, awkward positions. When given options to play slightly, or significantly, differently, you don't want to be able to run around like a God, practically invulnerable to any challenges that lay ahead. That's what the Easy Difficulty is for.

While playing Crysis 2, I found things a little... too easy.

With your Nanosuit, you can activate modules which change or improve upon your style of play. There's features for all three modes, Armour, Infiltration and Power, and your Nano Visor. And you buy them as you collect nano-catalyst from killing aliens called Ceph (Short for Cephalopod – AKA: Squids).

The Modules are varied and the best ones are really expensive, and require a couple of runs through to collect enough catalyst, but the question is: Can an expensive item be worth more than you pay for it?

One of the expensive modules is Enhanced Stealth, which lowers energy consumption rate.

I ran through the game using stealth as much as possible. I mastered the art of shifting between cover under the guise of stealth without being noticed. I was slowly becoming Stealth Kill incarnate. I could shoot any target with a sniper rifle without leaving a trace of my presence. Infiltration is for the weak.

And then I collected enough nano-catalyst to buy the Enhanced Stealth module. Now while it doesn't give abilities like silent footfalls or revealing your enemies path, it simply extends the period of time you're in Infiltration mode. So instead of jumping between cover, I can move across the map if I don't have to jump or fall, before I have to consider hiding.

Fair enough, I can choose not use the module and just stick with what I have been using, but should this option be in the game? So much time spent getting exhilarated at the chance of getting spotted getting tossed away just because you “worked hard for it”.

It feels a bit of a rip having too an calming experience going through the same game again.

[Game Warning] "MAKE WAY FOR DA DEFFROLLA!"

2011-05-06T16:21:00.001+10:00

So I had a long hard thought about what to do about a Promobike. I couldn't figure it out. Though I got the idea from it, I didn't like the idea of a Motorbike with a trolley on the back. Not even a pushbike looked cool.

I thought about using the standard 40k Ork bikes, but didn't see much room to 'advertise'. If I covered up the sides, or put something over the top, it would look pretty weird. More like a float than anything else. Or a boat. That could float...

I thought about Sand Surfer, you know the surf boards with sails but given a set of wheels so they can just go across sand? Yeah, but it just didn't make... sense.

What about a Buggy? Okay, probably a bit better, but where do I advertise? Maybe make him like a Sprint Car, and give him room to advertise there.

Then today, I thought about these fan factor models and said to myself “These guys could be honorary members of the team. Especially the Squiggoth. He'd be #17.”

Somehow my mind rolled over to the thought of a team member actually Dying, and subbing in the player with an honorary member. Such as the Squiggoth.

“What about the bike?” I said to myself. “How would we play him?”
“Well,” I responded “We'd just play him as if he had a Deathroller.”

Then it struck me. A deathroller bike? That'd be AWESOME! Make it a giant Blood Ball with extra spikes, put a sweet engine on the back and maybe the Sprint Car roof on top and Bob's your uncle.

It'd be pretty hard to put on a 25mm base, but I'll give it a go. I'd probably have to make it like a Monocycle in that case.

[Game Warning] "WAAAGH IF YA HORNY" or How to build Fan Factor

2011-05-05T14:07:00.001+10:00

First thing I thought of when I got home was “How will I mount a Scoreboard onto this Sucker?” Naturally it'll be on a Howdah just behind the drivers seat. And I'd make it a scorecard sort and have Orks behind it changing the cards to keep track.

Next is where will I put the Promokopta? I'd have to give it somewhere to park while it's not being used. How about on the Squiggoth? The main howdah is for people to travel in, so why not build a landing pad on top of it? Instead of having a H in a circle, do the Ork Blood Bowl team logo.

Otherwise, paint the side of the Howdah with the Blood Bowl Logo and “SKARBOYZ BIGGIST FAN” on the other. Up the back, an Ork Yelling out behind and holding a banner saying “WAAAGH IF YA HORNY!”

The Promokopta is going to be mostly custom made. I have a Garlic and Horseradish tablet bottle. Turn it on it's side, add Helicopter Rotors and skis, use the open top as a Jet engine, add a cockpit to the front (bottom of bottle) and if I want twinlink Rokkit Launchers, I have a pair of PS2-USB adaptors.

If I were talented enough, I'd open up the sides of the bottle to make extended platforms for Orks to sit/shoot from. The Rokkit launchers would have to be filled with actual rockets, so I'm thinking having one filled to the brim with rockets, and the other firing a piglet. Kel gave me that idea when we saw the Farrow Razorback, a rocket launcher held by pig men. I reckon it'd be awesome for the commentators.

“The crowd goes into a frenzy and pours into the pitch! What's this? The Kopta is getting into it too and... He's porked some poor sod in the head with a flying piglet!”

[Game Warning] "Skarboyz Biggest Fan"

2011-05-04T09:52:00.001+10:00

So I've wanted to make Ork Vehicles for ages. Nothing too significant, something small and entertaining. I already have an old Space Marine or Imperial Guard Tank sitting about waiting to get Looted.

But it came to me in a flash of lightning. How the hell do teams get across the country? By Tour Bus. What's better than a Tour Bus? A Tour Squiggoth. And what do I have? A Squiggoth!

To boot, when the thought hit me, the image in my head had a little helicopter in the background with one of those streaming banners with “Blood Bowl” trailing behind. So Why not make a mobile of a Deffkotpa with a trailing banner?

I also keep seeing those scooters with trailers on the back with advertisements on them. So an Orc bike with a Blood Bowl Trailer? Game on!

Yes I know that they're both the wrong time period, but you know what? It's cool! I could scrounge up a few bits and bobs from Aarons old Orks bits, like his Trukks and whatnot and maybe buy a box or two of Deffkoptas from the GW shop and convert one of the Deffkoptas into a bike! Or just buy an Ork Bike, but that wouldn't be as cool.

That'd give me an excuse to make a Squiggoth Side Car with a Bike Slingshot, and a landing pad on top of the howdah.

And it's all Justified as Fan Factor.

Shock Horror! Its not a Game Warning

2011-05-04T00:32:00.001+10:00

Tonight i post from my new phone, the Samsung Galaxy 5. Its my first smart phone and my first annoyance which i suspected from before getting the phone was the keypad is really annoying to use. Its because i have there large thumbs and the best way to type is by pressing very gently with the edge of my skin. Its harder than it seems. Because i have a lot of skin compared to these buttons with little surface. Either way, the phone is great use for contacting Jenny because it has skype. And the cheaper i can contact her, the better. I may even make it a regular thing.

But yes. With the demise of my previous phone which involved dropping it on a tiled dinosaurs and the screen shattering inside itself, it was nigh unusable except to accept calls and be notified when Jenny has sent me an email which id check through my laptop.

I hope you enjoyed the typo that predictive text has provided. I am sure the tiled dinosaurs will enjoy your company, not my tiled floors

[Game Warning] Skarboyz are a Go!

2011-05-03T20:45:00.001+10:00

So I received my Bloodbowl team in the mail. The poor bag got wet and the packaging was falling apart in Adams hands as he handed it to me, but luckily the pewter was fine in their own plastic sealed bags.

Twelve models, with the only two doubles being my linemen, sit in front of me wanting to be cleared of flash. And they're not little bits of flash either, they're actually kinda chunky.

But they're here and they're ready. I've figured out a few names for them too. Few'shor O'brikk'hows is going to be my Fat Ork Blocker, Galgutz Eat'ch'ya is going to be the mucleclad Black Orc Runner. I call him a Black Orc Runner because the name comes from the Video game which Automatically generates names. And Galgutz, through his Career, has scored about 7 touchdowns before I upgraded to the Legendary Edition (And pretty much lost that team).

I also had Dubb'lin and Glaz'gow Eddbutz, the Blitzer brothers, and I figured the easiest way to tell them apart was to paint their faces in their respective countries flags (Green, white, Gold vertical stripes; blue with white cross). The two figures I've picked both look similar, and the other two don't look like them at all. One is raising his arm as if to catch something, and the other has a pair of sharp implements on.

All in all, it's a good day for Bloodbowl and in celebration I think I'm going to try and play that Dwarf Team again.

Fkn Deathroller with a ST of 7.

Game Warning: Model Delivery

2011-05-03T20:36:00.005+10:00

Game Warning: New York, New York

2011-05-03T19:13:00.000+10:00

Over the course of about 6 days of sporadic play I finished Crysis 2. It seemed to go on forever, which I was somewhat excited about but aggravated too, because it would come to a point where your character would finally get evacuated out of New York City, but you'd have to stay and finish a job since you're the only one who has got the Utilities to do the job, because of your nanosuit.

Your Nanosuit is a utilitarian masterpiece with only one drawback of a low power source, which is regenerative when nothing is draining it. Otherwise, you can plan out your tactics before you run through an enemy camp, including tagging your enemies so that you know if someone is going to sneak up on you, or track where they are if you want to sneak up on them, or even get the pounce on them when you're armoured up and holding a Heavy Machine Gun which you've torn off its mount.

Personally, the majority of the game was spent Stealthed between various forms of cover, and attempting stealth kills on the majority of enemies, exceptions being the Ceph Heavies and areas I simply couldn't pass without having to kill someone. To which I used a Silenced Sniper Rifle and cracked a few headshots for mostly good results.

But this made the game tedious. While I wanted to just waltz into the fray with a light machine gun, or an assault rifle, or even the Microwave Gun you can pick up, I was tempted to lean towards sneaking up behind people and snapping their necks. There were moments where I had to run about in armour mode, but that was pretty much refined to taking out the Ceph heavies and shooting them with a Light or Heavy machine gun until they exploded.

Or the microwave gun, where they popped inside their armour. Jeez it's funny watching them do that, because the easiest way to describe the Ceph are that they're semi-transparent balloons with tentacles filled with alien bits and bobs, and armour pieces stuck over the top. It's pretty gross, but popping those suckers was just like the feeling of popping pimples in my teenhood.

Now the story has a lot of revolutions around a character called Prophet, who was pretty much a sceptical character in the first Crysis, and for good reason which is explained more and more in Crysis 2. Though in Crysis 2 you don't get to see any of the previous characters except for Prophet. Nomad and Psycho make no significant appearance which is disappointing since they were two of the main characters of C1. I hope an expansion will tell tale of their adventures, but since this is a new game I'll just wait a few months for that to happen.

In the mean time, I'll go through on a harder difficulty and see how much difference it makes to the gameplay.

Game Warning: Hand Held, eh?

2011-04-29T18:43:00.005+10:00

Project Cafe is the next console in the Nintendo range and mockups of it's controller seems pretty awesome, though ugly. But with the rising generation of Touch screens coming everywhere, making the world a little more intimate with technology, it makes me wonder whether putting a touch screen into a controller is a good idea.

I do approve of the idea. Game developers everywhere will have a Blast giving the players those additional features. Cursors you'd expect to move about using your thumbstick? Use the touchpad instead. Need to assign multiple buttons to get a mid game feature? Use the touchpad. Want to minimalise the players HUD? Use the touchpad! Want to include a minigame for Player 2 to complete while player 1 does something else? Use the touchpad! Want to change songs while in the middle of a game? Use the touchpad!

And there's more where that came from, and developers will take full advantage of the fact. Just ask Sega.

However, what about the consumer? When I buy a console I get a second controller then and there, in case I want to play 2 player or if one controller runs out of battery, or it breaks. I got another controller for my PS3 when I got it, and that put me out of pocket about $75. And that's with discount. While Touchscreens are getting cheaper, the price of a controller will be phenomenal.

I will admit I'm not the most careful person in the world with my controller. I throw it about, I get my greasy pizza fingers over it, etc etc etc. I put this Touchpad controller on a similar level as a PSP, which regrettably has a massive crack in the corner of the screen. So were I to get a controller such as the suspected Project Cafe's, I'd have to take care of it like I do my Game Discs (Which I actually get a little protective of if they're left to collect dust).

Then there's the Rechargeable batteries. Wii and Xbox 360 controllers don't come with this feature, whereas PS3 do. So if you need to buy yourself rechargeable batteries, then that'll increase my budget by like $25.

So I'd wager about $200, including discounts for bulk buying with a console, just to get a preferable controller setup. Seems a bit rich to me, but Nintendo try and do something different with every console. It's an endearing fact, and I do approve of the idea. I just hope the execution works out better than on paper.

Alternative Image?

904USD and losing value each day

2011-04-25T10:48:00.004+10:00

Shit.

Game Warning: Scale of the Game

2011-04-19T22:16:00.002+10:00

I was thinking about it today. There are a large variety of games that I've looked at, and they all go from varying scales. Not just in model size, but in description of the size of game, though they do go hand in hand. But what would it be like in the minds eye to combine the lot?

Here's an example. 40k Standard at 1:60 scale, a skirmish game with Orks and Space Marines fighting over a communications array. A way down the way, an Epic 40 at 1:600 scale fights to control an area of land. A few hundred miles straight up, there's a Battlefleet Gothic game at it's own scale fighting to stop either fleets from landing more troops.

See what I mean? It's not just a skirmish, but it's one big massive battle.

Dystopian wars has a similar thing but at a wider scale rather than a focal scale. Dystopian wars covers Air, Land and Naval. It doesn't get smaller and it doesn't get into space, but it's still impressive. Though if you cross it over with Firestorm, armada and invasion, you get pretty much all varieties of table top games. Small Skirmish, Large Battle across all territories, and a space battle up above.

So what would you do with this? Personally, i'd try and figure out a way to put it into a role play game. The players would be in control of the situation. They'd have their scenario with their own characters they made, and then situation would arise that they'd have to control a series of boats down a river so they can reach a fortress they're going to defend from a contingent of tanks making their way along. then word comes you have to fly yourselves to the space port to help with the battle in orbit. Maybe give the battleship or dreadnaught some extra stats to give the players an advantage, but nothing majorly significant. Maybe like extra health, or extra weapons.

Perfect reason to do a Dystopian Role Play game. The players are a group of privates who work their way up to take full control of every situation that arrives, from performing artillery strikes to escorting a naval fleet across the sea to their new destination. Then after dealing with the situation there, they fly off to the mountains in a carrier plane and fend off enemies in fighter planes, or heavy bombers.

This is sounding cooler and cooler every moment.

Holy Roshambo, Batman.

2011-04-19T08:34:00.001+10:00

This guy makes me want to play Cryx.

Has it been Six months already?!

2011-04-14T19:18:00.002+10:00

Apparently it has. And as of 16th April, I have 1 month to get my arse out of dodge.

Okay, so saying it like that makes it sound like this is a horrible place to live. It really isn't, it's a pretty sweet place. Not far from public transport, particularly a public transport that drops me a few hundred metres away from the front door of the office, rather than about a kilometre.

But relationships take priority, and the landlady is in a pretty good relationship. So good that when the beau asked to move in together, she laughed in his face. Then when he assured her he was serious, she got into a reverie of excitement and panic.

The condition though, and I'm not sure who put up this condition, was that they live together Alone.

So the landlady sat us down and told us the situation and said that she'd sign us up for monthly contracts until we found a new place, and we wouldn't have to worry about the “breaking contract” hassle.

After that I had to think about what I would do about moving. I never really thought I'd be thinking about moving again so soon. Six months legs it faster than a busted meth addict. So I had a quick thought about it and then jumped onto Facebook and asked if anyone was looking for a Roomie.

A little while after, I'd received offers from Penang and Ottawa, even with a home office and access to conventions and girlfriend respectively. But I was also told to move back in with Mum.

This confused me at the time because I thought Dad was moving back from Townsville. The Old Coot moved up there for work because he had disagreements with the mob he was with down here. So he put in a transfer and moved far up the coast.

But over the past year, probably longer, his age and health have really tackled him to the floor and started pummelling him. He's losing his mind because his cholesterol is apparently clogging up the veins to his brain, so he's made mistakes at work such as banging up cars, or driving off down the road with a half loaded trailer of unchained cars and the ramps still down and sparking on the ground.

On top of that he's apparently been having mini strokes, so now his face is half sloped and he's barely comprehensible. At least that's what his sister said when she called me up after visiting the old boy.

Eventually it was decided that Dad was to return to Brisbane so that we can take care of him. Dad said he wanted to drive down himself, but after being told No several times over mum organised to have him come down with one of the trucks.

Dad has other plans. He doesn't want to move back down apparently, so he's coming down just to sign a few docos before going back up on the next truck up.

So that leaves me an open bed to park myself in. Now 6 months ago, I was hesitant to move back in with Mum for a few reasons. But thinking about it again, it's not too big a deal. It's mostly the money I'd be concerned about, and I think I might be able to save a few dollars living with mum again. Nothing too substantial, but still its better than nothing.

And I have to get Jenny over here, so extra dosh is good dosh. Now I have to wait about 4 weeks before I can move in with Mum because my eldest sister is moving house and parking her gear in mums place as well, then one of Mums friends wants to have a night down at the pub and crash at mums place, especially convenient since she's about 400m down the road from it.

I'm not the only one who has the bright idea of moving in with parents, because Dick'n'Mel are doing much the same but for different reasons.

About a month or two ago, Richard was finally given his final notice at work and has since sustained himself on his payout figure and Mel's income. That didn't last long though, as Mel left her job a week or two ago because she was sick of it.

So now they're moving in with Mels parents because they can't afford to live where they are, and Richards parents have no room. And to boot, Mels parents currently reside in Townsville. So they're moving across the country. Their plan is to move in with Mels parents who are trying to sell their house and move down to Toowoomba, so Dick'n'Mel will be going down with them. Mel will find a job there and Richard will start study again.

I feel they've given up and taken the easy way out. But, it's their choice so I'm leaving them to it and helping where I can.

So that's the latest happenings. It's fun and games after that, so game on.

[Game Warning] Wolves of Winter

2011-04-13T18:30:00.001+10:00

Khador as an empire have a very simple mentality to them which can be aptly described as such: “Place Weapon into Enemy Figure at High Velocity”. There is an abbreviation to this but it's not PWEFHV, because that's just too silly to put into conversation, let alone pronounce. It's simply “Axe to Face”, and even though only a relative few figures in Khador actually hold an axe, many of them can be used in an Axe like fashion including the Spriggan Lance, which can put a nasty bop on the noggin when used as such.

The thing about “Axe to Face” is that it's occasionally a little too simple and can leave little room to move. You can run around knocking peoples teeth out with a sharpened lump of metal secured to a stick, or you can stand there and bop someone on the noggin with a sharpened lump of metal secured to a stick. This isn't always reliable, and in Warmachine this really comes down to Maths where one figure has better stats than the other and your figure may get shot before he can reach them, stabbed because he got charged first, or generally can't hit their high Defence.

And so this is where we come to the subject at hand which focuses on a different approach with night classes of “Axe to Face”, which is called “Utility”. A unit with utility can do more than just Axe to Face and can do things such as Provide Cover, increasing Axe to Face success, or making a Ice Blocks.

You'd think that last one wouldn't apply to Warmachine, or even Hordes, however that is not the case. The Greylords are a very capable unit and can certainly make Ice Blocks, and they make them out of enemy targets. Not over several targets, but they save themselves a little effort and make it in bulk by targeting a heavy target such as an enemy Warjack.

This is a spell called Ice cage, featured on the Greylord Ternion. It starts off as a simple cumulative negative to a targets defence, described as a cold wind that the target is huddling against, until the target becomes stationary. Which means the target has stopped moving because it's suddenly frozen up from the cold wind getting a bit too spiteful.

As soon as the Greylords have finished making their ice block, they call out to whatever is nearby, particularly a heavy hitting unit or warjack, and order it to dig in. With Axe To Face being a large proficiency in Khador, they dig in really deep and nine times out of ten will destroy the poor warjack that couldn't stand the cold. If anything is left it stands impotent until the end of it's turn unless it's controlling Warcaster decides to throw a cup of cement at it and order it to harden up.

Being the spellcasters they are, they aren't limited to the one spell. They can also defend their Komrades from the terrible effects of ranged combat and those nasty spells that want to cause trouble to the disciples of Axe to Face. So they create a murky cloud to follow someone around and obscure their opponents aim. A large warjack coming at you a little foggily is definitely something to worry about, especially when you can't seem to hit the broad side of it's barn.

But life isn't complete when you're just dropping smoke around and turning people into giant icicles all the time. Sometimes you have to just wave your hand a bit funny and make all the bad people go away, and that's something the Greylords are able to do with relative ease with their spell Frost Bite, AKA: the Magic Shotgun.

The Magic Shotgun is strong as the Greylord Ternion have a high Magic ability, and coupled with the effects of making a Spray attack, there isn't much that can gain defensive benefits from the magic shotgun. Not even being a fiendish ghost that haunts the battlefield shooting the snot out of people because it likes to.

So with this array of options, the Greylords are a good choice to support your army against the fiends of of the world. Kept well behind friendly forces, they can just cause shenanigan after shenanigan while everyone takes advantage of them over and over again,

Then there's someone travelling along with them skipping along to "Anything you can do, I can make better". This is the Koldun Lord, AKA: Bad Santa. He's not really that bad. But he's an angry looking man who deserves a reindeer with a red nose. Instead, he can marshal a pair of Warjacks.

But what a strange song to be singing? What would he mean by that?

Well ladies and gentlemen, the Koldun Lord has an ability called Elite Cadre. Elite Cadre gives particular units in the army a special effect. This effect is called "Battle Wizard". A Koldun Lord is a rank or two above the leader of a Greylord Ternion. In the time to get to this point, he spends his time going back to school learning the tried and true methods of Khador, while not forgetting his roots, and this is something he teaches Greylord Ternions that are out in the field with him.

So his roots were Spellcasting, flinging clouds and Magical Shotguns everywhere, along with blowing a cold wind someone's way; Khadors tried and True method is called Axe to face, which is rather self explanatory. The connection: Battle Wizard. It's pretty simple. If a Koldun Lord, or a Greylord Ternion fielded with him, are in an Infantryman’s face and aren't dead from either old age, a heart attack, or a hammer to the noggin, he can attack that infantryman. If the infantryman is destroyed, he may freely cast a spell.

Now a magical shotgun straight into the middle of unit is very possible. The thing about spells is that you may cast them straight into their face, regardless of whether you're engaged or not. So with a swing of the axe you remove one fellow, and with a wave of the other you make another few disappear into the afterlife. Or they can put a gloomy cloud over someone’s life. Or they can turn the wind vicious and freeze someone to the bones.

The Koldun Lord is probably not the only person who thinks it's rude to cloud up someone's day. He also frowns upon Warjacks being Disrupted because certain wire heads can't keep their fingers out of power sockets, and they keep sending their stupid static electricity to the local warjacks.

So with a little bit of concentration, and a little magic, the Koldun Lord waves his magic hand and removes the Disruption that the poor warjack is suffering and then gives it a point of Focus, so it may cause some shenanigans that it wasn't meant to do before.

Lastly, because the Koldun Lord loves his warjacks so much, his Warjacks love him. And one must always protect the ones you love. So, in turn, while the Koldun Lord is nice and close to his warjacks, safely tucked away under their wings, he gains increased armour from the nasty people that are trying to get at him for causing so many shenanigans. Having warjacks get back up to scratch after a nasty headache from static electricity? Making Greylord Ternions charge more often with their axes and magic shotguns? Spreading the Influenza Virus? It's just not on, says everyone else. Not on indeed.

Koldun Lords come in all shapes and sizes though, and all of them love their Warjacks. And as a particular tradition of various games, it's the female that tends to stand out. This is where Koldun Kommander Alexandra Zerkova comes into the picture. A warcaster with a flavour of Greylords.

Now Zerkova isn't the same as other Warcasters. Other Warcasters are very head on, and to win a game they'll be looking into the whites of their opponents eyes. Zerkova is what's known as a Spellcaster and instead takes her place at the back of the lines throwing spells at everyone.

This is a shock to the system for Khador. With an Axe to Face methodology, they haven't prepared themselves for spellcasting, whereas other factions have an Arc Node to help them fling spells across a battlefield without the hassle of having to get anywhere near the pointy bits of their enemy.

To help seal the deal as a proficient Spellcaster, she has enlisted the help of various Orgoth Artefacts, six in total, which she carries about on her being to seal the deal. To start are her weapons, the Rod of Whispers, and her sword Quietus.

The Rod of Whispers isn't too fancy. It's a short range with decent power behind it, mostly due to it being so creepy that most warriors will get such a bad case of the heeby jeebies, they kick the bucket right then and there. Quietus however is a different case. Being a sword, it has a harder time giving the heeby jeebies to warriors, but makes a Warjack drop the rear engine when it gets conked. It'll instantly have a mechanikal seizure and freeze up for a round.

Her other Orgoth Artefacts aren't as simple as these two. They don't deal damage but they help her in her role of being a Spellcaster, and one helps her defensively. This is the Orgoth Seal, and I don't mean 'of approval'. It actually denies by lowering the range of spells targeting her, and if they do hit the opposing spellcaster suffers damage. Just a smidgen of spite there.

The spellcasting artefacts are all very nifty. While Zerkova can only use one per spell, they change the way she decides to cast spells. Whether it's throwing a Razor Wind at a stealthy solo sneaking up behind you, using the Ghost Stone; casting a Twister towards a unit that was just that little bit too faraway, using the Lens of Tarvodh; or influencing a grunt to attack it's own standard bearer at less spell cost, thanks to the Focus Sphere.

These are just a few spells she has access to, and what she hasn't forgotten is her Greylord Training but with her own twist of lime. Razor Wind, a standard spell which is as close as she can get to Frostbite. It's cheap, it's got the same Power with a little extra range, but the loss of being a spray is a downer. That's how the dice rolls when you're a Warcaster.

Twister is her version of Blizzard, but instead of clouding a friends day, it gives enemies a foggy outlook on life. It even causes damage! It's a piddly amount, but it's still damage!

Influence however is not a standard Greylord sort of spell. If she hits, which is likely, the target has a spasm and hits the guy next to him.

"Oh sorry mate. You can stop playing dead now. Hey where did you get all the tomato sauce?"

There's still more from her Greylord Ranks that is still well appreciated, including her own twist on the Ice Cage spell. It's not Warjack Flavoured Ice Block, but it makes for chilly units that are much easier to hit for everyone. On top of that, the unit can't double time or pull one of their fancy moves that they're always showing off.

Speaking of Fancy moves, she has a few of her own. Being a warcaster, she has to have a few signature moves and one of them is Banishing Ward. While Zerkova isn't the happiest person in the Iron Kingdoms, she doesn't like her forces being all "Doom and Gloom" on her. So why not remove the problem and prevent it from happening again. No more spells being cast on you, lads. She could even cast it on her Warjacks whom, like the Koldun Lord, she has a bit of an affinity for as well with a pair of her spells.

One of the problems facing Warjacks these days is units. They block routes, and tie them up to no end. It's always frustrating having a warjack perfectly capable warjack surrounded by an opponents Kossite Woodsmen, and able to do Pot with it all.

Zerkova knows this and designed her own spell, Force Blast, which shunts enemies straight away from the aforementioned warjack, untying it from being targeted by free strikes and not tied down by silly little girly men who stand in it's way.

The other is a reactive spell. Because Zerkova isn't the toughest of Warcasters, she needs a little bit of help. And when someone gets that little bit too close, she chooses a Warjack to go ahead and offer a massive king hit to the silly bugger who thought they'd try and get a good look at her. It'll only happen once every so often, but sometimes it'll be just enough to keep someone at bay. Heck, it might even destroy a Warcaster or a Warlock.

Now you know her shenanigans. She's absolutely full of them, especially her feat "Howling Wind". You can't shoot; you can't double time; you can't sprint at someone; you can't hear your commanding officer yelling profanities; you can't even pull off those fancy moves you learnt in boot camp. You're stuck with the basics: Waddle up to someone and hit them.

Sometimes that's just enough, but you may cop a warjack to the face, or you'll stand there looking silly. I'm sure quite a lot of warriors would prefer to stand there looking silly rather than cop that warjack with the platter of Massive Axe to Face.

So while Zerkova is wandering around, entertained with the thick foliage which she simply prances through, ignoring the bitter cold that is cast her way, there is a great knowledge that she's not the only one putting in the effort to help her Komrades, and that her training will never fail her, nor will it fail the Greylord Ternions and Koldun Lords that are speckled across the borders of Khador.

[Game Warning] Character Warjacks

2011-04-13T14:29:00.001+10:00

When I think of a Character Warjack, I think of a Warjack that is devastating, a Warjack that can change the game, and just gets better with a Warcaster they were raised with. A Warjack that is an Epic Incarnation of an older Warjack.

Beast-09 is a perfect example of this. A Juggernaut with more abilities than Critical Freeze. On top of that, it gained the ability to move when damaged, Reach and Thresher on its Axe which kept Critical Freeze. On top of that, it spends a focus and gains a bonus to attacks against living warrior models. On top of that, the ability to reroll charge and slam attacks when fielded alongside it's desired Warcaster, Sorscha. On top of that, Epic Sorscha can bond with him to provide her Freezing Aura.

Drago is just the same, where it's a powerful Berserker with extra features that evade my mind at the moment, and gets an extra dice on it's attack while with Vlad. Considering the other benefits both Vlads provide, Drago becomes pretty amazing.

Behemoth is the Character Jack for everyone. He has no preference and gains the same benefits any other warjack would get, but has his own unique layout of weapons and features that no other Warjack has. So he pretty much gets exempt from this discussion.

Same goes for the Scrapjack, not because he doesn't get better with his preferred Warcaster, the Old Witch, but because he can't be placed with any other Warcaster.

So that leaves us with Torch, our very own Assault Kommando Warjack. He has his own layout of weapons, including a Buzzsaw and an Open Fist with a mounted Flame thrower. He has additional features, such as Smoke Bombs and an immunity to Corrosion and Fire, he charges through rough terrain without hassle, and he can bond with Strakhov.

That's about it. He's about as special as the Behemoth in that instance, except that he can be bonded to a particular Warcaster. In fact, that's about all the benefits he gets. Beast-09 and Drago have affinities which gives them the bonuses for fielding them with their Warcaster. I feel Torch was ripped off on this aspect, but I live and let live. Torch is still awesome, and I'll use him with Strakhov when I play him.

But coming up over the horizon is Harkevich and his own character Warjack: Black Ivan. I don't know anything about them except that they look cool. And I mean freaking cool. Even Imperial might look less cool! _*cough*

Either way, I'm going to have a Fourth Destroyer Warjack. But the lucky Bastard will have special rules.

Now as a Character Warjack, will he get benefits like Beast-09, or will he be pretty static like Torch?

[Game Warning] Deviating from the Norm

2011-04-13T10:36:00.001+10:00

For many years I've played Warmachine and throughout those years I've played Gurvaldt Irusk. I was there during the invasion of Llael, the Battle of Thornwood, right up to the destruction of Fort Rathborne. (I am fairly sure that's not what it's called, but I'm running with it until I get Legends in hand again)

He's served me well for many, many years. But I think it's about time I shelved him for a little while.

The problem with playing with a single Warcaster regularly is that he gets too familiar with my opponents. So they know how to play against my army. And they know how annoying he is too.

Kommandant Irusk is well known to be annoying through his feat which gave a 50% “Tough Roll” to all Warrior Models that didn't cause Knockdown if passed, which also went on top of your standard “33% Tough Roll that caused Knock Down if passed”. This was MK1.

MK2 gave a slight tap on the head with the Nerf Bat so that it still gives Tough to models that don't have it, but it overlaps the tough that other models have with the 50% chance. On top of that, all warrior models don't get Knocked Down. It's a very nifty feat and trying to get past it can be near impossible.

In turn, Irusk can hit back hard. Not necessarily himself, but the Warrior Models around him, because of Battle Lust. Fearless and an Additional Damage Die on melee attacks? Oh what fun has been had. I killed a Behemoth in one turn from my unit of Great Bears. Three attacks and it was destroyed, I believe. So with 2d6 for normal attacks, 1d6 for Charging, 1d6 for Battle Lust, and 1d6 for Weapon Master, then minus 9 from the result, then rolling really high...

Even on Ironfangs, with their P+S 13+2d6 attacks can ultimately annihilate most light Warjacks and Warbeasts on a couple of charge attacks with Battle Lust. If they hit of course.

Lastly is Superiority and Iron Flesh. I love seeing a Berserker running around with the same stats as a Slayer Warjack (SPD 6, MAT 7, DEF 13) before exploding. Oh how I love when he explodes.

As for Iron Flesh, well, placing it on a unit of Ironfangs or Great Bears can make them nigh untouchable with the defence of a Warcaster.

Those are this most commonly used spells I find on Kommandant Irusk. Inhospitable Ground is regularly ignored, and I can find better use of 3 Focus than to cast Grind or Airburst. While I appreciate that Airburst is now worth it's focus cost (rather than 4 in MK1), I don't find many uses for it at most times, which is sad for a spell that ignores almost everything.

But the same goes for Supreme Kommandant Irusk. Battle Lust remains in the same position, Tactical Supremacy for those units that would like the extra boost in positioning, and Fire For Effect for the Long Range Bombardier, such as a Destroyer or a Winterguard Mortar Crew.

Actually, one day I want to use Koldun Kapitan Valachev to attach to Herne and Jonne so as to have a Fully Boosted Scatter Shot.

Anyway, it's still the same Deal. All too familiar to my opponents. So I'm going to change what Warcasters I play.

While the list isn't limited, I still cut out who I didn't want to play. Orsus Zoktavir was the first to go as my friend Uncle Biggins adores him and played both Incarnations as if he were a God. Next to go were the remainder of the Big Three, Vlad and Sorscha. Both are rather powerful, and I've never really had much appeal in playing them. While their Epic Incarnations aren't as powerful, I know others who have a similar stance with them as Uncle Biggins does his Butcher.

So that left about 4 Warcasters. Alexander Karchev the Terrible; Zevhanna Agha,The Old Witch of Khador and Scrapjack; Koldun Kommander Alexandra Zerkova; Kommander Oleg Strakhov.

I've played Karchev before today and I don't find too much appeal in him. I like what he stands for, but his style of play just doesn't appeal to me. So that leaves Three.

I don't have anything against these Warcasters. I've hardly played any of them, and they're all very different from the other warcasters in the faction. On top of that, Kommander Harkevich is also coming later in the year with his character Destroyer “Black Ivan”. More on that in another very excited post.

So now I'm going to make up lists using what I have and these Warcasters. Old Witch will be first to be played, but I do have to get some glue and find her Gnarled Staff, before assembling Strakhov and Zerkova.

Now to cogitate on how they play. Maybe I should pull out some of the old posts I hid about Zerkova and Strakhov. I'm no Legendary Tactician, but I have the medal to prove it.

Game Warning: Remastering the Remastered

2011-04-11T19:13:00.001+10:00

If you're going to do something, you gotta do it right. So when Sony had announced that they were doing a series of High Definition Remasters of games, I jumped for joy, and again when I saw the list of planned games. I didn't mind that they were in collection discs, in fact it was awesome because some of the games on there I hadn't had the chance to play.

For example, there's the ICO and Shadows of the Colossus games. I own Shadows of the Colossus, and I love it. It's a fun game, where you climb over giant Golems to find various weakspots on them and stab them. It's entertaining and can get really hard, but there aren't a lot of Colossi to fight, I think there's 16 in all, and after that it's effectively the end of the game. There isn't much to deviate from after that, though a player can go through again where the Colossi are more difficult to climb over and kill.

So when I bought it, it wasn't worth the $110 that I paid for it, but I still liked it. Reaching the vulnerable points was always different because they came in various shapes and sizes, from a general Humanoid, to a small flying bat, to a water serpent, to a flying serpent (These colossi are made of stone and fur btw), to a sand serpent, to a goat, to a paraplegic... And then there's more, some more aggressive than others.

So when it comes out with Ico, a similar game where you guide a princess through a ruined temple (This is all I know about the game), I'm going to trade in my PS2 copy to get it at a lower price.

on top of that, it's one less game I have to worry about from my PSTwo library.

Another collection coming is the Splinter Cell Trilogy. I love Splinter Cell. They're just awesome. I haven't played them in a very long time and have never owned them. So to have all three in hand, and looking awesome at the same time, I'm getting a bit excited. The last Splinter Cell game I'd played was Conviction, where after so many years of working for a Secret Organisation, Sam Fisher is basically working for himself, and gets to do what he likes. The loses the majority of his gadgets and gets to go all badarse on everyone.

So much fun. And one less game to my PSTwo Library, since I own Chaos Theory (Splinter Cell 3).

One series of games I'd hoped they would remaster though would be the Ratchet and Clank Series. Not only because it takes a considerable chunk out of my Library (three cases to be exact) but because they would just be that little more awesome with a boost to the visuals. Ratchet and Clank "Tools of Destruction" and "Crack in Time" both look fantastic, so the first couple of games given a visual reboot would be simply stunning!

I would like to see all Four rebooted (R&C; Locked and Loaded; Up Your Arsenel; Gladiator), but I'm not sure if Gladiator will get put into the collection. But we'll see if they even consider the collection anyway.

I also wonder if they'll do a Final Fantasy HD reboot, for 10, 10-2 and 12. Doubt it, but hey, you never know. Same thing with Kingdom Hearts. A compilation disc of all the Kingdom Hearts games. That'd be nice.

Toilet Humour

2011-04-08T18:34:00.000+10:00

There is a question that is as old as time and I feel it has, and it never will, have a proper answer.

The Courtesy of the Toilet seat.

It's a weird thing and any responses as to why always come out with some vapid excuse as to why it is the way it is. Just today through 'discussion' the best excuse brought up was “We don't want to touch the dirty seats.”

Well that's just not fair. I wouldn't want to touch the toilet seat, not when your arse has been on it. I don't know what you've been sitting on, let alone what its been exhaling.

So what alternative do we have? Should we just leave it down? That is where they tried to turn it around. “Why don't you just pee with it down? It's like an inch less diameter, can't you aim? You've been doing it long enough!”

I didn't have a response that didn't involve getting graphic about what I do, so I left it at “I'd rather not take the risk, lest I get bludgeoned to death with blame from a paranoid suspicion that the white seat looked a little yellow somewhere.”

Besides, if we were to swish the basketball hoop rather than lift and leak, then why was the seat not designed into the actual porcelain anyway?

Better yet, why weren't we just taught to sit down and pee?

Eventually the 'discussion' ended and the subject stuck with me a little so I googled it. I found a better argument.

“If you get a cup out of the cupboard, do you leave the cupboard open?”

Fair enough, the argument not only causes to include the seat, but the lid as well. Fair enough, I can deal with that. It's not enough to really change my ways, but that's because none of the girls I know do the same thing.

I've heard other weird excuses, one of the biggest was “Oh we do it for your sake. If we go to pee in the middle of the night, we don't want to wake you so we tip toe in there, leave the light off, undress which takes forever, then when we go to sit down we fall in.”

That sort of response makes me worry about our generation. If you're silly enough not to look before you leap, then I'm not going to hold your hand as you try to revert to the natural order of Lemmings.

Clothing is not an issue unless you're wearing a terribly large dress, or a Wedding Gown. In which case, you're wearing it for the better part of a day, and not worrying about toilet courtesy because 1: You're segregated from all the Men; 2: You're at the reception which 9 times of 10 is at a restaurant; and 3: while it took four or five girls to help you get into the dress, it only takes a wink of your partner to get it off again.

And just to cover all bases, 4: It's not night time.

This is only a rather thin view on the world though, a family only consisting of spouses. There is still the rest of the household to consider. Small children certainly don't find it convenient, but with small children come pets.

Now not many households feel complete without a pet. Particularly a dog. Dogs are just as effective as a cardboard box with kids, but are longer lasting and more fun for the whole family. Half the hassle is having to give them food and water.

Not water is never a guarantee, in the life of a dog. You get a bowl that you can drink out of, but it empties quickly in a day, and so the rest of the territory is scoured for more sources. Because the 'average house' has an indoor dog, the toilet becomes an easy access source of fresh water.

Well, it's not quite fresh, pup, I can tell you that. I know what goes into that fountain, and it ain't fluoride.

That is the best reason I can find to putting the seat down. I wouldn't shit in my dogs mouth, so why would I let him drink out of the toilet? Better stop that quickly by putting the toilet seat, and lid, down. Unless the bugger is quick to learn, and most dogs I know are, it's a Rubicks cube with a quenching treat at the end.

So while I have found a valid reason, I'm not changing my ways until the situation comes, but what other interesting reasons do you have/have you heard?

Game Warning: Blood Bowl

2011-04-04T19:31:00.005+10:00

So I've been playing Blood Bowl on the computer for almost a week now, and I think I'm figuring out Orcs. I think.

I've been fairly lucky too in most cases, though playing the campaign has limited my opponents to about 3 or 4 teams. Goblins are easy. The funny thing about them is that if anything actually hits them, they either get knocked out or suffer damage. Though I do have to watch out for the little bugger with the ball and chain. Bastard Hurts.

But they're fairly easy. Block them with two or more dudes and they'll be down or out, or better yet Dead, and then just get a Blitzer to bolt across the field. Tie up anyone who could catch up to him, and hope that they get knocked down leaving the tackle zone.

The team that it doesn't work on 9/10 times is fkn Wood Elves. They fkn dance about your players and they have enough speed to be able to do a passing game really well. Which is really annoying, but I think I figured out how to get around them. It's crude, but get a cage set up around the ball and just let a Blitzer fly up around the side. The elves will eventually regret it as the computer tends to prioritize the ball.

The last team is the Chaos Team. They like to play a cage game, which isn't too much of a hassle. I can slow down the cage with no worries. If I get the ball, then game on. Pass it across the field to a stray Blitzer and... well Blitz the finish line. The Chaos team are as quick as Orcs so they can't catch up with someone across the field easily.

Now I've mentioned Blitzers a few times in this, and thats because they're Freaking Awesome. To boot, one of my Blitzers has levelled up twice and he got a point of strength and I gave him Break Tackle, where he uses his strength instead of Agility when moving out of tackle zones. That's fkn nice.

On top of that, my Black Orc Blocker levelled up from smacking the crap out of everyone he was in front of, so I gave him Block. Cos that's what you do, give a guy who's role is to Block people the Block Skill. Just to add insult to injury.

So far that's what I've faced, though I have plenty of work ahead of me.

The one thing that really bugs me about the game is that the teams I began facing weren't on the same par as me. They had earnt their own special abilities each, but I guess that's how it works.

The worst part is that I'm playing it on easy. And it's not an easy game, though once you figure it out, the computer can be exploited. Eventually if the League with the Lads starts up, I'll have a hard fight ahead of me.

One thing I really like about the Video game is that the models for the Orcs look Awesome. I'd take those models if they looked like that. The ones that are in the GeeDubb gallery look a little lame. And the Cheerleader is just terrifying. She's one of those girls who wears a skirt, and only a skirt, to work, and only if you're lucky. Otherwise, she spends her time practising seaknots with herself.

*Shudder*

That's one thing the game has got right. If there's a monsterous team that have an unsettling cheerleader squad, then they give them something more appropriate. For Orcs, it's a bunch of male Orcs wearing robes and banging drums.

So that makes me think of a cool cheerleader squad of a Band playing various instruments, like one fellow screaming out while waving a noisemaker around. It's not a Cheerleader Squad, but damnit it's easy on the eyes.

That's one thing I forgot to mention. I changed my team a bit. Now there's 5 Lineorks, 1 Thrower, 1 Black Orc and 4 Blitzers. Then after a few games, I had money to buy another Lineork just to cover an injury or a send off.

So that's Blood Bowl for me. Now to actually get the figures and paint em up. After that, might do a Nordic Team. And after that, with two Trolls in hand, I'll make a Goblin Team.

For Trolls, I don't want to use the standard GW ones. I want to use Warmachine Trolls. Troll Bomber for one, just drop the kegs. Or maybe one of the elemental trolls?

Hmm... Nordic Team made up of Doomreavers and Nihilators. That'll be fun.

Something I think I may be doing wrong with my Team is that I'm raising my value too high? Other teams are getting more inducements, whereas I'm getting nothing. I wouldn't mind bribing the ref more often. I'm already at max cheerleaders, my fan factor was 9 from the start (though it's dropped down to 8 after losing a few games) and I have my own apothecary. I'm just gonna start hoarding my money now and only buy a new player on occasion.

Hello. I think I found myself some Miniatures.

And on top of that, after playing the Video game for 2 hours, I got my Black Orc to make three touchdowns. Good stuff.

[Game Warning] Of Teamwork and Cheerleaders

2011-04-04T13:31:00.001+10:00

Hello. I think I found myself some Miniatures.

[Game Warning] Buns up!

2011-04-01T16:15:00.001+10:00

Blood Bowl, The Fantasy Sport, filled to the brim with Monsters Galore, and the Bloody Slaughter that usually goes with the setting. I'm interested in starting a team for it, and because of a natural preference for the particular race, I'm going to do Orcs.

I understand the general rules. The general rules are almost down pat. Maths? Not so much. Symbols, not so much. tactics... well there's my main problem I think.

I've formed the team. I don't think it's a Bad Team, though I do have to figure out how they work. I still remember some of Kel's advice, like have a team of 12 so you have a reserve to replace someone who's been knocked out or killed; don't set up your team anywhere near the edge of the friggin board; watch out for the fkn wood elves and their dodgy sht; think about what kind of team you're making, a grinding or a throwing team; Play the Ball, which was stressed several times over; there's more but I can't remember what it is, but yeah.

Skarboyz - Cost: 1,000,000g

Roster	#	Title
Few'shor O'Brikkhows	1	Blitzer/Black Orc
Bolta Gerwipe	4	Goblin
Legga Batnar	5	Goblin
Nazbag Durgrub	6	Lineork
Snikgrim Nobkop	7	Lineork
Nobfang Durnob	8	Lineork
Dakanob Skabgut	9	Lineork
Gorork Zodgrub	10	Lineork
Gorskab Grubog	12	Thrower
Ugurty Wortfug	11	Thrower
Glaz'go 'Eddbutz	23	Blitzer
Dobb'lin 'Eddbutz	32	Blitzer
	Amount
Didjitz O'buttah		Apothecary
Cheerleaders	3
Re-rolls	3
Fan Factor	3

Names that aren't in bold were made from a random name Generator. The others I made up.

Bolta and Legga, because all they do is run. The 'Eddbutz Brothers because I imagine them giving the opponent a Glasgow Kiss, hence the names. And I chose Dobb'lin because Irish are the same thing. So, Brothers. They also got 23 and 32 on their #'s because they kept fighting over who got player 2, so they got 23 and 32. They tend to swap shirts every so often too.

Didjitz O'buttah, cos you never want to hear that name on your doctor. And Few'shor O'brikkhows (Few Short a Brickhouse, for the more eloquent speakers) as either a Black Orc Blocker or a Blitzer. I'm debating his title. They're the same cost, but they're still different. I'm also debating between the two Goblins or another Blitzer. Again, same price, but have Very different roles. Not to mention, less players.

So I'm testing out the list on the Blood Bowl Video game, on the PC. And, embarrassingly, I'm getting my arse handed to me. Not because of rolls (Well, sometimes because of rolls), but because of a few bad tactics. And I'm going against the worst set human team, so I'm not facing anything too powerful... or so I assumed.

Positioning seems to be my fault right now, along with some timing issues. One time I had a clear lane up one side of the field, with a Thrower over there too, had the other thrower at the other side with the ball in hand, then I clicked on someone else and lost my chance to pass the ball.

Would've been an awesome touchdown too, were I not such a dingbat.

An annoying thing about the computer game is that when your player is knocked down and it comes to your turn, you have to turn them over and activate them as you go along, rather than get them all back up and then activate.

Also have to see if I can turn on a grid on the game. It may help... maybe.

Last weekend of March

2011-03-28T18:35:00.001+10:00

Bloody Busy Weekends are usually a bit of a hassle, but this one was okay for the better part. Friday night was out with Kel, playing Deathwatch until late with the lads.

Saturday day was a pretty fun day. Kel had the place to himself so he organised a day of gaming in the Man Cave. That was a great day except for the headache I accumulated near the afternoon. I have NO idea where it came from, though David suggested it may be the fluorescent lights. Not unreasonable, but surprising since I've never been affected by them before today.

Anyway, the better part of the day was involved in playing Warma-Hordes. I brought as much as I possibly could into my gaming case and it began with a game with Scotty. It ran as I expected as I was using my Man-o-war versus his Warbeast heavy legion, which meant I got surgically struck through the guts and lost.

It makes me wonder the viability of a Man-o-war army in this level of the game, though. It's something I'm going to have to discuss with myself on http://Warmathingy.blogspot.com.

Second game was much more successful against Disco and showed that certain models shouldn't be ignored. Particularly Great Bears, and their pick-a-nick backet thieving skills. It was a 75pt, 2 warcaster game, a level of game I haven't had the pleasure of playing before.

On top of that, he had a bunch of Elves. And the one thing I like about playing against Disco is that he has very very pretty armies. He used to play Pirates which looked absolutely awesome. And now he has Retribution of Scyrah, which are very pretty Elves. Even though I hate Elves, I will still admit that Disco's are Pretty.

Sadly, while they're pretty, they aren't very favourable to poor Disco. He ended up losing, and worst of all, after failing to kill Sorscha wh o was open to all suggestions of being Murdered. Standing on top of a hill, right in front of the opposing army. Granted, half the army were frozen which was convenient since one of the frozen units would've stuck her full of magic bolts, but there were still warjacks and unfrozen units that tried to lay into her, and would've succeeded in killing her... if only they hit.

Not only was Sorscha's defence stat against him (Def 16, Windrush +2 and Hill +2), but so were his rolls. I believe about 2 hits were made out of about 8 and they weren't the most fantastic damage either.

In turn, I stole Rahn's pick-a-nick basket, and Ravyn not only got knocked on her ass by a cold spell but copped a destroyer cannon to the head.

At least Disco was pretty while it happened. And he used his awesome laser line pointer (Laser Liner?) for a charge lane. I love seeing that thing.

The last game was against David, a somewhat new fellow to the fray of Warmachine, and freshly introduced to our mob (Except for Disco, they've already met). So we sat down for a game. I knocked off a few units and jacks to get down to 50 points and we sat down for some Khador vs Skorne Action.

I ended up losing, but it was a hard loss. My only regret was using the Great Bears defensively instead of using them to take out Molik Karn. That would've changed the end game a little. I think.

In the end, I lost, but I'm still happy it was a hard fought loss. I even had him sweating for a turn or two there as well after doing a rather devastating turn against him and then almost refusing to die when I was supposed to. I love Kommandant Irusk's Feat. 50% chance to not die? Game on.

But yeah, the Molik Train went “Choo Choo!” and thusly carved up seven shaves of prime Gurvaldt Irusk.

Good game though. I've got to get back into the use if Ironfang Pikemen and Great Bears. Just because they're wrong.

On another note, the Bombardiers have done a wonderful job, but I need to get them up front more to get more into range of their cannons or into charge range. I love these guys in Melee. I've had a good history of critical hits (more than the average bear) and getting extra attacks means more criticals, which means more killy.

Gotta love giant chainsaws.

Sadly, it was around this game that my headache came around. Don't know what it was but it was getting ridiculously painful and putting me off my game. David noticed it and asked if I wanted a short rest before we continued on which I greatly appreciated.

Eventually, it was game over and I went upstairs for a rest. Kel eventually found me since I'd disappeared without warning, and by that time my headache was all but gone. Now all I had to worry about was my knees which had been complaining since early in the day.

The rest of the night, I watched Scott, Dick and kel play Firestorm Armada on his fancy new Space Map. They played what was thought to be a simple game to get a grip on the rules and they played from around the time David and I started until about 11pm, shooting the shit out of each other. I'll leave the further details to Kel.\

Sadly, we didn't get around to playing Dystopian Wars as was planned, but we'll get around to it sooner than later.

Sunday was (finally) to go see Rango with Mum. It was alright. It's a classic western with an Athropomorphic Animal feature, and a handful of jokes, but nothing so funny that it was laugh out loud funny. That's pretty much my opinion in a nutshell.

After that, we had a wander around, got some groceries, went back to mums for a bit so I could watch some Inglorious Bastards, which I found was curious but I just couldn't keep attention on it so I just gave up and mum dropped me home.

At home, I played Dawn of War II – Retribution some more. I like Orks and happily there's an Ork Single Player Campaign in Retribution, along with almost every other race in the game. So playing Orks was a laugh and a half. Bad accents from a guy called Bluddflag, who has a nice Pirate Hat on; a Mek Boy called Mr Nailbrain; a Kommando Nob called Spookums; and a Storm Nob called Brikkfist. Every time I say the name “Brikkfist” aloud, I keep thinking I'm saying Breakfast.

Mr Nailbrain I find is the funniest and its because of the effect of one of his abilities, which causes him to explode every time he uses an ability. So when he goes to teleport, he explodes where he lands. Whenever he uses his Earthquake ability, he also explodes. Whenever he goes to repair a vehicle, he explodes. If he makes a sandwich, he explodes. Whenever he discharges his static electricity to make an explosion around him, he explodes.

This doesn't deal damage to him or friends, but it's still hilarious seeing him just constantly explode.

That was pretty much my weekend. I had more to say, but I got distracted.