Category: Miniatures

Stuff (mostly Dark Souls)

So last night I continued the Dark Souls addiction and beat the GAPING DRAGON which is one of the scariest mofo’s in the game (so far)– an absolute fucking triumph of monster design by any measure. I had my bonfire Kindled (10 health potions), I’m in human form (not for long!) and I had upgraded my armor as much as I can possibly afford at the moment (all the shit around the first bell church drop titanite BTW), I bought 2 Uncurse stones in case I ran afoul of the cursing frog things on the way to the boss, AND to cover my ass, I spent my 10K souls I had lying around on leveling up (you do not need to level up much in the game from what I’ve read) so if I get killed my soul-pile will be small.  I also switched out my chain leggings for some leather pants so I can move quicker.  With some of the bosses you can’t block their attacks effectively so there’s no reason to go in there armoured up.  It took me three tries to beat him.  The first one I just got sloppy and got killed, the second one I was running away from his acid spill attack and fell off a cliff (embarrassing) and  for the last one I had help from another human player instead of one of the CPU phantoms you can grab (only available when human, not hollowed).

It’s taken me a long while to get this far and I think this is the point where you get into the meat of the game.

That said, there are other things going on!

First, there will be an ipad blood bowl game! Cyanide is continuing their BB license usage and coming out with an iPad version of blood bowl this year called Blood Bowl Star Coach. Looks more top down than the current PC version, but still has 3d Models. Should be a blast, though I don’t get ANY iPad time normally at home, I may have to steal it away from the crying children for this.

Dogs

Second, Mouth let me know that while Confrontation is DEAD (and AT-43 for that matter, sniff), the spirit survives  at Cyanide with their acquired license from now defunct Rackham.  While the Confrontation game wasn’t too good, Dogs of War looks like a game where you have a perpetual warband of monstrosities and they gain experience over time– much like Mordheim, Necromunda, Chaos Warbands from the old Realm of Chaos Books.  Looking like something to watch.  Ironically it was the Dogs of War expansion to Confrontation 3 that made me not want to play C3 any more…

Torchlight 2: I still haven’t finished ELITE mode with my Berserker which is sad (but it’s really, really hard on Act 3) but in the news recently is that Runic is still pursuing the MAC version of the game– but there is no timeline and no release date.  While I love the game and it is superior in every way to Diablo 3 (except the sound which in D3 is amazing) if I pre-purchased it on MAC I would be pretty fucking cheesed off by now (matt).

 

Gencon 2013 prep

Gencon, a whirlwind of a day and a half (usually) of everything gaming– you really feel like you are at the center of the gaming world for a weekend and in a lot of ways, you are.  We’re going to have D&D NEXT on display, lots of stuff from Fantasy Flight, Ascension tournaments, a Shadowfist expansion around (for kickstarter people and lord knows whatever else is there for exposition and purchase.

This year I’m heading down Friday to hit the “Classic” Shadowfist tournament and there will be a ton of Wisconsin folks in there (by ton, I mean 6 or 7) expats and current residents of the horrible Walker “please international business, rape my state” regime.

Fist aside, I’d like to get in some games of Seasons, try out some miniature gaming (likely hit the AWESOME Bolt Action tables they had last year) and with Mouth, Matt and Fryburger all being at the con, this should be fairly legendary.

One thing about Gencon is that it’s very much what you make it.  You could walk around and around the vendor hall the whole weekend and feel lonely and fat and just overwhelmed with all the shit there for sale and all the fucking people talking, but the real deal is getting in and playing games you’ve never tried before, playing with friends you see only once a year and talking shit about various nerds and their hobbies.  Oh and drinking and ripping on star wars and getting fat.

List of stuff I’m looking for and going to play:

Various Dark Elf warhammer bits

Another box or two of On the Edge core

Lamentations of the Flame Princes modules (Fuck for Satan, the God that Crawls and Better than Any Man especially)

Visit Bully Pulpit and tell them Carolina Death Crawl is an awesome game.

Exalted – pester them about 3rd edition and then stand around and talk to my players about the 2nd edition campaign we haven’t touched for years but all jones for (except the combat)

Play some Cortex or FATE (to make sure we are doing it right)

Play some Lamentations of the Flame Princess (i.e. OD&D)

Beyond the Gates of Antares – new Rick Priestley sci fi miniatures game on Kickstarter soon

Some good painting there.

Well this is unexpected and pretty big news. I figured all the Ex-GW that went over to Warlord game would stick to the historical stuff as to not compete directly. Certainly Hail Caesar and Bolt Action are considered to be both excellent games but by the fact that they are historical, probably don’t appeal to the mass of gamers like 40K does.  Well the, why not try to take on their former masters with what looks to be a 30MM Sci Fi skirmish game called Beyond the Gates of Antares.

Given where 40K went after 2nd edition (that also fueled Necromunda) I was completely off the wagon.  While I have a small Eldar army and various sundries collected over the years, I have had no desire at all to play 40k, even 6th edition.  I believe GW has the skills to make  a great ruleset as evident by Warhammer Fantasy 8th, they did not go far enough with 6th edition to turn it back into something I’d be interested in playing.

That said, BOLT ACTION’s rules are pretty much exactly what people want out of a game– not too heavy, not too light, with impulse driven iniative rather than the fatal (in 40K’s current scale) IGOYOUGO mechanic.  I expect the new game to be similar.  They were on to something GOOD with AT43– it just didn’t work out well at the end due to balancing the armies out.  I will be throwing some cash at this kickstarter for the single reason that the rulebook will likely kick total ass if Rogue Trader is any indication.

Here is the link.

40K second edition!

While a huge proponent of Warhammer Fantasy Battle 8th edition, I am not and have not been a fan of the rules for 40K for a long time– since 1996 or so actually.  The last edition I played was 4th–just a one off, but the last edition I played a LOT was 2nd edition from back in 1993.   This is the edition that spawned GW’s new style of boxed games rather than just the big hardback books and miniatures.  The plastics were crap, but the rules are IMO the best and were used in both 40K, Necromunda and Gorkamorka: at testament to the strength of the platform.  Subsequent versions of 40K, while solving the “herohammer” problem 2nd edition definitely has, added in the less desirable ” every game is just a mob of infantry in close combat in the middle” and “my entire army was destroyed by ordinance because I didn’t roll well for the first turn” issues that I just couldn’t abide.

So we got a game in of 2nd edition last night and it was good fun, while I prefer EPIC from this era, 40k is much faster to set up and play than the 6mm behemoth.  Thousand points of Marines vs Eldar (and there weren’t many marines for that point value for sure).   The game played fast and the rules, dusty as they were, played SOLID.   It mattered where the individual models were on the table and what weapons they had and what sort of cover they had– and while there was some close combat, it was not the defining factor of the game.   Here’s a shot of the predator vs Avatar with Blind grenade spots roaming around.  Needless to say, with tons of chances to hurt the Avatar with shooting, the Predator did not hold up once the king of the Eldar got into close combat with it.

note the beaky marines from 1987 ladies!

Genconing 2012

I was a bit on the mend so decided to drive down to Gencon Friday and see what for. I got to indy about 4PM and had only a couple hours to wander around before the main hall (the MONEY SUCKING HALL) closed. Before I even got in there BAM right in front of me was the BOLT ACTION demo area with an amazing Riechstag set up and a bunch of other boards. Sat around talking about it for awhile but the demos were full– then ran into the MONEY SUCKING hall before it closed up and bought a couple things, but didn’t take the bite on the Bolt Action deals (yet). Wandering around after the hall closed sucked as I couldn’t find anyone I knew so I wandered into a showing of Trailer Park JESUS. Not sure about it but it killed time and featured a girl with breasts that started at the lowest level of the chest that I’ve ever seen.

Got up Saturday morning and played Shadowfist, and Shadowfist, and Shadowfist.. and a demo of Bolt Action and that was it.  I took third in the yearly invitational using one of Mouth’s decks but didn’t make the final in the world championship.  All good though as I got at least 9 games in.

Bolt Action plays like a combination of AT-43 and Epic 40K and I dig it and dumped 100$ in to get some figs and the rulebook.   While I didn’t spend a lot of time shopping,  I did get some finds in the hall– not as many as I’d like to have picked up, but solid stuff.  No more Crazy Egor but plenty of other places that have gaming trash for cheap.

Stuff I saw of interest:

  • Fantasy Flight was rocking– big game was Netrunner which I will eventually pick up, but no rush.  They demo’ed the prototype of RELIC– the 40K Talisman game and it looked OK.
  • Confrontation Phoenix edition was on display and I listened in for a bit but didn’t get a demo.  While the miniatures are great, they have some work to do consolidating the rules from 3.0 to 3.5.  Great highly detailed miniatures game that I would love to see ‘alive’ again in the 3.5 form as opposed to the simplified mass produced version.
  • Forgeworld at the Con.  I mistakenly thought it was Games Workshop returning after many many years, but it was Forgeworld–who has never been to Gencon before.  They were showing off their awesome stuff and with 40K 6th edition out, that was the focus. They did have the Chaos Dwarf army in full effect for 8th edition.
  • Not much for D&D.  There was an area, but it was pretty toned down.  Cool Drow strider sculpture but other than that– nothing on the impending 5th edition that I saw at all.
  • In contrast, Pathfinder everywhere.  That brand is hugely on the rise, not just for PNP roleplaying, but spreading out to everything else.
  • The new Fate core version was around but I didn’t get into any demo’s of it.
  • The new Marvel RPG was huge, but they had these little demo tables and the entire table was covered with dice dice dice. I was pretty silly.  You play the game with no screen for the DM so it can work, but it was funny to see.   While the rulebook is pretty economical, the first campaign book is pricey and huge.  While I’ve gushed about the initiative system, I’m not sure the dice mechanic is all that great overall.
  • No White Wolf.  Sadly I didn’t even find the White Wolf booth and didn’t even know if there was one.  So no perusing the Exalted books or asking questions about it.  I don’t think there’s much to tell there since version 2.5.
Relic prototype

Shadowfist of interest:

  • Dragons + Lotus is still the best combo of factions FTW
  • Great Walls were everywhere, so even less reason to play straight Ascended.  If you hit a front site in a tournament, it’s going to be the Great Wall.
  • Monarchs were everywhere  (as usual with all the love they’ve been getting in sets)
  • There were no Ascended decks in the tournaments at all
  • Syndicate still did nothing (but at least people played the faction)
  • I played against a very good Jammers deck a couple times.  It had some glaring weak spots, but wasn’t the usual shite you usually get from Jammers.
Some inconsistent basing in effect