The Ritual

So, sorry that I missed last week. Busy times, what with work and Christmas and moving out... 

... Oh, right, I'm moving out. Yeah... 

... Aaaanyway, moving in, bit of fluff today, follow-up to the Retiring a character post. Not exactly long, but the most I could manage. Hope you enjoy it, and cheers for reading. 

Volodanti out. 

Epsilus stared across the gathered throng; a dozen champions of the dark gods from across the galaxy, near half of them here due to his actions, freed from the tyranny of the Imperium by his hand.

How he hated them.

It was ironic that in spite of personally leading them into so-called “heresy”, he much preferred their character before their fall. Koron had been a stalwart defender of the weak, M’kor a noble duelist, Lucinius a fine commander. And look at them now, no less slaves to a false god, though one of their own choosing, but lacking any positive aspects of their former selves.

“Welcome, and thank you,” Epsilus intoned, breaking the silence, “With your help today, I shall free myself of a curse that has plagued me for eight millennia.”

Epsilus had expected some small response, even if it were just a snide interjection from Kappius. Instead, he barrelled ahead, laying his cards on the table.

“Over the millennia, I have recruited four of you to my cause. Some directly, others I simply guided once you threw off the shackles of oppression. You all knew that a reckoning would come; when you would repay my kindness. I am pleased to say that time has come. We stand now upon the ground where I first caught the eye of a foul trickster. We will now enact a ritual whereby its foul mark shall forever be exercised from my being, and I shall rip my soul back from its foul talons.”

Some eyebrows rose at that, though the room remained quiet bar some muttering. Epsilus motioned toward Kappius, the sorcerer hovering a few inches above the ground, and took a breath.

++ COMMANDER ++ the vox-bead in his helmet crackled, the rune for one of his sentries flashing upon his auto-senses ++ENEMY APPROACHING. AWAITING RESPONSE ++

Epsilus ground his teeth in frustration, quickly considering the situation. The ritual could not be delayed, but he'd planned for such an eventuality. He motioned to the few present not required for the ritual.

“Theton, Zetum, Estragor. We have enemies en route. Do what you can to delay them, we need every moment you can spare.”

Two of them saluted, one sneered, but the trio left, already gathering their forces. Epsilus turned back to the sorcerer, nodding his head in impatience.

“Kappius, you know what is required. Direct the disciples, and begin the exorcism. We have little time…”

Knights of Crown

Alright, first off - sorry this is a day late. Was out at a reunion yesterday, and forgot to post before leaving. So... my bad.

Second, I'm involved in a new Tale of Many Gamers, and am actually attempting to meet the goals. So far, I've failed, but only just; the parts for my character didn't arrive until the deadline, and by the time I fiddled them around, took apart old things for parts, and finally got them together, I was a day late. So, I'm just gonna have to do better next time.

So, what'd I paint? Well... Empire Knights. Yes, as in Warhammer Fantasy Empire Knights. See, it's a Tale of SIGMore Gamers (that is not my joke, though I wish it was...), and I decided to use it as an opportunity to paint up my old Empire models. Originally, with the intention of getting them good enough to sell off, but I think I might keep them around...

... anyway, bit of background - when I went to paint them, originally, I couldn't decide on what Order to paint them as; being from Wissenland, they weren't going to be Reiksguard or Knights of the White Wolf. I didn't really want to paint panther pelts all over the place either, so that cut out one of the choices, and while my General (who had fought as a mercenary in the south) may have leanings towards Knights of the Blazing Sun, they're based in Talabheim, and yellow is a right bitch to paint. So, that cut out the major orders...

... so, I was wondering over the conundrum while reading a series called the Riyria Revelations, when I happened upon an order of Knights dedicated to finding the lost heir to the Empire, and crowning him/her. This seemed... well, pretty perfect. So, I quite shamelessly stole their colour (black armour with bronze trim, over red cloth) and their sigil (a broken crown) and made them my own. An order of nobles from the former province of Solland, dedicated to raising an heir to the throne and fighting alongside descendants of the old court.

And with that, well... here they are. My first month's unit. Only five men, yes, but still... I like them. I think the black-and-brass armour looks quite impressive, and the red adds a quite nice contrast... look, I'm not saying they're amazing, but I'll take tabletop quality.

Volodanti out.

Retiring a character

So, This is not what I had planned - even slightly - but there's a pretty decent reason for that. So, I've painted a couple models recently, and have some fluff needs posting as a follow up to the last post, and have a bit of a blast from the past to write about... but last night I ended up having a conversation with one of my mates as I dropped him off, and it kinda linked to something else I've been considering for a while. Which I kinda spoiled in the post name:

Retiring a character.

You may remember a while ago - last year, I believe - when I spoke about my aversion to killing off characters unnecessarily? I mean, that's not really any less true now than it was then, but this is a slightly different point.

Killing off a character just to add drama, I feel, adds nothing to a plot other than an attempt to be edgy. I find Game of Thrones is actually a pretty good example of this - while it has received a lot of flak for unexpectedly killing off well-loved characters, when you actually pay attention, every death occurs due to their own actions; for example (SPOILERS) Ned Stark dies because he trusts others to be as honourable as himself, even those who have already shown themselves to be anything but. Ha, you thought it'd be something recent, didn't you? Well, no - I haven't read the spoilers for the next season. Cos SPOILers SPOIL things, and I don't want to spoil something I enjoy. Which is perfectly valid, and I'm quite open to such an occurrence.

I'm getting off topic though, cos this isn't about killing characters - well, it can be - this is about retiring characters. What's the difference? Well, killing a character occurs when you want that character to take part in the story going forwards, whereas retiring a character occurs when you feel that the individual has added all that they can.

Maybe they're completed their goal - if you're playing an rpg as a thief who is looking for one last score to retire on, it makes perfect sense for them to quit as soon as they have the money they need. Maybe they'll hang on to tie up the current adventure, or tie up a couple loose ends, but unless you want to change their motivation, they really oughta buy an estate somewhere and retire.
Or, perhaps they've just finished their story? Which, often means completing their goal, but isn't necessarily. If you remember Elyas from my Iron Kingdom adventures, his goal was to free his homeland from invaders, and quit the army because (in his mind) they weren't doing anything to help. Did he ever achieve his goal? Well, no - the invaders left, but he had nothing to do with it. His arc was not about achieving his goal, it was about loosing his innocence. One of his allies died because he was trying to be nice, and he was forced to kill someone he deeply respected because he couldn't make a tough decision.
... admittedly, we stopped playing soon after because of work, but in retrospect, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
The other reason to retire a character is, perhaps, the simplest; you're bored of them. Maybe you played them for a while and fancy a change, maybe you've put them down for a bit and come back to find them less engaging than when you left them, the reason isn't that important. It happens - people's tastes change over the years, and someone you find innately engaging one day will by no means remain so. I tend to go through phases irregularly, where I find something takes my fullest attention, and then wanes into background noise over a couple months... Or maybe you've tweaked them a little here, a little there, and have reached the situation that they're basically unrecognisable.

Now, here's the thing about retiring a character; it hurts. And, generally, it's not something to be done lightly; you can bring them back (sometimes), but you can't just have them reappear. Realistically, if you finish a campaign, have a character become a local lord, and then set off with someone else, you can't just have them turn up again two weeks later cos you miss them. It's something you have to stick with for a while at least, maybe the length of the campaign, maybe more. Either way, you'll not see them again for a while - longer if you choose to kill them off...
... but that's not always a bad thing. It hurts, because you've put so much time and effort into creating something interesting and fun, and now you've set it down and replaced it with someone else. But just because you don't want to get rid of them, doesn't mean you shouldn't. Sometimes, it's better something ends than does stale. Like a long-running series that starts to run out of ideas, characters can wear thin, and when that happens you can give them a glorious send off, or keep running them into the ground.

... I don't really have a definitive answer here. It's a hard subject, and even just phrasing it is something of a challenge. Maybe I'll come back to his, or perhaps there's nothing more to be said? Well, except for one quote that I find endlessly informative and funny:

"A good story is like a good bowel movement; it's only really satisfying once it's ended."

Volodanti out.

Back to Basics

Alright, so, first things first - I'm sorry this is late. Between a trip to Edinburgh, my Sister going back to Mexico, and training new starters at work, I've not really had the chance to write any posts.

... But, I've a bit of free time, and I've just finished a bit of fluff that is incredibly relevant to this blog. See, it's about Epsilus. More importantly, the Pantheistic Quintumvirate. Y'see, after however many years, I reckon it's finally time to bring his story to a close. Explaining exactly why would take up an entire post, so I'll not bore you with it now - instead, I'll let you have a read, and maybe explain my reasoning later... maybe. Let's see, shall we?

Cheers for being patient, and hope you enjoy.

Volodanti out.

++ SEGMENTUM PACIFICUS SECTOR QUINTILLUS 413.281.057 HYDRA DOMINATUS ++

Estragor’s lip curled as he read the words scrawled upon a sheaf of parchment. He’d found it upon returning to his cell, pinned to his bunk with a combat knife. His room had but a single entrance, guarded constantly by a member of his personal guard, the Atramentar. Few were permitted to enter his private quarters, only himself and the slaves he retained for cleaning and maintenance. He could discount himself, unless the Little Hydra had added Telepathy to his list of talents, and his slaves each had alibies. Not that it had stopped him from flaying the three of them and leaving their still-living bodies on display as a warning to their fellows…

Of course, Estragor mused, it was also possible that Epsilus had managed to secrete some spy or infiltrator within his halls. Well, not Epsilus – one of his aides. The Little Hydra was not half so cunning as he fancied himself.

Still… Estragor let loose something between a sigh and a growl as he activated his comm. link, connecting to the bridge of his vessel.

“Captain Thillus, this is Estragor.  Wake the Navigator, we have a destination, transmitting co-ordinates now.”

+++

++ SEGMENTUM PACIFICUS SECTOR QUINTILLUS 413.281.057 HYDRA DOMINATUS ++

Korak growled, hacking with abandon. It was more of a roar, really, or it had started that way, but after several minutes without reprieve, even his third lung was close to spent. Likewise, the corpses of the Imperial Colonel and his unit were barely recognisable as living, never mind human. His chainaxe was near clean, the friction and movement clearing the blood from the teeth is not the casing, and his armour was already covered with such gore that wading through a literal pool of offal would have little or no effect. But throughout it all, on a loop, came the summons.

Korak raged against the Hydra, against the galaxy, against Khorne itself, but the message repeated. The Alpha Legionnaire had somehow managed to patch into the Imperial Vox frequency, and set the coordinates to cover all other chatter, knowing that Korak would eventually find it. There was perhaps, some small part of Korak, well hidden beneath rage and bloodlust, that felt a sense of appreciation for the amount of effort required… but if it even existed, it was silenced by Korak’s madness.

Eventually, the growls abated, the axe ceased waving, and Korak returned to his ship. He’d attend the meeting, take his part in what followed, and then be done with that warp-cursed champion… though who survived his departure was still very much a question to be answered.

+++

++ SEGMENTUM PACIFICUS SECTOR QUINTILLUS 413.281.057 HYDRA DOMINATUS ++

Verfallan Taras stared at the words in confusion. Not confusion as to the meaning – it was, after all, quite succinct in its message. He was more confused as to how someone had managed to carve it onto the inside of the barricade. Patrols passed this way with a precision to frequency that his cursed gene-father had cursed them with. Even after ten millennia as loyal servants of Grandfather Nurgle, the men of the Fists of Decay were still as reliable as when they had served the foolish Corpse Emperor.

Which led to the question – how, precisely, had someone managed to carve a message such as this in plain view of those Astartes patrolling the walls? It was perhaps possible that one may have missed him – after all, it was their duty to watch for threats outside the compound, but given the length of the message at least three separate Fists must have passed by whilst it was being written. And who knew how many would have passed before the Astartes next to him had noticed it? Taras frowned slightly, more in bemusement than actual distress.

“Milord?” The Aspiring Champion prompted him. He was the leader of the unit assigned with the night’s watch. Taras spared him a glance, just one, before casually backhanding him with enough force to launch his corpse cartwheeling through the air. He heard a thump as the body connected with something behind him, followed soon after by a putrid stench as the bloated corpse burst, but Taras paid it no attention, instead turning to the unit’s second.

“You, Wylhem. Clear this graffiti now. I have work to do.”

+++

++ SEGMENTUM PACIFICUS SECTOR QUINTILLUS 413.281.057 HYDRA DOMINATUS ++

Thaw paused in the act of flaying the man. His face already hung against his chest, split neatly down the spine, and Thaw had hoped to turn it into a uniform for his future servants to wear – preferably sewn into the macabre suit. It was, after all, beautiful; the man had been blessed by The Dark Prince with perfect skin; unblemished by scar or mole or any other imperfection. It was the skin of a god; a perfect form that age would eventually ruin. Indeed, the reason for today’s activity was that he had found a wrinkle upon the man’s brow when he frowned, and Thaw realised that, eventually, such beauty would be lost to the Galaxy. It was his duty, as a Champion of the Prince of Excess, to ensure that such a travesty never came to pass.

But his was interrupted; the harsh, multifaceted lighting reduced to a plain white glow, and discordant tones reduced to a monotonous repetition. Thaw could even hear the slave’s piteous whimpering; the wet sucking of breath from between bloody lips convincing him that clearly the man was unfit to wear such beautiful skin. But, that was a matter for a different time; for now, he had to return to the serenity of utter sensory bombardment that he might finish his divine task.

“Ullanor,” he purred, speaking to his second, currently at the helm of his raider, “would you kindly take us to the coordinates that are so rudely interrupting my work?”

“I exist to serve…” Even the emotionless vox failed to slough the honey from his words. As he felt the Warp engines power up, the clashing colours of the strobe lights returned, as did the screeching of man and instrument, and Thaw sighed in contentment, once more raising his blade.

+++

++ SEGMENTUM PACIFICUS SECTOR QUINTILLUS 413.281.057 HYDRA DOMINATUS ++

Dresdae lifted an eyebrow – or the scarred mass where his eyebrow once sat – as he considered the message he’d received. An aide had brought it in while he rested, the power scythe he’d been sharpening rested against the side of his throne, the blade arcing over his balding head. It was a simple transmission, just a set of coordinates from an Astartes he’d not seen half a century, but still carried a great weight to it. After all, that was the man who had freed him from the tyranny of the Imperium, and led him into the worship of the Plague Lord… and perhaps equally importantly, a man who sought to free himself from the grip of the Changer of Ways.

Dresdae smiled to himself, though the rotten mask that was once his face hardly shifted as he realised his chance to help another ‘traitor’, and perhaps he might pull him closer into the fold? Unlikely, but by the grace of Grandfather Nurgle, anything was possible.

+++

++ SEGMENTUM PACIFICUS SECTOR QUINTILLUS 413.281.057 HYDRA DOMINATUS ++

Lukas Korodunum paused in the act of driving his Halberd through an Ork’s throat. The Greenskin had proved little challenge, wildly flailing with an oversized chainaxe that was more likely to pose a threat to his allies than his foes. It had taken just three cuts to render the weapon unusable, disembowel the Ork, and drive the thick blade through his foe’s spinal column. Three strokes, and Lukas was ready to move on…

… or he would have been, but for the scrawl on the helm the Ork wore. Hastily scratched into the dull metal, but clear enough now he was up clsoe, it represented a call Lukas had doubted would ever come. It meant a great levelling of the ledgers, and was the one request he could not ignore. Lukas ground his teeth, snarling behind his visor, and ripped the blade free.

“Pull back.” He voxed to his men; an assortment of renegades and traitors, gathered throughout his travels hunting the great beast. It took them a moment to comply; bloodlust and hatred making them loath to ignore a chance to kill their foes where they could be found, but soon they began to disengage, retreating to the dropship. Soon they would return to the Vengeance, and from there set sails to their destination.

+++

++ SEGMENTUM PACIFICUS SECTOR QUINTILLUS 413.281.057 HYDRA DOMINATUS ++

Reen glared at the communique. It had been sent via astropathic-projection to him personally, encoded but easily deciphered. The coordinates were followed by a short message, obviously added by a different source, but no more trustworthy:

“My dear Inquisitor, it seems that a gathering of sorts is to occur. Several warbands are to meet at the coordinates listed, though I am at best on vaguely aware of the reason behind it, but I do know for a fact that the Night Lord Estragor, the Khornate Korak, and the Slaaneshi Thaw shall be in attendance, as hosted by Epsilus of the Alpha Legion.

“I admit, you have little reason to trust me, and many to assume this is a trap. I shall not try to convince you to believe me, but rather offer you this argument; what have you to lose? If I tell the truth, you shall destroy several champions who have plagued your Imperium for millennia, and if I lie you will have time enough to escape before the trap can be sprung.

“Either way, you have before you a unique opportunity before you. I trust you shan’t waste it.

“Verfallen Taras.”

Reen ground his teeth, agonising over the decision for a moment, before releasing a low sigh and activating his comm. link.

“Jensor, summon the Astropaths. I fear none of us shall rest tonight…”

Carving Delay

Right, so... Not a proper post today, sorry. Girlfriend's Birthday today, so we spent the day together, and spent the evening with family, so haven't had a chance to write anything down. I have done some artistic work though, so I'll leave you with that as an apology. And, until tomorrow - Happy Halloween.

Volodanti out

Age of We-Done-a-Fight.

Battle Report Time!

And, would you believe it - I tried Age of Sigmar. A friend and I have been meaning to try it for literally half a year, and we finally decided screw it, let's go. So, we did - off to our LGS we rode, and after setting up a table to be a little hamlet somewhere in Wissenland (I'll be damned if I acknowledge the new setting...) we prepared for a Daemonic invasion.

The game was pretty basic; we used the wounds method of points-keeping, so I had 20 Handgunners, my general Einsammen von Reisenden, and a Witch Hunter known only as the Warden. Meanwhile, my opponent hand 10 Bloodletters, 10 Horrors, a Herald of Tzeentch on a disk, and Skulltaker. After ten minutes or so of actually reading the rules, we decided that we were experts and could figure it out as we went along.

Deployment was simple; I formed a shallow V with Heroes central; allowing for some overlapping fields of fire, and give myself a time for a couple volleys before the eventual charge. My opponent, meanwhile, deployed his forces as a line, with generals at the rear... because if Skulltaker makes it into combat, I am dead.


Turn 1 was, well... pretty dumb. I won priority, so I essentially skipped my turn. Then the daemons moved up, the Horrors killed a Handgunner, and we rolled for priority again.





Alright, Turn 2 went... better? I lost priority, but that wasn't really a problem; just meant that they got a little closer before it was my chance to fire. I lost another Handgunner, but I reckon that was a fair trade for the volley I was soon to unleash. The daemons had now entered my firing range for everyone but the Heroes, so I had a pretty decent shot at dealing some damage... decent shot, poor result though; everyone focused their fire at the Horrors, but I only managed three kills total, before I ran out of bullets. Still, I was up by one kills, and raring for the next round.


I lost priority this round, but was rather lucky in most regards. The Horrors chose to buff the Bloodletters rather than shoot, and the Herald missed both his shots at the Witch Hunter (truly, he is the bane of all sorcerers). The Bloodletters meanwhile moved up to 3" away, psyched themselves up, and... rolled a double 1 on their charge. Which was a ridiculous boon to me, and an absolute gobsmack to my opponent.
So, my turn, daemons are slavering in my face, and I don't wanna abandon my position, so I go on the offensive. Realising that a) the Herald could cause some serious damage to my line, and b) I had a literal Witch Hunter to counter his witch, I moved my Heroes forward, before unleashing a fusillade of lead upon the encroaching horde, massively thinning their numbers. I followed this by charging my Heroes into their Herald of Tzeentch. In the end, General Einsammen von Reisenden and the Warden managed to cause three wounds between the pair of them. So, that was fun.

Turn 4, and I go first. I decide that it's probably best to polish off the Horrors, so the Handgunners put down the last of the beasts before moving on to the Bloodletters, while the Warden felled the Herald with his silver bullets. Then, growing over-confident, I decide to charge them into Skulltaker, guessing that the two of them - one of whom is built to take Daemons - will be able to finish him and then move to flank the 'letters. So, imagine their surprise when they quite literally bounce off him, leaving my line open and my heroes exposed.

So, as was expected, the letters charged, and actually connected this time. My counter-volley reduced their number to just 5, but they were easily capable of killing almost as many in the ensuing melee. Skulltaker, meanwhile, took a skull - killing the Warden before we even resolved regular wounds.

Alright, so to cut a long story short, I'll explain what happened over the next couple turns; Skulltaker killed Einsammen without suffering damage, while the Bloodletter slowly ground their way through the Handgunners. I actually managed to deal some damage to Skulltaker through shooting, but not enough for it to be relevant, and eventually the last of my arm turned and fled the field of battle.

... To be honest, I don't  really blame them. Their leader grew hubristic and decided that he could out-melee Skulltaker, rather than pulling back and peppering him with lead... by which I mean, I was a tit, and did a dumb.



.... Still though, a good game. Surprisingly good. Worryingly good... worrying because it was meant ot be a last farewell to my Empire before I put them up for sale... and now I'm in talks to by some more cannons. Such is life on Volg.

Anyway, surprisingly good game, and kinda sad I didn't try it earlier. The fluff is still dumb, but the rules are at least pretty decent, so if you've models left over from 8th Warhammer Fantasy... well, I'd advise you to give it a try. And then tell me how it went... if you can. Regardless, hope you've enjoyed this report, and I'll have something else up for you again soon enough... well, probably in a fortnight.

Volodanti out.

Post-PreRelease on Kaladesh

It went exactly as you would guess, if you've been paying attention to my track record. And for those who haven't;

Hey there, welcome to Musings of a Nerd! I went 2-and-2.

Jokes aside, it was a good day. Surprisingly full too; 26 players in total, which is quite a lot more than I've grown used to. Bit cramped, but all the better for it. The extra players, not the lack of room, that is...

... anyway, yeah -Kaladesh PreRelease. And before you ask - no, I didn't pull a Masterwork. Planeswalker and a Legendary though, so that cool. Dovin Baan is pretty ridiculous in a control shell, and Kambal is just mean. Which oughta give you an inclination of where I went - Esper represent! Now if I can just go Grixis in the Aether Revolt, I'll have the bad part of Alara sorted. Where was I? Esper, right.
I was tempted by Jeskai actually. I drew a couple Izzet and Boros cards, along with the fast-lands for those colours. Which was almost too good to be true; almost perfect mana fixing for a splash of red. Unfortunately, my red was... Well, pretty disappointing on the whole. One or two alright cards, and then the quality dropped sharply, and I didn't have anywhere near enough blue or white cards to make up for it. Plus, my black was strong;  Not amazing, but strong.

I'm not gonna tell you my deck yet for reasons that will become apparent soon enough, so for the moment;

ROUND ONE: Rakdos Rush.
Yeah, this was pretty ham. First game was over pretty quick, since he popped down Smugglers Copter turn 2 and there's not much that I can do about that. Almost stabilised somewhere around turn 5, but his deck was full of removal, and with the Copter looting each turn he always had the best cards for the job.
Second game went a little better; I kept a bad hand, but he was a little mana-screwed, so I made it a couple turns in before he got the copter down, and...

ROUND TWO: Sultai Slams.
This went better? On the downside, I still lost, but having a mid-range opponent meant that it wasn't an uphill battle from the off. I actually got in a couple hits on him early with cheap weanies, but as the games wore on he'd stabilise, and then I lacked any real bombs. Both matches ended with us both in single-digit life totals, so at least there's that.

... And now between rounds, a moment of true beauty. My opponent offered to help me 're-tool my deck. We took out some meh cards, refocused the themes, and added an absolute bomb. And I ended up with the following:

Dovin Baan; Kambal, Consul of Allocation; Cloudblazer; Glint-Sleeve Artisan; Aerial Responder; 3 Skyswirl Harrier; Fairgrounds Warden; Captured by the Consulate (promo); Wind Drake; 2 Malfunction; Thriving Turtle; Marionette Master; 2 Die Young; Tidy Conclusion; Lawless Broker; Bastion Mastadon; Glassblower's Puzzleknot; 2 Self-Assembler; Aether Hub; 6 Plains; 5 Island; 5 Swamp.

ROUND THREE: Mirror Mayhem
This was straight ham. Game one lasted less than five minutes; hand full of blue gas and no Islands in sight. Didn't really get to see each other's decks, so we were basically going in blind for second match.
Which was kinda the reverse; he flooded out, and I killed him without looking more than 5 life. Did get to meet his Dovin Baan though, which was kinda interesting...
And then the most intense game of the day. Seriously, it was ridiculous; bounce and destruction, pacifisms and punishers all over. By the end, I had 3 life, he had 2 and I had a Wind Drake. That is how close it was.

ROUND FOUR: Izzet Instabilities
So, this was probably the second quickest round. He had a pretty decent deck, but... nothing too amazing. Well, no - he had that 11 drop construct, but never got it out. Saheeli came to play, but I finally resolved Dovin and by that point it was pretty apparent that we were all better served spending counters than building up for an Ultimate. In the end I eked out a win due to flyers a turn before he could kill me.
Game two... Well, I played Kambal and Dovin on curve, and he pyro-helixed himself in the face just to end it quicker.

So, all in all, a good experience. I placed 12/11th in the end, best of my group, and won two packs. Plus, I made a sweet Bant deck out of that and some SOI&EMN cards, so really I can't complain.

Kaladesh certainly gets my approval anyway, and I hope this post gets yours. Cheers for taking the time to read it.

Volodanti out.

Deathwatch Commeth

So, for those of you who don't know... which may be a majority, I'm not great on keeping track of my readers (or, rather, Blogger won't let me access your personal information. Rude huh?)... Some friends and I have decided to start a Deathhulk Campaign, centered around a squad of Deathwatch marines and their investigation of a new and worrisome Xenos threat. Fire Team Crimson, as such units are wont to be named, have recently been assigned to Epsilon Station V; located near the southern border with Tau Space, it has a somewhat humble record, primarily due to the historic lack of Xenos threats in that region. Of course, with the emergence of the Tau, the arrival of the Tyranid Hive Fleets, and this new threat, that may soon change...

So, anyway, we each semi-randomly chose a chapter, made a character, built the model, and repeated. So, we have a team of eight Astartes, ready to prove themselves worthy of their heritage, and bring glory to their Chapters... or mess up completely, and get replaced by a squad of IG with more sense than pauldrons.

... getting back to the point, we needed some fluff to start off this campaign, so here's the opening I wrote. Hope you enjoy, and I'll see you again soon.

Volodanti out.

Seven figures stood arrayed about the desk, mostly silent bar the occasional passage of short conversation. To a man they were huge; even without the thick, onyx armour that covered them from throat to toe, they each stood a good foot above than the tallest of men, and were near twice as broad.
The first wore a loose tabard over his armour, the yellow cloth seeming to offend the grim stoicism of the room. Uniquely amongst those assembled, his left knee, was painted a deep blue, and metal collar rose above his head, almost becoming a hood, though it lacked the size to cast his face in shadow - indeed, his blonde beard seemed all the more vibrant. Upon his right cauldron was a personal icon; a raven's head upon a field of blue.
The next stood lazily, seemingly oblivious to the seriousness of the meeting. Like the others, he wore a suit of black-and-slicer plate, though the insignia upon his shoulder was an axe upon a field of white. Even now he wore a re-breather, connected by a hose to his armour's power plant, thin trails of vapour escaping from the vents. His eyes were a watery green, and a shock of ill-combed hair fell almost to his shoulders.
Beside him stood one of the few to wear a helm; though mask may have been more appropriate, given that it left a shock of black hair and a darkly tanned neck visible beneath. It resembled a man's face, but luridly decorated with colour to describe a painted skull bright colours and simple geometry a stark contrast to the macabre backdrop. The device upon his shoulder could be said to describe a stylised hour glass, a skull centred over it.
Next, a pace or two back, as if frightened to touch his fellows, stood a figure who did little to mask his contempt. He refused any attempt at introduction, preferring instead to cast weary glances about his companions, as if worried they might turn on him any moment. His ebony hair was close cropped, and his shoulder displayed a red talon upon blue.
Next stood a wreck of a man; skin charred, burnt, and blistered in equal measure. His teeth, filed to points, sparked whenever they met, casting light over his device; a clenched, burning fist.
Beside him was a brute of a man, even compared to his fellows. He stood in a suit of terminator warplate, the armour raising him taller even as it forced him into an uncomfortable hunch. His eyes, grey as slate beneath a heavily scarred brow, moved constantly, and every so often one tendon or another would tense involuntary. Upon his shoulder was the image of a chalice; twin swords crossed beneath it, a blood-red drop spilling from the rim.
Finally, stood to be as far from the first as possible, was the only armed figure in the room. His hands rested upon the head of a great maul; stylised as a winged skull, to match the leering deathmask upon his head. He spoke only to the terminator, his voice a clipped whispering, as though afraid another might hear his words. A third skull adorned his pauldron, crowned with a ring of thorns, the paint chipped and uncleaned.
After an interminable period of time; both due to the lack of natural light and the unknowable ebs and flows of time within the Warp, an eight figure entered. He was unhelmed, his crown bald, though a thick moustache linked one temple to the next. Upon his shoulder was the head of a wolf, crimson on black. As he entered, conversation stopped, and he regarded them with a wide grin.
"What ho!" He declared, striding to take his place at the head of the table. "A fine day to meet you. I am Peld, and it is my honour to lead Fire Team Crimson."
He waited a moment, as if to give the chance for a response. When it became clear that none had any such intention, he carried on, enthusiasm unabated.
"I believe it best that we get to know each other somewhat better before we depart this vessel. To that effect..." As he spoke, he tapped away at the screen upon his wrist. A moment after finishing the hololithic projector mounted beneath the desk flicked to life, casting a grainy image before each of them. Facign outwards, and therefore easily legible to their neighbours, was a record of their rank, origin, honours won, actions they had participated in, kill ratio, strengths and more. It was a record they all knew existed, and some might even have accessed, but one that was rarely accessed. Some showed mild interest at the display, but most gave only the most cursory of glances.
"Of course, this is only part of the picture..." Peld's smile slipped just a git, the gaiety gone from his words. "The real reason you are all here is upon this." He held up a small chip for the congregation to see, before inserting it into his wrist-mounted logarithmic engine. He paused a moment, scrolling through the various contents, before tapping a rune. At once the displays before them vanished, instead replaced by a single display in the centre - the head of the Librarian, rotating slowly as a psyche evaluation hovered beside it:
CODICIER SKARLSON; RAVEN'S WATCH. SUFFERS FROM BERSERKER-LIKE INSTABILITY. LOSS OF IMPULSE CONTROL. UNCONTROLLED BLOODLUST.
Many eyes turned to the Librarian of the Raven's Watch, but he paid them no heed, instead glaring at Peld. The veteran spared him a quick glance before activating the next image; the next in line.
BROTHER SIGSUND; MASTERS OF PROTELUS. CHAPTER GENE-SEED UNSTABLE. REQUIRES FREQUENT DOSAGE OF SUPPRESSANTS TO STABILISE. 
He paid the image little head, more interested in the slow rotation of his likeness than the words beside it. Peld shook his head and tapped, replacing the image with that of a stranger, though by the cast of his face he could only be the colourful mourner.
BROTHER EXUZIA; KNIGHTS OF ETERNITY. MARTYR COMPLEX. BORDERLINE SUCICIDAL TENDENCIES. SURVIVOR'S GUILT.
Exuzia regarded his image evenly, neither denying nor acknowledging the claims.
BROTHER DRACHUS; BRAZEN CLAWS. ANTI-SOCIAL TENDENCIES. FREQUENT BOUTS OF INSUBORDINATION. EXCESSIVE HUBRIS.
Drachus ignored the criticisms, not even glancing at the display.
BROTHER 'SMOKE'; FIRE LORDS. SOCIOPATHIC TENDENCIES. REPEATED ARSONIST. PYRO-MASOCHIST.
SERGEANT ARTUR; KNIGHTS OF BLOOD. MENTAL DISCOMFORT WHEN STATIONARY. POOR ATTENTION SPAN. MILD HALLUCINATIONS.
CHAPLAIN VYRN'N; ANGELS PENITENT. FOLLOWS EXTREMIST SECT OF IMPERIAL CREED. INTENSE DISLIKE OF OUTSIDERS. ACTIONS INVOLVE EXTREME PREJUDICE.
Peld paused a moment, meeting the eye of everyone in the room - or, at least all who would look over long enough to - before tapping one last rune.
BROTHER PELD; RED WOLVES. OBSESSIVE COMPULSION TO HUNT XENOS. FREQUENT TROPHY TAKING. RELUCTANCE TO IGNORE UNIQUE SPECIMENS.
"I show you this so you each understand your place in this squad. You, like I, are useful, but disposable - as disposable as any Astartes can be. Our missions will be difficult. Our praise minimal. Our success vital. Do not fail, or we shall not be given a second chance. Remember this." With that he turned and strode from the room, leaving a silence that deafened in his wake.

Semiotics for Intermediaries

Hello again, everyone! Miss me? No? Well... fair enough then.

So, to continue on from last week, let's talk about semiotics some more. We've covered some basics - colours mostly, but also touched on symbols ! But now we have to think about details. Specifically - what makes a good icon?

Alright, so, first things first - what are you using it for? Is it a knight's coat of arms? A battalion' s patch? The religious icon? Cos, that will drastically change how it looks.

Perhaps this would be a better thing to say when you start - keep it simple. Unless it's the coat of arms of a major noble - or even royal - house, it won't be overly complicated. Even then, they'd use a simplified icon for day to day use, and save the full imagery for special occasions. 

There's two very good reasons for this; firstly that it would be a lot of hassle for everyone involved, and secondly that a lot of detail makes recognition exceedingly difficult, which kinda defeats the objective for a visual short hand.

Personally, I like the limit myself to a single object, and one division (that is to say, stripes or halving/quartering of the field). That's not the only option, of course, but it tends to be a good starting point. Obviously, edit this as needs be - a company in an army probably wouldn't have any divisions, whilst a religious group would have neither division nor field.

I feel that, really, religious symbology is the hardest. They are - with a few exception - pretty basic shapes or geometric patterns. Christianity has the Cross, Shinto has the Torii Gate, Zoroastrianism has Fire. Generally, there is a good reason to keep symbols as simple as they can - i.e. so they are easily accessible. A highly complicated, intricately detailed icon would be very impressive I'm sure, but the fact of the matter is that most people, even most artists, would be incapable of creating person icons, and certainly not in a quantity appropriate for the number of worshipers. The reason so many Christians wear a crucifix or cross around their neck is that any idiot can make one. Grab two sticks and a couple lengths of string, and there you go - your own necklace. But, by the same token, crosses in major churches still manage to be ridiculously elaborate to behold, and are clear status symbols.

So, for example, I am going to present a symbol to you now.  

What is it? Well, quite clearly a representation of the sun rising. It took less than two minutes on paint, and is something that literally anyone could recreate if given some mud and a bit of rock. But, by the same token, it could easily be turned into a giant mural made of gold and silver to be displayed in the entrance to a cathedral in some capital somewhere. Or turned into a simple necklace for a devout villager. Or, it could be used as the guard of a sword by a 'well-meaning' but misled knight.

I think that's the key to religious icons; keep them simple enough that use can imagine a farmer's daughter wearing it, but complex enough that you have room to work with when the High Priest of the [insert temple here] turns up. 

... Anyway, it's kinda getting late, and I'm running out of words to make you read. So I shall see the anon. Farewell!

Volodanti out.

Semiotics for beginners.

So, first off - yes, I'm late. I'd like to say it's intentional, or I have a good reason for it, but... no. Just busy, and not a lot of things to write about at the minute. I'm still enjoying this little blog, but I'm starting to wonder if I should move to a fortnightly post, so that I have more time to come up with something I'd actually like to talk about, and not just whatever I can to fill the space...

... eh, a thought for another time.

Anyway - semiotics. For those of you who are smart enough that you didn't take media studies, Semiotics is the theory and science of signs and symbols... sorta like the Da Vinci Code, but not rubbish.

Y'see, whether you're making a church in an RPG, or designing a standard for a wargame - or designing a personal banner for your holy knight in either - you're gonna come upon the need to make a symbol; something which will express, at a glance, all the relevant information necessary for a player/opponent/the GM to know how to interact with your character/army/faction.

A good source of inspiration for this, unsurprisingly, is Warhammer... possibly Age of Sigmar too, but I honestly wouldn't know. In Warhammer Fantasy, it was quite apparent, but 40,000 really took the gold. Iconography everywhere; intricate and bold and simplistic and a lot of thought actually going into it.

Of course, not all of it is amazing - some is pretty generic, but it's certainly worth a look. If nothing else, the use of skulls is pretty impressive; striking and kinda alluding to the darker aspects of the Imperium, but at the same time a reminder that, despite colour and gender and preference, all humans are the same. Kinda heartwarming, in a stalinazi kinda way...

... In another, real-life example, look to religion. Religion is rife with symbology, and the effects that has on the world around it. Ever wonder why virtually every European sword between the 8th and 17th century is cruciform? The descriptor 'cruciform' ought to give you explanation enough as to the reasoning... Of course, it's actually a good design regardless, and people wouldn't have kept using it otherwise, but still - that's just a smallest example of how symbols can warp the world around them.

So, I'm not gonna go into depth on every symbol in existence - and I'm not even gonna touch on coat of arms - but I can give you some simple pointers. Of course, I'd probably advise you to do your own research if you really want to put a lot of thought into your symbols... but, then this is just for beginners, and I'm nowhere near qualified to give a proper talk on that.

... But, for those who just want a couple quick tips before they launch their game, here's my advice.

Alright, first off, pick your colours. Typically, you want just three - two for the base, and one for detail; basically the same as when you're painting. Of course, their can be bits of other colours here and there, but you'll wanna keep your primary palette pretty tight. There are 9 'main colours' to keep in mind, and they all have a meaning associated with them... these change almost constantly, but for a modern audience they are:
White - purity, goodness, and other positive words.
Grey - neutrality, dourness, stoicism.
Black - darkness, evil, death... y'get the idea.
Red - fire, anger, passion.
Purple - regality, wealth, power.
Blue - peace, cold, sadness.
Green - nature, safety, jealousy.
Yellow - cowardice, danger, happiness.
Orange - spontaneity, extroversion, and according to some Orks a larger explosion.

... Sorry if that seemed a little patronising - I didn't mean it as such, it's just... something we're all aware of, but which we don't really acknowledge, at least not consciously. So, now that I've said it aloud, you can probably start to see how things combine. Things which are dangerous, in real life, use black and yellow stripes, not merely because they are striking and make you very aware of them, but because on an instinctive level we are aware that it means 'danger; death'. There's a reason Bees, Wasps and Hornets look like they do.

Lets make up one ourselves though - say, for example, you are approached by a knight (presumably in an RPG, but I live in Northumberland, so it's not impossible). Before he starts speaking, you see the design on his shield; a white lion on a blue field, with a yellow stripe bisecting it. Now, ignoring the actual (ridiculously complicated) rules of heraldry, what would a modern player take from this? Well, it's a white lion, so he's a good guy, and probably a courageous warrior. The Blue implies that he doesn't mean you any harm (a dark blue would probably mean a curt but polite Knight, while light blue would be more chivalrous and friendly), but the stripe of yellow hiding at the back implies a danger should he be provoked.

See - that's the power of semiotics. It goes further of course, but that's a simple enough way to convey to players the sort of individual they're dealing with, and how they should probably behave around him.

Now, this is just the most basic level of semiotics here, but we can go a lot deeper... and in fact, will; this has actually been really fun for me, and I wanna write more about it. This is about as much as I want to write in a single post, but I reckon that I could easily write at least one more decent sized post about semiotics. So, if you would, please join me next time in Semiotics for Intermediates, where we'll cover basic symbols and the common mistakes when making your iconography.

... No, seriously. Please do. And I'll try my best to make it more timely than this.

Volodanti out.

Almost enough Dakka

... almost...

Hello everyone! Did you miss me? Probably not. Sorry about last week - I had planned to write up my blog on the train, which I missed. And, trust me - you can't write a post on the metro at rush hour. It is just physically impossible. Shame, I had something good planned. But, I suppose that I can use it for next week, since I actually have something to share.

Models!

That's right, I managed my monthly quota, and completed a squad of Flash Gitz, and a commander... I gave the commander away, but it still counts. Besides, I still haven't managed to decide what, exactly, I am going to do for Grak... I have ideas, but they're not quite playing out...

... anyway - Flash Gitz. As you'll probably notice, they are not what you think of when you here that name. That's cos I converted them up about a year before the box-set came out, and as much as I like the webstore exclusive, I refuse to use a squad of five identical models. So, instead, we have this.

The idea when making them was pretty simple; Orks are more than happy to lop off their arms to replace them with more deadly appendages so, why wouldn't shooty-Orks do the same? And that led to me wondering how many different gun-fists I could make...

... the answer is probably around 7, but we won't have to find out for a while, if ever.

So, lets go left to right, shall we?

First we have probably the simplest conversion here; for him, I literally just cut off the jackhammer from a power claw, and replaced it with the end from a multi-melta. Well, if I'm being completely honest, I also gave him a backpack from a Tau Breacher Team, but that was more for fluff than anything... although, if I ever go back to them, I'd like to run a pipe from the backpack to his snazzgun...

Next, in the back row, we have a lovely gent with a battlesuit's arm grafted onto his own. A bit less sizeable than his own, but he'd probably agree that a steel fist makes up for the slight reduction in bulk... especially when that fist has a scavenged plasma-rifle mounted on the back. He also has a wee pet squig, because there is no Death Skulls banner top. But no, that's fine.

Alright, up front and centre we have a twin-plasma gun. Originally I was going to be using the plasma guns for some sorta vehicle - possibly a Dread, possibly a tank - for my Black Blades, I realised that it'd probably work a lot better here. Also, uniquely, it's removable - based off the basic Power Klaw, it is held in place by a leather strap, hidden under his pauldron - or, a piece of armour looted from a Crisis Suit. Sensing a theme here?

So, back right, we have an interesting one. It's made from three guns, actually - or three weapons anyway. The body of the weapon is the circular-saw arm, but with that blade replaced with a chaos bolter, and then a pulse carbine. Slapped on the back - because it's Orks, of course you add more where you can - is a seeker-missile pod, which I believe comes from a Devilfish, though don't quote me one that.

And, finally, far right; the first one I made. The body of the weapon is the same a the original - or, at least it was. Instead of a multi-melta though, he could only afford a meltagun... but, not one to let that hold him down, he quickly attached a grenade launcher to it, just in case. Definitely the bulkiest weapon of the group, but arguably my favourite, if for no other reason than how nicely it fit together.

Painting wise, these were... well, I loved it and I hated it. I kept the colour palette relatively tight; grey and brown for cloth, white and blue for armour, metal silver going on rusty. The issue was that I'm used to painting regimented soldiers, so every model is basically identical to the next... as it is in proper military forces. With Orks though, each model had to be at least a little different to the others, and that really did throw me. I bet veterans are shaking their head at me right now, but it really is a little jarring.

One last thing to mention - the prodigious use of Tau parts. That's relatively simple to explain; first, my Orks operate in and around the Damocles Gulf, and like Dakka, so obviously they're going to be looting some Tau sooner or later. More specifically though, the parts are painted in the colour of the Unjust's Sept - the models he is painting for his half of our challenge. /Also, cos his colour scheme fit so well next to mine... I'd hoped to add a piece of Tau equipment on each model, but sadly I ran out before I reached melta-launcher. Shame, but I might come back to them at some point and add that in...

Anyway, that's probably about as much as I can say about these guys. Sorry again for missing last week, but I hope you enjoy my month's work. Wow, that sounds really bad when I say it aloud...

Volodanti out.

The Unkillable

New model time everyone! Who'd a thunk it?  And it's an Ork - amazing huh? So, one of my Flash Gitz, right?  Well now... No. Actually, it's not...

Y'see, and I've spoken about this more than once, my mate has a Warboss that we both love; Grunge Da Unkillyble. Named so cos the little sod just won't go down... whole devastator squads couldn't stop him, and that was before he put on mega armour...

... which always struck me as a bit weird. I mean, he's meant to be a Blood Axe Kommanda, former kommando, long time fan of tic-tacs, so why is he running (lumbering) around in a mini-tank? Also, if you're unkillable, why do you need armour anyway? Just slows you down, and gets in the way of crumpin' 'oomies.

Not just a mini-tank; a bright orange, incredibly noisy one with a giant banner larger than most orks proudly declaring his identity to any and all... I mean, typical orky attempts as stealth, but still...

So, I decided, for a bit of fun... why not make a model for him - pre-Rhianna. Since he cobbled it together from spare bits of Terminator Warplate... Yeah, why not? And, I was already buying a ton of stuff to convert up my Warboss anyway... just made sense, y'know?

So, here he is; Grunge.

Angry-looking fella, isn't he? I tried to base his looks off a Catachan Guardsman; hence the open jacket, the bandana, and the machete on his back... although, it's more a tooth-pick for him.

A couple of things I really wanted to get across when making him; firstly, that he is very prepared (for an Ork), hence why he's festooned with extra pouches on his waist, shoulder, and even his wrist... though they're probably all full of teef, smaller knives, and shiny fings.
Second, that I wanted him to be very much inconspicuous... for an Ork I mean. Hence the lack of boss-pole, and the arctic-camo - to blend into the ice fields of Rhianna.
... Just on the subject of camo - I am needlessly pleased with how it turned out. Sure, I probably could do a better job if I tried again... but as a pretty much first go at painting camo, it turned out remarkably well. Especially the bandana.
And thirdly - he needed a really, really big axe. The primary one comes from the Warbiker kit, and the secondary is from the Nob Mob. They really work together on the model - a lot better than the initial left arm... tried to make lightning claws for a warboss. Bad move...

Anyway, yeah - really quite chuffed with how he turned out. I like the little accents of purple scattered across him; a reference to him being sneaky, and also just cos it's The Unjust's favourite colour. I'm smart like that. You can't tell, but I'm nodding along as I type. Dead smart. Nod.

Anyway... yeah. Grunge. The Sneaky, Unkillyble, git that nearly blew up my world. But I can't hate him, cos he is much to beautiful.

Made a nice change to be showing off my painting again... I really ought get my finger out and do it more often... But, that's for the land of dreams. Lets deal with reality. And the reality is that I'm shattered. I'll catch you all at some point, I hope. See what I have for y'all next week, eh?

Volodanti out.

What year is this?

No real update today, sorry. The shop's stupidly busy at the moment, and we're missing half our full-time staff, so everyone's working as much as they can. Days off, for me, are just a dream that cannot be...

... anyway, enough on that. This is just gonna be a quick update to let y'all know what's been happening for me.

First off, in a follow-up to the last post, I'm on track with my painting. Two Flash Gitz finished, in spite of playing BFG: Armada until 1am each night, so that's a good thing.
Secondly, I've been following the Eldritch Moon Spoilers quite religiously, and I reckon that Rakdos isn't really viable this time round. Black seems a lot more about control than last time around; there are a few decent cheap black creatures, but on the whole it looks like Black is about building up resources til you can bury your opponent in Zombie tokens...
Oh, and thirdly, I'm not gonna make the pre-release. Which is kinda a bitch, but it'd be a huge faff to organise, I'd probably have to go alone, and leave early to make it in time for work. Annoying, disappointing, and just a part of life. Shame, but... what can you do?


Anyway, that's about as much as I have to say, so now I'm gonna go crawl into bed and eke out as much rest as I can get.. Night y'all.

Volodanti out

Not Enuff Dakka

So, here's a thing; I'm doing the world's smallest Tale of Many Gamers. In fact, the smallest possible of it to be a plural; two of us. My friend needed some motivation to get his Tau painted, and I've had a box of half-painted Orks in a cupboard for a good few years... so, why not?

I've not a lot to say about it now - since we're in the first week of the first month - but it's going well so far. This month we're getting our commander and his retinue painted; so a couple battlesuits for The Unjust, and a Warboss and a squad of Flash Gitz for me... well, converted Flash Gitz; I bought them before the plastic kit came out, so they're rather unconventional... which just makes them even more Orky, eh?

Anyway, I've finished one so far, base-coated the rest and have all the parts to make my Warboss, so... Well, off to a fine start, I reckon. Especially considering that it's only the 4th. Once I've got the squad painted up, I'll share it with you - that'll probably be quite a long post - but until then, I'll do my best to keep y'all interested.

On the upside, that's three on-time updates in a row, so I'm getting better. Might even manage to not muck it up for the rest of the month... we hope.

As ever, thanks for reading, I hope it was worth your time. Or, at least will be once I've finished painting green.

Volodanti out.

I think Gary has it in for us...

Weird title, but it'll make sense in due time.

So, I've had this new idea for an RPG - yes, another. Don't worry, no new setting this time, cos I can just say 'Innistrad/Ravenloft/Bloodborne' and most of you will have figured it out. For those who don't care about any of those; pretty gothic horror setting. Small towns with high walls huddled amidst a dark and terrifying forest wherein creatures both malevolent and far more powerful than a mere mortal prowl, the canopy broken by jagged mountains and treacherous cliffs overlooking stormy waters.

You know what I mean. Like Van Helsing without guns.Well, I suppose I probably should've mentioned the lack of guns prior... never mind, I'm getting off topic.

So, into this pretty basic setting - lets call it Unterwall, because shut up that's an awesome name - we insert the party. They're the archetypical witch-hunters, or whatever we call them; men and women in long coats with big hats that walk beyond the safety of their walls - armed only with sword, crossbow and faith - to confront that which would drive any normal human to flee with but a glance. They're all well trained, equipped with the best weapons and armour their order can provide, and hardened by the knowledge that their success or failure could seal the fate of a hundreds.

So, I know what you're gonna say - "Yes, this exists; it's called Ravenloft. Can we move on?" Well, yes and no. Yes, the base idea is quite similar - broad strokes and all - but the minutiae differs. But, here's the big differences.

First; mechanics. I'd like to base it more on WoD than D&D, and yes I know that Hunters: the Vigil exists. Partially because I prefer it as a system, but also because it is far more appropriate to the low-powered PCs than a D&D module.
Second, a 'Miracles' mechanic. Put simply, a man with a crossbow has a no chance against a devil, never mind a werewolf, vampire or spirit. So, how does a party of less than a dozen take on the horrors of Unterwall? The power of faith. Whether their god is real or not is irrelevant; their faith makes them strong, allows them to push aside fear, fatigue and insanity, and more importantly, enough faith can warp reality to the whims of the believer. Of course, power without control leads to all sorts of trouble, so only those who have trained long and hard may even attempt such an act. Mechanically, how it'd work is that a) the PC's - and other hunters - are slightly better than regular humans in most regards - and b) players can attempt to change reality when it is absolutely necessary. This would manifest in a variety of ways; a burst of blinding light, a moment of super-human strength, the ability to heal a fatal with a touch... really, it's up to the players to figure out what happens. They hand a note to the GM, roll their die, and see what happens.
... Oh, did I say 'hand a note'? Well, yes, that brings me to the third difference; one of them is that which they hunt.
Y'see, in the first fight, one of them (chosen randomly) will become infected by the evil they hunt. They won't know it, but when they rise after a night's rest they are changed; determined to bring an end to all that is good, and allow the darkness to sweep away the light. They players will all know going into it that this will happen, but won't know who will be so affected.

Basically, the goal of the Hunted is to ensure that, little-by-little, his team falls apart. Killed in battle, turned to the darkness, abandoning their posts in disgrace; anything to deprive the light of it's champions. Of course, the more directly they work, the less time they'll last, so subtlety is key. Hence why the Miracles are performed secretly; so that the traitor in their midst is capable of casting their hexes without everyone instantly knowing their identity. It'd add just a nice element of paranoia to the game, wherein each player is never quite sure which smiling face is planning their downfall...

... So, I've done a bit of thinking, yeah. I've still not plotted everything out, obviously, but as a concept... it's certainly intriguing. I'll have to give it a try sometime when I'm not struggling to make this blog more frequent than fortnightly...

At least I'm on time this week, eh? In any case... cheers for coming by, and hope you've enjoyed reading.

Volodanti out.

Farewell Mk II

Alright, first thing's first - yes, I missed last week. No, I don't have an excuse - I realised Thursday night that I'd forgot to post, and I didn't get a chance to update on Saturday, so... yeah. Sorry, it was just a slip in concentration.

... Which is annoying, cos I'm about to talk about something I did last Saturday in preparation for the missed post.

Y'see, that week we realised two things; a) that my Warmahordes group was all off on the 11th, and b) that Mk III was going to be released on the 12th. Which, lets be honest, seemed like Menoth was throwing out some heavy hints, and so we all decided to make an afternoon of it, and play a mini-tournament to decide which of us was the Mk II champion!

Which hit a snag straight away, when one of us dropped out, and then a further on in the late staged when we only managed to fit two games in each... but, never mind.

Anyway, how did the games go? Well, not bad. We had a slight problem at the start when we all brought a timer, and our armies... only to realise we couldn't access both at the same time. So we had to improvise a little, but it mostly worked out.

For those who are interested, my army was pStryker with an Ironclad, Hammersmith and Squire, with a full unit of Stormguard, the Black 13th, Gun Mage Captain, and a Journeyman with a Hunter.

Game one, I fought against Cassius, and, well... lost. He popped his feat and moved into position to charge next turn. In response, I popped my feat and pulled back a little to counter charge, which essentially just wasted a turn each. After I, foolishly, forgot two facts; firstly that Constructs can't frenzy (and so combo ridiculously well with the Gorax, and secondly that Cassius can make my models incorporeal... so when I moved Stryker forward to finish off a unit... yeah... smack, bang, game two.

Game two then, was against my fellow Cygnarans - a Sturgis list, with an over-abundance of Journeymen to be precise. This one was... longer. As anyone who has fought Sturgis will testify.
So, to start off, we both moved in; my Hunter targeting Rocinante whilst his fired on my Hammersmith. Eventually we met in the middle, and after a rather impressive amount of smacking, shooting, and cursing, I stood with a crippled hunter, most of an Ironclad, and Stryker, to take on... Sturgis. Ah, crap.
So, I spent about ten minutes chasing him around the board, my opponent hoping to time me out, until a bit of unfortunate placement left his back open to Stryker, who more than capitalised on the opportunity, knocking him flying with an Arcane bolt.
... By Morrow, that was a long game...

So, how'd I do? Well... not bad. In the final rankings, for Team Wansbeck, I placed third, meaning I get to take home the coveted Bronze Wrack.

Oh, yeah - I made trophies. Cos I am that friggin sad.

Volodanti out.

1st - Circle Orboros, led by Cassius and Wurmwood.
2nd - Skorne Empire, led by Tyrant Xerxes.
3rd - Cygnar, led by Commander Stryker.
4th - Cygnar, led by Commander Sturgis.
5th - Retribution of Scyrah, led by Thyron, Sword of Truth.
6th - Khador of Everblight, led by Kommander Vayl (disqualified for slow-play)

This War is Total

Hammer. The Hammer's War is Total. The totality of this Hammer means War...

... I'll stop now.

We all knew it was coming. Eventually. It didn't take a genius to call it after all; of course I'd be doing a review of Total War - it's one of my favourite game series, and one of my favourite wargames. Why wouldn't I?

... laziness, and inability to stop playing? Yeah, kinda.

So, look, before we go any further, elephant in the room; yes, this is late. I'm sorry. But, after promising it, and getting really excited, I came to the conclusion that, well... it's just a Total War game.

Which sounds like an insult, but it really isn't. I love Total War games - the original Rome is one of my favourites, and I own every game in the series since then... except Attila, but that's a whole other thing. No, the fact that it is a Total War game is, if anything, one of the main selling points.

... The problem is that, that's kinda it. It's not a let down, it's just... what it says on the tin. Total War: Warhammer. It's the tabletop game, as played via the Total War engine. Which is kinda appropriate - Warhammer Fantasy Battles was essentially a tabletop version of the Total War games (or the reverse, rather, since Warhammer is much older), but that's kinda it.

Alright, look - if you want my opinion on whether it's a good game, and if I suddenly got it refunded, would I buy it again, the answer is 'Yes'. To both. But it's not gonna get Warhammer fans into Total War (since they can already play Warhammer on the tabletop), and it can't get Total War fans into Warhammer because Warhammer doesn't exist!

And I suppose that's my problem. Why does this game exist? I mean, It's cross-brand recognition, sure, but the fanbase has gotta be pretty specialised - I can't imagine the Venn Diagram would appeal to many investors...

Now, I could go on about the story (or lack thereof - it's more "let's put a bunch of unrelated characters on a map, and let them swan about), or the fact that it's kinda simplified (both in battle, and for the campaign map). But at the end of the day... I like it. It's fun. It's not my favourite Total War - that's the original Rome, and always will be - but it's still good. And, realistically... that's enough, isn't it?

Look, I'm sorry this took so long to write, but... I just kept playing on it, and hoping that it'd impress me more - that something would happen, and I'd sit up and rush to this page to write about it.

... But I didn't. And I think that's why I feel so cold; cos it's just a Total War game. Not the worst, but far from the best.

Volodanti out.

I wanna do this right

No update today - sorry bout that. I know that I'm getting really bad for delays, but... I'm gonna do a review of the new Total War: Warhammer, and I wanna do it right. Which means that I don't wanna just hash something out, and throw it at you - I wanna take my time with it.

... so, I'm gonna write it on the train to and from Hull. I'll be on it for five hours or so; more than enough time to write up a poxy review of literally just another Total War...

Crap, I kinda just gave it away, didn't I?

Volodanti out.

TeaCast

As promised, here it is - what you've all been waiting for... a Podcast!

It's an idea I've had wobbling around my head for a while now, and I finally got the opportunity to make it. Depending on the response, I hope to make this a monthly feature, but you all know what I'm like. Remember monthly Battle Reports? Yeah...

... Anyway, give it a watch and let me know what you think. Rather hope y'all enjoy it, it was pretty fun to make, even if it was a bitch to edit.

Volodanti out.

A slight delay

So, I decided to try something new for this week, and, well - I hope that it works. Sadly, the compiling is taking slightly longer than expected, so I'm afraid that you're in for a short wait - approximately twelve hours from when I post this.

It's not gonna be a regular thing, but I intend to learn from this that it's not something I can rush. In any event, I'm sorry it's running late, and hope you enjoy it.

Volodanti out.

Super Adventure Time Dungeon Explore Game

... Or for people who aren't idiots - Super Dungeon Explore. Or for people who want a super quick summary "Diablo by Studio Ghibli".

... There's a lot of descriptors, but lets expand a little.

Super Dungeon Adventure is a tabletop game that tries to capture the spirit of old-school computer RPGs, somewhere between a Rogue-like, Diablo, and WoW. Essentially, it's a top-down isometric turn-based strategy, played by 3-6 players, where the goal is to dungeon-crawl to phat-loot. You start the adventure with a character each, somewhere in a 5-room dungeon, populated exclusively by hostile NPCs, and it's your job to clear the current room of enemies, steal everything that isn't nailed down, and move on until you eventually defeat the final boss.

... It's also played on a board with very chibi-characters against anthropomorphic plants and animals, including Billmen (Platypuses with billhooks), Frog Knights on Chocobos, and a cousin of Audrey II. So... yeah, Studio Ghibli.

Anyway, the basic idea of it is that you are a citizen of fantasy-esque kingdom, travelling through the magical forest that separates the various towns and cities. In the starter box, you get a number of different options, from the damage-sponge that is the Questing-Knight, to the bomb-flinging Fae Alchemist. Each starts off with one of the basic RPG roles, but can generally be customised to a pretty impressive degree using the loot that foes drop.

Which means I oughta explain that, since I've spoken about that before... Loot is dropped by every enemy you kill, and can be stored, equipped or discarded to heal damage. Your characters all have four slots for equipment - roughly equating to a weapon, piece of armour, piece of clothing, and a miscellaneous... thing. So, during the course of my game, I had a fancy coat, some boots, a necklace, and a magic map. Cos I am dapper as all hell. Each of these boost your stats in one way or another, and generally grant extra abilities. These are the only way to improve your causing/avoiding damage, and so are very important.

Gameplay is actually quite simple. It's a dice pool mechanic, which is based of your baseline stat, your attack bonus (if applicable) and any relevant equipment. You add your total dice, roll them, and count successes. Against most enemies, you just have to beat a set number of successes, whereas against mini-bosses, elites, and the like, they get to roll to defend. You also get to role to defend, which is a blessing and a curse...
As a nice change though, you get different coloured dice based off your skill in the role - blue give up to two successes, red allow up to three, and green go as high as four. So, obviously, you want all green, right? Yes, but they require magical equipment, which is very rare. So all Red? No. Cos blue dice have a chance of healing the party, whereas red dice just recharge special abilities (sorta. It's a little more complicated...), so having a mix tends to be more useful. Or, more accurately, have a mix of characters who specialise in one or the other.
So, for example, my character (The Warden) was a primarily ranged character who spammed blue dice. That meant - once I stopped being an utter liability - I was actually the primary healer. Cos if I targeted a mook, and rolled to hit, I was all but guaranteed to get some incidental healing off. I also had an ability that let me steal some loot from a living enemy, which meant that, worst case scenario, I could discard it for some healing.

The characters, incidentally, are highly modular. As I said, I played the Warden, who is primarily a crossbowman. But, he also has a couple melee abilities - specifically, one to pull enemies in closer, one to steal loo- "collect taxes", and one to immobilise enemies. So, if you're wanting to just put some hurt on mooks from a distance, you give him DEX-boosting equipment. Meanwhile, if you want to use those special attacks, you grab a rapier and put on a spiky helmet. And basically every character has at least some customisation-options. Admittedly, trying to turn the knight into a ranged character is essentially and exercise in futility, and the rifle-armed princess should never be within a mile of your foes... but for the rest, they generally have stats that encourage one play style, and abilities that encourage another. And while they tend more towards the support roles... there's nothing that forces you to. It's nice to have a game that allows a lot of choice in even one character.

Anyway, I could go on - and I probably should - but I think that I'll cut it off here, just to avoid getting to unwieldy. I kinda like shorter posts - partially due to laziness, but also cos long posts feel kinda intimidating if you don't have a lot of time. So, yeah, more next time. Or soon, anyway. Honest.

... Oh, what did I think of the game? Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And I don't even like Chibi.

Volodanti out.