Happy Halloween!

2008.


2007.


2005.

Ground Pounder

There's a new minis game to put on your heads-up display by the name of Ground Pounder. You won't find a company name attached to the title, this is their first foray into this little corner of the world, in the classic vein of "why don't the guys and I do something like this?" It's headed up by a single hive brain, Jason Ellis, doing the writing and dev work, with a small cast of artists and a sculptor. The ideas look great so far, and the direction it's going in show a lot of promise. This is one I'll be keeping tabs on.

It's a true skirmish based game with 1:1 representation; forces will consist of less than a dozen troopers per side with a host of options from heroes, psions, tech specialists, and a small number of meat shields, err, grunts. Also thrown in the mix is the option of a 'heavy', usually a hardsuit of exo-armor, or a hulking Bio-Giant of some type.


Hero Concept, by Melvin de Voor

If the translation from sketch to fig comes close to the above, then count me in. I've read some complaints about how there's nothing substantially new added to the sci-fi tabletop mix, but frankly, if it's got a solid ruleset, and is fun to play, I'm a happy camper.

There's four initial factions: The Alliance (humans and a possible alien ally subrace), the Ravagers (kinda like Firefly's Reavers, but crossbred with animal DNA, the Drax Hierarchy (bio-tech integrated baddies bent on enslavement and domination), and the Free Strikers, which are really just Human mercs.

It is new, pretty much announced just this month, and slated for release around the end of 2008. Go to their site, here it is again, and check it out. I'm interested for several reasons; first and foremost it's sci-fi, which I love, it's a minis game, but of a much smaller scale, smaller than Necromunda even. It's got a nice visual look so far (based off concept sketches) and according to the designer (off the website) both long term campaign rules, as well as authentic and sensible terrain rules are built in from the ground up, not as an after-thought. A couple of other mechanics caught my eye, first it's all based on the d10. Only the most canny and genius game designers work with the d10! Also, the system will utilize a reaction-based mechanic where the players have a full game experience, rolling dice on both sides of the table, not just sitting around waiting for their turn while their opponent has a field day.


Marcus Fenix of the Gears of War franchise

Sure, not everyone out there is cranking out unique figs like the Quar, but regardless, if your inspiration is coming from something hardcore as the above, it's all good. Now I'm not saying Ground Pounder is doing a 'Gears' clone or anything, far from it, but visually I don't think anyone could go wrong in that direction. Fielding a small squad of elite BA's over broken ground, laying down suppressive fire against an implacable alien foe, heavy armor walking alongside...yeah, sounds like fun.

Election '08

What's a blog in 2008 without some kind of political rant?

Go vote. Make the choice your own, whoever it may be, and do it.

Captain Othniel

Captain Othniel of the Dark Angels 4th Company

Captain Othniel helps lead the fourth battle company of the Dark Angels chapter. He answers directly to Company Master Tracto himself and is key in much of the strategic planning that the 4th Company is known best for. He wears ornate articifer power armor using the newer style MkVIII Errant suit as a basis, which has been modified by numerous chapter techmarines. He carries a relic blade, which has been passed from member to member of ranking leaders of the 4th Company for longer than anyone can remember. His sidearm is a powerful plasma pistol which he took off the slain body of a mighty champion of Khorne as a trophy after defeating the foe in bitter hand-to-hand combat. It has since been cleansed and purified by the same chapter techmarines who have been heavily modifying his armor.

I know, I know, in true Dark Angels form this guy should have some quasi-biblical sounding name; Obadiah, Ezekiel, Sammael, Gabriel, Gideon, yada yada, but I don't have one. Using the magic of the internet, I will find one now: Commander Othniel. Although it may seem like no time passed, in fact, six minutes were exhausted in searching for a Dark Angel-sounding name. Yes, I am filling up space because I don't have too much to add here.


The symbol of the Fourth Company adorns his right shoulder and left knee. His backbanner was hand drawn and painted, and also displays Fourth Company markings. Like the rest of my army, Othniel here is fairly dated, but his refurbishment, fortunately, was a simple process, no weapon swaps or larger bases were needed. All I did was paint his base edge in Reaper Dark Skin, and added GW sand to cover it. A bit of the original green peeks through, but not much.

Terminator Squad Kostova

Deathwing Terminators of the Dark Angels 1st Company

I've been sitting on a decent-sized Dark Angels army for some time, a long time actually, and with the revival of 40kv5 in our group, I thought I'd dust them off. Although refurbishing them is kind of slow-going, I'll chart their progress here for posterity. First on the block are these Terminators, fortunately no weapon swaps were needed to bring them current with the new rules.

Size: Five Man Squad
Leader: Terminator Sergeant
Wargear: Terminator armor, storm bolters, power fists
Special Equipment: chainfists and sergeant gear
Naming Convention: Instead of just calling them 'Squad Retribution', Kostova, or Kostoa, is Finnish for Retribution. Being Deathwing Terminators they get the double punch combo; they're dead hard for simply being Terminators, add that they are Deathwing, and you've got a true fear-inspiring unit.


When I put these together I really liked the look of the Space Wolf Terminator Sergeant, it was the pelt that won me over. Although he's covered in Space Wolf iconography, he's been painted up as a Dark Angel. I also opted for the near requisite Assault Cannon, a trooper with Lightning Claws (another Terminator must-have), and I made sure the remaining two troopers had Chainfists.


Terminator Sergeant Ignis

Brother Ignis has served within his thick Terminator armor for centuries. He carries his badge of rank in the form of an ancient power sword, and on his armor is the pelt of a Fenn Wolf, which he hunted single handedly on the Death World of Saul IV, a world reputed to have a similar demeanor to the now extinct Caliban.

These second edition sculpts really show their age compared to the newer sculpts. The head should actually be closer to where the wolf's head is...not in the middle of the chest! I had to order some medium-sized bases from the bits department at the War Store, but now that they're on them, they at least have the illusion of being hulking death machines! Overall, it's not too noticeable.


My Chainfist troopers; I used Reaper Dark Skin to paint the base edges, and a GW tub of sandy desert stuff, whose name escapes me.


Bah, blurry pic! Both vintage Lightning Claws and an Assault Cannon!

Mass Effect

I'm on the second play-through of Bioware's Mass Effect, and I figured it'd be high time to review it here. Mass Effect has been out for some time, but I only recently came by a copy, and have been playing it whenever free time presents itself. For most games, I am overly methodical; I can take a game that might take twenty hours to beat and turn it into a fifty hour game easy. Usually I explore every nook and cranny, talk to every NPC, run every side mission and quest given to me, and run through my item inventory nonstop. If you're that kind of player, then this game has your number, because you can do all of the above...and more.


It is a combat oriented game, but where it may look like a shooter, it is most certainly a RPG through and through. It has a somewhat engaging storyline that makes you take note and eagerly await the next chapter...or plot twist. It also sports some impressive voice acting, which goes a long way in a video game. Two of the actors of note that come to the top of my head are Keith David and Seth Green. Star Trek vixen, Marina Sirtis has a role, and "Bishop" from one of my all-time favorite movies, Aliens, is also in there. Voice acting, along with an engaging story, great visuals (not stunning mind you, but good nonetheless) and memorable bad guys (see Saren above) make for a great overall experience. You've got an absolute ton of character creation options and classes, as well as a custom visualizer where you can represent your character in almost any size, shape, and shade you want. You'll acquire a team of humans and aliens to take with you on missions as well, and outfitting these guys 'n gals, choosing which complement your character the best, is half the fun.


Although it is an RPG, there is a lot of combat too, so much combat at times I was hoping the game would make up its mind; be a shooter, or be an RPG. Next to the Halo 3 engine, it pales in comparison, but that's not exactly fair since the two games really are separate genres. The flip side to this is that if you're not the mega-hardcore twelve year old button masher, you won't have your butt handed to you every combat, and can enjoy a frenetic firefight without having a nervous breakdown or throwing your controller at the television.


What really puts this ahead in the RPG department is the use of dialogue trees, shown above. Throughout the game your interactions with NPC's take place using this mechanic, and different choices do make a difference in how the story in revealed. You can take the 'nice guy' route and build up paragon points that will give you additional 'charm' dialogue options, or you can be an absolute jerk throughout the game, building up renegade points that open up all new 'intimidate' options. On the second play-through I opted to be the opposite personality type than I did the first time around, and I can see fairly significant differences in both.


In the end, it's a great game, but it does have its flaws. It's most noticeable in combat, when you'll want more out of the engine, but find it lacking. I can't complain about the storyline or the missions though, the main story moves along well and keeps you engaged. Side missions tend to be redundant, but they are side missions, completely optional however. Playing it a second time is cool because you keep your skill levels and combat bonuses, and the enemies are all scaled to your new (much higher) level, giving you a greater challenge, but it's the exact same game, it's gets a tad boring, the only thing you really get out of it are those nifty Xbox achievement 'dings'. If you like a good story and sci-fi zappy goodness, go pick up a used copy. Out of ten stars, I'd give it a solid seven and a half.

Aliens, Bugs, and Robots

40k Battle #2
Mission: Seize Ground (3 objective points)
Deployment: Dawn of War
Size: 1,000 points
Forces: Allied Necron / Tyranid Contingent
vs. Tau Empire


My 1,000 point Tau Expeditionary Force.


Andy's compact, 500 point Necron Raiders.


Chris' not so compact 500 point Tyranid swarm.


Hot on the heels of my terrain trio, Andy brings a brand new piece of terrain as well, an Industrial Pump Station. His is a tad more contemporary than mine, heh. Some of his Necrons pose on the catwalk. Hopefully there'll be more of these down the pike...


Scuttling, screaming, clawing forward through the pre-dawn gloom and fog, a clutch of Genestealers rush the Fire Warriors. The Fire Warriors, in turn, calmly sight in their long-ranged Pulse Rifles.

Turn 1: The allied enemy forces won the roll and got to set up first. Due to the Dawn of War deployment, they set up right on the halfway mark of the table, dangerously close to Tau forces and the two objectives. The three objectives were, once again, mushroom stands. Two separate Tau Fire Warrior squads cut down five advancing Genestealers in a crossfire.


An XV8 Crisis Suit team deep strikes into the middle of the battlefield.


The remaining Genestealers close ranks with the Fire Warriors.

Turn 2: The Fire Warriors didn't last a single round in melee with the Genestealers, staving off the additional charging close combat attack with their Photon grenades was but a brief respite. On the other side of the board, just as my six-strong Vespid were emerging from the table's edge, they were completely blown away, by Necron Gauss rifles, the whole squad was wiped out before they ever took to the skies. The Crisis team accurately deep struck into the middle of the action, cutting down one Necron Warrior and four Hormogaunts with their Missile Pods and Plasma Rifles, able to pick multiple units to fire upon thanks to their onboard multi-trackers.




The endless Tyranid swarm scurries forward.


A Tyranid HQ squad holds one of the three objective markers. Being an HQ unit, they wouldn't be able to count as a scoring unit, however, they will deny the objective to enemy scoring units as long as they're holding that position...and staying alive.


Turn 3: Things seemed to go from bad to worse for the Tau forces as another Fire Warrior squad was wiped out in melee by the Genestealer squad, who were living up to their hype as being true combat monsters. Kroot forces, who probably should have infiltrated at the beginning of the game, finally got in position to be effective, catching a Termagaunt squad in another effective crossfire with the Crisis Suits, cutting down a whopping fifteen of them, mainly thanks to the high AP values of the weapons brought to bear.


The Tau Commander stands alone against two squads of Necron Warriors.


Turn 4: Whereas Tau Fire Warriors are supposed to avoid melee, their Kroot allies excel at it. After a successful shooting round wiping out the Termagaunts, they charged headlong, shrill shrieks and sharp blades into the loathsome Genestealers, vengeance on the agenda for the Kroot. Numbers and an unexpected ferocity gave them the edge in battle as they destroyed all of the Genestealers, cracking open their shells and eating them like some type of nightmarish shellfish. There was a single XV88 Broadside Battlesuit on the table, but the majority of firelanes were choked full of terrain, it was relagated to a close combat role alongside the Tau Commander against the Necron Warriors. It's 2+ save gave it staying power, but it wasn't enough in the end and it was toppled. The Tau Commander fought on, slagging two more Necrons, however in the following shooting phase she was gunned down by massed Gauss Rifle fire.


The Kroot became the MVP of the Tau, and propose a most curious scenario. With the Genestealers completely wiped out, the objective marker is completely uncontested, and the Kroot are a scoring unit. Let's look at the other two objective markers. The one in the middle of the table is being guarded by an HQ unit, so it is claimed, but not scored. The last objective marker is indeed swarmed by a full strength squad of Necron Warriors, definitely a scoring unit, however, a full strength Crisis Battlesuit team is engaging them, effectively denying the Necrons the objective. The Crisis Suits are a multiple wound unit with a low 3+ armor save; they can't be wiped out that easily, but they're also not invincible. In the end, a tie would've been nice, I think an outright win is a bit of a longshot however.

There's a good moral here; always play your games to the bitter end, then count up your points, you may be surprised by the outcome, and the end might not be as bitter as you think. It's tougher to say what the actual outcome of the battle would've been, even though it looked like a total route of Tau forces.

I saw a complaint on a forum about this, stating it as "idiotic", though there is more general disgruntled GW rant in there than actual playtesting. By having objectives and goals for each battle you don't just have seemingly pointless games existing in a vacuum for no other reason than to 'fight'. With the missions comes some strategy and tactics of when and where your troops are going to deploy and defend. Sure, you can play for the total annihilation of the other side, but if time runs out and you haven't checked anything off your clipboard objective-wise, a moral victory is all you can claim, at best.

Munchkin Cards

I know I've mentioned Steve Jackson's moneymaker, Munchkin on here more than once or twice. If I haven't said it lately, I'll reiterate here; it's a great game. It does have some depth, if you can get past the goofiness, but mostly, it's just a bunch of fun. It's an easy one to break out at little to no notice, and requires little to no prep work too. If you own the game, you've noticed the blank cards it comes with as well, here's what we've done with the cards in our set.


The Ragna-Rocker

This is a solid little weapon that favors music being played in the room while a game is going on. It's two hands, duh, and gives you a -1 to run away (presumably because you're clicking away instead of paying attention to your surroundings).


Cock-Blocked

Munchkin is all about playful backstabbing and double-crossing your supposed allies. This card works wonderfully in this same 'bite me' vein, while still remaining happy-go-lucky.


The Oz Card

Chris, who makes a cameo on here from time to time, was the inspiration for this card. He's as avid a Munchkin player as any of us, and his verbal antics in the past when someone would discard an item he was under the impression should not have been tossed are legendary. If timed right, it's a great card.


Freaky Friday

This was one of the first cards we made. I don't think it has ever been a game winner, but I have seen it used a few times to thwart someone with a strong lead.


The Long Count

I wish there was enough room on the card for a little Mayan Calendar symbol or something, but oh well. This one might seem a tad severe, but considering you still keep your level, race, and class after you die, it's not too bad. Plus, it's party-wide, so everyone (allegedly) suffers the same fate.

Technical Difficulties

Apparently the blog host here, blogger, is having some difficulties when it comes to posting pics. Since my little journal here is all about the pics, I'm on a bit of a hiatus, which is a bit frustrating. I've got emails in to whoever it may matter, we'll see if it gets resolved sooner than later. I've got two posts waiting in the wings; one's some custom-made cards for the card game Munchkin, the other is a good-sized three player 40k battle report with a whole slew of pics.

Flames of War: Germans vs. Russians

The above carnage was the view I had for the entire battle. That's my unit of Soviet T-34's blown all to smithereens! We played a massive seven person game on a huge table sagging under the weight of fully painted armies and lavish terrain. It was a great gaming experience, and even though I admit to not being much of a World War II buff, I still had a blast.


The game was hosted by our buddy Brian C., and no, not the same Brian with the Dark Eldar army we speed-painted. Flames of War Brian has also got a gaming blog with a very detailed writeup reporting all of the action, there's also plenty more pics to drool over as well. I'm going to send you over there now; these are just some teaser pics to reel you in.


One of my minesweepers made it well past the mark of its life expectancy, getting ever-so-close to the German entrenchments. Flames of War was a great game, the rules had a very '40k' feel to them in that they were straight-forward, simple to use, easy and intuitive to pick up on the fly, and made for a fun atmosphere and a great game where you didn't spend half your time flipping through reference charts. I already have a sizable 15mm army, but it's sci-fi; my Star Grunt II army which resides in a box. Would I be keen on painting up a whole new 15mm army for a whole new game? Eh, probably not, but it is intriguing nonetheless. I'll no longer say "never" when it comes to a Flames of War army...

Grath Watchmen

Here's my patrol squad of Grath. Originally they were some vintage Warhammer 40k Ogryns, way back from first edition, which puts them at about twenty years old according to the year molded on their slottabases. They'll work as any big, brutish troops in a sci-fi or quasi-fantasy modern setting. They're Ogres with guns basically.


I had traded (or bought, can't remember) these guys from Andy, who in turn got them off of ebay. They came painted as is, and only took a little bit of tweaking. They've been 'dipped' using PolyShades MinWax Black Tudor, and some areas on the figs were touched up as needed. They were based originally, but not very well, so they were also given new, matching bases.


On some of the figs their Ripper Guns weren't even painted, they were just left silver, same with their chain mail. The dip easily took care of this. I like this trooper because of his expression and copper colored armor. His left gauntlet is pretty cool too.


Here's a closeup of his flair I added (hence the title Grath "Watchmen". I used a .01 tipped permanent graphing pen for the black and a little red paint on the tip of a detail brush for the rest. I'm not the first person to put a Watchmen button on a fig, my buddy Supervike paid a little DC Comics homage a while back as well on a Spinespur fig, you can see it here.


Another fairly basic paintjob enhanced ever-so-slightly by the dipping process. Touch ups on this fig were kept to a minimum.


Nice camo pants on this one, and a beer-can grenade to boot. Again, no paint on the Ripper Gun, but I really like the impromptu head swap for a very sci-fi looking helmet. This guy would be the squad leader by default.


This one had a lot of touch up work to be done. I wish the whole team had this copper colored paint scheme.


It would unfair to say that this fig reminds me of someone in our group, but it does, really. He needed an above average amount of touch ups too. I like how the Ripper Gun is almost fully painted as well; stock, body, magazine!

As the title suggests, these aren't going to be used in the 40k universe, but rather the 5150 universe, as the aforementioned brutish Grath. Below is a pic of the Ogryn page out of my first edition Warhammer 40k Compendium, and following that is the official writeup on the 5150 version of the Ogryn, the Grath. They'll see the majority of action on the tabletop in this capacity.

Graths survive solely by fluid intake. They have the ability to convert most fluids into the necessary nourishment it needs to survive. Just a word to the wise, they do not care where they obtain this fluid.

The Grath is the perfect warrior. Graths will fight anyone (including each other), any place, anytime, and are in constant demand as mercenaries throughout the 5150 universe. Only in GAEA PRIME controlled areas are the Grath not used. In fact, any Grath caught in Gaea Prime areas are immediately destroyed.

Graths prefer hand-to-hand combat and will always toss aside their weapons to do so. They have no concept of sleep or imagination and are basic in there intellect. Graths are extremely loyal to their employers and it is common for a Grath to know only one employer during their lifetime. This can be a very, very, long time as there is no known natural cause of death for a Grath, just combat.