Video Games:
Well I have completed Metroid Prime 3 (a week or two ago). This was a title, being a fan of Metroid and all, that I was quite eagerly awaiting to get ahold of, and in a fit of overwhelming generosity my wife gave me (along with Endless Ocean) for Father’s Day.
I’ve been a fan of Metroid ever since I first played one of the titles - tho to be fair I got my Metroid wings a little late - I didn’t start until Metroid Prime on the Gamecube. At this point I’ve completed that title, along with the two Metroid titles for the GBA, did most of Metroid Prime 2 (that one got shelved because I got sucked into World of Warcraft - and 3 years later I don’t have the motivation to go back and figure out where I left off), and have dabbled in some of the earlier releases. Overall a fantastic series - and the control setup on the Wii is top notch. Finally a more intuitive and sensitive way to shoot things than a tiny joystick :) Parts of the game were frustratingly “hard” - and by hard I mean “random shit you have no control over fucking up your plans”, but these areas (only one comes to mind, really) were refreshingly rare. I played through on Normal difficultly - and having done so I feel like I sort of cheated myself. The game was astonishingly easy, either because of my FPS experience in general or past Metroid titles in particular I don’t know.
On the flip side I can replay the game again on the hardest difficulty now - and I think all my scans remain associated with my save file, so I don’t have to run around with the scan visor on constantly and can instead enjoy the visuals :)
However I have three other titles sitting in front of me - Halo 2 (yes it’s old - but I didn’t get an XBox until very recently), Metal Gear Solid 4 (never played any of the others, but I’m told the plot is easy to catch up on, and the game itself is more a bunch of movies than anything), and Fallout 3, which I pre-orderd sight unseen because the first two were so awesome. Also I still debate constantly between buying GRID now and Gran Turismo 5 later, or just waiting for GT5 (no interest here in forking out $40 for a glorified demo via GT5 Prologue. I mean puhLEEZE.) Meanwhile Guitar Hero IV looms on the horizon.
Plus I want several other titles. So many games, so little time :) More recently I snagged Blast Factor via PS3 download just to have a nice shooter hanging around. Pure mindless entertainment. It’s important to have such things :) It was a toss up between that and Super Stardust HD, but Blast Factor looks a little better on my currently non-HD TV. Once we get the new TV I’ll probably end up with both of these games.
AND FINALLY: Much happiness ensued: STAR CONTROL 2. This game is bloody ancient - but man, it was fucking awesome back in the day. This game and its predecessor was a huge deal when I was a freshman - I recall walking down the hall one day and no less than seven dorm rooms had this thing going at the same time. This is old school beat the crap out of your buddy stuff - both folks playing ON THE SAME KEYBOARD, yessir, this is back before that fancy schmancy internet crap, might have even pre-dated the granddaddy of PC gaming networking, IPX. You could smell the sweat of your opponent as you crushed his fragile ego (hell, I remember doing exactly that - I was regarded as one of the better to best players on the floor at one point, and this upstart guy was touted as a contender. We went 3 games in a row with a huge audience, him dripping with confidence, me just looking for a challenge. I schooled the fuck out of him. Not only did I win all three games, I believe in the third one he was so frustrated he made stupid choices and I think I didn’t even lose a ship. Ah, the halcyon days of me being good at something). Well, now it’s been released in open source, there’s a Mac version, and I’m just a little happy retro gamer guy at the moment. They even added network support.
I miss Star Control 3 as well, but that one apparently is regarded as a bastard step child. Eh.
Hordes/Warmachine:
Between a 2 week family vacation and a shit pile of overtime at the office, I have managed to miss every single play night at the LGS for going on 6 weeks now, so I hope to hell I can make it this week.
I may have found some more opponents tho, which is good :) First, my daughter expressed interest in learning, and while it’s hard to judge as yet if she just wanted more Father/Daughter time or if she actually enjoys this particular hobby, she has been painting up my old miniatures like mad (I used to just paint, but not play, and I’ve had a pile of metal laying around for going on 12 years now) and said she really wanted to play the actual game.
So in the interest of testing that desire without blowing another $50 on a starter box, I bought some bases of various sizes and we played a game where she proxied a starter and we had at. She surprised me - retained focus for over half of the 3 hour game and even had a base strategy she was going for - run me to the edge of the table and then throw me off. I was rather impressed - she’s only 11, after all. So at this point we’ve played once, and we’re on again today to try again. If she maintains interest, while we can’t exactly afford to cover TWO of us playing this expensive hobby, we’ll look at getting her some initial pieces. On the convenient as all fuck front, she’s also interested in Circle Orboros - which means we can trade minis back and forth ad nauseum since that’s all I’m collecting for now.
Now that I have bases, I may also get another friend of mine lured in at least to try it - he doesn’t have the cash to buy his own models right now, but we can proxy him in with bases and copies of my cards, at least. As I pointed out, once PP releases a deck of Horde’s cards he could conceivably just proxy a whole frickin army on cheap ass bases. And then a bud down in San Antonio, I discovered, also plays! Has a huge retired Cygnar army to boot - he played for several years until the game became unfun when one of their group went crazy and bought everything - so that any game turned into which counter he was going to bring to the table instead of playing something comparable.
On the army front - last purchase was a copy of Hordes Evolution and a Blackclad Wayfarer. Plus a metal base to mount him to since he’s so blasted top heavy. He will be the first mini I assemble AFTER painting, since his huge staff thing will be a bit of an issue to paint behind, so that should serve as some useful experience. Next month comes the Woldwarden and then I’ll have my scrappy 500pt army.
After some 15+ hours I’m finally happy with my Shifting Stones paint job, so now they just need a coat of protective finish and I will have my first Hordes models completed. I had some trouble in places with these, but I learned some good things so I made the right choice as to first mini’s - with such an overall simple construction I could focus on technique more than coordination, in a sense, and hey, they’re just rocks so if they aren’t spot on awesome that’s ok. I tried to get fancy with the coloration of the glowing bits in the middle - one yellow, one orange, one red - and that ended up being a fine idea but difficult to implement consistently. I also was pleased to discover that I do actually have the coordination to paint AROUND the tiny little glowing runes, so my thoughts of having to dry brush in those flat parts and dealing with the time and luck of that turned out to be unnecessary. I watered down the paint a bit to paint the runes themselves, and did that first in the lighter color (of the “glow”), so that any smudges around the outside could just be covered up with the darker color. Creating a “glow” effect I sort of failed at, even with looking at the sample ones online, but hey, live and learn. I’m still pretty pleased with how they turned out - I even went back over the raised carvings on the surface of the stones with metallic silver, which created a nice subtle effect since it mostly blends in with the gray until you look at it from certain angles, when BAM the carvings just pop out at you.
If I get a chance this evening I think I’ll do the Argus’ next. I’m still debating painting them the same color, or different. I’m also going to try my hand at some shading on the musculature. We’ll see how that goes :)
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Brief Respite coming
I’m about to skip out of town for a two week vacation, so Hordes excitement will not be happening for a bit. I hit up the local last night to look for a game - as it turns out they were so limited on players I had barely entered the room before one of the regulars said “here, you’re playing this guy”. “But I only have a 350 pt army” “no problem, he’ll either cut down or we’ll loan you stuff”.
So last night was my first ever 500 pt game. My opponent was playing Warmachine, and he’s quite the old salt at things, but he’s also very patient and willing to teach, so I figured I was guaranteed to get something out of it.
My army consisted of the Circle Warbox, plus my shiny new Woldwyrd and shifting stones - and a loaner of two models that are next on my purchase list, a Blackclad Wayfarer and a Woldwarden. He deployed a Warmachine mercenary force, I forget the caster’s name but she had a nasty pistol and a feat that gave him the ability to roll 2 extra dice on every attack that turn and ignore the worst two rolls - and make me do the same on my turn except he got to pick which dice to ignore. Along with her there was a piper solo that buffed his unit of . . something or others, nasty little melee unit, full 10 models with UA/standard bearer, and kneel, and fearless. On top of that were 2 warjacks that had a spear/axe thing, a shield - and a gun in the shield. Finally were 3 solos, 2 of which could have a “client” so while within 6“ of the client they were substantially buffed, plus another gentleman who had to be killed twice, effectively. On his first death he comes back but with berzerk.
So I was staring down a massive pile of melee units, plus 3 of whom had range, and here I was with some stones and 7 models. I had never played with the blackclad or the woldwarden before, so that ate up some brain cycles figuring out how to integrate them in. It was pretty clear to me that I was either going to have to set up an assassination run or die. However my execution was a bit lacking. I did do some fun things tho, largely to try out the rules and see how they interacted - he did an early charge of two of his solos at my warpwolf and my woldwarden - whereupon I used those two models to two-handed throw them into the infantry, and managed over the course of two turns to knock them all over at least once. Infantry bowling, as it were. Unfortunately, the ARM on those little bastards was VERY high, and I killed precisely zero from collateral damage on either toss.
On top of that I completely forgot about the Wayfarers spray attack - which would have been devastating to knocked down models had I had him properly placed to take advantage. Or at least - in theory, devastating. The dice were rolling absolute shit all night. I will not blame them however, as my strategy was lacking. I’m not too fussed, since I’m still learning, after all.
So suffice to say he cleaned the board with me. My last turn (I had even tried to resign, but he said ”Wait! You might be able to do blah blah“ ... ) featured a Kaya with 2 health left, and a woldwyrd. Meanwhile he had lost two of his unit and one solo. However, I was able to get the woldwyrd just close enough to try to do some whomping on his caster - but not QUITE far enough to get behind her. On top of that, I forgot to get in a spirit fang to reduce the target’s DEF, so another fuckup there. 6 attacks (and 6 misses) later (having only one beast on the table hampered Kaya’s feat considerably) game over.
All in all a great game, and I gained some valuable experience. In the latter 3rd of it when the tide was pretty clear (more like tsunami) I did lose a little mental focus - then again due to my inexperience we were at table for close to 3 hours and it was pushing 11pm, which is my usual bedtime. However, I had a blast, and got some good advice from 3 of resident regulars, including one fellow who has 2K+ circle models himself.
Out of the followup discussion I got a list of models to acquire next, to build up a supply of folks for a 500pt army that has some flexibility for swapping in and out a few different things.
In purchase order, they shall be:
1) Woldwarden
2) Blackclad Wayfarer
3) Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
4) Totem Hunter
5) Start fiddling with other casters
3 and 4 will neatly replace an Argus. Once I hit 5 I can try out utterly different play modes with the other casters, and after that comes time to start in on some units (price is a factor, which drives the lack of units before this point). First up will likely be the bloodtrackers, known for obliterating one important model somewhere on the board almost immediately before they themselves are wiped out.
This strikes me as a nice set up of relatively cheap models (minus the woldwarden) that I can run a variety of 500pt games with for several months before I begin the climb to 750 and those tasty yet pricey Wolfriders I so desperately want.
My interest in this game has only grown, particularly since it’s now a full on challenge to improve my gameplay, as well as a good painting opportunity :)
So last night was my first ever 500 pt game. My opponent was playing Warmachine, and he’s quite the old salt at things, but he’s also very patient and willing to teach, so I figured I was guaranteed to get something out of it.
My army consisted of the Circle Warbox, plus my shiny new Woldwyrd and shifting stones - and a loaner of two models that are next on my purchase list, a Blackclad Wayfarer and a Woldwarden. He deployed a Warmachine mercenary force, I forget the caster’s name but she had a nasty pistol and a feat that gave him the ability to roll 2 extra dice on every attack that turn and ignore the worst two rolls - and make me do the same on my turn except he got to pick which dice to ignore. Along with her there was a piper solo that buffed his unit of . . something or others, nasty little melee unit, full 10 models with UA/standard bearer, and kneel, and fearless. On top of that were 2 warjacks that had a spear/axe thing, a shield - and a gun in the shield. Finally were 3 solos, 2 of which could have a “client” so while within 6“ of the client they were substantially buffed, plus another gentleman who had to be killed twice, effectively. On his first death he comes back but with berzerk.
So I was staring down a massive pile of melee units, plus 3 of whom had range, and here I was with some stones and 7 models. I had never played with the blackclad or the woldwarden before, so that ate up some brain cycles figuring out how to integrate them in. It was pretty clear to me that I was either going to have to set up an assassination run or die. However my execution was a bit lacking. I did do some fun things tho, largely to try out the rules and see how they interacted - he did an early charge of two of his solos at my warpwolf and my woldwarden - whereupon I used those two models to two-handed throw them into the infantry, and managed over the course of two turns to knock them all over at least once. Infantry bowling, as it were. Unfortunately, the ARM on those little bastards was VERY high, and I killed precisely zero from collateral damage on either toss.
On top of that I completely forgot about the Wayfarers spray attack - which would have been devastating to knocked down models had I had him properly placed to take advantage. Or at least - in theory, devastating. The dice were rolling absolute shit all night. I will not blame them however, as my strategy was lacking. I’m not too fussed, since I’m still learning, after all.
So suffice to say he cleaned the board with me. My last turn (I had even tried to resign, but he said ”Wait! You might be able to do blah blah“ ... ) featured a Kaya with 2 health left, and a woldwyrd. Meanwhile he had lost two of his unit and one solo. However, I was able to get the woldwyrd just close enough to try to do some whomping on his caster - but not QUITE far enough to get behind her. On top of that, I forgot to get in a spirit fang to reduce the target’s DEF, so another fuckup there. 6 attacks (and 6 misses) later (having only one beast on the table hampered Kaya’s feat considerably) game over.
All in all a great game, and I gained some valuable experience. In the latter 3rd of it when the tide was pretty clear (more like tsunami) I did lose a little mental focus - then again due to my inexperience we were at table for close to 3 hours and it was pushing 11pm, which is my usual bedtime. However, I had a blast, and got some good advice from 3 of resident regulars, including one fellow who has 2K+ circle models himself.
Out of the followup discussion I got a list of models to acquire next, to build up a supply of folks for a 500pt army that has some flexibility for swapping in and out a few different things.
In purchase order, they shall be:
1) Woldwarden
2) Blackclad Wayfarer
3) Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
4) Totem Hunter
5) Start fiddling with other casters
3 and 4 will neatly replace an Argus. Once I hit 5 I can try out utterly different play modes with the other casters, and after that comes time to start in on some units (price is a factor, which drives the lack of units before this point). First up will likely be the bloodtrackers, known for obliterating one important model somewhere on the board almost immediately before they themselves are wiped out.
This strikes me as a nice set up of relatively cheap models (minus the woldwarden) that I can run a variety of 500pt games with for several months before I begin the climb to 750 and those tasty yet pricey Wolfriders I so desperately want.
My interest in this game has only grown, particularly since it’s now a full on challenge to improve my gameplay, as well as a good painting opportunity :)
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Model updates
Somewhat small one, as I’m at work and terribly, terribly behind :)
First off Thank You to Tengu - I’d done some musing around Brusthralls before but hadn’t actually located the Orboros box link as yet. I have to say, I will be well outside of that level of quality for some time :)
Assembly finished well - I think I did a reasonably acceptable job at it, even without pinning anything. We’ll see how they hold up under use :)
I’m doing a bit of experimenting between black and white primers - both Argus, the Warpwolf, and Kaya are in black, while my recent acquisitions (Shifting Stones and a Woldwyrd) are in white. I ran into a spot of difficulty with the black - either I just “did it wrong” or it was too hot that day (highly likely, being Texas and July and all) - the primer was really, really flaky. After 24 hours it was possible to gently rub on the mini and come away with a fingerfull of black. While perhaps more drunk than I should have, I took a toothbrush to them, yielding a set of four models that are very heavily black in some areas and somewhat lightly black (but not quite bare metal) in others. I hesitate to reprime them for fear of overdoing it, and at this point the entire process has become one large experiment :) given that these are the first mini’s I’ve painted in several years, I’m not too fussed, and if they turn out horrible I can always strip them down later when I’m better and redo them.
Meanwhile the white ones came out just fine some days later (and primed in the very early part of the day when it was cooler). Along the way I re-located two other miniatures that I am painting as a “warm up” - primed one white, the other black. So far I’ve put a basecoat on the white one, and attempted a wash of heavily watered down black paint - sadly, so watered down that while it looked great wet, as it dried there was insignificant pigment and/or only enough to just get wicked right back out of the holes and crevices that I now have a model with, ironically, highlighted pits instead of darkened holes, as it were.
So I hit up the local yesterday and snagged a true black wash to try out - never done much in the way of inking before so it will be a worthy new thing, at least. We’ll see how it goes. While out I snagged several new brushes and a real palette (to replace the textured cutting board I’d been using) for mixing, so I’m hopeful I’ll get in some quality time this weekend with the paints. My first bit of painting the other night was quite fun - altho I’m looking forward to getting our planned work desks in. Hunching over the kitchen table in low light conditions having to take off my glasses to see fine detail is not something I can do for more than a couple hours at a time :)
First off Thank You to Tengu - I’d done some musing around Brusthralls before but hadn’t actually located the Orboros box link as yet. I have to say, I will be well outside of that level of quality for some time :)
Assembly finished well - I think I did a reasonably acceptable job at it, even without pinning anything. We’ll see how they hold up under use :)
I’m doing a bit of experimenting between black and white primers - both Argus, the Warpwolf, and Kaya are in black, while my recent acquisitions (Shifting Stones and a Woldwyrd) are in white. I ran into a spot of difficulty with the black - either I just “did it wrong” or it was too hot that day (highly likely, being Texas and July and all) - the primer was really, really flaky. After 24 hours it was possible to gently rub on the mini and come away with a fingerfull of black. While perhaps more drunk than I should have, I took a toothbrush to them, yielding a set of four models that are very heavily black in some areas and somewhat lightly black (but not quite bare metal) in others. I hesitate to reprime them for fear of overdoing it, and at this point the entire process has become one large experiment :) given that these are the first mini’s I’ve painted in several years, I’m not too fussed, and if they turn out horrible I can always strip them down later when I’m better and redo them.
Meanwhile the white ones came out just fine some days later (and primed in the very early part of the day when it was cooler). Along the way I re-located two other miniatures that I am painting as a “warm up” - primed one white, the other black. So far I’ve put a basecoat on the white one, and attempted a wash of heavily watered down black paint - sadly, so watered down that while it looked great wet, as it dried there was insignificant pigment and/or only enough to just get wicked right back out of the holes and crevices that I now have a model with, ironically, highlighted pits instead of darkened holes, as it were.
So I hit up the local yesterday and snagged a true black wash to try out - never done much in the way of inking before so it will be a worthy new thing, at least. We’ll see how it goes. While out I snagged several new brushes and a real palette (to replace the textured cutting board I’d been using) for mixing, so I’m hopeful I’ll get in some quality time this weekend with the paints. My first bit of painting the other night was quite fun - altho I’m looking forward to getting our planned work desks in. Hunching over the kitchen table in low light conditions having to take off my glasses to see fine detail is not something I can do for more than a couple hours at a time :)
Monday, June 30, 2008
First crack at model work
So this past weekend I got the miniatures cracked out and did a bit of filing and cutting on them to make sure the pieces and parts fit together relatively well, trimmed off the sprue fragments and venting spikes, and so forth. Didn’t do much in the way of sanding, and I was planning on cleaning the mini’s AFTER assembly, not before. Further reading indicates that was probably backwards - since now I have a little bit of talc paste mixed in with my super glue.
Last night was the crack at assembly. I got both Argus' put together - they came in five pieces - two body halves, two heads, and the tail. Tail was easy, body will take some work (need to fill in the more obvious cracks with green stuff) and the heads, well, they were just smooth metal on metal. As an experiment I let one set up for a few minutes and then tried to snap it back off - it came off pretty easily, and I was afraid I’d be learning pinning faster than I had originally intended. However, I let another head set for over an hour . . and I couldn’t break it off. It was stuck hard enough I would have had to really risk breaking off two heads at once or actually bring in some tools/floor drops to get it to budge, so this was of some comfort, obviously.
The Warpwolf comes in five pieces also (two arms, torso, legs, tail), PLUS no less than 12 tiny spikes, six of which go along the spine and 3 on each shoulder. I didn’t get around to the spikes last night - most of the challenge was that torso to pelvis join that, in the long run, I should probably pin, but last night I just held it together for a good five minutes to get the glue to set. Seemed pretty stable this morning, we’ll see how it holds up once I start playing with it.
Kaya on the other hand - egads, what a bitch. Only three pieces - but her left arm requires a join at that tiny elbow - was a little tiny nub and a little tiny dent for it to fit into. Absolutely zero structural integrity at all, and I could not get just the right amount of glue nor hold it just perfectly still enough to ever set firm. Similarly for her right arm - even though I was able to get it into place the glue wasn’t cooperating. I suspect I had just gotten too much there - when the nozzle of the glue bottle is BIGGER than the small area of metal you want to join, well. One huge mess after another. Fortunately, I was wearing gloves. This particular joint is so small, I’m not even sure it could be pinned. The diameter of the arm is, at MOST, 1/16“. That means a 1/32” drill bit. Ooof.
So I ended up trying the green stuff out as a pure adhesive. I’m not sure if I mixed it right or not, but we’ll see how it goes. It was still pliable this morning, so I may still yet have some work on those joints to do.
Green stuff is pretty neat shit, actually. Works like play-doh. I figured out all on my own it’s much easier to work if you keep it wet - doesn’t stick so much to my gloved fingers. I read today it’s overall stickiness is gone in about 5 minutes or so, making it much easier to work with after.
Assuming I can get the assembly wrapped up I will be giving these guys a nice bath with a bit of water and a toothbrush. I learned today that talcum powder is used to get the metal out of the molds, and I wouldn’t expect that stuff to do a real good job of keeping the primer attached to the model. I just hope the glue holds relatively well :)
Since this is my first time out I fully expect to have things break and come apart and so forth as I go - that’s the whole point really. Need to have some experience in this.
In the bad news front - ALL of my fucking paints dried out. Granted, they’d been left in a box in the garage for going on 3 years - but damn, what a thing to discover. Some $60 worth of paint now in little cubes in the garbage can. So that will be a bit of a bear to replace. I will probably do what my friend Roy did, and just snag the starter box of 6 colors used by the Circle and perhaps augment with a bottle or two of metals. Before I paint any of the game pieces I’ll probably do one or two “practice” models from the vast supply of miniatures I bought but never painted. Might as well get some new brushes while I’m at it as well. However, I’m hopeful I’ll have at least an assembled force to field this Wednesday. I’ve made my first pass through the rules, now I need to write up my own summary to increase my understanding :) There are definitely some subtleties in them, though nothing too bad. Just little niggling details that are nonetheless important.
Last night was the crack at assembly. I got both Argus' put together - they came in five pieces - two body halves, two heads, and the tail. Tail was easy, body will take some work (need to fill in the more obvious cracks with green stuff) and the heads, well, they were just smooth metal on metal. As an experiment I let one set up for a few minutes and then tried to snap it back off - it came off pretty easily, and I was afraid I’d be learning pinning faster than I had originally intended. However, I let another head set for over an hour . . and I couldn’t break it off. It was stuck hard enough I would have had to really risk breaking off two heads at once or actually bring in some tools/floor drops to get it to budge, so this was of some comfort, obviously.
The Warpwolf comes in five pieces also (two arms, torso, legs, tail), PLUS no less than 12 tiny spikes, six of which go along the spine and 3 on each shoulder. I didn’t get around to the spikes last night - most of the challenge was that torso to pelvis join that, in the long run, I should probably pin, but last night I just held it together for a good five minutes to get the glue to set. Seemed pretty stable this morning, we’ll see how it holds up once I start playing with it.
Kaya on the other hand - egads, what a bitch. Only three pieces - but her left arm requires a join at that tiny elbow - was a little tiny nub and a little tiny dent for it to fit into. Absolutely zero structural integrity at all, and I could not get just the right amount of glue nor hold it just perfectly still enough to ever set firm. Similarly for her right arm - even though I was able to get it into place the glue wasn’t cooperating. I suspect I had just gotten too much there - when the nozzle of the glue bottle is BIGGER than the small area of metal you want to join, well. One huge mess after another. Fortunately, I was wearing gloves. This particular joint is so small, I’m not even sure it could be pinned. The diameter of the arm is, at MOST, 1/16“. That means a 1/32” drill bit. Ooof.
So I ended up trying the green stuff out as a pure adhesive. I’m not sure if I mixed it right or not, but we’ll see how it goes. It was still pliable this morning, so I may still yet have some work on those joints to do.
Green stuff is pretty neat shit, actually. Works like play-doh. I figured out all on my own it’s much easier to work if you keep it wet - doesn’t stick so much to my gloved fingers. I read today it’s overall stickiness is gone in about 5 minutes or so, making it much easier to work with after.
Assuming I can get the assembly wrapped up I will be giving these guys a nice bath with a bit of water and a toothbrush. I learned today that talcum powder is used to get the metal out of the molds, and I wouldn’t expect that stuff to do a real good job of keeping the primer attached to the model. I just hope the glue holds relatively well :)
Since this is my first time out I fully expect to have things break and come apart and so forth as I go - that’s the whole point really. Need to have some experience in this.
In the bad news front - ALL of my fucking paints dried out. Granted, they’d been left in a box in the garage for going on 3 years - but damn, what a thing to discover. Some $60 worth of paint now in little cubes in the garbage can. So that will be a bit of a bear to replace. I will probably do what my friend Roy did, and just snag the starter box of 6 colors used by the Circle and perhaps augment with a bottle or two of metals. Before I paint any of the game pieces I’ll probably do one or two “practice” models from the vast supply of miniatures I bought but never painted. Might as well get some new brushes while I’m at it as well. However, I’m hopeful I’ll have at least an assembled force to field this Wednesday. I’ve made my first pass through the rules, now I need to write up my own summary to increase my understanding :) There are definitely some subtleties in them, though nothing too bad. Just little niggling details that are nonetheless important.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Hordes!
Now for a real update :)
I’ve made the call - and went with Hordes as my chosen side on the WarMachine vs. Hordes discussion trail. My first starter box is the Circle Orobos, which features Kaya as the Warlock, two Argus’s (two headed wolves), and a Warpwolf. Should be a hoot :) going to be some new challenges for me in the way of assembly - particularly since most of the assembly points will not stand on their own, so I need to figure out some way to hold little pieces of metal together while glue dries. Thus far to support this part of the hobby I’ve snagged a set of small hobby files and a set of clay shaping tools to handle the green stuff manipulation. I’m hoping to find some time this week to try my hand at some hard core assembly action. Otherwise I’m slowly working my way through the rule book. I had Tony and Ross out to try the game - Ross is unsure, I think, but Tony wasn’t too keen on the prospect of painting little bits of metal and then moving them around a fake playscape :)
Father’s day was a great success - in addition to a great steak dinner my wife bought me BOTH Metroid Prime 3 AND Endless Ocean. I’m holding off on starting on Metroid just now (as I’m wrapping up the first installment of the Halo series - sorry, while I may play them I refuse to link to Micro$oft’s products because I’m an opinionated bastard), I did have some downtime this weekend (due to a sprained ankle) to get in some serious Ocean time. And that game is just blasted awesome - if swimming around doing literally nothing but looking at stuff is awesome to you :) I like it, anyway. There is zero rush or pressure to do shit, and you basically have this vast aquarium to amble around in. There are just two things to worry about: not swimming too far from the boat (which leads to you forcibly returning to it), and running out of air (which, also, leads to you forcibly returning to it). That’s it. I’ve interacted with some 6-8 different sharks, one of which is known to attack humans - with no issues. I swam around a humpback whale without getting clobbered by his tail flukes. I’ve handled puffer fish without getting poked. Etc :) Even cave diving is übersafe: If you get lost, just hit the “return to boat” option and try again. The game is pure genius, and a collector’s wet dream. Each creature (and there are hundreds) have 3 pages of information to unlock (all trivial stuff that can be found on wikipedia, of course), plus there are small salvage items to find (sparklies on the ocean floor) and pseudo-minigames (take a picture of this, lead this other diver to that) to do - but all optional. The entire measure of “progress” really is just how many different fish you find, some new clothing options, and getting all the necessary special diving equipment to go night diving and deep diving. To top it off you can connect with a buddy and go on partner dives. The controls are butt-simple, requiring only the wiimote. I file this under the “must have” category if for no other reason than how well they did the game.
One likely-to-be-acquired title for the PS3 - Burnout: Paradise City. This is just a fun little game that I’ve played the demo of and then recently watched a bit over at a friend’s place. Basically the concept is you are a car (well, “in” a car perhaps, but there are no pedestrians and no visible drivers - so you are basically just a car) living in a city. Nearly every intersection has some kind of “event” - a pure race, or a “marked man” event where you have to outrun folks trying to wreck you, or another event type in which you are trying to wreck as many other cars as possible, etc, supports online multiplayer racing, and generally just kicks ass in the fun department. As both I and my daughter find this sort of thing fun, it’s a likely contender for the “to buy after Rockband” portion of the gaming budget.
I’ve made the call - and went with Hordes as my chosen side on the WarMachine vs. Hordes discussion trail. My first starter box is the Circle Orobos, which features Kaya as the Warlock, two Argus’s (two headed wolves), and a Warpwolf. Should be a hoot :) going to be some new challenges for me in the way of assembly - particularly since most of the assembly points will not stand on their own, so I need to figure out some way to hold little pieces of metal together while glue dries. Thus far to support this part of the hobby I’ve snagged a set of small hobby files and a set of clay shaping tools to handle the green stuff manipulation. I’m hoping to find some time this week to try my hand at some hard core assembly action. Otherwise I’m slowly working my way through the rule book. I had Tony and Ross out to try the game - Ross is unsure, I think, but Tony wasn’t too keen on the prospect of painting little bits of metal and then moving them around a fake playscape :)
Father’s day was a great success - in addition to a great steak dinner my wife bought me BOTH Metroid Prime 3 AND Endless Ocean. I’m holding off on starting on Metroid just now (as I’m wrapping up the first installment of the Halo series - sorry, while I may play them I refuse to link to Micro$oft’s products because I’m an opinionated bastard), I did have some downtime this weekend (due to a sprained ankle) to get in some serious Ocean time. And that game is just blasted awesome - if swimming around doing literally nothing but looking at stuff is awesome to you :) I like it, anyway. There is zero rush or pressure to do shit, and you basically have this vast aquarium to amble around in. There are just two things to worry about: not swimming too far from the boat (which leads to you forcibly returning to it), and running out of air (which, also, leads to you forcibly returning to it). That’s it. I’ve interacted with some 6-8 different sharks, one of which is known to attack humans - with no issues. I swam around a humpback whale without getting clobbered by his tail flukes. I’ve handled puffer fish without getting poked. Etc :) Even cave diving is übersafe: If you get lost, just hit the “return to boat” option and try again. The game is pure genius, and a collector’s wet dream. Each creature (and there are hundreds) have 3 pages of information to unlock (all trivial stuff that can be found on wikipedia, of course), plus there are small salvage items to find (sparklies on the ocean floor) and pseudo-minigames (take a picture of this, lead this other diver to that) to do - but all optional. The entire measure of “progress” really is just how many different fish you find, some new clothing options, and getting all the necessary special diving equipment to go night diving and deep diving. To top it off you can connect with a buddy and go on partner dives. The controls are butt-simple, requiring only the wiimote. I file this under the “must have” category if for no other reason than how well they did the game.
One likely-to-be-acquired title for the PS3 - Burnout: Paradise City. This is just a fun little game that I’ve played the demo of and then recently watched a bit over at a friend’s place. Basically the concept is you are a car (well, “in” a car perhaps, but there are no pedestrians and no visible drivers - so you are basically just a car) living in a city. Nearly every intersection has some kind of “event” - a pure race, or a “marked man” event where you have to outrun folks trying to wreck you, or another event type in which you are trying to wreck as many other cars as possible, etc, supports online multiplayer racing, and generally just kicks ass in the fun department. As both I and my daughter find this sort of thing fun, it’s a likely contender for the “to buy after Rockband” portion of the gaming budget.
MacJournal Test
Today I’m attempting to see if I can use a new tool, MacJournal 5, to upload blogs to blogger. Required a bit of manual setup, and I have no clue if I did it right or not :)
And now to see if I can re-enable adult settings . . . .
And now to see if I can re-enable adult settings . . . .
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Hordes/Warmachine HO
So last night I managed to rope two buddies into another trip to Dragon's Lair to check out WarMachines. I played Hordes last time I was there, time to try the other side :) Tony was not terribly interested in the game, Ross is a little higher on the maybe scale but didn't say much one way or the other. Tony and I played a nearly full game under the able tutelage of Will, the fellow who played me last time I was there. We ran a Cryx vs. Menoth starter box game. I had a good time :) The first move is always the scariest - plus WarMachine features something called an "arcnode", whereby most of your 'jacks can actually serve as the origin point for spells from the warcaster. All that verbiage basically means most of your models can function to dramatically extend the range of your caster.
I had a moment of minor success when I used a spell on my warcaster to put myself safely behind a wall on the turn right before Will was going to coach Tony to charge her. She was just looking too vulnerable to me so I hit upon the idea of sticking her in a cave, basically. Great success!
The flavor of Hordes and Warmachines are different - at my first glance, there is a lot more pre-planning and a lot less seat of the pants action in Warmachines than Hordes. As I rather like a bit of seat of the pants stress, I've opted to begin this hobby in earnest as a Hordes player. I chose The Circle of Orobos as my first faction to explore - they are headed up by druids, and have a very nature-based theme, with most of their warbeasts being some flavor of wolf, or a wood and stone construct.
$108 later I'm the happy owner of some Green Stuff (epoxy putty), super glue equivalent, a rule book, and a starter box. Not too shabby :) next stop: assembly!
I had a moment of minor success when I used a spell on my warcaster to put myself safely behind a wall on the turn right before Will was going to coach Tony to charge her. She was just looking too vulnerable to me so I hit upon the idea of sticking her in a cave, basically. Great success!
The flavor of Hordes and Warmachines are different - at my first glance, there is a lot more pre-planning and a lot less seat of the pants action in Warmachines than Hordes. As I rather like a bit of seat of the pants stress, I've opted to begin this hobby in earnest as a Hordes player. I chose The Circle of Orobos as my first faction to explore - they are headed up by druids, and have a very nature-based theme, with most of their warbeasts being some flavor of wolf, or a wood and stone construct.
$108 later I'm the happy owner of some Green Stuff (epoxy putty), super glue equivalent, a rule book, and a starter box. Not too shabby :) next stop: assembly!
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