General Stuff and Updates

Its been a bit since I have updated. Some content I have for the blog is currently being used as a contest entry over at aliveandoutofprint.org so it and its follow up comics (yes me and my gaming comics again!) will be held off or delayed in creation till the contest is over. Ill probably start the follow up work next week though.

But I have been able to take advantage of some nice sales the last few weeks to get more gaming stuff cheap.

Sarge's had 3 books for 10 dollars so a rummage through their pile and came out with one must have, and 2 acceptable supplemental items to get.

The original Mongoose publishing update to Runequest core rulesbook was my must have. For 3.33 I can now cheaply see if Mongoose improved upon the first RPG I ever bought, though one I have never had the pleasure of actually playing. The two other products were Delta Green for Cthulhu Live, mostly bought because I like Delta Green and Cthulhu, and the rulebook for Reaper's Warlord miniatures game, more just for pretty miniatures pictures and maybe some ideas I can mine for other games and campaigns.

But the BIG game sale happened this week at Arkham Asylum. 50% off. EVERYTHING IN STORE. A 3 day anniversary sale. Sadly (or luckily for my ever growing fiscal responsibility..) I had to limit what I bought. For gaming related things I got The Battle for Black Reach Warhammer 40K 5th edition starter with its essential new rulesbook, and the current Heroscape starter set.

Both sets I have been hemming and hawing over buying, and it looks like my holding off has paid off for once to the tune of 50 dollars in savings. Nice! The Orks in the Black Reach set are really gorgeous to behold and will gladly join my existing army.

At Borders I took advantage of a 30% off coupon to get a 20 dollar boxed set of 5 11-13 dollar Dungeon Crawl Classics modules for 14 dollars. It has caused me to change my original plans for a Tunnels & Trolls campaign to one using these modules. Every day I write down what changes need to be made to fit my campaign and my original gameworld that I first came up with back in 88-89 or so. I don't have my original or later updated maps and information on it so I am rebuilding it from the top, taking these modules into mind for town and terrain placement.

I am using VMWare's Fusion which allows various old operating systems to be run as a virtual machine/hard drive on an Intel Mac without needing a partition or anything similar. This allows more of my old games to become playable once more, and allows me to use my favorite RPG mapping program which was on the old AD&D Core Rules 2.0 CDROM. In 30 minutes I had the basics of one of my world's continents made up:



Not too shabby for such a short amount of work! It needs some more naming and a touch more detail here and there, but its a good start.

Characters for the campaign have been created, with MagicDrew and Starfury both making a pair of characters. It looks like 9IN is probably done with Tuesdays though. It took a little more time to create characters than I thought it would, but I think they were overthinking the game a bit, though it started to click the more I explained.

But they are ready to go for next week and the first module is mostly converted over, but given T&T's simplicity, its more a read through and some notes than anything I really HAVE to have done.

Tuesday and Wednesday Game Reports

Well, I would rather not talk about Tuesday Heroquest so we will skip that bit in general outside of some general comments. Pico and I are clearly approaching the game from 2 entirely different angles and its not turning out too well. With luck, we can hash this out next game time or over emails or something. I'm sure we can deal with it and get things back on track.

I got some Ogre minis in trade from Starfury for some of my furniture which will be handy next time we get to play Ogre. A Paneurope box with 2 Super Heavies, 3 Missile Tanks, and 6 Infantry Squads. (Which means 1 3 man base, a 2 man base, and a 1 man base.) Sadly, the other box was Ogrethulhu, which while amusing isn't canonical for Ogre in any way, shape, or form. Its a possessed Ogre Mark Five! Insanely deadly, but not too useful overall.

Missme got me a couple of half depth tubs (Which I insisted on reimbursing her for) to put the Heroscape terrain away, giving my hexes a place to nap, and specialized terrain in the other one. I've pretty much packed one of the tubs FULL, and the other could easily do the same. And this is without counting the inevitable purchase of the new Heroscape box set or the Jungle sets should they ever be released. Its only 3 or 4 months late now..

We also made up characters for Dark Heresy, but actually playing them is a few weeks or more down the road, probably after a medical thing I get to have ruin my schedule and bank account at the end of March. (Depends on how it turns out.)

Outside of that, driving 9IN home was hellacious. Snowstorm started up and the snowplows were nowhere to be seen. Another week where a 20-30 minute trip took an hour. Be glad when the weather clears up.

Luckily the snow turned to rain today and it was relatively fair driving to Sarge's Comics for Warhammer 40K. Grabbed the last 2 parts of an adventure trilogy for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, then had a little 1000 points of my Tyranids versus Ultramarines. A Carnifex, Hive Tyrant, Broodlord, 10 Genestealers, 14 Termagaunts, and 8 Hormagaunts went up against a Devastator Squad, 2 Tactical Squads, 2 Dreadnoughts, a Captain, and a Rhino. My Hormagaunts and Termagaunts mostly got slammed, while my Broodlord and Genestealers ripped up every Tactical Squad on the board with the Carnifex and Hive Tyrant running fire support/Dreadnought killing. Its nice to see my Nids do so well. Of course the Ultramarines player was expecting a typical swarm horde, and not a Genestealer and Nidzilla force. Jacked up big Tyranids can do very well.

Next week we are gonna see what the bugs can do to Orks. It should be bloody, violent, and an amazing lack of Armor Saves all around. Its rather bizarre when a Carnifex fired Venom Cannon is a bigger threat to a Dreadnought than a Tactical Marine!

Though as usual, my bright orange and navy blue paint scheme had some viewer make a stupid comment about it. Its one of the many reasons I hate painting. I like the scheme because its striking. It is loud and clashy. THAT'S THE POINT. Its partially inspired by the old reddish orange Tyranids from Rogue Trader and 2nd edition.

Oh yeah. and those of you with lives may have a happy Valentine's Day.
I am not one of them.

Wednesday Game and Trip Report

Went down to Sarge's today to hopefully get in a game of Warhammer 40K. Early on not too many people were there, or were already engaged in a game. (2 dudes playing a 40K game, 2 setting up Warmachine, the guys playing Guilty Gear on the PS2.)

A little while later a couple more folks showed up, the first 40K game ended with the Ultramarines taking out the Necron's Nightbringer all but ending that conflict in a painful manner. Great paintjob on the big guy though.

Thus a 2250 point per side game was set up. 750 each of Imperial Guard, Necrons, and Witch Hunters vs Chaos and Ultramarines. I did 1250 and the Ultrasmurfs got 1500. We set up in a wide line, with one flank being full of Khorne Berzerkers, Space Marines, Terminators, and characters. The other side had my 2 Chaos Dreadnoughts lined up to delay that flank before being destroyed or going crazy. The center was held by my Havoc Squad, a trio of Chaos Spawn, and another Berzerker Squad. The Necrons were arrayed mostly towards the center and Dreadnought side while the Witch Hunters and Captain Schaefer lead (all Heavy Support though only 1 tank, a Leman Russ) tended to cover the side of the board with the Terminators. (And sadly a river which slowed down our assault troops. And had an Inquisitor Orbital Bombardment targeting it. :( )

The Imperial Necron side got first turn which was largely uneventful. Our turn was just as useless, especially when my Lascannon equipped Dreadnought only rolled a 1 for effect on the Leman Russ, which was ignored due to armor wargear.

It continued on with the horde of Scarabs and this bug thing that makes them assaulting or being assaulted by my Chaos Spawn in the near center, eventually leaving all 3 Spawns victorious though heavily wounded. They would be attacked by an Imperial Guard elite unit of some kind who would then fall back into the woods with its 1 survivor getting Necron assistance that would eventually kill the monsters after heavy casualties.

The Leman Russ and Necrons made short work of the Dreadnoughts, and some Seraphim Sisters and Necron Wraiths assaulted the center Berzerkers and Havocs, eventually leaving only 2 Berzerkers and the Havoc's Champion to offer their own skulls for Khorne at the game's end. (The few Wraiths that fell kept getting back up. The Seraphim were mostly wiped out.)

On the other side of the battlefield the Space Marines made short work of the Sisters of Battle squad in cover, the Terminators leading the way across the river, mostly laughing at the ineffective return fire from the Imperial Guard Heavy Weapon teams.

Well, until an orbital bombardment wiped the entire group out, leaving my Khorne Berzerkers and Lord on a Juggernaut to fall to another orbital hit and a Sister's melta weapon respectively. (That Orbital Bombardment was THE game winner.)

The Ultramarines' Psyker on a bike used his power to send the Sister's leader into the warp, but the bombardments were too much to take and as Khorne demanded I go to the bookstore, the game was called. With the 3 aforementioned Chaos Marines being the only survivors on our side.

Overall I would say the river slowing down our movement mixed with the bombardment was the big killer of our side. Losing the 2 Dreadnoughts with NOTHING to show for it didn't help, but wasn't terrible overall. The Wraiths not staying down was a factor as well. My Havocs never really got to shoot anything of merit. On our side the Terminators, Chaos Spawn, and the Bike Psyker were our MVPs.

It was a fun game overall and I continue to learn how to use my Chaos Marines in this newest Codex. I really need to get some Rhinos. 35 points for troop transportation in an army built around close combat is a MUST HAVE. Its just the 30 or so the kits cost that gets me. Same with the Chaos Spawn, but almost any large base monster figure seems to work fine for that.

Afterwards I made a trip down to Target where Marvel Heroscape sets were on clearance for 12.50. now I have 2 more sets. More dice for actual Heroscape games, and more of its lovely interlocking hexagon scenery for dozens of different games. Depending on my cash situation next week I may buy more.