Last Chance for Voting!

Tau, Chaos Cultists, or Dark Angels? You decide!

Best Game of Carcassonne...EVER!

She may look like her mom, but she's got my geek genes!

Well, this is something new, my daughter and I sat down for a friendly afternoon match of the great game Carcassonne! She's seen me play countless times, and has even painted a few figures of her own, but this is the first time that both worlds truly intersected. I've got an XBox 360 (which has been collecting dust lately, but I did download a trial version of the video game port of Carcassonne, and it's not bad at all. She's been playing that off and on, so is familiar with Meeple placement, scoring, and the overall scope of it. This would be the first time the two of us sat down and played the original version.


Prepping the table for the game


Turn 1!

The only difference here is that we were not scoring farmlands. Oddly enough, the trial version on the XBox doesn't either (it might if you buy the full version). She picked black and I picked green and then turn one was under way.




The game progresses...


I didn't set out to slaughter her in her first game ever, but also I'm of the mind that "letting people win" just doesn't pay off in the long run. Obviously I helped along the way helping to remind her to 'finish that road', or 'that monastery needs more surrounding pieces', etc. She needed zero help with placing tiles and always looked over the whole board, turning her tile in different directions to see which was the best fit. A couple of times she would say things to herself aloud that made me smile, like, "I can't put it there, it'd help your city", and "Ooh, a church, I'm definitely putting a Meeple on there!"


Pulling ahead!

After completing a rather large city section with a couple of tile pieces (which I thought she'd never finish), she pulled ahead in the points. This of course bolstered her confidence as she continued to play, and I thought to myself, "Okay, the gloves are off!".


and the winner is...

Okay, well maybe the gloves weren't "off" per se, but we had a great go at it nonetheless. The final score however was her with 64 points, and me with just 60, a pretty close game! How can a game like this be anything but fun? She held her attention throughout the entire game, beginning to end, and didn't get discouraged when she was behind in the points. The funniest moment was when she asked at what point do we hit the "Y" button, which in the XBox trial game let's you watch the match on auto-computer.

This opens up a lot of possibilities, and considering I can't even get my wife to play Scrabble, my daughter might be the only gaming buddy in the house on a rainy day. Maybe the spouse will have to cave in once she sees both of us having fun. What's next? Well obvious some more miniature painting, and maybe a basic combat tabletop system, she does enjoy playing with all of my old Mage Knight stuff. Maybe Kids of Catan?


Cleanup is as important as setup

The Blacksun Council

The Blacksun Council

I'm going to try something new here. I usually will post what army and how many points I used during the battle reports, but that's about it. Since I don't do a ton of battles, I could lavish a little more attention to the forces I actually use, kind of give them a little extra spotlight. Since I've recently mentioned how my Tau are almost never showcased here, I thought this was a good place to start. Here we have the Blacksun Council. The name's not very original, and I only took it because it's equipment everyone shares, and only because I was too lazy to find something better to do with leftover points, heh.

One of the newer additions to our gaming group is breaking the ice on some 40k action, in fact you've just seen him in action here. To help supplement his Ork force I whipped up a small Tau attachment to accompany them. These Tau were acting in a purely "advisory" role. Since the opponent was Imperial Guard, I couldn't think of a reason why Dark Angels would be allied with greenskins anyway. Here's the breakdown, since this was a small detachment I was only working with five hundred points, which got a little tricky. I fell into a trap where I upgraded every facet of my army to fill in the points, instead I could've done without some extras (like Blacksun filters) and just added more troops.

HQ: Shas'el
Troop #1: x6 Fire Warriors
Troop #2: x6 Fire Warriors with Devilfish, led by Shas'ui
Heavy: XV88 Broadside Battlesuit


Shas'el Sav'Tol'tor, advisor and leader
gear: Multi-tracker, Stimulant injector, Targeting array, Blacksun filter
weapons: Plasma rifle, Missile pod


Or'es Ka, the Lance of the Tau
gear: Targeting array, Blacksun filter, Hard-wired drone controller, Shield Drone
weapons: twin-linked Railgun, twin-linked Plasma rifle


Fire Warriors (two units)
1. six Fire Warriors with Pulse rifles
2. six Fire Warriors with Pulse rifles led by a Shas'ui


Shas'ui equipped with a Pulse carbine and Markerlight


Devilfish
gear: Flechette discharger, Decoy launchers, Disruption pod, Multi-tracker, Blacksun filter
weapons: x2 Gun Drones, Burst cannon, x2 Seeker missiles

UP will bring you DOWN

Mini-chica and I are fresh from our matinée viewing of Pixar's Up.

First off, we paid the extra coin to see the "digital 3D" version of Up, which was a waste really, so I don't recommend it. Whatever 3D sight gags and eye candy that were in there just felt like they were thrown in for the sake of saying "it's in 3D!", and little more. Save your money and see the regular screen version.

From my title you might be asking yourself, "What's up?", and no, there's no pun intended. Oh yeah, spoilers and what-not abound, you've been warned. Following on the heels of Wall-E and the serious undertones therein, Up opens with a montage (beautifully done) of a wordless tale of boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy and girl get married, girl is unable to have children, boy and girl grow old and gray together, girl dies leaving boy (now old man) all alone to face his own mortality. Throw in the fact that the house they have lived in for sixty plus years is now facing foreclosure and demolition for the sake of constructing skyscrapers. In a fit of rage, the old man, Carl, whacks a construction worker over the head with his cane, knocking him senseless...and bloody. The police are called and he is committed to a retirement community against his will. Oh, and the house will now be demolished. Sounds marvelously uplifting doesn't it? And that's just the first ten minutes.

Obviously he steals away in his home, now augmented as a flying dirigible with as much homage visually and narratively as one can pay to film great Hayao Miyazaki without blatantly ripping him off. Along the way he encounters a stowaway, a Boy Scout equivalent whose own background is equally depressing; a broken home with a father who now ignores him continuously and has moved on with a new family, yet the kid still thinks his Dad will man up, but never does. So these two lost souls are joined together in the old man's allegoric journey to reunite himself with his wife in heaven.

There are positive nuggets in the movie. The entire beginning opens up with a great, pulp era bit on adventure and exploration. The goal in the movie itself is to get to the "lost land time forgot" in the jungles of South America (another lifelong dream of the dead wife which went unfulfilled by the way). There's a Kirk Douglas type antagonist who is enjoyable, and his throngs of "speaking" dogs are cute, as is the other misfits our heroes pick up along the way, but it was hard to pull out from under the dark cloud of introspective depression the film seems to enjoy keeping you in.

Does it have a "happy ending"? Sure, I guess. Does the realistic settings you find the characters in refreshing from the happy-go-lucky worlds most animated films exist in? Yeah, but just 'cause you can do it doesn't mean you always should. Was it enjoyable, was it a good flick? Sure, it wasn't the best Pixar flick by a long shot, but it was somewhat enjoyable. It told a good, if dark, story and had plenty of visual treats, and an epilogue during the credits that let you know that the old man accepted his fate and found new purpose.


As a side note, the new animated short, Partly Cloudy, was thoroughly enjoyable

New Army Decision Time Counting Down

Dark Angels?

The countdown is on, and as I write this I am astounded at the response in votes so far with a whopping twenty eight! As it stands, the Tau are well in the lead, but anything can happen, and there's still three days left to go. The Cultists are definitely keeping the race interesting, and a few out there are still rooting for the Dark Angels.

Above are my Dark Angels. Not shown are ten Sternguard who are on the painting table and their Dreadnought, which is currently a work in progress.


Tau Empire?

If you haven't voted yet, please do, and leave a comment as to why you voted as such, there's been some great responses so far. Everyone's been making such valid points it's impossible to decide, I guess that's why there's a poll!

Above are my Tau, which have had very little exposure here at Mik's Minis. If I had my druthers, I'd add a human auxiliary unit or two, and maybe some new XV8's. As you can see though, I've got plenty, so the latter is just a 'maybe'.


Chaos Cultists?

Here's the makings I've been sitting on for my Chaos Cultists army. I guess technically they're called the Lost and the Damned from the outdated codex. I've got parts for two or three traitor guard units, with leftovers to add to a box of fantasy zombies to make Plague zombies. I've also got a bag of Ogre Kingdoms Bulls to make into Big Mutants. The Daemon Prince you see there will be the centerpiece of the army alongside this fig which I'll use as my Arch Heretic, I don't have the Confessor yet though, I'll need to pick him up.

Refer to my last post for the breakdown of the pros and cons if you need to. I've resigned myself to go along with whatever the community decides, so this should be interesting. Our new campaign will kick off probably in early June (I hope). As always, thanks, now get out there and do your civic duty, citizens!

Aliens vs. Humans

40k Battle
Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Dawn of War
Size: 1,000 points
Forces: Tau/Ork coalition vs. Cadian Imperial Guard

This week was a one-off game with long time adversary Andy and newcomer Chris M. (not to be confused with either Chris P. or Chris O. as mentioned before). Chris M (we'll call him Chris3) has recently got back into 40k and is working on a horde of Orks, a welcome addition to the group as no one has played the greenskins yet.

Andy has become the latest caretaker in the massive Guard army that Ray started, and it was time for him to test their might, so we had two new armies hitting dirtside. I couldn't really justify my Dark Angels allying themselves with Orks versus Guard, so my Tau came out of retirement acting in an "advisory role" to the Orks.


The Ork Horde arrayed for battle


The Tau advisory attachment


The massive Imperial Guard forces


The three commanders of the battle


Warboss Killgaz defiantly stands atop a hill, taunting the 'umies


An Ork truk loaded down with Nobz


A Lady Commissar leads her boys in battle


The Nobz take heavy shooting casualties

Turn 1
Cadians: Mortar fire from one of the heavy weapon teams explodes near the open-topped Ork Truk, but is only effective in killing a single Boy on the ground; the Boys' mob mentality keeps them from being pinned however. A lascannon shot homes in on the lone XV88 Broadside, but find their mark off as the XV88's Shield Drone valiantly swoops in front of the 'freem' beam and sacrificing itself into slag. Finally, to conclude wave after wave of shooting, another Cadian mortar zeros in on the Ork Truk again, this time destroying it in a flaming wreck, or so we thought. The Truk being "ramshackle" saved its Nob passengers (and subsequent collateral damage) in the end, but was still lost.

Tau/Ork: In a surgically precise shot from across the table, the XV88 Broadside disables the Stormtrooper Chimera's heavy flamer. With such firepower it would've been nice to see the transport in flames, but a 'weapon disabled' shot would do. The green tide surged forth, firing their Big Shootas wildly, with the middle mob killing a single trooper, and the mob on the far right ineffective against the Stormtroopers in the woods.


Fire Warriors disembark their Devilfish

Turn 2
Cadians: The humans began their turn unleashing the newest weapon in the Guard arsenal; orders. With the "Fire on my target!" order, the lascannon team sent the XV88 spiraling into oblivion as it wasn't able to withstand the instant kill freem power. Next the heavy stubber gunner on the Stormtrooper Chimera pounded round after round towards Warboss Killgaz, but to no effect. Next up was the "First rank, FIRE! Second rank, FIRE!" order, which inflicted heavy casualties to the advancing middle mob. To complete this devastating round of enemy fire, the left flanked Cadian unit took out three Nobz. The only bright side here was that Andy's Ratling snipers were so well hidden...he forgot to use them!

Tau/Ork: Once the Tau disembarked the Devilfish, they opened fire on the left flanked Cadians who just shot up the Nobz. Only the Pulse carbine armed leader could fire, but effectively did so by killing a single trooper and pinning the entire unit. Next the XV8 suited commander stepped forward, launching his missile pod and Plasma rifle at the Chimera. The Plasma rifle missed, but the missiles screamed home, destroying the transport, with a few Guardsmen not able to escape. On the other side of the table, the telltale WAAAAAAAGH!! sounded out, and the Ork rush was full on. Andy and I haven't seen the Orks in action, so it was a jaw-dropping scene to say the least. Against the Stormtroopers, the Mob raced into melee, with an eye-popping 61 attacks, 40 of which actually hit. Of the forty dice rolled to wound, only one failed to do so. With the Stormtroopers taking a staggering 39 wounds, their fate was sealed and then ground under the heels of clunky Ork boots. The middle Mob raced forward to, but their success was only marginal, but still managed to slaughter nine Guardsmen, and send the rest fleeing from the fight. To cap off a sickeningly successful hand-to-hand round, the Warboss, who acted true to form all game, charged the Stormtrooper Chimera head on and managed to bring it to a grinding halt, wrecking it in place.


The Boyz take down the Stormtroopers with reckless abandon


Warboss Gazkill kills...a tank


Tau missiles wreck the other Chimera

Turn 3
Cadians: The tide had turned for the Guard, who found themselves on the ropes rather quickly. The Senior Officer began shouting his orders from the front lines, with not one, but two "Get back in the fight!" rallies successfully unpinning one unit, and bringing another back from running off the table. The unpinned Cadians took out three Fire Warriors with their combined Lasguns, and another three fell to their grenade launcher, a heavy blow for the Tau! The rooftop Ratlings, finally done with their Turn 2 snack break, decided to put their stubby sniper rifles to work, felling the rampaging (but wounded twice already) Warboss Gazkill. Next, the platoon command squad charged the middle Mob of Orks, but their timing was off and the Ork countered the charge by elminating the entire command squad. Finally, the Cadian Company Commander led his men into the Nobz, showing them 'how it's done' by wiping out the remaining Orks with his Power sword.

Tau/Orks: The XV8 commander, at seeing the Warboss go down, concentrated his fire on the Ratlings in cover, managing to wipe them out to the man, err, Ratling. The Orks, being out of charge range, turned to their shootas, killing one of the mortar teams, the rest broke morale and ran off the battlefield. In the middle, three members of the company command squad fell in melee before three of the Boyz fell again to the company commander's Power sword attacks. He was finally brought down by Ork choppas.


Charge! The Commissar hacks down the remaining Orks


"Nice shooting Hambone!", "Thanks, Sticky Buns!"

Turn 4
Cadians: After heavy casualties to their center line, the Cadians manage to wipe out the Mob of Boyz in the middle of the table. On the left flank, more Cadians charged the Devilfish, their courage bolstered by the Melta-bombs they were carrying. They didn't realize the Devilfish was equipped with Flechette dischargers, but it was a hardly a concern as the cloud of metal shrapnel only managed to kill two Guardsmen. After that slight delay, the Melta-bombs were planted, and the Devilfish's engines were rocked by the hit, immoblizing it were it stood. Its landing gear keeping it from crashing to the ground.

Tau/Ork: With the Orks tidying up things on the other side of the field, the remaining Tau leveled their technologically superior Pulse rifles at the Melta-bomb wielding Cadians and kill seven of them, breaking their morale and causing them to flee.


Fire!

Conclusion
It was a solid win for the Tau/Ork coalition outscoring the kill point total by three more than the Cadians. What looked like it would be a devastating game inflicted by Guard fire turned ugly when the Orks got into position to do what they do best, fight in melee. It was a fun game overall, and I think we all learned a lot about our respective armies too, what to do next time, and maybe a few things to avoid. It was kind of obvious that none of us were too versed on the rules, and a thousand point battle easily took about three times as long as it should. It all comes down to practice though, I can't wait for the next one!

Match MVP
There were many heroes of the battle, like the opposing Commissar, cutting swath after swath with his Power sword through the greenskin ranks. What about Warboss Gazkill? He never took a cover save, and hulked about the board killing everything in his path, even troop transports. For me, I'm going with the Tau commander ('cause it's my blog, mwahahaha) but not without merit. He managed to blow up a Chimera, just like Gazkill, but he also destroyed the Ratling snipers in one turn (avenging Gazkill).

Moment of the Game
This had to be the assault on the Stortroopers. Once we started doing the math, and realized the Ork Mob was bearing down with sixty one attacks we took a step back and realized just how effective Orks were in combat. Not only that, but defying the odds, 39/40 rolls were wounding hits. If you can keep your Orks in one piece across No Man's Land and get them to close in melee, you're going to be happy. If you're an Ork player that is.


Here's a (blurry) bonus pic of Andy's Imperial Guard in all their glory

First (Botanical) Contact

Proof a gamer can garden!

Here's a follow up on my Gardenin' post a couple of weeks back, and things have been, well, growing and doing great. The above pic is of my Hot Banana Pepper plant, and that little baby pepper you see is the beginnings of, literally, the fruits of my labor, haha. It's just a bud now, but I have a feeling I shall be feasting (feasting, really?) on some spicy goodness in a week to ten days. Everything else is also doing pretty well.


The jalapenos are coming along


'Maters 'n such

Chalk up a few casualties to my dog, as I feared. She has been caught in the main bed a couple of times, and I had to build the walls higher on the sides and front. Unfortunately, she's killed both a tomato plant and a green pepper plant. I replaced them with another tomato plant and a red pepper plant, now to add electric shock retention fences!

I know it's a weird thing to post about, being a "gaming journal" and all, but I got a lot of positive response after the last one. Skeller made a great point about the parallels between gardening and gaming, and you get a little sunshine to boot. And I even got another painter, Shelexie, to try some of her own! If all that comes out of this experiment is a single banana pepper and another gamer somewhere started their own garden...then I'll call this a success, hopefully it won't stop there though!

Cities and Knights!

I had to put an exclamation in the title because Cities and Knights is such a good game! The other night, just a couple after our last Settlers game, we broke out the set and fired up a five player game of Settlers, this time with the Cities and Knights "expansion".

In keeping with the theme of adding all kinds of punctuation, and then explaining why I added said punctuation, I shall now pontificate on the quotes around "expansion". With the Settlers series you will end up paying for them. You have to buy the basic set, then the 5-6 player add-on, then the Seafarers set, then the Seafarers 5-6 player expansion, then the Cities and Knights set, and then the Cities and Knights 5-6 player expansion...see where I'm going here? The guys we were playing with are pretty versed in the series, and I take their word on the Seafarers set being rather lackluster.

The Cities set however is fantastic and it's not just an "add on", it adds so many new levels, strategies, and dimensions to the basic Catan set that it becomes a completely different game, and where the basic Settlers is solid fun, the Cities and Knights version is fun to the tenth degree. I highly recommend it to anyone out there.


You're still building roads, settlements, and cities. This time however, there is a barbarian horde sailing across the sea in bound to the island. When they arrive to sack the cities, you must use your knights to defend the land and drive them off. Don't worry, they'll be back, again and again. The new element is building knights to protect with, the player with the fewest knights will find themselves losing a city. Knights can grow in strength and need to be activated after they are used. They can also drive off the dreaded Robber token and harass neighboring knights and rival cities.

What better way to defend your cities than with a castle wall? Castle walls are another new element, and they don't do much except to allow you to keep more cards in your hand, which I guess is pretty handy after all.

In addition to the resources of wheat, ore, brick, wood, and sheep, there's three new ones that dovetail off of wood, sheep, and ore; paper, cloth, and coin respectively. By using these resources you can upgrade your cities by turning them into fortresses, abbeys, marketplaces, and the like. There's additional building tracks to follow that utilize these new buildings, and based on what level building you have you might get additional benefits. One that comes to mind is the aqueduct, which allows you to take a single resource card (of your choice) on a turn if none of your resource numbers get rolled.


The Land of Mikatonia

Nestled in the fertile pastures and rich forests of Catan is the land of Mikatonia. An extensive road network stretches to the coast where Mikatonia's main harbor lies. Rumors and tales abound from the unspoken relations between the humans of the city and the Nymphs and Dryads of the forests. Alliances have been rumored to have been forged with the reclusive Wood Elves as well. It is even said that the Knights of Mikatonia, princes of King Mik himself, share equal parts of human an Elven blood.